A Mischief in the Woodwork - By Harper Alexander Page 0,33
made it.”
My brows rose. “In the time it took me to run an errand, you made this?”
“You don't really think I could have just found something like this, do you?”
I opened my mouth, but it fell shut again. The lad had a point. I thought back, retracing my steps through the city, as if trying to disprove that he could possibly have had the time. It did take a chunk of time to navigate the city's layout, though, I admitted. It wasn't as if I just trotted down to the barber's shop and trotted right back. Negotiations with Johnny had been brief, but there was certainly an element of journey about the trip there and back.
Was I to just...take it, then? Suddenly, I felt awkward. Uncertainly, I reached for it, if only to inspect it more closely.
It clinked gently into my hands, and I turned it over, assessing his handiwork.
“Corset, fire screen, and various metals,” he explained. “A bit make-shift, but functional.”
So I was right about the fire screen. How had he cut it? Not feeling partial to admitting his expertise, I resisted asking.
“I don't know why you went to the trouble,” I said instead. I did not tell him I was impressed. “Don't you have your own survival to think about?”
“This is how I survive. I use my resources on the spot. I thought if I showed you, you might realize you could use me.”
This was a ruse to get reinstated in my expired good graces? I should have known. Resistance bubbled up inside me. An instant, vehement 'no' sprang to my lips, surprising even me with its finality. With an effort, I swallowed it. There was no sense in being ruled by what I felt. I had to be smarter than that. I knew I had to be smarter than that.
And the weight of craftsmanship in my hands was an undeniable testimony to his point. My thumbs drifted over it in tentative thought, but I didn't try to keep the disinclination from my eyes as they flicked back to him.
“You think you can just charm your way into the ring of security that we've spent so long establishing? We slave to proof those walls against breaches. We keep everything out, Cathwade. That's how we survive. A breach would unravel the foundations that we cling to.”
“And you've done well,” he approved. “But you could do better. No one is ever going to rise above this age if we don't fight back. We have to harness it. You're surviving, but things aren't getting better. You're still a victim. We are all still victims. What if things get worse? You'll be overrun. No one is ready for that.”
His point was humbling, but not in a way that convinced me. My eyes downcast in grave thought, I responded, “There's a reason no one is ready for that. Much worse, and the prospect itself will destroy a man.”
“It doesn't have to,” Tanen denied. “We can claim an advantage. We have to adapt, not just cope.” He nodded at the garment in my hands. “Put it on, and you'll feel it. That there are powerful resources you haven't tapped yet. That you can become something, instead of clinging to what you are. Instead of clinging to the fragile achievement of humanity. You are doing nothing but clinging to a level of existence that is completely vulnerable.”
I considered him more fairly – unconvinced, still, but I had lost the scoff.
“You've done well adapting to the primitive lifestyle you have been thrust into,” Tanen said. “But in this” – he indicated the craft once more – “is born a whole new way to live off the land.”
He was right, wasn't he? Never had there been so much potential to 'live off the land'. We used it for survival, surely – it wasn't that we ignored the heaps of resources piled up there for our convenience – but we had never taken advantage of the potential to craft anything imaginable. The Serbaens knew how to use their hands in conjunction with the earth, and to a miracle-working degree – but they weren't inventors, none of them. They had an earthly harmony about them, not an innovative brilliance, and I had always been too occupied doing what I could to ensure we survived on what the rubble had to offer. I did not know if I had the mind for what Tanen was suggesting, but I certainly had never had the time.