"Why, Father? Why won't you speak to me?! Why could that wretched witch
Elaine hear your voice, but I cannot?"
Adele sank to her knees on the stony ground, exasperated, after her initial attempts at operating her father's machine had failed. She had felt so empowered, so enlightened, in putting the ring on her finger. She now understood much more of her father's work than she had before. It had all seemed to click into place. This machine, with its tubes, levers, gears and runes... was no longer alien to her. She knew, that deep below the Azure Citadel, buried under the hill that it stood upon, a device very similar to this one had lay. It was thought to have been the relic of an even older, forgotten civilization. Ironic, considering that Telluria itself was all but forgotten in this present day. Against the will of the Archmage Avrahmin, Belboz and Celubar had secretly studied the workings of this device for years, research that her father had continued througout his centuries long exile, to the point of replicating it entirely here in these caverns. His alliance with Minestus had been born of something more than mere proximity; Their imprisonment in the stasis jewels for more than just protection against a dragon-mage's fury. This ring held all the answers. It was ancient, far older than Telluria. As old as this machine at least, and the key to its workings. She was sure of it. But why, then, did the final answers continue to elude her? It was as though some secrets were destined to remain locked away, even with the ring's power to guide her. Fresh tears of frustration spilled from her eyes, falling to the ground. She was still covered, nearly from head to toe, in blood and gore from her evisceration of Sigin. Feeling a sudden wave of nausea, she rose, stumbled away a few steps and retched. Adele looked down at her hands, and her blood soaked and tattered robe and felt an unquenchable desire to be clean. She stripped off the robe, and when even that failed to suffice, conjured a water spell, similar to the wave that Sigin had created to subdue Elaine, but less forceful. It cascaded around her, and she scrubbed furiously to remove the blood and grime from her arms and body. She let the spell release, the water splashing to the ground beneath her feet. A bit of it ran off into a corner of the chamber where the rock was still heated from Elaine's attempted fire attack against Sigin. As the water touched the rock, it quickly turned to a puff of steam. Adele then had a moment of pure clarity, and instinctively knew what to do. The machine needed more than just magic to run. It was a finely crafted instrument that blended both magic and technology. It needed both sources of power to run. Now that she knew what to look for, the sigils on the device were as clear as day. Thank you, father. Adele quickly cast the appropriate enchantments, conjuring fire and water. Soon, the intricate tubes of the machine were filled with superheated steam. Slowly, with creaking and grinding at the start, the gears and cogs of the device at last began to turn. The runes and sigils upon its surface began to glow. As Adele stepped forward, the machine crackled and sparked with a an ethereal, radiant blue-green energy. As she took her place at the center of the device, she could see that the ring had begun to glow and pulse in time with the whirring machinery around her. With no hesitation, she thrust her ring into the keyhole on the wall at the centre of the device. And smiled.
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1/20/2009 9:37:42 PM
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