Order of the Gears

OotG Chapter 1

Author's Note: Decided after a bit to release the first chapter with the prologue. Tired of posting on topics, but... *sighs* With two stories, I need to post in some equality... Anyways, please enjoy, comment and vote!

Fourteen Years Later

            “Marv! Wake up!”

            I banged on Marv’s door till I heard him groan. “I’m up, I’m up!” he called and there was a loud thud, meaning he had rolled out of bed and right onto the floor.

            “Breakfast’s in ten!” I said and ran down five flights of stairs and across the grand hall of the dorms, skidding right into Riles, my absolute best friend.

            “Full of energy as always, even if it’s only eight in the morning,” she gave a good morning hug. “Syl, how do you ever manage to have that much enthusiasm?”

            “Who knows,” I shrugged, smiling. We picked up a tray and took plates of breakfast from the buffet line.

            “Syl, morning!” Wurse waved from one of the wooden tables.

            “Morning Wurse!” I grinned and Riles and I sat down at another wooden table. It was our favorite table because some Engineers had carved into this table so many times that this was by far the most vandalized, therefore the most interesting, table in the entire dinner hall.

            As we ate our syrupy pancakes, I read the writings on the table. Hard to talk when you have so much sticky liquid in your mouth.

            “In the world of Varse, Engineers are those who keep the Order of the Gears, the machines that so helpfully run our great lands.”

            “An Engineer, out of the five Junctions, is the highest Junction, the hardest to become, and the fewest in number. Their rank is just below Royalty.”

            “And here in Gear Hall, we hold all one thousand three hundred and two Engineers,” Marv winked, passing by with toast. “You girls reading the table?”

            “Yeah,” I nodded. Marv was my guardian, the one who’s looked after me since I was four and first came to the Gear Hall. “Syl, after your daily rounds, come to my office, okay?”

            Since fourteen years ago, Marv’s gone up in ranks to head Engineer. Even now, he needs to shave but isn’t capable of growing a full beard.

            “Come on,” Riles swallowed the last of her pancakes with difficulty, taking a large swig of her orange juice. “The faster we finish our rounds, the faster we can find out the news.”

            “See you Marv!”

            ****

            “Get your news here, hot off the presses!” the local paperboy was yelling at the street corner. I was still pulling on my dragon leather gloves, stained with grease and worn down to a nice soft. My carrier bag bounced by my side as I took out the parchment, the list of people who needed repairs.

            “I’ll take one,” Riles said and handed the boy five Yunes coins, getting a nicely folded paper in return. “We have time to spare, right?” I glanced at the clock tower.

            “Ten minutes,” I replied and she nodded, flapping open the papers.

            “More news about the War, as if we didn’t know we’re at war with Pyro,” Riles rolled her eyes and kept reading. “A shit load of ads, some requests for Mages, they’ll be frothing at the mouths to get a job, the poor guys haven’t been doing well.”

            Mages, another Junction, weren’t prospering in this day and age, simply because Heroes, Archmen, and Shadowers were more called for in the War than Mages, who were easily killed in battle. Their spells, though useful, took too long and they were either killed before they finished or someone else was killed protecting them. Their healing and guarding spells are useful but the Army already has way too many, so there wasn’t much else they could do.

            “Hey, look at this!” Riles patted the paper, pointing at large headlines. “They finally found the Princess!”

            “No way!” I, who was never one for reading the paper, jumped right behind Riles, reading from her shoulder. “Princess Sylvia Rose Verrant found after her disappearance fourteen years ago! They sure took their time, didn’t they? Queen Helena must’ve been worried sick after all these years.”

            Riles shook her head in disappointment. “They must be grateful that she’s still alive,” she sighed. “Thank goodness. Alright, let’s get going.”

            ****

            We got back around three, the list short for once. Riles went into our shared room to shower while I went straight to Marv’s office. His door was shut though, and I heard voices from behind so I waited outside the plush hall, playing around with the locket around my neck.

            It was made of gold; Marv had confirmed that, with intricate vines decorating the shell. Inside was a picture of me when I was maybe two along with another baby, a boy. I could at least presume that was me, or else why would I ever have this locket?

            The door opened up and Wurse came out. Marv followed right behind him, noticing I was waiting.

            “Come on in, Syl, I have something very important to tell you.”