I felt the same tug at my soul I'd felt in the prior room in at the threshold to the next as well. I didn't see anything when we entered, however. While I was happy not to be getting stalked by shadows, the room itself was a bit of a downer. No, scratch that, it was a lot of a downer.

A cavalcade of machinery cascaded down the walls, and none of it looked to have a pleasant purpose. No sunshine and rainbows here. There were a lot of pipes attached to various basins, spaced equidistant around the outer perimeter of the walls. Dim light emitted from their surfaces, leading to surreal shadows on the ceiling, as though I were underwater. All we needed now was a fog or something to complete the look. I was tempted to ask István for some, but thankfully was able to catch that particular dumb thought in time.

Something seemed familiar about the shape of the basins, and then I realized that they looked a lot like the sink in our bathroom at home. I could only hope I wasn't about to get some weird form of PTSD - a Phantasmal Terror Sink Disorder, if you will.

I walked up to one and peered in. I activated my aura vision, which was starting to hurt each time it turned it on; it was probably not a good sign. Maybe I was doing something wrong? I made a mental note to ask Celistar about it next time I talked to her.

From out of the walls, more of the nebulous energy I'd seen before was pouring into the basins from the back, with the source of the flow again disappearing out of the range of my sight down below. Definitely didn't give me happy feelings in the pit of my stomach. I mentioned what I could discern to the other two, not that they had any further thoughts. Just didn't want anything to get overlooked on my part.

Well, István definitely had further thoughts, but he appeared to be saving them for later. Hopefully he wouldn't explode in the meantime.

In the center of the room was a crystalline thing that looked almost like a casket, with tendrils of rock wrapping an entrapped crystal. More of the murky light from the basins poured out of it as well. I approached it, and was startled when the glow within it was disturbed by movement. I jumped back - making a rather embarrassing squeal in the process - and immediately my two impromptu guards were, well, on-guard against it.

"Something moved in it!" I exclaimed, in a rather higher pitch than I'd intended. This stuff was creepy, but not like enough to make me go all 'delicate princess' mode. Something was making my nerves fray and I wasn't sure what it was.

Viktor, ever the man of action, moved up and punched it. Surprisingly, despite the spindle of a pedestal it sat upon, it rebuffed the impact without damage.

István had the look on his face, and when Viktor hauled back for another hit, István stopped him from throwing the punch. Instead, he went up to the pedestal and started searching around it with his fingers, very delicately. It almost looked like he was trying to give it a scalp massage.

Apparently it liked his ministrations, because a click echoed throughout the chamber and I watched as he gingerly pulled it from its resting place. Thick, viscous liquid poured from the gap between the two as he removed it, and I watched as he deftly maneuvered himself to stay spotless. How does one hone a skillset like that? I - who seemed to be a dirt and grime magnet - was quite jealous.

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He finished the process with a click and set our prize outside the door, where it'd hopefully be beyond the influence of the room.

Once he came back in, we noticed that the basins appeared to be emptying, now that their destination was disconnected. This was also evidenced by a widening pool of goo slowly creeping across the floor, the progress of which István watched like a hawk.

When I reached the basins again, I was startled to be nearly blinded looking in. I quickly turned off my aura vision, cursing under my breath and rubbing my eyes. When my normal vision cleared, I noticed the other two looking at me with concern.

"I'm fine, batteries are almost out though." I pointed at my eyes, and Viktor gave me a thumbs up. I held out one in return, but it just didn't have the same impact without the mass.

István, ever the curious one, was examining the contents of the basin.

"Come look at this," he said, his voice serious.

We walked over, Viktor plodding right through the pool of goo, splattering some on my pants. Not that I really cared at the moment, they were probably a total loss. Maybe I could file it as a work expense?

I looked in the concavity, and without my enhanced visual skills, could see that there was some sort of half-dissolved object at the bottom. It had a weak Mote at the center.

"That's an Artifact," I said, "A proper one, that's been through the process."

"I suspected as much," István said, "But I appreciate you confirming." He turned away from the bowl, either uncaring or unwilling to fish out the Artifact from the mess of viscous liquid it sat in.

Probably the latter.

István set a hand on Viktor's arm, since it wouldn't have reached his shoulder without an awkward reach. "We should probably destroy these machines to prevent the Veil from easily resuming operations."

Not one to be told twice, Viktor gleefully turned around and straight up kicked the pedestal out of the floor. I was a bit worried considering what had happened earlier, but everything appeared to have lost some structural stability once the 'capstone' of the room was removed. Either that or the flow of energy from below was strengthening the structures.

We both sat and watched as Viktor went from basin to basin, using this two huge hands in over-the-head swings as though they were a giant sledge, his skin glowing red as always. Each blow tore a basin from its mounts, with curls of pipe following some and others getting sheered clean off. It was clear Viktor was refining his technique as the plumbing work got cleaner as he went.

In the end, there were ten sinks that were 'artfully extracted' from their purposeful places. I gave a smiling Viktor another thumbs up as he walked back and he returned it.

I felt another tug behind me, then my emotions flew into a turmoil. I put a foot out to steady myself as the world spun a little as different feelings assaulted my mind in a rapid-fire fashion. The world through my eyes blanked out as I snapped them shut, focusing inward to fight the intrusive thoughts. My breaths escaped me in gasps, as the viselike pressure on my head made it feel as though it would implode. I started trying to circulate the upper Stream, thinking that maybe I could counter power with power.

My thoughts in disarray, the Stream refused to respond to my commands, so I reached into my Core and tugged directly on my source, finally freeing a feeble flow of Nebula before pushing it into my mind.

A warm, satisfied patience filled me, something both foreign and natural at the same time. I could still feel the last lingering rays of what I'd experienced, the lights of a setting sun. The cacophony of feelings were pushed aside, flowing back to wherever source they sprang from. Contentment set in, threatening to lull me to sleep. I wobbled on my feet.

With a mighty shake of my head, I pulled myself loose from the vice grip of the thoughts I was having. Something was really wrong.

I sprinted out the door, a growing feeling of dread inside me.

Looking around as I came out, I spotted the capstone lying on the floor near the wall, carefully propped there by István. Another, now familiar puddle of goo coated it and the floor around. The crystal itself completely gone.

"Well, this is going to be fun," I said to myself.

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