The Divine Engine
Rebecca awoke in an obviously sealed room, but she was at least on a sofa of sorts. She groaned as she managed to sit up, and looked around to find herself alone except for a woman sitting at a desk. She was wearing a white peaked cap, a white cloak, and a military dress uniform of some kind. The number of medals on her chest seemed to shift and distort, and she tried 3 times to count them before giving up.
"Good morning, Rebecca Astrid Ashe." The woman stated, looking up from her paperwork. "You've inadvertently stumbled upon forbidden knowledge."
"Not even going to introduce yourself?" Rebecca asked, still groggy from whatever Eigengrau did to her. "Even I do that before torture."
"My name is not important. I am the Divine Engine that powers this universe, and that is all you need to know." The woman answered curtly, a frown appearing on her face.
"Oh, I get it." Rebecca said, nodding. "You're the boss."
"In a matter of speaking. You've witnessed a breach of the veil, and under normal circumstances we would simply kill you."
"I can hear the however before you've even said it." Rebecca answered smugly. "Let me guess, I'm secretly going to save the world?"
"Far from it." The woman answered, still frowning. "Fortunately, you won't remember this conversation, so I won't bother telling you."
"Well that's no fun." Rebecca said with a pout.
"That's not what this is about, Ashe." The woman answered curtly. "Let me be clear. The pocket dimension we pulled you out of, that creation of the advisers of the 30th Eternal Emperor? We're in the process of changing it right now."
"What did I actually see?" Rebecca asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Exactly what you think. You saw yourself. Well, another version of yourself." The woman answered, resting her head on her white gloved hands.
"Eigengrau called the automaton Brassus. I sense a plot I'm not aware of." Rebecca continued.
"No she didn't." The woman stated. She was in no mood to entertain this train of thought, and stood up.
Rebecca found herself unable to move, and regarded the woman with more than a little fear as she walked up to her, and seemingly towered over her. The woman removed a glove and placed her bare hand on Rebecca's forehead.
"W-what are you doing?" Rebecca asked, slightly frightened. "Stay away!"
"Modifying your memories. You'll remember what happened exactly as I need you to. I've already taken care of the Prince and Rimsin." The woman said, still frowning. "I am sorry, you know."
Rebecca didn't reply, her face listless and jaw slack as the woman sifted through her mind. The woman's face didn't change as the seconds turned into minutes, carefully rearranging the memories. The scene around the two of them shifted as the woman continued to walk through the memories. First it changed into the basement of the Ashe Manor, a young Rebecca Ashe cowering in the corner with a torn shirt, covering her chest as a woman stood across from her.
"Your strongest memory, huh?" The woman asked, slightly sad. "Let's move on, shall we?"
Several more tragic memories bubbled to the surface as the woman went through Rebecca's life, and it always played out the same. A situation in which Rebecca was powerless to protect herself from threats real or imagined. She began to wonder what kind of woman Rebecca would have been if she had been free from all of this tragedy, but that wasn't the point of all of this, and moved on to the recent memories that she needed to modify. As she did so both Vordea and Eigengrau arrived, and quietly waited for her to finish.
"Admiral, I am sorry you got dragged into this." Eigengrau said, after the woman was done with Rebecca, who was now laying down asleep on the couch.
"Think nothing of it." The woman said, before snapping her fingers and sending Rebecca away. "Brassus was truly reckless with that stunt, so I had to stop playing pretend and do something. This was far beyond both your ability and mine." She continued, gesturing at Eigengrau and Vordea.
"Still, thank you Mira." Vordea said, bowing.
"Vordea, what kind of creator would I be if I didn't protect this dream you created from nothing?" Mira asked, smiling gently. "Rest assured, I'll intervene as required, but I'd prefer to not have to."
"Frankly I am surprised to see you acting rationally." Eigengrau admitted.
"I can be serious when the situation calls for it. You needed Mira Frost the Divine Engine, not Fleet Admiral Mira Frost." Mira said, winking at Eigengrau. "So, what have we done about the Imperial Library?"
"I've sifted through the phase shifted library, and each branch no longer shares the same library. It's decreased in size by a significant amount, but knowledge can no longer crossover between branches." Vordea explained. "Brussus's creation thought itself to be beyond our reach. In doing so, the branches are constrained in multidimensional space as they should."
"The collision never happened." Eigengrau stated, taking on a neutral expression. "Sigilus showed the Duchess a letter from Steelcloak detailing how the Library works. Brassus has been undone by the severing of the branches, and did not form. Only the mind known as Sigilus formed."
"Sounds like we're done here." Mira said, to which Vordea and Eigengrau nodded. "Run along now, we all have things to do."