58. In defence of Tiltspire

And so, a week past at Tiltspire.
 
Fureva-Yung spent some time acquiring skins of small animals and asked Walara to make... a thing.
“It should have seven tentacles, three eyes, bat wings, but a huge suction mouth, a small rabbit tail and if you could dye it this pink colour,” She handed Walara a vial of Jaden's pink dye.
“Urgh….sure. And stuffed, like a pillow?” Walara picked up a handful of wadding, a mixture of material scraps, fuzz from the bullrushes down by the lake and dried herbs.
“Yes, it should be soft and squishy.”
“If you say so.”
She was one of the heroes of Tiltspire, after all. When it came to Jaden, Marius, Fureva-Yung and Nox the community had decided that anything they wanted was for the betterment of all. Even stuff monsters
 
At night, as the community gathered for the evening meal, Nox would bamf back to Tiltspire. With Jaden busy, Fureva-Yung looking after Trask and Marius off with Temila, Nox had finally sought out friends her own age. Raslin Oslo was an obvious choice. One of the originals who fled Cerelon with Nox and the others, he’d always ‘just been there’. With Nox exploring further and expanding the community’s knowledge of the world around them, Raslin was one of the first to ask for information about further afield and they quickly became friends.
“Did you make it to NiQuantin today?” He asked as soon as he spotted her amongst the adults getting food.
“No, it's still too far even to teleport,” She smiled a deprecating smile, lamenting her lack of progress, “I did get to a small island of crystal, the same crystal from the caverns.”
“Caverns?” Alira Verve asked, a dritman’s daughter who had just recently joined Tiltspire. Beside her Quezel Arris, a Highside Deboubter, looked on spectically.
“Yes, caverns made of crystal, all made when the Tiltspire was damage long ago,” Nox nodded and turned back to Raslin, “Do you remember Mother and all her little babies? I wonder how they are?”
“You met someone in the crystal caverns? Who? What were they like?”
“Mother was a giant worm that ate the crystal. She was very sweet, I miss her a lot.”
“Talking to worms? You know this why my Mother says that Marius is a bad influence on you.” Quezal scoffed.
“Why? I talk to you,” Nox grinned. Raslin and Alira tried not to laugh at Quezal’s expense, but it was hard not to tease the High-doubters. They knew nothing.
“Come on,” Nox grabbed Quezal’s arm and dragged him over to the cook fires, “Have you eaten yet? I’m starved.”
 
Marius was hearing news of his own from Temila. It was serious, and later Marius was seen walking away dazed, oblivious to everything around him.
“Marius, what’s going on? You don’t seem yourself at all. Are you sick?” Risna, his mother, finally caught his attention.
“Bug off!” He said, distractedly and wandered off into the darkness outside the cookfire’s glow.
“Why am I suddenly reminded of your father?” She mused.
 
The next morning, Nox set out to find the servitors. She camouflaged herself into the sky, pulled down the mask of her helmet and flitted out in the direction given by the scouts. Marius started heading out alone until someone reminded him of the plan to wait for Nox to come back.
“Oh, yeah…right,” He turned back around and found a place to wait and ruminate.
 
The sky was blue and the sun was warm on Nox’s wings as she sped high above the land they’d travelled by foot only a few months ago. Flying was peaceful. No, bickering, no stomping, clomping loudness, just the zip of her dragonfly wings and the whistle of the wind past her helmet. Nox allowed herself to fall into the rhythm of travel and didn’t notice the scrap of something until it slapped into her. Transparent, long and thin, it tried wrapping itself around her, but she pulled it off and flung it away. It pursued her.
What are you?
Sorry, didn’t make sense of that, Nox. What did you say? Jaden asked across the telepathic network.
I found a transparent scarf thing, its interesting.
Try to keep on task, Nox. You can play with the wildlife after we’ve got rid of the servitor.
 
Easier said than done! Nox grumbled as the creature lashed out a second time, and she had to barrel roll to stop from being embraced.
I wonder if it would make a good pet? She thought and tried touching the creature. It flitted away faster than even her.
A pet? I’m starting to doubt the wisdom of you going on these missions alone.
No chatting now, concentrating, Nox replied and muted her end of the network.
The next time the creature flew in and attacked, Nox let it wrap her. Tiny prickles, like pricky heat burned wherever the creature touched, its transparent body turned crimson.
“Urgh!” Nox Mind controlled the beast and made it let go. Now she could see into its mind, it was clear it was just some simple beast that probably captured birds for a living. Maybe she could tame it over time, but she was on a mission. The stupid thing would just attack her again as soon as the mind control ceased.
 
Suddenly Nox was aware of something dripping down her arm. The thousands of punctures the creature had inflicted on her were still bleeding, and a sheet of blood was pouring down her arm.
You’re such a pain, She told the creature and sent it off to fly in the opposite direction, Now I have to go back again and look like an idiot.
 
Nox appeared inside the hospital, blood dripping from her arm, Temila telling her to keep calm and sit down.
She was calm. She sat down. After ten minutes, when it was clear Temila couldn’t stop the bleeding, she got a runner to find Marius, the only person in town with any surgical skill. Marius took one look at it and decided minor surgery was required to strip away the poisoned flesh. In the end, no one thought Nox was an idiot and were more concerned about her going on a second time.
 
“I feel good. Marius fixed me,” She displayed her bound arm for the concerned Jaden to witness, “It will take forever to find the servitors if I don’t go. Better kill them out there than fight them here, right?”
“Yes, but no stopping to make pets, okay?”
 
This time Nox paid more attention to her surroundings and found not one but two groups of servitors walking across the grasslands close to the forest. This time she didn’t hang about and bamfed back as requested.
 
“There is good news and bad news,” Nox said as soon as everyone had gathered, “I found them. They’re a day’s travel by foot. They are travelling in two groups of four.”
Eight servitors in total, this was far more than they were expecting.
“What were their capabilities? Any new features compared to the old servitors?” Jaden asked as if ready to take notes.
Nox didn’t know what to say,”Uh, they looked different,” She shrugged. She could tell you they were servitor and she was really good at making things work for her, but to tell you what they could do by a look was not one of her skills.
“O-kay,” Jaden took a calming breath, “Let’s start with their heads, arms and legs and move on from there.”
 
From Nox’s descriptions, Jaden was able to determine that the servitors seemed purpose-built for scouting. They had a number of senses on their heads for processing visual, auditory and other sensory information. They seem lightly built, not heavily armoured but with tracks for mobility they could go over very difficult terrain quickly.
“So, built for recon, speed and perception. Easy to damage, hard to hit.” Suggested Jaden and the group acknowledged her assessment with nods all around.
“Are you ready to go?” Nox asked, and her companions instructed the three scouts to hold hands and form a circle.
 
Within moments they were out in the grasslands with four servitor looking away from them about fifteen metres away, with another group of four, fifteen metres after that. Nox had placed them right behind the furthest group and given the Tilters the element of surprise.
 
Jaden didn’t hesitate and threw the first of the Communication jamming cyphers into the centre of the closet group. Instantly, the telepathic network went down, it had done the trick. Fureva-Yung ran into the centre of the first four, loosening her chain from her shoulder as she did. Marius sent out a heatray at the nearest four but missed. He tried again, targeted something vital and blew it up. One down, seven to go. From the air, Nox sent out her psychic burst, striking only one as Jaden rushed in and disabled the first of the servitors for a minute. She took a second to comprehend how these servitors were put together, giving her a bonus for her next attack. The servitors were ready for reprisals, however. One opened a compartment on its chest, and a pulse of low-frequency energy spread through the battleground. Mentally shaken, they were stunned and swaying on their feet. All but Nox and one of the scouts were affected. Fureva-Yung was deeply affected and fell onto her back in a dead faint. The free scout rushed up to the energy emitter and swung away at it, while a servitor pulled out a thin cord and started tying up Fureva-Yung. A third servitor tried hitting Jaden, who drunkenly dodged the attack. The fourth servitor, started moving back the way they had come, obviously to inform its master the Shard.
 
Marius shook off the stun just as Nox turned in mid air and placed a statis on the servitor running away. It stopped midflight over the rocky ground.
“Watch out! They’ve been programmed to run!” He said, pulling out another jamming cypher as Jaden was once more able to focus her eyes.
“The cunning little…right, don’t let any escape!”
 
The two stunned scouts now leapt into the fight with their friend who was taking a beating from a servitor. The servitor on Jaden connected with her, making her see stars. Beside her, Fureva-Yung was coming too, and discovering herself trussed up like a chicken. On the servitor with the pulse effect, Marius placed his armoured hand and sent a heat ray through its chassis. The servitor exploded into a stinging shower of metal parts. Marius rolled away, but the prone Fureva-Yung and dazed Jaden took the full brunt of the shrapnel. One of the scouts who had been taking a beating only moments before was shredded by shrapnel impact and crumpled to the ground.
 
Leaping recklessly into the fray once more, Marius punched the servitor, tying up Fureva-Yung. He demolished the lighter armour. Something clunked inside, and the servitor dropped the cord. Above, a glint of something caught Nox’s eye. It was like Indomion, but smaller and not as bird-like in appearance.
“Ah, we have another incoming!” She pointed up as she sent another three psychic blasts at the servitors, hitting two. Jaden disabled another servitor as the two Nox hit, turned and started to run away. A scout looked to chase after them as a second looked after the injured.
“Get the frozen one!” Nox shouted from about as Fureva-Yung broke her bonds and stood.
“Get after those two!” Marius pointed out the fleeing servitors to Fureva-Yung before pulling out another jamming cypher and running after them himself.
 
From above, the flying servitor dove down, razor-sharp claws extended. Nox once more pulled her wings in and barrel-rolled out of the way, the claws whistling through the air above her head. Releasing the stasis on the first servitor, she zipped after the other two, placing stasis on one. Jaden, seeing the attack in the skies, pulled out an iotum and sent a ray after the flying servitor, hitting it in its flank. The uninjured scout, pulled out a handmade crossbow and set a shot after the fleeing servitor, only to miss. Regardless, Fureva-Yung fleet of foot soon had her ahead of the furthest of the two runners, and she once more prepared her chain for attack. The chain swung, and she overshot the attack, making her fall back and be rolled over by the fleeing servitor.
 
“Here, you’re faster!” Marius threw up the jammer cypher for Nox to catch as she zoomed past. From behind, he shot the servitor who ran over Fureva-Yung with his heat ray. The flying servitor dove again on Nox. Nox banked sharply to the left, leaving the servitor in her wake. Dropping stasis once again, she used her psychic blast to hit the two servitors on the ground but missed the flying one as it banked around for another attack. Jaden was taking the attack on Nox personally. Again, she pulled out another iotum and sent a beam after its tail. She missed but did gain the servitor’s attention.
“Yeah, here I am and I’m going to do to you what we’re doing to your buddies on the ground!”She said, waving a piece of servitor to incite the flyer.
 
Further ahead, Fureva-Yung was standing as the servitor that Nox had released from stasis came barreling towards her. She braced, but didn’t quite make it to her feet before servitor bowled her over, its tracks leaving marks across her face.
 
The disabled servitors were being hacked apart by the scouts as Fureva-Yung finally got up her chain, flying up and whipping off the head of the last servitor. In a fit of fury, she grabbed the decapitated shell of the servitor and hurled it back towards the others to dismember. The flying servitor gave up its attacks on Nox and swept low over the battlefield. A heat ray from Marius missed as it made a beeline for Jaden. Jaden stood her ground, waiting for the flyer to come into the reach. If she was going to ground that thing, she needed to touch it. Much as Nox had done that morning, she allowed the flyer to grab her, its razor claw digging into her shoulders and lifting her off the ground.
“Jaden!” Came a scream from Nox that sounded just like a bird’s cry. Jaden pulled the shock staff from her back and poked the flyer. Instantly the active surface fo the servitor's wings went loose and fluttered in the air, the flyer was disabled and falling to the ground fast.
“I got you!” Nox flew in, grabbed Jaden around the waist, and the both bamfed back to the ground, the two of them rolling to a stop as the flyer crashed lifelessly into a rockpile.
 
Marius wasted no time in collecting what they could from the servitors. Knocking off the potential enemies of Tiltspire also filled Bellyache. Jaden watched how Marius picked through the servitor’s innards to collect the rarer parts first.
“Where is Bellyache?” Jaden asked as the pile of iotum, apt clam and parts accumulated before her.
“You wanted me to teleport him as well as you, Marius, Fureva-Yung and the scouts?” Nox pouted. She didn’t look exactly taxed, even after the fight.
“There are a lot of heavy parts here. If Bellyache doesn’t carry them, you’ll need to,” Jaden replied logically, not letting the teenager’s mutinous behaviour frustrate her.
“O-kay. I’ll bamf back and get Bellyache,” Nox moaned and made to leave.
“Ah, take the scouts back with you?” Marius suggested, “You wouldn’t want them to walk back, would you?”
Nox rolled her eyes, and joined the scouts in helping their wounded friend. There was a pop as the air suddenly rushed back to the space they been and she was gone.
 
Fureva-Yung was being creative with the remaining servitor parts. Mostly outer casing, she propped them up with sticks around a campfire, making a tableau for the next scouting party to find. It filled the time before Nox returned with Bellyache.
“We’ll be able to make more Sacristan shields with this, and complete a half a dozen other projects on my list,” Jaden cooed over her notebook, showing it to Marius.
“You know I can’t make head nor tail of that stuff,” Marius said, brushing her notes aside. I’m sure you make good use of everything we find.”
 
When everything was stowed, they collected together around Bellyache and Nox bamfed the back to Tiltspire, another tale to tell around the communal fire that night. As evening approached, Fureva-Yung found Jaden sorting through her new collection of parts.
“Ah Jaden. I know you are missing your mate, so I had something made for you,” Fureva-Yung handed over the soft toy, the size of a dog with seven tentacles, three eyes, two bat wings, a large sucker mouth and a rabbit tail in the rear. Oh, and bright pink all over.
“It is called a Tu-karg and my people give them to our children when they are scared at night.
Jaden brushed her hand over the soft pink fur and marvelled at it.
“Is it really for me? Thank you, I love it.” Reverently she took the stuffed toy and gave it an experimental hug, “I think I will call it Squish-muffin. Yes, I think he is definitely a Squish-muffin.”