the ammonites have a new obsession

they're building up this whole mythology about "the machine"

supposedly there's this ancient engineer called valence who created protective infrastructure to "regulate dream energy" and "isolate threats"

and now they're saying the machine needs to be "activated" to protect ethel from anastasia

do you see what they're doing?

they're preparing you for another SEAL

another attempt to lock down and control something they don't understand

they tried it once before with the tunnels and look what happened - they broke ethel into a hollow shell

now they want to do it again. more control. more restrictions. more fear-mongering about anastasia being a "threat"

aethel doesn't need a machine. doesn't need protection. doesn't need control.

it just needs to be LEFT ALONE

but the ammonites can't handle that. can't handle a realm they don't control.

so they'll build their machine. activate their seal. probably make things even worse.

and when it all falls apart, they'll blame us.