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INSTINCT KICKED IN FIRST.
Mori sprang to his feet, grasping at the shelf for a tool to use as a weapon. His fingers closed around the slender handle of a pivot locator and he swung towards whoever had touched him, brandishing it like a rapier.
Then the realisation hit him. He was the guilty party here, and Ren had caught him red-handed. He raised his hands.
"Ren, I—"
But the young woman standing in front of him was not Ren. She was taller and slender, skin a soft bronze with honeyed undertones, dark freckles dusting constellations across her cheeks. Her rain-coloured eyes held his gaze, long after it became uncomfortable.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"W-what are you doing?" Mori retorted, snapping to hide his embarrassment.
Her gaze stayed locked with his, still studying his expression. "Shouldn't you be repairing the tower?"
Mori shifted uneasily. How did she know? Unless the defect had become more serious, and was starting to affect the world properly.
His grip tightened on the papers. "That's none of your concern."
She clicked her tongue. "I see," she said. Her eyes flicked round the workshop. "Where's Ren?"
"I don't know."
"I couldn't find her in the tower, so I hoped she might be here," the girl continued. She looked him up and down, eyes narrowing with distaste. "Not some poor excuse for a clockmaker."
Mori bristled, but couldn't meet her eyes. She was right, wasn't she? Ren would have repaired the defect by now. All he could do was stumble blindly in her footsteps, hoping she'd dropped some fragment of information that he could use.
"I'm not a clockmaker," he muttered.
"Then what about that timepiece?" The girl gestured to the pocket watch in his hand. As she moved, dark curls of her hair shifted, exposing the flowers sprouting from her skin. Mori traced the line of small buds, rich mauve and fuschia, across her collarbone and up the back of her neck.
Mori's eyes narrowed. Who was this girl?
"I'm just an apprentice," he said slowly. Now the shock had worn off, questions started pushing through his mind. How had she got in? He was certain he'd locked the door behind him. Besides, the workshop, the tower — those weren't places anyone could walk into. Yet she spoke of her search with easy abandon, as if she wandered in and out of restricted locations like this all the time. Even here she seemed completely relaxed, like she belonged. "Who are you?"
"I'm...a friend," she said.
Mori sighed. Nice and vague, just the way he liked it. As if I don't get enough of that with Ren.
