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

Chapter 28: Is It My Fault?

Mistress Jennade's estate was situated in the most fertile countryside of Thalesia. The surrounding land, mostly rented to tenant farmers, was lush with vineyards and orchards of olive and citrus.

The house itself was a sprawling villa that could rival any noble manor house, but upon entering, one would get the sense that to its former occupant, no house could ever be quite spacious enough.

Mistress Jennade had been quite the collector. The house was filled with Alchemical Artifacts as well as old books and scrolls, among other treasures, some elegantly displayed in the front rooms of the house, most stuffed into shelves or stacked in crates filling every nook, niche, and corner of every spare room.

The Artifacts ranged from playful little amusements to quite useful items such as medical equipment or instruments that could measure and predict weather conditions. There were also numerous manuscripts containing theories and plans.

There was a lab in the house, but since Mistress Jennade had been in retirement it was rather small and not well equipped, so Kazia set herself up in the large formal dining room, arranging a workstation at one end of the long table.

Kelvaran would search the house and bring her whatever he found interesting.

Tamyn was tasked with documentation, as well as sorting through the library of Alchemical texts for anything of use there.

The three of them quickly established a routine, and although the work was flowing along smoothly, there seemed a never-ending amount of it. Whether they could really finish in the week was looking less likely by the day.

Autumn in Thalesia was even warmer than in Caedra. It had rained the first few days of their visit, and on the fifth day, the rain moved out and the weather turned almost summery again.

Kelvaran carried a small Artifact into the dining room, but found the long table completely covered over in items awaiting Kazia's attention. Even the floor beneath had run out of space.

He glanced around the room, and spied a small bit of open floor against the wall at the far end, behind Kazia's station. After a moment of hesitation, he walked down the length of the room to deposit the Artifact there.

Although Kazia had insisted that she held no grievance with him, Kelvaran still felt nervous and tense in her presence, so for the duration of this project, he simply ignored and avoided her as much as possible. The separation of their tasks allowed it, and they both could go to Master Ilianus with any queries.

Indeed, it often seemed as if Master Ilianus deliberately inserted himself as a buffer between them. Kelvaran wondered if Mistress Amelys had told him what had happened, or if she had simply instructed him to play peacekeeper.

As he walked the length of the room, Kelvaran surveyed the contents of the table with dissatisfaction. The work was going very slowly, and besides his tension with Kazia, he was also unsettled to be in a country where other Valeskan defectors had been successfully assassinated.

They were given accommodation here at the estate for their stay, so there was no unnecessary daily travel, and the executors of Mistress Jennade's will had posted a heavy guard for their protection and assured them that all the household staff had been thoroughly vetted, but Kelvaran still found it nerve-wracking.

He wondered if he should give these piles of Artifacts another look. Did they really need to examine every one?

As he approached the far end of the table where Kazia sat, he began to avert his eyes, but she didn't spare him even a glance. In passing, he hazarded a look at what she was working on - and stopped in his tracks.