Kairos mechanism

*"Reckoning" redirects here. For a reckoning done with fire, see* fierekenia*.*

A ****k******airos mechanism** is a device that can calculate kairos and manipulate time. Trigemine possessed one, but was eventually broken, though Trigemine sought to remake it. Seleucia Deacon possessed a similar device, but it was destroyed when she was killed. The mechanism calculated kairos by performing **reckonings**, calculations of the impossible, but Trigemine's second mechanism functioned using fire-reckonings.

## History

### *Bluecrowne*

Foulk Trigemine arrived in Nagspeake in 1810. He met Ignis Blister, showed him the device, and provided him with a pin so that Trigemine could use the mechanism on him too. He explained how hard it was to do the math (chronometrical trigonometry), and how all you did had an effect. This was, Trigemine said, the right time and place to find a conflagrationeer for Morvengarde, so they set off. Trigemine was also to get something from the Ironmonger, who was, according to his calculations, around in that time. Blister suggested that they just use the mechanism to take the conflagrationeer, but Trigemine knew that wouldn't work for the job.

Trigemine used the kairos mechanism to take a boy to another time, where he was killed, because he knew too much about what he and Blister were up to. Trigemine used the kairos mechanism to help him calculate chronometrical trigonometry on taking the conflagrationeer, though it took him nearly all night. Lucy noticed a pin on Trigemine, which he said was what he used to walk through time. Lucy later noticed a similar pin on Liao, and, realizing what it was, took it off just as Trigemine reached into his pocket to take Liao with the kairos mechanism. After losing the battle with Lucy and Liao, the kairos mechanism was undamaged, but it said clearly that the window of kairos was up. Seleucia Deacon had a kairos mechanism too, and though it wasn't quite like Trigemine's, it did similar things, and Seleucia Deacon knew ever more about kairos, chronos, and chronometrical trigonometry than Trigemine.

### *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*

Trapped in an inn by the Skidwrack's floods, one of the guests called Phineas Amalgam, as requested by Petra, told a story about a moving house. A peddler with cold blue eyes who'd lost something belonging to his employer came to Nagspeake one day, seeking a key to a lock in an adit-gate (a sort of portal) that he'd acquired. He challenged a boy called Pantin to go into the moving house and seek the key, which Pantin did, and he found it. Antony Masseter complained about how peddlers in literature were always depicted as villains, and challenged the other guests to think of a story containing a peddler who wasn't a villain. This led to Madame Grisaille telling a tale about a boy (called Pantin, he was "perhaps" the same boy from Amalgam's story, she said) who lived in a house with a secret roamer-hero's grave in it. One day a thief came, posing as a peddler, and bringing catalogs from a company called Morvengarde. He was looking for a specific box, and he realized that someone was buried outside Pantin's house. He later returned and tried to dig up the grave, seeking a box that he thought was buried with the man, but was thwarted by Pantin and Troublewit. Petra recalled another story, asking Sangwin to tell it, since he knew it. He told of a man with cold blue eyes who gave one of his eyes to the hollow-ware man in exchange for a box that he could fit to a lock.

Petra mentioned how fires could do so much, talking about reckonings. A reckoning, Sorcha said, was a calculation of the impossible and the finding of an answer. Sorcha then told a story about a fire-reckoning. A fire-savvy man called John Ustion ran an inventions shop focusing mostly on navigational tools and calculating machines. One day, a customer came, who wanted a mechanism that could calculate the right moment for accomplishing a task, and bring one to said moment. John Ustion told the customer that he couldn't trust him and sent him away, but he was captivated by the idea and used *fierekenia* to attempt to complete it. He decided to use wheat-fire for the reckonings, but overtime realized he was missing certain important components to make the device work. Ustion began to have qualms about the device; maybe it wouldn't be used all for good, and he never finished it, directing his granddaughter to do what he never had the heart to and destroy it, but when she went to do so, it was gone. Mr. Haypotten told a story contained a reliquary-maker; when Hugo entered the shop, he was speaking to a man who wanted something assembled, telling him he needed to return with a winder.

Masseter told a story about a boy called Foulk, who could see all the patterns. He was introduced to the roaming world by Morvengarde, who he ended up working for. Eventually, the Deacon and Morvengarde company trusted him with a time-device, since he was, they found, good at finding patterns in time. He learned to do reckonings and used the time device for Deacon and Morvengarde's repulsive assignments, vowing that one day he'd go back in time and save Jacinda from the company. However, on one of his assignments he met a brave girl, and the device was destroyed. Foulk was told to rebuild the device, and so he did began, though it took him years and years. At the end of the tale, it seemed clear that Masseter was Foulk.

Petra revealed that she'd done a reckoning, and told her own tale. She told of a young girl called Nell who'd gotten a bone that had orphan magic, and tried to use it to save her town from the Skidwrack's flooding. However, on her way to do so, she was tricked by a man with one blue eye into giving it to him; he wanted it because of the orphan magic. Masseter then took out a green contact he was wearing to reveal a cold blue eye underneath. He showed off his finished mechanism, containing a box bought from the hollow-ware man, a keyhole from Fellwool House, John Ustion's *fierekenia* device, and the bit of bone he'd tricked from young Petra twirled into a spring. Petra revealed the last thing he needed: a winder, which could be found in a music box belonging to Mrs. Haypotten that played a miraculous song. Masseter went to take the spring from Petra by force, but was stopped by Madame Grisaille using old iron against him. After some arguing, Masseter and Petra reached an agreement that she would give him the winder to complete his device after they used the orphan bone to stop the river's flooding. They set off and, presumably, succeeded in beating the Devil and stopping the river rising, and the winder was given to Masseter to complete the kairos mechanism.

## Physical characteristics

### Trigemine's original mechanism

The kairos mechanism was round and about the size of a pocket watch. It was double-sided and had six rotating circles. A green pincushion was attached to it, with engraved stickpins that could be used to bring people other than Trigemine along with him. It has a spiral slide rule and is activated by placing one of the engraved pins into it. Trigemine kept the mechanism in his vest pocket along with his loupe.

### Seleucia Deacon's mechanism

Seleucia Deacon's kairos mechanism resembles a chronometer. It is round and gold, and covered with engraving and whorls made of black enamel. Deacon kept it in the pocket of her waistcoat.

### Trigemine's second mechanism

The kairos mechanism is held within a box, which after failing to take from Pantin's garden in The Roamer in the Nettles, Trigemine acquired from a peddler in The Hollow-Ware Man. There is an adit-gate with a key made of a magical map that Pantin acquired from Fellwool House in The Game of Maps, and most of the device is comprised of a fire-reckoning mechanism designed by John Ustion in The Reckoning. There is also a yellowish magical bone twisted into a spring. A fire-savvy man across the Tailrace (as mentioned in The Ferryman) helped prepare Trigemine to take the device to a reliquary-maker called Gaz (as mentioned in The Particular), who he planned to have assemble it once he acquired the final piece. The kairos mechanism's one remaining component is a winder to a music box that plays the song that beats the Devil (though once the magical winder is gone, it plays simply Riverward). The device is presumably now complete.