The ghosts have begun to bring the place back to the semblance of life. Nua wondered how it is that Anki cannot touch hard matter, but they can. Different kinds of ghosts, perhaps. Nevertheless, she was very glad about what they did. Otherwise, she would probably have to attend to the artifacts on her own, and it all seemed very complicated.

The enormous chamber lit up, revealing sorcerous machinery in all too familiar golden and silver hues. Although Nua prepared herself for new wonders, she couldn't help but continue to be amazed. Three goliaths, though still asleep, presented themselves in all their terrible glory, the largest surfaces of their metal skin painted in varied shades of lustrous green, deep blue, or fiery red. They had decorations, too. Each head was stylized after a different animal – Nua thought she recognized a predatory bird, a wolf and a cat – and the armor sported a dazzling collection of oddly shaped figures and patterns, each, perhaps, telling its own story. Although enormous and certainly heavy, the goliaths looked anything but – their bodies' proportions were slender, and lithe, giving an air of murderous speed and agility.

They were lying on some sort of rails, in half horizontal position like some sort of fancy ladies on a bed with a large headrest (that's how she could see their faces), locked within a scaffolding of metal lattices and thick cables. The contraptions looked much less improvised than the one she found Anki in. In fact, Nua remembered the Great Temple of Overlord's Mercy sporting a very similar construction, though weathered and repurposed – she now saw it clearly – for hanging holy icons and statues.

Behind each head, there was an enormous circle built into the wall with overlapping metal blades that filled it. Nua had to ponder on it for a while. She suspected it to be another kind of weird door. The blades looked like they could move, and the giants had to have a way out. She shuddered.

Some of the ghosts attended to the goliaths but most flurried to the milky crystal pillars that stood beside the goliaths in pairs. It wasn't long before the pillars burst with light. Between the largest pair, an illusory crystal appeared, and its surface was filled with an array of golden signs, which were constantly changing. Nua recognized ancient writing. Seven hundred symbols – how smart could they be to read it, and while it was moving at that?

The work went on for some time, so Nua thought she could do, at last, what real living humans must do sometimes. She was holding it off for too long anyway. She chose one of the smaller walking armors at the left side of the room near the wall, wandered there, and did her business in the armor's shade. She barely finished when the ground trembled. Was it the weapon Anki was talking about earlier? Her anxiety rekindled, Nua made her way back to the goliaths.

"Anki? Come back. Anki! Anki!"

He appeared beside her almost at once, seemingly flustered.

"You pulled me. I was working."

"I can do that?" Nua thought. Good to know.

"I thought the ghosts are working for you and you can't touch a thing anyway."

"I was instructing them a little. Centuries of languishing torment certainly don't improve a mage-engineer's efficiency. They could use some help." He puffed. "Besides, it's been a while since I had an opportunity to indulge in tinkering, and I'm afraid it will be a long time until I'm able to do it again. Judging from your reactions, most of the old knowledge has been lost."

"Use shorter words", Nua advised. "What was that earthquake?"

"The Light of Eshunna. One of the deployment routes is open. We'll be ascending soon."

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"It sounded like a huge explosion. From how far could it be seen or heard?"

"From quite afar, I'm afraid. The path was blocked with layers of rubble. I'm told not a living thing was around, though, save for a few scorpions and hybrids."

Nua wondered about it for a while. Nobody in the Bottoms would be looking into weird explosions in the junkyard's very heart. No one was that suicidal. Some prayers and offerings to the River God, to spare them from the Forsaken calamity would follow in the morning, perhaps.

"Please mind the people, Anki." She said. "I have brothers and sisters out there."

"Do not worry. They're my people as well as yours, Nua. They deserve the bright future I am able to offer."

This could get quickly out of hand.

"You don't know them. You don't know anything outside of this temple. You can't even read. You're invisible and a ghost yourself. You can't offer dreck. You're not a king of the Unsagga anymore."

"So I've noticed." His voice severe, he brushed her concerns aside. "Come. We have a choice between the Emerald Jackal and the Sapphire Leopard."

"...a leopard, please." Nua realized he meant the goliath, then looked up there, at the scaffolding. Was her travel to occur in the giant's head? Climbing all the way up, when the armor was whole and did not offer a lot of opportunities to latch on, was next to impossible. "Do you have another carriage that could take me up?"

"Oh, we could port you", Anki said, apparently unaware that Nua has no idea what it means, "But there is not enough ether. We'll do with a spare retractable escalator."

"A what?"

Anki exuded a deep sigh.

"Moving stairs. Follow me."

"Moving stairs. All right. Three shiny new goliaths, huge crystals, moving stairs, and a port, surely for the boats that I haven't noticed. Aaaand an explosion on top. Come to think of it, the Sapphire Cat is going to be very visible, too." Nua walked in the direction of the blue goliath, unable to stop talking as if she was a bag full of words that had just got torn apart. She didn't even know that she had so many words in her. "At least my belly is empty, save for one ancient king. And I'm alive. Oops, the Trickster God is watching, right? Don't look at me, good lord! I think I'm drunk on... she made a wide sweeping gesture. "All of that. Oh gods, dear gods. I'll die."

From there, events unfolded quickly. She saw dozens of ghosts pulling a machine on wheels from the dark corner of the room. They stopped just next to the blue giant, and construction appeared as if from thin air – stairs of transparent crystal, going from the floor to goliath's chest. Anki gestured in anticipation, and Nua followed. It was very fortunate that she wasn't afraid of heights because climbing the stairs felt like floating. The stairs were very material, cold, and glasslike, though.

The giant's chest opened with a puff of vapors, etheric no doubt. At this point, Nua wasn't even scared. What else could happen? She followed into a tiny room filled with more crystals and a huge chair of smooth dark blue material. There, she sat down and submerged herself in what turned out to be the softest and most comfortable mattress she had ever touched. She closed her eyes and despite everything, she started to drift off.

"Nua!" Anki hissed. "Stay awake! I need you to turn on the panel."

"What's a panel...?" Nua asked, staring hopelessly at the array of colorful crystals, metal rods, and just... things she had no words for. They were all, of course, signed in the ancient tongue.

"That's what you're looking at. See this lever on the right? And another on the left?"

"Two metal rods" Nua mumbled. "With red knobs on top?"

"That's that. Look up."

The girl looked. Right above her, a helmet was hanging from the ceiling.

"Put this on."

It took her time to reach it. When she finally did and put it on her head, it slid down to her nose. She gaped through the slits.

"Uh, that was made, I think, for a much bigger person than me."

"Doesn't matter. The levers. Pull them simultaneously. Um. Both at once."

"Can't do that. My arms are too short. Waitamoment..."

Nua wriggled for a while in the chair, then finally succeeded at tearing off one of her pant legs. From there, she worked to fasten two strips of tattered, dirty cloth to the levers.

"You know, Nua, I am terribly glad that my sense of smell is missing," Anki observed.

"This stink is healthy" Nua answered. "It means I'm alive. Dead people stink worse."

"I don't."

"Well, if everybody dies, then even the stink must die at some point."

"You're not dumb," Anki said thoughtfully. "It's just your mind is like a young sparrow on its first flight, trying to launch itself into all directions and failing to fly at all. I'm going to have a look at that. But now, focus. Pull the levers. And hold on tight."