"Ugh, this is hopeless!" Nia moaned, flopping bonelessly against the table. "We've been at this for days with absolutely zero progress!"
Rex glanced over at the Gormotti girl, a frown on his face, as he idly leafed through the notes he had taken over their time here. As much as he hated to say it, the girl was right; for all the resources the library had, they had found almost nothing about the monster guarding the World Tree.
"I'll admit, I was expecting there to be at least a little more for us to go off of." Azurda said in agreement, pondering over the most recent book he had been working his way through. "It's remarkable just how little information there is on this beast."
They had found some, of course; a creature that large, located in the very literal center of their world, couldn't exactly evade detection even with the area it inhabited being restricted. There were always people who would try their luck approaching the World Tree, either ignorant of the restrictions, intentionally violating them, or even drifting too close entirely by accident.
Over the course of half a millennium, those chance encounters—the tales of those few who survived the ordeal, at least—had filtered back and subsequently been spread around. Mostly, they were the drunken tales of sailors in taverns, their veracity held with little regard, but there were a handful that had come from reputable enough sources to at least be considered in academic circles.
Yet, thanks to the ban on actually approaching the World Tree, little could be done to verify the facts of those reputable stories. Rather than investigating further, they had merely been recorded as-is, with only the occasional note mentioning, with more than a little regret, that no further investigation could be performed due to 'political concerns'.
It was incredibly frustrating.
"Tora think conspiracy at work." The nopon huffed, crossing his wings in front of him with confidence. "Something trying keep knowledge of monster from be discovered."
Beside him, Poppi glanced at her creator from over the lip of a book on the Guild Trade Wars. "Poppi think Masterpon jumping to conclusions." She said succinctly, not even bothering to lower her book.
"Under normal circumstances, I would be inclined to agree with Mistress Poppi." Dromarch noted, seated rather awkwardly beside the table. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly able to offer the group much assistance in their research, lacking the ability to easily turn the pages of a book. "However, the timing of the Praetorium's restriction on travel to the World Tree does seem to coincide with the first reported sighting of the serpent almost perfectly."
His eyes narrowed as he looked at one of the books near the bottom of their 'read' pile, a treatise on the Praetorium's diplomatic relations with the major powers of Alrest since the conclusion of the Judicium Wars. "I cannot say for certain, but the timing seems to be too convenient to be a coincidence."
"That doesn't make it a conspiracy, though." Rex pointed out, placing his own notes on the pile in the center of the table where they had been compiling their information. "None of the books have actually given the Praetor's reasoning for the ban in the first place. Maybe they discovered the monster first and blocked travel to keep people safe?"
Nia snorted at his suggestion. "Yeah, sure." She muttered, slowly lifting her head up from the table. "Like Indol ever does stuff for the benefit of anyone but themselves."
Poppi frowned at the comment. "Indoline Praetorium leading nation in international disaster relief and refugee resettlement." The artificial Blade pointed out. "Thirty-eight-point-two-one-nine-eight-six percent of publicly available national budget dedicated to activities regarded as 'charitable' by Poppi's database. Not see how qualify as 'not do much for benefit of others'."
"Well, um…" The Gormotti girl trailed off, taken off guard by such a literal response to her dismissal. "You see, it's more about…"
Fortunately for her, Azurda decided to take pity on the girl, coming to her timely rescue. "As amusing as it is to watch Nia shove her foot in her mouth," he chortled as the girl bristled at his dig. "I believe we would be best served remaining on topic."
"Tora not so sure about that." The nopon stated, pushing his notes to join the rest of them. "As Nia-Nia say, research topic for days, yet only find tipsy-tales and bitty-fragments. Not get anywhere by beat head against wall."
"Are you saying we should give up?" Rex frowned, glancing over at Tora. As much as he was getting discouraged by the lack of progress, he had no intention of being stopped by such a small setback as a lack of easy information.
"Nothing of sort." The nopon clarified, shaking his head. "Dadapon used to tell Tora that if stuck on problem, best solution to step back and look at from different angle. Might find answer that not apparent before."
Dromarch made a contemplative noise at his suggestion. "I believe that Master Tora may be on to something." He agreed. "We have spent the last three days processing the bulk of the information on the serpent; perhaps it is time to alter our strategy."
"That's easy enough to say, but how does that actually work?" Nia inquired, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at her Blade. "As you said, we've already gone through most of the information they have on the monster… how will 'altering our strategy' help? It's not like we can conjure new sources just by trying to change our angle."
Azurda stood up, wandering across the table as he glanced over at the pile of notes in the center. "Not conjure, no…" He muttered, pondering the issue. "But at this point, we may have assembled enough information about the creature to give us ideas about other avenues of research…"
Looking over at Rex, he continued. "Tell me, my boy… what have we learned about it so far?"
Rex leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms as he recalled the contents of his notes. "Well, not a lot." He admitted. "We know it's a serpent of some sort, obviously, but we knew that from the start."
"That's just about the only thing any of the stories could agree on." Nia grumbled, glancing over her own notes. "I mean, I get that being chased by something like that's stressful, but the details about the monster are so inconsistent that they barely even agree it exists in the first place! Even the reliable stories give completely different descriptions of its appearance!"
"Yeah, they're kind of a mess." Rex agreed. "Size, color, features… they differ so wildly between accounts its hard to believe they're talking about the same creature."
Azurda rolled his eyes. "I'm aware of that." The tiny Titan explained. "That does tend to be an unfortunate side effect of such harrowing events, as Nia so helpfully pointed out." He glanced over at Dromarch, fishing for a commiserating sentiment from his fellow surrogate paternal figure. "If you would be so kind as to continue, I do in fact have a purpose for this."
Sighing, Rex recounted more of the information. "Well, it's big, somewhere between three hundred peds and a titanped long."
"I suspect it is closer to the lower end." Dromarch commented. "The majority of the more credible reports place it closer to five hundred peds in length at the greatest."
Nia furrowed her brow at the thought. "Even that's pretty substantial for a monster." The girl said. "We've had our share of nasty encounters with Lexos before, and I don't think I've ever heard of one getting longer than maybe fifty or sixty peds at most. Something that big's going to be nasty to deal with however you go about it."
Her Blade shuddered, recalling one of those fights. "Yes, considering how unpredictable several of those incidents were, I shudder at the thought of even contemplating having to engage such a creature."
"Tora never hear of such big-big monster before." The engineer chimed in. "Seen many big monsters in past, back when stay on Mor Ardain, but never size friends describing."
Dromarch nodded in agreement. "It is difficult for monsters to exceed a certain size threshold due to the dietary requirements of such a scale." The tiger explained. "As a creature grows larger, it requires an exponentially larger caloric intake to support itself. In an ecosystem like Gormott, where food is abundant, this is not necessarily too great a hardship, which is why the Titan is able to support such a great population of Gogols and Arachno, but in more sparse ecosystems such as Mor Ardain, the only truly large monsters are either those that are able to easily access the sea, such as Pterax, spend much of their time conserving their energy, such as Aspars, or are adept at hunting the above, as in the case of Griffoxes."
"Titans are, of course, an exception to that." Azurda added in helpfully. "We subsist entirely off of ether drawn from the Cloud Sea, so we do not require an ecosystem to support us like that."
"Hmm…" Rex muttered thoughtfully, thinking over their sparse findings. "Could the serpent be a Titan, you think?" He offered. Off the top of his head, the boy couldn't think of anything they had found that would exclude that as an option, after all. "I can't imagine there's enough food to support a monster that big so far from any of the major Titans, but if it doesn't need food…"
"It isn't impossible." Azurda allowed, frowning slightly. "I hadn't considered the possibility, but that could explain the size, at least…"
"Seems a bit aggressive for a Titan, though." Nia pointed out. "I know Titan weapons can get pretty nasty, but I thought that's only when they're being directed by an operator."
Azurda chuckled at her words. "Oh, some Titans can be quite vicious, young lady." The tiny Titan stated, baring his teeth in a manner that, were he not only a foot tall and covered in fur, might have been threatening. "Most are fairly placid, of course, but certain breeds are notable for their viciousness. The Ballistaur Titans from Judicium in particular were rather infamous for their aggression." Idly, he rubbed the side of his ribcage, as if massaging an illusory wound. "I learned that one firsthand, back during my youth."
"That doesn't mean someone isn't controlling it, though." Rex muttered. He reached past the Titan, grabbing one of the notes from the center pile. "After all, some of the reports about its appearance implied it might be at least partially armored."
He quickly scanned over the information on the page, before pointing at a line a third of the way down. "Here we are. 'A dark body, covered in either scales or armor, that's either black, purple, or possibly blue."
"Not exactly a lot to go on, but that fits." Nia said. "Titans have white or gray skin, but if it's covered in armor, there would be no way to tell."
"Armoring the entire body would be troublesome, especially for a Titan that uses serpentine locomotion." Azurda mused. "But not impossible, especially if it was of Judician make. They were particularly adept at grafting armor that wouldn't impede movement onto their creations."
"What's the likelihood of that, though?" Nia countered. "Judicium fell a thousand years ago; why would one of their creations vanish for five hundred years, only to suddenly start circling the World Tree?"
Azurda shrugged in response. "Hard to say. Malos and Mythra tore Temperantia up something fierce during the war, so it is always possible that their conflict awoke something slumbering beneath the surface of the Titan."
His expression darkened as he continued. "That being said, the Indoline are descendants of the Judicians, and there have always been rumors that they have continued the work of their predecessors in secret. If anyone would be able to control one of their creations, it would be Indol."
Dromarch growled at the thought. "That would go a long way toward explaining the particular timing, as well." He rumbled, eyes fixed in the distance as he pondered. "A rogue Titan weapon claiming the seas around the World Tree at nearly the same time that the area is declared restricted by Praetor Amalthus is a great coincidence, but if he is able to control it…"
"Then it would make the world's greatest guard Rott." Nia concluded, looking over her own copy of the notes. "After all, who in their right minds would willingly try to get past something like that?"
She barely finished speaking before realizing exactly what she had said. "Present company excluded, of course." She amended awkwardly.
Rex couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the slip. "That's us, out of our right minds, one and all." The boy replied with a grin.
"Quite." Azurda agreed dryly. "That being said, if we could remain focused on trying to ensure our current bout of insanity is a survivable one…?"
On her side of the table, Poppi looked between the three of them, her head tilted in confusion. "Poppi not understand why suddenly think crazy." She murmured in contemplation.
"Poppi's sarcasm module need calibrating." Tora replied, patting the artificial Blade on the shoulder with one of his wings. "Masterpon apologize for not making sensitive enough."
"Well, if we're thinking it's a Titan weapon, we should start from there, right?" Rex suggested. "You're saying it's probably Judician, and was maybe woken up by the fighting of the Aegis War?"
"There's no way to say for sure." Azurda corrected. "However, considering the circumstances, the possibility cannot be dismissed."
"Right, right." The boy chewed his lip for a moment. "In that case, we should probably look for books about Judicium, the Aegis War, and Titan weaponry?" He suggested.
"I believe that is a sound recommendation, Master Rex." Dromarch agreed. "Perhaps we should split the topics so as to cover ground more quickly?" He suggested.
"Ooh! Tora volunteer to read about Titan weapons!" The nopon waved a wing excitedly. "Have best background in engineering! Able to understand what books say easiest!"
"Sounds like a plan." Nia said. The girl looked uncertain for a moment before continuing. "I guess I'd probably be the best one to read up on Judicium."
Rex glanced over at the girl, a look of confusion on his face. "Why do you say that?" He asked.
She met his gaze, a slight frown on her face as she explained. "I've spent the last three days reading like half of what the library has on Indol." The Gormotti girl explained, gesturing toward the pile of books beside her. "Considering Indol's descended from Judicium, that gives me some context about them."
Her eyes darted briefly over to Tora, before returning to meeting Rex's. "Besides, I've researched… stuff... about Judicium in the past." She stated evasively, clenching a hand against her concealed Core Crystal. "I might not have the first-hand experience that the old man does, but I'm hardly unfamiliar with the topic."
The implication of exactly what the girl had researched didn't go unnoticed by Rex, whose eyes widened slightly in understanding. He gave the girl a curt nod before looking over at Azurda. "I guess that leaves me with the books on the Aegis War, then." He said.
"It's probably for the best, all things considered." The tiny Titan agreed. "Your particular circumstances being what they are, you're probably the one who will get the most mileage out of those books."
Rex nodded thoughtfully. The Titan was right; considering that he was the Aegis now, it was probably important to learn about the exploits of his predecessor. Azurda had given a general overview of the conflict, but there was still a lot he didn't know.
"…You'll be willing to fill in some of the gaps, though, right?" He asked.
Azurda smirked at the boy. "Of course! If anything, I look forward to pointing out any inaccuracies I see! If nothing else, that alone should make this a bit less bland than the last few days."
A sudden sound outside of the cell, somewhere down the corridor, caused him to jolt in surprise. He fumbled his improvised 'spade', a twisted piece of metal he had managed to salvage from the damaged plate on the wall, causing it to tumble to the floor beside him.
"Is anyone coming?" He asked, shooting a nervous glance over his shoulder. If there was, he would need to be quick if he wanted to disguise his work.
Behind him, Ewan shoved his head as far between the bars of the door as they would fit, which, admittedly, wasn't particularly far. "Doesn't look like it." The Ardainian boy replied, glancing down the hallway.
Ewan twisted his torso slightly as he pulled back, only to startle suddenly as his Core Crystal, semi-exposed by the now threadbare fabric of his shirt, brushed against the cold metal of the bars.
The sudden flurry of motion as he jolted back from the door drew the attention of everyone inside the cell, the low murmur of hushed conversation dying in an instant. After how long they had been kept here, any sudden movement had come to be interpreted as possible danger.
Ewan didn't seem to realize the fear he had caused in the others. For a brief few moments, he stood frozen, his eyes locked on the luminous crystal on his chest. Even from halfway across the cell, the Osirian boy could see the discomfort in Ewan's eyes and the way his hands seemed to shake slightly as he looked down.
(Did he have the same look whenever the triangular sliver of crystal on his own chest caught his attention? He had been doing his best to ignore it, to pretend it didn't exist, that their captors hadn't done something indelible, irreversible, to them.)
(That they weren't some sort of half-Blade freaks now.)
It only took a moment for Ewan to return to his senses. The Ardainian boy averted his gaze, clenching his fists slightly as he tried to play his discomfort off. "I'm never going to get used to this thing." He muttered, turning away from the door and marching over to the corner where Rhona was curled up, as she had been since the procedure.
None of them had handled their new… features particularly well, (himself included). While the physical revulsion that Ewan displayed whenever he was reminded of it was unique to him, such dramatic reactions weren't. Rhona had barely said a word since discovering hers, although he wasn't entirely certain whether or not that was entirely due to her changes or if the disappearance of Reene was a contributing factor.
The Ardainian boy had tried to get her to open up since then, but had been met with little luck in that regard. For all of his attempts, she had done little during their free time other than stare down at her chest blankly, watching the pulsating light of her Core Crystal through the holes in her tattered dress.
Sighing, he turned away from the two of them. Helping Rhona, or any of the others, come to terms with their changes wasn't something he could do. It had taken the fullest extent of his knowledge about comforting others to pull Ewan from his breakdown, and he wasn't particularly keen to repeat that incident if he could avoid it. He was much better served trying to help them escape. That was his way of dealing with it.
He reached down, reclaiming his 'spade', and returned to his work, scraping away the mortar from the bricks lining the drainage channel.
Initially, he had been concerned that it would be harder in this new cell than in their previous one. After all, they had only been using it for a few days, so if the softening of the mortar was a reaction with the cell's waste products, there wouldn't have been time for it to penetrate the lining of the channel.
Fortunately, as far as he could tell from his brief examinations, the mortar was just as soft as it had been in the last cell. Either this one had been in use before they had been placed here (he hoped that wasn't the case—if there had been others in here before them, the fact that they were no longer here was not a heartening sign), or it was something else causing it.
Maybe the dampness of the dungeon in general had never given the mortar the chance to properly set? He wasn't sure; his understanding of masonry was limited to what little he had observed from watching bricklayers work on new construction around the orphanage.
Whatever the cause was, he had been taking full advantage of it. Three days with nothing else to do was a lot of time to work, and he liked to think he was making good progress.
Granted, there wasn't much to show yet—he had yet to actually dislodge even a single brick—but part of that was also strategic. He had been focusing on scraping away the mortar in areas that wouldn't be obvious to the outside observer, something that was more important now than it had been in their old cell.
In their previous accommodations, the only time any of the adults had shown up was to feed them, deposit more kids in the cell, or, as he now knew, transport one of the groups to the lab. Now, however, the adults came around far more frequently.
According to the kids in their neighboring cells—the very same ones that had 'vanished' from the old cell block before his own group had undergone their 'procedure'—after giving them a few days to recover from their ordeal, the adults had begun taking them away again.
Unlike before, it was only for a few hours before being returned, but the circumstances concerned him. The kids that were taken… didn't remember what happened during that time. That creepy Blade would put them under his control with those incenses of his, just like he had when they were brought to the lab, but apparently the next thing they remembered was returning to their cell, covered in ether burns and bruises.
On its own, that would be bad enough—the idea that their captors were doing even more stuff to them and they had no idea what? (It absolutely terrified him. He was distantly aware that the perpetual feeling of terror was wearing at his psyche, dulling his ability to think rationally. It was fortunate that he had already worked out a possible escape method that he could focus on.)
What was worse, though, was that when a group of kids was taken away, one of the adults would stay behind to inspect the cell they had just vacated. That part he hadn't needed to have explained to him—he had seen it firsthand when the kids from the cell directly across from them had been taken yesterday.
He wasn't sure how he was going to handle that. For the moment, he could probably smear a thin layer of mortar over the top of his work convincingly enough, but that wouldn't be an option once he had to start removing bricks to work on the ones further down. Once he reached that stage, hiding what he was doing would require replacing them in a convincing manner, and that couldn't be done on the fly.
And that assumed they wouldn't be immediately tipped off by the missing piece of sheet metal from the corner of one of the plates on the wall. He hadn't exactly been subtle about tearing it off, after all.
The best option would be to escape before the adults even got the chance to check, but he couldn't guarantee he would be ready in time. After all, he was the only one working on this, and despite the progress he was making, his lack of physical inclination was proving to be a major hindrance.
(He wasn't going to succeed, was he? Hadn't he come to that exact conclusion before, at every stage of this whole ordeal? On the ship, in the first cell… he had sworn he would escape before they moved him again, and he had failed every time.)
Scraping away at one of the bricks, he continued to ponder the problem, letting the sound of metal against stone play in the background as he worked. He had focused on the deepest end of the channel, right where it met with the wall, because he figured that would be his best option.
It had been the obvious choice, really. The channel itself was too narrow for any of them to really fit into, but against the wall it widened almost as much as it deepened, just enough for him to squeeze into if he really needed to. Not to mention, it was the most likely point where there might actually be something beyond the bricks. The pipe used to evacuate the waste had to go somewhere.
He just hoped it wouldn't require him to get through multiple layers of bricks. Based on his current pace, that could take weeks.
Deep in thought, he was paying only the slightest amount of attention to his work, so when his shard of metal struck something solid, deep inside the mortar, he was taken by surprise. Unprepared, his improvised trowel twisted in his hands, the sharp edges slicing into his palm.
"Ouch!" The Osirian boy spat, dropping the improvised tool to the ground as he cradled his injured appendage.
A sharp lance of pain throbbed from his hand, a few drops of blood seeping between the fingers from where he had managed to cut his hand open. It wasn't the first time this had happened; considering his 'spade' was a jagged piece of sheetmetal hastily bent into a digging implement, it was to be expected.
That didn't stop it from being annoying, though. He had tried wrapping the 'handle' with strips of cloth torn from the leg of his pants, but the threadbare fabric did little to cushion the sharp edges.
It was just another thing slowing his progress, adding yet another obstacle in the path to freedom. It wouldn't keep him from work for long, just as the others hadn't, but the constant roadblocks were becoming extremely disheartening. (Was he ever going to manage to help them escape, or would he keep encountering setback after setback until they were out of time?)
He was broken from his thoughts by the sound of soft, barefoot steps against the hay-covered floor in front of him. Looking up, he saw that it was the Gormotti boy, Rhys.
The other boy was looking down at him, an inscrutable look on his face as he seemed to assess the Osirian boy. (That wasn't particularly unusual, of course; even on a good day, he wasn't exactly skilled at reading others.) His eyes darted between his hand, the jagged shard of metal, and the partially excavated mortar around the lining bricks.
What was the other boy thinking? Of all the kids still in their cell, Rhys was probably the one he had the worst read on. The Gormotti boy had been fairly standoffish from the get-go, decrying his attempts to find a way out of there as stupid. He didn't think the other boy had given up—quite the opposite—but he seemed the type to think they could escape by ganging up on the adults when they came to feed them.
Ever since their procedure, however, the boy had become quiet and withdrawn, his eyes focused almost exclusively on his new Core Crystal. It wasn't exactly the most dramatic change among their group, but it still made figuring out what the other boy was thinking difficult.
After a moment of watching him, the Gormotti boy spoke up. "Hey, is your hand good?" He asked, averting his eyes slightly. His voice was low, lacking the boisterous energy it had contained before the procedure, shining in defiance of their circumstances.
"Oh, um." The Osirian boy stammered, not having expected the question. Rhys hadn't seemed to be particularly mindful of the condition of others before, especially in comparison to Ewan or Rhona. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." He said, waving his hand in the air for emphasis. "Already healed, see?"
The cut had been fairly shallow, to the point that even before the procedure, it would have already stopped bleeding. Now, however, the wound had completely sealed itself, thanks to the enhanced regeneration their new… features provided.
(He hated having attention drawn to it. Even little things, like having cuts heal so quickly, reminded him of what had been done to them. What was going to happen to them when they escaped? Would anyone be willing to take them in, or were they going to be thrown out into the streets as freaks?)
Rhys frowned slightly, his eyes locked on his palm. Apparently, he had much the same opinion about being reminded of what had happened to him. The Gormotti boy idly scratched at his chest, pointedly avoiding the rectangular Core Crystal peeking out from beneath the dark brown fur of his juvenile coat.
An awkward silence filled the space between them as they both stood there for a moment, neither knowing exactly what to say. It only lasted for a moment, though, as the Gormotti boy sighed, kneeling down and grabbing the piece of metal he had been using as a spade.
"Lemme do it for a bit." Rhys said, glancing over the brickwork with a critical eye. "I gotta do something, or I'm gonna go mad."
Without even allowing him to protest, the Gormotti boy immediately began checking over the work he had been doing. A frown formed on his face at what he saw, running a finger along the scraped-up sections of brick where the mortar had already been removed.
"H-hey! Wait a minute!" The Osirian boy protested, reaching out to grab the spade back. "That's my job! You can't just come in here and…!"
"Better than letting you do it!" Rhys retorted, gesturing at the bricks. "You've been doing such a bad job I just couldn't watch anymore!"
"W-what!? But..!? How dare you..!" He sputtered in indignation, struggling to articulate a retort. Rhys hadn't been doing anything to try and get them out, and now the other boy had the gall to insult his work!?
Rhys stabbed the metal shard between two of the bricks the Osirian boy had been working on. "Look at this! There's barely any mortar left on these! You coulda taken this brick off yesterday!" As if in emphasis, he leaned against the metal, using his bodyweight to wedge the brick out of place.
"Don't! You'll break it!" The Osirian boy cried in alarm, pushing against Rhys. It had only been pure luck that one of the metal plates had been damaged enough during installation to make removing one of the corners possible. If he broke it, then their best chance of escape would be ruined!
The other boy was unmoved by his efforts, however, and with a sudden grunt of exertion, pushed harder against the 'spade'. There was a grinding sound of stone against stone as the brick slid slightly before popping out of place.
Suddenly deprived of resistance, Rhys toppled forward, spilling onto the ground of the cell. He didn't seem to be hurt as he scrambled back to his feet. Instead, he looked over his handiwork with a grin. "See?" He said, tossing the metal shard back to the Osirian boy, "I told you it was ready to come out!"
Pointing at the slot where the brick had been, he explained. "You'd already dug all the way down to the next brick on all the sides!" His fingers circled over the scratch marks on the sides of the bricks next to the one he had been working on. Indeed, they stretched the entire length of the stone, so far that a significant amount of the mortar for the next row down had been scraped away as well. "You gotta be testing them all the time! If you'd been tryin' to wiggle it, you'd have known it was ready to remove a long time ago!"
Huffing, the Osirian boy crossed his arms, glaring at the missing brick. (How was he supposed to have known that!? He'd never done this before!) "Well, you should have said something earlier!" He grumbled, avoiding looking at the Gormotti boy. "What makes you the expert on this, anyway?"
Rhys bit his lip, turning away slightly. "My Da's a bricklayer." He said, slightly more quietly than before. "He was teaching me the trade before all of this."
…That would do it. "Oh." He said, averting his gaze awkwardly. It figured that he'd get into an argument with the one kid who might actually be able to help him. (Once again, his underdeveloped social skills were the weakest link in the chain.)
He bit his lip, looking over the stonework again. It had taken him more than a day to get that brick loose, but Rhys had pointed out that he was going about it wrong. It was clear he wasn't making any real progress on his own, but maybe with some help…
Rhys, seeing that he wasn't responding, let out a frustrated sigh and began walking away. Almost without thinking, the Osirian boy reached out to stop him.
"Wait!" He called, grabbing the other boy by the back of his worn vest.
The Gormotti boy looked back at him, a questioning look in his eyes, but didn't say anything.
He was silent for a moment, trying to figure out exactly how to phrase what he needed (wanted) to say. His pride balked at the thought of admitting that the other boy was a better choice for this plan, but he did his best to squash it down. Now was not the time to let pettiness get in the way of doing what needed to be done.
"C-can you help me?" He said uncertainly, looking over at the dislodged brick. "I know you think this is a stupid idea, but you're the one who knows about this brick stuff, and I…" He trailed off, clenching his healed hand.
Rhys looked him in the eye, chewing on his lip slightly as he tried to make a decision. After a moment, the Gormotti boy let out a sigh.
"…It's really stupid." He affirmed, kneeling down to inspect the stonework. "There's probably just going to be those bigger stones behind the bricks, you know?" He said, pointing over his shoulder at the other walls of the cell for emphasis. "This is just to keep it nice and waterproof."
"But the drainage channel has to go somewhere, right?" He argued, pointing at the gap in the wall beneath where he had been working. "It's gotta connect to a sewer or something; otherwise they would have just left us a bucket."
Rhys' nose scrunched at the thought. "Gross." He muttered, even as his eyes traced over the channel thoughtfully. "Even if it's true, that doesn't mean we'll be able to fit through, even if we get rid of the bricks."
"It's better than just sitting around, waiting for the adults to do… whatever to us, though." The Osirian boy retorted. "If there's even a chance, isn't it worth taking?"
He didn't get an immediate reply, but it was clear the other boy agreed with him. Rhys counted the bricks under his breath before pointing at one two rows beneath the one that they had removed. "We should try getting that one out next." He said confidently. "We need to see how the channel's set into the stonework, and if they carved it between two of the big stones, the corner of one should be behind there."
The Osirian boy couldn't help but grin as he started carving away at the mortar of the new brick. He might not be able to do this on his own, but who said he had to?
… It would be helpful if they had another piece of metal, though.
Rex was quickly coming to the conclusion that there was a lot of misinformation about the facts of the Aegis War in the publicly available records.
"Oh, that's not how it went at all!" Azurda huffed irritably, arms crossed, as he glared down at the book he and Rex were reading. "The Tantalese army had been destroyed months ago by then!"
At the very least, that was the impression he was getting from the book they had settled on, Secrets of the Aegis War, by some Ardainian author from almost a century ago. It had seemed promising enough, placed in the front of the section regarding the conflict, but Rex had barely managed to get a full page in before Azurda had begun mercilessly picking apart the accuracy of the accounts.
"Where did they get the information for this!?" The Titan practically seethed as he read on. "'An alliance of nations led by Mor Ardain?' The Ardainians were too busy reigning in the Coeian holdout forces to participate in the Khadhar campaign! The Urayans were the only ones helping Addam's militia during that part of the conflict!"
In retrospect, it seemed the book was rather… biased in its presentation of events. It wasn't nearly as on-the-nose as some of the Ardainian propaganda he had seen while working out of Goldmouth, but if Azurda was correct, it was definitely letting its pro-Ardainian narrative warp the facts of the event—far too much to be a usable source.
A shame; the writing style had actually been engaging enough to keep his attention. Maybe that should have been his first clue.
With a sigh, he closed the book, just barely avoiding catching Azurda's snout between the pages. "Maybe we should try another one." He suggested. "It doesn't sound like I'll be getting anything useful from it."
The tiny Titan crossed his arms. "I should think not!" He exclaimed angrily. "I've not seen a self-proclaimed 'textbook' that cartoonishly biased in centuries! I daresay, you would have learned more from my complaints than from that disgrace of a 'history' book!"
Nodding idly, he tossed the book into the 'read' pile before reaching out for a new one. At this point, he knew better than to interrupt the Titan in the middle of a rant like this. All it would do was place a target on his own back.
Running a finger across the spines of the books, he pondered which he should take. The general overview of the conflict that the book he had just discarded was certainly interesting, but he figured that it might be more useful for him to grab something that focused a bit more next.
Maybe something about the Temperantia campaign? That seemed like the logical choice, given their suspicions about the monster, but none of the titles seemed to jump out at him.
Half the books had fairly dry, descriptive titles: 'A student's introduction to the Aegis War', or 'A historical retrospective into the causes of the Aegis War', but none of those looked to be relevant to his needs. The other half, the flowery and poetic titles, were worse; 'Light and Shadow: An analysis of the figureheads of the war', or 'Memories of Flame: A soldier's memoirs of the Aegis War', barely even told him what they were about.
Eventually, he settled on a book near the bottom of the pile that looked promising. It was fairly simple: a plain black cover with the title embossed into the surface with white text.
'The Forth Fallen Titan' was the name of the book, simple and evocative but not exactly descriptive of what it was actually covering. At the same time, however, he liked to think that he had learned enough about the Aegis War by this point that he could probably take a guess.
As he knew very well by this point, three Continental Titans were sank during the course of the war. However, the fact that only three Titans were slain in the war had been a very close thing. There were at least a half-dozen others that had nearly been sent to the bottom of the Cloud Sea, saved only by Addam and Mythra's timely intervention.
Presumably, this book was focused on one of them, although from the vague nature of the title, he couldn't guess which. There were just too many options that could fit.
Shrugging, he cracked the book open and began scanning through the forward, looking to see if a Titan name popped out at him. It was really the only way he would find out.
It only took a moment to find it. Right in the center of the second paragraph, almost standing out from the other words, was the name he had been looking for: Temperantia.
Quickly reading back to the beginning of the paragraph, he confirmed the context of the name: that the book was discussing the devastation the Aegis War had wrought on the Titan. It wasn't exactly what he had been looking for—an overview of the campaign would have been more useful—but he figured it would be a good place to start, at the very least.
He felt Azurda settle back on his shoulder as he began reading, the Titan adjusting himself as he read alongside his nominal ward. Hopefully, this book wouldn't elicit quite so dramatic a reaction from him.
'Of all the phases of the Aegis War, from the initial clashes between Mor Ardain and Coeia to the fall of Auresco, perhaps the most important, yet the most overlooked, was the Temperantian Campaign.'
'To many of my colleagues, this phase of the conflict is considered to be inconsequential, a mere sideshow set in an unimportant location. It is an easy position to take and, in many ways, a logical one; after all, even during the time of the Aegis War, Temperantia had been abandoned for centuries, her then-fertile plains and dense forests so filled with the lingering horrors of Lost Judicium that none dared try to claim it.'
'Yet, it is commonly believed that it was the very horrors that left the Titan vacant that Malos used to wage war upon mankind. How, then, could the campaign that destroyed the last vestiges of Judicium's crimes, which would have robbed the villain of the Aegis War of the source of his greatest assets, be anything other than the most pivotal moment of the conflict?'
What followed were several long, winding chapters of the author setting up an argument that, had Rex not known was fundamentally flawed from the outset, would have been quite convincing. It was all reasonable assumptions, laid out clearly enough that even an academic layman like Rex could understand it.
It also happened to assume that Malos was a Flesh Eater rather than an Aegis, and in doing so, attempted to explain his possession of abilities and resources that, according to Azurda, seemed to come naturally with the title. Knowing that made it difficult to take the argument at face value.
"So Malos had people helping him even back then?" Rex asked, looking at an illustration that was included in the book. It was a reprint of a wood block painting, originally made only a year after the sinking of Torna, that depicted Malos flanked by an army of monstrous humanoids easily twice the size of a Garlus. The Black Aegis held a twisted sword aloft, the center of the quillon where the weapon core should be radiating deep shadows, pointing in the direction of a golden tower in the distance.
"Calling those things 'people' would be stretching the definition." Azurda said, crossing his arms as he gazed at the image. "Malos certainly had servants to do his bidding, but they were all machines rather than humans or Blades."
"Friend say machines?" Tora pipped up, his eyes sparkling as he looked over the lip of his book. "Tora want hear about this!"
Rex couldn't help but chuckle at the nopon's exuberance. Of course, the mention of machines would pique his interest.
"Oh yes, giant ones." The Titan continued, jumping off of Rex's shoulder. He waddled across the table until he stood directly in front of the image on the page. "This artwork isn't exactly accurate to what they looked like in life, but the scale is correct."
He gazed deeply into the image, a wistful look on his face as he spoke. "Mythra called them 'Artifices', mechanical servitors of the Aegises." The Titan dutifully explained. "Mythra had a few of her own, but Malos… Malos had thousands of the things."
"T-thousands?" Rex murmured, his eyes locked on the depictions of the machines. The wood block rendition was extremely stylized, to the point that even Malos was barely recognizable, but there were obvious details that he suspected were accurate.
The 'Artifices' were massive, easily dwarfing the Aegis they followed despite being hunched over. Their faces were covered by helmets, featureless save for ports that allowed their wicked horns and tusks through the metal. A pair of wings sprouted from their backs, giving the impression that they were even larger than they were. Curling around their ankles were massive tails that ended in a razor-sharp blade, nearly as large as the disproportionately long talons at the tips of their fingers.
And at the center of their chests was a shining gem, almost akin to a Core Crystal. He wasn't sure if the real ones possessed that feature or if it had been added as a bit of artistic license, but it made the great war machines look more like Titan weapons than robots.
"Yes." Azurda confirmed grimly. "The ones shown here are a type Mythra referred to as 'Gargoyles'. They composed the bulk of Malos' forces, serving a similar role to traditional infantry." The old Titan explained. "Despite that role, they were every bit as difficult to fight as they appear. They were stronger than an alpha Gogol, their claws able to easily rend through even the strongest armor that Torna could produce, while their own could shrug off attacks that would have sank an Ardainian cruiser."
He shuddered slightly before continuing. "And that doesn't even take their energy attacks into consideration. They had nothing on the likes of Siren, Mythra's favored Artifice, but no fortification built before or since could weather their attacks."
In the chair between Dromarch and Rex, Nia grimaced at the description. "Architect, those sound like they would be a nightmare to fight." She commented. "How could Addam's forces have possibly survived against monsters like those?"
Azurda shook his head sadly. "In many cases, they didn't." He explained. "The earliest battles against Malos' forces hinged entirely on Mythra using her own Artifices to counter them. Conventional weaponry was of little use against them, and even heavy Titan weapons required multiple direct hits to take one down. It was only once Addam had recruited a large cadre of Drivers for his cause that we were regularly able to take down the machines."
"So machines susceptible to Driver attacks, but normal weaponry go bouncy when used." Tora muttered, taking notes on a separate pad of paper than he had been using for their library research. "Armor must be tough, but not resist ether well." He surmised.
"That's not entirely the case." The Titan corrected. "While they were more susceptible to ether attacks than physical, they were able to resist them to a certain degree." He noted. "Smaller Titan weapons weren't particularly useful against them because their weaponry lacked the power to overcome their resistances. In fact, Titans of my class were about the smallest that could reasonably handle a Gargoyle."
Rex gave the Titan a skeptical look. "And I'm supposed to believe you have firsthand experience with fighting them?" He asked.
In reply, Azurda offered the boy a toothy grin. "I may have fought a few over the course of the war." The Titan replied. "I suppose you weren't in a position to see it when I pulled you sorry lot off of Addam's old ship, but at full size, my fireballs pack quite the punch!"
On his own side of the table, Dromarch frowned at the explanation. "Master Azurda," he began, "you say that these 'Artifices' are servants of the Aegises, yet at the same time, you make it sound as if they were largely servants of Malos. Did Lady Mythra not possess such forces herself?"
Azurda snorted at the question. "You must understand, Mythra was never particularly… forthcoming about much of the information regarding the abilities of the Aegises." He explained. "However, from what I could gather from my interactions with her, the Artifices were not originally designated to any one of the Aegises, but freely available to both of them. Had Mythra awakened before Malos, she would have been able to claim as many of them as she desired."
"But since Malos awoke before Lady Mythra did…" Dromarch concluded, his demeanor darkening as he understood what the Titan was saying.
"…He was able to take most of them for himself, and Mythra was left with the scraps." Nia finished her Blade's sentence.
"Precisely." Azurda nodded. "While Mythra did obtain control of a number of Artifices, even a number of Gargoyles, it was vastly fewer than the amount that Malos claimed, and by the end of the first year of the war, his forces had managed to destroy all but two of them."
Rex tilted his head, thinking back to some of what he had read over the last few hours. "I don't remember anything like that being mentioned in the official histories." He said. "Did she just… stop using them?"
"Nothing of the sort." Azurda denied, shaking his head. "Mythra made use of both of her remaining Artifices for the remainder of the war, just with more caution than before she lost her own Gargoyles." The Titan explained. "Her main Artifice, Siren, she used in a fire-support role. It was capable of firing powerful destructive beams from so high above the battlefield that it couldn't be seen, an ability she made extensive use of."
Nia furrowed her brow at the description. "From the sky…?" The Gormotti girl muttered, thinking back. "I… think I saw her use it during my fight with Malos back on the derelict ship. When Jin was about to…" She trailed off, her eyes downcast.
"…Yes, I believe she did." Azurda confirmed softly. "I was still several titanpeds from the ship, but Siren's attack was what drew me to your position."
Looking down at the vest of his diving suit, where the Aegis Core Crystal was concealed, Rex pondered a thought out loud. "So that Artifice, 'Siren', still exists?" He muttered. "Does that mean that I could control it?"
Azurda made a contemplative noise. "…Perhaps you can." The Titan agreed. "Although even if it is possible, I doubt it will be an easy skill to learn."
Rex frowned but didn't deny the Titan's words. He had been having enough trouble learning how to use the normal abilities of Blades, and with those, he could ask Nia or Dromarch for advice. But controlling one of these 'Artifices'? There was nobody he could ask for help considering Malos was the only person left with that experience.
Still, if he could somehow learn to control it, it could give them options for getting around the serpent. Even ignoring the firepower Azurda had mentioned, if what the old Titan had said about it shooting from above the battlefield was true, that meant it could fly. They wouldn't even need to fight it if this 'Siren' could just fly them up the World Tree!
"What about other machine?" Poppi spoke up, an intrigued look on her face. "Azurda say 'Siren' used as big big cannon, but not say anything about other Artifice."
The Titan began chuckling. "Oh, yes, Ophion." He chortled. "That one was quite a different story. It was massive, far greater in size and power than the Gargoyles, but lacked the sheer range capabilities of the Sirens. It was one of the main tools we used to fight Malos' forces in the early days, but its relatively short engagement range left it vulnerable.
"Early on, Mythra was able to use the handful of Gargoyles she had control of to guard the Serpent Artifice's flanks while it destroyed those under Malos' dominion, but once those had been destroyed, she was forced to limit her use of it to-"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Nia interrupted, holding a hand out. "What do you mean, 'Serpent Artifice'?"
He looked at the Gormotti girl in confusion. "I mean exactly what I said, young lady. Ophion, Mythra's other Artifice, was shaped like a serpent rather than a humanoid."
"Umm… Gramps?" Rex spoke up, giving the Titan an incredulous look. "Artifices are robots, right?"
Azurda glanced over at the boy, an eyebrow raised. "Yes, I believe I made this clear earlier."
"Right, so this Ophion is a giant, unbelievably powerful mechanical serpent… doesn't that sound just a little familiar to you?"
The Titan blinked at him. "I suppose it does, but I don't see how that could possibly be relevant at the moment."
"You have got to be-!" Nia hissed, slamming her palms against the table as she pushed herself to her feet. "Are you seriously not recognizing that Ophion sounds like an Architect-damned dead ringer for the serpent we've spent the last three days researching?!"
"Oh, I recognized the similarities between the descriptions of the serpent and Ophion." Azurda agreed, crossing his arms behind his back. "I even briefly considered the possibility that they were one and the same."
Dromarch glanced over at the Titan. "And why, Master Azurda, did you not mention the possibility beforehand?" He asked calmly. "If you believed you had discovered the identity of the monster, would it not have been prudent to spare us the days of research?"
Azurda met the tiger's gaze, offering the Blade a shrug. "Because, despite the resemblance, it couldn't possibly be Ophion." The Titan said with a tone of finality. "It was destroyed by Malos' forces during the final battle of the Aegis War."
"You're absolutely certain?" Rex asked, his eyes narrowing,
"Completely. Malos ambushed it with a dozen Gargoyles when Mythra brought it to bear, and they nearly tore it in half. I watched the wreckage sink beneath the Cloud Sea with my own two eyes."
Shaking his head, he turned back to the image in the book, staring at the shining tower the depiction of Malos was pointing at. "Besides, Mythra was the only one who could control it." The old Titan let out a deep sigh, his shoulders shifting as if the weight of the ages he had lived bore down on them.
"Addam… After the war, he managed to coax Mythra out of her despair long enough to… finalize several projects, such as arranging her final resting place, but commanding Ophion to guard the World Tree was not one of them. Even if it somehow did survive, without any orders from her, it should be idle!"
Rex crossed his arms, mulling over the Titan's words. He didn't think Azurda was lying about having seen the Artifice be destroyed, yet at the same time, the apparent resemblance was too much of a coincidence for him to discount out of hand.
A growl from Nia's position told him that the Gormotti girl was of a similar belief. He looked over at her, seeing the look of frustration on her face as she stared at the Titan.
She held her gaze for a moment before the anger seemed to flood out of her. "Of course." She spat. "It figures that our best possible lead would be a dead end like that." The Gormotti girl began throwing her research materials into her bag. "That's how all the others have been, so why would I think this one would be any different?!"
"My Lady," Dromarch inquired, coming to his feet. "Exactly what are you doing?"
Nia closed the straps on her bag. "I'm done for the day." She growled. "I need to do something else. Train, eat, just… anything to get me out of here for a while."
Rex and Azurda glanced at each other before looking to Dromarch to see if he had any idea what was wrong. The tiger met their eyes, shaking his head slowly. No word was exchanged, but they both understood what the Blade was trying to convey: sometimes, his Driver was just like this.
Ignorant of the silent conversation, Tora closed the book he had been reading with a telegraphed flourish. "Nia-Nia right!" He chirped. "Not good to spend all time doing research! Must vary activities from time to time, or attention span shrink to size of Pippito cub's!"
Sighing, Rex slowly closed the book in front of him. "Yeah, I guess I could do with a change of scenery too." He admitted, stretching in his seat. That was a bit of an understatement; he was flat-out not built for this sort of stuff. Rex was a physical worker, not an academic!
The rest of the group quickly packed their own supplies before following Nia out of the building. Maybe taking the rest of the day off would give them an idea of where they should go from there.
As they wandered down the docks, approaching the ferry to Goethe Rock, the ferryman called out to them with a wave.
"Well, hey there!" He greeted the party jovially. "You folk are here a bit early! Called it a day already?"
Nia wasn't sure if there were other ferrymen on the route than him, but he had been the one to cart them to the rock and back the last three days. Apparently, they had been recognizable enough that they stood out even to a man who was used to dealing with Drivers.
"Yeah, we hit a bit of a stumbling block." Rex laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Figured taking the rest of the day to work through it would help."
The ferrymen laughed as he untied the dinghy from the bollard anchoring it to the pier. "I hear that one a lot from the academics." The man said, waving the group onto the boat. "'S a sensible enough idea, but I doubt most of 'em have the same idea o' 'thinkin' it through.'"
"Probably not." Nia agreed, gently taking a seat on one of the benches. She had learned not to just flop into the seats after the return voyage the first day they were on Tadbir, where she nearly flipped the boat. "But then, how many of them are Drivers?"
"True enough." The man agreed, jumping into the dinghy. "I doubt half of 'em have ever seen a Core Crystal outside of a book!"
With a shudder, the dinghy took off across the bay, making an impressive pace toward the island. For a Titanless ship, Nia had to admit it was pretty fast. Nothing like the Monoceros, of course, but that would have been massive overkill for a job like this.
"Now, now, that's hardly polite." Azurda chided half-heartedly. "Not everyone's cut out for work like ours. There's nothing wrong with them sticking to what they're comfortable with."
"I never said anythin' like that, now did I?" The ferryman replied, although without any heat in his voice. "If they want t'stay with their books, that's fine by me!"
He gave Azurda a grin. "Still, yer pretty considerate for a bunch 'o Drivers. Plenty 'of your kind I've met'll stick their noses up at normal folk."
Nia snorted. "Lemme guess; mostly Ardainian Drivers?" She said dryly. Compared to most modern nations, the Empire still maintained a fair degree of social stratification, particularly between Drivers and non-Drivers. With the normal attitude the nobility had towards their 'lessers', they were the obvious choice.
"Ah, them too." The ferryman nodded. "But Urayans are the real buggers. Ardainians'll at least acknowledge you exist; those Urayan noble Drivers'll treat you like you're part 'o the dinghy!"
That was a surprise to her, but thinking about it, it probably shouldn't have been. Uraya was rather notorious for the disparity between the nobility and the commoners. Driver Aptitude may not be a requirement for peerage in the Kingdom as it was in the Empire, but that was hardly a point in their favor.
"But that's part 'o the job, I suppose." The ferryman said wistfully. "You meet all kinds. Some nice and polite like you, some stuffy and rude." He chuckled slightly. "And others who are a bit touched in the head, if you get my meaning."
Laughing, he continued. "Had a pair 'o them earlier today! Nuttier than a fruitcake, Driver and Blade alike! I dunno how gettin' a Blade works, but those two were quite the match!"
Azurda chuckled at the comment. "That tends to be how it works." He said. "How much varies, of course, but…"
Nia tuned the Titan out. She was more than familiar with how the Driver resonance process worked, after all.
Idly, she kicked her feet as they crossed the bay, waiting to reach shore again. The trip was only a few minutes, but that still left her with some time to kill.
She reached out blindly, scratching Dromarch on the head as she looked around the boat. A vessel this small had little of interest in it, but…
Movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention. Glancing down, she saw a small splotch of color crawling under the bench in front of her, the one seating Rex, Tora, and Poppi.
Careful not to unbalance the dinghy, she leaned down, reaching her hand out as she inspected the source of the movement. "What do we have here?" She muttered, her fingers gently grabbing the object.
"Nia?" Rex asked, leaning back slightly to allow the girl to bend down. "What's the matter?"
The Gormotti girl leaned back up, pulling the object into view. As she finally got a good look at the source of the movement, she couldn't help but blink in surprise.
It was a… turtle, probably a hatchling from the size of it. The thing was so small that it easily fit in her palm.
"Hello, little guy." She said, a smile creeping on her face as she poked the shell. "How did you get all the way out here?"
Azurda leaned over, looking at the turtle. "I'm pretty sure it's not local." He said, scratching his chin. "It must be a pet that got loose."
"Seems likely." Rex agreed. The boy looked over his shoulder at the ferryman. "One of your passengers loose a pet?" He asked.
The man shrugged. "None that told me as much." He replied. "But a little bugger like that could'a gone unnoticed."
He twisted the rudder slightly as the boat lined up with Goethe Rock's jetty. "You folk mind keepin' an eye on 'im? The passengers from my last few runs are still on the Rock. Good bet says whoever lost 'im is still here."
Nia looked down at the little turtle. "That's a little…" She trailed off, mulling over her argument. Her first instinct was to reject the request. The whole point of coming here was to work out some of her frustration over the little incident in the library, and searching for the owners of a lost pet didn't exactly mesh with that.
On the other hand, she knew that Rex would absolutely be down to look for the owners. The boy seemed to be borderline obsessed with helping people, to the point that she swore running errands for them was almost his idea of relaxing.
And if she was honest with herself, just leaving the little guy on his own didn't sit right with her. If it really was a pet, the hatchling probably wouldn't last very long without care.
"…Fine." She sighed. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look around and see if anyone's missing a pet."
Rex gave the girl a bright grin. "That's the spirit!" He cheered, coming to his feet. The boat rocked slightly at the movement, but they were close enough to the jetty that nobody was particularly concerned about flipping the boat.
She averted her eyes, cheeks coloring slightly. "It's not that big a deal." She muttered. "The island's pretty small. If we don't find the owner after a little while, we can just leave it with our stuff and deal with searching more later."
Behind Rex, the ferryman gave her a knowing grin as he brought the dinghy to a stop. She resisted the urge to growl at the man, instead trying to find anything else to look at.
Her eyes landed on Poppi, sitting on the far side of the central bench from Rex. The artificial Blade was staring at her with large, surprisingly expressive eyes.
No, not at her, but at the turtle hatchling in her hands. The robot girl was gazing at the little creature with an awestruck look, as if she had never seen something that tiny before.
…Which, now that she thought about it, was definitely the case. With how developed the mechanical girl was, it was easy to forget that she was only a few weeks old.
"Do you want to hold him?" Nia asked, holding the turtle out to Poppi. "I don't necessarily want to be the one carting him around."
Poppi's eyes shot up, locking with hers for a minute. "I-is friend sure?" She asked, seeming almost hesitant to accept the offer. "Poppi never held tiny creature before. What if hurt by mistake?"
She gave the girl a reassuring smile. "Of course I am." Nia confirmed. "Just be gentle with him, and nothing bad will happen. You can do that, right?"
The artificial Blade nodded slowly, hesitantly reaching out her hand. As it got within range, Nia twisted her own slightly, allowing the turtle to slide into Poppi's palm.
"Uahh…" Poppi murmured in awe, watching at the tiny creature resting on her hand. The turtle seemed confused by the sudden change of locale, turning its head to find where it had come from, but after a moment, it began moving towards the edge of her palm.
"My Lady," Dromarch spoke up beside Nia, causing her to jolt slightly. She broke her gaze on the artificial Blade interacting with the turtle and looked down at him. The tiger raised a paw, pointing off to the side of the boat. "As heartening as it is to see you getting along with Mistress Poppi, we have arrived at the island. I believe the ferryman would appreciate it if we were to vacate his vessel."
Nia blinked, looking off to the side. "Oh, right." She replied, getting to her feet. "Sorry, I was-"
"You need not apologize, my Lady." Dromarch cut her off. "I have no doubt that Master Tora appreciates your efforts to expand Mistress Poppi's understanding of the world."
She looked back at Poppi, who was still focused entirely on the turtle, even as Tora urged her to get moving. It was interesting to see just how fascinated the mechanical girl was with the creature.
Even as they made their way around the lighthouse toward the clearing used for training, the artificial Blade kept her focus primarily on the turtle. Ever so often, she would reach out with one of her mechanical fingers, carefully nudging the creature away from the edge of her palm.
Rex sidled up beside Nia, watching as Poppi poked the turtle's shell inquisitively. "She's really into that, isn't she?" He noted in surprise.
"Yeah." The Gormotti girl replied. "I didn't think this would be such a big deal for her." She kept watching the girl for a moment before adding, "Are we even going to be able to get her to part with him once we find the owners?"
"Hopefully." Rex replied, scratching his chin. "She really is like a little kid, isn't she?" He said. "Watching her latch on to the first critter she got her hands on is just like dealing with the kids back home."
Nia made a contemplative sound. She seemed to remember Azurda mentioning something about Rex's village having a lot of children, but she hadn't heard any of the details about it.
Before she could ask, though, a flicker of movement on the path in front of them drew her attention.
About a dozen feet further down the path, just as it took a sharp turn to avoid a ledge overlooking the sea, a pair of figures stepped into view. They were wearing dark cloaks that covered their heads, but most of their bodies were visible. It was clearly a Driver-Blade pair; the tall man in front the Driver, while the slight woman behind him was the Blade.
The pair moved slowly but with purpose, blocking the path in front of the party. They made no aggressive movements towards them, but it was clear from their body language, crossing their arms with their hips tilted in a cocky fashion, that they meant trouble.
Nia slowed, her hands creeping down to her rings as she eyed up the pair. Her instincts were conflicted regarding them. On the one hand, despite being so obviously outnumbered, they stood with confidence, as if they felt they could easily take the entire party if need be.
A month ago, she might have laughed at the notion. But after the fight with Morag, the Gormotti girl was well aware that a sufficiently skilled Driver and Blade could absolutely wipe the floor with the five of them if need be.
On the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure if these two were up to the task. They certainly looked strong enough and held themselves with obvious experience, yet the way that they were mirroring each other's movements made them look almost… comical.
Beside her, Rex halted as well with a frown. "What's this, now?" He muttered, his own hand slowly snaking for the hilt of the Aegis Sword on his back.
In front of them, the man began to laugh. "Well, well!" He said boisterously. "Would you look at what we have here?"
She scowled as the man spoke, her ears twitching as she listened for any movement out of sight. The man was behaving disturbingly like a bandit, and she had enough experience with their type to know that a front man like this would normally be a distraction, drawing their attention while the rest of the brigands moved to flank their intended victims.
Bandits weren't something she was expecting to encounter on Tadbir, the small size and urbanization making it an improbable choice of crime, but it figured that if there were any, their group out of all people would be the ones to encounter them.
Azurda was right about Rex's luck.
"Who are you?!" The salvager called out, gripping the handle of the Aegis Sword but not yet drawing it. In the corner of her eye, she saw Tora make a similar move to grab his Drill Shield. Poppi, on the other hand, had yet to so much as acknowledge the new arrivals, still fixated as she was on the turtle.
The man blocking their path chuckled. "Did you hear that, Pandy?" He asked, posing theatrically. "They want to know who we are!"
By his side, the Blade, 'Pandy', perfectly mirrored his movements. She wordlessly met his gaze, offering her Driver a nod. In perfect synchronization, the pair grabbed their hoods and threw them back, revealing their faces. They both grinned wickedly at the party, as if expecting them to recognize the pair.
What was beneath was… not exactly what Nia had been expecting. Most of the bandits she had experience with tended to be rather weathered, even the young ones, due to the rough living conditions they were subjected to. The man, meanwhile, wasn't.
He was relatively young. Not nearly as young as Rex—if she had to guess, he had at least a decade on the boy—but definitely no older than thirty at the absolute upper end. His hair was a dark gray, cut short, and tousled in a manner that looked unkempt, but even she could tell was absolutely styled that way.
Really, that looked to be a theme with the man. His clothes, for all they looked like the attire of a vagabond (the man wasn't even wearing a shirt beneath his unbuttoned coat, for the Architect's sake!), were in good condition and of quality make. Even from this distance, beneath the mud caking the tail of his coat, she could see that the garment was made of expensive, if very well-worn, cloth, and the intricate patterns sown on to it were done with high-quality metallic thread.
And his voice… He was speaking in a coarse manner, not dissimilar to herself, but it sounded… stilted almost, as if he were trying to play the roughness up. Not to mention that he was doing nothing to disguise his polished accent. Nia didn't recognize where it was from, but she could tell from familiarity that it was upper-class.
This wasn't a bandit; it was a noble pretending to be one.
Her hand slipped away from her rings at the realization. All of a sudden, the situation felt significantly less threatening.
It seemed that the man's Blade understood her thoughts. The woman, green-haired with ears that resembled those of the native Tantalese and scattered mechanical features, frowned slightly as she saw Nia relax slightly. Apparently, whatever her Driver wanted, he had been banking on them being intimidated.
Even Rex seemed to pick up on the change in atmosphere. The boy furrowed his brow as his eyes tracked over the Driver and Blade, his hand slowly withdrawing from his sword. He seemed to genuinely try his best to recognize the pair, but gave up after a mere moment. "Umm… Who are you supposed to be?"
As the Driver and Blade both flinched in perfect synchronization, Nia began to suspect this was some sort of elaborate prank.
"You must be a real fresh batch of newbie Drivers if you don't know who we are!" The man grumbled, trying, with little success, to play off his annoyance. "A veteran Driver would be trembling in their boots if they knew who they were facing!"
Nia gave him a skeptical look. "'Trembling in their boots', would they?" She asked, mirthful tone in her voice. "I dunno… I can't figure out what's so scary about some noble brat of a Driver playing highwayman. What, were the sparring grounds up at the Academy full up?"
Everybody in the area (besides Poppi, who was still fixated on the turtle) turned to look at her. "Uh, Nia?" Rex asked, shooting her an inquisitive look. "You wanna run that one by me again?"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm saying he's doing a pretty bad job pretending he's not." The Gormotti girl insisted. "I mean, come on! He's not even hiding his accent!"
The man's Blade giggled slightly at Nia's accusation. "I told you that you still stick out, my Prince." She whispered, quietly enough that of the party only Nia was able to hear it.
Her Driver scoffed, standing up straight with an exaggerated gesture. Looking more confident than he sounded, the man continued his rant. "Hah! Looks like you need to get those furry ears of yours checked!" He continued to pose. "Thinking that I, the great Zeke von Genbu, Bringer of Chaos, am some sort of stuck-up noble from the Academy!"
Azurda leaned out of Rex's helmet. "You know, introducing yourself with that sort of surname and a title does not exactly help the case that you are not, in fact, of noble descent." The Titan pointed out helpfully.
Nia let out a snort at Azurda's jab. Even Rex wasn't entirely able to keep a straight face.
"Zeke, perhaps we should move this along?" His Blade suggested. "As isolated as the island is, there are a few more Drivers here. The longer we delay, the higher the chance they'll interfere."
"Fine, fine!" 'Zeke' grumbled, brushing the tails of his coat away. "I guess I'll have to make this quick!" He gestured to himself before realizing that he had already announced his name, and quickly pointed over to his Blade. "This is my magnificent Blade! The beautiful! The wonderful! Pandoria!"
The green-haired woman smirked at the introduction, placing a hand at her hips smugly as she adjusted her thick glasses with the other.
He reached over his shoulder, grabbing the hilt of a massive greatsword. With a single, smooth motion, he pulled it free from its holding strap. Rather than bring it to a ready position, the man flourished the weapon, swinging it in a series of complex, well-practiced motions, concluding by pointing the weapon directly at Rex.
"...And the three of us are here to take that Blade of yours from you, Driver of the Aegis!"
Author's Notes
It took a little longer to get this chapter finished than anticipated, but we're back! I plan to return to the weekly schedule for posting chapters for the foreseeable future.
Ending this chapter on a cliffhanger wasn't originally planned, but the full Zeke and Pandoria scene ended up being close to 7k words, so I made the decision to split it in half.