City of Mice, Magic, and Machinery.

"Ouch!" Ryan yelled as searing cooking oil splattered onto her bare arms. Her body retreated from the stove that had on top a large pan full of clear-yellow boiling liquid that hissed along with the release of gas. Inside the pan, numerous small and thin pieces of unknown meat seemed to make the hissing worse as they gradually darkened.

"I told you, Ryan. You should bake those pieces; make use of that oven i helped make for you." Said a man standign in a corner of the room only two four feet away. Ryan looked at the man, standing tall with a hairless scalp that reflected the dim yellow light coming from small crystal lamps that dangled on bare copper wires from the celling.

"Stewart?" she asked.

"What?"

"Are you the one cooking the meat?"

"No."

"THen shut the hell up." Ryan said as she turned her head back to the pan. Stewart crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at Rayn's comment. A sarcastic response pushed as hard as it could against Stewart's clenched teeth until it gave up completely. He sighed as he sat down at a small wooden table the could only fit two people.

"That wasn't the first time you got burned while trying to flip that meat over. And for God's sake, why are you crushing the fire lacrima I made for you and putting it in the oil?"

Ryan snapped. "Why does it matter? It isn't like they are hard to make in the first place: you just put but basic fire magic into a lacrima. No need for any other combinations of magic." At this point, Stewart's patience ran thin like his goatee. He stood up, both hands on the table.

"First of all, even if i am making Lacrima for basic elemental magic, the process is still not that simple. How about instead of being so abrasive, you just answer my quesiton. I only asked because i was curious."

"It sure didn't sound like it." Ryan responded. Stewart began to sit back down on the creaky wooden chair below him. As he did, the smart-mouthed