Greetings and Farewells

The long ride across the ropeway concluded with only a slightly upset feeling in Erebos’ stomach, and the four dismounted the bucket onto the platform. Elevated a few yards above the ground, they started down the stairs towards the open street. They had arrived around the base of the hill, so their surroundings were about in the middle of the city’s wealth spectrum.

Rumina: “Luckily his shop is right on the edge of the upper city. We’d have a hard time walking around uptown with you shabby-looking lot.”

The stairs deposited them onto an alleyway, which Rumina expertly navigated through towards the mainstreet. The sounds of carriages and pedestrians nearing, Erebos was in awe when they finally broke through into the avenue. Spiralling its way up the hill, the street was lined with two and three story shops bustling with all sorts of people. Even the buildings themselves were far nicer than he was used to, made of fine stone and brick with large, clear windows. If this was what counted for middle-class, Erebos had a hard time imagining anything more upscale.

The street itself looked to be of ancient construction, with the broad sidewalks and buildings added on and dug into the hill that the street circled around. Erebos imagined that following the main street would spiral around until it reached the academy above, with many side streets and alleys linking together the different sections of the avenue.

While Erebos could have spent all day wandering those streets, they were on a strict time limit, and it seemed that Rumina hadn’t been lying when she said her uncle’s shop was nearby. Only after a few tens of feet down the avenue, she stopped by a two story storefront and turned to the others.

Kalthira: “He hasn’t opened the shop up yet, but I have the keys. You two wait out here while I go and check it out.”

Unlocking the door and shutting it softly behind her, she left the two of them on the street. Erebos looked over all the details of the storefront, from the printed letters reading “Kalthira Timepieces and Artifice Mechanisms” to the many clocks and watches displayed in the two windows flanking the door.

In the brief moments before her return, Erebos figured that he should get some words in with Jiron about his thoughts on the city so far.

Erebos: “Sooo… What do you think of this place so far? I thought it would feel like a larger and denser Makrovi, but it’s totally different altogether. I’m not even sure if I can call it better and worse, it's just so foreign.”

Jiron, who had been stupidly smiling the whole way here, looked a little shocked at Erebos’ confession.

Jiron: “I guess you really are a country boy till the end, huh? As for me, I don’t think I’ve seen anything better. Sure, it’s got its problems, but doesn’t everywhere? I don’t think I could want anything more than something like this shop here, a place of my own to do what I want where there’s so many around who can appreciate it too.”

As expected of Jiron, his optimism knew no bounds, which was something Erebos could at least appreciate even if he disagreed.

They shared a moment of understanding silence, only broken by the ambiance of the streets and the door opening behind them.

Rumina: “All right you two, you get special entrance privileges for today only.”

She held the door for them as they filed inside, looking around and taking in the cluttered interior. Besides a long counter occupying the back of the shop, the interior was filled with shelves and cases of various unique watches and clocks. Each one was slightly different and handcrafted, varying from floor and wall-mounted clocks to small pocket watches. Almost every square inch of the wall was covered with some kind of clock, and circling around the room winding every one of them was one who could be presumed as Rumina’s uncle.

Uncle: “Well, I wasn’t expecting visitors so early, but I’m glad you came!”

While Erebos and Jiron were still enamored by their surroundings ticking in unison, the man grabbed their attention with a jovial greeting and an extended hand. Erebos shook his hand a little sheepishly, but returned the kind gesture with an apologetic one.

Erebos: “Sorry to intrude so early, but thank you for having us Mr. Kalthir-a!”

As he bowed his head to the host, Erebos received a firm slap on the back from the plump but good-natured man as he stroked his sideburns.

Uncle: “Haha! I never mind having some visitors in the morning, but it makes me even happier to have friends of Rumina! She’s a mean one you know, never brought a lot around!”

As he chuckled to himself, Rumina’s expression changed from aghast to anger, and she looked ready to punch any one of them.

Rumina: “I never brought any around because I know you’d make a fool out of me!”

Despite this harsh retort, her Uncle kept laughing and shook Jiron’s hand next.

Uncle: “And you’re Jiron and Erebos, correct? I know it might be a bit overwhelming, but feel free to look around! If you’re from Makrovi like Rumina, I’m sure you’ve never seen such a fine collection of clocks!”

He was certainly correct in that assumption, for the most clocks Erebos had ever seen in a house was one. It was a vast jump to hundreds at once, but the rhythmic ticking filling the room wasn’t as discomforting as he thought it would be.

While they were certainly interesting to Erebos, it wasn’t really his forte, so he probably paid too much attention to the others around the room. Jiron, as expected, was circling and looking at almost every unique clock, from the intricate carvings on their wooden cases to the exposed bits of mechanism intentionally left visible.

Rumina, on the other hand, paid no heed to the surroundings and instead conversed with her uncle. The ticking did a good job to drown out the conversation, but he could guess its nature regardless. As she said before, this would be the last time she would see him for awhile, so there was probably a lot she wanted to say.

Deciding it would be best to leave those two alone, Erebos went over to Jiron to hear what he thought of the place from himself.

Erebos: “So, it's a pretty neat place, huh?”

Jiron: “Hm… uh, oh, yeah! It's not just neat, it's incredible, isn't it? I can’t even imagine the skill it takes to make every clock unique but still keep the same time. And look at all those by the window, notice anything about them?”

He pointed to the clocks arrayed by the windows, their faces pointed to the exterior. Erebos walked over to and inspected the faces, which bore inscriptions tightly wound around the shaft in the center.

Erebos: “Um, is the face… an artifice made out of rock crystal?”

Despite not being able to see the color or patterns on the face, Erebos had seen enough examples of rock crystal in the last few weeks to have an intuitive sense of the texture, one of the few identifiers offered to him.

Jiron: “Yeah, but what else? What does it actually do?”

He was getting more and more excited, so whatever it did was probably something pretty fantastic, at least to Jiron. Erebos took a closer look at one of the inscriptions, trying to decipher what its function was. He noticed a similarity to what lights always had, so it probably lit up, but there was far more than that added in. After looking at it for a few more minutes, all he could figure out was that it had something to do with repelling things that struck the clock face.

Erebos: “It… bounces off stuff that hits it? I don’t know why that's important for a clock though.”

Jiron: “Well, you’re right, but I guess I’ll have to explain it to someone not mechanically-minded unlike myself.”

Despite his recent discovery, Jiron was putting on the airs of an expert, but Erebos thought he was having fun and let it slide.

Jiron: "If you listen closely, you can hear a small hammer hitting the back of the clock face, very consistently around once a second."

As Jiron continued his explanation, he caught the attention of Rumina's uncle, who turned towards Jiron with a big smile.

Uncle: "Oh-ho, it's really that obvious to you, eh? And that was supposed to be my secret mechanism, and you come out here and figure it out with just a look, ehehe!"

One would think that he would be upset over his secret mechanism being discovered so easily, but he continued to laugh and actually explained the mechanism in more detail.

Uncle: "You've obviously got a good head on your shoulders, so it won't hurt for me to explain a bit more, eh? You're right about the hammer, and it acts as both the oscillator and escapement. It bounces every second and lets out the escape wheel, while also winding the mainspring."

Although Jiron was following along and asking appropriate questions, the jargon was too much for Erebos to handle. Rumina’s uncle looked surprised as well, probably not expecting someone from a rural village to be so knowledgeable. They both seemed to be enjoying their conversation, so Erebos sidestepped over to Rumina and raised his eyebrows at her.

Rumina: “They can really go at it with their clock talk, huh? I guess we all have something that we can go on and on about, don’t we?”

With a wistful expression, she gave some uncharacteristically understanding words towards the two. She then gave a very characteristic elbow to Erebos, smirking and returning to her usual teasing attitude.

Rumina: “You’re not into the whole clock thing? I don’t blame you though, it all goes over my head and I lived and worked here for years.”

Erebos: “Yeah, I suppose I’m just not very mechanically minded, but that’s probably not too much of an issue. I don’t have much interest anyway.”

Glad they could find some common ground, Erebos joined Rumina in smiling towards the two going back and forth. But as the clocks chimed around them, they became painfully aware of their limited time and started to wrap up their conversations.

Uncle: “Well, my boy, I’m a little relieved I won’t be around in this city for much longer! If you come back as both an expert artificer and mechanist, I’d be out of a job, ehehe!”

He clapped Jiron on the shoulder, and turned to the desk at the back of the room. After rummaging around for a moment, he pulled out an ornate pocket watch and retired to Jiron’s side.

Uncle: “It’s a sad fact, but I’m a rather lousy artificer, so I have a local make the more complex artifices I need. He’s out of town and I’ll be gone as well, so I won’t be able to have this watch fixed any time soon. The artifice knocks the hammer a bit harder than I can account for with the spring tension, so it’ll run fast until the inscription is modified.”

Dropping the watch into Jiron’s hands, Rumina’s uncle explained the issue with the watch in detail. The second hand did seem to tick faster than all the other clocks in the room, so Erebos figured that it needed some modification that was outside of his skill level.

Uncle: “I should do one good deed for the aspiring youth in the field, so I’ll let you take a crack at it, eh? If you fix it, it's yours to keep, so think of it as study tool and get a bit of practice out of it. But don’t come chasing after me and put me out of business once you’re graduate, ehehe!”

As Jiron listed and came to the realization that the watch was his to keep, his smile grew into an even more elated expression. After many thank yous and bows, Jiron focused all of his attention at the watch in his hands, marveling at the incredibly high-end, advanced mechanism offered to him freely.

Rumina looked a little vicariously embarrassed at her uncle’s excessive kindness, but she was obviously glad that the trip was so worthwhile for Jiron. After Erebos thanked the uncle for having them and bowed, it was Rumina’s turn for her farewell.

Erebos couldn’t quite catch her mumbled words, but both Rumina and her uncle bore pensive expressions, and as they seemed to conclude, she went in for a tight embrace. Her uncle received her genuine affection and smiled, which was probably a rare occasion knowing her.

Rumina: “W-well… I’ll come visit eventually, all right? And make sure to send me a message with your address so I know where you’re at.”

She dried slight tears on the edges of her eyes and straightened up.

Rumina: “I’ll be sure to visit soon, so good luck in Torgempra till then.”

Uncle: “Be sure to visit soon, ehehe!”

A round of final bows were given, and the three left the shop waving to her uncle.

***

Rumina: "Well, we actually have some time before my informant told me they'd do a roll call, so I have a place in mind we should stop at."

Ignoring Erebos’ questioning “Informant…?” and taking the lead of the group, Rumina started to walk further up the avenue away from the alley they came from. Erebos scowled and pulled a distracted Jiron’s sleeve to get him to follow, catching up to her.

Erebos: “I’d like to see a bit more too, but shouldn’t we head back as soon as possible? The longer we’re out, the more likely we’ll be caught.”

Rumina: “Yeah, yeah, it’ll be quick though. Just in and out, okay?”

Erebos relented, but he still wanted to know what this detour was for. Jiron didn’t seem to care either way, so it was up to him to press her for an answer.

Erebos: “Can you at least say where we’re going?”

Rumina: “Caaaaan you just wait ten seconds? I haven’t eaten here in awhile, so I thought I’d bring some friends to my favorite spot. If that's all right with you, of course.”

Flicking him on the forehead, she sped up slightly and took a sharp turn towards a doorway on the corner of an intersection. The sign above the corner store said something about a restaurant, an unfamiliar term for Erebos, but Jiron seemed to be following along for once and prodded him in the back when he slowed down.

Erebos tripped through the doorway into the shop, seeing a structurally similar interior to the last. But instead of shelves brimming with clocks and watches, tables and chairs were arranged around the floor space with the counter staffed by workers in white clothes. Although they must have just opened, afew people already occupied some of the seats eating an early breakfast.

Signboards were hung above the counter listing off a variety of unknown things along with some food items and drinks. They were probably all food items unfamiliar to Erebos, so he was glad that Rumina stepped ahead and started talking to one of the workers for them.

She asked for three cheesesteaks, an item which appeared under the list of sandwiches, and three bottles of ginger ale. He was confused when she asked this, wondering how she would be allowed to order alcohol, but the worker didn’t falter and set down three glass bottles on the counter. Taking out a coin purse from underneath her coat, he handed the worker a single silver Dromina and took the bottles in hand.

Compounding the confusion of her ordering seemingly alcoholic drinks with the surprisingly high price for food, Erebos cocked his head when they sat around a table near the window.

Erebos: “A whole silver for the food? That’s pretty expensive, isn’t it?”

Rumina raised an eyebrow at this question, answering with a mocking tone suggesting that it was a silly question.

Rumina: “Well, farmer boy, people around here aren’t used to getting first pickings of the food before it gets sent off up here. If most crops come from down southwest, that's a decent amount of travel expenses before it gets here.”

In retrospect, it might have been a silly question indeed. Erebos wasn’t quite used to the concept of having to actually buy your food from others rather than farming it yourself, so how could he have any concept of what’s expensive if it never had a price for him in the first place?

His frown at this realization was countered by a bottle waved in front of his face, and Rumina lowered it into his hands.

Rumina: “Continuing the unfamiliar trend, try this stuff. It’s called ginger ale, but there’s no alcohol in it, just ginger and sugar.”

He took a suspicious glance at it, turning the bottle over in his hands and looking at its strange shape. The neck was pinched in the middle, and a glass marble was pressed into the mouth.

Erebos: “All right, but how do I open it? Just push down?”

He asked the question while pressing the marble, which then popped down from the rubber seal and was caught by the pinched neck. Noticing the slight fizz coming off from the liquid, he swished the contents while Rumina chuckled to herself.

Rumina: “It’s carbonated, so just drink the thing already.”

Despite not knowing what being carbonated fully entailed, Erebos relented and took a swig from the bottle. Expecting the strong taste of ginger but finding a sweet and unique sensation playing across his tongue, he continued drinking until he nearly emptied the bottle.

Rumina: “Must be pretty good the first time, huh? I’m a little jealous that I won’t ever taste it the same way again.”

Looking satisfied that Erebos overtly took a liking to the drink, she casually sipped her bottle while reclining in her chair. Jiron was a little slower than Erebos with draining the bottle, but he obviously enjoyed it as well. After a few more minutes of waiting, a worker came out through a door carrying three baskets. Setting them down in front of them, there appeared to be a paper liner with a sandwich in each.

While he had certainly had sandwiches before, this one was a sliced-open roll stuffed with cooked beef strips, onions, and melted cheese, a far cry from the usual cold meat and vegetables.

Hoping to have a similarly pleasing experience as the last unfamiliar food item, Erebos took a bite and wasn’t disappointed. Even though they ate a little quicker than if they weren’t under a time constraint, he savored the hearty meal. Rumina occasionally checked her watch, and as they were finishing up, she stood up and gestured toward the door.

Rumina: “Lets wrap it up, if we leave now we’ll have about 20 minutes to get back.”

This statement, uttered with a casual tone, was obviously far more upsetting to Erebos than her, who shot out of his seat and flashed an exasperated expression.

Erebos: “Shouldn’t you have said something a little sooner?? We’re gonna be late if we don’t leave right now!”

Jiron: “We’re done anyways, but don’t make such a big deal, we have pleeenty of time.”

Jiron showed that he was about as concerned as Rumina, which further frustrated Erebos. It at least looked like they were starting to move along, and with slight encouragement Erebos ushered them out of the front door and back the way they came.

They made it back to the Ropeway in a few minutes, and luckily the bucket was still on their side. Resuming its motion after he and others clambered in one by one, the bucket’s return ride was just as uncomfortable as the last.

Even though Erebos wanted to hurry back, the Ropeway couldn’t go any faster, so he caught his breath and surveyed the others’ faces. Jiron looked as joyful and aloof as ever, reabsorbing himself in his pocket watch, while Rumina faced away from him with her hand on her chin. He could catch a glimpse of longing on her face’s profile, an emotion almost foreign to her usual complexion.

Erebos: “You’re uncle is a really great guy, Rumina. What’s the reason he’s moving shop to Torgempra, if you don't mind me asking?”

Turning her head to the questioning Erebos, her stern expression melted into a wistful one while she lowered her head.

Rumina: “Something about the factories around here producing clocks cheaper than he can compete with. Apparently Torgempra has a much better market for custom and handmade stuff, so selling there is the best option.”

Erebos couldn’t find fault in that reason, especially if her uncle wasn’t able to keep up his livelihood here. That justification’s infallibility was probably why Rumina didn’t argue or fight against it, something which seemed more natural from her.

Erebos: “If that’s the reason, I suppose that’s why you’re not fighting against it like I thought you wou-ack!”

Taking a chop to the head, Erebos faltered as Rumina struck him with a smile.

Rumina: “Now now, we can’t be talking about my deep emotional struggles so casually, can we? Try being more like Jiron, he knows what’s up.”

Jiron: “-huh, wha?”

Not paying attention to the previous exchange, Jiron was caught off guard when he heard his name mentioned. Rumina raised her fist like she was going to strike out again, and in one swift motion…

Jiron: “Woah, h-hey, what were you talking about??”

She set her hand on his head and patted him gently, to which he blushed and sputtered out his question. Bearing a satisfied expression, she leaned back and gazed toward the sky.

This moment, with Jiron looking flustered yet cheerful and Rumina content and calm, was probably more significant to Erebos than it should have been. But regardless of its value, he hoped that such a cheerful view could be repeated many times over.