Rosie had the helm as the Hourglass knifed slowly through a cloud over endless blue-green waves. Twila watched her steer the airship straight. “Keep to that course. I’ll be below with Becca.”
“Got it, Skipper,” Rosie said. Her brown hair blew into her face; she blew a breath up to keep it out of her eyes.
Twila thought about the journey as she opened the hold and stepped belowdecks. They’d sailed two nights and a day. If the map was right, they had a few more hours until Shimmertower came into view. If not, the water would have to hold out. They didn’t have another option. Everyone had filled their myst batteries from the condenser, though, so at least they could all work.
Becca had raided the anemic supply cabinet in the engine room; scraps of brass tubing and a soldering iron; wrenches and bits of rubber; even an old, burned-out myst battery lay on the hold's wooden floor. “Let’s see your gear; Toll taught me a bit about upgrades and combinations, and we can do better than what you have,” the tall blonde said.
Twila nodded, pulling gizmos and weapons out of her bandolier pockets and setting them in a neat row. [Anton’s Paired Pistols] sat prominently off to the right, the [Lantern] and [Firestarter] in the middle, and [Anton’s Pocket Watch] to the left. Her pile of tools and the keys to the Hourglass stayed in their pouches.
“That watch and the guns aren’t something we can make better today, and the pistols are paired anyways,” Becca said. “Let’s look at the lantern.”
Twila shoved the lantern toward the older girl. “Take it. It’s junk. Almost got us killed in Iswixel.”
“You work on engines and condensers. When they break down, you fix them, right?”
“Yeah. They’re expensive, though. Lanterns are cheap.”
Both girls used their [Tinkering] skills. Becca fiddled with the lantern until its brass base fell off. The inside held a tangled mess of brass tubing and spheres - tiny boilers - to keep the flame going. “We won’t need all this,” she said as she grabbed a pair of pliers and started tearing parts free.
Twila watched curiously as the [Skywright Tinker] ripped into the lantern. She’d always loved mechanical contraptions, but her experience was with big things. Engines, boilers, or condensers, and the connections between them. A small gizmo like a lantern looked like a totally different type of mechanism than Twila had played with before!
“While I’m cleaning this out, make yourself useful and pull the tube from your [Firestarter],” Becca ordered. “We’re going to make a [Self-Starting Lantern]. Or something like that. Hopefully.”
After a bit, both girls finished pulling their gizmos apart. Becca’s [Lantern] had been fully gutted, and Twila’s [Firestarter] had no tube for the fire to start from; its side was missing, too, letting the girls see the starting wheel.
“Okay, now we’ll need that brass tubing and the soldering iron. You hold the [Firestarter] on the side of the lantern. It’ll be too long still, so we’ll need to cover some glass, but that can’t be helped,” Becca said.
“Got it,” Twila reached for the iron and tubing. Becca bent the tube with a wrench, slowly winding it inside the [Lantern’s] casing. Finally, only a bit stuck out of the side. She carefully turned it until it connected to the [Firestarter] - right where the old tube had been!
“Now, if you flick the wheel, myst will flow into the lantern. Let’s build a regulator to control the myst’s flow, so it doesn’t use all your myst and a better starter than a rough stone wheel.”
Becca placed a few tiny gears - the kind to repair the mechanism at the helm - on soldered axles near the lantern’s myst nozzle. A wheel stuck out of the side, the perfect size for a thumb to spin it. When Twila tried, a brass plate slowly moved over the nozzle, covering it.
“That’s the regulator. Now for the starter.”
When she was finished, a small brass button on the [Firestarter’s] side flicked the stone wheel instead of a thumb or finger. The final lantern looked like a Frankenlantern; one of the glass panels had been replaced with the Firestarter, gears stuck out of the other side, and the tube arced across the brass housing.
Twila and Becca peered through their [Myst Lenses].
[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]
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“Firestarter got worse,” Twila complained. “It does less now. The lantern’s better, though.”
“Yeah, combining either makes both items better, like the pistols, or it makes one better at the expense of the other, like this,” Becca said. "If we had the right scrap, we could fit that myst battery inside it, and it wouldn't drain ours to run."
“We need more parts. Don’t have enough to bother building anything else.”
“Well then, let’s take a look at that pocket watch,” Becca suggested. The two girls examined it, first with their [Myst Lenses] and then without.
[Anton’s Pocket Watch (lvl. 4)] Unknown Effect]
The pocket watch fit easily in even Twila’s small hand. Its front gear pattern was brass, while the larger one was silver. Twila found herself fidgeting with it. She spun the silver one; it clicked like a ratchet.
Her myst battery ticked five times rapidly. A purple-blue flash filled the hold. The silver second hand moved - backward!
“Well, let’s take a look at that pocket watch,” Becca suggested. She brought her [Myst Lens] up to her eye.
Twila stared at her, confused. “You just said that.”
“I didn’t.” Becca’s brow furled in confusion. Then her expression shifted, and she stared at the watch, eyes bright. “Let me see the watch.”
Twila handed it across to Becca. “What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m going to turn the gear and see what happens,” Becca said deliberately. “Ask me what I think will happen.”
“What do you think’ll happen?” Twila asked as Becca turned the watch.
“I just told you, but now I know I’m right. It threw me back in time!” Becca’s face glowed triumphantly. “I redid five seconds!
Twila looked just as confused as Becca had. “What do you mean? Threw you back in time?”
Becca handed the watch over, and Twila stared at it as the blonde girl talked. The silver second hand ticked backward, moving less than a second mark each tick until it lined up with the brass one. Then they started moving forward together again.
“I think the watch lets you redo things,” Becca said, the words almost blurring together as she hurried through them. “Only a few seconds at a time, but even so, that’s incredibly powerful. My parents joked about having eyes in the back of their heads. Your skipper could have actually had them!”
“Explains why the skipper could always find us when we slacked,” Twila said softly. Her head spun. It was true. Anton had always seemed to know where his crew was. If he could redo time, it’d be easy to keep track of the crew on a small airship.
It’d be easy to do a lot of things.
Skipper Anton had known exactly how far to push the ship’s engines because he had pushed them past their limits. When they’d blown, he must’ve just redone time and reduced speed. Could he have used the watch to dodge pirates’ shots as well? It didn’t seem to move the ship, though. How far back could he jump?
She’d used five of her stored myst on one five-second redo. But if the skipper had more myst, surely he’d have been able to jump back even further?
Surely she’d be able to jump back even further?
“Rosie! Lock the wheel and meet us on deck! Carter, you too!” She shouted.
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level 1.09 (Myst 1/10, 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 - Basic Myst Tools (lvl 1) Skill - Tinkering]
[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 - Unknown]
[Gizmo #3 - Empty]
[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 - Basic Myst Battery (lvl. 1) Small Storage (passive) - 10 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/Pair - Empty]
[Skill #1 - Tinkering 1]
[Skill #2 - Perception 2]
[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]
[Skill #5 - Empty]