Lixen was obviously annoyed at Azemo for deciding stuff without his input again but he could not act up around Visnelda or his cover would be blown. All he could do was glare, and glare he did, whenever Visnelda was looking away.
Visnelda had one of her servants who was wearing an odd mask pull Azemo in a small cart to avoid worsening his wounds.
Unknown to Visnelda, Azemo could heal himself whenever he wanted but it was better cover to be injured.
After they left Warrencraft's house, Visnelda dismissed her entire entourage except for the masked servant pulling Azemo along.
Surprisingly Visnelda was not leading them to the docks but instead, she was purposefully striding towards the center of town.
As the small group reached their destination Azemo saw nothing out of the ordinary. They were in a tiny square with an old fashioned marble fountain. Azemo wanted to ask Visnelda about where they were, but he decided she would probably ignore him even if he did ask.
After he made up his mind not to open his mouth, Azemo's patience was rewarded. Visnelda walked up to the fountain and after a couple of seconds the fountain slowly disappeared into the ground.
'Plot twist the upper city was underground!'
Of course that was not true and when Azemo was pulled closer he saw that the fountain had transformed into a few comfortable looking seats.
The masked servant picked Azemo up and placed him in a seat before sitting down himself.
As soon as everyone was seated Visnelda hit some buttons and a small dome appeared above the group. After a few more button presses the fountain began to rise rapidly into the sky.
During this trip in the sky Azemo missed getting the chance to look at the dull landscape of Kclzan as the clouds obscured everything from his vision.
Suddenly above the clouds Azemo could see a metallic city. At first glance it made Azemo think that the reason people like Visnelda did not live in the city was because it was not as pretty as the one they had just left.
The city looked functional and well built but it lacked the charm to make one feel at home. Towers loomed over the city and Azemo felt a sense of danger when he looked towards the towers' windows, there was probably some kind of weaponry up there.
"The cannon towers I specifically made to shoot down people will never see use because of an incredibly stupid plan." The Soul Essence was extremely upset as it imagined a cannon ball smashing into Azemo's ride.
The fountain finally reached the upper city and it clipped onto the edge, before the dome disappeared.
The masked servant picked up Azemo and followed Visnelda towards the city.
A masked guard approached them as they began to walk away from the docks.
"You know the rules Visnelda, he needs to go through proper procedures."
Azemo was surprised that a lowly guard would use such a tone with the powerful Visnelda.
As for Visnelda's response, she snarled in a way that made Azemo think she knew the guard.
"I make the f*cking rules, get out of my way."
The guard just laughed but he left them alone.
"I hate Borris so f*cking much." Visnelda's words, muttered under her breath, were still heard by Azemo's sharp demon ears.
'Borris is just a guard! That seems a little bit strange.'
Visnelda led the masked servant through the city, giving time for Azemo to take a look at his new surroundings.
The city could not have held more than thirty, non-worker, families, everything was just so small. There were stores and quite a few buildings but Azemo only saw a couple of mansions on the way to Visnelda's house.
However, the people Azemo saw were quite interesting. Besides a few rich people in their ordinary finery, everyone else wore masks like the one Visnelda's servant wore. Azemo had no idea why the lower class wore the masks but they gave off a feeling of lifelessness that Azemo attributed to the face wear.
"You are probably hungry, right?" Visnelda had grown accustomed to Azemo's desire to consume food and decided to treat him in her hometown.
"Very."
Visnelda stopped a nearby store and got them some food. Everything seemed pretty ordinary until Azemo realized that Visnelda had not spent a single cent.
It seemed that the rich people of the upper city did not have to pay.
'They have a ton of money it makes no sense for them not to pay.' Azemo was astounded by the discovery but the second he smelled the delicious food his mind was taken elsewhere.
After the meal, they finally arrived at Visnelda's house where she said.
"Alright, my servant will get you settled in a room but I have to go now. I have some business to attend to."
Azemo did not have time to thank her and Visnelda hurried off, probably going to yell at Borris.
After the servant settled Azemo into a comfortable bed, Azemo decided to go out for some exploring. His window was easy enough to open and Azemo quickly made his way to the street, his wound he had healed a long time ago.
At first the metallic city was not very interesting, just a functional city with anything anyone could ever want, but something caught Azemo's eye. A group of people wearing masks entered a building. Nothing to write home about but after a couple more minutes another batch of mask wearing people walked into the same building.
'Is it some secret meeting?'
Azemo opened his tome and used (skill) Blend In, before sneaking into the building. The sight that met his eyes was quite unexpected.
The people with masks were all neatly lined up and none of them were moving.
'That is an odd way to sleep.' Azemo still did not understand what was going on but he continued deeper into the building.
The top floor of the building was empty but as Azemo entered he saw a door across the room. Azemo walked over and attempted to open it. He had expected it to be locked but the security of the upper city seemed pretty lax. Probably because it was nearly impossible to actually get into the upper city.
Azemo walked through the doorway and was greeted by an empty room that only housed a single control panel. Azemo wondered what the panel could control and quickly rushed over.
After a single look Azemo learned the secret of Kclzan.
Most of the residents of the desert world were nothing more than robots and the panel Azemo was at seemed to be able to control them. How Behirite had thought of robots, Azemo had no idea, but the lifelessness of the world suddenly made sense.
No one but a select few individuals knew that most of the populace were not real and that secret allowed the robots to able to influence the actions of the real populace.
Azemo instantly tried to access the panel but he was denied when the panel asked for a sample. It seemed that something this important got some security and Azemo knew that his skin would not give him access.
While he was not able to control the robots, Azemo was still able to look through the panel and realize its owner was the head scientist Borris.
'Borris must be the old man I met when I first came to Kclzan, maybe I can steal a skin sample or something. I am sure he wouldn't mind meeting me if he remembers that I helped him way back when.'
After thinking about Borris, Azemo realized he should probably tell Lleh what he learned. After all, their plan of revolution would not work because they were trying to enrage emotionless robots.
Pulling out his communicator, Azemo attempted to hail Casen. However, the communicator was unresponsive, it seemed that the range was not good enough to reach all the way to Crnst.
'I guess I will need to send a message the old fashioned way.'
Azemo took out his residency badge and attached a note for Lixen. On the outside of the note Azemo wrote Lixen's name so that the guard would give it to Lixen.
The note was in Lleh's code so Azemo believed it was worth a shot. Making sure the note was firmly attached Azemo activated the badge and it began to descend back towards the rich city of Srenti.
Azemo had to go outside to activate the badge and afterwards Azemo decided he should probably not stay out much longer.
Time had flown and Azemo was unaware that Visnelda was heading home after resolving her work. She had no idea that her supposedly injured guest was out and about exploring the city and she assumed that he would be in his bed when she got home.
As she entered her house something about her masked servant made her want to go check on Warrencraft. She rushed up the stairs and opened the door to the guest room.
To her surprise the bed was empty, but just when she was about to go into panic mode she noticed the sleeping form of Azemo next to the window. He was curled up like a cat in the light of the sun and Visnelda could not help but smile at his ridiculousness.
As she closed the door Azemo calmed his rapidly beating heart and climbed into the real bed.