Steamforged Sorcery - Chapter 28 (Patreon)

“No problem. Is there anything else I can help you with?” she asked, pushing her blonde hair away from her face. “A drink, perhaps? Or the mail if you’re expecting any.”

“I’ll pass on the drink,” Angel said. “I’m too soft for that stuff. It would ruin my pretty boy image. As for mail – well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to check. You have a telegraph here?”

“All the official Hunter’s Guild locations have a telegraph,” the woman replied. She jumped up, grabbing a small flap on the ceiling and pulling it open. A rope ladder fell down and she clambered up it. Angel followed after her.

The second floor of the Hunter’s guild was nearly empty aside from a man-sized machine sitting in the center of the room. It was a large box full of gears and pistons, with an old typewriter attached to the box’s top. A small puff of steam rose up from a valve at its side, rising up through vent holes cut into the tent above it. There was a long copper pole that extended from the top and traveled up through the vent.

“What’s your name?” she asked. Angel winced – probably not the best idea to go giving out his name. After a moment of consideration, he shrugged. Vita already knew they’d gone through Silver Sands, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Angel.”

“Interesting name,” she said, walking over to the machine. Her hands played across the keyboard with a series of loud clicks.

The machine let out another puff and the woman leaned back to avoid the hot air. She pressed another key on the typewriter. It let out a rattle and a small metal plate emerged from the bottom.

“You’ve got a message from the Hunter’s Guild in Bronze city,” the barkeep said, picking the plate up.

“Really? What do they want with me?” Angel asked, stepping forward and peering down at it. His nose curled in annoyance. It was written completely in code. “I don’t suppose you can read this? They seem to have forgotten that I don’t know the Hunter Dialect.”

“I normally charge for that, but this message isn’t too long,” she replied, scanning it. “Begin message: We have located a suitable Hunter for your request, but you had already left the building by the time we found them. If you are still interested in hiring a Hunter, please return to the Bronze City Hunter’s Guild. Your deposit is non-refundable. End message.”

Angel frowned. “What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you want me to read it again, I’m going to charge you. I’m not a glorified secretary.”

“No, it’s fine,” Angel said, waving his hand. “I understood what you said. Just… one moment, please.”

Angel went back over the words in his head, his lips pressed thin. They’d found a Hunter? That didn’t make sense – he’d gotten a Hunter through the guild already. It was possible they’d somehow botched their records, but the Guild was generally pretty good at the accuracy of their information.

“Is everything alright?”

“It’s fine,” Angel said, shaking his head. “I was just a bit confused, but it’s no issue. Was that all of the mail?”

“It was. I’ll wipe the letter so long as you’re done reading it,” she said with a concerned glance.

Angel nodded, still trying to piece together what was going on. The woman inserted the metal plate into a slot into the machine. A gear whirred and it let out a loud crunch as the metal was compacted and wiped clean.

One puff of smoke later, the telegraph stopped rumbling. Angel gave the woman a polite smile. “Thanks for your help. I’m running a bit late, so I should probably get going.”

She bid him farewell, still looking slightly concerned as the Seeker slipped down the ladder and headed back towards where Vanessa was waiting for him. He wasn’t sure exactly how long he’d been gone, but it was more than five minutes.

When he got back, Vanessa was pacing the room nervously. She let out a relieved sigh, but her features quickly turned annoyed. “Where were you? I thought something had happened!”

“Sorry,” Angel said, pulling out the Tinkerer’s tools and handing them to Vanessa. “I got sidetracked by something important.”

Vanessa took the pouch from Angel and popped it open, peering inside. “I guess. Is everything okay?”

“I… yeah. It is,” Angel said. He needed more time to process the information. Even if there was something wrong, there was nothing he could do about it now. He reached over and pulled out one of the tools in the kit – a metal handle that ended in a thin point. “This is the scribe. It’s what you’ll use for most of the basic work. But, before we can even start that, we have to clean all of the tools. Any excess material on them will interfere with your magic.”

Vanessa nodded, listening intently. Angel pulled out a small oilcloth bundle, carefully unwrapping it to reveal a vial of clear liquid. “This is acid. Strong acid at that. It’ll get the rust right off.”

He unscrewed the top carefully using his mechanical arm, then dipped the tip of the scribe into the solution. The rust covering the metal tip flaked and fell off as he swirled it around the liquid for a few moments.

“And viola. Clean as a whistle,” Angel said, pulling the scribe back out. The greenish brown sheen that had been covering it had vanished, replaced by glittering bronze. He wiped it off and handed it to Vanessa, who held it gently as if it would break in her grasp.

“Wow. How does it work?”

“I’m getting there. You know how to channel basic magic, right?”

“Of course. I can’t do anything with it, though,” Vanessa replied, summoning a small mote of blue light to her fingertips. “It’s just a tiny light.”

“Almost everyone can cast magic,” Angel said. “But not many people learn how to use it beyond what you’ve got there. When you Tinker, you’re trapping magic within the metal. Mistakes mean the magic doesn’t react like it’s meant to. Best case – it fizzles. Worst case… well, there are a lot of one-armed Tinkerers.”