#tocktick

Tagged by @pamsdrabbles

This is a bit more than a last line, but I’m pretty proud of this. Pretty graphic, so be warned!

There was too much blood for him to handle alone.

Sixsmith felt it dripping from his coat, the life-warmth trickling across his fingers, saw it dotting and blotching into the packed earth and he realised, deep somewhere in his gut, that he was scared. But he couldn’t show it, not with Godwin under his hands, not with his eyes wide and breath coming quicker and quicker.

He spoke Taiyeku. It was natural, flowing to his tongue like blood. “We’re alright, we’re alright, we’re alright. Someone’s coming. Someone’s coming.”

A litany. A prayer.

Not for the first time in his long life, Sixsmith wished there was someone – or something – up there. That his Gods hadn’t abandoned them. That his forebearers’ spirits could really step in and do more than nudge aside a bullet or change the wind direction.

Autistic aeronaut and single father, Captain Emmett Askren has a problem.

That problem being that his ship, The Iris has been grounded for the foreseeable future, robbing him of his only source of income and now his debts are due yesterday. He needs a job with a large payment upfront or he and his daughter will be forced into the death-trap sky-harvesters which hang ominously along the coasts of the Sturm Islands.

But then, a miracle. A pair of genius inventors approach him with a proposal: they will pay off Emmett’s debts and repair his home and, in return, he will test their revolutionary new engine in the race of a lifetime. The 1880 Throgmorton Aeronautical Contest is a chance for Emmett to prove himself as both a worthy captain and a productive normal member of society.

However, to race Emmett needs a crew and a whole lot of luck. Besides the inventors, his recruits are the un-hireable, the dregs and outcasts of society. And worse, they have a brought their own baggage and murderous ghosts along for the ride.

Emmett can fly them through any storm, arcane or otherwise, but it is the dangers on the ground which he will struggle to outwit. 

I’m having a lot of fun with writing Scarlett and her interactions with the book’s (Tocktick) antagonists because if Gorge (an energy CEO essentially if the energy is natural magic called arcana) had sent his henchman Norris to hire Scarlett, given her a picture of Talas and some money, she’d have killed him no problem.

This woman’s a mercenary and - not only that - a theological mercenary for a religion called Heliokrata. They worship the Sun and it comes from a theocratic nation where they have rejected the world wide energy source that is arcana for steam, coal, and water.

Talas has invented an engine that runs on solar power. To a fundamentalist Heliokratian, he is wilfully and knowingly stealing from God.

Hell, Scarlett may have been tempted to get involved herself without being hired (but unlikely, why kill if you’re not being paid), but ultimately because Gorge wanted to ensure Talas couldn’t be martyred or his death/disappearance used against Gorge and his company, he wanted Talas’ invention sabotaged.

And because Norris decided to blackmail Scarlett into going undercover among the crew (something she doesn’t do, btw, she is not a natural spy), Scarlett gets befriended and challenged by the first group of people she’s met who are willing to meet her where she is.

Because she’s among them she befriends Maia, realises that Kizzy (a child) admires her, Emmett offers a parental figure, and Sixsmith is willing to challenge her worldview and fear of her own sexuality.

Because of this, she eventually helps Talas’ invention succeed to usher in a new era of energy, and helps kill some very pivotal people in Gorge’s company.

Tocktick

EMMETT ASKREN (42)

Element: Earth

Star Sign: Virgo

Daemon: Stag

KEZIAH “KIZZY” NUNN (10-13~)

Element: Fire

Star Sign: Aries

Daemon: Ferret

GIDEON LAURENCE “SIX” SIXSMITH

Element: Air

Star Sign: Gemini

Daemon: Hare

TALAS KATSAROS

Element: Electricity

Star Sign: Capricorn

Daemon: Cat

MAIA KATSAROS

Element: Water

Star Sign: Pisces

Daemon: Snow leopard

ELIZABETH SCARLETT

Element: Ice

Star Sign: Taurus

Daemon: Snake

The Drowned Rook

OCTAVIA FAUSTA STARLING

Element: Aether

Star Sign: Sagittarius

Daemon: Magpie

ARBAN ALTANTSETSEG “ACE”

Element: Wood

Star Sign: Libra

Daemon: Elephant

PLEASANT NETTLES

Element: Metal

Star Sign: Scorpio

Daemon: Fox