One puff of smoke later, the telegraph stopped rumbling. Angel gave the woman a polite smile, hiding his true feelings. “Thanks for your help. I’m running a bit late, so I should probably get going.”

She bid him farewell, still looking slightly concerned as the Seeker slipped down the ladder and headed back towards where Vanessa was waiting for him. He wasn’t sure exactly how long he’d been gone, but it was more than five minutes.

When he got back, Vanessa was pacing the room nervously. She let out a relieved sigh, but her features quickly turned annoyed. “Where were you? I thought something had happened!”

“Sorry,” Angel said, pulling out the Tinkerer’s tools and handing them to Vanessa. “I got sidetracked by something important.”

Vanessa took the pouch from Angel and popped it open, peering inside. “I guess. Is everything okay?”

“I… yeah. It is,” Angel said. He needed more time to process the information. Even if there was something wrong, there was nothing he could do about it now. Cowl was too strong to directly challenge, and the man was helpful. For now, at least. He reached over and pulled out one of the tools in the kit – a metal handle that ended in a thin point. “This is the scribe. It’s what you’ll use for most of the basic work. But, before we can even start that, we have to clean all of the tools. Any excess material on them will interfere with your magic.”

Vanessa nodded, listening intently. Angel pulled out a small oilcloth bundle, carefully unwrapping it to reveal a vial of clear liquid. “This is acid. Strong acid at that. It’ll get the rust right off.”

He unscrewed the top carefully using his mechanical arm, then dipped the tip of the scribe into the solution. The rust covering the metal tip flaked and fell off as he swirled it around the liquid for a few moments.

“And voilà. Clean as a whistle,” Angel said, pulling the scribe back out. The greenish brown sheen that had been covering it had vanished, replaced by glittering bronze. He wiped it off and handed it to Vanessa, who held it gently as if it would break in her grasp.

“Wow. How does it work?”

“I’m getting there. You know how to channel basic magic, right?”

“Of course. I can’t do anything with it, though,” Vanessa replied, summoning a small mote of blue light to her fingertips. “It’s just a tiny light.”

“Almost everyone can cast magic,” Angel said. “But not many people learn how to use it beyond what you’ve got there. When you Tinker, you’re trapping magic within the metal. Mistakes mean the magic doesn’t react like it’s meant to. Best case – it fizzles. Worst case… well, there are a lot of one-armed Tinkerers.”

Vanessa swallowed and nodded her understanding, looking at the scribe in her hands with newfound respect. “Is there a beginner pattern?”

“Not exactly,” Angel said. “But the good news is that putting the magic into a pattern does nothing. Like I mentioned a while ago, we don’t have access to Old World magic. Without the pressure build up, any designs you make will just fizzle. That means you can’t injure yourself until you start trying to put the magic into a canister.”

“That’s good,” Vanessa said, letting out a small sigh. “So, how should I start?”

“A square,” Angel replied with a smirk. “And once you’ve done that about a hundred times, we can move on to a circle.”

Vanessa simply nodded. She brought a spark of magic to bear above her palm, then carefully prodded it with the scribe. The metal tool pressed into the floating orb, dragging a small line of energy with it when she pulled back.

The tool trembled slightly in her grip as she drew the lines of the square, causing it to come out wobbly and more like a shoddy circle than anything else. Angel gave her an encouraging nod. “Not a bad start. You don’t have the muscles in your arm to keep the tool steady yet, but those will build. Just keep practicing.”

The magic dissipated harmlessly as Vanessa pulled the scribe away from it. Unperturbed, she brought another spark of blue energy forth and started practicing again. If Angel had been less preoccupied trying to figure out the situation with Cowl, he likely would have been slightly impressed.

As sheltered as Vanessa was, she learned at an incredible pace. By her tenth attempt at drawing a square, it actually resembled the shape. Sweat trickled down her brow and her lips grew several degrees of color lighter.

“That’s enough for now,” Angel said, stopping Vanessa before she could give it another attempt. “Magic comes from the energy within our bodies. You can eventually build a bigger reserve, but that takes years of practice. You’re going to faint if you keep at it constantly.”

“It’s a lot harder than I thought it was,” Vanessa said, rocking back with a sigh. “But I felt like I was getting somewhere! I think I was getting close to making a square.”

“You were doing quite well,” Angel agreed. “Have you ever done anything like this before?”

“No,” Vanessa said, her face falling. “My mom didn’t let me do just about anything other than ride around the outskirts of the city with a heavy guard. I was too ‘important’, or some garbage like that.”

“The drawbacks of wealth.”

“It was nice, I suppose,” Vanessa admitted. “But not as nice as you’re thinking. It’s nothing you haven’t heard, of course. It’s not like I didn’t have any freedom – I did. I arguably had a better life than just about everyone else in Bronze City.”

“There’s a but coming in there,” Angel said, cocking his head.

“I couldn’t trust anyone. Everyone I met was trying to get something from my mom. Land, money, sex, you name it. Some of them got what they wanted, others didn’t. And they all saw me as the easiest way to reach her. Even now, with the Magistrate of Salt Lake. It’s not like he cares about me in the slightest. There are thousands of attractive women that would kill to marry him. If he catches me, I doubt I’ll live through the year. He just wants to marry me to bring Bronze City under his control.”

Angel grimaced. “That does sound pretty horrible. Not to question your life choices, but why didn’t you try to take up a hobby or learn something? I find that the company of my artifacts is often vastly superior to that of my fellow humans. Did the Magistrate ban you from doing anything dangerous or something like that?”

“I almost wish I could say yes,” Vanessa said with a laugh that was equal parts bitter and disappointed. “Have you ever tried to learn something when you had no reason to? I can complain, but I had everything I needed. Good food, water, free entertainment, and all the money I could ever ask for. I was lazy. Sure, I tried my hand at sewing for a year or so. Then I gave it up, and it’s the same story with just about everything else. Why practice hard at something when you can pay someone else to do it for you?”

She leaned forward, rubbing her face with her hands and letting out a sigh. “I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear the complaints of a spoiled teenager.”

“We all need to vent sometimes,” Angel said, shrugging. “And you make some fair points. I doubt I would have done half of what I have if an empty stomach wasn’t driving me. What matters now is that you’re here, and money is far from infinite. You’re in a great position to be very… driven about your future. Your life might depend on it.”

“I’m not sure if that was meant to be comforting.”

“It was meant to be whatever you make of it,” Angel replied. “It’s your life. I’m not going to tell you the right way to live it.”

Vanessa watched him with a curious expression. Angel could practically see the thoughts bouncing around her head. Before she could say anything, the flap to their room parted and Cowl stepped inside carrying a bag over his shoulder.

“I’ve gathered the supplies,” Cowl said. “I presume there’s been no trouble?”

“None,” Angel confirmed after a moment, trying not to stare too closely at the Hunter. Confronting him now would gain nothing. Whoever Cowl was, he seemed to be interested in helping them. “I’ve just been teaching Vanessa how to Tinker.”

“A valuable skill,” Cowl said. “One that many spend decades mastering.”

“I can almost draw a square.”

“Congratulations,” Cowl said, setting the bag down. “Learning a new skill is always a wise choice, especially when we’re going to be stuck here wasting time for a few hours.”

“Why’d it take so long to find supplies?” Angel asked abruptly. “Did something give you trouble?”

“Not much gives me trouble,” Cowl said. “But I am picky with what I purchase. It took some time to find a suitable merchant.”

From anyone else, Angel would have taken the words as senseless bluster. But, when Cowl said it, Angel got the feeling that the Hunter was simply stating facts.