House of Magic: XXX
"Bless Lobodovski, it looks like a dream." Alekzandr exclaimed, staring at the entrance. On the left hand side he could see a row of large thirty foot pillars supporting a roof, to the left of that were a row of tall marble steps beseeched by a hedge garden. The exterior of the colossal building looked like that of a church only so much nicer, Alekzandr thought. The temple sat on the corner of Seawatch street and Shark street, towering over its surroundings Alekzandr could only hope the interior was as cool as he was promised. "We must go." he said looking at his comrades. "My new people need me." Alekzandr walked up the steps and through the open doors.
He was stunned by the marvels at the entrance, before the two doors sat a large stone monolith, probably some kind of ornate creation Alekzandr told himself as he entered the palace. He could see pearly white marble floors, and ceilings as high as fifty feet, to his left were a set of steps that went upward around five feet to a landing, where Alekzandr could see numerous individuals in brown overall's working on various machines. To his left he viewed the large fountains and mechanics roaming as they grabbed parts off of benches. To call the place disorganized would be an insult, everything seemed to have a purpose as did every person. The interior could only be described as a temple crossed with a workshop, some holy place but instead of god's they worshiped their craft.
"Why, hello." Alekzandr turned to see a female dragon born before him, she was bronze and wore a white uniform similar to that of acolytes. "My name is Valetta, you seem to be a new face welcome to the House of Inspired Hands, the temple of Gondor." Alekzandr blinked as the dragon born talked to him intrigued by everything he saw and he almost paid her no attention. "Excuse me? Sir?" Alekzandr looked over at her.
"Um. Hello, This is a very nice place." Alekzandr spun around taking in his surroundings. It had been years since he saw such a location, the workshops of Rushiv were large but.. This was so much more. "My name is Alekzandr Ikorov, a friend by the name of Rishall recommended I visit here.." The dragon born's eyes lit up for a moment.
"Oh Rishall! The owner of Book Wyrms treasure? He is an appreciated visitor. I take it you yourself are an inventor?" Valetta looked intrigued, but Alekzandr felt that he couldn't be bothered to truly answer his hand dropped away from his flask as he nodded. In one visible hallway, he could see a wooden flying contraption with wings on its side; how it worked he was unsure.
"Yes.. He owns the Book shop." Alekzandr said finally, he grinned as he saw three men picking up large wooden humanoids tweaking them in specific joints.
"Oh and who might you all be?" Valetta asked behind Alekzandr, Alekz turned to see Herod, Markos and Asher standing behind him.
"I'm Markos!" Markos replied cheerfully. As the party members introduced themselves Alekzandr felt his mind wandering, in a corner he could see a large metal construct, and in another he viewed a few elves playing with long rifles meant to fire projectiles with gunpowder.
"This is the temple of Gondor, a holy place for those who wish to push knowledge beyond its limits, a sacred location for inventions and creating." Valetta explained for the others.
"I didn't ask for lore." Asher said abrasively. "Where's the most destructive thing-" Alekzandr stopped him realizing if he wanted to actually enjoy the contraptions around him, he would first need to ensure they wouldn't get thrown out.
"Could you tell me about that?" Alekzandr pointed off in the distance moving to the right on the landing Alekzandr saw before, he pointed to something he recognized, it was a tall warforge. The hull was red with long markings along its body as Alekzandr began walking towards it slowly almost mezmorized. It was so similar to him.. His greatest friend, Alekzandr could see some of the workers getting slightly worried at the approaching Rushiki man.
"Oh.. sir.. That's a out of commission warforged- we were simply." Alekzandr kept moving forward as Valetta followed him. "It was brought to us.. Well by itself." Valetta explained. "It came seeking repairs and to attempt to regain its past memories. So we've been working on it ever since but-" Valetta paused and gestured to it. Before him Alekzandr looked at the tall red warforge, all along its body he could see strange symbols of a language he did not recognize. It had to be at least seven feet tall, with large shoulder pads and a midescetion made of a mixture of a grey metal sheet in cross sections and a hard red plating. Its head looked like a large nosed eagle with no beak.
"He's currently asleep." Alekzandr turned to see a skinny human walking to him, grey eyes and brown hair, his face was covered in dust and other bits of grease. "We shut him down for the time being while we try to repair him.. But getting his memories back? That's another trial." The man stepped forward as he wiped his hand's off on a rag before tossing it in a nearby bin that seemed to hold numerous rags. Offering his now cleaned hand, "I'm Jace Edant, I'm the lead mechanic on this warforged here, I see it's caught your eye new comer." The man had a square face with a subtle nose and upturned eyes. He seemed relatively kind.
"Alekzandr Ikorov." Alekzandr took the man's hand feeling calousses dotting on it as they shook. Jace looked over at Valetta with a soft smile.
"Apologies Priestess, I didn't realize you were showing this one around." Jace gestured to the landing as a whole. "Here we work on specifically the warforged, but if Priestess Valetta shows you around Alekzandr, you'll find plenty of projects." Alekzandr nodded, his eyes still fixed on the warforged.
"You say it came to you?" Alekzandr asked as he approached it. "I worked on a Warforge in my youth.. A good friend of mine, mind if I turn it on?" Valetta opened her mouth next to him.
"Not at all." Jace remarked, his voice was smooth and slow with a deep tonnage to it. "You know how?" Jace walked with him as they came to the Warforged.
"If I may?" Alekzandr could hear Herod in the background. "What exactly is a Warfoged?" Alekzandr reached around the creation playing with its mystical elements.
"The warforged are a form of mystical robotics." he shouted back as he danced around the creature tweaking it. "Hand me that socket." Alekzandr told Jace his body felt at home amongst the tools. Jace grinned in response, grabbing the grey socket wrench and handed it to Alekzandr.
"Be careful, his parts are pretty easy to fall apart, right now everything is kinda in the air since we just did some tests." Jace added, Alekzandr breathed heavily as he gave a few tweaks moving to activate the man.
"The Warforged were created to fight in the Final War." Alekzandr continued, "The specifics are not very important, what is important however, is that each warforged was created with a purpose now that the war is over that purpose may change." Alekzandr felt the lack of a solid answer irritating, they were made from stone, leather, and metal created to fight to scout and more. Just.. Like his people.. No wonder he felt so at home with such weapons of war. Was it any different from how the Rushiki had treated him? Alekzandr finally reached all the sections as he switched the warforged on. He hopped from the front and faced the warforged ready for some answers or rather, some good questions.
"Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." The red Warforged let out a low grumble as it opened its eyes. The warforged eyes were a stark grey similar to that of Jace, "Hello, is there a reason I was activated?" The warforge's voice was high and malonic keeping a consistent tone without any hint of a vocal fry, honestly it reminded Alekzandr somewhat of Markos's voice. The Warforged turned to Alekzandr blinking a few times. "Hello, nice to meet you I am-" The Warforged stopped as it's frowned Alekzandr spun around it for a moment checking its mystical circuits. "Funny, I almost... could remember there.." The warforged remarked. "Who- Uh, where are you?" Alekzandr stared at the back of the machine.
"Alekzandr Ikorov, now what was your designation?" Alekzandr's accent was thick and tired, he truly was intrigued with the idea of working with another Warforged. The machine frowned or.. At least frowned as much as Alekzandr could tell it were able. It looked up at him with its lovely grey eyes.
"Twenty Fifth S.T.A.R." The warforged responded happily. "Reserves." The Warforge named S.T.A.R added. Alekzandr nodded, the thing was supposed to have no memory of its contents, though he figured by Jace's unimpressed face that this interaction was not abnormal.
"I see.. STAR, what does your name mean?" Alekzandr had been around Warforged before, he knew that a name like that must have had an acronym. The warforged clicked a little as its wooden parts rotated the entire body seemingly repositioning itself in a thinking move. Alekzandr couldn't help but appreciate the gorgeous craftsmanship on the wood and metal robot resembling that of a work of art.
"STAR. Selune's Terra Arcanum Reservists" The Warforge continued. "I am of the twenty-fifth legion." Alekzandr smiled as he turned to Jace.
"Not as hard as I thought it would be." he noted happily. The machine blazed to life before Alekzandr turned in every direction. "If I may ask, what memories is he.." He looked up at the Warforged seeing an assuring nod. "What is he looking for?" Jace opened his mouth to respond before the machine cut him off instead, Alekzandr's blue eyes met the grey eyes as it seemed to try and move forward.
"It appears my legs are not currently present.." Alekzandr scoffed in response to STAR, the Warforged redwood and metallic inlay legs were sitting on the ground nearby his torso suspended by a crane arm. Hr admired the detail that covered them. The Warforges eyes seemed slightly rusted to Alekzandr as it stared back at him. "I am searching for my creators.. My purpose." He rolled his eyes, what a stereotypical purpose to search for in a machine. Could just one of these amnesiacs want to.. Die for some holy god or something? It was a silly thought but far less irritating than that of the Warforged's current purpose.
"I hate to admit, but I was simply curious on whether you still turned on.."Alekzandr mentioned, "Though I would be happy to aid you all in recovering our friend here's memory." he turned to a nearby Jace and other mechanics, all of them fine people he thought. Jace gave Alekzandr a small grin and nodded.
"That sounds fantastic, newcomer, though before we do any of that.." Jace took a step forward getting closer to Alekzandr. "May I ask.. What that is." Alekzandr followed Jace's brown eyes and extended finger pointing to the rifle mounted on his shoulder. He grinned madly as he pushed out his shoulder pulling Segeri off his back, Alekzandr sighed whenever he stared at his gorgeous ASX-1, dark glossy wood of its stock, the gorgeous well kept wrapping that cascaded into its beautiful metallic barrel and the compartment holding the bolt for his wand.
"This. My new comrade, Is the greatest! Rushiki crea.. Sorry" Alekzandr pulled out his flask and took a slow drink. "Second greatest Rushiki creation." He mentioned gesturing the flask forward. "This is an ASX-1, a mystical rifle capable of directing magic at extremely long distances and focuses!" Alekzandr smiled as he presented the rifle before him. Jace's eyes practically lit up as he surged forward to grab the gun.
"Fascinating.. Trul-" Alekzandr held his arm out, keeping the man away from the rifle. He swallowed bitterly and gave Jace a side eye. Alekzandr loved all of those who persecuted knowledge but he knew in his soul that Segeri.. His.. Segeri was all he had left of her.
"Apologies.. I'm a tad protective." Alekzandr insisted in a tense tone. He slowly extended his arm to allow Jace to carefully hold the rifle.
"This craftsmanship is.. Incredible.." Jace admitted as he looked along the rifle. "How did you make this?" He broke out in a hardy laugh as Jace looked up at him, his left hand still on the rifle for.. Security.
"Comrade what a tale it was.. I.. got drunk and woke up with the ability to fire magic into my foes.. I have no fucking idea how I made it comrade." Alekzandr admitted looking down at his great creation. Jace's eyes dimmed a little but the look of intrigue quickly came back over them,
"Well, that's not too much of a problem! With the mind's here we can easily.. Reverse engineer it, if you'd.. Allow us that is." Alekzandr stared at Jace, he was bewildered but so very interested. Nodding Alekzandr slowly took the rifle back.
"I.. Would be happy to work with all of you, to try and reverse engineer my great Segeri.." Alekzandr held out his hand as Jace took it. "This will be fun, comrade."