Order of the Gears

Chapter 13

Author's Note: I'm incredibly sorry that I haven't updated this story in so long! I had this chapter written, but it was still lacking something, and that's when my block hit me. I won't have much time anymore to write now that school's started... Again, I'm sorry! Though I don't have a date, I will be releasing chapter 14 in the next week and it will be longer than usual to make it up :D

I've already planned what's happening after this chapter, and the story will be ending in a few chapters actually. Less than 10. The wedding will be coming up soon and that's when it'll get exciting >:3

-goes back to eating tea candy-

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You know, even if it’s for the purpose of finding out Sylvia’s secret. I said I would help, and I don’t go against my word.

            “I’m sorry!” I yelled back as I ran away from an angry Riles, promising to write to her.

            Once back in the palace, it dawned on me that I had no idea where Sylvia’s room was. It’d look suspicious if I asked around, because why would an Engineer ever need to know where her room was? It left me wandering the palace in hopes that I could find her room.

            I ended up back in my room. After an hour or so of plain walking, I had gone back to my room, remembering all those books that were there. One of them should hold the plans of the palace, right?

            “This one looks promising,” I mumbled, sliding out a book covered in worn leather that seemed to be a journal of some sort. I flipped through it, walking around my room and to the center of the gear decoration where I stopped.

            “No…” I sighed and was about to close it when a loose piece of paper fell out. I reached for it, opening it up to see spindly writing in ink. The writing was hard to read, but I made out, “…Order of… the…Gears?”

            Let me tell you one thing right now. Never, ever, stand in the center of a gear.

            ****

            “Holy!” was as much as came out of my mouth when I felt my stomach sink as I plunged down into darkness. Where I had been standing had become a hole. “Ugh!”

            I landed on my back on this… soft material actually. “Where… am I?”

            Surveying the area, I could see a stream of light from above me, the hole that had formed. I realized that there had actually been a glass covering over an actual gear, and it wasn’t a painted decoration! But the moment I looked at it, it closed over, and so the hole vanished. Lights erupted around me instead, and I spotted a ladder to the side that seemed to lead somewhere.

            “What is this place?” I said aloud, my words echoing. Getting up, I was in a room with many strange devices as well as multiple doors with faded labels on them. “Hm?”

            The book I had been holding earlier had fallen down with me, and now it was open to a page. I had merely flipped through it before, not paying attention to any of the words, but now…

            “Order of the Gears,” I read on that page. I’ve never heard of something like this…

            Well, looks like it’s time to explore around.

            ****

            Dust covered everything. So on the first device I decided to look at, I had to wipe away the dust that covered the name plate and the switches that operated it.

            “The Memory,” I got out of the faded sign. Thinking to the book, I paged through it till I found one titled the same as the device. So my hunches were right, this book was almost like a manual to all these machines.

            “For those who have forgotten,” the book said and then offered how to work the machine. There were sketches of it, labeling parts, but that was the only sentence that told you what it could do.

            For those who have forgotten…

            I glanced up at the machine. There was a headset that connected to the operating table…

            I’m extremely tempted to use it. Wasn’t this my chance to find out my past? Who my parents were and how I got separated? I pocketed the journal, making a mental note to read the entire thing later, and picked up the headset.

            It was when I was about to put it on that I heard distant footsteps. A feeling of panic arose in me, I wasn’t sure if I was even allowed to be down here!

            Not thinking, I took the first door I saw, not bothering to read the little sign, and ran through.

            ****

            Turns out, there were tunnels behind the doors. There weren’t any lights to lead the way, nor anything besides a stone path that’s somewhere underground.

            Just keep running till you can’t anymore.

            I slowed down to a walk after I got tired, keeping my hand on a wall to make sure I wasn’t about to hit anything. It was dark in these tunnels and I questioned why whoever built these never put a light in them.

            Eventually, the corridor led to another wooden door. It opened easily, revealing the halls of the familiar palace, right in the Engineer corners. By now, it was dark outside, and so I decided to retire. The princes would just have to wait another day for me to snoop around.

            ****

            I ended up skipping dinner because of reading the journal. The entire thing was nearly filled with small notes and simple descriptions of many machines that shouldn’t have existed with our technology. I didn’t dare go back down the gear again in fear that the person would still be there… but still! I’d be going down there again the moment I have free time!

            Besides that, I had learned what the Order of the Gears was. Centuries ago, during the first World War, a group of top Engineers had banded together in a secret location to create machines that was incredibly advanced for the war as well as for future Engineers. The problem was that apparently they had all been killed in a transportation accident before they could report to the King at that time about their project.

            A hundred years ago or so, someone had found the hidden work zone. They stumbled across this notebook and filled it in even more before sliding it into their bookcase for future generations to read.

            I closed the old notebook, getting up from my bed to put it back in my bookcase. There were many interesting inventions, but the one that still had my interest was The Memory. With it, couldn’t I easily find out my past?

            And just what if I really am…