It is a light at last! Not just one, but more dots at the horizon, colourful with towers and houses from distant. There are even boats and ships docked at the port. The town's watching eye is also on, making it easy for a boat like them to spot on. It looks like Frayfoil's seaport but better.
"Yeah! Yeah! Land! Finally!!" Cyrus jumps.
"Oh, we're not sleeping on the boat! Yeah!" Eve cheers.
"My, look at those lights. Beautiful town..." Charger eyes glimmer.
The three wanderers can finally leave this dying skiff at last. So many things happened for four days, and the wanderers were running out of ration and survivorship. At the same time, the wind blows way too silently, leaving the skiff to pause again.
"No, no, no, no!" Cyrus panicked.
"Wow, thanks a lot! You couldn't blow us closer?" Eve yelled at the wind.
"Well, let's use the manual shift then!" Charger jumps for a seat.
"What's the manual shift?"
"Yaa!!" The Tin Man rows with his arms. For a moment, that weak arm gives nothing to the skiff but a splash. But as the two wanderers joined, they returned to their path on the sea and headed back to the promised land. Never before has an effort been this exciting for the librarian.
"Come on, you two! Row harder! Is this your best? Is this how you want to be remembered?" Eve motivated.
"Where's your spirit? Where's your hope? Where's your passion?"
"Go, go, go!"
"Where's that soul that survived the disastrous Gold Creek town? Where are the living wisdom of survivorship of a Great Stonian?"
"Come on! Come on!"
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[Coast]
"Alright, you two! Once I docked this skiff, you better not go far from the port. I'll go buy some scraps and fuel for this thing. Won't let a precious friend die today." The Tin Man parked the skiff at the nearest rock he could find on the coast.
At last, they made a journey! Not just an escape but also a voyage to another place. The sound of the wood bumping into the rock had never felt so satisfying for the three wanderers. This new town they were looking for wasn't much different than Frayfoil. Fortunately, this place was settled by intelligent lives like the librarian.
"*Pant* *Pant* Survivorship...!" The two humans lifted their arms in victory.
"I hope they have a TX1-type motor in the store because I don't know how to operate the TX2."
The wanderers docked off of the skiff, dragged to the sand and rested like a relic as the three finally stepped on something that wasn't wood or ashes. Alas, the town is up ahead. But first, the wanderers forget not to reuse that sail again. How embarrassing it was to be stranded and naked in the middle of the ocean without their thick coat.
"Yep, that's sand under my foot. That's what I've been looking for." The cleric, coated in robe and his amice, walked once again as if nothing happened. Sadly, his pants say otherwise to that sun boxer.
"What is this town? This couldn't be the Isle of Man. Too easy and too short..." The librarian walked into the cover of a curious librarian again. Terribly, her coat may not help her.
"Well, it says here that it's called Alphor."
"What? Where?"
"Here. Says on the sign..."
"Welcome to Alphiore. If any of you traveler read this rusty sign at the edge of the coast, you might have been stranded in the ocean and were looking for a shelter. Fear not, because you are not going to get one. But you may survive better here than returning to the ocean."
- Alphiore's Coastal Sign
"It says Alphiore, dork." Eve mumbled, giving Cyrus a punch on the shoulder.
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Before the three, the choices are theirs. Alphiore was not for an outsider, and the three wanderers had no guidance about this place. Washed ashore as nothing more but a follower, they decided that each path brings fortune differently.
"Let's disperse! See if we can get something good from this town. Perhaps a place to sleep..." Eve mumbled.
"I don't know...separating sounds like a bad idea..." Cyrus defies.
"Alright! I'll be in some stores or I'll be shopping from the old reliable place. Have fun!"
The Tin Man walked off to the left side of the town, going towards the bright and crowded street where so many metals can be found lingering in the town. Scraps are always in his thoughts, and he remains indifferent.
"I'll go check the town hall to see the mayor and ask if we can have a stay here." Cyrus cracks his joints.
"Why the mayor, though?"
"I don't know. I'm feeling like a good talker today. See ya in my new bedroom, librarian!"
The cleric walked forward into the main town, confident of his way towards the leading sun in the center of this town. The librarian, however, persists on her path to knowledge through the darkest side of this town.
"I'll go warn the people about the disaster. Let me show you how messiah goes, priest!" She yelled.
The wanderers are at disperse. The new town was a big place, and their minds could not absorb the immensity alone. For the librarian, she sees questions dwindling from the door of this town, and she is the guest who knocks. The two wanderers could do what they wanted.
She headed straight towards the darkest path, following the vapors of the chimney. No Tophats in sight, and definitely no crime around these hours. But the people here are an anomaly to Eve. No one here is a scholar or a devotee, just people who never know gold from hard work.
"Oh, could it be....?"
The people of this town have different looks compared to those who live in Gold Creek. So much indifference than those who lived in Gold Creek. So many faces looked inhuman behind the lens of splendour, eyes like those of a steamboat worker compared to those of a whaler. Not stained with blood but still covered in industrial grim.
"What a cloth..."
"Strange lady."
"Not from here?"
"Woah, so many people. Looks so perfect..."
They whispered behind the librarian's back at his appearance. She did look messy and dirty after struggling at sea for so long, but it was the librarian's clothes that caught their eyes. Many people living in this city do not wear three-button coats, and they prefer waistcoats scrapped with metal on their arms. But they do not know what the librarian had settled through.
"Definitely outsider..."
"What job is she taking here...?"
"Perfect! Now it's time to shine..." Eve muttered. A box covers her waist as she walks by.
The wise librarian stands among the people as an example of strength. Her fierceness, her boldness, and her curiousity carried her here as a witness. As people gathered in inquisition about her presence, she claimed the role of a doomsayer on the high ground.
"Citizens of Alphiore! My name is Eve Ainsley, and I am an outsider from the ruins of Gold Creek!"
"I came here to warn you about the impending doom from my town. There was death in the air, and I alone with my friends are the sole survivor of this place!"
"No one in my town had ever seen it happening! Everyone but me, who had set sail from the hills to coast for four days! Let me tell you, there was no one...not even a soul had survived the storm!"
The warning was loud, and there were more than just people who came to hear her. There was fear, and there was silence after the fear. The people find it hard to believe her, but she remains truthful about what she has seen. It's hard to deny the experience from the speaker of truth.
"I travelled through a stormy sky, sandy air, and snowy world as Gold Creek crumbles. I gathered the most faithful and curious mind in my boat!"
"You will not believe what I have seen. There was darkness covering my hometown into ashes. I was young and careless back there."
"Then there's a heavy rain, flooding our treasure away from the hills."
"Then the third day, I couldn't see clear through the sand. Everyone is darkened and poisoned! Even me..."
"On the fourth day, in a moment of peace, I thought it was freedom, but it was a temporary beauty."
"But the fifth day? I was here, far from the horror of the fifth."
But the librarian was here to save them, promising salvation through realization. The lies were clouding people, including this one. She has to warn them of a way out of this mess, or else they fall even deep than the Frayfolian.
"I hereby warn you to lock your door, close your curtains, or leave as soon as possible before the storm coming! Or else!"
"Leave your work, your money, and your name now! There is no more to wait but a soul to save! For if you not..."
"You will realize the afterlife a bit too soon..." She dreads.
The glares only get sharper, and the people look even more disgusted. They weren't afraid of the truth within her skin—they were revolting against it. Before the librarian could walk back and trail out of the mess, she was dragged into it.
"Look at that skin. Rash and dry...so living..."
"Bring her to the Engine!"
"H-hey! What are you?" Eve struggles as a woman
The townsfolks were dragging the librarian like a piece of meat, carrying her as a curse throughout the street. Rather than listen to her warning, they choose violence and distraught. The blindest listeners, even for the librarian town's friend.
More of them are heading forward to help the librarian's embarrassment.
"Get off me! Help! Cyrus, Charger! Hey!"
"To the engine...to the engine...to the engine!"
"W-what? Who's the Engine? What's Engine?"
They chanted the name 'Engine' towards her ears, calling that as a solution to her words. Carried over so low in a gravel path, the librarian's back is aching with the scrub of these rocks. But she couldn't do anything to set herself free.
"Where are you carrying me? Let go!"
These citizens were fierce, believing that the librarian might have been a trespassing curse that would cease them. The librarian, doubtful as to what had occurred, can only watch herself going further into the Alphiore's street and into the town.
"Oh, the great Engine! Hear our call! Hear us!"
"We've brought you a gift! A gift! The outsider!"
"The outside is lurking at our home at last! Hear us!"
But from a distance, she could hear something. A roaring engine in a tower built of metal and scraps. She thought of the Tin Man upon seeing this, but the home was more clean than his. The one 'Engine' was here waiting for her in a domain of machinery and sparks.
"Woah..."
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The librarian was a sacrifice in the arena, a sacrifice for the mighty coil and its spark-like innovation. To her surprise, the cleric and the Tin Man were here altogether to participate. Chains are binding their arms to the poles, leaving them open for a disintegration.
The ground is carved with scratch and war, seemingly senseless as the citizens of this town. The people in this town show only a pointless desire to satisfy their inner violence and watch new sparks tormenting skins. There's no firm belief or strong insight to educate these souls, only love for the machinations.
"Cyrus? Charger?"
"Hey, Eve! Turns out people in this town don't like it when you rub out about the sun here! All of you are weird!" Cyrus taunted.
"I only ask for type TX1 Engine! Come on!" Charger yelled.
From the seat of the engineers, the machine emanates a blue spark from the tip, creating a miracle so deadly that the three shimmered in its light. The citizens are cheering louder, chanting the 'Engine' once again while they wait for that machine to be ready.
"Engine...Engine...Engine..."
"What is thing 'Engine' they were talking about?" Eve muttered.
"I don't know. But I don't think it's what I would have in my boat right now!" Charger commented.
The three were a great sacrifice to the machine, whose purpose was only to be decimated for the Engine. A faith the cleric could not hold by its meaning and logic the librarian could not comprehend by the advancement. Everyone in this town appeared wasted and beyond recognition.
"I guess this is it! All my glorious days ended by the works of machine. Just like the prince, I have yet been dishonored for."
"Ugh! Eugh! Not yet! Cyrus, come on!" Eve struggles off of the chain.
"For what? We'll be doomed, anyway?"
But the Tin Man? He was different this time. The one wanderer and nonchalant thought finally brewed a discomfort not by the darkness and absence of action but the staggering excitement he could not participate with. The feeling of being left out finally explains everything to the librarian.
"I don't like this." Charger muttered.
"What? You want that coil?"
"Yes! I want to go get that spark on!"
"How did they even catch you, creature? You're a living pebble! Can't you just slip through it?" Eve berated.
"Oh, you're right..." He slips.
The Tin Man quickly thinks of an escape before anyone could know it. His slippery tin arms and adaptive limbs slip the wrist lock through his hands like nothing. The engineers and the wanderers were amazed, but he was not for a show. The innovation was a chase to his mind.
"Stop them! They're trying to run away!"
"Charger, get us out of here!" Eve commanded.
"On it!"
The tin-made human once again saves the librarian from the madness of a mad human. His thin and tin arms are flexible enough to ignore the restraint. But unleashing his friends wasn't so easy, as the chains were tightened as hard as they resisted death.
*Click* "Alright! You're free to go!"
"You people will learn some manner!" Cyrus yelled.
Woosh!
"Hold it right there, you outsider pest!" Said a woman. A sharp nail was lunged towards the librarian with the speed of thunder from above the stage. Fortunately, the aim was poor enough to miss by an inch of her hair and no blood to be spilt. Yet the message was clear to silence everyone here.
The coil stopped charging, and the people returned to their seats as they heard the voice coming. The machinery's demise was only a few seconds from decimating the librarian into a pile of Gold Creek or even worse. But the reason behind this mercy was not what she had thought it would be.
"I'll make one more on your head the next time you tried getting sneaky on me. You outsiders think you could've walked on my home easily? Think again!"
Before the librarian's eyes, the presence of an unknown being appears on the stage along with her and her friends. Bearing the robe of all metals like Tin Man and a face not a human could ever have, the one calling the cease of her demise was standing unfazed by her desperation.
The woman was a living metal. Everything about her body was a metal, covered and layered in one. The machine stood so tall and thick, like a crushing beast for tough meat. Her bones and fingers are made of gold, a design the librarian finds poor for its weight.
Her face was buried in glass, but her eyes and mouth were still clear to see. She was smirking maliciously behind that hooded metal, taunting the three wanderers for their struggle. Her fist was tightened with sparks and fury, followed by the accumulating fear she had drawn.
"Who's that beauty over there?" Cyrus glanced in confusion.
"Charger?" Eve looked upon him, but it angered him.
"Just because she's made of metal, doesn't mean I know her!"
"Oh, the great Engine! Please, forgive us!"
The men retreat, fearing her presence like a beast. Nobody dares to move or approach the wanderer when she is nearby, which makes the wanderer face a new danger. From above the tower she was sitting, she stepped down onto the stage altogether and confronted the wanderers herself.
"Engine...?" Eve pauses. Enlightened.