Heavy footfall rings out in the narrow hallway as Johnny runs for his life.

“Go undercover they said, it’ll be fun they said,” he complains to himself as he ducks behind a large pipe, only just avoiding a hail of bullets coming from his pursuers.

“Shit! Careful of the pipe you idiots, do you want to bring us down!” the captain of the ship’s security team yells at his men.

Johnny takes this as his cue, dashing out from his cover and letting a shot go from his pistol into the pipe he just hid behind. With the steam gushing out of the pipe as his distraction, he runs on aiming for the storage rooms.

He had agreed to travel to the Modo Kingdom to steal valuable arcane resources from their mines in the desert thinking it was a great chance to gather some merit and maybe finally put his talents to good use. Unfortunately, he severely underestimated Modo’s security and had to make do with trying to steal one of their supply ships.

Which also turned out to be a mistake. Who would have thought they’d have a mage too? As he considers his life choices, Johnny turns a corner and spots a sturdy metal door to a storage room flanked by two guards armed with dangerous-looking clockwork rifles. The guards notice him coming and start raising said rifles towards him.

“I guess there’s no need to conserve mana now I’m practically fucked,” he sighs as he begins his chant: “Frost and mana do combine, release an arrow that true will fly!”

He points at the guard on the left of the door as he feels a cold power rush out of him and coalesce into a glistening arrow of blue ice. The arrow shoots forward too fast for the guard to avoid and embeds itself into his throat, instantly ending his life.

The second guard notices his partner's untimely death, he panics and shoots at Johnny who is already prepared with his pistol raised. He releases a bullet into the guard’s head, sending him to join his partner in eternal sleep. The guard’s shot unfortunately hits Johnny’s outstretched arm causing him to drop his pistol.

“FUCK!” he cries out in pain.

Johnny runs to the door and starts to turn the wheel to open it with one hand, which turns out to be as difficult as expected. He manages to get the door open as his pursuers turn the corner at the end of the corridor and he slips through the small gap to escape.

The inside of the storage room is piled high with wooden crates lining all the walls. He leans his back against the door to push it closed behind him while grabbing his right hand to stem the bleeding.

Johnny pants in ragged breaths as he frantically searches the room for any obvious exits or items to help him, but all he sees are the monotonous wooden crates and metal walls lined with pipes he’d grown to hate through his short excursion to the Modo Kingdom. He hears muffled yells on the other side of the door at the same time as he feels a strong push on the door at his back.

“I guess they saw me,” he muses while pushing back to hold the door shut. He releases his grip from his bleeding hand and points towards the edge of the door.

“By winter’s grasp and icy bond, hold fast my target tight and strong.”

The same cold power flows through him once again forming a thick layer of ice against the door. He knows it won't hold for long, but it allows him to move away from the door.

He walks to the centre of the storage room and takes one last look around seeing no exit.

“Well, I guess this is it,” he sighs and sits down watching the door, waiting for the guards on the other side to burst in. He silently steels his will as he gathers all his focus on his heart, or to be more specific, the three circles of power surrounding it.

As he gathers all the scattered mana from his circuits inwards. He feels a heat building, screaming to escape his chest. Just then, a loud explosion sounds out and the door blows off its hinges narrowly missing Johnny as it flies into the room. The leader of the ship’s guards walks in through a faint red haze of mysterious symbols fading in the air. His eyes land on the young man sitting calmly on the floor as if he isn’t cornered. He instantly realises something is wrong as he feels the pressure emanating from the boy and sees the grin creeping its way onto his face.

“For the queen!” Johnny yells his last words as his circles crack and detonate.

 

***

 

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Emily wakes up to the usual sound of metal on metal as her alarm clock goes off at 7 am. She lazily reaches out and hits it to try and get it to shut up. Unfortunately, she’d made sure it couldn’t be turned off without excessive force when she made it.

Urgh, stupid past me.

She slowly raises herself up in her bed, then picks up the clock and flips a switch on the back to disengage the ringer. Now fully conscious and unable to go back to the sweet embrace of sleep even if she wanted to, Emily stretches and climbs out of bed.

She throws on a pair of plain leather trousers and a ragged shirt before grabbing her empty knapsack and heading out of her room. She walks over to the door opposite her room and slams her fist on it repeatedly.

“Wake up Anna!” she yells at her sister through the door, waiting for a muffled “go away” to show she’d successfully done her job.

Why she can’t just ask Herber for her own clock or actually learn to make one herself I’ll never know.

She knows she won’t actually say this to Anna because she’d just get an earful about why sewing is so much more useful than clockmaking as she has several times before.

As she makes her way into the kitchen to grab breakfast, she is met by a small spindly man with short greying hair, hunched over the table gnawing on a piece of bread, staring at a small watch that doesn’t seem to tick.

“What’s wrong with that one?” she asks, pouring herself a bowl of leftover broth and grabbing a hunk of bread. As she sits down next to him, the man grabs the watch and holds it in front of her while responding.

“What do you think?”

Emily looks at the watch and sees a set of clearly bent gears with a few teeth completely sheared off.

“Wow, someone didn’t appreciate your work.” She laughs while taking a bite from her bread.

“Clearly! This is what I get for selling a good piece to one of those idiot merchants!” he angrily huffs, while reclaiming the watch and placing it gently back on the table.

Herber Coldstone, Emily’s adoptive father, is an avid watchmaker. They live on the outskirts of Eimdon City making a living creating watches for many people within the city, but the merchants are Herber’s least favourite customers due to the lack of care they show for his work. Several of the watches he made for them have been returned for repairs in a less-than-optimal condition which upsets the man who cares for his watches as if they were family.

“Stop moping already, you’re gonna ruin my breakfast. Anything you want me to look for to get it working?” Emily sighs and asks him as she swiftly makes her way through her bowl.

“Nah, I should have everything I need already,” Herber sighs as he stands up and ruffles her hair. “Just grab whatever you want for yourself. I’m excited to see what you come up with next!” He laughs, before dumping his bowl on the side and walking towards his workshop.

Herber had begun teaching Emily his craft after she showed an interest when he took her in at eight. Unfortunately, Anna, his biological daughter, was more interested in becoming a seamstress than a clockmaker so he was happy to know that his legacy was safe. Emily had turned out to be a star student for him. After only six years she was already almost as good as him. Then for the past year, she has been coming up with strange ideas, like her alarm clock, and constantly bringing him more excitement.

Emily finishes off her food and tosses her bowl next to Herber’s before making her way towards the shopfront to leave, but before she makes it out of the kitchen, she hears shuffling behind her and an exasperated sigh.

“I swear I’ve made you much nicer shirts than that one. Why do you still insist on wearing it to death?” Anna asks her. Emily glances back at the short girl standing in the doorway to the hallway with her arms crossed in front of her, who glares back.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll change once I get back. I don’t want to go ruining one of your masterpieces clambering over scrap heaps now do I?” she responds sarcastically, while sticking her tongue out, then turns her back and continues out of the door.

“Humph, at least you see the value of my work!” Anna yells at her retreating back.

“Haha, see you later sis!” Emily laughs as she walks out of the house grinning to herself. As much as they argue with each other, she loves her little sister and is glad she got to join their family.

She walks out onto the narrow, cobbled street glancing left then right at the tightly clustered buildings before turning towards the city’s edge to head out. After a leisurely stroll through a few narrow streets, she reaches the five-metre metal wall that surrounds the city. In front of her, set back into the wall, is a large set of sliding doors, flanked by a few of the city guards she recognises as Todd and Howard.

“Hey Emily, more scrap gathering today?” Todd calls out as he sees her approaching.

“Yeah, I need some more material to work on my newest creation!” She grins as she replies.

“This one ain't gonna blow up again, is it?” Howard says as he smirks at her.

“That was one time!” She blushes as she snaps at the guards, who both laugh. She may or may not have a history of her odd creations going slightly off the rails, like the time she thought it would be a good idea to use some black powder stolen from the guards to make her own weapon. It caused quite a commotion when it blew part of Herber’s workshop up, and she received a stern talking to from the guards and Herber, and now must do her experiments in a separate room Herber gave her to avoid damaging any of his work.

“Blowing up once is enough for us to be concerned, kid. Anyway, make sure you don’t take too long, otherwise we’ll switch shifts, and you’ll have to go through the usual check to get back in,” Todd winks as he turns around and pulls a lever next to him. There is a loud hissing as a jet of steam shoots out of a set of vents above the doors and the distinctive whirring of gears sounds as the doors slide open.

“Sure, see you guys soon!” Emily says as she walks out of the city.

Once out of the doors, she is met with the dilapidated buildings making up the slums outside the city. Emily quickly makes her way away from the walls and starts heading to one of the scrap heaps she frequents, weaving between buildings and people sitting on the streets begging for food. It takes her about fifteen minutes to reach the largest heap in the area.

As she looks over the towering collection of old metal and wood debris, she sees a large airship making its way towards the city. The large construct of metal is beautiful to Emily. A giant wonder of technology formed from a medley of smooth brass, polished wood, and sharp gears. Its large canvas fins propel it through the air leaving a trail of steam behind it, while its giant inflated balloon holds it afloat.

As much as old man Herber hates them, those merchants sure are lucky to get to ride airships like those.

Boom!

As Emily marvels at the ship coming towards her, the side of its hull explodes. A hail of metal fireballs rains down on the slums below and Emily sees what looks like cargo begin to fall out.

Unfortunately, she just so happens to be directly in the fallout zone.

Well, that’s not good.

She thinks to herself as hunks of flaming metal start to land around her.