77. Back to Tiltspire

With little discussion, the group went to climb back into the truck only to find tiny sticky threads covering them. They all spied the two sets of eight eyes watching from under a bush. Marius fired up his cyphers, and Nox flew up to get clear of potential ambushers stationed in treetops. Still, they were surprised when the first giant spider creatures stepped out and sprayed a fine poison cloud into the air. Fureva-Yung dodged the spray, and though Marius was hit, it had little effect. Nox was unfortunate in that she’d taken an instinctual breath in before flying away and caught a lungful of the poison. She coughed and spluttered into the air where the second spider pulled out a crossbow and shot her. Already reeling from the poison, the shock of the bolt was more than enough to knock her out of the sky. She disappeared in a flash, falling behind the truck, unconscious and out of sight.
 
Jaden wasted no time and rushed to Nox’s side, a cypher she’d been saving for just a moment clutched in her hand. Like a shot of adrenalin to her heart, the cypher brought Nox back to consciousness with a shock. The first thing she saw was Jaden’s worried face above her. She wraps her arms around Jaden in fear and thankfulness. She’d never been so close to death. In anger, Yung charges the crossbow spider a loud crunch following the swing of her chain. Marius, too swung a punch at the crossbow spider and was rewarded with another satisfying crunch.
 
The crossbow spider brought its weapon to face Yung, who uses the movement to grab the spider, turn it over and blow a raspberry on its abdomen. There was a moment when the spider’s eight eyes met Marius’ in mutual confusion. The second spider attacks Marius, breaking the moment. He activates an antivenom cypher and went onto on the attack.
“Marius Smash!” Yung exclaimed as once more carapace cracked under Marius’ fists. She dropped her spider and tried to collect both in a spin attack, missing her spider to hit the one of Marius.
 
Jaden released Nox go to shoot an io ray at Marius’ spider. Nox watches the fighting from under the truck. Furious and fearful of more reprisals she sent two psychic blasts, one at each spider. She hits both, the one on Marius stepped back, clutching its head. The Crossbow spider finally slumped to the ground, dead.
 
The remaining spider, seeing it was outnumbered, grabbed its unconscious companion and attempted to scuttle off into the forest. Yung swung her chain down on its head, and it joined its friend in a mess of limbs on the forest floor.
“They were working together,” Marius said, impressed at the spider creature’s intelligence.
“It shows you,” Nox stood up, leaning on the truck, “Even smart things can be dumb.”
 
Yung tore off a spiny leg from one of the bodies. The crunch was very satisfying, but the taste was too spicy for her. She knew she was going to be tasting it for the rest of the day. Marius salvages the head from the crossbow one, keeping the poison glands intact. Nox made a disgusted face.
“Hey, I’m the salvager. I’m salvaging!” He defended himself.
“It goes in the back!” Nox complained, and took the passenger seat up front. Yung salvaged the eyes from the second spider and ate them, with her new proboscis acting as a third hand. The eyes were a better snack, a chewy pop and a juicy crunch. Delicious.
 
Jaden carefully drove her way through the forest for two hours until the way became rocky, gravel with big chunks of jagged rock erupting from the ground. Around them, the trees decorated in black latex bulbs became suddenly cloaked in their protective layers. Jaden stuck the truck in reverse, backwards down the hill, bouncing and jostling the two sleeping passengers in the back. When the truck’s wheels hit solid ground once more, Jaden stops the truck. As expected, the ground quaked and shivered under the truck. The suspension creaks and groans as it tries to keep the truck upright. Fureva-Yung climbed out to the box on the back, hugging it to stop any damage. The vibrations intensified as the truck was lifted and dropped. A snapping metal crack on the driver’s side makes Jaden groan, realising the axle had snapped.
 
Eventually, the vibrations stopped, and the group could get out and see the extent of the damage.
“As I thought,” Jaden said from under the truck, “Bellyache has the tools to fix this, but it’s still going to take a few hours.” With Fureva-Yung’s chain and expert knowledge of pulleys, they lifted the front end securely enough for Jaden to work underneath.
“The focus of that vibration came from up the hill,” Fureva-Yung said, looking for something to do while they waited.
“Last time it was a broken datasphere nexus,” Nox remembered the first time they found the black bulb trees, “Can we go see? Maybe this one can be fixed.”
“Sure,” Fureva-Yung agreed and with her bounding and Nox flying they sped up the hill to the focus point.
“Don’t forget to collect some more rubber buds!” Jaden called from under the truck.
 
The two friends bounded and zipped between trees in their race to the top. Rocks shifted and skittered under them as if something was moving below them. At the top of the hill they found a metal sphere as long as Fureva-Yung forearm across and smoking slightly. The air was filled with the smell of ozone that made Nox sneeze.
“Ozone means it’s friendly,” Fureva-Yung said as Nox scanned the sphere. It seemed to be the source of the energy build-up. Though much of the energy had been dissipated, she felt that something else had put energy into it.
“There’s something here that did this,” She said, pointing to a nearby crater.
 
Fureva-Yung closed her six eyes and listened to the world under the gravel. A long way off the gravel shifted. She sensed two spots moving underground, coming closer to where they stood. She put her hand on the sphere and was surprised at the tickle of electrical discharge. She picked up the sphere and the sphere lit up.
 
Nox scanned the sphere and noted the increase in energy.
“I think it’s a bomb or a trap. Keep your hands where they are,” she said, trying to syphon off the energy from the sphere. She underestimated the amount of energy the sphere contained and the overload flung her back into the gravel. The sphere dimmed in Fureva-Yung’s hands.
 
In a moment of inspiration Fureva-Yung activated her rubber armour and wrapped her arms around a nearby rubber bulb tree. The sphere started to glow again. The sphere now on the otherside of the tree, she dropped the sphere. Nox, seeing what her friend was doing, wasted no time in getting clear as the nearby trees truck wrapped in black rubber.
 
Down the hill Marius was on lookout for Jaden as she welded the axle back together. He watched the hillside turn black as from the top down the trees wrapped themselves in defence.
Quickly, Marius ran to where Jaden’s legs stuck out from the truck and pulled her free.
 
In the air, Nox saw the sphere drop. Fureva-Yung was wrapped inside the rubber of the trees protection and she was alone. She knew that within minutes, the sphere would discharge…but she still had minutes to do something. Fureva-Yung wasn’t the only one that afternoon to gain a flash of inspiration. Within seconds, she’d flown down and picked up the sphere. Bamfing away, she appeared in the small crystal room that had been forgotten by the current residence of the Rockspire facility. From experiments, she knew that any sound or vibration created energy for the complex. With a malicious grin, she dropped the sphere and bamfed away.
 
She was sitting on the gravel when the tree finally released Fureva-Yung. The vibrations had never arrived and Nox had to explain what she’d done.
“Still, something underground here was setting it off. The sphere is better off at Rockspire, giving them trouble than here,” Nox said, looking around as the rubber bulbs around them folded up again, “Should we get some of these bulbs for Jaden?”
“No, we’ll take from the trees closer to the truck.” And the two friends bounded and flew back.
 
Many more driving shifts later, and the group could finally see Tiltspire ahead. The community had been busy in their absence. There were now two squads of rangers dealing with robot incursions, and a third group of cadets made up of teenagers Nox’s age. They’d been seeing more servitors. The shard at Celeron was expanding its reach. They were running out of time.
 
It was time to start making plans for the assault on the Temple of Erinai. Nox knew the first floor of the temple, but there were no safe places out of the way that she could teleport the whole group and the crystal prison.
“I have an idea about that,” Jaden said, pulling out another cypher. It was a memory recorder, like the one Nox had played with in Akavel, “I think I can make this memory recorder a memory stealer and move a memory of a location to Nox so she can bamf us there is safety. The only issue is that the memory will disappear from the mind of whoever gave it. At least until they can create new memories once we’ve retaken Celeron.”
 
The plan sounded good, but it was left to Jaden to explain it to Aunty Ivasha, their chosen memory donor.
“We understand it's a lot to ask, but without a place to transport the crystal prison to, we have no way of freeing Celeron. This may be our only chance of seeing our home again.”
Nox watched as the proud priestess of Erinai contemplated what was being asked of her. Once one of the most respected members of Celeron society, she’d found life outside the wall of High Redoubt difficult. The malignant shard had made everything she’d believed and worked towards a sham.
“And my memory will be placed in your mind so you can…teleport everyone there?” Ivasha asked Nox, who nodded.
“And you want to do that? Take someone else's memory into your mind?”
Nox thought. What were stories if not others' memories, translated through words? For Nox, there was nothing more important than the worlds created in people’s minds.
“Aunty, it's what I do. I listen to the minds of others and help others understand. All my life, all you had to say was what Erinai thought about things. Now, I get to hear and see your thoughts. ”
 
If Ivasha was unconvinced, at least she didn’t argue the point. She helped Jaden modify the cypher to extract a memory of a workshop supply cupboard originally used to store broken servitor parts. Within the memory she gave clear directions from the main temple so Nox knew exactly where she was and could navigate there in the teleport.
 
As days past the other also prepared for the final adventure back into Celeron. Marius, commissioned new leather armour for himself. Fureva-Yung healed up and rested for the fights to come. Before the memory installation, Nox went to see Raffi, and share with him all the adventures the group had had and were about to do.