Chapter 50: Challenging Fate

It was the weekend and Carman and Livre were in the workshop. They were doing the finishing touches on a mechanical dragonfly the size of a small dog.

After the fiasco that nearly blew up the workshop, they had to start the commission over from scratch. Unbeknownst to Livre, Carman had spent several nights designing security measures that Ryuzu had installed to keep Livre safe in the workshop. This ranged from a device that filtered the air, to altered subdetection units that would send a signal to several high frequency emitters if the face of the person in the workshop was not recognized.

Carman knew that these would only slow possible Fatui assailants at best, but every second it bought could make the difference in keeping Livre or himself safe.

His research task of Firearms has been completed and he had a few designs of guns ranging from the musketsn and flintlocks common to Fontaine, to revolvers, and a alchemical recipe for gunpowder sythisesed from Pyro Flowers and other ingredients.

Once he had a working prototype he would give it to Livre. Livre had a license to use a firearm as a precaution against armed robbers, and had an old model musket in the back of the workshop that he had received from his father as a birthday gift. However the large shape of the gun made stashing it away for self defense while on the go without a vision impossible.

Carman stopped his musings as he made the finishing touches on the internals of the Dragonfly. He had added a few things not originally included in the design, most of it was gunk that would seem inane to most observers, even people who were well versed in the craft of clockwork engineering. On the wings, Carman had installed a pair of metal contraptions that could be mistaken for shocks to reduce strain on the joint. In reality they were made to emmit a sound outside the human hearing range that Ryuzu could pick up. Secondly, Carman had worked two metal hoops into the frame of the toy.

They were supposed to allow the toy to carry banners and ribbons as it flew through the air. The fact they were welded to the main frame of the machine which could carry the weight of a small adult was of little consequence.

Now that they had the inside of the machine completed, Carman and Livre took measurements and sketched out a new design for the exterior plating that they would have to order since they did not have the required tools.

After a few days, the blacksmithing had been completed and they attached the exterior to the main body, completing the commission. The day after they had finished, a small blonde boy came into the shop with a large bag of Mora and signed off on the completion of the commission.

Livre was overjoyed and closed the shop early so he and Carman could run down to the local office related to the Northland Bank and pay off Livre's Business Loan.

The night was spent in small celebration of Livre clearing his debt. Now that he didn't have to put money asside to pay off his loan, Livre was going to save up and lease a new apartment having long been tired of his current cramped living conditions.

In another part of Fontaine a boy had delivered the packaged gift to his mother. His sister's birthday was around the corner, and though their mother discounted the importance of such events, she still allowed the children of the hearth to gather to share well wishes and exchange gifts. She claimed that it was training to learn how to read the room, master social skills, and would often slip mild paralyicall poison into slices of cake to see who could identify which slices had been tainted.

Freminet shook slightly as he remembered eating a poisoned slice of cake on one of the other children's birthdays. Mother had been especially brutal in her punishments to reinforce his skill in detecting poison.

He carefully walked into Mother's office and placed the gift on her desk. It seems that she was still in a meeting with the strange man with the mask covering his eyes and nose that took his siblings from time to time. Most of the children didn't trust him, as their brothers and sisters who left with him were never heard from again.

Walking back down the hall, Freminet couldn't help but feel as though he was being watched. Maybe he was, you could never be sure in the House of the Hearth.

-To be continued