Mr Night

𝟑𝟑| 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧

-𝐇𝐄𝐑-

While my time in LEVEL 1, arranging those cupboards full of those metal things and whatnot, he would come upstairs, asking me to measure this and that using the instruments that I had discovered from those cupboards.

I tried my best to pay attention to what he said rather than him whenever he would teach me how to do certain things. He taught me a lot of things in the span of the next couple of weeks— starting from measuring different stuff using different kinds of things up to doing complex calculations just using my fingers.

I was now getting more and more proficient in doing those things. Another week passed and LEVEL 1 was now neatly arranged. All I had to do was to sit there all day and measure, calculate, or clean some things... very odd-looking things, in fact.

Sometimes, it would be very natural things like glass beakers but sometimes it would be some complex machinery that would require me to dismantle things and then put them back— something he'd taught me as well.

This would again lead me to question what he really did with all these things. The more I asked him, the more he seemed to grow reserved but from whatever I gathered from our bits and pieces of conversations, he invented stuff and then sold them to the highest bidders who were usually the East India Company and alike. I was baffled to learn that he did business even with the French!

Anyway, as long as I was getting paid I couldn't have cared much about all those things but it made me more and more curious about him.

I once found what looked like pieces of a gun in a newly shipped package. Though before I could look more into it, he took that package down into LEVEL 2— where he most probably did all the work.

I was strictly not allowed there and you know the case with me. I like to do things I am advised against. I did make some attempts to go there, all of which failed, thanks to Mr. Night. He did everything to keep me out of there and unfortunately for me and fortunately for him, they were working but I knew that there would be a time when he would himself invite me there.

Ah and then there was also a LEVEL 3. As far as I had gathered from bits and pieces of conversations and eavesdropping, one could only access LEVEL 3 through LEVEL 2 and in there usually, the testing of his new inventions was carried out.

Of course, that was out of bounds to me as well but I held onto the faith that it wouldn't be so for long.

On the list of things I was most curious about was the ring on the second place. The first place, obviously belonged to Mr. Night even though he wasn't a non-living object. Anyway, yes— that ring. It made me wonder a lot about his background as much as the things in LEVEL 1 made me wonder about the kind of work he did.

What was that ring for? Was he married? If so then how long? Did he have a family somewhere waiting for him?

Thinking about him having a family was the equivalent of thinking of an Elephant with wings. It was so hard and comical to think about him having a family somewhere because a huge part of me rather liked him to be single and miserable than be with a wretched woman.

But that ring— it certainly meant something otherwise Mr. Night wasn't the kind to wear jewelry. One day while he was showing me how to use an instrument that let one see small things in great detail, I managed to get a close glance at the ring.

There were several odd signs on it— the same signs I had seen on the books in his library. It looked a bit too detailed to be a wedding ring. No, it definitely wasn't a wedding ring, I decided.

As for the odd signs that were inscribed on his ring, once, I tried to enquire about the language those library books were written in.

"What language are those books written in?" I had asked him. He looked surprised that I even wandered there.

"Latin," He told me casually. I instantly knew that it was a lie. Even though I didn't know the dialect, I still knew what Latin really looked like on paper.

"No, I am talking about the other books," I told him.

"What other books?"

"The books with those strange symbols," I told him. He froze for a moment and looked at me pensively.

"Hecdinian," He had answered after a long pause.

"Hecdinian," I tested that word in my mouth. It didn't sound foreign. It sounded out-worldly to me.

"Where is that spoken?" I asked him.

"Everywhere,"

"Who speaks them?"

"Some people,"

"Like you?"

"Like and unlike," His answer was very strange.

"Is it an upper-class thing? I never knew about it," I told him.

"You aren't supposed to know," Was all he told me before leaving. I often thought about it.

At present, I tried to concentrate on what he was teaching me about the new device that lets one see small things in great detail. Something about that device seemed a bit uncanny. Its function and its machinery seemed a bit familiar.

After fiddling a bit with that device, it clicked.

That evening, as soon as I finished work, I went upstairs in my room to fresh up. After doing so, I went into the other bedroom which always remained empty. I knew it was Mr. Night's and he seldom slept there.

That huge device I had seen since my very first day in this house, sat on the other end of the room as if waiting for me.

"I think I know how to use you," I muttered to that device as I sat on the stool in front of its panel and put my chin on the chin-rest, and started adjusting those levers and those screws. My hands were much more confident this time because I knew what I was doing.

Soon, the device focused clearly on the moon! I gasped as I was able to see marks on the moon. It was fascinating. I soon found myself adjusting the device to look further and I ended up seeing a couple of other celestial bodies.

I was over the moon at that moment.

Quite literally.

I could have never dreamed in my wildest dreams that I could see such things with so much clarity with my feet still on earth. It was nothing less than a fantasy to me.

Though I was still new to all these things and I found that soon after, it became slightly harder for me to focus the lens on other celestial bodies which were farther.

I must have been very busy fiddling with it to have missed the footsteps behind me. It wasn't until a hand rested heavily on my shoulder did I feel his presence. My heart raced faster as he put his other hand over mine and adjusted another screw until the lens focused.

My breath left my body at that moment and I couldn't decide if it was because of the fact that I was caught in his bedroom at such an hour or because of the breathtaking outer space scene that I was seeing.

"Those are the Rings of Saturn," He spoke huskily in my ear.

_

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