soundless exile

Chapter 20: the gears of change

Tick Tick Tick. The sound was incessant like a heartbeat. I opened my eyes, to see my vision was blurred. like I was looking through fogged glass, I moved my arm and rubbed my eyes. The fogging cleared up.

Slowly I looked around. The room was a mess of gears and cogs, symbols everywhere. There was no rhyme or reason for it to exist. No signs of a purpose other than to make noise. Noise, I could hear. I could feel my ears twitching at the clicks, and grind of cogs.

Looking down at myself, I froze. My clothing looked off as if something underneath it had changed. I tried to walk and felt stuck, shifting myself slowly to look at my feet. I could see gears running through one of my legs. My breathing quickened, and then I heard a voice.

"ah. I see you're a bit stuck, aren't you?" The voice felt mechanical as if a clock's insides learned to talk. I looked around to see no one for the voice. "Apologies, Rousha. I'm afraid that if you were to see me it wouldn't be good for your mind." My breathing calmed. The voice felt familiar like I heard it before; it never was attached to a person, it felt like when I worked on a complex machine.

A melody in steel, a vibration. The voice spoke again. "sadly I can't undo what has been done to your leg. Even if it's a dream, have a present morning."  The voice chuckled, it was low, almost like grinding gears. Suddenly my vision goes black.

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Slowly as I came to, the memories of the dream faded except for one small part. What did he mean by he couldn't undo what happened to my leg? 

Slowly I lifted my sheet both my legs looked normal, then I noticed a weird shape under my sleep pants. Pulling it up I see gears, springs, and metal all replacing flesh. I moved my ankle, and the gears responded by spinning at high speed matching the speed I moved it.

I stuck a pencil in there only for pain to rack my leg until I removed it. "Note to self, don't shove things in there." I thought. I let the pant leg fall back down as I swung myself over to stand. Thinking that I should hide this from others.

Standing up I felt my leg take weight, it felt the same. I decide to get ready and enter the shower. seeing the gears that were hidden by my clothing felt sickening but I held myself together, a black substance was leaving the mechanism as water ran passed it. Oil it was oil, being washed from the cogs I shut the water off and the stream of it came to a stop.

I leave the shower my ankle feeling stiffer and harder to move. Finally, I got myself dressed and by then my ankle fully seized up. "fuck this will be hard to fix" I thought. then I remembered something. "my rigging, that has oil right?" My rigging appeared before I paused, sensing that I could summon something from it. Looking at my hand slowly a dark viscous substance appeared in it as I grinned, slowly I lowered my hand to my ankle and poured the oil in. It releases and starts to spin freely, the gears lubricating as I slowly walk around my room.

Suddenly I pause as my view lands on the couch. tosa wasn't there meaning she left, I sighed relieved she didn't see it, but also a bit worried about where she could be Slowly I headed out the door grabbing my bag and sword as I left. unsummoning my rigging as I went.

I walked towards the mess hall, gaining an odd glance every once in a while. till eventually entering it, picking up a tray, and ordering. Once I got my food and took my seat, I saw Laffey walk up to me and take a seat. She seemed slightly distracted 

Slowly she moved her hands and started to sign "Mom. why are you making a mechanical noise?"  This makes me freeze for a second which I try to cover up as me thinking. "What do you mean?" She looked at me and cocked her head. I started to bounce my leg which made her slowly look down as if hearing something. I freeze realising the leg I was bouncing was the one with the gears in it.

Standing up quickly I take my tray to the window and place it in a stack, before running off to the dry docks. Sprinting, passing by others who moved to the side as they saw me running towards them. I felt more alive as the gears in my leg responded before I felt pain, my ankle seizing. forcing me to fall, my momentum carrying me forward. I felt my head slam into the ground and the world went dark.

Opening my eyes to the stark bright lighting of the hospital slowly the room came into focus. it was the same one as before, just across from Yorktown. I felt pinpricks as my body slowly woke up and erupted into pain, looking down to see my jeans jammed into the gears with vestal slowly pulling the denim from the gears.

she finally gets it out and my foot shifts into a resting position. She looks to see if I was awake and gently smiles yet it looks apprehensive. "I talked to Tosa some. She said to expect some oddities. I just didn't expect it to be this odd." She gestures at the gears.

My eyes were failing to focus on her I felt sleep calling to me again before I was Shaken awake. "I'm sorry I can't you sleep yet, there's decent odds that your concused." Giving her a nod I start to read my magic books. trying to make sense of what is happening to me, but sentence after sentence. Page after page. Nothing helped to explain it. I exhale and collapse into my bed's pillow to only regret it. my brain feels like it's bouncing around my skull. Slowly the world goes dark once again.