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“There, that should be—should be it,” Thea said, completing the circle with a final swipe of chalk across the floor. One of Papa’s staff hovering nearby reached for the chalk and offered a hand to help her stand, but she shook her head, tucking the chalk into her own pocket and got to her feet herself. The large, dockside workshop was busier than she’d ever seen it, swarming with assistants, engineers, and Papa’s investor friends. Her hands had been shaking so badly it took much longer than it should have to complete the circle, and she did her best to block out her large audience. “Ms Rattaker, is the prototype ready?”
Sprawled out on a metal chair next to the Certainty Engine Mark I, Ms Rattaker rolled her eyes. Around her feet bunched the rags she’d been polishing the engine with while passing the time, but apparently she’d got bored of even that while Thea had been getting everything ready. “Hasn’t changed in the last five minutes since ya asked, no.”
A hand closed on Thea’s shoulder and she glanced up to find Papa standing protectively just behind her. “Now then, Ms Rattaker, remember this whole thing wouldn’t be possible without my precious Petal here. Some respect is in order.”
Cringing, Thea tried to signal with her eyes to Ms Rattaker that it was really okay, it had been a silly question anyway, but Ms Rattaker just nodded at Papa, chastised. “Sorry, bossman. Uh, sorry, Ms Pryce. Yeah, it’s all good. Still.”
“Thank you, Ms Rattaker,” Thea mumbled. “Um, Papa, could you give me the, uh—” She swallowed but did her best to keep going smoothly. “—the offering?”
“Here.” He clasped her hand and placed the simple gold band in her palm, folding her fingers around it. “That should do.”
“Are you… sure about this offering?” Thea asked, lowering her voice. She’d already tried bringing it up, but this was her last chance to make sure Papa didn’t do something he’d regret.
“Completely certain,” Papa replied breezily.
“But… you know you won’t be able to get the ring back?”
“Just one of the many sacrifices that must be made along the way to the greater good, my dear.” Smiling, Papa caressed her cheek. “I understand your concerns, Petal, but I promise you, there is nothing to worry about. When your Mama returns to her senses and comes home from her little… jaunt… we’ll simply have new rings made. When I slipped this ring onto her finger at our wedding and knew she was the one… I’ve never been more certain of anything than I was in that moment. What could make a better offering?”
He had a point. Biting her lip, Thea nodded. “Alright. And the engine should act as the conduit. I think I’m ready to begin.”
Klang klang-a-klang klang! Thea jumped as Ms Rattaker loudly rapped her hands on the engine, that huge maniac grin taking over her often-sullen face. “Let’s get this thing fired up!”
“Yes, thank you for the enthusiasm, Ms Rattaker…” Papa said, and he gave an encouraging smile. “Go on, Petal. Just like we practiced.”
Thea settled herself in the middle of the circle, next to the Certainty Engine, and took a deep breath. She could... do this. Papa was counting on her. Everyone here was counting on her. And now the moment had finally come, now everything was in place.
Almost everything.
“Um. Ms Rattaker? I need to do the summons now. You should probably be on the outside of the circle. For safety.”
Ms Rattaker shook her head, laying a protect hand on the engine. “Ya think I’m lettin’ some spirit mess around with my baby without me to keep an eye on things?!”
“Your ‘baby’?” Papa had that hard edge in his voice, the one he used on the other businessmen when things got serious. The one that always made them back down.
But Ms Rattaker just grinned. “Heh. Figure of speech, bossman. Ya get attached to special machines like this. Lemme stick around, just so I can jump in if anythin’ seems like it’s gonna go boom.”
Sat quietly on the floor, Thea glanced between Papa and Ms Rattaker until Papa finally frowned. “Fine. Petal, let’s get things moving.”
“Yes, Papa.”
Thea laid her hands on the warehouse floor (swept immaculately clean by one of Papa’s staff just earlier), closed her eyes, and started to speak the summoning incantation. She had the words on a piece of paper in her pocket, but she didn’t need to read them. She never did. Whenever she first read a spell, it was like discovering the knowledge had always been there, and seeing the words just brushed off the dust. It was never a surprise. She was lucky to have such a knack for it, she supposed. If only drawing could be so easy.
She sensed, rather than saw, the energy flare into the circle, a form slowly emerging before her as the magic flowed from the circle, the ring, and then engine—no, wait, it wasn’t just the engine, it was—
“The hell?!” barked Ms Rattaker, and Thea snapped open her eyes to find her surrounded in the same faint light as the rest of the circle.
“Oh, er—!” Thea went to raise her hands but stopped before she could break the connection. The form of the emerging spirit solidified in the air by the moment. “Don’t worry! You’re just a part of the conduit, I think? Just wait a moment, Certainty is almost here, I’ve almost—”
No. I don’t think so.
The voice, a clipped no-nonsense tone, sounded in her head, and then with a flash of light the almost-here spirit vanished once more, leaving the circle, conduit, and offering inert once more.
Papa rushed to the edge of the circle, careful not to cross the line. “What happened? Why didn’t it work? What went wrong? Are you—”
His barrage of words continued but Thea just shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened… I nearly had it, I think it spoke to me for a second, but then it just… I’m sorry.”
“Ms Rattaker!” With a flick of his wrist, Papa tried to dismiss her. “Clearly you should have listened when she asked you to leave the circle.”
“No, no, I think she needs to be here. She’s Certain enough it was using her as a conduit.” Thea sighed, lowering her head in shame. “It was my fault. I must not have been Certain enough myself…”
“Whatever are you unsure about? We’ve been over it all so many times!”
“I don’t know, it’s just… a lot of people watching, and…”
Ms Rattaker clapped her hands. “Right. Everyone, you heard our wizard girlie! Get outta here!” Her engineers scattered, while the investors muttered unhappily among themselves. A few of Papa’s staff shifted uneasily on the spot, glancing between her and Papa, until she smacked one of them in the forehead with a thrown balled-up rag. “Now! And that means you lot too,” she added, waving her hand dismissively at the investors.
“I say—” one of them began, but Papa cut him off.
“Is that any way to speak to your—”
“Are ya payin’ fer my manners, or my expertise?” Ms Rattaker smirked. “That’s what I thought. And right now, my expertise is sayin’ we need t’clear the room or she’s not going to summon shit.”
Papa’s jaw tightened and he set his shoulders. “Very well. Come now, gentlemen, let’s give my daughter some privacy for a moment, and then you can come right back to see the results.” He graciously ushered the unhappy investors out of the room, subtly signalling for the staff to bring them some refreshments while they waited. “She can be terribly shy sometimes, you know how girls can be…”
As Papa closed the door behind everyone, Thea gave a small sigh of relief. She looked up to Ms Rattaker stood over her and whispered, “Thank you.”
“Feelin’ ready to go?”
“Um…” Thea bit her lip. “Maybe?”
Rolling her eyes, Ms Rattaker pulled a face. “Ugh, that’s no good.” Then she grinned and flashed Thea a wink. “No worries, I gotcha. Oi, bossman! That includes you! We’ll grab ya in a minute once we’re done!”
“What are you talking about? Of course she needs me here, for support, don’t you, Petal?”
Thea glanced at Ms Rattaker, who shook her head ever so slightly, then turned so she could face Papa by the door. “I do appreciate it, it’s just…”
“We’re gonna need a little talk, to get her head on straight,” Ms Rattaker supplied. “Y’know. Gal to gal. You think she wants her Daddy around fer that?”
“Just give us a minute, Papa, please?”
Papa looked at her with a strange expression for a moment, like he didn’t know who she was, and then it melted into his usual fond smile. “Alright, whatever you want, my dear. Just do everything exactly as we planned, and then come and get me right away. I’ll be just on the other side of this door.”
The metal door clanged shut behind him, and Thea took a deep breath, settling back into position. Opposite her, Ms Rattaker got down onto the floor too, leaning back on her hands with one knee raised, the other leg stretched out.
“I don’t want to be rude but… we’re not really going to have to have a ‘girl talk,’ are we?” Thea asked.
Ms Rattaker looked horrified. “Hell no! I just needed t’get him outta here, he was stressin’ you out. Gettin’ the workshop environment right’s important, ya know.”
Thea looked around at the chaotic, disorganised mess piles of Ms Rattaker’s workshop and decided not to comment. “I’m still not sure I can do it though.”
“Well not with that attitude ya can’t! What are ya so worried about anyway? I’ve seen ya do a summons and imbuing a hundred times before already, what’s so different about this one?”
“Nothing… but—”
“No buts! Right now we’ve got one job an’ one job only: get this beautiful hunk of metal up and running. I’ve done my part. And I know ya can do yers in yer sleep. So let’s get goin’.”
“I wish I could have your confidence...”
“Ya should. Yer pretty, yer daddy’s rich, and yer the best damn wizard I ever saw. Y’know people would kill fer whatcha got? Few years back I sure woulda—”
“I didn’t ask for any of—”
“So? Ya got it. Ya want my confidence? Hell, with yer talent ya could probably just take it. Take anythin’ ya damn well want, if you’d just stop worryin’ over nothin’ all the time!”
Thea wished she could have one of her pencils in hand to calm her, even a bit of chalk would do, but she had to be careful not to make any extra marks that might disrupt the summons. “I appreciate the effort, but it’s really not a question of if I can make the summons.”
“Now that’s what I like t’hear!”
“It’s a question of if I should. Papa’s plan for once the engine is working and the Good Intentions is finished, it’s—”
“Who cares what yer daddy’s plannin’ to do with it afterwards? That’s not what we’re focusin’ on here! We can’t be wasting time thinkin’ about what’s goin’ to happen tomorrow, or next week, or next year. We just gotta do the job in front of us.”
“But, if he—”
“What, ya don’t trust him?”
“It’s not that, it’s just it’s all very complicated and—”
“Ah, I getcha. Sometimes when ya start work on a real big machine, ya get stuck in thinkin’, how the hell is this thing ever gonna all fit together? There’s way too much goin’ on! An’ it seems more likely to blow up and kill half the city than actually work.”
“With your machines, is that actually… possible? Likely?”
“Oh yeah, haha, that’s why I’m always real careful. But anyway, my point is. When ya start tryna think of every little thing that might go wrong before ya even start, yer not gonna get anywhere. Ya gotta just start with one component, that’s all. The rest will sort itself out.”
“You really believe that?”
“Always has so far! Whatever weird hangups ya got about this whole thing, ya got plenty of time to talk it out with yer daddy. Fer now, let’s focus on component one.”
“Component one…” Thea repeated to herself. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. This is just the prototype after all. And I’m sure once Papa sees all the good it can do, he’ll forget about the less… good parts of his plan, and see reason.”
“He’s a reasonable guy!” Ms Rattaker agreed cheerfully, and though Thea knew she was just saying whatever to get her to move along, she let herself be comforted by it anyway. “So, now are ya ready?”
“Yes, I believe I am.”
Doubts quietened, at least for now, Thea began the summons once more. This time it was the words were ready and waiting in her mouth. The spirit appeared in an instant. There was something in a hawk in its general shape, the quick, deliberate movements of its head. Thea studied it carefully, tucking away every detail for her sketches later.
“You’re back,” it said. “I knew you had it in you. And you brought your excellent friend, I see.”
Ms Rattaker’s smile had faded a little and she inched back from its wide wings. Despite her skill in combining theoretical magic and engineering, like most non-wizards she’d never seemed comfortable actually in the presence of spirits. “It talkin’ about me?”
Hissing, Certainty reared back from her. “I don’t appreciate questions from you, scrappy human.”
“Definitely about me. Think I’m gonna leave the talkin’ to ya, Ms Pryce.”
Thea picked up the ring from the ground and held it out. “Spirit, I bring you your offering. My mother’s wedding ring, carrying my father’s certainty of their—” ‘Love’ she had been about to say, but stumbled at the last moment. “—their relationship’s longevity,” she ended up settling for.
With an eager shriek, Certainty swooped in and snatched the ring from her hands with its talon-like appendages without brushing her skin. “That partnership does not endure though.”
Thea winced. “Papa, uh, is certain it will. Eventually. Although Mama does not… live with us, currently.”
“Oho! There is nothing like the certainty she will return of a man who cannot accept she has left him. Yes, this will do. Recipiaro donum.” Opening its ‘beak’ wide, Certainty tossed the ring in and swallowed it whole. “Now, tell me what you have called me here for.”
For this part, Thea did read from the paper in her pocket. Engineering wasn’t her forte and she needed to make sure she got every pre-agreed upon detail on that side of things exactly right. The other half of things had been written with Papa’s help, almost like a sales pitch, explaining exactly the techniques of marketing, advertisement, and influence they would expend to ensure the future passengers’ maximum certainty in the Good Intentions. “And you would get to feed on all of their certainty as it powered the engine,” she finished explaining. “So… do we have a deal?”
“No.” Certainty answered with no hesitation. “It is not enough. This machine will do so much for you, but if you are so certain it will work, I demand you put more on the line.”
Thea hadn’t planned for this. Her mouth ran dry. She should call for Papa, get him to help her negotiate, because that was what this was, a negotiation, and she’d never had a head for business, he always said.
But something else stopped her. Something that said, I can do this.
(And something else, deep inside her, said something else too. It said why waste time trading words and promises when I could simply bend this simple spirit to my will? But she didn’t know what that was about. So she ignored it.)
“Well, Papa’s already invested so much. If this doesn’t work, he stands to lose a significant chunk of—”
“I’m not interested in ‘chunks.’ Those who are truly certain about the path they choose stake it all, because to them it is not a risk.”
“Stake it all? But, what do you—”
“Heh. I know what it wants.” Dusting herself off, Ms Rattaker got to her feet and squared her shoulders, looking Curiosity right in the eyes. “Alright. I’m game. If we don’t have the Good Intentions on her maiden journey within three—nah, fuck it—two years, ya can take my life.”
“No, don’t do this!”
“Heh, why not? Ya heard it, didntja? It’s no risk, ‘cause I know I’ll get it done.” With a triumphant grin, she stuck out a hand to Certainty. “How’s that fer ya?”
“Yes, that’ll do nicely.”
A flare of light, and then Certainty was gone, leaving Thea sat on the ground staring up at a still maniacally grinning Ms Rattaker. She’d wondered before now if Ms Rattaker, for all her genius, was really the best person to be working with. Now she wished she’d managed to change Papa’s mind on her somehow. But that was foolish. She’d never changed his mind on anything else before.
“Are you okay?” Thea asked, scrambling to her feet. “We should check you over, make sure it didn’t do anything to you—”
Ms Rattaker waved her off. “Who gives a damn?” She only had eyes for the Certainty Engine. Delighted, she ran her gloved hands over the metal that Thea realised was now thrumming with power. “Look! It’s fuckin’ workin’! Let’s go get yer daddy and show him what he’s got.”
“Yes…” was all Thea could mumble. Everything was slipping horribly out of control.
Halfway to the door, Ms Rattaker spun on the spot to face her again. “An’ hey, I bet he’ll be so happy with ya, ya can probably get him to fix whatever it is yer stressin’ about.”
“I… doubt it, now.”
“Eh, whatever ya reckon. Nice work, girlie. Component One: sorted. Only a thousand left t’go!”
Thea could only hope the rest wouldn’t have such a high potential price.