Grain... Cloister of Science...

Katherine's eyes flared in annoyance. "I know that you are only a high school girl, but please, do you really think those words were necessary?"

Amaretto blinked in a rather confused way and could feel her cheeks heating up as anger slowly encompassed her being. "The strange metal woman wants to kill us and your concerned about me saying a bad word?"

Katherine made a moue with her lips and then frowned in consternation. It was quite obvious that she was looking displeased, but Amaretto thought it was most certainly about the wrong thing.

"Just because we are doing this doesn't mean that I have to enjoy it." Katherine frowned. "You don't have to enjoy it, but you have to play within the rules of the world that you are in." Mother Chime looked at all the women and snarled.

Alice shook her head. "I knew that something was going on, but I didn't know what was actually happening."

Johanna snarled. "You stole the Stone from us." She reached for her sword, but it was not there. Amaretto remembered how Johanna had stabbed a large IronMan with it and almost destroyed the rapier that she had. The Queen was decidedly confused.

"I swear, I did not know! I merely got it from one of the scientists. They said that it would help with the cultivation of the animus transfers!" The Queen's voice was a little high-pitched and she looked truly worried.

Johanna all but snarled her response. "I cannot believe that you stole from us!"

Mother Chime was about to say something when Alice suddenly shouted. "No Johanna! Don't do it!" Katherine sputtered and then grabbed Amaretto and tried to drag her back. Amaretto tried to say something of her own, but she was cut off by a strange sound. There was a tremor in the ground and Johanna took a step forwards.

The wood floors that appeared to be a strange cherry suddenly reacted to the tremor. Bit by bit, the ground heaved it's wood paneling from the ground and heaved itself upwards, atomizing as it lifted itself from its bonds. As the paneling atomized only a fraction from where it had originally lain, metal surfaces revealed themselves underneath. Amaretto felt the ground and then looked down as the floor atomized beneath her her feet.

Amaretto spoke in an awed voice. "What is going on here?"

Katherine pointed to Johanna and said, "I think she is channeling the powers of the Stone, but I don't know what is happening!"

Amaretto sputtered in indignation, her eyes growing wide, "You don't know what is happening? Aren't you the one who has magic flowing through her veins as a fairy? As my Godmother, I demand you do something!"

Katherine sighed with an explosive force that made Amaretto think that she was about to rip her head off with a screaming howl. Instead, Katherine pointed to the Stone that was still within the Queen's grasp. The stone was glowing a strange red color and the Queen's old body was starting to shake a little in small jerks. "The stone is linking two separate powers at the same time and is confused as to which power it should be following. You and I both need that stone to get the coordinate that Tempus needs. At the same time, the Queen needs it to complete her Transfer from one body to the other, while in the same vein, trying to answer the call that Johanna is pursuing it to do as well."

Amaretto thought for a moment and then said, "So we need that stone, but, we have to figure out who will wind up with it in the end?"

Before her aunt could answer her, Mother Chime leaned her head back and cackled. "Those who come to the Cloister in faith will see what cold hard science has to offer! I will not allow you to go traipsing out there until my experiment is complete! Guards!" Amaretto said a string of filthy words that her Aunt had the audacity to look shocked about. Amaretto distinctly remembered as a child learning those self same words from her Aunt.

"Damn it aunt Katherine! Why did you have to bring me here!" There was a terseness in Amaretto's voice that sounded like the razor sharpness of a knife.

Katherine shook her head in a rather unreal response. "We can worry about our travels and their failures later. At the moment, I would be more concerned about Johanna."

The Floor shook for a second and the terrified Queen jumped back onto the bed where her body lay, clutching at the frail woman as if to protect it. Johanna lifted a finger and pointed it at Mother Chime. "You will pay for what you did."

Mother Chime's face twisted into a scowl and then a sneer of contempt. "Do you really think that you will make me pay for crimes I did not commit?" The contempt dripped from her voice like venom from a snake. Her eyes held a fierce light in her eyes. Amaretto could see that the woman was viciously inclined for some reason.

At that moment, the familiar clanking of iron against the floor and steam hissing was to be heard just outside the door. The doors flung wide open, and Amaretto didn't seem to remember who had closed them in the first place. As they did so, several IronMen in red cloaks walked through the door of the room with long metal protrusions on their arms all buzzing with the static hum of electricity. Sparks flew as one of them hit the door with his arm and electric blue skittered across the metal protrusions. Amaretto was sure it was supposed to be a scare tactic, and she was more than sure that it was working at least against her. She didn't want to appear weak, but then again, she would have preferred a History Final in school on history she had never known about, than being a part of an alternate history.

Mother Chime crowed in defiance. Not a single one of them shall be left! Kill them all!"

Johanna frowned and at that moment, Alice stepped forwards. "Johanna," she said in a light voice, "I cannot let you do this alone. I shall allow you to use the seal." She took a step forwards before Amaretto could say anything. She pulled one of her guns and then shot the first IronMan that was coming close. She frowned at Mother Chime and then pulled her second gun and pointed it at the woman.

A thin sheen of wetness covered Mother Chime's forehead for a moment as her composure seemed to slip for a second. She seemed to gather herself again and the haughty look appeared once more. Her voice was a sneer when she continued. "You will all die."

Grain... New Machina - Cloister of Science

Amaretto put her hands on her hips. "So let me get this straight then; because of your illness, you saught help and Mother Chime came at your insistence. From there, you promised to help her only if she gave you protection from your own enemies, whom we have heard nothing about as of yet. Am I getting this right so far?"

Mother Chime smiled demurely and nodded her head. "Yes child, you are correct so far."

Amaretto nodded her head once in the affirmative and then said, "So then I take it that the queen is being held together with the power of the inventions of steam?"

Mother Chime's eyes hardened and she spoke with a curt affirmative nod of her head. Amaretto narrowed her eyes at Mother Chime. She knew there was something here that Mother Chime was trying to hide and she was going to reveal it. Actually, Amaretto wanted to do anything but what she was about to do. What she wanted the most however, was to go home and forget that this was ever happening. She didn't want to have been forced on this strange trip. The only reason she agreed to it in the first place... Actually, now that she thought about it, she never really agreed with this whole trip in the first place.

She had a moment where her encounter with La Sorceire flitted through her mind and she realized that she had never actually disagreed to the whole idea in the first place. It made her shudder, but that was not what she was trying to accomplish at the moment. She wanted to go home, and the only way that it was going to happen was if she completed the task which the woman at the Water Mirror had given her.

Amaretto smiled at Mother Chime and then said, "Your power over steam is truly admirable. I am completely fascinated. I must say, how did you create her body?"

Mother chime smiled once more and slowly moved across the floor. As she did so, Amaretto had a flash back to bad cartoon villains. She shook her head as Mother Chime stopped and spoke in her calm voice. "We created the body using higher biological processes and standards."

Amaretto smiled wickedly. "Are you sure you didn't cobble her together like Frankenstein's Bride?"

Katherine scoffed behind her hand and Amaretto could tell that she was trying not to laugh. Amaretto began to slowly move her way towards the bed. Mother Chime however did not look so pleased.

"Are you saying that we had to use a cadaver in order to bring her majesty back to this world?" Mother Chime's voice was a little terse.

Amaretto shook her head. "If that was what it took, and the queen was alright with it, then I am not gainsaying it."

The queen looked a little alarmed at this statement. "We did not agree to occupy another body that belonged to someone else. That's not what you did is it?"

Mother Chime shook her head and tried to plaster her smile back on her face, but Amaretto could tell that the conversation was straining the strange woman. "The body that we gave you was never used by anyone else. It was constructed just for your usage."

The queen pursed her lips for a moment and then nodded her head. "We are pleased then."

Amaretto grinned and looked at Johanna and then said, "How did you manage to transport the queen from one body to another though?"

Mother Chime spoke tersely. "That is a scientific secret that we would prefer not to divulge."

Alice knit her brow and then said, "How were you able to move the animus though? Wouldn't that require a sort of arcane focus?"

Mother chime pursed her lips and then said, "I am going to repeat myself and tell you that I do not do it often and I am saying that we used a biological scientific process."

Alice continued to push. "So then you have found a scientific way to attract the soul and attatche it to another vessel without the usage of the arcane?"

Johanna scoffed. "That would be impossible. You would have to use an arcane device in order to transport the animus into another vessel. In order to capture the animus, a mix between the sciences and the arcane is needed. You would have to use a scientific concept to house the animus while at the same time using an arcane specialty of some sort, thaumaturgy would be necessary most likely in order to move the animus from one vessel to the holding location and then to the new host."

Amaretto was surprised at the basis of knowledge that Johanna had just displayed at that moment. Mother Chime on the other hand seemed a little less impressed. "That is all fine and dandy, but if you do not have the means to use the arcane, then we must find ways to accheive the same result. Thaumaturgical means can mean that they can use a scientific theory to make the same means occur. So that was exactly what we did, while also using alchemical means to make the changes that were necessary."

Amaretto listened halfheartedly while continuing to inch her way towards the bed that was at the other end of the room. Alice and Johanna continued to argue with Mother Chime while the queen and Katherine looked on dispassionately. It was only a short time before Amaretto was able to make it to the bed. The bed itself was made out of a dark mahogany that had a inlays of cherry and teak in it. The large drapery that was laid around the bed was made of several covers of silk. As Amaretto began to pull back the layers of silk on the bed, the queen actually turned around and almost yelled across the small space. "Don't look in there!"

Amaretto jerked back away from the bed, but the damage was already done. As she tried to pull away from the bed, she jerked the silk hangings so hard that they ripped away from the bed, leaving the inside to be exposed to the entire rest of the room. The queen hissed and hurred over to the side of the bed and then began to fuss at the covers on the bed. Under the covers, a small woman with graying hair and tightened skin that showed her age. In Amaretto's opinion, the woman had to be at least in her late sixties. The woman looked like she still partially alive and had hundreds of tubes sticking into her skin. Amaretto had an idea that all the tubes were attached to the queen's new body.

The queen fussed over the body, fluffing pillows and tucking the covers under the woman's folded hands. "Can't have myself catch a cold now can we," she said in a low caring voice.

Amaretto looked at the woman in the bed and said, "Is that your old body?"

The queen nodded her head and then said, "It is indeed our old body. We must take care of it until the transfer of consciousness is complete." In an almost absent minded fashion she placed her hand over that of the old body's folded hands.

At that moment, Amaretto felt a twinge of pity. This was obviously a woman ravaged by illness and Amaretto could also see in the queen's new eyes that she was not just a woman ravaged with problems, but a woman who was frantically clinging to her life and trying any means possible to stay alive. Amaretto was almost reminded of a cancer patient when she looked at the queen's old body.

Katherine stepped over and looked at the old woman who was in the bed and then murmured something under her breath. Amaretto looked to her aunt and Katherine rolled her eyes and then said, "Look at her hands."

Amaretto looked at her hands and noticed that the ravaged body was holding something in her hands. Amaretto looked at eh queen as she stood up again and then in a quiet voice said, "May I?"

The queen thought for a moment and then nodded her head in the affirmative. Amaretto moved forward very slowly and then moved the queen's hands to see what it was that the woman was clutching. There, underneath the woman's hands, was a small gem the size of a robin's egg. It was a a bright ruby red and she slowly lifted it up in her hands and held it up to the light and she turned around to look at Johanna and Alice. Alice's breath caught in her throat audibly and Johanna's eyes widened and her voice sounded raw when she whispered the next words out of her mouth.

"The Stone of Communication."

The queen looked up and confusion crossed her face visibly. At that moment Mother Chime took another step forwards and said, "I must say, I tried to get you all to leave in a means most amenable without you discovering the secret to what was going on here. However, I now have come to the decision that you all are not to be allowed here anymore. I cannot allow you to continue to wander here without any consequences. I am sorry but I cannot allow you to leavce here with the secrets that you know."

Amaretto all but cursed under her breath.

Grain... Cloister of Science...

Alice huffed. “It's the queen. We need to find out why she is here!”

Johanna shook her head. “She still never said why she was here in the Cloister of Science.”

Amaretto looked at Johanna and then shook her aunt by the shoulder. “See? She's starting to show emotion!”

The queen shook her head and then started to chuckle. “If all you wanted to know was why we were here, then we shall tell you. I was here to see Mother Chime and get what she promised to me.”

Amaretto looked a little confused. “Wait, she came here at the insistence of Mother Chime?”

Both Alice and Johanna looked to the woman who was obviously attached to the floor. The queen moved forwards and Amaretto could finally see the hoses and attachments that were there. The queen smiled and then said, “This is the reason that I came here.”

Alice looked at the woman on the bed. “Then who is that?”

The queen smiled. “That was the old me.”

Johanna narrowed her eyes and Katherine stopped looking through her purse. Amaretto took a step forwards towards the bed and then turned around shaking her head. “The old you? What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Alice suddenly took a sharp intake of breath. “Dear angels in heaven,” she exclaimed. “The queen has been sick for the past three years. It was thought to be an incurable disease. That was when Mother Chime came and the changes started taking place. The reason for all of this has been the culmination of this?” Alice motioned to what appeared to be the queens new body.

The queen smiled and then put her hands on her hips. She quickly turned a couple of times, showing off her new body. “Mother Chime came with her scientists and with a plan as well.”

Amaretto narrowed her eyes. “This plan was to give you another body?”

A melodic voice answered her question at that moment. “Why yes it was. I never thought it would happen this quickly though.”

Everyone in the room quickly turned around and looked to see who it was that was speaking. A woman sashayed into the room. She was dressed in a long flowing blue gown of muslin and seemed to cling to her frame. Her eyes were a very dark shade of gray that seemed to encompass the whole of her socket. Her skin was a pale shade of off-white, that had a bluish tint to it as well. Her lips had been curved into a rather disarming smile and cunning eyes.

Katherine smiled slightly and then curtsied. “Mother Chime I take it then?”

The woman nodded her head. “Indeed you would have it correct then madam.”

Katherine's smile got larger and then her silver chain was out once more and her eyes were a little wild when she screamed again, “The power of Mazda compels you!”

Mother Chime raised an eyebrow. “Using Babylonian spells will not make me go away.”

Katherine huffed and then threw the Mazda medallion back into her purse. “You can't say I didn't try.”

Amaretto huffed. “Using a car to try to exorcise something is not going to happen.”

Katherine shrugged. “I tried. I have no idea now.”

Alice had wide eyes as she stared at Mother Chime. “You are the infamous Mother Chime?”

The woman made a slight bow. “That is indeed what it is. It is a pleasure to make the acquaintance of famous spiritualists Alice Crowly and Johanna Dee.”

Johanna stiffened at the usage of her name. Alice simply stood there with her mouth hanging open. She then composed herself and spoke. “You know of us?”

“Why yes. I make it a point to know of those who stand against me, even if I have done nothing to gain your ire.” Mother Chime continued to smile and Amaretto wanted to slap the smile off of the woman. There was something about her that made her skin crawl.

Johanna suddenly sputtered and her face seemed to contort with emotion and then her deadpan voice seemed to gain an octave. “Gained our ire? You burned our house down! You stole from us!”

Amaretto tugged at her aunt's arm and whispered to her excitedly. “See? I told you! That means that the Stone of Communication has to be near by. It’s the only way that her emotion could be showing though at this time.”

Katherine narrowed her eyes and made a slight motion around the room with her hand. “And where do you think that it would be hidden? There seems to be no place for them to keep it.”

Amaretto scanned the room that they were in and then looked to where the queen was standing. She slowly made as if to look and saw that the floor had a small hole where the wires and the hoses that were attached to the queen seemed to sink under the floor. As she continued to look around, she looked and saw that the wires seemed to go towards the bed that was on the other side of the room. Amaretto stared at the wires for a moment and then turned back to look at the queen.

Amaretto spoke in a soft voice, “What perchance are the wires and hoses for?”

At this, the the queen seemed to be rather pleased and then said, “This is actually a partial gift to me. It was thanks to Mother Chime herself.”

Amaretto frowned. “Don't you mean Grandmother Chime?”

Mother Chime smiled and then said, “That was the late Mistress of Sciences. I am the second to have that name.”

Amaretto nodded and then said, “I do not think that you have the same accent as the others.”

Mother Chime made her slight smile once more and then said, “You would be correct in that. I am not necessarily from the Empire, but that does not mean that I cannot be a citizen of it.”

Katherine smirked and said, “We never said you couldn't be a part of it, merely that you were not to begin with.” As she said that, Mother Chime's eyes seemed to darken for a moment and then lightened once more.

“There is nothing that cannot gainsay your logic, but I think that if anyone can say weather or not I am beholden to the empire, I think that the queen is the one who has that power.” Mother Chime turned and made a motion with her hand towards the queen. Amaretto noticed that around the woman's wrist, a strange silver white bracelet was wrapped twice. From the bracelet, what appeared to be small chains were wrapped around her waist. A closer look revealed them to be small hoses that were attached just like the queen had on her shoulders.

Amaretto elbowed her aunt and pointed them out to her. Katherine's eyes narrowed and she then said, “There is no way that this is all being powered by steam. Something else has to be powering this conversion that is going on.”

Amaretto grinned. “Something like the Stone?”

Katherine nodded. “I think you are right. I think that the Stone is somewhere here.”

At this time, Alice spoke in a concerned tone. “If in fact you are the queen, then what was it that Mother Chime offered to you?”

The queen smiled. “She gave me a new body.” The queen's tone was matter of fact and Amaretto almost choked at what the queen said.

Alice blinked. “She gave you a new body?”

The queen nodded her head. “In exchange for protection, she offered to help cure the sickness that was ailing my body. In order to do so, she and all of her scientists helped to create this new body and have placed my consciousness into this new construct.”

Alice blinked and looked like she was about to pass out. Amaretto felt sorry for her. It was not every day that one was told that body swapping was supposed to happen.

Grain... The Second Great British Empire - Cloister of Science

The woman looked abruptly surprised at Katherine shaking the symbol i0n front of her. She seemed to be a little surprised also at the fact that there were several other women in her room at that same moment. The woman pulled her back a little straighter and then in a commanding voice said, "Who precisely are you to come bargain into here at this time?"

Amaretto looked at the woman and noted that while her hair was short and bobbed on the back with tight curls, a small tiara had been placed on her head and sat slightly askew. Checking over the woman, Amaretto was surprised at the look of her dress. The dress had long red sleeves that were topped with a puff of fabric surrounding the arm in a bell shaped manner and within them they was wrapped around the woman's shoulder a large piece of bronzed metal. The metal seemed almost fused with the woman's skin, but Amaretto simply assumed that it was a rather tight fit. The rest of the woman's dress was a low cut bodice wrapped within a long corset of black. The corset had long laces that tied her waist into a perfect vee before the dress, which was made of a royal purple flowed down the front in a traditional spill of what appeared to be velvet.

The woman put gloved hands on her hips and said, "I'm waiting for your answer good women."

Katherine bowed rather graciously and then said, "Pardon us good lady, but we were actually looking for a room in which a dear friend of ours was supposed to be teaching us fighting."

The woman crossed her arms and then in a very dry voice said, "I sincerely doubt that."

Katherine looked taken aback and then placed a hand on her chest. "Why I very much think that you have mistaken us for someone else?"

The woman placed her hands on her hips and Amaretto thought that she saw something trailing from the woman's arms. The woman however took a step back and then looked around and said, "I think that I am not mistaken in what I am thinking at this moment."

Katherine shook a finger at the woman. "I think that you would be."

"You come into my room," the woman began, "As well holding weapons when you come through the door. You then seem to have gotten the lost room. We are not amused."

Amaretto blinked. "Did you just say what I think you did?"

Alice lowered her guns. "Your majesty?"

The woman nodded her head and then looked down her nose. "If you must know, I am indeed Her Majesty Vitorianna Alexis, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of Indus."

Amaretto blinked. She turned to her aunt "You mean that this woman is the queen?"

Katherine shrugged. "It could very well be."

The woman in front of them said, "I am also known as Vitorianna Alexis Regina et Imperatrix."

Amaretto raised her hand in disbelief as if to silence the woman. "You mean that this woman right here is the Queen of England,"

The woman narrowed her eyes and in a short tempered voice said, "That is the Empire of New Machina."

Amaretto rolled her eyes and then continued speaking. "So whatever, this woman is Queen, and we were supposed to find the queen and protect her. However, we find the queen standing here and looking fine. What are we doing in here again?"

The queen's eyebrows knit together as Katherine shook a finger at Amaretto. "Don't you have even the slightest amount of respect Amaretto?" Her voice was obviously exasperated and her face looked stern.

Amaretto threw her hands up in the air and then gripped the sides of her dress and pulled them to the sides slightly as she took a bow from the waist and said, "Your Majesty, forgive me. I did not think that we would be bumping into you."

Almost as soon as Amaretto bowed, the queen made a face. "That was a little vulgar. Who taught you to curtsy and show respect?"

Amaretto looked at the queen and then said a little sourly, "No one did. I don't normally make it a point to meet with the queen of Eng- I mean New Machina."

"Did you grow up as a heathen then?" The queen sneered at Amaretto. Amaretto could feel her eye twitch.

Alice and Johanna had both risen from where they had curtsied and Johanna had taken a step forward. She looked at the queen and then said, "Alice, I have a question."

Alice was smoothing out her dress and had put her guns away rather quickly. "Listen I know we are here after the Stone, but perhaps we should pause in our search if only to extract ourselves from this situation."

Katherine nodded her agreement. "It is indeed a situation, trying to find a stone and winding up with a rather awkward situation is hardly what we needed at this moment."

Amaretto frowned and looked back at Johanna who seemed almost for a moment as if she had a flitting expression across her face.The expression vanished almost as soon as Amaretto thought she saw it though, but it was enough for her to confirm that the Stone of Communication was indeed nearby. Amaretto turned to the other woman whom they had walked in on and then said, "So you're the queen?"

The woman nodded her head rather imperiously and then said, "Yes I am."

"So then why are you here instead of in the palace?" Amaretto put her hands on her hips as she spoke.

Johanna stared at the woman and then suddenly said, "You are lying."

Everyone in the room suddenly stopped breathing.

Amaretto turned around and then said, "What do you mean?"

Katherine pursed her lips and then said quietly to Amaretto, "I can see what she is saying, however, I would have thought that she would have had a little more tact."

The woman standing in front of them who had identified herself as the queen narrowed her eyes and then stared at Johanna for what seemed to take forever. She then crossed her arms and leaned back only a slight bit and said, "What makes you say that I am not the queen?"

Johanna pointed towards the bed first and then to the floor around the woman's dress. "The signs all point to you not being the queen," was all Johanna said at first.

Alice moved forwards. "What signs are those?"

Johanna pointed towards the floor again. "If you note very carefully. you can actually see the piping that is coming out of he hole in the floor where she is standing and how the hoses connect to the small shoulder things she has on. They are also connected to the floor as well as the machines that are connected to the woman who is also on the bed."

Katherine looked towards the bed and nodded her head. "Oh my, it appears that we have indeed gotten ourselves into something that seems to be a little over our heads. I vote that we just simply leave now."

Amaretto grabbed her aunt's arm and whispered hurriedly. "The stone is in here though! You can see that because animation is coming back to Johanna!"

"Animation?"

"She's starting to show emotions again. Didn't Alice say that the closer we got to the stone, the more emotion that Johanna would show?"

Katherine quirked her eyebrow. "I don't remember her saying that."

Amaretto shook her head and then said, "I just inferred it form all the things that she had said originally. There has to be something to be said for the fact that all these facts will eventually connect together right?"

Katherine pulled up her bag and began to rummage around for something. In the meantime, Alice was arguing with Johanna.