FWFW 3 - 74

Three days had passed since Morgan’s tower was locked down. Three days during which he’d scribed thousands of runes on more than a hundred rods and other internal parts for Tiladia’s new body. He’d seen Issa create some truly awesome marvels, from a pulsing, metallic heart, to a round, crystal orb filled with shimmering gemstones and a silvery liquid that Issa said would allow Tiladia to keep learning and growing—an artificial brain.

The brain had been impressive, but when he saw how Issa had shaped the calepsii horn into an orb, surrounded it with a platinum casing, and inscribed thousands of tiny runes in a spiral pattern from its top to its bottom, Morgan’s jaw had dropped. The Energy pouring out of it was palpable, and the fine detail and clever design of the rune pattern simply stunned him; it looked like an ancient artifact left by some great old master, not something his sweet wife-to-be would craft in their home.

Issa held it in the palm of her hand on the third day of their confinement and announced, “I’m ready. I can start to assemble her now. Morgan, you need to figure out how to release her from the tower’s binding.” As she spoke, the orb containing Tiladia’s Core pulsed and flexed, thousands of tiny seams in the platinum casing expanding to reveal the yellow glow of the Energy-infused horn. No, Morgan corrected himself; it wasn’t a horn any longer; it was a Core.

“All right, I will. Am I allowed to watch you? I want to see the process, and I still have no idea what she’s going to look like.”

“Ask her,” Issa said, gesturing to the floating, misty form of Tiladia as she drifted into the room, perhaps having listened to them and aware that her time was nigh. She’d been on duty at the front door, watching to see if the colonists figured out a way to get close enough to the tower to speak with them.

The poor colonists had tried several solutions, from a breathing apparatus to protect them from invisible gasses to using magical boots that allowed them to sprint twice as fast as without. Nothing had allowed them to reach even the base of the metal stairs. The only small blessing was that they’d begun to tie a rope to the test subjects, pulling them away from the tower when they collapsed. It looked as though they woke up immediately upon leaving the warded area.

Thinking of the town, Morgan reflexively used his Guardian’s Senses ability to check on Arthur Ballard and was both glad and troubled to see that he was still off to the east, about half as far from First Landing as Tarn’s Crossing was. “So something like fifty miles,” Morgan sighed, then cleared his throat and said, “Tiladia! Are you excited? I am! Issa’s almost ready, and the body she’s making you will be so much better than anything Vormendion made for his guardians!”

“Yes, Morgan! I am very excited, and I knew that already—we’ve discussed the quality of Lady Issa’s work many times in the past days.”

“I know, I know. You see, I’d really like to watch her finish her work! I want to see the magic, as it were, and I know you want your body to be a surprise . . . will you allow me to stay?”

“Morgan! Do you truly ask me for permission? I cannot stop you!” Tiladia whooshed past him and then stopped to hover in front of his face, and he imagined she had come close to look at him, verifying his honesty.

“No, but I’d respect your wishes.” Morgan gently reached out a hand toward her misty form, and she curled around it, cool mist brushing his hairs in a feather-light touch.

“This is why I wouldn’t choose to leave, even if free, Morgan. I thank you for your kind regard, and I would be honored to have you watch me be born, once more, into the physical world.”

“Thank you, Tiladia. While Issa gets things set up, will you help me figure out how to unbind you from the tower?”

“In the basement, Morgan. If you walk past the prison cells, you’ll come to a blank wall. Simply rest your hand upon it, and a further chamber will open. Within that chamber, you’ll find a warded cage that contains a small fragment of me. Release it, and my spirit will be made whole, and Issa can work her magic.”

“That easy, huh?” Morgan looked to where Issa was starting to lay out the components she’d so carefully prepared over the last week and nodded. “All right. Issa, I’ll be right back.” She briefly waved to him without looking up, and Morgan hurried out of the workshop. He felt Tiladia following him and said, “Are you coming with me?”

“Yes. This is a big moment for me,” Tiladia said, and Morgan, for the millionth time, wished he could better read her emotions in that strange, tinkling voice of hers.

“All right, together, then.” Morgan motioned her up next to him, and then they descended the stairs, passed through the dining room and kitchen, and descended into the cellar level of the tower. Morgan walked past Tkron’s cell and caught himself, avoiding looking within. “Nah, you need to face things you aren’t proud of, too,” he said to himself and took a step back to activate the viewing portal.

Tkron squatted in the far corner of the cell, his gray face expressionless as usual, but Morgan was surprised to see that he had some sort of wooden device with various strings and sliding beads and washers on thin dowels. “What the . . .” Morgan activated the “speak-through” feature and said, “Tkron, where’d you get that?”

“You startle me, human,” Tkron said, looking toward the door, looking anything but surprised in his stoic countenance. “The human ‘counselor,’ Geert Hagen, gave it to me. He said it would be good for my stress. I find the puzzle rather stimulating, I must admit.”

“Right, I’d forgotten he came to see you.”

“He was supposed to return yesterday, but I’ve had no contact,” Tkron said, and Morgan thought he detected a note of disappointment, though it was hard to tell with the Yovashi’s grinding voice.

“Sorry, Tkron. There’s been a bit of a crisis—nothing is going to plan right now. I’m sure he’ll be back soon, though. Good luck with your puzzle.” Morgan killed the view panel and speaker and continued down the hallway, shaking his head. If the psychologists from First Landing could figure out a way to help Tkron, that would be great, but he wasn’t going to hold his breath. He passed the last cell and stopped before the blank, bronze wall at the end of the hall. “This it, Tiladia?”

“It is!” She managed to stretch her amorphous form into a kind of pointer, and Morgan followed her direction, placing his hand on the wall where she’d indicated. A yellow seam of Energy flowed out from where his hand met the metal and traced the shape of a doorway in the wall. A moment later, it hissed and slid upward, seemingly into the ceiling. Morgan stepped forward into the secret chamber and found that it was oval, nearly twenty paces across, and with a ceiling a good fifteen feet overhead. The walls of the room were absolutely covered in golden, glowing runes.

In the center of the chamber was a round pedestal, and resting atop it, were nine gleaming cages arrayed in a V shape, one at the center and four down each side. Morgan stepped closer and saw that all the cages were empty save the center one, which held a faintly shimmering, almost imperceptibly vibrating shard of crystal. “That’s it.” Morgan wasn’t asking—he could see how the fragment was similar to the ones that tinkled and chimed within Tiladia’s misty form.

“Yes! I’m happy to see the guardians’ captive shards are gone—Vormendion was less duplicitous than I feared.”

“Oh,” Morgan said, looking at the empty cages again. “I get it now. Do you think these cages are made of something valuable? Maybe I should bring them to Issa—I can’t see myself filling and using them the way Vormendion did.”

“They’re made from Sun Silver, and yes, quite valuable,” Tiladia said but quickly added, “Please release my shard before you store them!”

“Yeah, of course. Don’t worry, Til.” Morgan smiled and reached out to touch the cage holding Tiladia’s shard.

“Til?” Tiladia said before his fingers made contact.

“Yeah. Human’s like shortening speech—it’s called a nickname.”

“I’m aware of the concept, Morgan. I just hadn’t been called that before. I like it, but you should know: Tiladia is already a nickname. You’ll see when you touch that cage.”

“Oh? All right, let’s see!” Morgan rested his fingertips on the warm metal, and suddenly a menu opened up in his vision:

***Pain Stimulus  ❑***

***Summon Entity  ❑***

***Prime Containment ❑***

***Destroy Shard  ❑***

***Open Containment ❑***

“What the hell? Pain stimulus?” Morgan frowned, wishing he could get his hands on Vormendion.

“Yes. Please don’t activate that, Morgan.” Tiladia floated very close, brushing her mists along his arm as if to remind him she was there.

“I won’t. Which do I push? I’m guessing not summon or destroy. What about ‘Prime Containment?’”

“No, Morgan, that’s needed to place a new shard within. Simply open the cage.”

“Right,” Morgan touched the button next to ‘Open Containment,’ and another notification appeared in his vision:

***Warning! This is the shard of Til’danishea, the Steward Spirit for this tower. Releasing the Steward will result in the loss of some automated features, such as admitting and banishing guests, note-taking and reminders, and general dwelling information systems. Are you sure? Y/N***

Morgan suddenly understood what Tiladia had meant about her nickname. He wondered if she liked being called Tiladia or if that was how Vormendion had instructed her to style herself because it was simpler to say. “Was he really this much of an asshole?”

Morgan snorted and pushed the yes option. The cage clicked open, and the shard within shimmered and disappeared from his vision, apparently moving in a way that he couldn’t detect to join with Tiladia’s whole. It must have worked because she launched into a circular race around the room, and all of her tinkling crystal bits broke out into a ringing crescendo that echoed in the round, metal chamber while she whirled around, faster almost than Morgan could track with his eyes.

“Thank you!” Tiladia’s ringing, chiming voice said over and over, and Morgan’s cheeks started to hurt from smiling as he watched her celebrate.

After a few moments, though, he laughed and called out, “Tiladia! Come on! Let’s go see if Issa can finish the process! You need a body!”

“Yesssss! Morgan!” She called, streaking out of the chamber and away, clearly not intending to match his slower pace through the tower.

“Heh,” Morgan shrugged and scooped the soul fragment cages into his storage ring. That done, he locked up the secret control center of the tower and made his way back to the workshop. He found Issa setting up all the parts of Tiladia’s new body on one of the longer workbenches near the rear, and he immediately saw why the dragon spirit had wanted to keep her new body a secret. The unmistakably humanoid arms, legs, feet, and hands gave away the secret—Tiladia wanted to look like the people she lived with. Well, at least him and Issa, Morgan corrected himself, not seeing any long spider legs.

“These are beautiful,” Morgan breathed as he drew nearer, seeing the shimmering, silvery metal of the body parts, etched with tiny, perfect lines of runes, though only in certain areas, and Morgan had no idea what had determined their placement.

“I’m going to look like a human, Morgan!” Tiladia chimed, swooping out of the air where she’d been continuing her celebration of the wholeness of her soul.

“Really, Tiladia? Is that what you want, or is that what you think I want?” Morgan asked before he could think better of it.

“Of course, that’s what she wants!” Issa snapped. “Do you think we didn’t have many long conversations about this?” She scowled at him, trying to make eye contact, and Morgan realized his reaction to Tiladia’s announcement hadn’t been ideal. The little cloud of mist and ethereal crystal was slowly moving around the table, and Morgan couldn’t help seeing that much of the excitement had left her.

“Tiladia,” he said, clearing his throat. “I couldn’t imagine a better compliment to humankind. You’re such a wonderful spirit, such a wonderful person! I’m so honored that you’d like to take the shape of my people.”

“Oh, thank you, Morgan!” She said, swooping close again. “I love all the humans I’ve met. I love little Ykleedra, too, but I like your form better. It’s not very unlike one that I used to take when I was a dragon!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I would take the form of a Fae from time to time to make travel and trade easier when I visited their realm.”

“You . . . visited the Fae realm when you were a dragon?” Morgan, once again, berated himself for not knowing enough about Tiladia.

“I visited many places, Morgan, and having my spirit whole again has helped me to remember many things I’d let fade. Thank you again for my freedom!”

“This is lovely,” Issa said, “But we have a town to save or something, and I can’t concentrate while you two chat.” She grunted softly, and Morgan saw that she was carefully slotting variously shaped rods into one of the silvery legs, her slightly protruding belly bumping against the workbench.

“Can I help?” Morgan asked.

“No. Please just sit on that shop stool and watch. If all goes well, everything will be done in a few hours, and then you’ll really see the magic of this new alloy!” Issa had a gleam in her eyes and a smile on her face, and Morgan felt very glad that she’d agreed to take the inheritance and that he hadn’t frivolously used the skills to keep them out of someone else’s hands. He pulled up a stool and settled in, watching Issa put her legendary-ranked Artificer class to work.