It's hard to see at first, but after a moment she can notice a flicker of movement, it feels almost like it's in her peripheral vision rather than right in front of her, somewhere in his gears but deeper. 

She cocks her head and "squints" at whatever just ticked.

There's a dizzying moment of falling, gears going half-transparent as she slips through them - 

- and then she's looking at something much deeper in, a collection of wheels and wires and springs, which are in motion but subtly, twisting and rippling. 

"Oh, it has - little tiny gears in the big ones -"

"Yes! Now, I want you to look - there should be some place where it is linked to the larger pattern, the rest of my mind - for me it is channels or grooves in the riverbed, I am not sure how it would appear for you." 

"I see it, there's a bit where if it comes around far enough it'll push a funny-shaped gear into a different section and then it'll feed into the rest of the mechanism."

"All right. I want you to have a look around, and see if there is anywhere you could move it so that gear would be moved somewhere else. Here, I will think about it from a few angles so you can see how it moves." 

He does that. Wiggle spin twist flip spin go the gears. 

"Whoa - it's going by really fast - I guess if I pushed on this bit it'd turn and I could get it onto this gearshaft's end?"

"I am sorry, I would try to slow it for you but thoughts are fast - it will be easier to catch it anyway with more practice. Watch it a little more, and then try that? You will want to start gentle, which will probably not move it at all, but better to ramp up carefully than hit it too hard." 

"Yes," she agrees, watching intently.

When it seems like a good time, she gives the surface of the gear a tap, willing it to spin as though twirling across a table on its bottom tooth, till it comes loose and is caught by the incoming shaft she chose.

If she taps it from the right angle, where there's little resistance to push against, it takes almost no effort! It settles neatly into place. 

"- Ah, good work. One moment." Lionwind closes his eyes, stands there for a moment, and then suddenly bursts into a deep belly laugh. 

"What? What'd I do?"

"Oh, oh, that is just too funny!" He slaps his knee. "I am almost tempted to leave it like that, it is so... The memory was of a time I went river-rafting with my friends, we were being quite reckless, and we - might have caught our raft on a rock and made a hole in the bottom. And usually it links to the - broader concept, I suppose, more than a specific incident, of being scolded severely by my poor mother. Except now it is linked to - the first time I kissed my wife, in particular, and also the broader concept of first kisses - that is so hilarious, I am going to have to write to my colleague about this one..." He is almost crying with laughter. 

Okay, that is a little funny. "Who's your colleague?"

"Her name is Tayata, she is a Mindhealer from Acabarrin who came to train at the Tower, and returns sometimes to teach for a time. She taught me when I was a child." 

"What's her metaphor?"

"Beehives! I know, it is an odd one. Her parents were beekeepers." 

"With - bees in them and everything? Wow. I don't know why I'm clockwork, I don't actually know how to build a clock..."

"Bees, and bee larvae, and honey, and a queen... I learned so many facts about bees from her explaining her metaphor to me." 

"I do like my metaphor. But I don't know why it would be that."

"I do not think anyone understands why our metaphors end up being what they are! I had hardly had much to do with rivers when my Gift awakened. Though I did then find it valuable to learn more of their geography and features, and the detail in my Sight became more usefully interpretable as a result." 

"Oh, I thought maybe you went river-rafting more than once. Or was that after your Gift came in?"

"After. I became far more interested in rivers generally! And also reached the age at which boys most like to do reckless things, I was twelve when my Gift awakened and not quite so adventurous yet." 

Nod. "Should I try to put the gear back?"

"If you think you can see how, then yes, by all means!"