Salvage ~ V1: Nuts and Bolts (Steampunk/ Gaslamp Romantasy ~ FxM, MxM)

Chapter 10: The Queen is Very Generous

The tower and the two houses on either side of it comprised the Alchemists' headquarters. Tamyn led Kazia to her apartment on the third floor of the East wing, in a corner of the farthest end of the building.

"This area of the house is very quiet," he informed her. "Mostly used for storerooms these days, so you shouldn't have any bother from anyone."

He opened a door at the end of the hall and handed Kazia the keys. The door led into a well-appointed office with a large desk and walls lined with empty bookcases.

Kazia's luggage, little though it was, had been brought ahead and the smaller pieces lay neatly inside the door. The large clothing trunk would have been carried further into the apartment.

"You have three rooms," Tamyn said, "office, sitting room, bedroom. There is a bathroom and small dressing room there through the bedroom. Any furnishings may be changed if they are not adequate, or if you're sending for anything from home then things can be removed. Just let the Steward know. You'll meet him later."

"There should be no need," Kazia said. "This should all suit me, and I have nothing more of my own. The Queen is very generous. I'm grateful."

The furnishings and effects of Kazia's rooms were more than generous. Many Alchemists were the younger children of nobility, and it seemed that Queen Inaissa had anticipated that they would prefer a certain level of comfort.

All of the wood furniture was beautifully wrought, and there were brocade cushions, damask draperies on the windows and about the bed, fine linens edged in lace on the little table in the sitting room next to the fireplace, a dressing table with a large silver mirror and little porcelain containers for a lady's toiletries in the bedroom.

Kazia would trade it all to be back in her little cottage in Essyl. She would keep that to herself, though.

"You have a wood stove here, and a kettle," Tamyn was saying as Kazia took it all in. "Mistress Amelys has instructed your meals to be brought to you here, but you are always welcome to join us in the hall if you're feeling up to it. And now, if you'll follow me..."

He led Kazia back through the office to another door behind the desk.

"I'll apologize for the state of it-"

"Oh!" Kazia gasped as she entered the laboratory.

It was twice the size of her whole apartment and was packed with tables and bookcases, every surface of them overflowing with various machinery and equipment. There barely seemed room to move about. The room was stuffed with microscopes, a gyroscope, scales, barometers, a small orrery, boxes of gears, bolts and the like, shelves filled with beakers and flasks, a glass-fronted cabinet containing what looked to be a full apothecary, shelves and shelves of books and rolled parchments.

"That door there goes out into the hallway," Tamyn said, pointing to the wall to their right, "and this one over here-"

He began to wend his way quite gracefully through a narrow path among the tables, moving a few large boxes with a strength unexpected from his willowy appearance, and Kazia followed.

"As I said, these were storerooms. I tried to sort through what you might need, but I couldn't be certain of it all, so I thought I'd best leave it to you to arrange things as you wish. I'll send a couple of my apprentices around tomorrow to help move things about. You can have them remove anything you don't need. They will know where to take things. And you can request anything you do need from me at any time. What do you think?"

"It's amazing," Kazia answered, a bit breathless. For the first time maybe she didn't regret leaving the farm.

"Just wait," Tamyn said, raising his eyebrows cheerfully. He reached the door on the opposite end of the room and opened it, standing aside to allow Kazia through. "Here are your Artifacts."