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The Engine

A group of engineers, a rather unusual group of engineers, stood proud over their invention and felt triumphant as their creation they’d built from nothing sprang to life.  They knew that if they took care of it, and kept it in repair it would continue to provide others with energy long after their deaths.

The engineers that came after them took good care of the engine as well and it continued to function normally, providing the people with what they needed.

But the engineers were gone now, and the engine had fallen into disrepair long ago.  The surrounding area was a disaster zone as bolts and gears hadn’t just broken off, but had been sent flying through walls.  Repairing the engine would have been dangerous enough in this situation, but this engine fed on aetheric forces and the energy it produced was far more dangerous and unstable.  Any attempt to repair it could well be the push that caused the destruction of everything in the vicinity.

The engine felt its disease on some level, because it was a living machine that knew it was broken, and it longed for the pain to end…on one level it was a machine that wanted to die.

Unaware of the analogy that had been used many times to describe the cat himself by another, Arnold was looking down at the thank you letter that Lo had sent him thanking him for being brave and saving her while he rested at the bar next door to the asylum, the Mariners Revenge.

He pushed it away uncomfortably.  The cat cringed inwardly everytime someone called him heroic or brave.  Deep down it was a lie to him that he didn’t even realize, because it wasn’t courage which allowed the cat to make the decisions he did.  He could throw himself into danger because he had no personal value for his life, it meant nothing to him, and the only value he had assigned to keeping himself alive had been when Maddox had charged him to do so.  Even now though, with her ‘repairs’ to him, he threw himself into danger wishing for death when pushed.

Outside the bar Aessesser perched on a window sill, with Henri looking through his former pet raven, watching the cat through the glass.  The bird was attracted to follow and pursue doomed souls who had almost no chance or hope.  Everyone in the asylum called to the birds senses, but they were muted in that acursed building.  But it could watch the cat here…and it knew that the cat would die soon…one way or another.

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3 Comments

  1. Garnet Psaltery Garnet Psaltery October 18, 2012

    This is foreboding.  Are we seeing the end of Arnold, I wonder?

  2. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon October 18, 2012

    Is Arnold doomed?

    Is the strange aetheric engine just a metaphor?

    Will the raven ever be deghostified?

    Find out in the next exciting installment of Steam Powered Stories!

  3. Emerson Lighthouse Emerson Lighthouse October 18, 2012

    *makes a note to not be so mean to Arnold*

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