57. Home to Tiltspire

“Why are you calling down that big metal bird?” Marius asked, pulling a dead cypher from his side. As he watched Indomion land, he cut the palm of his hand and inserted the heat ray.
“He’s our friend, and he wanted to know what was in Rockspine,” Nox replied, confused as to why you wouldn’t want to get the attention of a giant metal bird.
It is good to see you return, Indomion huge voice filled the telepathic network.
It was a scary place, full of guards and ghosts, Nox replied, filling them in on what they discovered.
So, the ghosts were the result of some exotic energy research, and a scientist made ant-men. Like this one? Indomion pointed a sharp metal wing at the slumped form of Trask, sleeping in the shade of a bush. He didn’t look good. They’d been draining him for fluids since he arrived at Rockspine days before the party even made it to the clifftop. He’d barely spoken a word except to thank Fureva-Yung for rescuing him. For her part, Fureva-Yung had not left his side since finding him.
No, this was the friend we came to save. The ant-men were sort of half people half ant…ooh! I wonder if they were using what they took from Trask to make the ant-men?
 
Everyone shrugged. After so many days of chasing Trask's trail, they’d failed to check for any of the notes the very deceased Ghul Vissius left. It could have shed some light on what they were doing with Trask and how to help him now. Unfortunately, the whole of Rockspine was in uproar. A significant battle was fought in the lower levels, with guards dead or missing, a lead scientist dead, his subject missing, and no one alive to say what happened. Guards were swarming like ants, desperate to find what had got past their security. Ghul Vissius's hand, now cast aside by Marius, was picked up by Fureva-Yung. A ring of chintin armour was still bound to the forearm. She yanked it off and placed the ring in her bag for safekeeping with Indomion’s feather. One day, both would make new links in her chain.
 
I see people leaving the facility, Indomium informed the group, their sharp bird eyes picked up the details a mile away.
How many? Marius asked, standing to see what Indomium had spotted.
Six humanoids on two mounts. They turned to look at the party. Bloody, torn, burned and burdened by the ill Trask, What will you do? I could carry one of you to safety, but all four and your companion?
We’ll…just go home, Nox smiled, glad that this trip North was finally over. We’ll be okay. How about you? Where will you go now?
Hmmm, the giant bird thought, I did see a rather interesting ruined craft to the south, about two hours' flying time away.
Okay, well if I can, I’ll see you there. Nox thanked Indomion and joined the others.
 
In moments, they’d left the dusty, lonely cliffside and were back in the heart of Tiltspire. Several people jumped as the group of five appeared from the middle of nowhere. New Cerelon refugees who had made the long trek and only recently arrived at the new community. Others turned, recognised the motley group of adventurers, and returned to their work. One laughed and came over to welcome his friend back home.
“You know how to make an entrance,” Yitti exclaimed, shaking Marius’ hand.
“We like to make an impression,” Marius returned the laugh.
“Your friend, it looks like he could see the doctor,” Yitti gestured to Trask, who was held up in Fureva-Yung’s arms.
“Can’t wait to see the doctor myself,” Marius grinned salaciously, looking around like Temila may appear.
 
Fureva-Yung looked down at her broken friend and spied the same tattoo she wore on her forearm. Now, instead of one light at the Spire, there were two.
“I will take Trask to the hospital, “Fureva-Yung announced and started slowly moving, patiently waiting as Trask moved first one leg then the other. Nox ran ahead, clearing their path and searching for Temila.
 
Marius debriefed Yitti on their trip to the north as they walked around the community and became reacquainted. They’d been gone no more than twelve days. In that time, the community had grown, and new buildings were filling the greenspaces around the Spire. A community dining and socialising area provided a constant food supply for the mor than a hundred mouths now living and working around the Spire.
“How is Nodear settling in?” Marius asked as they passed Jaden’s workshop. The Lattimor, rescued from his own teleportation device, had been brought to the community more than a week before. His views and opinions were dated by the millennia he’d spent trapped.
“Ah!” Yitti laughed, “He and Ivasha aren’t getting along, so that’s for sure. You can hear them both bellow at each other across the town, and they’re in the same building. “ It seemed the language barrier only hindered the ability to understand the verbal abuse hurled from both sides of the workshop.
 
 
 
 
Temila had been tidying up the hospital when the companions clattered in and carefully laid the poorly Trask on the same bed Fureva-Yung had used for her convalescing.
“They were draining fluids from him, so I guess he may be very dehydrated,” Nox informed Temila, who stared at her latest patient.
“Okay, that’s a start,” she scribbled a note and handed it to Fureva-Yung, “Go to the square. There’s always a pot of soup on the boil there. Ask them to add these ingredients to a bowl and feed it to him.” Without a word, Fureva-Yung left to find her friend the medicine he needed while Temila asked Nox how they’d found Trask.
 
Jaden headed straight to her workshop. Since Nox had permanent flight with her dragonfly wings, she’d asked for goggles or facemask for flights. At the same time, Jaden was well aware of the promise she’d made to Fureva-Yung to create some sort of Intellect defence of the group’s ‘Communication Officer’. She was sure she should use her few scraps of Sacristan shield to defend the community, not just one silly head. Still, she had to admit it was a pretty special head.
 
As she expected, Nodear and Ivasha were yelling at each other in a broken creole they’d created over the last few days.
“Ah, good, finally!” Nodear exclaimed in Ferrian as Jaden stepped into her workshop. " Your assistant is completely insubordinate!”
“Assistant!” Ivansha’s eyes flashed with indignation as she turned to Jaden for defence.
“Okay, out the lot of you!” Jaden bellowed.
“What?”
“But, he…” They protested as Bellyache trundled up to both of them and started herding them out of the workshop.
“You heard me. I have a project to do, and the last time I got help, it was almost completely ruined, so I'm out! Take a break! Or a hike! I don’t care, just don’t be here.”
 
Jaden spent three days on the goggles project, expanding it
to a full helmet that provided aerodynamics and helped lock down the helmet from intellect attacks. She used the scullion artefact and a cypher that provided a safe personal environment to bolster the helmet's ability to protect Nox from environmental harm. In the end, the sleek helmet protected Nox’s face in flight, added to her Intellect shielding, and when manually locked down, was an airtight life-support that blocked all Intellect attacks.
 
Nox discovered that her telepathic network no longer seemed to have a range. She could stay in contact with the rest of the group all day while communicating with Indomion days and days to the north. She could add people to the network by just thinking of them and often listened to Fureva-Yung share stories of the group’s adventures. She sometimes added Trask to the network, but he said little and being on the network listening to the constant banter between the friends seemed to exhaust him. With this new talent, Nox didn’t waste time waiting for her helmet.
 
They had Trask. It was time to start working towards finding the other companion somewhere to the south-east. Over the next three days, she flew out as far as she could in a day, then teleported back to town for the evening. The next day, she’d teleport to where she’d ended the previous day and start flying again. She followed the lake for the most part as it travelled in the right direction and was easy to follow. She found a plateau on the first day. The second, she could just see a tall tower in the far distance. On the third day, she was no closer to the tower, and the lake had turned into a huge river running to the south-east.
 
She wore a scrap of cloth around her lower face, but nothing could be done for her cheeks, eyes, forehead and ears as the wind constantly scrubbed them.
When she arrived at Jaden’s workshop on the fourth day, Jaden was shocked to see a cheery but red-faced Nox. The skin on her upper face was chapped raw, and her eyes were red from tears that streamed back burning lines into her face.
“Your helmet and not before time, I see,” She said, placing it on Nox’s head for a final fitting.
“Huh?”
“Your face. You’ll have to Temila about an ointment before leaving today.”
“Oh!” she smiled, and her lips cracked. Yeah, that’s a good idea, Jaden!” she exclaimed happily and ran off to the hospital, her helmet shining in the morning sun, making her look like a giant dragonfly woman.
 
As soon as Temila was free from treating Trask, Marius took her for a long walk away from Tiltspire, telling her all they‘d done.
“Hey, look at this!” he said, flicking up his wrist and pointing his new heat ray at a clump of bushes. In his excitement to show off his new toy, he set off his other cyphers simultaneously. The heat ray set fire to the bushes, which he quickly put out by smothering them with his light-gloved hands.
Temila shook her head in disbelief, “One day back, not even, and you’re already burning down the forest. You’re a force of nature!”
“That’s why you love me, right?” He siddled up to her, turning off his gloves before sliding one around her waist.
“One of many reasons,” She agreed.
 
When Trask had taken the thin soup prescribed by Temila, Fureva-Yung spent the time filling Trask in with all she had done since last they’d seen each other. Trask did little but lay and listen to his old commander share tales about the attack on Cerelon, the trek to the towers in the middle of the forest and their flight into an abandoned facility to escape the automaton. She told him about the transport that sent them hundreds of miles east of where they’d started and the crystal formation that stopped it. She celebrated the battle with the goat-headed magyr. And their struggle with shard intellect that had infested the Spire. Finally, the trip to rescue Trask himself.
“It is good to see you again, Captain,” Trask finally said, his voice raspy and faint. Knowing her friend from before, she was very aware they’d only got to him just in time.
 
When Trask was asleep, she left him to see Jaden, who was busy updating Bellyache.
“I want to make these into new links for my chain,” She handed over the metal feather from Indomion and the ring of chitin, “And I would like you to add these to my chain,” Pulling out of her bag a batons that had been collected from guards at Akavel and Rockspire.
“The first, you can do yourself, I’ll show you. The second…I’ll see what I can do.”
 
For the next week, Fureva-Yung and Marius joined the ranks of Dritmen, building the homes required by the refugees who were slowly straggling in. Marius spent time getting to know the community , establishing himself as one of its leaders. Fureva-Yung was just happy to have something physical to do to distract her mind from Trask and what they may find in the East.
 
Nox delighted in her new helmet. The day she received it, she teleported back to Rockspire and flew south in the direction indicated by Indomion. There, she found the giant silver bird circling the partly buried remains of a spacecraft. Indomion had no idea of its make or use but was sure it was originally from space. Nox thought it was Ferrian by design, but it wasn’t until she described the vessel to Fureva-Yung that it was confirmed to be a small Ferrian freighter, the type used throughout the war. As all the doors were sealed and at least one side of the ship was intact, it seemed like the perfect spot to find parts.
“Parts to fill up Bellyache,” Jaden mused, thinking of the possibilities open to her with a Bellyache full of rich pickings.
“Parts to fix the second crystal and capture the shard at Cerelon,” Nox reminded her.
 
Jaden was fully invested in building up the Tiltspire community. Besides her work to make Bellyache into an all-travelling assistant and workshop, she provided advice to the drillmen working on the lumber mill and helped design the clay and charcoal kilns. She’d found a modicum of peace at her workshop by separating her two engineers. Ivasha was made Engineer Liason to the community of Tiltspire. Having been a high functionary of the Devotee of Erini for years, she slipped into that role naturally. She had a good eye on what engineering projects were needed and in what order they should build them.
 
With the freighter scouted and marked on maps for future exploration, Nox returned to scouting south. With her helmet and body armour complete, she was safe from wind burn and occasional bugs. She revelled in the idea of being a giant black dragonfly zipping across land and water.
 
The river had widened once more into a lake with shores miles apart. At the end of the fourth day, a bright glinting from the middle of the lake caught her eye. By the fifth day, she’d made it to the tiny island of crystal, a tetrahedron transport stuck on a spike high above the waterline. The island was tiny, barely enough for her to land on. Still, it showed she was heading in the right direction (the crystal having damaged the transport line out to the south-east as well), and it gave Nox a moment to collect a few crystals and contemplate her next move. The tower was more prominent on the horizon than it had been, though it still seemed so far away. If she could just make it to the city of that tower, then she and the rest of the party could teleport there in an instant, a third of the way to finding the next companion. With that goal firmly in mind, she turned her face to the setting sun and bampf back to Tiltspire.
 
Nodear, with his mind honed on technology more advanced than anyone besides Jaden had worked with was difficult, exhausting and highly useful. When it was clear that some sort of one-use cypher would be required to deal with shard communication, Jaden put him on the case, and he soon had plans and a small assembly line of cyphers in production.
 
The cypher production was sparked by Oeris Welton, one of the recent arrivals, informing Marius that servitors had been spotted a day’s walk away on one of their latest expeditions. There was no question that the servitors should be allowed close enough to the Tiltspire community to either report back to Cerelon or corrupt the Spire again. Neither did the community want to tip their hand by showing armed resistance nearby. It was decided that Marius’ group would take a handful of rangers out to find and destroy the servitors, but first, they needed a way of disconnecting them from their master.
 
Putting aside two batons for the Fureva-Yung’s chain, the rest were broken down for a part in the quest to make signal disruption cyphers. After four days, 16 cyphers were ready testing. The plan consisted of Nox flying out under camouflage to find the servitors. As soon as they were spotted, she was to land and return for the party, which consisted of Marius, Fureva-Yung, Jaden, and three scouts who would go back and teach others. With everything in place, on the sixth day since returning from Rockspire, Nox flew out to hunt servitors.