“Right, right. Sorry.”
“Not a problem. Do you mind me asking how you guys managed to get your car uncoupled from the train and stopped?”
The other Mechanic blew out a gust of air with a relieved expression. “Dumb luck, I guess. Our two Senior Mechanics happened to be out on that little shelf between cars, so when they felt the train stopping they figured they’d better plan for the worst and make sure we stayed safe.”
Mari’s eyes rested on the cliff face. “Amazing luck. Of course, the engineer and I might well have been dead.”
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to minimize that.”
“Why would they have been out there this late?”
He shrugged. “Maybe they like each other and needed some privacy.”
“That’s a scary thought.” The other Mechanic grinned as Mari jerked a thumb in the direction of the group still conferring together. “Should we tell them about these abrasions, or do they already know everything that needs to be known?”
The other Mechanic rolled his eyes. “You know the type, I guess. Go through the motions of researching the problem when they’ve already decided what the problem is and what they’re going to do.”
“I usually end up having problems with Mechanics like that.”
“Don’t we all.” He gave her a searching look. “It sounds like you’ve heard what we were told about you.”
“No, but I’ve got some pretty good guesses. Unprofessional? Inexperienced? Out of her depth?”
“Loose cannon,“ the other Mechanic added. He looked unhappy this time. “Not very professional of them to attack your qualifications that way, if you ask me. The academy wouldn’t have certified you if you hadn’t passed the exams. Who was your primary instructor at the academy?“
“Professor S'san,“ Mari said.
“S'san?“ The Mechanic's eyes widened. “If you got her approval, you're one of the best. Don’t worry about those Senior Mechanics. We think they got sent to Ringhmon because no one else would have them. I’ll tell them what you found. My name’s Talis, by the way.” He scrambled off through the wreckage.
Mari became aware that the Mage was watching her. “What?”
“He seemed like…a friend toward you,” the Mage said in a voice that as usual didn’t reveal much.
“I suppose. Nothing like you, though.” Mari rubbed her forehead, wondering when her head would stop aching. Was it her imagination that her last statement had caused the Mage to relax a bit? “But he acted like you weren’t even there. Like you didn’t exist.”
“He believes me to be one of the commons,” the Mage pointed out.
Mari stared into space. “So he ignored you. Because commons don’t count to Mechanics.”
“Or to Mages.”
“I do that, too.”
“Not to me.”
She glared at him. “You know what I mean!”
The Mage regarded her. “I have been thinking on this. You and I have been taught to think in a certain way of those who do not belong to our Guilds. I know you to be a shadow, one with no significance. You know me to be a Mage, which you were told are but frauds and liars.”
Mari looked out to sea, through the tangle of wreckage. “And if what we were taught about each other is wrong, maybe what we were taught about commons is wrong. Or do you think what we were taught is wrong?”
He stayed silent for a moment. “I think that there are questions which what I was taught do not answer. I did not even know some of these questions existed until I met you.”
“That’s funny. Pretty much the same thing happened to me. And now that I have those questions, you’re the only person I can talk to about them.”
“Would another Mechanic have done what you did at the caravan?” Alain asked abruptly. “Insisted I come with them?”
“No,” Mari said, reluctant to admit that but not wanting to lie to Alain. “Even if they hadn’t shot you, they would have just run off in another direction and left you. Would another Mage have reacted the way you did?”
“I do not know. Some other Mages might have. If it was you. You…are different.”
“I hope that’s a compliment,” she said dryly. “There’s nothing all that special about me.” Mari closed her eyes, feeling a sudden urge to admit something she had not been able to talk about for years. “My parents were commons. Both of them.”
“Were?” the Mage asked. His voice actually seemed to hold a little sympathy. “I am…” Alain struggled, as if trying to say sorry but the effort was too much for him.
“That’s all right. I know what you mean. Thank you for trying to say it. But they’re not dead.” She turned her head and studied the marks on the cliff face as if something new could be seen there. “Might as well be. After I tested as having the skills and was taken to the Mechanics Guild for schooling, I never heard from them again. After awhile I stopped writing, too.” And it doesn’t hurt anymore, it doesn’t hurt anymore, it doesn’t hurt anymore.
Silence stretched, punctuated by vague sounds from the other Mechanics discussing the wreckage and the low, constant boom of the surf against the rocky shore. Finally she heard the Mage speak again, his voice clearly revealing emotion this time. “My own parents are truly dead. They were commons who lived on a ranch near the southern edge of the Bright Sea, north of Ihris. Raiders killed them after I had gone to study at the Mage Guild Hall in Ihris. They were shadows, but…I cannot stop believing they mattered.”
“I’m very sorry,” Mari said. She looked at Alain. “I don’t know just how we ended up becoming friends, but I’m glad for it, and I’m glad you think of me as a friend you can say things to. You’ve never been able to tell anyone that, have you? I know that feeling.”
“I have been taught that loneliness is all there is. That each of us is alone. Perhaps that is wrong as well.” The Mage couldn’t bow in the midst of the wreckage, but he inclined his head toward her. “I am also…glad, Lady Mechanic.”
She smiled. “You might try sounding like you’re glad.”
“I thought I was.”
“Not even close,” Mari said.
A scuffing sound marked the return of Mechanic Talis. He gave Mari a rueful look. “They don’t think it’s worth looking at.”
“Did they ask you who found it?”
Talis made a face. “Yes.”
“I’m sure that helped them decide it wasn’t worth looking at.” Mari thought a few dark thoughts aimed at superiors with brains of clay, then tilted her head outward. “Fine. Let’s go.”
But as she started to climb out of the wreckage near the cliff, Mari saw the Senior Mechanic who had disdained her suggestion about Mage abilities standing near the edge of the water with a far-talker. Mari motioned Alain to stay out of sight, not wanting to be accused of letting a common see a far-talker in action even though she was far enough away that whatever the other Mechanic was saying couldn’t be made out over the sound of the surf.
Then the Senior Mechanic lowered the far-talker, her voice ringing out in disgust loud enough for Mari to hear clearly. “Not a thing! This piece of junk can’t get any signal through at all from down here.”
“It’s too new,” one of the other Mechanics noted. “If we used one twenty or thirty years older, maybe— ”
“Fifty years older would be more like it! Do we have any working older far-talkers down here? Anybody? No. Isn’t that great! I’ll just have to try again once we get up the cliff.” She went to the rocks they had come down and started climbing.
Mari looked over at Mechanic Talis, who had paused next to her. “In another few decades, portable far-talkers will be too heavy to lift and they won’t work at all,” Mari observed.
“I worry that’s the trend,” Talis replied.