The music was eerie, it sounded like a piano with what was almost like rain in the background, only it wasn't rain, it was more crinkly and sharp and of course, how could there be rain when you're in a building at the bottom of an ocean of lava. The music was coming from everywhere, from what looked to be musical horns attached to the corners of the room. Then we heard a faint thud growing louder from the dark hallway.

I loaded my crossbow as Palm grabbed one of her swords while giving the other to Toucan as we stayed in front of Pebble.

"No need for weapons, we can heal him." A voice said... no... a voice would imply this was a person or a dragon, yet this didn't sound like either. It sounded like a musical instrument, bent in the wrong ways, it's tune that was supposed to be beautiful now turned into a cacophony of screeching and notes that could turn into what I guess you could call words. Besides, anything natural should be dead, even a Teardrop who could resist lava couldn't survive so long down here, I think, unless they could find a way in and out as they please but it didn't make sense. "Allow us to heal him, and step aside." The thing screeched again as it finally entered the light, which I now noticed was attached to what looked like glowing yellow bulbs hanging from the ceiling. I finally took a good look at whatever was speaking, and like I thought, it wasn't anything human, it had four large metal claws connected by tubes filled with gears that were partly exposed through their armor, lacking any hips and instead just a sphere for the center of it's body, before the rest of what looked like a tail on the back of it. Its presence was further highlighted by the lights on it's body, like some bioluminescent sea creature.

Upon closer inspection there were two separate arms, more human-like yet still connected to tubes and exposed gears. The chest wasn't always exposed, the large scratch marks on the side of it's plating made that apparent, but it was now. The exposed interior where a heart of this creature was supposed to lay, where organs and blood should have been, there was instead what looked to be a small piano kept inside connected to a series of strings and wheels. Then there was the head, at least I think it was, there was no mouth and instead only a mask. It contained two triangular holes cut into the left side of the face, and one eye shaped hole in the other, painted below seemed to be tears as if the thing was painted to always be crying. The glowing eye in the hole stared at us, unblinking, I don't think it could blink even if it tried.

"W-what are you?" I asked as I looked up at the monster, as large as a dragon.

Before the creature could respond, Pebble spoke up, "It's a machine."

"What?"

"Look at the gears, and the hydraulics, the voice is connected to the instrument." Pebble explained as he weakly tried to stand back up, only to fall again.

"Pebble, you're hurt, you really shouldn't-"

"I am Guardian Minos of the Shelter Telikos." The machine screeched as it's body twitched to face us, whenever it moved, it wasn't fluid. The thing moved at the same pace, always stopping before going again. "The Guardians, help the Teardrops. We can heal him."

I looked at Pebble, the way he's still bleeding from his ears and nose, thankful that more blood isn't emerging from his eyes. I nod. "Pebble?"

He nods. "Let them."

I sigh and motion for the machine to come over.

The large construct wastes no time and uses one of it's smaller hands to pick up Pebble, his body limp and unresponsive as he closes his eyes. The machine started to roll away, or walk, it was hard to tell as the sphere moved but the giant claws steered the machine.

It didn't take long before we were guided into a hallway that was... green and blue... there was grass and some chickens, even a few cows let out a moo as we passed by. People could live down here! It even felt like the sun was shining on our faces, and there was even a lake!

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

The machine paused and twitched its head as it got ready to respond. "Dead. All corrupted have been burned." It said before moving on.

"What do you mean corrupted?"

"Forbidden topic." Was its only reply.

"Why?"

"Forbidden topic."

I sigh as I keep following it through the greenery. "What is this place?"

"The Garden."

"How can this be? How can this be down here?"

"Forbidden topic."

I sigh before watching as other smaller machines like Minos, but instead fully humanoid, seemed to tend to the livestock. They all had that same mask on their heads as well, or was it their head, it didn't matter.

It didn't take long before we were brought to the dimly lit hallways again, the music could still be heard as we reached a pair of smaller doors.

"What's the music?"

"The Fire is Gone."

I searched my mind but I had never heard anything of that name, or anything of this nature.

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"This is your resting area." Minos announced as we entered the room, unable to follow since the machine was too large to fit, however it was able to use its smaller claws to carry Pebble into the room. "He needs rest."

"He needs a lot more than rest." Palm muttered.

"He needs rest, it will heal him." Minos insisted.

Palm sighed and we all managed to lift Pebble onto one of the beds. Upon closer inspection, it was a very spacious and long room, filled with about ten beds on each side and three large circular tables in the middle, on the side of each bed where small stands decorated with what I guess was stuff from the previous owners, stuff that hasn't been touched in a very long time. We gently set Pebble down on the first one and almost immediately, his body jerked as his eyes went shut but the surface below him started to glow green.

"Minos, what's going on?"

"Forbidden topic. But he will heal, it is better to let him rest." Minos screeched.

Toucan shrugged and beckoned us to follow him as he followed Minos as the machine started to walk away.

I sighed, glancing at Pebble one last time, seeing his peaceful face, he seemed content. I sighed before following.

***

After being guided around several other parts of the building, a food center, a library, a filtration room similar to Mastermind's, but now I was entering something called, 'The Assembly.' The large machine continued to walk forward till it stopped as the lights inside the dark room lit up. On either side were machines like Minos, orange and covered in rust, I doubt they would move even be able to move if they waked up, they look one with the metal they were resting on, the gears on the ceiling and the mechanical arms dangling down, it all seemed like it was too ancient to even work anymore, but Minos worked.

"Minos, why did we build you? Where did you get your wounds?" I inquired.

Minos paused, and the head rotated to face me, unable to move its neck as its eye looked down at me, it twitched its head to tilt it before replying. "We were made to kill dragons, and the corrupted. I was made to guard Telikos, I was made to protect my creators. I received the wound from a Skoposwing."

"I haven't heard of that dragon tribe before."

"They are not natural, they shouldn't be natural."

"What are they?"

"Weapons, like me, but inferior."

***

"What is this part?"

"The armory."

It was a large room, maybe three of the sections may have been just for this, there were what looked to be boomsticks on the wall but more refined, with more steel and gold parts engraved into them, as well as scopes and gears. Along the rows of Thunder-bows. There were also some larger weapons, like if you mixed a ballista with one, mounted on a giant series of gears so it could aim in every direction but directly below, where there was a series of wheels to transport it.

The most unique out of all the strange and surprisingly non-bulky armor were the masks that were on hooks attached to the ceiling. The masks were long but resembled Minos's face, with two triangular holes on the left where your eyes would be, and a large hole on the right with tears painted under the hole.

"Is this armor?"

"No, those are Masks of Sorrow."

"What are they for?" I ask as I pick one off a hook, turning it over to look at the back, nothing seemed so special about it.

"Weapons."

"Can you be less vague?" Palm asked as she grabbed one along with Toucan.

"They were for the weakest of creators. For those who needed more help to protect themselves."

Toucan and Palm hung theirs back up as I further inspected mine. Something about it seemed familiar.

"I'm not weak." Palm muttered.

"Neither am I." Toucan said.

"How do they work?"

"Sorrow."

***

"Pebble, I heard you were awake, how are you doing? Toucan told me you were awake." I said as I found him in the library, looking down at some scrolls, writing furiously into his own.

"It has everything River, everything about us, but I can't find anything about them."

"What do you mean?" I ask as he showed some drawings of different parts of a human body and a brain, but right below the eye where our teardrops were seemed to be some sort of sac or organ.

"We were designed, careful births and planning, forbidden technologies, clockwork selection, all for us."

"For what?"

"Heirs, to a throne, from what I've learned there were several empires before everything went to flames."

"Heirs, we're royalty?"

"Yes, and our empire was the grandest of them all. Our technology, clockwork they called it, based on a device they used to tell the time like a sundial, made them one of the dominant powers on the continent. However we also took it a step further when it came to us teardrops, the most respected and revered in our society, we only secured our status further through the use of our insight abilities." He paused. "But nothing suggests they had any other abilities unique to them like us. But anyways, they were this all powerful empire but there was still one problem, a certain type of species that could breathe fire."

I sigh. "Of course."

"So we made our own."

"Wait, what?"

"After one empire, I think it said an empire called Poseidon, took an egg we soon followed. It was only a matter of time before they'd be weaponized against them so we decided to take our own eggs. After some dissections and apparently literally placing the organs from the human into the dragons and then a few generations... you remember how the dragons supposedly had powers?"

"So they betrayed us?'

"Yes, empires were falling, fire was now starting to rain down due to the backlash of stealing the eggs, so the Teardrops delved more into... something... it won't say..."

"And then?"

"There's no mention of whatever it was, but whatever happened, actually caused an alliance between everyone else but us."

"So what made us the big bad, that everyone was out for our blood?"

"I think it has something to do with the Corrupted, what the sentry mentioned?"

"Sentry?"

"That's what they're called, originally meant to fight against the usual fire breathing dragons but repurposed."

"Repurposed to do what?"

"To kill us."

I paused, "Are you sure?"

He shrugged, "No, there's still so much, I haven't even scratched the surface, I mean look at these books, there's so much information here, ready to be let loose on the world!" He laughed as he threw his hands in the air, his wounds seemed to be completely gone.

It made me smile to see that he was completely healed, whatever this 'forbidden topic' was, maybe it wasn't so bad if it healed him fully. "Have fun in there, make sure you find a way to get us out of here too though."

"Already working on it."

***

I walk into the sleeping quarters, going through some of the book titles before plopping myself down on the bed.

I hear a knock and turn to see Toucan standing there. "Hey, I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, sure, did you hear about what Pebble found?" I asked as he approached.

"Kind of, he just rambled about something called a Nautilus and how it can move in the lava."

"That's new, maybe he found a way out of here?"

"Do you want to leave?"

"I..." I let out a short laugh. "Definitely, I don't wanna be stuck at the bottom of an ocean of lava forever y'know."

"I get why you'd want that."

"Yeah, so it turns out that-" My breath hitched as I felt a sudden burning sensation in my stomach, almost like heartburn, but a lot sharper. I felt my stomach with my hand before feeling a warm liquid rolling down my body, and then something sharp and metal. I looked down and saw that my hands were red, and a blade sticking in my stomach, Toucan's hand wrapped around the knife.

"Unfortunately we don't always get what we want."