Telling Time
Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Month 294 AC
In the end it is no contest, not if you want to be fair. Donal of Runestone is named the winner of the trade fair in his craft, though Gendry would not be going home disappointed. "How much for this?" you ask, running your fingers over the dragonsteel, still faintly warm from more than the light of the evening sun.
"Your Majesty, I could not possibly, please take..." the boy stutters, but you cut him off before he can earn his master a loss in materials.
"Three Sovereigns, is it," you ask, counting off the coins one by one, more adamantine by weight than is in the piece itself. It is a touch ostentatious to be paying in a coin so little trafficked in, but this is a show when all is said and done and it will make a good retelling down the line.
After a moment of shocked silence, the boy quickly gathers his wits and sweeps up the coin with gracious thanks, only a touch marred by the fact that his voice breaks halfway through. It is hard to judge the mood of a crowd when you are out in public like this because everyone has cause to applaud whatever you do no matter their actual feelings, but you judge the message had been heard, and a fair gift bought besides. You value tools as much as weapons, and mundane craft no less than the arcane when it it fairly made.
***
To your senses, the ticking of scores of clocks and the sweep of dozens of pendulums make for a strange cacophony, like a mad dance of wheels and gears, chaos from order springing. To your surprise, you see a lawman standing guard over this part of the fair, the only man wearing the grey in sight. He catches the look, half nods-half bows in the manner of someone without much skill or interest in courtly things, and explains simply, "Gremlins, Yer Majesty, the buggers are everywhere and this is like a pile of dead fish to hungry gulls, it is."
The craftsmen behind him do not seem best pleased with the comparison, particularly the stern looking Braavosi who by his dress and manner would not look out of place in the service of the Iron Bank. Still, he manages to affix a smile as he turns to you and your escort. "Come, come to see Gerimo's pride and joy, the first such work in all the land."
He did not boast in vain. There are many clocks more finely engraved here and others set with precious stones, faces of lapis lazuli and numbers wrought of bright sapphire, tongues carved of ivory. Clockwork figurines that look almost alive, so finely are they painted strike gongs of brass and bells of silver, yet none can quite compare to the simple fact that the first time-keeper you see is actually able to be worn on the arm. Not entirely
comfortably perhaps, it is a bit heavier than one of the ceremonial armbands of the Thenns, but still there is not a single spark of magic to it and it keeps time perfectly adequately.
A pity for Gerimo that he did not come up with the design ten years ago, it would have made him moderately wealthy. Here and now it is more of a curiosity, if one that might earn him a pouch of coin if you were so inclined.
The other serious contender to your mind is the so called Brass Light. Wrought by a clock-maker here in Sorcerer's Deep, it takes advantage of several minor spells to not only measure the time as well as the clock towers you have erected here and in other major Essosi cities, but also measures temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure. It could be used for everything from complex experimentation to making one's chambers perfectly conform to one's needs and desires, at least if one has the magic to adjust that. Given that this is a timepiece which by your estimate cost upwards of a thousand marks to make, you doubt any buyer willing to acquire that will lack it.
Which clock do you proclaim the most impressive?
[] The Hand Clock for its masterful craftsmanship
[] The Brass Light for the innovative use of magic and clockwork
OOC: A little shorter than I might have preferred but hopefully interesting. Not yet edited. 
