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Hector concentrated, though he wasn’t entirely sure on what. The orb? The flame? The metal band? He felt like he had to pick one.

He chose the flame. It seemed to be the centerpiece of the contraption, after all.

And as such, he did not close his eyes. Instead, he fixated them upon the fire.

It was certainly no normal flame. That much had already been obvious, but as he stared at it further, he began to sense something even stranger about it.

Yes. It had an aura.

Subtle. Quiet. But there, nonetheless.

How did that make sense, though?

As far as he knew, only living things possessed an aura.

Unless...

‘Garovel, I think this thing might be alive.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I think this little flame in here is alive. A living flame.’

‘Huh.’

Hector waited. ‘That’s all you got for me? No ancient insights into the nature of life or whatever?’

‘Well, I do sense ardor in it, but that doesn’t confirm life. Rocks in the Undercrust, for example, are often chock full of ardor. Are you sure you’re not mistaken?’

‘Of course I’m not sure. I’ve never seen anything like this before. But it has an aura. And... I don’t know... I just feel like it’s... waiting.’

‘Waiting? For what?’

‘Good question. For me? The wearer? To do something? I’m not sure what else would make sense.’

‘Hmm. Okay. Let’s think about this, then. It’s not guaranteed, of course, but I’d say it’s a fair assumption that Abbas invented this object in order to assist with his goal of making powered armor usable by non-servants. That’s what he kept talking about when you asked him, right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So... maybe this is some sort of... neural interface. Meant to safely connect a person’s brain to Abbas’ armor.’

Hector bobbed his head a little. ‘That sounds like a pretty good guess to me.’

‘Thank you. But if I’m right, then that might also mean that this thing actually does nothing on its own. And that we’re wasting our time, right now.’

‘Aww... In that case, I hope you’re wrong.’

‘Wow, Hector.’

‘Maybe we just need to connect it to something.’

‘Well, it’s probably meant to connect to Abbas’ armor and not anything else.’

‘You don’t know that. Maybe it could connect to all sorts of things.’

‘Oh yeah? Like what?’

‘Uh...’ Hector looked around the room from within the great glass orb. ‘I mean, there IS a big ass Fusion Forge just sitting here...’

Garovel was quiet a moment. ‘Y’know something, buddy? In terms of the most stupidly dangerous ideas we’ve ever contemplated, that might be the new number one. Genuinely, I am impressed, right now.’