Agnes Spearod never liked to be called the brawn of the Spearod Twins. He had seen Gunn struggle to figure out how to open a puzzle box on more than one occasion. Mother always said they were both intelligent, just in their own ways.
Gunn could memorize anything and Agnes could do anything with a good enough explanation or by seeing it done at least once.
So when the series of switches, buttons and levers are pushed, Agnes flashes Gunn a confirming look. He could open this door now.
Pollyora hesitates to follow the twin into the room. Until Harrow motions her to enter with them. A personal guide? More like a personal guard dog.
Polly leans against the wall and doesn't say anything.
"More company? Lucky me." The voice is muffled by the heavy black bag over his head, but the Vampire is male. Agnes sweeps his eyes over the ties keeping the Vampire to the chair. They had dug in slightly, bruising and beginning to tear into pale skin. The Vampire is secure. He nods to Gunn and the twin carefully moves closer.
Gunn's hand stops on the bag for a half-second before he pulls the hood off.
The Vampire winces at the sudden flood of light. He blinks hard before taking in his surroundings. Scruffy auburn hair and red eyes that seemed to glow in this light. The Vampire squints slightly, "Rude."
"You broke in." Polly looks over her knuckles again, "Did you think you were going to be treated well?"
Agnes can see the bruise on the Vampire's left cheek. Just under his eye. It was yellowing and healing, but it had probably been a pretty nasty hit.
"Where are the others?" The Vampire asks, looking around the room.
"The others?" Gunn asks.
"The other Vamps," Polly pushes off the wall and moves closer, "Dead. All of them."
The Vampire looks away slightly. His demeanor has shifted from arrogance to almost somber. "Well, I had hoped some of them escaped."
"What's your name?" Gunn asks.
The Vampire looks at him and responds softly, "Kipling Griegh. Friends call me Kip."
"He's not your friend," Polly growls, "You're now Inmate 473."
The Vampire flicks his eyes over her and back to Gunn, "I know how this must look, but you have to listen to me. Please."
"He doen't have to do anything," Agnes steps up beside his brother. He knows how intimidating he is and can see the flicker on the Vampire's face. Fear.
Kipling looks away and sighs, "Of course, why would your kind begin to listen now anyway?"
The light flicks on at the top of the door and Polly gives the twins a look before stepping out into the observation room. Agnes watches Polly interact with Harrow and a slim yellow file.
"What are they talking about?" Gunn asks.
Ag shrugs, "No idea, maybe you should ask Kip."
"Look, I know you two aren't from here. WIll you please listen to my story?"
"No." Ag answers. "We aren't going to do that."
Polly returns and hands the file to Gunn. The white-haired twin reads it quickly. Flicking through the notes he closes it and looks up at Agnes. And then to Kip.
"Why were you in the Pit?" Polly asks.
The Pit was the name of the labor camp on the fringes of Capital. A deep hole with a series of mines that fueled the entire city with coal to make steam. It housed more humans than Faelings but there were still some.
"I stole a cinnamon roll."
Polly tenses up and growls.
"It was a case of wrong place, wrong time." Kip shrugs, "Just as it is now."
"That would make four cases of terrible timing," Gunn passes the folder to Ag. He opens it to see three prior arrest records. Two cases of theft and one of smuggling.
"What happened? Stealing things didn't pay for the lavish lifestyle?" Polly takes the file when Agnes is done with it. "You had to break into a prison?"
"Who breaks into a jail?" Kip raises an eyebrow, "Honestly."
"Are you trying to break someone out?"
Kip stops talking.
Even though Polly and Ag ask a dozen questions each, the Vampire no longer answers.
Gunn sighs and drops the bag onto the Vampire's lap, "There, at least you can see where you are now."
Polly storms out of the room and returns the file to Harrow, "We tried."
"We have a name and a list of priors. I'm going to contact the Eyes of the Falcon. Perhaps she can give some advice."
"You're sending him to the Cage?" Gunn asks. Ag can hear the distress in his tone, but the others don't know him as well.
"He's a repeating offender," Harrow shuffles a few papers, "And the sole survivor of a direct attack on the Mountain."
"They had five Vampires. How is that-" Polly covers Gunn's mouth, stopping his questions.
"I'll show them to our room and then a tour. We will be waiting for instruction." She backs away, dragging Gunn with her.
Agnes takes a half second glance through the window at the Vampire before trailing behind his brother and his captor.
They walk in silence until they reach the lift. Once they are safely inside, Polly apologizes. "I'm sorry. I thought that you would be able to handle that."
"Which part?" Ag raises an eyebrow, "The blindly following orders part or the Faeling chained to a chair part?"
Polly stands her ground, "He's dangerous. All Faelings are."
Ag laughs, "Faelings are dangerous." He rolls his eyes, "Which of us is dangerous?" he gestures to where Gunn is leaning against the metal wall and staring at the floor, "You try to put my brother or I in chains, let me tell you you'll regret it. That's a promise."
The lift stops and Ag steps off, "And you know that Fae always keep their promises."
The apartment floor is clean and tidy. Their shared apartment with Polly is simple and neat. Two bedrooms across from each other, a bathroom at the end of the hall. A small kitchen on the left and a couch on the right. "I'll talk to Harrow about-"
"No, one room is fine." Gunn tosses his bag down on one of the beds.
Ag can sense that Polly either knows the brothers are mad and is trying to make it better or that she doesn't care and is just asking questions to annoy them. "Have you always shared everything?"
"We're twins," Ag answers, throwing his bag on the ground beside the bed his brother did not claim. "It comes with the territory."
Polly isn't bothered by Agnes at all. If she is, she doesn't show it. "I'll be out front when you're ready."
She leaves without saying another word.
Gunn dumps his bag on the bed and rifles through his belongings. "I don't like it," he says after a full minute of silence. "I can't shake this feeling that we don't have the full story."
"It's not our choice, Gunn." Agnes surprises himself with the sudden devotion to Harrow. "If Kip really has-"
"Petty theft got him sent to the Pit. A hard labor camp. Why? Because he's a Vampire? Ag, it doesn't make sense to me."
"I guess it's not supposed to," Agnes mumbles, "You have a very valid point and I'm not trying to discredit that, but-"
"I know, Harrow says." Gunn stops with his hand on his wrist. His fingers are tangled around the silver band their mother gave him. Agnes had a matching bronze one. That's how she told them apart when they were smaller and looked alike. The look had stuck for whatever reason.
"Let's go see the inventor. What was her name?"
"Ivy." Gunn shakes off the thoughts and flashes a smile, "You're right, Agnes."
"Always am," Ag can't return the smile. He's too worried.
Gunn ignores it and leaves the room to talk to Polly. Agnes can hear them interacting. Gunn is trying so hard to be nice to her.
Agnes takes an extra second to venture to the window. He moves the curtains and can see- all of nothing. He had expected to see the whole city, instead, his view is of the heavy cloud of steam and light and a slight shimmering purple between the city and the Mountain. He frowns and continues with his routine. A small bowl, a few drops of water from the pouch, a handful of sparkly stones, broken glass, shells, things he and his brother had collected over the years.
"Ag?"
"Coming."
He leaves the Faery shrine in the window, closing the curtains. It would be easier to explain if Polly didn't see it.
Agnes makes a point to ask as many questions as he can. Polly answered all of them like a good guard dog. Gunn just scribbled in his notebook and memorized the patterns they took.
The cafeteria was at the end of their hall. They served three meals a day, at exact times. If you missed these times, you were on your own for that meal.
After the cafeteria, they take the lift back to the same floor as the observation room and holding cells.
Four stories seperated the inmates from the ground floor. There were no elevators after the fourth floor. Only stairs. Polly explains all of this while she follows the path they took earlier, taking the first right. They go to the end of this hall and open a metal door. They walk down the stairs and come to a balconey above a concrete and steel room. Tables litter the floor, each of them with papers and half finished projects.
"Ivy?"
Something blows up across the room. A small voice coughs and squeaks, "Oops."
Polly motions them after her and they descend another set of stairs to the floor of the workshop.
Ivy appears from underneath a vehicle, "Hi, Polly. Agnes, Gunn. How's your day going?"
The silence answers her question.
"Right, understandable." she sits up and crosses her legs, staring up at the automobile. "I can't get it back up. It's really got me stumped."
"How's it work?" Agnes looks to Gunn for the explanation.
Gunn glances at the designs on the table. "The boiler heats the water, creating steam. The steam pushes the pistons up and down and creates the movement. In theory it should be more effective than the current design."
"Right," Ivy nods, "It started to work, then sort of crashed into the side of the shop," she points to a massive dent in the side of the room, "I had to rebuild it and now it doesn't work."
Agnes looks at the designs with Gunn and then to Ivy, "Can I take a look?"
Ivy holds up a wrench, "Be my guest."
Agnes lays down and slides under the automobile. Ivy's designs were very accurate. He could tell which part was where and recall their functions easily. "Have you tried dropping the tank out and realigning it?"
"Yeah," Ivy chimes in, "It's getting hot and making steam, the pistons move but not like they should."
"Is there a leak?"
"Not that I've seen." Ivy answers. There isn't enough space for her to scoot under the automobile with him, so she's crouched by his feet.
Agnes looks over it again and grabs the water tank, it shifts slightly and secures into place.
"What was that?" Gunn asks, "Did you break it?"
Ag rolls his eyes and slides out, "Try it now."
Ivy stands up and reaches through the open door to turn the hand crank. The engine chugs twice and then gurgles into life.
Ivy jumps up and down happily. "It's working! That's amazing!"
She runs across the room to grab a stack of papers and notebooks. "I've got to test drive it while it's working." She scrambles into the front seat and waves frantically, "Come on, Gunn. I need a copilot!"
Gunn looks at Agnes with a blend of fear and confusion.
"Go on. We'll be here when you get back."
Gunn trails around to the other side of the car and is barely in before Ivy takes off.
Agnes laughs at Gunn's yelp and panicked pleading with Ivy to slow down. Then a hand is lowered to him. He looks up to Polly and accepts her help.
"The watertank was off center." Agnes wipes his hands on his pants and smiles, "I don't know if Ivy was strong enough to move it, but I did."
"It appears to be working," Polly states, nodding her head towards the shop's outer door. They can hear Gunn's distinct scream for Ivy to slow down before she kills both of them.
Polly crosses her arms, "He sounds like he's having a good time."
"He's really not," Ag laughs. He can see Polly's sidelong glance and a soft smile. "Was that a smile? Did you just giggle?"
"I smiled, that's not the same thing."
"Before you know it, we'll be ballroom dancing and buying each other gifts."
"No, Agnes." Polly rolls her eyes and waves as Ivy and Gunn return to the shop. "How was it?"
"Like a dream!" Ivy jumps out of the vehicle and hugs Agnes, twirling around, "You should come to the shop more often. Sorry about your brother."
Gunn falls out of his seat and Polly barely catches him before he hits the ground.
"I'm going to be sick," Gunn warns everyone.