The Machines of Theda, page 20
part #3 of The Monster Of Selkirk Series
Tomas held his tongue as they entered the building, and re-familiarized himself with the sights, sounds, and smells of Fabiana’s workshop. As one of the most promising students in all of Cato, Fabiana was given the very best of stations in which to conduct her studies, and allowed to tinker away during the long hours of the day.
The workspace reminded Tomas of the healer Sholto’s office back in Perth, where Tallis had recovered after puncturing her lung. It was pristine in its cleanliness but cluttered with so many pieces of parchment and the wayward gear or piece of wiring that Tomas questioned how anyone could find anything in the place. Both Sholto and Fabiana had been amongst the most talented people Tomas had ever met, but their method of organization left one feeling antsy with the sheer number of things left lying about.
Standing out from the clutter were two gleaming steam turbine engines in the back of the shop. Even when idle, the engines emanated a kind of wet heat that left the room mildly muggy at the best of times and stifling at the worst. Even when they weren’t in use, the machines never powered down, as the water and oil used to power them was constantly kept boiling.
The heat from the liquids was what allowed the machine to function and turn on without hesitation. The turbines within constantly rotated the steam, but it was only when Fabiana flipped the various switches that turned the machine on at full capacity that the room began to heat up as steam billowed from the top of the engines and out a vent in the back.
Both engines were used to power the different tools Fabiana left haphazardly strewn about the room. She had everything from fine wrenches used for turning small gears in hard to reach places, to giant saws used to cut large sheets of metal. While the small wrenches required no power, everything else did.
The tools themselves did most of the skilled work that the students of the Ordine della Macchina often took credit for. It was something Tomas kept to himself, lest he offend anyone, least of all Fabiana.
Fidgeting with the wrenches on Fabiana’s chaotic workstation, Tomas couldn’t keep his opinion to himself anymore. Mumbling, he said, “I think you are wrong. If my tracking device works, I think it could turn out to be very useful, especially for parents with rambunctious children. But I’ll…I’ll take what you said under advisement.”
Fabiana had been noisily fetching a wooden crate filled with bits and pieces of machinery when Tomas spoke. Upon hearing the tinge of irritation in his voice, her demeanor softened.
Sighing, she carefully placed the crate on the desk. “It doesn’t matter; forget I mentioned it. Only time will tell on what is the better design for such devices.”
Tomas was unsure if that was an apology, but he knew better than to question it.
A pregnant silence hung over them while Tomas distractedly began tuning his cufflinks, ensuring the wireless energy transmitters he fashioned were properly resonating at the same frequency as the main coils within the Ordine della Macchina.
He could feel Fabiana watching him as he worked and was vaguely aware she seemed to want to speak to him. But Tomas was far too concerned with guaranteeing his device worked flawlessly should Tallis need him than with paying attention to Fabiana as she hung about him like a loose piece of thread hanging from a frayed sweater.
“Is your friend back scouring the monastery today?” Fabiana eventually asked as she watched Tomas work.
There was an odd lilt to her voice Tomas had not heard before that forced him to pause momentarily. Shrugging it off as merely his imagination, he paid her tone no more mind. Without looking up from the delicate tuning he was doing, Tomas responded, “No, not today. She’s off on a…she’s on a personal errand of sorts.”
“Oh, I see. Why didn’t you go with her?” Fabiana asked as if she were trying very hard to sound disinterested.
Tomas clenched his jaw. “Because she wouldn’t allow me. She needed to do something alone, and I…I don’t know. And I preferred to be here than back in our rooms by myself.”
Fabiana blushed. “Well, that was certainly foolish of her. I can safely say you are much more cultured than she appears to be, no offense to your friend. I’m sure she would only benefit from your expertise no matter what this errand could be.”
“Tally can take care of herself most of the time. She’s really a remarkable woman, but she does tend to put herself into reckless situations. I doubt my being with her would have changed anything, though. She’s headstrong and does what she thinks she needs to, regardless of the danger. It’s a very honorable quality…most of the time.”
“You don’t sound very pleased with your friend. Why do you enjoy her company so much if she frustrates you, and won’t listen to sound advice?”
“She…we’ve been through a lot. I know it’s a rather ambiguous answer, but that’s the crux of it. She was all I had for a very long time and, really, she’s still all I have. She’s a very special person to me, despite destroying my nerves with worry,” Tomas said grinning despite himself. Even when he was annoyed with Tallis, thinking of her never failed to bring a soft smile to his face.
“Well, you have me now too, you know, Tomas,” Fabiana declared. “And, if it will make you feel better, if it were me, I would not go tramping about without your accompaniment.”
“Mhmm, well, I’m sure you have many friends who would accompany you, should you need it. I doubt you’d need me,” Tomas said absentmindedly.
“Perhaps, but I find I’d rather spend my time with you than any of my other colleagues. Very few of the men, well, boys rather, in the Ordine are worth nearly half as much of my attention as you are. You’re not like any of the men I have met so far, Tomas. Had you been trained here, you and I would both be apprenticed to Master Paolo together. Perhaps if you stay long enough, you still could be.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, but I’m sure the others are not half as bad as all that. Otherwise they would not have been able to create all these wondrous machines,” Tomas said, unsure as to why she were diminishing the accomplishments of the other apprentices.
“I suppose, but you’re missing the point. What I am trying to say is that if you were to stay in Theda there is much more you could learn. There is more we could accomplish. Together,” Fabiana said with a slightly exacerbated tone.
“I don’t know how long I will remain here, Fabiana. That partly depends on Tally. But I’ll do my best to make the most of my time here,” Tomas said, hoping he was confused as to where this conversation was going.
Fabiana gave a frustrated sigh as she sat down with a thump on the stool across from Tomas. She propped her chin on her palm and regarded him silently, her gray eyes cold. With a mild air of derision, she said after another long pause, “Why did you ask me to take you back to my workshop, Tomas, if you were not going to speak or pay attention to the things I’m telling you? There is a world of learning and opportunity to be had at your fingertips, but you seem to casually dismiss every single one of them.
“You care more for your little trinkets to Tally than you do for anything I could ever show you. So why did you really wish to spend time here if you care so little for my company?”
Tomas looked up and blinked at her in surprise. He thought it was obvious why he wished to spend time with her.
Scratching the back of his head as he straightened his back, he replied, “I didn’t mean to give you that impression. I did tell you I was an orphan and raised in the monastery, correct? I was never truly allowed to pursue this kind of academic endeavor. Now that I’m here free of those restrictions, I…I wish to take advantage of it as best as I can. But more than that, I want to learn under the guidance of someone as accomplished as you.
“You have been one of the few people with whom I can speak to openly with about the things I try to create. Not only that, but you understand what I’m saying as well. It’s why I want to be here with you now. I am…very honored that you take the time to waste on me, Fabiana. I’ll be better at paying attention to you,” Tomas concluded with a grin that was equally apologetic and bashful at the same time.
However, if he were being honest with himself, Tomas was beginning to grow tired of Fabiana constantly correcting him and his techniques. At first it had been exhilarating to be able to debate with someone who could not only understand what he was talking about but could understand it well enough to offer constructive criticism. But after a while, it began to lose its charm.
Still, Tomas liked Fabiana and wanted to foster a friendship with her. He knew he had little gift for making friends, especially female friends, growing up as he had. If this was how friends behaved and treated one another, then he would do his best to simply get used to it. In the meantime, he would take comfort in knowing that Tallis did not offer advice to everything he made the way Fabiana did.
Tomas was uncertain if he had placated Fabiana as she did not respond. Instead, she regarded him with a veiled expression, as if wrestling with something she wanted to say.
He gave her a lopsided grin and tried to change the subject in hopes that he wouldn’t inadvertently get himself into more trouble. “Forgive me for asking, but…what does it feel like? Your, um, heart, I mean. Does it feel different than your birth one?”
Fabiana shrugged, brushing her bushy chocolate-colored hair off her shoulders, clearly used to this line of questioning. “At first it felt like a cold hammer thumping away inside my rib cage. Now I only notice it when it needs to be configured to resonate at the proper frequency again. I don’t think anyone ever gets used to having their chest opened up on nearly a monthly basis, but it is a small price to pay for being alive.
“I will tell you one thing, though, about having an automatic heart—it does discredit those philosophers who suggest the heart is responsible for all one’s feelings. Having this device has not made me some taciturn, unfeeling person. I still feel joy, loss, love, and desire just the same as anybody else. Which would suggest that those impulses come from the mind, or certainly some area of the body other than the heart.” Fabiana smiled softly at Tomas, as if they shared a secret.
Unsure what to make of Fabiana’s statement, Tomas replied slowly, “Ah, well, I’m, uh…I’m glad to hear there has been no loss in feeling? Though I am surprised to hear that a society as advanced as yours holds such prejudices against those with mechanical organs.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. There is no movement against those of us with artificial limbs or organs,” Fabiana said with another easy shrug.
“But I thought…I thought that’s what you were implying? That you feel just as anyone else would despite what philosophers say? I assumed that meant you’d faced some sort of backlash from those who didn’t have any synthetic appendages,” Tomas said, unable to hide his growing confusion.
“That’s not really what I was trying to get at with that story, Tomas.” There was a mild hint of frustration to her voice.
“Oh…I see,” Tomas responded. However, he in fact had no idea what Fabiana was getting at.
Another lengthy silence settled between them as Tomas went about leafing through manuals on why the transformers within the coils needed to be loosely wound.
Apparently, they needed large air gaps in order to allow one oscillating, resonant circuit coil to transfer energy to another secondary coil. All of which seemed to occur over a number of different frequency cycles. These frequencies were what allowed for the mechanical limbs and organs to constantly work without losing power.
The manual seemed overly complicated, and while Tomas believed he understood the gist of what it was saying, he could not be sure. He was half-convinced that whoever wrote these instruction manuals deliberately wanted to confuse and overcomplicate things in order to justify their job. Tomas was no closer to understanding how it all worked; he just knew it did.
As he glanced up from the book to ask Fabiana, he was caught off guard by her intense stare as she locked eyes with him. His original question was momentarily forgotten as he swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, and asked, “What is it?”
“Oh, nothing really,” Fabiana said hastily. “I was just wondering when you would need to head back to meet with Tally.”
Tomas shrugged and tried not to bristle thinking about the foolish errand Tallis was on once again. Glancing back down at the manual before him, he said, “There’s no rush, really. She may not even return tonight.”
“So, you will be on your own this evening?” Fabiana said, leaning forward.
“Most likely. Why?” Tomas asked, leaning back on his seat.
Giving him a slow smile, Fabiana said, “Oh, no reason, I was just curious. You know, Tomas, you are always welcome to come back to my apartment, if you’d like.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll be fine for one night on my own. I’m in no danger of destroying anything with my tinkering.”
“It’s no trouble really. I live alone and you wouldn’t be disturbing anyone. Why don’t you come back to my rooms once we have finished here and I’ll make us dinner?” Fabiana insisted.
Tomas regarded her for a moment, wondering why Fabiana suddenly seemed so nervous around him, and why she was so interested in leaving the workshop so soon after arriving. The few times they had been alone together, Fabiana had been almost jittery with excitement over working with him. Now she seemed to be interested in doing anything but work, and he wondered if perhaps there was something wrong.
“Is everything all right, Fabiana?” he asked, looking her over for any signs of distress.
“I’m fine, Tomas. There’s nothing wrong. I was just inviting you over, that’s all. We get along well, and we like each other. I just thought you would like to come to my home as you had nothing else planned for this evening,” Fabiana said slowly as if she were trying to enunciate every syllable.
Tomas’s brow furrowed in confusion over her odd tone. While he did like Fabiana well enough when she was not correcting his work, he didn’t know her well enough to know if this was normal behavior for her.
Running his hands through his hair, causing it to crackle with static, Tomas said, “Well, yes…I mean, I’d like to think we like each other and get along well enough, given we haven’t known each other long. But it’s all right, I’ll be able to sleep in the bed tonight and I’m rather looking forward to it. Perhaps me and Tally could come over some other time? I’m sure she’d like to see what a proper apartment here looks like.”
Fabiana’s jaw set in harsh lines as she ground her teeth. Unsure what had caused her sudden shift in mood, Tomas asked again, “Are you sure nothing’s the matter?”
“Everything’s fine, Tomas, really. Let’s focus on the task at hand and perhaps you’ll change your mind.” Fabiana’s voice was forced, as if she were reluctantly giving up on something.
Her mood swings reminded Tomas a little of when Tallis and he had fought after their first excursion to Cato. It made him wonder if all women were this confusing or if he just happened to be drawn to the complicated ones.
Chapter 13
Tallis stared at the grove of trees, trying to catch her breath from her journey across the river. The grove was an impenetrable wall of short and gnarled old olive and chestnut trees interspersed with thin myrtles adorned with buds on the cusp of bursting open into sprays of crisp white flowers.
It was a perfect hiding spot for Mazara, as nothing but green shadows could be seen through the trees. If an unwanted visitor came too close to the hidden city, the elves had ample time to pack up their tents and conceal their whereabouts, with no one any the wiser.
As Tallis inhaled the clean air wafting from the trees, she wondered why the elves felt the need to hide themselves away. From what Rodrigo said, there was a time not too long ago when both sides had been more than just uneasy neighbors. It made her wonder what changed, and why there were the wayward few who left Mazara behind completely to live with unguerea, regardless of the demeaning station they held in Aelius.
Her lips and nose twitched as she regarded the grove around her. “This wasn’t where they took me before,” Tallis mumbled.
That had been a clearing, devoid of the mass of trees she was now surrounded by. She wondered where they had spirited her away to before, and why they hadn’t wanted her to simply go back there rather than invite her to the heart of their city. It was obvious many of the elves didn’t approve of her, but if they distrusted her, then it would have made sense to pick a different place for this meeting. Tallis wondered if perhaps this was their way of showing their willingness to trust her. Regardless, her questions and uncertainties were starting to compound with one another, making her restless for any answers she could get.
Smoothing her hair and straightening her clothes, Tallis squared her shoulders and boldly walked through the grove and into Mazara. As she went, she could feel tendrils of power from the trees coiling around her feet like prickly vines. The trees of Mazara were all as dismissive and reluctant to believe in her existence as the olive tree on the bluffs had been.
She found she disliked these trees. She may have tried to avoid most of the antediluvian trees in the forests of Selkirk, but once she connected to them, they had all enjoyed her company and offered her varying amounts of warmth and comfort. These trees just made Tallis feel cold and even more uncomfortable in her own skin. Part of her wanted to turn on her heels and race back to Aelius, abandoning this quest for answers before it began. But her own curiosity and need to understand what she was kept her going.
It wasn’t long before Tallis was accosted by the sounds and smells of Mazara. The light and airy laughter of children as they ran about made Tallis’s steps falter. She had never heard a tremp laugh from joy before, let alone their children. To see them now, running, playing, and laughing with the adults was such a stark contrast to what Tallis was used to that she found herself wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Listening to the melodious sound, she stopped and closed her eyes, imagining what Selkirk would have been like had it been filled with this sound. Selkirk would have been a much more peaceful place if the eerie clicking sounds the tremps there used to make had been replaced with the sound of their glee.
The workspace reminded Tomas of the healer Sholto’s office back in Perth, where Tallis had recovered after puncturing her lung. It was pristine in its cleanliness but cluttered with so many pieces of parchment and the wayward gear or piece of wiring that Tomas questioned how anyone could find anything in the place. Both Sholto and Fabiana had been amongst the most talented people Tomas had ever met, but their method of organization left one feeling antsy with the sheer number of things left lying about.
Standing out from the clutter were two gleaming steam turbine engines in the back of the shop. Even when idle, the engines emanated a kind of wet heat that left the room mildly muggy at the best of times and stifling at the worst. Even when they weren’t in use, the machines never powered down, as the water and oil used to power them was constantly kept boiling.
The heat from the liquids was what allowed the machine to function and turn on without hesitation. The turbines within constantly rotated the steam, but it was only when Fabiana flipped the various switches that turned the machine on at full capacity that the room began to heat up as steam billowed from the top of the engines and out a vent in the back.
Both engines were used to power the different tools Fabiana left haphazardly strewn about the room. She had everything from fine wrenches used for turning small gears in hard to reach places, to giant saws used to cut large sheets of metal. While the small wrenches required no power, everything else did.
The tools themselves did most of the skilled work that the students of the Ordine della Macchina often took credit for. It was something Tomas kept to himself, lest he offend anyone, least of all Fabiana.
Fidgeting with the wrenches on Fabiana’s chaotic workstation, Tomas couldn’t keep his opinion to himself anymore. Mumbling, he said, “I think you are wrong. If my tracking device works, I think it could turn out to be very useful, especially for parents with rambunctious children. But I’ll…I’ll take what you said under advisement.”
Fabiana had been noisily fetching a wooden crate filled with bits and pieces of machinery when Tomas spoke. Upon hearing the tinge of irritation in his voice, her demeanor softened.
Sighing, she carefully placed the crate on the desk. “It doesn’t matter; forget I mentioned it. Only time will tell on what is the better design for such devices.”
Tomas was unsure if that was an apology, but he knew better than to question it.
A pregnant silence hung over them while Tomas distractedly began tuning his cufflinks, ensuring the wireless energy transmitters he fashioned were properly resonating at the same frequency as the main coils within the Ordine della Macchina.
He could feel Fabiana watching him as he worked and was vaguely aware she seemed to want to speak to him. But Tomas was far too concerned with guaranteeing his device worked flawlessly should Tallis need him than with paying attention to Fabiana as she hung about him like a loose piece of thread hanging from a frayed sweater.
“Is your friend back scouring the monastery today?” Fabiana eventually asked as she watched Tomas work.
There was an odd lilt to her voice Tomas had not heard before that forced him to pause momentarily. Shrugging it off as merely his imagination, he paid her tone no more mind. Without looking up from the delicate tuning he was doing, Tomas responded, “No, not today. She’s off on a…she’s on a personal errand of sorts.”
“Oh, I see. Why didn’t you go with her?” Fabiana asked as if she were trying very hard to sound disinterested.
Tomas clenched his jaw. “Because she wouldn’t allow me. She needed to do something alone, and I…I don’t know. And I preferred to be here than back in our rooms by myself.”
Fabiana blushed. “Well, that was certainly foolish of her. I can safely say you are much more cultured than she appears to be, no offense to your friend. I’m sure she would only benefit from your expertise no matter what this errand could be.”
“Tally can take care of herself most of the time. She’s really a remarkable woman, but she does tend to put herself into reckless situations. I doubt my being with her would have changed anything, though. She’s headstrong and does what she thinks she needs to, regardless of the danger. It’s a very honorable quality…most of the time.”
“You don’t sound very pleased with your friend. Why do you enjoy her company so much if she frustrates you, and won’t listen to sound advice?”
“She…we’ve been through a lot. I know it’s a rather ambiguous answer, but that’s the crux of it. She was all I had for a very long time and, really, she’s still all I have. She’s a very special person to me, despite destroying my nerves with worry,” Tomas said grinning despite himself. Even when he was annoyed with Tallis, thinking of her never failed to bring a soft smile to his face.
“Well, you have me now too, you know, Tomas,” Fabiana declared. “And, if it will make you feel better, if it were me, I would not go tramping about without your accompaniment.”
“Mhmm, well, I’m sure you have many friends who would accompany you, should you need it. I doubt you’d need me,” Tomas said absentmindedly.
“Perhaps, but I find I’d rather spend my time with you than any of my other colleagues. Very few of the men, well, boys rather, in the Ordine are worth nearly half as much of my attention as you are. You’re not like any of the men I have met so far, Tomas. Had you been trained here, you and I would both be apprenticed to Master Paolo together. Perhaps if you stay long enough, you still could be.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, but I’m sure the others are not half as bad as all that. Otherwise they would not have been able to create all these wondrous machines,” Tomas said, unsure as to why she were diminishing the accomplishments of the other apprentices.
“I suppose, but you’re missing the point. What I am trying to say is that if you were to stay in Theda there is much more you could learn. There is more we could accomplish. Together,” Fabiana said with a slightly exacerbated tone.
“I don’t know how long I will remain here, Fabiana. That partly depends on Tally. But I’ll do my best to make the most of my time here,” Tomas said, hoping he was confused as to where this conversation was going.
Fabiana gave a frustrated sigh as she sat down with a thump on the stool across from Tomas. She propped her chin on her palm and regarded him silently, her gray eyes cold. With a mild air of derision, she said after another long pause, “Why did you ask me to take you back to my workshop, Tomas, if you were not going to speak or pay attention to the things I’m telling you? There is a world of learning and opportunity to be had at your fingertips, but you seem to casually dismiss every single one of them.
“You care more for your little trinkets to Tally than you do for anything I could ever show you. So why did you really wish to spend time here if you care so little for my company?”
Tomas looked up and blinked at her in surprise. He thought it was obvious why he wished to spend time with her.
Scratching the back of his head as he straightened his back, he replied, “I didn’t mean to give you that impression. I did tell you I was an orphan and raised in the monastery, correct? I was never truly allowed to pursue this kind of academic endeavor. Now that I’m here free of those restrictions, I…I wish to take advantage of it as best as I can. But more than that, I want to learn under the guidance of someone as accomplished as you.
“You have been one of the few people with whom I can speak to openly with about the things I try to create. Not only that, but you understand what I’m saying as well. It’s why I want to be here with you now. I am…very honored that you take the time to waste on me, Fabiana. I’ll be better at paying attention to you,” Tomas concluded with a grin that was equally apologetic and bashful at the same time.
However, if he were being honest with himself, Tomas was beginning to grow tired of Fabiana constantly correcting him and his techniques. At first it had been exhilarating to be able to debate with someone who could not only understand what he was talking about but could understand it well enough to offer constructive criticism. But after a while, it began to lose its charm.
Still, Tomas liked Fabiana and wanted to foster a friendship with her. He knew he had little gift for making friends, especially female friends, growing up as he had. If this was how friends behaved and treated one another, then he would do his best to simply get used to it. In the meantime, he would take comfort in knowing that Tallis did not offer advice to everything he made the way Fabiana did.
Tomas was uncertain if he had placated Fabiana as she did not respond. Instead, she regarded him with a veiled expression, as if wrestling with something she wanted to say.
He gave her a lopsided grin and tried to change the subject in hopes that he wouldn’t inadvertently get himself into more trouble. “Forgive me for asking, but…what does it feel like? Your, um, heart, I mean. Does it feel different than your birth one?”
Fabiana shrugged, brushing her bushy chocolate-colored hair off her shoulders, clearly used to this line of questioning. “At first it felt like a cold hammer thumping away inside my rib cage. Now I only notice it when it needs to be configured to resonate at the proper frequency again. I don’t think anyone ever gets used to having their chest opened up on nearly a monthly basis, but it is a small price to pay for being alive.
“I will tell you one thing, though, about having an automatic heart—it does discredit those philosophers who suggest the heart is responsible for all one’s feelings. Having this device has not made me some taciturn, unfeeling person. I still feel joy, loss, love, and desire just the same as anybody else. Which would suggest that those impulses come from the mind, or certainly some area of the body other than the heart.” Fabiana smiled softly at Tomas, as if they shared a secret.
Unsure what to make of Fabiana’s statement, Tomas replied slowly, “Ah, well, I’m, uh…I’m glad to hear there has been no loss in feeling? Though I am surprised to hear that a society as advanced as yours holds such prejudices against those with mechanical organs.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. There is no movement against those of us with artificial limbs or organs,” Fabiana said with another easy shrug.
“But I thought…I thought that’s what you were implying? That you feel just as anyone else would despite what philosophers say? I assumed that meant you’d faced some sort of backlash from those who didn’t have any synthetic appendages,” Tomas said, unable to hide his growing confusion.
“That’s not really what I was trying to get at with that story, Tomas.” There was a mild hint of frustration to her voice.
“Oh…I see,” Tomas responded. However, he in fact had no idea what Fabiana was getting at.
Another lengthy silence settled between them as Tomas went about leafing through manuals on why the transformers within the coils needed to be loosely wound.
Apparently, they needed large air gaps in order to allow one oscillating, resonant circuit coil to transfer energy to another secondary coil. All of which seemed to occur over a number of different frequency cycles. These frequencies were what allowed for the mechanical limbs and organs to constantly work without losing power.
The manual seemed overly complicated, and while Tomas believed he understood the gist of what it was saying, he could not be sure. He was half-convinced that whoever wrote these instruction manuals deliberately wanted to confuse and overcomplicate things in order to justify their job. Tomas was no closer to understanding how it all worked; he just knew it did.
As he glanced up from the book to ask Fabiana, he was caught off guard by her intense stare as she locked eyes with him. His original question was momentarily forgotten as he swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, and asked, “What is it?”
“Oh, nothing really,” Fabiana said hastily. “I was just wondering when you would need to head back to meet with Tally.”
Tomas shrugged and tried not to bristle thinking about the foolish errand Tallis was on once again. Glancing back down at the manual before him, he said, “There’s no rush, really. She may not even return tonight.”
“So, you will be on your own this evening?” Fabiana said, leaning forward.
“Most likely. Why?” Tomas asked, leaning back on his seat.
Giving him a slow smile, Fabiana said, “Oh, no reason, I was just curious. You know, Tomas, you are always welcome to come back to my apartment, if you’d like.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll be fine for one night on my own. I’m in no danger of destroying anything with my tinkering.”
“It’s no trouble really. I live alone and you wouldn’t be disturbing anyone. Why don’t you come back to my rooms once we have finished here and I’ll make us dinner?” Fabiana insisted.
Tomas regarded her for a moment, wondering why Fabiana suddenly seemed so nervous around him, and why she was so interested in leaving the workshop so soon after arriving. The few times they had been alone together, Fabiana had been almost jittery with excitement over working with him. Now she seemed to be interested in doing anything but work, and he wondered if perhaps there was something wrong.
“Is everything all right, Fabiana?” he asked, looking her over for any signs of distress.
“I’m fine, Tomas. There’s nothing wrong. I was just inviting you over, that’s all. We get along well, and we like each other. I just thought you would like to come to my home as you had nothing else planned for this evening,” Fabiana said slowly as if she were trying to enunciate every syllable.
Tomas’s brow furrowed in confusion over her odd tone. While he did like Fabiana well enough when she was not correcting his work, he didn’t know her well enough to know if this was normal behavior for her.
Running his hands through his hair, causing it to crackle with static, Tomas said, “Well, yes…I mean, I’d like to think we like each other and get along well enough, given we haven’t known each other long. But it’s all right, I’ll be able to sleep in the bed tonight and I’m rather looking forward to it. Perhaps me and Tally could come over some other time? I’m sure she’d like to see what a proper apartment here looks like.”
Fabiana’s jaw set in harsh lines as she ground her teeth. Unsure what had caused her sudden shift in mood, Tomas asked again, “Are you sure nothing’s the matter?”
“Everything’s fine, Tomas, really. Let’s focus on the task at hand and perhaps you’ll change your mind.” Fabiana’s voice was forced, as if she were reluctantly giving up on something.
Her mood swings reminded Tomas a little of when Tallis and he had fought after their first excursion to Cato. It made him wonder if all women were this confusing or if he just happened to be drawn to the complicated ones.
Chapter 13
Tallis stared at the grove of trees, trying to catch her breath from her journey across the river. The grove was an impenetrable wall of short and gnarled old olive and chestnut trees interspersed with thin myrtles adorned with buds on the cusp of bursting open into sprays of crisp white flowers.
It was a perfect hiding spot for Mazara, as nothing but green shadows could be seen through the trees. If an unwanted visitor came too close to the hidden city, the elves had ample time to pack up their tents and conceal their whereabouts, with no one any the wiser.
As Tallis inhaled the clean air wafting from the trees, she wondered why the elves felt the need to hide themselves away. From what Rodrigo said, there was a time not too long ago when both sides had been more than just uneasy neighbors. It made her wonder what changed, and why there were the wayward few who left Mazara behind completely to live with unguerea, regardless of the demeaning station they held in Aelius.
Her lips and nose twitched as she regarded the grove around her. “This wasn’t where they took me before,” Tallis mumbled.
That had been a clearing, devoid of the mass of trees she was now surrounded by. She wondered where they had spirited her away to before, and why they hadn’t wanted her to simply go back there rather than invite her to the heart of their city. It was obvious many of the elves didn’t approve of her, but if they distrusted her, then it would have made sense to pick a different place for this meeting. Tallis wondered if perhaps this was their way of showing their willingness to trust her. Regardless, her questions and uncertainties were starting to compound with one another, making her restless for any answers she could get.
Smoothing her hair and straightening her clothes, Tallis squared her shoulders and boldly walked through the grove and into Mazara. As she went, she could feel tendrils of power from the trees coiling around her feet like prickly vines. The trees of Mazara were all as dismissive and reluctant to believe in her existence as the olive tree on the bluffs had been.
She found she disliked these trees. She may have tried to avoid most of the antediluvian trees in the forests of Selkirk, but once she connected to them, they had all enjoyed her company and offered her varying amounts of warmth and comfort. These trees just made Tallis feel cold and even more uncomfortable in her own skin. Part of her wanted to turn on her heels and race back to Aelius, abandoning this quest for answers before it began. But her own curiosity and need to understand what she was kept her going.
It wasn’t long before Tallis was accosted by the sounds and smells of Mazara. The light and airy laughter of children as they ran about made Tallis’s steps falter. She had never heard a tremp laugh from joy before, let alone their children. To see them now, running, playing, and laughing with the adults was such a stark contrast to what Tallis was used to that she found herself wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Listening to the melodious sound, she stopped and closed her eyes, imagining what Selkirk would have been like had it been filled with this sound. Selkirk would have been a much more peaceful place if the eerie clicking sounds the tremps there used to make had been replaced with the sound of their glee.
