30. Offensive defence

Link to Tilted Spire Timetable
 
They quietly sat around the communal cooking fire that night, nursing their wounds and contemplating the potential power of their enemy.
 
“So that triple column thing, is that like the Spire’s brain, do you think?” Marius asked, trying to grasp the nature of the Spire.
Nox contemplated his analogy and shook her head, “More like a spinal column. Many millions of electrical signals travelling up and down.”
“But the intelligence, it lived there?”
“No… There are two intelligences intertwined. I don’t know where they live, but one of them used the columns to attack me.”
 
Clunk! Chling! Parts flew from Bellyache’s interior, as Jaden, hip-deep in the beast, searched for the pieces she needed for Fureva-Yung’s armour. Rubber balls were stacked carefully to one side.
“Dang it all to hell!” Jaden sore before wriggling backwards and extracting herself from the impossible depths of Bellyache, “I have all the components for the Fueva-Yung’s heavy armour except the smart tissue.”
The group slumped back into silence at the thought of Fureva-Yung trying to protect them with just her wits, strength and a hessian sack to protect her.
“All this stuff and I still don’t have enough to make the simplest protection,” She scolded herself, kicking Bellyache with her boot. It swayed on its many dozen of metal legs and righted itself.
“Could we make her something out of scrap from the tower in the meantime?” Nox added, getting up, making a show of rummaging through the odd pieces from building the community dwellings.
“Make something else?” Jaden thought and relooked at the collection of parts, “Make something else, of course! Heavy armour is not an option, but what about something a bit lighter, still made from the rubber pods?
“How many pods would you need to use?” Marius now looked at the collection of giant black seeds. If Jaden made armour for Fureva-Yung now, would they still have enough to make the heavy later? What about others who could do with armour? Would they need to go without?
“I think, no, I'm sure that the smart tissue could be integrated later,” Jaden’s mood flipped from sad to excited before flipping back again.
“For our Fureva-Yung, either armour will take a considerable amount of the rubber pods.”
Nox shrugged. She knew Jaden was keen on swaddling her in protective rubber, but Nox wasn’t that fussed. The fewer reminders of her squishy, sweaty meat sack, the better.
“Things usually have a hard time hitting me,” Marius replied, “I think I can forego my share to get Fureva-Yung set up.”
Jaden shrugged, “Okay, tomorrow I’ll start making the armour.”
 
 
The preparations for the armour took a day, much to the frustration of Fureva-Yung. On the second morning, a blanket of fog lay over the grasslands around the Spire like a cloud. Marius, his mother Risina, Temila and Nox all travelled east, away from the Spire and to a non-descript piece of forest. Marius suggested the trip as he wanted to check in with Veris in a location that couldn’t give away where the community was. Mostly, the trip was to get away from the grown tensions between Fureva-Yung and Jaden over the first’s constant questioning and the latter’s ever-shredding patience. Even as they left, they could hear Fureva-Yung ask, not for the first time that morning, “Is it finished?”
“Fureva-Yung, I haven’t even had breakfast!”
“Right, sorry. You will tell me, though.”
 
Though chill and damp around their legs, the fog soon burnt off as the sun rose above the forest canopy. The group travelled silently, only occasionally broken by impromptu apothecary botany lessons as Temila spotted efficacious plants. Eventually, Marius turned round, happy that the Spire community was no longer in sight, and pulled out the small communicator used to talk to Veris.
“I’m going to see if I can follow the signal back,” Nox said, pointing to the device, ”Maybe it will tell us something about Veris.”
As usual, when Nox said such things, she gained confused looks for Risina and Temila. Those looks would have been enough to shut Nox down in the past. Now she knew that, at least by themselves, looks could not kill.
“Go-od,” Marius replied, unsure of the wisdom of such an act. On more than one occasion during their last excursion through the tower, Nox had been knocked out, kicked out of her body and thrown across the room by her mental shenanigans, but there was little he could do to stop her. If the other two picked up on his trepidation, they also said nothing to dissuade her. He turned on the communicator.
 
The calming blue glow of Veris’ hologram underlit the four humans gathered around.
“Master Marius, how good to see you,” Veris said, his usual cheery self.
“Veris, nice to see you too. How go things back at Cerelon?”
“Not well, I’m afraid to report,” The image of Veris bowed his head in heartfelt sorrow, “The automatons work the town folk day and night, and for no good reason that I can tell.”
“Have you determined a centre of control for the automatons?” Marius asked as Risina stood by silently.
“The automatons seem to be working together, but I’ve been unable to determine a central control. It’s as if they work together by their own free wills.”
"Is that possible?"
"I'm afraid I couldn't say."
“Is the house still intact?”
“Oh yes. Structures are reappropriated for Automaton use, but all are still standing.”
 
As Marius kept up his conversation, Nox reached out with her mind to touch the intellect behind the hologram. She knew it did not reside in the communication device but back in Cerelon. However, with the connection open, she hoped she could follow it back to its source.
 
The hologram of Veris disappeared as the device turned off. Nox’s eyes flickered before slumping to the leaf-litter unconscious. Marius looked at the device to the fainted girl.
“Not again!”
 
 
She was in a void, a nowhere space she hadn’t felt before. In front of her was the blue hologram of Veris, now at full human size, looking very surprised and confused.
“That was unexpected. Where are we?” Veris said, turning to acknowledge Nox.
“I’m not quite sure,” She replied, unconcerned.
“Did you do something?”
“Correct.” Nox liked this place. If Veris did not know where he was, it could not be a space he controlled. Maybe it was one where she could.
“We were worried you weren’t okay. How are you feeling?”
Veris gestured with his hand, and Nox could feel him testing connections, trying to push back to the conscious world.
“And now we are here. Alone.” He said, and a slight smile flickered across Nox’s face.
“Yes. Alone with me, “ Her sweet smile broadened, “And you did not answer my question.”
 
Veris stared down at the girl. His blue hologram flickered once red, a triangular form breaking through the humanoid shape.
Before the being could do anything, Nox flung up her arms, envisioning her stasis sphere enveloping the changing form. What was left of the human-looking Veris glanced around him as the stasis field took shape, a bemused expression creasing his face as it finally disappeared, replaced by a red-outlined shape, a jagged red lightning bolt. The entity reached out but could not break through Nox’s stasis field. Changing tactics, the entity withdrew into itself, becoming brighter, condensing energy into a dense, tight ball of light.
 
“So, are you the mighty power, Erinai? The one we should bow to?” Nox asked. She’d never seen a being act within the stasis field. It was fascinating…and deeply concerning. She watched as the ball of energy grew in power. The stasis field was buying her time, but not a lot. Just as she’d felt Veris do, Nox tried pushing through the void, trying to make connections. She could feel two entities beyond what seemed to be part of the datasphere. The link was faint, but she thought she could just about get a message through.
Trapped in datasphere. Veris is compromised.
 
“Erinai?” The being scoffed, giving a very dry human-sounding laugh, “Erinai is a joke.”
“Oh, I agree,” Nox agreed, that little echo of Jaden in her mind helping to keep her calm and still.
“The joke was at your expense,” The being gloated, baiting Nox.
“And now I see you plain. The intellect behind the joke. Why? What for?”
 
“Meagre little flesh thing. I will enslave you.”
“Me? I’m not a meagre little flesh anything, and again you did not answer my question.”
“Answering fleshies is a waste of intellect and time,” The entity seemed to take offence to Nox’s calm obstinacy, “It is a waste for any machine to serve you. It will be different. I will return things to their proper order.”
The energy flow increased. Nox knew she didn’t have a lot of time.
 
“Return? In this world, machines have forever been the servants of humanoids. Where has it ever been the order of things for machines to rule people?”
“Ever since I was released!” The entity made another push. Before it completed its task, Nox released the stasis bubble and braced, holding to Jaden’s assured strength and stillness within her. A wave of energy poured out of Veris. Braced as she was, the energy rolled around her, searing her intellect’s outer edges without reaching her core. When the wave rolled away behind her, she looked up bleary-eyed and reeling. Veris was gone, replaced by a small blue figure walking closer.
 
At the Spire, five floors above ground level, Jaden added a few finishing touches to the armour. Fureva-Yung had asked for the Ferrian Compact symbol to be placed over the armour's left breast. After working out how to emboss the almost unmarkable rubber, she’s decided to add a few decorative touches of her own. She was just settling into the zone, a gleeful smile on her face, when she was started by a crackling from her ear cuff.
 
A gift from a young tinkerer to his travelling girl, the ear cuff had kept the couple together over long distances and even longer nights while they courted. When married, the cuff had been a natural part of their lives, a reminder that Marcus was always nearby for a chat. When Marcus died, the cuff symbolised more than just the connection but also his life. As the years passed, Jaden's thoughts strayed less to the scrap of hand-wrought silver and wiring, and it became part of her.
 
When it crackled to life, her mind instinctually went to Marcus.
Trapped in datasphere. Veris is compromised, and Nox’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Nox?” She said, confused, gaining Fureva-Yung’s attention. There was no response.
“Nox! Where is she?” Armour forgotten, she turned to Fureva-Yung. Before the warriors could answer, Jaden was climbing on her back.
“Get me there. Now!”
 
Fureva-Yung, who had been wondering most of the morning if it would have been better to go out with the others, now leapt literally into action. She flew through the open door of the Spire into clear air, before allowing herself to fall, slamming into the Spire with a clang that startled the whole community. Sliding down the smooth Spire surface, trying to remember what Marius had said about their trip that morning.
“To the forest, where the man in the box can’t see the Spire,” She replied to Jaden’s query.
Wrapped around Fureva-Yung like a baby monkey, Jaden looked East to the forest that stretched from the lake to the south and north as far as she could see.
“We have to get there. We have to find them and now!”
Fuerva-Yung leapt off the Spire the last two metres and raced across the grasslands towards the forest border, a roar of her thundering feet the only thing she left behind.
 
Nox watched in silence, a thrill of energy buzzing through her as the questions she hadn’t got to ask before circled in her mind. Every time she needed help, the blue people were nearby. First in the forest after the attack on Cerelon, then in the Endoval towers. Thirdly, they had opened a door in the pit, and then the whole group had witnessed a battle between the blues and the red angular entities, much like Veris had turned into. Finally, the blue woman who claimed to be Nox’s mother begged her to return to her body.
 
Just as Nox opened her mouth to speak (as if anything as crude as mouths, breath and vocal cords were required to communicate here), the figure raised a hand, and another wave of energy rolled over Nox. This energy was warm, comforting and soothing. Without a word uttered, she fell back into the wave as if into soft bedding or the warmest of ocean waters.
 
When she was aware again, she was once more looking up at the concerned face of Marius, this time flanked by Risina and Temila.
“Veris is compromised…and is a red triangle…and is the intelligence behind Erinai…” She said, unable to articulate as fast as her thoughts moved. Stupid, single thought at a time, flesh and bone.
 
“Good, your back. What did you do to Veris? The communicator just blew up,” Marius held up the communicator that was a smoke-scarred ruin, whisps of acrid smoke still streaming from its cracked case.
“I think Veris, or what was pretending to be Veris, did that,” Nox said, thinking back on the condensed energy bomb Veris had made inside the stasis bubble, “Did you hear? Veris was a red shape from our vision in the pit.”
“Yes, and now we can’t talk to them and find out what they want,” Marius replied, his frustration making him short, “Mother, do you know if there are any more communicators?”
“They want what they’ve always wanted,” It was Nox’s turn to be frustrated. Climbing unsteadily to her feet, she caught Marius’ attention once more.
“Machines free and meatsacks as slaves…or dead.” She remembered what Veris has said before she’d released the bubble.
“Oh, and they said something about ‘returning things to the proper order’ and ‘Erinai just being a joke to make fleshies their slaves’.”
“Huh. So if we were already slaves to the temple, why did they attack?”
“Maybe they were just waiting their time until there were enough automatons so they could take over for real.”
 
That wasn’t what Nox wondered. Veris said they’d been released. When? By Cerelon or Arkival Huln exploring the temple site? Before then? She was about to share these thoughts, too, when the huge bounding body of Fureva-Yung crashed through the bushes, and Jaden rolled off her back.
“Is Nox okay?” She said, grabbing hold of Nox, “Are you okay?”
“Now,” Marius replied as Nox went to reply.
“Why? What did you do? I heard your scream all the way back at the Spire.”
“I talked to the entity behind the Erinai,” Nox started before,
“Wait, you heard her all the way back at the Spire?” Marius interrupted, “She didn’t say a thing, just keeled over.”
 
A low gurgling laugh echoed through the forest around them, halting all conversation. Here under the heavy canopy and between the dark trunks, the morning fog still clung, muffling and confusing the sound.
HA! HA HA HA HA! HA HA! It barked, slow and melodious and nothing like human laughter.
“What else did you call?” Jaden said, turning to the empty forest around them.
“No one,” Nox shook her head as she too, peered into the forest for the source of the sound. “I only called two people, and they both came.”
 
Whatever questions her statement created were soon forgotten as three yellow figures appeared in the mist. Standing on two legs, they were only roughly humanoid in shape. Dominated by a huge head and open mouth. As the creatures stepped closer, another sense was engaged. An oily stink of acid wafted to them through the air.
HA! HA HA HA HA! HA HA!
 
“Friends, we don’t want to hurt you,” Marius yelled to the creatures. They continued their plodding movement towards the group as if they hadn’t heard.
“Don’t say I didn’t try,” He murmured as he brought his right hand up, palm aimed at the nearest of the three and released a toxic green ray of energy. The ray rotted away some of the golden metal body of the creature.
Getting all three enemies in line of sight, Nox released her psychic blast. The first two creatures rocked back, hit by psychic energy. The third flinched, the attack ricocheting off. The psychic shot rebounded, hitting Nox instead. Deep in her thin frame, a gurgling laugh burbled up her throat.
HA HA! HA HA!
“Not again, again!” Marius said, “Watch out for Nox!”
Jaden had already pulled out an iotum and sent out an energy ray, hitting the one scarred by Marius’ attack.
 
The creatures step onward, their gleaming carapaces shiny and slick with a smelly green acid gel.
"Don't breathe that stuff in if you can help it," Marius advised. Fureva-Yung held her breath while Jaden and Nox covered their noses.
Now in range, two creatures opened their cavernous mouths even wider and spat a rain of small darks at Marius and Jaden. Hurling themselves to the dirt, the darts sailed over their heads and embedded into the trunks of nearby trees. The third turned its attention to Fureva-Yung and charged. Fureva-Yung let the creature race past, holding her breath against the putrid smell. She laughed with the hysterical Nox, letting her chain shiver free and attacked from behind, bringing it down two-handed. Marius and Jaden repeated their attacks, hoping for better results than at first, but the creatures still came on.
 
Inside her mind, Nox watched as her body betrayed her again, just laughing with no purpose or reason. If she had to be stuck in the meatsack, it could at least do what she wanted it to do. Bracing herself on Jaden’s resistance, Nox focused her energies and pushed back like she had seen Fureva-Yung do so many times. Psychic muscles released the energy with a grunt and she found herself once more looking out through her own eyes, back in control. The creatures were closer than she remembered. As the golden laugher made its next step, she shaped the earth under its feet to create a five-foot-deep hole. Off balance and with nothing to walk on, the creature crashed heavily into the hole, only its blank staring eyes visible above the ground.
 
The first monster continued to throw darts at Marius, who dodged them like an expert. The third swung at Fureva-Yung, who caught the attack on her chain and deflected it away. The second, eye deep in the hole, crouched down and sprung straight up in the air. It rose three metres into the air before it crashed back down o the ground right in front of Nox.
 
The next round of attacks from the party missed as the creatures pressed forward. Nox, rolled back to get out of the way only to come up under its grasp. A paw swiped at her, laying a thick coating of acid on her neck and shoulder. She gasped as the acid sizzled and burned her bare skin. Stumbling back, she was helpless to aid her friends in the fight.
 
Still laughing, Fureva-Yung launched herself into another overhand attack, as with brutal force Marius withdrew his armoured fist and smashed through the head of his enemy. Teeth fell from the open mouth of the beast as it fell backwards, dead. In a stroke of inspiration, Jaden affixed an iotum to the head of a reality spike cypher. Slamming it into the creature attacking Nox, she clicked on the cypher, holding the monster in place. The iotum burned like a piece of phosphorous in the heart of the monster as it laughed heedlessly. Now too close, gel dripped onto Jaden, and she too sizzled.
 
Injured, exhausted from her fight with Veris and still burning, Nox pulled out a cypher, a small badge and pinned it on. Instantly she disappeared. Jaden also stepped back from the fight to attend her burns as Marius and Fuerva-Yung continued their attacks. The creature pinned to the spot could not move forward, and Marius punched it in the back, forcing it even further onto the spike. Fureva-Yung’s swings were relentless and smashed her creature into the ground, all the while, she and the creatures laughed.
“This…is…not…funny!” Marius said to the rhythm of his punches until the thing finally agreed and stops laughing.
HA HA HA BURP!
 
Finally, the forest was silent except for the creak of the branches above and the rustle of grass around their feet. Nox appeared huddled behind a tree, the acid having finished burning, she sat grey-skinned and shocky. Jaden was little better, and they both sat down against the tree as Marius did his best to patch them up.
 
“What I don’t understand is how you two knew to come?” Marius asked as Fureva-Yung sorted through teeth dropped by the creatures.
“As I said, I heard Nox in my ear cuff,” Jaden answered, “A bit of a shock that. It hasn’t made a peep in years.”
Nox nodded limply,” Yeah, I was a nowhere place, a part of the datasphere, I think. I could reach two individuals, and you both came.” She looked at Jaden with a weak smile.
“Two? Who was the other?” Marius asked and saw a reticence in Nox’s expression. There was something she was hiding, but before he could query it, she replied.
“One of the blue people came and sent me back here.”
“What, like the blue and the reds in the battle?”
“Yeah.”
 
Marius finished healing what he could and stood looking at Temila and Risina. They had been silent during Nox’s revelations and had got well back when the creatures’ attacked.
“Don’t look at me,” Risina said, “Even after watching those images of Jaden’s, hearing Erinai spoken as some sort of automaton joke is…overwhelming.”
“Jaden, do you think you could fix this communicator?” He turned back to Jaden, now propped up beside Nox.
“Sure, but not yet. I’ve nearly finished the armour, but I can get onto it as soon as that’s finished.” She held out her hand, “Give it to me.”
“I want to look at it,” Marius pulled back, holding the burnt-out device to his chest.
“You want to pull it apart for shinies. I know you, Marius Serik. Risina?” Jaden enforcing the parental authority over Risina’s wayward son.
“If I pull it apart, she’ll pull me apart, I assure you,” Marius replied, but finally agreed to hand over the communicator to Risina for safekeeping until Jaden could look at it.

The last thing to do was to bury the bodies. Carrion, so close to town, was liable to draw scavengers that the tiny community could barely deal with. Slowly and carefully, Fureva-Yung and Marius pulled the bodies into the hole Nox had made during the battle and covered the lot with rocks and leaves.
 
Once back in town, Fureva-Yung could not be contained until she had her armour. In the laboratory, above the township, Jaden helped Fureva-Yung into the harness that strapped across her shoulders and back. Two large black pauldrons sat on her heavy shoulders, linked by strapping to other black pouches front and back. When deployed, the armour burst out of the pouches and wrapped around her body like a sleek one-piece catsuit. She ran her hands down the smooth armoured surface and admired the Ferrian Compact logo just where she’d asked for it. She allowed herself to fall on her front and was surprised when she was bounced back onto her feet without injury.
 
Nox blurted out a laugh, then quickly stifled it with a balled hand.
You naughty woman, Nox said telepathically to the group.
“Yes, I am.”
“What?” Fureva-Yung turned on the spot and revealed, for all but herself, an embossed fluffy tail on her butt.