After leaving Threads, Emily and Juliana make their way back to the station and onto another train. This time the train carries them deep into the eastern district of the city, into an area full of smokestacks and large industrial buildings. When they leave the train again, they travel down an elevator to the ground floor and make their way out onto the dark streets.

Walking along hand in hand, Emily looks up at the mess of winding walkways above, partially blocking the daylight and giving the streets an eerie feel with the wisps of ethereal fog drifting around her feet.

“It really is weird,” Emily starts, drawing Juliana’s attention. “Considering how dark and secluded these streets feel, they are far too clean. It makes everything feel unnatural.”

“Yeah, the lower levels are quite unpleasant. It’s why they’re cheaper,” Juliana agrees, her comment gaining them a few glances from passers-by.

Upon noticing the gazes, Emily properly observes the people around them. The street they are on is a lot quieter than anywhere else Emily has seen in the city so far. Only a few dozen people can be seen at once, and most of them are moving around quickly with hooded cloaks concealing their forms. Glancing down the side streets they pass, she sees several hunched forms gathered, watching the people passing from the safety of the shadows.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Emily asks as she notices a few people scurry off into side alleys at the sight of them. “This area reminds me of home, and that’s not a good thing.”

“I’m not certain. As I said, I haven’t come here before, but I know there are some machinery shops around here somewhere,” Juliana answers uncertainly, not seeming to notice the tense atmosphere.

“I guess we can only look around then.” Emily pulls Juliana closer to her and walks on at full alert.

Following the twisting road for a short while longer, Emily notices the people around them slowly fade away as they enter a stretch of darker road, until they are the only ones left on the main street. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she stops dead in her tracks.

“Well shit, can’t say I didn’t expect this,” Emily mutters.

Juliana looks at her, confused, for a second, but before she can question her, a dozen people appear from the side alleys and surround them. Emily feels Juliana start to shake slightly and squeezes her hand, turning to give her a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with this quickly.”

Handing Juliana her bag, Emily releases her hand and steps forward to confront the group. The entire group are wearing dirty and torn rags. All of them appear gaunt and pale, several of them sporting bloodshot eyes, their sneers revealing rotting teeth. A man in the centre of the group, presumably the leader, steps forward and pulls a small flip knife from his pocket.

“Let’s make this easy, girls. Give us your fancy clothes and coin, then we’ll let you go,” he jeers while brandishing his blade.

“I’ll make it easier,” Emily says with a cold look in her eyes. “Get the fuck out of my face and I’ll let you live.”

The man and his cronies break out in ugly laughter.

“You hear that, boys? Little lass thinks she’s scary!” the leader cries out, looking over his group.

The moment the man looks away, Emily springs forward, quickly closing the gap between them. He flinches as she approaches, caught off guard and raising his blade in an attempt to react, but he’s a moment too late. Leaning to the side of his outstretched arm, Emily twists and delivers a strong elbow to his chest. The man staggers back as Emily grabs his wrist and twists it, forcing him to drop his knife. Catching as it falls, she swiftly jams the knife down into the man’s thigh before pulling it out and stepping back as he falls to his knees.

Emily reaches out and grabs the man’s hair, flipping the knife and holding it to his throat as she looks up. She slowly makes eye contact with each of the man’s cronies before her, while carefully keeping her body between Juliana and her victim. Seeing the fear in their eyes, Emily cleans the knife on the man’s shirt then drops him and flips the knife in.

“Now get out of my sight,” she growls before turning around.

The group scurries to leave, making a run for it the moment Emily turns. The few closest run over to grab the collapsed man and pull him away while whispering frantically.

“The bitch is crazy man! Look what she did to Danny,”

“Do you wanna get us killed man? Shut up!”

Emily ignores them completely, walking up to Juliana with a proud smirk that drops as soon as she sees Juliana’s fearful face.

Shit, did I go too far? Is she scared of me?

As she steps closer, Juliana doesn’t react, so she gently reaches out to take her hand. Emily feels her still shaking and silently squeezes her hand to reassure her as she guides her down the street. After moving a few hundred metres, they turn onto a new street with slightly more sunlight passing through the overhead gangways.

Emily turns to face Juliana and pulls the trembling girl into a hug. She silently strokes her hair while waiting for her to calm down. After a couple of minutes, Juliana’s quaking stops, and she pulls away to properly face Emily.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“D- Did you kill him?” she asks with a concerned quiver in her voice.

“No,” Emily reassures her with a smile. “I didn’t puncture anything vital, so he’ll be fine if they stop the bleeding. He’ll probably think twice about ambushing young girls in the future though.”

Juliana smiles slightly at her comment, visibly calmer than before.

“Let’s go, I think I see some workshops further down the street,” Emily says while lightly pulling Juliana into motion again.

They walk down the street in silence for a couple of minutes before Juliana nervously asks a question.

“Did you need to be that violent?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Emily says with a sigh. “When dealing with people like that, if you try and talk your way out, you’ll just rile them up more. The most effective method to force them to back off is a show of brutality.”

“I see,” Juliana responds, obviously disappointed.

A few minutes later, they chance upon a building with an open shuttered front and a large sign above saying ‘Machineworks’.

“This looks hopeful!” Emily comments while walking closer to get a good look into the shop.

She sees large piles of metal sheets and rods scattered haphazardly throughout the shop floor. Lining the walls are an assortment of tools and machines, some she recognizes and most she doesn’t. In the centre of the room is a large metal structure holding up a hulking smooth body of metal with a set of chains and platforms.

The loud grinding screech of metal on metal can be heard coming from under the structure, and as Emily enters the shop and gets closer, she can see a person’s legs sticking out from under it. She releases Juliana’s hand, leaving her gawking at the machines covering every surface, and approaches the person lying on the floor.

“Excuse me,” she calls, waiting for a response.

After a few moments and no change, she calls again, shouting this time: “Excuse me!”

The grinding noise stops and the person on the floor shuffles around for a few seconds before quickly sliding out from under the metal structure. The man that’s revealed is a young-looking guy with short black hair and a scruffy beard full of metal filings. Seeing Emily, he raises a brow and stands up off the metal sled he was lying on.

“Welcome to Machineworks. Haven’t seen you around here before. The name’s Ed, how can I help?” he says while wiping oil off his hands with a dirty rag.

“Hey, I’m Emily,” she says, shaking the hand he presents before answering unsurely. “I’m not sure if this is the right place for it, but I’m looking to get some tools and materials for making machines.”

“Sure, I can get you anything you need,” he says with a confident grin. “I assume you’re buying this for yourself, right? You got much experience with metalwork?”

“A fair amount. I apprenticed with a clockmaker then started making a lot of larger things on my own after.”

“Cool, how big are you looking to go with your setup? Full workshop, or no?”

“Not quite, I don’t have enough room for a full workshop at the moment. I only need to be able to make things up to a metre or so in size, with more of a focus on detail work for now.”

“I see, in that case, I have a few suggestions.”

Ed proceeds to guide Emily around the room, pointing out and explaining several different machines to her and Juliana, who joins them, having become bored looking around cluelessly. Emily considers all the given options and creates a mental shortlist of her purchases as they go. By the end of their trip around the room, she has half a dozen machines of varying sizes, and twice as many tools, in mind to buy for her dorm, along with a large number of different materials and pre-machined parts.

When they come to a stop back in the centre of the shop, Emily lists off the items she’s decided to buy and waits for Ed to add up the prices.

“That will come out to a total of three gold and forty-two silver. Where would you like them delivered? You can take some of the smaller stuff now, but the larger machines will be close to impossible to move on your own,” Ed says with an amused grin as he sees Emily’s look of shock at his comment.

“Fuck, I totally forgot about actually getting it to the dorms. Can we even get stuff delivered to The Dome?” Emily asks Juliana in a slight panic, having become too caught up in the excitement of having the money to buy tools instead of making them.

“Hehe, yeah, we can,” Juliana giggles at Emily before turning to Ed. “If you give me a piece of paper, I’ll write down the address of the delivery building.”

“Sure, give me a moment,” he says walking off into a side room.

Juliana turns to Emily while he’s gone and continues to explain.

“For large items, you have to get them delivered to the delivery building along with your name and dorm number. Then as long as there is free space in your dorm, they will teleport the items in for a small point charge. How else do you think I got my dresser into my room?”

Emily nods as she remembers the large, ornate dressing table set up in Juliana’s dorm room.

“I’d guess it will be around fifteen points if we take everything small enough to carry with us now,” Juliana adds with a thoughtful tone.

“Thank Goddess, I thought I’d have to work out how to lug this stuff onto a train for a second.”

Emily breathes a sigh of relief at both the ease of receiving her tools, and Juliana treating her normally after her shock earlier. A few moments later, Ed returns and Juliana notes down an address along with Emily’s full name and dorm number. Emily quickly memorises the address over her shoulder, just in case she needs more large deliveries in the future.

Emily then pays for her purchases, handing over four of her shiny golden coins and receiving fifty-eight silver ones as change. Then, with a slight pain in her heart at the rapid reduction in her newfound wealth, she and Juliana leave the shop, bidding Ed goodbye and promising to return if they need anything else machine related.

They make their way through the dark streets again, with Emily on high alert and sticking as close to Juliana as their large bags of tools will allow. Luckily, they make it back to the train station and onto a train back towards The Dome without issue. Sitting opposite each other in a closed-off train booth again, Juliana frowns at Emily. Noticing her gaze, Emily raises an eyebrow and waits for her to speak.

“It’s just…” she sighs and looks down dejectedly before continuing. “Thanks for earlier. If you weren’t there I-“

When Juliana cuts off, and starts to shake again, Emily stands and moves onto the seat beside her. She places an arm around her friend and pulls her in to lean against her, where she can rest her head on Emily’s shoulder.

“Hey, you wouldn’t have been there if you weren’t helping me. It’s only natural that I protect you,” she reassures Juliana while gently stroking her hair. “It may not be much, but I can promise that whenever I’m with you, I at least won’t let you get stabbed in some random back alley.”

I’ll even turn back time if I have to.

“Though, I can’t promise that you won’t get your ear talked off about metalworking tools in some random machine shop,” she adds afterwards, drawing a small chuckle from Juliana.

“Thanks, Emi,” Juliana quietly whispers a bullet into Emily’s heart before relaxing into silence for the rest of the train journey, leaving Emily’s head and heart raging in a violent storm of emotions.