The Modron Mutiny
Chapter Five
The Mutiny
Azra was still in a daze as he heard Rexi and Qresh shouting to the others. He couldn’t take his gaze off the distant tower. Even this far away, Azra could make out the glittering shapes that were clearly modrons.
“We can’t have many kegs left, but if we’re going to use it best use it now! We need those things in pieces before they head for the mainland!” Rexi screamed.
“Smokepowder’s ‘counted for…mhm…best get them cannons loaded…” Qresh growled out.
Upon hearing “smokepowder” Azra managed to shake himself out of his trance again. Smokepowder was a very, very expensive alchemical substance that exploded when exposed to fire. Azra knew it was made in Automata, to a much higher standard than here, but was also used by pirates and priests of the god of invention.
“Y-you have smokepowder weapons?” Azra blurted out as he saw Qresh lumber down below deck.
“We sure do!” Rexi shouted cheerfully. “Costed more than I’m proud to spend, but the two cannons we have saved our lives fifty times over. The stuff is so damned expensive though; we usually have to take it from pirates.”
Azra glanced back at the glowing sigil of the teleportation circle. Without thinking, he started to walk towards it. Rexi quickly intercepted him, and made sure to lock eyes with Azra before she said anything.
“Statue…Azra…listen. I don’t know what kind of history you have back there, but modrons are stupid and dangerous. They’ll kill you without a second thought.”
Azra glanced down at the gnome. Despite all that had happened, he couldn’t help but smile. She really was worried about him.
“Do not worry, I can speak the modron language, and know everything there is to know about these creatures. Besides…I recognize how this situation is not what it seems…but there are things about this that I have to know.”
Rexi couldn’t stop Azra’s advance through the circle. Despite being made of stone, the man could move very fluidly.
“I will move unseen…”
Azra vanished in a flicker. Rexi just sighed and turned to the others.
“I really hope he’s right.”
Azra found himself inside the circle for only a moment, before he darted to the back wall. Modrons could see in darkness, and even through illusion magic. Azra was hoping that they’d be so focused on marching out, that they wouldn’t notice him. Azra had seen hundreds of modrons in his life ignore him, and hoped that it would be the same here.
The large gathering of modrons was certainly impressive. Azra had seen large groups of them, but never like this. This was a full fighting force; of that he had no doubt. The assembled mass looked to be entirely made of quadrones, or four-sided modrons. They were all gathered around the statue of Symmette, and all were focused on a lone quadrone standing in front of its base.
Something was wrong though…
The modron standing in front of the statue held a staff with a box on the end. The box was made with various carvings, and was supposed to be symmetrical, but Azra saw the immediate problem.
He was holding the staff in his left hand…and his other hand was unoccupied. It was asymmetric.
Not just this, but the quadrones didn’t match! They all had inconsistencies. Some had odd-shaped eyes. Some had missing metallic teeth. One had a busted arm. Something about this army was terribly wrong to Azra, and apparently, he would have time to see what that was. The army hadn’t noticed him at all.
The quadrone standing before the statue took a metallic object from a pouch on its back, a pouch that was not worn like it should have been, and held the thing up. It was a set of scales with a black and white stone on each weight. The stones were symmetrical, but the roundness contrasted with the cubic staff…the whole scene seemed a mockery to Azra.
“We stand before our broken master! The Dual-Faced God! The one who delivered us from the imposter Primus! How can the One and The Prime not be symmetrical! It is madness that only our true master can correct!”
The modron’s speech sounded like whirling gears, but Azra understood everything. He had two sets of gears embedded where his wisdom teeth once were, and could communicate this same alien language if the need arose.
Primus was the god of the modrons, and was actually a modron himself. He oversaw order in the cosmos, and was essentially responsible for keeping the gears of reality turning. Azra knew what the modron said was wrong, save for one thing. Primus was not symmetrical.
Primus’ body was bilaterally symmetrical, but he held two different colored motes of energy in each hand. This wasn’t important though, what was important was a huge army of modrons had defied Primus and were planning something with this tower…and Symmette…was she…their god?
Azra’s thoughts were thrown off as the modrons all started to clamber. Gear-teeth ground and boots stomped as they went into some sort of strange litany.
“…to destroy disorder and restore direction…”
The Modrons stomped harder.
“….flesh must match the mirror of perfection….”
Azra didn’t worship Primus, as very few did, and he didn’t grant many boons, but Azra knew this was not something related to the faith of Primus. Even stranger was that the Modrons were now chanting in common.
In perfect synchronization, the modrons turned towards the door with a stomp and away from the statue. Azra lunged for the portal as the modrons marched towards the sea.
Rexi let out a squeak as Azra darted through the teleportation circle. Her pink eyes were wide with shock as she stared at the human statue.
“You’re alive!” Rexi shouted with a combination of surprise and glee.
“I moved unseen; did you really expect me to fail so easily?”
Rexi laughed, and started to put a plated hand on Azra’s arm before she remembered how the human statue hated to be touched.
“What did you find out?” Rexi asked, “I don’t know that much about modrons, but I know when they march bad things happen. We have to stop them from getting anywhere near the…”
A massive blast interrupted Rexi. She soon saw why. Qresh had fired the cannon at the now marching modrons. Rexi had wondered if they were going to summon boats, but apparently they had started down a path outside the door. The modrons were marching single file, in two rows beside each other. The door faced the nearby island, and somehow the modrons were walking on water.
The cannon shot missed the modron path by less than a foot. The modrons didn’t react to the attack at all. Rexi narrowed her eyes, then noticed that the modrons were walking on solid force. Someone had erected a path that led from the island to the tower out of force.
Qresh’s second blast hit true. In an explosion of water and modron parts, the force-path was shattered. The disintegrating modron-dust glittered brilliantly in the sunlight, but this did not stop the march. The modrons kept marching…straight into the sea.
“Fire again! Kill as many as you can!” Rexi shouted as she drew her sword.
Qresh fired two more shots, and each one hit an area of the path closer to the tower’s door. The modrons still ignored the assault. The modrons farther out to sea kept on their invisible path, but the ones facing where the path was damaged just plummeted into the ocean.
The blasts hardly made a dent in the modron numbers. Qresh fired four more times, and each time hit the path. The long bridge was now a series of blurry broken force platforms near the tower door, the modrons once standing on it now underwater. The only part of the path with modrons was out of Qresh’s range, and those modrons were quickly fading from sight.
The bronze boxes just kept pouring out of the tower into the sea. Rexi shouted for Qresh to stop and sheathed her sword. She was starting to understand the futility of this. Maybe Azra could tell them what he had seen.
“Do not hit the tower with a cannon blast, it will not damage the metal.” Azra said calmly.
Rexi looked over at Qresh, who appeared to be done firing, then back to Azra.
“Azra, when you were inside, did you find anything out? Do you know why they’re here?” Rexi chirped.
“Yes. They view their creator Primus as a false god, and want to serve “The Dual-Faced God” …whomever that may me. They chanted something but it made no sense to me.”
Before Azra could elaborate anymore, a blue flash appeared over the teleportation circle. It appeared to be a blue-tinted image of Hein.
“I think we all know exactly who their new god is. Now I think you can see my reason lass. Those modrons were bowing at that statue’s feet…weren’t they Holder!” The image of Hein shouted right at Azra.
Azra’s face scrunched into a scowl. Rexi turned toward the tiefling, and just sighed. This tiefling’s fears were starting to make sense to her, despite how desperate he was and how forced it seemed. Rexi turned to look at Azra, whose upset face told her that the tiefling was right.
“Azra, he does have a point. We can’t deny that the modrons are, or think they are, working for the woman that was represented by that statue.”
Rexi glanced over to Hein, who was grinning ear to ear.
“See! The woman is out of her mind! Modrons are dumber than ogres too, so she could easily convince them of her mad philosophy!” Hein tried to say without yelling, though he failed rather quickly.
Rexi put a plated hand under her chin in thought. She didn’t know much about modrons, but knew that they couldn’t disobey orders. Going against their creator was something a modron shouldn’t be able to do.
Rexi faced the image of Hein, and spoke to it with her hands on her hips.
“So, since you know Azra, I’m guessing you know about these things? Aren’t modrons supposed to never disobey their orders? They seem like exemplars of law…kind of like how angels are for goodness and devils for evil.”
Hein’s image grinned even wider, “You are spot on lass…but they can go rogue. Normally you get them in shapes based on the number of sides. Can’t have a two-sided shape, but you can have a three, four, and five-sided one. When they go rogue though, they turn back into boxes…”
Hein motioned his giant mechanical hand to the modrons spilling off into the ocean.
“Boxes!” Hein shouted as the sound of modrons plunging into the sea accented his point.
Rexi looked over to Azra, “Is this all true? Since these things go rogue, they look like…”
“They look like aberrations!” Azra blurted, “Each one fails to match even a little! The basic quadrone shape has been absolutely, aesthetically raped! Ailia would never, ever do this!”
Azra turned to look at Hein, who had both his arms crossed.
“You cannot deny, if you actually knew her, that she would see those inconsistencies and let it pass! An army of rogue modrons! The idea is unthinkable!”
Hein’s smile almost faded, but not entirely. He studied Azra with his black eyes before replying, almost as if he were weighing his words. After all, Hein was arguing with an insane man, who could only understand insane concepts.
“You are correct Holder, but if she doesn’t have a choice, she’s going to pick rogue modrons over human soldiers. Regular modrons won’t defy Primus, and besides, the thing in charge of this…”
“She is not a thing!” Azra screamed.”
Hein just clucked his tongue and looked at Rexi, “He’s emotionally attached…I honestly cannot fathom why…but he is. We have to stop this invasion if we want this world to remain intact and not warped beyond recognition.”
Rexi turned her pink eyes back to Azra. He looked absolutely enraged.
“Azra, I understand your concern, but this is very much an invasion. If this woman is responsible, we need you to help deal with her. If she isn’t, we will need your expertise in stopping these creatures. I didn’t even know there was more than one kind of modron until he told us. You know a lot more than the tiefling. You are the most qualified person here that can help stop this madness.”
Hein just laughed upon hearing Rexi say this. Rexi glared at the image as she heard a familiar shuffling sound. Qresh had finally lumbered out from under the deck. His expressionless face landed on the image of Hein, then to Azra, and finally Rexi before he spoke.
“Ettin girl ain’t the one…mhmm…”
Rexi turned and looked at Qresh quizzically, “What? The two-headed woman?”
“Mhmm…she ain’t the one. Didn’t do it…devil boy’s wrong…”
“And what do you know?” Hein Barked, “I lived with these two for over a year and...”
“Didn’ ask, devil boy…” Qresh interrupted, “You’re wrong…this here statue and his ettin girl are things of law…pure law. These mod-rons are messed up, you said yr’self…mhmm. Statue sees it so much he looks ‘bout to puke…and he knows this ettin girl better than all o’us. If he’s ‘bout sick, she’d be too. So, somebody else is doin’ all this…”
Hein turned away from the group with a wave of his hand. Rexi just beamed up at Qresh.
“You have a good point Qresh, but we don’t have any other suspects. We will have to assume this Symmette person is to blame…for now. Until we can determine something else, we need to plan for the worst.”
Azra quickly walked up to Qresh, and somehow had tears nearly forming in his stone eyes. He reached out as if he was about to hug the tortle, but stopped himself short of touching Qresh.
“T-thank you so much sir…I could just make out enough of your speech to see that you want to help me.”
Rexi awkwardly smiled.
“You smell so horrible, but have a heart of roses…”
Rexi’s smile evaporated and she rubbed her face with a plated hand. Qresh shut his beak tighter, the closest thing he could do to a grin, and patted Azra, very hard, on the shoulder. Azra actually didn’t immediately wipe of his shoulder.
Rexi turned back to the image of Hein, but it had faded.
“Can you still hear me? We will need your help too if we are going…”
“Yes, you’ll have my soldiers and support…” Hein’s disembodied voice frantically shouted.
Rexi couldn’t help but grin as she turned to look at the now assembled party.
“So, they’re pouring out of the main entrance. This only means that we need to think of a way to get inside and stop wherever they are coming from. I think if we blast the door shut from the upper levels, then find a way to sink the tower, the invasion will be halted.”
“No…that ain’t gonna work…” Qresh Bellowed. “They breathin’ water…ain’t like a machine to drown. They still marchin’ for that island under the sea floor. Collapsin’ the tower’ll only slow em down…an we don’t know how to do that…ain’t got the smokepowder. Best thing to do is get in there an kill em in a choke point.”
“Why not command them ourselves?” Theril shouted haughtily. “These creatures are simple-minded; let us show them that we are meant to be masters!”
“Impossible.” Azra retorted to the elf. “They view their god as a perfect creature, and they are not wrong. We could never hope to lead them in such a way…”
At hearing the word “perfect” Rexi turned to look at Azra. He had lived around these creatures; maybe his lawfulness could influence them too. It wasn’t a fool-proof plan, but it was better than trying to fight an army.
“Azra, you seem to know these creatures very well. Is there a chance that they can be reasoned with?”
Azra turned to Rexi with a look of confusion, “Well they are all rogues, beyond hope or pity. I can speak to them, yes, but they have defied their natural commands and are utterly insane so…”
“But you can give them new, lawful commands, right? If that Symmette lady did, couldn’t you think like her?”
Azra looked appalled, but Rexi could tell that he did understand her question.
“In theory, yes, but she is not commanding them. I could try and act as she would…maybe get them to see reason.”
Rexi beamed up at Azra, and then gave a silent not to Qresh. Qresh only nodded in response, and started to lumber towards the ship’s helm. Azra felt the ship turn sharply, and it started to drift away from the tower. Azra didn’t understand at first, but quickly realized that Qresh was heading to the path the modrons were on. They wanted him to get close enough to speak to the modrons.
As the ship drifted closer to the tower, Azra realized something else as well. This tower, this Pillar of Law, had to be connected to the planes of law. If the modrons were streaming out like this, they were either hidden from the tiefling, or had a portal to enter the tower.
Azra could now feel a crushing sense of purpose. He could go home with this tower. He could make his mistake right again…
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Hein was watching the ship with his still intact spyglass. He really didn’t anticipate this; never in a million years would Hein, formally of clan Slatecutter, imagine that Azra Holder would appear with the invasion force and not remember anything. It was strange, but there could be a menagerie of things that caused this. The planes of law were terribly stupid places, places with equally stupid people obsessed with law to the letter. Holder probably forgot to button his shirt right one day, so he was wiped of his memory.
Hein still had to consider that Symmette wiped his memory for a reason. She was devilishly clever, not as clever as Hein himself, but still clever. Ailia Symmette had a sort of alien intelligence, similar to the Illithids she despised. This was probably because both her and the mind flayers were aberrant creatures, at least as far as Hein was concerned.
It really didn’t matter if she made Holder lose his memories or not; what mattered was her reaction to his appearance. If she still acted as she did in the past, Symmette would start crying tears of joy from her creepy, discolored eyes. This would throw off the modrons, and Hein’s forces could take care of them. If not…well his chances wouldn’t get worse.
Despite all the unknowns, one particular question kept popping up in Hein’s head. What if this Holder was just a copy? Sort of like a wizard’s simulacrum, but made of stone. If this was the case, the real Azra Holder could be waiting with her. Fighting them at the same time, with a modron army, would be a near deathtrap.
The sheer volume of modrons also worried Hein. He hadn’t yet found evidence of a storage section for soldiers in the tower, and doubted that he would. The modrons had to have come from a portal to Automata. If Holder was able to distract Symmette, he could at least find the portal. Closing such a portal however, would be quite the task.
Hein focused back on what was happening. The Fighting Five’s ship was right next to the modrons spilling into the sea now. Even though he was much too far to hear anything, Hein had been around that awful gear-speech enough that he could understand the conversation, even if it was a phantom one inside his head.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Of course, the modrons didn’t stop their mindless march into the ocean. Holder must have damaged his brain becoming a statue…if he indeed still had one. Azra Holder should have realized that these creatures would never listen to anyone but their direct superior. No amount of talking would convince them otherwise.
Hein thought about teleporting to the boat, but he knew any more confrontations with Holder would just end in violence. The adventurers, for reasons he couldn’t understand, had chosen to side with the Holder. Hein knew that this would significantly handicap them in the fight against the modrons. Hein also knew this technically meant that they were aiding his enemy, but they were innocent in all of this. Even if they did accidentally end up helping Symmette, Hein could tell that adventurers only wanted to stop the modrons. Hein absolutely could not fight these people if their intentions were good, no matter how misguided they were.
Hein’s hand tightened on the spyglass as he noticed the modrons slow down. They didn’t stop, but in perfect synchronization slowed. This wasn’t right.
The bronze boxes all turned towards the ship. Ice shot through Hein’s veins. He had to do something.
Before Hein could think, the modrons leapt. It wasn’t one lone modron either, all the modrons on the outward point of the ramp jumped onto the dock of the boat. It was at least twelve. Hein’s brain was working like lightning; the seconds turned into stilled-images that told Hein exactly what to do. Holder was still speaking with his hands up. The smarter of the two adventurers were readied to fight, the dwarf was standing slack-jawed, and Hein knew the scene was going to lead to carnage.
The intelligent thing to do would have been to send in his army. He could have his shock troops on the ship ready to strike…but as effective as they were, all but one of the painted men were very stupid. What spurred Hein to do something foolish was the gnome. That damned gnome…she jumped in front of Holder! She was trying to shield him from the modrons, like they would or could care!
Hein was on the boat in an instant, the ethereal construct-killer sword blazing in his hand. The carnage hadn’t happened yet. Hein saw the modrons, just now pulling back their full lips to expose the discolored bronze teeth beneath. Those teeth were flat, but just as sharp as axe heads.
As Hein charged, he heard the gear-speech continue to spill from Holder’s mouth. Holder, who didn’t even have his weapon drawn, still hadn’t noticed the threat! Hein cut down the modron near the gnome, then, much to his gratitude, noticed the turtle push three modrons near the front back into the sea.
“Get this ship turned around!” Hein screamed as he cut down two more modrons.
Hein’s sword cut the modrons like it weighed nothing at all. The modron turned to dust almost immediately upon contact.
The other modrons on the ship started to rapidly open and close their mouths. In a cacophony of metallic chattering, the modrons advanced, mouths gaping forward at the Fighting Five. Thankfully, Rexi was ready. She had cut down the closest modron, and was advancing on the two currently clamped onto Azra.
Hearing Hein’s cry sent Toenails running, his stomach bouncing with urgency, to the ship’s helm. Once the dwarf grabbed the wheel, he spun it to the left has hard as he could. The ship lurched away as several more modrons jumped at the deck. The swift turn caused a few of them to fall back in to the sea.
Hein was briefly distracted from the fight by the speed the boat turned around. He knew counting the modrons didn’t matter at this point, so long as they got away from the ramp. Somehow, this boat could sail at faster speeds with little more than a turn of the wheel.
“It must be a magic sail” Hein thought. “A rudder could make it turn, but this ship has been moving no matter what direction the wind was blowing!”
Another extended second hit Hein in the gut. The modrons indiscriminately attacking holder meant something. They had lunged at him, the one that looked the most harmless, without any hesitation. Either Symmette didn’t know he was here, or she somehow didn’t care. Hein had to know which.
Rexi cut off a modron from Azra’s arm, and started to engage the other one. The lone modron stopped chomping at Azra’s stone flesh, and lunged to fight Rexi. She now saw that these beings didn’t fight like animals. This thing, even though it was using its teeth, was actually able to parry several of Rexi’s attacks. It was planning out its strikes.
Rexi briefly had her sword trapped by the thing’s bronze teeth, but was strong enough to force it deeper into the construct’s throat. She saw Theril fighting, and quickly killing, two modrons facing him from the front. Hein looked to be doing the best though. He had already slain a good number, and his magical sword cut through the modrons much easier than the adventurers did.
Hein saw Qresh smash both scaled fists into two modrons and once. The blow didn’t quite kill them, but the tortle spun around and backhanded both constructs off into the sea.
Hein noticed that there weren’t many modrons on board now. Hein spun his head back to the tower, and saw that the ones on the bridge were actually climbing on themselves. A heavy feeling started for form into Hein’s stomach…the ship wasn’t far enough away.
The modrons all piled up in unison, assembling a perfect mass of stacked bodies in seconds. Twelve modrons from the top row of the bronze wall leapt at the boat. Two fell into the sea, but that still left ten modrons for the adventurers to deal with.
A loud rasping noise shook Hein out of his moment of thought. As a modron leapt at him, and as his sword turned it to dust, Hein saw the ship’s mast was bending. Two modrons, teeth chattering at alarming speeds, were eating the mast. The ship would be dead in the water…and Hein didn’t want to learn how the modrons planned on retrieving it.
“Tortle! They are tearing apart your ship, stop them!” Hein shouted.
With no hesitation at all, Qresh finished off two modrons and ran, much faster than a being of that mass should be able too, at the modrons eating the mast. As Qresh’s fist smashed into one modron, the entire mast was finished. He had arrived too late.
Qresh looked at the falling mast as it fell like a freshly cut tree. The boat lurched, and the melee was briefly interrupted. Thankfully, the modrons that had jumped did so in a last-ditch effort. They had destroyed the sail, but now the ship was too far away.
The remaining mass of modrons started to charge, but Hein had finally had enough. He muttered something the others couldn’t hear, something in dwarven, and a shockwave emanated from him. Several modrons were burned by a sort of arcane energy, and this was enough to give the Fighting Five an edge. The remaining modrons were cut down without incident…all except one.
Azra was again trying to talk to a modron clamped to his arm. The thing seemed confused as to why it couldn’t bite into Azra like a normal human. Hein advanced, and quickly plucked the modron from Azra’s arm.
The giant mechanical hand Hein sported grabbed the lone modron. It tried to bite the claw, but the prosthetic suddenly leapt off of Hein’s arm. Rexi gasped, Azra screamed, and the others just watched. The detached hand held the modron in place like a massive, discarded gauntlet.
Hein crossed his arms, now showing his clamp hand to the rest of the party. The modron’s lips slowly covered its teeth, and it just stared at Hein with indifferent eyes.
“You are trying to kill your master’s ally, and in turn his allies!” Hein shouted, though it was less out of anger, and more like he was speaking to a thing that may not understand him.
The modron just stared. It didn’t even blink. It answered Hein, in common, with a grinding and high-pitched voice.
“No one present is an ally of my master.” The thing said flatly.
“Azra Holder is an ally of your master…believe me, I know!” Hein retorted.
The modron finally blinked, which caused a disturbing click to come from its eyes.
“Azra Holder is not present.” The modron responded.
Hein just glared at the modron.
“This is Holder you retarded machine!”
Hein grabbed Azra by the arm and tried to shake the statue man. He was far too heavy for Hein to move, but the tiefling’s touch did cause Holder to stumble closer to the modron. He looked at it, stone eyes locking onto the machine.
Azra made more gear speech, but the modron didn’t respond. He just turned back to the party, and shook his head.
“It does not think I am who I say I am, and this entire time it has not answered my questions.
“But it’ll talk to me! That makes no sense!” Hein shouted.
Almost like a reflex, his mechanical hand tightened on the modron. It made no facial expression, and gave no sign it was in pain, but the crunching of bent metal was audible to all on the ship.
“…you were the head artificer general for the construction of the Great Machine…” The modron manage to choke out.
Hein scowled, then turned to Rexi and Azra, “See!”
Hein moved closer to Azra and the Modron, and wedged himself in between the two.
“Why don’t you tell us all how Symmette wants to use this great machine to fix us all!”
The modron was absolutely silent. Hein growled, and the hand tightened.
“Say it damn you!”
“…our master wants to ascend and rule…flesh must match the mirror of perfec…”
“Say that she is your master! Say it!”
The hand was now visibly injuring the modron, but its thick lips were sealed.
“I asked it several times if Magistrate Symmette was leading the modron army. It did not answer…”
“We can’t verify that!” Hein screamed at Azra.
Rexi started to step up, when she noticed that the modron’s eyes changed colors. One had a white iris and small pupil, the other a normal, but human, light-blue one. Other than this, the thing’s facial expression didn’t change at all.
Something did change though, and that was the thing’s voice.
“Azra…I need you to find me…”
It was the voice of Ailia Symmette. It did not sound commanding or angry, but almost desperate.
Almost on reflex, Hein’s hand crushed the modron. Only the briefest image of gears mixed with strangely synthetic skin and muscle was seen before the ruined modron turned into metallic dust. Rexi gasped, Azra looked mortified, and Hein actually appeared calm.
After turning to the Fighting Five, Hein flashed his strangely large smile at them again.
“It spoke in her voice and wanted Holder. I think this is proof that what I’ve been warning you about it true.”
Rexi looked back from Hein to Azra nervously. She knew how incriminating this looked, but didn’t think it was grounds enough to stop trusting Azra.
“Listen…I know this may look bad…but Azra here hasn’t done anything to help our enemies. If anything, he…”
Rexi sniffed the air, and almost immediately stopped talking. Toenails waddled up to the group, taking the high-pitched buzzing of his fly posse with him.
“I’s got us right up ‘dere, didn’t I’s boss?”
Rexi quickly spun around to Toenails, who was in the process of picking his large and hairy nose.
“Why did you get us so close?” Rexi said. The dwarf only shrugged in response.
Qresh growled out, “Mhmm…arguin’ ‘bout it ain’t gonna help none. Devil boy’s wrong though…ettin girl ain’t doin’ this…”
“I just saved you all tortle! If you don’t listen to me, then you’re lives will be forfeit to those insane machines!”
Hein couldn’t help but yell. Qresh turned towards him, the tortle’s face just as emotionless as ever.
“Thank ya kindly then…” Qresh rumbled rather sincerely. “But we ain’t gonna stop an’ haul off this here statue man jus’ cause you don’t like em…”
Hein raised both eyebrows in surprise, “Because I don’t like him? After what happened on that ship, I think it is much more complex than that! He is allied with the woman who tried to kill you all…whether or not you like it.”
Hein, now appearing much calmer, just clucked his tongue, crossed his arms, and slowly turned his head in Rexi’s direction.
“Now lass,” Hein said as he stared at Rexi, “Should you take him in, or should I?”
After those words left Hein’s mouth, the Fighting Five were suddenly teleported off the stranded ship. They were all now standing inside the tower, though Rexi didn’t know where. The room was dark, only slightly lit by small glowing orbs that floated in place, and Hein was standing in the center. He still had his strange glowing sword, the one that could kill modrons on contact, and Rexi wondered if modron flesh was the only thing it could disintegrate.
Rexi held up her hands before speaking, “Listen…the modron didn’t recognize Azra. That has to mean something. If he was working with them, then the modrons would have brought him to her…not tried to kill him! All we know for sure is that Symmette wants to find Azra, and we have him. Maybe we can make a deal?”
Despite how the scene looked, Rexi didn’t appear to be afraid. Her tone sounded more calm that concerned. Hein cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything else.
Rexi smiled. She tried to position herself between Hein and Azra as she spoke. Hein watched her, but didn’t move.
“The modron didn’t do that until it was the last one left alive. If Symmette was capable of seeing through their eyes constantly, she would have seen Azra, and not attacked us at all. If she needed Azra, then why waste soldiers fighting him? Why not just have them grab him and be done with it?”
Hein scratched his chin in thought. He despised Symmette, but what the gnome said made sense. Still, things would be simpler if Azra was locked away from everyone.
“So, is there nothing I can say to convince you that Azra Holder is dangerous? There’s no way I can haul him off to a cell without you or your soldiers trying to stop me?”
Rexi’s eyes narrowed, her civility starting to evaporate the instant those words left Hein’s mouth.
“No…and we need his help. If Symmette is responsible then he’s our bargaining chip. He’s also the only expert on modrons around right now.”
Hein’s face looked blank before he let out a quiet sigh.
“So be it, I will not harm or imprison Azra Holder, as long as he is in your charge. However, if we are to stop this, we will be forced to act separately. I have an army garrisoned inside the tower here, and can spare you some of my best soldiers.”
Rexi smiled, exposing her overbite to the tiefling. She reached out a small plated hand, and Hein shook it with his hook-like prosthetic.
Rexi turned around to see that the rest of the Fighting Five were all intact. None looked injured, save for Theril who appeared sore but wasn’t visibly cut or bleeding.
Rexi dusted her hands and grinned before addressing the party.
“Right, so now we need to go over a few things, such as where to move from here…wherever we are that is…”
Hein motioned around the room, “This is one of my field stations. I take it that some of you can cast spells. I highly doubt any of us will rest anytime soon, so you should replenish your magic…”
Rexi’s ears perked at hearing the tiefling mention magic. She had used some spells, and knew Toenails had as well. The problem was that this “field station” just looked like an empty room. All Rexi could see was the bronze metal of the floors and walls. The ceiling was too high for her to see.
Normally, to get back expended spells, one had to rest for at least eight hours. Elves could do this in less time since they didn’t sleep, but Theril didn’t cast spells. Rexi saw no beds around to rest on, and had heard the tiefling say they wouldn’t have time to rest. Rexi wondered what his plan was.
Rexi soon noticed that, the farther Hein walked, the more the direction he was going started to illuminate. He finally got to the back of what apparently was a hallway, and two small globes lit up from the floor. The hallway had an assortment of unopened crates that all looked exactly the same. Once at the back, Hein lifted the lid from a crate that didn’t stand out from the others. Once the lid hit the floor, Rexi could feel a surge of magic in the air.
“There’s a rod in here that should have enough charges to give you back your spells two times over. I assume you and the dwarf are the only magic users, because if the elf can cast, he never did once when we were on the ship.”
Theril grunted and crossed his arms, but didn’t say anything. Rexi just looked at the magic item with a sense of wonder. Something like this was extremely expensive. It wasn’t just something you kept in a dirty crate in a storeroom.
With his backwards hand, Hein lifted out a strange arcane rod and handed it to Toenails, who had already started to inspect the crate. Rexi was still shocked that Hein had such a device.
“How…how did you get this?” Rexi stammered out. Toenails had already grabbed, and used the rod. He cackled with rejuvenated energy, then quickly handed Rexi the rod before waddling off.
Hein didn’t answer immediately; he only flashed his large grin and held up his backwards hand so Rexi could see. On the back of its palm was a strange glyph, one that Rexi knew to be from the celestial language.
“Me and some very lucky adventurers rescued a solar trapped underneath one of those islands. The angel gave us all a wish. I wanted an army, and instead of giving me a battalion of angels to fight this madness, it gave me influence…”
Rexi grasped the rod, and in mere seconds felt her mind rejuvenate. All the spells she had memorized suddenly returned. It was a difficult feeling, one that couldn’t be explained to non-magic users, but was a sense of absolute knowing. She always had spells memorized, but once expended, the finer details of their casting got hazy. They had to be recovered with rest. Rexi knew her spells were ready to use, and she had only been in this room a few minutes.
As Rexi sat the magic item back inside the crate, Hein continued his explanation.
“I found that my words could bend people easier to my will…and that was just people. Constructs, be they golem, walking armor, or homunculi, obeyed me without question. Obviously, it doesn’t work on modrons…but they are impossible to control with magic. I got together a score of engineers and arcanists, and promised them the chance of a lifetime. My only request was an asymmetric construct as payment…”
“So, you took control over their constructs and made the army all at once. These wizards didn’t get upset?” Rexi couldn’t help but feel something malicious about this whole scenario,
“Upset? Certainly not! Most of them begged for the chance to work on what I had planned once the tower appeared! I told them about the invasion, and had the gold to silence any annoying objections…”
Rexi just nodded. If Hein could afford magical items like this, he could have just bought his own army. Granted it wouldn’t be so easy to command, but still formidable. Rexi did believe Hein, but she hadn’t seen any proof of an army so far.
“Speaking of that, you all are going to need a good escort…”
Answering Rexi’s question for her, Hein snapped his backwards fingers. That blue teleport shine surrounded the Fighting Five in four spots, and what appeared around them was something Rexi could have never expected.
It was Hein…or more accurately twisted copies of Hein.
What resembled four clones of Hein stood around the Fighting Five. The copies were, at least Rexi thought, supposed to look like Hein, but were off in very disturbing ways. First was their general texture; their bodies were a rough, curving, and noodle-like consistency that applied to both skin and armor.
Everything about theses beings was oddly shaped. None had a set of arms or legs that was the right length or size, some lacked crucial parts like eyes or ears, and one had a massive, singular eye for a face. The colors looked off as well. The armor wasn’t metallic, the skin was too vivid, and even the ever present black looked almost like ink.
These beings were constructs, but they were far from being harmless clay copies. One thing that reassured Rexi this was their duplicated claws and swords. Each one looked more metallic, more real, than the rest of the clones. Not only that, but the swords seemed to match the one Hein had used to effortlessly kill modrons.
“Do you like my painted men? I had them designed in an abstract style…what did that painter say…that emphasized the feeling of an image rather than its exact dimensions…or something…”
Hein was beaming now, as if the twisted painted-people were of his own creation.
Rexi just glanced around at the things, who were all focused on Hein. Hein cleared his voice, and shouted a command to them all.
“You will protect these people with your lives! Treat them as you would treat me, except for the statue! If the statue turns on the others, stop him at all costs!”
Rexi tried to hide a scowl, but did understand Hein’s reasoning. Before she could speak, one painted man screamed. It had Hein’s voice, but was exaggerated in a very unflattering way.
“H-head cheese!” The painted Hein shrieked.
It was one closest to Rexi that appeared to be all mouth. Rexi only made out a pinprick of an eye just above its left-pointing nose.
“Yes, bitey clone, head cheese! Very good!”
Rexi just crossed her arms, glanced at the monsters, then looked back to Hein with an expression of disbelief.
“These things are supposed to help us? Are they even smart enough to fight?”
Hein chuckled, “I know they look and sound silly, but despite the lads here being morons, they can fight just as well as I can. They will not hurt anyone I tell them to protect, and can’t feel pain or fear.”
“Besides,” Hein yelled as he slapped the “bitey” painted clone on the shoulder, “If Symmette sees these things she’ll piss herself in terror. That woman can’t function if she’s around too much asymmetry.”
At mention of Symmette, Rexi turned to look at Azra. She had almost forgotten about him, and being in such a dark (and possibly dirty) room should have made him react in a noticeable way. Azra had been silent for most of the time they had arrived.
Azra was just kneeling on the floor, the stillness and blankness of his face making him look like an actual, non-living statue. Rexi walked up to him, and tried to meet his eyes. Azra just kept his gaze locked on the floor.
“Are…are you alright Azra? Rexi squeaked, though she could already tell that the statue man was worried about something. After the confrontation on the ship, Rexi felt like she knew exactly what it was.
“She is in trouble…” Azra half-whispered as he rose from the floor to look at Rexi.
“Magistrate Ailia Symmette is not responsible for this. She needed my help when she overtook that modron. I know how all this evidence makes her look guilty, but something is not right at all here…”
Azra turned to Rexi, now with a look of sheer panic in his eyes.
“Please help me…!” Azra half-shouted at the Fighting Five.
His voice was starting to betray him though. Rexi could tell he was close to breaking.
“We’re here to stop this invasion Azra, and if this woman is as you say, she will have nothing to fear from us, I can promise you this. Even if she is responsible, we aren’t going to fight her unless she actively attempts to kill us. Even if such a confrontation leads to combat, we have more than enough skill to apprehend her without harm.”
Hein rolled his eyes as Rexi finished. Qresh shook his head at Hein’s reaction, and lumbered closer to Azra.
“Ettin girl ain’t who we’re after…we’re gonna tear up these mod-rone things…mmhm…” Qresh growled.
“Me an’ princess here’ll do all we can’s!” Toenails hacked out as Theril sneered.
“Speak for yourself dwarf!” Theril shouted before turning away from Toenails.
Theril turned away from Toenails, then looked Azra dead in the eyes.
“After seeing this symmetry woman, I have no doubt she is responsible for this, that much is obvious. If she is as admirable as you think statue, then she will surrender immediately when we find her. If you are with us, the task will be that much easier.”
Theril walked over to the crates Hein had, head held high, as Rexi watched him leave.
“He isn’t wrong, if she is behind this, you’re our best chance at getting her to stop.”
Rexi turned and smiled up at Azra. Despite what Theril had said, Azra looked more relaxed.
From the back of the room, Hein just scoffed. He walked up to Rexi, but still kept his distance from Azra.
“Lass…I really, really hope you and your friends make it through this. You aren’t looking at the facts properly. It isn’t that Symmette has anything to fear from you…it’s that you all don’t know what she’s capable of. You’re fighting the equivalent of two people that work together perfectly, and can cast spells simultaneously. Not to mention that she’s insane in the worst ways possible. Her neuroses can pick apart mistakes before they happen.”
With those final words, Hein teleported out of the room. The clones just focused on Rexi, now seeing her as the one in command. Before any of the Fighting Five could respond, they heard Hein’s disembodied voice. It was exactly like how they heard him on their ship before they had met him in person.
“Luckily I’ll be here to protect you all from the monsters!” Hein shouted.
Rexi looked up, somewhat confused, then back to her party.
“Well, that’s great but where do we go from here?”
“I have more soldiers that will meet up with you all as you ascend. You’ll need to meet them halfway and figure out a way to stop the modron advance. My researchers found some sort of locked doors that lead to rooms we couldn’t make sense of. It was almost like they were tests. Maybe if the puzzles inside those rooms are solved, you will have control over the tower.
“For now, just follow these clones. They know the exact way.”
The clones trotted off; their mismatched legs causing them all to walk with a stumbling gait. Rexi followed them, and the other three soon followed. Azra Holder didn’t go, at least right away.
Azra reached into his pocket and pulled out his hand mirror. He only saw his reflection. Azra tried to focus, tried to see what was beyond the reflection. He couldn’t tell if he saw the inside of a symmetrical, but empty, bedroom, or if it was only an image inside his head.
With a grimace, Azra stood up, slipped away the mirror, and started to walk down the hall. Azra doubted anyone knew just what a Pillar of Law was, and was somehow sure even the engineer was clueless to how it operated. They would need him.
He would make this right.
******************************************************************************
“It is of great importance that you bring me the human statue! I do not care that you are unable to see that it is Azra Holder, but you are still to bring him straight to me!”
Symmette’s voices nearly rattled the metal walls of where she stood. The modron she addressed already looked as frightened as a modron could. Despite their actions, these creatures could feel fear. The thing looked to be frozen in place.
“W-we will retrieve the statue, but what of his allies? What of the adventurers and the traitor engineer?” The modron asked.
Ailia Symmette stood there, emotionless for an instant, but the modron saw an eye, and only one eye, on her left head twitch.
“You can kill or capture the adventurers, do what is most efficient, but do not let Azra Holder escape! He is paramount for retrieval of the sword!”
The modron started to run off with its orders, but Symmette’s commanding shouts stopped it yet again.
“And do not slay the tiefling! He is just as instrumental in carrying out our plans!”
“T-the traitor?” The modron stammered.
Symmette tried to speak without emotion, but a pair of grimaces still managed to escape as she addressed the modron.
“Yes…the traitor engineer Hein Slatecutter. We will need him, in fact, he is more important to me right now than Azra Holder. We need the sword…and we need to get this tower primed and ready for use.”
The modron twitched. Whatever terror that once gripped it was starting to melt away. This modron’s new god was not making sense. Ailia Symmette should have already primed the tower, not waited for adventurers to break inside and possibly compromise the machinations inside. It didn’t seem right, and at such a crucial moment, this particular modron had to know why.
“Master…can you not simply activate the tower yourself? This is knowledge that you should possess. Primus had such knowledge, and the statue did as...”
“Primus is not here now! He is forever gone to you all! Do you understand ?”
The power behind Symmette’s twin voices was staggering. The modron just nodded frantically.
Symmette sighed, then walked over to her desk.
“I should not be so upset,” Symmette droned, now looking near emotionless, “I forget how you simple creatures lose track of the obvious. I am a being of law in a land of filth and chaos…the longer I am away from Automata…the worse I will get…”
The modron’s normally emotionless face actually looked concerned. It reached out its spindly limbs at Symmette, as if it wanted to comfort her.
“M-master…I did not know…”
“Oh, how could you have known? If Primus had ever gone on a righteous crusade such as this, he would have been so much worse for wear! He was too blind though…which I am eternally grateful you all can see now…”
Symmette leaned on her desk, cupped her hands in front of her heads, and touched all six fingertips together in contemplation. The pair of thumbs on each side of her hands started to lift, rise, and fall again to touch their opposite counterpart. The fidgeting betrayed Symmette’s seemingly emotionless faces.
“All we need to do is take Azra Holder from them, subdue Hein Slatecutter, and make sure the adventurers that intruded do not interfere. The switches have to be done exactly right, and all the locks must be opened in exact order…
The modron flattened its thick lips in a look of absolute determination. From behind it, dimly lit in the shadows, countless other bronze boxes stood and readied to march. Seeing the perfectly assembled horde of living boxes made both Symmette’s hearts swell with joy. One of Symmette’s faces grinned, while the other had trouble forcing its lips apart.