Cryos made a soft high-pitched noise, almost like a sigh. His chin rested onto a table, and his face looked towards an open book, held upright but on the table with his fingers.<br/><br/>"The Aegis Empire..." he mumbled, a light shimmering noise following the words that came out from a face without a mouth. His face remained the same, no matter how he felt. Cryos was sort of jealous of how 'facial expressions' conveyed what words could not say, but he did play a mean game of poker because no one could read his 'face'.<br/><br/>He had travelled for days. Well, that's what the captain said when he discovered Cryos inside the crate marked 'Shipment to the Aegis Empire'. That was the last time he would pay for travel as cargo, especially when the shipment was from one side of the continent to another.<br/><br/>The book explained the Aegis Empire. Or so it claimed. There couldn't have been an Emperor Tiberius who turned the oceans and drowned the great republic of Spartenos. There couldn't have been an Emperor Trajan who brought the Aegis Empire to conquer half the known world.<br/><br/>"I'm not that stupid to believe all that..." said Cryos half-heartedly. This place was nothing like home. Most buildings were grey, most statues were white, and there was a large number of people begging for alms on the street. Some people Cryos met described the atmosphere of the SPQR, the strange name of the city he was in, as a strange smell of wealth and poverty. Men dressed in richest silks (which Cryos would have bought, if they didn't cost a fortune) walked and brushed aside beggars in rags by the streetsides. Large, gated mansions were surrounded by shanty houses that were dark, noisy and presumably smelt bad.<br/><br/>Hearing footsteps next to him, Cryos looked like he didn't budge an inch. His vision shifted from his face to his exposed 'elbows', to look in the direction of the source. A smiling maid, whose smile seemed to be mixed with unease and confusion, stood to his right.<br/><br/>Cryos lifted his head up from the book and faced the girl. He didn't need to do that, but he did learn that people found it weird that he could pay full attention to them without his diamond 'eyes' in their direction.<br/><br/>"Hello. I'm sorry, I don't need anything," said Cryos, giving the best possible impression of a smile through his voice.<br/><br/>The girl pouted. "Surely... you can have something. Can you?" She bent over Cryos, poking at him lightly with her fingers.<br/><br/>Cryos shook his head. "Uh... sorry." Was he taking the seat of a paying customer? There were empty tables, he glanced around. They'd take those places.<br/><br/>The girl hurried off quickly, and Cryos laid his head down again, staring at the book. There had to be something useful about the Aegis Empire in there.<br/><br/>"I didn't just spend 20 gilda on an expensive piece of firewood," moaned Cryos.