25. Walking the path

Link to Tilted Spire Timetable
 
 
“You don’t get to say that,” Nox said low in a low voice, all thoughts of giving up on the idea gone, “I’ve thought this through. This makes sense. You don’t get to tell me to find my path and then take it back when it's inconvenient.”
 
The two women eyeballed each other across the space as Marius stood holding Nox, unsure if he wanted to get between them if it came to blows.
“I can and will if it affects the rest of the village,” Jaden yelled back.
“I collect seeds for the village. How would it affect anyone if I went into the datasphere?”
“It would affect me, “ Marius said, not sure anyone was paying him mind.
“I don’t just want you here. I need you here.”
“You don’t need me,” Nox dismissed Jaden’s argument, “In the past week, we’ve barely spoken. Be honest. If I hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have noticed.”
“I would have,” Marius added, quieter this time, getting the impression that he was not being heard.
“But the datasphere! It’s a universe of information we could tap into right now!”
“Not much use if you can’t come back.”
“The ball lightning came through. You could work it out,”
 
“Are you sure you could come back?” Marius physically put himself between Jaden and Nox as this seemed a pertinent question, “Have you worked out the machine's capabilities?”
“There seems to be…” Nox started, not very convincingly.
“We don’t know if it's all working…” Jaden answered at the same time. Both women stopped as they realised the other was speaking.
“What if you both spend some time finding out what the system can do before making rash judgements either way.”
“I suppose…”
“Anything's possible…” They answered together grudgingly.
“Good,” Marius maneuvered himself between Nox and the platform before releasing her towards the control panel with a smile of a job well done.
 
The two women silently returned to the control and meticulously followed each control back to its system. They made sure each worked before moving on to the next. Eventually, the searching and theorising petered out, and Nox turned to Marius and Fureva-Yung with what they’d found out.
“It is set up as a transport system. A way to teleport people and things from one place to another. There is a section that reconstitutes matter this end, but needs a similar system on the other side to operate.”
“Which we have no idea about,” Jaden added, seemingly stirring up the argument again.
“Of course, there is. They’re used as transport. There must be one on the other end,” Nox countered.
“Thank you, ladies,” Marius interrupted before the yelling started again, “That was a…surprisingly honest assessment.”
“Honestly, I couldn’t say anything else. Jaden’s here,” Nox smirked, and somehow the tension was gone for the moment.
 
“So, what next? Nexion is still a problem here in the tower, much of it because we’re meatsacks.” Nox said, quoting the schizophrenic management system.
“Being a meatsack is kind of fun,” Marius quipped, only to gain a doubtful expression from the young girl, “I’ve enjoyed it.”
“Being a meatsack is tiring and cold and hungry and hurts,”
“There’s good stuff,” He was sure that this argument could be better articulated if Nox wasn’t a sixteen-year-old girl.
“Yeah, well, I haven’t seen it,” She replied with such bitterness that even she had to change the subject, “Anyway, Nexion. He says he’s been freed, but by whom? Not Erinai.”
“What about the energy source?” Fureva-Yung pointed to the snapping and cracking column of energy high above their heads. Instantly, they were all reminded why they’d walked into the teleport room in the first place.
 
Fureva-Yung tried her hand on the door, and it slid open. The next room was small and bare except for a rod dropping down from the column of energy above and entering a boxy device on the ground. As she stood in the doorway, Fureva-Yung could feel the energy in the air make her hair stand on end.
 
“See, we couldn’t work out this place without you,” Marius guided Nox through the door towards the device, “What is it? Could you do a scan?”
Nox rolled her eyes at Marius’ but still did as she asked. As she had done all her life, she stepped within fifteen metres of the device and scanned it.
 
Suddenly her senses were overwhelmed by the power of the device. Like feedback, her mind connected the loop with the device, sending her senses reeling. She thought she heard a thud behind her, like something hitting the floor. When she turned, she saw her body stretched out on the ground. Jaden, Marius, and Fureva-Yung ran to her body, calling her name.
“I’m fine…” She was about to say when Marius stepped straight through her to pick up her body and move it back to the door.
 
Nox slowly looked down at her hands, dress, legs, and feet. They all looked normal except that her pendant, the black ball on a leather cord, was glowing a bright blue. The ball, an heirloom from her mother, was just one of many mysteries in her life. The first time it glowed was during the flight from Cerelon.

But what did it mean that it was glowing blue now? She scanned it, glad to discover she still could. The sphere kept many mysteries, but for the first time, she could recognise two things. It was a connection to the datasphere, though it needed the right environment to work properly. She also saw that it was set to interact with other similar devices. Like a kite without a breeze, this part of the sphere was dormant, only waiting for the right conditions.
 
Nox took a breath in, found she didn’t need to and smiled. She jumped on the spot, discovered unlike the ghost-Jaden, she didn’t slip through the floor and then went for a run around the room. She took the opportunity to run through Marius, Jaden and even Fureva-Yung, stopping once to poke her hand through Jaden’s head to give her ears in an act of defiance. After a few laps, she realised she wasn’t out of breath, and neither did her limbs ache from the physical exertion. She laughed, surprised by the irony. Uploading to the datasphere was reckless, but a simple, safe scan had thrown her out of her body.
 
The device! She turned back to the box on the ground. The glow was so bright she could barely turn to see it. In her mind, she exclaimed, That’s bright!
 
 
Marius was feeling well-chuffed with how his diplomatic skills were going. He’d stopped Nox from doing something dangerous and reckless, persuaded Jaden and Nox to work together again and even had Nox working with the group once more to investigate the Spire. That was until Nox suddenly stiffened and fell backwards unconscious. His heart dropped into his stomach as he ran across the intervening space to Nox’s side.
“Nox! Nox!” He heard Jaden call. The girl did not respond.
 
He scanned the area for dangers with a practised eye before kneeling and checking Nox’s breathing and heartbeat. As he knelt, his extremities went numb as if hit by a static shock. His feeling soon returned, and he determined her breathing and heartbeat were slow but present. Effortlessly, she scooped up her body and moved back to the door's safety. Before reaching the door, he felt the same static shock of numbness. He saw Jaden stumble for a moment and wondered if she was also feeling the effects of this room.
 
“This place isn’t safe,” He said, laying Nox down carefully.
“No shit!” Jaden exclaimed, placing her worn maker’s hands against the girl’s smooth forehead, hovering it over her mouth, “What the hell happened?”
That’s bright! They all heard in their minds. The unmistakably clear voice of Nox was speaking to them as she had over the last month.
Nox! They all shouted back in their minds with surprise and relief.
Yeah.
Marius could have wept, and he was sure he saw Jaden do just that. Before he could reply, Fureva-Yung had answered.
Where are you?
Put your hands up, Nox instructed and a few moments later, Fureva-Yung was rubbing the tips of her fingers together as if they too had felt a static shock.
Did you feel that? Nox asked, and Fureva-Yung nodded, impressed, I am thunder. You are lightning!
The girl’s tinkling laughter echoed through their heads, and they all relaxed just a little.
For a while, perhaps, Jaden said as sternly as she could while regaining control, Not forever.
No, Fureva-Yung replied, adamantly agreeing with Jaden, I am Fureva. Fureva-Yung.
 
Well, now what? Marius asked, Can you get back into your body?
Nox looked at her empty shell, almost lifeless except for the slight rise and fall of her chest, I don’t want to. Not yet, anyway.
You can’t do anything like this, argued Jaden.
I haven’t tried anything, Nox replied, scanning the walls and floor for electrical cables. Several heavy electrical conduits were running away from the device in the room's flooring. Nox tried prying up the floor panels but couldn’t gain purchase of the physical flooring. She noticed Fureva-Yung watching.
Fureva-Yung, could you help me lift the flooring here?
 
Using her echolocation, Fureva-Yung found she could see a fuzzy outline of the girl as she walked around the room and crouched down at a floor panel. Glad to be of use, Fureva-Yung walked across.
Can you lift this up? I want to get into the cabling below.
The panel was flush with the ground, with only a thin line showing where it ended and another began.
 
“Jaden, do you have a tool I can use to get under this?” She asked, and with a huff, Jaden rummaged through her parts until she found a thin chisel. It slipped between the panels, allowing Fureva-Yung to lift the floor panel. As detected, a set of cables ran out from the centre of the room.
 
Here goes nothing, Nox mumbled as she pressed her incorporeal hands to the cables. She was surprised by the tingle at first as the power filled her. Her remaining particles started to fluoresce and glow, so even Marius and Jaden could make her out.
What are you? Marius asked as Nox released the cable and the glow faded away, Have you scanned yourself yet?
Nox scanned her hand. Without the energy from the Spire, she was only a loose collection of ionised atoms.
Oh, I’m less than what’s left after a storm, She said with a tremor in her voice as she realised for the first time how precarious her existence was. If she was going to find out anything about the tower, it had to be now. She touched the cables again.
 
“Positively glowing,” Marius quipped, setting the others off in nervous laughter, ”Radiant.”
“I always thought the little one was brilliant,” Fureva-Yung said.
“Too bloody bright,” Growled Jaden, not leaving the side of the unconscious body.
As they watched, the figure of Nox glowed into brightness and just as quickly faded away until even Fureva-Yung could not detect her in the room.
Nox?
 
Nox's experience was all rushing, like being swept away in a stream of running water or swirling winds. One moment she was in the room with the others, the next, her reality was movement. When her senses cleared, she was in a triangular room, surrounded by windows looking out onto blue sky. In front of her three chairs, reclined back, headrests pointed to the centre. Across the room, an elevator door sloped away from her in the opposite direction to others they’d accessed in the shaft. Behind her, a small column hummed with the same energy as in the room she’d left the others.
 
Where was she? The room size indicated it could have been at the peak of the Spire, but she had no idea how far she’d travelled. Looking out the nearest window, she was relieved to see the small collection of metal cabins at the base of the Spire, the lake to the south and the forests to the west. Thinking back to Fureva-Yung’s tattoo, she looked for signs of buildings in the local area. Looking for ruins or even dried crop marks left by buildings under thin soil, she soon pinpointed two likely spots. One, Marius would be pleased, was the rubble the community had passed on their way to the tower. To the east, the dried patch of earth suggested another potential site.
 
She glanced around the room once more. There was little more to see, and less she could interact with. She turned and touched the column. With relief, she felt the rush of energy as she swept along until she was dumped in the central room.
 
Chaos had descended in her absence. Fureva-Yung had a number of floor panels up and was pulling up the cables. Marius was slapping Nox’s face in an attempt to wake her up.
Don’t do that Fureva-Yung, we may need that cabling, She said, touching Fureva-Yung’s arm, And Marius, that won’t do any good, I can’t feel it.
“Nox?! You disappeared!” Jaden jumped up from her seat beside the prone body. She glanced around her, but Nox was invisible.
“Where did you go?” Marius asked, more the voice of reason.
I took the energy cable straight to the top of the Spire! She looked at Fureva-Yung, There’s three chairs like a control centre in the middle facing windows that look out over the valley. And the elevator shaft goes straight there…though the door is on the other side. She made a gesture with her hands to show the slope of the door, unsure if Fureva-Yung could see it.
Oh, and I saw the other two places on your tattoo. One is the ruins, yes Marius was right. She bowed mockingly to Marius, who definitely couldn’t see her, And the other is to the east.
 
“Right, good, you’ve had your lark. You can get back in your body now,” Jaden gestured to the still slab of meat lying on the ground. She sounded like an overwrought mother cajoling her child to bed.
Nox didn’t move.
“Nox, we need to get you back together, “Marius tried his most persuasive voice, “Your body will die.”
What a shame, Nox replied sarcastically.
“And I suspect you’ll fade too.”
You don’t know that! She hadn’t thought of that.
“You don’t know otherwise.” He said, his point no less hitting for looking just to the left of where Nox stood.
Nox changed the subject.
 
So, where next? Through the door?
“Don’t try changing…” Marius started before feeling the prickling feeling again as something moved through him.
At his feet, right beside Nox’s body, a blue person appeared to Nox. They kneeled and seemed to check Nox’s body.
Hey! Nox didn’t feel particularly protective of her body, but the motives of the blue people were still up for debate. She moved to intercept the blue person, a woman wearing a pedant just like Nox’s. It glowed, the twin to Nox’s. She reached out a hand in Nox’s direction.
Nox took the hand. She felt the woman's physical presence and the strength of her arm as she pulled Nox towards her body.
No, Nox linked to the woman, shaking her head and pulling away, I don’t want to go back, I want to be like you.
You will in time, The woman replied with a smile, But right now, I’d hate to see my daughter die.
Daughter? Nox clutched her pendant with her free hand, the only thing she had from her mother.
The woman nodded and urged Nox back to her body.
Nox had so many questions, so much to tell her…mother, but realised if she had revealed herself, she had good reason.
Finally, Nox asked, Will I see you again?
Of course, everything in its time, She gestured once more towards Nox’s body.
Not taking her eyes off the softly glowing blue of her mother’s face, Nox stepped towards her body….
 
…and took a breath. Nox opened her eyes to see her mother’s form fade from her sight.
“NO!” A flickering light drew her eye down to her pendant which also faded back to its black swirling self.
“Your back!” Jaden exclaimed. She leaned forward to pull Nox into her arms, thought better of it and sat back on her heels.
“My….a blue person came and told me to come back,” Nox lied, not sure why she had. She’d never had to before. Before no one had cared enough to know she was thinking. Jaden eyed her suspiciously but said nothing.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Marius asked, also picking up on unspoken thought.
“I…liked being that way,” Nox said in the end. It was true, just not the most important truth.
“Maybe I’ll try it sometime,” Jaden’s voice was bitter and sarcastic, “If you commend it so highly.”
“The blue person had a pendant like mine,” Nox changed the subject and held it up to the others. Nearly always hidden under her clothes, the others rarely glimpsed the weight at the end of the leather thong around her neck.
Marius, in particular, was surprised by its appearance, “ How long have you had that?”
“She’s always had it, Marius. By Erinai, I thought you had eyesight like a cat,” Jaden stood up, looking thoroughly fed up with the scene in front of her, and walked away.
“Ah…maybe we should try the next room,” Marius said, helping Nox back onto her feet. Her body felt slow and clumsy, and it hurt where it had hit the floor, but Nox made no comment.
 
Fureva-Yung opened the door, and the others followed her into a room very similar to the first transport room.
“Maybe they had a lot of work to do,” Marius commented as they looked around the space.
“Deconstructions suites?” Fureva-Yung suggested
“Suicide chambers,” Jaden replied sneeringly.
“Freedom from meatsack, chambers,” Nox mumbled.
 
They had explored the floor, and besides getting more rope to climb further up the shaft, there was nothing left to see.
 
“So, do we check out your pile of rocks?” Nox asked Marius, who agreed enthusiastically, as did Fureva-Yung.
“Yes, Marius is good at digging,” Fureva-Yung patted Marius on the back, nearly knocking him off his feet.
“Marius is not good at digging, “He replied good-naturedly, “But we have a few good hands and will soon have the job done.”
 
They made their slow way back down the shaft to the floor with the hologram room. One by one, Fureva-Yung lowered Nox and Jaden down to the ground before she and Marius joined them. Over lunch, they discussed their plans. They were to explore the eastern site Nox had spotted from the Spire with the intent of finding the most easterly spot on Fureva-Yung's tattoo. Marius organised a working crew and gathered supplies while Bellyached trundled out of whatever corner Jaden had parked him in and followed her around. She gave instructions to the builders remaining behind, so they could continue their work while she was away.
 
After lunch, a large contingent of the Dritmen was all armed with shoring planks, makeshift shovels and well-loved tools salvaged from Cerelon. They marched east to the patch of empty dry earth and started clearing the ground. By the end of the day, they’d cleared three flights of steps corkscrewing down into the shaft. Marius caught Nox sitting on the broken and cracked steps, brushing her hand slowly over the surface. Where her hand passed, the cracks disappeared.
“That’s a clever trick. How long have you been able to do that?”
Nox shrugged, “I could see how it could be done and…did it.”
 
By the end of the next day, the stairs had been cleared thirty metres down to a level opening into a room. Once the rubble in the room had been removed, Jaden and Nox joined Marius and Fureva-Yung, in exploring the space.
 
Two cylinders dominated the room from floor to ceiling. They were hollow when Nox scanned them but looked like they’d transported liquid at one time. Around a corner, large double doors blocked their way. fureva-Yung reached out as usual, and the doors responded as best they could with the sound of gears straining, dust and pebbles falling through the cracks. With the crowbar provided by Jaden, Fureva-Yung jimmied the door open wide enough to see inside. It was a small room with no other apparent exit. With the crack widened, Fureva-Yung easily pulled the two sliding doors apart, and they all walked in. The doors closed behind them, and the stomach-dropping feeling of descending began.
 
It was a large elevator, unlike the small, sleek one in the tower. Quietly they stood and waited as the box moved down the shaft until, with a clunk, the room stopped with a jarring thud. Dark water started seeping through from the bottom. Fureva-Yung tried her hand against the wall of the elevator. It responded with another grinding of gears. Something snapped, and the whole elevator went silent.
 
The group started looking for exits in the seemingly seamless room with no obvious trap doors.
“Nox, scan the walls and ceiling and see if there’s any weak spots,” Marius said. A scan brought a welded square in the roof that looked like it could be knocked through. The weak point proved to be just that against Fureva-Yung’s punch. One by one, she started lifting the group through the hole. Marius climbed up with a lift from Fureva-Yung and spotted a side shaft above.
“Okay, everyone out!”
“Not a good day to be a meatsack,” Nox mumbled as the fridge black water rose to her knee, as Fureva-Yung helped Jaden up through the hole.
“How would you help save your friends if you were an energy being right now?” She stared down at the girl, giving Nox pause for thought. She was still thinking about it when Fureva-Yung picked her up and flung her through the hole. Nox flew through the hole and out into the shaft. She reached the top of the throw and slowed to a stop, hanging in thin air.
“That’s useful,” Marius said, grabbing Nox’s arm and pulling her into the side passage.
“I…don’t know how I did that…I’ve never done that…” Nox said, staring back at the empty air of the elevator shaft.
 
Fureva-Yung climbed out of the elevator last. She tied the car with a rope and threw it into the side passage.
“Tie it up, so it will not sink,” Fureva-Yung explained. Nox turned and looked at the wall, a plain cut stone. Waving her hands across the smooth surface, she drew out a section with a hole through the middle that the rope could pass through.
“Will that do?” She asked, and Fureva-Yung tied off the rope with a grunt of satisfaction.