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Hector allowed the trebuchet to reset its position, then materialized another Amir-9 onto the launching platform and sent it flying, too. He looked over at Voreese again, waiting on word from her.

'He got that one, too,' she said after a minute. 'Come on, Hector. Change it up. Throw him a curveball. Or a fastball. Or a speedball.'

"A speedball? I'm pretty sure that's a drug thing, not a baseball thing."

'Look, I don't follow sports, okay? Just do something different. Give him a challenge. Think of it as training. For the both of you.'

"Training, huh?"

'Yeah.'

"Hmm..." He scratched his cheek, thinking.

'Unless you don't think you can get one past Roman. If you're afraid of a little healthy competition, I understand. I won't think less of you. Much.'

Hector tilted his brow at her. "You're barking up the wrong tree, Voreese. I'm not a competitive person. Like, at all."

'Oh, so you ARE scared, then.'

He sent another shield flying, just the same as before. He waited for the contraption's metallic groaning and scraping to quiet down before answering her. "Petrified."

'Wow. Okay, then. That's fine. I won't try to pressure you or anything. I'm just surprised to hear that the great Lord of Warrenhold is secretly a little bitch, that's all. Don't worry--I won't tell anyone.'

Hector chortled and shook his head. "You were better off trying to get me think of it as training. You were starting to convince me, but now I just wanna refuse on principle."

'Ah, shit, really? Well, it WOULD be training. That's basically what all healthy competition boils down to. Hence the term 'healthy' being included.'

"Uh-huh."

'Roman's getting really good at flying, but he could use an extra push. Something to really challenge him, y'know? Without actually endangering him. Or me, preferably. Think you could provide that?'

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Hector squinted, already unable to see it in the distance. Even the midday sun and clear weather didn't help. "Farther? I'm wondering if we're not already sending it too far, as is."

'Nonsense. Roman hasn't missed a single one yet. We gotta try harder. Give him something to think about.'

Hector gave her a look. "You realize the whole point of him and Garovel being out there is to make sure that we don't lose any of these shields, right?"

'Yeah, but wouldn't it be kinda funny if they fucked up? I know I'd laugh.'

"It might not be so funny when one of my shields ends up on the black market."

'Oh, c'mon. You think someone's gonna reverse engineer it something? The materials are what make it so valuable, not the craftsmanship. Nobody but you will be able to replicate it and sell it for loads of money. Which, by the way, is something you should think about doing.'

It had crossed his mind once or twice before. But the idea of selling these shields in bulk--whether on the black market or not--wasn't very comforting to him. He didn't like imagining what his shields might end up being used for or by whom.

Plus, he wasn't terribly confident in the legality of it. Selling materialized objects? Items that he could go around and annihilate at his own leisure? Seemed kinda like a scam, though he hadn't actually discussed the logistics of it with Garovel yet.

Voreese still seemed to think it was a good idea, though, so maybe there was something to it.

Eh. Maybe one day, he'd give it a more serious look. Right now, it didn't matter, because he needed every shield that he could make. He would need hundreds more--maybe even thousands--if he was going to enhance Warrenhold's defenses with them.

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The last time he'd done this was in the Undercrust, back when the Rainlords had used his shields in order to line the climate-controlled pods that were being used by the non-servants for the trip. It was still a pretty slow process, since he had to move each newly created shield out of his own sphere of influence before he could make another one, but he was doing it on his own now, more or less, whereas the Rainlords had assisted him before.

He'd created a kind of makeshift trebuchet to make things easier. He would materialize an Amir-9 onto one end of a long beam, then a giant boulder onto the opposite end. It had taken several attempts and refinements before getting a design that didn't just explode when the boulder hit it, but once he'd gotten it working, it was actually pretty fun.

The key, he found, was to materialize the boulder into a big receptacle that was very securely attached to the beam so that it didn't just fall down and snap the beam like a toothpick.

All in all, it actually looked quite a bit like historical trebuchets. Apart from the sling, perhaps. He couldn't materialize the rope or cloth that would be needed for that, and he also felt like the Amir-9's shape would make it get snagged in such an addition, anyway. Instead, he just made a simple, round launching platform for the heater shield to rest upon, and then bam. Off it went flying.

Roman Fullister was gracious enough to be helping him out on the distant receiving end, making sure that none of them got lost.

In a way, they were playing the world's most intense game of catch.

And to aid with communication, Voreese was hanging out with Hector while Garovel followed Roman around.

'How much farther do you think you could make it go?' said Voreese, eyeing their most recent shield as it sailed off into the sky.