A steady wind came right into her face and the sun lay dying behind her towards a stand of reddening oaks. He stood, without motion, waiting. Though he could not see her tears, nor hear her sobs, she would be crying, of course, and why shouldn’t she.
It was only in these moments, witnessing the other’s despair, that Charles would ever feel powerless. A man of the intellect, paying little attention to his own worldly desires, confronted then, a choice, a calling. There was much to explain.
“I only heard yesterday,” he said, hesitantly, and then, “about your father, his capture.”
“It is not your part—” she stopped. “to intervene. There is nothing for you in this.”
“The man responsible for this, I met him once.”
“And you would tell me—”
“I can stop him.”
“Can you.”
“As I heard, he was set upon by an armored vessel, apparently powered by a steam-driven turbine. It’s impervious to the guns of the Magdalene and her escort. Their cannonballs thud and clang off the American steel.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of what happened and why. That Californian is a lunatic, a maniac, and I pray he will be brought to swift justice at the hands of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy.”
“I wish it were so, my dear, but I must say it’s unlikely. There are no current maritime weapons that can penetrate a half-foot of steel, nor are there yet designs for one.”
“Soon he must come to port, where the proper authorities—”
“The man operates in a lawless wilderness. Neither he, nor his ship has ever ventured into a major port, and all attempts, by all governments, to impose either tariff or even the raising of colors has been met with cannonfire. So far every ship that has gone up against him has been sunk or forced aground.”
“And so why is it, then, that you say you can stop this. Can you build a bigger ship?”
“No. But if we can come within distance, I believe it would be possible to use a Hobson field — the same type of field used to relocate your arm — to board the ship, retrieve Admiral Harnby, and escape, all without detection or even firing a weapon.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of the theory? Positive. I must merely have some time to research the properties of the field, and that, my dear is where this silly ‘magic’ show comes into it. It will also be, I believe, a good means of raising the capital needed to undertake this expedition, as, perhaps you have heard, the most recent airship I constructed was taken on an unexpectedly long voyage, from which I trust Mister Barnaby is bound to return any day now.”
“You make it sounds quite easy. But I’m skeptical that this can go off without any unexpected consequences, Charles. And admit it, you’ve given me some reason to be.”
“Allow me to convince you.”

Charles switched on the ignition to the labratory’s gas lights. A low buzzing sound was heard, waking up the smell of burning dust. The sound rose steadily, then with the yellow flare of the lights, either ceased or faded behind the sharp hiss of the lamps.
“That’s quite a trick,” said Anna, blinking heavily.
“It ignites with artificial lightning,” mumbled Charles, removing his coat and hanging it atop a mannikin in the corner. “Something that American whats-his-name worked on all those years ago.
“But anyhow,” he continued, then stopped. He put his hand down hard on the workbench, suddenly lightheaded. He realized that he had not eaten a bite since lunch.
“Anyhow,” he continued. “To reassure you as to the reliability of the Hobson field, once the correct frequencies are properly sustained, allow me to make recompense for the error made during one of your earlier visits. As you’ll recall, you and Eliza were assisting with some research into an early and unreliable type of Hobson, what I’ve arbitrarily called “the blue field” which allows two objects to pass through the same space. That is something of an oversimplification, I’d say, since the actual effect is to ‘fold’ two different spaces on top of one another, but the point remains. You and Eliza—”
“Charles, I was present. You needn’t remind me of all the details. We were standing, such that one of us was on top of the other, and your machine broke.”
“It didn’t,” Charles stopped, his voice nearly cracking. “It didn’t break, merely the field collapsed. And while it’s not that I doubt your memory, dear, it’s only that I wish to impress upon you that unfortunate mishap, where you came into possession of Eliza’s legs, is actually what led directly to my current research. You see, at the time the only known property of the field was the “blue field” effect. And the assumption had been that if the field should collapse, then the molecules would simply be physically combined. Yet this demonstrably did not happen.
“What I’ve realized is that your legs were “torn off” into another space when the folding occurred. And while there’s no way to conjure them up directly, there’s a spacial link to them right here. And that, my dear, is you! It’s quite simple really—”
“It was quite simple before. And now, poor Eliza!”
“Ay’ve adapted quite well, sure you’ve noticed,” said Eliza, stepping in the open door on the far end of the room, the early night breeze behind her. “Made myself these new ones last month.” She raised one of her boots high up and set it on the table, pulling up the leg of her oilstained canvas overall to show a gleaming brass-plated shin.”
“But anyhows,” she set her foot down and came over, “It’d be a good change, get back to those organics.”
“And you’re absolutely—”
“We’ve been practicing,” said Eliza, grinning.
“Well all right, I suppose. But remember, that this experiment cannot take until tomorrow. It’s late enough, I suppose, that I won’t be returning tonight, but at noon I must—”
“Of course, we’d never dream of impinging on your commitments,” said Charles with a smirk. “Now then, to ‘rehearse’ as we might, our little magic act. I shall call this number, ‘The Division of a Lady in Twain,’ and let me guarantee to you all that she shall remain alive throughout the entire division. My dear, if you would, fetch the apparatus.”
Eliza pulled a table covered with a canvas tarp to the center of the laboratory, under the largest of the gaslights. With a flourish, she yanked the tarp off flinging up a cloud of dust and wood shavings. Beneath was a long finished oak box, clearly divided into two sections. The generic outline of a woman lying down was painted on one side. It was clear enough to Anna what she should do. With Charles taking her hand, she stepped onto the table and lay down.
“Now, much like the bracelet, there is a belt at the bottom of the box. If you’d fasten that around your waist tightly, we may begin.”
Anna found the belt - a pair of wide cords of woven copper that fastened with a latch. She pulled the cords snugly around herself, and looked back at Charles.
“Wonderful. Eliza, if you would engage the Hobson generator.”
Eliza brought out a large and slightly battered steel ovoid, looking vaguely like a giant egg being carried in a cart. From one end came a long copper cable, which Charles picked up and connected to a fastener on the box. She took a key from the front pocket of her overalls and turned it in a slot on the Hobson. There was the crank of gears, the hum of a machine coming to life.
“And here, Ladies and Gentlemen, for your amusement and amazement, the impossible feat, which you shall witness live right here and now, the Division!”
Eliza flipped down a switch on the Hobson, and the humming was subsumed by an electric crackle, the noise then lowering back into a hum. With that, Charles, took hold of the top section of the box and slid it over a couple feet. The lower box stayed put.
“Is that all?” said Anna, raising herself to her elbows. She looked down at her stomach ending where part of the cord was wrapped around her. A few feet away lay the original lower half of Eliza.
“As the amusement goes, yes.”
“You ought to work on the suspense.”
“But I don’t need to build it up into a grand — a grand — whatever. It’s absolutely real! Won’t that be enough for them?”
“I’m sure it will be enough, but it must be entertaining as well as just … well curious.”
“Curious? You’re in two pieces and you think people will just find it — curious?”
“Well, it’s not the first time.”
“No, I suppose not. But we must continue, for now, if we’re to restore your proper legs to you. First, I’m afraid, Eliza will have to be restored. This is because, well, if you’re interested—”
“I’m listening Charles.”
“Well, divided pieces of things can stay ‘connected’ to different pieces of space at the same time. So what we’re going to do is use this connection to retrieve your legs from this netherspace, but first we have to make sure Eliza’s legs, which have been your legs for some time now, aren’t going to be in the equation, as it were.”
“Aha. Whatever that means, I’m sure it’s correct then.”
Eliza unceremoniously slid off her boots and undid the straps of her overalls. She stepped out of these clothes, wearing now only a linen blouse, her brass and pewter lower half gleaming in the yellow lights. She pulled up her blouse to where the metal met flesh - the two merged into one another almost seamlessly.
After the accident, Eliza had first built a pair of shaky pressure-powered legs that she controlled with some levers. While this proved a quick and creative solution, the compressed air did not last long as a power source, and it was difficult to walk and use her hands at the same time. Eliza devised a new pair of legs that would be powered partially by her own body, then using the Hobson, the two of them had found a way to graft to two bodies together.
Now, Eliza disconnected the cable leading to the prop and set it down on the workbench. She flipped a catch on the brass plate and popped off the cover of her hips. Beneath was a mechanical wonder of Eliza’s genius, bearings, gears all powered by a combination of pressure generators in turn powered by her own body. Below the plate, there was also a spot to connect the cable, right between— well, reflected Charles with some amusement, it was somewhat obscene wasn’t it?
Eliza flipped the switch on the generator, then came the same electric crackle. Also divided at the waist, Eliza grabbed a hold of the work bench and swung down to the floor.
“Anna, I’m sorry, but we must—”
“It’s fine, I can get up,” she laughed a bit, pushing herself upright onto the flat bisection of her stomach. She handwalked her way to the other edge of the table while Eliza easily hoisted herself up onto the table and lay down in the box where Anna had been. Charles helped Anna over to the workbench, then reconnected the Hobson to the prop and slid the two boxes back together. Another pulse of the generator, and Eliza rose from the box, whole.
At the sight of her - still wearing a stained man’s blouse, but now with the fine wool skirt that had been part of Anna’s dress that morning, Anna burst into laughter. Eliza curtsied, possibly for the first time in her life.
“Ah well,” said Charles, smiling. “That went quite well, I think.” He began to push the table back to where it had lay, and threw the tarp back over it.
“Charles—” started Anna. “What of my legs? Are you to produce them now?”
“I … right now? I suppose I neglected to mention, why yes, I’m sure of it now, I forgot to tell you that they will not be ready until tomorrow. You see—”
“Tomorrow? I told you I have an engagement at noon!”
“Well, tomorrow morning then if we rush it?”
“Why not now?”
“Because it’s not so simple! We have taken the first step, but now there are new calculations to be made, new variables to measure, and an altogether new procedure and experiment. But tomorrow, should all things go according to plan, I shouldn’t see why we won’t have you all in one piece, and should we fail, why, we’ve got a perfectly good pair of legs right here!”
“Those— aren’t—” Anna, turning red, looked towards the door. Then, all of a sudden she started laughing, louder, louder, filling over even the sound of the lights with her laughter, until, tears in her eyes she looked up smiling at last and said only, “I was just trying to storm out again.”