An amalgamation of clockwork and flesh in the form of a woman stands in front of a classroom. The students sit in rapt attention, some excited to learn, others terrified of displeasing their professor.

"Good morning class, my name is Tiddol, but you can refer to me as Profesor until I say otherwise. As you no doubt already know I am the foremost expert in the field of clockwork biology, why else would you spend so much money to be a part of this class in particular. Now, any questions before we begin?"

Nearly half the students raised their hands, and the ones who didn't looked expectantly at the ones who did.

"Yes, you in the back. You had your hand up first, what is your question?" The professor asks a young lesser devil girl.

"Are you the Tiddol? Like the one who Erica called her best friend?" The student asks, her eyes starstruck.

With a sigh, the professor addresses the class "are there any questions that aren't about my relationship with Erica?"

Every student put their hands down. There is a tense disappointment in the air and many students stop paying attention entirely.

"Fine, as it seems like we won't be getting any work done until this is discussed I'll tell you all about her. But only on the condition that every single one of you focus on my lessons afterwords. Do we have a deal?" The professor asks, her metallic voice both irritated and hopeful.

Every student rings out some sort of affirmation, from a 'yes' to a 'sure' to just a simple nod.

"Alright then, I'll hold you to it. Where to start."

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"Sometimes I regret meeting Erica. She took every single aspect of my life and made it more, for good and for ill.

"She may have seemed like a clutz on the outside, but few were convinced of her act. She was as cunning as she was crazy. She grew obsessed with ideas and built wonders with her bare hands. I am simply one of those wonders, and I loved her for it.

"When I first met her I just wanted to find a safe place to stay for my team while we prepared for the next dive, and it's hard to do better than a forest sprite's domain. Outside of a city of course. At that point no one could have predicted who she would become, least of all me.

"We got along well enough, she was bright and happy and she always tried to make us laugh, though she wasn't very funny. And she got attached to me, in hindsight you can hardly blame her. I probably reminded her of her father to be honest, the great Erik Kron, revolutionary extraordinaire, the archetypical adventurer for an entire generation.

"She changed, for lack of a better word, as time went on. She was always obsessive, but she became more so with time. She was the ideal scholar according to many, always pursuing knowledge for no other reason than her own curiosity.

"Outwardly she became rather unstable too, always having minor accidents or tripping over something or some other ultimately inconsequential incident. And she always reacted as if it was the end of the world, only to have completely forgotten about it not even a moment later. I know now that it is because of her so called 'Fate' but it still left a certain impression

"I do admit that I loved her like a sister, she really was my best friend. But she also terrified me. Many people see her as something so much better than the person she was, she was no saint, no epitome of kindness, nothing like that. She was better than most, I will grant you that, she had more empathy than anyone I've ever met before, and likely ever will meet. But she was more vicious and spiteful as the rest of us combined, just a lot slower to anger.

"Without her I never would have met Parius, I never would have created an entirely new tree of life, I never would have had two lovely children. But without her I never would have had my flesh torn to ribbons and been forced to replace my body with clockwork, I never would have found my child's corpse, I would still be on speaking terms with my own parents.

"Without her I would be less than I am today. Erica was special, there will never be anyone quite like her again.

"Now, can we get onto the lesson at hand?"