8511 shuddered. It stank. Her wax-flesh shuddered from the cold water. She trudged through it. 8511 did not want to come down here.
She tugged subconsciously on the cast iron collar around her neck. The Android didn't notice it. She just scratched at the mark of her enslavement, something the Android had only known over the five years she'd been a conscious machine.
"No choice. Do what they say." 8511 muttered to herself. The Android had the shape and form of a young woman. But the eerie blue glow to her eyes made her look anything but human. Lines and runes along parts of her body glowed blue as well. Nuts and screws met at her joints. There were seams, very hard to see, but they were still there. 8511's flesh shimmered. Made of wax, it had a color and softness like human flesh, but magically reinforced. Under that wax one could hear the thrum and spin of tiny cogs and gears. Each driven by arcane energy that sustained the Android girl.
The ragged servant's dark grey clothes 8511 wore were soaked with the stinking sewer water. A bandana kept her bedraggled hair down.
8511 kept on trudging. She tried to focus on the shape and image of the necklace. The Android girl had been ordered to find and retrieve it. A plain, useless necklace.
It didn't matter why she'd been ordered to retrieve it. 8511 hadn't lost it exploring Crux's insane labyrinthine sewers like her master had. Her master, Professor Maxmidan had lost it. He insisted making her go retrieve it. 8511 tried to move quietly. For the same reason why 8511 didn't have a real name, just her serial number.
Perhaps she could make it out of this alive. Part of her wondered about how much of a relief that could be.
The undercity of Crux had its own myriad sets of dangers. Centuries of construction had left old catacombs atop even older catacombs. Tribes of all sorts of feral things dwelled deep under the City of Curses. Worse still, even though 8511 knew her kind were mostly immune to them, were the Ancient Ones. The Vampires, who didn't take kindly to trespassers in their old dominions.
The tunnel before her opened up into a cavern. 8511 gazed at the ruins of a long buried and forgotten neighborhood of Crux. THe place the Professor had spent the better part of his last few weeks. She sighed. Time to get to work.
8511 took her time. She searched each room and ruin. One by one, she examined tiles and sifted through piles od debris. 8511 didn't need to sleep. She didn't need to eat or drink either, although she still liked to do the later. 8511 spent the better part of a day there before she came across it.
The we android paused when found it, studying the mirror before doing anything with it. The glow of her blue runes illuminated the mirror, causing it to reflect blue back at her. The antique mirror looked valuable and perfectly clean. Not a mote of dust blemished its silver surface. Inlaid emeralds and sapphires glimmered from its frame. 8511's glowing blue eyes widened. She felt some sort of power thrum within it.
8511 touched it.
The mirror rustled at her touch. It took up a sinister glow. Black energy coursed out of it. The black energy crackled out of the mirror toward her. 8511 screamed. She fell down. 8511 felt certain that this was her ending. That some sort of nightmarish thing would devour her here. All because of a stupid necklace.
A demonic form emerged from the crackling energy, within the mirror itself. Purple fire collesced into claws and horns. On the other side of the glass, black teeth glistened with black ichor. It made 8511's wax-flesh shiver with fear.
"Make a wish, Mortal." A darkly feminine voice hissed. The demon smiled up at 8511 from the mirror trapping it. "Break my mirror and make a wish. Anything you desire, Toy-Girl. Anything, just break me free of this mirror."
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