Tiki blinked and rubbed her eyes. She thought she was hallucinating, maybe even dead. But she felt very alive, as she sat on a little wooden stool, wiggling her slender fingers. It wasn’t so much being in one piece that confused her. What caught her attention was the room that she was in. It looked almost like a mirror image of Prota’s workshop back in the village. There were similar blueprints on similar paper on a similar corkboard, above a similar desk. Nothing was exactly the same, but the sheer amount of similarities was unnerving. Numerous copper and brass inventions littered the room: things with wheels, wings, and spinning blades. Round things, pointy things… she didn’t know how to describe the shapes… but they were all very familiar. Almost like Prota made them himself.

The room itself was different. It was hexagonal, with a spiral staircase in the center. She figured she must be inside of the cog tower. “So there was a building hidden within all the gears,” she thought to herself.

She jumped when her enemy came down the stairs. She grabbed her tonfas and stood up, ready to attack. Or at least, that was the plan, but her legs felt wobbly and her stomach queasy. She sat back down on the stool.

“Take it easy,” Anta said softly. His long white braid and black cape swayed gently as he walked towards her with two teacups in hand. “You should rest a moment. Molecular teleportation takes a toll on the body. Here, have some tea. It’ll help your stomach.”

“Thank… you?” She spoke cautiously, as she observed his face and slowly took the cup from his hand. She recognized the smell instantly. This was the same herbal remedy that Prota gave to his patients back home. She thought that was odd, considering it was his own secret recipe, but…

She decided to trust it and took a sip. It had that same nostalgic taste.

The man smiled and sat down across from her with his own cup of tea.

“What is this place?” Tiki asked, once she was confident that she hadn’t been poisoned.

“My home,” Anta informed her. “My base of operations. It’s where I invent tools to better society, and where I watch people from across the ocean with my magic telescopes, to see how my creations have improved their lives.”

“Why did you bring me here?” Tiki asked. She noticed she wasn’t restrained in any capacity. One of the hexagonal windows was open, letting in the ocean breeze. There was nothing stopping her from escaping to the gear-shaped balcony.

“To teach that boy a lesson,” Anta said calmly, with his arms crossed over the table.

“You mean Prota?” Tiki asked.

“Yes,” Anta replied. “He doesn’t realize the harm he’s about to inflict on the world.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and he plan on destroying the anti-death machine, don’t you?”

“Yes, but…” Tiki noticed the grave expression in the man’s lifeless blue eyes.

“You wish to bring the scourge of death back to the world?”

“Scourge?” Tiki rebutted. “What you call a scourge, we call a solution. It’s what we need to heal the world of its suffering.”

“Heh,” he scoffed softly. “It only looks that way to you because you’ve never experienced it.”

“I believe what I believe,” Tiki said confidently. “Anyway, what’s the deal? You made Prota think I’m dead? Is that it?”

“That’s correct,” Anta replied, calmly. He stirred his tea with a tiny spoon and looked up at the woman. “By thinking you’re dead, he’ll rethink his view of death and change his mind about destroying my machine.”

“What’s stopping me from climbing out that window and letting him know I’m alive?”

“Nothing,” Anta admitted, “but you might want to hear my story before making any rash decisions.”