Coffee

Book after book that was brought to her, Sam continued to search. They had a focus now, Bethany brought books relating to industrial processes and old patent records. The promising ones involved core crystal integration into materials to create devices. Those devices could potentially be used to transmit controlled bursts of energy over large distances. One application of such technology was coating glass domes with a core crystal powder coating. Combined with a core crystal transmitter, which could theoretically be used to power the dome remotely creating a distance-controlled light. However, this process was difficult to implement due to the intricacy of the design and the preciseness required to align the two devices. On top of that, they never found an adequate method to incorporate the core crystal powder into the glass, leaving the finely ground core crystals in a state where they would decay, quickly becoming useless.

One research paper, published by the University of Ahr in collaboration with Core, tried to accomplish the problem of incorporating core powder into glass, which theoretically could have solved the problem of the core powder rapidly expending its energy with no or limited effect. Unfortunately, the study didn’t turn up anything reliable. There was, however, something from the summary of the paper that caught Sam’s eye.

One potential avenue of solving the problem of core crystal integration into solution may lie in the natural properties of keeper’s ability to contain core essence. However, at the time of publishing the necessary background research was insufficient, so the avenue was discontinued.

This immediately caught Sam’s attention. What were these keepers? Sam didn’t recognize the name, but it was brought up without its own definition on the paper, implying it was basic or common knowledge within the scientific community at the time. She decided to take some time and skim through the entire full paper to see if this avenue had been discussed any further, but none of the research regarding keepers seemed to make the final publishing, which was strange considering its mention in the document summary.

“Have you heard of a keeper?” Sam asked while desperately searching the last pages for any mention. When Bethany didn’t respond immediately, Sam looked up and around the library for the first time in hours and saw that there was barely any natural light still coming from the windows. She sighed, realizing that her time had run out. She had barely learned anything. Well, that wasn’t true. She had learned many of the ins and outs of industrial production of core crystals and about many failed attempts to utilize core powder for something productive, but none of that particularly helped her with her goal.

Bethany appeared from behind the librarian's desk from a doorway that led to her quarters. She was carrying a candle on a portable stand. “Oh, are you wrapping up? I can keep the library open a while longer if you aren’t done.”

“No, that’s okay, I really have to get back to Shoehorn anyways.” Sam said morosely as she organized the books in front of her. “I’m not sure there’s much more to find in here anyways.” Then Sam’s stomach growled, and she realized that she hadn’t eaten a single thing since that morning.

Bethany laid a hand gently of Sam’s busy organizing hands stopping her from continuing the task. “I’ll take care of all that, how about you go and find yourself something to eat before you head out. All the shops will be closing up soon.”

Sam might have protested, but her stomach forced her to oblige. And anyways, there was one other place she was hoping to go before she headed back. She hurriedly put her belongings into her bag said goodbye to Bethany, and rushed out the door.

~

Sam was nervous as she approached the doorway under the hanging sign of Don’t be Latte. When she had left this same door after having a short conversation with Alice, she had felt very good about how it went. It annoyed her just a bit how well Sol’s little plan to get her inside and talking to Alice had worked out. She had totally bought into his act when he played up his “so new to everything” angle so that she would go inside instead of him, alone, to pay for the drink and food that Alice had given him for free earlier that day.

She was glad he did it.

When she left for Shoehorn a few days ago, Alice told her to visit next time she came through town and told Sam which days of the week she worked. Sam would be lying if this didn’t pass through her head as she was deciding to make this research trip. But as she stared at the store window at her own reflection and messed with her hair, thoughts of doubt rushed through her head. Maybe Alice had been trying to be nice, and maybe all those vibes she was picking up only resided in her head.

Sam hesitated there by that door, mustering the courage to go inside, when suddenly she was cut short by the resounding sound of a bell ringing through the streets of Mosel. She counted all eight bell strikes as she stared at the small painted hours on the storefronts glass. 10AM to 8PM. She was too late. Her heart dropped, more than even she expected, and she pulled her outstretched hand away door handle and gripped her bag, then turned around and started to walk. She wouldn’t hold up Alice's time. She took three heavy steps before she heard the sound of a bell jingling behind her and froze.

“Sam? Hey, Sam!” Alice called from the doorway.

Sam’s heart made the quick climb from its sunken position all the way up into her throat. She realized that for Alice to have opened the door so shortly after she turned and took her steps away, that she had almost certainly seen her standing in front of the door, doing nothing. Being strange. That mildly petrified her. Her forehead got warm with embarrassment. She put on what she thought felt like what a normal face should look like, and turned around to say hello, still clutching her bag. “Oh, hi Alice!” she tried to say casually. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were closing, I must have lost track of the time.”

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“Well, since you’re here, would you like a coffee?” Alice said encouragingly. She looked Sam straight in the eyes wearing a bright smile, holding open the door open invitingly.

“I really couldn’t...”

“Oh nonsense, it’s really no problem. I’d love to make you something, I haven’t even cleaned the espresso machine yet!”

Sam glanced away, mumbled random niceties and struggled with the English language, when she felt a cold hand wrapped around hers and she was suddenly being pulled towards the entrance. Sam gasped and her eyes widened, and she saw Alice’s back pulling her toward the door. Sam couldn’t think of anything to say, and obediently followed her inside.

Sam did little half skips, an attempt not to step on the back of Alice’s tennis shoes, as she was drug by the arm and led to a stool right next to the counter. After dropping her off, Alice trotted back to the door and flipped the sign to closed. She returned, went behind the counter, and started preparing a coffee.

“So, what are you doing in town so early?” Alice said while pouring coffee beans into a hand grinder and beginning to crank the handle. “I thought you were going back to Shoehorn for a while until it was time for your next check-in thingy at the core building?”

“Well, I was showing Sol a growth ritual, and something went... wrong.” Sam watched Alice pour the espresso over hot water and added chocolate and caramel, without needing to ask Sam what she’d like, while Sam explained to her what happened to Sol in the clearing as she remembered it.

...

“So, I’ve been studying at the library all day. I think it may have something to do with embedded core powder in Sol’s body— oh, thank you.” Sam said and gently cupped the warm cup in both hands as Alice handed it over to her. She carefully took a sip with an audible slurp to not burn her lips and couldn’t help but to close her eyes and enjoy for a moment the perfect chocolatey goodness that she was holding in her hands.

“So, something embedded in Sol’s anatomy, you said?”

“Right,” Sam recollected her thoughts. “Basically, I think in order for his eyes to glow like that, he would have had to have had core crystals, or rather, a microscopic ground form or core crystals, circulating in his system somehow, and from there they contaminated his eyes. So, while I was reading about core powder and industrial applications that could maybe cause something like this, I found a mention of something called “keepers” in an old university research paper done in collaboration with Core. It implied keepers can contain core essence, which sounded like an avenue I could explore.”

“Mhmm, and what are the keepers then?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Sam pondered while swirling her coffee, watching the particulates orbit the center of the cup. “I’m not sure, they were mentioned in the abstract, but the actual body of the research paper had no note of them. Anyways, I’m probably going to have to shelve it anyways, I swear I looked through every book in the library today and I didn’t see any other mentions of keepers at all.” Sam looked up from her coffee and tried her best to not look frustrated. She didn’t want to give off a negativity that Alice probably wasn’t up for.

Alice was gazing up at the textured ceiling, looking like something was on her mind. “So, you said Core was involved in that research they were doing?” She looked down from the ceiling and straight into Sam’s eyes. “Do they have any records of it? Core, I mean. Maybe you could access the files through you work?”

Sam’s instincts told her to look away, but she tried to keep normal eye contact in a way she thought should be natural. She started talking, her concentration split by the effort. “Errrm, maybe? I’ve never tried to do anything like that, I mean access records. I mostly just work in the field, I mean. I don’t think I’ve ever interacted with the information department.” Sam couldn’t help but look away now. Why couldn’t she just be normal? She closed her eyes and took another sip of her coffee to level her nerves.

The scent of coffee and the calmness of closed eyelids helped her concentrate. It made total sense, of course. Core should still have records of the research effort, and almost certainly their own copies of the report since they helped conduct it. “That’s a really good idea, I could probably go to the resources department and ask about it, and they could at the very least send me in the right direction.”

“You’re welcome,” Alice teased with a warm smile. “Maybe you could go tomorrow and see if they have any information on it?”

Sam let a groan slip out, “Ugh, why couldn’t I have realized this earlier. I have to go back to Shoehorn tomorrow to do a ritual.”

“Well... what time do you need to do the ritual by?”

“It’s in the evening, but it’s one I haven’t done before, so I’ll need to spend a few hours reviewing the procedure in the manual to make sure I execute it correctly. There just wouldn’t be enough time to get to Mosel and back...”

“Do you have the materials to review it with you? Maybe you could stay here and use the saved travel time to review for the ritual?”

Sam took the last sip of her coffee, which had cooled down to almost room temperature. She stared down at the remaining grounds in the bottom of the cup. “I just can’t afford the hotel rates; I get such a great deal at Mo’s place since I’m on contract.”

“Oh, no, no, I meant here, as in... here.” Alice waived vaguely upwards. “I have an apartment upstairs. I wouldn’t mind lending you the couch for the night.”

“Oh,” Sam her head get warm once again. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“No really, I’d love to have you!” She took Sam’s cup away for cleaning.

“Thank you,” Sam said, trying to work out whether Alice’s proposed timeline could work out. Sol was at home, but so was Mo. Still, she said she would be home tonight, they might already be wondering where she was.

Then she felt Alice’s hand on hers once again and was broken away from her thoughts. “Come on, I’ll show you around,” She chirped cheerfully.

“Oh!” Sam’s concerns of time management and Sol and Mo and all the other things faded from her mind. She let Alice lead her behind the bar and towards a door that presumably led to the stairs to Alice’s apartment.