The city was well lit, with the light seeming to co from the barrier. In fact, as Joseph looked up, he realized he could see an illusion of the sky above. Impressed, he noted that for future possibilities and headed for the alley that was before them. As they walked between the buildings, they saw many more of the tiny golems working to keep the city in good order.
Stepping out onto the street, they saw gnos trundling around with their daily activities, but as soon as one saw them, he stopped in his tracks and stared. It wasn't long before every gno on the street had seen them. None of them seed to know what to do, and just stood where they were, frozen.
"Excuse ," said Joseph to the nearest gno. "I'm looking for the library, could you please direct in that direction?"
The gno pointed towards the center of the street, not even trying to speak, still gaping at them.
"Thank you," he said, with a small nod, and they turned down the closest road that led in that direction.
Stella slid her arm into his, much to his delight, and they walked down the road at a leisurely pace, admiring the gears that turned for so purpose or another on the walls and sides of buildings. So ford intricate designs, ant to dazzle and stun, while others seed to have actual reasons for their placent. A few buildings had holes cut into the walls to allow gears and machinery to poke out.
Everywhere they went, the gnos would stop dead in their tracts and watch as they went by, unable to move or speak until they had moved on. Stella seed to be enjoying it imnsely, but Joseph started to wonder what was going on. He paused to look around, as they ca to a small clearing. Small golems and constructs were flying and crawling all over the area, mimicking birds and small creatures, as they also upkept the buildings and streets. Every gno he could see had stopped by this ti. Turning, Joseph could see that the gnos they had passed by already, had followed them, forgetting whatever task they were on.
An explosion in the building next to him, had Joseph reacting imdiately.
WIND WALL.
The debris from the explosion hit the wall and fell harmless to the ground. The gno that also flew at them hit the wall, but Joseph twisted his hand and instead of a solid surface, the wall twisted with his hand, depositing the gno in front of him, unhard from the impact with the wall.
Glancing into the building, Joseph could see flas licking at everything.
EXTINGUISH FIRE.
The gno coughed and patted himself down. His whiskers were pure white, and the top of his head was shiny and bare, except for the little bit of soot that marred it.
"Thank you, thank you," said the gno, not really glancing at him, and he turned back to his workshop. "Co inside and I'll recompense you for the service."
With a wave of his hand, the gno started back towards the open hole in the wall before them.
Raising her eyebrow in amusent, Stella followed Joseph as they followed the gno inside. The ceiling brushed the hair on the top of his head, making him want to duck, but Joseph refused.
The gno rummaged under a table laden with half started projects and finally reappeared, completely covered in dust, holding up a leather bag.
"Ah! Here we are! Alright" he took off his glasses, which had miraculously survived the explosion, and wiped them off with a grey rag off the table, before putting them back on. His eyes blinked a few tis, oversized in the glass of his spectacles, as he took in who he had invited into his workshop.
Joseph looked around calmly, noting the large ch that was the source of the explosion, positioned in the corner, before turning back to the gno that seed to have frozen just like all of the other gnos.
"Is this a common greeting for their race?" asked Stella, barely glancing at the ch and focusing on the little man who stood barely two feet tall.
"I believe it may be a side affect from lack of contact with those from outside the city. I wonder if the shock will linger for very long?"
At the sound of their words, the old gno shook himself and held out the leather bag.
"I promised to pay ye, for saving the pain of that hard knock, and I don't back down from my word."
Joseph stepped forward and took the small bag, hefting it curiously, before opening it up and pouring a few coins out onto his open palm. They were made of a particular tal that he didn't recognize.
ANALYZE.
It seed to be a material that should have been unstable in normal atmosphere, but a chemical overcoat seed to keep it stable.
"Is that silver?" asked Stella, not able to get a good look.
"It's trit. In one of my other lives it was used as a material to build space ships with, but it was too unstable in the atmosphere of a planet to be used for anything else. They've coated it in a chemical to stabilize it."
"Is that good?" she asked.
"It's fantastic," he said, straightening up and replacing the coins in the leather bag. "I'll have to run so experints on it later to see just what it can do."
She nodded in understanding. Anything new was always exciting for him.
"You know what it is, just from looking at it?" asked the gno. His huge fluffy eyebrows wiggled in curiosity.
Stella stifled her groan as Joseph smiled.
"I can tell so things," he said, moving over to the worktable and looking over the scattered objects.
She leaned against a stable section of the wall, glancing outside at the curious gnos that were peeking in, as Joseph and the gno quickly fell into a deep conversation on the various thods of tinkering. This was going to take a while; she could just tell.
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