Machinations

"Fine by me." said Elaine impassively. And so all present bar Sigin turned to look at the machine.

It filled an entire third of the massive chamber that was Belboz's laboratory. Against the entire eastern wall opposite the group, an immensely complex array of cogs, gears, levers, pipes and axles formed a twisted metal mural of industry. The mural curved around at the sides to follow the surrounding walls, creating a semi-spherical dome. Far up high, an eye-watering labyrinth of glass tubes emerged from the ceiling, descending vertically. As the tubes ran closer to the ground, smaller ones ended their lone journey and merged with larger parent pipes, like streams finding the mother river. By the time the network reached the ground, only one master cylinder remained. It twisted at a right angle inches above the floor, and ran horizontal for several feet before opening into a rectangular crystal box, perhaps just large enough for a person to lie down inside it. Fred thought the box looked like an upturned wardrobe. Astra thought it looked like a coffin.

There were three other noteworthy aspects of the machine. Embedded into the far wall, amongst the ordered chaos of apparatus adorning it, there was a smooth blue panel, brutally polished and with not a speck of dust upon it. In the centre of the panel was some sort of large keyhole. Secondly - a somewhat familiar sight to Adele and Elaine - there was an alchemist's table situated next to the glass case. On it were all manner of vials, alembics, powders in pouches, potions and such. Finally, there were the runes and the sigils. They were everywhere. On every pipe, every moving part, at least one incredibly intricate symbol of ancient energy was painstakingly etched into its surface.

Fred had decided not to protest over his sudden de-robing at the hands of Elaine. She might not have been able to kill Adele, but it certainly was not a given for him. Adele and Elaine, meanwhile, had both decided that neither could break the other, and so would save their strength. As a result, for the first time since they had been brought together, everyone was quiet. They examined every aspect of the machine with something approaching wonder (they could not walk around it, they could only walk inside it). Only Astra and Sigin did not approach it; Sigin was licking his paws and growling quietly in the corner, while Astra sat with her back to the wall, a saturnine expression on her face.

"This is unbelievable." whispered Adele as she traced a finger through the groove made in a tiny cog by yet another sigil. "I've never seen such symbols. This......this whole pattern of enchantment must have taken decades of alignment to stop the whole thing collapsing under the force of its own conflicting magic. Centuries, even."

"Belboz had been a busy man." said Elaine as she herself traced a different rune, frowning. With the weight of Belboz's memories supporting her, Elaine could view many of symbols with far more comprehension than Adele, but many others were unclear to her. She knew that the majority of them were designed to alter the nature of time and space, but others were as alien to her as they must surely have been to Adele. She moved to the alchemist table hurriedly. She needed to find some of Belboz's writings; a diary, a journal, a crumpled page of scribbled manuscript, anything.

Fred and Exotica walked together around the belly of the machine, seeing much but understanding little. Fred was rather forlorn about his predicament. Now that his armour had been shrunk to fit Exotica's body, he doubted he would get it back anytime soon. His stomach rumbled, and he remembered the primary reason they had returned to this place. He sighed and turned to Exotica. "I don't comprehend this bizarre technology."

Exotica looked at him with apparent relief. "You neither? Oh, I am glad, Frederigo. Could we perchance search for some food? I was near starving when I was chained to that cold wall, and our recent exertions have done nothing to help the hunger."

Fred smiled. He took the princess's hand. "You stole the words from my mouth, m'lady. Let us leave these Tellurians to their ponderous machine. It'll be no good to us if we're dead. I am here solely to protect you now, Princess Exotica, and protect you I shall. I might not know about nuts or bolts or sorcery, but I will know what bread and cheese and meat looks like when I see it."

Exotica gazed at the naked Allarian knight, sworn protector of her father's lands, standing there smiling in spite of himself for her benefit. She leaned slowly toward Fred and whispered in his ear. "When we spent the night together in those horrible caverns, you kept me warm and safe, sir knight. Tonight, I will return the favour. You have lost your armour, but you have not lost your heart. Our hearts will keep us warm, Fred."

As she turned away, Fred allowed himself to be led by her hand, grinning like a simpleton.

Matthias watched Fred and Exotica trot away, hand in hand. Then he turned back to the wall of pistons he had found himself in front of. As he turned, he took care not to look at Sigin, lest he reveal his suspicions. He did not believe Sigin's pantomime. Matthias knew that stupid lion could talk, and he could think just fine. He was just doing what Sigin did best - holding his cards tight to his chest. And Matthias didn't like it. He could remember being back in the Azure Citadel when Adele had told him she was going away to find Belboz, to learn of his fate. He remembered the way that pompous dragon-mage had insisted on accompanying Adele and himself (and later, Elaine) to these caves.

"Belboz is just like Celubar." Sigin had said. "Ever since those two were just bumbling apprentices in the days of Avrahmin's rule, they've been hell-bent on tampering with forces beyond their ken. I owe it to your father, Adele, to help you find him. He needs to be brought back to reality."

Adele, naturally in awe of the propect of having such a formidable ally accompany her, had readily agreed. But even then, Matthias had felt the twinge, like some deep-rooted, instinctual spasm of clarity. His father had once said When the pieces don't fit, son, you gotta know that somewhere there is a piece that does fit. Sometimes you lose it, other times people hide it. You can always find that piece, but you gotta know where to look. Matthias stared at the machine before him. It was perfect. All the pieces fit. When he looked at Sigin, it was like looking at an exploded jigsaw.

Matthias tried to steal a glance at the dragon-mage, to see if he was watching them, but instead he found his glance fixing on the sorry form of Astra, sitting at the far end of the room, unclothed and ignored. He felt a tug of empathy for her; both of them had lost something they had taken for granted their whole lives. He looked at Adele for a moment - she was engaged in tense, chilly conversation with Elaine about the machine - then he walked over to the warrior princess. She reacted to his approach with a sullen glance, then resumed staring into space. He sat down next to her.

"What do you want, Matthias?" she asked woodenly. She turned to face him, her expression very tired and drained. For the first time, it occurred to him that she had no way to cover her nudity, were she inclined to do so at any point. For the first time, he wondered exactly how well Astra was coping with her dilemma. He gave her a sympathetic smile and pointed at the shoulder-skin where her right arm should have been. Then he pointed at his throat and shrugged compassionately. At this, she smirked knowlingly.

"At least we two know where we stand in the pecking order around here." she said sadly. Before she could turn her head from him, Matthias reached out and took her chin gently in his fingers. She paused, eyes widening for a moment. For a moment neither spoke. Then Matthias let go, and moved his hand down to the ground. Slowly, he traced the letters of a word in the cold stone floor. Astra's eyes followed his finger's path. When he had finished, she looked at him and nodded. "I'll try." she whispered.

They both smiled.

1. Back at the machine, Elaine and Adele had started to have a very loud argument.
2. Exotica and Fred returned, having found a small amount of food. "Um.......where's Sigin?" asked Exotica.
3. Adele noticed Matthias's little 'moment' with Astra and stormed over to them.
4. There was a small exclamation of triumph. Elaine had found the tattered journal of Belboz.
5. Now that the group had had a chance to view the workings of the machine, the issue of selecting a 'test subject' arose once more.

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