Sabine pressed her thumb and forefinger just under her cheekbones. "It depends." Her eyes turned up to Darahil. "Is it difficult to activate and deactivate them?"

Darahil spun on his heel and walked to a nearby bench. "Allow me to demonstrate," he said. Leaning on the corner made by the bench and the wall was a decorated rod of orange-yellow Dwemer metal. He snatched it up in one hand and pointed it at the inactive automaton. A trace of invisible magic pulsed through the air and a series of mechanical clicks and ratchets sounded. In a series of noisy jerking movements, the inactive Dwemer sphere split, extended its upper body, extended its weaponised arms, and ejected two short spurts of steam from vents behind its shoulders. A soft rumble hummed from within its body.

"As you can see, the sphere variety takes only a few moments to deploy," Darahil said over the new noise. Another pulse of unseen magic emanated from the rod he held. The Dwemer sphere moved to collapse back into its inactive form. "Provided the automaton is not damaged, the reverse process is much the same." Darahil held the metal rod forward in both hands to show the pack. "This control rod is used to activate, deactivate, and direct the automaton. It is unfortunately otherwise limited to commanding only one at a time. So managing a number at a time with a series of commands, not to mention when moments are of the essence, may prove unwieldy."

"It could be done, though?" Fendros asked.

Darahil nodded. "Of course. I emphasise that the moments of difference between commanding 'activate' and then 'attack them' for each one as opposed to simply 'attack them' may be important to you."