The workers didn't converse or speak to one another, being too caught up in their own work. One broke off from the rest of the group, which paid him no attention as he wandered off into the steam. He bent to check a hissing crack in the metal

Jason almost grinned,but it he did his glittering white,deadly,teeth would give him away. He kept his eyes slits and slunk over,letting the steam wash over him and swirl around his elegant body,letting the colors wash over and mix into his scales. He slunk up right behind the person,right there. His breath so light and little that you'd think he'd either pass out or at least get loopy.

The worker jumped and scuttled backward but the network of pipes trapped him.

Jason almost cackled,full on in hunting mode. He wrapped his tail tightly around the person and used his camouflaged wings to wrap them both in seeming thick steam. He put a deadly but elegant claw to their mask in a hushing motion,letting his purple eyes show and same with his bright deadly teeth. "Shhh,hush now. Death bids for you." He whispered,barely a whisper,then he quickly and skillfully slit his throat and caught the body. He quickly worked with his talons in a way that they seemed to know well,stopping the blood before it made a noticeable mess.

The man snarls something that sounds like, "Come, at last, have you? We were all wondering what route you'd end up taking." And then he died of blood loss.

He felt frustrated as the words made sense in his mind. He didn't make a sound tho as he pulled his wings in and quickly snapped the metal holding the keys and carefully put it away under his wing and around the wing base so that it was hidden but safe. He then slunk back and used his rich purple eyes to look for an exit.

The other dwarfs were shuffling out in a broken line, and they're probably heading out. No one paid any attention to Jason, and they soon reached the main tower.


Machina's fortress was huge, metallic, and sharp. Thorned creepers crawled over the ramparts, their barbs made of metal. Jagged shards jutted away from the walls for no apparent reason. Everything was harsh lines and sharp edges, even the fey that lived here. Besides the ever-present gremlins, there more armored knights, hounds made of clockwork, and creatures that looked like metallic praying mantises, their bladed arms and silvery antennae glinting in the dim light.


The dwarfs scattered as they left the staircase, breaking away in little groups of twos and threes. Gremlins scuttled along the walls, chasing one another and tormenting the other fey. Computer mice with tiny ears, feet, and blinking red eyes scurried away. Once, a gremlin landed on one, eliciting a high-pitched squeak, before stuffing the tiny creature into its mouth and crunching the sparks. It grinned at Jason, the mouse's tail hanging between its pointed teeth, and scuttled off again.

'Hm...odd...that's not worth any thing to the body.' He thought,worried at how it had seemed to notice him,and slunk to a wall. He matched the area with his scales,surprisingly very nicely, and touched one of the jagged outcroppings. 'could climb...not as bad as the tops of the Crystals back home. ... home.' He thought but shook it from his mind,keeping his majestic,but hidden,form carefully close to the wall.

There was a staircase, spiraling up hundreds of feet along the tower walls. There seemed to be an infinite number of stairs. This was the one. His brother was up there. And Machina.

There were small, narrow windows every twenty steps up the stairs. At the top of the stairs stood an iron door, bearing the insignia of a barbed crown.

'Looks like I'm going up.' He thought,then carefully slipped past Faey and past dogs. His scales shifting almost effortlessly from perspective to perspective. They looked as if nothing was there as he passed,maybe a faint glint of glass here and there but otherwise he was an invisible gorgeous ninja so to speak.