As the rectangular platform lands in the next room, you notice a pair of mechanical guards standing at attention. Each one is about three meters tall, with smooth metal skin and features that bring to mind some sort of anthropomorphic monitor lizard. Glancing up at one of the halberds they wield, you see yourself reflected on its light green surface.
“Good afternoon,” the two say in unison, speaking loudly enough that anyone else in the room would easily be able to hear them. “It is an honor to be in your presence, Lady Aurata of…”
“That is quite enough,” your companion—Lady Aurata, apparently—interrupts. “His Royal Highness and the others have not yet arrived. There is no need for you to announce our presence.”
The constructs do not respond. Instead, they simply return to silently guarding the doorway and, presumably, waiting to greet the next person to pass through.
“If you ever have the time, Toku,” the lady says, “you really must adjust those two. It becomes so tiresome to have to silence them every time I come visit you!”
You just nod at her as you take a look around. The room is probably the largest you have seen thus far, though you have become less impressed by the scale of the stellar palace over time. The ceiling must be about fifty meters above you, and the walls of the square chamber are perhaps one hundred meters in length. While the middle of the chamber leaves plenty of room in which a visitor might move around, the space near each wall is filled with complex machinery. Metallic pipes jut out of spherical tanks standing on claw-feet, huge gears decorated with scrollwork grind against one another, and electricity arches between thin rods behind green-tinted glass.
All the way against the opposite wall, you see the most impressive piece of machinery in the room. It towers above everything else, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The whole thing is quite decorative, having been designed to look like three statues holding a crystal orb between them. The upper statue is of a phoenix in flight, which grips the top of the orb in its talons. The lower two statues, one as reptilian as the guards and the other as insectoid as your current form, hold it up in their hands. The sphere itself is too cloudy to clearly see what is inside, but you can tell that, whatever it is, it is constantly flickering. For the first time since awakening, you can feel a real mass of aether again, though it is difficult to make out through the increasingly thick fog. You suspect that, whatever is inside that crystal, it is responsible for both powering the palace and producing the haze that has been confusing your senses.
Lady Aurata is saying something, but you are not really paying attention. You begin to approach the mysterious crystal, wishing to inspect it more closely. Could this be the treasure you have come here to find? Admittedly, you only know a few vague facts about your prize: it belonged to a great empire; it was immensely powerful; it threatened all worlds. This is supposedly nothing more than an engine, but… with what you have experienced so far, you find it difficult to imagine that it isn’t, at the very least, important enough to examine.
You stop when you hear the loud hiss of steam and the rumbling of heavy machinery moving aside. Turning to your right, you see a small passage opening up, allowing someone else to enter. He is a bipedal crow dressed in a tailcoat, breeches, and a waistcoat. What is most striking to you about his appearance is his coloration. His feathers are a very dark blue, almost bordering on black, while his beak is bright yellow. His outfit is mostly charcoal grey, except for the white neckcloth he has tied into a bow. He fixes his red eyes on you, giving you a rather harsh look.
“Oh!” the lady exclaims. “Lord Bennetti! I expected you would be with His Royal Highness at the moment!”
It takes a second or two before he shifts his gaze over to her, and his expression softens when he finally does so. “Yes, well, I had not seen the chief engineer in a few days. I wanted to be sure that the containment systems were functioning normally. It would not do for the entire system to fall apart while His Royal Highness is visiting!”
Lady Aurata catches up to you and holds onto your right arm as she smiles at the bird. “Well, here he is! Honestly, Lord Bennetti, you worry too much. Tok—I mean, Lord Grantii would never leave the engine in anything less than perfect condition!”
The crow huffs a bit at her response but ultimately nods his head. “Fine, fine. Even so, it is dangerous to leave it unattended. You should have at least ordered one of the junior engineers to oversee it! Still, there were no major issues to be found, so I suppose it is fine.” He turns to your companion as he adds, “That said, I do wish to have a word with Lord Grantii regarding His Royal Highness’s safety when inspecting the machinery. I believe he is already on his way. Would you be comfortable entertaining him for a moment while the two of us do one final check? It would be quite scandalous if he were to be injured while in our care!”
“I cannot imagine that it is really necessary,” she answers, even as she begins to walk back towards the door. “As I said, Lord Grantii is never careless with the machinery. If it calms your nerves a bit, though, I can find some way to distract Prince Aethon. Not for very long, though. I understand he has been asking about it since before leaving Brae!”
“We will not take long, Lady Aurata, and I will be forever in your debt if you stall him for even a few brief seconds.”
You stand beside the crow awkwardly as the two of you watch her disappear through the door. As soon as she is gone, he turns to you, grabbing you by the arms and pinning them to your sides. You see a certain fury in his eyes as he looks down his beak at you.
“Who are you?” he demands.
