The robot queen looked pretty in purple and green. The date of her wedding was quickly approaching but she was having premonitions and nightmares with furry squeaky things that crawled up her back and tried to bite through her metal skin.

She was considering visiting the oracle that lived in a cave at the bottom of a giant blue lake in the shores of Midranesh, past the desert lands and the swamps into the unknown territories of rivers and oceans she feared because they aged her pretty smooth metal skin. It was a long trip, even if she was to use the space portal.

She didn't like traveling in space, she was always afraid to be left incomplete, with missing parts scattered through the universe due to a malfunction of the equipment or the revenge of courtesans. She had no delusions, she knew some detested her with the passion discarded lovers reserve for those they crave. She didn't abandon them, not even one, but so far she had been unable to make them understand that her metal heart had no boundaries, it was big enough to fit them all inside.

Flesh and bones, she envied them sometimes, although not seriously enough to make the change to become one herself. She liked the resilience her metal body granted her. Her mind had vague, very faint memories of who she was before, when her mind inhabited a different type of body. It ached back then, physically... She rather have premonitions and nightmares and no pain.

She smiled to the mirror, the mirror smiled back, but there was a shadow there. It was enough for her to make a decision: the oracle must be brought to the palace. She was running out of time, Circus was coming!