This mechanical man was familiar to Anso. He had seen it before, illustrated in a volume that his close friend Giovanni Pico had allowed him to copy sections from. The book had been ancient, written in Arabic; acquired by Pico in a back alley deal in Rome. Anso asked no questions about how the tome was gotten, he was merely interested in a passage with a description of the device that ultimately would become his quintessence pack.

That book was filled with colorful and fanciful illustrations of other devices from antiquity as well. There had been a series of mechanical men, automated musicians for the entertainment of the courts of the Sultan. One such automaton was described as a machine of war. Anso recalled clearly the diagram of flywheels utilized for the storing of angular momentum created by the operator within, allowing this machine to greatly amplify ones own strength.

Anso watched now as the clockwork man strode over to the wreck, picking through the blackened timbers of the ship with its claws.