“Nox,” said Naomi firmly. “He’s the only one I trust to watch it.”
“Nox might even know what we need to do.” Resolve firmed in Scorio’s heart. “We have to tell him.”
“Is he done moving?”
Scorio focused. Cast his mind forth, seeking that pull, that sense of heaviness, and found it quickly. Waited, watched, then nodded. “He’s stopped for now.”
“Then let’s go to him.” Naomi climbed off the bed. “Before someone comes that we can’t escape.”
“Leonis? Lianshi?”
“Next time.” Naomi was certain. “Our first responsibility is to this egg.”
Scorio saw again Xandera’s lifeless corpse, heard her trailing sigh, and rising, slung the pack over his shoulder. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
Chapter 28
The Titans didn’t react to their presence. Scorio half-hoped one of them would speak to him again in Xandera’s voice, but their presence was mute and stolid, and they passed through their ring in silence.
Once again they faced the vertical shaft, and once again Naomi climbed onto Scorio’s back as he ignited his Heart and expanded his wings. They’d not spoken of his duel, of her intervention, of her pain and fury at his having accepted it in the first place. She’d not even asked him about Xandera, and why the queen had agreed to fire the caldera.
For that, Scorio had been glad.
He moved as if within a fever dream. Exhausted beyond measure, his spirit seared by fury and pain, he stepped out over the void and dropped, arms crossed over his chest, down down down into the rising fumes and sulfurous stench, into the great magma cavern with its burning lake and towering spires of rock.
With Nox’s presence fixed in his mind he winged out over the lake, riding the heated updrafts, eyes burning from the gases.
Down and into a great throat of a tunnel, ribbed and fanged with stalactites, then another steep drop, a waterfall of magma pouring thickly over the lip. Down they dropped along the burning cascade, deeper into the earth, and then were forced to walk as Nox’s trail led them into a labyrinth of wormholes. How the great toad had inserted himself into such tight confines Scorio couldn’t guess, but they labored in his trail, occasionally having to double back as more circuitous routes were needed to draw closer to their friend.
Finally they emerged into a cavern so steeped in Iron that it felt like wading through mercury. Nox was perched atop a boulder, squat and immobile like a crude deity, and before him, filling a broad hole, lay the glimmering surface of his gel pool.
“Favorite friends Scorio and Naomi!” began the toad, but then he cut off abruptly, worked his throat as if choking, and leaped down to land before them. “What do you carry? What do I sense?”
“This,” said Scorio, kneeling to allow his pack to slide down his arm, and from its depths he drew forth a bundle. He unwrapped the blanket and revealed the black egg, and it seemed hotter than before.
Nox let out an alarmed croak and shuffled back violently, his cheeks puffing out as his whole body radiated alarm. “How?!”
Scorio frowned at the egg, turning it over slowly in his hands, and told the fiend. Told him of his conversations with Xandera, the queen’s revelations and agreement to help him with his duel against Plassus.
“Grave wonder, terrible miracle.” Nox cautiously waddled closer and inspected the egg. “You hold treasure of Acherzua. Many fiends would hunt Scorio to consume egg power.”
“They would die,” whispered Scorio.
“Perhaps.” Nox didn’t seem convinced. “Much power inside egg. Power to draw fiends from deeper reaches.” Nox cocked his head, expression sly. “Power is tasty. Extreme power is extremely tasty.”
Scorio stared flatly at the toad. “No, Nox.”
Nox wobbled from side to side. “Not for Nox, not for Nox! For other, less noble fiends.”
“Right.” Scorio carefully wrapped up the egg and stowed it away in his pack again. “Xandera said we needed to saturate the egg in Gold mana or better. Does it make a difference if it’s Sapphire, or Noumenon…?”
“Very much difference, yes.” Nox bobbed his great head. “Blazeborn queen majesty set by mana. Noumenon Queen conquer Acherzua and make all fiends her grateful slave.”
Naomi finished braiding her hair and tossed it over her shoulder. “Too bad we’ll never get any of that. Might be a good thing.”
“I’m going to give her the best I can find,” said Scorio solemnly. “Whatever that may be. Then I’ll tell her where she can find Bravurn, and get out of her way.”
“Agreed,” said Naomi. “Though now that you’ve normalized fighting Charnel Dukes, what’s a Blood Baron? I’m surprised you didn’t try to gut the monster.”
“No.” Scorio gazed at his hands. The whorls of his knuckles were ingrained with dirt. Or was it blood? “Bravurn wouldn’t hesitate to execute me. Plassus… well. Plassus is a more complicated man.”
“A better man,” said Naomi, then considered. “Relatively speaking.”
“Naomi ready for imperial gel bath? Ready to learn Delightful Secret Marinating technique?”
“Yes.” She reached into her own pack and drew forth a large iron bottle. “Brought the Gold mana.”
“What? How did you get that?”
Naomi’s smile was dark. “I flirted a little with Alain.”
“You?” Scorio stared. “You know how to flirt?”
He fully expected her to explode, to roll her eyes, to glare at him. Instead, she dipped her chin, widened her eyes innocently, and approached him. Her hips swayed subtly, and when she reached him she placed her hand on his chest and looked up at him from under her lashes. “Why yes, Scorio,” she whispered, voice husky and utterly unnerving. “There’s much more to me than meets the eye.”
“Now, Scorio,” rumbled Nox excitedly. “Expand your vocal sacs!”
Naomi laughed and her light touch became a shove. “If he shows me his vocal sac it’ll be the last thing he does.”
Scorio caught his balance and felt his cheeks burn. He’d never imagined she could move like that, could gaze at him in that manner.
“So.” Naomi was all business. “The pool?”
Scorio took the bottle of Gold mana as Nox once again repeated his instructions. How the gel would act as a matrix that would stabilize and hold the mana. How she would need to find equilibrium, and then slowly exceed it, using it all the while to cycle and find a falling point beyond the equilibrium.
Naomi’s expression was at once fiercely focused and completely bewildered.
“Don’t worry,” said Scorio. “The gel will insulate you from the Gold mana. It’ll bond with you, with your spirit. You’ll feel your Heart grow more… prominent, I guess. When you draw the Gold into yourself, the gel will slow and help you perfectly control your draw, and then make the process almost effortless. It will allow you to keep your reservoir filled even as you burn. When you’re ready, use the gel to split the stream, so that you feed some to your Heart, and the rest to your reservoir. Once you’ve accomplished that, increase the amount you pull into your reservoir, and you’ll naturally increase the amount you feed your Heart as well. Your reservoir will fill to bursting even as your Heart burns on, and that’s how I pushed mine to its maximum size and became an Emberling. You’ll need to focus instead on the act of splitting the mana as it pours into you, focus on how the gel helps you manipulate the mana so you can attempt to do the same later once you’re back out.”
“As Nox said.” The toad sounded grumpy. “Exceed equilibrium, then cause falling mana to miss.”
“The gel will give you the ability to fine tune your mana control,” said Scorio, trying to reassure Naomi. “Let it do the heavy lifting. Learn from it, and then, later, you’ll just need to duplicate its effect.”