Jasper's on a balcony, and he's sure it's mesmerizing and delightful and a whole host of other complimentary adjectives, but he can't let himself care about it right now. He's going to find somebody to point a finger at regarding this bell, and he's going to demand a solution be found.

Turning, he pushes open the double doors leading inside. The room is largely empty but for a collection of rich purple furnishings and a large clock, where a man stands in front of it thoughtfully. His hair is wavy and black, and his skin is a warm brown. From what's visible of his profile reveals strong brows, thick lashes, and large dark eyes. The overall effect is so lovely that some corner of Jasper's mind wonders if the man is a painting on the wall.

At Jasper's admittedly loud entrance, the man turns toward him so quickly that Jasper is in turn startled into standing still, preventing him from breaking into what he was sure would have been a confident stride.

"Have you been out there this whole time?"

Jasper weighs his options carefully. This time, he does not want to be the one coerced into defending his presence, so he affects an air of superiority instead. "Have you been in here the whole time?"

Somehow, it works.

The man's incredulity fades into a mildly abashed look. "I've been fixing the room's clock," he explains. "I know it took a long time, but it seems to be working all right now. I was just about to leave."

He pauses, looks at Jasper more curiously: his nondescript brown clothing, his unruly hair, and, lastly, the bell hanging idly from his fingers. He does not look like someone that needs to be reported to.

"What were you doing out there for so long?" he asks, leaning to the side to see past Jasper and onto the sparse balcony.

Jasper stands his ground, answering with a completely feasible explanation: "I was gardening."

"There are only two potted plants out there."

Jasper looks at him.

The man looks back.

His gaze drifts once more to the bell, its elegant look so out of place in the hands of an otherwise unremarkable man. Jasper's internal arm flails through the filing cabinets of his mind to grasp another excuse, but it turns out to be unnecessary. The man comes to a conclusion on his own, and begins to look at Jasper with a new sense of respect.

"It's all right, I won't tell. Although you may want to give a go of looking less suspicious. Or you can try hiding it under your shirt. "

What the hell? Does he think I'm stealing the bell? Was that rhyme a couplet? He knows nothing about poetry.

The clockmaker does, in fact, think he's stealing the bell, but is too peeved from his interaction with Tai to care much about it. That man would do well to have one less luxury.

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you mean. Honestly, I'd rather find a way to get rid of it."

The other man's face lights up in true comprehension this time.

"Is it a chimera gift?"

"A chimera gift?"

But the other man does not heed Jasper's question. Instead, he barrels onward: "My brother has one too. He found it weeks ago but I hadn't known what it did until this morning. He made me come outside just to watch him jump from a tree branch and, amazingly enough, turned himself into a bird just before hitting the ground. Almost scared a year off my life, which he was happy about."

He leans forward, eyes intent and striking.

"What does your bell do?"

————————————————————

Tai couldn't care less about what he leaves behind: in this case, the clock and the man fixing it. The uneasy twist in his gut may be nervousness about what he's about to do next, though.

Most things are figured out best when you go in for a closer look.

All right, it's been too long. He will not know what the silver in the bottle does, nor its connection to the Captain note that appeared this morning, unless he opens it up.

When he enters his room, he goes immediately to the large, stately chest of drawers by his bed, extracting from the top compartment the vial of sand he had pushed inside.

As he uncorks it, he sets rules for himself.

1. He will not ingest it.

2. He will not let it touch human skin. At least, not his own.

3. He will put it back in the vial as soon as he finishes examining it.

Tai pours a careful amount onto the surface of the chest. The sand is so fine it may almost be powder, with a silver glint that reminds him of the moon at night. He stops pouring after having only let out a small amount.

At first, he notices nothing. Then, almost imperceptibly, his eyes are convinced that the sand seems to move. He is sure he had poured it out farther from the edge of the chest of drawers.

The sand creeps closer.

Tai takes a quick step back, but this grants no reprieve as the sand simply pours itself down the front of the drawers, coming unmistakably closer to where he stands.

Tai will not run. He sets his jaw and forces himself to hold still. He has never heard of a chimera's gift doing active harm to its own recipient. Others, sure, and that he could live with. But not to its new owner.

The small pile of sand has transformed itself into a river of movement with the way it slithers across the floor, up his leg, and around his hand, where it comes to rest. So much for his second rule.

The sand feels restless in his hand, shifting of its own accord. Oh well, he's in too deep already. He may as well let out the rest. Tai upends the vial so that the remaining sand will flow down to the ground, placing his other hand palm-up on the floor as well, but to the left of where he pours.

Sure enough, instead of falling straight downward, the sand instead moves to fall onto his other hand.

So it follows me, he thinks. He admits to himself that this is interesting, but is not especially impressed by it. Surely there are better gifts than obedient pet sand.

He knows of one, though not from the chimera. His mother had given him a sword of the highest-caliber craftsmanship when he had reached his majority years ago, inlaid with black opal. One of Edeline's younger brothers (Tai didn't know which one, but it was Rian) had questioned its practicality, but Tai was unfazed. It was beautiful nonetheless.

Distracted by thoughts of that much more gratefully-received gift, he is startled to see that the sand is moving on its own atop his hand, forming what looks like the beginnings of a hilt. Surprised, Tai gives his hand a shake, disrupting the process and spilling the sand back into its original form.

He looks down at his hand. Two steady breaths, in then out, before he calms and lets himself imagine the rest of the sword.

The sand works quicker this time, responding to his concentration.

The sword it swirls to form is not identical to the one Tai's mother had given him, but is distinct from it in shape and size. They are similar in both being longswords, but the finished one he holds now has a distinguishing silver sheen to it, somehow brighter and colder than typical steel. It feels remote even as he holds it in his hands, as if it is dust come from the moon.

Astonished, Tai swings it back and forth, feeling all the weight and heft that make it solid, comparing it to the flimsy other form it had been before.

Some inner trumpet blares triumphant at the feel of it in his hand, and he experiences an unusual sense of wanting to share that triumph with someone.

He thinks of the dark-eyed clockmaker, whiling away the hours in Tai's rooms. He's been dawdling too long, but at least Tai now has someone to share this excitement with. He makes his way down the hall, sword in hand.

Returning to his sitting room, Tai is shocked and irritated to find that the clockmaker is in discussion with, of all people, the brown-haired bonehead from Edeline's garden.

Jasper, for his part, thinks that Tai looks vaguely familiar, taking a moment to realize that his face had been one of the ones that witnessed his pathetic foray into the garden weeks before.

The clockmaker is just embarrassed to have been caught being idle once again.

"Of all the people in Beledon," Tai says, scornful. The silver sword is half-forgotten now. "Why are you in my house?"

"I didn't mean to be," Jasper says, recognizing the scorn and thinking he could do without it. "I can leave with Skander if you want."

Tai looks to the clockmaker. He had not known his name, and is angry that this stranger found it first.

"Are you finally finished with the clock, or have you decided to break and remake it, to stay even longer?"

Skander's eyes flash. I don't care if he's rich and handsome, I hope all his clocks tick forever if it means I don't have to come back. And who struts around with a sword like that anyway?

But, "I can take my payment and go," is what he says out loud.

Tai's tone is dismissive as he tells Skander his payment can be collected from the same staff that let him in.

When Jasper moves to follow the departing clockmaker, Tai motions for him to stay.

He does not dawdle in his inquisition.

"Where do you come from?"

"Where do you come from?"

"That won't work on me. I don't think it's a coincidence I've run into you twice now, trespassing both times. Tell me where you come from."

"I live in Cadeus Falls."

"Never heard of it."

"Well, what's this place?"

Tai's free hand rests skeptically on his hip. "If you can't recognize Beledon, then I don't know what more to tell you. How did you get here?" Although he's already sure it's the bell, delivered to him by the chimera.

"Why do I need to answer all this? I don't even know you."

"You came uninvited into my home. What leg do you have to stand on in lectures of privacy?"

Jasper flushes. If he hadn't promised himself no more cowardly flights until he received answers, he would be long gone by now.

"I already told you, I didn't mean to come here. I just want to find out where this bell comes from so I can return it."

"No one returns the chimera's gifts. They're meant to be used."

"Well, I don't want to anymore. I've seen the monster outside your city."

"What are you talking about it?" Tai's exasperation is so tangible, Jasper could trip on it. Not to mention the intimidation that comes from seeing his interrogator's lethal weapon.

Still, he persists: "The pale monster, crawling around with sharp teeth? I'm talking about that one."

Tai's condescension morphs into confusion. "I've never seen or heard of anything like that existing in our world."

Jasper only looks at him, slowly feeling the guilt-ridden penitence that comes with realizing you are the bearer of bad news.