Chapter 67: The Garden of Gears
The Bureau was usually a place of sterile metal and dry parchment, but at 07:00 Cycles, the "Administrative Atmosphere" shifted. It didn't smell like ink and Victory Roast; it smelled like Damp Earth and Brass.
"Commissioner!" Architect Ao Bing wailed, clinging to a support beam that was rapidly sprouting copper leaves. "The Mainspring has gone biological! It's not just ticking anymore—it's Photosynthesizing!"
The Great Mainspring, the heart of all narrative movement, had been overtaken by a mechanical flora. Iron vines twisted around the gears, and delicate, clockwork flowers—petals made of hammered gold and silver filaments—were blooming in the gaps of the machinery.
The Harvest of the Half-Forgotten
Ne Job stepped into the Lobby and found himself waist-deep in Memory-Ferns. These weren't normal plants; their fronds were etched with lines of dialogue from the first ten chapters of the novel.
"They're Forgotten Thoughts," The Muse whispered, fascinated. She reached out to touch a bloom that smelled of old libraries. "When we moved into Volume II, we left so much behind. The Bureau is recycling our old ideas to keep the 'And' alive."
"It's overgrowing the filing system!" Pip yelled, hacking through a thicket of "Discarded Subplots" with their bronze crowbar. "If these vines reach the Central Archive, the 'Past' will choke out the 'Present'! We'll be stuck in a loop of nostalgia!"
The 7.5% Pruning
Ne Job realized that you couldn't just kill a garden made of your own memories. You had to Harvest it.
"Junior! Get the wicker baskets! Assistant Yue, I need the 'Industrial Hedge Trimmers'!"
"I. AM. ALREADY. ON. IT. COMMISSIONER," Yue clattered, her steam-valves pulsing green. "I. HAVE. DISCOVERED. THAT. THE. FLOWERS. CONTAIN. HIGH. CONCENTRATIONS. OF. 'CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT'. IF. WE. DO. NOT. PICK. THEM. THEY. WILL. TURN. INTO. 'BITTER. REGRETS'."
Ne Job waded into the thickest part of the garden—the area surrounding his own desk. A giant, mechanical lily had sprouted through his blotter. Inside its petals lay a shimmering, translucent orb. It was the memory of Ne Job's first day at the Bureau, back when he still believed in "Full Stops."
The Scent of Lost Time
As Ne Job clipped the memory-blooms, the office was filled with the sounds of the past: the phantom ring of old phones, the ghost of a laugh from a deleted character, the scent of the first rain in Novus Aethel.
"It's too much," Ao Bing groaned, sitting on a stump made of gear-teeth. "I remember when I wanted to build a city of glass. Now I'm just... an architect of memories."
"That's because you're growing, Ao Bing!" The Muse countered, weaving a crown of clockwork flowers for the dragon. "A garden only grows where there's room to change!"
The Preservation of the Plot
Ne Job didn't throw the harvested memories away. He took the baskets to the Department of Human Trajectories and used his silver stapler to pin the "Lessons of the Past" to the "Plans for the Future."
KA-CHUNK! He pinned the 'Caution' of Chapter 1 to the 'Ambition' of Chapter 67.
KA-CHUNK! He secured the 'Spark' of the Muse to the 'Structure' of the Architect.
As the memories were integrated into the active files, the mechanical forest began to recede. The copper leaves turned back into copper plating; the iron vines retracted into the walls. The Bureau returned to its functional self, but it remained 7.5% greener, with a single clockwork flower left blooming on Ne Job's desk.
The Gardener's Log
Ne Job sat back, a single silver petal tucked into his lapel.
LOG: CHAPTER 67 SUMMARY.
STATUS: Garden of Gears harvested. Nostalgia-loop averted.
NOTE: I've realized that memories are 100% better when they're used as fuel rather than decoration.
OBSERVATION: To keep moving forward, you have to prune the things you used to be.
P.S.: The clockwork flower on my desk ticks when I'm about to make a mistake. It hasn't stopped ticking since I sat down.
The Muse leaned over his shoulder, her hair a soft, spring-green neon. "It's a good look for the office, Ne Job. A little less 'Bureaucracy,' a little more 'Growth'."
Ne Job looked at the Semicolon. It was glowing with a deep, earthy violet.
"Growth is messy, Muse," Ne Job said. "Now, let's see why Assistant Yue is sounding a 7.5% alarm and why the Great Mainspring has suddenly started 'Ticking Backward'."