While the battle raged near the coast, ten people quickly made their way back up the river towards the Blue Guild, hoping that the cover of the trees would shield them from the view of the invaders. Two of them hitched a ride with a Mage; Ford stood in front of Erwan, as his hands were hurt from holding the entity while wearing the modified Teaga gloves (Stan took the gloves off his brother and stuffed them in the pockets of his robe next to his useless hearing aid) and Stan was partnered with another Mage. Between them was a Hover Disc that was stretched longer than Stan and Ford's Hover Boards; this was done to accommodate Maegella lying down and Gelvin standing up by her feet, steering the Board.
Since the Disgraced One was forcibly removed from her, Maegella had not regained consciousness. Ford kept looking between her and the sides of the woods where they could hear the ships crash. He wondered how Darreon was holding up; he was sure he will never forget the expression on Darreon's face when he offered to replace Maegella as the volunteer.
More importantly, did Dipper, Mabel, Wendy and Soos get to the Springs on time? Were they safe at the Blue Guild?
Ford looked ahead and spotted something smoking on his right.
"There's a crashed ship ahead," he said, as loudly as possible without actually shouting. "Everyone, slow down and make a turn to avoid it!"
They followed Ford's suggestion. As they passed the ship, Ford looked at it; if he wasn't mistaken, they seem to be facing the nose or the front of the craft. What looked to be the cockpit—which had glowing lights in strange patterns—was exposed: there was no one inside.
Ford looked around. "Where's the pilot?"
"Look out!" someone yelled.
Ford turned to his right and saw a large shape jump out from the trees and land on three members of their party: Stan and two Mages crashed to the ground. Gelvin nearly lost his balance and had to make an emergency landing with Maegella a few feet away from the crash site.
"STAN!" He turned his head to Erwan. "Erwan, turn around! We have to help them!"
Erwan complied, and they did a U-turn and landed on the bank. Two Mages were pointing their staff at a broad-shouldered humanoid wearing a suit of overlapping, mud-colored plates that covered it from head-to-toe, reminiscent of an armadillo's armor. The being was wrestling with Stan on the ground, who seem to be putting up quite a fight. Stan moved his head just in time before the being's fist punched the ground. He retaliated by punching his opponent, snapping their head back and sending their faceplate flying into the water.
Stan and the Mages gasped as they looked at the newly exposed face. Erwan pointed his staff at the back of the pilot and fired off a green spell. To his horror, the spell simply bounced off the armor and shot off towards the trees. The being placed a hand around Stan's throat, choking him, as it turned around to find who fired the spell. Erwan and Ford just stared; the face scowling back at them was barely human, with wide yellow eyes and covered in green scales.
"Come any closer, and I break his neck," the pilot hissed in a low voice. Ford felt something cold in the pit of his stomach as the creature squeezed his brother's neck. Stan started choking and his face changed color.
"Don't hurt him, damn it!" Ford growled as the pilot grabbed Stan by the lapels of his robes and hoisted him up. Stan's feet were dangling about a foot off the ground.
"Stop the giant," spat the pilot. "Stop the giant or I kill him."
This request was met with silence. Ford and Erwan looked at each other.
"The Guardian cannot be stopped," Erwan explained firmly, looking at the pilot in the eye. "Not while you threaten us with this invasion."
"You lie," the pilot growled. "You have magic. You can make it move, you can make it stop!"
"It doesn't work like that," Ford said through gritted teeth. He knew what information Erwan was withholding from the pilot. He tried not to look behind him as he continued, "Your attack here activated the giant! Call off the invasion and the giant will stop."
The yellow eyes narrowed at Ford. "No. If you will not stop it, we will finish it. We will finish you all."
Ford stared at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Weapon…battleship…"
Ford whipped around. Gelvin sat next to Maegella, who had opened her glowing eyes. She spoke in a hoarse voice; every word she uttered seem to take so much effort for her to say.
"Can decimate…life…must not…let…weapon…here…"
"She knows," the pilot snarled. Ford turned around in time to see the pilot throw Stan at the two Mages behind him before walking towards Maegella. The Mages jumped sideways; one of them raised her staff and slowed down Stan's descent, gently placing him near the wreckage of the space craft. "How does she know?!"
"Keep away from her!" Ford growled. Erwan raised his staff and fired off more spells at the pilot, but they simply bounce off his armor.
"Don't point your staff at him!" Ford shouted. "Put a spell on something else!"
Unfortunately, the pilot reached Erwan before he could follow Ford's advice and backhanded him across the face, sending the Green Mage tumbling down. Ford roared and tried to tackle the pilot's side. The pilot merely grunted at the impact; Ford felt like he broke his shoulder instead. The pilot elbowed Ford aside, making Ford see stars as he let go of his target and fall painfully to the ground.
"No," Ford wheezed as he tried to get up. The pilot was a few feet away from Gelvin and Maegella…
Suddenly, they hear a faint, shrill sound. Ford and the Mages looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, but then they hear a howl. It came from the pilot; he dropped to his knees and started screaming in agony.
"Aaaaah! Make it stop! Make it stop!" the pilot screamed as he yanked his helmet off, exposing his scaly head. He clapped his hands to the sides of his head and kept on howling. "I give up, just make it stop!"
Two Mages assisted Ford to his feet. Another Mage approached the pilot and picked up his helmet, which he gave to Ford. Ford put the helmet close to his ear. The shrill sound was coming from it.
"It's not that bad," Ford said, looking down at the pilot twitching in agony. "It's annoying, but not that bad." He initially thought the pilot was being overdramatic, and his helmet is far away from him…
"It is agony!" screamed the pilot. "It is drilling into my brain! Make it stop!"
Ford stared at him.
"Hyperacusis?" Ford murmured. "He's sensitive to a particular frequency."
"What is causing it?" asked Erwan, who was back on his feet. "Where is the sound coming from?"
"I know what's causing it," Stan called out to them. Ford turned around and found his twin standing next to the crashed ship. He was holding something up in the air.
"Stan!" Ford called out. He jogged up towards his brother. "Are you okay?"
Stan waved off his brother's concern, seeing how Ford was holding his shoulder. "I'm okay; ugly over there didn't crush my windpipe. Did you break your shoulder?"
Ford waved aside his brother's worry. "It's nothing serious, it's just sore. What did you find, Stan? What's driving the pilot crazy?"
Stan stretched his hand out to his twin. Ford looked at the thing in his brother's hand. "Your hearing aid," he said, picking it up. He holds it close to his ear and hears the faint shrill sound.
Stan nodded. "I was looking inside the ship to see if there's something we can use on that creep when I hear the feedback coming from my pocket. I fish it out and lo and behold, I see the thing turned back on again!"
"That's…not possible," said Ford, staring at the hearing aid. "Rothezar's magic cancels out technology."
"I know that; you explained that to me when I told ya my hearing aid stopped working yesterday," said Stan. He steps aside and sweeps and arm over the cockpit. "Whaddaya call this then?"
Ford takes a step forward and peers inside. Against the black backdrop, the console glowed with a sickly green light. The illuminated little shapes under the large ones looked to be some kind of text. In the middle of the front panel was a glowing green pyramid nestled in a slot. Ford reached in to touch it.
"Careful, Ford!" Stan whispered as his brother grasped the pyramid firmly—ignoring the stab of pain in his injured hand—and pulled it out of its socket. When he did so, the light in the cockpit went out, but the shrill sound still emanated from Stan's hearing aid.
Ford looked at the pyramid, then at Stan's hearing aid, then at the distressed pilot trying to bury his head in the bank, and then towards the cockpit of the downed ship. He started piecing the clues together…
"I can hear you thinking from here, Sixer," Stan murmured. "Whaddaya got?"
Ford raised his head and looked at them.
"First things first." He pointed to the pilot and said, "Tie up that creep…"
XXXXX
Several minutes later, Gelvin and three other Mages escorted Maegella to the Blue Guild and the scaly pilot was bound tightly with ropes before Ford told Stan to step away from him with the hearing aid. Stan had to walk over ten feet away from the ship before his hearing aid stopped working.
The Mages brought the tied-up pilot to Ford. The reptilian-like humanoid looked at Ford with baleful but wary yellow eyes.
Ford frowned at him and raised the green pyramid. "Now you listen to me very carefully," he growled. "Because I'm not going to repeat this and we've had a long day. I'm going to put this back in your ship, and you are going to contact your captain or whoever is leading this invasion and tell them to stand down and leave this planet alone. We are going to give you an hour to round up any survivors around this planet before you get the hell out of here and never look back. Is that understood?"
"Why would I do that?" grumbled the pilot.
Ford grinned evilly at him. He cupped a hand to his mouth and yelled, "HEY STAN! COME OVER HERE A SEC!"
Ten feet away from them, Stan produced an identical evil grin and started walking back. After five paces, his hearing aid comes back to life, and the pilot started squealing in pain.
"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT!" he howled. "I'll do it! Please, make it stop!"
Ford gave the pilot a benevolent smile and raised a hand to Stan. Just as they discussed, Stan walked backwards until the feedback stopped. Ford turned to reach in and place the pyramid back in its slot, reactivating the console. He nodded to the Mages. At his signal, the Mages removed half the bindings from the pilot until only his legs and half his arms were free. His upper arms were still tightly bound to his torso, and the Mages were pointing their staffs at him.
The pilot could easily overpower them if he tried, but there was still the threat of the other man holding what he thought was an auditory torture device…
XXXXX
An hour later, it was over.
The pilot got through to the mothership in space and relayed Ford's message to them. When the captain refused to believe him and started to give orders to start the weapon, Ford waved to Stan to get him walking back to them. Because the feedback played straight through to the battleship's control room, it was immediately broadcasted throughout the rest of the fleet that entered Rothezar's atmosphere. They would hear later how the ships suddenly careened out of control over the hamlets and Guilds before either crashing or turning abruptly around and shooting back up to the skies. After giving them a sample of the horrors to come, the captain immediately called back their ships and sent out a craft that was slightly bigger than the triangular crafts to scour Rothezar for any survivors. Once they finished picking up the shipless pilots, the recon craft returned to the battleship and left Rothezar's airspace.
Ford, Stan, Erwan and the other two Mages didn't leave the crash site until their pilot was picked up and they received the final message from the captain that they were leaving for good. The Pines brothers were paired with a Mage and set off for the Blue Guild.
Along the way, Stan looked at Ford and asked, "If we can't use technology here in Rothezar, how come my hearing aid worked when I was near that ship?"
Ford looked contemplative before he answered, "It seems that these aliens have managed to combine technology and magic. That green pyramid was a battery strong enough to power a ship. It's the only way to explain how they were able to enter Rothezar's atmosphere and still fly. Somehow, that same battery managed to reactivate your hearing aid, but it wasn't working well and only produced the feedback that drove the aliens crazy."
"Huh," said Stan. "Now that the scaly bastards are gone, what's going to happen to the big stone giant and Maegella's friend?"
"I'm not sure," replied Ford. To Erwan, he asked, "What do you think will happen, Erwan?"
Behind him, the Green Mage looked grim. "I am not certain. No one is certain until we find where the Guardian rests."
XXXXX
They arrived at the Blue Guild and found that it was crowded. The Blue Mages, from the oldest Maesters to the teenaged trainees, were on double duty attending to all the injured folk that arrived at their gates. The most seriously injured were immediately led to the Springs, while the patients who weren't in critical condition were attended to by the local medicine men and women who arrived at the Guild to help out. These non-magical Healers were assisted by the youngest trainees, who walked all over the place getting bandages, splints, and potions where needed.
Fortunately, there were a couple of familiar faces who were waiting for them by the entrance to the Guild Hall.
"Mr. Pineses!" Soos yelled when he saw Stan and Ford. He ran up to the two brothers and hugged them at the same time. Soos immediately let them go when he heard Ford groan in pain.
"You're hurt!" said Wendy, rushing up to them. "Maester Arra told us to take you guys straight to the Springs."
"How's Dipper?" Stan and Ford asked at the same time.
Wendy smiled. "He's going to be okay!" she said. "They just got Dipper out of the pool and took him to a recovery room. Mabel's with him now."
At the news, Stan and Ford looked at each other and laughed in relief.
"Oh thank goodness!" said Ford. He looked at Wendy and Soos and asked hopefully, "Did you see Maegella?"
"We did," said Soos. "She arrived just as Dipper got out of his pool. They placed her in the pool next to him and, well…"
Soos stopped talking and looked at Wendy.
"What is it?" asked Stan.
Soos looked at Ford and Stan.
"I think you'd better see it in person."
They arrived at the mouth of the cave leading to the Healing Springs. There was a lot of traffic: the healed people were led out by companions, and the Mages magically carried the injured inside. They found Sofi standing at the mouth of the cave. She took one look at Ford and beckoned to them.
"I will take you to an available pool," she said, standing next to Ford to assist him. It looked like all the available pools on the first level were occupied. Ford had never seen the Springs so crowded. Sofi led them to a wooden set of stairs leading to the second level of the Springs. "The Maesters advised me to take you to Maegella's pool as soon as you arrive."
"What happened, Sofi?" asked Ford. "Did the pool not work?"
He looked up; in front of them, a crowd of Mages and Maesters surrounded one of the pools. Only one of them wore gray robes. Gelvin turned around and broke free from the crowd to meet them halfway.
"Gelvin, what's going on?" Ford asked.
"We are not sure," replied the Maester. He led them to the pool, and the blue-cloaked bystanders parted to let Ford and Stan through.
The Pines brothers looked down. Maegella floated in the pool, looking serene. She was still wearing the silvery robes from her brief stint as the holder of the Sigil, but that wasn't what had the Blue Mages buzzing.
"Is the water supposed to glow like that?" asked Stan.
Standing beside him, Maester Galen looked at Stan and Ford.
"No," she replied.