Like_Clockwork

Like Clockwork..

A Dance and a Song

“The first thing that goes is your sense of time.”

“It was morning, after you looked into the oven window, wondering what was making that smell. You saw a face, and jerked back suddenly. Catching yourself you blinked, and looked again. You looked into your eyes for a long moment, and then closed them, breathing out your tenseness. You opened them again, but it made no difference.”

“The second thing that goes is your sense of self.”

“It was morning, you looked for your pass-card, but it was missing, lost somewhere between here and the depot. You berated yourself, cursing softly as you turned to retrace your steps. Your words drowned out, until you could only hear them, and they were nothing at all.”

“But your sense of purpose, that doesn't go anywhere.”

“What did you do? Why did you ask those questions? What is your purpose? You can tell me...”

“I'm just alone in this place, just alone, like you.”

Marlison opened his eyes, passing his fingers along his temple down to his cheek. In moments his subtle slouch became alert and erect. He turned to his partner.

“She doesn't know anything.”

Kindle simply nodded and turned away. Marlison followed her into the depot and they were gone.

“Is she alright?”

“Look's like she hit her head.”

“Someone call emergency.”

Name: Margot Tenly
Age: 234
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Genoform: Kandaly
Certifications: Setsmoth Fabrication, Investigator, Forensic Analysis, Kosem Relations
Employment: Kosem Diplomatic Detail

“Miss Tenly,” There was a bump, her eyes opened. “Miss Tenly?”

Margot looked up, squeezing her eyes against the sudden brightness until she could see the face looking down on her. She tried to smile. Instead she bit into her lip, as a sharp stab came from her head down to her gut. The middle-aged man smiled cautiously. “Let me get you something for the pain, just try to stay awake.”

She nodded slowly.

The man reached for something. And then she felt a sudden shock on her forearm. The pain began to recede. She tried to smile again, and this time succeeded.

"Good, Miss Tenly, I need to ask you a few questions."

She nodded again, "Yes?"

"Do you know what month it is?"

Margot looked around for a moment, taking stock of her surroundings. She was in a narrow room, which she subsequently recognized as a cell in an emergency carrier. And the man leaning over her was dressed in the sleek grey coveralls of a medic. She asked herself several questions, but the answers did not come.

"Miss Tenly?"

She looked back up at the medic, squeezed her eyes again at the lights, and replied, "Twenty, three eighty six."

He nodded back, "Very good. And do you know who the current Regal is?"

Margot sighed a combination of relief and annoyance. "Andros Bertoldi. And it is the 9th of Greenweek. It, in fact, ought to be a little before noon. Any other memory tests before we are done?"

The healer reached outside of her vision, placing down the device he'd been holding. "One more thing. Do you know how you fell?"

Margot couldn't answer. Her face bent in concentration, and she felt her bandage stretch against her forehead. She had a fleeting recollection of a dark place, of some voice. Nothing more surfaced. A wave of sleepiness passed over her, and she fought to keep her eyes opened. In a moment it passed.

"No?"

A few hours later Margot was released. She had been deposited home once the healer determined that she didn't have a concussion and had notified the diplomatic corps that she was on medical leave for the day. It still perturbed her, the inability to recall what happened. But she tried to put it from her mind. There was no reason to waste the rest of her day.

Walking up to her door, she casually reached out and twisted the handle in a complex, but well rehearsed motion. Her residual wards told her all was well. As the door unlocked she went inside, shutting the door behind her.

Margot shook her head, wandering into the cramped room that served as her kitchen. She paused, looking around in a daze.

"Where's the oven?"

She shook herself, brought her hand up and covered her eyes.

"Silly girl, you've never had an oven."

Margot picked up the tea kettle from the counter and started it on the stove. Then she leaned back on the counter reaching up to feel the bandage on her forehead. Closing her eyes, she heard a soft voice, too faint to understand. It was soothing and her mind wandered in spite of herself, until the sharp shrill of the kettle brought her back to consciousness. Standing up straight again, she reached out and turned off the stove. As the sound diminished she walked to her cabinet and pulled out a cup and a bag of tea. After dumping a few scoops of leaves into the kettle, she let it brew for a few minutes before pouring a dark cup of tea. She looked down and inhaled the vapors. Catching her own eyes, Margot jolted, dropping her cup and jumping back as the hot tea and ceramic shards splattered accross the floor.

"What a mess."

After cleaning up the kitchen, Margot poured herself a somewhat cooler cup of tea and walked into what she considered as her office. There were two desks, one barely holding under the weight of various cogs and parts, the other covered with papers, mostly showing drawings and calculations. Between the two was Margot's current obsession, a broken-down computer.

"Well aren't you a lucky fellow."

Margot walked over and took stock of where she left off with the device. She crouched down looking through the various gears, springs, and colored stones which made up the computer. Twisting a piece of her hair absentmindedly, Margot considered the assembly.

"The resonance chamber, that's it."

And she went to work.

Four hours later, Margot was at her wits end, and her tea had gone from cool to frosty. The resonance chamber just wouldn't hold the frequency. Each time she tested it, with her variable tuning fork, it had shifted again. And worse, she couldn't figure out why.

It was almost as though someone were changing it on purpose.

And then Margot realized that someone was.

Humans share their world with another intelligent species, called the Kosem. However it took countless months for this fact to be discovered, because the Kosem do not exist in what we perceive as the physical world. Thousands of months ago, researchers studying the fundamental laws of the world discovered that those very laws fluctuated unpredictably. Then one brilliant scholar, by the name Kovesus, discovered that he could send messages with his experiments, and recieve them by the previously unpredictable responses. He named them Kosem, which in his tongue translates to eminations. And from that time on, the humans and the Kosem have sought to understand each other, with varying results.

To her knowledge Margot had never been contacted at her home before. This was a severe violation of protocol, and a therefore either a meaningless mistake, or a very serious problem. Either way, she'd have to find out.

Instinctively, Margot grabbed a sheaf of papers, and began to record her measurements, as she periodically checked the frequency of the resonance chamber. She stared at her notes, trying to make sense appear. It was always a difficult process, and this missive seemed worse than usual, with obvious errors on the part of the Kosem.

Margot shook her head, after ten minutes she had pieced together enough to make out what it was saying.

"Danger ... Near Me, Near You, Bad You Near You"

She started adjusting the chamber, in an asynchronous manner, attempting to respond. Then as she tested with the tuning fork again, instead of diminishing in volume it began to increase rapidly.

Margot pulled the fork infront of her, and dropped it, her eyes going wide. Even on the ground the fork continued to resonate louder and louder. Bolting upright, she ran from the room, running towards her front door. The sound of the forked had reached an unbearable volume, and then suddenly stopped. Jumping behind the scant furniture she had, she hugged her head and lay flat on the ground.

A pulse of sound followed by a pulse of heat washed over her. Opening her eyese slightly she could see the light all around her shift towards blues and greens, and then moments later back to normal. Though she'd never seen it before she knew exactly what that meant.

Someone had killed the Kosem.

Someone had killed the Kosem in her apartment.

And she was going to find out who.

A House of Madmen

In the city state of Vedalin, without fail the first building newcomers will notice is the Factory. Building first began in 16867, and continues to this day, adding new workshops and assemblies, each stacked upon the others, supported with stone buttresses and reinforced by iron forged mechanisms slowly gyrating and twisting. The effect is that of a gothic cathedral designed by a madman, and constructed by hundreds of teams, each trying to excell with excess ornament.

The Factory is also the pride of Vedalin. It is the reason the Vedalini maintain such a favored place in the political schemes of the city states. For the Factory creates new Setsmoth devices, and these devices are the lifesblood of the city. And Andros Bertoldi, once guildmaster of the Factory, now Regal of all of Vedalin, wouldn't have it any other way.

An older man, past his seven-hundred month, Regal Bertoldi moved with purpose and caution. He kept his office within the Factory, only using his mansion to entertain delegates of other cities. The Factory is the heart of Vedalin, and he wanted to keep his finger on its pulse as much as possible.

Some days that was more trying than others. But today, the Regal knew that it was worth being here, if only so that bad news would arrive sooner and with less time to be sugar-coated. And the news was very bad indeed. A Kosem had been killed in his city. The very thought brought back dozens of stories, all of them unpleasant. Such an event had begun the last Kosem War, and no one had left that unscathed. Now, almost two thousand months later, it looked like it might happen again. And in his city.

Regal Bertoldi sighed, "And things were going so well..."

After turning down a half dozen corridors, Regal Bertoldi finally reached the door he sought. Taking a moment to compose himself, he straightened his formal long coat, and reached out to knock on the door.

"You may enter," came a voice from the other side of the door.

The Regal shrugged and opened the door. "Jacob, I need to speak with you about an urgent matter."

Inside the room was a impeccably well-groomed young man, his short cut hair and carefully pressed robes exuding an air of professionalism. However, his eyes remained fixed on the ground.

"Most Illustrious Regal, what ever matter may it be that brings you to me?"

Regal Bertoldi looked at the carefully placed tables accross Jacob's workshop. Jacob Elzini was his best adept, but like all gifted adepts he was a mixture of social ineptness and genius. The Regal wanted to like him, but always found being in his presence disconcerting. But given how capable Jacob had proven himself, it was more than worth that discomfort.

"Jacob, someone has murdered a Kosem in the South district. I need you to look into it."

"By your command, my Regal. Would daily reports be pleasing to your Illustriousness?"'

"Yes, Jacob, that would be fine." Regal Bertoldi turned to leave.

"Farewell, my Regal."

The Regal closed the door behind him, and began the walk back to his office. Inside the workshop, Jacob began to search one of his bookshelves. Tracing his finger along the shelf he located one tome after another, pulling each out, and stacking them in his other hand. Once finished Jacob neatly placed the stack on a nearby table and began to examine each book in turn, making notes with his off hand as he flipped through pages.

Almost an hour later, he had finished. He then turned back to his sheets of notes and began to hum, his face fixed in concentration, working his way through the notes three times. Then he returned to beginning of the notes and stood, moving his hands and arms, and occasionally his entire body in precise patterns, his concentration unwavering. After three more passes, Jacob gathered his notes once more and went to a small shelf with many drawers, pulling out drawers and taking a variety of items from them, from a handful of iron balls to an amorphous chunk of rubber. Each item he carefully placed in one of a number of small pouches in his robe.

Once these preparations were completed, Jacob gathered a small leather folder, containing his identification papers and authorizations, as well as a heavy canvas sack secured accross his back, containing something he hoped he would be unnecessary.

A moment later he was out the door.

Elsewhere in the Factory, other preparations were being made. Four sestsmoth fabricators and three soldiers entered an assembly room which had lain dormant for as long as anyone could remember. First the searched the room for signs of recent activity, then finding none, the fabricators began to examine teh schematics and half-completed devices, searching for what could be used, and what must be replaced.

The soldiers relegated to guarding the room and it's workers could not help but consider the enormity of what their orders entailed. Exchanging glances they all came to the same conclusion. If the infamous War Room was truly needed, then no one could be safe.

Then one of the soldiers spotted something by one of the narrow window slits they had uncovered upon entering. Though just a momentary shadowing she walked to investigate placing her right hand into the gauntlet-like greylock hanging at her side. Peering through the window, searching for cause of what she had seen, it happened again. A black bird flew past the slit.

She lowered her greylock, and walked back to her captain.

"Just birds, sir."

"Carry on then."

Outside of the War Room, beetween the window slits was the flying buttress that held up the wall. Encircling the stone pillar at it's base was a complex iron device, still pristine after thousands of months, as it lazily gyrated with the wind. This setsmoth device continually applied minor magics to the stonework, keeping the small cracks in the ancient stonework from growing and generally strengthening the support so that the butress could hold much more weight than it had ever been intended.

Deep in the shadow of the wind-driven device, someone else was also making preparations.

Kindle crouched, keeping herself firmly fixed to the wall with just her legs and back, her right hand free to make small modifications to the device in front of her, following a handwritten schematic held in her left hand.

Six stories below her, Jacob emerged from the Factory gates, heading towards the South district.

Questionable Answers

Margot was becoming increasingly more annoyed with the police who were questioning her, but dared not show it. Normal police carried clubs, or occasionally a sword. On the military routinely carried graylocks. Which meant that these men were part of the regal's security service, which meant that it could be very dangerous if they decided that she was more than just a witness.

She was an investigator, trained and certified. They ought to be letting her do exactly that. But she'd had just enough dealings with the security service to know that interfering is what they do best.

"Miss Tenly, tell us again exactly what you did before the Kosem died."

Margot sighed, "I've told you before officer. I was sent home by emergency, and went to work on my computer. Which," she quickly added, "is pefectly legal because as you can see I'm certified as a setsmoth fabricator. That's when thing started to go crazy."

The security officer looked at her with a mixture of contempt and suspicion. While career soldiers might enjoy the benefits of setsmoth advances, they tend to resent the status their fabricators achieve within both the civilian and military branches of the city's government. "And for what reason were you sent home by emergency?"

"Because I fell and hit my head on the way into work." Margot pointed to the obvious bandage still around her head, although it had become loosened somewhat in the events earlier that day.

"Can you prove that your injury was not self-inflicted?"

Margot blanched at this, enraged she responded, "You're saying that I intentionally bashed my head, just to come home so that a Kosem could die while I was here!"

The officer smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "Can you prove otherwise?"

Margot stopped cold, a dread dawning. They had trapped her. They wanted an excuse to bring her in for interrogation and she'd given them just that. Of couse she couldn't prove her fall was an accident, she didn't even remember falling, much less who might have been around to corroborate her story. She stuttered, trying to think of something to say to keep things from spiralling rapidly out of control.

"In that case you will come with us to the barracks for further questioning."

Just then a voice came from behind her. "With all respect, officer, that will not be necessary."

"And who are you?"

She turned around, to see a man in well-pressed adept robes paging through a leather folio. He replied, "I am Adept Elzini, and I have been duly ordered to take charge of this investigation." He pulled out a document from the folio and showed it to the security officer, while keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the ground.

Margot didn't recognize the paper, but the security officers did. It was their turn to blanch. Then with rage dripping from his voice the lead officer said, " Very well then, we'll take our leave."

The adept returned the paper to his folio and nodded without looking at them, as the two officers left.

Margot wasn't sure if this was any better, she'd never met an adept, but she had heard stories. And not many of those stories had ended well.

"May I please have your name?" The adept kept his eyes on the ground as he asked and his tone was formal and slightly gruff.

"Margot Tenly."

"I am known as Adept Jacob Elzini. If you would not mind I would see your identification papers." He did not make it sound like a request.

She handed over her papers, and he examined them for a minute. He then glanced up at her, though quickly returning his eyes to the ground. Margot knew that things were only going to get worse.

"Miss Tenly, did you personally know the Kosem who was killed?"

"No... I don't work with the Kosem directly, I just repair equipment."

"So, Miss Tenly, at no time have you had prolonged contact with a Kosem?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Miss Tenly, what do you mean? This matter could be of singnificant importance."

"I was originally hired as a translator. That's actually what I trained for." Margot paused it was a painful memory. "I was assigned to a junior Kosem aide in some regular trade negotiations. He was new to communicating with humans and made some slips, he asked me not to mention it to anyone who would tell his superiors. My superiors noticed problems in my translations though, and decided they were my fault. So I was put on probation and transferred to the maintenance."

"Miss Tenly, did you at any time communicate with the Kosem who was killed?"

Damn, Margot thought, the security officers probably thought that Kosem communication required complex equipment. It never would have occured to them that she could have been talking to the Kosem before the murder. But trying to pull that over on an adept was likely to backfire in the worst possible way.

Margot sighed. "Yes, I was repairing a surplused computer and the Kosem was changing the resonance, I found out what it was saying, but couldn't send a message back ... before it happened."

Margot reached up to her bandages, which had started to throb. It hadn't occurred to her with all this going on, that the message from the Kosem had the same sorts of mistakes that Waterfall made. She'd had a rapport with him, you always do for your first assignment, and in her case last. And now someone had killed Waterfall. She swayed, the pain building.

"If you would please pardon the intrusion, Miss Tenly." Jacob walked forward catching Margot as she fell and lowered her to a small grass plot nearby.

"If you don't mind." Jacob didn't wait for a response, carefully removing the bandage on her head. His gaze direct and focused for the first time. "Miss Tenly, it appears that your wound has opened once again. I shall see what I can do."

Kneeling next to Margot on the grass, Jacob pulled a small lump of gold from a pocket and began to sing softly, but precisely, using words and even some phonemes that Margot could not place. His hands moved in specific tracks. After a minute Margot expected something to happen, but nothing did.

"Don't worry, Miss Tenly, this is a complex spell it usually takes some time to get it just right."A few minutes later as Jacob dutifully repeated the same sounds and motions Margot began to feel a change. The pain began to dissipate and her perceptions became clearer.

"Miss Tenly, I believe that you will find that you are repaired. However it might be best if you washed up a bit, your wound was bleeding somewhat..." Jacob again did not make eye contact, even as he held out his hand to help Margot stand.

A few minutes later, in her apartment Margot had finished cleaning the blood on her forehead, and had begun to feel human again. Outside her washroom, Jacob was seated, patiently considering the contents of the message Waterfall had sent before his death. When she emerged, she noticed he seemed deistracted. "Miss Tenly, I take it you are better."

"Yes, you know adept, you can call me Margot if you want."

His brow furrowed, "Then I suppose you could call me Jacob."

"That would be nice, Jacob." Margot turned to consider him directly. "So tell me, what more do you want to know or are you done with me?" She wanted to begin with her own investigation.

"Miss ... Margot, I'm afraid we are not yet done, while you are not longer necessary as a witness, you appear to be, in a sense, part of the murder weapon."

The Search for Clues

The first place where Jacob insisted on going was the Diplomatic Corps complex, particularly where Margot fell. Jacob procured a rickshaw and they began the long journey to the outskirts of Vedalin.

They did not talk, and after getting going Jacob did not so much as glance at Margot. He seemed lost in thought. Margot decided that now was as good a time as any to follow the medic's instructions and attempt to rest.

An hour later, they had arrived. Jacob jumped out of the cab eagerly, giving instructing the driver to wait. Margot exited a short while later, still shaking off the effects of her reverie. The area was largely deserted since most of the active business had ended a few hour earlier.

"M..Margot, could you please point out where it was that you fell?" Jacob inquired after scanning the entrance way of the complex.

A cool, but not unpleasant evening was falling, and Margot found herself a little disoriented, as she rarely remained at the complex after dark. Thinking back she sighted where she last spot recalled, and began to walk towards it. Jacob followed her quietly, looking around, indeed largely looking anywhere other than where she was headed.

When Margot stopped, she noticed that Jacob had not, and in fact that he was headed off to the side, near a small grove of impeccably groomed trees near the entrance. She waited indignantly for a half minute, until she decided that he wasn't paying her any attention. Instead he had begun singing, a soft unfamiliar tune she could scarcely hear. While very familiar with Setsmoth technology, Margot had only the vaguest ideas about how adepts enact spells. She had to see more.

She slowly snuck up towards the grove, being careful not to distract Jacob or otherwise draw attention to herself. After a few minutes of repeated motions, something changed in the air. Margot knew it instantly as the feeling of a Setsmoth beginning to work correctly. But what she saw was something she'd never achieved with her tinkering. In front of Jacob were the outlines of two people, one slightly smaller than the other, both easily visible as as they glowed a soft blue.

As Margot took in the effect, Jacob began to rapidly search the pockets of his robe. Then, finding his quarry, he began another, more complex series of motions. This time singing in a low gutteral tone, which Margot found rather unnerving. Totally engrossed, he was able to enact the spell on the first try. As he did so, the glowing figures changed, and formed a softly glowing ball, which then gently rested on a thin sheet of glass laying on Jacob's open palm.

Margot starred at the light, and didn't immediately realize it when Jacob began to address her, "Margot, if it would not be too troublesome we should immediately be on our way." His eyes remained fixed on the globe and he began to walk towards the rickshaw. Jogging to keep up, Margot followed and they were once more travelling through the town, although now Jacob was much more animated, giving occasional directions to the driver, who Margot was beginning to empathize with. After all this she didn't feel that she had much control or knowledge of where things were going. But at least the man was being compensated for his time and trouble. Margot was becoming more anxious and annoyed over the next hour and a half, until she began to recognize the neighborhood. In fact, it seemed that they were nearing her apartment. A few minutes later, she and Jacob got out at the courtyard behind her apartment, leaving Margot feeling as though this had all been a colosal waste of her time. But Jacob seemed elated, so she asked him why.

"Miss Tenly ... oh I most profusely apologize, Margot this confirms my suspicions. Your injury was not coincidence, nor was the killing unplanned or accidental. Someone knew that you were the person the Kosem would seek out if under duress, and had arranged for you to be in a place with no other witnesses. This is a conspiracy, Margot, and that means that things are much worse than I had hoped." Jacob looked at Margot for a moment, his joy turning to worry as he realized the import of his discovery.

Margot looked around, shaking her head. "Was this where they did it?" Jacob nodded. Margot began to scour the ground, looking for anything in the dim light of the nearby buildings. At least now she could do something. "Now, Jacob, correct me if I'm wrong, but the only way for them to have killed a Kosem is one of those reality bombs from the war."

"Well, that's not entirely true, a spell was designed which could also do so, but it requires a handful of adepts with perfect coordination. Since it is a pair of culprits, I think we can rule out that as unfeasible in the extreme."

Margot shrugged, "So they must have placed the device around here, and if we start looking we might even be able to find a few pieces."

Jacob began to fish through his robes again. Margot sighed, "do you have a spell for everything?"

"No, Margot, and in this case practicallity overides regardless." Jacob pulled out a compact Setsmoth lantern and activated its spring loaded mechanism. He handed it to Margot, and pulled out a second for himseld.

With the added illumination they both searched the field. After a long while, Margot called to Jacob. "Come over here, this looks a bit suspicious." When he did, she pointed to a few twisted metal objects that might once have been Setsmoth gears and regulators. She then pointed to an indentation in the ground nearby. "It seems like they gathered up most of the remnants, but they missed these."

Jacob pulled out a small cloth pouch. "I believe that these parts deserve a closer look, especially with better equipment."

After a further searching of the area turned up nothing, Jacob called over to Margot. "Miss ... Margot, it is somewhat late and we should procure some sustenance prior to continuing this investigation. Would there happen to be a street vendor we could utilize in the vicinity?"

Margot chuckled. "Jacob, you drag me all the way across the city twice, and now you're offering me street food. And I was thinking you didn't have a sense of humour." She stood up, stretching out her back. "There is a decent place closeby, and yes, you'll be paying."

Jacob simply nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground.

"Very good then, let's go." Margot started walking towards the street. Jacob followed, wondering as he did so, exactly when the tables had turned. Although he couldn't see it, Margot smiled as she walked. She had too many questions, but soon she was going to get some answers.

Exotic Dinning

Margot's idea of decent food usually meant one of the immigrant restraunts on the port side of her neighborhood. This was not a sentiment that she shared with many other people. Margot considered the various restraunts and sellers in that part of Vedalin to be a veritable map of the world.

There were the Shenar, having fled the decay of their once vast empire, their elegant cuisine steeped in both spices and regimented traditions of preparation and presentation. The birthplace of civilization, Shen was a place were adepts ruled, and thousands of unbelievable stories were told of it's glory and depravation.

From almost as far as the Shenar, the Mitag were a simple people in stark contrast to their neighbors. Considered primitive due to their lack of either an adept tradition or Setsmoth fabrication, the Mitag were refined in their own way. Their food was a juxtaposition of basic flavors, but was always accompanied by one of their achingly beautiful saga songs.

There were many others. The Sutrep, having journeyed from the recently formed Republic of Hejalim, who for religious reasons only consumed the products of the ocean. The Dgul a secretive people with a flair for dramatic presentation and intense spice. Their lands were said to be covered in broad stretches of jungle and desert, both equally dangerous. The Katomi, the Valjeg, and the Nesik, all from a huge expanse of islands densely packed into the Western Ocean. The subtle variations in their food was something Margot prided herself in picking out, especially to avoid offense from the often vicious rivalry between those nations.

And then there were the different cuisine of the various Free Cities, as these lands had been called since the Shenar influence had finally dissipated. Pourden controlled by its religious elite, leaving most of it's less popular religious minorities to flee to places like Vedalin. Fortunately, their love for peppers, both sweet and spicy, ignores those unfortunate religious squabbles. Kagachl, Vedalin's distant rival in Setsmoth fabrication, was best known for it's deep, almost black, wines. Thedis, Vedalin's sister city, also known for it's breads, but perhaps better at cheesemaking.

While Margot had considered all of these options, she decided however that the ideal place to bring Jacob was an Ogrim restaurant, run by crippled members of the horse clans that fought and died to the South. The Ogrim had a tendancy to overcharge, which Margot considered a plus in this case. But most importantly they served some of the strangest foods possible for someone used to the breads and cheeses, sausages and fish that were Vedalin's standard fare.

When they entered the restaurant, Margot directed Jacob to sit on the pillows lain around one of the large fire pits. The Ogrim were a people who only ever gave one choice. Either do things their way, or leave. The meal was served in the traditional Ogrim style, without variation, the only recourse for the uncultured was that the bowls and plates were placed on a metal tray, rather than on their traditional location on the ground immediately around the fire pit. Poor uncultured people like the Vedalini would be too likely to burn themselves. But otherwise the Ogrim kept their traditional feasting order, including the lack of anything even resembling an eating utensil.

Margot was familiar enough with the Ogrim to know that you never questioned what was served. While it varied dramatically based on what was available, it was always better not to know. However she wanted Jacob to learn that lesson the way she had. The hard way.

At first, Jacob seemed studiously oblivious to the restaurant. He treated it as just another place, and attempted to ask Margot some meandering questions about her work. She answered them half-heartedly, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first course.

When it did, she was not disappointed. It was a milky soup, with various light vegetables, and some large spherical dumplings. Margot immediately began to sip the soup, and Jacob after some hesitation did as well. Margot smirked and kept the corner of her eye on Jacob. Then it happened. Jacob paused, starring down into the bowl as he was raising it to his lips. And there in the bowl was a cow's eye floating in the broth, starring back at him.

He set the bowl back down carefully. Then reached in to pick up the eye carefully. He looked at it for a long minute. Margot could not contain a quiet chuckle at this, and the woman who had brought out the food was watching him suspiciously. Then he popped the eyeball into his mouth, and experimentally began to chew. A few moments later he was once more sipping the soup.

The rest of the meal was anticlimactic. Jacob navigated the raw lamb pounded with oats and wild onions. He did managed with the flatbread flavored with spoiled horse butter. He did not turn his nose up at the seared but very bloody mystery meat of their next to last course. And lastly, while he only took a small sip of the strong fermented blood and milk drink, she suspected that had more to do with avoiding strong drink while on duty as much as distaste. Margot only half finished hers, with a murderous conspiracy about she preferred to stay sober.

Once he sampled his drink, Jacob began to search his robe, pulling out the small cloth bag from earlier. He carefully lay out on his tray the twisted metal parts they had found earlier.

"I thought you wanted to examine them back at your laboratory?" Margot inquired.

"Indeed, Margot, I do. But while consuming that ... gustatory excursion, I had something of an inspiration." Jacob paused. "Part crafters usually leave special marks, or otherwise use different types of material to help sell their wares. Could we not, perhaps, find such an identifier? Especially considering your expertise in this area."

Margot nodded, "Well, I don't think I'm as much an expert as you think, but I'll take a look."

Jacob separated the pieces. There were three gears smaller than her thumbnail and a larger gear, which had been bent in the force of the blast. Next to those, Jacob placed a twisted regulator which still had a piece of the axle attached. Lastly, he adjusted a finger-sized lever with a lump of what appeared to be coal secured at the end.

Margot examined each of these, starting with the lever. "This appears to have been fashioned by the fabricator, coal is unusual enough as a component that I'm not too surprised. Now, this one is a real shame, regulators are pretty distinctive, but frankly in it's current state I couldn't tell if it was a Spaldi."

Then Margot glanced at the gears, and paused, "Well that is strange."

"Do tell, Margot, do tell."

"Well, the larger one seems somewhat stripped, but all of these are fairly unusual. I've only ever seen a few of these. The teeth are a dead give-away. These are Badek gears."

"From Kagachl? Are you certain?"

Margot stopped, "Yes... I... I think I am. You can't find Badek parts any where near Vedalin."

She shot a gaze at Jacob, though his remained fixed on the parts. "Jacob, what does this mean?"

"War, Margot, I'm afraid this may very well mean war."

© 2005 Mendel Schmiedekamp