I left the teakettle in the kitchen, as I assumed this was where it belonged, and made my way back to my own tea. Upon entering the workshop, I found the three men standing around.
Levent glanced at me and gestured to my mug, which had been transported from the back room to a very dusty shelf. His, I noticed, remained untouched. Rio and Aenlilea on the other hand, were discussing aerodynamics and were much too involved with themselves to even notice I had walked in.
I felt incredibly awkward suddenly. It had been years since I had female company, and the three minutes I had spent with Kewyn had reminded me how different it was to be around males than females. Quietly I leaned up against a workbench and curled up with my tea.
Aenlilea cleared his throat and shuffled a bit of parchment until he found what he wanted. He held out a sketch of some machine parts toward Rio, who grasped the page and eyed it carefully.
“This is what we still need to finish building the engine,” Aenlilea said, tapping the top of the paper with one greasy finger. Then, quieter, “I’m not even going to tell you what we still need to make it work.”
“Wait – these are all for the engine?” The half-blood said before passing the page to Levent, who had his hand out waiting.
I pouted a little that they had not bothered to show it to me. It was not like I would have known what I was looking at, but it would have been nice to be included.
“Seeing as I’m going to let you hang around here and eat my food until it’s finished, I’d like it if you would take Mister Itzallion’s money and go buy me these parts,” the man instructed as he settled back in a moth-eaten chair.
“Where are we supposed to buy these things?” Levent growled.
He hardly looked at the page before returning it to Rio. At least I was not the only one that did not know a terrible lot or have much interest in machines’ fine details.
“There’s a place in town that should have all we need. Take Kewyn. She’ll know what to get.”
“I’ll know what?” Kewyn said, walking into the workshop and crossing her arms.
Aenlilea grabbed the sheet from Rio and handed it to her. She gave him a glare that could have melted stone, but it quickly fell from her face.