Elise was upset. Her weekly shipment of imported produce had arrived
and the Sinash Saffron was not among the items hauled in. She actually
wasn't a hundred percent sure this was true. One of the housemaids had
taken the package while she was at dance practice, and had told her
over the comm that it was not in the crate.
Now Elise marched into her kitchen (it was separate from her parent's
kitchen which was closer to the penthouse's dining room) and spotted
the crate on the center bench.
"I can't believe it," she muttered. "I've been looking for this stuff
for weeks, and when I finally find it, THIS happens." She dug around
in the box, scattering packing bubbles. Her fingers felt a piece of
paper, which she promptly pulled out and scanned. It was the inventory
receipt. Aciamaje peppers, Nion, Elpa fruit...at the bottom of the
receipt a note was scrawled.
"'Sorry for the inconvenience, we are out of Sinash Saffron until
further notice. Please check back'–oh, forget it! I'll find another
place!" Elise said aloud. She looked back at her shipment. Well, at
least the rest looked decent. She could make a delectable summer pasta
and grilled fowl with these. She pulled out her communicator and
pressed a button. Her communicator was the latest model–white and
black with an iridescent screen. She had to have the latest. She
raised the round device to her ear.
"Hi sweetie. How was dance?"
"Very good, mother, thank you. When are you and father bringing the
company guests again? Tomorrow?"
"Day after. I still haven't found anything to wear..."
"Neither have I. I have the fruit and vegetables I needed to make that
sauce, so I can make dinner. Unfortunately," Elise squinted at the
box, "Merryman's does not have the saffron. They're quite incompetent
with spices."
"Oh, hon, that's too bad. Well, I'm sure whatever you make will be
good all the same," her mother said. Elise sighed. Of course she would
say that. "Oh! Rowley's is having a sale! Maybe I'll find something to
wear. Do you want me to look for something for you?"
"No, thank you mother. I'll find something. I'll see you later."
"All right, then. Bye sweetheart!"
Elise pressed another button on her communicator and looked at the
crate again. Better empty the packing bubbles, she thought. She
overturned the box into the waste recepticle, showering the airy blue
pieces. The bubbles fell into the recepticle with a clink. Wait...a clink?
Elise reached into the recepticle. Had she missed something? There was
something else. It was cool and metallic.
"A teaspoon?" It was an elegant piece of silverware. Not extremely out
of the ordinary, but nice. The handle was engraved with a rose
pattern, but Elise could not make out what sort of metal it was made
of. It was heavier than any precious metals she knew of, and it did
not appear to be lead. It couldn't be plated lead, could it?
She carried it to the sink and dipped it under the faucet. Then
something strange happened. The spoon flashed in her hand, and grew to
half her size. At the same time, the kitchen flashed around her, and
in an instant later, she was not in the kitchen anymore, but she was
in a garden, and she was not alone.

(Roxy)


Noah had been all too excited at his new discovery, after all, who
would have believed that below the Old Continent a completely new city
could be hiding? Surely this was the place he had been searching for!
Surely this had to be the hiding place of the artifact he had been
looking for since he was a boy. He placed his hands on his hips and
laughed loudly, letting his voice echo and carry throughout the vast
expanse. The noise died out as he looked down upon the city again,
everything was stone as it had been outside, but the architecture was
completely different and far more detailed, tall spires reached
towards the black abyss of the ceiling becoming obscured in the
darkness and as much as he tried, no amount of squinting would make it
clearer to him. The buildings themselves were thin and delicate with
intricate stone patterns running throughout every inch of them, he
couldn't be sure, but they appeared to be letters, or characters of
some kind, it seemed like they had been burned into the stone. Every
building was unique though, and there were hundreds of thousands of
them with small winding paths running through them sprawling as far as
the eye could see and past that fading into the darkness like the spires.

"Alright! Here I go!" Noah exclaimed as he grabbed hold of the ladder
in front of him and swung around to slide down it. The thought never
occurred to him though that it was underground and had been
undisturbed for centuries, and yet there was a faint glow of light
that had enabled him to see more clearly, after all his puny
flashlight couldn't have given off enough light to enable him to see
as much of the city as he did. He reached the bottom of the ladder and
landed a little clumsily, but kept his balance regardless. He adjusted
his belt and the straps on his pack and grinned at the long path in
front of him.

"It's gotta be here this time, I can feel it," he said as he started
walking, he looked around at the buildings as he went. After ten
minutes or so of walking a strong gust of wind hit him.

"What the-" and then a stronger gust of wind hit him causing him to
have to stabilize his balance or he would have been knocked over. he
could hear noises coming from the same direction of the wind, some
kind of metal on metal clashing and what sounded like an explosion.

"Damnit! Someone got here before me!? It sounds like they're
destroying the buildings too!" He clenched his fists and scowled at
the direction the disturbance was coming from. There were
fluctuation's in light that he could see coming from above the
buildings, whatever was happening was big. He set off in a flat run
following the source of the noises. Soon he arrived at a courtyard
that had been partially destroyed, the surrounding buildings were in
the same condition, he had come in from a small side street and to the
right he could see a tall temple, it looked much larger than the
surrounding buildings. A cloaked figure was standing at the bottom of
the stairs and and someone in a suit of armor was standing opposite
the cloaked figure and seemed to be in not so great shape judging by
their posture. The cloaked figure raised a hand out from under the
cloak and a bright flash of light emitted from it sending the person
in the suit of armor flying past Noah and into a building close by.
Even though he didn't quite know what was going on, Noah sprang into
action and rushed out to stand between the cloaked figure and the
person in the suit of armor who seemed to be trying to move from the
rubble.

"I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I made it here
first! The artifact is mine! I've been searching for it since I was a
kid!" Noah yelled as he crossed his arms and stared defiantly at the
cloaked figure, a smirk across his face.

"Shut it ya damn... brat..." The voice was coming from behind him, he
turned and saw that the helmet of the suit of armor had been knocked
off and an old man had been inside the thing the whole time. He
stumbled to his feet, using his sword as a stabilizer.

"Get th hell outta here!" Se said as he coughed, he had a large gash
on his head, the wound seemed to be causing him to close his left eye
due to the stream on blood, and as he coughed it was apparent that he
was hacking up blood as well.

"Hey old man, you alright?" Noah asked as he looked at him.

"The time for you to give me the item is now, I will not let my
ambitions be thwarted now. I can simply kill you and retrieve it from
your corpse, but killing you is far too embarrassing, and I'd rather
not give you pathetic Knights of the Round the delusion that you're a
hindrance to me," The cloaked figure said. It was a female voice that
sounded neither old nor young, her face was obscured from view though.

"I'll never let you have it ya damn wench! someone like you obtaining
a key will never happen! I won't let it-!" He said as he stumbled
towards the cloaked figure but as he came abreast with Noah he lost
his balance and stumbled to his knees.

"Geeze old man, don't overdue it," Noah said as he put a hand on his
shoulder to keep him steady.

"I don't need your damn sympathy you, brat." the old man said weakly.

"Quit calling me that, geezer!" Noah yelled at him.

"Don't call me a geezer ya snot nosed brat! You don't know-" The old
man retorted.

"Don't call me that either you living fossil! I have just as much or a
right to be here as-" Noah continued.

"Living fossil!? Why I otta-!"

"Give me the key now!" The cloaked woman yelled. "I'm a busy woman and
don't have time for you Knight of the round relics and some kid," She
said as she began to walk towards them.

"Damnit..." The old man said through gritted teeth. He looked to Noah,
"As much as I'd like ta, this old body o mine is giving out, I have no
way ta kill a witch like her..." Noah looked down at the old man.
"You said you had been looking for the artifact for a long time
right?" The old man coughed a few more time, blood staining his armor.

"That's right!" Noah said smiling.

"Heh," the old man laughed, "What do you plan on doing with it?" he asked.

"That's an easy one," he said with a devilish grin, "I'm going to be
the greatest man that ever lived! They'll tell stories for centuries
about all of the awesome things I'll do. First thing I plan on doing
is ending the war! What better way is there to get my name out there?"
He laughed at himself.

"You're one weird kid," the old man laughed. He rummaged around inside
the breastplate of his armor, he seemed to be looking for something.
Once he found it he took out what appeared to be a pocket watch and
pressed it into Noah's hand. "Take this and run as far as ya can," the
old man said as he stood up shakily.

"What is this?" Noah said as he too stood up.

"Heh heh, my most prized possession of course," The old man said, "Run
with it and get out of here, if ya dare loose it I'll kick your sorry
ass to the moon and back, you hear me!?" He said with a smile as he
began to walk forward.

"H-hey! Wait a minute!?" Noah tried, but the old man wasn't listening.
Noah looked down at the pocket watch and noticed that it was beginning
to glow white.

"A-ah!?" Noah had no idea what was going on, but the space around him
began to distort and warp, he though he heard the old man say
something, but his voice was distant and lost as a new sight filled
his vision, green and other small dots of color and the sent of
flowers filled his nose. As he blinked his vision became clearer, he
was in a garden of sorts with large animal shrub sculptures, over half
of the animals were ones that he had never seen before. he looked
around the area completely confused, it seemed like there was a
fountain behind him. A large sculpture of marble stood in the middle
of it, it was a scene of four creatures standing back to back against
each other, the water cascaded own thee figures into a 2 tier basin.
They seemed to be each facing a separate path. He walked towards the
fountain to look at it further when he noticed that he wasn't alone.
There were two people standing to either side of him, one was a young
girl and the other was an older man. Each of them seemed to be holding
a different object in their hands questioningly. He looked down at his
own hand to see the pocket watch like object.

"Were either of you blinded by some flash of light too? Everything got
all wavy and suddenly I was here..." Noah said

(Francesca)

"Yes. I was," Elise said, looking at the boy suspiciously. He was
probably older than her by a few years, and he was dressed
strangely-for that matter, they both were-and he was rather...dirty .
He was also holding a watch awkwardly, but then she realized she was
carrying a giant spoon so she decided against commenting. "I'm sorry,
who are you? I don't suppose you're responsible for this." She
gestured around the garden with the spoon.

(Alicia)

"gO0d mOrNInG, SiR! hERe is y0ur BrEAkfAsT!" Echo chimed as he
entered the room, carrying a tray fashioned out of wood. A peculiar
sight was set upon it.
"Echo..." Wil began groggily. He wasn't very much of a morning
person. The sun had barely set foot past the window shade and here
the small droid was bothering him with breakfast.
Wil sat up and sighed. The plate, saucer, and cup were each filled
with non-edible items that Echo had found around the shop, not the
kitchen. "OIL for breakfast, hmm?" Wil said as he noted the unusual
diet he was presented with. "You really ARE broken, aren't you?"
"mY sYSteM dEteCTs n0 eRRorS," Echo put frankly as he set the tray
down on the table next to Wil's bed.
"Come here and let me have a look at you," Wil said, grabbing the
droid out of mid-air. He had a small hatch open atop his head and was
examining it.
"Yep, it's that old gear that seems to be causing the problem..." he
said to no one in particular. "Let's head to the junkyard and see if
I have something we can use."

The two weren't out in the junkyard for long until a gleam of gold
caught William's eye. The new sun had nicked the tooth of a fine,
golden gear that had worked its way through the junk while Wil
searched. He picked it up and examined it curiously. A half-smile
played on his face.
"Huh. This must be fate or something..." He turned to the droid who
was watching just over his shoulder and gave a small chuckle. "Echo,
I think we may have found you a--"
Just then a blinding light flashed and engulfed both William and the
tiny droid. Wil fell slightly off balance as he felt the ground give
away beneath him. A gasp of surprise managed to escape him before a
new ground placed itself under his feet. Wil gave his eyes a moment
to adjust and soon realized that the junkyard around him had changed
into a well-groomed garden. Or was he somewhere else? His head
stirred with possibilities. Then he noticed the other two standing
not so far from where he was. He decided to remain silent to their
questions as they seemed to momentarily be occupied with answering
each other. Instead he leaned toward Echo.
"Hey, psst, Echo? Where are we?" he whispered, a little panicked.
"tHiS pLacE," Echo began, "iS nOt 0n mY rADaR."
"Of course not," Wil sighed, "because you're broken. And lighten up,
will ya? I've never seen you so serious..." William grabbed Echo and
began tinkering with his insides. He fit the new gear into place. As
he did so, Echo's eyes lit up and the tiny engine with in him hummed
quietly. Wil barely had time to close the hatch before Echo zoomed
off in the direction of the other two strangers, invading their
personal space to get a good look at each.
"wHo aRE y0Ur NeW fRiEndS, mAsTEr?" Echo's voice seemed to have
changed into more of a soprano than the flat baritone it was earlier
this morning. The droid didn't wait for Wil to answer. Instead be
bowed to the new guests. "dELigHteD to mEEt y0u! DeLiGHteD t0 MeEt
YoU!" he began chanting happily.

(Francesca)

Elise stopped staring at the boy.
"What, who said that?" She looked toward the man, who might have been
trying to hide without actually trying to hide. Maybe not. He was
keeping his distance though. The voice could not have been his. Then
she saw it. There was a robot, perhaps it a droid, hovering near the
man. It was built with a peculiar aesthetic-it was friendly and cute
looking, nothing she was used to in mechanical technology–yet it was a
robot, there was no mistaking that. It moved forward and bowed in
general direction of her and the boy, greeting them cheerfully albeit
mechanically.. She glanced at the boy, no, he couldn't be any sort of
authority figure to catalyze this.
"Er. Charmed." She looked around the robot to the man. "Is he yours? A
droid?"

(Alicia)


Wil rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Er, yeah. You could say
that. Well," he paused and shrugged, "I made him anyway. That droid
has a personality of his own. He does what he wants..."
William approached the two as he talked. "In any case, anyone know
where we are?"

(Roxy)


Before Noah had time to answer the girl's question about his
involvement in the matter some sort of metallic flying object that
belonged to the older man flew over to him excitedly and began
examining him more closely than he was comfortable with, instinctively
Noah slammed the thing with his right hand sending it into the cobbled
stone pathway they were all standing on.

"A...ah... oops..." Noah said as the metallic object began to sputter
about to regain it's bearings, "just a reflex... wait- wHAT THE HELL
IS THAT THING!?" Noah yelled as he backed up from it for a second,
then leaned in to inspect it a little closer.

"You made this thing old man?" Noah said looking from the droid to the
older man and pointing at the thing. He looked at it and squinted his
eyes and then grabbed the droid with both hands, it seemed to be
struggling to get free, but Noah turning it over trying to look at the
thing to get a better understanding of it.

"What kind of technology is this...?" he said with wide eyes.

Suddenly there was a noise behind him, the sound of someone clearing
their throat. Noah turned in it's direction, it appeared to be a small
old lady wearing a fancy sort of white robe and was carrying some sort
of ornate staff. Noah had never seen a garment like that before.

"You, children, what are you doing here in the garden of the Holy
Order? You're not allowed to be in here," she said looking at them
angrily, her whole wrinkled face squishing into a scowl.

(Francesca)

"We're lost," Elise replied quickly to the elderly woman. The boy was
tangled with the robot, which belonged to the man...none of them
seemed to know each other, or even where they were. Strange. "I'm
Elise Farthing." This did not appear to affect the woman at all. Elise
cleared her throat uncomfortably. People usually recognized and
associated the name with the world's largest plexi-glass company. The
elderly woman must not be familiar with non-petrified materials.
Either that or...
"You still shouldn't be here," the woman grumbled. "I'm Lady Ella,"
she added, a little more gently. "Keeper of the garden of the Holy
Order. How did you get in here?" The last part was said with a little
disbelief.
"We just-" Elise began, but before anyone could continue Lady Ella
gasped. She was staring at the spoon.
"But, that's-" Lady Ella's surprised gaze passed from Elise's hand to
the boy and the man. "That." She pointed at the boy. "That's a watch,
isn't it? And you," She said to the man. "What do you have?"

(Alicia)

"Uh..."
Wil blinked thoughtfully. Everything seemed to be happening so fast
that he wasn't able to keep up. Maybe it was his age beginning to
affect him. Maybe he wasn't as offended as he pretended to be when
the boy called him 'Old Man.'
"I don't think I know what you're talking about," he said rather
quickly. He stepped forward to address her more respectfully. "Look,
Lady Ella, I'm really sorry that we ended up in your garden. The
truth is I don't know how I got here or where 'here' even is and I'd
really appreciate it if you could show us the way out...?"

(Roxy)

"I think it's a watch?" Noah said as he let go of the droid finally
and whipped the watch chain around his arm which it had been hanging
off of to catch it, he popped open the face of it by turning a switch
on the side of it and was greeted with a strange, complicated looking
array of ornate moving mechanical pieces all moving at a slow and
steady pace beneath a glass cover. Just like the outside the inside of
it was a gold like color. He couldn't make heads or tales of the
object though as it didn't seem to be telling time in any way that he
was familiar with.

"A-Ah!" The old woman exclaimed as she stumbled over to Noah and
pulled his hand down to her eye level so that she could see the object
more closely.

"Hey!" Noah said in surprise. The old woman squinted at the object and
then her eyes grew wide, she then snatched the object out of Noah's
hand. The minute she did the small gears and other mechanical parts
stopped moving.

"My Holy... this can not be..." she said aghast as she put the
instrument back in Noah's hand and the gears started moving again. She
then ran over to Elise as fast as she could and grabbed the spoon.
Sure enough it became the size of an ordinary spoon. she then pressed
it back into Elise's hand and it became large again. The old woman let
out a noise that sounded something like a cross between a peal of
laughter and a squeal of horror.

"What's wrong with you?" Noah asked the old woman completely confused.
He looked to Elise and the older man who had yet to introduce himself
questioningly.

The old woman then hobbled over to Wil hurriedly.

"Where is it?!" She demanded.

William took a step backward and put up his hands defensively. "I don't know what you're talking about!" he insisted. Just then Echo popped up between Ella and Wil. "hEll0," he began as if he wasn't even paying attention to the situation. "I aM cAlLeD ECHO, aNd ThAT iS mY mASteR, WiL! pLeASeD t0 mEEt yOu!" He extended a hand which was actually more like a fork. It was custom for him to introduce himself to someone who introduced themselves first, and Wil knew that. But he felt a small twinge of concern for the robot putting itself between himself and such a hostile old lady.
"Echo--" He whispered the warning through his gritted teeth.

"Echo?" Lady Ella turned to the droid. Suddenly she plucked it out of the air and began to examine it. "Aha. Here we are," she said, pointing into the robot's head. "Gear." She nodded expertly. "Well, that settles it. You've got three of the Articles. Only one is missing, and we know where that's gotten to." She shuddered.
"Where has it gotten to?" Elise asked. It didn't exactly make sense, but she was beginning to put a few pieces together. Obviously these items were important and though it seemed unlikely, related. "What is the fourth, erm, 'Article'? Someone else has it?"
"Shania," said Lady Ella. "Come on. Follow me."
"Where are we going?" asked Elise.
"To see a few more members of the Order," said Lady Ella. "We'll need to explain a few things before you go."
"Um, why, exactly? If this is yours," she gestured to the spoon, "you can have it. I think it was put in my shipment by mistake."
"Oh, no! It's yours...Elise, did you say? Can't you see that? It likes you better than me." She laughed shortly. "Now come on."

"Article? Like a newspaper?" Noah asked the old lady as he followed after her and Elise.

"I'm Noah by the way," He said as he realized that he hadn't introduced himself.

"What do you mean by... "Likes you better"? Are these things alive?" He asked as he looked at the moving gears of the watch cautiously.

"Oh, ahahaha, hardly," Lady Ella said not turning around and continuing to round a corner which they all followed. it lead into a large circular area with tall pillars and a large set of double doors before them with 4 guards in front of it, 2 on each side, each standing at attention and holding spears taller than they were.

"Lady Ella, what brings you to the minister's audience chamber?" The left most guard asked, he eyed the group behind her a little suspiciously. "I was not aware that we had guests," He said as he nodded in the direction of Elise, Noah, and Wil.

The old woman smiled at the guard knowingly, "You would not believe who these people are," she said as she chuckled to herself. She walked closer to the guards and with a sweeping gesture towards the small group announced, "I present to you 3 of the 4 Article Wielders." The four guards had a look of utter surprise on their faces and they all bowed in their direction.

"We're what now?" Noah said as he took a step back in surprise.

William followed them all cautiously. His eyes wandered over the garden as they walked. He didn't seem to be paying much attention to the conversation. He simply wondered where he was...
Echo was following closely behind Wil. When the group came to a halt at the doors, Wil stopped suddenly, causing the tiny droid to bump into his shoulder. With out turning to Echo Wil leaned and whispered across the back of his hand, "I think we got into something we probably shouldn't have..." Echo seemed slightly confused by his remark. He was actually enjoying himself. For some reason, he felt more energetic than ever.

The guards stepped aside and let the four pass through the doors. The room beyond was dimly aglow with a blue light. A spotlight shone on a peculiar-looking chair on which a tall, thin man was seated. He stood to acknowledge his guests and it was then that William realized his true stature. He had to have been at least eight feet tall or more. He extended a long, thin finger from his cloak.

"Who are these people you bring to me, Ella?"

William wasn't one hundred percent sure because the wrinkles on her face hid many of her features, but he thought he saw her simply smile in response.

He spoke to her so informally. Where these two friends? He was a minister, right?

"Look at what they're holding, Alfred," Lady Ella said. She stepped aside, as if her tiny body was in the way of the giant man's line of vision. He almost gasped, but it was evidently with delight.
"Finally! I knew you would show up! Er, but then where's...?" Alfred looked at Lady Ella.
"Not here, fortunately. We haven't seen Shania since...well, you know. I'm going to leave them with you; I have to go prepare something things for them."
"Yes, of course," he said, nodding. Alfred sat in his chair, staring and smiling at Elise, Noah, Wil and Echo while Lady Ella left. As soon as she was out of sight, he sprang up again.
"Now. Where should I begin?" It was probably a rhetorical question, but Elise decided it was as good a time as any to get a few things straightened out.
"Where are we? Who are you? What is this," she held out the spoon, "and why is it important?"
"Good questions," Alfred said, smiling. "I'll start with the simplest one. I'm Sir Alfred, one of the heads of the Order of the Articles. The items you are holding are the Articles-the watch, the gear, the spoon and the necklace. The last one is not here, but happens to be the reason you are."
"What do you mean?"
"If all of the Articles willingly transported their holders, you would be at the gates of the Royal City. One of the Articles is being withheld-the necklace-and as such, you've ended up here, at the headquarters of the Order."
"So..."
"To make a long story short, you need to find the remaining article."
"I'm sorry Sir Alfred," Elise said, coolly. "I still don't know what you're talking about. Gentlemen?" She looked at Wil and Noah.