Jaap stepped back to admire his handiwork. A part of him knew that anyone else who happened to glance at it would only see an assortment of gears and pulleys, but his analytical mind always sought potential. He could see what each gear's purpose was, could even "see" the amount of kinetic energy that passed through each one. And what he saw pleased him.
"A newcomer arrived today," a voice announced from down below.
Jaap turned and looked over the side of the scaffolding. A short figure with a distinctly feline facial structure stood gazing up at him. "Ah, Six! A moment, if you please." The Melesi engineer ambled over to the ladder and began his descent, the scaffolding creaking in protest with every step. Jaap had calculated the exact acceptable load the supports could endure before failure, had figured as long as he didn't gain more than ten pounds, he should be just fine.
He was about halfway done when he remembered he had eaten a particularly large breakfast that morning, and had been so excited to finish his project that he had forgotten his morning constitutional. Pausing to calculate his current mass, he realized he was in trouble. The scaffolding seemed to realize it at about the same time he did, because it shuddered briefly before collapsing all at once with a terrific crack. "Oh Meklorn," he muttered as he began to calculate the probable amount of injury that would be inflicted by such a fall.
Suddenly, nonsensically, he heard Six Candy's voice in his ear. "Gotcha," said the Felinari, and Jaap felt strong arms grasp him about the waist. The two of them fell to the ground at a more controlled rate, Six landing first and setting Jaap gently down.
"You are as resourceful as ever!" exclaimed Jaap, putting his goggles down over his eyes and looking his friend over. Six Candy had an relaxed expression on his face, as always, but his lips were curled slightly in an expectant smile. "Let's see, residual energy from your ring and your belt, and I know your ring is what grants you those extraordinary jumping abilities. So it must be your belt that grants you strength?" Jaap clapped his hands in delight when Six nodded. "I'm getting better at this!"
Six Candy's smile broadened, but he shook his head and said, "I still don't understand how you could be so unfamiliar with such common magic items. You really don't have any in this Bottle World of yours?" The Felinari insisted that they all lived inside a bottle.
"If there are any, I've never seen them. And as far as I know, there are no wizards to make them." Jaap grinned suddenly. "But I have a different kind of magic. Technology!" He lumbered over to the control box on the side of his workshop, pulled a few switches, then turned back to Six and made a flourish. "Ta-da!"
The vine-like chains on the side of Jaap's workshop whined as they came to life, creaking along on their tracks. A spot of oil should take care of that, thought Jaap. Then the flower boxes he'd installed along the vines emerged from their hidden compartments and began circling the outside of his workshop in whimsical loops. But these boxes were not empty crates of dirt, they were filled with blooms from every kind of flowering plant that Jaap could collect from all across the Known World.
Even Six Candy looked impressed. "I'm not sure any mage back home could've come up with something like this," he said. "How did you manage to make the flowers all bloom at once? Don't they normally bloom at different times and in different climates and so on?"
Jaap beamed with pride. "See, that's the fascinating thing. I did extensive research about every single one of these 879 species of flowers, about the amount of light and water they needed, the temperature, and so on. To get them all to bloom here, in the Steam District, seemed impossible. But I found these." He reached into his apron and pulled out a handful of tiny crystals. "I call them life gems. A single one of these planted in a flower box will sustain life for years."
Six rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That sounds an awful lot like magic."
"Call it what you like, it works," said Jaap with a shrug. He waved a paw at the door to his workshop. "Well? Shall we have some tea as you tell me about your observations about the newcomer's arrival?"
#
Jaap kept the inside of his workshop fastidiously neat and organized, and he was a little embarrassed when he realized he'd left a spanner out on one of his work tables. He gestured for Six to have a seat at the round table he used for eating, then quickly went to put away the tool before joining his friend.
He poured two cups of hot water from the kettle, put a sachet of tea leaves in each, and wound the key on the timer he had set for three minutes. "Well?"
"No Agast," said Six, frowning. "His face didn't appear in the sky, there was no squeak like someone rubbing on glass, no distortion."
"This is how it usually goes," said Jaap, nodding. "And the goggles?"
"Worked like a charm. The blinding light when a newcomer arrives did not harm me in the slightest and I was able to confirm our suspicions. A portal appeared, the newcomer fell through it, and the portal disappeared again before the light faded."
Jaap grinned as he held out one paw. "'Our' suspicions?"
The so-called Cat Burglar sighed as he handed over a small bag of coins. "Okay, your suspicions. There's your ten gold crowns."
"So, where does that leave us?" asked Jaap, as he tucked the money into an apron pocket.
"Pretty much nothing makes sense, other than Agast has made one hell of a good trap."
"Why does nothing make sense?"
"Okay, so I know what I saw, right? In the outer world, I broke into a wizard's mansion and found a glass bottle in a study. In the bottle I could see an entire world, with hills and all that, and even tiny figures. Then there was a blinding light and I'm here."
"I don't know much about your magic, but it sounds like it could do what you described."
"And Agast appeared in the sky, his snaky face looking curved like he was looking through glass, right?"
Jaap nodded. "It caused quite a stir, as I recall."
"But he's done that for no other newcomer. Why save the theatrics for me?"
"I can only speculate that there is something special about you, something that made Agast take notice."
"Like what?"
"Well, you're a Felinari, one of only two in this entire world."
Six frowned in deep thought. "But Rain came here as a young child, and she doesn't remember getting any special treatment."
Jaap nodded. "The wizard's motivations remain a mystery. If there even is such a wizard."
"You still doubt my story?"
"I can only verify what I have observed myself," replied Jaap with a shrug. "I have never seen a wizard, and the only magic I've seen is yours."
"Other than your crystals," countered Six.
"Fair enough, they seem to have the same effect that magic has in your world."
"And you still don't think we're from the same world?"
Jaap shook his head. "I've told you, my people have been here for generations upon generations. We have some myths about traveling here from another world, but they never mention anything about a glass bottle. And as you've said, you've never seen my kind before."
"I haven't," agreed Six. "Though you look an awful lot like an animal we have back home called a badger, just like we Felinari resemble cats. But I just assumed your people might have died out back in my world."
"What could cause an entire people to die out?"
A dark look passed over Six's face. "War."
"So illogical," said Jaap, but he knew not to press the issue further. Though Six tried to hide it, Jaap knew it to be a painful topic for the Felinari. "Anyway, that still doesn't provide evidence for how we could be from the same world."
"Well, there are Canii in my world as well," Six pointed out.
"And as you've said yourself, they are far different than the Canii that live here."
"But I know they're the same! Every physical feature, down to their size and their wolf-like snouts, they have the same bodies! It's just, they have a completely different culture somehow."
"There's also the fact that your wizard would have to have lived for many, many years. Centuries, even."
"It's not that uncommon for wizards to find ways to extend their lives with magic," said Six. "Potions of longevity and such."
Jaap was enjoying the debate, as usual. It wasn't often that he found someone capable of keeping up with his reasoning skills. But he grinned as he realized he had a point that Six couldn't counter. He pointed up. "The sun."
"What about it?"
"If we exist in a glass bottle on a desk in someone's study, why is there a sun that rises and sets every morning? And a moon, as well?"
Six sat a while in silent thought. I've got him, thought Jaap, gleefully. The tea timer went off then, and Yaap pulled the sachet's out of the mugs with a small mesh spoon. Six nodded his thanks, then said, "Maybe it's not real. What if it's an illusion?"
Jaap snorted out his snout. "Really, Six. I can only verify what I've observed myself..."
"You've said that before," said Six with a sudden grin. "That's it! We need to see if the sun is an illusion! Ten crowns says it is!"
"I'll accept that wager, but how do we test your theory?"
Six Candy reached under his shirt, pulled out a pendant on a silver chain. "This!" he said, handing it over.
Jaap held the pendant up to examine its single gem. It seemed to have a faint aura around it, a glow. He removed his goggles and looked again, and the glow was gone. "More of your magic?"
"It's a Gem of True Seeing. It allows you to see through all sorts of falsehoods and illusions."
"Sounds useful. And you haven't used it on the sun already? Does it work?"
"No, it didn't, but that's where you come in," said Six, excitedly. "It's just a little gem, really. I think if there was an illusion to make an entire sun appear, it would be powerful magic, wouldn't it? So maybe this gem isn't strong enough on its own, but with your magic..."
Jaap shook his head incredulously. "I've told you before, what I do isn't magic..."
"But you work with gems, right? Maybe there's something you can do to amplify it, give it a little boost."
Jaap sighed and took another look at the gem. It was a milky green color, not unlike the gemstone Serenite that was so common back home. But it was so tiny, it would have too little energy for him to work with. His eyes widened suddenly. "Oh!" he said.
"What?"
"I've seen this kind of gem before, in a cavern underneath Onderberg. Huge crystals of it, in fact. Maybe we could harvest one of those and see if I can put it to use."
"'We'?"
Jaap grinned at Six Candy. "Of course, 'we.' You're coming with me, aren't you?"