36. Nowhere left to go

Link to Tilted Spire Timetable
 
 
The night was dark and still over the small community nestled around the Tilted Spire. In the tiny Apothacary’s shack, Nox and Temila went over the treatment for Fureva-Yung. Surrounded by the smell of drying herbs that hung from the rafters of the hut, they tried to make sense of the knowledge contained in the book Nox acquired from her Mother.
 
“The thing is,” Temila was saying, not for the first time, “There are herbs here we’ve got…” She pointed to several, either drying or already stored in tightly woven canisters on shelves built into the hut's walls.
“There’s herbs we can get…when the time is right. There are herbs we can’t get…but we have substitutes for. And then there are plants like..” She pointed to one in the book, “...a water lily growing in zero-g ponds…” Nox could only imagine the giants balls of water floating around with flowers growing out the top of them. “Who knows what they are. With them, we have to make our best guess at replacements. At times like these I really miss the herb knowledge of Zin.”
 
It was often hard to remember that Temila was only an apprentice Apothecary. In Cerelon, she was several years into her apprenticeship and still learning all she could from Zin Akatoa. Then the servitors revolted. Since then, she had been the survivors’ only healer and one of a few experts in edible plants in the wilderness. It had elevated her to a senior member of their Community. It was a role she took very seriously.
 
“Goodness, I’d be happy with a fistful of Hagin Vash’s notes,” She laughed a sad little sound, once more thinking about all that had been lost.
“So, that’s first? Make lists of what we have, need and have to find replacements for?” Nox asked, her own notebook open on her lap.
“It’s a good start,” Temila replied as both women’s attentions were drawn to the shuffling of heavy boots outside Temila’s door. Temila knew the sound of the boots as they nervously moved back and forth. Nox knew the mind that still connected to hers.
Hi Marius.
Oh, I was just passing and wondered…
It’s fine. I’m leaving.
Oh good. I mean, you’ve worked out how to fix Furry?
We have some ideas. It wasn’t a lie. Nox couldn’t even bring herself to admit they hadn’t the first idea with some of the ingredients. Not even in her own head.
She said good night to Temila, took back her book and opened the door.
 
In the darkness, Marius’ pale skin and white shock of hair stood out, making him look younger than his barely twenty years. They passed each other in the doorway with nods and simple goodnights before the door closed again, and Nox was sunk into darkness.
 
Now where?
 
She’d left her parents talking around the campfire in the Atrium of the Spire. Privacy was a premium in the Community, with many still without a home of their own, so she felt she should stay away for as long as possible. She took the long trip around the Spire, stopping past the Water tower to freshen up. The water, warmed during the day by the sun, did not hold the same chill as the air, but it was cold enough to make her teeth chatter. To warm up again, she walked around the back of the village, aware of all the sounds around her. A small hammer tapping, the shuffling of components and the muffled swear told her Jaden was up and inventing. In her mind, she could taste the quality of Jaden’s complicated plans as if they were the savouriest food. Nox could not have told you what Jaden’s invention was or what it could do, but she knew, like the smell of well-baked bread, that it would be a good one.
 
Jaden had been stiff and standoffish since Araxia’s return. She was a woman of strong emotion, something that had intimidated Nox until they’d discovered their mental bond. Unless she had information that could help, Nox found it better to leave Jaden alone while she worked. She crept by Jaden's workshop past several more houses before eventually returning to the Atrium.
 
She was pleased to see it was inhabited by only Fureva-Yung, gently snoring. Nox once more wondered what it was like to only be half yourself. Knowing that somehow you did know who you were and why you existed…and yet not knowing. Nox saw the quiet ( and sometimes not so quiet) frustration in Fureva-Yung and empathised. It hadn’t been that long ago Nox had discovered who she was and what she was for. And Fureva-Yung had been there for her.
 
More determined than ever to help Fureva-Yung be whole again, Nox found a comfortable seat at the dying fire, banked up the coals until they glowed a bright yellow and opened her book. Minutes later, despite good intentions, the book fell from unfeeling fingers as the day's exertions took their toll, and she fell asleep.
 
The next morning, Nox found Livaanar and Araxia sitting around the community fire eating breakfast and making small talk. They looked…happy, she thought and joined them for firecakes and berry preserve. Aunt Avasha walked by to pick up breakfast and paused as she saw Araxia. Nox watched, a piece of bread partway to her mouth as two women acknowledged each other’s existence and Aunt Avasha, the Devotee of Eriani, moved on without saying a word. The thought of family made Nox wonder about the family Araxia had left behind in Cerelon.
 
“Did you have any family in Cerelon when you disappeared?” Nox asked in a quiet moment in the conversation.
Araxia nodded over a mouthful of food, washing it down with the Community’s version of tea and replied.
“There was my brother Tosho, of course. We were close and often wondered what happened to him. There was also a cousin, Hagin. He was a daring, adventurous sort, always a story to tell. He set up the apothecary garden out on the Tilled Mesa.”
“Your cousin was Hagin Vash?” Nox asked, stunned. Besides learning of his apothecary notes from Temila, Vash was a Cerelon legend. Many of his adventures survived, in one form or another, to be told around the tables at the Crawl on Home tavern. He, too, disappeared on a Ward Militia Exploratory Corp mission, never to be heard from again.
“Yes. You remind me of him a little.”
Nox blinked.
“Always throwing yourself into harm's way. So smart yet quick to put it all aside to find out what’s next. Of course, he would have told everyone about all his great adventures. I can hardly get a word out of you about what you’ve been up to.”
 
That was not how Nox had expected that conversation to go. It was her good luck that she heard Jaden talking to Temila about adding the pinking herbs to Fureva-Yung’s healing regime.
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea, Jaden,” Temila said.
“Excuse me,” Nox quickly said and joined Temila’s side of the conversation.
 
 
Not long later, the companions were back together again, taking the lift down as far as it would go. Marius was crouched, peering through the gap in the bent metal of the capsule. Jaden was on the controls. It was her hand on the lever that made the whole elevator work so the malignant shard couldn’t take over. Fureva-Yung stood patiently waiting, her heavy chain around her shoulders except for a small section of links made from different materials. Diamond, wood, tooth, crystal, the links rubbed between Fureva-Yung's thick fingers, each on a memory. Nox stood silently beside her, watching the light catch each link’s smooth surface before remembering she was supposed to be getting back Fureva-Yung’s memories and opened her book, looking for more clues.
 
“Ah, we’ve got incoming,” Marius warned as everyone heard tiny metal feet clicking against the smooth walls of the elevator shaft. The capsule creaked to a halt just past the last of the ‘T’ levels as the servitors wedged themselves between the wall and the capsule.
“And I thought he wanted visitors,” Jaden said dryly as she pulled iotum from Bellyache.
“He’s scared,” Marius replied, swapping places with Fureva-Yung and grabbing an iotum of scrap from Jaden.
 
Fureva-Yung, the strong end of her chain loose in her hand, bent herself to the hole. Threading her arm through into the shaft, she started spinning the chain. Her sonar told her that four spider servitors were stationed equidistant around the capsule, and she leaned the chain in to knock them off. A fifth grabbed her arm, its sharp metal claws digging into her skin.
“Here, see how they like this little cake I baked,” Jaden pulled from Bellyache, the invention from the night before. It looked nothing more than a mishmash of spare components and wires, but she handed it to Marius with great reverence.
“It will stop them in their tracks for only a few moments, but a few moments might be all we need hundreds of metres from the bottom.”
 
Fureva-Yung yanked her arm from the hole knocking off the servitor with ease. With his protective gloves, Marius thrust the invention out into the shaft. There was a small explosion, a shockwave that knocked the capsule up a few centimetres and then the smell of burning circuits. Nox scanned passed the walls of the capsule and saw the four servitors frozen in place.
 
Fureva-Yung once more took her place at the hole, hoping with a good smack, the four servitors would fall back where they came from. Instead, the chain knocked against their armoured metal hides, and they woke from the coma Jaden had put them in.
“Well, there goes that idea,” Jaden grumbled, pulling out a simple io and throwing it down the hole to explode outside. The capsule rocked, damaging the servitors on the outside.
“Still, a good idea,” Marius held out his flat hand and revealed an explosive made from an io.
 
Sparks now showered down the shaft as the four servitors started cutting through the metal skin of the capsule with circular saws. Reshaping the metal nearest her, Nox tried slapping a servitor from the capsule. She missed, but the attack took the servitor off course, buying them a few extra moments.
 
Taking it in turns, Jaden, Marius and Fureva-Yung each tried their own attacks as Nox sealed up the damage behind other servitors. The repair jobs were buying them time, but Nox could feel the headache of fatigue starting to form. Jaden seemed on the brink of giving up, and even Marius and Fureva-Yung seemed at a loss at what to try.
 
Still, the constant barrages took their toll, and first, Marius knocked a servitor from their task, then Fureva-Yung. With guidance from Fureva-Yung, Nox started pulling the metal from the wall and attaching it further into the capsule, out of reach of the cutting blades. One final bomb from Marius and the last two fell into the darkness, and the group took a collective breath. They had survived yet another attack. Slowly Nox filled in all the cuts into the base of the capsule, and Jaden replaced her hand on the lever. They continued their way down the shaft.
 
With a gentle slowing, the capsule crunched down on the remains of fallen servitors. The companions had finally made it to the lowest level of the Spire. The doors smoothly opened onto a closed door, a half a metre of solid wall and a hole leading to a dug-out cavern. Fureva-Yung stepped out first, checking the immediate area before entering the room. Nox jumped and started floating towards the six-metre-high ceiling, looking for the crystal port. Below her, Marius stepped out and swept the area with his cat's eyes.
 
Behind the lift, the space was one large triangular room encircled by three tiers of platforms and stairs, all draped with cables as thick as Nox’s arms. The difference between the top of the highest platform and the base was at least another six metres making an echoing cavernous space. Marius and Fureva-Yung detected the two hulking metal bodies silent and sill at opposite ends of the triangular room.
 
“Massive machines,” Fureva-Yung said, pointing them out to the oblivious Nox.
“Huh?”
“I can also hear welding and…mechanical building noises.” She said, turning her head to capture the direction of the sounds. Behind the closed door and what was left of a wall, what had been a small room was now a scrap yard of spider servitors. Two, looking for scrap amongst the fallen, turned on the intruders.
Fureva-Yung gestured to the servitors, pointing to her eyes and then towards them. Marius climbed up the wall, heading toward the cavern, making a bomb as he went. Out of the pile of discards, three more servitors crawled, encircling Jaden and Fureva-Yung. Nox bounced off the wall of the elevator shaft gliding across empty space. She sent physic blasts at three of the emerging servitors, hitting two.
 
Jaden, only just out of the lift, grabbed an io and threw it over the wall at the five servitors.
“This place is crawling with servitors, we should run,” She said, gesturing for everyone to return to the lift.
“We can’t run, Jaden,” Nox replied, “We need this space cleared for the crystal.”
Jaden replied with a sigh and another bomb.
 
One of the servitors attacked Fureva-Yung, thrusting forward a circular saw. Fureva-Yung’s chain caught in the teeth, flipping the creature over under its own momentum. Four servitors left. Marius threw his bomb into the junkpile sending servitors and scrap in all directions. Nox shot physic blasts again, this time missing two and hitting the one closest to Jaden. From the corners of the room, the four-metre tall servitors started humming into life.
 
From the back of a small servitor a circular saw popped up, sending the blades flying towards Nox. The first she dodged, and the second jammed in the mechanism. Nox stuck out her tongue and continued to float towards the opposite wall. Fureva-Yung smashed through the spider servitors with her chain as both Marius and Jaden made bombs from io. Jaden’s bomb had the greater impact, throwing the smaller servitors and scrap around the room. Marius was more strategic, and he turned his attention to the two large automatons heading towards the group.
 
The group were holding their own until a psychic attack of Nox’s was rebuffed by a servitor, sending echoes of her attack back at her. Jaden and Fureva-Yung became surrounded by Spider servitors, Fureva-Yung dodging their attacks, Jaden was too slow and was badly hit. Her next ray attack missed, sending her for cover in the elevator capsule. From inside, she watched the two giant automatons slowly plod towards her friends. She noticed that though big and heavily armoured, the legs were weak, especially at the knee joint.
 
“Hit the big guys in the legs, they’re not built to carry the weight,” She shouted above the roar of the battle around her.
 
Nox physic blasted two servitors but failed to see the servitor clear its projectile spinning blades. Marius was now torn between his friends’ turn of fate at the encroaching giant servitors. Knowing it would be best to clear out the little guys before tackling the big ones, he threw his bomb at the junkpile gang.
 
Fureva, now free to ignore the last of the spider servitors, turned her attention and chain on the giants. Running in at supernatural speed, she wrapped the chain around the legs of the closest. As she tugged it back with all her strength, she heard a very satisfying metal crack. The servitor’s weight now against it, it fell down the stairs, prone. Watching Fureva-Yung's success, Marius held onto his bomb a little too long. It exploded while still in the air nearby, bringing down a chunk of cavern roof. It was all he could do to step off the falling ceiling and onto firmer rock before it took him with it. He jumped, letting himself fall to the floor to start smashing the spider servitors with his fists.
 
The fallen servitor’s powerful arms pivoted under the heavily armoured body and lifted it off the ground. The chains pulled again as it strained to release itself from Fureva-Yung’s grasp. But her chains held firm and the servitor was stuck in place, unable to move. The second giant servitor stomped around the other side of the elevator, flanking the group.
 
Nox scrambled through her bag and found a cypher she’d been looking for.
“Jaden, get behind the wall!” She yelled, gesturing with the pressure detonation and waited until Jaden was out of the blast zone. The remaining spider servitor tried hitting Nox and Jaden with projectile blades before, Nox threw the cypher at the second large automaton. The shockwave, knocked out the pesky spider servitors and hit Nox’s target, sneaking around behind.
 
On the other side of the room, Fureva-Yung demonstrated agility and strength as she encircled the entangled automaton, keeping away from its powerful arms. A foolish misstep had Fureva-Yung planting her foot on the automaton’s face. It turned its head, her footing failed, and she tumbled off the middle platform to the lowest level. Down on the floor, Fureva-Yung finally found a hole in the floor that matched the framework of the crystals. She had found the connector. Now to clear the room!
 
Its tormentor down for the moment, the automaton turned its fist on the floating gnat above it. The force of the blow sent Nox flying across the room, out of control. In that moment of connection, though, Nox made a telepathic link with the automaton. Its circuits were as robust as its metal armour, but in a moment of epiphany, Nox realised she was now fighting on her home ground. With Fureva-Yung keeping it busy, Nox started working her way through the automaton’s systems.
 
Jaden and Marius had the second automaton's attention. Marius dodged back and forth, evading the heavy blows while. Jaden took a heavy blow and had to return to her hiding spot inside the lift to recover
“I always knew I was dodgy,” He grinned.
Fureva-Yung used a cypher to warp the space around her automaton, freezing it in place for a few rounds while she climbed the stairs, getting behind it. The breather also gave Nox a moment to float down to the ground as her mind found the automatons connection to the Shard’s network. She tried breaking the connection, but like the rest of the automaton, it was robust, and her attack failed.
 
Fureva-Yung once more used her fleet of foot to run literally rings around the automaton. Running up and down the staircases kept her clear of its attacks while tying it up with her chain. As she passed the second, she sent out a Thundering Shout that vibrated its loose armour, making it rattle.
 
A rumbling that had been building all fight caught the attention of Marius as dust and rocks started falling into the cavern.
“This cave is coming down!” He yelled, moving out of the way as the roof fell in. A wave of spider servitors fell through the hole threatening to engulf Maius, Jaden and all of them. At that moment, the Thundering shout on the second servitor exploded, destabilizing more of the roof. A huge chunk of the ceiling came down between the swarm of servitors, trapping them in the cavern, at least for the time being.
 
Fureva-Yung was still wrestling with the automaton on her chain. It lumbered towards her, and she dodged away, swinging on her chain. Behind her, Nox tried again to sever the link to the Shard and failed. As long as Fureva-Yung could keep the automaton busy, she’d keep trying to get control. Once more, on the top step above the automaton, Fureva-Yung felt something slitter around under her feet and then up her legs. The cables and other wiring that littered the ground in this area came to life, grappling Fureva-Yung ina copy of what she’d been doing to the automaton.
 
Marius, a bomb ready in hand, rushed over and jammed it into the back of the knee joint of the second automaton. The armour of his shield hands shaped the charge, forcing it forward. The knee joint gave way sending the automaton tumbling down the stairs right next to the now-rising Fureva-Yung. With an automaton at her feet and one looming above her, Fureva-Yung loosened her chain, readying herself for the fight. Suddenly, the automaton above her straightened, then bowed low to the noble warrior. Fureva-Yung glanced at Nox who was grinning a bloody-toothed smile.
“It’s mine,” She said.
Fureva-Yung bowed in return before setting to work on the fallen automaton beside her.
 
The battlefield was finally theirs. Nox made the limping automaton dance, its big feet disturbing the still unstable rock fall. With the help of Fureva-Yung’s shout, Marius’ bombs, and the servitor, they collapsed the cave, crushing the swarm that lay beyond.
 
Its job done, Nox made the automaton return to its corner and shut down. She patted its metal arm fondly, feeling again that she was losing a new friend. The light disappeared from its eyes, and it moved no more.
 
 
 
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