Cor sees the shadows of the skittering little buggers on the edge of the firelight. And that only makes him focus on making the flames brighter. He takes only one step forward, but half out of protecting the younger royal and half in preparations to fling the building spell.

"Supposedly, there's some ancient cogs that some engineer requested - something from the far past. She didn't specify what they looked like, precisely. But if it's similar to what goes into this world's Magitek gear..."