The Modron Mutiny

Chapter Six

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Hein arrived inside his office in an instant. As Hein glanced around the office, he slipped a saw-like sword from a notch on his wall. After hooking the sword onto his belt, Hein nervously darted from his desk to a set of cabinets at the back of the office. Hein started to pull and rapidly dig through an assortment of drawers.

“Where is it? I know the data from that Mimir unit is in here somewhere? They have to hear what it says…”

It was obvious by the way he searched that Hein was looking for something important. His office, which was just as makeshift as the base camp, was littered with mechanical trash. The desk was almost completely covered with junk, save for the large, leather-bound books that were stacked in the center. One book had “Automata Public Servants” written on the cover, while the other was blank.

“The information gathered from that Mimir unit shows how crazy she is! If those adventurers see it, then they’ll realize it too…”

Hein kept loudly muttering to himself as he dug; fully unaware of what was happening in the not-so-far demiplane.

Hein had gotten through most of his drawers and cabinets by the time the feeling hit him. It was subtle at first; just a slight dizziness. As Hein reached for, and missed, the handle of his last drawer, he realized something was wrong with him.

Poison was the first thought to come into his mind, though Hein knew there was no chance for him to have been poisoned. As Hein’s head spun, he realized that he didn’t have time to get help. Hein sat down at his desk and started to try and cast a spell, one that could warn someone of what was happening to him. As the feeling of slipping away overcame him, Hein swiped both books and a large portion of garbage out of his sight. His head crashed to the desk the second it was cleared. No engineer or soldier was present inside his office. Hein was completely alone, just as the master of the ethereal boat wanted.

As the Fighting Five marched, they noticed the painted clones all stop in place with a stagger. They all started to spasm, but shortly after kept walking. Rexi only glanced around in confusion, but kept following the clones.

Hein didn’t know it, but this demiplane would change its rules based on how aware of the dream the dreamer was. While the man in the black scarf had a countermeasure in place to stop people from bringing weapons, this could be overridden if someone realized they were dreaming…or had been brought to the Silent Sea multiple times.

The second Hein saw dark waters in his mind, he knew where he was. Drawing forth on all the sensations he felt while holding his sword and using his mechanical hand, Hein was able to conjure both his weapon and hand as he fell to the dock. The fall was like what one feels before hitting the ground in a dream, only this didn’t cause Hein to wake.

Hein stood up on the boat. It was that same familiar boat; the one with the glowing bottles and strange fish specimens. It was the dream world where that wiry man-shark resided.

Hein didn’t hold his construct-killer this time. Instead, he had a much more devious weapon. Hein had it his grip what looked like a long-handled saw with a blade pointed like a sword. The blade was not thin or weak, and stranger still, sported several gears at its base. When Hein gripped the handle tight, the gears caused this blade to move in and out.

By the time Hein noticed the dwarf from his previous visit, the saw-sword was moving faster than one could see.

Captain Saltrock held up both hands in fear, and had his lone good eye opened as wide as it would go.

“I…I ain’t meanin’ to harm ye…the boss jus’…”

“Bring your boss to me, now!” Hein shouted; his voice nearly echoing despite the saw-sword’s mechanical grinding.

The dwarf started to back away, before Hein heard an all too familiar voice.

“Don’t point that thing at him! He’s just pilots the boat!”

Hein turned to face the shark-like man, who didn’t look afraid in the slightest. Normally, anyone who saw his auto-saw panicked, or at least acted with confusion. This man had seen technology before…which to Hein meant he was very likely working with the people from Automata.

“How in the Hells do you keep getting me here? Where is this place?” Hein shouted as he pointed his auto-saw at the man in the black scarf.

“I’ll explain as much as I can, but first you have to realize that me and Saltrock are not your enemy! We don’t have time for this, put that sword away!”

Hein just laughed. He lowered his sword but didn’t stop the blade.

“Listen, I’m the one who was abducted here! I’m not getting rid of this sword without an explanation, and that’s only if I like what I hear!”

The man in the black scarf let out a combination of a grunt and a hiss. His mouth briefly parted, and exposed what looked like pale light coming from inside him. The man’s black eyes rolled back, flashing the whites of his eyes, then started to glow with that same light. Hein, briefly caught off guard, took a step back. He didn’t expect this to happen.

Despite the strange display, the man in the black scarf didn’t advance. He closed both eyes, snapped his mouth shut, then quickly slipped out a rag from his belt pocket. The rag had a strange chemical smell that Hein couldn’t identify.

“Sorry about that…” the man in the black scarf muttered.

After putting the rag near his face and breathing, the man in the black scarf answered Hein.

“You’re in a demiplane that is based upon dreams, dreams where people are scared of the ocean. I had to waste a magic item just to get you to sleep and be able to speak to you like this. Only a handful of people know of this place, so it’s the safest place to talk!”

As the man in the black scarf continued, his tone became more frantic.

“I need…we need…to find the Sword of Automata! That is the key to ending the modron invasion! I don’t know what it is, and neither does Holder! You’re the only other person who I can reach who has lived there long enough to know about it!”

Hein took a step back, almost shocked at the mention of his enemies.

“You can’t be stupid enough to be working with them and bring me here…me who…”

“The caliban isn’t responsible! If anything, she’s in danger, and I have no idea what kind! She needed me to find the sword, and only sent me a last-ditch message that was garbled to the point it took days to decipher! If modrons are marching, someone or something had to have corrupted them! Do you have any idea how easily they fall to corruption?”

Hein lowered his sword more. “Caliban”…he must have meant Symmette…

Hein didn’t recognize the word. The urgency in the man in the black scarf’s voice told him that, like Holder, he didn’t think Symmette was evil. Hein had no clue what the Sword of Automata was, and knew that this poor monster was being puppeted by an even shrewder one.

“Listen…shark man…I don’t know what that is, but if Symmette has you looking for it, then you finding that sword will only help her invasion.”

The man in the black scarf growled, then rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Symmette didn’t do this…I don’t see how you still think that’s even possible…”

Hein sneered, then lifted his auto-saw back up, “A modron’s eyes turned into hers, and she spoke through its voice! She was looking for that maniac Holder! She used a modron to get his attention after it failed to kill us! They have some kind of pillar that warps reality on a huge scale…I helped them make a machine that warps reality, so therefore, she has sent this army to help warp the world into something just as deformed as she is!”

The man in the black scarf didn’t say anything at first. He just stood there, then grabbed his chin in thought.

“She spoke through a modron…that isn’t something an arcanist like her can do…and she used it but not a speaking mirror…Holder should still have his…”

“Yes, because she wanted to kill us all and not tell that idiot so he wouldn’t blow the attack! She probably just told him that near the end to get his guard down. It worked like a charm too!”

The man in the black scarf looked up, locking his black eyes with Hein’s, and smiled.

“You’re assuming too much. I know Symmette has to be in danger, and if she was, she would only have a small chance to communicate with someone she trusts. I can’t reach her, which was normally quite simple, and if Azra Holder can’t speak to her then something is seriously wrong.”

“If she only spoke through a modron…somehow…then she must be in danger and unable to get any cries for help out. I knew there was a reason that message was garbled…”

Hein just scowled and pointed his sword up more, “You’ve met her and still think she isn’t behind this? How? She’s utterly insane! That should be obvious to you!”

The man in the black scarf’s thick eyebrows furrowed, “The facts are obvious to me. Sure, she is crazy, but not to the point of violence or doing something like this. The axiomania Ailia possesses is severe, that much is certain, but she isn’t going to start a war with a whole world.”

Hein laughed bitterly and took another step towards the man in the black scarf. Hein couldn’t help but find it funny that so many people gave Symmette the benefit of the doubt. Sure, maybe Rexi and the other adventurers just wanted to appease Holder, but this man was a researcher. If he had actually met Symmette, and didn’t see how unhinged she was, this man had to have some sort of underlying madness. After all, the man looked like he was part shark.

“You called her a “caliban”, are you one of these things too? I haven’t seen anything like you before.” Hein asked, now seeming more curious that irritated.

“No. I’m…well there isn’t time to go into what I am. A caliban is a deformed being typically born from human parents. I know they mostly live in the Shadowfell…and Ailia Symmette is the only one I’ve ever met. She’s not the usual kind, but still functionally one of them after the… No, listen…we need to find out what…”

Hein interrupted the man in the black scarf, “So if you aren’t, why are you a shark-person? Did you strive to make yourself more perfect…? Did she help you?”

The man in the black scarf shouted, which caused his mouth to fully open.

“No, damn it, listen to me! We need to figure out what the Sword of Automata is so this invasion can be stopped! I don’t care if you hate Ailia, but if we don’t find out where this blade is, a lot of people are going to die! I know you lived in that city, so you have to know something about it!”

Hein caused his mechanical hand to detach and begin to scurry behind the man in the black scarf. Hein saw the near-absent white of the shark-man’s eyeballs as his black eyes tried to follow the hand without fully turning his head. The man in the black scarf focused his eyes on Hein, but he didn’t look frightened. If anything, he looked almost sad.

Hein pointed his sword back down, and made a hand motion. The mechanical hand stopped only a few feet from the man in the black scarf.

“Listen…if there is a “Sword of Automata” I have never heard of it…”

Hein watched the man in the black scarf exhale and his head start to droop. He looked like he was on the verge of despair.”

“You really shouldn’t worry though; I think Symmette has outsmarted you. She has convinced you that she was your friend, and if I had to guess, gave you information for you to categorize about whatever kind of abomination she is. You’re a researcher; I’m sure information like that is valuable to you if you stay here and study monster-fish…”

“Listen…try and think. Is it an angel’s sword? Maybe you saw a room in the city with weapons for…”

“No.” Hein retorted. “Symmette only had matching short swords, and the only person I saw around her with weapons was Holder and a blind creature she trained at swordplay with. None of them had an artifact sword that could end an invasion.”

The man in the black scarf looked genuinely afraid. He started to pace around in circles. Hein’s hand started to follow, but quickly stopped once he motioned a command signal. Hein just watched, still trying to see the man in the black scarf’s part in all of this.

The man in the black scarf stopped walking, and kept his back to Hein. He folded both hands behind his back before speaking.

“Have you actually laid eyes on Symmette since this invasion started?” The man in the black scarf said, now sounding more collected.

“Well, no, but as I said, it couldn’t be more obvious that she’s doing this.”

Hein heard the man in the black scarf chuckle, though he didn’t turn around.

“And what if she isn’t? Are you so certain, so ready to gamble all those lives? You never planned to deal with something else?”

Hein’s hand started to scurry at the man in the black scarf, but stopped just short of his heels. The man in the black scarf didn’t turn around. Hein, however, was now furious.

“Don’t think that you know more than I do, monster! I’m doing everything I can to save this world! What are you doing? Setting on a boat trying to toy with dreams? I’m not the one risking lives here! We can’t get caught up on “what ifs” right now!”

The man in the black scarf spun around. In one fluid motion, he swung his left leg out as he did, and kicked Hein’s mechanical hand. The blow looked like it expended no effort at all, but managed to throw the hand far enough away to send it over the ship’s edge. Hein felt his connection to the hand immediately severed as it entered the dark water.

With a quick stomp, and his left foot now pointed at Hein, the man in the black scarf clenched a gray fist. His shark-like mouth was no longer attached at the cheeks as he shouted.

“What if? Such a vitally important question! You never once thought of what to do in case this wasn’t Symmette? You’re an engineer! You should be smarter than this!”

Hein was a bit stunned by the scene, but held up his sword as the man in the black scarf ran up to him. The man in the back scarf didn’t look like he was going to attack Hein, though he did look angry.

“Well, I have! Ever since she sent me that message, I’ve tried to figure out what’s going on at that tower! Me being in this silent sea is only to keep prying eyes away! Scrying can’t see what happens here! Psionics won’t either! Fiends don’t sleep, and can’t dream, so they can’t learn what I do here! This place is a refuge to stay until I can come up with a plan!”

Hein’s backwards hand gripped his auto-saw tighter. The mechanical droning became an even louder shriek as he took a step towards the man in the black scarf.

“Don’t insult my intelligence! You’ve been conned by a twisted creature who wants the Prime Material Plane to be just as twisted as her! Maybe that’s how she found you; she wanted other people who turned themselves into monsters! Tell me everything she said to you if you want this invasion to stop!”

The man in the black scarf just grinned, “Yes, I know she finds people that turned themselves into monsters. She found you after all. I imagine she was intrigued by the idea of working with a dwarf who preferred to be tiefling!”

Hein screamed and lunged at the man in the black scarf. As he swung his auto-saw downwards, he felt like his body was being pushed against by the air around him. It felt like molasses, and the area around the man in the black scarf grew dark. Time slowed down for Hein as he watched his blade touch nothing but darkness. The darkness grew, and he felt himself falling.

Hein jolted awake at his desk. Strangely enough, the Mimir was lying in plain sight in a recently opened drawer.

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As the Fighting Five advanced, they found that the tower was rather quiet. While Rexi walked down the silent bronze corridors, she realized that they didn’t have a clear destination. The strange clones Hein left weren’t exactly pictures of leadership, and Rexi wasn’t sure that the stumbling creatures were capable of showing the way.

“Slatecutter! Slatecutter are you there?” Rexi shouted at the ceiling. She heard no disembodied voice, but several of the clones stared at her.

“Don’t just shout like that, what if those modrons hear us…” Theril half-whimpered as the party advanced.

“Theril, we are going to be killing a lot of modrons. You need to realize that we are, more likely than not, going to find them in large numbers with little to aid us other than the choke points in this tower.” Rexi shouted as she continued.

Rexi heard Toenails laugh, which caused her to stop. After thinking for a few seconds Rexi turned around and addressed her party.

“I don’t like this. Slatecutter wants Azra, a man he seems to hate, to go into some kind of locked room and solve a riddle that could get control over this tower. I don’t think Slatecutter really knows what will happen when those locks are opened…or might know exactly what happens and it ends up being something less than favorable for Azra”

“Mhmm…’specially if them locks jus’ make it do what its gonna do quicker,” Qresh growled.

“Exactly! We really need to take this slow. So far, the modrons aren’t up here…wherever here is…and the tiefling didn’t give us a direction.”

“Can you blame him?” Theril shouted back at Rexi. “If the statue is working for this Symmette monster we can’t be too careful…”

Theril said this rather confidently. Hearing “monster” caused Rexi to cringe, and quickly glance back at Azra who looked angry.

“She is not a monster, and if she is in danger, we may never stop the Pillar of Law from activating.” Azra half-shouted, as if he was fighting not to lose his temper.

Theril spun around, grabbing his sword hilt as he did, and in the midst of an arrogant laugh started to point it at the statue. The only thing stopping him was, as he took the half-second to face Azra, the human statue already had his sword out and half raised. The shock of being outdrawn stopped Theril, who just stared at Azra dumbly.

Rexi growled, then walked to stand in between the two.

“Theril, do not antagonize Azra or anyone else. If you do, and if you get attacked because of it, I won’t be the one to aid you. This pointless arguing over innocence is ending now!”

Qresh lumbered up and stood behind Rexi as she continued.

“I don’t know if Symmette is guilty, but it doesn’t matter now. We don’t have nearly enough answers, and we are rapidly losing focus of what is important…”

Azra briefly interrupted Rexi with, “I know she is not guilty” but his response was ignored.

“We are facing an invasion from another plane, and we are more than likely the only people who can stop it before it gets out of hand. Chult is much too far for any kingdom to amass a fleet to aid us. We, and more specifically Azra, are the only people who can stop this. If we bicker and argue instead of make progress, everyone is going to be killed or worse.”

Qresh nodded the whole time in agreement. Azra just watched, and looked more impressed than Theril or Tonenails.

“Yes. While I think Ailia Symmette’s innocence is obvious, I will accept your terms lady gnome.” Azra responded with a nod.

Rexi shot him an open-mouthed grin while Theril kept walking down the corridor.

Azra started to walk alongside Rexi as Qresh followed close behind.

“This tower can be deactivated, but I do not know exactly how. Solving these rooms will be like opening a massive lock, with each room being a tumbler. This lets the tower become capable of its primary function…but should also allow us to have the option of stopping it…in theory of course.

Rexi’s eyes widened as Azra spoke, “I say “in theory” simply because I am very familiar with this technology. Mechanus technology is fairly straightforward. It is designed not be complicated or prone to breaking or corruption. The fact this tower is unlocked just shows that whoever sent it here did not know what they were doing. I was mistaken before; I thought it had to have some sort of purpose. Though I do not know how so many modrons were corrupted into doing something like this.”

“You may not but I have told you all several times.” Hein’s voice chided.

Rexi was surprised that Hein had turned his ears in their direction again. Despite this, she just yelled up at the ceiling.

“We aren’t doing this anymore! No more talk of whether or not the symmetry woman is guilty until we stop this invasion!”

Hein laughed, “You are being escorted by my soldiers, and are using my resources. You aren’t in command here, and can’t give me orders. I’m the one helping you all survive, remember?”

Rexi looked angry to say the least, but did realize that she had no leverage. Azra just walked faster, then practically ran ahead of the party.

When the group caught up, they were in a large room like the one with the Symmette statue. This room had four staircases, with two on each side, and a path that lead up to a single door. Azra ran into the one on the left, and vanished inside of a square opening that looked like a door.

“You all need to see something when he first enters that room. I think it will help my case.” Hein’s voice chided.

Theril’s ears perked up at the mention of this, but Qresh stopped walking as if in protest.

“We ain’t doin’ nothin’ that ain’t gonna stop the mod-rones from comin’ outta this tower.”

“Yeah, I’s is tired o’listen’ to ye squabble! You’s gonna stop bitchin’ or we ain’t gonna help!” Toenails loudly shouted as if he had forgotten that he could control the volume of his voice.

Hein didn’t respond. Rexi was less worried about her soldiers, and more curious about Azra. The staircases had no handrails, so she had to be careful. While walking up the perfectly angled staircase, Rexi noticed something extremely strange. Maybe because it was dark, or that they were too occupied with arguing or avoiding modrons, but Rexi noticed that the room was mirrored on the ceiling. It had staircases going up to the ceiling, with two on each side like the ground floor. It also had a main path going back out what Rexi imagined to be another main entrance door. The darkness concealed any other door openings, though Rexi didn’t even know if they were there.

Rexi was certain this was just part of the symmetry-based insanity she had been seeing this entire time. If anyone was going to put a staircase on the ceiling, it would be these people. Rexi pointed up to the stairs and turned to look at Qresh. She smiled, but noticed the sight of this unnerved the tortle.

“That ain’t right…no it ain’t…” Qresh grumbled with concern thick in his voice.

“Relax; it’s just these builders being crazy. Can you believe they wasted time doing that?” Rexi softly said as she fought back a chuckle.

This didn’t comfort Qresh, who continued to strain his eyes in the darkness as he examined the sight.

“Doubt they was wastin’ time…probably somethin’ we ain’t seein’ yet…”

Rexi followed Azra into the room, and saw him standing alone in front of what looked like some kind of countertop. The entire room was made of the same metal as the rest of the tower, but the device Azra stood in front of looked out of place. It was a newer color than the rest of the room, and was a counter tilted slightly up. The counter’s “top” was angled towards the door.

On the top of this counter was what appeared to be, possibly thousands, of small levers. They were tiny, each one hardly longer than the width of a human fingernail, and they were in perfectly ordered rows on the table. The table looked to be nearly twenty feet long, and was in the center of the perfectly square room.

Rexi stared at the table in shock, then looked up to Azra. He was staring at the table with a troubled look on his face.

“Please tell me you know what to do. I don’t think there’s a way to guess which one of those levers is the right one…” Rexi said as her voice trailed off.

Azra’s face briefly lightened, then he turned back to Rexi, “Wait, are you serious?”

Azra walked up to the table, and lifted a hand as if he was about to pull one of the tiny levers. The things were so small and so close together, it looked like the slightest twitch of the hand could pull several at once.

“W-wait!” Rexi shouted. “Before you touch those we need to see if there are traps or alarms…or something!”

Azra pulled back his readied hand, then turned to look at Rexi. Now his face looked almost grim.

“Well, to be frank, if I pull these in the wrong sequence, the consequences will be dire. I imagine it would cause a total purge, which is like if every twenty square foot of this tower’s interior were to have a fireball thrown at it…or at least that was the last failsafe we had in Automata on our cleaning cabinet. It may not be the failsafe in this tower…due to the massive amount of magic to cover every square surface…but it could be for this room… Of course, it will not harm the modrons or lawful creatures like me.”

Rexi was frozen with terror. Azra reached out again, which caused her to fight back a scream. She slapped both plated gauntlets over her face, and only managed to muffle the sound at the last second.

Azra turned back around, now looking to be actually happy, and lowered his hand again.

“Oh, I am quite sorry, I thought you understood. The purge only happens if I do this wrong. I cannot do this wrong…see how simple these levers are organized!”

Rexi looked at the levers on the table, looking like a metallic field filled with grim bronze soldiers standing at attention. She glanced at all the levers, then back up to Azra.

“Please…give me your word you know how to solve this…”

Azra just laughed, then flipped a switch, “You have my word lady gnome. This will only take a few seconds…”

As Azra flipped the levers, Rexi rushed outside. She nearly ran into Toenails on the way down, which caused her to scream without stopping herself. Thankfully she wasn’t consumed by fire, so Azra must have done something right.

“What’s a matter boss?” Toenails asked as he loudly scratched just under his stomach.

Toenails then slipped past Rexi, and actually started to go into the room. Rexi was too stunned at first to realize what was happening, but thankfully, did at the last minute.

Rexi grabbed Toenails by the Beard, and lead him down the stairs. Despite being a dwarf, who normally didn’t like their beards touched, Toenails didn’t protest. Once at the bottom of the stairs, Toenails looked at Rexi somewhat surprised.

“What was ‘at fer?” He asked as his one good eye twitched between Rexi and the door she had exited.

“I-I’m sorry…but you…cannot…go inside that room. If Azra messes up, we will all be incinerated.”

Once Rexi spoke, she looked at the hand that had grabbed Toenails’s beard, and noticed that it was absolutely soaked in some kind of grease. It looked like Rexi had dipped her hand in a honey jar…only it was not golden or pleasant smelling.

Rexi shook the strange sludge off her hand, and then looked back at Toenails. She wanted to make sure he understood the situation. Rexi fought to calm the panic in her voice.

“I shouldn’t have touched your beard, but you see how dire this is right?”

Rexi noticed that Toenails was quiet, but heard a loud hissing of spilling liquid. She nearly panicked until she realized that Toenails had pissed himself.

Azra exited the room shortly later, with a wide smile on his face. As he walked out, Rexi and the others felt the tower shift.

“Now we are one step closer to stopping the modron army!” Azra shouted triumphantly.

Rexi quickly backed away from the puddle rapidly encroaching on her boots, then tried to position herself so Azra couldn’t see it.

“Was it some kind of mathematical equation? Was it a pattern that all the Automata citizens had to memorize?” Rexi yelled up at Azra.

Azra grinned, then shook his head, “Oh no, it is something far overlooked by…wait…is that…?”

Before he could explain himself, Azra vomited out a stream of wet sand. Rexi narrowly dodged out of the way, but exposed Azra to Toenails. Toenails waived at Azra, who let out a garbled shout and coughed up another stream of vomit.

As Rexi tried to consul Azra, Theril couldn’t help but groan. He put a hand over his face and sighed. Qresh watched the scene as usual, with no visible emotion.

“Why did he do that in the floor?” Azra shrieked as he recoiled in horror on the steps.

“Oh, don’t you worry now, I’s can cleans it right up!” Tonenails shouted as he started to pull off his armor. Rexi just folded her arms.

“He thought we were going to die! Calm down, we could have been incinerated!” Rexi shouted, now losing patience.

“Incineration is better than smelling…that!” Azra shouted and pointed at Toenails who jollily smiled and waved.

Rexi looked unimpressed, and spoke dryly, “Really? You would rather die and be separated from all your loved ones than see piss in the floor?”

As Azra actually thought about his answer, Hein’s voice rapidly interrupted them.

“As hilarious as this is to watch, I should warn you that the modrons know where you are now. They’ll be flooding through that door you entered in maybe two minutes. Get Holder in the room and unlock this tower!”

Azra bolted to the second room, surprisingly ignoring Toenail’s mess. Rexi went back up the stairs. She had to see what the panel looked like, even if it was going to be nonsense to her. Upon entering, Rexi noticed that all the levers on the center row were flipped, along with the vertical levers in the middle. The table made an elaborate plus shape.

“You can’t be serious…” Rexi muttered in shock.

As Rexi looked back outside, Qresh was standing in front of the door with the clones. Theril was pacing near the far wall with his sword out, and Toenails had somewhat cleaned up the puddle. The fact he was buckling his now darkened armor back on did not comfort her.

Rexi noticed that the entrance door was very tall, but not very wide. Maybe three people could walk though…it wasn’t a perfect choke point, but it would have to suffice. Rexi glanced up at the ceiling, and was again able to make out that strange mirrored staircase.

“How soon can your army help us? Can you come down here instead of just project your voice?” Rexi shouted, hoping that Hein would acknowledge her.

“Not just now lass, but my boys will be there as fast as possible. It shouldn’t take them longer than a few minutes. If things get bad, I’ll ‘port them in…but I’ve been a little to careless with that system…it has less charges than I thought.”

Rexi drew her longsword and started to run to the other staircase. Once she got to it, she heard Hein Shout again.

“Keep Holder focused before those things barge in!”

Rexi didn’t interrupt Azra, but peeked inside. The next room was the same dimensions as the last, but only had a singular podium-like stand with a knob on it. Azra was turning the nob several different directions, so fast Rexi couldn’t make out a pattern. She quickly ducked back out of the door and readied herself for combat.

The party could hear marching. The modrons; those metallic feet all marching in tandem was causing the floor to vibrate with their precisely orchestrated footfalls. Rexi could actually hear their chant…which was still in common. As the seconds winded down, the door started to crack open.

“Supper time boys!” Rexi heard Hein shout.

As the door opened wider, when one of the box-men could be seen, the bitey clone screamed.

“H-head…cheese!”

Less than a second after it shouted, the clone lunged, propelling itself through the air right at the first modron in sight. It landed, mouth first, onto the modron. The clone bit hard into the thing’s head, and tore out a sizable chuck of surprisingly flesh-like material. Rexi could have sworn she saw brain matter before the morsel turned into metallic dust, along with the rest of the modron.

The other clones charged, each one tearing at the oncoming modrons like starving wolves. The contrast between them and the modrons was incredible; while the modrons stayed ordered, and tried to keep lost ranks filled, the clones swung and bit at any modron in range. The frenzy was so violent, Qresh was having trouble getting close enough to hit anything.

As Qresh tried to enter the fray, an arrow flew past his head and into a modron. Theril had his bow out, and was firing at any modrons attempting to get past the clones. A bolt of fire blasted one back that evaded Theril’s arrows, thrown by Toenails who nodded. The modrons kept rank, but it wasn’t clear how long it would be before the Fighting Five were overrun. reassuringly at Rexi.

Nearly all the effort put into keeping the Modrons back was done by the clones. Their swords turned the modrons to dust nearly on contact. Despite this, there were far too many modrons. Rexi was noticing the clones falter more, and one in particular was oozing far too much painted blood.

“Let some through! Make a channel so we can help you kill them!” Rexi shouted at the clones.

“Just don’t let too many…”

The clones obeyed without question. Unfortunately, more modrons got through than Rexi wanted to. The modrons that managed to spill in ran into the room, instead of stopping to overpower or surround the clones. Qresh let out a rumbling roar, and killed two modrons at once in his charge. Two more took their place, and a lone modron managed to run up the stairs.

Rexi saw Toenails toss a blob of flame at it, but missed. The modron quickly ran into the room Azra was in. Rexi’s heart sank, but she didn’t hear any sounds of violence. There was only silence from the room that was being quickly broken up by the sounds of battle.

Azra had solved an even easier puzzle this time. All he had to do was remember the first two-hundred prime numbers…a dully simple task. He turned to face the door, only to see a lone modron staring at him.

Azra started to draw his sword, but this modron’s silence was unusual. Was it her? Was she trying to speak to him? As if hearing Azra’s thoughts, the modron’s eyes changed color. As its mouth opened, Azra listened intently.

“Remember…remember…and…bring me the sword…for the last lock…”

After that brief explanation, the modron reached out and touched Azra. He felt magic overcome him, but ignored it.

“Do you need my sword? Just take it! Take it and tell me where she is…where you are!”

Azra practically forced the scimitar into the hands of the modron.

Rexi entered the room, seeing Azra giving the modron his sword. She started to panic, for a brief second thinking that maybe Azra was trying to get them killed, but as he offered his sword, the modron lunged. The creature had both jaws clamped on Azra’s left shoulder, and was ignoring the sword.

Rexi charged the modron as Azra just stood there shocked. With Rexi’s killing blow, it turned to dust and his sword fell to the ground. Azra started to explain, but felt his body tense up. He was rapidly losing control of his body, but that wasn’t all. He was become truly solid…like a real statue.

As Rexi started to say something, Azra fell to the floor. His lower body stayed in one piece, much to Rexi’s shock, but his upper body was still malleable enough to grab the blade. Once he touched it, he could move normally. Rexi could only stare in shock.

“I-I’m sorry. It spoke in her voice and wanted my sword. I…forgot I need my sword to retain my form and not be fully petrified.”

Rexi just looked at Azra with confusion. After about two seconds she shook her head rapidly, as if trying to get herself back in focus.

“We need you to finish the other locks? Where are they?”

Azra walked back outside, and pointed up. Suddenly Rexi understood.

“Why did they put the mirror version of this room on the ceiling? To make it harder to open? Why were you giving that thing your sword…if you need it to live? What is happening?”

Rexi was clearly confused, and the sounds of violence below her didn’t make the situation better. Looking down, she noticed that one clone had fallen, and Qresh had taken the blade it had and was quite literally mowing down modrons like a reaper harvesting grain. Theril and Toenails were keeping the onslaught of modrons contained from afar.

Azra grabbed Rexi by the shoulder so she could face him.

“The modron spoke with her voice and needed my sword to help unlock the tower. It put an enchantment on me to finish the lock! Ailia is helping us! I-I only got carried away…and forgot about my condition…I can explain later but look!”

To Rexi’s shock, Azra started to walk up the ceiling. He had to be using a spider climb spell. As Azra was heading towards the door, Rexi knew she was going to have to trust him. She couldn’t just sit by and let her companions do all the fighting. Rexi nodded up at Azra, then leapt off the stairway and into the fray.

Rexi landed in the center of several modrons, and managed to quickly kill one with a downward swing. Her returning swing back across cut one modron in the eyes, and parried blows coming from two more. As Rexi fought, she could see the situation clearly. Her soldiers were getting pinned.

Theril had switched to using his sword now that the modrons had advanced, and was only barely keeping two modrons at bay. Toenails had his magical stick, but Rexi couldn’t tell if he had a spell going or his filth repulsed the modrons too much. Qresh and the clones were still doing well, but enough modrons were getting around them that Rexi wasn’t sure if she could fight them all off.

Rexi heard what sounded like a gong. All the modrons stopped in place, which gave the Fighting Five enormous ground. Just that lone second of no modrons advancing made Rexi think that they would have a chance. Immediately after, the modrons all shrieked in tandem. A bronze wave came crashing through the door, trampling one clone and nearly overwhelming Qresh.

The gong sounded again, and another tide came in the room, only from the other door. This, however, was not modrons.

“Get back up the stairs, disengage!” Rexi shouted as she scampered up the stairwell she had jumped off of.

The modrons ignored Rexi and her men. They seemed to be enraged, and rightfully so. Hein’s army had come, and in just the time he said they would.

Mismatched golems were the first thing that caught Rexi’s eyes. They were so randomized; made of so many different materials, she couldn’t tell what type any one of them was. A clay-bodied golem had the head of a scarecrow, and one arm made of crystal. One golem had a dead man’s head on the body of a stone, only instead of legs it sported a single wheel.

Two golems, what looked like ones made of steel with the thin, jointed arms a mannequin would have, were holding very wide paintings. The paintings had what looked like asymmetric images of men from the chest up. The strange images suddenly climbed out of the canvas, showing that they not only had lower bodies, but weapons to match their strange forms. The painted men kept marching out of the canvas, until possibly twenty met the modrons.

The most common construct in the army were animated armors. If was difficult for Rexi to distinguish these soldiers, simply because no one piece matched on their bodies. The animated armors blurred together in a storm of chaos and carnage, managing to not only halt but drive the modrons back almost instantly.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The fight lasted seconds. By the time Toenails had hobbled up the stairs, the tail end of Hein’s army was pushing the modrons back from where they came. It appeared that the modrons were actually retreating.

After a short glance at the party, Rexi could tell no one had been hurt.

“Azra is almost done solving the puzzles. He only has two more…wait…one more!”

Rexi shouted as she noticed Azra quickly walking to the other door on the ceiling.

Once Azra was out of earshot, Rexi continued, “Another modron spoke to him, and I think it tried to steal his sword.”

Rexi didn’t have to comment anything else, the situation explained itself.

“When he dropped the sword, his body almost hardened completely. Toenails, if he gets fully petrified and can’t move, I need you to retrieve his body from the ceiling. If it breaks…do all you can to reshape him. Since we can’t walk on walls, I’m going to go into the last room and make sure he isn’t ambushed.”

Toenails stood outside the door with his druidic focus, which instead of being a sprig of mistletoe was some kind of floppy, vaguely phallic object. Qresh followed Rexi until she started up the stairs. The large tortle had to sidestep just to walk up the stairs.

Inside the room, Azra was facing what looked like a lone podium. It had a large orb on it, and Azra was about to put his hands on it. Rexi waved at him, who looked down at the floor in confusion.

“Just here to make sure you don’t get ambushed”, Rexi whisper-shouted at the ceiling.

Azra’s face looked somewhat grim. He turned away from her, then put his opened hands just a hair’s width from the orb’s surface.

“Lady Rexi, whatever happens next, just trust that I am doing the right thing. If Ailia reveals herself, do not attack her. Even if she takes my sword, do not attack her.”

Rexi tried to hide her fear, and smiled awkwardly up at the statue standing on the ceiling.

“I won’t…but maybe just handing over your weapon is a bad idea. If you need it to stay alive, giving it to this woman would just mean this was all for nothing.”

Azra shook his head, “You can speak to Ailia if she comes here; she is much more intelligent and articulate than I am…”

Rexi didn’t have time to stop Azra. He grabbed the orb then froze. He looked to be in a trance with his eyes open. Due to his stone-like nature, he looked exactly like a statue. Rexi couldn’t do anything except look up in wonder. She kept alert though, making sure to listen for any kind of footfall. The room was deathly silent.

“Ettin girl ain’t done it!” Qresh’s voice boomed, causing Rexi to jump in place. Rexi turned, fighting the urge to shout at Qresh, but instead looked up at Azra. He was in the same place. Rexi then turned back to the entrance and looked at Qresh.

“Don’t just scream like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack, and I’m trying to make sure Azra stays safe doing...whatever in the Nine Hells he is doing…”

Qresh’s emotionless face gazed down at Rexi.

“Mod-rones tryin’ to trick us…we need to find this ettin girl and get her to tell us whats goin’ on…mmhh…”

Rexi rubbed a plated hand over her face, and turned back inside the room. She heard Qresh lumber back down the stairs.

Rexi expected to be greeted by two pairs of eyes glowing in the dim room, but instead was met with the same scene as before. She looked up at Azra, who was still stuck in his previous position. Rexi really didn’t know if he should stay like that, or if it was safe to call out to him. They couldn’t wait forever though. The modrons certainly couldn’t…

Rexi’s concentration was broken again by the whirl of teleportation magic. She jumped, albeit shorter this time, and turned around to see Hein.

“Lass…you need to listen to this while Holder is occupied…all of you need to listen…”

Hein ran down the stairs. Rexi glanced back up to Azra, then reluctantly followed Hein.

Qresh was watching Hein as he walked, never taking his eyes off the Tiefling for a second. Theril and Toenails had already walked up to Hein, Theril seemingly interested in whatever Hein was holding.

Hein held what appeared to be a metal skull. It had gears in the eye sockets, and strange metal tubes in random places looping through it. Hein held it aloft where all of the Fighting Five could see.

“This is called a Mimir unit. It’s like a construct that memorizes and repeats words it hears. It can’t lie, and only functions to store knowledge. This one came to me, as a gift, from Symmette. She used to own this thing for years until she gave it to me. It has several things recorded on it…but one in particular you need to hear.”

Hein started to fiddle with the skull, as the rest of the party started to crowd around it. All except Qresh, who just stood in place with his sword resting on his shoulder. The skull suddenly emitted a soft light from its eyes. The gears also started to spin, and to the party’s amazement, the skull started to float.

“I am a Mimir, a magical construct designed to provide information…I can…”

Hein quickly shouted over the Mimir, “Play Council of Anarchy final judgement!”

The Mimir didn’t speak, it just made a strange winding noise. The thing then started to speak in a perfectly clear voice that drastically differed from its own.

“T-that’s…I didn’t even know stuff like this was possible. How is it doing that?” Rexi whispered.

Rexi rapidly shook her head, as if trying to wake herself up. She was now realizing that Hein was here instead of helping his army chase down the modrons.

“Wait, why are you here with a machine when your soldiers are busy fighting?”

Hein tilted up his head, so his eyes were more visible. The black orbs held what could only be described as mischief.

“Don’t tell me you’re not curious…most gnomes would borderline kill just to get a glance at one of these.”

Rexi’s brow furrowed, though her voice stayed the same pitch.

“We’re trying to stop an invasion; not see what sort of toys you’ve made.”

Hein chuckled, “As if I don’t know what the lads will do to those modrons. We caught them by surprise and broke their ranks. When they lose organization, their tactics fall apart. And besides, the modrons we’ve found didn’t have any real weapons, only relying on their numbers. My boys will kill those modrons and march right back here.”

Rexi glanced around to the others, who now were paying very close attention to the skull. The skull had spoken briefly like a man with a well-mannered, but very strange, voice. It then quickly switched to what sounded like a nervous human man trying to get whoever he was speaking with to go on some task Rexi had missed. The final voice was that of a human woman, who spoke very serene and direct. Rexi first actually paid attention after what she said.

“Go, and do this so that we may indeed join Mechanus…”

The Mimir made another winding noise, and a loud burst of metal being smashed against metal came from its mouth. This was just a sound it was imitating, but it was jarring none the less.

‘These burks don’t know when to give up do they? Really thinkin’ we’re just a bunch of vermin to stamp out! They only sent one modron, and even took a Mimir with em like we’d jus’ ignore it too!”

The female voice sounded absolutely sure of herself. Another female voice, which sounded much more high-class and commanding, took over the conversation.

“Ravis, that was one lone modron. Do you know why the council of order would send in only one modron to try and stop us? It was carrying a message, probably another court decree, and you just put your sword in its gullet!”

A man’s voice interjected, “I told her somethin’ about this wasn’t right! You never listen Ravis!”

“Oh stuff it Leggis, you yellow-spotted, pointy-eared…”

The more refined female voice shouted. The reverberation in this woman’s shout told Rexi that, whatever she was, it wasn’t human.

“Quiet both of you! I hear footsteps!”

The other voices ceased their bickering, and indeed, the Mimir picked up the gentle tapping of hard-soled shoes.

“Are you seein’ this right Aurach?” The man’s voice half-shouted.

The woman named Aurach didn’t respond, but the stranger did.

“I understand that you three are allegedly the Council of Anarchy, but are you really so uncouth as to slay a messenger at first sight? Typical…”

It was clear who this was. The twin voices told the party all they needed to know. Symmette’s voice didn’t match her emaciated figure; it was very commanding and deeper than a woman of very short stature. The voice didn’t sound too different than the councilwoman called Aurach, though it was less harsh and lacked emotion.

“What in the Nine Hells are you supposed to be?” The woman called Ravis screamed, a little too panicked.

“No, not in the Nine Hells Ravis, because if she is from the Hells, I would have seen whatever she is…they are?”

Symmette’s voices shouted back, they now held hints of anger, and managed to best the fiend.

“Living in the sewers has skewed your judgements and warped your minds…not an uncommon occurrence for people who dwell in such places. To answer your question, no, I am not a “they”, I am me…more specifically Ailia Symmette of the Council of Order. I have been appointed by Primus himself to fix this town, and to totally remove the cancer that is disorder!

“Sod off!” The man shouted. “There’s only one of you, and three of us, and one’s a fiend! You only brought a Mimir and one modron we just cut down!

“Yeah!” Ravis chided. “You came down here all alone…like you’s got a deathwish. Maybe she does. If I looked like that, I’d want to be shanked too.”

Leggis and Ravis chuckled, but Aurach did not.

“Coming here was a mistake. Even if you came in peace…understand that your precious laws and customs are not honored here…that is…unless you can convince us otherwise.”

Rexi was surprised to hear what sounded like Symmette giggling. It was so soft; Rexi could have easily confused it with some part of the Mimir making a noise. She knew it was a laugh due to the growling of the Leggis and Ravis characters in the recording.

“Leggis Scrog, Ravis Corcuncewl, and Aurach the Fair, you have all been judged as guilty without possible doubt by the high court of the Fraternity of Order. You three were instrumental in planting a timed force bomb inside the council chambers, which managed to detonate and wipe out approximately seventy-three percent of the council’s constituents. You are to come with me in bonds to be judged, or face immediate consequences.”

There was silence for a few seconds. Rexi expected the two mortals to say something threatening, or at least something rude, to Symmette. The only one to speak up was Aurach.

“Who do you think you are? I know that the Council of Order is arrogant, but I have never seen anything like you…and I have personally served not one, but three Archdevils! Do you really think that you, some twisted parody of mortal life, can stop me?”

Symmette only met the fiend’s words with her same, emotionally lacking tone.

“Our envoy had all of the terms laid out very clearly. I would have at least expected a devil to read them all, or ask me what they were, since your minions preemptively destroyed the messenger. I can list them now if you would like?”

“You won’t be lecturin’ us anymore!” Leggis growled.

Symmette just continued with her usual cold voice.

“I should note that, any refusal to abide by the terms I have previously stated will be met with…”

Symmette’s voices trailed off as a magical swish filled the Mimir’s voice.

“…total annihilation…”

Hein winced upon hearing that. Rexi noticed that he stopped to inspect the faces of everyone present. When his eyes landed on Rexi, she saw that he actually looked somewhat afraid.

What followed was another bang, but this one sounded like the sound of a spell going off. The sound was muffled, as if the Mimir had recorded the blast and combat from farther away. Shortly after, Rexi heard screams and the sound of combat. As the fighting continued, the sound grew louder and louder. Based on the curses and accents, whatever the blast was, it had obviously not harmed the Mimir, but nearly killed Leggis and Ravis.

The sounds of fighting grew louder, and only stopped with a magical hum and Symmette shouting a strange incantation.

“Tendere umbra!”

The party heard what sounded like several whips cracking, then a creaking, almost tightening tone, finally finished with grunts and coughs as Aurach gasped for breath.

“Bombs and tricks…will not…save you…you…twisted…”

Now that they heard her speak, Aurach sounded more than just out of breath. From her strained voice, Rexi guessed she was either wounded or, despite how odd it seemed for a fiend, afraid.

A shrill scream came out of the Mimir, followed by a snapping sound, and another score of swords clashing against each other. The entire time, Rexi noticed that Symmette never made a noise. She had heard Aurach growl or shout, but nothing from Symmette.

The combat ended, to Rexi’s guess, with a choking sound coming from Aurach. Rexi heard the fiend spit something onto the ground, then more loud breathing. As the fiend did nothing but wheeze or cough, Rexi heard a male voice shriek, followed by a female one.

“You…you haven’t won yet…I will return…and remember …” Aurach managed to cough out. Her speech was garbled by something wet, which clearly told the party of her condition.

“Oh no, I am afraid not. There will be no returning to the Nine Hells for you, because as I said, this punishment is total…” Symmette chided with her typical, emotionless voice.

The sounds of ruffling were heard, as if Symmette was taking something out of a pocket or bag, followed by a horrified shriek from the fiend. The Mimir emitted a brief metallic thunk, followed the dry thud of an ash-laden body hitting the ground. The last bit of sound that came from the Mimir was a loud brushing. Rexi could picture Symmette dusting herself of the fiendish remains.

Once the Mimir finished, its eyes dimmed and it fell from the sky. Hein caught it with his good hand, then grinned widely. The Fighting Five just stared at him, as if waiting for an explanation.

“She killed those people and totally annihilated a fiend. This was the first action Ailia Symmette did when put in charge of Automata.”

The rest of the party just stared. Qresh was the first one to speak up about what they had witnessed.

“She shanked a demon an’ two hobos for killin’ people…mhh…sounds good to me…ettin girl didn’t do nothin’…mmh nope...”

Hein rubbed his forehead as the adventurers started to lose his focus and walk away.

Hein tried to yell at Qresh as he lumbered away, “It’s more than that! She’s psychotic! Totally obliterated that…”

“The fiend? And this is our problem why?” Rexi growled with barely restrained anger.

“This is the mindset of a crazy person…can’t you see it! Who kills people and calls it “total annihilation?” That’s certifiably insane! Also, the one called Aurach was an erinyes, not just a typical devil! Do you know how dangerous they are?”

Rexi rushed up to Hein, pointing her finger right as his face as she started to shout.

“No! We are not having this conversation! No more! I don’t care what reasons or proof you have; we are not going to keep bickering over this woman’s innocence!”

“You said “woman.” She is a monster…she doesn’t have the same mindsets and determinations as we have…” Hein retorted.

“I don’t give a damn if she lives in the Hells and eats out of a cauldron filled with boiled puppies, we aren’t going to discuss this until we find her, or she comes to us!” Rexi shouted, her voice becoming more high-pitched as she continued.

Hein started to yell back, but stopped himself at the last second. His large mouth crept into a grin, and he took a few breaths before speaking.

“I’m sorry…I have been preparing for this for so long, I keep getting rash. Don’t mistake my intent; I know that you will not take a side on this person’s innocence. I just want you all to understand what you’re dealing with here. This is a dangerously smart planeswalker with very specific drives and intentions only a twisted mind can grasp.

Hein took another breathe before he continued, “I know you think she’s innocent, but I’m warning you all that if you completely trust these axiomaniacs, you will end up being more than disappointed.”

The anger drained from Rexi’s face, and was replaced by a look of confusion.

“I have never heard the word “axiomaniac” before. What is that exactly?”

Hein grinned wider as the tone of his voice lightened noticeably, “It’s a word I came up with…while living in Automata…yes…but it’s a fancy term for ill conditions of the mind that are driven by law. I would bet that planar influences cause it the strongest, but sometimes mortals exhibit excessive compulsive traits that cause…

“Hey…mmmh…statue’s twitchin’…” Qresh growled out over Hein’s voice.

Rexi looked up at the ceiling to see that Azra, while standing motionless, had his head rapidly twitching in different directions.

“Statue! Are you being harmed by the tower?” Theril shouted.

Rexi tried to stop him, and held up a plated hand in protest. Theril just grimaced.

“If we break his concentration and he messes up, we could all die!” Rexi Shouted.

“Nope…we’ve been makin’ lotsa’ noise sense devil boy played that there talkin’ skull…mmh…statue had plenty o’time to wake up…”

Rexi’s face relaxed as Qresh’s gravelly voice stopped any protest Theril could give.

“…yes, I’m sorry Theril, this has been more stressful that I realized. Hells…fighting the modrons was easier and wasn’t nearly as scary as this…”

Theril blinked in astonishment before speaking, “I…cannot believe you admitted to being afraid…you short ones usually try so hard to act fearless.”

“I’m certainly not fearless, but it isn’t good manners for a commander to whine and scream at everything that scares her.”

“HEY STATUE! YE LOOSES YER STONES YET!” Toenails shrieked at the ceiling.

Rexi jumped and let out a panicked squeak. She then spun around to face Toenails; the formerly placid look on her face turning to rage in an instant. Theril let out a haughty laugh, while Hein actually walked into the room.

Azra was still twitching, but to Hein’s knowledge, it didn’t look like any medical problem he had seen before.

“If I had to bet…and I have a lot of gold…I would bet that he’s fine. The magics of the lawful planes are very strange to say the least.

Hein slipped out a small pocket watch and briefly glanced at it. His army should have been back by now.

“I’ll return shortly, just make sure he doesn’t go even more insane or do anything stupid!”

Hein swiftly trotted in the direction of his army. Rexi was a little worried, but knew if Hein could teleport on a whim here, he should have time to escape if anything goes wrong. Gazing back to the ceiling, she instead wondered what exactly Azra was doing.

Azra Holder found himself in a wholly white room. While most sane people would have been afraid, or at least wondering what was happening, Holder was at peace.

“Of course, I almost forgot how clever the builders of this tower are. What a lovely place to speak to a liaison of Mechanus.”

Azra dropped to his knees onto the floor. As Azra reached for his blade, he quickly realized that his sword was no longer in its sheath…which was a worrying prospect.

Azra started to panic, but as he stood, he noticed another figure walking towards him. It had the shape of a man, but was the color of bronze. As it got closer, Azra could see that it had its armor crafted into its body, and also had a menagerie of whirling cogs under the armor’s plates.

The mechanical man stopped right in front of Azra, but said nothing. Azra couldn’t see the man’s face from his helmet…or was the helmet his face? Whatever kind of machine-entity this was, Azra felt like he has seen it before, but couldn’t remember for sure.

“G-grovelthrash?” Azra managed to stammer out. The light inside the white room had somehow gotten brighter, and Azra was having more trouble focusing on the mechanical man.

The metal man spoke, in a voice that sounded alien but paradoxically familiar. It was such an irritating feeling for Azra; to hear something he felt should be intimately familiar, but at the same time be unrecognizable.

“You are at the final lock of the Pillar of Law. You do know what is required of you?”

Azra just stood in silence. He thought he would meet a high-ranking modron and say the usual numerical code for the Pillar of Law…but this didn’t appear to be the case. Azra had never seen, or at least couldn’t remember seeing, whatever this man was. It looked like a Kolyarut, which was a type of inevitable.

Inevitables were mechanical beings that upheld the highest standards of cosmic laws. Azra knew of several, but none looked like this. Kolyaruts weren’t this tall or imposing, and usually weren’t the color of bronze.

As he analyzed the mechanical man, a flood of memories came back to Azra. He remembered that his sword, Grovelthrash, had started to become an inevitable and not a fiend. He couldn’t remember if it succeeded or not though…

“You are Grovelthrash…right…” Azra tried to say with some iota of command.

The possible inevitable stared, as if trying to think of the proper thing to say.

“I am, and I am not. The fact that you cannot recall what has happened is troubling to me.”

“Could you…could you fill in my memories?” Azra blurted, now losing the stability in his voice.

The mechanical man didn’t move, but did answer, “I cannot. You and I share memories, but I may yet be able to aid you.”

Azra looked excited. The mechanical man lifted up both arms, and both had blades shoot out just above its clenched hands. The blades were starting to glow with heat. In a blinding flurry, the mechanical man sliced the air, and Azra felt the white room move.

“This lock is opened. In order to stop the tower, I will have to use my power to cut it.”

Azra’s eyes lit up, “Exactly, because you can cut through anything!”

“Yes, but my memory is fogged as yours. The solution should reveal itself to be slain. The Sword of Automata cannot be brought low by such trickeries.”

Azra’s eyes widened, “So…Grovelthrash…you are the Sword?”

The mechanical man looked up, and shook his head, “You should know this. Grovelthrash is not the name that…”

Before he could finish, darkness started to envelop the room.

Azra glanced around, only to feel a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down, and under his armor there was what appeared to be claw marks. Each one burned badly, which caused Azra to wince. Once he opened his eyes again, Azra no longer saw the mechanical man.

Instead, standing before Azra appeared to be a man-sized, animate pillar of feces. The thing swirled with different colors and textures of filth. It had small pieces of undigested matter and hair jutting from its amorphous body. Despite being stone, Azra could clearly smell the monstrosity.

It shrieked, spitting drops of filth all over Azra’s face. The thing’s mucus-lined mouth had neither teeth nor form, and as its eyeless head rocked back, two pseudopods flopped out as if reaching for Azra. The monster lunged at Azra with the speed of a strong wave heading for the shore.

Azra bolted, not caring if he had nowhere to go inside this room. He kept running, not bothering to look back or anywhere that wasn’t straight in front of him. As he ran, he heard an all too familiar voice call out to him.

“Azra…where are you running off to?”

It was Ailia’s voice. Azra stopped, without turning around, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank all that is ordered! Please…Ailia I need you to help me find…”

As Azra turned around, he was greeted by a sight that scared him more than the monster. It was Ailia Symmette, but she was not the one he knew. The woman’s lone face, with only one set of mismatched-colored eyes, was beaming at him with her hands folded as unevenly as possible. Her no longer pallid face sported expensive makeup that had errors everywhere it was applied, no matter how slight they were. Her once perfect hair was now grown out, and had flowing, uneven, curls.

She was wearing a flowery, lace-riddled red dress that looked like something a noblewoman would wear on the Prime. As if the flowing skirt and uneven-frilled lace wasn’t enough, the dress was littered in randomly oriented flowers. Not one flower matched, and the dress itself was blowing very unevenly in a now present wind.

Azra screamed in absolute madness and terror at the sight. He was too frozen in horror to run, and simply fell to the ground. Azra never hit the ground. As the room faded, the last thing Azra noticed was that he was falling head first to the bronze floor of the tower.

Qresh lumbered up, getting surprisingly far for his size, but stopped short of catching the falling statue. Arza hammered into the ground with a ringing crash, landing head first and shaking the entire floor. Even though the human statue had landed on his head, he was able to rise to his feet without any trouble.

“You were supposed to catch him!” Rexi shouted as she caught up to the two.

“Mhm…missed him by ‘bout three feet…ain’t easy to catch somethin’ you don’t know’s gonna fall…”

Rexi just sighed and glanced over Azra, who didn’t look very hurt. In fact, Rexi was sure she saw small cracks around his head and neck, and stranger still, that these cracks were somehow closing themselves.

“Lady Gnome! I know what must be done! Ailia Symmette needs to see me immediately!”

Rexi’s eyes grew large, and she glanced back to Hein who had vanished.

“…I don’t know if…we need to actually find her…”

“I know what I have to do now. I do not know why these modrons have gone insane, but one thing that is clear to me is that they are susceptible to corruption rather easily. I believe some kind of outside force has corrupted them, and lead them here as an invasion. Why, I could not guess…”

Azra quickly drew his blade, and glanced over the party with a look of absolute certainty.

“This sword is the key to everything, and I am the only one who can use it!”

Almost like it was timed to happen, an arrow hit the outer side of Theril’s neck with a wet thud. Another two arrows bounced off of Qresh’s shell. One hit Rexi in an unarmored part of her thigh, followed by a final arrow hitting Qresh in the armpit. Toenails was seemingly not targeted by the volley.

Rexi dropped down to one knee, as Qresh ran up to provide cover with his shell. Azra heard Theril shriek, and could see Toenails running as fast as his short legs could take him to the wounded elf. Azra was confused to say the least, but he got his answer rather quickly.

Modrons now were flooding the doorways, and each one had a bow drawn. Azra rushed to the closest door and shouted back at the Fighting Five.

“Go inside the first room with the switches! It will provide more cover! Get that filthy dwarf to heal you all!”

Azra then bolted to the door with the modrons as arrows flew past him. Rexi was quickly scooped up by Qresh, who had effortlessly yanked the arrow from his flesh. Theril and Toenails were already waiting on them. Theril screamed loudly as Toenails proceeded to pull out the arrowhead. Rexi just peeped out the door. Where had the modrons came from? Where was Hein’s army? It made no sense to her. And worst of all, Azra was out there all alone.

The modrons recognized the statue’s form, but couldn’t fathom that it was Azra Holder. Despite that, their mechanical brains told them that mundane arrow fire wouldn’t suffice. Azra had dodged nearly all the shots, parried several more, and the one shot that did connect didn’t pierce his stone skin.

Once Azra was at the door, he moved in a blur. He cut down the modrons in a speed that should have been impossible for a creature as heavy as he was. The modrons didn’t fall by the number, but by the row. With each fluid swing, each flourish, and each riposte, modrons turned to dust before they hit the ground. Azra made as much progress with his blade as Hein’s clones did with their “construct killer” swords.

Now that he had ventured into the hall, the other modrons pulled out their swords. Each modron held two identical blades, and each advancing modron tried to swing in synchronization with the other ones. The modrons danced with a storm of bronze-colored blades, made of something more devious than steel.

Azra parried the first two in a fraction of a second. With another blur, his blade twisted, cut down the second and third modrons, and parried the last three. Once he had parried them, he took a step back, and watched the first modron plunge his blades into the fourth one. The thing had mistakenly moved to strike, and couldn’t catch its footing in time. With the fourth modron dead, and their order broken, the modron’s overly lawful minds couldn’t fathom what to do next.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have a second, or half second, to be confused. As the first killed the fourth, Azra swung out his sword in three horizontal strikes. The last modron lost its knees, the next one was killed outright, and the one after that tripped over the modron that had its knees cut. Azra flurried at the ground, and killed the remaining modrons mid-fall. The modron dust vanished before it dirtied Azra’s shoes.

It should be noted that this was only one row of modrons. There looked to be a near endless number of rows, all marching, and all using the same tactics as before. They failed just the same. In a terrifying cyclone of steel and modron dust, Azra Holder made his way down the hall. It seemed a miracle, but no modron blade had touched his stone skin.

While this might shock the average fighter, one should note that this man had lived with these orderly beings for years. He knew them better than they knew themselves, and save for Primus and possibly Symmette, was the one non-scholar who could predict their movements to a literal razor’s edge. In this case, the razor being a sword.

More important than all this though, was that when fighting the modrons, they broke rank and lost symmetry. To Azra Holder, fading dust and an empty hallway was more symmetrical than one filled with flailing modrons. He clearly couldn’t let the corridor stay like that.

From the opposite hall, the modrons were fighting a different battle. To Hein, they had teleported into the hallway. They had to have done that… no other option made sense. One moment, the coast was clear, then Hein heard a strange noise and just knew something was bad. Hein had no clue if these were the same army, or reinforcements from Automata, but they had badly ambushed his soldiers.

The modrons were marching through a litter of mismatched, and now lifeless armor. They were fighting harder than they did before. These modrons had swords instead of just teeth, and fought with a style Hein had seen before and knew all too well. It was her style… The modrons couldn’t fight as well as the monster, but they got close enough to warrant his concern.

Hein had almost lost a clone, which he commanded to go back to his lab to recuperate. Those damned clones were dumber than an ogre, but could mimic his fighting style exactly. The clone had to be teleported away, but Hein couldn’t teleport the Fighting Five out if he didn’t have sight of them. He had hoped they weren’t already dead, or killed by Holder, but he couldn’t know until the fighting dropped down enough to check.

Hein had been trapped at an intersection farther down from the central room’s entrance. From here, the modrons poured out and cut him and his army off. He couldn’t advance, and if his army stopped, the modrons would turn back to the Fighting Five.

Hein was an inventor first, and fighter second. He could do both, but not to the level of a trained swordsman. He leapt in when he could, but to fight more than three modrons without using his precious spells was something he couldn’t do. Hein couldn’t burn out his spells now, they had to be saved for dire situations. Hein’s hand was skittering around, occasionally pouncing on modrons that go too close. Hein managed to either parry or destroy any of the modrons that broke his line, though he was tiering fast.

The important thing to him now was protecting the adventurers. He had decided to show them that Mimir construct instead of follow and direct his army…

This ambush was entirely his fault.

Somehow Symmette anticipated what he would do. Hein didn’t know how she could do this; as she couldn’t think like a regular person to start with, let alone like him. His behavior shouldn’t have been so easy to read. Even worse, she must have had another way to see what was going on other than just through the modrons…

“Drink. The. Damned. Potion!” Rexi shouted at Theril with a rage she could only shakily contain.

Theril was holding his neck, bloodstained teeth gritted as he glared at Rexi with a combination of rage and pain.

“I am...not…drinking the dwarf’s bile! It looks and smells like it came from a spittoon!”

Toenails smiled, but Rexi halted his reply before it escaped his brown grin.

“If you don’t, then you’re dead!”

Theril screamed several choice words in elvish, which Rexi half understood, and downed the gravy-like substance. He coughed, vomited some back into his mouth, but managed to gain the fortitude to swallow it all again.

As Theril coughed for air, Rexi and Toenails saw his neck heal totally. Rexi smiled, now looking at him with genuine joy.

“See, isn’t that better?”

“Rot in the Nine Hells you stunted bitch! When I get out of this tower, I’m going to make sure you all pay for this!”

Rexi’s brow furrowed, but she didn’t say anything back to Theril, who was now cursing again in elvish. Qresh was staring at him as Toenails fought back a smile, appearing amused by the elf’s frustration.

“Qresh, do you need any healing?” Rexi squeaked as she inspected the “wound” Qresh had sustained. Despite yanking a barbed arrowhead from his armpit, the wound was strangely lacking blood.

“Nope…mhhmhh…I’m fine…” Qresh growled out.

Rexi tried to stick her head out the door, but only narrowly dodged an arrow. She quickly put on her helm, and looked up at Qresh.

“Do you think we can make it? We’re both armored well enough, but I don’t want you getting shot down before…

“Rexi they’ve been shootin’ less an’ less since statue man left….” Qresh croaked out.

Shortly after speaking, Qresh tried to examine the scene. After a single second of looking, the tortle tucked his head into his shell as an arrow skidded across the top of his skull.

As Qresh turned back to the others, Rexi could have sworn that his stone face was forming a smile.

“Statue’s killin’ em by the dozens. One hall looks clear. Only a handful are focused on this here damned door… I say we rush em…”

Rexi darted out the door. Qresh followed, and managed to match the Gnome’s speed. Rexi, quite unsurprisingly, could run faster than the average small-sized person. All the arrows bounced off her armor, and if Qresh was shot he didn’t make a single grunt.

Rexi collided into two modrons, cutting them down as she advanced. The other were toppled by Qresh leaping over Rexi before they could shoot or counter attack. Qresh took all ten of the remaining modrons with him, and proceeded to beat the discombobulated box-things with his bare hands. It was quite effective, and each second punch managed to dust a modron before it could try to stand up. The savage flurry of punches made Qresh look like a vibrating boulder.

Rexi cut down any Qresh had missed before they stood up, save for one that drew two shortswords. Rexi was surprised that this modron was able to parry three of her strikes, until Qresh put his jagged cutlass through its head.

“These ones actually have swords…sort of strange timing if you think about it.” Rexi shouted.

“Mmm…why’s that…?” Qresh rumbled out as he put his cutlass back on his belt.

As Rexi turned to him, Qresh could see Rexi’s pink eyes through the visor of her helmet.

“The floating skull, remember? It told us about the symmetry woman killing those people, then after the lock room is picked, more show up.”

“Ettin girl ain’t done it…jus’ trust me…”

Rexi nodded, though Qresh couldn’t see the look of concern on her face though her helmet.

“Let’s just worry about all that when we actually find her. For someone Hein and Azra can’t shut up about, she sure doesn’t want to be seen. Surely, she isn’t bashful…being a magistrate and all.”

“Rexi she’s real weird lookin’…an if she acts like the statue, she might not know how to come outside without steppin’ on a crack or somethin’…”

With a soft laugh, Rexi advanced to the other hallway. Qresh motioned for Theril and Toenails, but as he turned, Qresh only heard the dwarf follow. The modrons didn’t turn around immediately, and were in a stalemate with Hein’s soldiers.

Toenails shapeshifted into an ape that was missing patches of hair. It somehow managed to smell worse than he did. He charged the modrons at the left side of the hallway, while Rexi went to the right. In his ape form, Toenails managed to keep them at bay, but it was clear that Rexi was carving the faster path.

The middle section of the modrons was breaking, and falling back. Qresh lumbered in, and as he drew his sword, immediately killed the first three modrons he struck. Each swipe with that old but deceptively sharp sword broke any parry the modrons attempted. All of their strikes either hit scales too thick to cut, or left shallow wounds that drew no blood.

Rexi and Toenails were able to not get overrun by the thick crowd of modrons as they attacked from the sides. Although Rexi was too concentrated on the fight, she imagined that the modrons had a sort of protocol where they had to focus on the first foes they had attacked instead of all turn on the three interlopers. It didn’t make sense, but these beings were well ordered to the point of madness. Maybe that was it. Rexi might have realized something to save them all.

As chaos was sewed in the ranks, the modrons finally broke. As they fell back, Hein’s army pushed from the other side. The end of this modron force only lasted a few minutes, as animated armors and golems killed the modrons faster than they could retreat.

Rexi noticed that Toenails appeared to be fairly wounded in his ape form, but his wounds were closing up before her eyes. Some of the construct army was healing as well, and as Rexi walked to the center of Hein’s army, she noticed that the ones near the front lines were badly wounded.

At the open end of the corridor, Rexi saw a solid path of dead constructs. Hein was on one knee, had a strange rune hammered onto the floor, and was emitting some kind of healing aura. His wounds were rapidly closing, but Rexi could tell that this was a powerful spell. If the three hadn’t come, Hein could have been in dire straits.

As Hein started to stand, his gaze focused on Azra Holder. Holder looked completely unharmed, and Hein could see the now clean corridor behind him. He had killed all those modrons without getting wounded? How? How could Holder fight like that?

Hein briefly remembered how well Holder fought, but was shaken out of his momentary daze by Rexi.

“We need to get to a better position, somewhere more defensible!” Rexi shouted, which alarmed Hein.

“Are the locks disabled? Because if so, we need to get to the top now!” Hein said as he focused on Azra.

“I have, and know how to disable to tower…but I really think we will need more information before…”

“If I get you to the top, will you do it? Will you protect this whole world, or falter and doom us all?” Hein half-shouted frantically.

“Is there an express way to the top?” Holder asked rather bluntly.

Hein didn’t answer immediately, but tried to contact Spigot.

“Spigot, are we clear to access the peak?”

Hein waited, but heard nothing from his gnome friend. What he did hear, along with the Fighting Five, was metallic footsteps.

Another modron, somehow evading the detection of the party, was walking down the previously cleared corridor. It had no weapons, and was waking as if in a trance. Only Azra and Hein noticed its familiar, but mismatched eyes.

“Azra Holder…these people are not working in our best interest…” The modron spoke in a commanding, echoing, pair of overlapping voices that the party had become well acquainted with.

Azra was stunned into silence, but Hein wasn’t. He charged the modron as the last of his wounds healed. Hein kept his weapon sheathed as he did.

“Will you just tell them all your plan! You want to make everything like you! Just tell them so they’ll listen and we can finish this war proper!”

Rexi quickly rushed up to the modron, afraid that either it or Hein would end the dialog.

“Why don’t you explain…well everything? We aren’t trying to fight you, and only want what is best for the Realms. Hein is a little hot-headed…pun not intended…”

Rexi smiled as she tried to lighten the mood. The modron’s strange gaze didn’t take its focus from Hein.

“Engineer Slatecutter…you betrayed us. You ruined my machine. It is now in working order. I also find your tone unacceptable.”

“Drop dead you deformed monster! I’ll die before you twist everyone into a parody of natural life!”

“Why? Why are you speaking through these things? Why is all of this happening?” Rexi shouted before the modron could respond to Hein.

The modron focused its eyes on Rexi, which made her feel uneasy. For some reason, the thing turning its attention to Rexi enraged Hein. He drew his weapon, and Rexi quickly held up her hands for him to lower it.

“I just want answers. Just help us understand, please!” Rexi pleaded.

“Impossible…” The modron flatly said. “I have come to bring order. This was not what I intended, but must be managed properly. The tower will continue the task it was created for.”

“What is that exactly?” Rexi asked, fear now audible in her voice.

The modron didn’t answer for a few seconds. As it sat there in silence, Azra walked up to it. He had been in a state of shock since it had started speaking.

“Ailia…please…just talk to us and explain this. Let me see you again…”

The modron turned to Azra, and actually smiled.

“I would very much like that, but these adventurers must not stop the tower from doing its job.”

“T-they will not stop it!” Azra frantically screamed. “I just want them to see that you are not here as an invader or anything worse! Please let us just speak face to face.”

Apparently, this was not the answer Ailia Symmette wanted to hear. The modron’s smile faded rather quickly.

“Azra…they have already started to interfere.”

“Why are you here! What do you want!” Hein shouted, “You seem to be intent on not answering anything directly!”

“We gotta hear this from ettin girl herself, not some box-thing…” Qresh growled out.

“My machinations are not something primes can grasp. Azra can, but I will tell him in time.” The modron retorted, now looking at Qresh.

Rexi tried to intervene again. “At least call off the modrons! They’ve nearly killed Azra twice! Why can’t you control them! They’re invading the Prime Material Plane, surely an orderly being can see how…”

“Who are you to speak of order? You are a denizen of this chaotic plane.” The modron shouted, now showing real emotion.

“You is wrong…this ain’t order its madness…mhmm…ettin girl ain’t doin’ this…” Qresh growled.

“You will not call me an ettin…” The modron half-growled, spitting out the syllables as it turned to Qresh.

“Sound awful shook up ‘bout that…doubt a magistrate would give a damn. Devil boy called you de-formed an you didn’ care…” Qresh growled out as he plodded closer to the modron.

Azra intercepted Qresh with his arms held out, “Ailia, please just tell me what is going on in front of the primes so they might understand. You are not acting like yourself!”

“She absolutely is acting like herself you insane statue! She just said she’s helping these modrons take over!” Hein shouted.

Rexi could tell that this was getting them nowhere. She tried to get the modrons attention.

“What should we do then? Is what Hein has been telling us right? Are you going to warp reality? How could you have possibly got permission to do such a thing?”

The modron focused on Rexi, and actually smiled. It wasn’t a menacing smile either, it looked almost pleased with her assumption.

“I no longer require that level of clearance. You are very clever lady gnome, but if you want to save your men anymore trouble, you will leave Azra to me.”

“I will go with you Ailia, just explain what is happening…”

Hein started to lower his weapon as the modron reached out to Holder. As far as Hein was concerned, the maniacs being reunited was probably for the best. A tactical disadvantage sure, but maybe they would see reason with Holder taken. Hein was now half-convinced Holder wouldn’t attack these people, even if his monster girlfriend wanted him to.

He quickly changed his mind however, when Rexi stopped the modron from grabbing Holder.

“Hold on, we can’t just let you take him off to who knows where…”

Rexi didn’t get to finish as the modron bore its teeth. It lunged at her, mouth open, before Hein cut it down. His sword caused it to disintegrate before it hit the floor. Azra could only stare in shock and horror.

“Now is that proof enough!” Hein shouted.

Rexi looked shocked, but grateful that she didn’t get bitten in the face by a metal monster.

“No…it don’t make no sense…” Qresh growled out again.

Hein quickly turned to him, only able to scowl, before looking back to Azra and Rexi. Azra was in a state of shock, and Rexi looked frustrated.

“She spoke too cryptically, but didn’t help her case. Azra, you can’t run off and meet her unless someone is with you. She is…”

“I absolutely can!” Azra shouted down at Rexi.

“I was so close to finding out what is happening, and you people took it away from me! Why? Why would you do that!”

Rexi’s eyes drooped. She took a step towards Azra, reaching a hand out as she spoke.

“Azra, we’re trying to help you. An army of these things tried to kill us several times, and Symmette just implied she wants it to happen. What if she wants to kill you? What if she wants you to unwittingly help her do something terrible?”

“And you would know? You act like you know her intentions or anything about her? You know nothing!” Azra screamed as he drew his sword, though he didn’t point it at Rexi.

“Stop trying to be intelligent, you are not! Ailia is, and knows exactly what she is doing! You are just a confused gnome who wants to play general! Ailia and I know much more about the planes of law than all of you combined!”

Rexi gritted her teeth, but appeared more worried than angry. She didn’t have to calm Azra down though, as a massive metallic fist slammed into the side of his face. Azra staggered back, only to see Hein with his mechanical hand attached. He looked fuming mad and had his construct killer sword out.

“If you draw your weapon on her I will end you!” Hein shouted.

Azra stepped closer to Hein, and swung his sword down onto his mechanical hand. The blade nearly lobbed off a claw-finger, but Hein commanded the hand to detach before it was severed. Azra, moving in a blur, nearly struck Hein in the chest before the tiefling parried the blow with his construct killer sword.

Hein tried to slice Azra’s blade with the construct killer. It was designed to cut through non-living constructs, though he surprisingly didn’t get to test it on weapons. Azra didn’t let Hein get the chance. Their blades only locked a moment, before Azra swatted Hein’s sword back. Azra was stronger than he looked, and Hein wasn’t strong to start with.

Hein tried to counterattack, but Azra sidestepped. This caused Hein to stumble forward. Hein had swung too hard at the statue, and lost his footing. Hein winced, but felt no blow. He did feel the point of a sword right above the back of his neck.

“Stop.” Azra coldly said as Hein stood frozen.

An arcane shield flared up, causing the sword to be forced back, and Azra felt something leap on his back. Hein’s hand had attached to Azra’s back like a large spider, and had distracted him enough for Hein to strike.

Hein swung fast, much faster than Azra expected, and cut the statue across the chest. The construct killer left a wound, but Azra had dodged just enough to keep it from cutting too deep. In the split second this happened, Azra didn’t think to how he could dodge with an automaton on his back. Mainly because it wasn’t…

Rexi’s blade was out, and now locked on Hein’s. Qresh was holding the mechanical claw under one arm, tight enough that it couldn’t move, and placed his hand on Azra’s sword arm. Azra glared at the tortle, but didn’t try to attack.

“We ain’t gonna fight one ‘nother…that’s what they want…” Qresh rumbled rather calmly.

He took his hand off of Azra, who didn’t stop watching the tortle, but even more concerning, didn’t brush himself off.

Hein looked at Rexi in shock, then quickly sheathed his sword. The gnome looked angry, but lowered hers just as quick.

“Qresh is right, we can’t do this now! You two both calm down! If Azra wants to see Symmette he doesn’t need our permission, but we can’t let her get an advantage.”

“Can’t let any of em…” Qresh half-retorted.

Rexi could tell he didn’t want to argue, though after what just happened, she knew Hein was right about Symmette.

“That being said, we can’t fight each other while there’s a modron invasion! We all want the same thing, for this to end and to go home! Are you hurt Azra?”

“No.” Azra said, his tone just as cold as before. He was also giving off a strong, petrichor odor.

Azra was now staring right at Hein, who was trying to calm his nerves. He had fought Azra Holder only once, and even if it wasn’t a serious fight, he was horribly outmatched. Hein wasn’t sure if the Fighting Five could, or more importantly would, stop Azra if he was controlled by Symmette. Hein wouldn’t put it past her to do something like that, mess with the statue’s mind, though he still doubted Azra would attack the Fighting Five.

Qresh unceremoniously dropped the hand, which scuttled back to Hein to reattach itself. Hein grabbed his forehead, and groaned. Rexi walked up and put a plated hand on his shoulder.

“I appreciate your concern, but we all have to work together to stop this. Azra knows more about this stuff than anybody…”

“You’re smarter than he is. I am tenfold.” Hein growled out.

Rexi tried to comfort him with a toothy smile. Azra was no longer staring at Hein, and was looking at the ground as he spoke.

“Engineer Slatecutter…I am sorry. I should not have acted so rash…it is just…I cannot remember what I used to. I was away from home for so long and…now…it was like I had a chance of returning. All I had was memories and they are nearly gone now. I was so close, but nothing makes sense anymore…”

Hein couldn’t hide his scowl, but some part of him felt pity for Azra. Azra Holder was insane, and for an insane person to be away from the only thing that gave them peace was an ordeal. Fighting, or being angry about the past, wasn’t going to help anyone now.

“Apology accepted.” Hein said rather softly.

“Hey…I got an idea…” Qresh bellowed out. “Let’s make this ‘ficial…”

All of them looked at Qresh in confusion. Theril was still be aching from his wound, and toenails was watching the spectacle half-drooling in his ape form. For some reason, everyone was so confused with what Qresh had said, they were fully focused on him now.

“I think he means official.” Rexi clarified.

Qresh turned to look at Azra, who looked very nervous now.

“I did not mean to offend you tortle…” Azra clarified as Qresh looked over him.

“Ain’t mad at you, I like you, that’s why I’m doin’ this…” Qresh paradoxically growled.

Qresh stood as straight as he could, and looked around at the others.

“We all make a promise…one that rocky here will have to do…mhmm…an’ devil boy will if he’s so antsy at keepin’ Rexi safe…”

Hein looked somewhat confused, and cleared his throat.

“I feel responsible for you people. This is my operation after all…” Hein said rather dismissively.

“Yeah….mhmm…but let’s jus’ all swear to work together until this is resolved….”

“Do we have anything to make this contract official or to write it down.”

“No…we swear to work together and help one o‘nother ‘till ettin girl an rocky can go back home an make up…” Qresh rumbled out as the stone on Azra’s face darkened with what could be interpreted as embarrassment.

Rexi let out a snorting laugh as Qresh reached out a scaled hand.

“Let’s shake on it…mhm….”

Azra stared at the tortle’s hand for a while, then shook the man’s hand. Hein audibly gasped.

“I accept your terms, but if Ailia’s safety is at stake, I will protect her.”

“We ain’t gonna hurt her…” Qresh growled out rather softly, but assuring.

Rexi tried not to wince. If Symmette was guilty, she may not have a choice.

“If it comes to anything violent, you’ll have to take her back to Mechanus.” Rexi piped in.

“Agreed.” Azra said, “I hoped everything was all right, but something is very wrong. I cannot see her do anything destructive to herself or anyone else.”

Hein finally spoke, “Now that we can all agree to help each other until this is over. I’ll show you to our base of operations. If we kill all the modrons, then Symmette will have nothing to threaten us with. If Holder intercepts her, then this can all be put to a stop.”

“Ettin girl ain’t doin’ this…” Qresh mumbled.

Azra winced, “Please do not call her that…ettins are so foul…”

Qresh blinked, clearly confused.

“Ain’t nothin’ else got two heads…maybe a hydra…” Qresh mumbled.

“Why did that set her off and not me saying worse things?” Hein asked, sounding more like he was talking to himself than Qresh or Azra.

Rexi expected this to fall apart, but strangely, Azra didn’t look angry.

“I…I do not know.” Azra said, “She does not like to be gawked at by primes, but in the past people have called her worst things. She normally shrugs those insults off, as if the remarks were made by children.”

“Should someone heal that wound?” Hein asked Azra, his voice holding a mote of concern.

Azra looked down at his chest, and somehow the line carved in the stone started to vanish.

“Think nothing of it. Now, let us find out what is going on. I am anxious to see Ailia again.

Before anyone else could speak, they all heard a high-pitched male voice call for Hein.

“Sir, I only just now got your message! We have found some interesting stuff on the top of the tower!”

Qresh couldn’t explain it, but for some reason the scales on his neck felt raised.

******************************************************************************

On top of the tower, Spigot was speaking into seemingly nothing and pacing around what resembled a bronze throne. The top of the tower was the same width as the rest, but had much less features. I had no enclosed areas, and was mostly a hexagonal shape.

The gnome was being followed by a young human woman. She wore very well-ordered, if somewhat drab clothing, that was well fit to her thin frame. She had dark hair cut in a similar fashion to Symmette, though hers was longer and lacked the psychotically maintained evenness.

“Dolidra, can you explain the specifics to Engineer Hein?” Spigot chimed as he finished talking to Hein.

Dolidra smiled, and adjusted the large, gear-filled monocle on her left eye.

“Well for starters, the gears here don’t do anything! It looks like all the mechanisms here were made to just imitate and not actually function! Based on what we’ve seen from the flipped rooms, I’m guessing the control system isn’t actually up here…”

Dolidra laughed, which caused Spigot to laugh as well.

“Don’t be too hard on them Dolidra, these are your people after all!”

Dolidra laughed again, this time a little more suppressed.

“Yes, well I haven’t heard any word from my father about Ailia Symmette’s disappearance. Just getting a message to him is hard enough without a mirror, and even with Hein’s, he stays too busy to tell me much of anything.”

Spigot heard Hein groan, but turned back towards Dolidra, “Pelnis sounds like a fun guy…”

Dolidra smiled and shook her head, “You joke, but father throws the best birthday parties. Besides, his work is very important. Not only that, but him or the other councilmen don’t talk to Ailia all that much. I honestly think she bothers them, or something similar. Father always spoke highly of her, but never spoke to her outside of the council meetings. Maybe she has hobbies they find distasteful? I think she spends most of her time alone.”

“That or she gives them the creeps.” Spigot said, “I knew a guy like that, we called him “Grasshopper” because he always ran after and ate grasshoppers in his spare time. I think he tested too many alchemical elixirs…”

As Dolidra laughed, Spigot heard Hein borderline shout for them to leave the top of the tower.

“Sir, we aren’t in any danger up here. The hallway was dead empty.”

Dolidra perked her ears upon hearing Hein’s tone, and patted Spigot on the shoulder.

“If he’s that scared, let’s just leave to be on the safe side. We can always come back later when the boss has calmed down.”

Spigot nodded, then confirmed with Hein that they were leaving. Both of the engineers trotted to a strange mechanical contraption on the edge of the tower. It looked like a rectangular boat with a box mounted over it with a thin metal frame. The box was just over Dolidra’s head, and had what looked like a ruffled leather sail hanging near it to the side.

Spigot pulled a long chain near the box, which caused fire to erupt from it. The “sail” started to rise, then actually billow out into a large teardrop shape. Once the lifting mechanism fully inflated, the strange balloon started to rise, then drift away from the tower.

******************************************************************************

Ailia Symmette was trying to not look angry. The modrons were more focused on her mistakes, and she was tired of explaining to them why she kept slipping. Modron #371 strode up to her, and started to speak in his annoying, grinding voice.

“We have lost more of our forces to the adventurers, and have failed to persuade Azra Holder to come and find you alone. They are actively trying to find answers to our cause. Capturing Hein formerly of house Slatecu-“

A loud bang shook the room, as modron #371 was answered with a bullet fired from one of Symmette’s strange clockwork pistols. The shot hit the modron in the left eye, and caused it to become dust as it collapsed.

Symmette pulled back a gear where the hammer should have been, which caused the gun to loudly click before she holstered it. Another identical modron walked up to where the previous one stood, then spoke in the same voice as its predecessor.

“Modron #372 reporting for duty Magistrate…”

Symmette smiled, with both smiles looking rather unhinged, and sat back down at her desk.

“I want to get the tower into position. Make sure our forces ready for what is going to happen.”

The modron appeared to not notice, or care, that its new master grinned with insanity plastered on both of her faces. It was unlikely that modrons could even conceive of madness, only disorder. Symmette gazed up at the ceiling, her eyes easily piercing the darkness to the identical desk setting above her. This copy-desk was identical except for two things; a pair of hourglasses on each side of her desk.

Symmette flipped the two hourglasses. Her six-fingered hands twirled the things in such a fast and fluid motion; it was as if the hourglasses had moved on their own violation. Her expression did not change, even when the world somehow turned upside down.