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bouteillebleuSince NaNoWriMo 2004 is around the corner - they're taking registrations now - I wanted to do an icon related to my entry last year. I suggested this to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theblunderbuss, and he came up with an idea for the script. And here you have it - After Forever in four panels.
(There's also a copy of it on my NaNoWriMo page, which is on this site. Just in case I end up changing icons in the future and the above link dies.)
As well as that, I've decided it might be worth posting up the previous chapters of the story while I try to finish it off. I know I said "in a day or two" back in September, but I also thought I'd get 50,000 words written in September, and look what happened. :)
Still, here is chapter 1. Just to confuse any of you who may have read chapter 10, these are the characters who the story starts with - the ones in chapter 10 are introduced a while later.
Chapter I - Laver and Sons
Daniel's morning began as it always did - too much sunlight, irritatingly wide-awake birds singing loudly outside his window, and his mother standing at the door and brandishing a pile of clothes.
The clothes usually ended up somewhere on Daniel if he didn't hurry to get out of bed, of course - just as they did this morning.
"Your father needs helping in the shop today," Daniel's mother said shortly as her son muttered something about parental injustice and slowly climbed out of bed. "Says he's got to check whose orders we're still working on. The rats've been at the account books again."
"Oh, not again..." grumbled Daniel, as he rummaged through the heap of clothes that were now strewn across the bed. Picking out a worn pair of trousers and a shirt, he asked, "Hasn't he stopped hiding them under the storeroom floor? He knows we've got rats in there."
Daniel's mother shrugged. "Well, it does keep them safe from thieves, after all."
"Unless the rats let them know..."
This remark earned Daniel an amused shake of the head from his mother, who turned to leave. "Breakfast's ready. Hurry up, your father wants to open the shop soon."
"Okay, okay..." It took Daniel only a few minutes to hurriedly put his clothes on, before grabbing a heavy leather bag from his desk and heading down to breakfast.
Several minutes later, Daniel was sitting on a stool near the shop counter, busily prodding at an alarm clock of some sort with a screwdriver. His father was standing behind the counter, and dividing his time between staring at the door and eating his breakfast.
The screwdriver hit something that went sproing, and Daniel winced. "You might want to use a smaller one with that," his father commented, through bites of bread, and the teenaged boy shook his head.
"This one's the smallest I've got. Don't you have any others?" Daniel asked. With a grin, the father replied, "We don't get any new tools when we don't have any money to spend on 'em. You want new tools..."
"...I get the work done, I know," the boy sighed, and poked at the clock once more. This time it made a rather disconsolate cheep, and both Daniel and his father winced.
"How much did the owner say that was worth?" his father asked him, peering over the counter, and Daniel shook his head. "I think she said it was about-"
Just then, the bell over the door jangled loudly, and both men turned to look at the door, then at each other.
"It couldn't be..."
"Looks like it."
Daniel sighed. "Do we have to do the speech?"
"Yes."
There was a pause, and then Daniel's father launched enthusiastically into,
"Welcome to Laver and Sons, the very best repair shop in town! We fix clocks, bicycles, radios, torches, lanterns, and all manner of handheld weapons, goods and appliances. Our single rule is - if you can get it through the door, we'll fix it for you." He smiled brightly at the customer who'd just come in, and had made her way up to the counter during the speech, and Daniel looked at her curiously. She had brown hair tied back in a ponytail, and a rather surprised expression on her face, but that was to be expected - most of their customers reacted that way to the speech. Her clothes, though, were a little more odd - she was wearing a thick woollen hat, a scarf, a bulky jacket, and a short skirt and pair of sandals.
"Aren't you cold in those, with the winter weather and all?" Daniel asked the girl curiously, pointing at her sandals, and she shook her head.
"No, they're just fine. Though there is one problem with them, and that's why I came to see you. You said you can fix anything, right?" she asked, looking from Daniel to his father, who nodded.
"Like I said, miss. You get it through the door, we'll fix it."
The girl smiled. "Oh, good. Do you do on-the-spot repairs?"
"Well..." The two men glanced at each other, then Daniel replied, "Depends how long it'll take to fix. It'd be better if you could leave it with us, of course. What do you need fixing?"
There was a table near the stool Daniel was sitting on, and the girl made her way over to that, walking with what appeared to be a slight limp. Daniel's father frowned, and asked, "Miss, are you all right? Did you hurt your foot?"
"That's what I came to see you about," the girl replied, as she sat on the edge of the table. Her right foot appeared to be normal, but the other was bent at a slightly odd angle - it pointed off to the left far more than normal, and several of the toes seemed to have been twisted in the wrong directions. As she took her left hand from her pocket and started to take her sandal off, Daniel shook his head.
"I think you misunderstood the advertisement. We don't fix people, Miss, and you might want to take that to a doctor..."
The sandal dropped to the floor, and the girl twisted her foot back to a more natural position with a painful sounding screeeeeee. "I'm not looking for a doctor," she commented, and was about to grab one of the toes when she looked up and noticed Daniel and his father both wincing. She grinned apologetically, adding an, "Ooops. Sorry," as she let go of her foot again.
Daniel was the first of the two men to recover his composure enough to speak. "Er. Do you need some sort of oil for that? Doesn't sound like it should be making that sort of noise."
"Oh, yes please," the girl replied enthusiastically. "Something that can stand the temperature outdoors, if you have it." Daniel nodded, and glanced at his father, who was busily mopping at his forehead with a handkerchief. When he noticed Daniel's questioning look, he said, "Should be some in the storeroom. You're probably best off with Old Benson's..."
"...All-Weather Oil," finished Daniel, and nodded. "I'll get it right away." He stood up and headed through the door to the storeroom, and his father was left to glance over at the girl, who grinned nervously and said, "Sorry about that. Hope I didn't surprise you too much." The father shook his head.
"Can't say I was expecting it, miss. Not everyday you get someone in here whose feet need an oiling."
"Actually, that's not all I came in here for..." the girl admitted, and she looked around at the shop walls and shelves, full of various assorted objects. "Do you sell things here as well as repair them?"
"We do indeed, miss," the man replied. "Our repair contract says that you have one year to reclaim what we're repairing for you. If you're not back before then, we sell off what you gave us. For a modest amount, of course," he added, watching the girl as she looked around the shop. "Were you thinking of buying something?"
The girl shook her head. "No, I was wondering if you'd had something given to you to repair. Someone took something of mine, you see, and I've been looking for it."
"Where has that boy got to?" the man muttered, and then nodded to the girl. "We get a lot of things in here. What is it you're looking for?"
Holding up her left hand, the girl said, "Well, it's about this size, and looks a fair bit like this one. Except it's the other way around, of course."
The man blinked, and stared at the girl's hand. There were no rings or any form of jewellery on it, though there was a watchstrap poking out from underneath the cuff of the thick jacket she was wearing. "Do you mean your watch, miss? I'd have to have a look at it, if that's what you're looking for..."
With another shake of her head, the girl pulled the other hand out of her pocket. Or she would have, if there had been a hand to pull out - as it was, the arm appeared to stop fairly neatly at the end of the wrist, the last few inches of it bandaged over.
Daniel chose this moment to reappear from the storeroom, carrying a bulky flask with "OBAWO" printed on the front, and bearing several oily splashes on his trousers and shirt. "You didn't tell me it was at the back of the shelf, dad..." he said as he came into the room, and then stopped as he saw his father's shocked expression. It didn't take him long to find out what had caused it, and the flask made a few more splashes on his shirt as he almost dropped it. The noise of the flask made the girl turn, and she quickly hid her arm behind her back.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that..." she hurriedly said, and tried an awkward grin. "Mr Laver here was telling me about the shop, and he asked me why I was here, you see."
Shaking his head in confusion, Daniel replied, "No need to explain. I'm sure you'll get around to it in time," and held up the flask. "Is this all right?"
"Yes, that's perfect. Thank you so much," the girl replied, as Daniel moved his stool over until it was next to the table. "Um, what are you doing?"
Daniel looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Well, this job does require two hands, miss. I'd imagine that's why you needed to come in here for help."
What followed was a mildly messy job, resulting in rather too much oil spilling onto the floor, and several more loud screeches and creaks as parts of the girl's foot complained about being moved around so violently. Eventually, though, Daniel managed to persuade the foot that it really didn't need to creak anymore, and as he leant back on his stool with a sigh, the girl wiggled her toes experimentally.
"That's much better," she said with a grin. "Could I buy a bottle of that oil as well, please? It'd come in very useful."
"Of course, if we have any spare," Daniel replied, and looked over at the counter. "Dad, do we have any oil for sale?" His father was looking through a rather large book, and it was a few moments before he looked up and nodded absently.
"Should be a few more bottles in the storeroom, yes. You go and get another one, Daniel, and try not to spill it this time."
"It's not my fault they're all at the back of the shelves and hard to reach..." Daniel replied heatedly, but he headed into the storeroom again anyway. His father looked at the girl, and tapped the book in front of him.
"Just as I thought. We had someone bring in something like that, but it was a while ago - about a year and a half. Left it here with us, paid the deposit, never came back." The girl looked a little hopeful.
"Do you happen to remember what the person looked like?"
Daniel's father shook his head. "I don't, miss. We get a lot of customers in here, and I've seen many strange things come through our shop..."
"Yes, but still... surely you'd remember someone who gave you a hand to repair?" she asked, her voice tinged with disbelief, and the man shook his head. "We've got some crazy sorcerers living in town, and they bring in things to fix all the time. Just last week we had Brother Robert bring in a mechanical frog. Wanted us to fix the gears so that it'd hop forwards rather than backwards - he'd messed up while making it, you see. The darn thing kept on jumping around while we were trying to get the casing off."
"Oh," the girl replied quietly, and swung her feet back and forwards under the table for a while as she glanced around the shop again. "Did the person leave a name, then?"
"Of course they left a name, miss." Daniel's father looked down at the book, his finger following the entries until he reached the relevant one. "Just 'Livia'. They might not have left their name, of course." The girl nodded rather sadly, and he continued, "Anything else I can help you with?"
"Is it still in the shop?" the girl asked hopefully. "If they haven't been back for over a year, then..."
"We sold it, miss," the man replied, shaking his head. "One of the merchants from Anford came here a week ago. Bought a lot of our stock to sell on at the Great Fair, and the hand was one of the things he took. He's probably planning to tout it as a good luck charm, or something." He shrugged. "Who knows. Whatever'll get people to buy it at the highest price, I suppose."
The girl nodded, and then her eyes brightened a little. "But since he came here only a week ago, you remember his name, and what he looked like, right?" Daniel's father nodded, and the girl smiled widely. "That's good. Can you tell me? I really need to get that hand back."
At that point, Daniel came back, triumphantly holding a bottle of oil in one hand. "Found one that wasn't leaking," he announced, and he deposited it on the counter. His father nodded appreciatively.
"Well, now that you've got your oil, it's time to settle the bill," he said, and the girl nodded and hopped off the table in order to tie her sandal back on.
She stumbled a little as she did so, managing to steady herself against the table, and Daniel's father shook his head.
"Those shoes don't look very sensible if you want to avoid twisting your ankle again. Daniel, can you get a pair of your boots for her?"
"The ones we've been keeping to sell?"
His father nodded. "And now we're going to sell a pair. Get some socks, too, as her feet won't be as huge as yours."
Daniel grinned, and after a glance at the girl's discarded sandal, headed through another door. He was back less than a minute later, brandishing a pair of sturdy-looking boots and some thick socks. As the girl carefully put them on, Daniel's father made a few notes in his ledger, and told her, "It'll only be a little more. The oil's quite expensive, and those boots'd fetch very little." The girl looked a little surprised, and he added, "Oh, not because they're bad boots, but because they've been worn."
"If you say so..." the girl replied as she took some money from her pockets, not sounding convinced.
It took only a short while to settle the bill, and then the girl asked, "Um, do you know the best way to get to Anford from here?"
"You don't want to go to Anford alone," Daniel's father replied firmly. "It's a rough journey. Several days across open country, a nasty river crossing and then several more days. And even if you get there, you'll be lucky to get into the city this close to the Fair. They're picky about who they let in."
"You're just saying that because you're bitter about not being able to go, dad," Daniel joked, as he handed the girl her oil bottle wrapped in brown paper. His father nodded. "Maybe I am," he replied, and waved a hand at the shelves stacked with various odd objects. "Look at all the things we've got. That merchant must have missed a few decent items, and we could make a tidy profit..." His voice trailed off, and when he spoke again it was with a note of determination that brooked no argument.
"Daniel, you're going to Anford with her. No, don't start," he said, raising his hand to stall Daniel, who'd just opened his mouth to disagree, and the girl, who was evidently planning to do the same. "It's not safe for one girl travelling on her own, but the two of you should be fine. And this extra profit would be good for us."
Daniel nodded mutely, but the girl still looked like she was about to protest. Daniel's father tapped the book that lay on the counter in front of him. "You needed the name of that merchant, didn't you, miss?"
"Yes, but..." She glared at the man, and then sighed and turned to look resignedly at Daniel. "Oh, all right. As long as you know how to get to Anford safely, I'll travel with you."
The road to Anford was long. Those who didn't have enough money to pay others to take them along the road in a carriage, or to hire a ride on one of the flying contraptions that headed there, would first see the road, stretching out for what seemed like miles. It did, indeed stretch out for miles, the road wide enough to cope with as much traffic as could ever congregate in one place - after all, the Great Fair of Anford was famous across the continent, and many merchants would be travelling to it, eager to make sales, along with interested people looking to find rare and odd items of machinery.
At this time of year, when autumn finally gave up and turned into winter, the road was also extremely cold. With no trees or vegetation whatsoever and hardly any buildings within several miles of the road, the winds blew fiercely, and even many of the hardiest travellers shivered as they made their way down the road. Those travellers who had enough money to buy passage in a carriage would be reasonably warm, of course, but all the others on the route had to make their way on bicycles or on animals that seemed to be a cross between walking carpets and rather energetic cows.
Two of the travellers on the road who'd chosen the furry cattle over the safe yet expensive method of hiring a carriage were struggling along by the side of the road. It was fairly immediately apparent that the female one of the two was the girl from before - even though the weather on this road was far harsher than the weather back in the town she'd left, she was still wearing the same jacket, skirt and sandals, though she had a scarf wrapped around her neck this time. Riding next to her was Daniel, also wearing a bulky jacket - his looked a size too big for him, as it came most of the way up to his ears. The girl muttered angrily as she tugged at the animal's reins, and Daniel turned to look at her.
"What's wrong?" he yelled, in order to be heard over the wind, and the girl turned to face him, yanking the rein a bit as she did so. The animal she was riding on gave a slightly mournful moooo, and slowly turned to face the same direction as the girl did - at which she yelped in surprise, and tugged the reins back the other way with predictable results.
About half an hour later, Daniel and the girl were sitting at a table inside one of the few roadside inns, while their rides were busily devouring lunch in the stables outside. The girl looked rather dejected, her chin resting on her left hand, and Daniel was sipping a hot drink as he listened to the girl talk.
"It's just difficult to get them to move in the right direction," she complained, and Daniel nodded.
"They take a bit of getting used to. And only having one hand to hold the reins can't help."
The girl sighed. "Isn't there any other way we could get to Anford? Those... what did you call them?"
"Moos." The girl laughed, and Daniel looked a little affronted. "Don't look at me like that, I didn't name them."
"I know, I know," the girl replied, repressing a final giggle. "And it's a name that makes sense. After all, that is the noise they make."
"They're the only way we can get to Anford, Miss -" Daniel broke off, and looked at the girl, surprise on his face.
"Here we are, making one of the most dangerous journeys you can make, and I don't even know your name."
The girl looked surprised as well, then a little shamefaced. "You're right. I don't think I ever told you."
There was a pause once she'd finished speaking, and Daniel stared at the girl.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What's your name, then? I can't really call you 'Miss' for the next few weeks."
"I suppose not," the girl replied hesitantly, and then she nodded slowly. "My name's Livia."
Daniel frowned. "Isn't that..."
"Yeah, it's the name the person gave who sold you my hand. Smart of you to notice that." The tone of her voice made Daniel glare at her, and she smiled apologetically. "Sorry..."
"Just don't make a habit of it," muttered Daniel, and Livia nodded.
"Anyway, now you know my name, why is it we can't get to Anford except on those moos?" she demanded. Daniel took another gulp of his drink, which had become mostly lukewarm by now, and shuddered.
"There's lots of ways to get to Anford," Daniel explained. "There's the aircraft that fly there from Linton - that's the town we came from," he added as he saw Livia's lack of comprehension. "How do you manage without even knowing where you are?"
Livia bristled at Daniel's tone. "I just got there two nights ago," she retorted. "I hadn't even asked how to get to Anford until I got to your shop."
"Oh, I see..." Daniel replied, and then continued. "Anyway, there's the aircraft, and the carriages that go along the road. Then you've got bicycles, or moos."
"So why don't we take a carriage or an aircraft, then?" Livia asked, and Daniel laughed.
"I know you had enough money on you to pay for oil at our shop, but you'd never have that much money."
"How much does it cost?" asked Livia, curious.
"For the aircraft, roughly what the shop makes us in a year." Livia winced. "For a carriage, only about six months' income."
"Why are they so expensive, then?" Livia enquired, once she'd recovered from her surprise, and Daniel grinned.
"Miss, you really don't know much about the world, do you?"
"I thought I told you my name," Livia retorted.
"All right, Livia, then. The Great Fair's for rich folk and merchants, and there's nothing in Anford apart from the fair. There's no need for 'em to make it easy to get there." He looked down at the leather bag next to his feet, which had been filled with various items from the shop's stock before his father had sent him off. "This is the first time anyone in my family's actually been to the Great Fair. Apart from my great-uncle Bill... though that might just have been one of his stories."
"But aren't you merchants, too?"
Daniel shook his head. "We fix things, and people usually come to get them back once we've fixed them. The things that people don't collect usually aren't worth much, and what we do have of value gets bought up by that merchant who visits us before the fair."
"Oh," replied Livia, quietly, and Daniel finished his now rather cold drink. He looked up from the mug to find Livia staring at him, and said rather grumpily, "What is it?"
"Nothing, nothing," Livia replied cheerfully. "Come on, shouldn't we be getting back on the road? It's several days to Anford, right?"
"It is, and this is the last stop for about five hours," Daniel replied firmly. "If we leave now, night'll fall before we can find anywhere else to stop."
"But couldn't we-" started Livia, and Daniel shook his head.
"The road's not lit, we don't have lanterns, and after seeing your performance today you'd probably be lethal on a moo at night."
"Okay..." Livia replied dejectedly, the insult to her steering abilities evidently not having registered. "So we're going to need a room here, then?"
"I've already sorted that out," Daniel replied, holding up a pair of keys. "Two rooms already booked."
"Wow, you are good at this," Livia said, looking impressed, and Daniel grinned smugly.
"Just trying my best, miss- er, Livia," he hastily said, as she glared at him. "By the way, don't you have a last name? The innkeeper looked at me strangely when I just gave your first name, so I said your last one was Laver, too. But unless there's some deep, dark mystery in my family that I've never heard about..." He glanced at Livia, looking a little worried. "It's not, is it? I'm sure I'd've heard something about a cousin with metal feet if it were..."
This made Livia laugh for a good minute or so. "No, no, it's not Laver. I'm not your long-lost cousin or anything," she replied once she'd managed to stop giggling and wipe her eyes. She frowned in concentration, then replied, sounding dubious, "I'm not sure what it is, actually."
Daniel blinked. "You don't remember your last name?"
"I don't even know if I have one," Livia replied with a shrug, and Daniel shook his head.
"You must have a last name, surely," he said insistently. "What about your parents?"
"Parents?" Livia repeated blankly, and then her eyes lit up with understanding. "Oh, I see. No, I don't have parents."
"You... don't have parents," Daniel repeated, baffled. Livia shook her head and smiled cheerfully.
"Not as far as I remember. Not that I remember much." She thrust her left hand into the pocket of her thick jacket, and pulled out a bundle of paper, depositing it on the table in front of her. "This is all I know about... well, about me."
Daniel picked up the bundle, twisted the tie that held it together, and looked at the papers inside. Two of the sheets were fairly standard citizenship forms, proclaiming "Livia fglglsbrebs" to be a valid citizen of Thane, though the entry in the "Last name" form had been scribbled over several times with a thick pen until it was almost totally illegible. Daniel put them carefully on the table and was about to glance at the next page, when something made him start in surprise, and he looked back at the forms.
"You're from Thane?" he asked Livia, and she nodded. "If that's what the form says, I suppose I am."
"Oh. That's strange," Daniel replied pensively, and Livia frowned.
"Why? What's wrong about coming from Thane?"
"There's nothing there, that's what's wrong," Daniel replied. "Nothing but the Library, and the people who work there..." Once again, Livia looked blank, and Daniel peered at her.
"You can't possibly be from Thane if you've never heard of the Library," he told her, and Livia shook her head.
"I don't know anything about it. Isn't a library just somewhere that has lots of books?" Daniel nodded, and Livia looked at him, a little confused. "So what's so special about this library, then?"
"Well, I've never been there, but apparently it's got every book that's ever been written."
"And?"
"And also a fair amount of the books that haven't been written."
Livia nodded, and then frowned. "What?"
"Like I said, I've never been there," Daniel said. "But some of the sorcerers that've come into our shop have, and they've told me a little about it."
"Yes, but still... how can you have a book in a library if it hasn't been written?" Livia asked, very confused. Daniel grinned, and replied,
"It's not a normal library, though. That's another thing one of the sorcerers who visited us told me." He paused, and then added, "Actually, that reminds me. My dad gave me something in a parcel before I left, and he said it was for a library..." He rummaged through his leather bag, and finally pulled out a parcel wrapped in brown paper, with a note attached to it. Livia leant over to look as Daniel read the note.
Livia grinned nervously as she watched Daniel finish reading the letter, a deep frown on his face. Finally, he said, "Why didn't he tell me this beforehand? I might never have looked at it until we'd got back from Anford."
"Maybe he forgot?" Livia replied hesitantly. Daniel nodded, still frowning, and read through the note again.
"What's weird is that he couldn't fix it," he said once he'd finished. Livia glanced at the note.
"What's so strange about that?" she asked, and Daniel grinned. "You don't know my father. He can fix anything."
Livia shook her head doubtfully. "Not anything, surely."
"Well, there was that one time that Brother Robert... did I tell you about him before?"
"Um, he was the man with the frog that jumped backwards, wasn't he? I think your father mentioned him."
Daniel nodded. "Yeah, that's him. Well, he's been experimenting with making mechanical animals. You've heard about the frog, I know, but there was a time when he got an idea in his head that he wanted to make animals that could fly. So he decided to start on butterflies."
"What was he making them with?"
"Metal, same as usual." Daniel grinned at Livia's startled expression. "No, he didn't get it right the first time, or the next... I think he'd got to the fifteenth try before he had something he'd even let us look at."
"Is it even possible, though?" Livia asked thoughtfully. "You'd need something very light, wouldn't you, and metals aren't like that."
"Most metals aren't, but there are different sorts of metals," explained Daniel. "The flying machines that travel to Anford have magic holding them up, but they're made of light metals that make it easier. It only took Brother Robert a few tries to figure out that he could use things like that."
"So what was the problem?"
With a grin, Daniel replied, "He made it too light, and added too much lifting magic. The first time he brought it into the shop and let it out of its jar, it shot to the ceiling and wriggled there for a few hours. We had to get a ladder and a net to get it down again."
Livia giggled. "What did he want you to do with it, then?" she asked.
"Oh, he just wanted some advice on how to make it fly properly. Even when he got the magic-to-metal ratio working properly, it wasn't fluttering right, and he wanted to know how to make the wings. Dad helped him with getting it to flutter properly."
"What happened to the butterfly once he'd got it working?" Livia asked breathlessly. "Did he make more?"
"Well, once he'd figured out how to make them fly, he started trying to make their wings look like real butterflies'. Did you know that there are sixteen hundred and twenty eight ways to arrange three colours in a butterfly's wing pattern?"
"Can't say I did..." replied Livia.
"Well, that's what Brother Robert did for the next year after he brought his butterfly to us. Looked at patterns."
"What did he do after that?"
"He's still looking them up." Daniel grinned. "Haven't seen him for a while. The last time he came to the shop was a few months ago, and he said he was going to Thane to look up what he could about butterflies there." He looked down at the note again, and his eyes widened. "Maybe they'd have something in the Library about how to fix this thing."
"You'd have to know what it was first, though," commented Livia. "Maybe you should wait until we meet the person who gave it to your father. Does it say on the note who it is?"
"Um..." Daniel scanned the note once more, and frowned. "I don't think it does."
Livia lent over, picked up the note and turned it over. There were a few words scribbled on the back, and Daniel read them once Livia had turned the paper so that it was upright for him.
"That's kind of him," Livia remarked as Daniel read the note on the back. Daniel was silent, and Livia added, "Well, isn't it?"
Daniel grimaced in reply. "Oh, it is kind of him. But it's going to be expensive, and hard to find. Unless we get someone who's selling to people like me, of course, rather than merchants or rich fools. Now, if we were looking for polishing oils, or bottled magics to make something sparkle a little in the sunlight, we'd be fine... but not high-quality lubricating oil. Doesn't make things look any prettier, so it doesn't sell." Livia looked at him carefully as he finished speaking, and then spoke quietly.
"You don't like merchants much, do you?"
"Not from what I've heard of them, no," Daniel replied. "Some of the people coming into our shop just want old things mending, or they want us to help with something they've made, but a lot of them bring in things that were broken when they bought them. Like that man's stove with a chimney that caved in the first time he used it. Turns out the chimney wasn't even a chimney - it was part of a drainpipe, and it couldn't stand heat. The man who sold it to him just repainted it and sold it off as a bargain. And then there's the girl whose flute didn't have any moving parts - the keys were all stuck solid. She was sold one of the displays rather than a real musical instrument." He stopped to take a breath, realised he'd started to rant, and grinned. "Sorry about that, Livia."
"You might want to keep your opinions about merchants to yourself while we're in Anford, you know," Livia replied blandly. "It'd be nice if we could leave there with our limbs intact." Daniel snickered, and Livia bowed her head. "Always glad to help."
Daniel had glanced at his watch while Livia was making her comment, and showed it to Livia now. "It's only an hour or so until midnight. We probably ought to get some sleep now." She nodded, and folded Daniel's father's note back into the package where it had been before.
"Could I have my papers back, please?" she asked, and Daniel nodded as he passed them to her. One of them was sticking out of the pile, and as Livia took the sheaf it slipped out. She made a grab for it and missed, but Daniel caught it first, and inspected it. It was a detailed sketch of the girl sitting next to him, as she would look standing up. Next to it was a sketch of Livia from behind, annotated carefully like the first sketch. Daniel squinted at the notes, but, aside from the word 'Livia' at the top of the page, the writing was in symbols he couldn't recognise, and so he turned his attention back to the drawings. He peered at them for a few moments, and then looked at Livia.
"Those are pictures of you, aren't they?" he asked, and Livia grabbed the top of the piece of paper.
"Give it back!" she replied furiously, and pulled the paper from his hand, miraculously managing not to rip it in the process. Daniel grinned.
"Because unless that's a very tight outfit you were wearing for those pictures, you've not got any clo-"
Livia's slap made his cheek sting for a good few seconds. Daniel winced, and painfully formed a half-smile.
"Sorry. I deserved that."
Livia just glared at him, and shoved the paper into the bundle, then took considerably more care over tying the papers up.
"Why did someone make sketches of you?" Daniel asked, and Livia shrugged.
"I don't know. I can't read what's written on it, apart from the word at the top. I figured that was the name of the person in the sketches, so logically it should be my name." She held the neatly tied bundle up, and turned it so that the top of the citizenship papers - with 'Livia' prominently displayed - was facing Daniel.
"And it seems to fit with this form. So whoever I am, I'm apparently a citizen of Thane."
Daniel nodded. "And that means that you have something to do with the Library. Maybe when we go to meet Brother Claus, we can ask him about that." Livia looked puzzled, and Daniel pointed to the bundle of papers.
"If he works at a library, that means he's a scholar of some sort. And since he's Brother something or other, that also means he's a scholar. He should know the language those notes are written in, or know someone who could tell us."
"That makes sense," Livia said brightly, as she tucked the papers back into her pocket. "Anyway, hadn't we better get to bed? Your father said it'd be several days before we got to Anford, and you said earlier that there aren't many places to stop on the way."
"There aren't," Daniel replied, shaking his head. "We'll have to get up early and ride until late for the next few days. Once we're past the river, it should be easier going. By then we'll be most of the way there, and there are more inns."
"The river?" Livia repeated shakily, and Daniel nodded. "Yes. There's a wide river between us and Anford. Didn't my dad mention that when he told you about the journey?"
"He must have done. I just forgot about it," Livia replied, smiling, though her smile looked as if it was only force of will that prevented it from wobbling and falling away. "Um, how wide is this river?"
"A mile or so, I think. That's what the map seems to say."
"Ah, right. A mile." By this point Livia had abandoned her attempts to stop her lips from trembling, and her hand was tapping nervously on the table. "And, er, how do we get across this mile-wide river?"
"I don't know. Maybe we swim?" replied Daniel jokingly, and Livia sighed.
"If it weren't for the fact I already slapped you for looking at those pictures, I'd hit you again. What do you think a mile of river water would do to feet made of metal?"
Daniel mused for a few moments, and then nodded. "You know, that's a good point." Livia glared at him, and he laughed. "Okay, I was joking. There's a ferry that goes across it during the day. I think it stops in the evening, but since there are inns on both sides of the river, we shouldn't have a problem with that." Livia sighed with relief.
"Just as long as I don't have to get wet, I'll be happy about going across any river," she said, slumping back in her chair.
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Daniel replied with a half-smile. "We once had someone come into the shop to repair a bilge pump on one of the ferries."
"What's a bilge pump?"
"It's something that pumps bilge, of course."
Livia sighed, and Daniel added, "Well, bilge is the water that you get in the bottom of a boat." Livia looked horrified at this.
"You mean there's a name for water that leaks in?" Daniel nodded. "Is that normal?" she asked, incredulous.
"That's what the man said. You can't make a boat that doesn't leak - well, maybe you can, if you use magic. I've never met a sorcerer who'd be interested in that kind of practical stuff, though," Daniel added with a grin. "All the ones I've known were either madmen who liked to make things that didn't work, or madmen who liked to write long books about making things that didn't work."
"Do you not like sorcerers either?" Livia enquired.
"No, sorcerers seem to be fairly good people," Daniel replied. "Most of them are very strange, but they're polite and they don't try to get money off their bills for coming along every six months, buying the best of your stock and still paying a fraction of what they'll sell it on for." He shrugged. "Anyway, about the man with the bilge pump. He says the ferries have three parts - there's the part on top, where you can sit if you want to see the view and get sprayed with water, a bit in the middle where you can sit and stay dry, and a bit at the bottom where the bilge goes. They don't let people into the bottom part, but sometimes the pump breaks down or gets clogged, and the part at the bottom can start to fill up." He looked at Livia's expression, now positively horrified, and hastily added, "He also said that the water doesn't reach the next part. The journey's over too quickly, and while they're docked they can get rid of all the water and change the pump."
"But can't you tell if the pump stops working during the journey?" Livia asked, still looking a little worried, though nowhere near as fearful as she had before.
"He did say that the pump makes a lot of noise while it's running," Daniel said. "So if you hear a loud clunk, then the noise drops, you'll know what's happened."
"You're not helping, you know," she replied acidly, and Daniel shrugged. "You were the one who asked about bilge pumps."
"And you were the one who said that you could get wet even on a ferry," Livia retorted.
"And it's getting late," Daniel replied, holding his arm up so Livia could see the face of the watch on his wrist. "We'll have to start just after dawn tomorrow. Go get some sleep, Livia."
Livia nodded, and got up from her chair. As Daniel did the same, picking up his bag and parcel as he did so, she asked, "Where are our rooms, then?"
Daniel shrugged his bag onto one shoulder, then held out a heavy iron key with a wooden tag attached to it. "The innkeeper says they're up the stairs and at the end of the corridor. Yours is the last one on the left, mine's on the right."
"Got it," Livia replied with another nod, and she smiled at him. "Thanks for all your help, Daniel. Do you need help with that bag?"
"It's okay," Daniel replied. "Looks like you've got your hands... er, hand full with that key." He grinned, and shifted his bag a little so that the weight rested more evenly. "I'll knock on your door in the morning, shall I?"
Livia shook her head. "Let's just meet down here in the morning. I'm sure we'll find a table free." Daniel nodded. "Whatever you want, Livia. I'll see you tomorrow, then." He made his way between the other tables in the inn, and disappeared up the stairs, while Livia stood by her chair, hand clutching the key. After a few seconds, she put her hand in her pocket, and nodded slightly.
"Tomorrow, then," she whispered, and headed to bed.
theblunderbuss, and he came up with an idea for the script. And here you have it - After Forever in four panels. (There's also a copy of it on my NaNoWriMo page, which is on this site. Just in case I end up changing icons in the future and the above link dies.)
As well as that, I've decided it might be worth posting up the previous chapters of the story while I try to finish it off. I know I said "in a day or two" back in September, but I also thought I'd get 50,000 words written in September, and look what happened. :)
Still, here is chapter 1. Just to confuse any of you who may have read chapter 10, these are the characters who the story starts with - the ones in chapter 10 are introduced a while later.
Chapter I - Laver and Sons
Daniel's morning began as it always did - too much sunlight, irritatingly wide-awake birds singing loudly outside his window, and his mother standing at the door and brandishing a pile of clothes.
The clothes usually ended up somewhere on Daniel if he didn't hurry to get out of bed, of course - just as they did this morning.
"Your father needs helping in the shop today," Daniel's mother said shortly as her son muttered something about parental injustice and slowly climbed out of bed. "Says he's got to check whose orders we're still working on. The rats've been at the account books again."
"Oh, not again..." grumbled Daniel, as he rummaged through the heap of clothes that were now strewn across the bed. Picking out a worn pair of trousers and a shirt, he asked, "Hasn't he stopped hiding them under the storeroom floor? He knows we've got rats in there."
Daniel's mother shrugged. "Well, it does keep them safe from thieves, after all."
"Unless the rats let them know..."
This remark earned Daniel an amused shake of the head from his mother, who turned to leave. "Breakfast's ready. Hurry up, your father wants to open the shop soon."
"Okay, okay..." It took Daniel only a few minutes to hurriedly put his clothes on, before grabbing a heavy leather bag from his desk and heading down to breakfast.
Several minutes later, Daniel was sitting on a stool near the shop counter, busily prodding at an alarm clock of some sort with a screwdriver. His father was standing behind the counter, and dividing his time between staring at the door and eating his breakfast.
The screwdriver hit something that went sproing, and Daniel winced. "You might want to use a smaller one with that," his father commented, through bites of bread, and the teenaged boy shook his head.
"This one's the smallest I've got. Don't you have any others?" Daniel asked. With a grin, the father replied, "We don't get any new tools when we don't have any money to spend on 'em. You want new tools..."
"...I get the work done, I know," the boy sighed, and poked at the clock once more. This time it made a rather disconsolate cheep, and both Daniel and his father winced.
"How much did the owner say that was worth?" his father asked him, peering over the counter, and Daniel shook his head. "I think she said it was about-"
Just then, the bell over the door jangled loudly, and both men turned to look at the door, then at each other.
"It couldn't be..."
"Looks like it."
Daniel sighed. "Do we have to do the speech?"
"Yes."
There was a pause, and then Daniel's father launched enthusiastically into,
"Welcome to Laver and Sons, the very best repair shop in town! We fix clocks, bicycles, radios, torches, lanterns, and all manner of handheld weapons, goods and appliances. Our single rule is - if you can get it through the door, we'll fix it for you." He smiled brightly at the customer who'd just come in, and had made her way up to the counter during the speech, and Daniel looked at her curiously. She had brown hair tied back in a ponytail, and a rather surprised expression on her face, but that was to be expected - most of their customers reacted that way to the speech. Her clothes, though, were a little more odd - she was wearing a thick woollen hat, a scarf, a bulky jacket, and a short skirt and pair of sandals.
"Aren't you cold in those, with the winter weather and all?" Daniel asked the girl curiously, pointing at her sandals, and she shook her head.
"No, they're just fine. Though there is one problem with them, and that's why I came to see you. You said you can fix anything, right?" she asked, looking from Daniel to his father, who nodded.
"Like I said, miss. You get it through the door, we'll fix it."
The girl smiled. "Oh, good. Do you do on-the-spot repairs?"
"Well..." The two men glanced at each other, then Daniel replied, "Depends how long it'll take to fix. It'd be better if you could leave it with us, of course. What do you need fixing?"
There was a table near the stool Daniel was sitting on, and the girl made her way over to that, walking with what appeared to be a slight limp. Daniel's father frowned, and asked, "Miss, are you all right? Did you hurt your foot?"
"That's what I came to see you about," the girl replied, as she sat on the edge of the table. Her right foot appeared to be normal, but the other was bent at a slightly odd angle - it pointed off to the left far more than normal, and several of the toes seemed to have been twisted in the wrong directions. As she took her left hand from her pocket and started to take her sandal off, Daniel shook his head.
"I think you misunderstood the advertisement. We don't fix people, Miss, and you might want to take that to a doctor..."
The sandal dropped to the floor, and the girl twisted her foot back to a more natural position with a painful sounding screeeeeee. "I'm not looking for a doctor," she commented, and was about to grab one of the toes when she looked up and noticed Daniel and his father both wincing. She grinned apologetically, adding an, "Ooops. Sorry," as she let go of her foot again.
Daniel was the first of the two men to recover his composure enough to speak. "Er. Do you need some sort of oil for that? Doesn't sound like it should be making that sort of noise."
"Oh, yes please," the girl replied enthusiastically. "Something that can stand the temperature outdoors, if you have it." Daniel nodded, and glanced at his father, who was busily mopping at his forehead with a handkerchief. When he noticed Daniel's questioning look, he said, "Should be some in the storeroom. You're probably best off with Old Benson's..."
"...All-Weather Oil," finished Daniel, and nodded. "I'll get it right away." He stood up and headed through the door to the storeroom, and his father was left to glance over at the girl, who grinned nervously and said, "Sorry about that. Hope I didn't surprise you too much." The father shook his head.
"Can't say I was expecting it, miss. Not everyday you get someone in here whose feet need an oiling."
"Actually, that's not all I came in here for..." the girl admitted, and she looked around at the shop walls and shelves, full of various assorted objects. "Do you sell things here as well as repair them?"
"We do indeed, miss," the man replied. "Our repair contract says that you have one year to reclaim what we're repairing for you. If you're not back before then, we sell off what you gave us. For a modest amount, of course," he added, watching the girl as she looked around the shop. "Were you thinking of buying something?"
The girl shook her head. "No, I was wondering if you'd had something given to you to repair. Someone took something of mine, you see, and I've been looking for it."
"Where has that boy got to?" the man muttered, and then nodded to the girl. "We get a lot of things in here. What is it you're looking for?"
Holding up her left hand, the girl said, "Well, it's about this size, and looks a fair bit like this one. Except it's the other way around, of course."
The man blinked, and stared at the girl's hand. There were no rings or any form of jewellery on it, though there was a watchstrap poking out from underneath the cuff of the thick jacket she was wearing. "Do you mean your watch, miss? I'd have to have a look at it, if that's what you're looking for..."
With another shake of her head, the girl pulled the other hand out of her pocket. Or she would have, if there had been a hand to pull out - as it was, the arm appeared to stop fairly neatly at the end of the wrist, the last few inches of it bandaged over.
Daniel chose this moment to reappear from the storeroom, carrying a bulky flask with "OBAWO" printed on the front, and bearing several oily splashes on his trousers and shirt. "You didn't tell me it was at the back of the shelf, dad..." he said as he came into the room, and then stopped as he saw his father's shocked expression. It didn't take him long to find out what had caused it, and the flask made a few more splashes on his shirt as he almost dropped it. The noise of the flask made the girl turn, and she quickly hid her arm behind her back.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that..." she hurriedly said, and tried an awkward grin. "Mr Laver here was telling me about the shop, and he asked me why I was here, you see."
Shaking his head in confusion, Daniel replied, "No need to explain. I'm sure you'll get around to it in time," and held up the flask. "Is this all right?"
"Yes, that's perfect. Thank you so much," the girl replied, as Daniel moved his stool over until it was next to the table. "Um, what are you doing?"
Daniel looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Well, this job does require two hands, miss. I'd imagine that's why you needed to come in here for help."
What followed was a mildly messy job, resulting in rather too much oil spilling onto the floor, and several more loud screeches and creaks as parts of the girl's foot complained about being moved around so violently. Eventually, though, Daniel managed to persuade the foot that it really didn't need to creak anymore, and as he leant back on his stool with a sigh, the girl wiggled her toes experimentally.
"That's much better," she said with a grin. "Could I buy a bottle of that oil as well, please? It'd come in very useful."
"Of course, if we have any spare," Daniel replied, and looked over at the counter. "Dad, do we have any oil for sale?" His father was looking through a rather large book, and it was a few moments before he looked up and nodded absently.
"Should be a few more bottles in the storeroom, yes. You go and get another one, Daniel, and try not to spill it this time."
"It's not my fault they're all at the back of the shelves and hard to reach..." Daniel replied heatedly, but he headed into the storeroom again anyway. His father looked at the girl, and tapped the book in front of him.
"Just as I thought. We had someone bring in something like that, but it was a while ago - about a year and a half. Left it here with us, paid the deposit, never came back." The girl looked a little hopeful.
"Do you happen to remember what the person looked like?"
Daniel's father shook his head. "I don't, miss. We get a lot of customers in here, and I've seen many strange things come through our shop..."
"Yes, but still... surely you'd remember someone who gave you a hand to repair?" she asked, her voice tinged with disbelief, and the man shook his head. "We've got some crazy sorcerers living in town, and they bring in things to fix all the time. Just last week we had Brother Robert bring in a mechanical frog. Wanted us to fix the gears so that it'd hop forwards rather than backwards - he'd messed up while making it, you see. The darn thing kept on jumping around while we were trying to get the casing off."
"Oh," the girl replied quietly, and swung her feet back and forwards under the table for a while as she glanced around the shop again. "Did the person leave a name, then?"
"Of course they left a name, miss." Daniel's father looked down at the book, his finger following the entries until he reached the relevant one. "Just 'Livia'. They might not have left their name, of course." The girl nodded rather sadly, and he continued, "Anything else I can help you with?"
"Is it still in the shop?" the girl asked hopefully. "If they haven't been back for over a year, then..."
"We sold it, miss," the man replied, shaking his head. "One of the merchants from Anford came here a week ago. Bought a lot of our stock to sell on at the Great Fair, and the hand was one of the things he took. He's probably planning to tout it as a good luck charm, or something." He shrugged. "Who knows. Whatever'll get people to buy it at the highest price, I suppose."
The girl nodded, and then her eyes brightened a little. "But since he came here only a week ago, you remember his name, and what he looked like, right?" Daniel's father nodded, and the girl smiled widely. "That's good. Can you tell me? I really need to get that hand back."
At that point, Daniel came back, triumphantly holding a bottle of oil in one hand. "Found one that wasn't leaking," he announced, and he deposited it on the counter. His father nodded appreciatively.
"Well, now that you've got your oil, it's time to settle the bill," he said, and the girl nodded and hopped off the table in order to tie her sandal back on.
She stumbled a little as she did so, managing to steady herself against the table, and Daniel's father shook his head.
"Those shoes don't look very sensible if you want to avoid twisting your ankle again. Daniel, can you get a pair of your boots for her?"
"The ones we've been keeping to sell?"
His father nodded. "And now we're going to sell a pair. Get some socks, too, as her feet won't be as huge as yours."
Daniel grinned, and after a glance at the girl's discarded sandal, headed through another door. He was back less than a minute later, brandishing a pair of sturdy-looking boots and some thick socks. As the girl carefully put them on, Daniel's father made a few notes in his ledger, and told her, "It'll only be a little more. The oil's quite expensive, and those boots'd fetch very little." The girl looked a little surprised, and he added, "Oh, not because they're bad boots, but because they've been worn."
"If you say so..." the girl replied as she took some money from her pockets, not sounding convinced.
It took only a short while to settle the bill, and then the girl asked, "Um, do you know the best way to get to Anford from here?"
"You don't want to go to Anford alone," Daniel's father replied firmly. "It's a rough journey. Several days across open country, a nasty river crossing and then several more days. And even if you get there, you'll be lucky to get into the city this close to the Fair. They're picky about who they let in."
"You're just saying that because you're bitter about not being able to go, dad," Daniel joked, as he handed the girl her oil bottle wrapped in brown paper. His father nodded. "Maybe I am," he replied, and waved a hand at the shelves stacked with various odd objects. "Look at all the things we've got. That merchant must have missed a few decent items, and we could make a tidy profit..." His voice trailed off, and when he spoke again it was with a note of determination that brooked no argument.
"Daniel, you're going to Anford with her. No, don't start," he said, raising his hand to stall Daniel, who'd just opened his mouth to disagree, and the girl, who was evidently planning to do the same. "It's not safe for one girl travelling on her own, but the two of you should be fine. And this extra profit would be good for us."
Daniel nodded mutely, but the girl still looked like she was about to protest. Daniel's father tapped the book that lay on the counter in front of him. "You needed the name of that merchant, didn't you, miss?"
"Yes, but..." She glared at the man, and then sighed and turned to look resignedly at Daniel. "Oh, all right. As long as you know how to get to Anford safely, I'll travel with you."
The road to Anford was long. Those who didn't have enough money to pay others to take them along the road in a carriage, or to hire a ride on one of the flying contraptions that headed there, would first see the road, stretching out for what seemed like miles. It did, indeed stretch out for miles, the road wide enough to cope with as much traffic as could ever congregate in one place - after all, the Great Fair of Anford was famous across the continent, and many merchants would be travelling to it, eager to make sales, along with interested people looking to find rare and odd items of machinery.
At this time of year, when autumn finally gave up and turned into winter, the road was also extremely cold. With no trees or vegetation whatsoever and hardly any buildings within several miles of the road, the winds blew fiercely, and even many of the hardiest travellers shivered as they made their way down the road. Those travellers who had enough money to buy passage in a carriage would be reasonably warm, of course, but all the others on the route had to make their way on bicycles or on animals that seemed to be a cross between walking carpets and rather energetic cows.
Two of the travellers on the road who'd chosen the furry cattle over the safe yet expensive method of hiring a carriage were struggling along by the side of the road. It was fairly immediately apparent that the female one of the two was the girl from before - even though the weather on this road was far harsher than the weather back in the town she'd left, she was still wearing the same jacket, skirt and sandals, though she had a scarf wrapped around her neck this time. Riding next to her was Daniel, also wearing a bulky jacket - his looked a size too big for him, as it came most of the way up to his ears. The girl muttered angrily as she tugged at the animal's reins, and Daniel turned to look at her.
"What's wrong?" he yelled, in order to be heard over the wind, and the girl turned to face him, yanking the rein a bit as she did so. The animal she was riding on gave a slightly mournful moooo, and slowly turned to face the same direction as the girl did - at which she yelped in surprise, and tugged the reins back the other way with predictable results.
About half an hour later, Daniel and the girl were sitting at a table inside one of the few roadside inns, while their rides were busily devouring lunch in the stables outside. The girl looked rather dejected, her chin resting on her left hand, and Daniel was sipping a hot drink as he listened to the girl talk.
"It's just difficult to get them to move in the right direction," she complained, and Daniel nodded.
"They take a bit of getting used to. And only having one hand to hold the reins can't help."
The girl sighed. "Isn't there any other way we could get to Anford? Those... what did you call them?"
"Moos." The girl laughed, and Daniel looked a little affronted. "Don't look at me like that, I didn't name them."
"I know, I know," the girl replied, repressing a final giggle. "And it's a name that makes sense. After all, that is the noise they make."
"They're the only way we can get to Anford, Miss -" Daniel broke off, and looked at the girl, surprise on his face.
"Here we are, making one of the most dangerous journeys you can make, and I don't even know your name."
The girl looked surprised as well, then a little shamefaced. "You're right. I don't think I ever told you."
There was a pause once she'd finished speaking, and Daniel stared at the girl.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What's your name, then? I can't really call you 'Miss' for the next few weeks."
"I suppose not," the girl replied hesitantly, and then she nodded slowly. "My name's Livia."
Daniel frowned. "Isn't that..."
"Yeah, it's the name the person gave who sold you my hand. Smart of you to notice that." The tone of her voice made Daniel glare at her, and she smiled apologetically. "Sorry..."
"Just don't make a habit of it," muttered Daniel, and Livia nodded.
"Anyway, now you know my name, why is it we can't get to Anford except on those moos?" she demanded. Daniel took another gulp of his drink, which had become mostly lukewarm by now, and shuddered.
"There's lots of ways to get to Anford," Daniel explained. "There's the aircraft that fly there from Linton - that's the town we came from," he added as he saw Livia's lack of comprehension. "How do you manage without even knowing where you are?"
Livia bristled at Daniel's tone. "I just got there two nights ago," she retorted. "I hadn't even asked how to get to Anford until I got to your shop."
"Oh, I see..." Daniel replied, and then continued. "Anyway, there's the aircraft, and the carriages that go along the road. Then you've got bicycles, or moos."
"So why don't we take a carriage or an aircraft, then?" Livia asked, and Daniel laughed.
"I know you had enough money on you to pay for oil at our shop, but you'd never have that much money."
"How much does it cost?" asked Livia, curious.
"For the aircraft, roughly what the shop makes us in a year." Livia winced. "For a carriage, only about six months' income."
"Why are they so expensive, then?" Livia enquired, once she'd recovered from her surprise, and Daniel grinned.
"Miss, you really don't know much about the world, do you?"
"I thought I told you my name," Livia retorted.
"All right, Livia, then. The Great Fair's for rich folk and merchants, and there's nothing in Anford apart from the fair. There's no need for 'em to make it easy to get there." He looked down at the leather bag next to his feet, which had been filled with various items from the shop's stock before his father had sent him off. "This is the first time anyone in my family's actually been to the Great Fair. Apart from my great-uncle Bill... though that might just have been one of his stories."
"But aren't you merchants, too?"
Daniel shook his head. "We fix things, and people usually come to get them back once we've fixed them. The things that people don't collect usually aren't worth much, and what we do have of value gets bought up by that merchant who visits us before the fair."
"Oh," replied Livia, quietly, and Daniel finished his now rather cold drink. He looked up from the mug to find Livia staring at him, and said rather grumpily, "What is it?"
"Nothing, nothing," Livia replied cheerfully. "Come on, shouldn't we be getting back on the road? It's several days to Anford, right?"
"It is, and this is the last stop for about five hours," Daniel replied firmly. "If we leave now, night'll fall before we can find anywhere else to stop."
"But couldn't we-" started Livia, and Daniel shook his head.
"The road's not lit, we don't have lanterns, and after seeing your performance today you'd probably be lethal on a moo at night."
"Okay..." Livia replied dejectedly, the insult to her steering abilities evidently not having registered. "So we're going to need a room here, then?"
"I've already sorted that out," Daniel replied, holding up a pair of keys. "Two rooms already booked."
"Wow, you are good at this," Livia said, looking impressed, and Daniel grinned smugly.
"Just trying my best, miss- er, Livia," he hastily said, as she glared at him. "By the way, don't you have a last name? The innkeeper looked at me strangely when I just gave your first name, so I said your last one was Laver, too. But unless there's some deep, dark mystery in my family that I've never heard about..." He glanced at Livia, looking a little worried. "It's not, is it? I'm sure I'd've heard something about a cousin with metal feet if it were..."
This made Livia laugh for a good minute or so. "No, no, it's not Laver. I'm not your long-lost cousin or anything," she replied once she'd managed to stop giggling and wipe her eyes. She frowned in concentration, then replied, sounding dubious, "I'm not sure what it is, actually."
Daniel blinked. "You don't remember your last name?"
"I don't even know if I have one," Livia replied with a shrug, and Daniel shook his head.
"You must have a last name, surely," he said insistently. "What about your parents?"
"Parents?" Livia repeated blankly, and then her eyes lit up with understanding. "Oh, I see. No, I don't have parents."
"You... don't have parents," Daniel repeated, baffled. Livia shook her head and smiled cheerfully.
"Not as far as I remember. Not that I remember much." She thrust her left hand into the pocket of her thick jacket, and pulled out a bundle of paper, depositing it on the table in front of her. "This is all I know about... well, about me."
Daniel picked up the bundle, twisted the tie that held it together, and looked at the papers inside. Two of the sheets were fairly standard citizenship forms, proclaiming "Livia fglglsbrebs" to be a valid citizen of Thane, though the entry in the "Last name" form had been scribbled over several times with a thick pen until it was almost totally illegible. Daniel put them carefully on the table and was about to glance at the next page, when something made him start in surprise, and he looked back at the forms.
"You're from Thane?" he asked Livia, and she nodded. "If that's what the form says, I suppose I am."
"Oh. That's strange," Daniel replied pensively, and Livia frowned.
"Why? What's wrong about coming from Thane?"
"There's nothing there, that's what's wrong," Daniel replied. "Nothing but the Library, and the people who work there..." Once again, Livia looked blank, and Daniel peered at her.
"You can't possibly be from Thane if you've never heard of the Library," he told her, and Livia shook her head.
"I don't know anything about it. Isn't a library just somewhere that has lots of books?" Daniel nodded, and Livia looked at him, a little confused. "So what's so special about this library, then?"
"Well, I've never been there, but apparently it's got every book that's ever been written."
"And?"
"And also a fair amount of the books that haven't been written."
Livia nodded, and then frowned. "What?"
"Like I said, I've never been there," Daniel said. "But some of the sorcerers that've come into our shop have, and they've told me a little about it."
"Yes, but still... how can you have a book in a library if it hasn't been written?" Livia asked, very confused. Daniel grinned, and replied,
"It's not a normal library, though. That's another thing one of the sorcerers who visited us told me." He paused, and then added, "Actually, that reminds me. My dad gave me something in a parcel before I left, and he said it was for a library..." He rummaged through his leather bag, and finally pulled out a parcel wrapped in brown paper, with a note attached to it. Livia leant over to look as Daniel read the note.
Daniel,
I know this may be a little out of your way, but since you'll be heading to Anford, it's only a few days more to the Library at Thane. One of the curators there left this with me a few months ago, and I wasn't able to fix it. Could you take it back to him and explain? I've packed the deposit he left with his item, so you don't need to worry about paying him out of your own purse.
Best of luck with the Great Fair. Hope the young miss finds her hand, and make sure to get a good price on the items you're selling,
Samuel Laver
Livia grinned nervously as she watched Daniel finish reading the letter, a deep frown on his face. Finally, he said, "Why didn't he tell me this beforehand? I might never have looked at it until we'd got back from Anford."
"Maybe he forgot?" Livia replied hesitantly. Daniel nodded, still frowning, and read through the note again.
"What's weird is that he couldn't fix it," he said once he'd finished. Livia glanced at the note.
"What's so strange about that?" she asked, and Daniel grinned. "You don't know my father. He can fix anything."
Livia shook her head doubtfully. "Not anything, surely."
"Well, there was that one time that Brother Robert... did I tell you about him before?"
"Um, he was the man with the frog that jumped backwards, wasn't he? I think your father mentioned him."
Daniel nodded. "Yeah, that's him. Well, he's been experimenting with making mechanical animals. You've heard about the frog, I know, but there was a time when he got an idea in his head that he wanted to make animals that could fly. So he decided to start on butterflies."
"What was he making them with?"
"Metal, same as usual." Daniel grinned at Livia's startled expression. "No, he didn't get it right the first time, or the next... I think he'd got to the fifteenth try before he had something he'd even let us look at."
"Is it even possible, though?" Livia asked thoughtfully. "You'd need something very light, wouldn't you, and metals aren't like that."
"Most metals aren't, but there are different sorts of metals," explained Daniel. "The flying machines that travel to Anford have magic holding them up, but they're made of light metals that make it easier. It only took Brother Robert a few tries to figure out that he could use things like that."
"So what was the problem?"
With a grin, Daniel replied, "He made it too light, and added too much lifting magic. The first time he brought it into the shop and let it out of its jar, it shot to the ceiling and wriggled there for a few hours. We had to get a ladder and a net to get it down again."
Livia giggled. "What did he want you to do with it, then?" she asked.
"Oh, he just wanted some advice on how to make it fly properly. Even when he got the magic-to-metal ratio working properly, it wasn't fluttering right, and he wanted to know how to make the wings. Dad helped him with getting it to flutter properly."
"What happened to the butterfly once he'd got it working?" Livia asked breathlessly. "Did he make more?"
"Well, once he'd figured out how to make them fly, he started trying to make their wings look like real butterflies'. Did you know that there are sixteen hundred and twenty eight ways to arrange three colours in a butterfly's wing pattern?"
"Can't say I did..." replied Livia.
"Well, that's what Brother Robert did for the next year after he brought his butterfly to us. Looked at patterns."
"What did he do after that?"
"He's still looking them up." Daniel grinned. "Haven't seen him for a while. The last time he came to the shop was a few months ago, and he said he was going to Thane to look up what he could about butterflies there." He looked down at the note again, and his eyes widened. "Maybe they'd have something in the Library about how to fix this thing."
"You'd have to know what it was first, though," commented Livia. "Maybe you should wait until we meet the person who gave it to your father. Does it say on the note who it is?"
"Um..." Daniel scanned the note once more, and frowned. "I don't think it does."
Livia lent over, picked up the note and turned it over. There were a few words scribbled on the back, and Daniel read them once Livia had turned the paper so that it was upright for him.
Almost forgot to give you the curator's name. Blast those rats, and the messes they make. Ask at the front hall for Brother Claus.
Also make sure to buy more Old Benson's at Anford. The young miss will run out of it otherwise.
"That's kind of him," Livia remarked as Daniel read the note on the back. Daniel was silent, and Livia added, "Well, isn't it?"
Daniel grimaced in reply. "Oh, it is kind of him. But it's going to be expensive, and hard to find. Unless we get someone who's selling to people like me, of course, rather than merchants or rich fools. Now, if we were looking for polishing oils, or bottled magics to make something sparkle a little in the sunlight, we'd be fine... but not high-quality lubricating oil. Doesn't make things look any prettier, so it doesn't sell." Livia looked at him carefully as he finished speaking, and then spoke quietly.
"You don't like merchants much, do you?"
"Not from what I've heard of them, no," Daniel replied. "Some of the people coming into our shop just want old things mending, or they want us to help with something they've made, but a lot of them bring in things that were broken when they bought them. Like that man's stove with a chimney that caved in the first time he used it. Turns out the chimney wasn't even a chimney - it was part of a drainpipe, and it couldn't stand heat. The man who sold it to him just repainted it and sold it off as a bargain. And then there's the girl whose flute didn't have any moving parts - the keys were all stuck solid. She was sold one of the displays rather than a real musical instrument." He stopped to take a breath, realised he'd started to rant, and grinned. "Sorry about that, Livia."
"You might want to keep your opinions about merchants to yourself while we're in Anford, you know," Livia replied blandly. "It'd be nice if we could leave there with our limbs intact." Daniel snickered, and Livia bowed her head. "Always glad to help."
Daniel had glanced at his watch while Livia was making her comment, and showed it to Livia now. "It's only an hour or so until midnight. We probably ought to get some sleep now." She nodded, and folded Daniel's father's note back into the package where it had been before.
"Could I have my papers back, please?" she asked, and Daniel nodded as he passed them to her. One of them was sticking out of the pile, and as Livia took the sheaf it slipped out. She made a grab for it and missed, but Daniel caught it first, and inspected it. It was a detailed sketch of the girl sitting next to him, as she would look standing up. Next to it was a sketch of Livia from behind, annotated carefully like the first sketch. Daniel squinted at the notes, but, aside from the word 'Livia' at the top of the page, the writing was in symbols he couldn't recognise, and so he turned his attention back to the drawings. He peered at them for a few moments, and then looked at Livia.
"Those are pictures of you, aren't they?" he asked, and Livia grabbed the top of the piece of paper.
"Give it back!" she replied furiously, and pulled the paper from his hand, miraculously managing not to rip it in the process. Daniel grinned.
"Because unless that's a very tight outfit you were wearing for those pictures, you've not got any clo-"
Livia's slap made his cheek sting for a good few seconds. Daniel winced, and painfully formed a half-smile.
"Sorry. I deserved that."
Livia just glared at him, and shoved the paper into the bundle, then took considerably more care over tying the papers up.
"Why did someone make sketches of you?" Daniel asked, and Livia shrugged.
"I don't know. I can't read what's written on it, apart from the word at the top. I figured that was the name of the person in the sketches, so logically it should be my name." She held the neatly tied bundle up, and turned it so that the top of the citizenship papers - with 'Livia' prominently displayed - was facing Daniel.
"And it seems to fit with this form. So whoever I am, I'm apparently a citizen of Thane."
Daniel nodded. "And that means that you have something to do with the Library. Maybe when we go to meet Brother Claus, we can ask him about that." Livia looked puzzled, and Daniel pointed to the bundle of papers.
"If he works at a library, that means he's a scholar of some sort. And since he's Brother something or other, that also means he's a scholar. He should know the language those notes are written in, or know someone who could tell us."
"That makes sense," Livia said brightly, as she tucked the papers back into her pocket. "Anyway, hadn't we better get to bed? Your father said it'd be several days before we got to Anford, and you said earlier that there aren't many places to stop on the way."
"There aren't," Daniel replied, shaking his head. "We'll have to get up early and ride until late for the next few days. Once we're past the river, it should be easier going. By then we'll be most of the way there, and there are more inns."
"The river?" Livia repeated shakily, and Daniel nodded. "Yes. There's a wide river between us and Anford. Didn't my dad mention that when he told you about the journey?"
"He must have done. I just forgot about it," Livia replied, smiling, though her smile looked as if it was only force of will that prevented it from wobbling and falling away. "Um, how wide is this river?"
"A mile or so, I think. That's what the map seems to say."
"Ah, right. A mile." By this point Livia had abandoned her attempts to stop her lips from trembling, and her hand was tapping nervously on the table. "And, er, how do we get across this mile-wide river?"
"I don't know. Maybe we swim?" replied Daniel jokingly, and Livia sighed.
"If it weren't for the fact I already slapped you for looking at those pictures, I'd hit you again. What do you think a mile of river water would do to feet made of metal?"
Daniel mused for a few moments, and then nodded. "You know, that's a good point." Livia glared at him, and he laughed. "Okay, I was joking. There's a ferry that goes across it during the day. I think it stops in the evening, but since there are inns on both sides of the river, we shouldn't have a problem with that." Livia sighed with relief.
"Just as long as I don't have to get wet, I'll be happy about going across any river," she said, slumping back in her chair.
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Daniel replied with a half-smile. "We once had someone come into the shop to repair a bilge pump on one of the ferries."
"What's a bilge pump?"
"It's something that pumps bilge, of course."
Livia sighed, and Daniel added, "Well, bilge is the water that you get in the bottom of a boat." Livia looked horrified at this.
"You mean there's a name for water that leaks in?" Daniel nodded. "Is that normal?" she asked, incredulous.
"That's what the man said. You can't make a boat that doesn't leak - well, maybe you can, if you use magic. I've never met a sorcerer who'd be interested in that kind of practical stuff, though," Daniel added with a grin. "All the ones I've known were either madmen who liked to make things that didn't work, or madmen who liked to write long books about making things that didn't work."
"Do you not like sorcerers either?" Livia enquired.
"No, sorcerers seem to be fairly good people," Daniel replied. "Most of them are very strange, but they're polite and they don't try to get money off their bills for coming along every six months, buying the best of your stock and still paying a fraction of what they'll sell it on for." He shrugged. "Anyway, about the man with the bilge pump. He says the ferries have three parts - there's the part on top, where you can sit if you want to see the view and get sprayed with water, a bit in the middle where you can sit and stay dry, and a bit at the bottom where the bilge goes. They don't let people into the bottom part, but sometimes the pump breaks down or gets clogged, and the part at the bottom can start to fill up." He looked at Livia's expression, now positively horrified, and hastily added, "He also said that the water doesn't reach the next part. The journey's over too quickly, and while they're docked they can get rid of all the water and change the pump."
"But can't you tell if the pump stops working during the journey?" Livia asked, still looking a little worried, though nowhere near as fearful as she had before.
"He did say that the pump makes a lot of noise while it's running," Daniel said. "So if you hear a loud clunk, then the noise drops, you'll know what's happened."
"You're not helping, you know," she replied acidly, and Daniel shrugged. "You were the one who asked about bilge pumps."
"And you were the one who said that you could get wet even on a ferry," Livia retorted.
"And it's getting late," Daniel replied, holding his arm up so Livia could see the face of the watch on his wrist. "We'll have to start just after dawn tomorrow. Go get some sleep, Livia."
Livia nodded, and got up from her chair. As Daniel did the same, picking up his bag and parcel as he did so, she asked, "Where are our rooms, then?"
Daniel shrugged his bag onto one shoulder, then held out a heavy iron key with a wooden tag attached to it. "The innkeeper says they're up the stairs and at the end of the corridor. Yours is the last one on the left, mine's on the right."
"Got it," Livia replied with another nod, and she smiled at him. "Thanks for all your help, Daniel. Do you need help with that bag?"
"It's okay," Daniel replied. "Looks like you've got your hands... er, hand full with that key." He grinned, and shifted his bag a little so that the weight rested more evenly. "I'll knock on your door in the morning, shall I?"
Livia shook her head. "Let's just meet down here in the morning. I'm sure we'll find a table free." Daniel nodded. "Whatever you want, Livia. I'll see you tomorrow, then." He made his way between the other tables in the inn, and disappeared up the stairs, while Livia stood by her chair, hand clutching the key. After a few seconds, she put her hand in her pocket, and nodded slightly.
"Tomorrow, then," she whispered, and headed to bed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-17 09:23 am (UTC)"My name is Gato; I have metal joints. Beat me up and earn fifteen silver points."
Not sure if the last line is right. ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-10-17 10:23 am (UTC)You got the words exactly right. :) Have you heard the OC Remix version of that? (Gato's 'song', done in several different styles...)
http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR00313 (http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR00313)
It is utter madness. And very fun to listen to.