“Drat…” Lily stared down at her smashed rose necklace. “Nymphaea…”

Her daughter slinked away and turned to her. “Yes, Mama?”

“How did this happen?” Her tone was a bit forceful.

“Well… I’m not too sure myself but it got dropped the gem broke…”

“A gem like topaz just doesn’t break Nymphaea Rose from a fall… It takes force.”

“Well it wasn’t me.” Nymphaea crossed her arms and Lily sighed a bit.

“Shoo… Go you are off the hook this time but next time I will punish you for breaking my things.” Nymph took off without as second glance and Lily cradled the necklace in her hands.

In the next few hours, she had gone to Angela to find someone who might have been able to fix it. “I might know someone…” It took a few hours but Angela sent a letter a head of her sister before opening a gate for her. “Shiloh will help you out. She has some pretty talented people on her side.”

Lily tilted her head and looked at the portal. Unlike her sister, she was more slender with hair of spun gold. Her eyes were the same and she wore an elegant red dress. Her holy aura was visible as she stepped into the bright room. The soft gold glow mingled with the bright white illumination of the room. Her green eyes admired the walls even if they were bare. She like her sister seemed to admire works of art and buildings.

Once she spotted the welcoming party she bowed softly. “Thank you for seeing me so short notice. My sister tells me that I can rely on you to help me fix something very precious to me. My name is Lily Rose.”

"Lord Steward, Lady Angela has sent you a letter." Galatea stopped and handed the envelope through the door as a grasping hand took it. There was the sound of paper ripping, unfolding, and silence. "…OK EVERYONE CODE PURPLE WE HAVE A VISITOR!" The voice of the deity resonated throughout the entire temple, blasting from the walls into every chamber in the Machinarium. "I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. CODE PURPLE! EVERYBODY BETTER BE ON THEIR BEST BEHAVIOR OR HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL!" Apparently the elder goddess had heard of the work they did here, and was referring her own sister to come in person to have a piece of jewelry fixed. Naturally this sent Shiloh into a panic as she had no idea how to act around royalty. By now she had gotten a better grasp of the political landscape and knew that the visitor coming was none other than one of the five queens of Arri. Interestingly enough, her staff didn't seem too rattled.

She dug around in Serenitas to get some better clothes. She couldn't be in her usual plain outfit today. Cursing that she couldn't call Cymbel to borrow a suit, she had to make do. She found a better tunic, a new pair of trousers, and used a bit of magic to make it less ordinary. Then she ran out of her quarters to warp into the Marble Corridor. The attendants had lined up on both sides of the entry hall in single file and were in position. Those in the workshops were brought over as well, taking a momentary pause in their jobs to give a proper welcome. When everybody was in place, Shiloh was holding her breath to keep herself from tapping her foot in nervous anxiety.

The lady arrived just after they had gotten together and gave a bow. Shiloh, still a fidgeting wreck, was trying not to spout out more words than her brain could keep up with. "Welcome, Lady Lily. It's fine, really. I'm honored to have your sister recommend us to help. All of our craftsmen are present today. May I see what we will be making repairs on?" It took all that she had in her to prevent from accidentally biting her tongue. 

Lily admired the people on every side. “No need to be so formal like me. You’ll find it’s a family trait of ours.” She waved her hand as she continued to look at everyone as if getting to know them. She sounded more joyous than Angela did and certainly more carefree. “Ah yes… My daughter Nymphaea…” There was a low grumble at first. “She did this to my most prized necklace.” She brought it out and the necklace was in pieces.

Even the chain was intricate but it was the gem stone. It had been hand carved and what details were left were simply amazing to the eye. The topaz rose was cracked in four different ways. “I’m afraid she must have lost control that child of mine… The person who made this is long dead by now. He was regarded as a legendary gemsmith… even wove the gold for me that went into the chain. Angela didn’t feel right putting it back together herself so she sent me here hoping for a replace or to fix it.”

Lily appeared sad as she cradled the necklace before putting it in Shiloh's hand. “The girl doesn’t know her own strength. I let her borrow it only for a few moments so she could decide what she wanted her necklace to be like.”

Taking the pieces carefully, she took a good look at the carved topaz. Four pieces…Lily certainly was right about force being the culprit. Breaking rocks, especially gemstones took a lot to strength to break. The chain was the easy part, but the stone… It would be a pity to have it replaced, especially if it was made by a legendary craftsman. But fixing a broken gem was definitely a challenge. "I see…this is a very unique challenge. The chain won't be a problem, but the stone…the stone." The deity muttered as she was running through ideas. "Making a replacement is doable. I'll sort through what we have here to find a stone the same size, and imitate the carving. For now, I'll have the chain separated so we can work on repairs." Taking out a box she put the necklace pieces in, then closed it. 

"This might…take a while, so I'd suggest having a guided tour around the place if you like. The library, art gallery, and music hall are open. But I'd better leave the explaining to the attendants." Giving a polite bow, she excused herself and began heading towards the material storerooms. "Milady, where would you like to see first? Antikythera is always open to visitors, and we have many new wings open." One of the female automatons curtsied, her ball-joined knee being visible as she did so. Shiloh started running down the halls when she was out of sight, and the craftsmen were returning to their stations once the welcoming party was over. Nearly sliding past one of the doors, she stuck her head in looking left and right for a particular red-haired person. "…No not this one. Wait, it was the east side." Finding the right place, she came into a large work space where many automatons were smelting metal and hammering away. Tucked in the less intensely heated corners of the area was a man about her height in work clothes and a blacksmith's apron. He was standing before a table with some tools, engraving designs with a chisel in silver sheets. 

"Auron, just the person I wanted to see." Striding over, she arrived right next to him just as he turned around. "HOLY–where did you come from?!" The red-haired fiend jumped, almost dropping his tools. "The door." She said flatly pointing. "What do you want? I'm working, aren't I?" He grumbled, crossing his arms. Taking out the box, she showed him the necklace. "We received a special request today. The client wants to have this fixed. I'll be working on an exact replica of the broken stone here, but I need you to fix the chain. It's gold, so it should be easy to shape." He looked at it and was clearly impressed. "It's a nice piece…too bad the centerpiece was broken. How did that even happen anyway?" "An accident." Came her terse reply. "Right…" He raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to run off and dig through the stock bins, when you're done find me and I'll take a look at it." Waving, she ran out the door again. It was a bad habit of hers to run when she was doing a job she considered urgent.

And she was gone. Leaving a chain to fix, the deity had dropped a job into his lap before bolting out the door. Rubbing the sides of his head, he sighed. He might as well get started. Maybe if he finished earlier than expected she would take off more silver from that massive amount of coin he owed. Taking a look at the chain, he noted how uniform the links were. Definitely more delicate than what he could make from scratch, but luckily he was only doing repairs. The process took time as he lit the fires and stoked the flames. As much as he wanted to speed things up, the temperature had to be stable and raising it suddenly made it harder to control. Hours passed as he heated the parts bent out of shape and sculpted them with fine precision, and set the metal to cool. When the chain was room temperature, he looked over it again and ran his fingers over it. Auron grinned when he found it was completely smooth.

"Finally, time to get this off my hands." Putting the chain in the box, he was careful to keep the broken topaz away from the restored chain. Closing it so he wouldn't lose anything, he cleaned up his work station and untied his hair. Pulling aside an automaton who resembled a bearded man, he asked where Shiloh was. "I saw her entering Serenitas hours ago. She must be still working on that special order I heard her mumbling about." Then he remembered what she had said to him hours earlier. "Are you kidding me…she really was serious about making an 'exact replica'." Pressing a palm to his face he groaned, then quickly asked the one he was talking with before he walked away. "By the way, do you know where the client is right now? If my guess is right, it'll take at least seven whole days before that new gemstone replacement is done." Nobody was going to wait that long just to get something fixed, even if they were asking from a skilled artisan. If that was the original plan, then she should've just told them to come back when it was finished.

Tucking the box under his arm, Auron weaved through the hallways of the Machinarum to find the client who had brought the necklace in for repairs. He wanted to confirm what they wanted first before anything else. Then, he would either pitch his suggestion to his employer, or take matters into his own hands. As he was approaching where the guest current was, he was already considering the latter. Still in his work uniform, he was hoping they wouldn't mind if he took a few artistic liberties with his solution. His long, ember-red hair reached past his shoulders in a state less than his usual best. Normally under less time-sensitive conditions he'd wash up and change before a first meeting, but that stubborn employer of his probably wouldn't leave her private quarters until she was done. He'd seen what happened when she was working on blueprints for the now completed lift system. She was inside Serenitas for days, and didn't eat or sleep. The deity finally came out after two solid weeks looking disheveled and groggy, with a stack of finalized designs for a prototype clutched in her hands. She then keeled over and was unconscious for three days.

As things would have it as she was shown around the temple Lily took notes of how different this goddess was to her sister. “Lady Lily,” a servant from Elysia appeared and made the queen tilt her head. “Sorry, but the little one was crying for you so Lady Angela had me bring her to you.”

Lily was careful as she knelt and pulled up her dress a bit to do so delicately. “What’s wrong Yeva?” The little blonde child had red marks on her cheeks and around her eyes. She must have been crying dramatically for hours by the looks of it. Sighing a bit she opened her arms and Yeva ran into them and she hugged her. “It’s okay.” The little one clung to her and Lily got back up with her on her hip. “Thank you… You can let her stay here with me. I think she is just a tad tired from all the excitement today.”

“Mama?” Yeva’s voice perked up a bit. She had the cutest little voice to go with her little features. “That guy has Auntie Ang’s red hair,” it was all in childish lingo that she was trying to figure out. Her green eyes spotted Auron and Yeva pointed at him again.

“It’s rude to point Yeva… Why his hair is just like Auntie Ang’s isn’t it?” Lily winked towards Auron. “Sorry… She gets like this. Normally she isn’t so clingy but… Yeva is there something you want to tell me?”

Yeva looked up at her mother. She didn’t have the golden curls like her mother it was more like a light blonde. “Mama I broke your necklace. I got mad at Nymph.” Yeva looked like she was gonna be in tears again.

“Ah… So Nymph was telling me the truth when she said it wasn’t her? She didn’t tell on you because she is the big sister. You know that you can’t break other people’s things right?” Yeva nodded and looked at the man with the red hair again before shyly hiding her face.

“You must work with Lady Shiloh from all the wear and tear on you. I’m used to seeing Angela like that when she works hard.” Lily smiled at Auron as she bounced Yeva softly. The little girl was clinging to her mother and hiding her face but she did peek at Auron once in a while.

Arriving, he stopped when he saw an unfamiliar face. There was a woman with a little girl on her knee, and she was absolutely radiant. Voluminous locks the color of pure refined gold cascaded down around her face, with incredible deep-green emeralds for eyes. Maybe it was just his imagination, but her sun-kissed skin felt as if it were glowing. Being trapped in this mechanical dollhouse at times made him feel like he wanted to dive off a tower, but it was much more comfortable inside then dying out in that never-ending storm. So she must be that special client Shiloh had been fussing about. And for once, he didn't disagree. Seeing the little girl hide her face shyly made him grin. He'd almost forgotten how cute kids could be.

"Aren't you a little sweetheart?" He grinned at what he guessed was the lovely lady's daughter. When the blonde brought up his employer again it dampened his smile a bit. "I'm sure you could tell. That woman I swear…she can't tell the difference between her machines and people." Huffing, he decided not to think more about it. It'd sour his mood and he wasn't letting her indirectly ruin his impression on the visitor. "By the way, I'm Auron–one of the craftsmen here. I regret to inform you that the necklace isn't quite done yet, but I wanted to ask you in person about a few things." Taking a seat, he opened the box carefully and  revealed the finished chain and four topaz pieces. "I know my employer wanted to make a replacement for the gemstone, but perhaps there might be a quicker way to finish the repairs instead of starting from scratch. I have a few ideas on how to join the pieces, if you don't mind me mentioning them."

He listed the two ideas he had come up with on the way from the workshop. "I could use something to bind the pieces together. Initially I was considering fusing them under pressure and heat, but that would risk changing the stone's quality. So instead, I could use molten precious metal to act as a solder–gold to match the overall color scheme. Another alternative would be using colored glass. With the right color, it would be almost unnoticeable and form a better bond visually and physically than the gold." Leaning against the back of his chair, he frowned. "It would be a lot easier to use that amber resin she made for that fake flower sculpture in the gallery, but I can't ask her for it since she's holed up in her room. Even though I know the ingredients, I don't know the exact process she used to make it." Crossing his arms he was fretting again. 

Lily chuckled towards Auron. “It’s no problem really. I have a little sister who is a dragon in humanoid flesh. She is difficult.”

“Auntie Toya is scary…” Yeva whispered to Auron before hiding again.

“Aye, she is.” Lily pet her hair softly and adjusted Yeva on her hip. “I’m Lily and this little one is Yeva, my youngest. I wouldn’t quite worry about finishing the job in such a hurry. Art takes a long time. My sister once pestered a sculptor for months to get him to make her something.” Lily took a seat with him and looked at the chain and topaz pieces. “I don’t mind at all actually. I find the process of repair in most cases quite fascinating.”

Hearing his words she tilted her head. “That wouldn’t be any trouble at all… Why not use fulgurite. It is very common in Sularia when it storms. The sands of Sularia give it a topaz like color. My sister says its due to the bonding lightning, the sand, and the other minerals. Yeva was now seated on Lily’s lap cuddling into her mother’s arm. “I’m sure if you dealt with my sister Cathrine that you could get a good sample for a bit of nothing if she knew it was for me.”

"I can imagine…dragons on their own are quite terrifying. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Lily. And likewise to young lady Yeva." He couldn't help but smile at the little girl. She was cute as a button, and she had her mother's hair. "Oh, so you don't mind? That's a relief actually. My…employer really pushes for perfection to an absurd degree. I swear she has an hourglass timing the seconds for everything, and she always tries to accelerate things. You probably wouldn't know, but when she's not around guests she doesn't walk–she runs." It gave him a bit of self-satisfaction to divulge something like this to an outsider. They didn't know what a slave-driver that woman was. 

Lady Lily's suggestion to use fulgurite was a novel idea. "You're right…technically it's just lightning-infused sand isn't it? There's so much of it here that it's an eyesore, so maybe I could try a little experimenting myself. Mineral powder would be easy to get a hold of from storage. I'll take your advice, after all it is your necklace." Flashing her a smile, he then came up with a wonderful idea. That nosy deity was probably fully engrossed in carving about now, so he had a bit of time to himself from her scrutinizing eyes. "Would you like to come see the workshops? The place shouldn't be busy now, if you don't mind the temperatures. The main furnaces are currently in use for smelting, so it's rather warm." He offered to lead the way, provided the lady took up his offer.

At the workshop his station was in, the heat was as high as a standard Ignius afternoon. The clanging and ringing of metal being shaped by tools and metal objects coming in contact with each other created a musical din that often rang through the smithy. In the corner it was more quiet, and this was where Auron spent many hours crafting pieces from precious stones and metals. There were pieces of an unfinished pin present, with the metal outline of a bird and a small tray with cut gemstones beside a pair of long, fine tweezers. Obtaining some mineral powder and fulgurite was easy enough, and he set them in a crucible to slowly melt. The process would take hours, so he resumed setting the stones into the gold-plated outline beneath a curious contraption. It looked like a raised platform with a mechanical arm holding a large glass lens. This lens magnified whatever was placed under it, making it easier to see fine details. Some stones were already set in the bird shape, particularly the pearls for the 'eyes' of a peacock's feathers. 

Opal shards and mother-of-pearl pieces would give it a beautiful iridescence when completed. Looking at the incomplete piece of jewelry, he frowned. "She's not going to count that special order as part of the daily quota I bet…that stiff-faced steward." 

Lily waved her hand at Auron and smiled. “You don’t know my sister just yet… Angela is just as much of a perfectionist but she has mastered doing many things by herself. She is every bit as much of a craftsman as you are… Even if her main talents are alchemy and healing. She’s gotten bored all these years so she learns new things and masters them over time. A wealth of knowledge as my grandmother would say.”

Nodding Lily adjusted Yeva in her arms putting the little girl on eye level with Auron. “We’re from the desert Mister… It is hot and sticky and there isn’t much worse.” Yeva nodded in affirmation as she gave a bit of attitude.

A laugh left Lily’s lips as she shook her head. “Sorry, unfortunately, my oldest daughter seems to have rubbed off on her. It’s not nice Yeva. He doesn’t know we’re from Arri.”

So they walked with him and looked around and Yeva put her hands on her hips as she was put down. “Mister Auron do you really think this is so bad?” She walked around looking at stuff. “I mean… this is Terra weather for Arri.” Lily chuckled at Auron with apologetic eyes.

“Yeva, you know that not everyone can handle the heat. It isn’t Mister Auron’s fault.” Yeva continued to look at stuff now that she was more comfortable and coming out of her shell. It didn’t take long for Yeva to lose that little bit of shyness she had. After all they were out of sight of everyone else now. “Sorry about her… she gets an attitude like Nymph after we leave the public eye. The shyest thing in the world until that point.” Lily winked a bit at Auron as she looked at his work.

“Oh!” Lily looked at the bird and tilted her head. “A peacock I absolutely adore them.” It must have been a coincidence. “You know white peacocks are just as beautiful as regular ones… You could make a cousin to this brooch. Many, many artisans do it at least that I’ve noticed. They take inspiration from their work and weave it into others.”

Yeva got up and looked at it. “Mama it looks like the peacocks in the garden!” She squealed lightly and looked up at Lily. “Right, Mama?” Lily nodded and stroked her daughter’s hair. “It’s really pretty Mister Auron you make pretty things.”