A/N: Are you ready to have your mind blown? J/K. But really. Check my notes at the bottom to find out what my source for this part was. I don't want to give too much away at the beginning. Stay with me here!
~~Fanelia~~
This time it was Van who sought out Hitomi. He found her wandering through the gardens and she could tell by his uneasy facial expression that something was troubling him.
"Van, what's going on?" Hitomi asked when he came close enough to speak.
He pulled out the small piece of parchment and handed it to her. "Dryden's answer."
Hitomi read the single word and looked at Van somewhat timidly. "I see." She took a deep breath. As per the promise she had just made herself, she would be ready to do whatever it took. "How do we contact the Ispano?"
Van glanced over her shoulder towards the clearing by the elder tree she had just come from. "Escaflowne." He simply said.
Of course! Hitomi thought. A long time ago, after Van had sustained life-threatening injuries from a fight, they had been fortunate enough to run across Dryden's convoy. The merchant was very knowledgeable about many things, including the fact that Escaflowne could 'phone home' to the Ispano factory.
"I…don't know if it's a good idea, Hitomi." He looked at her with apparent unease. "We know so little about them. The only thing we do know for sure is that they don't work for free."
Hitomi thought on this for a moment but then shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We have to try."
He sighed in defeat. "Alright. I need to let Merle know. We don't know what to expect. We will do it tonight when it's dark. I want to draw as little attention to their ship as possible. People will be scared when they see it."
Hitomi nodded, but then spoke again. "Van. I can…go alone. You have a kingdom to rule and protect…There is no telling what happens when we call them or how long it will take…"
Van interrupted her by seizing her arm a bit more roughly than he meant to. "Don't even think for a moment that I'm going to let you do this alone!" He spoke in a very serious tone.
Hitomi inhaled sharply, but quickly relaxed again when she realized Van's harsh reaction was due to concern and not anger. She placed one of her hands to cover the one that was holding her arm and the gentle touch seemed to calm him. "Van. Please."
He shook his head slowly and loosened his grip until his hand fell away from her arm, but Hitomi was still holding on. His hand was warm in her own cold one.
Hitomi finally picked up the more pressing train of thought again. "Let's inform whoever needs to know."
Van sighed again but then nodded in agreement. A bit later, they found Merle taking her lunch in the kitchen. Neither Van nor Hitomi felt particularly hungry, but they joined her and satisfied what little appetite they had.
Merle chewed on a piece of meat slowly while memories of the Ispano played in her head. "Man…they sure were weird. Van you weren't conscious when we met them, but Hitomi and I saw them and we couldn't tell what they even looked like. It still gives me chills to think about it."
Hitomi nodded in thought. "I remember they were short…all the same height. Big, shiny eyes and wide cloaks are all I remember." She listlessly stirred her stew and finally let go of the spoon entirely.
Van's arms were crossed, just like always when he was brooding. He had barely touched his food, much to the dissatisfaction of Lerna. It was almost like Hitomi could read the woman's thoughts. She didn't need any psychic abilities to know that the cook was concerned about her king. Being a wise enough lady, and used to Van's 'volatile temper' as she had described it herself, she didn't say anything.
"We will call them when it's dark. I'm hoping to draw as little attention as possible." He eventually said. "Merle, you know what to do."
The neko nodded dutifully.
"We really don't know what to expect." Hitomi shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever it is, I hope they know more than we do and can help, and that it doesn't take long."
After they finished, Van decided that Merle needed to be informed about the new proposals Mek and he had been working on. Hitomi joined them, but she soon stopped paying attention to the political talk behind her and zoned out on the fire that was crackling across from where she was sitting on the other side of the room.
She watched the dancing flames and thought about how it had only been just over a week that she had still been on Earth, living her quaint life as if everything was supposed to be quite normal forever. What if she had refused to go to the spiritual convention with Yukari? Would she still have crossed paths with Ai and Moira? Would she have ever made it back here?
What if not? Would another war, one where powerful dragons unleashed their violent attacks across the land, finally have destroyed the planet? Would have a violent war finally torn it apart and killed everyone she knew here? She sighed quietly when she briefly wondered why it was her who had been 'gifted' with these powers. Really, it had been her grandmother in the first place. Her thoughts continued to ramble on for quite a while.
She glanced at Van and Merle over by the large table. He was forever running a hand through his hair in thought which caused it to always look as wild as it did now. A habit she had noticed early on. It endeared him even more to her. Initially, she had been a bit scared of what he had become after they met again. It turned out that he had shut himself back in after he had pushed her away all these years ago. He had done it hoping that she would have a chance for a peaceful life on Earth, disregarding his own feelings for her.
It made Hitomi cringe a bit to think that he had decided to sacrifice his own happiness for hers. But now, if everything turned out well in the end, they could finally be happy together...somehow. But what were they now? A couple? Was being boyfriend and girlfriend a thing here? She chuckled inwardly at the idea of being a king's girlfriend. It seemed a bit silly to think of it this way. For now, she was just content to know that he loved her.
After the sunset, Van nodded to her. "Let's go."
"Make sure Darriah is aware of what is happening. I haven't seen her all day." He told Merle.
She nodded. "Of course. Well, you know her. She likes to train the soldiers more than the sword masters themselves."
"Naturally." Van agreed. "Hitomi and I should call the ship alone."
Merle agreed but followed them all the way to the archway by the gardens. "Good luck." She said as Hitomi and Van disappeared into the darkness. Her posture was tall and regal leaning against the archway on one side, but one of her hands was clutching the other upper arm. I have a weird feeling about this.
As they walked towards the clearing, Hitomi reached for Van's hand. Their gloved fingers interlaced naturally as they walked in silence. When they arrived in front of Escaflowne, Van briefly looked at his family's grave, then Hitomi's face.
He used his free hand to push the hood of her coat back and ran his hand through her soft, short hair. "Are you sure you want to do this, Hitomi?"
Her eyes were wide open and even in the darkness, the light of the twin moons reflected their resolve. "Every minute we waste is a step closer to the ashes of Gaea."
Van sighed and barely nodded his head. His hand let go of hers as he turned towards Escaflowne. The dull crystal on its chest pulsed a faint pink as soon as its master touched the machine. He climbed it in the same fashion he had done so many times during the war. The hatch opened for him readily when he placed his hand over the melef's heart.
Snow slid to the ground and a few green vines around the metal snapped as the mechanism operated just as smoothly as it had over ten years ago. Ispano craftsmanship was unmatched in all of Gaea and Hitomi was sure that if Van wanted to pilot it again, it would still operate perfectly.
He reached inside towards the right and activated the homing device. Just like last time, the response was immediate. A green light shot from the guymelef in waves like aurora borealis. The sky above them began to glow and a small bright ring appeared. It grew bigger by the second and as Van joined her again on the ground, they watched the massive Ispano mother ship descend slowly.
The clearing was too small for any part of the ship to touch down, even the narrow, slanted figure on the bottom. It was the shape of a lion that reminded Hitomi of a kara-jishi. Its mouth formed a broad gin and just a moment after the ship stopped in mid-air, the mouth opened like a hatch and a small, hovering platform descended from it.
Van and Hitomi could only stare at the platform in front of them. Sure, they had seen Zaibach's flying fortresses and fought against invisible enemies, but never had any of them seen a simple, sleek piece of metal move without a visible mechanism. Van suddenly felt very strange. Hitomi, however, approached it bravely.
He immediately followed and made sure to stand very close to her so he could wrap his arms around her and fly away, should the need arise. When the platform ascended smoothly, one of his hands took hold of her underarm, just in case.
They were swallowed by the big figure's mouth and greeted by a mostly dark interior. The platform seemed to fuse with the floor there.
"Hello?" Hitomi asked into the darkness.
As if out of nowhere, a light in front of them lit up brightly and forced them to cover their eyes.
"So sorry. Better now?" A curious voice asked.
They lowered their hands and saw that the bright light was dimmer now. It seemed to be focused in six small, round eyes under the hood of a cloaked figure.
"Yes, thank you," Hitomi answered. "We are here to ask for your help Mr. uh… Ispano."
"Name is Seis. Come follow. We go higher up talk business there." He beckoned them towards him.
Van's hand found Hitomi's again and they carefully followed the Ispano through the darkness, up a set of narrow, winding stairs. They ascended several levels and passed through a few floors with metal parts of unknown purpose. Some were quite rusty and ancient looking. Not really what Hitomi had expected from the progressive tinkerers.
When they kept going up and up for what seemed like an eternity, Hitomi reevaluated her previous assessment. The stuff we passed earlier must have been all…old junk. She quickly looked back at Van and saw that his eyes were wide as saucers when they finally ascended through another floor layer and entered into what she guessed to be the main chamber of the ship.
It was gigantic. Unfinished guymelefs of the most exquisite looking materials and finest make were hanging off tall overhead cranes. Every metal surface their eyes fell on was polished and clean. A large number of cloaked figures, all identical, were busily working on stations below the half-finished melefs. The only thing that distinguished them from each other were the curious looking glasses they all wore. It looked as though each of them had a different number of eyes.
Both Van and Hitomi were too stunned to say anything. Van was busy staring at the guymelef torso closest to him. Its armor looked as if it had been made from the darkest obsidian, and the blood red cape hanging from its shoulders gave it an even more intimidating look. When finished, it doubtlessly would be impressive.
Mechanomania huh? Hitomi squeezed his hand a bit harder and raised one eyebrow as he looked at her questioningly. "This is not what we came for." She hissed.
"Sorry." He quietly said and tore his eyes away from the machine.
Finally, their escort stopped in front of a group of three other Ispano. Each looked identical to the other with the exception of their eyes. They all wore the same dark cloaks which covered them from head to toe. The cloaks were held together by a clasp at the front which was topped by a pink energist stone. Their spectacles flashed for a second. "Oooooh, Fanelia." They exclaimed in unison.
The Ispano on the very right, the one with five eyes, approached them. "You ask for Ispano help? We not get involved with war."
Hitomi shook her head. "We don't expect you to. We just…do you happen to know who I am?" She tried to see if she could forego a long explanation.
"Ooooh. We all know seeress. Ispano share knowledge. What one Ispano know, we all know." He said mechanically.
"Oh… okay then. Uh… great." Hitomi said a bit nervously. So they did remember her, or at least they seemed to be familiar with the events of the Destiny War. "I had an energist. I used it to amplify my powers, but it broke. Do you know anything about why this may have happened?"
The creature nodded its head. "Drag energist overload. Can't guarantee."
"Can't guarantee? What is that supposed to mean?" Van asked impatiently.
"Fanelia use Draconian blood for Escaflowne. Could not guarantee." The creature said.
"We know that. But what does that have to do with our question?" Van asked as politely as possible.
"Special cases. Not often happen." He explained.
Hitomi placed a hand on Van's arm to indicate that she wanted to handle the talking. "But do you know how I could get a new energist and use it to help amplify my powers in an ideal way?"
"Nueve knows!" One of the others exclaimed.
"Oooooh." The four of them exclaimed in realization. "We know."
"Okay? Please explain." Hitomi asked politely.
"We bring you Ispano city. Research. Very special. Trade knowledge for help." The creature's voice became slightly more high pitched and sort of metallic at the end. "Knowledge worth more than money!"
"Knowledge power!" The others spoke in unison again.
Van's gut was twisting uncomfortably. Something was telling him that he wouldn't like this deal. "Hitomi, I don't think…." He whispered into her ear.
"What other choice do we have, Van?" She mumbled back to him. "If this will lead us to anything that can help me become more powerful, we need to go."
"Listen, this is not a good idea. He said more loudly. They never do anything for free. Something about this seems strange." He hissed again.
She turned her head back towards the Ispano and nodded. "Please take us there."
The creatures' eyes flashed again and that's when Hitomi finally noticed. They weren't spectacles. They were camera lenses. The Ispano had cameras for eyes. A shiver went down her spine as this realization hit her.
The cloaked creatures nodded and their original guide motioned his green-gloved hand at them. "You follow. We fly Ispano realm."
"How long will this take?" Van asked. Thoughts of leaving Merle behind with only one of the other generals present for an undetermined amount of time made him very uneasy.
"Not worry. One day in Ispano realm only one hour on any moon." He explained as they followed him to the side of the massive chamber.
"Wait. Any moon?" Hitomi gasped? "Does this mean you can go to the mystic moon too?"
"Yes. All moons." The Ispano answered her eagerly. "Atlantis knowledge. We work on since our creation. Much more knowledge now. Many centuries work."
Hitomi understood. It was because of the time difference that the Ispano were the most high-tech out of all the societies she had come across here. Even Basram with its highly developed weapons and technology paled in comparison.
The Ispano pushed a button next to a polished, metal door and when it opened, Hitomi realized what it was. Oh dear. They have elevators. She thought with a nervous look at Van. She was not sure how he would react to it, but he seemed to be hung up on scrutinizing the unfinished black melef again.
After they entered the elevator, he finally seemed to adjust to the new surrounding and immediately looked concerned. Hitomi touched his arm and tried to calm him. "It's alright Van. This is an elevator. At least I think it is. We have them on the mystic moon. They are moving rooms that help us traverse height without the need of stairs."
His chest expanded suddenly as the doors closed and the force of the elevator lifted them up quickly. Despite his unease, he didn't say anything.
The Ispano motioned for them to follow as the doors opened again in, what Hitomi assumed, was many levels above the large factory chamber they had just been in. They followed his cloaked figure down a long hallway. It was like something Hitomi could only compare to movies she had seen about very distant futures. The hallway looked like that of a space ship's. White metal surrounded them completely and even the doors were made out of it. Each door featured a keypad and small screen next to it.
Finally, the Ispano stopped in front of one of them and leaned close to such a screen. It scanned the creature's eyes and chimed happily in recognition. So it was a way to identify the individual seeking entry. Hitomi once again looked at Van, who could only stare at the device in obvious confusion. Being used to technology and computers, Hitomi was less perturbed by it.
They were ushered into a wide, sparsely furnished room and told to wait there until Seis returned to retrieve them. Neither Van nor Hitomi paid much attention to the exiting Ispano as they were immediately preoccupied with what they saw through the window.
A vast expanse of black was visible through it, but not only that. They seemed to be closer to Earth and the moon than ever. Both quickly crossed the room and Hitomi's hands came to rest on the solid glass. "I can't believe it. Van…we're in outer space." She breathed and the realization made her head swim a bit.
Van's eyes were locked on the view as well. He took it better than she expected. "The celestial metagalaxy." He stated in obvious awe. "I… I only read about it before in books. One Fanelian king tried to fly up towards it in the Escaflowne, long before my father was born. I tried to do the same when I retrieved you from the mystic moon after you left."
Van turned his head and looked at Hitomi now. "But the beam of light caught me when I was nearing the edge of the sky."
"So then… maybe the beam of light is…really something like a wormhole. Van, when we travel to Gaea or Earth we are traversing space and time." She reasoned, still flabbergasted at the view.
As if on cue, the sight changed abruptly. The Earth and moon seemed to stretch sideways and the stars became long, bright streaks. "Are we hyper jumping?!" Hitomi gasped as her hands suddenly became sweaty in her gloves.
"What?" Van asked slightly erratic, picking up on her distress. Just like as abruptly as the surroundings had stretched and swooshed by, the ship slowed again.
"It's…it's a term they use in sci-fi movies and books on Earth. I don't know how it works. All I know is it's supposed to be a maneuver done by spaceships when they travel faster than the speed of light. Ooooh by the gods." It finally dawned on her. "We are not just on any ship. We are on a spaceship."
It all made sense. That's why the Ispano appeared seemingly out of nowhere, descending from a ring in the sky. That's why everything was so highly advanced and futuristic looking. It also explained why their 'realm' was outer space. The Ispano definitely weren't human. But what were they? Were they aliens? They had cameras for eyes, and all seemed to be the same size and shape, with no hints towards gender.
"I think I know now what the Ispano are." She retracted her hands from the glass and took her gloves off to wipe the sweat on her coat. She suddenly felt very hot. "They are androids."
"What?" Van asked again. He ran a hand through his hair in obvious confusion and unease. He was overwhelmed with the unfamiliar surroundings and overflow of new information. This must have been how Hitomi had felt when she first came to Gaea.
"They are machines. Not living, breathing creatures. Something from a sci-fi film." Hitomi struggled to provide a coherent explanation. He would have no idea what sci-fi was. "So…on Earth…you see…we have different genres in movies and books. Like…Gaea would be in medieval times. Oh, that's it! Think about it as a time period. Gaea is in the past, well, for you it's the present. Uhm…anyway. Where I live on the mystic moon it's the past, while we live in the present, or something Gaea could advance to in the future technology wise. But here, technology is so far advanced that we are basically in the even further away future."
She hoped that her explanation made at least a little sense to him. "Science fiction is speculation. It's a genre that deals with imaginative concepts like futuristic science and technology. Anything like space or time travel and other universes, for example. Science fiction books and movies often are about what life would be like if science and technology were very advanced."
She stared at Van's face, pleading inwardly that he would understand. He struggled, she could tell. It was a lot to take in for him. "So…if you live in something that Gaea could become in the future, were there melefs on the mystic moon in the past?"
He had a good question there. "Well, no. I mean there aren't any. But we have other things, more advanced technology like electricity that we use to power machines and illuminate our buildings with in the dark."
Van furrowed his brow. "Isn't that what steam power and magic are for? Escaflowne was powered by a drag energist, Asturia has magic sunlamps, and levi stones help our ships fly."
"Okay okay. I see what you are saying. No, there is no magic on the mystic moon. We don't have levi stones either." Hitomi interrupted him a bit impatiently. "Well… what I mean is that some things are still done the way they were done on Earth a long time ago, like riding horses to get places, the way people dress…"
"What's wrong with what we are wearing?" Van seemed to be hung up on the most curious details of her explanation and it was a bit unnerving.
"Nothing, Van. Nothing is wrong with it. I… I'm just trying to explain it to you but it's difficult to put it into words. It's like Gaea came straight from a Steampunk novel." She threw another curious word at him.
"Steampunk," Van repeated it.
"I'm sorry. I have a hard time trying to wrap my head around it too. Imagine you saw the future and it was full of things that are beyond what you could possibly imagine." She rubbed her eyes with one hand and finally removed her coat. It was starting to make her feel trapped in the warm room.
She took it off and tossed it onto the table towards the middle of the room. It felt curious to wear a Fanelian dress in this hyper-futuristic environment. Van was watching her, still not sure what to think.
Then, Hitomi saw something appear behind him in the vast black space that almost caused her heart to stop. She slowly walked back towards him and pointed past him, through the window. "This." She inhaled deeply. "This is science fiction."
Van spun around, eyes wide open again. "By the gods…"
The meteorite was becoming bigger and bigger as they approached smoothly. The Ispano city was something out of a space odyssey. Round buildings with concentric layers, like a tall cake, covered the whole upper surface of the jagged clump of galactic debris. The shape reminded Hitomi of ancient illustrations of the tower of Babel she had come across during times when she was interested in mythology. She could see small figures moving on the wide walkways. Other than the individuals and the buildings, nothing, in particular, stood out. It seemed like most life was going on inside the domes.
Upon closer inspection, Hitomi saw that the buildings were elaborately decorated with designs that she recognized from her brief visit to the mystic valley in Asgard.
The mothership hovered some distance away from the city. An invisible hull was covering the meteorite's surface to give it an atmosphere as well as artificial gravity. Seis returned to lead them out of the room and down to the bottom of the ship, much the same way they had arrived. The bottom of the mothership extended through an opening into the dome that covered the city, and the floating platform brought them to the ground again.
By now, Hitomi felt as alien in the place as Van must have already felt since entering the elevator. They followed the Ispano down the long, straight walkway in the middle. In passing, several other cloaked figures turned their heads. Some had so many camera eyes that Hitomi couldn't even begin to count them.
"Oooooh, Fanelia." And "Ooooooh seeress." Was heard frequently as they passed. Hitomi held on to Van's hand tightly as they followed their Ispano guide. When they came upon the largest dome in the middle, they briefly looked at each other obviously still at a loss for words. Seis opened the door to it the same way he had opened the one on the ship.
Oh, this. Is. Wild. Hitomi kept thinking over and over as they approached a large, polished control panel in the middle. This the lobby? She thought desperately, in order to give herself at least some kind of explanation.
Seis pushed a number of buttons and then let out a strange, metallic beep from behind the cloth that covered his mouth. Or at least, that's where she thought his mouth should be. He did have a mouth, right? She had decided that the stiff, pointy whiskers sticking out from under the hood were wires which possibly doubled as some sort of sensors.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the ground suddenly moved and another platform, similar to that from the ship, separated itself from the floor they were standing on. Van, seemingly so overwhelmed and preoccupied with their surroundings he couldn't have possibly been surprised anymore, quickly wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her close and keep her from tumbling off the thing. He was staring towards the center of the large dome. She was glad to have him right by her side, to say the least. His warmth had been the only constant thing for her during the past days.
It was then that Hitomi noticed what he was staring at. The statue of a Draconian, at least ten times the size of a normal human. The figure had long hair and its arms were outstretched wide. She couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a man or a woman. It didn't matter. The statue's wings were spread wide and curved slightly at the top and bottom where they came close to the structure of the dome. The bright material looked like marble, but Hitomi guessed it was probably some sort of metal, too.
Van had never seen a depiction of a Draconian before. They were a cursed society on Gaea and pictures of them were rarely found, let alone a larger than life statue. Just why did the Ispano have a massive Draconian in their dome?
The platform took them high up into a tube and through the side that obviously was only accessible by ways of such a platform. It traversed the short distance they traveled quickly and brought them to an actual, regular hallway. There were several windows and through it, Hitomi saw what looked like research laboratories designed to develop new technology. Some were obviously used for storing parts on rows upon rows of shelves, while others had workbenches which looked neatly organized. A few Ispano were behind the glass in some of the rooms and tinkered with things.
Each of them turned their heads and adjusted their camera lenses to better see the individuals passing by. They seemed to be focusing on Van more than herself and he noticed this with growing unease.
Seis stopped in front of another door and opened it as per usual, by scanning his 'face'. Behind it, another Ispano already stood waiting. The room was empty apart from a few workbenches with more machine parts on it. In the middle, a shiny, chrome robotic hand was propped up vertically. The digits of its fingers were made from small, intricate parts.
"Oooh, Fanelia. Ooooh, seeress. Welcome!" The Ispano greeted them, obviously having expected them. Hitomi remembered what she had learned earlier. The Ispano shared knowledge. Of course. They were machines after all and probably drew from the same pool of information or program.
"My name Dos." The Ispano introduced himself.
With relief, Hitomi noticed that this one only had two camera eyes. Compared to the other Ispano they had seen, he almost looked normal. Seis left the room without a word.
"Dos know why you come. Dos chief scientist." He continued mechanically. Now that she knew the Ispano weren't living, breathing beings, it was easy to pick up on the metallic undertone when they talked.
Van stiffened next to her. "Alright, would somebody finally tell us then?" He asked more gruffly than necessary. "What are you? What do you creatures do, other than building guymelefs?"
Dos' metallic laugh sent a chill down Hitomi's spine. He slowly bowed his head in Van's direction. "Fanelia's Draconian ancestors create Ispano. We serve people of Atlantis long time. When they die, we inherit knowledge. We not only keep, we make more knowledge."
"What? My ancestors created you?" Van asked in disbelief. "The people of Atlantis?"
"Si." Dos nodded. "We work for them. We build for them. Now do business with technology across multiverse. Tried business on moon where seeress from. Not go well. People not smart."
Hitomi snorted quietly. Was he ever right about that. Nobody on Earth should be trusted with something like a guymelef. Humans were doing enough damage to each other with the machines they already had.
"We understand," Hitomi said. "Please, can we get to where this benefits me?"
"Si." Dos nodded and focused his lens on her. "We trade. Ispano develop automaton guymelef with artificial intelligence. Needs sword master."
Both the Ispano's and Hitomi's eyes were on Van now. "What?" He asked slightly perturbed. "You want me to teach a machine how to fight?"
The metallic laughter sounded again from under Dos' hood. "Si!" He answered decisively. "Fanelia Draconian warrior king teach automaton. Ispano wait long time for such opportunity."
"New development." He moved his hand to the front of his cloak where, like on each and every Ispano, an energist was mounted. "Trade for help make seeress powerful." He pointed directly at the glowing, pink stone. Hitomi now wondered if the Ispano's energists powered their bodies.
Hitomi's heart and thoughts were racing. So they wanted to trade Van's knowledge and skills for their assistance.
"Let's do it," Hitomi said without further ado. What choice did they have, except to agree or go back home?
Van turned to her and shrugged. "I suppose." He still didn't look thrilled.
"Ha! Good choice!" Dos exclaimed happily. As truly happy as an android could be, anyway.
"This is not what I had expected." Van absentmindedly touched the handle of his sword.
They were lead by Dos now. Back through the hallway, onto a platform, into the 'lobby', outside, and into a different building where they were shown to a pair of rooms. They learned that the Ispano very seldom had visitors. It was only on special occasions that they invited customers from any of the planets they serviced to visit their base.
~~Zaibach~~
One of the sorcerers approached general Gain. "General. We have detected the energy signature of the Ispano mother ship."
General Gain tightened the grip on his walking cane excitedly. "Where?" This was most opportune.
"The capital of Fanelia." The sorcerer replied. "It is strange, however. Why would they require the services of the Ispano? Fanelia is one of the countries most ardently opposing the use of war machines."
"Because they are hypocrites! Probably secretly building an army!" Gain spat out loudly and twisted his face in anger. "If they want a battle, they may have it! Send dragons! Send dragons to Fanelia, Basram, and Egzardia. I am weary of dragging this out any longer. We need to strike now!"
"How many?" The sorcerer asked him.
"As many as you can." Gain's mouth twisted into a smile that bordered on the insane. "I want all of your sorcerers to take control."
Tbc…
Don't worry next chapter will cover everybody's whereabouts!
When I researched the Ispano/Yspano more, I found a cool nugget of info in the Wikia. The director of the show said the Ispano are actually androids created by the people of Atlantis. Mind. BLOWN! That explains their weird camera eyes! And get this: Their names correspond to the number of eyes they have. Whaaat? So. Wicked. Cool! I wish they had done more with this in the Anime.
I'm a bit of a sci-fi nut so the story was always headed this way. Didn't guess that, did you? Only thing I did was I decided against using Japanese numbers (like the director said) and instead used Spanish because Ispano reminds me so much of España, the Spanish name for 'Spain'.