Wasting no time, Alden headed directly to the front window and picked up the watch, taking it to the counter. He was met by an aging man with short white hair and more gold teeth than not who had just emerged from a back room. The man was dressed in a suit that had clearly been of a very fine make and pattern once, but judging by its shabby state it had probably gone through several owners before this gentleman got his hands on it. Before the proprietor could speak, Alden plonked the watch down on the counter. “This pocket watch rather caught my eye, and I have a few questions about it.” “Certainly, sir.” The old man replied. “A fine piece. Very precise mechanism. What would you like to know?” “Did you melt down the rest of the pen?” The man’s eyes snapped up, and he gave Alden a suspicious glare. “Are you affiliated with the constabulary, sir?” “Not at all. In fact, I would prefer not to get them involved with this matter at all. But if you don’t answer my questions, you might just force my hand. And I know exactly where to find a witness who would recognize this stone in an instant.” The man huffed and gave Alden an unenthusiastic nod. “Fine… What do you want to know?” “Who sold you the pen?” “A Han gentleman. I don’t know his name, but he comes in every so often to purchase Han fineries and jewellery.” “Han… One of the far eastern kingdoms, correct? I’m not particularly well-versed in international politics… Are they the one that keeps feuding with Nihon?” The shopkeeper visibly restrained himself from rolling his eyes. “You’re thinking about Wu. Han is the one that keeps trying to conquer Wei and Wu.” Alden shrugged. “Geopolitical matters are a bit of a closed book to me. Back to the point, you said the man is a regular?” “Of sorts. He comes in once or twice a month to purchase whatever pieces of Han jewellery or other expensive decorative items I have on hand.” “Why do you have so many expensive Han items in stock?” “I buy them from the runaway girls, of course. There’s more of them with every passing month, seems like. They come in here without a penny to their name, carrying whatever they managed to grab when they left. Hair combs are the most common, but I get a lot of earrings, necklaces and small decorative items made from fine porcelain.” Alden frowned. “Why on Earth would there be so many runaway girls from Han?” The storekeeper shrugged. “Don’t ask me. Most of them barely speak a word of English when they come here. Most I’ve gotten is something about people breaking feet. Some foreign nonsense, I’m sure. What matters to me is they have valuable things that the constabulary won’t be looking for. Means I don’t have to melt them down or anything, like I did with that pen. I turn a tidy profit off those girls.” “That sounds a mite ghoulish.” The man shrugged. “It’s business.” “Well, I suppose it has little enough to do with me. What else can you tell me about the man who sold you the pen?” “Not much. Middle-aged, near as I can tell. Black hair all tied up on top of his head, the way they usually do. Has a thin moustache, but is otherwise clean shaven. Fairly certain he purchases my goods to resell them to someone else, because he spends a lot of money on them, but he doesn’t dress like someone who has money to throw around. Oh, and he visits more pawn shops than just mine. I can tell, because when I wrap up his purchases for him he puts them in a big bag that’s usually already half-full of other packages.” “Hmmm… Not an awful lot to go on. But it’s better than nothing. How much for the watch?” “You want to buy it?” The shopkeeper asked, sounding fairly astonished. “For a reasonable price.” Alden warned. “It’s not too late for me to call the constabulary.” “Two pounds.” Alden gave him a look. “Fine. Call it a pound and a half.” Alden placed a single pound on the counter and scooped up the pocket watch. The shopkeeper looked like he was about to protest, but then sagged. “Fine. I guess a tiny profit is better than a talk with the constabulary. Now out with you! I have a business to run!” Alden was very thoughtful as he walked away, turning the newly purchased pocket watch over and over in his hands. The moonstone really did live up to its name, with its silver-blue sheen and its lighter and darker patches. It really seemed as though the semi-precious gem was trying to mimic the full moon over London, where the haze of factory smoke sometimes coloured the moon a haunting pale blue… He’d been given a lead, but it was hardly a very solid one. A middle-aged Han fellow with a moustache and a topknot. As vague a descriptor as that was hardly enough to go on. There were probably hundreds of men in the city who matched it, if not more. No, the real clue was the pawn shops. And Alden had a plan to look into that. Which was why his steps were taking him back to The Place. Once again, two watchers came out to block his path when he got too close. He didn’t recognize the older of the two, but the other one was the mysterious Em. Before the other watcher could speak, Alden tossed a shilling to the small child. “I have another Job for Mei Jing. Tell her to meet me at my tinctury first thing in the morning tomorrow.” The child snatched the coin out of the air with a grin. “Will do, old-timer. I’m sure she’ll be happy to do more work for someone who keeps throwing so much money around.” “I figured as much. Have a good evening, Em.” “You too, old man.” With a grin, Alden turned and left, leaving Em and the totally nonplussed older child behind. But he wasn’t headed home quite yet. Instead he was heading to meet with an old friend of his who he hadn’t seen in many years. After wandering through the twisting streets of Old London for a good fifteen minutes, he finally found his way to a small workshop close to one of the larger streets of the old neighbourhood. The sign above the workshop proudly proclaimed it to be ‘Karl’s Mechanism Repair’. Entering the store, Alden couldn’t help but quirk an eyebrow as a complicated, tinny little tune began to play. Apparently the proprietor had eschewed the standard shop bell, and instead rigged up the door to some sort of music box arrangement. As the tune gradually staggered to a torturous halt, he heard a clanging racket that he suspected to be the sound of a man quickly and gracelessly extricating himself from a big mess of machinery. He could actually follow the progress of the man through the surprisingly spacious but utterly cluttered workshop by the sound of scraping metal and kicked screws skittering along the floor. But his view of the approaching man was blocked by the towering piles of metal scrap and mechanical parts. Finally, after an incredibly noisy journey through the workshop, a man of around Alden’s age emerged from behind a messy pile of cogs and gears. He was barely more than five feet tall, but he had a sturdy, well-muscled frame. His clothes were so dirty it was impossible to tell what their original colour was, and his skin and hair were covered in soot and stains, with the exception of two big round circles around his eyes. This was presumably due to the big, sturdy goggles he now carried in one hand. When the man spotted Alden, his eyes grew wide. “As I live and breathe! Alden Stowe! I haven’t seen you for… What? Fifteen years? The Hel are you doing here, you old devil?” “I had a bit of a mechanical curiosity, and I could think of no better man to answer it than the notorious Karl Graustein.” “Well, I’d be delighted to help. I’m sure I still owe you one or two. Or ten. You got me out of a lot of trouble when we were little.” “Almost as much as I got you into, I’m sure.” “Well, that’s just how it is when you’re a Rascal. So, what do you need to know?” Alden reached into his pocket and pulled out the little device Ada had found on the back of the phlogiston detector. “I was curious about this little device, see. It was set on the back of the dial of a measuring device. There was a cloth-insulated wire running from it to a long piece of metal, about a foot and a half long.” Karl took the device curiously, messing around with it for a moment until it once again sparked slightly, making his fingers twitch. “Well now… Curious little thing. Sends a spark out if it the switch gets flipped twice in quick succession. I can only imagine the metal it was attached to would be an aetheric transmission antenna.” “That’s what I figured as well. How far would the antenna be able to transmit?” “Depends. Was it out in the open?” “No. It was inside a stone basement.” “And just a foot and a half? Not long at all. I wouldn’t trust a signal like that to carry further than fifty feet. Maybe a hundred, if you’re real lucky. Whatever was accepting that signal, it must have been pretty close.” “And what about the device itself? Anything more you can tell me about it?” “Mind if I take it apart?” “Not at all.” With a small nod, Karl took the device over to a nearby workbench and started taking it apart. “The construction is simple but robust. The spark is generated from friction between these two materials here. It’s fairly reliable, but not very precise. It wouldn’t be any good if you needed to send anything more complex than just a non-specific signal. None of the components seem to have any maker’s mark or factory stamp, so it looks like a custom job…” “Anything else?” “Nothing I can tell just by looking. There’s a few more things I can try, but it would take some time, and it will ruin the device.” “Go ahead. You can send a message to my tinctury if you find anything out.” “Are you still on Ratcatcher Street?” “I am, yes.” “Very well then, I’ll look into it.” “Thanks, Karl. You’re doing me a great favour.” “Think nothing of it. I’ll send you anything I find out.” With a nod, Alden headed out. When he got back home, Alden noticed the lights were on in the workroom. Figuring it was just Mr. Dawkins working on his personal projects again, Alden decided not to bother the man. Instead he went to Mrs. Tatter’s office and knocked on the door. “Come in.” Alden headed inside and took a seat opposite Mrs. Tatter’s desk. Olga shot him only the briefest glance before returning to her paperwork. “How can I help you, Mr. Stowe?” “I wanted to know how the lad is settling in.” “Oh, he’s fitting in perfectly well. Mr. Dawkins is punctual, efficient and polite, with none of the superior attitude or brash mannerisms one would expect from a remarkably talented young lad.” “He’s not having any problems with Miss Oxley, is he? I know she can be rather brusque with young men, and if he’s really as gentle a soul as you’re suggesting, I can’t help but worry that she might bully the lad.” “Quite the opposite. Mr. Dawkins and Miss Oxley get along splendidly. In fact, I overheard Miss Oxley inviting him out to dinner tomorrow evening.” Alden quirked an eyebrow. “Really now? A dinner invitation? I’ve never known Miss Oxley to take anyone out to dinner. And after only two days of acquaintance…” “Well, young love is a mysterious thing, Mr. Stowe.” “Really now, Mrs. Tatter! Isn’t it a little premature to call it ‘young love’?” Olga chuckled, which rather took Alden aback. He could count the number of times he had heard the woman laugh on one hand, and he had worked together with her for almost two decades. “You clearly haven’t seen the way these two look at each other, Mr. Stowe.” “I suppose I shall have to take your word for it, Mrs. Tatter. My own experience with romance is almost entirely theoretical, after all. Still, it’s good to hear the lad is settling in well, even if I’m a little shocked at just how well.” “Frankly, Mr. Stowe, I do hope you intend to keep the lad around for some time. He sure brightens up the place.” “Well, I have no intention of letting him go before his first month is up. After that, we shall have to see. This private project I’m working on might pay very well, but it’s rather troublesome work.” “Well, I’m sure you’ll prove more than a match for it, Mr. Stowe. You’ve always been a reasonably competent individual.” Alden smiled wryly. “High praise, Mrs. Tatter. High praise indeed.” The next morning, Alden was gratified to find Mei Jing already waiting for him when he stepped out of his apartment. Apparently Miss Oxley had recognized her from yesterday and sent her up to see him. With a smile and a nod, he invited the young girl inside and offered her a cup of tea and some biscuits, which the girl happily accepted. After taking a sip of his own tea, Alden regarded the girl thoughtfully. She was a little underfed, though she seemed to be on her way to rectify that particular problem. Especially with how she was going through his tin of ginger biscuits. “So, Mei Jing, you’re from Han, are you not?” The girl shot him a slightly guarded look, which mostly served to make her look cute since her cheeks were practically bulging with ginger biscuits. After taking a sip of tea to help her swallow, she spoke in a faintly suspicious tone of voice. “Why you want to know?” “I’m looking for a man who’s done some very bad things, and one of the few things I know about him is that he is from Han.” “You not send me back?” “Certainly not. I’m an Old Boy, remember? I’d never betray a rascal like that.” That seemed to convince the girl enough for her to relax and start gnawing on another ginger biscuit. “I am from Han. I ran away on airship.” “What were you running from?” “I run from foot breakers. I hear family talking about breaking my feet, so I take what I can and run. Teacher warn me about foot breaker. Say go to England. In England, many orphanage, and no foot breakers.” Alden frowned. “What’s a foot breaker?” “They break little girl feet and bind them, make them small and round. Girl with broken feet get higher wife price.” “Wife price? Like a dowry? Money paid to a person or their family to purchase the right to marry them?” The girl’s eyes grew wide. “There is wife price also in England?” Alden shook his head. “A long time ago, and even then it wasn’t that common. Dowries were outlawed almost two hundred years ago in the first set of marriage reforms. And we certainly never broke anyone’s feet.” The girl nodded, clearly understanding enough of what he said to be relieved. “So you stowed away on an airship and you got here. I take it a lot of girls do the same thing?” “Yes. Teachers tell girls in secret about foot breakers. They tell girls to take what they can and run away to England.” “And I bet you all talk to each other. You stick together.” “Yes. We help new girls. Show them orphanage. Tell them how English money work. Teach them little English.” “Then I’m sure you know all the shops that will buy the things you bring from home. Shops like the one yesterday.” “I know more than twenty shop that buys from run-away girls. We make sure we don’t all sell at same shop. Get better pay by selling to many shop.” “Perfect. That’s exactly what I was hoping for. One of the things I know about the man I’m looking for is that he buys a lot of the things that you girls have been selling, from many different shops. I’d like you to show me around to all of these shops.” “You pay?” Alden nodded and pulled out a pound coin from his purse. Mei Jing’s eyes seemed to gleam as she looked at the large coin. “Very good pay. I show you many shop.” “Finish your tea first. And grab a few more biscuits for the road. I feel like it’s going to be a long day.” And indeed, Alden’s prediction proved to be very much correct. The proprietors of most of the seedy little shops they visited recognized the description, but none of them had much to add about the man beyond what Alden already knew. As the hours dragged on and their trip through the seedier parts of London continued, Alden decided to treat Mei Jing to a meal at one of the pubs they passed. Watching the thin slip of a girl steadily working her way through a portion as large as Alden’s own, he started to suspect that she was actually the kind of person who naturally tended towards a certain chubbiness, and had simply been kept very thin by being placed on a harshly restrictive diet for quite some time. He didn’t comment, but he personally rather hoped that his contributions to the girl’s financial situation would allow her to put on a little weight. After the meal, the search continued. The many shops Mei Jing led him to were situated all over the less salubrious portions of London, and it was turning into quite a trek. But finally, as Alden was starting to quietly despair at the lack of new information, one of the shopkeepers finally indicated a more in-depth familiarity with the man. The shopkeeper in question was a far-eastern gentleman of advanced years, and his shop was full of strange and exotic items from all over Asia. The walls were covered in framed landscapes, portraits and foreign calligraphy, all clearly hand-painted with ink and brush. “I know the man you’re talking about.” The shopkeeper said. “His name is Li Tao. He comes to me every time he’s headed back to Han to purchase the items the runaway girls have sold.” “He buys them right before heading back to Han?” “Of course. Many of these items are family heirlooms, and the families they were taken from are often willing to pay finder’s fees for their return. Li Tao tells me it’s not always profitable, but all in all he makes a good deal more than he spends. He seems to think of it as a way to make money while fulfilling some sort of patriotic duty by returning stolen goods.” “You seem to know a lot about this man. No-one else I’ve spoken to has even been able to give me his name.” “I am also from Han. The fool seems to think of me as a kindred spirit. He talks to me about the glories of the homeland and other such nonsense.” “You’re not so taken with the kingdom of Han, I take it?” The shopkeeper scoffed, idly running a hand along his long, thin white beard. “If I supported the king of Han, I would be a painter in his court. I would not be here selling my calligraphy cheaply to Englishmen who cannot even read the words. No, the kings of Han have always been delusional, and I will have none of their drivel.” “I take it you feel very strongly on the subject?” “The king of Han calls himself an emperor, but his family has spent the last sixteen hundred years trying and failing to conquer Wu and Wei. It’s as pathetic as the King of Rome calling himself an emperor despite his ‘empire’ having shrunk to a third of the size of Sweden.” “To be fair, Sweden is quite large.” “But they don’t call themselves an empire, now do they?” “A republic, I believe. There was a big hullabaloo about them executing all their royals and nobles a decade or so ago.” “Sensible. If you Englishmen had any sense, you’d do the same thing.” “That kind of talk is bordering on treasonous, my good sir.” The shopkeeper chuckled. “If you want to hear more about Li Tao, you’ll forgive an old man his revolutionary rhetoric.” “Fine. So, this man supports the Han regime?” “He’d lick the boots of the ‘emperor’ if he had the chance. He genuinely believes all that nonsense about ‘All Under Heaven’, as though Han could ever hope to rule the world. He has opinions about the runaway girls, too. Oh yes, does he ever. Says they are betraying their country and their duty to their parents. As if a child owed anything to someone who plans to break their feet and sell them off like chattel.” “What is even the point of the breaking of the feet? It sounds absolutely ghastly.” “It is considered attractive. And it is also a status symbol of sorts. Having a wife who can only totter about and look pretty proves you’re wealthy enough to not need a wife who works, you see. A woman will fetch a far higher dowry if her feet are bound. More fools them, of course. Ever since the girls started running away rather than stay and get their feet broken, Han has been suffering a mounting shortage of unmarried young women. Serves them right, as far as I’m concerned.” Feeling rather unsettled by this discussion, Alden steered the topic back to the man he was seeking. “Do you know what this man does for a living?” “Li Tao? Not a clue. He never talks about his own work. But I do know he’s constantly travelling back and forth between London and Chengdu, the capital of Han.” It was certainly a lot more information than he had before, but he doubted it was enough to find the man. However… “You said you paint, right? All these portraits are your work?” “Every last one.” “How long would it take for you to paint two portraits of this Li Tao fellow? Detailed enough to recognize him by.” “Not long, I suppose. I’ve long since memorized his face. I could have them done before nightfall.” Alden plonked down a pound coin on the counter. “As quickly as you can manage, please.” “You seem awfully insistent on finding this man. Carrying a bit of a grudge yourself?” “If my suspicions are correct, he might find himself hanging by the neck before the month is out.” The old man grinned a rather nasty grin. “Then I will do my very best work.” Alden spent the rest of the afternoon chatting to Mei Jing, and while her grasp of the English language was lacking, Alden quickly concluded that she was a lot more clever than he had realized. Part of him was rather glad that he had more work in store for the young girl, because he genuinely found her company to be quite refreshing. Once the two portraits were finished, Alden studied them closely. While the line work was simple, it was certainly very evocative. He felt fairly confident that he would be able to recognize the man from this picture, should he encounter him on the street. In short, it was perfect. With a smile, he handed one of the pictures to Mei Jing, along with another two pounds. “I have another job for you, and for the rest of the runaway girls. Split the money among however many of you want to help, and there will be more to come when you finish the job. This man’s name is Li Tao. He visits the shops where you girls sell your things quite often, so he might work or live somewhere in the area. I want to know where his house is. But whatever you do, don’t let him find out you’re following him. He might be a rather dangerous man, and I’d hate for any of you to get hurt.” “We will be careful. If we find where this man live, I will come tell you.” “Thank you, Mei Jing. And good hunting.” After parting ways with the young girl, Alden started heading back home. As he did so, he studied the portrait in his hand, burning every brushstroke into his memory. Today had been a very successful day indeed. He had a suspect. Now all he needed to do was find him.