Chapter 8
Trickles of sunlight made their way through the closed shutters of Sannan’s rented room, illuminating his sleeping pallet. He awoke with a groan to the sound of chirping beyond the window hole. Curious, Sannan drew back the shutters to find a crescent tailed lark perched on a clothesline extending from the neighboring building. It seemed the birds of Esenbal were just as brightly colored as the clothes some of the locals wear, but Sannan knew now was not the time for bird watching. The realization dawned on him that Captain Olberan’s crew might be setting sail any minute now.
Sannan immediately dashed out of the room and down the stairs, all the while pondering how he was going to leave the city without a boat. At this time of morning, the first floor of the inn was filled with patrons, many of whom could be identified as visitors from the High City. It was mostly a blur to Sannan though, as he pushed his way out the front door and onto the streets of Esenbal. He was already panting, but willed his legs to run as he rushed towards the docks. The moment he arrived, Sannan looked left and right for signs of any boat he could hijack. There were more iron wrought ships from the High City than the day before, crewed by dozens of sweaty laborers in plain brown tunics. Alorrian frigates, distinctive with their cream colored hulls, populated the harbor. No, what he was looking for was a small rowboat…
Upon noticing Azala amongst a group of towering Alorrian sailors, Sannan let out a sigh of relief.
“I almost doubted the crew would be bothered to make their way back to the city to fetch me.” Once he got closer, Sannan noticed Azala was accompanied by the same Induran merchant who inspected their merchant ship the day before.
Azala replied with a smile, “Natar here is a friend of the captain.” She wisely did not specify pirate captain. “He’ll let us make another round back to the Unay peninsula. Besides, you were not the only crew member who decided to sink their expenses for a stay at an inn.”
Right on cue, a lantern jawed Sarhidian with scars criss-crossing his left cheek ran over to them from across the dock, panting just as hard as Sannan was.
“We should really be heading out,” Natar said in a heavy Induran accent. “Let us not keep the captain waiting for much longer, hmm?”
They traveled to the Unay peninsula by way of a longboat manned by six rowers. On the way there, Sannan asked his fellow engineer about the Kamera only to be told to wait until they were back on the Tanzeel’s Spear. Flocks of albatross circled Esenbal’s wide bay, along with the occasional pelican. Several of them would dive down to snatch up sardines without warning. For a moment, Sannan was almost reminded of the port city of his birth, which inevitably brought up the question: how were his father and grandmother doing without him?
Hard to imagine back then he expected that cheap letter to suffice for him leaving on a journey he expected would last for years to come. Sannan fought down the guilt. Once I get back to Port Besaar to show them everything I have learned on my travels, then they will understand. Hopefully.
Captain Olberan was leaning on his ship’s railings with a look of anticipation on his face. By the time Natar’s passengers boarded the Sarhidian lancer, he shook hands with the merchant.
“Good to see you are still doing well, Natar. How has business been in Esenbal?”
Natar was habitually stroking his pointed beard as he spoke. “Excellent as always. You know how high the demand for sugarcane is this time of year.”
“Glad to hear it,” Olberan replied as he clapped his hand onto his friend’s shoulder. “As for me, there’s that certain pirate that needs to be put down.”
“Of course. The Sea Snake, was it?” Natar grimaced. “In my humble opinion, pirates just like to nickname themselves because they think that will make them a bigger deal than what they are.”
Olberan roared with laughter. “Ah yes, hence why I don’t have one. Now, we have to get going. I’ll see you again in Esenbal, hopefully sometime soon.”
“Right.” Something in the Induran’s tone implied he did not entirely believe that. “Safe travels.”
As Natal’s merchant vessel disappeared off the edge of the peninsula, Captain Olberan bellowed, “secure the port anchor! Ready fore and aft topsails! Brace mainyards round for the larboard tack!” Within a few minutes, Tanzeel’s Spear was sailing west to Isle Durna with a fresh stock of rations and other miscellaneous supplies. Esenbal was already dwindling to a speck when Zari approached Sannan, who was at the stern of the ship staring wistfully at the ocean.
“Pirates never stay at one place for too long, now do they?”
Zari had her mouth open to say something, then promptly changed what she was going to say.
“I have heard my old man plans on taking a nice, long rest at Isle Durna once this Sea Snake situation has been settled.” The captain’s daughter crossed her hands behind her back and leaned against the ship’s mast.
“Though I suppose you would want to be on your way to the High City by then.”
Sannan shrugged. “I might just stick around Isle Durna for a while if the place is nice. Besides, Azala finally agreed to teach me. All it took was a botched theft of machine parts from a merchant who was also capable of channeling pneuma.”
Zari tapped a finger to her lips at the mention of pneuma, the element associated with plant life. “Pneuma is the rarest of them all, correct? That element has no corresponding Aa’sar, assuming Amritia is truly gone.”
“That I do believe is correct, but what is an Aa’sar?”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Oh, just some old term used to refer to the seven deities of Etheria. But you would be surprised as to how many still use it to this day. Sometimes I do wonder though, why I of all people was selected to become mabruk.” Her eyes crackled with that yellow color Sannan had seen before.
“How would I know?” Sannan chuckled, “perhaps you were just destined to fire electric arrows at scoundrels sailing the high seas.”
The sound of boots thumping on the deck of the ship announced the arrival of Estaval. Unfortunately, she looked even more haggard than when he last saw her, with bags developing under her eyes.
“Your father wishes to speak to you in his cabin.” Estaval clearly wanted it to sound an order, but her weary voice belied her intent.
“I’ll attend to him, but for the hundredth time, please get some rest. You will do no good in a fight in that condition.”
Olberan’s first mate closed her eyes and said in a matter-of-fact tone, “I suppose I have been pushing myself too hard trying to train for that inevitable encounter with the Sea Snake. Several of his victims were formidable pirates in their own right. I have to be stronger than them.”
“My point still stands, Estaval.” Zari crossed her arms and fixed the other woman with a stern look.
Only when Estaval finally nodded did Zari disappear below deck to meet with her father. Thinking back to the mother circuit Azala showed him yesterday, Sannan decided it was time he went below deck as well.
…
Considering he had never been to Azala’s cabin before, Sannan almost expected to find it cluttered with gadgets and machine parts similar to those he had just acquired for her. In a way it reminded him of his own room back home, with a shelf overflowing with more items than it can hold. A myriad of gears, modules, cylinders, and valves littered the floor of the room, though he could see Azala tried to keep it clean towards the entrance such that whoever enters does not trip. Even the woman’s sleeping pallet was crowded with small piles of parts, organized by function.
The golden haired woman’s face lit up when she noticed him. “You’re just in time, Sannan. Here I’ve laid out the essential components that go into constructing a Kamera.”
On the table were an assortment of items, with some that Sannan recognized as parts he had helped acquire back in Esenbal. He promptly sat down on a stool next to the table as Azala picked up the mother circuit.
“It all starts with the Luxin prism.” Sannan watched in wonder as the once dull prism lit up in a multitude of colors, alternating from red to green to violet before starting over again.
“Now once light enters the prism, it is reflected onto this sensor.” Azala held up a tiny black panel no larger than his own thumb. Over the course of the next hour, she had put together the basic inner working frame of the Kamera. All that was needed was the encapsulating shell. Naturally, Sannan did not absorb all the details the first time, though his teacher did not like repeating herself.
“So this knob controls the aperture of the device, which in turn determines how much light enters?”
“Right, a poorly functioning aperture mechanism would result in a Kamera that consistently yields blurry pictures.”
By the time Sannan fitted the shell around the fine workings of the Kamera’s inner frame, it was already pitch dark outside.
“Would you look at the time,” Azala muttered as she turned her head towards the window opening. “We should have gotten a bite to eat by now. Amazing how time flies when you’re learning.”
Sannan inquired eagerly, “can I start taking pictures with this?”
“Not yet,” the Valean said with a shake of her head. “The Luxin prism still needs time to attune to the sensor before you can start taking decent images. On that note, there are models that have been developed that can produce higher quality images by virtue of better sensors.”
Sannan nodded in understanding, but was having trouble containing his excitement. He could already imagine traveling back to the Bazzal Reef with a high resolution Kamera. It was likely that such models were primarily available at the High City of Ostrava, which only made him all the more eager to travel there in the near future.
Both engineers returned to the cabin after having their fill of fish stew. By this point, however, the stew tasted bland to Sannan after the impressive buffet he was treated to back in Esenbal. He could only hope the Pirate Empress had better cuisine options on offer at Isle Durna.
“What will be the next step after the Kamera?”
Azala had set the completed device on one corner of the table and cleared everything else to make room for a massive parchment scroll. After removing the metal clasps that held the scroll’s shape, she unfurled the paper across the desk to reveal an intricate diagram outlining an automaton far more complex than Khanrea.
“This will be our next project,” Azala announced proudly.
Few words could describe the raw ecstasy Sannan felt upon glimpsing the diagram for the first time. Before he could open his mouth to speak, Azala burst out laughing; a laugh rich and pleasant to the ears. To think he had never heard her laugh before!
“I’m just messing with you,” She said after settling down a bit, and took the time to wipe a tear from her eye. “This is the end goal. Tomorrow after you have had your fun with the Kamera, I will have you disassemble it and reassemble it without any guidance from me. Indeed, our next project will be a simple motor for a rota.”
From that messy shelf, Azala plucked a small contraption on wheels resembling a miniature wagon, though not as flat.
“The engineers of the High City believe this to be the key to revolutionizing transportation throughout all of Etheria. Nevertheless, they have not quite worked out a larger model that can sustain itself on ether for extended periods of time. These rota are kept by children of the High City to play with as toys.”
Sannan turned the tiny model over in his hands in amazement. From what he can gather, it was utilizing a smaller version of a Lumix core.
Azala went on, “I am sure you are likely to go on your own path sometime after Captain Olberan deals with that Sea Snake. But before that, you could at least get an idea of how the ship’s engines work. Learning how to construct a rota is a good first step. Who knows? If fate wills it, we could meet again someday. With a few more months of instruction, you might just end up making something like this.”
She gestured towards the impressive diagram laid out on the table, depicting the automaton of Sannan’s dreams.
“I promise we will meet again someday.” It was a long shot, but he knew in his heart it would happen. “You had me sold the moment I laid eyes on this diagram.”
Azala let out that pleasant laugh once more. “I do hope so, Sannan. The makings of a fine apprentice are present within you.”
On the way back to his own cabin, Sannan contemplated whether it was better to stay with Captain Olberan’s crew long term so he could learn everything he can from Azala. She was everything he could ask for in an engineering teacher, the one who would build upon the foundation Rayyas had set.
