Chapter Six

Morning found Zaria and Duluus hiking along the forested orange-and-red sandstone mountains. Zaria’s thoughts kept wandering back to his former traveling companions, who had evidently not picked up his trail. He knew he needed to find them, but the plight of the iron tribe ate at him, and the more he learned, the more he felt he had a second chance to honor his iron kin that had fallen to the Makuta.

I will find the others later, he reasoned. But this is important.

The treeline opened, and Duluus gestured to the side of the tallest of the mountains. Zaria realized what the Agori had brought him to see. Roads had been carved into rock, zigzagging up the sheer mountain face, protected by iron guardrails. Thousands of residences and buildings stretched deep into the cliffside, all seemingly built of forged metal.

“Skodas,” Duluus said, awe in his eyes. “Home of the iron tribe in the Brown Rust Mountains. Today? Completely abandoned.”

He looked at Zaria. “I know what you’re thinking. Why do we camp so far away instead of staying here? I could speak of how the Element Lord of Earth extended her kingdom from the Fertile Valley at the far north of this range all the way south. How she claimed all the mountains for her farmland, driving its residents out. That they drain our lands of its vast metal ore deposits while leaving their own protective mountains untouched. But… we’d been refugees long before then.”

He chuckled humorlessly.

“First came the plague,” Duluus continued softly. “A plague that drove us mad and turned us against each other. But what came after was worse. We were shunned and rejected by the other tribes, despite our most desperate efforts. After the Shattering, they drove us into the northern tundra where many more died. Just like that… my people, the tribe of iron, was nearly wiped off the face of the planet.”

Zaria shook his head. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing.

“In time, other tribes were driven to the tundra as well, but we fought to keep our place,” the iron Agori scowled. “And here we have remained for millennia. A thorn in the side of the great powers of the forest. We will not be driven out again. And here we will remain when all our rivals fall.”

“Your cause,” Zaria found himself saying, “is noble.”

“We do what we must to survive,” the Agori said softly. “Iron that endures the crucible is purified, but it remains iron. But like anything refined by the forge, we can be repurposed. ‘Zaria,’ I don’t know what your purpose was, or what creed was hard-wired into you, but you are a creature of metal. Do you see my implants?”

Zaria looked. True enough, close observation showed technology crossing the Agori’s armor and body.

“The jungle Agori and others blame Great Being technology for the Shattering. They sought to regress, infusing plants into their armor. But they were fools. Technology is the only thing that could have melded the fault lines shut before disaster struck in the first place. You are where our species was going. Before it went astray. The Spirit Forge, where animals and technology once became one… it was meant to be the start of far more.”

Duluus fell silent. Zaria was happy to oblige. The birds above wheeled and danced, and the wind whistled through the canopy. For a while, the two stared at the ruins, reflecting on their yesterdays.

“So, Zaria,” the Agori finally said, gesturing to his shoulder, where the Toa’s armor had been shattered by Vorox artillery. “Let’s see if we can get that patched up.”

✴        ✴        ✴

Chiara awoke with a start. The first thing she realized was that she felt more refreshed than she had in months. Her joints weren’t stiff, and her muscles didn’t ache. How did this happen?

It came back like a flood. The Vorox fight, the fissure, the tumbling. The voice. Blackness.

Chiara jolted upright. She was on a white pallet bed in a small dirt room, adorned with colorful tapestries and straw weaves. A small stream trickled from one of the walls into a small river along the ground, disappearing in a hole on the opposite side. Sunlight streamed in from two windows.

She spun on her bed. Sitting cross-legged beside the open door was a veritable mountain of a figure, large and broad. Her armor looked like hardened clay, and her body appeared to consist of actual soil.

“I hope you feel better,” she said. “Our healers didn’t quite know what to do with you.”

“Thanks…?” Chiara shook her head. “Who are you?”

“I am what they call an Element Lord,” the other replied, enunciating the last two words slowly. “I rule the earth.”

“How did you find me?”

“I saw your merry band the moment you entered my forest.”

Chiara nodded and looked around. There were no obvious traps. The Element Lord appeared to be unarmed and relaxed. And the Toa had no restraints.

She was immediately suspicious. “Now what?”

The Element Lord of Earth rose and gestured to the door beside her. “Now you are free to leave. The guards will not stop you. They’ll give you directions to find your friends, in fact. Yes, even to the one who communes with iron warmongers.”

“I must have hit my head pretty hard,” Chiara muttered.

“Is generosity so difficult to believe?”

Chiara looked up again at the Element Lord, then looked away, unconsciously shaking her head. “Like Makuta-bait it is.”

The Element Lord studied her face intently. Then she smiled and began to walk around the room.

“I know what you feel. You have something to prove. You are young and came too late in history to make a difference. Is that correct?”

Chiara said nothing.

“I don't care to pontificate or lecture,” said the Element Lord. “I believe that my actions will speak for themselves, and they are enough. But know this… I came late as well. I was made separate from the other Element Lords. Some questioned my legitimacy. It has been my objective to redefine myself, and that I have.”

She frowned. “Earth is resolute. The greatest mountains and the deepest gorges consist of earth. Earthquakes set tsunamis in motion and give birth to volcanoes. Plants live or die on the whim of the earth beneath them. It was earth that revealed to my brother the existence of the Core. Geography shapes history. So I have shaped destiny.”

She clasped her hands behind her back. “You do not have to prove yourself, warrior. All the might is already in your hands. You fear that you are young; I come from an order that preceded yours. Take it from me: it is you who decides what power you hold and how it is used.”

Now the Element Lord stood on the side of the room opposite the door.

“I am not your enemy,” she said. “Your trust is one I hope to earn. Of course, you can leave now… or you can stay and learn what I know. The choice is yours.”

✴        ✴        ✴

The Vorox column made fast pace, and riders mounted on green Rock Steeds frequently fanned out, looking for spies or suspicious activity. They would have found two of them, if not for a delicate trick Orde explained to be a ‘perception shift’ nudging their attention from their two followers.

“How do they move this fast?” Gelu muttered under his breath. “Much less above ground? There was a word we used for surface Vorox in Bara Magna: sunstruck.”

“Any particular reason these ones would want to avoid being underground?” asked Orde. “Anything below that could drive them out of the earth?”

“Well…”

As they came around a bend, the trees opened to reveal a fast-moving river. A cry went up from the commander and the column stopped. Gelu and Orde crouched low behind some shrubs as the scouts circled like hawks. This time the commander seemed to be pacing, concerned and alarmed.

The sound of hoofs could be heard from ahead in the clearing. A messenger ran up to the commander, and brief snatches of conversation could be heard.

“—bridge collapsed. Kabrua says to take the northern crossing.”

“Those four couldn’t have made it this far without help. It has to have been her.”

“The other columns will be in place by nightfall. Then we will be ready to strike.”

The commander shouted again, and the column wheeled and resumed its breakneck pace. Orde and Gelu exchanged glances and started after them.

✴        ✴        ✴

On his second night at the iron Agori camp, Zaria paced along the edge of the treetop platform, uncomfortable with how long he’d been without hearing from his companions. The iron Agori huddled around their makeshift forge talking in hushed voices seemed oblivious, many of them absorbed in conversation. As Zaria watched for some sign of his missing allies, his ears drifted to the discussion of his new allies.

“We finally have our answer,” Duluus was saying. “After all these millennia, we have the key to turning the tide — a way to counter her. How do you hesitate even now?”

“He is a rogue creation of the Great Beings,” a female iron warrior responded. “When the time comes to take revenge, how can we trust he won't revert to his old programming?”

“The Great Beings created the force blasters the Vorox bear. They created the implants inside all of us. The Element Lords were all but created in their labs. They’ve molded and shaped our identity as tribes and as a species every bit as much as they shaped his. What's the problem?”

“The problem is that he's an artificial intelligence. He's one of their machines, not ours. What we would have him do—”

“He is living metal. Breathing iron. That is all that matters. Armor, weaponry, vehicles; they all obey his command. When the time comes for us to take revenge, his power will tear apart our enemies.”

“Hold on,” said Zaria abruptly, stalking over to the fire, “What are you talking about? You would make me your weapon? A tool?”

“No,” Duluus declared, turning to him. “We would make you our Element Lord.”