Brass Automaton

02 - Floating Smile

"Mirrored fragment in my hand, show me now the brass-made man."

The glass fragment reflected the old woman's withered features. Her visage slowly faded, and all that was left was her floating smile. The smile morphed until tendrils weaved and bobbed in the mirror. After a moment, an androgynous face replaced them. The face's lips were peeling and the facial features were cracked. Eyes empty of light stared back at the old woman. The disembodied head attenuated and rippled as it was replaced by a rolling forest.

"There it is!" she crooned.

The glass fragment showed a man made of brass uproot a tree and launch it at two cowering figures. One was covered in mud and pig excrement, while the other stood defiant against what she saw. The old woman had to move the glass fragment to follow the action. The figures dove out of the way, the tree barely striking one. The brass automaton's clockwork gears propelled it forward in a leap, and a burst of steam arrested its decent.

"What have you got there, prisoner?" A guard banged the hilt of his sword on the bars to the woman's cell.

The withered woman secreted the glass fragment in her tattered robe and turned to face the guard. "I have nothing," she croaked.

"I saw you with something," the guard retorted.

The crone extended her arms and spun in a circle, gesturing around the room. "I've been locked in this cell for generations," she rasped. "The oracle foresaw my death in this very cell."

The guard stepped back, but still attempted to project an air of authority. His eyes narrowed into slits as he surveyed the woman older than the castle and the kingdom he had vowed to protect. He leaned against the wall, still facing her, but he let his eyes fall slack. The woman withdrew her hands into her robe and ran a callused thumb against the rough edge of the glass fragment. The guard missed the slight wince as the glass drank from her bloody thumb.

* * *

"Come with me if you want to live!"

John looked back at the brass automaton, the escaping steam bending grass and its feet sinking into the soft topsoil. John lunged and gripped Reese's outstretched hand with his own. She hauled him to his feet as a high-pitched whine escaped the brass automaton.

"It needs to build up pressure before it can attack again!" Reese shouted as she dragged John away from his farm and the menace of whirling gears and dark magick.

John looked forlornly at the pigs screeching in the mud. He doubted that they would survive the wrath of the brass monstrosity. "We have to get to the castle," he yelled as he stumbled after Reese.

Reese looked over her shoulder just long enough to ensure John was following. "The soldiers of this time are not equipped to handle something like this."

"And you can?"

"With the weapons of the time? I don't know."

"Time?"

"Don't worry about it right now."

John skidded to a stop. "You'll tell me now!"

Reese doubled back to where John obstinately stood, her shoulders square with irritation. She seized John by the neck and spun him toward the brass automation. "Do you see that thing?" she shouted into his ear. "That thing will kill you."

"Why me?"

"I told you, it wants to prevent you from meeting your wife."

John struggled from her grip. "And I told you, 'I'm not married!'"

Reese rolled her eyes and pulled on John's arm. "An evil queen wants to kill a beautiful princess. She's the fairest in the land."

Reese kept looking back to the automaton in the distance as they ran away. "The evil queen will hire you to kill the princess."

John slowed at the revelation. "I won't kill anyone."

"I know this." Reese sighed and gazed at the automaton as it shrank in the distance. "But the evil queen doesn't. You only pretended to kill the princess, and the evil queen cast a spell on her causing her to fall into a deep sleep. You will wake her with a kiss, and you will be her king."

John and Reese staggered into a stable and began saddling a pair of horses.

"Why is the automaton trying to kill me?"

"Don't you see?" Reese grumbled as she tightened a strap on the horse. "If you don't wake the princess, the evil queen will reign, and the world will crumble to her gruesome whim."

The duo rode out of the stable as an increasing pitch from the brass automaton finally ceased. The automaton's clockwork eyes moved, the glass fragments reflecting the scene of its escaping targets.

* * *

The old woman scored the back of her glass fragment against the stonework as her guard snored loudly in the hallway. She snapped a small piece off the larger fragment, rubbing it against the wall, and repositioning it time and time again until the glass started to become round. She smiled and pushed the small pile of glass dust around with her dirty bare foot until it was indistinguishable from the dirt that accompanied her cell. She held up a second round glass fragment, comparing the two pieces, and smiled again at her progress.

* * *

Sarah watched the odd up-side-down image from the glass fragment Jarvis handed her. The old crone finished grinding the glass pieces to match, hid them in her robes, and settled in to sleep for the night. Sarah handed the fragment back to Jarvis and turned toward the brass automaton.

"Can I touch it?" she asked.

"Yes, but do not touch the mangled metal, it is sharp where it was crushed, and it feeds on blood."

Sarah jerked her hand away but still walked around the pedestal examining the defunct automaton. "How did its head and arm get crushed?"

Jarvis smiled and replied, "That would be skipping ahead to the end of the tale."

Sarah nodded and sat back on the stonework in silent respect as the enigmatic Jarvis continued to tell the story. The king watched them both from his own glass fragment and felt the weight of the story as it unfolded in the hidden room below.