Twila stared at the practice sword in her hand. Its dull ‘blade’ had spots of rust across it, and its hilt was a simple piece of brass welded across it. She stood on the Hourglass’s deck, away from the two massive holes where the skywright had pulled her engines free with a crane.
“Swordplay,” Auntie Charlie said, “is not about speed and strength. I’m not a large woman, but I can hold my own against anyone. Why?”
Twila shrugged. “You learned fighting techniques from Kerr?”
“No. Because swordplay is about time and distance. If you understand those two elements and you have some of the basics, you can fight anyone. Distance is first because you can't be hurt if an enemy can’t reach you. Copy my stance.” She fell into a fencing stance, her rusty practice blade out in front of her, body sideways and tall, and feet wide and perpendicular to each other. Twila tried shifting her body the same way. Then she nodded at the woman.
“No, you’re not quite right. The stance is important, Twi.” Charlie walked over and started moving Twila’s legs with her sword until she was happy with her pose. Then she adjusted the girl’s shoulders, elbows, and even her grip on the sword’s grip. When she’d finished, she crossed back to the deck’s far side, dropped into her fighting stance, and asked, “What are we both doing wrong?”
Twila shrugged again. She didn’t know. If she did, she wouldn’t need lessons.
In answer, Charlie pulled her pistol with her off-hand, pointing it at Twila. “Pistols add distance that a sword can’t beat. If you can keep your distance and end a fight with your pistol, that will always be better than swordplay. But that’s not always an option. Now, you’re going to hold your sword in this position, and I’m going to model steps. You’ll follow them, and I’ll explain what each is for.”
She took Twila through a long, grueling footwork exercise. Twila had to make each step dozens of times. Half steps back, steps across her body, lunges, retreats, and advances. The minutes ticked by, and Twila got more and more frustrated. Her feet moved fine–what she needed was to swing her sword!
At last, Charlie stepped to the deck’s far side. She nodded. “Now that you’re adequate at the footwork, it’s time to see how it works in practice. Hold your sword out as far as you can. Your goal is to stop me from touching your body with my sword. You can’t block, and I won’t thrust or swing at you. You have to touch me with your sword.”
Twila nodded. Her boredom evaporated. Finally, they’d be fighting! She gripped her hilt and held the blade out in front of her. “I’m ready.”
Charlie stepped forward. As she did, Twila stepped back, trying to move like Charlie had told her to. Suddenly, Charlie’s sword poked her in the chest. “Point for me. Move your feet smoothly. Smooth becomes fast. Again.”
Charlie stepped back to her starting point and held out her sword. Then she stepped toward Twila. Twila tried to slide her feet back. Charlie’s sword tip stopped inches from her chest. She relaxed–she’d succeeded.
Charlie stepped forward and poked Twila again. “The game continues after the first move now. Again.”
Twila sighed. This time, when Charlie stepped forward, Twila did too. Both swords poked their opponents; Twila’s in Charlie’s stomach, and Charlie’s in Twila’s chest.
Charlie looked down at the sword tip touching her. “Remember, the goal is to not be hit. Keep your distance unless you have an opportunity. Again.”
Twila groaned and stepped back to her spot. Training was so boring!
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Twila rubbed her chest and winced. She definitely had a bruise–Charlie had been merciless. She’d poked Twila in almost the same spot every time, and Twila had rarely gotten a hit in herself. After an hour, she’d stopped and told her that if they kept going, she’d just get sloppier. It was time for a break. Small mercies.
“Becca, are you in here?” Twila wasn’t sure who else was still on board the Hourglass. Twila wanted to sit down with her and work on her gizmos and weapons if she was.
A voice came from the hold. “Yeah, I’m by the engine spaces. What do you need, skipper?”
“Gizmos. The way that Vayne fought with his gizmos gave me some ideas, but I want to work on them for a while. Wanna help me?”
“Sure. Let’s see your gizmos.”
Twila spread her gizmos across the floor. Becca started sorting them. [Anton’s Pocket Watch] got set in one pile, the [Pocket Condenser] in another, and the rest in a third. “I’m not even going to try upgrading the Pocket Watch. We don’t have the right stuff for it. If we did, we could add another hand and some additional parts, and maybe make it better at redoing time, or to redo time more often.”
“And the [Pocket Condenser] would be the easiest to upgrade?” Twila asked.
“Yes. We could probably smooth out the tubing or add more condenser spheres. But the reason it’s over here is that we don’t need to upgrade it. It’d be way better to tear it apart and put the core parts in your myst battery. If we did it right, it’d free up a gizmo for you, and you could still have the slow myst flow.”
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Twila nodded. “Let’s do that. What about the others? The [Loaded Dice] and the [Mystwork Lantern]?”
“We could work on them. There’s another option, though. A better one. Carter told me about the selkie. He said she gave you part of her coat. I bet we could build something using it to give you selkie powers!” Becca grinned. “If we knew what selkie powers were.”
“That sounds great!” Twila gathered up the gizmos and started digging around for the scrap of cloth that Nola had given her. She slapped it down on the hold’s decking. “Let’s get started.”
“Hold up. We can’t just build a gizmo. We need a plan or at least a goal. What do you want it to do?” When Twila shrugged, Becca pulled out a piece of paper. “Okay, what did Vayne’s gizmos do?”
“One of them shot fire across the room. Another was a mystshot blocker. I didn’t see any others,” Twila said. She shivered. “The fire was pretty scary. I want something like that.”
“Okay, let’s figure out what that’d need.” Becca’s pen flew across the paper, sketching out a device. “What would happen if we ran myst through the coat scrap? Maybe it’d act as a cooling system for an ice effect? Then we’d need something to spray the myst with.”
Twila watched the pen move back and forth, scribbling things out. Every so often, she made a suggestion; a lever here or an extra gear there. It beat dancing with Auntie Charlie.
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Rosie
“I still think the skipper’s wrong about the treasure,” Carter finished. He crossed his arms, looking smug. “There must be dozens of people who know the mystmaze is there, and none of them have gotten a single coin out.”
Rosie rolled her eyes. Even after seeing it, Carter would never believe in the treasure, and it was starting to grate on everyone. But especially her. She did her best to ignore him as they walked through the wide streets of Seapike.
“Besides, no one listens to me on this ship. Twila won’t even answer my questions.” Carter followed along with Rosie as she dipped into a store. “And you hit me with a wrench! Twice! I don’t know why I haven’t cut myself loose yet. I’ve got the pay to go home with a nice pile of coin for the girls.”
“Then go! There are plenty of ships here. You could just hop on one and be in Ternport in four days, plus however long they dock in Shimmertower! No one wants to hear your complaints!” Rosie put her hand over her mouth, but it was too late. She’d already yelled at Carter, and he was already leaving the store. She thought about following, but what was the point? He’d pout for a while and then go back to the Hourglass. Probably.
She started looking at harnesses. Her old one was cracked and patched, and she had the money for a new one. One with more padding for when she had to go over the ship’s side and pockets for storing tools.
She’d just picked out one when tapping her shoulder interrupted her. She looked, sighing in annoyance. “Carter, I don’t want to hear any more, okay? I’m sorry I yelled, but you’re–”
“Shut up, Rosie. Come look at this,” he said, grabbing her hand. His eyes were wide, and his face was sweaty. She dropped the harness as he dragged her out the shop’s door and down the street. They broke into a jog up the black cinder street.
Then, suddenly, he skidded to a stop in front of a paper. It was tacked to a wall, and it featured two sketches. Sketches that looked a lot like Twila and Auntie Charlie. At the bottom were two numbers–two hundred crowns each–and a single word at the top.
‘Wanted.’
“Oh,” Rosie squeaked. She stared at the sign and fidgeted with her fingers, unsure what to do.
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level .91 (Myst 1/15, Hit Points 1/1)]
[Head - Empty]
[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]
[Chest - Ship Rat’s Harness (lvl. 0)]
[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]
[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]
[Gizmo #1 - Loaded Dice (lv. 2) - Roll the Bones (active, 1 myst/roll) - gain a random myst enhancement; Skill - Trickery]
[Gizmo #2 - Anton’s Pocket Watch (lvl. 4)] Redo (active, 5 myst/5 seconds) - redo the last five seconds of time, with knowledge of what’s happening (1 minute to reset); Skill - Piloting]
[Gizmo #3 - [Pocket Condenser (lvl. 1) - Condense Myst (passive) - Condenses 1 myst/5 ticks; Skill - None]
[Gizmo (Belt) - Mystwork Lantern (lvl. 2): Mystlight (active, 25% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - start the light; Adjustable Light Aura (sustained, .5-2 myst/tick) - light a variable area; Skill - Perception]
[Myst Battery - Myst Battery Mk. 2 (lvl. 1) Myst Storage (passive) - 15 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill]
[Weapon/Pair - Anton’s Paired Pistols (lvl. 2) Smoothbore Myst-Shot (active, 1 cartridge/shot) - fire a ray of heated myst; Rapid Shots (active, 2 myst/shot) - fire twice/tick; Skill - Marksman]
[Weapon #2 - Heatblade (lvl. 2) Heat (active, 1 myst/tick) - cause the blade’s edge to superheat; Skill - Acrobatics]
[Weapon/Pair - Empty]
[Skill #1 - Trickery 2]
[Skill #2 - Perception 2]
[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]
[Skill #5 - Acrobatics 2]