Mechanicum

'He said, ''I have seen it! All knowledge.'' And even though he was right in front of me it sounded like he was speaking from somewhere really far away, like the other side of Mars or somewhere far underground.'

'Is that it?' asked Severine, disappointment plain on her angular face.

'No,' said Dalia. 'I told him I was sorry about what was happening to him and he said that he didn't want my pity. He said that he'd seen the truth and that he was free.'

'Free of what?' asked Zouche.

'I don't know,' said Dalia. 'He said, ' ''I have seen the truth and I am free. I know it all, the Emperor slaying the Dragon of Mars… the grand lie of the red planet and the truth that will shake the galaxy, all forgotten by man in the darkness of the labyrinth of night''. It was horrible, his mouth burning with fire and his voice fading away with every word.'

'The labyrinth of night?' asked Caxton. 'Are you sure that's what he said?'

'Yes, absolutely,' said Dalia. 'The labyrinth of night.'

'The Noctis Labyrinthus,' said Mellicin, and Caxton nodded.

Dalia looked at the pair of them. 'Noctis Labyrinthus… what's that?'

'The Labyrinth of Night, it's what Noctis Labyrinthus means,' replied Caxton.

'What kind of place is it?' asked Dalia, elated to have found some meaning in words that had previously been meaningless. 'Is it a mountain, a crater? What?'

Mellicin shook her head, a nictitating membrane flickering over her augmetic eye as she dredged information from her memory coils.

'Neither. The Noctis Labyrinthus is a broken region of land between the Tharsis uplands and the Valles Marineris,' said Mellicin, the words spoken with the tone of someone retrieving data from an internal memory coil. 'Notable for its maze-like system of deep, sheer-walled valleys, it is thought to have been formed by faulting in a previous age. Also, many of the canyons display typical features of grabens, with the upland plain surface clearly preserved on the valley floor.'

Dalia frowned, wondering what this desolate region of Mars had to do with what Jonas had said. 'Is it empty?'

'More or less,' said Caxton. 'Adept Lukas Chrom has his Mondus Gamma forge to the south of it, but apart from him, we're the nearest forge.'

'So there's no one there at all?'

'It's not a region of Mars anyone has any real interest in,' said Mellicin. 'I'm told a number of adepts attempted to found their forges there, but none lasted very long.'

'Why not?'

'I don't know, they just didn't. Supposedly the forges were plagued by technical problems. The adepts claimed the region was inimical to the machine-spirits and they abandoned their workings to set up elsewhere.'

'So nobody knows what's there?' said Dalia. 'Whatever Jonas was talking about is somewhere in the Noctis Labyrinthus, it's got to be. The grand lie and this great truth.'

'It's possible,' conceded Mellicin, 'but what do you think he was talking about? Have you any idea what this… Dragon is he speaks of the Emperor slaying?'

Dalia leaned in closer. 'I don't know exactly what it is, but I've been working through my remembrances of the texts I transcribed back on Terra and I've found out quite a bit.'

'Like what?' asked Severine.

'Well, Jonas spoke about the Emperor slaying the Dragon of Mars, so I looked into any references to dragons first.'

'Looked into how?'

'You know, in my memory,' said Dalia. 'I told you, I read stuff and I don't forget it.'

Mellicin smiled. 'That is a useful talent, Dalia. Continue.'

'Right, well, we all know about mythical dragons?'

'Of course,' said Zouche. 'Children's stories.'

Dalia shook her head. 'Maybe, but I think there's more to Jonas's words than that. Some of it, anyway. I mean, yes, I found lots of stories of heroic knights in shining armour slaying dragons and rescuing maidens in return for their hands in marriage.'

'Typical,' said Severine. 'You never read of a maiden rescuing a man from a dragon.'

'I guess not,' agreed Dalia. 'I suppose it didn't fit with the times when they were written.'

'Carry on, Dalia,' said Mellicin. 'What else did you learn?'

'There wasn't much that could be called fact, but I remember several tracts that purported to be historical works, but which I think were probably mythology, since they dealt with monsters like dragons and daemons as well as describing the rise of warlords and tyrants.'

'Do you remember the names of these books?' asked Zouche.

Dalia nodded. 'Yes. The main ones were The Chronicles of Ursh, Revelati Draconis and The Obyte Fortis. They all spoke of dragons, serpentine monsters that breathed fire and carried away fair maidens to devour.'

'I know those stories,' said Caxton. 'I read them as a child. Bloody stuff, but stirring.'

'I know them too,' cut in Zouche. 'But for my people they're more than just stories, Caxton. The Scholars of Nusa Kambangan taught that they were allegorical representations of the coming of the Emperor, symbolic representations of the forces of light overcoming darkness.'