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

Chapter 31: I Want Nothing From You ~ pt.2

Keeping his grip on one arm, Kelvaran turned Kazia around and marched her out into the hallway.

Alchemists about the house looked on as he paraded Kazia down the staircase to the ground floor.

Reaching Master Giao's apartment, Kelvaran beat his fist on the poor man's door.

As the door was opened, Amelys emerged from her apartment a few doors away.

"Kelvaran Meratha, what do you think you're doing!?" Amelys shouted. "Did I not tell you to stay away from her? Let go!"

"It's alright, Mistress," Kazia called, as Madame Brandra also appeared from her apartment nearby.

"Master Giao," Kazia said to the bemused man standing in his doorway. "May Lord Meratha and I please come inside..." She glanced at everyone gathering in the hallway. "...to speak with you privately?"

"Yes, of course, please come in," said Master Giao, standing aside to admit them.

Kelvaran pushed Kazia through the door into Master Giao's office and closed it behind him.

"What can I help with?" Master Giao asked, looking from one to the other.

"Well... you've had an Artifact in my storeroom for some time," Kazia said. "One perhaps meant to make a portal of some sort?"

Master Giao looked thoughtful. That aura of tragedy that always surrounded him bloomed out in full force, and Kazia fought the urge to grimace at it.

"Yes," he said. "It's been there for years, though. I never could make the thing work."

"If it did work," Kelvaran demanded, "can you explain why it would deposit Lady Devratha into my chambers?"

Master Giao's eyes widened, and Kazia felt a desperate hopefulness begin to arise in him.

"Did it cast a portal then?" he asked, his voice trembling. "I don't know why it would go into your chambers, Lord Meratha. Its intention was to help me find my wife. I suppose we're fortunate that it didn't deposit you in Luazin, Lady Devratha."

Kelvaran let go of Kazia and she took to a chair.

"It does seem to have cast a portal, Master Giao. Which is quite exciting. Lord Meratha tells me that has never been done."

She glanced over her shoulder at Kelvaran.

He was scowling, but she could feel agreement from him about the portal. His interest was unquestionably piqued.

"To the business at hand, though," Kelvaran said gruffly.

"Twenty years ago, my wife and I were separated during an uprising in our home country," Master Giao began. "She couldn't be found, and eventually I was forced into exile. I have never seen her again, but I never gave up on trying to find her. The portal was just another failed attempt."

"What can you tell me about it?" Kazia asked.

"Well, it is designed to take the user to the side of the person they most wish to be near, who they hold most strongly in their heart," Master Giao said.

Kazia froze.

"So, say an assassin perhaps could use it to find her target if she willed it strongly enough?" Kelvaran said, a taunt in his voice aimed at Kazia.

"Oh, no," Master Giao protested. "No, the components are selected and arrayed to harness only the principles of love- and the intention must be pure, or you would be out of alignment with them. So, clearly the thing can't actually be working right."

He began to laugh gently.

"I mean, if it were, and it took you to Lord Meratha's chambers... you're surely not in love with him, that would be..."