Machinae mundi

xi. quid pro quo

REN WAS RIGHT.

The research they'd salvaged from the warehouse amounted to little more than a high-level overview of the theory and some potential starting points. When Ren had said he'd have to figure it out for himself, she might as well have said rediscover the entire thing.

Mori sat cross-legged in front of a pile of gears. The floor was strewn with half-assembled timepieces, tools and cogs, so it was easy to forage for parts. Mori had been disassembling timepieces for the last half an hour, hoping the repetitive work would coax an answer from his mind.

"So, uh..." Mori said, unscrewing a top plate from one of the broken watches. "Who's Bashko?"

Argent glanced over at him. He'd elected to stay in the Tower of Storms with Mori, which surprised him. He'd been so used to Ren giving him tasks and disappearing shortly after.

"He was the old clockmaker of Dysis," Argent said. "My master."

Mori nodded; he'd suspected as much. "What happened to him?"

"He died." Argent spoke with complete disaffect, absently spinning a golden timepiece on the desk. "Here in this tower, as a matter of fact."

"Oh," Mori said. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. He glanced up at Argent. His attention was focused on the timepiece, a look of indifference on his face. It didn't look like the fact affected him, or perhaps it had been long enough ago that he'd gotten over it. "Is that why you don't come up here?"

A wry smile tugged at Argent's mouth. "Perhaps. This tower's full of ghosts."

Mori rolled a gear along the floor. "We can head back if you don't want to be in here."

Argent shrugged. "It's okay. It's not too bad with someone else here." He looked up at Mori and grinned. "Besides, I'm very invested in this whole 'building a tower' enterprise."

So Argent stayed in the workshop with him, leaning back in the chair with his feet propped up on the desk. Mori had never worked with company before and worried at first that having someone around him would necessitate casual conversation, when he really just wanted to focus on his work. But Argent seemed preoccupied with the golden timepiece, and quickly Mori zoned him out.

As the night blurred into early morning, and the misty sunrise started creeping across the floorboards, his brain began searching for a distraction. Mori glanced up at the desk Argent was sitting at, only to realise he'd been staring at him.

Mori glanced back down at the gears. "What?"

"Nothing," Argent said, yawning. "I was just thinking about something. How's the condenser going?"

"Well..." Mori sighed. "It'll get done at some point. I think."

Argent smiled a little. "Ren's right, you know. It's too much work for just one person. You'll be building this tower for years."

Mori shrugged. "I don't mind the work," he said. "If anything, it's better this way — having something to work for. I couldn't stand hanging around here with nothing to do."

"It's really not that bad," Argent said, with a wry grin. "I've been doing it for years, so I speak from experience."

"I don't know. I —" Mori wrapped his arms around his knees. "My parents — they died when I was a kid. I spent most of my time just wandering around Arkos for years, no idea what I was doing except for finding a place to eat and sleep. If Ren hadn't found me, I would probably be still doing that today. So I guess...when I don't have anything to do, it makes me feel like I'm back there, on my own in the streets."