Money lubricates the gears of the world. Until it doesn't.
— Stalor Gimbol, The Adventures of Ramus Kain
Linsan walked along the street of New Brunil with a mix of dread and hope. She also was completely overwhelmed by the crowds that streamed along both sides of the road. There were people wearing work clothes, suits, and fancier wear that looked more like her mother's outfits for the stage than something to be worn in the middle of the day.
No one was looking at each other as the chaos swirled around her. She kept bumping into people. Every time she found herself pressed against one of the many painted brick walls of the city, she wondered how everyone else could move without touching others.
Leaning against the sharp edges of brick that framed a shoe store, she let out a shuddering breath. Maril didn't even give her a hint of how noisy and overwhelming it would be.
She clutched her violin case with one hand and looked down at a piece of paper in her other. The local Ralonix branch had helped her come up with a list of seven garages that were most likely to have seen the murderer's car. The banker's reasoning was confusing, but apparently most vehicles had a guild affiliation with the current warring mechanical guilds. According to the banker, he pointed out the most likely ones to deal with a car from outside of town and she was visiting them in order.
She flipped the paper over. There were also three names on the other side, all stables. It was her second task for the day, to find a way of catching up. A horse seemed like the best option. She could only afford a cheap one which only gave her a list of cheap but reputable options.
Linsan dreaded the idea of going to the stables. She wasn't comfortable around equines. Taking care of the mount was also outside of her expertise, which meant more expenses to pay for stables along the way.
She wasn't sure if a horse was even an option she should take. It would require her to ask for more money from her parents. She hated to even venture to ask because they would try to give her what little they had remaining.
A vague idea that she could busk for the money didn't help her either. She had only played for a single night to a small village in the middle of nowhere. She doubted she was good enough to earn enough for a horse.
Maril had given her three hours to find what she could. Linsan would decide about the horse then.
Linsan shook her head and turned over the page. She didn't want to even think how she was going to leave town. Running her thumb down the ordered list, she picked the first: Glorious Mechanics of Iron and Steel. It had a fancy name, maybe it would be a good choice.
At least until she found herself standing in front of a crumbling brick building with a fading sign. The place had originally been called “Mechanics” but someone had added " of Iron" in one color, “and Steel” in a second paint, and then “Glorious” with a third. The sloppy artwork and graffiti did nothing to comfort Linsan.
The front of the garage had two large doors but they were both closed except for a crack of darkness. She could see where they had been dragged through the rocks and dirt by the swept area in front of each one. A smaller door to the right had a small glass window.
Linsan made a face. If this was the best choice the banker could come up with, the rest of her investigation bode poorly. She rested her hand on her violin case and stepped forward.
“Get away from me!” screamed a familiar voice from inside the garage. Brook's tone was infuriated, a sound that Linsan had heard many times over the years.
Linsan stumbled to a stop. Her hand gripped on her case tightly as she stared in shock. Brook was here?
“I said stop!”
The front doors to the garage burst open in a explosion of sound and wind. Tools and men came flying out in a cloud, flung off the ground from Brook's blast. There was also the sound of breaking glass from the sides of the building.
Linsan braced herself and ducked her head to protect her face. The concussion wave slammed into her, crushing into her chest for a moment as her body was pushed back. She shook her head and looked up before her ears stopped ringing.
Two men, one on each side of Linsan, landed heavily on the ground. One, a thicker man with a curly beard gaped helplessly as he remained on his back while the other, a more slender man, flailed for a moment before he struggled to get his feet underneath his body.
Brook stood to one side of the garage's interior. To her back was a workbench heaped with tools but the rest of the room had been tossed apart. Her fascinator was half caught in her hair and it dangled to the side. She wore a blue dress that was out of place in a dingy workshop. It had a dark stain on one shoulder. There were more stains on her matching gloves as she pulled them apart to clap them together again.
Across the garage, four men stood up. One of them, the leader Linsan guessed, wiped his chin and shook his head. “That was stupid, Doll. Now I'm going to take a lot more than that purse of yours. I'm sure your family will be willing to pay a hefty ransom for a marriageable girl like you.”
To either side of Linsan, the men who were tossed out of the garage were scrambling to their feet. She saw the slender one flick his hands up and the rocks around his feet rose up in the air to orbit around him. The thicker man snapped his fingers and his palm burst into flames. Neither seemed to acknowledge her.
Inside, the leader held out his hand and beckoned toward Brook.
Brook shook her head and held her hands apart.
The leader gestured with his fingers again.
A hammer launched itself from the workbench and shot toward the leader, clipping Brook's shoulder before it landed firmly in his hand.
One of the men behind the leader stepped up as his squat body began to shimmer. “I'll catch the noise, Rab. You teach her a lesson.”
“Thanks, Cal.”
Linsan watched both men near her from the corner of her vision. She ran her finger along the quick release of her case and slid her hand to wrap around the warm neck of her Sterlig.
Brook groaned as she straightened. She clutched her shoulder as she looked around. She looked overwhelmed and helpless.
Then her gaze caught sight of Linsan. Her eyes widened with surprise as she did a double take.
Rab stepped forward and hefted his hammer. “Now, be a good girl and hand over that little purse of yours. While you're at it, the key to your hotel because I'm sure you have a lot more in your travel supplies. Rich dames like you never travel light and even your fancy dresses can pull some pretty coins around here.”
Brook's eyes didn't leave Linsan's. There was a moment of rage, surprise, and then pleading.
Linsan wasn't sure how to respond. Her heart beat loudly but then she concentrated on the strings that were strumming underneath her fingers. She nodded once and then spun around, dropping the case as she pulled out her violin. With movements she practiced on the road, she jammed it along her neck and brought the bow into position as she finished her turn.
The first note cut through the air with the sharp sound of the battle anthem from Death of the Butterfly King. It was a song that she knew Brook had heard, Linsan only hoped the knowledge would help. She threw herself into the rapid crescendo of the second movement. Her body vibrated with power as the world around her shimmered with energy.
The man with the floating rocks turned with a hiss and threw his hand toward her. The rocks shot out with dizzying speed.
Linsan's notes cut through the air, catching the rocks and tossing them aside. One of them broke apart before it hit the ground.
Brook clapped her hands together, blasting the air around her. The concussion wave slammed into Cal's shimmering body and split it apart, tearing apart the back wall of the garage but leaving three of the men behind him untouched.
The fourth was unprotected by the shimmer shield and was thrown back by the impact. He slumped to the ground with a groan.
Rab threw his hammer at her with a loud grunt.
Brook jerked to the side and the tool flew past her, but then it came back the other way with violent force. It clipped Brook again, knocking her to the ground before the hammer slammed back into his palm.
Linsan started toward Brook but heat blasted her. The other man's flaming hand slammed into her shoulder and singed her hair. His fingers gripped at her shoulder, scorching the material.
Spinning away and with a sharp draw of her bow, Linsan sent a wave of music toward him.
Brook's concussion blast struck Linsan's sound, evaporating it in a shimmer.
Linsan frowned and dodged the flaming hand and then more rocks from her other side. She couldn't keep her music attacking if Brook interrupted her. They had to work together which meant their attacks had to synchronize. “Brook! Only on the beat!”
“What?” Brook dodged another hammer throw and clapped her hand again. The energy tore through Linsan's music and tossed the telekinetic rocks aside but missed the man throwing hammers.
“On the Couple-damned beat!” screamed Linsan. Her bow brought out a quick flurry of notes to knock aside the rocks being thrown at her. She belted out an uplifting measure to slam into the flaming attacker before he could hit her again.
“Like hell!” snapped Brook. She brought her hands up to clap again.
Rab held out his bare hand. The tools behind Brook began to shudder as they were summoned.
“Just listen for once you, you stupid cow!” Linsan snapped. She twisted between her two attackers and then sent a sharp note screaming into the garage. The force smashed into the screwdrivers lifting from the workbench and threw them into the far wall. Their points stuck into wood. With a crescendo, she flung more tools out the window and scattered others across the ground.
“On the beat so you stop interfering with me!” she yelled and then spun around with a kick that caught the fire wielder in the knee.
He dropped with a bellow of pain.
Linsan turned to see more rocks flying toward her. She couldn't form the music to block them.
The music reached the brief pause where a beat would be. Hoping Brook understood, Linsan braced her foot against the ground and steeled her for the impact.
There was a concussive blast.
Air slammed into Linsan, the two men, and the rocks. Only Linsan remained standing.
She couldn't stop. Still playing furiously, she brought herself around as she thought through her song. “Brook, your part is coming up! Get out of the garage!”
Brook frowned but she backed away from the workbench and toward the door.
Two hammers came flying out from the other side.
Linsan knocked both out of the air with a trill of three strings.
There was a rhythm section in the song, a place where the drums sounded with a steady beat and took the lead of the song. If Brook caught Linsan's cue, she would use it for a rapid series of attack that Linsan could play attacks around. If she didn't, then they would both be vulnerable.
The mechanics stalked after Brook, using Cal to shield themselves from her blasts. Behind all of them, Rab had his hand out to summon more tools from his workbench. They came flying toward him as he caught them from the air.
Linsan took a deep breath and let her body relax. She had to time her fingering between the beat of Brook's clapping. Grimly, she focused on Brook's movements.
“You better be right,” snapped Brook.
“Now!” Linsan brought the song into the bridge.
Brook screwed her face and beat her hands together, slamming wave after wave of concussive force into the garage. The blasts tore the doors off the hinges and caused the walls to shake. The workbench collapsed, spilling everything across the ground. The steady pounding shook the ground and rattled Linsan's teeth.
Rab threw screwdrivers and chisels at her with lethal speed.
Linsan, watching Brook's movement, sent short crescendo motif to deflect the screwdrivers up toward the ceiling. As Rab twisted them back toward Brook, Linsan used a decrescendo to drive them point-first into the ground.
Brook continued to pound her hands together. The walls began to crack and the ceiling sagged. With her back to Linsan, the noise was quiet but she could see Cal and the other man clutching their ears as they dropped to their knees.
Linsan saw the man with rocks getting up. She continued to play notes to block Rab's attack as she hopped over and kicked him in the face. The solid impact caused her to miss a note but no tool flashed out to strike either Brook or herself.
Soon, they were next to each other. The air beat around their bodies, vibrating with the music and the steady pounding that tore the garage apart.
Brook's face was screwed in concentration. Her hands were shaking. “This is really hurting.”
“Then give it one last blast to bring it down,” gasped Linsan.
She shielded Brook as the other woman brought her arms far apart and then clapped them as hard as she could.
Remembering how the arsonist's attacks merged together, Linsan tried to send a trill of music along the wave of the concussion but she mistimed it and her force sputtered apart in a cacophony.
The concussive blast slammed into the front, collapsing the wall. The gaudily-painted sign snapped one of its moorings and swung down to brief block the door before it also dropped to the ground.
Rab stopped throwing tools when Cal grabbed him and all three of them sprinted out the door as the roof collapsed on itself.
Linsan grabbed Brook by her dress and pulled her back. “Run!”
Brook hesitated only for a second, then she turned and sprinted away.
Linsan snatched up her violin case and raced after her.