The loose power cell rolling around inside had a full charge, and according to Hecate, was likely soones reserve cell. Primary cells would have seen so amount of use, while this one looked freshly filled up. If there was any doubt this was so kind of gift from the gods, that answered that. Nothing else but a free power cell when we most needed it?
Soones been watching us. I said, worried. Looking around the broken treeline and finding nothing. No footprints, no sounds, even the mythical birds had stopped making noises after the drake had beaten a retreat. Hey, Hecate, youre the expert on everything underground. Do mysterious ghost sleds usually show up like this now and then?
No. This is abnormal. I detect nothing in range of us either. Hecate said at my side, equally puzzled. She took a few hesitant steps in the direction where the sled had appeared from, vanishing from my point of view into the tree trunks, swords at the ready.
She returned a few monts later, carrying what looked to be a tal trinket of so kind. This was affixed to a tree trunk at the end of the path the sled took. I found no other tracks, or footprints nearby.
Getting my hands on it and spinning it around I could tell almost imdiately what this was. A rudintary spring powered push, wound up on a tir. If it was affixed to a tree, the sled was likely pushed forward by this. And given the tir, I'd guess whoever owned the sled was long gone by the ti the spring was released. They must have known wed be stranded at our campsite for so ti, likely soon after we'd dealt with Fido and started brainstorming possible ways out given the tir.
"How did this even get that close to us without our notice?" I asked. "We were running around the clearing for a while now setting up traps for Fido. How did we not notice a gods damned hoversled hanging about?"
Hecate seed even more worried about this than I was. She confird she had no idea how this got past our notice, or even when. And she's the one with the feral abilities to sniff out anything within a mile radius. What could hide a hoversled from the occult-granted vision powers of a Deathless?
I gave the old sled a more critical look through, checking for bombs and other nefarious items that would ruin the atmosphere of a nice gift.
The wooden rods inside were likely to be used as a paddle, so that the hoversled could be used like a boat from the older eras, except on land. Very archaic thod of moving, but beggars cant be choosers in this case. Whoever our benefactor was, theyd clearly given us sothing to work with at the least. Which ans they not only know were running short on energy, they also know we cant move much at all right now.
More evidence in the camp that whoever the owner was, they'd been watching over us for so ti now.
The sled was wide enough to fit two or three people inside comfortably. However; it didnt have two seats, or any seats at all. Just a standard cargo hauling sled, except with a lot of paint on it. Odd looking tribal art decorated the sides and interior, more abstract shapes of colors. Painting wasnt sothing I see every day, aning this hoversled was soones expensive little toy. A smaller reserve of power cell fluid kept the hoversled afloat, about a fourth of the standard supply in a cell.
And there wasnt a bomb strapped anywhere inside, or the underside. Reasonably sure of that after poking my nose around for a few minutes and not getting blown up as my evidence.
The scratches on the side and insides were too small to fit the claws of Fido, so its unlikely hes involved in any of this. And besides, his current plans of not doing anything but waiting for us to run out of juice was working out fine. Why complicate it?
Hecate and I had no guesses for what follow the trail ant, but this sled opened up a lot of options for the newly minted plan E. Hecate and I split the new power cell in half, with the Deathless keeping the cell for her armor, given shed donated her spare to help power Journey.
Whats the plan now? I asked, Are we going to continue the search for a fountain using the mysterious spooky sled?
Talking about the Deathless, she was already climbing aboard and stabilizing said sled using a rod, without a pause even. Most our energy expenditure is spent on moving our mass. With this hoversled, we can remain stationary and use the longer sticks for propulsion and steering. It will be far more efficient. We may even cover ground faster than walking. She frowned suddenly, turning to gaze to my side as if Id said sothing offensive. Assuming we coordinate together correctly, I dont see how this would be a disaster.
You underestimate my ability to turn anything into a disaster. I said and turned my attention back to business, climbing aboard the strange sled myself. If Hecate hadn't exploded, neither would I. Any idea what follow the trail ant?
She shook her head. I am as confused as you are. However, we need to move before the drake returns and we do not have other options to explore.
Technically, we do. I said.
We do not have any acceptable options. She corrected, giving a stern glare before I could remind her about splitting up.
Fine, you twisted my arm here. I grabbed a rod and gave an experintal tug against the ground. The sled started gliding across the remains of our campfire.
Hecate and I both made movents at the sa ti next. She turned the sled to go left while I did the sa, except to go right.
The result was us spinning around like a dreidel. Took a more coordinated effort to get the sled back under control.
Want to draw straws on who leads? I asked once the spinning stopped, reaching down for a few twigs to work with. On my honor Ill accept any result, so long as its one where I win.
She answered that with a frown.
What? I asked, getting the sticks ready.
I have just been given advice to flick you on the forehead. She said, with deadpan delivery, as if completely serious.
Whos giving you such shocking and violent advice? I shot back, lifting up the sticks and offering her to take one. I want a word with them.
Hecate faint smile froze, and faded away. As if realizing I could see her, she turned her face away and gazed out to the treeline instead. I couldnt tell what was going through her mind from this angle, but I had a sinking feeling Id done sothing. I will arrange this. She said, Soti in the future. I owe you that much. Then, she shook her head. Soon. Neither of us are ready for that step as of now. She turned back to and swiftly plucked out a stick from my hand all in one motion.
I dont know how she could tell, but shed drawn the short stick expertly, almost like shed morized which stick was which before I could.
You can lead if you wish. She mumbled out. More like an apology, and less like a suggestion, while I was still trying to wrap my head around what all of that was about.
Where do I even start to try to unpack that sentence? I dont understand this girl at all. Not a single bit. To be fair, I'm aware I can be dense at tis. Kidra had clued in already, usually with thrown objects. And if she were here, she'd probably pick sothing particularly heavy.
Urs help make sense of this all.
We ended up deciding to let her take the lead. She had better eyesight and was more coordinated. Id intended on that from the start anyhow, the sticks were for fun from the start.
It was a little rough going. I say that because we nearly ran ourselves into a tree trunk first thing, which made us seriously consider just having us use her wings as propulsion, or kick behind us. Both options Hecate had shot down since they were energy intensive according to her.
But apart from the dented tree trunk, it turned out to be a good thing. We discovered what follow the trail ant.
The tree trunk wed nearly collided with had a cross mark on it. And looking further into the distance, we could see more trees with scratches embedded inside. A mixed blessing. We clearly had soone trying to help us out, except this path could be equally followed just as easily by the drake.
So, Hecate and I decided on the only reasonable course of action. Commit fully to this plan and roll with what happens later. If we were quick enough to follow the trail, we might make it before Fido cos back from his nap or whatever he was doing to pass the ti while waiting for us to starve.
Being a Deathless, Hecate could move her own paddle rod quicker than I could and with greater precision. But both of us had to work together to keep the sled moving in the right way. Learning how to work together was less than ideal. Especially since turns required both of us to work together if we were to take those at any speed faster than walking. She'd often use her wings to help adjust course, but over ti the corrections were less needed until we had the hang of it.
A sha really, the wings were really pretty to look at in action.
On the other hand, the hoversled could cruise around at a pretty fast pace if both of us pushed hard enough. Faster than I could run without armor, at least. If we were bold, we probably could make this move faster than a relic-assisted sprint. The issue was all the trees surrounding us, no clear path.
Whos sled do you think this is? I asked as we paddled our way through the red forest. Thats the part Im most spooked about. Random sleds in the middle of a mite forest sounds more like sothing from a horror story, generally.
What is your current theory? Hecate asked by the front, correcting our course with small taps now and then.
Mites. Its got to be mites. Anyti theres sothing strange going on underground, its usually because mites are a thing.
She nodded. I could see why you would believe that. Mites could have constructed such a sled in the forges. However, colonies do not move objects. They only create or destroy. If they were around, we would see the full colony in action around us.
The forest was devoid of any lights, beyond those that ca from the stream for ambiance or had been crafted by the mites specifically to light up certain elents. The only thing stirring in the forest were animals going about their business.
So, whats your theory? I asked.
The scratched sentence was written in a standardized font. Notice how all the letters remain exactly perfect to their counterparts? I believe whatever entity has been watching us is of machine origin. Only they can have this level of precision.
A machine helping us? Dont think thats possible, machines are unified together. Giving us a hoversled would go directly against Fido's plans. They wouldnt work against each other like this.
Hecate shook her head. The reality is more complicated. For additional proof, the wooden rods themselves show no sign of rot and the interior is still slightly wet. These were cut from a branch recently, as little as a few hours before we discovered the sled, in these woods. There are no table tools here to work with.
Where are you going with that? And what do you an by 'more complicated'? Don't like those two words, especially put together. I said, dipping the rod to the other side and matching her pushing speed as we glided through the forest.
Notice how both rods are uniform to one another, precisely cut. Again, no human craftsman would be able to mimic this degree of precision with a freehand tool such as a standard occult blade.
Oh. That was a good point. Maybe a machine malfunctioned and went rogue? Gods, that was weird to think about. A crazy machine out there, helping us. Odd that they havent shown their face yet. Shy?
It could be that their presence isnt sothing the drake is aware of, and our helper wishes to remain undercover. I can understand and relate to that. Hecate said. Machines that do not conform to the current will, are hunted down and destroyed.
"You say that as if it's a known and usual thing. Do machine traitors actually exist?" I asked, a little shocked.
Hecate nodded, keeping her back to while she steered the sled. "They do." She said softly. "I know one."
More things about Hecate that explained why she was so adamant that there could be peace. I took a mont to really process that revelation, but Hecate wouldn't lie, she was Deathless. Deathless don't lie.
A part of wanted to believe her implicitly, and it was at war with the part of that just knew machines were a united faction out to kill all humans.
It was a short and bloody battle of conflicting ideals, with the latter side loosing decisively against the forr: Mites were machines, and they weren't allied with Relinquished. Thus the base case is proven that there exists so machines that aren't out to kill humans. Humans had all kinds of factions running around, machines could be similar in their own way, even among Relinquished's army. There were billions of machine soldiers out there lurking about, plenty of chances for so of them to get uppity ideas. Statistically speaking. Assuming they weren't digitally lobotomized to follow orders.
There was one last hiccup to solve here, about the sled itself. Whats with all the paintings then? That doesnt look like sothing machines would do. Looked a lot like the ad-hoc sort of paintings under the colony, in the paths leading to sealed off sections.
At that, Hecate shook her head. I am unsure. The paint appears to be old, however, I cannot narrow down the date. She had an odd look to her features at this, one hand lightly brushing over the painted decorations that lined the different parts of the sled. We continued to glide on a steady course, hardly slowing down. No need to push with rods right now. Every now and then, wed coordinate a turn or add more speed and then let the whole thing coast. Rather relaxing all said and done. Beats walking for sure.
Whoever owned this sled had a fully developed personality. Hecate eventually said in the lull. That does not appear without ti and experience. If the owner is a machine, it must be an older one. And it clearly took great care of this sled in their own way. Only, I cant understand why.
Wed reached the end of the mite forest soon enough.
What lay before us well. It was sothing. At least the forest had remained within the bounds of regular physics and what Id seen in archives of the world. A little too picture perfect, but sowhat possible.
Our hoversled silently drifted out of the woods, being directed by occasional prods of our rods. Beyond us was a white sea of silver flowers stretching across miles, dancing softly to the breeze that made shimring waves of reflected artificial moonlight. As if we were coasting on reflective ice.
While most of the plains was reasonably solid ground under all the flowers, there were parts of it that absolutely were not. Massive stone obelisks of pure black glass jutted up in diagonal directions, scattered around the landscape. A deep pool of murky white mist surrounded each pillar base, bobbing up and down with the breeze passing by. So of these pillars were about five tis as tall as I was. Those were the smaller ones. Mites did not like building things tiny.
Reminded of the white wastes with their occasional distant ruins, except not as deadly. So long as we did not factor Fido into it. Right now, this wide open terrain made feel nervous and exposed.
Worse, without tree trunks, the path that had been steadily leading us forward was gone. We were now adrift.
Think those pillars have the path markings? I asked Hecate.
She gazed in the direction of the nearest one. No. She said. And we should beware to approach them. The mist under the pillar shows no ground under it. I suspect they are a free fall to the next level, the onyx pillars are hovering in place. If we are careless, the sled can fall through the ground.
I whistled. Thats so eyesight you got. Eat a lot of carrots or sothing?
Carrots? Carrots will not improve your eyesight. She said, confused for a mont. I raised my eyebrows at her, expecting her to clarify the occult sight she had. She got the ssage perfectly, and launched into a short lecture on exactly why carrots wouldn't do any good.
Well, I feel cheated." I said, after she'd wrapped up her quick and oddly informative essay. "Should have suspected those agrifarrs were lying through their teeth about that. But back to the actual issue at hand here, what direction do we pick now captain?
Hecate stayed seated, the rod resting on her legs. The hoversled was very energy efficient, only a few taps, and the thing would continue to glide forward for at least a good three to four minutes before it slowed. Most of our work had been steering the slippery thing, which never slowed us down too bad since she had wings to use as last resort. I suggest we remain in the last direction. She said, keeping a watchful eye ahead of us. My armor has a compass. I can maintain our path.
Ti to speed up, then? I asked, grabbing my rod.
She took hers up as well, and we both dipped the rough tips into the ground, pushing off in a controlled manner. The trick was to constantly compensate. Hecates armor let her move at a very linear pace, so all I had to do was increase or decrease my push, depending on if our sled was slipping off a direction. Shed act as the rock that Id match pace with.
Do Undersiders sing any songs? I asked as our sled gained more and more velocity across the plains.
Music? She humd, We know of it. However, I do not believe my people have made music.
Thats a little odd. Dip the rod, push off against the ground, increase speed. Smooth sailing. Everyone has so kind of culture. Food, music, architecture, gas, fashion and art. Ive never been to the Undersider cities yet, but theyd have to have sothing. Were you more of a shut-in?
Hecate stayed quiet. Her rod once more dipped into the sea of flowers, and began to push at the steady constant rate Id grown used to. Sothing of the kind. She said, looking up to the distant ceiling. I have been questioning why Ive enjoyed my ti among the undersider city so much. I think it was because of the culture. It was sothing that my people dont have yet.
Were imperials different from Undersiders? Cathida had explained all kinds of rituals and quirks of being a crusader. They had their own entire little world. Where did Hecate co from that she never noticed that? Or maybe her sect was sothing far more closed off to the world? The armor remained stubbornly quiet, the helt still missing. No way to ask Cathida about anything until we got to the mite fountain and had the ti to regrow a new helt.
Not sure I follow, I said, matching the speed and sending our sled going across the wide plains faster. Small hills had started to form, which made our sled climb up and down softly as we passed ground. Were you part of so garrison that did nothing but run around and pick fights with people?
Yes. She said without a pause, So of us had more to do in between fights. However, others like myself only went to sleep in between battles.
What sort of life did these Imperial elites live? Fight, sleep, repeat? Was the regint she was part of sothing that she was born into? Like a child soldier of so kind? Explains why shes so desperate to make peace work, even between machine and humanity. How'd she end up being tied to To'Aaccar, the Chosen, a machine traitor she knew, imperials, and mites? And she knew all kinds of odd trivia, like carrots and cri statistics, all while being a feral hermit-witch that ate wood skewers and rocks, if they looked tasty enough.
Just what sort of person had I run into?
I was missing sothing key, and I knew it. The more I learned about her past, the stranger it got. The contradictions were piling up like crazy. Starting to make feel crazy just by proximity.
Hecate's hand brushed over the painted tribal decorations around the sled absentmindedly. The part near her armored hand looked like a giant shark with a crazed purple eye chasing after a pack of blue wolves, except they had far too long legs to be wolves. The entire sled was filled with pictograms like this, all flowing from every direction. There was no text, but I was sure so kind of story was written down here if I spent a few hours trying to put everything together.
You know, surface clans all have hundreds of songs for different monts. So to pass the ti. Others to tell a story. All of our scriptures are made to be sung for example. I said, trying to lighten up the mood. "Sort of like this sled here keeps a history of so kind written out, surface clans do the sa with songs."
She didnt seem to have any opinion on that right now, keeping a blank face.
We spend a lot of ti traveling across giant empty stretches of land, usually sitting on the side of an airspeeder for hours, so we figure out ways to keep busy over our comms. Weve got word gas and rhy dances too. Want to learn so?
I am unsure I would be very good at singing. Hecate said.
Youll never know if you never try. The sled had reached maximum speed we could get to with rods. It was a good enough pace to make anyone worried about tripping, but nowhere near what Teeds ship could get to. Under us, the silver flowers passed by so quickly they blurred together. It was like a shimring wave of reflected light was following right behind us, keeping pace. And the plains here stretched for miles before wed reach the distant mountainside. We had at least a good half hour. Good thing we had a sled, walking all this would have been impossible.
Hecate drew her rod back over her legs and folded her hands over it as we waited for the sled to slow down enough to use the rods again. Very well. She finally said. Teach a song.
I made another discovery about my traveling companion - she could rember everything explained to her. Not in the normal way either. Over the half hour of sailing, I never needed to repeat lyrics a single ti. Shed pick them up as if shed had the sheet music slate in front of her to read from. Ridiculous, but sohow not surprising. This wasn't even close to the weirdest thing about her.
Completely tone deaf without so practice though, but she improved that part rapidly.
Mostly I picked fun lighthearted tunes and stories to go over, to keep the morale up. Great ti all in all, until we reached closer to the mountainside. Thats when Hecates gaze snapped off to the side, as if shed spotted sothing dangerous far ahead. I gave a look myself to see what had prompted the change in plan and got an imdiate answer.
There was sothing in the distance by the mountainside. A light, glowing blue. It vanished from view a mont later.
Did you see that? I asked, pointing.
Hecate nodded, and look properly spooked for the first ti since Id known her. Yes."
"What was it? I can't see that far off, it looked just like a wink of blue light to ."
"The profile I could detect from this distance matches closest to that of a Runner model.
A what?
A machine, the ones you call a Screar.
Undersiders and their jargon again. Or maybe that was Imperial jargon, since Father had told Undersiders called them Screars too. There was one issue with all this though. I thought machines all had violet lights? I asked.
They do. She seed almost stunned at the news. This one... does not.
Next chapter - Numbers in the dirt
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