Nox’s air was one of distinct confusion.
Naomi looked mortified. “No Imperial Exaltation. No thousand tadpoles.”
“Pity,” said Nox. “Vigorous mating all Nox want. Quantics open new horizons. I ascend to Emperor Wraith form, will mate with greater females, will create a thousand thousand young. If Nox die while rioting in spawning pools, Nox die legendary death.”
“Look,” said Naomi. “Just forget I asked about the jelly bath.”
“Nox make sacred marinating pool. Need time, though.”
“Thank you,” said Scorio, relieved the conversation had finally moved on. “Anything else you need? Coal mana, or…?”
“Nox saturated to exaltation. Ready to ascend. Have plenty of mana for imperial gel.” He waddled about for a bit, then returned. “This dangerous location. Nox uncomfortable making gel here.”
“Because of the magma giant?”
“Too hot. Not comfortable for Imperial Ghost Toad.”
“Oh, I see. We could find a place farther away from the magma. Wherever you go, we can track you there.”
“Very good. Nox find burrow, extrude gel, make sacred matrix. Bring mana to saturate.”
“Will do.” Scorio glanced uneasily at the placid surface of the magma lake once more. “What did the blazeborn Titan tell you?”
“Nox and Titan speak with mana pulses. He question my presence. Nox apologize and promote peace. Titan retreat, return, project danger. Nox threaten mana detonation. Titan settle.”
“I’m sure he did,” said Scorio. “But if he’s here… the Iron Tyrant can’t know about him. Is he the same as the one that killed the Ferric Drake? That wasn’t too far away.”
“Nox sense other Titan pass by not long ago. Flow through magma.”
“So there’s more than one.” Scorio glanced at Naomi. “Do you think the queen’s planning an attack?”
“Even three of those Titans couldn’t beat a hundred Great Souls,” said Naomi. “They might kill a few dozen of us, but they’d lose.”
“But how did she make them? You’d think the Iron Tyrant would notice if she tried to fire up the caldera on the fly.”
“Nox see blazeborns descend and enter lava. They merge with Titan.”
“Oh…” Scorio nodded. “Wait. With the huge Titan here it doesn’t make sense that random fiends are climbing up to attack the Fury Spires. So the losses are just sacrifices being made to empower these few warriors.”
“But it still won’t be enough,” said Naomi stubbornly. “Unless she’s waiting for the day the Iron Tyrant moves on.”
“Or she’s just desperate and has no other options.” Scorio frowned at the rumpled expanse of black rock cut through with searing orange seams. “But she let us down here. Why would she do that?”
“Blazeborn queens very powerful,” rumbled Nox. “Very cunning.”
“You told her about your friendship with Nox. About everything that’s happened,” said Naomi. “Maybe she’s taking a gamble on you.”
“On us,” said Scorio, and a bright light of hope blossomed in his heart. “You think she’s…?”
Naomi shrugged. “Question is, would you join the Titans in massacring all the other Great Souls upstairs?”
“No,” said Scorio heavily. “I can’t do that.”
“Then it was a poor gamble.”
“Scorio and Naomi special Great Souls.” Nox quirked his head to one side. “Friends of Nox. Friend of fiends.”
“But… that doesn’t mean I’ll turn against my own kind. I can’t. We’re fighting for everyone in Bastion. We need to destroy the Pit.”
Nox did not reply.
For a moment they stood thus. Scorio watched as a giant bubble welled up through the black crust, rose to a prodigious height, then burst magnificently, sending ropes of magma flying.
“Nox extrude imperial bath,” said the fiend at last. “Find cool, find damp. Come find Nox when Nox no longer moving.”
“Thank you,” said Naomi gravely. “I really appreciate it.”
“Nox knows.” The toad waddled back from the crag. “Good to see favorite friends.”
“Good to see you, too,” said Scorio. “Thanks again.”
The toad gathered himself, then leaped. One moment he was there, the next he’d launched himself toward the recesses of the caves, and was gone.
“You have to swear to me that you’ll never tell Leonis or anyone else about this conversation,” said Naomi darkly.
“Done.”
“Thousand tadpoles.” Naomi made an expression of disgust. “No thank you.”
Scorio chuckled despite himself. “He made an incredible argument. He must be mystified as to why we weren’t convinced.”
“Are you going to fly us out of here, or stand there blathering nonsense?”
“Hmm.” Scorio pretended to consider, then raised his hands placatingly. “Fine. Probably best we leave before the Titan comes to pulse aggressive warning mana at us, anyway.”
Naomi gave a curt nod and walked around him as he once more grew his wings. She linked her hands around his neck, and he leaped into the air, beating his wings powerfully as he fought for altitude.
“He kind of sold me on that legendary death, though,” Scorio shouted over his shoulder.
“Don’t make me choke you!” Naomi shouted back.
Laughing, Scorio wheeled higher and higher, making for one of the vents in the ceiling. Before he soared up and away, however, he cast a final glance below. The black mantle had broken apart in the center of the lake, and the last thing he saw before he ascended was a great molten head rising from the fiery orange to gaze up at them.
Chapter 18
The tension in the Fury Spires had spilled back into the tunnels; Naomi and Scorio passed excited groups of Emberlings and Tomb Sparks, all agog at the ceremonies that the Iron Tyrant had unfurled for the visiting dignitaries. It had been a lavish affair, and the members of the Iron Vanguard appeared gratified by their leader’s largesse.
Still, nobody stopped them, and soon the pair found themselves back in their cluster.
Naomi hesitated, drifted toward her room’s entrance, then turned back abruptly. “I - I think I might take some time to meditate and train.”
“Sure,” said Scorio, painfully aware of how alone they were now in their chambers. He linked his hands behind his back, felt more awkward for it, so crossed his arms. “I’ll do the same. Race you to Dread Blaze?”
“Pah.” Naomi tossed her hair back. “What manner of race would that be? With your Pyre Lord technique you should have ranked up already.”
“Well, perhaps I’ll have done so when next we speak.” Scorio forced a grin. “Don’t get mad.”
“Around you?” She raised an eyebrow. “It seems I have no choice in the matter.”
Scorio entered his room but immediately felt cooped up. He lit his globe, preferring the golden light to his darkvision, then distracted himself for a spell by examining the mechanism, discovering eventually that the glass hemisphere contained a primitive mana trap of some kind, a complex wiring designed to slow and accumulate Iron mana which it then released when activated by a Great Soul by superheating the trap itself.
Sighing, he sat on his bunk and stared at the wall. Naomi was right there, only a stone’s throw away. Should he go to her? And say what? He envisioned himself silencing her sarcastic remark with a kiss, pulling her roughly against him, her hands moving over his body…
Scorio groaned and fell back to drape his arm over his eyes. No, no no no. That would be… terrifying and wonderful and perhaps it would feel right in the moment, but thereafter? He pictured her lying beside him when they were done, her eyes practically burning in the darkness, and a tremulous, uncertain feeling swept through him.