6. The Dodecahedron

Pursued by the servitors of the High Redoubt and Crawls Passage alike, the group find kinship with a group of beings also hiding from oppression. The Unseen eke out an existence in the natural and unnatural caves under the pit. But beyond their meagre homes lay the paths the group must take if they are to find their own future safe home.

 
In the darkness of the natural cavern, the refugees worked lowering themselves and their few possessions down the final four-metre drop. With little light and repaired equipment, they strained and lifted and caught and finally walked the fungal farms of the Unseen by a crystal clear spring.
 
Marius and Fureva-Yung both went ahead, passed the broken array of monitors into more of the pit’s facility. They found Jaden and Nox watching a group of small creatures with huge bat-like ears dancing around an effigy made of smashed monitors, chanting and laughing.
You can’t see me! You can’t see me! They could hear through Nox’s telepathic translation.
 
Though the dancing and frolics of the little people amused Nox, Fureva-Yung found nothing of interest in their capering and sought out Marius investigating two large doors. The Unseen had been unable to open the large metal doors, and as usual, Marius’ curious mind was ticking over.
“I wonder if these go up to rooms under the dome in the pit?” He said to Fureva-Yung, “Do you want to try and open them?”
Fureva-Yung pushed against the door and felt the pressure of something pushing back. Maybe a cave-in?
“Maybe Nox could have at look what’s on the other side first?” Marius suggested, gaining Nox’s attention. She quickly ran over to see what exciting things the others were into.
 
“I see a space behind the door, “She said, scanning past the thin metal doors to the small room beyond, “I can’t see a floor. It just keeps going down, maybe another level? Above…no, I can’t see, sorry."
“You did fine, kid, “ Marius replied distractedly, looking for Yelf, the self-appointed spokesperson for the Unseen. He found him with the others celebrating their victory over the All-Seer.
 
“Say, how did you guys get here?”
Escape from All-Seer through there. They pointed to a door at the far end of their enclosure.
“Oh, yeah. Tell me what it’s like? Did you walk the whole way?”
Yelf looked happy to share his story with these strangers, Sometimes. Sometimes we were inside the big whooshy thing!
“Really? How did it go, up and down or side to side?”
Up and forward!
“How exciting. How long do you think you were in the whooshy thing?”
Hmm, Yelf had to think for a moment. How to explain time to these strangers, A short nap.
“Hours instead of days, okay. Thanks, Yelf.”
 
When Marius had run out of questions to ask, he went back to the elevator doors, and Nox turned her concerned eyes on Yelf.
Yelf, have you seen glowing blue light or glowing blue people that look like us? She pointed at Jaden and herself, not to confuse the Yelf with Fureva-Yung’s unusual appearance.
No, He replied innocently, turning back to his peoples’ antics around the effigy.
Yelf. We would like to travel through the door at the end. Things are coming, looking for us. I want you to let them go through. If you hide, they will just walk through and leave you alone.
Yes, yes, we hide!
 
Nox, Foreva-Yung thought as Yelf left them to join in the celebrations, Should we tell the Unseen I can see them?
They only hide from the All-Seer, Nox smiled at her big friend’s concern for the little people. Suddenly her expression turned serious as she remembered what Yelf had said, Fureva-Yung The All-Seer lives in machines! She wasn’t sure if Fureva-Yung had understood, but it felt better to have told her robust and, capable friend.
 
Marius was still trying to open doors. No space was safe from his curious mind.
“Should we open up so many places for the servitors to look?” Nox asked.
“What? Why?” Marius turned on Nox, and she froze, shying away from his imagined anger.
“Sorry!”
“No, go on, I’m listening,” He now gave his full attention to Nox, which was almost as harrowing as the thought of Marius angry.
“Um…I don’t want the Unseen hurt. I just want to servitors to follow us. If there are more places for them to look, they’ll investigate, won’t they?”
“Hmm, a thought. What do the Unseen think? Yelf? Do you mind if we open up these doors?” Marius pointed back to the sliding metal doors behind him.
Hmm, more doors open, more places to hide! Yelf replied, pleased.
“There. We’re doing them a favour. Come on, Furry, give it another go.”
 
 
 
Fureva-Yung placed her hands flat against the metal doors once more and pushed them apart. Some small rocks fell into the room, and as she looked up, Fureva-Yung could see a pile of rubble blocking the way up a shaft. To her scavenger’s eye, the debris looked…placed. It seemed too organised to have fallen that way. Looking down, she could see maybe five metres to the top of a box slightly smaller than the shaft itself. On top of the box, thick metal cables lay strewn over the top.
 
“No access that way,” Marius nodded, “ Oh, well, at least it confirmed my mental map of this place. Right, only way now is the far door.”
 
With a few barked orders, the Dritmen and Fureva-Yung started clearing junk piled up against the door to the All-Seer. Marius opened the door. The light in this pentagonal chamber was patchy, rays of light making beams that failed to pierce the darkness further down. Around the circumference, the light was diffuse, while a shadow hung over the room's centre. Looking up, Marius saw the legs of the Titan sticking down like lopsided mechanical stalactites through a white damaged ceiling. They were under the dome.
 
From the door, a catwalk extended out into the pit where a black glassy dodecahedron filled much of the space. It hung miraculously in space at the end of the catwalk, nothing above it but the dome and the Titan, nothing below but inky blackness. The side facing the catwalk opened, revealing a blank interior with a column through the middle.
“We found the whooshy thing, “ He told the other, “Nox, can you see how that thing works?”
Marius watched the Titans's legs as they started disappearing up past the dome. The Titan was moving and soon would be free.
 
Nox tripped along the catwalk and headed for the column in the centres. It too, was shiny black, smooth and as clean as the rest of the dodecahedron. She placed her hand on the surface and felt the energy below the surface respond to her touch. Still, it was slow work. It seemed like the dodecahedron did not want to give up its secret’s.
 
LOOKING FOR AUTHENTICATION…
 
Stupid machine, Fureva-Yung said behind Nox after she’d helped bring in the caravan discs into the dodecahedron, I hit machine? Fureva-Yung stepped up to hit the column with her fist, Marius slipped into the caravan behind her.
 
AUTHORISED USER FOUND. BOOTING SYSTEMS, flashed up on the screen.
No Fureva-Yung. You are the user…owner… Nox looked up at her large friend in awe. As open as Fureva-Yung was, her nature and origins were still an enigma, even to herself. Nox tucked that tiny clue to Fureva-Yung’s past into her memory and got back to work.
 
Marius unseen muttered unheard from the caravan as Nox studied the menu options and the rest of the caravan found spaces onboard.
 
I threat!
No need, Nox now had access to a display screen listing several options. I just have to find the right choice… She checked everyone was on board before selecting an option she hoped would work. Behind the last of the dritmen, the doorway disappeared, and everyone could feel a smooth sensation of falling.
 
Jaden found an empty patch of floor next to a wall and gestured for Nox to join her. Gratefully, Nox sank beside the comforting warmth of Jaden and was soon asleep, her head resting on Jaden’s lap. Jaden did not sleep. She found it hard to trust in a machine she didn’t understand, especially now. Falling in this black twelve-sided box felt like leaving far too much to chance.
 
Across the space, a conversation between Marius and Fureva-Yung was suddenly cut short as their telepathic link was lost. They struggled on for a while, with Marius talking and Fureva-Yung gesturing until everyone started as the dodecahedron suddenly stopped falling and started moving laterally. Marius projected his mental map of the pit onto this new path and determined that they were travelling North East, away from Cerelon and almost everything they knew.
 
Tapping out the seconds and counting the minutes, Marius tried working out how far they’d come. After three hours, the feeling of movement started to slow.
“A weeks travel in just six hours.”
 
Meanwhile, Fureva-Yung’s attention was drawn to a small flashing light on her forearm. The tattoo that had always been there never changing. Now one small dot to the left of the main pattern was flashing. She poked at the spot, and the light went out completely.
“What’s up?” Marius asked.
 
A violent jolt and the grinding of metal screamed as the whole dodecahedron twisted over, flipping its contents sideways. Screaming people and aneen fell into a pile as the screeching and jolting continued, finally ending with a sudden crash into something hard.
 
Everyone was knocked off their feet, bruised and battered by the crash. Nox was almost knocked out when her head was flung backwards into the wall by the initial jolt, and many others were in a similar condition. The aneen, the long-suffering beasts of burden for the whole caravan, were ready to stampede. Almost everyone scrambled to get away from flailing hooves and tossing heads. Everyone except for Jaden. Drawing on her earlier life’s experience travelling with the caravans, she faced the aneen making soothing noises. She gained control of their reins and drew their heads down to her own, breathing slowly into their faces, letting them know she was not afraid and would lead them.
Punch it in the face, Fureva-Yung suggested, helping Nox to her wobbly feet.
“You do not punch it in the face,” Jaden responded quietly and calmly, adding her admonishment to the soothing sounds for the aneen.
“Do you want a hand?” Marius asked, but it was soon apparent that Jaden did not need the assistance. Though their flanks still shivered with nervous energy, the two aneen were now quiet, standing side by side, watching and listening to Jaden. Oslo Ghan finally collected himself enough to take back control of his animals, marvelled as Jaden's control.
 
They like you, Nox thought with a distant expression on her face. Her head was dizzy, and her vision wouldn’t clear. As she stumbled to the column in the centre of the chamber, she couldn’t make out the console to find the door release. Temila, who had been moving around the group checking for injuries, now found Nox, slumped beside the column staring at nothing.
 
“Nox? How do you feel? What happened?”
“Woozy, “she put a shaking hand to the back of her head, and it came away sticky, “Something hit me in the blue man room, and then a rock hit me in the pit and then….” Why was it so hard to think straight?
Temila flashed a small light the miners had given her into Nox’s eyes and was pleased to get a response from both Nox’s irises and the girl as she flinched away from the bright light. Marius tried wrapping a bandage around Nox’s head, but it slipped on her long hair, falling off in a coiled heap. He eventually gave the dressing to Temila and made himself useful elsewhere.
 
Machine not working? I will smash it! Fureva-Yung suggested raising her giant clenched fist to beat the column.
Put your hand on it, Nox sent back as Temila found a large lump on the back of Nox’s head, It likes you.
Fureva-Yung did as suggested and laid her palm on the column with a huff. The panel lit up, giving Nox the information she needed to find the door release. Suddenly, a wall to one side of the group disappeared.
 
A vast field of giant crystals glowed from the light spilling out from inside the dodecahedron. The sheet of crystal stretched from the transport to the right into a massive cavern. To the left, a rocky outcropping held a clearly defined path leading up to a passage through the cave wall. Between, ripples from the crash still breaking its surface, a body of water lapped against a pebble and crystal shore. A hundred metres from the crash, the refracting light faded away into utter darkness.
 
Climbing out of the capsule, Marius found himself on a roadway of smooth rock that the dodecahedron had obviously been travelling along. The road went straight under the crystal and disappeared. He walked around the craft and saw a small spur of the crystal had grown on the road thirty metres or so back down the road. It had probably been the initial jolt that sent them flying sideways down the road until they finally crashed into the bulk of the crystal formation. It had been a lucky break. He wondered if they’d be walking away from this crash if they’d ploughed into the crystal field at full speed.
 
As the group clambered out of the dodecahedron, they were all able to take in the sight of the cavern and the massive field of crystal. Fureva-Yung and the dritmen knew the crystal from the Spectral Plateau, though never on this scale.
Find iotum and cyphers sometimes, Fureva-Yung pointed at the crystal and Marius interest was piqued.
 
As the last refugees left the dodecahedron, the lights inside the transport went out and the group were left with the lights on the caravan, Jaden’s spear and Temila’s small light.
 
Moving away from the now uncomfortable sounds and lights of the others, Nox stumbled down the pebbled beach to the water edge and sat down. The slowly lapping waves were a comfort, and she dipped a rag into the frigid water to soothe her head. Once Jaden was happy with the progress of the whole caravan, she joined Nox down at the water, picking up intriguing chunks of crystal and dumping them into Bellyache as she went.
It’s so beautiful, Nox thought as Jaden sat beside her, Can we stay here a little while?
“Can’t stay long, don’t know who lives here,” Jaden replied, putting a comforting hand on Nox’s sore head, “We don’t want to be bad neighbours.”
“Say, Nox? The lake water had eroded the crystal. Can you check to see if there’s the same crystal energy in the water?” Marius, full of curiosity for their new surroundings, bounded up. Nox covered her ears to his too loud question gaining him a shhh from Jaden and a dirty look from Temila.
 
“She’s had a nasty few knocks to the head. I want her to stay still and rest for a moment.” Temila said, propping Nox back into a sitting position as the girl went to lie down, “And for you, no sleeping until I say.”
But I'm so tired… Nox wailed in their minds.
“I didn’t mean she had to move…” Marius mumbled, but giving up his idea as a lost cause.
 
Fureva-Yung was back at the dodecahedron, trying to push the craft back onto the road. Distracted from the lake water, Marius sat down, pulled out a small packet of rations and watched with interest, as Fureva-Yung tried to move the transport. At not quite twenty-five metres across, it was far too big for even the powerful Fureva-Yung.
It is very heavy. She finally said, giving up and stepping back. Marius was about to encourage her to put more effort into the activity when a squawk from the lake drew their attention.
 
Nox was finding it hard not sleeping. She sat by the water, her eyes closed and listening to the sounds of the cavern around. The hushed talking, the grunts of effort from Fureva-Yung, the last few waves on the shingle beach. It seemed to her that the only sound this place knew were what they had brought in. She was just imagining what it must sound like with no one around when something behind her clicked.
 
She listened for the sound again, and this time she felt the material of her shirt dragged back. The clicking stopped, but the weight on her shirt increased, and Nox cringed at the thought of the giant tick climbing up her back.
“Temila, what's climbing up my back?” She asked, not wanting to turn her head or even move.
 
Jaden leaned back to have a look and saw a crab, about as large as her fist, trying to climb up Nox’s back. Getting to her feet, she moved so what light they had was on the crab and then plucked it off Nox with a careful hand. The crab was small, encrusted in crystal and machine parts like a hermit crab. She held it by the scrap affixed to its shell, so its grasping claws found nothing but air to snap at.
“Hello! Who are you? The neighbours?” She said to the crab, watching it flail ineffectually at her. When it was clear it could not get her with its claws, the crab twitched. There was a sudden burst of blue light, and Jaden found herself up to her chest in cold lake water several metres from the shore.
“What!” She cried in surprise and dropped the crab. Jaden now had the shockingly cold and wet walk back to the beach to where everyone had gathered.
 
As she clambered up the steep slope onto the beach, she noticed that many of the crystals that littered the shore had small things in them. Like amber on the surface world, the crystal had trapped within it teeth, insects, machine parts, as well as the iotum Fureva-Yung used to collect. She remembered now that as they built the bridge out of the crystal-forming fog, things would often appear within the stream and be cemented into the crystal much as she saw here. The energy fog had been made up of creatures, plants, and machines, at least in part.
 
Foreva-Yung and Marius helped Jaden out of the water, and she shared her theory with them. This only spurred on Marius to hunt out cyphers and other interesting bits from the crystal. As the caravan started setting up camp, Marius made himself a makeshift chisel and beckoned Fureva-Yung in on his plans.
“See if you can break a chunk off the crystal wall,” He said, handing over the chisel. Fureva-Yung tried smashing the end of the crystal with her huge blunt fist, but nothing broke off.
Rock hard, She thought, showing a chipped tooth as evidence of previous investigations.
“Maybe it’s more about finesse than strength,” Marius said, thinking aloud. He asked Fureva-Yung to hold the chisel this time while he hit it. Bringing down his hammer with as much force as he could muster. The crystal did not break.
 
Fureva-Yung took back the chisel and tried again. This time she found a weak junction and several spears of crystal rained onto the beach. After a while, she had a small pile of …stuff for Nox to identify when she was feeling better. Putting her finds into her back, she spotted another machine part crabs further up the beach. With the curiosity of an empty stomach, she strode towards it, hand outstretched.
 
Before she could get within a metre of the tasty morsel, she was surprised by two crabs exactly like the first rising in front of her. They flank their tiny brethren, leering over the giant Fureva-Yung by half a metre. Fureva-Yung let her chain sliver down her wrist to pool at her feet, and all the day’s frustrations slipped away. Who needed stupid machines when you had a double fist of good steel chain and a strong arm? She flicked out the chain and let it swing through the air towards the two giant crabs.
 
The chain sailed straight through the two giant crabs.
 
Confusion. Had she missed? She looked down as the smaller crab was backing up, making an escape. Now ignoring the two illusions for what they were, Fureva-Yung brought the doubled chain down on the small crab with a satisfying crunch.
 
As her teeth crunched on the carapace of the first, she spied a second crab and made to grab. It squirted something at her feet that made the ground incredibly slippery. Fortunately, Fureva-Yung’s elephantine feet covered more ground than the patch of friction-reducing gel, and she easily kept her feet. She snatched up a second snack and popped it into her mouth whole. As she crunched into this one, however, a small electrical jolt blasted through her molars.
Nice! She thought to herself, a new eating sensation.
 
Temila was watching Nox sleep as Marius passed by. After a long and fruitless search for shinies, he was eager for a kind word or two.
“Hey,” he said and sat down beside her.
“Hey,” She replied, shaking Nox awake and noting how quickly the girl responded.
“How’s she doing?”
“Well. If she can make it through the night without worsening symptoms, I think she’ll be fine.”
“Odd kid,” Marius mused when he thought Nox was asleep again. Temila became thoughtful a moment.
“She’s alright.” She replied curtly, brushing a stray hair out of the girl’s face.
“Oh, of course, she’s great…like…how she can read minds and just understand stuff by looking at it…” This conversation was not going the way he had hoped, “What I came to say is, I appreciate you taking such an interest in her.”
“Hmm, she’s a good kid.” Temila deflected the compliment and turned back to her patient.
They sat and talked for a while about nothing as the camp settled down into sleep around them, so too did Nox listening to the two adult hushed voices echoing out over the lake.
 
The next morning, Nox woke to a headache, but her vision and balance were restored to normal. Beside her sleeping mat in a small pile, she found a collection of four treasures. Two were iotum, good for Jaden’s collection. Two were cyphers with unique properties. As breakfast was called, she picked up the treasures sought out Marius, Fureva-Yung and Jaden.