44. Making friends in an unfriendly town

 
 
The bar was too busy for the group to make a clean escape. So they waited. Fureva-Yung sat on the ground as if meditating, all the while, her thoughts tried to make sense of the noises she heard from the bar above. Marius implanted the temporal viewer and set it for the timestamp they’d collected from the Spire. Nox went through a set of shelves behind the basement door. Her tiny witch light zipped from shelf to shelf around bottles and boxes, looking for something about Trask Criton, the sion they sought. She’d just spotted something hiding behind a set of dusty bottles when Fureva-Yung sent a message through the telepathic link.
Someone is coming. Hide.
 
Fureva-Yung and Marius stepped back into the elevator, but Nox didn’t get a chance to move as the door beside her opened. She pressed herself to the wall behind the door, beside the shelving and her skin blended into the shadows. Her witch light zipped under the door, where it could hide in the light spilling from the bar.
“Now…where is it…he always knew where to find this stuff…” Said a man, bar staff by his clothing. He searched the shelves only centimetres from Nox’s unbreathing form.
“There!” he jabbed out at a dusty bottle, looked it over and returned to the bar, closing the door behind them.
Nox let out a long breath.
Gone now.
 
The other two returned to their places in the basement as Nox fished out a long handmade rope. It was made from scrap pieces of rope, rags and other materials. Carefully twisted and bound together, they made a strong rope ten metres long. Nox carefully brought it down the stairs like a rare artifact to show the others.
 
“Someone spent a lot of time on this,” She said, twisting the cobbled strands through her fingers. The dim light in the cellar picked up shiny patches, pieces glued together with an organic substance. Between the three of them, they worked out it was a congealed saliva.
 
“A rope to get down the elevator shaft,” Marius put together.
“They were trying to get to you Fureva-Yung…but they probably didn’t have their freedom,” Nox tucked the rope into her satchel, “While else make and hide a rope?”
 
Akavel wasn’t looking very friendly, especially to those who didn’t fit in.
 
 
There was nothing to be done at that moment. Fureva-Yung went back to listening to the conversations above. A five-legged creature hunting for scraps scuttled across the cellar floor.
“Marius, you’re fast. Do you think you could catch one of those scuttlers?” Nox pointed out the little creature. Realising it had been spotted, the scuttler crept behind a set of barrels.
“No problem,” Marius said, side-stepping around the barrels to trap the creature. Worried for its preservation, the creature dodged around a half-empty barrel. Marius leaned against it, but the lighter barrel couldn’t hold his weight and tipped over. Marius and the barrel made a clattering ruckus, drenching Maruis in old ale.
“Marius shush!” Said Fureva-Yung from her cross-legged position on the floor.
 
They quickly scrambled for the lift, but no one came to investigate this time. After a few minutes, they went back to what they were doing.
“What did you want that creature for anyway?” Marius asked, playing with the Temporal viewer.
“I think I can control it. Send it into the bar while I watch and listen from here,” She replied, looking up at the door to the bar.
“You could have just used stasis on it, then I could get ready to catch it.”
“Oh yeah.”
 
Marius turned on the temporal viewer and described the view. He could see Trask Criton tapping a cask to fill a smaller jug with ale. As the jug filled, he worked on the rope, twisting a rag into it and making it fast with his spit. There was noise from the bar, and he quickly hid the rope before two armoured individuals clattered down the stairs. Their boiled leather armour and red boots mark them out as Imperial guards, one holds a staff behind his back.
 
“The ale will be up in a moment,” Trask said, not turning around. The soldiers move closer, saying nothing. When they didn’t respond, he turned to see them standing close behind.
“What seems to be the problem?” He asked. The guards circled closer.
Trask lunged for one as the second brought the baton down on him. He collapsed, and the guards quickly grabbed him under the arms and dragged him upstairs and out of sight.
 
“So he was working here? Known to the staff and owner?” Nox asked as she spied the starfish vermin again and zapped it with stasis.
“It looks like it. He was planning on leaving, maybe through the elevator but could only make the rope secretly.” Marius walked over to the scuttler, and when Nox dropped the stasis, he grabbed a hold and brought it back.
“And the guards said nothing about why he was being taken?” Fureva-Yung asked as Nox touched the wriggling creature, and it suddenly went still.
“Not a single thing, it was creepy,” Marius said with a grimace of distaste as Nox sat blank-eyed and set the little creature under the door and into the bar.
 
The view through the little creature’s swivel eyes was low and extremely wide-angled, with little colour to help identify what Nox was seeing. The room was just like the Temple's Great Hall to Erinai, though several walls had been knocked down to open the space. Nox moved the scuttler from table to chair to bench, keeping under cover and listening for conversations. A giant foot swung above, the swivelling eyes picking up the movement before he came crashing down to stomp. Nox jigged the creature sideways under a table out of range of the boot, leaving a clear string of swearing behind.
 
She could see several groups of people drinking and eating from under the table. Most seemed to have the heavy boots of industrial workers, though there were other knots of guards clearly identifiable by the boots described by Marius from the Temporal viewer. They were commiserating with each other about having caught gate duty all week straight. They didn’t speculate on the reasons for their presence at the gate, but something had changed in their routine. Nox noticed two individuals sitting by themselves, wearing their cloaks up inside, covering skin splotchy like Milton’s with long sleeves. They sat separate from the others, quietly talking to each other.
 
She sent the scuttler weaving under tables and chairs until she could hear the conversation of the two cloaked men.
“...not seeing him around…”
“...something happened to him?”
“...but what? We can't lose him after what he’s done for us.”
“He has enough friends that he couldn’t just be taken,”
“...reckon they're onto him?”
“Then they’re onto us. We better go.”
 
“They’re leaving!” Nox said in her own voice after repeating what she heard from the two men.
“Right, sounds like it might be my turn,” Jaden smirked, grabbing a teatowel and climbing the stairs, “Just tell me when the door is clear.”
 
With a sign from Nox when no one was watching the door, Jaden left Bellyache behind and slipped through and into the bar, teatowel on her shoulder. She grabbed a damp cloth from behind the bar and started clearing tables. The bar was large, and the few staff well scattered in the busy space, so no one noticed as she made her way out of the bar and followed the two cloaked men.
 
Jaden was alone. She couldn’t feel the ever-present connection with Nox in the back of her mind. It felt good to be alone with her thoughts for a change. Happily, she weaved through the crowds, passing storehouses, smithys and other heavy industrial factories. Five large smoke stakes dominated the skyline ahead, black billowing clouds of smoke pumped out and hung heavy in the air around her. Her quarry were ten metres in front, heading north towards double metal gates. Quickening her pace, she caught up to them.
 
“You fellas look like you know your way around,” She said cheerfully. And she did feel cheerful, she hadn’t done something like this in years. It was fun.
The two men jumped at the sound of her voice and turned to face her, one with a dagger in their hand.
“Hey, we’re just friends out for a stroll, right?” She smiled again, “Besides, how would it look, two big burly guys like yourselves mugging an old woman?”
One man looked at the other with the dagger and made a gesture. The dagger disappeared into the cloak.
“I saw you two looking shady in the pub. If you don’t want to be seen, just don’t be. I’m Jaden.” She held out her hand. Neither man shook it.
“Ragnia,” Said the older of the two. Dagger boy said nothing and let Ragnia lead the discussion.
“I’m here looking for a tattooed friend of a friend. By your conversation, it sounded like you may be worried about them too.”
“Friend of a friend?” Ragnia asked as the three of them continued walking.
“Yeah. My friend is big and furry, occasionally pink,” The look on their faces told Jaden they had no idea who Fureva-Yung was.
“Look, I’m looking for Trask Criton. Insect-looking guy, tattoo on his arm?” She gestured to her own left forearm. Ragnia seemed to relax.
“We’re looking for him too. It looks like the Red Boots took him some time in the last week.”
“Red Boots?”
“The army.”
“Right. Well, me and my friends would like to meet up with any friends of Trask. Is there a quiet time at the bar we could meet?”
“That bar? It’s never quiet,” Ragnia looked torn, “ Look, if you really want to talk, you and your friends could meet us here. But don’t leave it too late, there’s a curfew.” They were now outside the huge wrought iron gates that led to a more residential shanty town area.
“Fair. See you then.” And with that, Jaden turned around and headed back to the bar.
 
Nox, who had been straining to listen out of Jaden’s mind, suddenly tilted her head.
She’s back!
Of course. It was fun, Jaden replied, making her way to the bar, sitting down and ordering a drink.
Why did you run away?
I made a friend. I may have confused him.
She paid for her drink with her few shins and pulled out her notebook.
They say that Trask was taken by the Army within the last week. We’ve arranged to meet as soon as we can move you guys out of the cellar. They discussed plans as Jaden quietly sat and enjoyed her drink. Knowing she’d soon lose control over the scuttler, Nox brought it back into the cellar and fed it a bread crust from her bag. Fureva-Yung eyed it hungrily.
“I’m trying to make friends with this one,” Nox complained.
“I can wait.”
“Fureva-Yung!”
“Okay…” Fureva-Yung started searching the cellar for another of the creatures. It wasn’t long before another was spotted climbing up a wall. Using her fleet of foot, Fureva-Yung ran the length of the cellar before anyone had seen her go, snatching up the squirming creature and eating it noisily.
“Why am I around such noisy people, “ Nox sighed and petted her scuttler, who picked up the last of the bread crust and scuttled away behind the shelf.
 
“I’ll get another…” A voice behind the cellar door, and the group scrambled for hiding places. From in the elevator, Fueva-Yung watched as a young woman in local dress grabbed a small barrel, hefted it onto her broad shoulder and climbed back up the stairs. When the door slammed shut again, Fureva-Yung took a cypher out of her bag and turned it on.
This will take ten minutes, She said to the group focusing on the image of the woman who had just come through.
 
In the meantime, Marius was sick of the cellar. Waiting for a signal from Jaden, he, too, slipped out the door and sat beside her at the bar. She bought him a drink.
“You stink of ale.”
“All the better to blend in,” He mumbled a reply and turned on the Temporal Viewer in the bar. Marius watched as two other armoured soldiers waited outside the cellar door. When the first two stepped through, dragging Trask between them, the second two took his legs and walked him out. Marius watched the faces of the people in the bar, particularly the staff. Some saw and looked away, not wanting to get involved. Some off-duty soldiers looked on with interest. Most of the staff looked unhappy, including a well-dressed man, possibly the owner standing behind the bar. Beside him, another man looked pleased, patted his well-dressed companion on the back and followed the soldiers out.
 
Turning off the viewer, Marius glanced around and noticed one of the staff who’d shown mixed feelings during Trask's arrest. He called him over.
“Where would they have taken him?” He asked cryptically.
“Ur…who?” The guy asked, trying to look nonchalant, but the glass he was filling overflowed.
“Your associate who worked in the cellar.” Marius leaned in closer.
“The prison…over in Redboots.”
“You never had any problem with him until they took him?”
“Never. Kept to himself mostly. Stayed out of trouble.”
 
The cellar door swung open, and a tall, well-muscled woman walked out, a shadow keeping close to her side unnoticed. She walked up to the two at the bar.
“We’re fine, thanks,” Jaden said, looking up and up at the stranger before her.
It’s Fureva! Doesn’t she look amazing?
“It’s me, Fureva,” Both Nox and Fureva said at the same time, making for a telepathic/audible stereo.
 
Fureva sat down, and Nox found a hiding space below the table, and Marius told them all what he knew.
 
“He’s not here now, but I’d remember that happy customer next time I see him,” Marius finished. So Trask had been taken to prison for no better reason than being Trask. Fortunately, at least for the next hour, Fureva had her disguised cypher on. If Trask were considered a threat, what would they think of Fureva-Yung?
 
So, are we going to see Jaden’s friend or what? Nox projected from under the table. It seemed that Trask’s trail had gone cold, for now. It was time to find out what the motley crew knew. Jaden led the way out of the bar and into the street. With her impeccable sense of direction, finding the wrought iron gates didn't take long. More people were leaving the industrial area and heading into the shantytown beyond the gates. That hustle and bustle didn’t stop Marius and Jaden from noticing a figure leading against an ally wall, smoking and watching their little group. He wasn’t in armour, just a simple cloth uniform with a cap pulled down over his face, but he wore the distinctive red military boots. Marius got a good look at his face, was sure it wasn’t any from the bar the day of Trask’s arrest and let the group know. Jaden went to pull out a smoke bomb, realised she couldn’t throw it far enough to be effective, and put it away again.
 
Beyond the gates, Ragnia revealed himself behind a semi-permanent tent. He gestured for the group to follow him.
“Are we going to take our tag-along in with us?” Jaden asked just as the man in the military cap crushed out his cigarette and walked away.
They joined Ragnia inside the gates.
“We’ve been followed,” She told Ragnia, giving him the man’s description. Ragnia just shrugged.
“Could be the Inspector. He won’t follow into Rubbledown….”
TWANG!
Nox, who had been trying to go unnoticed this whole time, tripped up on one of the guide ropes for the shanty tent. The building’s metal sides rattled loudly in sympathy with the rope, and a man clad only in a vest and shorts ran out. Nox instantly blended into the shadows, disappearing. The man looked at the rest of the group, who were walking away.
“Did you just hit my house?” The near-naked man yelled. inspecting the guide rope just above Nox’s head. The other shrugged and kept moving, and the man satisfied his house was fine, returned inside. Nox quickly scampered after the others.
 
“This is my friend, Fureva,” Jaden introduced, and Fureva showed Ragnia her tattoo.
“Yeah, just like Trask,” He looked up as Nox got off the ground and ran after the group, “Is that one alright? Is she always so strange?”
“Yes,” All three responded at the same time.
“Okay,” He returned to the subject at hand, “Trask is being held by the military over a Reboot, it’s a military area just north of Ironglow, about half an hour's walk from here.”
“Would you say that getting him out would be difficult for four determined individuals?” Marius asked, scoffed and gave a cold little smile.
“Yeah, I’d say quite a bit.”
“Where are we going now?” Fureva asked.
“More friends who’d like to meet you.” His tone was conversational, but in the present circumstances, the wording was ominous.
 
Do you think you could use your big hole to aid in the Trask extraction? Marius asked, a whole conversation happening under the one with Ragnia and Fureva.
What large hole? Nox asked, confused. Fureva-Yung was the one for making holes in things.
Your hole, He replied, miming her concentration when reshaping metal and stone.
Not large, She said with some frustration, as Marius always seemed to expect more from her than she could do. At best, her hole was a metre tall, not even tall enough for her to walk through.
 
“The whole of Urend, what the Imperium call Akavel, is surrounded by a wall, and there’s only one way out, and that’s in Redboot, ” Ragnia said in response to Fureva’s tactical queries about the city's layout.
“How many Redboots are there?”
“Huh?! Thousands.”
“And your people?”
Ragnia hesitated momentarily, “You must understand, most of us aren’t fighters, but there’s a few thousand.”
 
Picking up on the hesitation, Nox started reading Ragnia’s mind.
How much can I really trust with these strangers? The Patchwork Dream?
 
He’s part of a larger group to help the people. He doesn’t know if to trust us, She told the others.
Fine, but we’re not here to free the oppressed workers, Fureva replied, and Jaden agreed.
I’m always ready to free oppressed workers, Marius added.
Can’t we do both? Nox suggested, It could be a good distraction.
I am not starting a workers' revolt just for a distraction! Marius now complained.
It was just an idea.
But do we really want to get involved? Jaden asked.
To Ragnia, Nox sent, The Imperium is a threat to all. These people are your best hope.
Furevea scratched her back, pulling off a tick. Discovering the tasty treat, she popped it into her mouth just as Ragnia heard Nox’s internal words. He grimaced, shook his head and continued.
 
“Look, I’m part of a larger organisation called the Patchwork Dream. It’s a group of cells that work together all across the Imperium. Our mission is to preserve Urend history and free the Subrim from the Imperium.
“It seems like our aims align, “Fureva said, “Tell me, who is the leader of the Imperium?”
“Is it an evil shard?”
“What?”
An Artificial Intelligence that hates all living beings and hides in all technology.
“Ur, no. I don’t think the Parakis have a lot of technology.”
Good.
 
“Who are the Parakis?”
“Those born to the Zirim Empire, in the well-looked-after seat of power. Now that I’ve trusted you with all of this, let's go somewhere else.” Ragnia turned off, heading towards a grand old building that had once been flanked by impressive statues. Crossing the threshold, it was easy to see hundreds of people sleeping rough in the high-ceiling hall of the building. He took them across to a corner and revealed a two-metre square stone trap door.
“A little help?” He asked, grabbing a rope. Fureva grabbed his and the rope for the opposite side and easily pulled the solid block out of its mounting. Ragnia looked from the block to Furvea.
“This was our library. Though much of it was destroyed in the invasion, what we’ve been able to save is kept safe here.” He gestured to to the hole. A flight of steps lead down into a lit space below.
 
Below the heavy walls of the library and the sleeping bodies, a whole world was at work. Ragnia led them passed a bench where torn fragments of books were lovingly sewn and glued back together. At another set of tables, people were writing out books, making new copies for distribution.
“Other cells share their books with us; in turn, we copy what we can and send out to them.”
“Do you have a map of the town?” Fureva asked, and Ragnia led them to a wall where a large map detailing the six wards of Akavel or Urend. Rubbletown, the Shanty community of the original Subrim, was by far the largest of the six. The smallest, Hishnose, where the leadership lived. Between the two, Redboot and the gate to the outside world.
 
“What can you tell us about our captured friend? Did Trask’s appearance in town cause a stir when they first arrived?”
“Initially, yes, there was a bit of a stir at first. Somehow Trask got on the good side of Alric, the Zirium owner of the bar. It protected him from official trouble for a while.”
“So, he’s been there for a year. The Redboots knew he was there the whole time, why arrest him now?”
Ragnia shrugs his shoulders.
“This Alric, does he wear good clothing, look a little like this?” Marius asked, describing the man with mixed feelings towards Trask’s arrest.
“Yeah, that sounds like him.”
 
A crashing sound from a room beyond made everyone jump.
“It works! It works!” A woman with a cloud of red curls held back by a large set of goggles with multiple attached lenses rushed up to Ragnia and the group.
“This is Trilly. Trilly, what have you concocted now?”
“Wonder of wonders!” The woman said excitedly, “I can make plants grow really, really fast.”
Both Nox and Jaden perked up at the concept of a device to grow plants quickly.
“What? Trilly, why?” Ragnia was not as impressed until Trilly leaned and whispered, “Mason Breaker Briar?”
“Oh!”
“That sounds like a plant, what does it do?” Asked Jaden and Ragnia to introduce the group.
“They’re here to help, Trilly.”
“Marvelous! Yes, Mason Breaker Briar grows everywhere. It is particularly good at getting into cracks and breaking masonry. Thus its name.”
 
Trilly stepped back and gestured through a door into the next room. The whole group leaned around the door to see a riot of vines, brambles and leaves growing from a broken pot on a table across the room.
“I must get back to work, but look at this place! It’s amazing!”
“Would you like me to pull the plant out for you?” Fureva asked and, one-handed, grabbed the short trunk now growing from the tabletop.
“Ah no, I will take too…” Trilly started protesting Fureva yanked the roots from the table and pulled the vines down from their purchases around the room. Flakes of brick and mortar rained down with the vines.
 
“Would you like some help improving the design?” Jaden asked, itching to see how this new invention of Trilly’s worked.
“Of course, many hands…and all that! What do you have in mind?”
“Well, for a start, to save your workshop more damage, maybe a delay device?”
 
Marius yelped, clutching his head. Where the cat’s eye cypher had grafted to the side of his head, there was now a raw, slowly bleeding hole.
“Oh! That was clever, how did you do that then?” Trilly asked as Marius dabbed at his injured face.
“A cypher I was using broke, that’s all,” He said, trying to cover the already healing skin at the site.
“But you had it connected, yes? I wish I could do that!” She pulled her goggles off her head, and her red curls were now free to fly free, “I have all these, and they never seem to be enough.”
“You need more magnification,” Jaden said, “And a work light behind it. I can fix you up with a good strong working light, but we need something for the lens.”
“I’ve got something,” Nox piped up, pulling from her satchel a piece of the curved diamond glass from the pyramid.
 
Between Jaden’s instruction on how the lens should work and Nox’s shaping skill, after ten minutes, they had a high-quality len, polished and ready for light.
 
Ragnia laughed, “You’re incredibly strong!” He pointed at Fureva, who took the compliment with a bow, “You can talk with Trilly as….as if she makes sense.”
“But she does make very good sense. She just needs a little direction,” Jaden defended.
“And you can do….that with what…your mind?” He turned to Nox, who backed up at first until she saw the other’s smiles. She nodded silently.
“I’ve made some good friends today.”
“Oh yes,” Fureva agreed, “And Marius is really good at digging.”