Match-A Sophie and Fitz Story

Chapter Eight

Since you guys reeeeeally want the next chapter and it's the holiday season, I'll post this next tidbit of the story a little early. As always, comment on what you want to happen next, stuff I can do better, etcetera. Love you all!

The representative set an ornate silver tray on the stark white coffee table in front of Sophie and Fitz. On it were small glass vials, some sterile swab-looking things, a thick stack of paper covered in print, and two scary-looking bronze contraptions. Sophie looked at the metal gadgets with fear in her eyes. They looked like they'd be able to cut her finger off for testing if she let them. Fitz, however, seemed much more calm as the representative began to explain who would be quizzed first.

Hey, what are those scary gizmos to the right?

He looked at her, confused. Those are regrainers. Haven't you ever seen one?

Nope.

He looked at the small machines. I guess I can see how they'd look threatening. But really, they're just for entertainment. It's like a puzzle. Like, "Open the regrainer to receive a prize" kind of thing. They come in different difficulties, gold being the easiest. These are bronze, so they're really hard to figure out. I remember Keefe gave me a silver one for midterms one year, and it took me forever to open.

What are they for here?

I have no idea.

"Mister Vacker, you'll come with me first." The representative told him to go into the room across the hall, and began to collect items from the silver tray. He took a glass vial and swab, the entire stack of paper, and one regrainer. "Go ahead and begin to solve your puzzle, Miss Foster. This won't take long."

Sophie gingerly picked up the bronze contraption and turned it around in her hands. Each face of the cube-like structure had a written riddle and small moving pieces used to solve it. On one side it read, "Move the glass peg through the engraved course to the other side of this cube to unlock it. If the peg breaks, the metal bends in a way not intended, or the puzzle is in any way dishonestly solved, the center prize will be dissolved. Best of luck." Sure enough, there was a bit of dangerously thin glass sticking out from the regrainer's side, stuck in a track-like formation of metal. Sophie took a deep breath before moving the peg along the track, terribly slowly, until it reached the edge of the first side. She turned the cube one face over and brought the peg further along the track, only to have it blocked by the first of many obstacles. The instructions told Sophie to find a three-digit combination that was a multiple of seven, the first digit was the same as the second, the third digit was not smaller than the first, and the combination did not include a two. Sophie thought back to an extra-credit worksheet from her human high school, where her teacher asked for every multiple of seven until 1001. After a moment, she twisted the small brass knobs of the regrainer to 1-1-9. It clicked open and she had a small moment of pride as she brought the glass peg through. She brought it to the next puzzle, which had some different spinning gears and a small bridge covering the peg's path—

Sophie? The regrainer slipped out of her hands and onto the hard floor as she jumped. She winced when she heard the sound of glass shattering. She sighed.

You made me break my regrainer.

Oops—my bad. I hope the prize might still be partially undissolved. Those things don't include that much alkahest.

Well, the peg broke.

Oh....sorry.

She sighed and looked at the bronze mechanism. It's fine. You didn't mean to, and I shouldn't have jumped.