Liberty was pretty sure she had forgotten they were there.

  After an awkward moment where the young woman had blinked at her extended hand owlishly, she had taken her hand and shook it absentmindedly while looking at Erica and the two guards with a bit more trepidation. "Do we know each other?" She had queried in a soft voice as the whistle that had sounded before let out another peal. Her eyes widened as she seemed to remember what had brought her downstairs, and she rushed to the bubbling concoction and turned the flame beneath it down. While muttering to herself and picking up a clipboard, she began noting things down on it while picking up various bottles from a nearby table and dropping the contents into the mixture, obviously observing the reactions they caused.

  When Liberty was beginning to think she had forgotten them completely, she waved the hand holding her pencil over her head and motioned towards a round table at the back of the room. "Have a seat, and I'll get us some tea as soon as I finish these observations. Have to strike while the compound is hot, you know!" She chuckled slightly and went back to her experiment, her voice much stronger now that her focus was not on the strangers in her workshop.

  Liberty exchanged a meaningful look with Erica, who ushered the guards out to stand guard on the street outside before leading her back to the table. The little maid took one look at the cluttered wooden surface covered with papers, used tea cups, and even some beakers that seemed to have been repurposed to hold a beverage or two and were left forgotten, and gave a little shudder and wrinkled her nose. She then cleared the space in front of the chair closest to the door, holding what she touched as far away from her body as possible. After she felt she had cleared away enough space for her lady, she had pulled the chair out and flicked out a handkerchief with a snap before laying it on the seat and motioning for her to sit before taking up her position behind the chair. Chuckling softly at the maid's obvious opinion about the housekeeping, Liberty sat down and shifted to watch the woman. 

  She seemed completely lost in observing the reactions happening to the liquid in the beaker in front of her. As she would drop another liquid or sprinkle a powder into the mixture she would wait patiently with her attention laser focused on what was happening in the vessel, quietly noting down any changes. Sometimes she would observe something and then reach up to touch as small wheel on her spectacles and the lenses would spin or flip, sometimes changing color or darkening.

   Liberty smiled smugly when she saw that. That right there was what was going to make living in this nonsene story world livable. The one thing that Tara had gotten right about suggesting this questionable piece of fiction to her was that this wasn't just a fantasy historical setting. This was a steampunk fantasy historical setting. While any red blooded American would be horrified to wake up and find themselves living in constitutional monarchy that was light on the constitution and heavy on the monarchy- they called themselves an empire for crying out loud- the sting could be softened knowing that she might get her hands on a set of x-ray goggles or even, if she played her cards right, get to ride in an airship.

  Maybe even pilot one. Because who wouldn't want to pilot an airship? Maybe she would decide to be an air pirate she mused. That would be an adventure worth having.

    Much like the alchemists hundreds of years ago back in her world, the scientists here had hidden in the shadows and created secret societies to study and pass on knowledge under the nose of an overbearing religious order, in this case, the Temple of Solrith. Solrith had been the patron deity of the Kalimar Empire for over five hundred years and had kept a firm hold on the populace until the renegade scientists had invented gas powered lighting and taken the capital by storm. Ever since then, new inventions and technologies have been coming out constantly.

   One of the great young minds of this movement was standing in front of them, checking her calculations. A master artificer and chemist, Winnifred Tallow was a genius who was devoted to her work. Too bad she was destined to swing at the end of a rope for some trumped-up charges of treason in a year and a half.

  Well, if Liberty had anything to do with it, then she wouldn't hang. Or at least if she did it would be for something worth it, not because the Baron who sponsored her research wanted to steal her work to make a name for his son.

   Weren't aristocratic societies great? Liberty figured this world was advanced about to the Victorian era from the history she remembered. There were clear lines drawn in society between the wealthy and titled and, well, everyone else. While slavery wasn't officially sanctioned, it was definitely overlooked to the point of just being short of an open secret amongst the upper classes. Though poverty was a kind of slavery in itself, with no way out in a world where how high you can rise is limited by which rung on the ladder you were born on. Of course, that was just for men. Why would rules about slavery apply to women? One can't be enslaved if they were never free to begin with. They were just owned by their fathers until they were owned by their husbands. 

   Oh, sorry, not owned- 'under the protection of' Liberty sneered to herself.

   Well, she would just see about that. She had plans and the woman in front of her was a key player on the team she was going to build to make sure that it would all work out. She needed someone to help her make some things and develop some tech that would give her an advantage. 

   In the book, Winnifred had come from a family of artificers and was the shining intellect of her generation. However, the family had her publish her papers and patents under her brother's name since, her family reasoned, they would just be owned by her father anyway. Why waste the fame and reputation? Her work had been so brilliant that even the Prime Minister, poor overworked doormat for his horndog friend that he was, had wanted to recruit her for the national institute. Or at least recruit her brother, with her as his permanent assistant, doing all the work. That's when she had run away and set up this workshop. Eventually, she'll get noticed by a low-life Baron who will offer her a deal that seems too good to be true and then stab her in the back.

   The young woman finished up her calculations and tucked her clipboard up with a deep sigh, turning and then jolting when she saw Liberty and Erica at the table. "Tea!" she squeaked out in panic as if she had just remembered that she had promised them some refreshment. She started towards a doorway in the back of the room but Liberty stopped her with a wave of her hand.

  "Don't worry about refreshments. I don't want to put you to any trouble, and I've been waiting so long to talk to you, Winnifred, that I don't want to wait even a moment longer." With a wide smile, she waved to the other chair at the table, indicating for the young woman to sit. Winnifred searched her face for a moment, as if gauging if she indeed did not want any tea, then she scurried over to the table and perched on the edge of the seat as if ready to spring forward at any moment if tea, in fact, was desired.

   "Oh, so we do know each other. Or at least have been introduced, though I'm sorry I don't remember you, Lady-?" She trailed off and looked back and forth between Erica and Liberty.

   "Lady Serena Blanc." No way she was saying the whole mouthful of her name. The woman's eyes had widened at the name, though, so the Count must be known to her. That might help to prove that they were able to provide what she was going to promise. "And we haven't been introduced -yet. I'm just a fan of your work and would love to set up a partnership." She smiled again at the woman, who was suddenly looking a little more wary.

   "A fan? I wouldn't have any fans. I'm sure you're looking for my brother. He's the one with all the patents. I've not got any real achievements to my name." Liberty didn't miss the flicker of resentment as she mentioned her brother. She could work with this.

  "Winnifred, I know that you have been the brains in the Tallow family for a little while. You're brilliant. Even here in this workshop, you can see how skilled you are." She stood up and picked up a finished clockwork ballerina that was resting on one of the worktables. She wound the crank and then released it onto the table in between them where it twirled and pirouetted with lithe grace, as if it were alive and not a toy. It twirled and bent with smooth, life-like motions as Liberty watched her meaningfully. "Even a toy made by Winnifred Tallow is art and science."

   The woman blushed and hugged herself, rubbing her arms. "It's just a toy. Nothing meaningful. It's just something to keep the ladies and children entertained." She dropped her gaze down to the table.

    "Nothing meaningful? The clockwork needed for this has to be precise and minuscule! And if I'm not mistaken, you've developed a new type of oil for it that makes it work silently and smells of- " she sniffed the little figure dramatically. "Lilies. One of the most subtle fragrances, yet you've found a composition of oil that allows it to waft out rather than the horrible scent of the usual grease used. These are meaningful advancements that could be applied in many ways, and you're brilliant enough to think of them as simple entertainment. That's why I say that I am a fan and want to work with you, Winnifred. Even when you don't mean to, you create wonderful things. And I have many things to create." She lifted her gaze again and there was a small spark of something in her eyes that made Liberty forge forward.

   "I want to set up a workshop just for you. I have a lot of projects that I want to work on- some private and some for the public, as well as funding for your own research and development of your ideas. Here is one of the ideas that I need your help to make." Liberty took a sketch she had made out of one of the pockets that she had Erica sew into the ridiculous skirt of her gown. The sketch showed a cylinder with one rounded end and one pointed end. A cutout showed a tube of liquid inside it and a small ball at the end of the point. It was a ballpoint pen. While the alchemists and artificers in this place had moved on to metal nibs, the mess it made for someone not used to it, as well as the learning curve in using them, had made Liberty long for a good old ballpoint pen. "With this, rather than needing a fountain pen and a bottle of ink you just need the pen. The ink is kept inside. When it runs out, just get another pen. I know it's simple, and would be so easy for someone with your skills, but I feel like this is something we could put out there for everyone, and if writing were easier, and pens cheaper to produce, then more people might decide to give literacy a chance.  And when people become literate, more opportunities open up. Chances at better jobs and better pay." Liberty looked at her with enthusiasm, hoping that this wasn't too simple an idea to catch her interest. 

   "If you don't like that one, I have others!" She pulled another sketch out of her pocket. This one showed what looked like a pair of goggles with thick, dark lenses. "These are meant to be able to see in the dark. You're supposed to be able to wear them like a mask, and they will show anything or anyone giving off heat and the temperature that they are with a color gradient. And they should have adjustable magnification like a spyglass so you can see up close from far away too." She trailed off as Winnifred picked up the sketches and started to review them with a hum, reaching for a pencil that she hadn't noticed was stuck in the other woman's hair. Liberty's smile nearly split her face as she watched her start to make annotations on the pages.

  "So you want this one to be easy to produce? And this one should be light enough to be worn for lengths of time, right?" She hummed some more and wrote some more notes. "Oh, and that temperature measuring effect should be able to be turned off and on, right?" Before she could disappear into her laser focus on inventing again, Liberty reached out and took her hand in hers, drawing her to look up into her eyes.

 "Eventually, I'll be putting together a full team of talents, but you're the first one I need, Winnifred. I don't want anyone to take credit for your ideas and work anymore. There's no reason you should not shine on your own." The woman blinked again, seeming to think, then nodded at Liberty firmly, her own smile starting to spread on her face.

  "Winnie! I've come for some of your horrible tea and to let you know what that nasty brother of yours is up to now!" The sound of a door being thrown open sounded beyond the doorway at the back of the shop, and like a gale force of energy, in walked the second piece of Liberty's plan.