“Oh, it'll work. If you scared me like that for nothing, then the weddings off, because they'll never find your body!” She growled this at him in a way that made him swallow hard and blanch a little.

OK, so it would work. Or else. He could get behind that. Casually he tried to work his way over to his shield, which sat on the table next to the bed.

Rolph laughed, getting what he was trying for, and made him eat as much food as Tor thought he could without getting sick, which wasn't much after the long fast and then slowly sip cool water until he fell back to sleep. When he woke it was black outside, so he lay there for a while, not wanting to turn on a light. Eventually, board and stiff, he decided to make some copies of the field into metal.

They copied fast. Almost too easily, given all the work he'd had to do originally. The copper pieces he'd gotten for it were about the shape and size of his little finger. Each had a tiny sigil on it already, just a mark he'd cut into each with the little cutter that he still had from when he built the first shield. It made a groove that should work well enough as an activation focus.

A tiny area of extra shiny copper on each piece, he thought it looked nice. Not glorious or stunning in any way, but clear and easy to use. That counted, right? This was just for him and, if it worked, his friends. It wasn't like most people had to fear being poisoned by Wensa after all. They probably should, but if they didn't know her, that might give most people a little protection at least. Even she wouldn't just break into homes at random to get people.

Would she?

Tor could feel the fields on the metal, or else he would have thought he'd just screwed up and it hadn't worked. After that, tired as he was, he got up and ate some more. Yellow cheese and half stale bread, but it tasted surprisingly good for all that. There was even some dried fruit. The real kind, slow dried in the sun, not magically. Chewy apple slices that felt velvety to the tongue.