Olivia and I stepped into the air-conditioned parlor of the high-tech armory and as soon as the glass doors behind us shut my senses adjusted to the room we were in. The instant we did I could hear a litany of sounds, many of which I had never heard before, the sounds of distant and incredible machinery. As I paused and listened, Olivia looked at me and studied my face.

I could easily analyze even the faintest twitches of her facial muscles and thanks to that I was able to pick up her curiosity and eagerness to show me the armory. I smirked at her and urged her to show me the place, which caused her to smile and begin to lead me deeper into the high-tech building. 

"Welcome to your armory! As the owner of The Sanctuary this is where your most advanced technology is stored, and quite possibly will be stored if you happen to acquire technology that is more advanced than this. This place is a storehouse and repository of advanced sciences and potent technologies." Olivia explained as we made our way towards a door that was off in the distance.

I noticed that we didn't go to one of the elevators in the building, nor did we attempt to climb the stairs. Instead Olivia was hyper-fixated on walking towards the door at the end of the parlor. I also noticed that it wasn't leading us to another part of the building on the first floor, as even my ultra-hearing didn't allow me to hear anything from some other, perhaps technologically-invisible area, suggesting that perhaps we were heading to an elevator of some sort.

"The fact that this place appeared at all is a sign of your compatibility with The Sanctuary. It is only rarely that this place appears to owners, but The Sanctuary has seen fit to bless you with the true power at its disposal. This place's true secrets go beyond what either magic or science alone can achieve." She revealed, reverentially. 

We reached a gigantic door made of what I initially assumed was steel, and I watched Olivia place one of her hands on it. I heard a soft whirling noise as the metal of the door where her hand rested began to change and shift. Nearly a second later Olivia winced in pain as the place she was touching became a needle that penetrated her skin and collected a drop of her blood. I listened as the machine making up the metal of the door absorbed the blood and then began to analyze it.

"Welcome to the true armory, Olivia. Please state your purpose for your visit." The wall itself uttered, a second later. As I listened to the voice, I gazed at the wall and willed my vision to "Zoom in" on it.

A half a second after the wall began to speak my vision focused on the wall and I was a bit surprised to see that the source of the noise was actually a number of nanoscopic speakers placed strategically on the wall, so as to create a sort of auditory illusion. My eyes widened when I realized this, since I had never before actually seen nanoscopic technology, due in part to the limits of my eyes until relatively recently. 

"Good morning Technos! I have come today with The Sanctuary's newest owner. Ms. Drakos and her coven had an, for them anyway, unfortunate encounter with Nathan Hernandez, a changeling from their world. He overwhelmed them and in order to escape Ms. Drakos had to sacrifice her connection to The Sanctuary. It has since bonded with Nathan, and evidently their connection is strong enough that Nathan has been deemed worthy of access to the armory." Olivia revealed, her energetic voice filling with excitement as she spoke. 

The door in front of us began to shift and bubble, like a liquid that was about to boil. After I saw a few of the bubbles in the thing begin to form a new shape in the door; that of an eerie, robotic eye.

"Greetings Mr. Hernandez. I am Technos, the keeper and artificial intelligence in charge of the true armory. It seems that The Sanctuary and you are highly compatible. Now then, allow me to ask you a question. Would you rather go upstairs or downstairs first?" The robotic voice asked me, nanoscopic speakers vibrating as they expelled the sound of the mechanical voice.

I paused to consider the question, but the fraction of a second it took me to consider the things was less than a millisecond. My analytical mind was picking up all sorts of subtle stimuli, from Olivia's reactions to things, to the fact that this place had a downstairs but its upstairs was visible to anyone who could see the building. I had already seen and was beginning to make observations about the technology this place's upper-areas contained, which seemed to include a few vehicles of different sorts, and even some types of generators based on the distant sounds the assorted machinery was making. 

On the other hand... The area beneath the building was largely a mystery to me. And so I knew which to chose. 

"Let's go downstairs first." I informed the door, and the A.I. in charge of it. That sound caused the door itself to begin to hum excitedly, joyful reverberations, and the voice began to play out of the nearly invisible speakers placed on the door.

"Excellent! I am overjoyed to announce that you have passed my little test. And there will be fun consequences for that." The voice revealed, teasingly. As soon as it was done speaking the door began to slide open and revealed a sleek elevator. Olivia and I stepped into it at the same time and the door slid shut. Olivia placed her head on my chest and we both smiled at each other when we felt the elevator begin to descend.

We would descend for nearly a full minute. The elevator was a high-tech one so we didn't have to deal with any tremendous shaking or any sudden quaking. When the thing came to a stop and began to open, both Olivia and I eagerly turned to face the door and as it opened both of us were surprised to see a massive room awaiting us on the other side. 

We found ourselves in a large chamber filled with assorted, large glass tubes each of which was filled with incalculable amounts of strange, diminutive, machines in truly absurd numbers. I could make out what I had to assume were nanobots, and machinery that was even smaller than them, femto and pico bots. I could also organic equivalents of both, things that my nerdy subconscious recognized as "Organites", biomechanical machines on the same, nearly inconceivable scale as nano and femto machines. 

As soon as the elevator was done opening I stepped out of it and walked over to one of the glass tubes. When I reached the thing, I heard the subtle noises of a projector dropping from the ceiling. I listened as the thing powered on and watched it project a thin laser directly at my head. I chuckled and allowed it to happen, since I knew that Technos was on my side and recognized me as the owner of The Sanctuary. As the beam touched my head I listened to the sound of Technos's voice. 

"Hello Nathan. Welcome to the inner sanctum of the armory. This is where The Sanctuary stores some of its most complex and fantastical technology. You can already see some of the technology we possess. I am a bit surprised, but also utterly delighted, that you recognize this sort of technology." The voice began, steadily becoming more animated and human-sounding the more it spoke. 

"Much of the technology accessible to us blends and blurs magic and science and the lines in-between them, and is capable of truly outrageous feats." The artificial intelligence explained, right as the projector turned on, and a holographic "body", a rather generic silhouette made of light.

"Beneath this floor, directly beneath this chamber actually, lies the portal to Terra. No one has entered it yet, since it appears to be one-way. But on this floor, lies a true treasure. Or rather... true treasures. These tubes are filled with nanobots, femtobots, picobots, and organobots. And if you wish they can be bonded with you, granting you a number of abilities related to technology." The silhouette revealed, its face moving subtly as it spoke, but its "mouth" quite literally nonexistent. 

"Bonding with the bots... I like the way that sounds." I remarked, as I turned around and began to study the thick tubes, filled with technological innovation far more advanced than I believed that the humans of my world possessed. The contents of each of the tubes sloshed around their containers, and now that I knew that what I had thought I had seen was in fact what I was actually seeing I was filled with a sense of awe. To think that The Sanctuary had this sort of technology hidden in its depths... Incredible. 

"What are you gonna do, Nathan?" Olivia asked, looking at me with a curious smile. 

"I'm not the sort to turn down opportunities. But... What will this do to me?" I asked, showing a bit of caution as I turned back to the holographic projection of the silhouette of Technos. 

"Unsurprisingly, bonding with these machines would do a considerable amount to you." The artificial intelligence began, studying me as it spoke.