Cogsmeade was a busy place. It always had some mechanical issue to solve, and new machinery to create. As False was the grand architect and tinkerer and empress of Cogsmeade, it was her job to manage it all. Alone.
She whistled as she worked. False liked tinkering and having fun with gears in general. It was just part of her personality. She was hardcoded that way. False turned away as she opened up a panel that lead to the engine of a small blimp that she was working on, and held her breath as smoke came pouring out. Once the smoke cleared, she put her goggles on and got to work. "Okay, what's the problem here?" She asked the machine. False was one of those people who talked to inanimate objects. Less lonely that way.
"Hi, False!" Came a voice from behind her. Startled, False whirled around and whacked Jimena in the head with her wrench. The girl backed off, rubbing her temple. "Oh, Jimena, I'm so sorry!" False gasped, dropping her tools and rushing towards her. "Are you-" "I'm fine," Jimena said. "Maybe I shouldn't sneak up on you."
"Yeah," False agreed. She picked up her stuff and turned back to the blimp. It had been parked on the ground, its deflated balloon lying flat on the floor behind it. The airship was already on the smaller side, made to fit two people on a leisurely cruise and on short trips. Without the giant balloon, it looked even smaller.
"What are you doing?" Jimena asked, bending over to look at the wiring. "This one won't fly straight," False explained, clipping a pipe. "I'm trying to see what the issue is." Jimena didn't bother False while she worked. She was just standing there, watching silently.
"Can I help?" She finally asked after a while, as False took apart basically the whole engine, and motor oil pooled on the ground around them. "It's a messy business," False said, scooting over so her boots wouldn't be too stained. Her favorite leather boots were already dyed dark brown going on black by the grease and fuel of the machines she worked with, though, so why did she even bother?
"I don't really care about staying neat," Jimena answered. "Do you need help?" "Well, maybe," False said, wiping her sweat. "Do you have any experience with mechanical engines?" "No, but you can teach me," Jimena said, squatting down next to her. "I'm not so sure about that," False said, unsure of herself.
"Tinkering... it's just instinctive with me. See, I had amnesia too, and studying mechanics was a thing I did way back when I don't remember anymore. All this metal stuff I do, I don't know how I know all of it, how I understand. So I can't really teach you. Does that make sense?"
Jimena nodded. "But still, what can I help with?" False didn't know what this feeling was that she was feeling. Maybe I'm grateful for Jimena being around, she thought. That's probably it. "Okay," She said. She waved at her toolbox. "You can pass me my tools when I ask for them. Is that okay with you?" "Yeah."
As they worked, False and Jimena chatted a little. They wanted to learn more about each other. Jimena really couldn't remember anything, so the conversation was mostly about False. False told her about how she just woke up one day, met the other eleven emperors, and became one herself.
"I started Cogsmeade from the ground up. No citizens, no one to help me. I just did it all by myself." Jimena was a good listener. She asked the occasional question, but she didn't interrupt when False was talking. It felt nice to talk to someone else about her experiences, which was a kind of unfamiliar concept to the grand architect of Cogsmeade. She normally just talked to inanimate objects.
False tightened bolts, unscrewed screws, replaced panels, clipped wires, sealed a leak in the fuel tank, fixed much more than just trying to get the blimp to fly straight. She cleaned out old gears, untied and retied cords, scraped rust off of oxidizing copper, checked the balloon for holes, topped off the fuel tank, washed the hull, and did basic maintenance of the whole airship. The whole time, Jimena was busy passing her hammers, screwdrivers, sponges, towels, pliers, everything she needed to tune up the automaton. Every turn, she found more problems, more issues that needed fixing.
"You're doing a lot of work on just one ship," Jimena suddenly said. False blinked at her, wiping her goggles. "Well, I have to. With machines, the slightest little problem can grow into a big problem, and then the whole thing could crash. It's important to make sure you check on everything, make sure it's safe."
"I guess that's why you're so cautious all the time," Jimena noted. "It's habit." False blinked again. Is it that obvious? She wondered. Am I really like that? Then again, it's not a bad thing. "It's not a bad thing," She said. "It's a big world out there. Anything can happen. Like dangerous things. You have to be prepared for stuff like that. It could mean a life."
Jimena nodded and looked out at the setting sun. False didn't realize that the work had taken all day. She'd even woken up early; she'd been planning to work on the blimp that day since the previous week. And then False noticed how hungry she was. Jimena had brought snacks of toast and sweet berries every once in a while, but the girls were so engrossed in their work that they had basically skipped lunch, and maybe breakfast. False squinted as she tried to recall if the two of them had eaten breakfast. "Let's go eat dinner," False said, and Jimena agreed.
As False hastily cobbled together a supper of milk, fresh carrots and potatoes, and roast salmon, Jimena helped set the table while the empress worried over having a substantial meal. It turned out not that bad, with the salmon having just been fished up recently from the mountainside river running through Cogsmeade, and the potatoes and carrots being picked from False's own farm the day before, and fresh food always had a way of tasting delicious, especially when the diners were hungry. Washing everything down with milk also made the two of them feel pleasantly full and sleepy.
When they finished up, Jimena volunteered to wash the dishes, and as she did so, False remarked, "You've been very helpful today." Jimena shrugged. "That's just the way I'm hardcoded, I guess. Maybe it's a thing I retain even through amnesia."
False just nodded, and turned away, when a thought suddenly occured to her. "Hey, weren't you going to go to Sanctuary today?" False asked. Jimena nodded. "Oh, so you didn't get to go," False said, feeling disappointed on her behalf. Jimena shrugged again. "I don't mind not going today. Nothing stops me from going there tomorrow."
"Okay, so you're going tomorrow?" "Maybe. I like spending time with you." False blinked. Did she really say that? "Come again?" "I said I like spending time with you. What's wrong?" False realized tears were poking out of the corners of her eyes. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just... I think I've been alone too long. I like your company." Jimena smiled. "I like your company too." False didn't let Jimena clean up the sink alone, and the two bid each other a good night as they retired. Then as they fell asleep, the two of them dreamed very vivid dreams.
False stirred uncomfortably in her bed, still asleep, as she dreamed. Vivid flashes of what could be her missing memories danced through her mind, and she flailed around, physically and mentally, as she tried to remember.
In some places, the pictures she saw were as clear as day. But other patches were dim and unfocused, like someone was projecting the images in too bright light and had also forgotten to clean the projector lens. All False could gather from those dim images were faded impressions of mixed feelings.
Then came a very vivid sensation. False was trapped in a glass cage, the walls nearly opaque in the darkness. She screamed in fury, punching the wall. Let me out! The glass shattered. A sense of strong euphoria. Get out! The fractured glass cut her hand. She ran. Pain. No pain. The cage was open. Blood dripping down her hand. More glass. More walls. Where is she?! And then another figure. She stood in the doorway, sword extended. False could do the same. Swords out. They fought. Who won? Whose blood was on the sword? On whose sword? Run!
False gasped as she came to consciousness. She panted, glancing around her room in shock. Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream... But wasn't she experiencing memories not too long ago? She shook that thought off. She didn't like what that implied about her dream. The dream had scared her, down to her very core. What was that dream about? False couldn't remember anymore. All she remembered was the fear. This dream was different, she thought. Not like the dreams of flying that I had. I don't want to have that dream again.
But somehow False knew. The dream would return.
---
In the house next door, Jimena was also dreaming. She was dreaming a very different dream from False. In her dream, Jimena was calmly moving through empty space. She was alone in the blank void. Where was she going? She was going somewhere. She knew where she was going. The void went on endlessly. "Hello?" Jimena called, and she found that she had a voice. No one answered, but in the distance, there were stirrings. There were others out there. Jimena wanted to avoid them. She continued on.
The void went on much, much longer. Jimena found it wasn't a two-dimensional plane. Like it was underwater, she could move upward and downward in any way she wanted. She didn't question it. It was normal. She wasn't bothered by anything. Why would anything bother me here? She looked around. She saw nothing. She heard nothing. But she knew they were still around. She wasn't alone. Would they bother her today?
Suddenly, the void around her warped, and Jimena felt herself falling. Falling, falling, falling endlessly. Around her, other people fell. Jimena envied them. They were asleep, they couldn't know that they were falling. The fear creeped in. Why was she falling? Couldn't she move in another direction? Why couldn't she move? A hand reached out. Jimena moved away from it. Get away, she told herself, then caught herself wondering why. She was waking up; the conscious mind had recovered the use of logic again.
Jimena wasn't sure how she felt about the dream. Until she started falling, it hadn't bothered her. Now all she had to do was wonder why it hadn't bothered her.