Reddit Stories & Other Fiction: 2021

The Engineer And The Witch: Part I

All Tera wanted was a quiet life. Her mother always accused her of finding trouble and Tera always cried that it chased her, no matter how she ran or hid. In school, she found herself ending fights she didn't start, sometimes in self defense, but often in defense of others. She tried to keep her head down. She tried to behave. She tried to keep her hands at her side. But when a larger kid shoved another to the ground, they flew at him with a mind of their own and Tera had no choice but to follow.

Even outside of school, she couldn't escape trouble. There was no fighting at home, but things still broke. Glass slipped from her fingers. Wood cracked in the furniture and walls. Pipes burst with such frequency, their landlord almost gave up on plumbing entirely. Some of the locales, mostly irate neighbors, said she was cursed. Bad luck.

Eventually, Tera had to accept they were right.

She couldn't fix her luck, so she set to fixing everything else instead.

For many kingdom ships, Bar Tannis was the last port before open seas. Every vessel docked for supplies and maintenance, from merchant cargo craft to inquisitor warships. By large, Tera had little interest in the civilian ships, fascinated far more by the kingdom machines than sails and oars. She spent her afternoons on the docks, waiting patiently for navy vessels. The captains and their officers kept to themselves, hardly willing to humble themselves for the Port Authority, certainly not for the questions of curious children. The crew, however, were eager to talk, particularly the engineers once she learned the right questions to ask. They loved to discuss their machines and all the work that went into keeping them afloat. The engineers eagerly pointed out the difference between steam, arc, and etherium engines. Cold engines, some called the last group, though they burned as hot as any other. Conversations graduated to watching them work to assisting with repairs. The engineers joked that they only wanted free labour, but the way they guided her hands and checked her work told a different story. Their machines were extensions of themselves. Each was happy to train the next caretaker and Tera was happy to learn.

Her curse seemed subdued when she worked. No machine broke that was not already broken. No terrible news of the vessels she touched reached the shore. Not for a long time.

Engine ships were not her only training and far from the most interesting. Word spread through Bar Tannis and though few were willing to trust a cursed child, she eventually found an apprenticeship with a watchmaker and, from her, Li Shen. Engineer Shen, he insisted. He specialized in mekanica prosthetics but he found more than enough work servicing mekanica for the Port Authority. More than enough to offer Tera a holistic education. She fell in love with his work immediately. Unlike the ship engineers at the docks, almost tripping over themselves as they excitedly babbled off technical knowledge, he was quiet. Reserved. To every question Tera asked, he asked her thoughts, guiding her to the correct answer with comments and questions of his own. Engineer Shen didn't fear mistakes like her other tutors, so long as those mistakes did not cost him money.

Tera learned quickly. Her patchwork solutions became elegant designs. Sometimes she even improved the original. Under her mentor's careful guidance, she designed her own mekanica, a light utility robot with a passion for sweeping. She hoped it would get her out of chores, but Engineer Shen always found new tasks faster than she could build mekanica for them.

Eventually her mentor and her parents came to the same realization. Between a flurry of letters and a series of awkward interviews with grumpy kingdom officials — including her father's boss — Tera joined an engineering school.

It should have been a celebration.

Tera never considered the possibility. She excelled in her apprenticeship, but her grades were average at best. Her curse never found its way into her designs, fortunately, but she had not fully escaped it. Her skills with a wrench kept her family's apartment from flooding and her years of lifting heavy machinery meant most bullies bowed out of fights when she stepped in. Yet she still earned her fair share of bruises. Engineer Shen taught her how to make a protocol bypass from a tuning fork and she taught herself how to disassemble hostile mekanica one handed. Useful skills, she insisted, but nothing worthy of an engineering school, least of all a mainland college. Still, one wanted her.