Brossius, the Armillamancer

Based on the way Sari talked about him Trick was ready for the armillamancer to be any number of things. A wise old man. A young kid with a magic powered telescope. A pencil necked guy with stacks of star charts. Basically anything other than a normal looking guy in a red apron holding wrenches and screwdrivers, surrounded by loose gears and springs. Maybe he should have been expecting that, based on the name.

The mancer in question appeared to be in charge of maintaining a massive armillary sphere located on the lowest level of Harbek’s Gorge. When Sari led him into the clearing where it rested Trick once again found himself staring. It was certainly impressive, although hardly comparable to a planetarium back home or even the holographic displays he’d seen in the hexagon rooms when he’d arrived. What he was really interested in was what they didn’t show.

Because, as he’d expected, there was no sign of a sun in the incredibly complex array of stars and constellations engraved on the moving metal plates of the sphere.

“Ah! Sari, glad to see you made it back.” The chief armillamancer got up from a workbench where he had been carefully winding up a tightly coiled spring and came over to meet them. As he walked he wiped his hands off on a greasy cloth. Trick noted with some interest that he wasn’t wearing any of the strange, detached sleeves everyone else from Harbek seemed to love. “And this is… Gemma?”

The shorter woman nodded, her attitude suddenly shy. “I hope you’re well, Chief.”

“As I can be.” He glanced up towards the top of the town as he tucked his cloth away. “It’s getting quiet up there. I take that as a good sign.”

“The starsight are mostly dealt with,” Sari replied. “Chief Brossius, this is Patrick Gallagher. He says he’s come here from the tenth sphere.”

“The tenth sphere?” Brossius looked Trick over with a critical eye. “That’s surprising to hear. You’re quite dim, Patrick Gallagher.”

The urge to laugh at and yell at the chief fought for dominance. Rather than give in to either one Trick said, “I’m not sure I follow you, chief.”

“Don’t you? That’s odd. Or perhaps it’s not? Every once in a while they say the Child Eternal allows people to move between the spheres and it never explains itself when it does. Unfortunately I’ve never heard of anyone coming from the tenth sphere before. I don’t know how much I can tell you that is helpful, Patrick Gallagher.”

“You can just call him Trick,” Sari put in.

“See? I didn’t even know that.”

Trick’s eyes narrowed. “You could start by telling me what you mean by the Child Eternal. I didn’t see any children when I came here.”

Brossius gestured for them to come further into the dome, moving deeper into the dappled light it shed. The dome wasn’t solid, so some of Harbek’s ambient lumi made its way in the cracks. But most of the space was lit by yellow points of light gleaming from crystals scattered around the dome’s brass plates. “I’m not surprised you didn’t see the Child Eternal. Very few have.”

“What makes you think this child is responsible for bringing me here, then?” Trick asked, following behind the chief as he gawked at the various constellations. He thought he recognized a few of them from Gemma and Bertran’s long sleeves.

“The fact that all our histories agree the Child Eternal built the spheres, at least starting from our seventh and descending down to the first.” Brossius lifted his hands to the dome overhead. “Even our maps of the eighth and ninth spheres with their darkening ways come from knowledge the Child left us. If all this was built by the Child who could expect to see him? Tell me, in the tenth sphere is it common for you to speak to your god face to face?”

“No, not really.” There was an uncomfortable twisting in Trick’s stomach at the chief’s brazen proclamation. What kind of world came from the mind of a child? Not a good one, from what he knew of children, and certainly not a sane one. It might explain a world where magic oozed out of the ground into crystals that people could use to light a town, though. “Why would a child want to bring me here from my world? Or my sphere, if you wish?”

Brossius sighed, scooped up the spring on his work table and took it over to one wall of the sphere, saying, “Who can know? The recorders tell dozens of different tales of crossing spheres in their books. From what I have read of them there’s no one reason.”

Trick frowned at that. “Books? Do your people keep all their knowledge in books?”

The chief stopped in the middle of unfastening a panel in the wall so he could give Trick a puzzled look. “We write some of it on loose paper. Why? Is there some other way we should keep our knowledge?”

The obvious answer was stored digitally and displayed in holograms but Trick wasn’t sure how he could explain that to someone who obviously hadn’t ever thought in those terms. “When I arrived here I saw writing that seemed to be made of lumi. I thought you might know what it was.”

“Ah.” Brossius went back to his work. “I suppose that makes sense.”

Perhaps it did to him but Sari was audibly shocked at this revelation. “You arrived in the middle of the Steel Perilous?”

“Maybe?” He turned to look at her by reflex, realized there was nothing to see but her veil, and turned away again in frustration. “I didn’t feel like I was in danger at the time but I didn’t stay long. Is that important?”

“It depends.” After a moment’s tinkering Brossius pulled out a wound down spring and replaced it with the freshly rewound one. “Some of our more reckless youths will travel to the red sands and search for entries to the Steel as the best quality reservoir crystals we can find come from there. It is a very simple way to gain fame and a bit of money. If you survive it.”

“I take it most don’t.”

“About half of those who attempt it don’t come back the first time,” he admitted, closing up the panel again and coming back to the work table. “After that the odds of success go up considerably. Which brings me to the question, what do you want to do, Patrick Gallagher? If you wish to stay here I don’t see much of a reason to send you away. In fact, I can think of a dozen questions I’d like to ask you, if you choose to stay here for a time. Our recorder and healer would doubtless like to discuss things with you as well. But that’s hardly a reason to keep you here if you wish to go.”

“So if I wanted I could just walk out of town now, no questions asked?”

Brossius rested his hands, palms down, on the work table. “As long as the starsight attack is dealt with, yes.”

Although it was tempting to just cut and run, then try and figure out what was going on later, Trick didn’t really think that was going to get him where he wanted to go. Namely, the second sphere. “What if I want to stay here?”

“Then you’ll have to find some way to contribute.” The chief picked up a small gear and held it up by its crankshaft, turning it slowly between his fingers. “Harbek is like a machine, Trick. Every piece must play a part or it is likely to fall into the mechanisms and bring everything to a halt.”

“I can respect that, Chief Brossius.” He parted the edges of the black fabric he’d wrapped around himself, revealing his belt full of crystals. “I did find some of those reservoirs you mentioned, earlier. That should do for a start, don’t you think?”

There was a small twitch of surprise that the chief quickly hid. “It will be enough for a while, certainly.”

“Trick also helped us fight with three starsight, Chief,” Sari said. “The two of us and Captain Bertran can all attest to that.”

Trick realized with a start that the third person Sari was referring to was Gemma, who had been so quiet he’d forgotten she was there. “Yes, there was that, too. I think I’d be willing to help the harvest guard in the future if there’s a need for it. Assuming I’d be trusted with such a position.”

“I will mention it to the warden at the next gathering of the town’s elders,” Brossius said. “In the meantime, a place must be found for you. Dame Gemma, you and your husband have a dorm for guard trainees, don’t you?”

“We do, Chief.”

“Would you be willing to look after Trick for the time being? It will make things simpler if the warden grants him a place in the harvest guard.”

“Of course, Chief.”

“Why don’t you take him there, then.” The chief put down the gear and folded his hands with a satisfied smile. “I suspect the elders will be gathering as soon as the barriers go dim and I will have to be there but I do hope to have more time to speak with you soon, Trick. Sari, can you spare me just a moment more of your time?”

Trick knew a dismissal when he heard it. As he followed Gemma out of the dome he caught a last glimpse of Sari, clasping her hands together behind her back as they walked out. It stood out to him because it was the first time he thought he had a read on what she was thinking or feeling. Strangely enough, at that moment he thought she looked nervous.