Inferno Ascended

The Emperor, whoever he was, also stared at Glax in shock, disbelief, and then a sardonic smile.

Glax scrutinized the light, wavy hair, the small gray eyes, and the classic face framed by a full beard, with suspicion. This man could not be Achmeron. The valosian and the man bore little resemblance, it was impossible that Glax could have remembered this man to Demophon! 

And most of all, this man wasn't a vselys or a revenant or anything else but a human. He was perfectly alive.

"Ah, this is the secret then. Achmeron isn't around."

"Who are you exactly?" the Emperor asked, while Glax also wanted to know the same thing.

Glax put his mind to work. He had a clue after his conversation with Aurora. "Hm, you can only be Achmeron's big brother. Caius. Or rather, Athicos Caius of Hylan, the True Emperor of Stygia. Sorry for the shock, I wasn't expecting this. Definitely."

The emperor appraised Glax once more from head to toe, and gestured with his chin for Glax to remove his mask.

"It's not necessary, don't take this the wrong way." Glax was still considering whether to call him uncle or not. 'DAFUQ's that? His mind screamed. What is this guy doing here? He is impersonating Achmeron, but what is the purpose of that?' His mouth behaved accordingly, though. "I don't know if you've been told, but I'm Glax of Valosia. 'Son' of Lady Kalanthe."

The emperor exchanged glances with Aurora.

"Ah, Aurora said I needed to see what she had here. And it was really a surprise! A surprise I hope is not a bitter one. You look so much like my brother. In fact, it's almost as if I'm seeing him in front of me…!" Caius stroked his beard and face several times, showing his anxiety. "How did you get here?! Where were you?!"

"In Valosia. Then around. Pretty busy, actually."

The Valosian tried to gauge the sincerity of his supposed uncle's reactions, but it wasn't easy, especially since the emperor wasn't looking at him now. "I didn't come here to claim the throne or anything like that, but I'd like to understand and I think I finally came to the right place." He took a breath. "Emperor, I really expected to find something strange going on here. Rumors are disturbing. About 'The Emperor Achmeron's death, actually. He died in the attack, and you chose to hide it? I don't understand why."

"You have no right to question, Glax," Aurora reminded him of his place. But Glax replied,

"Dear lady, the Emperor's allies, who helped him end the Steam War, they won't be happy to find out they've been deceived about Achmeron."

"You're not the only one with brains in this room," Aurora interrupted again. Glax had already sensed she had enough influence to make the emperor comply with her wishes quickly.

"It's clear that Glax is Athicos blood, Aurora. He does possess the inquisitive spirit of Achmeron," Caius sat in a chair by the window, taking a deep breath. "Tell me your story."

"I am Lady Kalanthe's son. I don't know if you knew her." By this time, Glax knew it was a lie. Kalanthe was just part of the plan developed in Valya. But he wasn't going to reveal it yet. Aurora had revealed to know something about him, and Glax had no way of knowing how much they actually knew.

"The Valosian brash gal?! Achmeron's bodyguard?!" he forced his mind a little, and exclaimed when he found the answer. "Of course. She boarded along with him to Valya... I should have guessed. But I was away for a long time, what happened next?"

"Ah, she became a name in our clan, and died in battle. I was raised in Valosia. And recently," Glax scratched his head, "I became a Kroton by marriage."

"By coincidence, Emperor, Lord Glax is the widower of Lady Chriseis."

"Is that why you're here?" Caius questioned him directly.

Glax looked from one to the other. And important pieces of the puzzle joined together suddenly, practically blowing his mind.

"Nikandros sent her here?!"

::::::::::::::::::::::

"Achmeron did not survive the attack," the Emperor explained, as they descended a huge spiral staircase towards what Caius called the 'Laboratory'. 

The trio did not go down alone, however, four elite guards accompanied the Emperor, keeping his eyes on Glax at all times. Caius continued,

"Just like that. I had recently arrived from Pandora. Stygia was suffering at the hands of foreigners factions, and the Stygian clans were at war for them. Achmeron had the support of the second largest army, the Echelians, who could help quell the rebellion at last. But maybe they didn't support me... That was my thinking at the time, Glax. I don't regret it, for it has freed our land from bondage." 

The Valosian listened to the current emperor's words, paying attention to the way and every detail. The machine's hum reverberated and made the ground tremble subtly.

The emperor reached a huge, reinforced door, and turned a mechanism the door itself slowly opened upward.

Glax found a place that perfectly matched a Mary Shelley's tale. The laboratory was dominated by a giant machine and much more sophisticated than what Sarpedon had become. Some of the men who worked there turned away and bowed in respect to the emperor's arrival. Glax realized that they just kept the machine running and in good condition.

"Is this a machine for making automaton warriors?" He deduced immediately.

"Yes, that WAS a machine for making tin warriors, in the past."

"Sorry, but… It hasn't changed. Was it?" Glax regretted having demonstrated his knowledge. "Who made this?"

"The Prometheans gave it to the Empire a few years after they arrived. That's when my mother believed in the good will of the Steam people. They and the vselys competed hard to earn respect and establish themselves here…Hmf." Caius pushed the memories out of his mind and came back into focus. "It didn't even work right, actually. Achmeron was the one who made it produce something. Apparently after he came back and became emperor he's been too busy tinkering with it as a personal hobby."

He showed another part of the large room, where there were several spare parts, robotic parts and prototypes. 

Glax saw several prototypes of arms like Chriseis's, heads, legs, torsos and even heads…

They were very sophisticated mechanisms. Almost as good as a divine marvel, except for the fact that most were made of superior alloys, but not galeon. 

The degree of corruption of the prostheses also varied. Glax understood that some metal alloys must have some degree of antichor imbued in them, but there was no way of knowing whether this was done on purpose or not.

The giant machine itself, however, operated entirely on steam. Although several of its parts were corrupted by this mixture.

Glax shook his head in disbelief. This was one of the coolest things he had ever seen, and it was being destroyed by a structural error!

"Why do you keep it running?"

The emperor hesitated over how to respond for a moment, and Glax saw he was choosing his words carefully. 'Probably will lie. He must imagine that he will need these soldiers in the future… Or will he have another excuse?'

"Achmeron, like every other emperor, had a will. He had some predictions for the future, and asked that it be kept, even if no one knew how to use it. He said she would eventually be useful and important."

Aurora huffed, crossing her arms, "I have my opinion on this. There's something wrong with this machine."

Caius shrugged. "How can I know? My experience in Pandora was quite different from what I expected. I didn't learn about machines… But I learned a lot about ambition and betrayal."

A heavy silence fell between them, and Glax saw the sadness in Aurora's eyes as she looked at her lover. Surely their love story must be interesting. But Glax had priorities.

"Pardon me… you said you were going to show me where Chriseis is."

"Yes. Come on," Caius gestured and they walked around the big machine. 

Glax saw a sarcophagus that looked a lot like a Valya's Cauldron, but the front was covered by a lid of thick, almost opaque glass. Tubes, bellows, and electrical wires, the first Glax had seen in Stygia, connected from the sarcophagus to a machine in the ceiling. Glax looked up as the mechanism revealed itself to him in his mind. An ichor capsule was well hidden inside the hive suspended in the middle of the room.

Glax approached the sarcophagus, under the watchful eyes of everyone.

"Nikandros sent his dead daughter to Achmeron. He said she can't die like him. But he can't kill her a thousand times either. He said that something bad caused by the arm Achmeron built for her overpowered her…and that she's turning into a monster."

"And she is?"

"She's… We don't know for sure."

"Is he worried about his daughter, or worried that her fame will be destroyed when they find out?" Glax asked.

"Don't be cruel, Glax. I do not know what to do. I kept it there."

Looking at the reddish liquid behind the thick glass, which barely allowed him to see the human form inside, the valosian asked,. "This machine? Was it for Achmeron?"

He caught the Emperor's surprise out of the corner of his eye, but got no audible response.

A dull thud against the glass startled him.. Chriseis' face came close to the glass lid.