18. Dark Truths

Full of food and feeling safe for the first time in ten days, the High Redoubt caravan was slow to get moving the next morning. This provided plenty of time for Fureva-Yung to share her discovery of the night before with Marius and Jaden.
“It is not far away, I think,” She said, pointing in the direction she’d heard…felt…seen the vibrations, “It lasted some time but stopped before sunrise.”
“About thirty minutes,” Nox qualified, “I think it's a machine. Can we go see it?”
“We have to protect the group, especially as one of their two warden militia is down,” Marius thought out loud, and Jaden agreed.
“If it's not far, maybe we can take everyone?”
 
When the caravan was packed and ready to move, they initially headed towards the sound. The forest, which had been open and sparse up to that point, suddenly closed in. It was almost impossible to move through with the aircraft and its two waddling chicks of wagons.
“Leave the craft. We won’t be gone long,” Marius said confidently, waving the group together.
Can we trust them? Fureva-Yung asked through telepathy.
“Well, Risina, I’m sure will try something. I’m sure we can trust these people to not leave without us,” Marius said with a mischievous grin and added telepathically, I have the keys.
 
Following Fureva-Yung, they set off into the darkening forest, chatting casually about what sort of device the vibrations could be from. Within a few minutes, they started noticing changes in the environment. The flora was all of one type, trees covered in cauliflower-sized black nodules. Half a dozen to a tree, the nodules seemed randomly distributed from the ground to three or four metres up the trunk where the canopy started. Marius and Nox were drawn to the thick layer of blue gravel unusual in this part of the forest. Nox crouched and examined the broken stone pieces worn smooth by some environmental action. She looked around as Marius spotted her playing with the rocks.
“Rock poop, we sometimes call it at the mines. Not worth much but making footpaths. Odd that it’s just sitting out here in the middle of the forest.”
“They’re ground smooth,” She stood and handed him a couple of the stones, “Like they’ve been in a river, but I don't think water flows through here.”
“You're right. And you notice, no leaf-fall? It’s like this was dumped here yesterday.”
 
Filing away the mystery of the gravel for the moment, Nox turned her attention to the trees. She had a particular affinity with plants, spurred on by Temela’s and her many trips to look for medical plants. These trees looked nothing like she’d ever seen before, and she wondered what the purpose of the black nodules were. Up close, the nodules looked nothing more than black extruded rubber, a little wrinkled in places. Knowing Fureva-Yung’s love of textured, chewy things, Nox pulled out her knife and started cutting a sample. As soon as the sharp blade cut the rubbery surface, the black nodule exploded out, extending a blanket of black a centimetre thick around the trunk, trapping Nox like a fly in sap.
 
“Nox,” Fureva-Yung said after the initial shock of the event was over, and Nox was found to be safe, if immobile, “You could have scanned it.”
“I could have….” Nox confessed, struggling to catch a breath, “But I wanted to get a sample for you. Tree resins can be very tasty and useful.”
“Well, we’ll soon have you out,” Marius replied, prying out her little dagger from her stuck hand and started cutting. It was tough and fibrous, and the going was slow. He’d made a nick into the rubbery layer about five centimetres long when Fureva-Yung looked to the gravel below their feet.
“Something’s coming. I can hear-see the sound again.” Through the tree and their feet, the others could also feel the vibration. A bright sharp-edged quivering that seemed un-modified by tree trunk or loose stones. As they watched, the gravel seemed to quake along with the vibration.
 
Suddenly, every tree around them exploded into black as all the trunks were wrapped in a layer of rubber.
“Oh! It’s protection from the stones! And the stones are made by the vibrations!” Nox exclaimed in the excitement of a mystery solved as Marius and Fureva-Yung backed up to the tree she was wrapped.
“Come on!” Marius drew his sword, ready to attack an enemy that at present was unseen. Fureva-Yung lifted Jaden into the branches and put herself between the gravel and her friends as it started to bounce. The vibrations were a physical thing, making the air in their lungs and even the jelly in their eyes jitter and twitch to its rhythm. The gravel flew up, striking Marius and Fureva-Yung like reversed hail, tearing rents in their clothes and cutting up their legs and hands.
 
Under the rubber, Nox could feel the rocks, but only as gentle taps. She scanned the gravel area, forcing her senses to go as far down as they could. It was gravel all the way down, broken-down rock, layers thick. It all jittered about under the force of a tight ball of kinetic energy, like a ball-lightning of movement. She let the others know, but by now, the hail of rocks was now up to their chests, striking randomly to smack into chins and cutting cheeks. Marius activated his hand armour and brought them up to protect himself from the pummelling.
 
Targetting the ball of energy that she could see with her echolocation, Fureva-Yung breathed in and yelled. The ball of energy redoubled the force of her yell and bounced it back. A circle six metres wide of gravel flung up into the air. The trees lurched and shook and the ground shuddered under their feet. Marius reacted, flinging himself around the embedded Nox. Fureva-Yung did the same, shielding him with her bulk, as thousands of tiny pieces of shrapnel cut and punctured her skin. Jaden, high in the branches, scrambled to hang on as her perch rolled and swayed and rock shrapnel made confetti out of the leaves and branches around her.
 
Below, under a layer of rubber and encircled by her friends, Nox buzzed with the excitement of this new discovery. Rubber suited trees, kinetic balls of energy and what was behind it all? What significant artefact of the lost worlds had caused trees to respond with body armour? Make gravel out of solid rock? A few stones somehow made it through her layers of friends and rubber to knock against her forehead. She suddenly realised how close both Marius and Fureva-Yung were. Everyone sharing the same breath in the few moments of chaos. As the world tilted around her, she closed her eyes feeling cared for and safe for the first time in her young life. That was until the rocks thrown up by the explosion came raining back down, knocking her on the head. She caught a few with her hedge magic, and the moment was gone.
 
“What a stupid…you know you only added to the force, don’t you?” Jaden called from up in her tree, her arms striped red from hundreds of tiny cuts. Fureva-Yung shrugged and listened with all her senses to the ground. She could still feel the distortion half a metre below the quaking stones, moving through as before. The whole group bent their minds to the mystery of the energy orb. Marius turned this mercurial mind to it, gaining insight by the minute. Jaden pulled out her io ray and aimed it for the epicentre. Nox, with a thought of a moment’s respite from the vibrations, placed a stasis field around the energy ball. She saw the moment Jaden’s ray hit the distortion, bending through it like a sunbeam through water before…
 
It wasn’t quite an explosion. Not like the Fureva-Yung had made. A stasis bubble blossomed up from the energy orb, growing ever larger, enveloping them, the tree and the neighbouring forest. It was an absence of all energy but light. No sound, no movement. The rocks that had been in the air a moment ago hung in space surrounded by motes of dust and leaf litter. Everyone was frozen to the spot, the only thing working their minds as the orb continued to pass through and leave their space in complete silence. They were locked that way for a minute until the stasis field finally decayed and released them. The black rubber flicked off the tree trunks and back into the nodules, dropping Nox to the ground to her knees.
 
“That was amazing!” Nox exclaimed, saying every syllable as if new to her, “What do you think, Jaden? Would the nodules make good armour for Fureva-Yung?” Grabbing her knife back from Marius’s loose grip, she started cutting around the nodule. “How many do you think we’d need? Three?”
“Oh, I think I want this,” Marius said with a thoughtful expression, “Yeah, cut me one too.”
“Well, I guess if you can collect the mechanism and not just the black material, we could have armour for everyone,” Jaden thought as she climbed down with the help of Fureva-Yung, “See if you can take a few clippings, it might be worth cultivating these trees.”
 
As Nox carefully cut around each nodule, she handed them out to the group. One to Marius, one to Jaden and the rest to Fureva-Yung. Jaden sat in the gravel looking at the nodule, working out the physical mechanism for release and deduced that she could make excellent lightweight protection with a few tweaks. They collected six black blobs from various trees so as not to disadvantage one tree the next time the energy ball came through.
 
“We’ve been a while. I’ll go back and check on the caravan. I’ll let them know what’s up,” Marius said while everyone was busy with the trees.
“Good idea. We won’t be long,” Jaden replied distractedly as she pencilled out a plan for the new armour. Nox watched him go. She was sure what he had in mind with his nodule but said nothing. She felt a little embarrassed knowing the secret he’d hidden so carefully and for so long. The more time passed, the less she felt she could admit to knowing. So, instead of insisting that she join him or encouraging them all to go back together, she turned away and busied herself looking for Jaden’s clippings.
 
She failed. Much of the new foliage that would have made excellent cuttings was shredded by Fureva-Yung’s blast. What remained was too high up in the trees for even her hedge magic to reach. In the end, with Fureva-Yung’s help, she clambered back down to the ground empty-handed.
 
“Fureva-Yung, do you think you could find where the balls are coming from?” Asked Jaden as shelooked up from making her notes.
“Huh? How?”
“These balls of energy. I think they’re part of a larger system, moved by vibration away from a source. Like when you bump a glass of water, it makes waves.”
“Ho! We will go and stop it from bumping!” Fureva-Yung grasped and started walking deeper into the forest, following some trail only she could sense.
 
Not wanting to draw attention, Nox stealthed through the forest, using the bright shafts of sunlight and the deep shadows they created to her advantage. Fureva-Yung watched as Nox slipped behind a sunbeam and seemingly disappeared.
“I did not know that you could turn invisible, little one,” Fureva-Yung said to the empty forest. She heard a twitter of laughter and could feel the girl was nearby.
 
They travelled for a short while before coming to a clearing amongst the densely packed black nodule trees. Almost circular, the clearing was empty except for a sphere of something so clear it couldn’t be seen except by the light distorted through it. Light entering was reflected out at odd angles, causing the image of the trees behind it to stretch and magnify. Rainbows coloured the gravel-strewn ground as light refracted and spilled out its multicoloured constituents. The scene was beautiful and completely fascinating. With Jaden a little way behind, still mulling over her latest invention, Nox looked to Fureva-Yung, a mischievous glint in her eye.
“Do you want to scan it?” Fureva-Yung asked.
“I have to get closer,” Nox replied, enjoying the reckless nature of the idea.
“Then you should go invisible, so it will not know you are there.”
 
Lying flat on the gravelled ground, Nox crawled towards the orb until she was within fifteen metres and within range to scan. The image she got back was nothing like she’d expected. An orb of kinetic energy surrounding a tiny speck, a void to somewhere else. As she scanned the ball, she could feel the build-up of kinetic energy leaking through the speck into the clearing. Suddenly a shockwave of kinetic force burst from the orb, and a new ball was born, moving away in a random direction.
“Could you throw something into the speck?” Fureva-Yung asked after Nox had spent some time explaining what she’d discovered. The thrill of doing something reckless sent shivered through Nox, and she searched the ground in front of her for a small sliver of rock. With her hedge magic, she tossed the rock at the orb. The nature of the orb and the distance she was throwing made her miss the speck. The rock skipped off the surface of the orb and bounced back, its velocity quadrupled. It shot over Nox’s head directly back towards Fureva-Yung. The tiny rock blasted passed her, vibrations humming deeply in its wake. Suddenly a nodule Fureva-Yung had been carrying in her hands exploded, wrapping her in black rubber from head to knee. She wobbled on her bound feet for a moment before crashing to the gravel, wiggling and bouncing. The trees behind Fureva-Yung also responded, wrapping themselves in their protective black. In the forest not far away, Fureva-Yung felt another body falling to the ground. Nox watched astoundedly for a moment before rolling onto her back in laughter at the spectacle of her mighty friend, a wriggling black sausage. Nox was dizzy from laughing. Tear tracks marked her grubby face as a few minutes later, the black retracted, and Fureva-Yung sprawled out on the ground.
“Are you alright?” Nox asked, still laughing through the words.
“There was no air. I could not breathe. Fortunately, I do not need to breathe so much. The deep vibration triggered the nodules. Maybe Jaden can use this information. ,” Fureva-Yung contemplated and got back on her feet, “Will you try again?”
“I could, but I think I need to get closer,” Nox replied, and Fureva-Yung put her nodule down near a tree before Nox started her crawl towards the orb.
 
Now within four metres from the epicentre, Nox could see that the orb’s event horizon was a scintillating rainbow, like the skin on a bubble of energy. Thinking of all the practice she’d had throwing rocks and sticks at Risina the night before, Nox carefully selected a tiny sliver and aimed it directly for the black speck at the orb’s centre. The pebble entered the orb this time, and just before it touched the speck, it stopped moving. Suddenly the rock expanded to twice or three times its size before slowly fading away. For a moment, Nox was unsure what she’d just seen until she scanned the speck.
 
It was a link to the datasphere, a worldwide collection of information she’d connected to only once with the help of a cypher. Somehow, the pebble had been translated into data and travelled via the speck to the datasphere. The revelation was incredible and very inviting to her inquisitive mind. Nox reached out a hand, fortunately still too far away to touch the orb, wanting that connection with all her being.
“What did it do?” Fureva-Yung’s query brought her back to herself, and Nox scrambled to her companions, letting them know what she’d found out.
 
“I don’t think it's working as it should. The balls of force are wrong. But what if we could access the dataphere?”
“Is there something else we could do? Should I throw a stick at it?”
“No. Nothing beyond actually touching it, I think, but then I don’t really know what would happen. Maybe we’d end up travelling the datasphere as energy ourselves.”
 
Like the forest of black nodules, the location of the datasphere access node was mentally noted, and they started back to the caravan. They estimated they’d been gone forty minutes, but somehow the three of them had beat Marius back to the caravan.
 
“Marius,” Fureva-Yung called into the forest with no response.
Marius? Nox echoed through the telepathic link and confirmed he was further than fifteen metres away from them and out of contact. Fear of what happened to him experimenting with the nodule sent a shiver down Nox’s spine, and she started running back to the forest. Fureva-Yung quickly outpaced her as she put on a supernatural burst of speed and returned to the small group of trees they had first examined. Jaden raced along beside Nox, cursing under her breath at the “...irresponsible idiot…running away from the group again!”
 
No, it’s not like that. He’s hiding because he doesn’t want anyone to see, Nox said through the link, I think he’s ashamed, but I don’t know why.
“I’ll give a reason,” Jaden fumed and stormed off on her own to find Marius.
 
Fureva-Yung found him first, wrapped in a black rubber cocoon not far from the trees they had harvested. Without a word, Fureve-Yung ran to Marius’ side and pulled the black rubber away from Marius’ face.
Red and squashed, Marius looked nothing more than a giant swaddled baby, and Fureva-Yung told him so as she picked him up.
“Take me to Mamma,” Marius said, half-joking until he realised his situation, “No, better not do that.” Fureva-Yung ignored his protests and started walking him back towards the caravan, Nox and Jaden. As before, the black rubber uncurled from Marius’ body after a few minutes and disappeared. Marius’ cried out, and blood suddenly streaked the cloth of the shirt on his left side. Instead of being surprised or shocked, however, Marius looked embarrassed and wriggled free of Fureva-Yung’s arms.
 
Marius, you don’t have to hide your experiments. If you’re hurt and alone, no one can help, Nox pleaded through the telepathic link, Please, you scare me when you run away. It was quickly drowned out when Jaden saw the state Marius was in.
“You bloody idiot! Slinking around in the forest doing god knows what. I’m sick and tired of you hiding away, leaving us behind!”
“Leave me alone!” Marius bellowed at the group and raced away further into the forest, holding his injured side.
“If you don’t want us to chase you, don’t run!” Jaden hollered back, running after, “but I will keep hunting you and bring you back like a selfish puppy!”
 
“Maybe he should be left to his pleasure time,” Fureva-Yung said as both Marius and Jaden disappeared.
It’s not that…well, I guess it is that too! Oh, Fureva-Yung! He’s been putting cyphers into himself to do all his wonderful tricks. Like the flying, you remember? It was never the blue steam, it was a cypher we’d picked up, and he’d…incorporated it into himself somehow. I think he tried the same with the nodule from the tree.
Nox’s confession spilled out, confusing and concerning Fureva-Yung, It’s incredible he can do it, but he hides it like it's some terrible thing, and I don’t understand why. Now tears rolled down her face again, not with laughter but a mixture of shame, guilt, frustration, and above all, fear.
“ Let’s go find her,” Fureva-Yung said simply and, putting her large meaty hand on Nox’s shoulder, guided the girl into the forest.
 
Jaden was close on his trail, following blood splatters on the gravel. She found the black nodule first, bloodied and broken, abandoned behind a tree. She picked it up and was about to continue her search when a serious-looking Fureva-Yung and teary Nox found her first. She was livid, yelling out into the empty forest at the childishness of some men, but she followed her companions back to the caravan.
 
This time Marius was there, talking to the injured warden militia and checking his bandages. He looked well and seem focused on his patient, nothing like how they'd last seen him running away. He did not respond to Jaden's tirade as she stormed through the caravan towards him. Neither did he flinch as she came up behind him and tried to yank him around by the ear.
“Don’t you mother me!” He said, brushing her hand away as if only a nuisance. This only enraged Jaden further.
“Fureva-Yung, help me get this idiot up,” She turned her fury on the big woman who looked at her in confusion.
“Huh?”
“Nevermind!” She spun back on Marius, who was still deftly tidying up the bandaging, while the warden militia looked on with surprised concern. “You selfish little boy with your temper tantrum! If you haven’t noticed, we’re in the wilderness….”
“There’s only one temper here,” He commented calmly, and Jaden continued her attack.
“You wanted to be seen as a leader? You want people to follow you? Well then, act like it! Show us that you're more interested in the group than your own selfish wants.”
Please, please don’t argue, Nox pleaded telepathically, Not in front of the others.
Fureva-Yung looked around uncomfortably and walked away, pulling out one of the nodules.
Marius knelt over his patient, his hand balled into fists but saying nothing.
“Nothing to say? All right. You’ve just proven today that you can’t be trusted with the safety of this group,” Red-faced and still fuming, Jaden walked off. Marius let out a ragged breath and turned around.
 
Nox was standing where Fureva-Yung had left her, hands covering her mouth, her eyes huge and fearful.
I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I messed up! I’m sorry! She wailed silently, disturbing the caravaners around here with her projected silent misery.
For what? Marius asked, putting aside his distress for that of his young friend.
I…I told about the cyphers…and you.
What?
I saw them. When we were fighting the margr, you were so ill and looked streaky and odd, and I thought if I knew why then I could help, and I ….scanned you and saw the cyphers.
Oh.
And I saw the make-up and realised you spent so much time away from us because you were trying to hide it all, but I didn’t understand why, and then you ran away, so I was frightened that you were hurt and alone and….and I told Fureva-Yung.
Oh, Marius swallowed, It’s okay.
In the face of his gentle words and manner, Nox collapsed into a heap of misery, filthy hair and rags.
He crouched beside her, his hand on her shoulder, Really, it's okay, you’re okay.
 
You don’t have to be afraid of me, She finally said, as she slowly gained control of her thoughts once more, You don’t have to run from me.
I’m not afraid of you.
Others are, She looked around at the caravaner who had picked up only the smallest part of her silent distress and now looked back at the two of them, whispering to each other, The witch girl.
Well, I’m not. Marius repeated, We’ve always been there for each other, right?
Nox nodded, her tears plopping unhindered to the dry ground at her feet.
We’re right. We don’t need more parents, He looked after Jaden, whose voice could still be heard though she was currently out of sight.
Yeah, I’ve already got one more than I want, Nox sighed, and her thoughts moved from herself to her Father.
True, but we did have fun with him, right?
 
With that thought, the tears cleared, and Nox’s childish giggles filled the silence of their conversation. She looked up at Marius, her eyes still swimming but now full of laughter.
Oh yes! He thought you were my boyfriend!
I noticed.
Nox’s expression now moved from tears to laughter to contemplation. Before…when we were in Cerelon, I couldn’t read minds. I read his mind yesterday.
That must have been odd.
Nox nodded, now thoughtful, He cares. I didn’t expect that.
Of course, he does.
No, I never saw that before. I was just his way into the Devotees of Erinai. That’s all he ever wanted.
Why?
Grandfather founded it. Aunty is in it.
So something important to his family he wants you to be involved in.
But, I don’t. She said adamantly.
 
A muffled explosion was heard somewhere on the other side of the caravan. Marius and Nox looked to see what had caused the sound, but when nothing was evident, they returned to their silent conversation.
 
Anyway, best not to talk about the other thing, Marius replied, changing the subject.
Nox looked out at the caravaners around her, a cool calculating stare that made many look away, Sure, they don’t need to know anything. But I don’t understand why you had to hide.
People don’t understand. It’s not natural, cutting yourself up to add tech.
But it's cool! It makes you a superhero!
He shook his head. People won’t like it.
Like me, Nox glanced up with a small smile twisting up her lips.
Yeah, Marius smirked, Our own weird witch girl!

 
“Irresponsible rabble-rouser, isn’t he,” Said a woman’s voice, cutting through Jaden’s dark thoughts as she sorted through her stores of parts in Bellyache. Surprised, she turned to find Risina Keris standing behind her, glancing over at the man in question.
Jaden shrugged, aware of Risina and her reputation for power, “I never had a problem until now.”
Risina shook her head, her smooth grey hair shining in the sunlight, inexplicably immaculate even with the privations of the caravan life.
“People like him aren’t leaders. We’re leaders to the people of Cerelon.”
“Don’t know about you,” Jaden eyed Risina cooly, “We never saw much of you down our side of the wall.” Jaden turned her glance away from Risnia’s confident smirk for a moment to see Fureva-Yung under a tree picking at one of the black nodules. She looked about to try and bite a piece off when Risina’s voice brought Jaden back to their conversation.
“I keep my caravan safe, just the same as you.”
Jaden had to admit, regardless of the classist way she’d gone about it, their caravan has survived, “You did your best.”
Risina accepted the comment with a nod, “That’s why the world needs us to keep rabble-rousers in their place. Things are better when others keep to their place and do as they’re told, don’t you think?”
And there it was. Jaden sighed, “I’m usually all for a breath of fresh air myself.” And to prove it, took in a lungful.
Risina laughed a humourless sound, “I assure you he is nothing but hot air. I’ve had a lot of experience taming Master Serik.”
At the mention of his name, Jaden’s anger flared again, “Fatheaded git!” She spat and noticed Risina's predatory smile.
“He was never interested in his proper place.”
“Oh yes,” Jaden bridled, “and what place is that?”
 
An explosion nearby caught their attention. A large Fureva-Yung-sized black sausage thrashed as several of the nearest caravan members ran over to see if they could help.
Resina tipped her head and shrugged, “Surely that’s for the leaders of this future community to decide?”
 
Climbing a rock at the edge of the caravan, Marius looked over the little more than a dozen people trying to stay alive in an uncaring world. Regardless of Jaden's words or Risina's prejudice, he struck quite a pose head and shoulders above everyone present and soon all eyes were turned to him.
"It was high time we were out of here and reunited with our fellow survivors. Move out!" He yelled and as if they had been waiting for just that phrase, they picked up their last few possessions, packed them away in the wagons and with a roar from the aircraft's engine, they were on their way east once more.