Secunda dropped out of the vat on her knees as the lid gave in, still viciously coughing. Biology might have saved her life, but did little to save her dignity. The usual, almost subconscious routine of "deep breaths" was backfiring in a quite spectacular manner. Finally, she managed to slowly raise her hands and lift her corporal prison from the ground in at least somewhat non-pitiful way.

Armed people tend to reserve the right to ask questions for themselves. This, of course, puts every unarmed tech-priest in a precarious state where following the natural instinct to seek knowledge makes things difficult when communicating with people from the wrong side of the barrel. That, by the way, was the core reason why the unofficial motto of Explorator Division was "You get more with curiosity and a gun than with curiosity alone".

That being said, Maga bet that she would be able to ask a single question before being put in her natural, unarmed position of the one giving answers. The holodex of potential things to learn flurried through her mind in a slow, unoptimized manner. Stupidity of "Who are you?", boldness of "What are you doing in my laboratorium?", sheer incompetence of "What was that?"... Toros ascended to Arch-Magos through lifting herself above tactical problems, always focusing on the bigger picture. Until, of course, someone with more focus on tactical problems seemed to kill her and put Secunda in the uncaring arms of an unrecognizing machine spirits. The proper question to ask would've been "Who am I?", yet, Secunda somehow doubted that a complete stranger would give her this particular answer. Specifically because the answer hinged on another important question.

"Who... rules... the Iso... hedron?", vocal cords, soaked in decanter liquid, torn by coughing fits, fought her. She secured her first little victory.

'Archmagos Toros' would be the preferred, if unlikely, answer - she could step into her own shoes, as nobody has yet noticed her demise through the passed days in the vat and uncounted days before activation. "Regency Council" would put her as a "candidate", as she would have to work through the cogs in the cogs in the cogs, spinning on the way to re-secure the Prima Key to the world. Another Archmagos would mean a long time of working her way out of Martian guilded cage or Draupnir's exile. 

Even the smartest golden cog would still prefer to know her place in the grand scheme of things before starting to spin things her way.