Chapter VIII: A Much-Needed Shopping Trip

 

I vaguely remember, a week after my arrival on Selene, or my psychotic break depending on who you ask, waking up to good dreams and the smell of eggs cooking. I had been pushed particularly hard by Miss Rook the day before, and dinner had been light due to some unexpected spoilage deep in the cavernous pantries of the manor. In other words, I was starving. The moment I realized that breakfast was potentially on offer, I nearly leapt out of bed and began dressing myself.

Even by a week in, I was already used to my new reflection. I was able to focus less on the shapes of things and nothings and more on tying the knot properly so that my breasts would remain safely contained for the day. I glanced briefly at the one skirt that Anna had insisted on stocking my wardrobe with before carefully deciding which of my eight identical sets of underwear and loose-fitting pants to put on. From there it was a somewhat poorly-tailored white shirt which took much longer to button up than I’m proud to admit, and a short grey coat thing that I thought looked cool. Shoes on, pockets full of random crap I habitually carried around, I began my quest for food. I made it about thirty feet from my door before running head-on into Anna.

“Well well, what are you doing up so early?” she said.

“I smelled breakfast and you can’t stop me,” I said, trying to determine the direction of the good smells. Anna sighed.

“Good lord girl, you eat like you’re having a growth spurt. I suppose I’d eat like that too if I were so skinny, but still!” She was somewhat true. I was eating as much, if not more, with my five-foot-nothing body as I had been when I was eleven inches taller. It was weird, honestly.

“It’s because of Miss Rook. She’s really working me to the bone on those parry drills, you know?”

“Hmmm. I might have to request she tone it down a little, then,” said Anna, pursing her lips.

“There’s really no need for that. Besides the food and needing to take a nap sometimes, I feel fine, in fact I feel great. I’ve been attacked twice in the week since I got here, so I’m probably going to need to be able to use a sword,” I said.

“Very well then. I’ll escort you to the upper dining hall, then,” she said, gesturing towards the end of the hallway. I immediately started walking.

“No need to escort me, really. I know where most of the important rooms are by this point, and I can just ask one of the other staff if I need to go somewhere else,” I said, shrugging.

“Well that’s very good. I’m going to be going out on a supply run to the dockside, so I’ll be gone for most of the morning,” said Anna.

I furrowed my brow. Amrinval had a dockside, that I knew; the sea was visible from the higher parts of the manor out the windows. But I had never been there, or really anywhere. “Can I come with you?”

Now it was Anna’s turn to look unsure. “Why would you want to do that? It’s just a shopping trip, nothing more. Nothing to be excited about.”

“Except that I’ve never been to the dockside, or anywhere else in this city, at least from what I can remember. With the exception of the party that got interrupted by a giant metal death spider, I’ve been cooped up in this manor for a whole week! Plus, any opportunity to not have to talk to Aisha is a good opportunity.”

“I certainly cannot deny that,” said Anna, rolling her eyes. “Either way, we both need to eat, so come now.”

 

…

 

With my stomach full and Aisha nowhere to be seen, it was time to leave the manor for the second time. It was then that I learned that vehicles were apparently reserved for use by the halflances themselves, or else high-priority messengers and the like. Instead, we got a basket and feet. I was pretty much okay with this; no amount of walking could match what Rook put me through on a regular basis. Hell, I was even improving, although I still couldn’t catch up with Rook quite yet. Anna lead me out to the front gate, before quickly vanishing off into the servant’s quarters to change into a lighter dress and some walking shoes. She also had a wicker basket sling under her elbow, for groceries I suppose.

Then we set off. On foot, I really had the time to take in all of the other manors surrounding the Halflance estate, and the view was incredible. I wanted to run up and touch some of the elaborate iron walls and brickwork, to smell the elaborate flower bush arrangements, or stop and stare at the houses we passed. I also saw more servants out and about, dressed in similar plain yet clean styles to Anna, though the majority of the ones I saw wore pants rather than skirts. Anna explained that that was because the ones I saw, gardeners and mechanics and landscapers, were all outdoor servants who wore trousers, whereas indoor servants such as Anna were meant to wear skirts when reasonable. I wasn’t sure if that made sense to me or not.

Things continued like that for a few blocks, with me being excited by basically everything I saw, while Anna tried to ignore my existence. I also noticed something about her that I hadn’t before: she walked with an ever so subtle limp. I didn’t want to be intrusive, so I didn’t ask about it. Then, just as the buildings around us started to get smaller and less ornate, we arrived at a cable car stop. There was a marked sign containing the street names, next to a wooden bench and a cluster of people. Most of them were servants, though a few of them looked like lower-class workers judging by the dirtier clothes. It was with a touch of disturbance that I realized that this was the first time I had seen a poor person since my transportation.

The cable car that arrived was already full, meaning that Anna and I had to stand on the external ledge, a position that worried me to be sure. I spent the entire trip clutching onto the pole with both hands and staying as far from the edge as possible, while Anna nonchalantly held on with one hand. This time traveling through the city, we ended up taking a more circuitous route, with the enormous hive of gothic bridges and clustered towers always in the distance. I noticed that Amrinval didn’t have much in the way of industry, with only the scattered smokestacks of homes and businesses marking the skyline. This is not to say that it was a clean city, as soon became clear.

The style of architecture changed rapidly as the cable car moved closer to the seaside, with red brick and black iron fading into a steady sea of grey stone. The streets grew ever more scattered with garbage and detritus, the people similarly so. There weren’t many servants or middle class women in this part of the city, with most of the population seemingly made up of dour middle-aged shopkeepers, young girls selling produce, and rough-hewn sailors. Amrinval truly was a port city, I supposed. The buildings around, from what I could gather, were also related to the sea, with taverns and inns and small shops eking it out in the gaps between the enormous warehouses.

“Are you sure it’s safe to be out here, dressed like this?” I whispered to Anna.

“I’ve done it plenty of times before,” she whispered back, not looking in my direction. “The wealthy are too easily longed for to be a good target. The thieves down here prey on each other.” Phrasing it like that really did not make me feel better.

Eventually, as the cable car ground to a halt once more, Anna signaled it was time to get off. We jumped off the step and onto the busy street, before the car clanked off into the distance. Anna immediately set off at a brisk walk, knowing exactly where she needed to go. It soon became clear why, as I followed her around a corner and into the largest marketplace I had ever seen. The people were densely packed, with thousands of small stalls selling everything from food and spices to handmade trinkets and jewelry, even a few people selling written accounts of journeys to faraway lands. The smells of human sweat mingled with fresh cooked food and other odors from things that could not possibly have existed back on Earth, making me want to stand there and breathe it all in for a few seconds; but Anna was already off towards her goal, and I followed.

I’m pretty sure if her pale yellow dress hadn’t contrasted so heavily with the surroundings I would have lost Anna half a dozen times over. Once I was in the middle of the crowd, even the sound started to get overwhelming, as loud voices speaking in both English and languages I had never heard before assaulted me at every turn. The crowd itself proved to be an obstacle, because apparently nobody in this entire marketplace had heard of personal space. I was shoved and jostled around by people passing by me, and on more than one occasion a woman tried to grab hold of my shoulder in an attempt to sell something to the visiting snob. Eventually Anna stopped at a stand selling various sorts of fruit, and I was able to catch up to her.

“Hey, could you slow down a bit? I nearly got lost out here!” Anna had picked up a weird yellow fruit and was examining it closely. She stopped to look at me for a moment.

“I’m sorry Miss, I hadn’t realized this was going to be an issue. I’ll try to slow down…” she trailed off, looking back at the fruit stand. I wasn’t particularly interested in fruit, so I decided to look around. 

A little distance away was a small open plaza with stone benches set into the ground. Currently occupying those benches was a cluster of sailors, still in ragged black uniforms; presumably they were on shore leave. They were uniformly masculine, with lots of bulky muscle covered in scars and tattoos, and hair an inch long or less. They were snacking on some meat kebabs from a stand on the other side of the plaza and talking about something. One of the sailors glanced over her shoulder and locked eyes with me for just a moment. Her hair was black and just long enough for me to know that, contrasting against her sandy brown skin. Her nose had clearly been broken at least once before, and there were scars all over her exposed arms. She was also incredibly muscular with huge biceps and a flat chest, and could probably snap my spine with her bare hands.

After seeing me, she smirked before turning back to her companions and said something. I wasn’t sure what was going on with the smirk, until one of the other sailors turned towards me, put her fingers to her lips, and gave a rather impressive wolf whistle. The others followed suit, whistling and gesturing me over in between breaks to laugh with each other. The original woman who had seen me gave a flirtatious wink. I turned back to Anna, trying not to think about the sailors and blushing furiously.

Why had I of all people drawn their attention? I guess I had been staring at them for a few seconds, but you don’t normally respond to getting stared at with so much… enthusiasm. Then I looked down. I was a skinny young woman, about five feet tall, with ass for days. Was I cute? Is this was cute is? And why was the thought that I was cute making my face warm and stuffing my stomach with butterflies? I remembered back to when I had first looked at my new body naked in the mirror, how I had felt then. I was vaguely attractive and rather androgynous, and apparently the sailors were into that.

Then I realized that I had been catcalled. I had just been, for the first time in my life, catcalled. And worse, I almost enjoyed it! Actual women had to deal with stuff like this all the time, and here I was liking it. I grimaced at myself, realizing what I had spent several seconds just thinking. This wasn’t even my real body that was getting catcalled either, it was a female form of myself. Was this some kind of fetish I had? Did I enjoy getting objectified as a woman? Of course, you take a man and put him in a tiny female body and suddenly he turns into a pervert who likes getting whistled at by butch lesbians.

“Miss Emma, could you try one of these for me?” said Anna. The sound of her voice snapped me out of that thought. She was holding out a small fruit, larger than a grape but smaller than an apricot, solid yellow in color. I took it from her and popped it into my mouth. It was an unusual taste, like nothing I had ever tasted before. I let it sit in my mouth for a little while, before swallowing. “How does it taste?” Anna asked.

“It’s sweet, and thick like syrup, but also a little bitter? Not to mention that the skin pops like a grape and it’s full of these little fiber things. What on earth is this?” I said. Anna was already turning back to the saleswoman.

“I’ll take a pound of the samanomilea fruit,” she said. Looking over her shoulder at me she said, “The bitterness means that it’s ripe.” The fruit-seller, an old woman in a dull red shawl, with deeply wrinkled skin the color of tree bark, weighed out a pound of the yellow fruit on a rusted metal scale before placing them in a paper package, which Anna placed in her basket. Then she was off to the next stand. After more careful navigating through the dense crowds, we arrived at a spice stand, a large bench containing several small sacks full of various powders, including one which was almost a bright bluish-purple in color.

“So why are we getting these things specifically?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh yes, they’re for Sir Margaret. She’s Jaleran you see, and some of these ingredients remind her of home, so she always asks for food that reminds her of home,” said Anna. She took a pinch of one of the spices and held it under her nose, sniffing at it.

“Jaleran?” I said, furrowing my brow and trying to think if I had heard that term before. “I’m not sure what that means.”

“Well I’m sure you’ve noticed her… appearance. The Jalerans were the inhabitants of Bluerose before the Cassandrans arrived and settled here… about two hundred years ago, I think. If you’ve noticed the red brick and wood houses on the outskirts, those are Jaleran designs.” Oh boy. Colonialism. One of those things that I love so much.

“Is that why everybody hates the Halflances so much? Because Sir Margaret isn’t white?”

Anna looked down, frowning. “No, no. There are plenty of fine Imbric women who have married with Jalerans, especially since the War of Independence. If it wasn’t for the Jalerans, we would still be part of the Cassandran Empire!”

“That doesn’t really make it sit better with me. I haven’t seen any other Jalerans besides Sir Margaret who aren’t servants, and that tells me a lot,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Well is isn’t like there’s anything I can do about it,” Anna sighed. “The word of God is to do one’s duty and be kind to others, so that is what I do. I know from experience that Sir Margaret is a decent person, so I treat her in kind.”

“And here I was worried for a second that you were an asshole. That still doesn’t explain why everybody hates the Halflances so much.” Without a moment of hesitation, Anna proceeded to whirl around and start beelining for the next stall.

“Come now Miss Emma, we still have several more things to purchase for Sir Margaret’s dinner,” she said, only half-audible through the din of the crowd.

I had to rush to keep up with her, as she had evidently abandoned her instructions to slow down. Fortunately, I was also beginning to get used to the crowds, and I was still able to keep up.

“Hey! Stop avoiding the question,” I said, as Anna stopped to pick up a jar of some kind of yellow solid, which I was pretty sure was an unusual form of butter.

Anna looked back at me, lips pursed in annoyance. “Did you ask about Lady Halflance’s children?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “But that didn’t tell me much besides that she doesn’t like her oldest, Parker.”

“And that’s all that you need to know about that.” If I knew anything about Anna, it was that she was as stubborn as an unusually stubborn cat. An awkward silence settled between us, as we moved from the butter to other stands selling lentils, roots, alcohol, and things that I couldn’t even identify. I didn’t want to spend the entire trip looking around and being quiet, so I had to come up with something to talk about.

“You said you’re religious?”

“My second mother raised a good Vesselite, and I’m…” she began to say, before I cut her off.

“Vesselite? I’ve never heard of that. Also, what’s this ‘second mother’ thing I keep hearing about?” I said. Then, realizing I had done something impolite, I added: “Sorry to interrupt but I don’t really know what you’re talking about.”

Anna stopped in the middle of paying for a jar of something orange that I had long ago given up on identifying. She stared at me, quirking an eyebrow. “You don’t know what a Vesselite is?” I shook my head. More awkward silence. “Oh my goodness, Miss Emma, I am so very sorry. You’ve been so active around the manor that I had completely forgotten about your brain fever!”

“Yeah, the brain fever…” I said. I wasn’t sure which I was more tired of; having to have things explained to me, or having to pretend that I had suffered from some kind of brain fever that made me forget.

“Your first question is easy enough to answer: my first mother is the one who gave birth to me, while my second mother added her bloodline to mine. As for your other question…” she stopped to consider her words. “Vesselism is the word of God, as passed to us through her daughter Miranda God-vessel, who blessed us with her presence a century and a half ago. Miranda tells us that we must battle for our souls against the corruption of the Ur-Nahaj and her minions in Cassandra. Of course, I can’t use a sword to save my life, so my part in the great war mostly comes down to working hard and going to church on Sunday,” said Anna, sounding as if she was reading it off of a script in front of her.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “We had something similar back on Earth, though a bit less militant, usually.” I suddenly furrowed my brow. “Though now that I think about it, I’m fairly sure I’ve seen Lady Halflance around the manor on Sundays.”

“Well that’s an easy mystery to solve,” said Anna, placing a jar in her basket, before beckoning me onwards to the next food seller. “Lady Halflance and Sir Margaret are both heathens.”

“Wait, really?” I said, almost tripping over my own feet.

“Yes. I couldn’t tell you the full story, seeing as I’ve only been working for the Halflances for five years now, but my understanding is that Count Halflance converted not long after the marriage.”

“That makes sense to me,” I said, shrugging. 

“Either way, they follow some sort of Jaleran religion. I heard they worship the Archopolids, thinks that they’re angels or some such nonsense,” she said, before turning away to negotiate the price of some onions. I thought about what she had said, holding my chin in my hands. If what I had heard about the Archopolids was true, it would make sense if they were ascribed some kind of religious significance, being so strange and incredibly old. Of course, that was assuming that the Jalerans hadn’t built the Archopolids themselves, which was a distinct possibility.

With her transaction done, Anna lead me onwards. This time we walked considerably farther, winding between stalls and tents, passing through another large open plaza, until we stopped at a small stand selling jewelry. Anna spent a few seconds perusing while I tried to figure out why she was here. Then, she picked up a necklace. It was a small pendant of a sunflower, made out of ceramic and hung from a golden chain.

“How would you like this for formal events?” she said, holding it in front of me.

“That’s for me? I thought we were just buying food for Sir Margaret!”

“We were doing that, yes,” said Anna, smirking. “However, I believe Sir Margaret also said that she caught you eyeing her jewelry collection, and gave me a bit of extra coin with which to get you something of your own.” I had no idea that Sir Margaret had seen me doing that. To be fair to me, her jewelry collection was very extensive and very high quality, and I had never had a chance to really wear any considering that I was a guy. I mean, I might have still been a guy but at least now I had the body to go with the shiny stuff, right?

“Uhhhh… not quite a fan of the sunflower thing. Let me pick one out.” I quickly searched through the many necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings on display. My sight eventually landed on one piece in particular. It was a necklace, with a thin silver chain, passing through the center of what appeared at first to be a simple silver loop. In fact, the pendant took the shape of a snake swallowing its own tail, with one tiny emerald representing the snake’s eye. “How about this one,” I said, pointing at it.

“Interesting. It matches your eyes, certainly.” She turned to the shopkeeper, a middle-aged Jaleran woman. “How much for this one?” After paying for it, she handed me the necklace. I stuffed it into my pocket, not having the confidence to put it on yet. With that last errand done, we made our way back through the market, and returned to the cable car station. A few minutes after that, we were on our way back to the Halflance manor.

…

The cable car stopped once again to let on and off more passengers. I hadn’t had a chance to count the stops between the marketplace and the manor, so I looked to Anna. She shook her head no. 

Then I noticed something, a building near the stop, and a small smirk came to me. I checked my pocket, finding that I indeed had stashed a few coins in there, enough to pay the fair. I jumped out of my seat and quickly rushed out of the cable car, with Anna following me out. With my head start, she didn’t catch me until I was already out of the tram, which pulled away,

“What are you doing, Miss Emma? I told you that this isn’t our stop yet!” she said.

“I know that. But look at that,” I said, pointing my finger towards the building which had drawn my attention in the first place. It was a large, dour structure built from concrete and stone. Over the front door was a sign, reading EDSEL ARCHOPOLIDS LtD. “There’s no reason not to do a bit of investigating while we’re here, is there?”

Anna sighed deeply. “I suppose not. You realize they aren’t just going to let you look around, no?”

“I was under the assumption that I could improvise, that usually seems to work,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ear as I realized that it would probably not work.

“Hmph. That’s certainly one way of going about it. However, I’m going to take the lead on this one if you don’t mind.”

“What are you going to do, be polite at them?” I said.

“I just so happen to know someone who works here. It’s been entirely too long since I paid her a visit, and maybe you’ll be able to have a chat as well.” With that, she set off confidently in the direction of the workshop, still carrying her basket of groceries from the market. 

The main door of the workshop was a heavy steel double door with nothing in the way of windows, and clearly locked. Anna approached it, and with her free hand hammered on the door a few times. After a second or so, the sound of clicking and clanking metal echoed dully through the door, before it was opened. Sticking her head through the small opening in the door was a woman about my age, her chubby, cool brown cheeks stained with black grease and soot.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” she said.

“I’m Anna Livia Plurabelle, and this is my friend Emma Farrier. I was just stopping by to speak to someone who works here. Is Hester around?” Anna said, leaning forward and trying to get a glimpse through the open door. 

The grease-stained woman pulled her head back through the door, holding it only an inch open. Her voice was clearly audible, but muffled, as she shouted “Hester! There’s an ‘Anna’ out here who wants to see you!”

A few seconds passed before the doors of the workshop were thrown open by another engineer, who rushed forward and gave Anna a full bear hug. She was a big woman, with thick muscles and a decent amount of fat. Her skin was fair, where it could be seen below stains of soot and grease, and heavily freckled around the arms and face. Her hair was the same auburn shade as Anna’s, a short undercut that reminded me of a biker or some such. She was also wearing a heavy leather apron over sturdy work clothes, as well as a helmet and pair of goggles that covered her eyes.

“Emma, this is my sister Hester,” said Anna, still locked in the hug.

“It’s been entirely too long, Anna. How have you been?” said Hester, releasing her grip on her substantially shorter and less muscular sister.

“Oh, you know, working for the Halflances, sending what I can back to mother. This is Emma, by the way, Lady Halflance’s ward,” said Anna, gesturing in my direction. “Myself and Sir Margaret (that’s Lady Halflance’s wife) found her lying face-down in the street without a single clue as to who she was or where she came from.”

“Yeah,” I said, tapping on my temple, “we think it’s some kind of brain fever.”

Hester grimaced. “That has to be rough, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not actually that bad, really. Anything that I would have lost I don’t remember, so it doesn’t hurt. And this means that the world will never be short on surprises,” I said, gaze drifting away from Hester and towards the open door of the workshop. Hester turned back to her sister.

“Have you heard from Chalice or Jane recently?” asked Hester. Anna glanced absentmindedly towards the sky, thinking.

“No, I don’t think I have. I hope nothing’s gone wrong with them. I do remember mother saying that Quinn got a position as a doctor’s apprentice a few towns up the coast!” said Anna.

“Ha! I always thought she had an eye for the sciences. With the kickbacks from that, mum might be able to buy a larger house,” said Hester. She chuckled to herself at that, but it was clear that she was genuinely happy. Then I interrupted.

“Hey, is that the modified Archopolid in there, the one that got used to attack the party?” I said, pointing into the workshop. Most of the workshop’s space was taken up by an enormous mass of machinery and metal that only vaguely resembled an Archopolid at first place. As I tried to figure out what it was, I started picking out the sprawled limbs and metallic joints that were trademark to those disturbing arachnid machines.

“Yes, it is. How do you know about that? The company’s been keeping it under wraps, as far as I’ve heard,” said Hester.

“I know about it because I was there. The thing shot at me. Do you mind if I have a look at it, see if I can figure out a bit of who did it?” I asked.

Before Hester could say anything, Anna stepped in, grabbing onto her sister’s shoulder and fluttering her eyelashes. “I know it’s against company rules and all that, but what could she possibly do, she’s just one girl. Show her around the thing! Who knows, you might even land yourself a new employee.”

Hester rolled her eyes, a look that told me that she was the elder sister. “Alright, come on in… Emma was it?”

I nodded, and she let me into the workshop, introducing me to a few of the other engineers. Then it was on to the main attraction, the tangled heap that was once the Archopolid’s body.

“So I assume that they weren’t designed to be assassins?” I asked.

“Of course not! They’re laborers, they lift steel beams and excavate soil. Whoever did this would have had to write an entirely new set of programs to make it attack anyone, let alone a crowded party…” she said. I furrowed my brow a bit. That wasn’t good, because it implied that Nemesis had some degree of actual skill. She maybe have been terrible at villain monologuing, but apparently she could carry through on the actual murder.

“Do you know how Nemesis got access to it? It seems to me like it’d take more than a few hours and a toolbox to rewire a machine this big.” I said, walking up to the Archopolid and absentmindedly stroking a finger along its leg. Nothing but cold metal.

Hester opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. “And who, exactly, is ‘Nemesis’?”

“The one who did this. She sent a few messed-up cyborgs to Lady Halflance’s house a few days later, killed a few of her guards. I couldn’t tell you why, but she has a massive hate-on for Lady Halflance specifically, and the scientific knowledge to back it up.” Why is it always the crazy people who are genius scientists. Maybe if I went off the rails and tried taking over the world I would have gotten straight A’s.

“That would explain quite a bit. You see, with these Archopolids, you don’t actually have to change the wiring at all to reprogram them like with most analytical engines, it’s all operated from a roll of paper tape mounted in the head bit.” Hester gestured vaguely towards the top of the machine, where I already knew from experience the brain of the Archopolid was. “As far as anyone can guess, she broke into one of the company warehouses and did the modifications overnight, and nobody noticed ’til it was too late.”

“Do you think she had help?” I asked.

“I don’t see how she’d have done it in that little time otherwise, so yes. I also think one of her servants might have been at the ball in the aftermath of the attack, because the tape roll went missing before we could get the wreckage.” 

I quickly turned away to hide my face turning red. I had sort of done that, and it only just then hit me that that was technically theft. To be fair to myself, I was still running on leftover adrenaline rush at that point. I quickly came up with a way to change the topic.

“Speaking of programming, I’ve been looking into some of the basics just as something to spend my time on. Could look at something I found?” I pulled a small notebook from my coat pocket.

“Well I’d have to say that I’m more of an engineer than a programmer. But ye, I’ll take a look,” said Hester. She pulled up her goggles, revealing large brown eyes had a surprisingly intense gaze. I flipped the notebook to the right page, a long string of code I had copied off of the tape roll and started annotating. I pointed out the correct section and handed the notebook over to Hester. Her eyes rapidly traced out the lines of text while I waited impatiently. Just before I asked what she thought, she started talking.

“This looks like a targeting subroutine, it’s what allows the Archopolids to tell a steel beam from a tree and so on,” she said, still focusing rather intensely on the notebook.

“Is that it? None of the other reference books I found had the code set up like this,” I said.

“Oh goodness no, it’s a very odd construction,” said Hester, shutting the notebook. “It’s probably functional, but I’ve never seen anyone who does it like that. Where did you see that code, or did you write it yourself?”

“I uhhhhh… The Halflance’s library is rather extensive. I found a rare sort of guide on Archopolid programming by this one woman, I forget her name,” I said, stumbling over the lie like tree root in the dark during a rainstorm. After an awkward second, she seemed to accept it.

“Well then, is there anything else you’d want to know about?”

“Um. Where did she get the big gun?” I asked, sheepishly.

“That’s a bloody good question,” said Hester, shrugging. “We had a lady from the government come over and try to take it back, except that we still haven’t figured out how to remove the gun without damaging the Archopolid. Come on, let me show you.” She made a beckoning gesture, and walked around the back of the Archopolid.

I circled around to follow her. The machine rifle was indeed still attached, and from the way it was attached to the side of the metal spider’s head it was mounted right around stomach level. The rifle itself was essentially a box, roughly a foot and a half long and a hand’s length wide, except for the barrel and the mounting itself, a complicated assemblage of cables and rods that my eye couldn’t quite follow.

“You see, this thing is called a Tiffany Mark 2, it’s a—“ Hester began.

“Tiffany?” I said. There was no way this killing machine was called a Tiffany.

“Ye, after Theophania Greystoke. She’s a famous weapons engineer, the Bluerose military’s pride and joy,” Hester said. She turned to me, and seeing my blank expression, added: “You haven’t heard of… oh right, brain fever.”

“Yes, brain fever. So what you’re telling me is that Nemesis must have stolen this thing from a military base, or might even be a member of the military?” I said, cradling my chin in my hand and staring unfocusedly at the machine rifle.

“Well there’s the rub; this thing is a military prototype, which hasn’t even been put into field testing yet. It’s not unique, but there are only a few places in the country where these things are being tested.”

“Huh. That narrows down the list of suspects at least,” I said.

“Suspects? Are you trying to find her?” said Hester, stepping closer to me.

“Of course I am, she’s tried to kill me twice now!”

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea, Emma.” Hester crossed her arms. “Doing the work she did on this thing, and in so little time, would have required some serious smarts, and that makes her dangerous. Not to mention, if she’s gone after you, that means that she’s not above going after my sister either.”

“Hester, your sister is going to be completely fine. Nemesis is after Lady Halflance, not her.”

Hester nodded. “Well that’s good. Because if I hear that my sis got so much as a paper cut, I’m going to walk right up to the Halflance estate and punch you in the face.” 

I turned back, glancing at Anna, leaning against the wall and checking her fingernails. “Nice talk, Hester. Your sister is a great woman. Anyway, I have to go.” I returned to Anna and gave a brief rundown of the conversation with Hester, including the part where she threatened to punch me. Anna chuckled, informing me that that was “classic Hester”. From there we made our way back to the cable car stop and rode the rest of the way back to the manor. 

It felt like it had been a lot longer than the two hours that it had actually been, probably because of all the walking. I went to take a rest, maybe read something, when Aisha showed up and started chewing me out for missing our “etiquette lessons”. Some people never change.

Author's Note: Sorry for the inconsistent upload schedule, have had a lot of things distracting me, other projects to work on, etc, not to mention how long some of these chapters can be (did you know that this chapter is longer than the first three chapters put together?) I will definitely be trying to upload at least once every 2-3 weeks, even if the weekly schedule has proven completely unsustainable. I also hope people are interested in these more dialogue-heavy chapters, with less action and more characterization, as there will be a few of these coming up. Again, thank you so so so much to those people who leave ratings, comments, favorites, and reviews, I always look forwards to those when posting a new chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!