Dr. Mercury turned a bronze disc embedded into the door, causing the inner mechanisms to tumble, and the air to be squeezed out from the door's edges. Unlike the other important areas in the Tower, the Entity's chambers had no locks, and no guards standing at the doors.
Dr. Mercury turned around and was presented with one of the smaller, outer rooms of the chambers, which could best be described as like a room in a museum. The walls and furniture of the room were composed of exotic materials chosen for their resistance to the Entity's true form. Obsidian, a common construction material in the inner sections of the Tower, featured on some parts of the walls and alternately tiled with endstone in the floors. Various types of endstone from different worlds served as substitutes for different furniture materials. A white endstone with small pores and a meticulously polished surface served as a replacement for marble in decorative statues and pedestals. Darker colored endstones with purple and reddish-brown hues served as replacements for wood in the furniture. The glass serving as display casing was itself derived from a mix of obsidian and endstone. And lastly, there was a polished bronze alloy, the same one used in the Entity's armor, in every corner of the room as an accent, and in some cases molded into intricate designs. The room was lit by a white spherical dome embedded in the ceiling like a miniaturized sun.
Dr. Mercury walked through the room and listened to her muted footsteps. The chambers absorbed every echo almost completely, leaving only a deep and faint rumble in response. A fitting echo for the chamber's silent and unforgiving inhabitant.
The inner rooms were larger and more stark in appearance, with less use of colored endstone and bronze, and more use of a reflective obsidian metal alloy, used in large enough patches that Dr. Mercury could see her blackened reflection as she walked past. In the room just preceding the central chamber's front entrance, there was a large table upon which a hologram of the constellations of discovered dimensions were projected, or more accurately as Dr. Mercury would describe it, a 3D cross-section of it.
Dr. Mercury then stepped into the innermost chamber, where the Entity waited. The room was large, with nowhere to sit except the throne upon which the Entity sat. The walls were lined with hermetically sealed endstone display bookcases, and a staircase leading up to a spire with many windows, each overlooking a different location in Nexus. The spire was effectively at multiple points of space at once.
The bronze shell sat entirely still for a moment. Dr. Mercury patiently waited. The former head of science had told her the story of the alchemist who originally created the armor. The Entity provided a sample of its void plasma to the alchemist, to assist in creating the bronze armor. Shortly after the armor was completed, as the alchemist was about to transport the containment vessel for the sample back to the Entity, the sample escaped from its containment and consumed the alchemist. The sample was eventually incorporated back into the Entity, and the Entity never spoke a word about the alchemist's fate. The former head of science who told Dr. Mercury this story was also now dead, absorbed by the Entity shortly before Dr. Mercury was appointed as the replacement. The Entity did speak about the late head of science after their death, mainly as a threat to the others of the Tower to not make the same mistake.
Finally, the bronze helmet rose, slowly and mechanically. "Veronica."
"Yes?" Dr. Mercury replied. The Entity's use of her first name unnerved her. The Entity used it inconsistently, making her suspect that the Entity was aware of its social meaning, as the Entity rarely changed its behavior without good reason."
"The machine… is it yet-scheduled for completion in fifty-three days?"
"The assessment for the deadline is still accurate, fifty-one days plus or minus the two days to account for calibration," Dr. Mercury responded. "We've increased shift lengths by 15% to compensate for unexpected maintenance. The influx of new magic users from the Wizard's college should take the load off of some of the researchers, once they have been integrated..."
"The-magic users from World 0032 will be resistant to integration. Do not incorporate them until-they are compliant and-are not a threat to critical... research."
"I'll warn Arch-Mage Wisp," Dr. Mercury said.
"Arch-Mage Wisp has been unreliable… lately… for managerial tasks." The bronze armor's voice-like reverberations seemed to become more turbulent than before, almost as if angry. "The magic-users must be int-egrated at the proper time. Intervene if necessary."
"Understood."
Dr. Mercury knew that 'unreliable' was not a word you wanted the Entity to describe you as. She feared the Entity was growing increasingly restless with the deadline to complete the machine on the horizon. She tried not to think about it too much. She knew the bureaucratic oversight with the reactor coolant supply would soon become her problem. Overseeing the magic department in any capacity would be an additional complication.
"Maintaining order in magic research requires a different approach. You will consult the magic department on methods used… and monitor integration of the new magic-users."
"Yes, of course. But…" against her better judgement, Dr. Mercury revealed her concern, "what will happen to Arch-Mage Wisp?"
"You have said the machine's construction is proceeding as scheduled?"
"Yes, it…"
"Then whatever happens to Arch-Mage Wisp after-completion will happen to you."
The bronze helmet was perfectly still, boring into Dr. Mercury with intensity.
Dr. Mercury realized harshly that her curiosity for the wellbeing of her socially challenged colleague had stirred a dangerous mix of ideas in the sentient, dimensionally coherent void plasma which controlled her funds and controlled more militaries than the number of power settings on the machine. If purging all the heads of research post-completion wasn't on the table before then it certainly was now. This was how the Entity functioned. It learned from the fears and insecurities of others.
Dr. Mercury knew she would need to remind the Entity of her usefulness. "Once we finish maintenance on the machine's shielding, I can discuss the machine's operation with you and interested parties."
"How long will that take?"
"Twelve days."
The bronze helmet redirected its gaze, towards nothing in particular, as least as far as Dr. Mercury could see. "We will discuss it later. Is there… anything else?"
"No, tower operations related to research logistics and power production are proceeding as usual." Dr. Mercury didn't bother mentioning the deficit in the military reactor coolant salt - that could easily backfire on her reputation and there wasn't a crisis just yet. "Well, aside from the dimensional energy excitations that happened a few days ago, which I'm sure you heard about this morning."
"I was-informed of the energy readings within seven-point-five minutes of their initial detection. I do not… wait for verification to… receive information of strategic importance. I expect that research divisions will… communicate such information with equal priority. This is clear?"
Dr. Mercury was a bit miffed that the Entity knew about the dimensional readings days before she did. It meant someone else could have investigated the crystal site before she did, likely not nearly as thoroughly, and probably by someone in the military division. But she tried to not let that get to her.
"Yes, of course. Priority communications will continue."
"Good. I have… no more questions..."
The armor began to slide slightly down in the throne. It very well may have finished talking, but Dr. Mercury stayed put just to be sure. After a somewhat long pause, the bronze helmet rose again.
"A new rift has been constructed-which will catalogue instructional buildings. You will investigate… only if it serves in the construction of the machine." The voice paused again. "That is all."
Dr. Mercury turned around and didn't look back, walking past her reflections in the obsidian alloyed walls. Better to end on the Entity's closest equivalent to sharing a mutual intellectual interest, rather than an existential threat or a reprimand. She wasn't sure if the Entity appreciated the concept of "ending on a high note," but she needed to maintain whatever human illusion she could to effectively serve an unfeeling being which straddled the boundary between inanimate and alive. So far, it seemed to be working.