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Room 3: Unknown - The centerpiece of this room was impossible to ignore. Suspended within concentric rings of polished metal floated an ancient mechanism of crystal and stone, cracked in places yet somehow still functioning. Every few moments it awakened with a quiet pulse of light before projecting a cascade of unfamiliar symbols through the air. The message repeated endlessly, each cycle accompanied by faint harmonic tones that seemed almost, but never quite, recognizable as language. The device in this room seems to recognize when it has company, and the message sometimes flutters, or distorts faintly, but it yields no clearer results. Surrounding the device are star charts etched onto translucent crystal tablets, each depicting regions of space that bear little resemblance to any modern map. The largest display seems to trace a route toward a distant location marked only by a symbol--one that appears repeated throughout the room, but never in the same place. Whatever it is--or was--it was recorded throughout time, across different worlds. And nothing in Almadel's exhibit gave any indication of what it was.
Honestly, Kerberos was enjoying this visit to Almadel's museum much more than he had the first one. Perhaps the difference was that there were no little beasties hanging around, causing all sorts of problems--or perhaps it was simply the privilege to take his time and wander through the rooms that were on offer. If they behaved this year, Kerberos wondered if they might perhaps get invites back--that seemed like something worth hoping for.
Frankly, the place was remarkable. He wanted to go through every single room, exploring every nook and cranny to see exactly what lurked within--but the one he wandered into first stopped him in his tracks.
Strange magical mechanisms were certainly not something Kerberos was unfamiliar with; he'd seen a few oddities on his own world, and knew there were plenty more out there in the universe, but this was....massive. And still functional, which felt remarkable for something as ancient as it had to be, that wasn't on a world that was being magically restored.
Then again, it was in the personal collection of a man who clearly had experience with the wider universe and a lot of knowledge about many and varied things. He still treasured the lovely little candle holder he'd gotten from Almadel several years prior; its origins were a mystery, but that didn't matter so much as what it meant to him, now. It sat on the desk in the workspace he'd identified as Irit's on his world, and held the lights he used while he spent hours trying to translate ancient documents and hoping the damned words kept making sense.
This time, he'd come bearing gifts, and he hoped to run into Almadel to hand them over; making a trade would be lovely, considering the extent of the man's collection and how much Kerberos loved finding articles related to his world, but even if there was nothing to trade for--well, maybe Kerberos wanted to brag a little about the state of his world.
But he found that those thoughts sat mostly in the back of his mind as he watched the massive mechanism work. The strange tones never quite seemed to make themselves make sense, and the star charts felt--odd.
Were they recorded in some unknown place? At some unknown time in ages past, when things were in different positions?
The stars were different on Kerberos, perhaps they were different other places, too. Or perhaps this was something else--something he couldn't even begin to guess at, given how ancient and magical it was.
But he found himself wandering forward, drawn to the largest display and the strange symbol on it. The symbol that repeated, over and over.
Was this place...tracking something? Considering the very recent, very nasty visitor they'd had, Kerberos couldn't help but wonder what all this might mean. But there didn't seem to be any explanations--at least not in any language he could understand.
Perhaps if he was lucky, he'd be able to ask Almadel about all of this. If not, he'd just have to be left wondering, he supposed.
The Space Cauldron
