Audra was carefully taking apart the chest part, peeling off the metals layer by layer and putting them along the rest of the destroyed metals. Once she reached the inner parts, her eyes widened at the intricate spell written on it, though all of them were broken, along with the two depleted mana batteries that easily fell off their slots and shattered like glass. They had been completely depleted, leaving only a shell.

She finally saw the low-quality brain core, getting fascinated with how many spells were written on them, ones that interlayed and connected in a method she has never seen before.

'What a fascinating thing..' She scanned it again, looking for anomalies or activity that could be described as anomalous. Seeing no new things, she carefully pried it out of its socket, and activated her crystal storage, easily absorbing it inside.

'So that is not the mystery..' She looked warily at the almost empty frame of the puppet, wondering what else could be there. Getting impatient, she tried to put it inside her crystal storage, but as expected it was unresponsive. 

'Sigh.. why can't anything be easy to do these days?' Her experience told her, the more mysterious something is, the more dangerous it is. So she had to act carefully and continue to remove bolt by bolt, lest she makes a mistake that could end her life. 

After 10 minutes, she removed all the major areas she could see, leaving only one egg-looking part that was disconnected from the rest of the puppet. She tried to put it inside her crystal storage again, and confirming that it was again responsive, she activated all the barrier spells on the table, before leaving the room altogether and activating more barriers. One can never be careful dealing with anomalous artifacts and items.

Once she was far enough away, she activated a spell on the table, which caused the egg-looking metal to float, before it separated piece by piece until only a platform was left, and on top of it was a light purple mana crystal and another less small one. 

Seeing no explosion or any other thing happening, she re-entered the room, still maintaining the barriers on the table and the room. After seeing the crystal, she carefully approached, exercising extreme caution. Still seeing no response, she activated the scanning spells on the table, and still not getting any response from some eldritch being ripping her apart, she sighed, the tension leaving her body a little.

'*Sigh* dealing with anomalous objects is the worst and best part of my job.' On one side, you could be killed in an instant, on the other, you could get access to a legacy that could make you one of the most powerful people in the world. It seems she might hit the jackpot with this one.

After seeing no response even after half an hour, Audra was starting to get frustrated, another thing she hated. how could one get access to the anomalous object if it's not a malicious one?

The results showed that this purple mana crystal was a sensing one, and the lesser one showed it was crystal storage. though there were differences and other unknown elements that were detected inside the sensing one. She tried to put the purple mana crystal inside her crystal storage for one last check to make sure it was the source of the anomaly. Which it was.

'What I'm supposed to do now..' that was the question, once it doesn't kill you, another headache starts about how one could use, talk, or deal with the anomalous object. So she began trying all the things that could activate it.

she talked to it, she prayed to it, she danced, she begged or prostrated to it, yet nothing was successful. Now feeling a little embarrassed and beefed, she deactivated the table barriers, keeping her guard up and her ability ready. Yet there was still no response.

"What's with this anomalous crystal, it shouldn't be this unresponsive, should it? or is it sleep?", Finally getting tired of wasting time, she directly picked up the crystal, expecting her body to be taken over, but there was still no response. Now she was sure this anomalous object was weak or unable to interact with her on its own.

She tried to push her mana inside the crystal and see if she could activate or use its mana, but her energy was unable to enter or interact with the mana of the crystal. Though she could have forced her way in, she wasn't keen on provoking the anomaly of the chances that it was in deep sleep.

'If it's unresponsive, and it's not awake, then I could only try one thing.'  to wake it up, that was the answer. And the current situation only allowed a mental link. Linking her mind with an anomalous object was the worst idea she could do, but she had a feeling her luck was good today, so she readied herself mentally, before making a rudimentary telepathy spell.

[Hello?] She started with a simple greeting, not wanting whatever mind inside it to get hostile.

[Hello.] She took a step back, shocked by the clear and normal voice she heard in her mind. Normally when dealing with friendly intelligent anomalous objects, they tend to be deranged in some way, either a weird way of speaking or speaking some unintelligible or secret languages that wouldn't make sense or make those wanting to communicate with them insane.

[Yes hello, are you able to recognize yourself?]

[Yes? why would you ask such a question? I thought you would have asked how I'm able to speak or something.]

[Huh? You're an anomalous object are you not?]

[What's an anomalous object?]

[.. It's what we call unalive or inanimate objects that have become a somewhat living beings.]

[I see, is it a common thing to happen? and is it why you aren't worried that I'm able to speak at all, me a magical crystal?]

[ahh.. it isn't a common it's a rare thing, though you speaking so normally is unnerving me more.]

[Well, I don't know if I should tell you what I am, but I'm here for someone, this is the Einhart Academy right?]

[Who is this person you're looking for?]

Audra become a little guarded, she might not know what this intelligent anomalous object wants, but if it wants or looking for something, it might be a bad thing that would trouble them in unimaginable ways.

[I don't know how I should explain this, but I don't know who I'm looking for, just that it's a girl or a woman? I think it's a girl, and that she is the granddaughter of the old... *Sigh* I didn't even ask for his name.]

Audra felt sadness coming from the mana crystal, getting intrigued, by the emotions and compassion it showed. Though the idea that it was all a lie to lower her guard was nagging in the back of her head.

[How can I believe you know this supposed girl's grandfather?]

[… If you look at the city a few kilometers from here, a tower was destroyed, attacked by enemies, the owner and resident was the girl's grandfather and my benefactor and … maker.]

Now that was a lot of information to take in. There has been news circling the academy and among the faculty about how one of the grand Maester's towers was attacked by a powerful group of people. It was a hot topic since the Mage association was known as untouchable for centuries now. Though she was too busy to pay any mind to it, she still knew the basic info about it.

[You're saying your maker was the Grand Maester Fowke, the inventor of crystal spells?]

[Fowke? That's his name?]

Now she was a little believing of the things this mana crystal thing is saying. But she had to verify what it was saying and make sure its story checks up to truly believe it. As she was turning around,

[Wait where are you going?]

[I have to gather Information about the things you said.]

[Wait! don't act rashly, to do that you would have to talk to people, people that would also ask questions, like those two guys, right?]

[So?]

[Are you not getting it, when we were being attacked, the old man, Fowke, told me about how someone higher up fucked us, and that the enemies had something called a partial key, something that should only be in the hands of royals or something.]

[What are you getting at?]

[I'm saying if the people that attacked us can get excess to something like that, it means this Academy isn't safe from their influence, and if they discover me, they will try everything in their power to take me away.]

[… You're saying you're the reason they attacked the tower? You don't look that powerful, no offense.]

[None taken, I think they thought the old man was making some fancy powerful weapon, so they ambushed us to acquire it for themselves, but there was no powerful weapon, only a crazy old man who wanted to give life to an inanimate object, and his results, me.]