45. Planning a jail break

 
“What did the ship look like, Nox?”
 
It was a quiet moment in the basement of the Urend Library. Jaden had gone with Trilly to discuss the lighting magnification system she had in mind, and the other three were left to their own devices. Fureva looked thoughtful and a little lost, stirring Nox’s protective feelings for her friend.
“What ship?”
“When you were teleported away from us and appeared inside the command deck of one of my old ships. I was wondering which one it was. I don’t remember…everything… It's like pieces…I was wondering…”
“If I could describe the command deck, you could connect your memories to it?” Again, that stirring of protection for the fragile mind inside the almost indomitable exterior. Instantly, Nox drew out her Numenera book and turned to a page where she hadn’t written over the text she knew by heart. She started sketching what she could remember from her few minutes floating around the control centre of a spaceship.
 
She started at the commander’s chair, where she’d found a bracelet still holding a personal note from Admiral Fureva-Yung. She added the two consoles in front and a few other stations that she’d noticed around the room's edges. The more she added, the more frustrated she became at her artistic abilities to render the image.
“Wait!” She said out loud, dropping her book and pulling out a cypher, a mental imager built for just this purpose. She’d seen Jaden use one to show the Deep Craven an image of the surface world.
 
Turning on the device, she focused on her memory of the command deck. The darkness was only illuminated by light through the front screen, the airless quality of the environment as she realised there was no life support and the weightlessness that let her forget about her human flesh body. The weightlessness reminded her of how she felt when she presented the diamond lens to Trilly, having made something beautiful and useful that another admired. The airlessness connected to intrusive thoughts that came thinking about her mother and father…together, Marius and Temila, the girls and their beaus. She shivered as the cold directed her mind to thoughts of Jaden, how close they used to be and how that relationship had somehow changed over the last few months.
 
She blinked.
 
The cypher held an image of the command deck as she remembered it, but distorted, twisted by the distractions she’d allowed to infiltrate the process.
“Umm…I think it’s broken,” She showed Fureva.
“This is not familiar,” Fureva replied with a shrug, “I do not recollect that command deck.”
Fureva stared into it again, trying to make sense of the shifting, distorted view. From the viewer, the image stretched out, forming the shape of a head and two spikey arms. The arms swung out at Nox, who squealed and ducked aside. It stretched out further, creating a hole in reality. Now a metre square, it towered above Nox with the image of the command desk pulled tight across its form.
 
Marius turned on a new speed cypher and placed himself between Nox and the new entity. Fureva dropped her chain from her shoulder and wrapped it easily around the creature’s form, squeezing it tight. With the image restrained, Nox drew her worm-toothed knife and stabbed it down into the cypher, trying to break the device that gave this new entity form.
 
The image grew again, overflowing the chains binding it, trying to spike Fureva with thorny tendrils. It wrapped itself around Nox, surrounding her in the melting view of the bridge. The image shifted as Jaden floated into view, facing away from Nox. Behind her, Livaanar seemed to float, his face to her, but his body turned away. In the distance, Nox could see Aunty Ilvasha dancing an energetic jig. The images were odd and disorientating, making it hard for Nox to think.
 
Outside, Nox’s was only a pair of legs, the bare skin shimmering to confusion going on inside.
“Nox! Can we reason with it?” Fureva asked from outside the twisted reality Nox had created.
“Reason?” She cried as Jaden’s head lifted from her shoulders, swapping with her father’s head though Jaden stayed firmly turned away, “It’s insane! ”
“It’s okay, we’re not your enemies,” Fureva spoke clearly to the cypher. The image did not respond.
Marius turned on his light gloves, and Nox reached out to touch the creature's mind within the cypher. The distortion grew with every thought of Nox’s looping into the image. The looping became faster and faster, and the image was a blur of colour.
 
Suddenly, Nox’s vision turned black, then white before it, and the image splintered into millions of shards. Marius avoided the shrapnel, leaping away in time. Fureva, desperately trying to peer into the device and reach out to the creature, did not. The pieces raked through her mind like shrapnel through flesh and bone. She collapsed to the floor, clutching her head, Nox falling beside her, dizzy. Only Marius saw a small patch of the image, a collection of fragments, regathering on a wall and disappearing through a crack.
 
“What’s beyond that wall? Nox, can you link to that thing? Bring it back?” He said as people arrived from all over the basement to investigate.
“What was that, Trilly?” Ragnia said as Trilly and Jaden both appeared to see what the explosion was.
“What was that?” Trilly asked Marius, surprised it wasn’t here for a change.
“What was that?” Marius asked Nox. Dizzy, confused and surrounded by loud, questioning people, Nox curled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around the lot.
“I’m sorry!” She cried, her skin moving through a range of concrete greys and the various clothing colours of those around her, “It broke!”
 
Eventually, Marius was able to get out of Nox that the explosion was a feedback loop caused when Nox had connected to the entity in the cypher. How the entity occurred, she couldn’t or wouldn’t say.
“It sounds like you made a limited version of you, of your mental state at the time of using the mental imager,” Jaden said finally, putting the pieces together, “Irritating for normal people. Something altogether different when it's Nox.”
“There’s nothing but dirt and rock behind that wall,” Ragnia said, pointing to where the image had escaped. Should we block it up?”
“It can be physically restrained, so it’s not a bad idea,” Marius replied. He turned to Nox, speaking in his gentle voice for her.
“Now, are you still linked to it? Can you tell where it is?”
 
Nox was beside herself. How had things gone so wrong? Now, everyone here knew how much of a screwup she was, just like everyone in Tiltspire and Cerelon.
Fureva, who had been quiet for a long time, finally spoke, reassuring Nox that Fureva wasn’t all lost to her stupidity.
“I can hear it getting…more diffuse… it's hard to pinpoint where it is.” In her mind, Nox heard Fureva speak just to her.
I’m here, little one. Did it hurt you?
Nox shook her head and brushed away her tears. Fureva was hurt, and yet she worried about Nox. Straining her senses, Nox felt for the image beyond the wall.
“It’s still there. I can feel it, but I don’t know where it is,” She finally said out loud.
 
 
It had been a long day since leaving Tiltspire, and Nox had stretched her abilities about as far as they could go. Unfortunately, the others had other plans.
“Under the cover of darkness, we should get as much information about the layout of Redboot,” Marius argued.
“Yes, particularly the prison,” Fureva agreed.
 
With directions from Ragina, the group stealthed across Rubbledown to the wall that separated it from Redboot. After screwing up so badly, Nox kept silent, unwilling to protest. Still, the plan to have her float up above the wall and collect what information she could from her vantage point made her shiver. She hated being alone and flapping around like a kite, waiting for one of the Redboots to see her. As soon as she levitated up and saw the whole of Redboot spread out before her, the anxiety melted away, replaced by a curiosity about what lay further beyond. She rose again, saw the grey block that was the jail and began drawing.
 
On the ground, the group watched as Nox seemed not to disappear but to blend in with the stars and the velvety black sky. Her skin became the darkest blue, pockmarked with bright points, and her grey outfit blended in with stray clouds and plumes of smoke from the chimneys. Still, they were all surprised when they heard a voice from over the wall call out.
“Blimey! What’s that?” Said a drunk man, swaying and wobbling fifteen metres behind two Redboot Enforcers doing their rounds. The enforcers both looked up at the patch of sky the drunk motioned to see a small bat glowing with patches of bioluminescent lichen flitting away. They looked from the bat back down to the drunk.
“Now, what do we have here?” Said one enforcer as they both stepped forward.
“Sir, do you know what time it is?”
 
Twenty metres above them, Nox swallowed hard, forcing her beating heart back into her chest. The illusion of the bat dissolved as it flew out of range. She hung perfectly still until the two Enforcers picked the drunk up by the scruff of the neck and marched him away. When the night was perfectly silent, she continued her work, drawing the layout of Redboot and the jail beyond. Three storeys tall, the prison had a flat roof visible from the watch towers set into the outer edge of the prison area. The stone block that was the prison had no windows and only one visible door at the front.
 
She was nearly finished when the sound of enormous wings flapping came up from behind. Not waiting to turn around and look, Nox stopped her concentration on floating and plummeted to the ground. Huge yellow claws raked the air where she had been moments before, frightening her enough to forget to levitate again before hitting the ground. Instead of cold concrete, however, Nox was caught in the warm fury embrace of Fureva. The sounds of crashing waves rolled off Fureva, transferring and dispersing the shock of the blow into sound. To Nox, it was like the purring of a beloved cat. She sank her face into the musky warmness and soon fell asleep in Fureva’s arms.
 
With the required intel, they started back through the winding streets of the shanty town. They moved silently, careful of every footfall in case a patrol was close. Marius was first to hear the leather armour creaking, something metallic knocking rhythmically as marching red boots stomped through. The group, as one, flattened against a darkened wall and watched as a troop of five individuals walked along a nearby cross street. Fureva extended her senses, using her hearing-like echolocation and picking up details on the individuals that the darkness didn’t provide. Four were in the boiled leather armour, form-fitting but noisy. Each carried a baton at their hips that clunked as they walked. The fifth was in a military cloth uniform and carried a doubled-ended baton, twice as long as the others. He walked with the smooth grace of a predator and held the staff like he knew how to use it.
 
The group watched as the troop moved deeper into Rubbledown. They were almost lost to sight when Jaden suddenly tripped and sprawled noisily on the cold, wet ground. The troops swung around, grabbing for the batons. The officer bent low, his staff out in front in defence. Jaden just lay there in the dirt, seemingly unaware, singing a dirty song to herself.
 
“Said the worker to the heiress,
I’ll take you down…
Down Fotheringale Lane….”
One of the Enforcers stepped out of formation, his face furious at the drunken lawbreaker.
Ooh, look at all the pretties…he-he-he,” Jaden giggled drunkenly, seeming now to notice the troop, “I like a man in uniform. Give us a kiss, pretty boy.”
The Enforcer swung his bat high, but a bark from the officer stayed his hand.
“Keep moving, soldier. Remember what we’re here for.” He said, giving the Enforcer a meaningful look. The Enforcer thrust his baton back into its sheath and returned to his position. The troop moved on, with Jaden wailing for their attention behind.
 
Only when they were well out of sight did Jaden pick herself off the ground as a few locals poked their heads out to see what was happening.
 
“What was that for? They were nearly gone when your antics drew their attention, “ Marius whispered furiously as Fureva carried Nox.
“I was worried they’d see Fureva with Nox. Besides, I wanted to get a closer look at that officer. Did you see how he responded? Like he was one with that staff of his. I wonder what it's made of?”
 
Marius rolled his eyes, “Look, we’ll follow them, okay? I’ll go ahead, and you stay with Fureva and Nox, okay?”
“So you can have all the fun?” Jaden grinned cheekily until Marius went to protest, “Alright, alright, Mr Dodgy, you first.”
 
The group crept along, Marius out the front, silent as the moon, with Fureva and Jaden ten to fifteen metres behind. With Nox asleep, the telepathic link they’d come to rely on was down, and they had only their eyes and ears to tell them what was going on ahead.
 
Marius watched as the Redboots arrived at a clearing in Rumbledown where several tents and a canvas awning had been put up. Under the awning, boxes and barrels were stacked neatly, awaiting their owners. The officer tilted his head towards the stack, and one of the Enforcers knocked over a crate. With a clatter, vegetables scattered everywhere, rolling in the mud. On the alert, their batons drawn, the troops waited.
 
Marius first thought the space was a collection of market stalls until he spotted a makeshift fireplace and a large pot. This was the site of a communal soup kitchen, and these guys were looking for trouble. From his hiding place, he could see shadows, moving in the shadows, picking up rakes, carrying pipes, all drawn to clearing. A rock flew out of the darkness, hitting a guard. In response, another crate tipped over, spoiling the contents.
 
A man crept along the alley where the group hid, reaching for something hidden in his jacket. He spotted Marius, started, then thought better of it and showed Marius a cypher. He covered his eyes with his free hand before pulling a pin and lobbing the cypher high into the group of Enforcers. Forewarned, the group covered their eyes as a bright white light filled the area, blinding the soldiers. The shadows erupted from their hiding places with a roar, and the battle was on.
 
Marius ran in with the locals, lighting up his fists before smacking the blinded officer in the face. Jaden ran in next, activating a spacial distorter and placing it on her belt. Suddenly, the distance between Jaden and everything twisted and distorted, making it hard to determine where she was. Nox, awoken by the yell, rolled out of Fureva’s arms and slunk into the shadow. When Nox was clear, Fureva targeted one of the Enforcers with her Shattering shout before running in.
 
The soldier’s eyesight was starting to clear as Marius hit the officer again before dodging aside to the officer’s staff, its tip smacking the ground with a spark of electricity. Taking advantage of the officer’s miss, Marius hit him in the side of the head for good measure. The officer’s eyes flickered, and he fell unconscious to the ground. Jaden threw one of her coma detonators among the four Enforcers. Two of the Enforcers slumped to the ground, conscious.
 
A mob of locals surrounded the other two guards, hacking at them with metal poles and machetes. The Enforcers easily block the blows, one of the locals receiving a hit with a baton to the chest and going down. The force of Fureva’s shout rocked the other, and barely kept his feet. Seeing his companions in the coma gas, he pulls one out, slapping him awake.
 
Keeping to the shadows, Fureva moved position and sent another Shattering Shout. Nox moves out of cover to find her targets before sending three psychic bursts. One hit, the enforcer waking his friend. The others missed their targets. The officer down, Marius, moved to help the locals with the Enforcers. Though his blow missed, he quickly dodged the Enforcer’s baton, gaining a concerned look from the guard. What should have been an easy fight for the Redboots was becoming a death trap.
 
Moving in on the unconscious soldier, Jaden tried disabling his weapons. But the technology was unfamiliar to her, and for a moment, she was unsure what she was looking at. It allowed the awakened Enforcer to scramble to his feet and attack Jaden. Electricity sparked, and Jaden yelped in shock. The Enforcer on Marius swung his baton again, frustrated as Marius side-stepped the blow. The third Enforcer went to attack Jaden. She knew the device's secrets this time and reached up, tearing away a power capacitor from the side. Sparks jumped from the disabled weapon to the Enforcer, making him drop it in the gloom.
 
Seeing Fureva in the shadows, a soldier charged, their baton tip flashing. He hit her in the torso and she giggled as the electricity tickled her harmlessly. Silently, they looked at each other, Fureva smiling down on the young soldier, staring up at the imposing woman. In the distance, Fureva’s shattering shout went off again, leather armour exploding, the enforcer’s chest collapsing under the force.
“I think we need to talk. Time for you to give up, don’t you think?” She said to the guard. From the shadows, Nox telepathically linked to the guard.
I can kill you with my mind, She said. The guards’s legs went to water. He promptly dropped his baton and ran.
 
The locals hacked at the guards with their pipes and rakes, making no impact. In the thick of the fighting, Marius jumped over to Jaden’s side, taking on the guard whose weapon she had disarmed. The movement allowed Jaden to pick up the officer’s staff, a long but light piece of metal that moved well in the hand. She swung it around experimentally as the Enforcer dove for his second unconscious friend.
 
Fureva shook her head, watching the guard flee. Putting on her burst of speed, she quickly caught up and grabbed the guard by the scruff of the neck.
“I don’t think you should run alone in Rumbledown. Why, you never know who you might meet.”
The soldier, defeated in battle and in his attempt to flee, raised his hands.
“Wise move, “ Fureva grinned and returned to the soup kitchen with her prize.
From the shadows, Nox shot her psychic bursts. One missed its mark, and one hurt the Enforcer fighting Marius. The third, she hunted for a target and saw Fureva leading one back by the scruff of the neck. She hit him with only a moment’s hesitation, sending a sharp spike through his brain and making his nose bleed. Knowing these guards would threaten her friends if any of them got back to report, Nox found herself slinking away into the shadows, now to evade Fureva and the other’s good intentions.
 
Marius stood above the guard with his chest caved in. The last of the unconscious Enforcer rose to his feet, blocking the attacks from local makeshift weapons. Jaden swung her new toy around and zapped him from behind.
 
“Are these attacks common?” Marius asked a local during the lull in fighting.
“No, not really.”
“You should get out,” Jaden said over their shoulder.
“Get out? To where?”
 
At this time, an older woman appeared, moving through the locals and checking how they were.
“Aunty, what should we do?”
“It seems to me, my loves,” She said in a slow drawling voice that would not be hurried, “That we should move the kitchen.”
 
The locals not injured by the Enforcers immediately got to work, repacking what food could be salvaged and bringing down the tents.
“You know this district?” Marius asked the woman named Aunty, “Can you get the message out about the attack?”
“Already done,” She smiled, “Thank you for your aid. I don’t know you, do I?”
“Marius, this is…most of my group,” He gestured to Jaden swinging her new weapon and Fureva holding an enforcer up in the air.
 
“That was very unpleasant,” Fureva said to the guard, who could do nothing but flail in the air, “What was that all about?”
“Night…patrol..to…draw out…troublemakers.” The armour was choking off the Enforcer’s airway, making breathing hard.
“There were troublemakers. Why did you bring them?”
“Suspicions of…Patchwork dream …in area. We…lure them out…capture.”
“Where did you get the information about the Patchwork dream?” Marius and Jaden now joined in the conversation with the defeated guard.
“Don’t know…you’d…have to ask…him,” The guard gestured to the officer.
“It was his idea?” Jaden asked.
The guard nodded.
“Look, you seem a nice young man with a brain in your head…” Fureva said consolingly.
Yeah, it's coming out his ears, Nox commented through the telepathic network, though no one could see where she’d gone.
“Why did you think you could get away with something like this?” Jaden asked, furious at the arrogant violence on display that night.
“Done it before. They’re afraid of us.”
“Yeah, ants are afraid of a boot but can swarm.”
By this time, the Enforcer was fighting for breath and utterly defeated had nothing to say.
 
The three of them question the guard about his knowledge of Redboot, particularly the jail of which he had a working knowledge. Meanwhile, Nox slunk around the group to the injured local. A baton hit him in the chest early in the fight, and he was lucky to be still alive. The burn from the baton wasn’t bad and Nox informed those taking care of him he should rest, but would be fine. She then turned her eyes to the unconscious officer left alone as her friend played with his companion. No one saw her pull out her worm tooth blade and move towards him.
 
“Unusual prisoners from out of town, where would they be held?” Marius asked, thinking about where Trask could be in the block of stone that made up the prison.
“What…did he do?”
“Wait tables mostly. Be himself generally. He was hauled away by you lot and hasn’t been seen since.’
The Enforcer shook his head, a difficult task when held up by only your clothing, “Doesn’t…make sense…”
Marius described Trask, and the guard shook his head again.
“I don’t know him.”
 
Fureva shoved the guard against a wall. The makeshift structure, already being torn down for transportation, fell with a clatter. The guard moaned in fear.
“Who would know?” Fureva asked politely.
“Ghul Vissius…”
“And whose he?”
“He’s ….scary….I stear clear…”
“Well, we won’t tell him you told us where he lives if you don’t.”
“I don’t know where he lives,” The guard wailed, now terrified, “I said, I steer clear of him….he does things…to guard. His experiments. He has a place in Highnose… has offices…second floor of the prison…extra security.”
“Experiment?” Jaden asked, now curious, “What sort of experiments?”
“I…don’t know…Exarch values him…lets him do as he likes.”
 
Fureva turned the Enforcer around the face the clearing where the soup kitchen had once stood. It was just an empty patch of wasteland with four dead bodies. The last, Jaden was sure she’d left alive only moments before, now lay in a pool of blood, a small surgical cut in his neck the only sign of violence.
 
“You have the great fortune of being the only one to survive your little expedition tonight. Aren’t you lucky,” She put him down as Jaden pulled out a rag to wrap his eyes.
“Aunty? Do you have a place for this young man?”
“I could, as long as he’s willing to behave,” She drawled back as a small caravan of carts and porters started their trek through the slums of Rubbledown.
“He could be a useful resource. Put him to work in the community.”
“Oh? What do you have in mind?”
“He could train your population to use their weapons better.”
“What?”
“Yeah, give him a dummy weapon and practice attacking him.”
 
 
It wasn’t long before the group arrived at another open space appropriate to the soup kitchen’s needs.
“Aunty, would it be okay if we come by and talk to you again?” Marius asked as the locals got busy setting up the tents once more.
“Of course. I have a feeling our paths will cross again,” She smiled, seeing all those who had survived the night, “If this night had to take lives, I’m glad it was none of ours, and that’s all thanks to you and your group.”
“Yeah, four people weren’t as lucky,” Jaden commented as a thought leaked through their telepathic network.
One too few.
 
Leaving the Aunty and her helpers to start the cooking for the day, the companions headed back to the library to rest and plan.