No one could redo more than five seconds.
Everyone had tried [Anton’s Pocket Watch], of course. Rosie had stood at the battery refiller over and over, getting her refills of myst. Twila had cranked on the ratcheting gears for all they were worth. Carter and Becca had even tried doing it together - that had only caused it to not work at all. But no matter what they did, they only went back five seconds.
It wasn’t like Twila and the crew had learned nothing. The silver second hand always, always took exactly sixty seconds to catch up to the brass second hand. And they couldn’t turn the silver gear unless the two lined up, so they could only redo time every minute.
Twila laughed to herself as she started running pell-mell toward the broken bowsprit. She cranked the gear, her myst battery ticked, and she found herself standing by the others - as if her run had never happened! What else could she make not happen?
“That’s so weird. Just ran to the bow, and now I’m back,” she mumbled.
“That is weird,” Rosie said. “I have an idea. Count down from five. I’ll punch Becca during the countdown -”
“What!?” Becca interrupted.
“- and then you can try to stop it when you reset,” Rosie finished.
“So, will I be getting hit?” Becca asked. The rest of the crew ignored her as Twila watched the second hands align.
“Five,” Twila said.
“Four, Three,” Rosie punched Becca in the arm.
“Two, One!” Twila cranked the ratchet, reached out, and grabbed Rosie’s fist. “Don’t. It worked.”
Becca sighed, obviously relieved. “Oh, good, I didn’t want to get hit!”
“I did punch you. Kind of,” Rosie said. “Right?”
“Right. But also not. Time punches are weird,” Twila walked into the hold to refill her myst. So, in five-second redos, things happened just like they did the first time. What if they went back further? Would things still happen the same way? As soon as she’d touched Rosie’s arm, the girl had stopped her punch.
“Becca! Now you hit Rosie! See what happens if I don’t stop you.”
Rosie paled. Twila could see why. Unless you counted Will - and no one did - Becca was the tallest and strongest person aboard the Hourglass.
“Hey, you don’t have to test that. I bet she’d just hit me, and then I’d - Land! I see land!” Rosie screamed. She pointed.
“Yeah, sure. You just don’t want me to get revenge,” Becca said, rolling up her sleeve.
Twila looked. Sure enough, a huge pillar loomed in the distance. “Becca, engines! Shout if the runes turn white! Carter, hold! Ready the chutes! Rosie, keep an eye on Old Bitch!”
As the crew ran to their stations, Twila took her place at the wheel. She unlocked it, feeling the rudder pull to port. The gentle breeze in her hair felt right, and her [Piloting] skill was in full force. The sun shone against the wheel mount’s brass plating. The glare from a little section, in particular, caught her eye.
About the size of her hand, it glinted silver instead of golden-brass. She set [Anton’s Pocket Watch] inside of it. Sure enough, the silver gear fit perfectly.
The breeze caught the Hourglass, turning her starboard of the stone pinnacle. Twila spun the wheel to compensate. Her arm brushed one of the levers - the ones to the right, which had always been locked - and it clicked down three times. The ship righted course, the motion slamming her hip into the watch.
The watch pushed in as an endless wave of rapid-fire ticks sounded across the airship. Twila’s vision blurred purple.
The engines sputtered and died. Lightning crashed around the Hourglass. The rain beat against Twila’s back, and the howling wind spun the suddenly-powerless ship off course as she dropped. What had been a beautiful day over the Sunset Sea was suddenly a monstrous storm. An airship-eater.
“What!? How!?” Twila panicked. She grabbed the lever and pushed it back up, but it wouldn’t move! She reached for the pocket watch, but it was trapped as if it was one with the wheel mount!
She watched as the mercury bar for myst crept up - one, two, three - and twisted the starter over and over. It finally fired, the starboard engine screaming as she dropped the speed to ‘Ahead Slow.’
With myst flowing and the monstrous engines roaring, Twila wrestled with the wheel. The wind behind the Hourglass pushed the sloop onward toward the pillar. She couldn’t fight it. It was just stronger than her. All her pulling, and all her Skill, only changed their heading a few degrees port - would it be enough to pass by Shimmertower?
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The airship rolled in the wind. Twila pulled, and the airship righted. She saw something flying in the corner of her eye. It was Rosie, strapped to a safety line! She screamed as she looked down at Twila for a moment. Then, her arc stopped, and she plunged back down.
Twila heard the scream cut off as the rope snapped taut.
“Becca! Carter!” No one responded. They couldn’t hear her over the rain, and she couldn’t help her friend - not if she wanted the Hourglass to survive.
“Anyone?! …Will?!” She shouted into a tube on the wheel mount.
“Yes, skipper?” The morose boy’s voice answered. The wind whistled through the tube for a moment before it cut off with a clank.
“Get Rosie back!” Twila screamed.
“Alright. You may have to explain to the others, though,” Will said, his voice fading as he moved away.
With Rosie - hopefully, at least - taken care of, Twila focused on the towering pillar of rock. Her whole body pulled down, trying to guide the ship to port. Lightning lit up the sky; through the rain, she saw metal chimneys poking up toward her. The Hourglass’s starboard side rubbed against a chimney. Sparks rained down on Shimmertower as brass scraped against iron. Something long whipped across the Hourglass’s hull with a cracking sound.
And then she soared past the tuff pinnacle.
Twila sighed, the tension in her shoulders vanishing. She’d saved the airship! She’d get Becca, and maybe Carter too, and together, they’d get her turned into the storm. Then they’d just have to -
A gust of wind slammed the Hourglass toward the cliff!
Twila’s arms screamed in protest. The wheel spun free, and the Hourglass spun toward the cliff.
The wind shifted, careening the ship up and away from the edge. The starboard engine screeched and sputtered out!
As the ship plunged toward the cliff yet again, Twila’s hand closed on the pocket watch. She tugged at it, but it refused to come loose from its place. In desperation, she grabbed the wheelhouse, hanging on with all her strength.
Lightning flashed.
Twila blinked rain from her eyes. She hadn’t heard thunder. And since when was lightning…purple?
The first heavy rope wrapped across the Hourglass’s deck with a thud. It hissed across the wooden planks, shattering the ship’s rail, and snapped tight as something caught on the hull. The hull creaked. The airship slid slowly toward the cliff.
More purple flashed across the sky. More ropes embraced the Hourglass, weighing it down until it settled under the cliff. They went taut, pulling it up…up into a wide wooden grid of docks between two cliff faces.
A criss-cross of beams slid under the Hourglass’s hull.
Twila pulled herself up and started running into the Hourglass’s hold. She had to check on Rosie! She had to see if the girl was alright!
A purple pop of light flickered across the dock. Faint lights went on, and Twila stopped. A dozen ships sat, bows out; the smallest was no bigger than the fisher the Hourglass had fled from, while the largest dwarfed even the merchantmen. Its gun ports sat closed, but Twila counted at least a dozen.
A sharp woman’s voice cut through the wind and rain. “Welcome to Shimmertower, unidentified sloop. The cost of the rescue has been added to your docking fees.”
[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 - Piloting]
[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]