Sleep Mode

A low whirring sound filled the silence. The otherwise-dark room was illuminated only by the light of a screen - the sole piece of furniture in this tiny space. A lone man sat cross-legged against the wall, staring at the door.

Being a robot, Wahl didn't need any sleep; despite this, he would shut down at night since there wasn't much else to do. But tonight, he had decided to stay awake for a while... and he felt the closest thing to boredom that a robot could feel.

Everyone else in the palace would undoubtedly be asleep right now; it was two in the morning, and most humans didn't like the early hours of the day. Moving around was bound to disturb someone.

Maybe he should just shut down until his built-in alarm woke him up as usual. But tonight, he didn't want to: he wanted to leave his tiny room and explore the palace. It was cramped in here, and there was nothing to do. Not to mention that there were still areas in the colossal Vistarion Palace that he hadn't even seen - places only the emperor himself had laid eyes upon.

Wahl stood up, finally reaching a decision.

He had never cared much about his comrades and their human habits anyway.

---

The soles of his boots clicked against the faded tiles. A human would have been unable to see in the dark hallways without a torch of some sort - but luckily for Wahl, he possessed a night vision function.

The westernmost part of the palace was a mysterious place: cobwebs hung everywhere, dust coating every surface. It seemed that even the cleaners avoided this area. Probably something to do with that rumour that had been going around.

Nobody knew how the rumour had begun or who had started it. All they knew was that, according to the common belief, something horrifying lurked in this area... something that even the emperor himself couldn't face.

Wahl had to admit that, on occasion, he wondered if the rumour could be true. After all, His Majesty had told the cleaners to leave this place be. What horror was it that the rumour spoke of? He, a machine, couldn't experience fear, but even he had been told to stay away from the western corner of the palace.

But no, Wahl needed to see what exactly made this place so awful... even if it was one of those things he could simply never un-see.

---

The clock struck three in the morning, and yet still Wahl had encountered nothing "horrifying". He peered around the next corner: he'd been checking closets and the tiny rooms he'd found everywhere, but his quest had been fruitless.

His searching eyes located yet another door. Smirking to himself, he wrenched it open to find it dark and empty, just like all the others. But that didn't mean it would lack loose floorboards or more hidden compartments.

It wasn't difficult to find the loose board: it gave way beneath his foot the moment he entered. Stepping back and kneeling, he forced it upwards... and nearly leapt back at what he saw beneath.

For the first time since he began his hunt, he had found something.

Upon poking the white surface, Wahl found that it had a soft, pillow-like texture. Snapping the boards around it, he managed to free it from beneath the wood, lifting it up to take a good look. Printed on the side that had been facing downward was a large image of... Brandish?

...Who owned this? And what on earth was it for??

"Scan," he mumbled, activating his scanner. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the scanner reported to him exactly what this object was.