Distortions in Time

429SaDiTi

The moment Tai stepped onto the street, closing the wooden door behind him the familiar sounds of the city reached out to him. The call of the merchants hawking their wares from the stalls by the side of the road, the march of armoured boots and radio chatter and the buzz of drones flying overhead, buying what the merchants had to offer.

Tucking his pouch containing the gold pieces he would need to today into his leather jerkin he hurried off into the still-dark streets. It would be dawn soon and the streets would become more active as people started to ferry their wares around the River district. Large draft horses would hall parts that had been transported down river by barge onto the back of the large wagons, their greased up axels groaning in complaint as they were hauled off to which ever workshop or engineer needed the heavy parts.

Since the distortion rift had opened up the city had evolved rapidly and many rushed to embrace the newest feats of engineering and science, or so his grandfather had told him. But there were still many that looked at the new technology with apprehension and they put their trust in the ways the city had done business for years. Animals, skilled artisans and man power is what kept the Aetho Empire moving forward, not the buildings made of man-made stone, glass and steel. Nor the guns that most of the city guard patrolled the streets with. Many still carried swords, spears and the like as there was no telling when another distortion would occur.

The trickle of technology was only as frequent as the shimmering portals that would remain open. So anything that was finite just simply was rare, exotic and only occasionally used. This meant that many people had access to these new weapons, guns, but the ammunition for such weapons was rare, so rare in fact that many military units didn’t have ammunition for the weapons they carried and so they were resorting back to tried and trusted bows and blades.

As Tai looked for the merchant he sought out he passed the many different vendors along River road; the commerce road that made its way along the river from east to west. Everything from new technology, to smiths products to food stuffs could be found and anything else in between. but Tai was looking for something specific, something rare that would help him and his party when they head to the north, into the Burgato woods.

“Excuse me sir, fine morning for trading,” he said as he spied what he hoped would be a merchant that would have what he sought. “I’m looking for something for my grandfather as its his birthday you see. I was wondering if you had a certain bit of technological scrap.”

The greying man smiled, a glint in his eye. “Well ye’ve come to the right place. What are you after? we have ancient gadgets and gizmos.” he said pointing at the broken watches, engine parts, capacitors and the like. All junk that would take a skilled hand to get working again. Tai looked over it until he saw what he was searching for. Not looking to be too excited he picked up the torch and gave it a small shake, trying the button. “My grandfather told me about these. He said he had one when he was in the guard.” he murmured taking in the gadget.

“Ah you have a good eye. Much better than a lantern for the older folk. For five gold pieces you can have it to make your grandfather happy.” the merchant said. Tai looked at the torch examining it. The bulb, glass lens and most of it was broken. Noticing that Tai was becoming aware of the state of the torch. “Now I probably have a spare bulb around here somewhere. Just hold a minute.”

Unscrewing the end the batteries fell out. Exactly what he was after. “I’ll give you five silver for the batteries.” he replied holding out the coins and pointing at them.

“No, too cheap for fine working batteries. Three Gold pieces for them. Let me find the bulb and you can have it all for five.” the merchant replied as he started digging through a bag of scraps. Tai noticed that there was a small motor with two cables so it could be connected to power nearby and touched the batteries to the cable. When the motor barely whirred he sighed loudly.

“These batteries are dead. They wouldn’t work with a new bulb even if you found one.” he gestured to the man. “I best be off there are several other merchants would would have these.” he said as he went to put them back.

“Wait. Five silver for the batteries. Your grandfather will get some use out of them yet!” he smiled. “what do you say? Make your pop proud?”

“Three silver.” Tai replied as he turned and looked back at the merchant.

“No, five, that’s what they are worth for sentimental value for your grandfather alone surely.”

Tai smiled as placed the batteries back in the merchants hand and started to walk away.

“Wait. Four silvers.” he said.

“Four silvers and I get that motor.” Tai retorted.

“Deal”

Walking down the street Tai looked at the batteries as he stuffed the motor into his pouch. Channelling the small amount of magic he had he created a pulse of electricity between his fingers and directed the lightning slowly and steadily through the batteries as he walked home. Entering to his single room flat he grabbed the motor and tested the batteries he had been directing electricity into, the Motor whirred to life.

Satisfied Tai went to the chest at the end of his bed and brought out his adventuring pack.

Retrieving the torch he had reconstructed over the years from his bag he unscrewed the cap and placed the batteries within. Tightening it up he clicked the button and marvelled as the room flooded with light. This would make the job his party had taken a lot easier, at least until the next series of Distortions in Time when they would get fresh technology into his world.

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