Grain...

They hurried towards the carriage as soon as they could. The sounds of the pneumatic steam hissed through the air and Amaretto was pushed unceremoniously into the carriage. Johanna paused a moment and then jumped into the lorry after her. Alice slammed the door shut and as Amaretto looked around she saw that her aunt had already arrived in the carriage.

"So where are we going?"

Alice tapped the front of the cab and then said, "Piccadilly Quarter! Hurry man, Hurry!"

Johanna looked out the window and as the carriage hurtled down the street. "We need to get to the house. There is the small fact that Mother Chime could be looking for us."

"Who exactly is Mother Chime?" Amaretto frowned as they hurtled down the roads of London town.

Alice narrowed her eyes and looked suspicious. She then closed her eyes and then sighed. "I'm sorry if I seemed so suspicious. It's just that there has been so many problems since..." Alice trailed off and then shook her head again.

Katherine simply sat on her side of the carriage and said nothing, looking at Alice with appraising eyes. When Alice had trailed off, Johanna waited a moment and then picked up where her companion left off. "Mother Chime arrived here in the Empire almost five years ago. She was indoctrinated by the Queen herself and then she slowly took over the rest of the area. The queen is enamored with her at this moment in time. She is now one of her closest advisers."

Amaretto shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me though," she said in a quiet voice.

Alice looked up at Amaretto and then said, "Mother Chime is the reason so many things have changed recently." As if to punctuate her sentence, a loud noise suddenly droned overhead. Alice pursed her lips and Amaretto looked at her aunt who still had a calm look on her face. Katherine slowly tilted her head towards the window and Amaretto paused to look out of the window. Above a large dirigible slowly droned overhead, moving along the sky at a sedate pace.

Johanna waited till the sound was almost gone before she said, "Mother Chime brought scientists with her; what she called great men of learning. They came in and brought with them vast amounts of knowledge and with it, it changed the Empire. The Sun, which was once to be considered setting, rose again. We are now one of the most powerful countries in the world because of her. however, there is some other things that are going on."

Katherine opened her mouth after being quiet for the first time on the ride. "Could it be that the country seems more like it is being run by Mother Chime than the Queen Mother?"

Alice nodded her head. "The Queen Mother has been sequestered because of a strong fever. She is currently under the care of several physicians, but the official line is that she is off in the country for a holiday."

"The Queen Mother on a holiday," Katherine scoffed. "I have never heard something more preposterous."

Alice made a small smile at that. "Needless to say, Mother Chime is currently running the Empire, that is why there are no bobbies and nothing but Iron Men around."

Katherine suddenly began to rummage through her bag and then pulled a small flask out of it that was covered with a small bird that was in flight. When Amaretto looked at it a little closer, she could have sworn that the bird really was in flight on the side of the flask. Katherine took a sip from the flask after carefully opening it and then said, "So what do we do now?"

Grain...

Johanna looked at Amaretto and then spoke in a monotone voice. "The Stone of Communication is a large red stone with which we are able to speak with the Ancients. It is because of these Ancients, that we are able to determine the parts of the future that we are able to use to our advantage."

Amaretto was surprised. It was the longest sentence that Johanna had ever uttered to Amaretto's knowledge. Katherine frowned as she looked at them all and then said, "So tell me what it is that we need to do then?"

Alice turned towards Katherine as she bit her lip. "The stone was supposed to help us. You see, we are using the stone to try to form an alliance of sorts. You see, we are in harsh times."

"Harsh times?" Amaretto looked a little lost.

Alice put a finger to her lips and then said, "We are part of a resistance here within the whole of the Empire. You begin from Indus means that you have not seen the true might of the Empire. You are too far away to see the repercussions."

Katherine's own mouth twitched at this revelation. "We are not here to fight in a war with you Alice," she said a little agitated. "We are only stopping here as a pause in our travels."

Johanna once again looked down the street and then said, "I think that there is an IronMan coming down the street. We need to get out of here now Alice. Because if we are still here, and they find us, they will take us to the Tower. We can't go to the Tower."

Alice shuddered and then looked at Katherine. "If the Watchmaker told you that we were to help you, then we shall, but we cannot stay here."

Katherine looked to Amaretto and then clutched her large purse to her side. "Where is it that you would like to take us then?"

Alice nodded her head and gathered her skirts up slightly. Amaretto thought that it made for a comical picture considering that she had a partial bustle. Amaretto would have giggled, but she did not think that it was the time, as she realized that Alice was going to make a run for it.

Johanna smoothed out her own skirt before picking up the sides and bunching it in her fists. "We have a small house on the other side of town. We can hide there while we figure out wha tit is that we need to do."

Katherine put her hand on one of her hips. "I told you that we are not fighting in your war."

Alice frowned and then said, "It is not a war. This is a bid from independence."

Katherine looked at Alice and then with menace in her eyes said, "I don't care if you want to burn the palace of the Monarch down to the ground. You may not simply use us as pawns as if we are a commodity." She turned on Johanna at that moment in time. "Don't think that you will be getting out of here without a lashing as well."

She wagged a finger at the tall expressionless girl. "We need a place to stay while we figure this out and you seemed to be taking advantage of this situation. Just because you do not show me any emotion, does not mean that I will not slap you to get a rise out of you."

At that, Johanna looked a little surprised.

"Alice shook her head and then said, "We have to go now."

Katherine looked around and then said, "All right then. Let's go."

Grain...

So you're trying to say that you had nothing to do with said attack?" Amaretto looked at Alice with a critical eye. Alice fidgeted under Amaretto's gaze and casually fluffed her curled hair slightly from the back before she talked.

"It wasn't that we attacked her at all. It was more like she stole something from us and Johanna and I went to retrieve it. We weren't expecting her to call foul play about it."

Alice finally stopped moving when Katherine stepped forward. "What was it that she stole from you two?"

Alice huffed as she crossed her arms, "She took our Stone of Communication! It wasn't even worth anything until we started to use the bloody thing though!"

Amaretto looked at her aunt and KAtherine shrugged her shoulders, not quite sure as to what to say.

"What is a Stone of Communication?" Amaretto looked a little confused.

Johanna looked at Amaretto with a rather blank look and then said, "It was how we managed to make our language of Enochtin."

"Enochtin?" Amaretto looked a little confused.

Alice smiled slightly and then said, "Johanna and I are a little better than your average gentry here. We are considered mystics."

Katherine frowned. "Mystics? You mean you speak with spirits and divine the future?"

Alice looked mollified. "We aren't table-rappers if that is what you are thinking. We talk to genuine spirits." Alice allowed for a small smile to play off of her lips.

Amaretto looked to her aunt and Katherine paused to wave her hand as she explained. "Table-rappers are considered to be an alleged form of communication with the spirits of the dead."

"Why do you say alleged?"

Katherine snorted. "That is because they are mostly fakes. There is a reason they are called table-rappers," she smiled rather banally

Johanna looked at Katherine, the same blank expression that was on her face that was there since they met. "We have an actual connection to the spirits. We are not fakes."

Amaretto frowned. "So what exactly is it that we are supposed to do then?"

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