Grain...

Rising up in the distance, Amaretto saw what her Aunt had been talking about. Tall Gothic steeples rose form a church like front. The main building was ingenuity itself, turned upon itself like a large octagonal house with five floors. On each side, there were long hallways with flying buttresses elegantly winging the hallways off of the ground as the halls were suspended in mid air and leading to towers on either side of the cathedral like building. The towers spun each other and seemed to have spokes that branched off into smaller towers that were gathered haphazardly to the small clusters on both sides.

The towers raised brightly into the sky and along with them, smoke clouded the sky in dense clouds. Amaretto stared in wonder at the towers as they raised into the sky, piercing the smoke, only to be enveloped again. The entirety of the Cloister of Science was a grand architectural design of metal and stone and haphazard angles and architecture, and somewhere, Amaretto marveled at the fact that this world, which was so different than her own, was so elegant and yet so wild in something as simplistic as styling a building.

The carriage began to pull up towards the main gate when Alice rapped against the top hatch and said, "No, we want to be taken somewhere to the side. We aren't going to go through the gate." The carriage driver, still under the intensity of the glamor spell that Katherine had cast on him, obliged and the carriage took a rather sharp turn to the left. As it did, Amaretto thought that she saw the parliament house. A second look out the window and back the direction they were coming from confirmed what she thought she had seen. It was Big Ben.

The tall clock tower seemed even more imposing in the Edwardian England period. It's large top had a second terminus point that seemed taller than Amaretto had remembered in pictures, but out of the large vents of the top of the clock, bilious fog and acrid black smoke poured from it, alighting into the sky with a dull charcoal feeling. Amaretto almost giggled when she realized that no matter what the world, London was going to more than likely be cloudy and more than likely full of rain. Just underneath the face, a set of large round gears, four to be exact, were protruding from the sides of the clock and slowly spinning with such exactness, Amaretto was sure that they were helping in keeping the time. Down the sides of the clock, large pipes seemed to be carrying steam to allow for the clock to continue to work. The steam seemed to hiss through the large tubes that made up the clock. Amaretto stared in wonder and marvel at the large tower and then noticed, halfway up the clock, a large glass enclosure within the middle of the clock. There, spinning rather lazily in the center was a large blue crystal attached to a large silver chain.

the stone swung in a large circular pattern like a dowsing pendulum, rather than in the back and forth motion of a clock. Amaretto stared at it for a moment more and then turned to ask about it. Surprisingly, Johanna answered her question.

"The pendulum in the clock was made by a Mister Henry Willinsworth. Mister Willinsworth was a fantastic seismologist who studied the earth and determined how to keep a large clock tower running indefinitely using pendulum technology that spun in time with the earth. Thus it keeps the clock ticking ever in motion not necessarily with time, but with the earth's own clock system. It has yet to be incorrect."

Amaretto nodded her head in wonderment and then looked back at what everyone in this reality called "Ol' Henry. The clock left her with awe and she turned back to look at Johanna to ask another question when the carriage came to a full stop. Katherine quickly smoothed her skirts out and grabbed at a parasol that Amaretto had not noticed before. Within moments, the carriage door had opened and the carriage driver opened the door to let the women out. Helping them all down, except for Alice, who thought of herself as too independent at that moment, they all were soon out of the carriage and the driver was sitting back in his spot once more.

"Alice turned to Amaretto and then smiled. "So how does this ring work and where do we need to be?"

Amaretto took a longing glance towards Ol' Henry and then steeled her resolve. She quickly spoke in her mind. "Tempus? How does the ring work?"

Rather quickly Tempus responded to her question by answering, "All you have to do is repeat after me when we are close enough. In order to effect all of the IronMen, we have to be at least near the source that is powering them."

Amaretto snorted in her head. "That's the stone, and we can't get near it yet..."

"However, what you can do is invoke the ring several times on a smaller scale so as to disrupt smaller amounts of the IronMen. You simply have to be within fifteen feet of one is all though."

Amaretto blanched and then looked at Alice before she spoke aloud. "I will need to be either within direct line of sight with the object that is controlling all of the Iron Men, or, at least fifteen feet from one to disrupt them in such a manner as to allow us to get past."

Alice nodded her head and then smiled. "I will have no problem with getting that available to you."

Johanna however seemed to have a different idea. In her toneless voice she said, "Have you taken a good look at the gate Alice? It is wrought iron and barbed in many places. Even if it is open, there will still be quite a few guards."

Alice smiled and looked at Johanna. "Seriously Johanna, there is no need to worry. Remember, I have a full range of emotions even if you do not, and I can make any man's heart, weather it be flesh or iron, boil with desire."

Katherine made a rude sound in the back of her throat. Amaretto covered her mouth to suppress a gag or a giggle, she wasn't sure what. Amaretto was even sure that she could hear Tempus gagging in the back of her mind. Alice looked rather pleased with herself. Johanna simply stared black in blank fashion. Even if she had wanted to make a witty remark, she wouldn't have been able to due to her contract with the spirits.

Katherine cleared her throat and then smiled alarmingly wide at everyone and said, "Even though my niece does have the ring, we are still going to have to protect her. I suppose that everyone has weapons of some sort?"

Alice looked at Katherine rather blankly and then looked at Johanna. "Weapons?"

Katherine continued to smile and then said, "Don't worry, I have some right here." She then proceeded to reach into her rather large purse and rummage around for a moment before she came back up in her hands with a set of small pistols that Amaretto at first thought were Derringers.

Alice looked at the pistols in wonder and raised a single hand almost timidly when she said, "Are those Mongoose models?"

She reached a hand out and paused to look at Katherine who simply nodded her head. Alice took one in a gloved hand and stared at the small gun in awe. Amaretto tried to get a better look at the gun and noticed that instead of having a barrel, it had a strange set of coils that wrapped around. Instead of a chamber for bullets, it seemed to bulge in the back, and have a small pressure gauge there as well as what appeared to be a spark striker. The middle of the gun that three small copper tubes that seemed to go from the end chamber of the gun to the center and then the front of the gun where the coils were was something that protruded forth like a small rod.

Amaretto looked at it dubiously. "What is it?"

Alice pointed it directly at her and then said, "Winston Mongoose, 1892 model circa 1907. It uses Aether Oscillation to produce a sonic wave up to twenty yards. It can obliterate small parts of the anatomy in less time than it takes to pour a cup of tea."

Amaretto shook her hands in front of her with wide eyes. "Please point that thing somewhere else!"

Alice's smile turned into a grin as she dropped Amaretto from the sight of the ray gun and then turned to Katherine who seemed to have another one just for her. Alice took both and giggled like a school girl. Amaretto looked at her aunt who seemed to shrug. "the Poppins purse strikes again," she muttered under her breath as Katherine rummaged around in her purse again.

This time, she pulled forth a rather large and long rapier. the hilt was done in fine ivory filigree, with an elegant ring that seemed to be made out of auburn leaves coming down from the crosspiece. the pommel of the blade itself was a rather largely pounded out piece of metal which had scroll work all along the sides. The blade itself was also something to behold, with the scroll work on the pommel continuing onto the forte part of the blade. the scroll work continued on up into the debole as well and it seemed as if someone had etched fire into the very sides of the blade.

Alice raised a single eyebrow and stared. "You had that hidden in your purse?"

Katherine smiled and then looked at Alice with a smug smile. "Some of us are just more magical than others."

Amaretto bit her lip as Katherine passed the sword to Johanna. "I trust you had some practice fencing?"

Johanna tested the blade in her hands and then gave a few vicious thrusts with no expression and then said, "I was the fencing team champion of my school for three straight years."

"Then I trust you know how to use it," Katherine remarked.

Johanna nodded her head.

Amaretto rolled her eyes. "I'm telling you now," she began, "No remarks on sugar or spoons, or it's back into the sidewalk with you..." At this Katherine laughed and Amaretto smiled a little. The tension of the moment had slipped away just a little bit. Alice looked on rather confused while Johanna simply just looked on.

Amaretto watched again as her aunt pulled out her parasol and then pulled forcefully on the runner only to have a sharp blade pop out of the ferrule at the top. She then twisted the runner one more time and small blades popped out of the ends as well. Katherine nodded darkly to the Cloister.

"Let's get started shall we?"