"There it is." Ninnette pointed at The Iron Gears and Goggles, her pace hastening as soon as she saw the sign gently swinging from a bracket.

She'd lost a couple more hours of her life looking for the shop. Unlike the rest of the Floating Market resting on weathered stilts, this shop glided over water on a metal raft, like a sea drifter that did not settle on one location.

"Huh," Kazi humphed as he followed behind her. "So this is the best blacksmith in town in this era?" he asked, his tone mocking.

"Best blacksmith, tinkerer, inventor, and engineer in town," she answered despite knowing the question was sarcasm.

"Sounds like an impressive person," Kazi said. "A past lover?"

She threw a glare at him over her shoulder.

"Current lover?" His lips twisted in satisfaction. After hours of jeering, he was starting to get on her nerves.

Perhaps, it would have been better if she had wrung his neck on that beach after all.

She turned back, focusing on her tracks as she wove through a boardwalk. She looked at The Iron Gears and Goggles once more.

The deep indigo light of the early day opposed the warm lamplights that played along the tarnished walls of the shop. Steam and smoke curled from the iron pipes on its roof, softly hissing into the cool air. Though the windows were dark, she could almost see the artifacts inside, whirring like wings from within.

There was something about coming back to a place she'd lived in for so long. A memory she thought she wouldn't return to so soon.

"I used to work here," she said. "I earned money fixing things, saved it up so I could buy The Deep Dredger." Her voice cracked at the name of her ship.

Kazi was quiet for once. No teasing. No ridicule. And she breathed in his silence--an inward sigh she needed to face a past.

They reached the front of the shop, hopping from the boardwalk to the raft.

Ninnette didn't have to knock, knowing the door would always be open. When she pushed in, the heart of ticking gears came loud. She entered the familiar chaos of mechanical contraptions, each one clicking and clacking almost to a unified rhythm--a piece of welcoming music to a tinkerer.

Hissing steam ran through the exposed pipes along the walls, breathing out warm and humid air while the scent of oil, rust, and coal misted the shop.

She remembered each work table almost as if nothing had changed, though now they were crowded with gizmos different from when she was last in.

"Look who's back in town." A deep voice came from within the room.

Ninnette found the burly man immediately, expecting him to be there on his counter, tinkering with an artifact or two.

"You got my money yet, Netty?" The man waved a mechanical hand at her, gesturing for her to come in.

"Not yet, Jeoff," Ninnette answered as she stepped up to the counter.

"Netty?" Kazi said, testing the nickname on his lips--a jest forming, but she ignored him.

"Ooh!" Jeoff sneered. "What happened? You're stinking up the mood here."

"Nothing. Don't do that with me," she said.

"Doesn't work that way, Netty. Can't help it unless I look away," Jeoff said.

Kazi came to stand beside Ninnette at the counter. "Are you what I think you are?"

"Depends. What do you think I am?" Jeoff asked, sizing Kazi up with a stare.

"Psychesi," Kazi drawled.

Jeoff's eyes lingered on Kazi, and Ninnette knew exactly what the shop owner was doing--psychestrinjerie, the ability to read and control emotions. "Ah. This one likes you," he said when he was done, pointing at Kazi and winking at her.

"What?" Ninnette and Kazi said at the same time--her sounding horrified while him sounding entertained.

"Well, I can't deny that." Kazi grinned, taking it as an opportunity to tease her. "What's not to like?"

"There's her family's debt to me, for one," Jeoff provided, tapping a mechanical finger on the counter.

Ninnette flinched. Her family's debt. Something she'd had no say in. Something her parents, wherever they were, had given her as her inheritance.

She would have hated Jeoff then for bringing it up like that, but despite being crass, he had been good to her during the years she stayed with him. She trained and worked for him as a tinkerer, and he acted like a father to her in a way.

When she told him of her dream of owning a ship with a crew, he had been supportive. She was employed by him to pay a debt, but he'd given her a wage to aid her venture.

I promise I'll pay you back, she'd said, believing that her luck had turned when she acquired The Deep Dredger--broken in ways that were almost impossible to fix, but they worked on it together for weeks.

When she sailed out for the first time to dredge, her chin was high with pride. Now, she ducked between her shoulders, embarrassed to even show herself in The Iron Gears and Goggles without payment.

"I'll have your money soon enough," she said, her voice laced with doubt.

Kazi stared at her, pursing his lips as if he wanted to remark on it.

She clenched her teeth, ready for whatever unmannerly side comment the demon would provide. But it didn't come.

Kazi turned to Jeoff. "Since you're reading our emotions, what about her?" He jerked a thumb at Ninnette. "Does she like me?"

"What?" She wasn't expecting that. "Don't," she said to Jeoff, but the man had already gazed upon her with his deliberate eyes.

"I can guess that emotion says you're full of sea devil crap," Jeoff said to Kazi, tilting his head to her.

Her lips twitched on the side with a stifled laugh. Not only did she think he was full of sea devil crap, he was a piece of one.

"But she also thinks you're attractive," Joeff added.

The laugh died. The smirk on her face turned into a frown. "That's not true," she said, looking at Jeoff and searching for the jest, but the man seemed earnest.

Kazi's grin widened. "Tell me more."

"Can't," Jeoff said. "Whatever I sense is for my interpretation. Can't read her thoughts. All I know is she's attracted to you."

"That's not true," she said again, but this time she sounded less sure.

She looked at Kazi. How in the wet oceans had she become attracted to him?

But she couldn't deny that he looked... attractive. His devious smile was framed by a strong jaw. His posture was an effortless collection of confidence. And his eyes, veiled by long lashes, were mournful and mysterious.

She admitted she had noticed details of his features here and there.

When he had told her that she wasn't displeasing to look at, she thought the same of him. For a demon, he looked quite handsome. Maybe even angelic in certain angles, especially when he wasn't teasing her.

But that was just it. He was a demon. His looks were deceiving. He was attractive, true. But she was not attracted to him.

She turned back to Jeoff, ignoring a growing uneasiness inside her. "I need your help."

Jeoff eyed her as if she had already asked for one favor too many. "What did you get yourself into this time?" he asked.

"This time?" Kazi noted. "Sounds like the little drifter is a troublemaker."

She ignored Kazi, remaining focused on her intention. "I need you to get this off my arm." She raised the bangle on the counter.

Jeoff eyed it. "What's it supposed to be?" he asked.

"She can't tell you that," Kazi answered before she could.

Jeoff raised an eyebrow at Kazi and then turned to her. "Can't you do it?"

Mirroring his expression, she arched a brow. "I would've done it if I could."

"Right." Jeoff nodded. "Let's see here." He took her wrist, the bangle, and slightly turned it so he could see the open hatch with ticking springs and gears.

"You want to try smashing it with a hammer?" Jeoff asked. "But it'll likely break."

Kazi chuckled. "That's not going to work. I already told you. You're stuck with me, little drifter."

Jeoff tilted his head to one side, staring at the bangle and giving the same look he would a person when he was using psychestrinjerie. "You know how I told you I can sort of see people's emotions in color?"

"I remember you telling me more than once," she answered.

"I see it in this thing now," he turned the piece, scanning the circumference of the bangle. "Like a rainbow. Never seen anything like it before. Almost like it's enchanted."

"Try cursed," Kazi corrected.

Jeoff lifted his gaze to him. For a moment, Ninnette thought he was going to turn them away. "It's not going to affect me, is it?"

"Not unless you wear it," Kazi said.

Jeoff turned to Ninnette. He gave her the same pitying look he'd been giving her since she was a child. And though she hated being a charity case, she needed it now.

"I'll need some time. Can I take photographs?" Jeoff asked.

Ninnette nodded and allowed him to guide her to a station. The camera obscura had been set up to face down, intending to capture images of any artifacts placed on a table.

Jeoff took several photographs from different angles, trying to get as much look inside the hatch as he could.

After taking images to be printed on paper, he tinkered with the bangle, writing down notes on how many gears were visible in the hatch, how many ticks the dial had, and what material the trinket was made of.

"Come back tomorrow and see if I figure it out," Jeoff said when he seemed satisfied.

"I don't have tomorrow, Jeoff." Saying it out loud made Ninnette think of the hours she'd already lost. She couldn't afford a whole day to wait for an analysis and solution that could likely be a failure.

"Alright." Jeoff nodded. "Come back this evening. That's the best time I can give you, Netty."

She swallowed and nodded. "Fine. I'll take it," she said and turned around to leave the shop.

"Don't think I've forgotten about my money," Jeoff said.

Though he had always reminded her, Ninnette knew the man didn't truly mean to collect. It was just a thing he would always say whenever she visited, like a customized hello and goodbye. Besides, he had already let her go from the debt once she sailed out on The Deep Dredger.

But she was too prideful to accept the generosity.

"I'll have it soon enough, Jeoff!" she called back without turning to him as she headed to the door.

Kazi, who had been browsing around the shop, amusing himself with strange apparatus, followed her out.

The Floating Market had grown into its frenzied morning, where early risers put up their stalls. Shop signs had been flipped from 'Closed' to 'Open'. And the mist of dawn had already gone.

"So where to, little drifter?" Kazi asked as they stepped from The Iron Gears and Goggles' raft to the boardwalk.

Ninnette thought of other places she could go to get rid of the bangle, some people who could help. But before she could answer, Kazi dragged her to a corner of a building, pulling her by her waist and pressing her between him and a wall.

"What are you doing?!" She tried to fight him, but he shushed her.

When she looked up at him, his focus wasn't on her. She followed his gaze to the boardwalk. Immediately, she saw two men in red waistcoats coming their way.

There was nowhere to go in the corner of the building between empty metal crates and the wall itself. They could run the other way, but they would certainly be spotted.

"What do we do?" Ninnette asked.

"We wait," Kazi said, eyes still on the men from the Order of the Chain.

Ninnette's pulse raced. The last time they encountered the organization, they'd been shot at as if the Order wanted them dead.

She wouldn't let that happen again. She reached inside, calling to her hydrostrinjerie and sensing the water beneath the paneled floor. Ready to fight, she held her breath.

But the men walked by the corner without even turning their heads, seeming worn out from their night shift and glad to be retiring for the morning.

As soon as they were out of sight, Ninnette let go of a sigh. It took a heartbeat or two before she relaxed, releasing her hydrostrinjerie.

"You know, this is a classic spot and position for acquaintances to start a romance," Kazi said, gazing down at her. His earlier concern about the Order of the Chain had left his face, exchanged with a small smile playing on his lips.

She frowned, wanting to push him away, but she remembered Jeoff's words. She's attracted to you. Was there any truth to it? She took the opportunity to study him at a closer range.

There were hints of freckles on his cheeks. Thin lines were carved under his tired eyes. When he licked his lips, she noted the crack she'd given him the night before. This close, he seemed more human than demon.

His hand traced the curve of her back. She would've pushed him away then, giving him another smack on the mouth for the inappropriate touch. But entranced, she allowed him to feel her.

She stared at him, wanting to figure him out. "Why won't you just tell me how to break the curse? Won't you be freed when it's broken?" she whispered almost as if she had said the words to herself, but he was so close that she was sure he heard it.

"I will if it is broken," he corrected.

"Then why won't you tell me? Don't you want to be free?" She unintentionally leaned up toward him.

For a moment, his dark eyes narrowed with something soft. A sadness, perhaps. His gaze moved from her forehead to her lips gently as if he were measuring her. And slowly, he leaned down to meet her.

She blinked and froze, thinking they were about to kiss.

"By the Sea Mother, I do want my freedom. But it's never worked before. You won't be any different from the others," he said. His voice carried an undertone of doom.

He pushed away from her, releasing her from his hold, and she felt the cold dewy air of the morning pass between them.

Watching her still pinned to the wall, he clenched his jaw almost as if he were in pain. "You will eventually die."