“No!” The man barked, then began shooing us away. “Not anymore. It’s broken, and will never be fixed. Never again.”
“Why? What happened?” I piped up.
This was the first I had heard of the skycar not functioning. Of course, it was not even finished being built when I passed through twenty-four years ago.
“It is broken and that’s that. Have a good day,” the man said before he retreated to the back of the shop. The whirring started again.
I looked at Rio quizzically, and he shrugged.
“I heard there was a death a couple years ago due to a malfunction, but I did not realize that it had never been fixed,” he whispered.
“Now I really want to know,” I said.
My curiosity was getting the better of me again.
“Excuse me, but why hasn’t it been fixed? Surely there’s someone else who can fix it?” I called through the fog. After a moment, the man reappeared.
“No, and I suggest you keep your nose out of it. I created it and I know how to work it. It won’t do any good to search around, and I’m certainly not touching that machine again.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t want to,” he huffed. He then muttered under his breath again, “Can’t make it safe. Haven’t the money, haven’t the time.”
I gave a quick look to the half-blood, whose gaze was steady and seemed to be warning me to not get involved.
The kin began digging into the bags around his belt, drawing the attention of everyone in the room except Mister Aenlilea, who began hammering on a bit of metal on one of the worktables. Finally, Levent pulled out a bag of coins that jingled with the weight. My jaw dropped open, and the mechanic stopped hammering.
“I have the money, but I don’t want you to rebuild the skycar.”
The kin used the already outstretched hand holding the coins to point to the back of the room.
“Instead, I’d like you to show me what you are working on right now.”
The man did not turn around, but gently laid down the hammer and picked up the piece of metal he had been working on.
“How do you know about that?” the man said, eyes narrowing.