Despite Morpheus's warnings, no ghosts manifested themselves to disturb Envoy's rest in the garden at the grounded starship of the Silent-Ones. When the next day had come, she returned to the Gateway, and found that the portal was recharged, and that she was able to return back to Sinai. It was not long before she was able to join a caravan to Abaddon without having to cause any great difficulty with her letter of permission from the Emir, and she found herself passing to the great, rusty world, though her first taste of it was inside a newly fashioned biodome surrounding the Gateway Chamber on that world.

This biodome was under the command of the humanocentric Kampfzengruppe, and Envoy wasn't made to feel terribly welcome there. Fortunately, she managed to find passage with a caravan headed for the city of New Zion – a settlement dominated by humans and the Jupani-like "Karnor", led by an organization known as the "Expedition".

A wagon pulled by a creature looking very much like a Terran horse (only very red in coloration, and perhaps mutated a bit from the original stock) takes Envoy through the lowermost streets of New Zion, plodding its way through the mixed traffic. The lupine Karnor driver sits in the front seat, holding the reins, while Envoy sits in the shade of a canopy drawn over the small wagon itself.

Trying not to gape at everything as the carriage takes her to the main library, Envoy is still impressed by the city. She's never seen one so large, organized, and clean. As much as she'd like to simply fly around it, though, the sight of the fast moving gyroplanes dissuades her – there are probably air-traffic rules she needs to learn first.

For what it's worth, at the very least, she has yet to see any fliers going about by anything other than mechanical means. From what she has heard, Abaddon has its own Vartans, its own Eeee, and most of the other familiar fliers that might be found on Sinai, but they don't seem to be in abundance here.

Nonetheless, there are still depictions of flying creatures to be seen in the architecture, in stylized "gargoyles" and supports on some of the more artistically-touched structures. They lack the hand-carved refinement of such decorations on holy sites on Sinai, most of them looking as if they have been cast from molds, and having an efficiency of detail and more of a "streamlined", abstract look.

The Central Library of New Zion, as Envoy's printed guide-book tells her, is directly ahead, and it rises over a tree-lined park in a plaza that the present street T-sections against, requiring a ride around to reach her destination. It is most certainly in the category of the more artful structures, much of its architecture emphasizing form over function. It is by no means the largest of the buildings in the area, but it is still more impressive than the average Sinain might expect to find of the people living on the "rust planet".

Envoy is especially impressed by the size of the library. There could be thousands of books in a building that large.

A policeman on another horse-like creature (Would a Rhian be disturbed by this?) directs traffic at the T-intersection, and Envoy's wagon makes a right turn, then works its way around the park drive. Large billboards advertise various consumer goods, complete with pictures of happy consumers (almost invariably human, and presumably displaying what this culture considers to be idealized features). Even some of the wagons passing by sport billboards on their sides. On the street corners, boys cry out, drawing attention to stacks of newspapers they have to sell. At a service station that seems to cater specifically to the mechanical contraptions that serve as automobiles here, a team of attendants in uniforms cleans the windshield of one such vehicle, and refill its boiler.

Envoy's attention is drawn to the newspaper vendors. If the libraries keep copies of printed news articles as well as books, then there may be more information for her to sort through than she anticipated. As the carriage passes what she thinks of as the mechanical stable, she asks her driver, "Excuse me sir, but what sort of news is reported by the newspapers? Do they cover events outside of New Zion?"

"Hmm? Oh, sure!" the driver whurfs. "Word from the frontiers, probably something about the miners' strike, I'll bet, latest buzz about the Pit of Himar. Lots of things. Do they have newspapers where you come from?"

"Not really," Envoy admits. "Communication is slower, and not so many people can read. We have bards instead. And wild speculation."

"'Bards', eh?" the driver responds, nodding absently. The wagon rolls along, and the driver sticks out his left arm to signal another turn, and then pulls onto the street in front of the library, rolling to a side-lane, and then coming to a stop. He turns to look at a mechanical counter beside his seat, and announces, "That'll be one half mark, please, ma'am."

Envoy extracts a one-mark note from her wallet, and hands it to the driver. "I suppose here you might have noteworthy news writers. Do you have professional entertainers?"

"Do we? Goodness yes, ma'am. My favorite is Stella Starlet." The lupine sighs wistfully, as he opens up a change-box and hands Envoy a half-mark coin in change. "What a voice! Why, you can't walk down a city block without walking past a theatre showing 'Hearts Afire'."

Envoy pauses in the act of climbing down from the coach, and asks, "How can she be in multiple theaters at once? Does she sing into a pipe that carries her voice all over then?"

"Uhhh… " The driver looks at a loss. "I suppose you might ask the librarian about that, ma'am. I'm sure they've got books about that sort of thing."

Once on the ground, Envoy nods to the coachman. "Perhaps I will. Thank you for the ride and information."

The driver tips his cap. "And thank you for choosing Red Wagon Taxi! If you want the best, put us to the test!" And with that, he replaces his hat, snaps the reins, and rolls away, leaving Envoy before the steps leading up to the front doors of the Central Library, flanked on each side by statues of chimerical, faintly leonine creatures poised as if roaring and defending their domain.

Envoy takes a moment to retrieve the Expedition Embassy scroll case from her pack, and makes sure her robes and cloak are presentable before walking up the steps to the doors, where she pauses to check for guards.

Oddly enough, there are no guards posted outside the doors. It seems that the largest central doors are largely decorative, remaining shut (and locked), but there are odd turnstile-doors to each side. A human child demonstrates their use by heading past Envoy and pushing his way through, causing the doors to rotate in place, until he is cycled through, and heads on inside. Beyond the glass panes of the rotating doors, Envoy can see the boy dig out a card to show to a gray-haired woman behind a desk, who nods, and seems to admonish him about something, though Envoy can't hear just what.

Careful not to get her wings caught in the mechanism, Envoy goes through the turning doorway herself, wondering if it is a modification of some ancient airlock system, and then approaches the librarian.

Although the door is not necessarily airtight, Envoy is immediately struck with just how much cooler it is inside. It would seem that the door might have something to do with keeping the hot air outside, and the cool air in. The librarian looks up to Envoy, and, as seems to be a common reaction when Envoy meets someone new here, she blinks and opens her eyes a little wider, then tries to cover for it. "May I see your library card?"

Envoy instead offers the woman the scroll case. "I have a permission form. How do I obtain a library card?" she asks.

The woman takes a moment to examine the scroll case, turning it over in her hands, and then at last she removes the scroll, unrolls it, and – pausing a moment to adjust her reading glasses – reads it over. "Mmm. Oh. You're from … I see." She takes a while longer, reading it over, then neatly rolls it back up and returns it to the case, and gives it back to Envoy, and pulls out a drawer. "Here. If you'll please fill in your name, we'll make it official."

Using the pen attached to the desk (and wondering why it needs to be chained, since it has no legs to escape with) Envoy fills in the information and signs the card.

"Thank you," the librarian says, and takes up the card, blowing on the ink. She puts it into some sort of metal press contraption, winds a crank, and out comes the card, looking glossier and shiny, with some sort of translucent coating. "Welcome to the Central Library of New Zion. We're very happy to have a visitor from so far away."

Envoy smiles. "I'm very glad to be here. Do you have a newspaper archive here as well as books?" she asks.

"That's in the basement," the librarian says. "We have all the major papers."

"And where would I find the books of … folklore?" the Aeolun asks politely.

"Hmm. Just a moment … Oh, Wilfred!" the secretary calls out. A scrawny lupine – in his early adolescent years, apparently – jogs up. "This is Wilfred, library assistant. Wilfred, please give this distinguished lady a tour of the library. She's come from a long, long way away, and isn't acquainted with the card catalogs."

The lupine nods several times. "My pleasure, ma'am."

Envoy looks at her new library card at the mention of card catalogues. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a book catalog in a library? she wonders. "Hello, Wilfred. I am Envoy." She smiles and tries to look friendly.

Wilfred nervously wags, and shows Envoy over to a set of drawers that serve as a "card catalog". Stammering, stuttering and sometimes having to repeat himself, Wilfred spends the next hour or so introducing Envoy to how books and cards containing information about them are organized here, and the floors and sections of the building devoted to different broad topics … all the while doing his best to keep up with Envoy's typical questions.

"And, uhm … that's about it," Wilfred concludes.

"Thank you," Envoy says, still smiling. The system seems simple enough to use, so she tries to find the folktales topic, or a variation of it, in the catalog to see where the books would be located.

After a short perusal of the sections with the aid of a map of the library posted next to the card catalog, it would seem that there is a nice, sunlit area up on the next floor devoted especially to myths, legends and lore, just up a flight of stairs.

Once she arrives at the section, Envoy simply picks up the first book in the stacks and checks the table of contents for anything that might apply to what she's looking for – namely, odd events or sites dealing with metal.

It would seem that there are plenty of things dealing with metal. Metal is, after all, much more abundant on Abaddon than on Sinai. There are giant robot Titans, all sorts of interesting contraptions, and so many fables and legends about unlikely things happening with them, including "ghost" vehicles plying the skies or marching the wastelands, haunted by the spirits of brave warriors lost in the many clashes between Abaddon's feuding cultures.

There are tales of beasts of metal … swords with mysterious properties … a mad scientist's creation known as the 'Leviathan' – some sort of colossal "thinking machine" … self-driving automated contraptions gone berserk … and strange twisted shapes of metal seemingly left by alien cultures much more ancient than those living here now.

Envoy decides to read the stories dealing with metal creatures or clearly alien artifacts. She can cross reference the information as she goes, to hopefully build up a picture of what was really encountered and what was just … elaboration. Given the number of books, however, she isn't sure how long it will take, even with such a narrow selection of what's available.

Most of the stories are far-fetched, to say the least, and quite clearly fables. Even though she has had plenty of experience with magic on Sinai, it still usually follows some sort of rules, and many of these stories seem to feature phenomena that are beholden to none. There are a number of claims of twisted bits of metal attributed to ghosts or aliens, but none of them seem terribly convincing, even though many of them are apparently actual landmarks. The legend seeming to have the most basis in some sort of fact would be Dr. Von Bronson's "Leviathan" contraption, located in some long-forgotten citadel – that is, if it's not merely yet another tall tale.

Envoy reconsiders the stories about the Leviathan, mainly because the name of the mad scientist at least remains consistent. While she had been assuming the goal of her quest would be of Sifran origin, she realizes that that doesn't preclude the chance that someone else had already found it. She reads more about the strange creation.

Piecing together various accounts, and sifting out the most apparent elaborations on the tale, Envoy finds that it seems that this contraption was some sort of bizarre fusion between modern and ancient technology. In this sense, 'ancient' technology is almost invariably more advanced than what is 'modern', as the people of the Expedition seem to be keenly aware that they came from a more technologically advanced civilization, and that many of their wondrous contraptions ceased to work here. A combination of steamworks and borrowed technologies from other peoples, this "Leviathan" is described as some great, steam-breathing monstrosity, capable of great intellect, and of massive size.

"A steam-powered dragon?" Envoy wonders quietly. She searches the stories for more details about where the thing could be found, and also decides to search the news archives for any accounts of encounters with it, if it actually exists.

The stories invariably claim that it's long lost, and there are some works of fiction that use it as the object of various quests, with it turning out to be some marvelous monster, a war machine invented by some enemy (presumably whatever enemy was causing the Expedition the most trouble at the time of the writing of the story in question), and so forth. However, when she actually checks the newspapers, she finds them to be quite enlightening … It seems that a few years ago, this Leviathan was discovered. Since then, it would seem that interest in writing about it as a "legend" has dropped dramatically, since none of the books she's read are written after that point.

Envoy digs deeper into the news, hoping for more information on the discovery – or at least a pointer to a more scientific source about it.

The earliest accounts of the discovery are buried in much hoopla and supposition. The more level-headed articles seem to be those more removed from the original event. It would seem, actually, that the Leviathan currently resides at the Museum of Antiquities, on the other side of the city, taking up a sizeable portion of a wing that was constructed specifically to house the contraption – which was moved, incidentally, in several sections, to where it presently resides. Apparently, this marvelous wonder is not presently operational. It would seem that the mad scientist Dr. Von Bronson died some decades ago, and must have taken with him to his grave the secret for how to power his marvelous machine.

Envoy decides to pay the museum a visit. Maybe they'll let her see where the power source originally fit, to give her an idea if it's what she should be looking for or not. Otherwise, she'll have to look into the twisted metal landmarks.

Later that day, Envoy reaches the Museum of Antiquities, located closer to the edge of the city, surrounded by open grounds, rather than towering buildings. It is a structure much wider than it is tall, with several "wings" spreading out from a central domed hub, in no particular symmetrical order. Within the central dome are numerous flying contraptions suspended as if in flight, and on lower levels are other curiosities and marvels – many of them quite past working order many decades or even centuries ago.

Wings are devoted to different areas of accomplishment in ancient craftsmanship and engineering, but an entire wing is devoted to the Leviathan, and a large banner identifies it as such.

Envoy walks from one end of the device to the other, trying to figure out what it was actually for, and keeps an eye out for the curator.

The Aeolun paces around a fairly impressive looking form that looks something like a large metal dragon, though it seems that it could hardly hope to move, and quite a number of its features look fairly … well … fake. But just about the time Envoy realizes this, she notices a placard that indicates that this is a prop that was made for the "motion picture" called Curse of the Leviathan. (On a wall divider next to the prop is a monochromatic still frame with a human actor in what must be standard adventurer's gear on this world, as Envoy has seen the same general look repeated on the covers of several books.)

Around a large standing wall … Envoy gets a glimpse of the real thing. A huge mechanical dragon, easily filling a space the size of the interior of Alysin's Opera House back in Rephidim, reclines in the middle of a roped off area – a marvelous collage of gears, metal framework, purely decorative and fanciful additions of brassy 'scales' and other draconian features, and glimpses of pipes and steamwork, and sections of glass and crystal inside.

Envoy's eyes go wide at the sight of the fabulous machine, and she rushes up to the ropes to get a closer look. The crystal box with her crown in it is a noticeable weight in her pack, and the urge to take it out and examine the device with it is hard to resist.

A few children look at the dragon with similar awe, and one of them has a toy version of the contraption – a bit more "cute" looking, and obviously mass produced. The machine, though it resembles a dragon, does not look very mobile, as nestled within its front paws is something that looks like a command console of some sort … or else the keyboard for one massive organ.

Envoy tears her eyes away to search for a curator or guide. With so many children, there must be something more substantial than a rope to keep them from climbing all over the exhibit.

A whiskered old wolf in a neatly pressed uniform and slightly cocked cap stands as if at attention, casually keeping an eye on the children, lest they are tempted to ignore the symbolic barrier of the bounding ropes.

The Aeolun approaches the … guard? … and asks, "Excuse me sir, but who would I need to see about getting permission to examine the Leviathan?"

"Permission?" The attendant blinks, seemingly to be startled out of his usual routine. "No permission needed at all. You can look, same as anyone else. Not from these parts, hmm?"

"Er, no, I'm from … Sinai, mostly," Envoy says. "I'm a Mage of the Sphere of Earth. I was hoping for a more direct examination, if possible. Is there a head curator I can talk to? I have special tools to examine it with."

"Oh! Some sort of … eh … mage?" He frowns, contemplatively. "Well, now," he mumbles, lifting his hat to scratch at his head. "I suppose you'd visit the main office. Might find one of them eggheads around… "

Envoy smiles brightly. "Where could I find this main office then, please?"

"Right this way, ma'am," the guard directs.

At the main office of the Museum of Antiquities, Envoy spends quite an amount of time waiting, though there are at least several periodicals on an end table for her to flip through. She learns quite a deal about the obsession of people in the Expedition for manicures, makeup, and the latest fashion in dresses … at least, according to a magazine apparently meant for female human readers. Her learning experience is interrupted by a tall and gangly fellow in a wrinkled and loose suit and a crumpled hat. "Hello there, and good day, Mage Envoy of Lothrhyn," he says. "I am Professor James. I understand you had some questions about the Leviathan?"

Envoy sets the magazine aside and stands to bow to the professor. "Indeed sir, I was wondering if I could be allowed to search it for Sifran components, and also examine the connections for the power source?"

The professor hmms, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "This is on official College business, correct? That is, the College of … ah … that is, the College Esoterica of Sinai?"

The Aeolun blinks at this, and says, "Well, no, it is more of personal interest to me. I just happen to have a way for detecting potential Sifran artifacts. Surely, your museum would benefit from knowing if such technology was used in the device?"

"A special means?" the professor echoes, then says, "Well, yes. Please, do go on."

Envoy turns to the seat next to her, where she laid her travel pack, and withdraws a crystal box. Setting it on the end table with the magazines, she opens it to reveal the crown that Morpheus made. "I can use this to detect changes in the … probability matrix, I suppose you'd call it."

The professor's eyes go wide, and he adjusts his glasses. "This … this is amazing!"

"It's brand new, too," Envoy offers, and holds the crown out to the professor. "It's specially made for me, though, so I don't think it would work properly for just anyone," she adds, just to be safe.

The professor turns it over in his hands, and especially observers the indentation for Envoy's horn. "I see. Hmm. How … does this work?"

"Technically?" Envoy asks. "I don't know. But the embedded crystals glow differently depending on changes to the magical environment. It really lights up inside the Gateway Towers."

"Aha," the professor comments. "Well … I suppose we should see how this reacts, then!" He hands the crown back to Envoy, smiling.

"Do you have any small artifacts you'd like to test it on first?" Envoy asks, as she puts the crown onto her head for the time being.

"Well," the professor says, "we have a few pieces of Sifran crystal. Let's go see… " He leads Envoy through the museum, until they reach a museum case with several pieces of Sifran crystal. Not all of them provoke reactions from the crown, but it glitters perceptibly in proximity to some of them. "Fascinating!" the professor remarks.

Envoy hmms. "Some of these may be types of crystal Morpheus hasn't encountered before, or are just inert."

The professor nods, taking notes. "That was a most definite reaction, though I suppose it would take some further study to determine just what can be learned from this. Would you like to see the Leviathan, now?"

Envoy nods enthusiastically! "I read that you never recovered the power source? Did you find where it was connected?"

"Well, we have theories. The best we can figure is a hollow containment chamber of some sort," the professor says, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, as he leads the way. Once they get back to the Leviathan Wing, he leads Envoy past the ropes, to the surprise of more than a few visitors, and leads her right up some steps past the "organ", to a door sealed by a turn-wheel. He cranks at the wheel, and opens it up, revealing a hollow chamber inside, lined with cables of metal of various types, and traces of crystal here and there. "There you have it."

Envoy blinks at the crystal, and immediately goes in to pass the crown near them.

Envoy's crown glitters only around some of them. The others do not seem to be of Sifran manufacture, though someone might superficially assume them to be so.

"I've seen Sifran crystals integrated with normal technology before, but never with anything as primitive as this," the Aeolun murmurs, and examines the connections on the crystals that caused reactions. "Do you know what these were used for?"

"Ah, well, we can only imagine that they were used to somehow compensate with the phenomenon known as 'Quantum Uncertainty' on your world. Here, we know it by various terms, though the prevailing term is 'background radiation'."

"So these connections were likely for control lines?" Envoy asks as she pokes around with the crown.

"Perhaps, or some sort of stabilizers, or perhaps some sort of shielding," the professor offers. "Without any sort of documentation from the inventor, or any demonstration of this in working order, we can't be certain."

"Various means have been attempted to power this machine, but none seem able to succeed," the professor says. "We have means of power that could operate it, theoretically, but not without overloading its delicate workings. It must have taken a very special power source."

Envoy hmms. "Can you show me the power source housing?" she asks.

"Well," the professor says, "this … is it, really." There is something of a framework that is more or less in the center of the chamber, rising from "floor" to "ceiling", but it doesn't give a clear picture of just what was meant to fit in it. It really doesn't seem to have any obvious connections that would seem to run to anything, but more being a very elaborate support structure for something that may well be totally unattached from whatever circuitry this machine has.

Whatever might fit in here might be about the size of, oddly enough, a Blakatball … though probably not one, in actuality.

Envoy looks from the empty space to the various crystals embedded throughout the chamber. "Essence of Metal, perhaps," she says quietly, and runs the detector around the area to see if there are still any residual traces of the power source.

It glitters now and then, near the elements of the containment chamber that seem to be made from genuine Sifran crystal.

"How long ago did Doctor Bronson die?" Envoy asks while she memorizes the structure of the framework.

"No one is sure exactly, as Von Bronson was a bit of a hermit," the professor admits, "but he was last seen about forty years ago, and he was in his fifties then. When his laboratory was found, he had burned all his notes, and it's the best guess that he had been in isolation for maybe ten years. It is supposed that he died peacefully in his sleep, but something must have still prompted him to destroy his notes … or perhaps someone else found him first, and committed an act of vandalism."

"Something you are familiar with?" the professor queries.

"Something I'm looking for," Envoy answers. "I think I'd like to find this man's laboratory, or what is left of it. I might find something there that has been overlooked in previous searches, now that I have an idea of what to look for."