Vacant Throne

“So you’re just going to avoid him all day today?”

“I’m not avoiding him. We have separate things that need doing is all.”

“What about tomorrow? The next day?”

“I didn’t spend every waking moment with him before. Nothing has changed since then.” Alyssa glowered at Kasita and the mimic’s incessant questioning. “Just relax some. We’re here to talk to Jason. Brakkt’s not going anywhere.”

“He’s going to Illuna. And he isn’t going to be back for three days? Are you alright letting things just… sit and stew for half a week?”

Alyssa’s glower turned to a smile. Humming with that ‘I know something you don’t’ tone, she said, “He sent me a Message earlier. And I sent him one back. I think we’re good for now.”

That apparently startled her enough that a roll of static crossed her form, transitioning her directly from indignant to shocked. She almost tripped down the dirt path leading toward Guillem’s smithy, though another static twitch instantly put a foot in front of her to catch herself. “What? When? Where was I?”

Smile turning to a grin, Alyssa just kept walking.

“At least tell me what you two talked about.”

“I don’t know. I think you’ve been nosy enough for one week. Maybe later.”

“But—”

“Nope. My mind is made up. And besides, we’re here.”

The blacksmith building stood tall in front of them. Smoke billowed out from the brick chimney off to the side, but unlike last time, there were none of those loud thunder cracks that came from the hammering device. That was only one tool among many, so it didn’t mean that no work was being done. Still, she had expected to hear something given that the door was ajar.

Like last time, the air near the blacksmith was arid; hot and dry. Having been used to the relatively damper environment of Illuna and its nearby swamp, the air here felt even worse than last time. She could already feel the sweat starting…

She would have to take another bath when she got back to the city proper.

For the moment, Alyssa pressed forward. She tapped her knuckles against the door, pushing it open a little more with each knock. But the inside was empty. It was basically just a large circular room. No real hiding spots, though Alyssa wasn’t sure why Guillem and Jason would bother hiding. Alyssa had sent a text to Jason and he had responded, saying that he and the smith would both be present.

“They go out for lunch or something?”

“Such a shame,” Kasita said in a bright and chipper of voice. “If they aren’t here, I guess you have no reason not to tell me about what you and Brakkt are doing.”

“No. No. I think I’ll leave you in the dark a little longer. And I’ll even say that every time you ask, how long gets a little longer.”

“So mean to your one and only sister.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m the worst—”

A loud clanking cut her off, followed by some inarticulate shouting. The noise wasn’t coming from inside the building, but, rather, from around the side. With a glance to Kasita as some heavy metallic thumps began shaking the ground, Alyssa started off toward where the noise had come from. Her movements were a bit wary. But given that one of the voices she could hear definitely belonged to Guillem, she wasn’t too worried. It was a happy shout, after all.

The first thing she saw was it. The machine. It was only slightly smaller than the smithy. Barely enough to hide in its shadow. It looked like a tank and a combine harvester had a child together, delivered by a doctor who was a mad scientist and thought that their baby needed a bit more nightmare involved in it. Sharp blades, conveyor belts, a massive boiler, and smoke stacks for expunging the unneeded steam. The conveyor belts all led into the center where a giant maw of sharp blades whirred, ready to process the crops it would be consuming.

A huge spinning wheel in the middle of it all connected the main bulk, via long leather belts, to other smaller wheels. A piston coming from near the boiler drove the motion. Smaller bits and bobs moved as well. Up on top, there was a smaller device that had two fist-sized steel balls spinning around an upright metal pole. A train of gears ran along its sides, though the final gear was not engaged with anything—it looked as if it could be shifted into position near those tank treads.

Jason stood in front of the contraption. If it moved forward ten feet, it would either crush him or eat him. Alyssa wasn’t sure which would be the more painful death. He didn’t seem worried, however. He wasn’t just standing. Holding up two long sticks, he waved around like some kind of semaphore conductor. Guillem, up at the top in what must have been the driver’s seat, pulled various levers or spun the wheels on valves in response to his arm motions.

The two of them weren’t alone either. At least three others—there might have been more behind the giant thing—were walking around the machine with what looked like clipboards, taking notes on pieces of paper. The kid who had worked as an assistant the last time Alyssa stopped by the smith was present as well, though his position was next to Jason, holding a notepad of his own. After every semaphore motion and subsequent lever pull, Jason would lean down and say something to the kid before moving on to the next motion.

They had been busy, apparently.

Very busy.

The pictures really didn’t do the machine justice.

Another hefty thump broke Alyssa from her gaze. The noise didn’t seem to alarm any of the workers, so she assumed it was supposed to do that. She couldn’t actually see what it was that had done that, but it had coincided with Guillem throwing one of the levers.

Kasita, notably, was still staring with her mouth gaping wide open. Alyssa hadn’t ever seen something quite as… insane as this machine, but she had seen plenty of absurd things. Even if she only saw them through pictures. Kasita was still essentially brand new to modern technology, having only started learning about it after meeting Alyssa, and then, she observed it only through movies. And Kasita had probably never been browsing the internet and randomly happened across bucket-wheel excavators, leading to a long trail of wiki pages going into the browser history.

Alyssa wasn’t going to disturb them in the middle of their testing. She took a look around to try to find something to sit on without having to make a show of creating a chair, but she noticed Guilliem looking in her direction upon glancing back to the machine. The elf raised her hands above her head, putting them in a cross shape. That motion made Jason start looking around. It didn’t take long for him to spot Alyssa, upon which he handed his semaphore poles off to the kid.

“Twenty minute break, everyone!”

The machine wasn’t as noisy as a machine its size seemed like it should be. Aside from the thumping, which only happened when Guillem threw certain levers, it was surprisingly quiet. That wasn’t to say that it was silent. Jason’s voice couldn’t possibly carry through the hissings of steam and the whirring of that massive spinning wheel. Word still spread. The people closest to him let those close to them know what he had said. Soon enough, they were all clearing out.

There were a lot more than just the three, most of them came from behind the machine.

Guillem stayed up top for a while longer, throwing a few levers and closing a few valves. Various moving parts stopped. Conveyor belts slowed to a standstill. The whirring of blades inside the maw came to a stop. All except for the large spinning wheel. By the time she had finished, a pair of workers were off to the side, smoking something. The rest had all cleared off completely. Even the kid vanished inside the main workshop building.

A long set of rungs let Guillem climb down from the tall machine’s control panel. Alyssa couldn’t believe how quickly she made it down. If she slipped, she could easily wind up skewered on some sharp spike. Yet she practically bounced from rung to rung, skipping several as she hopped down. She landed right on top of one of the treads. Jason rushed forward and, quite unnecessarily in Alyssa’s opinion, offered his hand to help her down.

She actually accepted the proffered help, leaping into his arms.

But…

Alyssa raised an eyebrow.

Even with both of Guillem’s feet firmly on the ground, they didn’t separate. Keeping their hands intertwined, they started back toward Alyssa and Kasita.

“Huh.”

“Yeah.”

“Ufu~”

“Yeah.”

“We weren’t expecting you so early!” Jason said, completely oblivious to both Alyssa and Kasita staring at the two of them holding hands.

The elf tilted her head to one side, eyes wide as she stared from behind a set of goggles. “Who are you again?” There was no joy or excitement in her voice, even though that had been her focal emotions during Alyssa’s last visit to the smith. “Another thief come to steal ideas and designs?”

Jason saved Alyssa from having to defend herself. “We talked about this, dear. This is Alyssa. She’s…” he trailed off, glancing around. When he started talking again, his voice was down to a whisper. “She’s from my world.”

“Oh!” Guillem’s tone changed fast enough to give Alyssa whiplash. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes! I remember.” She leaned forward, slipping her hand out of Jason’s hand to point a finger at Alyssa’s face. “Jason said you could show off all kinds of wondrous creations that have never before been seen here in Lyria.”

Alyssa stared for just a moment before deciding to take a step away from Guillem’s still pointing finger to address Jason first. “You told her?”

“Was I not supposed to?”

“No, but I’m going to be annoyed if I have to rescue you from some underground Observatorium research laboratory because they decided they wanted to dissect someone from another world.”

“Ah… That’s… Well, Guillem hasn’t told anyone—”

“Well~”

“Any humans.”

Guillem nodded, though neither elaborated. Alyssa was about to ask before deciding that she really didn’t need to. The clarification was practically an admission that Guillem was in contact with monsters. Probably elves. And that was probably something that slaves weren’t supposed to do. Although Guillem seemingly ran the entire smithy with no supervision, she did still wear chains.

Deciding to not talk about it out in the open with a few humans standing off to the side, Alyssa turned her attention back to the machine. “I can’t help but notice that this is bigger than your sketches. Or those little toy steam tractors that you showed me.”

“Of course it is bigger than the toys. Those little things weren’t going to do any real work.”

“Showing them off did get us a good amount of investment, though.”

Guillem tilted her head, thumb at the corner of her lips. “They got us funding. Does that count as doing work?”

“Anyway, once I started talking about combine harvesters and more advanced farming equipment, she got it in her head that my original plan was too narrow in scope. Why not just make a machine that does everything. Every part of the farming process, from harvesting, to bailing, to plowing, to planting new seeds.”

“If you’re going to put time into something, might as well go all out and make it into a beauty!”

“We went back to the drawing board and tried putting pieces together to make…” Jason turned, waving both hands at the machine. “We call it The Farmer.”

Alyssa almost commented that she was expecting the name to be a little more grandiose, but decided against it at the last second. Better to avoid putting ideas into their heads. They clearly had enough as it was.

“Looks impressive,” Kasita said, nodding her head. “But does this Farmer actually work?”

“Oh?” Guillem leaned toward Kasita, turning her head to thrust her ear toward the mimic. “Oh my! Is that doubt I hear? Doubt!” Whipping away from Kasita, she drew herself to her full height, taking in a lungful of air. Cupping her hands to her mouth, she shouted, “Break time OVER! Tristan! Harron! Man the arms. Jason! Driver’s seat, now!” She started heading back toward the machine.

Jason grabbed her arm. “We haven’t finished testing!”

“This is the ultimate test! Will it work? Will it? Of course it will! We’re taking it out to the Kelsior Farm to show just what our beauty can do!”

Despite her overly excited voice, Jason managed to remain calm. “The demonstration isn’t for five days. No one will be there to witness it in operation. If no one sees it, that means no one buys it, which means no money, which means no future projects.”

Guillem glared, but only for a moment. Her face slowly softened and, eventually, she nodded her head. “Sorry,” she said softly. Then she turned to Kasita. In the most emotionless voice possible, she said, “If you want to see our little beauty in operation, please come to the Kelsior Farm in five days’ time. We will be starting just after sunrise.”

Jason crossed his arms, nodded twice, and gave Alyssa a look.

“We’ll have to show up, I suppose?”

“Good, good. We’ll have quite the showing for you. There will be lots of people around, even a prince, I guess. Everyone wants to see The Farmer in action.”

It really needed a better name. She was pretty sure that Kasita had just stifled a laugh.

As for a prince coming to see it, that was mildly interesting. Brakkt hadn’t mentioned anything, so she doubted it was him. There were a lot of other princes, however. Hopefully it wouldn’t be the third prince, though it might have been an interesting coincidence for both of the Earthlings to be sponsored by him.

“Aside from the… uh… The Farmer,” Alyssa said, trying to keep a straight face, “is everything going well? No problems living here? I assume I would have gotten a text about anything major, but…”

“No. No. Quite the contrary, I feel…” Jason took in a deep breath. He started glancing toward Guillem, but stopped himself short. “Content? I like what I’m doing now, helping Guillem work on this machine and otherwise being in this world. Sure, I miss the internet and video games and anime and my terabytes of… uh… other anime… But! I feel more fulfilled doing this. I really hated programming, you know? I got into it because I was a nerd and that was what nerds did, but it was just the same thing day in and day out. Boss breathing down my neck. Praying I didn’t make any big errors because we didn’t have separate development and production servers. It really wasn’t for me. I would constantly imagine fantastical things happening to me, something like… well, like this.” He waved both his arms around, not gesturing to anything in particular. “So thanks. That’s what I’m trying to say, I think.”

“I see. I would say thanks in return for trying to stand up to my would-be murderer, but I still think you are an idiot for doing that.”

“Oh.”

“As long as things are working out for you, that’s good though. I’m glad you’re happy. Chris seems to be doing well too. Did you know he has a band?”

“I made a pedal and helped make his drums too.”

“Right.” Chris had mentioned that.

“We might be able to make proper… what are they called? The cymbals that hit each other when you hit the floor pedal.”

“High-hat?”

“Yeah, that. But we were a bit too busy getting The Farmer ready for display.”

Kasita softly giggled. “You two certainly went all out. But, assuming it does work, will people really buy it? Something this large must cost… too much. I know how much even larger villages can afford to spend. The only people who are going to be able to afford this are the Pharaoh and maybe the wealthiest of the great houses. Wasn’t the plan to make this for regular farmers?”

Jason rubbed the back of his head, glancing to Guillem. The elf put on a wide grin, shrugging. “I’m sure we’ll have to create boring versions of this beauty. I’m used to humans being so narrow minded as to be constrained and intimidated by real genius. The Farmer is a ticket to the future, a proof of our true capabilities. I’ll never have to make broaches or even swords ever again.”

As the crazy elf slammed her hands to her hips and started laughing, Jason rested a hand on her shoulder. “You could say that we’re quite excited for the future.”

With that said, the two of them had to get back to work. There was still a lot to prepare and only a few days to do it in. Break time was over.

Alyssa and Kasita stayed to watch for a few minutes longer. Aside from the whirring and occasional thumping, there really wasn’t that much to their tests. At least not from Alyssa’s perspective. Guillem and Jason were surely learning a lot from every pull of a lever.

“Future, huh?” Alyssa mumbled as they started back to the city proper.

“Something bothering you?”

“No. Not particularly. I think I want to call down Tenebrael again, however. Have a little chat.”

Maybe find a way to take control of my future.