Chapter 44: A fresh leaf

I open the door to the lab, excitement thumping in my chest.
“Good morning Inquiry,” Tiborah tells me as I come in. They’re in the middle of folding up a maroon blouse with ruffles at the neckline.
“Good morning Tiborah,” I tell him but my eyes are quickly pulled off him. Drawn to the doll laying on the table in a state of frozen possibilities. The wood of the body is a dark and glossy chestnut. They look beautiful, with soft sculpted features, dark wavy hair and an androgynous build that could really go either way depending on who the doll ends up being.
They’re naked still, chest wide open. A gaping hole that’s supposed to receive the culmination of our labours.
A heart, ether, electricity.
Life?
Tiborah places the last items of clothing by their feet. Then walks to the empty doll’s body and places his hand reverently on the smooth wooden surface and I can feel the love radiating from it.
A proud parent.
I smile, walk towards the doll.
“They’re beautiful,” I tell him.
“Thank you. I’m not sure I ever expected it to get this far. The connections? Are they correct?”
I lean over that empty gaping cavity and look inside. There should be ten channels to carry the ether to the five extremities and back. I check the openings on the tubes, there doesn’t seem to be anything crooked or jammed “Looks good to me.”
“That’s a relief. So that means we can do it right?”
“Yes, well, once Tin and Steel get here as well. I could go and hook up the heart, however?”
“Please. I can’t wait to get started.”
“I’ll fetch it.”

I make my way to my table in the parlour and retrieve the eleventh iteration of the heart, well, twelfth of the heart if you count the one that got scrapped less than an hour after starting on it.
The new heart looks nothing like the old one.
The tin idea made way for a brass cylinder half the size of the old mechanism with little couplers sticking out where the channels need to connect to.
I admit in comparison to the old one the outside isn’t much to look at anymore…
But it’s much more efficient, cost-effective and easier to produce. So I’ll take that as my win.
The last thing that stands out is a pressure gauge that sits atop the cylinder that shows the ether levels.
I can imagine we have to do a lot of checks over time.
Especially with the first one. This way we can get our data with as little interference as possible.
“Morning Inquiry.” Tungsten yawns as he comes into the parlour.
“You’re up early?”
“Couldn’t sleep.” He explains while pulling on his boots.
“Are you going to the docks again?”
“Yes.”
“You know if there’s any way I can help you just need to ask right.”
“I know.” He gets up and ruffles my hair for a bit “I’ll be okay, I just need time.”
I push his hand off my head and hug him.
He hugs back. “I’m taking the key, will you be okay?”
“Yeah that’s fine, we’re going to try and wake up the doll so we’ll be waiting here for hours probably if not days.”
“Just don’t make too much of a mess.”
I roll my eyes “Sure thing boss.”
He huffs bemusedly, then walks out.
“Oh…Hi Steel.” I hear Tungsten say in the tunnels.
Ah, sounds like we’re gonna be able to start sooner than I expected.
“Morning kid.”
“Not a kid.”
“I brought the number of possible locations for your university down to two.”
“Good, what did you find?”
“The first is a manor in the upper-class district, got a couple living there, one is an alchemist, the other blissfully unaware but they’re willing to move for the right price.”
“Oh, I see.” that sounds costly, dangerous and also a little close to home.” Not that that’s the important bit but I can’t say I’m too thrilled “What’s the other option?”
“Here.”
“Here!?”
“It’s roomy, it’s discrete, I could get permission to knock down a few trees and build something above ground to alleviate suspicion of a bunch of people going out to the woods.
“But what about Tungsten?”
“Well, he’d need to be relocated, I haven’t discussed it with him him yet.”
“But-”
“Look the guy is a mess right now and I don’t need his dramatic energy right now. Just know I’m on it. How’s the other project?”
“Well, Tiborah brought the body. Everything else seems to be in order as well, so we can get started with phase one.”
“Well, what are we still babbling for then? Let’s go.”

I bring the heart to Tiborah, Steel in tow.
Overhearing their conversation as I look around for the padding I made to fill up the rest of the cavity.
“Hello Steel.”
“So this is it then?”
“This is them.”
“So how do they know what sex they are if you keep it all vague for them?” Steel asks picking up a dark curl and dropping it down onto the trolley.
“They know it from the inside and then that shows on the outside with time.”
There’s a moment of silence, I look back from the cupboards. Steel shrugs “If you say so, you’re the doll expert.”
I pull a series of knitted, almost sock-like pillows from the drawer and bring them back to the table.
“Do you want to wait for Tin to get here?”
“We can hook things up for now I think. Tin’s part isn’t till after all the ether is in and that’ll take at least a couple hours.” Tiborah muses.
“Good answer.” Steel smiles “I’ll grab the ether. You get to it then.”
I pick up the heart and hook up the ten access points with purpose. Tugging each and every one slightly to check if the connection is solid.
The door opens again.
“Did you make sure the pressure gauge is facing the right way?”
“Yes, Steel.”
“And did you put the padding in place?”
“Doing it now Steel.”
“And did you wire up the left wire with the right leg?”
“What?” I halt “No because that makes no sense.”
“Good, because that was a trick question.”
I roll my eyes as I push the final piece of padding in place “Just get that ether over here.”
The bottle is massive.
If this goes wrong we will have wasted a fortune.
Steel unscrews a cap near the pressure gauge. Hooks it onto the pump system and then hangs the bottle into a sling on a tall pole to drip out. “It’s set for two hundred mills per hour, if after three there are still no leaks we can double that.
“Ah, here you all are,” Tin announces as he kicks open the door. He looks at the situation for a second or two “You started without me?”
“I figured you didn’t need to be around for phase one since now it’s just a matter of waiting for half a day,” Steel tells him nonchalantly.
Tin huffs “Can I at least check the access points while it’s pumping like this.”
“Sure just don’t disconnect anything.” Steel warns him.
“I’d never.”
“So since this is gonna take a while, how about some tea?” I offer.
“Let me.” Tiborah offers. “I need you here in case something goes wrong with the process.”
“All right, thanks.”
The doll leaves the room.
And so I sit down on a stray table and wait.
Tea is served and drunk, time passes slowly as the ether drains from the bottle at a snail’s pace.”
“This suuuuucks…does anyone have a story or something I’m bored as balls.” Tin moans.
“And you’re surprised we started without you?”
“You did the fun stuff without me.”
“Sounds like your timing’s off, maybe have someone check up on that.” Steel punches Tin on the arm.
“Asshole.”
“Whiny baby.”
“How about I tell you about the first time I left the house and encountered the real world?” Tiborah offers.
“I think that’s an excellent idea.” it’s a lot better than listening to them bicker.
Tin shrugs, Steel rolls his eyes.
Tiborah nods and begins to tell his story.

“We had just split up the library and a lot of the dolls were not ready to leave yet.
It makes sense.
We could have stayed as long as we liked, we weren’t going to run out of food or water or anything. We could just keep reading and playing till the end of time.
However, I felt like I needed to leave.
Father was gone, and so there was nothing left for me in that place.
And there was much to explore outside.
I took others with me, none of whom you know, they’re out there just…further than most and not coming back for anything that isn’t groundbreaking…maybe a new doll might actually persuade them to come home for a bit.
But yes, we left.
The first town we went to thought we were monsters.
Tried to destroy us with little effect.
I wasn’t scared or angry but I was very disappointed these people just assumed we came to bring death and harm.
So we left, went to the next city.
Ran into the same thing.
Over and over again people either saw us as monsters to defend against or omens of war.
It was pretty disheartening.
It’s only when we came to larger cities. Places where people don’t know the names of their neighbours that we found any sense of peace.
The crowd gave us a sense of anonymity.
It gave us the time to get the people used to us.
But it still took too long for my liking.
I tried connecting with humans.
Our strength was a barrier.
Humans who know our strength can only imagine it being used against them.
We learnt to hide it.
Cover up our ‘defects’ and become as non-threatening as possible.
Adapt, hide.
At least for now.
It went slow.
But then we found we had help!
Other dolls, curious to the world beyond have started leaving, spreading out across the globe.
Information didn’t travel fast in those times but we shared what we could.
The bald heads are something people find uncanny.
Taking off your head will freak anyone out.
Shaking hands is a human greeting but don’t squeeze their hands even if they tell you to! Human hands are fragile things, they snap like a bundle of twigs if you try to follow their example.
There were mistakes and faults at first. We were children exploring the limits.
But we were also making friends!
Human friends!
And that was exciting to me! Back in those days, humans were the most fascinating thing to me.”
“Really!?” I exclaim unable to contain my surprise “I thought you find people complicated.”
He chuckles “You’re not wrong…but back then everything was exciting and new. There was one human I loved very much. A lady who was so full of life and wit that she was positively radiant and she dragged me to places I’d never seen before. Showed me sights that I carry with me in my heart.”
“What happened to her?” Tin asks.
“The same thing that happens to all humans. She grew old and died.” His eyes turn to his hands for a moment.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I tell him.
I guess all doll-human relationships end in tragedy like that.
“Thank you Inquiry.” He looks up again.
“And then?”
“I went home. I don’t know if it was because her death paralleled father’s so much that it made me homesick, or the fear of loving and losing was just too great. But I left the human world for what it was and retreated into that place in the woods where we were born.
Most of my siblings had flown the nest at that point. Only a few were still there, out of obligation, keeping the place in good shape.
I offered to stay behind to take care of our home.
And so I did.
Until I was alone in that house.
And I missed them.
The death day celebration was only an option after the invention of a proper postal system but once it was there I looked forward to that day every single year.
I…I guess this is the first time I left for any length of time in over a century.” He sounds as surprised as I feel “Huh…I didn’t even think of that.”
“Who takes care of the house now?”
“Lara and Rala I told them I wouldn’t be long, I promised I’d be back within twenty years. and considering our progress today I may have overestimated the time needed.”
“That’s yet to be seen.” Steel huffs “But I sure hope it works.” he gets up “Leaks are negative, the pressure is as expected, I’ll up the dosage.”
“Thank you, Steel.”
“So how long left?”
“Roughly two hours.”
“Well, I’m taking a piss then.” Tin gets up. “See you in two hours.”