The First Tick

Eric sat at his workbench, staring at the pieces of his watch. He gave it one last look before letting Professor Valien check it and either give his consent to empower it or tell him what should be fixed. Eric was confident in the former, but he wasn’t ruling out the latter.

When Eric had entered the class, Professor Valien had been preparing a box of objects. It looked like stuff he’d bought from a thrift store or a yard sale. Once the students arrived, he told them to pick an object and use it for artificing—enchant it and create something new with it. Eric noticed that most of the objects were made of brass, or at least something that looked like brass.

He looked up to find Professor Valien already standing beside him, looking down at the parts. The man’s eyes were focused on the main disc, the enchanted part of the watch.

“What is that you have there, Eric?” he tapped the disc.

Eric smiled. “I used some of my world's thinking to come up with this.” He picked up the disc and showed Valien the edge. “I had a blacksmith place thin sheets of Sylvarium layered on both sides of vancium so we could cut away what we didn’t need. It allowed us to make really thin runes and connections so we could fit the enchantment on the disc small enough to fit in this locket.”

Eric picked up the locket; the glass was off and a hole had been drilled in the side of it.

Professor Valien took the disc, held it up, and squinted at it. “This is simply brilliant. I was wondering if you could even figure out how to make something this small without interference, and you did a remarkable job doing that. I see you haven't tried to empower it either.” He looked at Eric with a grin. “I'm glad you followed instructions; I honestly assumed you'd try.”

Eric chuckled. “I do happen to like my arms where they are, Professor.”

Professor Valien nudged Eric over and pulled the magnifying lens into place to take a closer look at the enchantment. “This is really good work, Eric.”

Eric looked at Welyvyne with a grin. “Welyvyne did that work you're looking at, Professor, and I agree, she did a remarkable job.”

Professor Valien turned to Welyvyne. “Well, then the credit for exquisite craftsmanship goes to you. You may empower this; I would like to see it work.”

Eric took the disc back and, ever so slowly, pushed mana into the tiny runes. He had to focus hard; being this small made the construct extremely fragile.

The runes glowed to life and then faded. He began assembling the watch, and once he placed the inverse escapement into place, it began to tick back and forth, the gears moving little by little.

Welyvyne was leaning in with Professor Valien when Eric shouted, “It's alive, it's alive!”

Welyvyne jumped back in surprise, then punched Eric in the arm. “What is wrong with you? You scared the life out of me.”

The whole class stopped and stared at them, some of the students getting up to try and see the thing causing all the excitement. Eric, of course, moved aside and waved the students over, and they took the invitation. One student—Tessa, of course—asked, “What does it do?”

Eric smiled. “It will tell me the time.”

Tessa frowned. “But we have bells for that.”

Eric frowned this time. After a bit, the students sat back down, and Eric decided to put it in the locket.

Eric put the crown into the hole on the side, and it clicked into place. For the final touch, he placed the glass on the watch. Suddenly, the whole thing started getting hot. Eric instinctively threw it onto the bench and stepped back as it started spewing black smoke, then suddenly stopped.

Eric rushed back to it and tried to pick it up. It was still hot, and he dropped it again.

“What happened?” Welyvyne asked.

Eric looked at her. “I don't get it, it was fine then suddenly—” He sighed. “This.”

Valien rushed over and looked at the watch. “Is that locket enchanted?”

Eric turned and stared at the watch, then put his hand to his forehead. “I don't know, but probably.”

Eric waited a bit longer, then picked the watch up and popped the glass out. All of the Sylvarium had melted off the vancium. He sighed and looked over the locket, but he couldn’t find a single rune on it. Then he checked the glass. He inspected it, and there it was—on the very edge of the glass were tiny repeating runes. They appeared to be some form of preservation runes, likely there to keep the image inside from becoming ruined due to age.

“Well,” Eric said, “it's a good thing you made two discs.”

Eric decided not to remove the runes from the glass. He isolated his own runes with vancium and empowered the new disc, then reassembled the watch and set the glass back on. It seemed to work. He held it up to his ear and heard it ticking. He sighed and slumped back in his chair.

Then he looked over at Welyvyne. “You had said before that the bells chime twelve times a day and they muffle them at night—how many night bells are there?”

Welyvyne had been watching everything beside him, so the question caught her off guard. “Uh, twelve. I assume you're about to put markings on the watch to line up with the bells; twenty-four marks would be hard to read.”

Eric smiled. “No, just twelve. Seems our world's twenty-four-hour day matches, but yeah—twelve, and it just goes twice around the face for a full day.”

“Huh,” Welyvyne said as Eric started working on the face. He measured and engraved lines; it was crude but functional.

“I don't know if the timing is correct; I may have to figure out how to adjust that.”

He popped the hands on and closed the glass back onto it. “What is the time right now?”

Welyvyne smiled. “It should be close to the eleventh bell right now.”

Eric started turning the crown, and the hands moved clockwise until he had it sitting at eleven. Then he waited.

Eric noticed Welyvyne’s ear twitch and immediately pushed the crown in. The second hand started ticking around the face.

“Bell,” Welyvyne said simply.

Eric handed the watch to Professor Valien, who inspected it and smiled.

“Simply elegant,” he said. “This is a fine example of a third star device with the precision of a fifth star. I do believe this settles it. You and Welyvyne have shown you have the skill. I'm afraid this class just isn't for you two anymore.”

Eric's eyebrows knitted. “So... we passed the class then?”

Professor Valien laughed. “I told you that if you could make this half work I'd pass you. You two, in one week, finished it and it works. I'd say this class is not advanced enough for you. I'll see you two next semester in second star artificing. Now go celebrate—you two deserve it.”

Eric smiled at Welyvyne. “Guess we have a bit more free time then.”

Welyvyne laughed. “Yes we do.”

Eric looked down at the watch; it showed that about three minutes had passed. “That seems right,” Eric said, almost skeptically.

Eric and Welyvyne stopped at the dwarven blacksmith's. Eric looked up as the clanging of hammers on metal rang through the street.

Welyvyne looked at him. “Are you wanting him to make more discs?”

Eric shook his head. “Nope. I promised to show Grendar what I used the discs for. We have patrol tonight, so I figured why not do it now?”

As usual, Grendar was behind the counter. He smiled warmly at Eric, then peered past him to Welyvyne.

“Good day, Eric. What brings ye in today? I’m startin’ to think ye can’t go a day without seein’ me. And who is this lovely lady ye’ve brought with ye?”

Eric smiled. “This is Welyvyne—she is my bonded academic.”

Grendar waggled his eyebrows. “Bonded academic, ye say?”

Eric groaned. “Not like that. We’re friends, and we share the same academic schedule.”

Grendar laughed. “Oh, I know what it means, Eric. It’s what it implies, though. I’m surprised that even works, ye know—ye bein’ a human and her an elf an’ all.”

Welyvyne smiled. “It works just fine. Really, better than fine.”

Eric just shook his head. “I brought the artificing project in.” He stepped up to the counter and handed Grendar the watch. “This is what I needed the discs for.”

Grendar turned it over in his hand. “Oh? What’s it used for?”

“It tells me the time,” Eric said.

Grendar immediately put the watch up to his ear, his eyebrows furrowing. “All I hear is some kind o’ tickin’ sound.”

Eric shook his head, realizing they observed time with their ears, not their eyes. “It shows you the time.” He pointed at the face. “The hands here show the time. The little one shows the bells; this long one shows how long before the next bell. See? It’s almost halfway to the next bell.”

Eric popped the glass off, pulled the crown out, and detached it, then lifted the face to show the tiny gears underneath. “These gears are run by this inverse escapement here, and its movement is powered by the runes Welyvyne etched into the sylvarium and vancium disc I had you make.”

Grendar’s eyes widened. “This is some fine work, Eric.” He turned the watch to get a better look at the gears. “How’d ye make the gears so small?”

Eric smiled. “A lot of patience—and a jeweler’s kit.”

“I think we could sell somethin’ like this,” Grendar said as he handed the watch back to Eric. “We could start work on ’em right away if I had some plans for it.”

“Hold on,” Grendar said, turning toward the back. He raised his voice. “Ragnar! Get in here and look at this!”

The tink-ing of hammer on metal stopped, and the door behind Grendar burst open. “What d’ya want? I’ve got orders ta fill,” a stocky dwarf grumbled as he stepped through.

Grendar smiled and pointed at the watch in Eric’s hand. “Do ye think we could get ta workin’ on somethin’ like this?”

“Hand it over, lad.”

Eric did so, and Ragnar held the watch up close, squinting at the workings. “Aye… we can do the metalwork, but we can’t do the enchantin’. How did ya manage ta make it so small, lad?”

Eric laughed. “That would be Welyvyne’s work—she has a steady hand.”

Ragnar grunted. “So that’s what them odd discs were fer—fer this thing.” He turned the watch over again. “We’ll be needin’ some stuff from the dwarven city if yer plannin’ ta make ’em look better. This is fine, but I wouldn’t sell it as is. We can make some cases and gears, but yer gonna be needin’ ta supply the enchantin’. Do ye have some plans fer it? Can’t get the gears right if we don’t have plans.”

Eric nodded and summoned the sketches from storage, laying them on the counter. “We should talk about supplies for it—and maybe some kind of business agreement. Welyvyne and I would require a cut of the profits.”

Grendar laughed. “Not givin’ this one away for free, I see. I don’t blame ye, Eric—this is good. Plus, I think knowin’ the time between bells could be very useful.”

Grendar pulled out a sheet of parchment and began writing up a contract. When he finished, he turned it so Eric could read it.

Eric looked the contract over. It was written for optimal fairness—no tricks, no skew. He wasn’t surprised; as far as he’d seen, Grendar was extremely fair.

Eric furrowed his brows. “The contract is sound and fair. Just one thing.” He tapped the names in the partnership section. “Rather than fifty percent of the profit going to me, split that—twenty-five percent to Welyvyne and twenty-five to me.”

Welyvyne’s eyes widened. “Eric, this is your design. That isn’t fair to you.”

Eric turned to her. “No, it’s completely fair. You were an active participant in making this watch, and you did a lot of the work on it. Without you involved, this isn’t going to work—I’d get overwhelmed with the workload. It’s only fair that you get half of the profit that was going to me.”

Welyvyne’s eyebrows knitted. “Fine, if you insist. But I still don’t think this is fair.”

Eric smiled. “Well, you know…” He waggled his eyebrows. “We could pool our money and rent us a shop.”

Welyvyne’s eyes sparked with excitement. “Yes. Absolutely. I love that idea.”

Grendar corrected the contract and made a second copy. They all signed both, and just like that, he and Welyvyne were business partners with dwarven blacksmiths—and one step closer to having a place of their own to call home.