Agatha H. and the Airship City

towards Agatha. The look he gave her was of someone who was unaccustomed to asking for help, but who had no choice, and had known it for a long, long time. “It’s my last secret. He’s taken all the others, but not them! I’ve kept them safe!”

Awkwardly Agatha patted his massive shoulder. “Well… I won’t tell anyone.”

Sudden hope flared within the kneeling man’s eyes. “You… help keep my bears… secret? Keep them safe from the Baron?”

Agatha nodded. “Of course. I won’t even tell that man I’m working with, von Zinzer.”

Softly, silently, the large man began to cry. “Thank you! Thank you!” he blubbered. “I’ve been so worried about them.”

An embarrassed Agatha looked about and grabbed a large rag, which she handed to Dimitri, who gratefully used it to scrub away at his face. “They’ll be okay, I promise. Now let’s get that ladder.”

Once again beaming widely, Dimitri climbed to his feet. He wheeled about and addressed the row of bears lined up on the shelf. “Did you hear? She has promised to help take care of you. You will be safe!”

The watcher nodded. He’d heard.

Several hours later, after von Zinzer had dismissed her for the day, Agatha found herself swept up by Sleipnir and several other girls and dragged off to their fencing practice. Agatha had never held a sword, but she had always admired the way actors had flailed about with them onstage. Much to her surprise, the people she watched didn’t seem to do any flailing at all. Indeed, the object appeared to be to hit your opponent while moving as little as possible. The analytical part of her mind found this intriguing, though she did miss the singing.

The girls warmed up fencing with each other in various combinations, but after a while, Sleipnir went off and returned pushing a large cart which was topped by a vaguely humanoid figure possessed of a single arm, holding a fencing foil. Once activated, it turned out to be a fencing clank, and the girls took turns battling it while the others rested.

It took little encouragement to get Agatha to suit up in a padded outfit, and the girls looked on with interest while Sleipnir began to teach her the basics. A stream of humorous comments at her expense were made, but to Agatha’s surprise, instead of feeling hurt, she found herself laughing along with them.

Relinquishing the sword, she sat and tried to ignore how the other girls now attacked each other while singing. It had seemed like an interesting idea at the time.

One of the girls, Sun Ming, handed her a cup of water, and asked her about her first day at the lab. Eventually the conversation got around to Dr. Dimitri, though Agatha omitted any mention of his stuffed bears. “We call him Dr. Dim.” Sun Ming admitted. “I believe him to be some sort of construct that didn’t work out.”

“He’s been here for years,” Sleipnir chimed in. “He seems to be harmless.”

The door to the changing rooms swung open and Zulenna strode towards them. She carried a gold foil over her shoulder. She nodded to several of the other girls, but a frown creased her face at the sight of Agatha. “Miss Clay. I didn’t know you fenced.”

Agatha experienced another wave of embarrassment at her actions last night. She resolved to try and be civil. “I don’t, but Sleipnir said I should try it.”

Sleipnir nodded. “Agatha has pretty good reflexes. I think that with some training…”

Zulenna interrupted, waving dismissively. “Really, Sleipnir. Taking a plow horse to the races?” Whereas Agatha had felt distress at last night’s incident, Zulenna had been replaying it over and over again and getting more and more annoyed. She wanted a rematch. With a sword. And witnesses. Sleipnir blinked. Zulenna continued, “I would like to see these fabulous reflexes.” She turned to Agatha. “If you’re not afraid to face me when I’m armed.”

Sleipnir looked back and forth between Agatha and Zulenna and tried to avert certain calamity. “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea. Why don’t we—”

Agatha interrupted. “Sleipnir, would fencing give me a chance to hit her with this sword in a civilized manner?”

“Well…” Sleipnir hesitated, “theoretically, but—”

“Let’s do it.”

Sleipnir closed her mouth and shrugged. Some things just had to be worked out.

Zulenna chuckled as Agatha’s outfit was checked by Sleipnir. “Oh, this will be amusing.”

Sleipnir muttered to Agatha as she finished up. “She’s very good.”

“Indeed I am,” Zulenna confirmed brightly. “So just try to hit me.”

Agatha and Zulenna moved into position. Tentatively Agatha reached forward with her sword, and, languidly, Zulenna flicked it aside.

Agatha frowned and whipped her sword around from the other direction, and again, Zulenna deflected it with ease. She had watched the other girls and the fencing clank, but even her untrained eye could tell that Zulenna was superior to them all. Fascinated, Agatha executed a series of attacks from any direction she could think of. The smirking girl easily batted them all away while moving nothing but her arm.

Agatha stepped back and wiped a trickle of perspiration from her brow. This was developing into a very interesting problem, and Agatha’s anger at Zulenna began to fade as she considered it.

This detachment disappeared when Zulenna reached out with her sword and smacked the side of Agatha’s head. Agatha whipped her foil upwards, but hit nothing. There followed a series of strikes by Zulenna, which Agatha found herself helpless to prevent. The few times she actually managed to hit Zulenna’s sword, it simply slid off and connected with Agatha anyway. Her anger building, she decided to ignore the attacks and concentrate on striking back. There followed a series of attacks and feints delivered at blinding speed, which had absolutely no effect. Zulenna raised an eyebrow, and with an enormous grin, continued to strike Agatha at will while she deftly parried Zulenna’s furious attacks.

“As you can see, Miss Clay,” she said with a smirk, “fencing is the sport of the highborn. There is far more to it than hacking and slashing.” This was punctuated with a sharp poke to Agatha’s stomach. “And while I’m sure you’d do very well with a sledge hammer, which is probably all you need for tavern brawling, fencing is all about finesse, the art of exploiting your opponents’ weaknesses.” A move too fast to see and Zulenna’s sword cracked against Agatha’s hand, causing her to drop her sword. Zulenna smiled and turned away. “This was entertaining.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Those are good reflexes, by the way.”

A panting Agatha reached down and picked up her sword. Blowing a lock of hair from her face, she turned to a watching Sleipnir. “Hey…” she said between breaths, “I just figured out the difference between Dr. Dim and royalty. Dr. Dim is still doing something useful.”

Zulenna froze, and then spun about, sword upraised to strike. “How dare you— Oof!”

This last sound was caused by Zulenna slamming herself directly onto the point of Agatha’s foil, which had been aimed at her solar plexus. Zulenna dropped to her knees and tried to gasp in a lungful of air. Agatha leaned over her. “Your reflexes, on the other hand, could get you into trouble, your highness.”

Zulenna shot Agatha a look of pure hate as two of the other girls helped Zulenna to her feet. When she could stand, she shook them off, wheeled about and stalked off. Sleipnir looked after her and shook her head. “You fight nasty.”

Agatha slid the foil back into the rack. She didn’t feel good about her win. “Back in Beetleburg, we didn’t care much about royalty as such, what was important was if you had the Spark or not.”

Sleipnir nodded. “Yes, we’ve been seeing that trend spreading out from the larger towns for some time. It’s been giving Zulenna’s family some real problems, apparently.”

“Aren’t most of you from noble families?”

Ming grinned. “Some of us, but the important thing here is your position vis-a-vis those who possess the Spark. Baron Wulfenbach needs to control those who can disrupt things, the few royal families that still rule are desperately eager for things to remain calm. Zulenna’s family is a case in point. They rule a small nation in the Germanies. Useful because it controls a pass that at least three major trade routes use. Their defenses were built by the Heterodynes, and thus they’d stood off a number of attacks by madboys until they were annexed by the Baron.”