Morning Star Cafe

‘That little café sure looks picturesque, I better give it a visit’, someone must’ve thought, as the door to the Morning Star café swung open. A cold breeze moved through the café, followed by the stomping of boots, rattling of accessories, and the distinct ticking of a silver tipped cane. Yuki, a man not particularly noticeable if not for the expensive, unusual clothing covered in intricate designs that adorned his body, walked into the café, his stature strong as always, but his eyes revealing how the crazily brilliant – or perhaps brilliantly crazy – engineer actually felt. Someone that would not know him, would read those eyes as tiredness. Did this man just have a long trip behind him? Sit many hours inside one of the many revolutionary trains that cross the country? If only they knew that those trains were his design. But truth be told, it was not tiredness that filled his eyes. It was a longing, as though he wanted to return to a long lost love, or perhaps homesickness. Except, he longed for neither. What he longed for was much simpler, and in much greater supply and variety.
Booze.
It had been too long since he has had a nice, cold drink too fill and poison his veins with. To dull his mind, and yet sharpen it at the same time. So used to the alcohol his body was, his mind was sharper when he had not the distraction of wanting a drink. And sure, they had alcohol on the train that he travelled on. The cheap kind. The kind that is mass produced in filthy, brown copper kegs, giving it a metallic taste. It is the kind that is easy to produce, and easy to transport. Low perishable rate, low in costs and low in alcohol. Also very low in quality. Yuki refused to drink the stuff, even if it has him now longing for one thing, and one thing only. Although, just for the moment. Sitting down at one of the barstools nearby, unsurprisingly, the bar, Yuki remained eloquent in stature, waiting impatiently for his turn. When the barkeep finally got him, Yuki snapped a little harder than he originally intended to.
“Your best wine in the house, and a bit quick with it. I’m having trouble thinking and I need my focus.”
“As you wish,” the barkeep grunted, before turning around and disappearing into the backroom to get the wine. Several minutes pass before his return, but when he finally did, with a bottle of an expensive looking wine, a smile appeared on Yuki’s face.
“Perfect! Pour me a glass, good sir, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
The barkeep grunted again and said “Well, that’ll be-“
Yuki put a handful of money on the counter, interrupting the barkeep.
“Keep the change.”
Now the barkeep gave a smile, thanked Yuki and left him with a glass and the bottle. Yuki skipped the formalities surrounding drinking wine, and immediately took a good sip from the glass. Savouring the taste, a very satisfying one at that, he had his eyes closed as he slowly put the glass down. Letting out a content sigh, he spoke briefly underneath his breath.
“Ah, that hit the spot.”
He sat there for a short while, drinking some more of the wine, feeling his mind and mood clear up. Finally taking a gander at the rest of the café, he saw nothing interesting. Until his eyes met the face of what appeared to be a beautiful young lady. He sat there, staring breathlessly at the beauty that he beheld, before catching himself and turning his gaze back to his glass. He took another quick swig, trying to gather his thoughts on what he just saw. In between small sips, his gaze would keep returning to the lady, her beauty too memorizing to tear eyes away from. He wondered what he should do, before wondering why he was even wondering anything at all. Blasted trip, messing with his thoughts. He quickly lost himself in his train of thought, needing a little prod, should someone would like to communicate with him.

Earlier in the day, Kaya escaped the palace walls to have some time to himself. After all today the one he was to marry was finally arriving and Yui’s days of freedom were ending.
Kaya took his usual place in the café, right by the window and ordered a cup of coffee. His mind was wandering, looking over possible outcomes of the wedding. The whole thing seemed somewhat silly to him. A wedding to seal a pact? Would it not be better to try and maintain the truce with Asoko and perhaps have someone from there marry him? On the other hand, the League had had this whole affair planned for ages. But then Hizaki suddenly changed who Kaya was supposed to be married to. And on top of that moved up the date of the wedding. What was going on?

Suddenly, Kaya was torn from his thoughts as he felt someone’s gaze on him. He braced immediately and looked straight into the other man’s green eyes with a hint of rebellion. A second later, something sparked in the room and the radio on the shelf stopped playing. How convenient. While the barkeeper was trying to figure out what happened to the device, Kanoma slowly approached the bar and took a place by Yuki’s side.
- May I have a look at it? – with a warm smile Kaya gestured towards the radio. Slightly surprised, the barkeeper placed the broken device in front of the Princess and nodded. He was even more surprised when Yui took it apart in less than a minute, fixed a few wires and put it back together. A flick of a switch and music filled the room yet again.
- Oh, thank you, Madame Rosa. Should I get you anything? – mumbled the barkeeper but Kaya shook his head and instead indicated to the white bunting that was hanging off the shelf. - What’s all that about? – the Princess questioned.
- Ah, it’s the Royal Wedding, my dear. Surely you have heard of it? The Lords from the League have sent one of theirs to marry our Princess. It’s to seal a pact. They will protect Clow if we shall come under attack. – the man sounded joyful, but Kaya only laughed in return. – To protect the city? Oh dear. They send a clown with heavy escort to protect us from a threat that is not even on a horizon yet, when there is already danger right under our feet. What a joke. John, tell me one thing, how do you get here from any of the big cities?
The man hesitated before he could come up with an answer. – The.. the train line runs trough the desert quite close to the city. Does it not?
- Indeed it does. And then you get the vanship to the Clow city gates. Those run back and forth according to the train timetable. And we had no problems with that for years. But this being a Royal mission they would send the Member of the League on an armoured train. Those are much heavier and make more noise. Also, their vibrations go much deeper in the ground than those of a normal train. So what would that mean? – Kaya’s expression grew darker and more grim as he spoke and then he paused, giving man some time to think.
- They woke the serpent! – the barkeeper exclaimed. – We must evacuate the city immediately.
- Indeed they have. The clockwork dragon is probably making its way through the sand to rage hell and spill blood as we speak. Thankfully, I have already seen to that. We are moving the city as soon as the last of the escort from Ryakon gets here. – and at that Yui fell silent and looked out the window.

Yuki lost his train of thought when the woman's eyes met his own. The brown eyes somehow hypnotized him for a moment, too long to immediately notice that the radio stopped working. By the time he got out of his trance, the woman was already all over the radio herself.
'Oh, she already got this. I could've used the distraction. Still, she seems to be able to handle herself.' Yuki thought, again staring at the woman 'She is pretty good, actually. Beautiful and skilled...' His train of thought slowly turned into admiration of the woman, continuing into praise. Yuki woke up again when the woman started conversing with the barkeep.
'A clown? Is she calling me a clown? Huh, why does that kind of thing still surprise me?'
Yuki kept listening in as the conversation continued. He was never really bothered with eavesdropping, it generally kept him up-to-date about recent affairs while doing other stuff. Sure, mouth-to-mouth usually wasn't that reliable, but it gave him at least a decent idea of what was going on.
'Armoured train? Yeah, it is more than just 'an armoured train'. Oh well, can't-wait, what was that about a clockwork dragon? ... Uh oh'
Yuki looked over his shoulder at the lady for a moment, before turning back to his drink.
'Well, guess I messed that one up... Good thing I haven't told anyone who I am. But, what do I do now?'
Yuki's thoughts raced through his mind. He downed another glass, debating his next course of action. He briefly nodded to himself, and stood up, walking over to the woman.
"Pardon me, miss. I couldn't help myself but hear your conversation. You think moving the city will do the work?"

Kaya almost jumped, when another man spoke to him. For a moment he was silent, carefully choosing his words.
- Well... the dragon has a trail it goes around every week if it is not disturbed. Since the train has arrived today and the dragon happened to be in the area, it will stray from it's usual path and follow the vibrations in the ground. Since all the escort is still coming into city from the train station, they will lead the dragon right here.
The Princess let out a let sigh and ordered another cup of coffee, the alarm began to ring and a quiet rumble followed. With a grunt the main gate of the city closed and Clow began to move.
After taking a few sips from his cup, Yui carried on. - The dragon will eventually go back to the route it usually follows, so we just have to get the city far enough from it. If it still follows the city, there is a railgun on top of the astronomy tower in the palace, so we can shoot it down if necessary. The dragon is too big to be completely destroyed, but it will still cause it some damage and slow it down.
Kaya carefully looked at the man, almost analyzing him. - And why are you here exactly? Visiting our little city because of the wedding? - Yui did not really care about Yuki's reply, but conversation kept his mind off all the grim thoughts. Considering the city was moving trough the sands and slowly picking up pace there was nothing to worry about, but still... Also, the route the dragon normally followed each week bothered Kaya greatly. It traced out the royal crest, the winged symbol of the Clow kingdom. That crest was widely displayed. It appeared on flags, walls of the royal palace and the tokens.

Yuki moved the balance of his weight away from his cane more towards his feet when the city started to travel.
"I am here for the wedding indeed. I am an engineer, a high tinkerer if you will, at the Guild of Engineers, and since it is the leader of both Mecha Guilds that is going to get married, a man in my position is pretty much required to attend said wedding." Yuki answered, not quite yet feeling like blowing his cover. Especially not in front of this person, in due to how he was called by said person.
"I am also one of the designers of that 'armoured train' you mentioned earlier, and I assure you, it's more than just 'an armoured train'. Of course I will not bore you with such details, as I find it unlikely I could sway your opinion on the matter." Yuki moved his cane up his hand and, as he had done many times before when he needed a bit of distraction to keep his mind on the matters, analysed its design.
"What I am more interested in, however, is this 'railgun' you mentioned. A construction built by combining magic with technology, is it not? A perversion of the true meaning of technology, if you ask me, but that is a different kind of discussion entirely, and for another time and place. Anyway, anything you can tell me about this railgun?" Yuki finally asked, turning his head away for a moment when he spoke about about 'the perversion of the true meaning of technology', as though trying to hide his contempt for magic, or at least not trying to make it too noticeable for his conversational partner.

Almost annoyed now, Kaya looked at the man and that annoyance showed in his eyes. - I know what it is, "dear". -there was a painful stress on the last word of the sentence - It's a second version of the "Rose Glider" Defense train series. Runs on coal and has a double engine. I have taken one of those apart before so no, there is no need to go into the detail.
Suddenly, the city shook as if in an earthquake and a few of the lighter objects fell over. The glassware and bottles gave out a little sad tinkle but that was about it. As the barkeeper set about to pick up fallen cups and boxes Kaya walked over to the window and looked out of it. - No, what you are talking about is a crystal blast cannon. I thought you of all people would know the difference. The railgun on the astronomy tower roof is in fact a railgun. And if you are wondering why we have a railgun, when you guys in Ryakon have not figured out how to build one yet.. Well, its a piece of old tech that we found in the ruins around here. Princess Kaya has repaired it and since then it has functioned with no problems for as long as we had it.
Kanoma wanted to carry on explaining but then the barkeeper turned up the radio, almost completely covering over him. Yui soon realized why, and smiled at Yuki. - Ah, they have decided to play the song or Princess sings in the time of distress. As if that could really do anything, except give the people our or city hope, that all shall be ok in the end.
With that Yui fell silent, allowing the music to fill the room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wMAskUiiaw&feature=relmfu
(Tsubasa Cronicle - Siren Song)

Yuki patiently waited until the song ended, closing his eyes while listening in. He found the song to be rather beautiful, understanding why it would bring people comfort. After the song ended, Yuki opened his eyes again and turned his attention back to his conversational partner.
"Marvelous. I can see why people extract so much comfort out of it. So, sung by the princess, huh? Guess that the head tinkerer can consider himself lucky at least when it comes to the princesses voice."
Of course he was talking about himself, as he was the one that would get married to the princess. Still, he could not blow his cover. Yuki had rather ran out of things to speak about for a moment, rather not creating an argument about the earlier mentioned things. There were bigger issues going on than the formalities about vehicles and weaponry. He walked around in the bar for a bit, his cane tipping along his side. He moved a chair back into its original place, as it had been shook away from it during the minor earthquake. He then returned to the other person, standing next to the window as well.
"Now, about that 'dragon'. From what you said, one would think the people around here are not necessarily low on technological and defensive capabilities, even if just in one straight line at a time. How does the dragon remain such an issue?"