Jim emerged from the air. He lowered himself from a thin pole as his body became opaque.
"Sorry, an honest opinion of me only comes when I'm not in the room!" Jim said. Cutlery looked at him confused.
"Wow, yea now you know you're a horrible person!" Cultery said snidely.
"Correct, correct. Already knew. Also different belief in sliver aging than you! But arguing will only lower your opinion of me! Just came by to see the new girl. Toodles!" Jim said as he walked out. Clyde watched him go then turned to Cutlery.
"What was that about being a first?" He asked quietly. Cutlery looked at him and deflated.
"His friend Oozer tried to get handsy with me when he was patrolling the first floor right after I arrived." She said. Clyde shook his head.
"Humans do age slowly compared to my race. The slivers aging of the physical and mental parts of the body can make things, scary. Morally the implications are dark yet vaporous." Clyde mused.
Cutlery lost him. Wasn't much to think about. You shouldn't hook up with someone born a few years ago, even if they were stuffed into new meat. Many in the tower had mentally skipped up to the age of their bodies. Perhaps only in choices.
"What's Jim like?" Cutlery asked. She wanted to know if she should avoid him or if he truly didn't care about anything and might steal from her or something.
"He's harmless. He keeps to himself. Really he only speaks banter. He's hooked up with a few thirds who have passed through so like your saying, he plays loose on his morals. He's been here for at least a year. Trying on his own to train was too much for his natural talent and comfortable upbringing. So he fell apart here. Does what he wants, enjoys the benefits, gets work done." Clyde spoke. He seemed to have thought about it a lot. Clyde could be a close friend of Jim's.
Cutlery mused for a second and let her eyes wander. She saw posters along the wall of humanoids in various poses.
"Those are tricks to learn. They are universally applicable to what many call parkour." Clyde said. He walked over to one.
"Like this falling roll, helps you fall from almost any distance without getting hurt, and you get some speed to start running. Want me to show you? I won't use my wings. The squishy floors make learning it painless, especially for us slivers." Clyde asked. A fog of funky thoughts shook from her head.
"Yea." Cutlery said. They got to work. Clyde started showing her how to mimic the posters roll. Before she knew it. The day was over.
The next, she hopped back into training.
The rhythm of training regrew within Cutlery. On the second day there she awoke, ate, and went to the gym. there Clyde guided her through more tumbles and flips. After that, she decided to start learning how to use a bow on the range. Aeruthat surprisingly was there despite his super bulky frame.
Clyde would goad her, and she him. On the bars and floor, they kept pace with each other well. At the end of her fourth day there she found an odd room marked by a circle with bumps on it. Inside a stranger was surrounded by metal. They wore thick leather and large goggles. Their chair swiveled to her. A black cover muffled their words.
"Keep the door closed! It glints!" They said. Short legs hung above the floor from the already short stool. Their arms were also stocky. They must be a gnome, halfing, or something.
"Sorry. What are you doing?" She asked.
"What are you an advisor? I'm a tinkerer!" They said. They pulled down a cloth mask to reveal pouting tiny pink lips. their goggles came up to show a soot outline around smaller sunken brown eyes. Their head was shaved. Cutlery considered them feminine.
"I just saw the door and got curious. It seems this is a craft closet." Cutlery said. The space was the size of her bedroom. Drawers and hangers covered most surfaces. Gears poked out of almost everything. "Do you make things?"
"Yea. What do you want?" They said with some interest.
"What's your name first?" Cutlery asked with a smirk.
"Call me Tool. You get to know my name if you save my life." Tool said. "Now what is the project." Tool continued.
"I want a pair of wings flaps like Clyde." Cutlery said. Tool bit her lip and thought for a moment then turned back to her desk.
"five gold. Tell me how it goes." Tool stated. Cutlery figured that counted as agreement. She had no money though.
"When's the gold due?" Cutlery asked.
"When it's done." Tool said.
"Which is?" Cutlery asked again.
"Within a week." Tool said. Silence followed the comment. Cutlery left. On her way out she heard the bell. She made her way over but found everyone gathered.
"What's going on?" Cutlery asked Jim who was standing near the back.
"Jobs just got posted. See the board there? You'll have to wait shorty." Jim said. He looked down at her and then made a show of examining the out-of-sight board.
People left as they read the board. Approaching she saw a huge sheet of paper had been tasked up onto a wood board. She found her name. It was in a group with Gill, Fish, and Asim every week doing first sliver guard duty. Fun. Their first job though was to meet with Haze, something about introductions.
At the end of the month, they had a job. It was a labeled retrieval mission. Sounded exciting, well better than the first guard. It looked like she would have lots of time for training. Guard duty only took up to eight hours! Five days a week! Now that she thought about it that was like half her waking hours. Welp could be fun. They would love her.
-
Then she saw the last line. Pays 7 gold a week. She asked Clyde about money. He said the only way to get money was from work and others.
"Some have quiet communication with those outside. I've seen people like us throw messages tied to rocks outside the tower. The return message is often slow." Clyde explained.
Her first guard duty wasn't for two days, her introduction was tomorrow. She could make a killing if she was outside the tower with these powers. But alas, she was inside. So she needed another way. Her first idea was to exploit the regular occupants of the tower. Those who came and went. They would have money surely. Her first target was the hippo guy in the galley. He probably got paid.
Finding him she asked if she could work for money. He offered five bronze to do the dishes for a week. Ten minutes came and went as Cutlery scratched money conversions into the counter. Basic math may have been a subject she was taught, but it took her forever.
"You could start calling me Guh. Second, the only work I got here is cleaning." Guh said. Cutlery needed the money much faster so she moved on.
Getting into contact with the fourth slivers who would surely be loaded would be a better idea. She went to the ballroom to train. Despite the door to the other half of the floor, no fourths ever came through. Even when she knocked.
Ol reliable it was. Once Cutlery saw Jim she rushed to his room and looted five gold from his ten gold bags. Then she took three extra and put them into Fish's room. Jim had a locked box but the coins were just in his dresser. She was curious why the coins weren't locked up. Not curious enough to be stupid. Cutlery stopped in her room to store her coins on the bottom drawer support. Haze would be waiting for her to meet him now so she dashed off to the ballroom.
He waited for them by the window. He had a table set up for them all to sit at. The view was still nice. He watched it while they walked to him.
"Welcome all. Let's skip to the point. You are now going to be given a measure of independence. You can access the two floors below you now. This is in addition to the fact your training is in your own hands. No questions, please. Your missions beyond guard duty will be more frequent as the months go by. These missions have a real effect on the world. Thus if you fail, they will have real consequences. People might die." Haze said. He let that sit with a sip of tea.
"At the same time, you will make many leaders happy if the missions go well. If they go well enough they will put in the effort to test you. Fourth slivers have some minor sway in various areas, that is the level required to truly have run of the tower. Fifths have run of the city. Sixths start to approach my level of authority and affect even outside the walls." Haze said. He laid it out plain and simple. They were close to leaving the tower.
"The same rules apply. You are indebted to us for this divine power. With effort, people will be in debt to you, and we won't be around to settle the debt forever. It's a life of luxury and power. You can do real life-changing good with it." Haze said. He watched them, downed his tea, and stood.
"That is all. For guard duty, keep them alive and mostly uninjured. Keep them on their floor. That is all." Haze said. He turned and left.
They were left with full still steaming tea cups. They glanced at each other and smiled. This was it.
Then Cutlery remembered. She was supposed to be escaping. Godammit life was distracting.
