CHAPTER 23: WHAT LIES IN THE DEEP

Caedrion slept well that night... a little too well.

As if the siege outside his city wasn’t even a whisper in his subconscious.

But he hadn’t gone to bed until fulfilling his promise to the Engine, and whatever spirit dwelled in its cage.

He had brought another battery down into the catacombs and fed it to the ancient machine. The result was a marginal increase in power, barely noticeable to anyone in the city.

It confirmed his suspicion: the real surge of the previous day wasn’t from the battery at all.

Rather, it was from waking a dormant system back to baseline. And even that baseline was diminished from what it had been in its prime.

Caedrion awoke the next day without a sound to disturb him. That in itself was strange considering his home was currently under siege by a hostile army.

Abandoning his usual morning bath, he went straight to the catacombs beneath the castle foundations, to where the Engine lay.

The device was brimming with energy again.

And when the voice spoke this time, it was... different. Clearer. More coherent.

"Good morning, master... Have you come to give me breakfast?"

Caedrion blinked. Yesterday, even after the second battery, it had been sluggish, barely able to string sentences together.

His brow furrowed as he searched for the cause.

The voice answered before he could ask.

"If you’re wondering why I’m more energetic today, it’s because of those fools outside the barrier and their relentless barrage. They don’t understand that with their primitive spells, they couldn’t crack this shield even if they tried for the next million years."

A million years? Yesterday, it had said a thousand. The jump was too big to ignore.

"A million? Yesterday you said, a thousand. How could you grow that much in a single night?"

The voice now carried a subtle impatience, like it was explaining arithmetic to a slow student.

"Yesterday I was half-awake. Now I can absorb the energy from their attacks and use it to increase my output. With the level of magic that ’human tribe’ outside is using, I could sustain myself indefinitely. They would need a much larger force to damage me faster than I can restore myself. Humans have never possessed that capacity. Pitiful things, aren’t they?"

Caedrion’s mind stalled.

"Indefinitely? Tribes? Pitiful? That’s House Ignarion, heirs to the Crucible, one of the most powerful Magi Houses in the human realm! This city is the last holding my family has left after they ravaged our lands!"

The Engine barked with laughter; the sound echoed through the chamber.

"House Ignarion? Magi Houses? Heirs to the Crucible? Is this a fable they tell themselves to justify their position in Eidolon society? ...Wait. Your house? Hold on."

A rustlight grid sprang from the Engine, expanding outward until it filled the chamber. It didn’t stop there, it swept through the castle, the city beyond, and stopped only at the barrier’s edge.

When the voice returned, it was... diminished. Defeated.

"Impossible... Humans... Elves... a few Demi-humans? These are the only sapient species in this city? What happened to the world? Have I slept so long I missed the passing of an era? Impossible... And yet..."

It trailed off, silent for a long time. Long enough for it to forget Caedrion was even there.

But how could Caedrion forget such a thing? His mind was racing with questions, and the foremost one he could not contain to himself.

"What are you exactly?"

The voice snapped back, sharp and irritable.

"Leave me. I have a lot to investigate. I will answer no further questions. And while you bear the command seal, you would be wise not to use it now."

Caedrion had been about to activate the leylines on the back of his hand. However, upon hearing such a clear warning he let it drop immediately.

This was no mere machine, and he knew with certainty it would remember the choice he made here.

Provoking something ancient enough to dismiss an Ignarion army as monkeys flinging mud was not a wise course of action.

He could only sigh and shake his head in defeat.

"I’ll give you time. This must be jarring for you. If you need me, I’ll be around. It’s not like I can do much else during this siege."

He left the catacombs, unsure whether waking the Engine would prove a boon or a curse.

Either way, the more he learned of this world and its so-called magic...

...the less he truly knew.

For now, a long soak would do.

And time to think about what this really meant.

---

Steam curled lazily from the marble pool in his private bath, the quiet drip of water echoing in the vaulted chamber.

Caedrion set his rifle and shirt aside, lowering himself into the mineral warmth with a sigh that seemed to drain the weight from his bones.

From the statue-fountain at the pool’s edge, crystalline eyes, aquamarine veined with silver, gazed down at him. Water streamed from them in perfect, unending tears.

Far below the sea, upon the Throne of Submareth, Thalassaria Virelleth tilted her head, watching through those same eyes.

Her tail coiled lazily beneath her, the soft hum of deep-ocean currents filling her audience hall. A faint pout touched her lips.

"You’re late," she murmured, knowing full well he couldn’t hear her. "I do not like a boy who does not understand the importance of punctuality!"

She rested her chin on one hand, letting the orb in her other float in the water before her.

It shimmered faintly with the image of Caedrion sinking deeper into the bath, eyes half-shut in thought.

And then he began speaking to himself... aloud.

She leaned forward, the pout vanishing, listening.

"...still don’t know if waking it was wise... It thinks the Ignarion army is just wasting its time... absorbing their magic like nothing... a million years, it said..."

Thalassaria’s teal eyes sharpened.

Engine?

Absorbs magic?

A million years?

Her fingers tightened on the orb. Until now, she had watched him out of idle curiosity; a handsome heir, yes, but hardly worth more than a passing glance in her centuries of life.

But this... this was something else entirely.

"The Architect..." she breathed, tasting the word like fine wine. "So that is the flavor I sensed in your magic... I thought your kind had gone extinct."

A slow, predatory smile curved her lips.

"Oh... my beautiful little land-born... it seems you are far more interesting than I imagined."

She reclined against her throne, gaze never leaving the image in the orb, the currents around her tail beginning to swirl in slow, deliberate coils.

"Perhaps I shall have to... make your acquaintance properly. It is a pity our two species can never be reconciled..." Her smile deepened. "...But perhaps I shall entice you to my domain, and see what becomes of you there.