When I got to the hospital and pulled into the parking lot, I noticed something. At the automatic boom gate, on the machine to issue tickets there was actually three buttons. One red, for issuing tickets, one silver, for using the intercom, and one green... With a glyph of hiding drawn upon it.

I hesitated a moment, then pressed it, looking about quickly for any sign of swarming machine men. But the gate just swung up silently, admitting me without the hassle of needing to get and pay for a ticket. After parking, I double checked the exit gate and saw it had the same button.

I mean, it made sense, even robot people probably hate paid parking and need a way to get in and out.

I checked the hospital directory and flipped my hat to the hidden side as I headed for the maternity wing. I was glad I did, because as soon as I walked through the main doors, I saw a security guard standing in one corner, surveying the people coming and going. But he was another masked machine, metallic hand lingering near its gun and it swept its gaze back and forth. It broke the systematic sweep as a doctor walked past, throwing some banter at the machine man.

I didn't catch its response, but the doctor broke out into a laugh as she walked away. Seeing the machines interact with people and act like people was somehow more disconcerting than their giant, black, all seeing eye face lens.

Well, the moment of truth. I pulled the hat down low over my face glyph and approached the machine man, feeling my heart begin to race and my muscles begin to tense as I prepared to run at the first sign of trouble. But his glassy orb face just... Swept right past me. It backtracked briefly, when someone walked between me and the machine, I guessed obscuring my glyphs and briefly letting the machine see a hand or a leg, but other than that it did not react.

Which was either good, or all of this was a trap. But there probably wasn't any answers down here in the lobby. So I steeled myself and walked past the machine man, feeling my shoulder pinch together with tension as I get expecting sudden, steely grip. Once I was probably 20 feet down the hall, I glanced back to see the machine man still holding its post, still performing the same methodical sweep.

I let out a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding and headed off down the hall, following the baby blue coloured line painted on the floor towards maternity. I felt the tension ease out of me, and while I couldn't be 100% sure, I decided to trust in my magic hat until I had evidence to the contrary. If I started second guessing everything, I was going to go pretty crazy pretty fast... Pretty crazier? Anyway.

I didn't see any more machine people between the lobby and maternity, but I was careful in the ward itself. If they were snatching up babies and branding them, I expected it to be a high-security sort of operation. I closed my right eye and swept my true sight over the staff and people, but they were all flesh and blood brandees.

Ok. Here I was. Now what?

I scouted down the corridors, dodging around people and checking for any hidden doors or hallways. There didn't seem to be any, so I started checking the doors that anyone could see, peeking into rooms and seeing quite moments between families and doctors, mothers nursing, babies sleeping.. But no sign of some kind of clandestine tattoo parlour or any lurking machine people.

I had an idea and headed for the delivery rooms. I peeked into a couple of them and on my third try found one that was in use. Someone else giving birth was... Not really something I was ready to deal with. I mean, it's a pretty private moment with a lot of noise and fluids and... Private parts on display.

But I didn't have a lot of choices if I was going to catch the machine people or their hench peoples in the act. So, I slipped into the room, tucked myself away in a corner and tried not to hear or see too much of the miracle of life and this incredibly personal moment.

Childbirth is not like it is in the movies. Besides the added fluids and swearing and screaming, it also just takes a really long time. I was pretty sure they'd been going for a fair while before I entered the room and it took a good four hours after I was in there before the baby was born. I was exhausted just standing there, slumped against the wall, I have no idea how the woman actually giving birth managed it.

Even standing in the corner, I ended up having to dodge about a few times as nurses came and went and equipment got used and then stuck in seemingly empty corners. Finally, when the baby let out its first plaintive cry and was swaddled carefully by a pair of nurses then handed to the mother I had my chance. I slapped my cheek gently and bobbed up and down on the spot a few times, getting my blood flowing, ready for a thrilling chase down darkened corridors as metal people fled to some basement lair.

But as I stepped closer to the mother, ready to track the baby as it would inevitably be taken away, I saw it.

It was hard to make out at first, the baby was all wrinkly from being born and having that weird loose skin babies have. It also had a certain amount of.. Something, in various shades of pink still coating it. But as I watched the exhausted mother hold her newborn child to her, umbilical cord still linking the two, I could see the childÂ's head cradled in her arm.

In tiny, delicate black lines, visible upon the childÂ' s head was a glyph. I went numb as that realisation began to sink in.

Children weren't branded after birth. They were born branded. The glyphs were somehow part of us from before birth...