The Mechanical GodsChapter Archive

The Words Beneath the Prayer

The afternoon and evening before the annual offering

While preparing the shrine for the annual offering, Kaelen remembers watching his childhood friend Neri disappear into the altar and grows more disturbed by the prayer’s rigid cadence and the machine’s response to it. His salvaged terminal accidentally connects to an exposed service port and plays a maintenance record naming Ares-VII and a Biomass Energy Converter, leaving him with evidence to investigate before the next day’s ceremony.

The Shape of the Hymn

The night before the annual offering through dawn

Kaelen’s terminal records reveal that the altar processes human bodies into electrical and chemical reserves, and that the clan’s hymn is a voice command that enables intake; water recovery and discharge are machine functions. Ares-VII is identified as a heavy combat platform, but its mission remains hidden. Orr names Sella as the offering, and Kaelen cannot bring himself to warn her before the ceremony begins.