“A Servant?” I asked while sheathing my sword and eyeing the strange creature warily.

“Yes,” Shjasta insisted. “One of the fabled A’dari Machinae: mechanical contraptions powered by raw Arcana. It is said that Servants had near-human intelligence, and were created to cater to their master’s every need.”

“You’re telling me this thing is a mechanical butler?” I laughed.

“Pretty much so,” the Princess nodded. “Scholars believed that all Machinae had been destroyed during the Ruin of A’dar, or simply stopped working after centuries without proper maintenance. This is such an amazing find!” she exclaimed giddily.

“More like it found us!” I shook my head.

Slowly, the Servant rose to its feet; it was about the height and proportions of a person of thin build, except for the fact that it was made of the same gold-like metal as the buildings around us. His head was oval-shaped and had a glowing circular crystal that I deduced worked as an eye, and three narrow vertical slits below it, from where its voice seemed to come from. His torso and limbs were covered in metallic plates except on its joints, where I could see some spinning gears and tubes that flexed with its movements without breaking. Its hands had a thumb and a single, flexible flipper-like structure in place of fingers.

The Machina started talking again in his tongue. I obviously couldn’t make heads or tails of whatever he – as his metallic under-toned voice sounded male-ish to me – was saying. Shjasta seemed to understand most of it, though, and said he was grateful for us sparing him. I waved my hand dismissively at it.

“Yeah, sure,” I snorted. “More importantly, can we hope to teach him to speak Common? He might come in handy as a guide since he obviously knows this land better than us.”

“I can certainly try,” Shjasta nodded.

The Princess invited our unexpected guest to our camp. He followed us quite apprehensively, as if fearing we might attack him again at any moment. While I got back into fixing dinner, Shjasta was busy introducing herself and me to the Servant.

While she spoke to him the glow of his crystal eye shifted very quickly as if he was blinking, and his head tilted sideways. Some clicking and whirring noises came from inside his body as well.

“Sh… Shjasta…” he blabbered, his right hand pointing at the Princess. “W-w-wra… Wraith,” he added while pointing at me next.

Shjasta nodded and smiled. “Ti quo set?” she asked him.

Again the Servant’s eye blinked very quickly. A loud whirring came from inside his body before replying.

“He says he has no name,” she translated his answer. “His masters deemed Servants as mere tools, thus they didn’t give them, nor allowed them, to have names of their own.”

“Well, I can call it ‘tin-can’ if he doesn’t mind!” I chuckled.

Shjasta scolded me. “We should give him a proper name! A good one!”

“Fine! Be my guest!” I grumbled while shaking my head.

Shjasta kept talking to the Servant for a while. The communication was rather awkward, as her command of the ancient Yslean tongue was very basic, and it was not quite the same as the machine's.

Once dinner was ready we ate. Shjasta and I made some small talk in between bites, while the Machina simply sat with legs folded close to his body, staring at us curiously, listening carefully to our idle chat. He stayed like this throughout our meal, the rapid “blinking” of his crystal eye and the low humming coming from inside his body the only indications he was still functioning.

Once our hunger was sated I crawled into my bedroll and bid good night to Shjasta. She stayed awake a little bit longer, conversing with our guest and teaching him the basics of the Common.

The next morning we broke camp and packed our stuff. As we prepared to resume our march northwest the Machina rushed to stand in our way, his hands extended to his sides in a clear attempt to stop us.

“That way is dangerous,” he said with a low-pitched, monotone voice. “Many monsters ahead. We must march West instead.”

“Holy crap!” I exclaimed in surprise. “He’s quite the fast learner, isn’t he!”

“I’m very surprised myself,” Shjasta admitted. “Maybe he is more intelligent than the legends say?”

“Lady Shjasta is a very good techer,” the Servant humbly remarked.

“It’s teacher,” she corrected him.

“Teacher…” he repeated slowly.

“Have you given him a name yet?” I asked.

The Servant turned to face me. “As Servios said to Lady Shjasta… he has no name… Nor needs one to fulfill his duties.”

“Servios means ‘servant’ in the A’dari language,” Shjasta explained.

“Look, pal,” I said as I approached the Machina, poking at his metal chest with my index. “Your masters were probably stuck-up dicks that treated your kind like walking garbage bins, but they have been gone for a while now. You’ve been your own man since then. You can do whatever you please, even having a name!”

“I’m surprised you care about that, Wraith, since you seemed indifferent to the idea last night,” Shjasta said.”

“I still don’t care,” I shrugged. “I just want him to know that there’s no reason for him to stick to the ways of a long-gone past. Even back then he didn’t have to if he didn't feel like it! That’s all I’m saying.”

“He’s right,” the Princess told the Machina. “Everyone deserves a good name, even a humble servant. Do you mind if I give you one?”

The Servant’s eye blinked fast for a couple of seconds, his innards whirring in thought. “If that pleases Lady Shjasta, it pleases Servios as well,” he finally said.

Shjasta giggled. “Very well! Then how about… Aydaan? It means ‘intelligent one’ in my people’s tongue.”

“Aydaan…” the Servant repeated. “Intelligent one… Servios… Aydaan likes it.”

“I knew you’d love it!” she exclaimed happily.

“You honor Aydaan with such a noble gift, Lady Shjasta,” he said while bowing. “Aydaan will never forget this.”

“All right!” I finally said. “Aydaan it is. So, were you saying something about danger and heading West?”

“Affirmative,” the Servant nodded. “Aydaan can show you a safer way. Follow Aydaan.”

And so, for the next week, Shjasta and I simply walked behind Aydaan as he guided us through the grim landscape. He did know his way around, showing us the best routes to sneak past most of the wandering dangers, as well as the safest spots for making our night camps. Thanks to him we didn't have to fight as often, saving our strength.

During those days the Princess kept teaching him the Common tongue, and true to his new name, Aydann mastered it very quickly. The other good thing about having him around is that he always volunteered to keep watch during our night stops.

“Aydaan does not need to sleep,” he said the first night after we started traveling together. “Lady Shjasta and Master Wraith can rest while Aydaan keeps watch. He will warn you if danger approaches.”

As we moved on, Shjasta asked him to tell us everything he knew about his old masters and that accursed land. Aydaan was more than happy to oblige, starting with his own story.

The Servant told us that he was first activated during the waning years of the Raven War, the conflict that ruined his homeland. He was one of the last Servant Machinae ever built; all of A’dar’s foundries had been repurposed for the ongoing war effort at that time, churning out legions of War Machinae as fast as the Necromancers and their minions could destroy them.

“Aydaan was assigned to the Servant retinue of House Angelas, one of the Six Ruling Houses of A’dar,” he told us while walking. “There were originally Seven Ruling Houses, but House Cormoran was ostracized from A’dar for leading the Kalymnite Uprising. This was the catalyst for the Raven War that erupted years later.”

“The Kalymnites?” I asked.

“Servants of Kalymnos, the Void-lord of Death,” Shjasta said, her face grimacing in utter disgust at the pronouncing of that name. “Anchlesia’s Raven-priests are followers of the forbidden Kalymnite teachings.”

“Lady Shjasta is correct,” Aydaan nodded. “The Raven War lasted a century, and during it this land, once verdant and pristine, became a wasteland where only death prevailed. Finally, one night, as the Kalymnites lay siege to A’dar, the Moon disappeared from the sky, and they used this phenomenon to fuel a ritual that brought forth a powerful monster.”

“The Shade of the Dark One mentioned in the Teachings…” the Princess mused. “They summoned a fraction of Kalymnos’ being into the World!”

“Even a mere fraction of the Dark God’s might was more than enough to overwhelm our most powerful defenses,” Aydaan remarked. “But before that abomination could lay waste to A’dar, the leaders of the Six Houses had their best Arcanists channel a spell upon the city’s main Crystal-forge, overcharging its core and causing an explosion of raw Arcana that destroyed the monster… and the city. So powerful it was, it even warped the land itself, creating the Wastes as they exist today.”

“So what have you been doing since then?” I asked. “Roaming this damned place aimlessly?”

“Negative, Master Wraith,” Aydaan shook his head. “Aydaan and his Servant brethren stayed true to their purpose and took care of their master’s Sanctum ever since. But as time passed and Aydaan’s fellow Servants stopped functioning due to age or accidents, only he remained. Aydaan still fulfills his duties as House Angela’s Servant. Aydaan was looking for spare parts to take back home when you nearly decommissioned him.”

“What's this Sanctum thing?” I pressed on.

“It was the private citadel of the Great House Aydaan serves,” the Machina said. “Each of the Seven Houses had its Sanctum. The other six Sancti had fallen into ruin, but Sanctum Angelai still stands, thanks to Aydaan working hard to keep its Crystal-forge in-”

“Wait,” Shjasta interrupted. “A Crystal-forge? A functioning one?”

“Of course, my Lady,” Aydaan responded matter-of-factly. “The Sanctum would not be operational without it.”

The Princess looked at me, unable to contain her joy. “Gods be praised!” she exclaimed. "The Revelation didn't lead us astray!"

“What does Lady Shajsta mean?” the Servant asked in confusion.

I told Aydaan we could discuss the details later once we had set up camp for the night, as all that chit-chatting was slowing our march down, leaving us exposed to the wandering horrors. He agreed, and we carried on until the sun set and the darkness was too deep to see our way.

Once everything was set for the night, Shjasta showed Aydaan the Prism. To say he was impressed with it was an understatement.

“This is indeed a Greater Crystal,” Aydaan said, his eye blinking at an impossible pace. “And Lady Shjasta says her people use it as part of a religious ceremony? Interesting…”

"The weirdest part is that she claims her Gods spoke to her through it," I chortled, eliciting a frown from Shjasta. "They told her to come here."

"It is not as strange as you believe, Master Wraith," Aydaan replied. "Some Arcanists claimed to hear whispers coming from charged crystals, and even from the concentrated Arcana coursing through a Crystal-forge."

This statement made the Princess smile confidently, sure more than ever that what he heard was a real message from divine beings. I simply shrugged.

“During the last Ceremony the Prism failed,” Shjasta resumed her tale. “A Magus said the only way to restore its power was by using a Crystal-forge to recharge it.”

“Indeed,” the Servant nodded. “The Sanctum Angelai’s forge is more than powerful enough to recharge a crystal this large. Aydaan will be more than glad to help Lady Shjasta restore her Crystal.”

“Thank you, Aydaan,” she sighed in relief. “How long until we reach the Sanctum?”

Aydaan tilted his head and his eye blinked rapidly. “Aydaan says that we should be there in a fortnight if no unforeseen delays occur.”

“Oh! I also wanted to ask you about another artifact that might be of A’dari make,” the Princess said.

I immediately knew what she was talking about, and I could feel my mood souring up. “Don’t listen to her, Aydaan,” I huffed.

“Oh, come on!” she insisted. “Show it to him! Please?”

I refused time and time again, but Shjasta wouldn’t take no for an answer. Grumbling in annoyance, I reluctantly yanked the pendant from under my clothes and let it hang in front of everyone. “If he says it’s just a piece of worthless junk, I swear that-”

Aydaan’s eye lit up brightly as he approached slowly to the pendant. He made a loud mechanical sound that I interpreted as a gasp of awe.

“This is…” He stuttered. “Aydaan can’t believe what he’s seeing. Where did Master Wraith find this?”

“It was around my neck ever since I was a baby left abandoned at the door of an orphanage,” I replied harshly. “What of it?”

“Lady Shjasta’s assumptions about Master Wraith’s pendant were correct,” the Machina said. “This was indeed made by the A’dari.”

“Told you!” Shjasta said in a playful yet mocking tone.

“But there is more to it as well,” Aydaan continued, pointing at the winged figure in the medal’s obverse. “This is a very special artifact. It’s a Memory Crystal, bearing the sigil of House Angelas.”

Neither Shjasta nor me could believe his words. I was genuinely flabbergasted.

An artifact that belonged to Aydaan’s former masters? How in the bloody World did that thing end up hanging around the neck of a no-name infant? The Princess asked about its purpose, and the Servant said that it was used to store any kind of information its owner desired to keep safe.

“If this belonged to the Angelai, Aydaan can only wonder what it contains,” the Machina said. “Unfortunately its power source – the three smaller crystals – has exhausted. Aydaan can restore it once we reach the Sanctum. Hopefully, the information it holds is still intact.”

“Sure!” I said dismissively, putting the pendant back around my neck. “I’m dying to uncover the lost culinary secrets of House Angelas! Oh, wait! Maybe it's some nameless girl’s diary?”

“You are truly hopeless, Wraith!” Shjasta shocked her head.

As we decided to call it a night and Aydaan stepped outside to start his watch, I stared blankly at the crumbling ceiling above our heads, again thinking about the pendant, this Memory Crystal that has been with me since forever. I took it out again and let it twist the leather strip back and forth, my mind filling up with questions.

No doubt it was in my parent’s possession; the odds of such a relic ending up next to an abandoned infant are next to zilch.

How did they get it in the first place?

Did they know its purpose?

What secrets did the damned thing hold?

Did I really want to know at all?