Auxiliary

Auxiliary, usually shortened to Aux and originally called 12124, is Szeth's former highspren (until ). He later bonds Nomad, traveling with him throughout the cosmere while on the run from the Night Brigade. He is eventually consumed by the Dawnshard temporarily held by Nomad, leaving little remaining of his essence beyond fragments of his mind and personality. After his death, Auxiliary continues to travel with Nomad until he sacrifices his remaining essence on Canticle to save his companion's life and the citizens of Beacon.
== Appearance and Personality ==
=== Appearance ===
Prior to his death, Auxiliary appeared as all highspren do, as a black slit in the fabric of reality with a void of stars within. The air seems to warp around him. He was also capable of making himself invisible whenever he wanted. He looked like a human-shaped but otherwise similar void in the Cognitive Realm.
After his death, Auxiliary cannot corporally manifest in the physical realm on his own, and exists instead as a deep monotone voice that rides along in Nomad's head. While the spren cannot use vocal inflection to indicate tone he is still capable of making sounds like sighs and oohs, though the result is distinctively amusing. Unlike tone, Auxiliary is still able to modulate the volume of his projected words. 
In the cognitive realm, Auxiliary continues to have some kind of form after his death, though the details are unknown. Auxiliary remarks on multiple occasions that he doesn't have any eyes. However, it is unclear if he is speaking generally in regard to his incorporeal physical realm self or rather literally about a lack of eyes in his body in the cognitive realm similar to a deadeye spren. After his second death, Auxiliary is burned away entirely and has no presence remaining in the cognitive realm.
Auxiliary is able to manifest a body in the physical realm only when summoned by Nomad as a particular object. This body can take on any number of forms, limited only by Nomad's understanding of the intended shape. The object is always made out of a silvery metal, likely an alloy of the God metals of Honor and Cultivation. It forms out of a glowing white mist and once manifested can alter its shape by partially transforming back into mist and reforming.
=== Personality ===
Auxiliary generally has a upbeat and witty personality even when Nomad is in pain or superficial danger. He displays a dry and sarcastic sense of humor which is often used at Nomad's expense. Though the jokes are usually good natured and meant to guide Nomad toward more moral and self-preserving actions, they do on occasion go too far and end up coming across as genuinely hurtful. Auxiliary's humor is also sometimes self-deprecating, though he much prefers self-aggrandizement. Despite this predilection for boastfulness, Auxiliary actively rejects being referred to as a god despite his divine origin; a reaction at odds with some other sapient spren such as Sylphrena.
While with Szeth, Auxiliary acted very reserved towards his Radiant, keeping his tone formal and addressing him as acolyte. He did not talk to him or show himself to him often. Auxiliary was initially hesitant to show his true self to Nomad but his expressiveness grew over their decades together until the day he died. Though he is still able to feel emotions after his death, he has a difficult time conveying them because of his monotone voice. He is self-conscious about his monotone and adds third-person commentary and dialogue tags to his speech to help convey meaning, tone, and intent. To Nomad's great irritation, he sometimes overuses adverbs in an effort to convey emotion, and also occasionally needs to clarify the intended connotation of a word or phrase with multiple meanings. When he curses, Auxiliary uses the Rosharan "storms/storming" and "damnation" though it is unknown if he knew of and used such words before bonding with Nomad. He is usually blunt and direct in his speech and doesn't fully understand why humans, particularly Nomad, speak circumspectly rather than doing the same.
Auxiliary is extremely intelligent, and is particularly adept at making connections between things that he learns and extrapolating meaningful information from a small sample size. He also has some amount of medical knowledge, being able to diagnose broken ribs, severe whiplash, imminent severe bruising before it forms, and potential concussion upon a cursory examination of the patient. Auxiliary is also sometimes quite philosophical, posing questions about the nature of reality and how it is shaped by perception. Despite being a "living manifestation of physical forces", Auxiliary does not have an inherent understanding of those concepts and seems to hold physics and math in disdain, preferring art instead. One of Auxiliary's favorite forms of aesthetic beauty are grand natural vistas as the views fill him with awe and make him wish he and Nomad could pause more often to enjoy the views on their travels to many worlds.
Auxiliary is very interested in understanding the motivations behind people's actions. This interest likely stems from not understanding humans very well and a desire to know them better. Though he has trouble understanding motivation, he is able to recognize human emotion through facial expressions and is even able to recognize when a person or group of people are acting strangely. He has a particularly hard time understanding actions that have no logical reasoning behind them such as Nomad's abandonment of his oaths. 
Though Auxiliary does on occasion understand a person's motivation correctly, he is not nearly as experienced or proficient in the skill as Nomad. He is frequently impressed by Nomad's ability to intuit people's actions and is amazed at how this allows Nomad to stay ahead. Despite his own directness, Auxiliary gets frustrated when Nomad says something bluntly to another person, thinking that Nomad is supposed to be "good with people"; though Nomad disagrees, thinking that "being good" and speaking kindly are not always the same thing.
Auxiliary has a strong sense of morality and chides Nomad when he contemplates mistreating someone, even going so far as refusing to participate in Nomad's actions when he considers them immoral. He also calls out Nomad when he lies to people, though he only pushes so hard, likely believing that it must be the choice of the individual to become better.
Auxiliary considers himself to still be a Knight Radiant in good standing, frequently referring to himself as "the knight" or "the hero" and to Nomad as his squire, valet, or servant. He is particularly empathetic towards the oppressed, becoming frustrated with Nomad when he considers switching allegiance to the Cinder King and abandoning the Beaconites. He likewise feels badly about killing the Charred despite their apparent hostility as he considers them just as much victims of the Cinder King as anyone else. Auxiliary is particularly disgusted by the idea of turning people into sunhearts, especially against their will, likely because of the resonance it has with his own experience.
== Abilities and Attributes ==
=== Nahel Bond ===
As a sapient spren, Auxiliary is able to form a Nahel bond with someone and was most recently bonded with Nomad. Before being consumed by the Dawnshard, the bond allowed Auxiliary to exist in the physical realm on his own without losing his mind as well as granting Nomad access to the surges of Gravitation and Division. He could also make himself invisible. Nomad and Auxiliary reached at least the fourth ideal of the Order of Skybreakers giving the pair access to Skybreaker Shardplate.
==== Telepathic Communication ====
Their shared bond allows Auxiliary to project words directly into Nomad's mind. The bond was once strong enough for Nomad to be able to respond in kind but that ability was lost with Auxiliary's death, forcing Nomad to respond to Auxiliary out loud. Though Auxiliary has become quite adept at anticipating Nomad's thoughts and actions, he frequently needs to directly ask Nomad what his plan is in the given situation. However, Auxiliary is still able to understand Nomad's emotions allowing for at least a base level of telepathic communication when necessary.
Auxiliary's ability to speak into Nomad's mind and to hear his spoken words appears to have a range that exceeds that of normal spoken conversation. However, the ability is not limitless, as communication is impossible when Auxiliary's physical manifestation is a good distance away from Nomad.
==== Investiture Quantification ====
Auxiliary intuitively understands how much Investiture Nomad has and how much performing a given action will consume. He often informs Nomad of these values as a number of Breath Equivalent Units or as a percentage of Skip capacity (Skip capacity being approximately 20,000 BEUs). He can also numerically determine how quickly Nomad can absorb Investiture from a given source, providing the value in BEUs per hour. Despite their utility, Nomad dislikes these quantitative readouts of his power level as it makes him feel like a machine with a power source. After Auxiliary's second death however, Nomad no longer has access to the specific numerical level of his Investiture and misses the spren's readouts. In addition to his intrinsic understanding of Nomad's Investiture level, Auxiliary is also adept at estimating the levels of Investiture in sources he encounters. Likely related to these abilities, Auxiliary is able to feel when a portion of Nomad's Torment is drawn away by the Thaylen's sunheart.
==== Manifestation ====
Though no longer able to create a body for himself in the physical realm after his death, Auxiliary can manifest in the physical realm when summoned by Nomad in a particular form. Once manifested, Auxiliary seems to have some amount of agency in the exact size and even form that he takes. However, most manifestations are controlled entirely by Nomad and are bound by his understanding of the form. Nomad can summon Auxiliary instantly and without speaking aloud despite Auxiliary no longer being able to read Nomad's thoughts.
Auxiliary can manifest as virtually any shape as long as Nomad understands the form's construction on a fundamental level. If a form is novel or particularly complex, there is a chance that the manifestation will form misshapenly and need to be attempted again. The manifestation can be composed of multiple pieces such as a chain or gauntlet or a complex mechanism like a jack or clock so long as the discontiguous pieces are touching. The more complex the manifestation is, the longer it takes to create. However, this time can be shortened with repeated use of a particular form. All manifestations require some amount of Investiture which is continuously drawn as long as the manifestation is present. Larger or heavier manifested objects require a greater amount while most manifestations below about one hundred pounds require a negligible amount of Investiture and are not worth accounting for. The small amount of Investiture required for most manifestations means that it is the last power available to Nomad and Auxiliary when at low levels of Investiture. There does not seem to be an upper bound for the size or weight Auxiliary can manifest beyond the limitations of Nomad's storage and use of Investiture.
All manifestations are made entirely of metal, likely an alloy of the God metals of Honor and Cultivation, and form out of nothingness from a white mist. The manifestation persists unless Nomad runs out of Investiture or specifically dismisses or resummons Auxiliary even if Nomad is on another planetary system or falls unconscious. Nomad can alter Auxiliary's form even when not in direct physical contact. He can also adjust Auxiliary's form without entirely dismissing him and can custom-mold the spren to fit a real-world condition perfectly. When altering shape or size, the affected portions of the manifestation "fuzz" back into mist before reforming into the new shape. The object typically behaves normally once manifested in the physical realm, interacting with forces like gravity and processes like thermodynamics. However, Nomad can change certain properties of the manifestation at will such as its opacity and its magnetic field. Additionally, the natural properties of the metal make it nearly impossible to break or bend under natural circumstances as well as incredibly resistant to heat, Investiture, and even explosive force.
Nomad is able to summon Auxiliary instantly, not requiring the usual ten heartbeats necessary for summoning a deadeye spren. If Auxiliary is already manifested in the physical realm, he vanishes into glowing mist at his current location and appears at or near Nomad's location. Summoning the spren in this way has seemingly no limit on distance as Nomad is able to do so when the pair are on different planetary systems. Nomad can also dismiss Auxiliary, causing the manifestation to vanish without being replaced by another form. Other people are able to touch and use Auxiliary while he is manifested as an object, though Nomad retains the ability to summon or dismiss him at any time.
Though Auxiliary himself makes no distinction between manifestations that are weapons or otherwise and is capable of becoming either, by the time the pair arrive on Canticle Nomad's Torment has grown strong enough to prevent him from summoning Auxiliary as a weapon in almost all situations. Prior to their time on Canticle, Nomad's Radiant oaths partially or entirely overrode that portion of the Dawnshard's corruption of Nomad's spiritweb, allowing him to summon Auxiliary as a weapon. This restriction is tied to Nomad's Intent as he is able to summon Auxiliary in the form of a weapon in emergency situations if he makes a conscious effort to use the form either purely defensively or as a tool. Even if he tells himself that he will use the form non-violently, he is not able to do so except in situations that are expressly part of an effort to save others, potentially a remnant of his former oaths overriding the restriction.
While in the form of a Shardblade or Shardspear Auxiliary possesses the usual properties of those weapons such as cutting through non-living objects nearly effortlessly including the hull of a Scadrian research vessel and severing the souls of living beings when cut causing their eyes to burn and smoke. These properties make the weapons particularly effective against enemies like the Charred who are used to being able to push through attacks from normal weapons. Auxiliary can choose to blunt the edge of a manifested blade to prevent the wielder's attacks from being instantly lethal. Attacks from blunt or bludgeoning weapons do not exhibit the same properties as a bladed weapon.
The Shardblade is considered Auxiliary's "truest form" and is the form in which he would appear unbonded at Nomad's side if Nomad were to be killed. The blade is between six and six and a half feet long, wavy, ornamented near the hilt, and glitters. The head of the Shardspear form has a similar glittering appearance and is etched with Rosharan patterns.
===== List of Known Manifestations =====
The following is a list of manifestations Auxiliary is know to have held:
==== Radiant Powers ====
Auxiliary's bond with Nomad allows the spren to activate and manage a number of powers inside of Nomad. Though Nomad may be able to access these powers on his own, the pair typically delegate Auxiliary to manage the powers so Nomad can focus on the task at hand.
===== Fast Healing =====
Auxiliary can use Nomad's Investiture to instigate the latter's body to rapidly heal. The healing effect requires relatively low levels of Investiture, remaining available unless Nomad's stores are almost entirely depleted. However, the lower Nomad's Investiture levels are the less efficient and effective the healing capability becomes. Healing is not an automatic process and Auxiliary can choose to withhold doing so if he is concerned about dropping Nomad's Investiture levels too low. He can also target specific portions of Nomad's body to heal to maximize the use of the limited Investiture.
As an extension of the healing ability, Auxiliary can adjust Nomad's body to acclimate to a given planet's air pressure. This adjustment is performed once, usually upon first arriving in a new system, and is permanent unless later adjusted, remaining in effect even when completely out of Investiture. In ultra-low oxygen environments the necessity for breathing can be omitted entirely, the body being sustained by a pressure bubble powered by a small but continuous drain on Investiture.
===== Connection =====
Auxiliary is able to override a portion of Nomad's spiritweb, forming a Connection with new places and allowing him to understand local languages. While Connected in such a way, Nomad's soul believes he was raised on the target planet and the local language replaces his native Azish. Because of this, Nomad typically speaks to Auxiliary in Alethi while Connected so as to retain privacy from the locals. Auxiliary is also able to feel and understand when Nomad becomes naturally Connected to a place on his own.
Connecting to the planet is typically one of the first things that Auxiliary and Nomad do upon Skipping to a new system. Forming Connections requires Nomad to have a threshold of 10% Skip capacity (approximately 2,000 BEUs), though once a Connection is formed it is maintained even if Nomad dips below that threshold. However, Connections are typically not permanent and will slowly fade over time with stronger Connections able to last longer than weaker ones. Creating the Connection requires several minutes of work during which Auxiliary is generally unavailable.
Auxiliary is also able to reinforce an existing Connection within Nomad to an individual allowing them to appear as a softly glowing apparition. This apparition is preceded by a series of physical sensations reminiscent of the centerbeat of a highstorm including a tugging in the gut, a strange warmth, and a slowing or lessening of stormy weather. Auxiliary is able to reinforce personal Connections seemingly at any distance and it can be done without Nomad's knowledge or consent. As the strength of the Connection wanes, the apparition appears increasingly transparent until it vanishes altogether.
=== Dawnshard ===
Auxiliary also gained abilities through the Dawnshard held by Nomad or by its partial consumption of his essence.
==== Investiture Absorption ====
Auxiliary is able to absorb Investiture from a wide variety of sources and make it available for Nomad to use, a process Auxiliary thinks of as "recycling" the energy. Nomad gained this ability due to his holding of a Dawnshard and through him Auxiliary is able to do the same. Auxiliary is quite adept at estimating how much Investiture a potential source has and if he will be able to absorb it simply from observation, though he cannot know for certain until making contact. Typically, physical contact is necessary in order to draw from a source, though certain intangible sources such as Invested light can also be absorbed. To mitigate the potential risks of direct contact with unknown sources of Investiture, Nomad will often employ Auxiliary as an intermediary either by summoning him as a protective piece like a gauntlet or shield or incorporating a socket into Auxiliary's form into which Nomad can place the Invested source. Sources of Investiture that are particularly strong such as Canticle's sun however, remain inaccessible as Auxiliary would be destroyed if he opened himself up to absorb it. He is not able to draw on the energy of Nomad's Torment at all.
Auxiliary can detect when a substance Nomad is exposed to is made of or contains Investiture. Upon making physical contact, Auxiliary can determine if the source is safe for Nomad to handle directly. He can also determine or intuit certain properties of the Invested source such as its stability. This allows him to differentiate sources of Investiture even if they are similar to one another like sunhearts and cinderhearts. He can also feel if a source is made of or contains anti-Investiture, though he is not the best at spotting it.
==== Self Destruction ====
While being consumed by the Dawnshard, Auxiliary is able to selectively protect portions of his own essence to be the last things potentially burned away. After his first death, Auxiliary is able to voluntarily convert the remaining portions of his essence into Investiture for Nomad to use. He can do so at any time and without Nomad's consent. As with the initial incident, Auxiliary is able to determine what aspects of himself will be consumed and what will remain. It is unclear if this ability is theoretically available to all bonded spren or if it is unique to Auxiliary because of his prior partial-consumption by the Dawnshard.
=== Realmatic and Cosmerological Knowledge ===
Auxiliary is quite knowledgeable about Realmatic Theory and about many places in the cosmere. His familiarity with Realmatic Theory includes a deep understanding of Connection, the properties of Investiture and its many forms, and the power of Intent. He has also shown an understanding of the properties of souls and corruption as well as an aptitude for connecting familiar Realmatic concepts to novel ones.
Due to his extensive travel through the cosmere, Auxiliary is familiar with many places and cultures including Threnodite culture, Nalthian culture, and some knowledge of dragons. Though he is not as knowledgeable as Nomad on such topics, he is able to follow most of his partner's thinking if given a basic explanation.
=== Connection ===
Auxiliary can become Connected to places independently of Nomad, allowing him to understand a local language. This Connection slowly fades over time, but he retains some amount of knowledge of the language long after leaving the Connected location.
=== Sensory Perception ===
Auxiliary is able to perceive the world around him through the senses of his "valet" Nomad. Despite sharing the same senses, Auxiliary is able to focus on different things than Nomad, allowing him to call his partner's attention to things he may have otherwise missed. Auxiliary also tends to use Nomad's senses more acutely than Nomad does himself. This is especially true when Nomad is unconscious, during which time Auxiliary is still fully able to make use of his partner's senses. Auxiliary seems to not share Nomad's sense of pain and does not appear to be able to feel pain from his physical manifestations even when it is subject to extreme forces or conditions.
Auxiliary has a great internal sense of direction, being able to direct Nomad's attention to things using a callout of degrees to Nomad's left or right. He also has a very good internal sense of time, being able to track how much time has passed and how much is left until a known deadline with precision.
=== Investiture Immunity ===
Sources of Investiture that would cause living beings harm do not seem to affect Auxiliary. This immunity, which works similarly to the way Shardplate does, allows him to act as a shield or insulation for others against harmful Investiture. The immunity extends not just to natural sources of Investiture like Canticle's sun, but also to refined and manufactured sources such as a sunheart-powered energy gun.
== History ==
=== With Szeth ===
12124 bonded Szeth at some point before the Battle of Thaylen Field. During the battle, Szeth swore his Third Ideal and 12124 approved. Since then, 12124 remained by his side, always judging his worthiness. While Szeth was guarding Gavinor and Dalinar on the Emuli front, 12124 chose to show himself to him in order to give him direction on his progression through the Ideals. 12124 told him he needed to complete his Fourth Ideal quest soon, and that he needed to rely more on his own judgement rather than that of Dalinar as part of his progress towards this Fifth Ideal.
When later reflecting on this time of his life, Auxiliary disliked the person he was on Roshar before meeting Nomad.
=== Knight Radiant ===
Sigzil met the spren in Shadesmar at the Iriali's convoy, just after the advent of the Night of Sorrows and soon after breaking his previous bond to Vienta and taking up the Dawnshard at the urging of Wit. 12124 had rejected his old name, considering himself a failure, but not yet chosen a new one. When Sigzil started calling himself 'Nomad' is not precisely known. During their first meeting, Nomad told the spren that he wanted to lie low and take the easy road, describing himself as "the sensible one" who "didn't rush headlong into every fight that came your way." A sentiment which Nomad later pretended not to remember.
The spren and Nomad decided to bond with one another, a decision that neither fully understood the ramifications of in relation to the held Dawnshard. The pair spent years bonded together including some amount of time on Roshar; at some point the spren took up the name Auxiliary. During this time, Auxiliary and Nomad grew to know each other better. Auxiliary was initially hesitant to show his true self, because of the events he was part of as 12124, but his expressiveness grew over decades spent together. Early in their relationship, as he had when he was 12124, Auxiliary was prone to giving Nomad moral lectures but over time switched to asking him leading questions instead. Nomad also experimented with the limits of their abilities together, once attempting to manifest Auxiliary as a clock but failing to do so until he had carefully studied the schematics for one. At some point, Auxiliary also swore oaths to become a Knight Radiant in his own right.
=== Dawnshard and Death ===
Years after bonding, Nomad unconsciously reached out to the Dawnshard in a moment of need in an effort to find any energy source he could access. The Dawnshard found Auxiliary, a being of pure Investiture, a convenient source of power to draw upon and consumed nearly all of Auxiliary's essence and soul. Auxiliary was able to selectively protect parts of his essence from immediate destruction and salvaged a small fragment of his mind and soul containing his personality. Likely in response to Wit not informing Nomad of the potential dangers of the Dawnshard, Nomad later gave Auxiliary explicit orders not to contact him.
=== On the Run ===
Some time after Auxiliary's death, Nomad passed along the Dawnshard to someone else. When the Night Brigade began hunting them in their pursuit of the Dawnshard, Auxiliary and Nomad began Skipping from planet to planet in an effort to outrun them. The pair visited "tens" of planets over the years including a dense jungle planet with complex mathematics and architecture but no concept of the wheel and likely Threnody as well. However, they never went to Nalthis, likely because of the planet's stricter customs enforcement of their perpendicularity, and never returned to Roshar in order to protect people there whom they care about. During their travels, people they met seemed to have a universal fascination with Auxiliary and attributed Nomad's powers as a sign of divinity or divine favor.
Immediately prior to their time on Canticle, Auxiliary and Nomad were on a "cavern planet" and just barely got above the threshold for the Skip, leaving Nomad almost completely drained.
=== Arrival on Canticle ===
Auxiliary and Nomad arrived on Canticle and Nomad immediately asked Auxiliary to Connect him to the planet for translation. The spren responded that he could not do so as Nomad was too low on Investiture. The nearby Charred attacked Nomad who called out to Auxiliary to become a weapon. However, Auxiliary reminded Nomad that it was he, not himself that must summon him as a weapon and that it was Nomad's Torment that was preventing him from doing so, a relatively recent development.
As the dawn sunlight approached, catching the ground alight, Auxiliary observed that the light was potentially Invested but was unsure if they would be able to absorb it. His assessment was very shortly revised however, as the spren realized the overwhelming force of the sunlight and suggested Nomad not let it hit him. Nomad summoned Auxiliary as a crowbar and broke free of the restraints that had been placed on him and then as a hook and chain to latch onto the fleeing hovercycles. Just as the deadly sunlight reached Nomad, Auxiliary's chain pulled taut and dragged Nomad behind the cycles.
As Nomad was pulled across the ground behind the cycles, Auxiliary informed him that his healing was running out and that he should try not to get too beat up. He further added that he was not able to absorb any of the sunlight that had hit them, estimating that opening himself up to do so would have caused his destruction. Auxiliary observed that they were outpacing the sun and the planet must therefore have quite a slow rotation. Several people on the cycle attempted unsuccessfully to pry Auxiliary's chain loose, so they continued to drag Nomad along behind them until they reached the flying city of Union.
=== Union ===
==== The Arena ====
Once docked at Union, Nomad was hauled upwards as someone pulled up Auxiliary's chain. To prevent revealing that he had access to a shape-changing tool, Nomad told Auxiliary to remain in his chain manifestation. Hearing the Cinder King and other Union officers speak, Auxiliary was able to partially recognize the language as one he was still faintly Connected to but was unsure of which one. However, he was able to translate some of their words as "One Who Escaped the Sun".
Nomad was brought to Union's arena and was attacked by the Charred, Elegy Salvage. Nomad, pretending to find something in the mud, summoned Auxiliary to him as a crowbar which he used to defend himself. Knocking Elegy's machete away, Nomad scrambled onto a large metal box with the help of a captive Beaconite named Thomos. Auxiliary attempted to translate Thomos's words but was unable to make much sense of them. The pair observed the arena from the relative safety of the box while Elegy stalked them on the ground below. Nomad posited that the arena was likely a method for selecting who was to be left out for the sun. Auxiliary agreed, noting that those in the arena who had not been caught by the Charred looked both relieved and sad at once.
Elegy, jumping from one box to another, leaped at Nomad. However, while she was in the air, Nomad summoned Auxiliary as a heavy weight which the Charred crashed into causing all three to fall to the ground. Though Elegy was dazed, Nomad was able to rise and offered a challenge to the Cinder King. As he did so however, the Cinder King activated Nomad's bracers, rendering him unconscious.
When Nomad awoke, Auxiliary filled him in on what had happened, saying that Nomad had been dragged to the side of the arena and chained to the wall and that Auxiliary himself had turned into a crowbar to avoid suspicion and had been tossed to the side by the Cinder King's underlings. The pair observed the Cinder King use a spear with a glowing ember at its tip to turn one of the captives into a new Charred. Nomad, recognizing the spear as Invested, asked Auxiliary if he thought the spear might be enough to power a Skip off of the planet but Auxiliary replied that he did not think so. The Cinder King next targeted Thomos to become a new Charred but Nomad, reacting almost instinctively and much to Auxiliary's surprise, summoned the spren as a Shardblade and threw him to embed in a post next to the Cinder King's head. Hoping to further distract the Cinder King away from Thomos and focus on himself, Nomad held out his hand and resummoned Auxiliary in a number of forms in quick succession. Taking the bait, the Cinder King walked over to Nomad who continued to shout and antagonize him, hoping that the Cinder King would stab him with the Invested spear which Auxiliary could then absorb. However, the Cinder King did not stab Nomad and instead demanded something of him which Auxiliary interpreted as wanting him to explain how Nomad had summoned the tools. Not receiving an answer, the Cinder King decided to stab Nomad with the spear but before he could do so one of the nearby ships exploded as Beacon began its raid on Union.
==== Escape ====
As chaos erupted, Nomad summoned Auxiliary as an insulating layer between his skin and the bracers to avoid being frozen during the attack, a construction Auxiliary noted as being particularly unusual. The ship that Nomad was chained to began to take off but was hit by one of Beacon's bombs, throwing him to the ground and pinning him under a large chunk of metal. Auxiliary suggested that Nomad get out of the situation as the sunrise would be rapidly approaching and Auxiliary did not have the strength to protect Nomad from its power. Nomad summoned Auxiliary as a jack and used him to lift the metal enough to flip it to be underneath him. Still chained to the metal, Nomad looked up at the planet's rings and asked Auxiliary if they could absorb Investiture from their reflected sunlight. Auxiliary confirmed that he could, but only slowly.
As Nomad lay there helpless, Rebeke Salvage descended to the arena floor with her brother Divinity and loaded the unconscious Elegy onto their hovercycle. The Cinder King killed Divinity with an energy rifle shot and Nomad proffered Auxiliary in the form of a crowbar to Rebeke, begging for her help in exchange for his own. Realizing the futility of her situation, Rebeke took Auxiliary and attempted to free Nomad but was unable to do so before the Cinder King returned his attention to them and began firing again. Nomad formed Auxiliary into a shield and blocked the incoming energy blasts then called for Rebeke to give him her gun. Nomad used the gun to blast away his remaining restraint, much to Auxiliary's consternation, and ran to the hovercycle. He asked Auxiliary if he had seen how the cycle was operated, hoping to steal it but Auxiliary refused to answer, calling Nomad despicable.
Rebeke returned to the cycle and, through Auxiliary's limited translation, offered to take Nomad with her if he could use Auxiliary as a shield to block the incoming fire. Nomad agreed and after a brief stop to rescue the nearby Thomos, the group took off away from Union, Nomad having expanded Auxiliary's shield to cover a larger portion of Rebeke's cycle.
As the group fled Union on the hovercycle, Nomad altered Auxiliary's shield to become transparent, allowing Rebeke to see through it to the approaching Union ships from the driver's seat. The Charred aboard the enemy ships began targeting the cycle's sunheart-engine and Nomad moved to defend it with Auxiliary before leaping onto an enemy ship. Nomad tried and failed to summon Auxiliary as a sword before settling on an oversized wrench and engaging hand to hand, swapping between the wrench and the shield.
While Nomad fought, Auxiliary noticed that a second enemy ship had nearly reached Rebeke's hovercycle and alerted Nomad. Nomad jumped to the second ship but was just barely able to grab its deck and summoned Auxiliary as a ladder to clamber aboard. Fending off the Charred, Nomad manifested Auxiliary as a crowbar and revealed the ship's sunheart in a hatch in the floor. Auxiliary confirmed to Nomad that this power source was more stable than the Cinder King's spear tips and that Nomad should be able to carry it without getting hurt. Before Nomad could absorb the sunheart's Investiture, the pilot of the enemy ship rolled the craft and Nomad was forced to summon Auxiliary as a magnetic boot to stay on board. Relieved to not have been thrown off, Nomad absorbed the Investiture and Auxiliary asked Nomad if he would like him to Connect Nomad to the planet. With Nomad's confirmation, Auxiliary began the process, informing him that it would take a few minutes to do so. While Auxiliary formed the Connection, Nomad returned to Rebeke's cycle and, with a false stumble to disguise his actions, affixed a rifle taken from the enemy pilot to the underside of the ship using Auxiliary as a specialized claw. Unbeknownst to Nomad, Auxiliary reinforced Nomad's Connection with Wit while Connecting him to the planet.
As the group continued their journey toward Beacon, Nomad's new Connection allowed him and Auxiliary to understand Rebeke's conversation with Zeal over the radio and Auxiliary noticed that, based on their names, these people were Threnodites.
=== Beacon ===
==== The Greater Good ====
After Nomad met with the Greater Good on Beacon, he returned to the hovercycle to retrieve the rifle and Auxiliary expressed his annoyance at being left out alone in the rain. Auxiliary inquired about what their next move was and Nomad explained that their best chance of reaching an Investiture source to get off the planet was to find the Scadrian research facility.
Nomad returned to the chambers of the Greater Good, now with Auxiliary in tow, and explained to them that he would help them find their mythical Refuge of Stone. Auxiliary, noting that Nomad did not intend to tell them that they would only find a Scadrian outpost, not a refuge, pointedly called Nomad callous but made no further remark, knowing as Nomad did that this was their best chance to get off the planet. Confidence asked Nomad about the spirit that accompanied him, referencing Rebeke's earlier observation of Nomad's ability to manifest objects at will. Nomad, unknowing about the Chorus, was surprised that they figured out that Auxiliary was a spirit but rebuffed answering the leader's question, preferring to keep knowledge of the spren to himself.
As Nomad waited for the leadership of Beacon to discuss the details of their mission to locate the door to the Refuge, he confronted Auxiliary about how the spren had directly disobeyed his orders and contacted Wit. Auxiliary, abashed, admitted that he'd hoped the conversation would lead to a sudden revelation and transformation like had happened in the past when Nomad had sworn the oaths of the Knights Radiant. Nomad replied that most change doesn't happen all at once but in a slow steady slide like how people age. Auxiliary retorted that Nomad no longer aged, implying that he was no longer capable of any kind of change, not just sudden revelation.
==== The Chase ====
Auxiliary and Nomad joined Rebeke on her hovercycle acting as scouts for Beacon while they searched for the door to the Refuge. Auxiliary, noting the odd rock formations, asked Nomad how they might have formed. Nomad reiterated the question to Rebeke along with his own theory that they formed through volcanic activity followed by rapid cooling. Rebeke confirmed Nomad's hypothesis and Auxiliary was impressed at Nomad's ability to understand something with only a small piece of the information. Auxiliary later questioned how life could really have been so bad under the Cinder King that going off to live in perpetual darkness seemed the preferable option. This prompted Nomad to ask Rebeke about the Cinder King's taxation and Rebeke explained about the Cinder King's human lottery and that the sunhearts are made from living people left to die in the sun.
The revelation appalled Auxiliary who reacted with sickened disgust. Now having the knowledge of the power sources' origins, Auxiliary postulated that they must become supercharged by the Investiture in the sun as normal people do not have enough inherent Investiture to account for the amount that they were able to earlier absorb. Rebeke told Nomad that the Cinder King was able to forcibly remove people's Investiture in the form of heat and had done so to thousands of people. Auxiliary warned Nomad that he should watch out for someone so highly Invested as they could be seriously dangerous. He was amused, however, at the idea that people on Canticle leach heat from one another during sex. While Nomad was lost in thought, Auxiliary pointed out a Union scout ship in the distance and the group gave chase.
Speeding after the Union scout, Auxiliary worriedly asked Nomad if he knew what he was doing getting into a high speed chase on a planet of expert pilots. They continued the pursuit through Canticle's unusual terrain, nearly getting hit by an erupting geyser of lava to Auxiliary's great shock. Rebeke finally shot the scout with her rifle, ending the chase. Nomad attempted to console Rebeke who was distraught after her first time killing another person by sharing with her the story of his own first experience taking a life. Auxiliary, confused, noted that Rebeke seemed to be comforted by Nomad's words even though what he actually said wasn't comforting at all. Nomad replied that knowing that you're not alone in your experience is comforting in its own right. Rebeke, noticing Nomad's reply to Auxiliary, asked him why he sometimes spoke to himself in a different language and Nomad, reaching for an explanation that he hoped might make sense to her, told Rebeke that he was offering prayers to one of the ancient gods of his realm. Auxiliary, rejecting the premise, retorted to Nomad that he is no god because he "works for a living."
Rebeke decided that they should tow the downed scout's hovercycle back to Beacon as it would be easier for the Chorus to recycle than harvesting new iron from the iron fields. Auxiliary commented that Rebeke's description of the Chorus sounded interesting, hoping to bait Nomad into his old inquisitive self. Rebeke, despairing, told Nomad that she did not want to become a killer like he was and Auxiliary stepped in before Nomad could reply with a glib response, reminding him that Rebeke was hurting and he should not make it worse. Nomad, ashamed that a creature that was both dead and inhuman was being more empathetic than he was, softened his response. The group radioed to the leaders of Beacon that the scout had managed to get off a message to Union and that they should expect incoming forces shortly. Hunkering down at the direction of the Greater Good to watch the location of the downed Union scout, Auxiliary, Nomad and Rebeke were surprised to find the Cinder King's personal ship arriving unaccompanied.
=== The Cinder King ===
While Nomad parlayed with the Cinder King aboard his ship, Auxiliary sarcastically joked that the Cinder King seemed normal and well adjusted after hearing his theory about power. Auxiliary commented that he thought the Cinder King might have actually been smart, but revised that estimation when he brought in a captive Rebeke, thus breaking his oath to Nomad. The Cinder King fired his gun at Rebeke but Nomad, anticipating the move, manifested Auxiliary as a metal ball and threw him to intercept the blast.
Nomad ran to the ship's control room with Rebeke and latched the door shut using Auxiliary as a door guard. After smashing through the windshield, Nomad used Auxiliary as a crowbar to release Rebeke's hovercycle and the group flew off, Rebeke piloting the cycle and Nomad using Auxiliary as a shield to deflect incoming shots. Auxiliary, seeing the Cinder King examine the false key to the Scadrian vessel, conjectured that he had figured out that the Beaconites had replaced his key and were hunting for the door. Reaching beyond the range of the Cinder King's guns, Rebeke and Nomad swapped places on the hovercycle so Nomad could use the radio. However, Rebeke refused to hold on to Nomad, embarrassed about her people's taboo against direct contact. Nomad, uncaring and wanting to keep moving, anchored Rebeke to the cycle using Auxiliary as a modified version of the door blocker they had used earlier.
The group returned to Beacon to find it under assault by the Cinder King's forces. Auxiliary drew Nomad's attention to one of the Beaconite ships being dogged by a large enemy ship and noted that it was the one housing the Greater Good. After Auxiliary scolded Nomad for briefly considering taking up the Cinder King's offer, Nomad leapt onto the Greater Good's ship and used Auxiliary to break through its front window. The Charred inside turned away from the Greater Good and began to assault Nomad instead. Nomad led the Charred away from the old women but Auxiliary warned him seriously that he was barely keeping Nomad moving with all the hits he was taking.
=== The Southern Corridor ===
==== Running on Cold Souls ====
After fighting off the Union attackers, the Beaconite leadership met in the Greater Good's ship. They left Nomad lying on the ground which Auxiliary found hilarious, likening him to a sleeping dragon. The leadership discussed their current situation, having been pushed into a southern corridor with the Cinder King's forces patrolling to the north and impassable mountains to the south. Auxiliary was confused why they would not be able to fly over the mountains if they were only 1000 feet tall. Nomad determined that the only way forward was to modify Beacon's engines to fly up and over the mountains and retreated along with Auxiliary to Elegy's old chambers to run tests on the engines and sunhearts.
During Nomad's tests, Auxiliary acted as a sounding board, asking probing questions for Nomad to explain or test. Auxiliary was particularly interested in Nomad's explanation of the laws of motion and challenged his assertion that all motion was defined by an imbalance of physical forces, reminding him that the mechanisms they used to use to fly together relied on different principals. Auxiliary wistfully recalled that he used to love flying before the accident with the Dawnshard. Nomad explained that he blamed himself for Auxiliary's condition but Auxiliary countered that he could not have anticipated the result of agreeing to take the Dawnshard and bonding Auxiliary and reminded Nomad that he was able to salvage this small fragment of himself.
After mostly completing the revised engine schematics, Nomad took a short break by turning his attention to Elegy and the properties of the sunhearts. Auxiliary remarked that it was quite odd that they had a woman chained up to the wall and asked Nomad why he needed her. Nomad explained that he believed that the conditions driving Elegy to violence and his own driving him to non-violence were related and that experimenting on Elegy might get him closer to a cure for his Torment. Auxiliary noted that Rebeke likely wouldn't approve of Nomad experimenting on her sister which was probably why she was hiding just outside the door, a fact Nomad had not noticed. Nomad called out to the hidden Rebeke to enter and Auxiliary crowed that he had a very smug expression when Rebeke revealed herself to indeed have been hidden as he had said. Nomad questioned Rebeke about the customs on Canticle for transferring heat and she sheepishly admitted that there was a recitation they used prior to having sex, much to Auxiliary's wry amusement. Rebeke continued to explain their traditions for transferring heat and Auxiliary remarked that he found it cute that Rebeke thought Nomad was actually interested in their societal customs and not just using them to his personal ends.
Having reached a dead end in their research, Rebeke led Nomad and Auxiliary to visit Beacon's Chorus to manufacture Nomad's prototype engine. Nomad was impressed at how quickly the Chorus was able to create the prototype and Auxiliary offered that the Chorus likely built things similarly to the way that he did, adding that Nomad really should not have been surprised as he used something similar every day. Nomad responded that the difference was that Auxiliary didn't take in raw materials and spit out a finished product, which Auxiliary argued was more reasonable than the way he did it.
After the catastrophic failure of the first prototype engine, Auxiliary commented that he found it suspiciously convenient that Beacon just so happened to have people with the appropriate skills to improve upon Nomad's designs. Nomad explained that it was not convenient, but rather expected, given the knowledge that would be required to keep a floating city moving. Nomad explained to the Greater Good that if his plan was to have a chance to succeed, it would require the abandonment of most of the city's ships. Auxiliary became frustrated at Nomad's bluntness and told him that he seemed to forget that he was supposed to be good with people.
Wanting to conduct more research into the sunhearts, Nomad removed the sunheart from Rebeke's hovercycle and brought it to his room. Upon picking it up, Auxiliary estimated that it contained about two hundred BEUs of Investiture and noted -amazed it was being used here for simple locomotion- that the amount was both less than what powered a typical Canticlite ship and would be considered a wealth of Investiture on many planets. He further calculated that keeping even a small city like Beacon aloft would require tens of thousands of BEUs, far more than could be generated by the souls of the planet's small population and agreed with Nomad's postulation that the sunhearts must be acquiring additional Investiture from somewhere external. Auxiliary surmised that there must be some kind of Connection between the cinderhearts of the Charred and that of the Cinder King, noting that the Cinder King's cinderheart glowed more brightly than the others and the Charred seemed to react to the Cinder King's mental commands. Nomad examined Elegy's cinderheart and asked Auxiliary if it was anti-Investiture which the spren confirmed it likely was not, though he admitted that he was not the best at determining such things.
Elegy began to speak and Rebeke, amazed, offered Nomad some of her heat in thanks for his efforts. Auxiliary ribbed Nomad, rhetorically asking him how long it had been since someone had looked at him with true admiration. Elegy shouted that she wanted the voice in her head to return and Auxiliary noted that her soul was terribly compromised making her easier to control. Nomad, wanting to test if a similar method to the one he'd used on Elegy could alleviate his own Torment, cut a small piece off of the sunheart and prepared to insert it into an incision in his arm. Auxiliary cautioned him that he thought it was a really stupid idea and asked Nomad if he was sure he wanted to try it.
Before they could determine if Nomad's experiment had worked, Nomad was attacked by Elegy who had just been unlocked from her restraints by Rebeke. Nomad formed Auxiliary into a cuff and chain and used him to restrain Elegy and lock her back against the wall. Auxiliary, concerned, asked Nomad seriously if he was alright. Nomad froze Elegy with a pair of bracers and re-affixed her proper restraints, allowing Auxiliary to be dismissed which caused Zeal to ask Nomad how he controlled his shade. Nomad explained that Auxiliary was different from the Threnodite shades, saying that he used sarcasm to attack rather than a deadly touch. Auxiliary retorted sarcastically that he was never sarcastic and that how Nomad interpreted his words was up to him. The group heard the call for the Beaconites to come together and Nomad commented that they moved fast. Auxiliary, continuing to play into Nomad's joke regarding the spren's sarcasm, commented extremely sarcastically about how of course the people who spend their lives constantly on the run moved quickly.
The group watched the Beaconite engineers test their new prototype engines and Auxiliary noted that they were lucky that one of them managed to work. As the group dispersed, a gap in the clouds momentarily revealed the planet's landscape and Auxiliary marveled at its beauty.
Nomad discussed the necessary changes to the working engine prototype with Solemnity Divine, using Auxiliary manifested as a rough model of a ship to illustrate his ideas. Determining that a final stress test needed to be performed, Auxiliary and Nomad took a modified hovercycle up the mountains. Auxiliary took the opportunity to question Nomad about what his plan was in the event that they actually managed to get the city over the mountain. Nomad admitted that finding the Refuge would not be difficult but that dealing with the fate of the Beaconites would be when it was inevitably revealed that the Refuge was not the haven they thought it would be. He justified his actions, telling Auxiliary that he was fulfilling the letter of his oath by getting the Beaconites to and into the door but that he had not promised anything further. Auxiliary, sorrowful, asked if there wasn't anything more that they could do, to which Nomad had no answer.
Upon reaching the summit of the mountain, Auxiliary took advantage of Nomad's inability to respond due to the low air pressure to talk to him without interruption. He asked if Nomad remembered their first encounter with the Night Brigade and recalled the story of Nomad turning himself in to them. He continued that he didn't want to go back to the person he was back then, surprising Nomad. Auxiliary explained that life is about growth and that it was important to remember that the person who you were in the past is the same person you are in the present.
==== The Mountain ====
Auxiliary and Nomad returned to Beacon and began piloting the city up the mountain. At the seeming uneventfulness of the initial assent, Auxiliary commented that it felt more boring than it should. Noting the city below, Auxiliary asked Nomad how long it had been since he was in command of this many people, a description at which Nomad bristled.
Elegy, noticing Nomad conversing with Auxiliary, asked Nomad if he had someone in his head like she had the Cinder King and Nomad explained to her what Auxiliary was in terms he thought she would understand. In an effort to try to understand her own rabid desire to fight, Elegy questioned Nomad about how he could feel similarly to her but not act on it. Auxiliary, frustrated, told Nomad that he should just tell Elegy that there was more to life than fighting but Nomad knew that it would be more effective to lead Elegy to come to that conclusion herself. Continuing her effort to understand, Elegy asked Nomad if running was enough to satisfy him which he admitted it was not. Auxiliary, amused, praised Elegy for doing a better job at moralizing Nomad than he was himself.
Nomad took Auxiliary outside to detach a stuck empty water tank from the city, warning the spren that he would not be able to speak so Auxiliary would have to do his best to read Nomad's emotions. Upon reaching the tank, Nomad summoned Auxiliary as a crowbar and manually triggered the latches that attached it to the rest of the city. However, there were additional latches only accessible from underneath and Nomad was forced to climb underneath by manifesting Auxiliary as a hook and chain. To ensure secure anchor points, Auxiliary molded his form to custom fit the crevices and indentations at each new location. Along the journey, one of Auxiliary's holds was not as secure as Nomad thought it was, causing him to slip down the chain, nearly falling. Auxiliary, sensing the intense danger of the situation, offered Nomad his remaining essence to give Nomad a few moments of flight, a notion that Nomad vociferously negated. Nomad slowly climbed back up the chain and resecured himself and Auxiliary thanked him for caring so much about him. Upon reaching the stuck latch, Nomad formed Auxiliary into a pole and wedged it in but the blunt tool did not work. At Auxiliary's prompting, Nomad reframed his Intent from needing a weapon to needing a tool to rescue the people of Beacon which allowed Auxiliary to form into a Shardspear and cut through the lock. Nomad used Auxiliary to climb back to the city's deck as it crested over the summit. Auxiliary rejoiced at their success but noted that the city was still rising, causing Nomad to rush back to the control room just as the city ran out of propellant and began to fall down on the far side of the mountain.
Nomad used Auxiliary to create handholds as they made their way to the control room with the city in free fall. Upon reaching the controls, Auxiliary, with increasing urgency and fear at the latter's apparent inaction, told Nomad to restart the city's engines. When Nomad finally estimated there was enough surrounding air for the engines to work, he reignited them, slowing Beacon's descent just enough before it crashed into the ground.
=== The Maelstrom ===
Auxiliary, Nomad, and the Beaconite leadership met to determine what their next move was now that their city had no remaining power. Nomad offered to lead a team to venture into the great maelstrom and dig up the sunhearts before the Cinder King arrived to gather them, causing Auxiliary to remark with amusement how he liked the way the Beaconites reacted to Nomad's wild plans.
The pair took off in the Dawnchaser along with Zeal's crew, Rebeke, and a still chained Elegy. Auxiliary listened to the comparatively much coarser language of Zeal's team and asked Nomad confusedly if they had just used the word "blessed" as a curse. He further asked Nomad if he was worried how much these people trusted him, warning that they likely wouldn't tell him at this point if his plan was terrible. Nomad moved to the cabin and struck up a conversation with Rebeke, telling her that leadership didn't agree with him. Auxiliary rebuffed this, telling Nomad that he was a good leader. Rebeke fretted that she worried too much about the dead rather than the living which Auxiliary found amusing given their whole society was powered by the dead. Nomad and Auxiliary returned to the ship's back room to see Zeal's crew relaxing and laughing together. Auxiliary asked Nomad how they could do that while living at the edge of destruction and Nomad explained that they were always living at the edge of destruction so they learned to find happiness between the disasters. Auxiliary asked if that was true, why could Nomad not do so as well.
The ship entered the maelstrom and Auxiliary noticed a tiny ping from the prospector controls and alerted Nomad. Nomad informed the others, trusting Auxiliary's senses even though he had not heard the sound himself. They landed the ship and Nomad jumped out, using Auxiliary in the form of a shovel to dig for the buried sunhearts. Auxiliary informed Nomad that the intense heat in the maelstrom was using up his remaining Investiture at an alarming rate and Nomad was forced to summon him as a large shield placed between himself and the sky. Nomad rose again once he heard the rain begin above and asked Auxiliary how much time had passed. The spren reported that it had been about fifteen minutes since he was buried and that Nomad had essentially no Investiture remaining.
Nomad hid nearby as the Cinder King arrived with a number of officers and Charred. Auxiliary asked Nomad why the Cinder King would bother to come for this himself and Nomad explained that he likely intuited that there might be some kind of fight or problem. Nomad snuck into the Cinder King's vault and hid between two cabinets, using Auxiliary to form a false cabinet facade in front of himself. The pair waited as the sunhearts were deposited and the vault door closed and locked. Nomad took the sunhearts and tried the door but Auxiliary estimated that a crowbar would not be effective. Nomad said that he would need something sharper like the Shardspear Auxiliary had become under the falling city. Auxiliary retorted that he couldn't do that and that it was Nomad's cankered soul and broken oaths that were preventing it. Nomad, frustrated, tried to recreate the mental state that he had been in underneath Beacon but was unable to get it to work. Just as Nomad was about to give up, the door opened to reveal Zeal standing outside.
Auxiliary exclaimed his excitement in seeing the friendly Beaconite and the pair followed Zeal away into the darkness. While Nomad talked to Zeal about what had happened to their team, Auxiliary noticed that they were being followed by the Cinder King and alerted Nomad, who yelled at Zeal to run while he faced off against the foe. With a sudden realization that the Cinder King's Thaylen sunheart could be effective in removing his Torment because of their Connection, Nomad dashed past the Cinder King onto his ship and used the sunheart, which Auxiliary confirmed was working as he had suspected. With his restrictions on violence slowly receding, Nomad ran back to the Dawnchaser and began to fight the assailing Charred.
Nomad attempted to form Auxiliary into a spear but still felt resistance. He formed a bo staff instead with a hole in the haft into which he placed the Thaylen's sunheart so that he could remain in contact with it. Auxiliary informed Nomad that he might be able to draw on the Investiture stripped from the Torment from the Thaylen's sunheart which he found odd because the Torment's Investiture was normally inaccessible. Nomad postulated that the Investiture was potentially purified or filtered and continued to fight off the Charred, alternating Auxiliary's form between a staff and a shield.
As Nomad used Auxiliary to fight, the spren noticed that one Charred had snuck into the Dawnchaser's cabin while Zeal and Rebeke were distracted watching the fight. Nomad, finally overcoming his Torment, formed Auxiliary into a Shardspear and thrust him through the windshield, killing the Charred before it could attack the Beaconites inside. Upon the death of their comrade, all of the Charred temporarily froze and Auxiliary took advantage of the momentary pause to remind Nomad that his Investiture was still incredibly low and he would not be able to defeat all of the Charred without his enhanced strength or endurance. He also noted that he felt guilty about fighting the Charred as they were victims of the Cinder King themselves. Nomad agreed and used Auxiliary in the form of a Shardspear to perform the Chasm Kata. Awed and frightened by the display, the Charred fled the ship allowing it to race off back to Beacon with the stolen sunhearts.
=== The Refuge ===
==== Zellion ====
The ship arrived back at the stranded city and the sunhearts were quickly distributed. The remaining Beaconite ships flew at top speed along the mountain's shrinking shadow toward the safety of the pre-dawn darkness and Auxiliary pointed out to Nomad that the remaining water tower ship was slower than the rest of the city. He also told Nomad that he felt something odd just moments before one of Nomad's old Shardplate fragments reappeared. Nomad, noticing the slow ship did not look like it was going to make it, asked Auxiliary how much Investiture they had. Auxiliary informed him that they had absorbed just enough to reach the threshold for his enhanced strength. Nomad leaped from ship to ship to reach the rear of the convoy where he told Auxiliary to use all of their remaining Investiture to grow a shield to cover the entire ship. The Investiture-infused sunlight broke over the massive shield and pushed it back with force and flames but Auxiliary and Nomad held long enough for the ship to slip through into the darkness.
Safely in the pre-dawn shadow, Auxiliary admitted that he couldn't believe that worked and drew Nomad's attention to the unusual pushing force the light exerted which should not have been possible. The Beaconites, in thanks to Nomad, offered him their heat and renamed him Zellion, telling him that he was now of Beacon and the planet Canticle. Nomad tried to argue that just saying so wouldn't make it true but Auxiliary reminded him that words have power if they are imbued with the proper Intent. After the transferral of heat, Auxiliary noted that it wasn't much in terms of BEUs, less than 1% all combined, but it was a remarkable amount for each individual to give up.
Zellion, seeking time and space to process what just happened, walked off alone. Auxiliary commented that what the Beaconites had done was beautiful and informed Zellion that they had Connected him fully to the planet somehow, making him a man of two homeworlds. Zellion, pessimistic, retorted that they would have to leave this homeworld too, as they were still constantly on the run from the Night Brigade. Auxiliary agreed but offered that perhaps they could enjoy the Connection for a time first, further frustrating Zellion because of the knowledge that he was leading these people to their doom.
==== The Easy Part ====
The Beaconite ships flew towards the Cinder King's fleet which were camped on the spot that Beacon had been previously searching for the Refuge. Instead of engaging, Beacon's ships flew straight over and continued forward, bluffing that they already knew the true location of the door. Auxiliary noticed that the Cinder King's ships were trying to race ahead to beat them to the Refuge and were thus leading Beacon straight to the true location. He told Zellion that it was uncanny how he was able to predict what other people would do sometimes. The Cinder King's ships began to engage and raid the remnants of Beacon. Zellion unchained Elegy and gave her Auxiliary in the form of a Shardspear, telling her to take good care of him.
Zellion and Elegy engaged the raiding Charred. Zellion tripped one of the attackers but before he could kill it Elegy stabbed it repeatedly with Auxiliary, severing its soul and burning out its eyes. Despite her enemy being dead, Elegy continued stabbing Auxiliary down through the Charred's corpse into the deck of the ship. Zellion stopped her and Auxiliary suggested that they be a little more reserved with her weapon, offering that he would blunt the spear tip if she went too far again. Elegy jumped with Auxiliary from one gunship to another, fighting off the Charred with a weapon that was extremely effective against enemies that were used to being able to rush in and overwhelm their opponents.
During the fight, Jeffrey Jeffrey's ship exploded and Zellion leapt over to save the people on board. As he landed, the ship rolled and Zellion summoned Auxiliary as a grappling hook to anchor himself to the ship, leaving Elegy unarmed. The pair ran to the gunship's cab where Zellion summoned Auxiliary as a full Shardblade, sliced off the top of the cab and through the confused man's restraints, heaving him out. Seeing more bombs the Charred had placed on the deck, Zellion formed Auxiliary into a shield on top of one of the bombs and jumped on it as it detonated, launching himself and Jeffrey Jeffrey into the air. In the air, Zellion manifested Auxiliary as a set of claw hooks which he rammed into the hull of the passing Dawnchaser. Auxiliary assessed Jeffrey Jeffrey's condition and reported to Zellion that the man looked to have a few broken ribs, severe whiplash, imminent bruising on his right side and possibly a concussion. Zellion hauled Jeffrey Jeffrey onto the deck of the ship and, seeing Elegy on a nearby ship fighting off several Charred on her own, threw Auxiliary to her as a metal ball which formed into a machete in her hand. Through the fighting, Auxiliary noticed that the Cinder King's ships had landed in an area ahead and informed Zellion.
==== Refuge of Stone ====
The Beaconites used their air superiority to scatter the Cinder King's forces and landed at the area they had vacated. Gathering at the metal disk in the ground, Zellion informed Elegy that he needed Auxiliary back and the spren vanished from her proffered hands into a glowing mist.
Auxiliary entered the Scadrian vessel along with Zellion, Rebeke, Confidence, and Contemplation to ask for refuge for the people of Beacon. Finding none, the Beaconites returned to the surface to be with their people while Zellion and Auxiliary stayed below having been offered a mercenary position by the Scadrians. Zellion, exhausted, asked Auxiliary what he thought and the spren replied that he thought they had gotten exactly what they'd deserved.
Zellion asked Auxiliary if he thought him a coward and Auxiliary answered that he did not think so but rather that he had been traumatized. Auxiliary asked in return when Zellion was going to go for the Scadrians' jar of Dor so they could Skip away and Zellion told him he would do so soon. Zellion watched on the Scadrians' monitors as the Cinder King's forces captured the helpless Beaconites. Desperate, he whispered the old words of his oaths but nothing happened. Auxiliary, frustrated and confused, lamented that he thought that if Zellion made the choice and wanted the oaths back that it would work but Zellion explained that it didn't work because he made a conscious choice to walk away from the oaths and that there were consequences for doing so. Auxiliary asked Zellion why he had abandoned his oaths as he had never told him and Zellion explained that he didn't really know, an answer Auxiliary couldn't understand.
Zellion struck up a conversation with one of the Scadrian scientists about her work and through it was able to deduce how to recharge depleted sunhearts. The Scadrians then recognized Zellion for who he was and attacked him with devices imbued with the Metallic Arts. Zellion reacted by summoning Auxiliary as a Shardblade, his flashiest form, and demanded to be returned to the surface.
=== Sacrifice ===
The pair reached the surface and Auxiliary noted that if they had only about five minutes until the sun rose as the Scadrians had said, then the Beaconites, having been stranded a short distance away, had about fifteen minutes before the light reached them. Zellion hopelessly ran in the direction of Beacon but was unable to outpace the encroaching sun. Auxiliary, seeing the truth of the situation, told Zellion he would need to fly and again offered to sacrifice the remnants of his soul to give him the required power. Zellion desperately tried to stop the spren but Auxiliary told him that it was not his choice to make. He told Zellion that he understood the consequences and that while Zellion may have betrayed his oaths, Auxiliary never did. As Investiture flooded into Zellion, Auxiliary made a final request that he use the sacrifice to protect the people of Beacon.
=== Post-Death ===
Zellion flew over to the stranded Beaconites, promising to uphold Auxiliary's final request. Upon reaching them, Zellion used Auxiliary's now lifeless body to create a shield and used a supercharged sunheart stolen from the Scadrians to expand it into a dome covering all of Beacon that protected them from the impending dawn's light. The Cinder King tested an energy cannon stolen from the Beaconite gunships by firing it at the dome but the blast had no effect and bounced off.
The dome stayed up all through the day before vanishing at Zellion's summon to appear next to him as a Shardblade on the beach of a distant planet. Zellion used the blade to cut off a weight-increasing band the Cinder King had placed on him and turned it into a mirrored shield to catch the light and signal to a passing ship.
==Relationships==
After Auxiliary's death, his capacity for interacting with people other than Nomad becomes extremely limited. As such, most of his "relationships" are disproportionately one-sided and often involve either party thinking or saying things about the other without being able to interact directly.
=== Nomad ===
Auxiliary and Nomad share a Nahel bond and were once both members of the Order of Skybreakers. Though Nomad has since abandoned his oaths, Auxiliary never did, leading him to refer to himself as "the knight" or "the hero" and to Nomad as his squire, valet, or servant; typically preceded by one of a number of colorful epithets.
Auxiliary and Nomad are no longer able to read one another's minds after the spren's death, so Auxiliary has to ask Nomad directly if he is confused by Nomad's actions or plans and Nomad must speak his replies out loud to answer. To maintain their privacy, Nomad typically speaks to Auxiliary in Alethi so the locals cannot understand even after Connecting to a planet which overrides his native Azish tongue with the local one. Nomad generally withholds knowledge of Auxiliary from strangers so as to not draw undue attention to himself as well as to maintain a tactical advantage against any potential foes. Despite their inability to read one another's minds, Auxiliary is able to interpret Nomad's emotions and has become very good at predicting his responses to things over the years. Similarly, despite Auxiliary's monotone, Nomad has become quite adept at interpreting the spren's intentions even without vocal inflection.
The pair frequently rib one another with biting jokes at each other's expense. Despite this, Nomad considers Auxiliary to be one of his dearest friends and trusts him implicitly to pick up on details that he misses himself. Nomad also relies on Auxiliary to act as a sounding board to test the plausibility of his ideas and theories.
Auxiliary and Nomad have a long and complex relationship. Upon first meeting one another in Shadesmar, Auxiliary was hesitant to show his true self but his expressiveness grew over the decades they spent together as a bonded pair until the spren's death. It is unclear how much responsibility Nomad bears for the incident and how much was the Dawnshard acting of its own volition. This ambiguity underpins a good deal of the dynamic between the two. 
Nomad, though he recognizes the roles that Wit and the Dawnshard itself played in the situation, blames himself for Auxiliary's death. Interestingly, Auxiliary seems to agree with this assessment, often needling Nomad about the subject in moments of pique. Despite their apparent agreement about Nomad's culpability, the pair came to very different conclusions about what that means for their lives moving forward. Nomad is stuck in the past, constantly thinking about -or intentionally avoiding thinking about- how much he misses who Auxiliary used to be and his own responsibility for ending that. Auxiliary, by contrast, is focused on the present and frequently encourages Nomad to stop regretting the past and appreciate the moment. To Nomad's surprise upon learning it, Auxiliary does not regret what he has become and is glad to be on the adventure with Nomad, even with the cost to himself.
Nomad has gone to great lengths to distance himself from his past in an effort to convince himself that he is no longer the same man who made the decisions he regrets so much. However, Auxiliary abhors this strategy as he feels that the only way to make one's life better is to embrace one's past and thus recognize one's own capacity for change. To that end, Auxiliary has made it his mission to encourage Nomad to engage in behaviors that remind him of his past self. Sometimes, Auxiliary does this by simply pointing out when something Nomad does on his own is more characteristic of his old ways than the new. Other times he openly encourages Nomad to let aspects of his old self shine through such as his scholarship or his Worldsinging. Auxiliary also asks Nomad probing questions about how and why things work like they do and asks Nomad to explain his thinking and reasoning as he knows that the old Nomad loved discovery and the pursuit of knowledge.
Auxiliary also considers himself to be Nomad's conscience, encouraging him to make morally correct decisions and be considerate of people beyond himself. He is particularly attentive to how Nomad treats his would-be friends and allies; calling out when Nomad lies to them, and asking him to reconsider saying potentially hurtful things or telling them harsh truths without mollification. Though Nomad does sometimes feel ashamed that Auxiliary, a being who is neither human nor living, displays more empathy than he does, he does on occasion disagree with Auxiliary's conception of what being good with people entails, for example that sometimes what people really need is frankness rather than assurances.
Auxiliary's ultimate goal with these efforts is to get Nomad to believe in his oaths again and rekindle them by saying the Immortal Words. To achieve this he uses many of the same tactics as he does when trying to encourage Nomad to reconnect with his past self including asking leading questions to get him to consider others' plights, using humor to nudge him in a certain direction, and direct confrontation when needed. Though Nomad is not ultimately able to reignite his oaths, he does finally begin to learn the lessons Auxiliary has been trying to teach him and acts to save people without any prompting.
Auxiliary cares deeply about Nomad and worries about his physical wellbeing. Though the spren is generally relaxed and jovial, he becomes much more serious when Nomad is low on Investiture and may be in more serious physical harm. He freely offers to protect Nomad from feeling physical pain when possible, even when the source of pain would be non-lethal given Nomad's healing abilities. Auxiliary's concern about Nomad's physical pain is especially heightened when that pain is self-inflicted. Upon arriving on Canticle, he is even concerned that Nomad might be suicidal, and becomes extremely frustrated when his partner pursues risky and illogical behaviors. Auxiliary sometimes acts as Nomad's voice of self-preservation, likely because he doesn't trust in Nomad's own.
When Nomad is in mortal danger, Auxiliary is willing to sacrifice his remaining essence in order to save his life. Nomad considers this to be absolutely non-negotiable and is willing to push himself to physical extremes to prevent the spren from sacrificing himself.
==== List of Epithets ====
The following is a list of epithets that Auxiliary uses to describe Nomad:
=== Szeth ===
When Auxiliary chooses to show himself to Szeth, he kneels to him and moves away from Nightblood. He is reverential to him, indeed, the two have a relationship that resembles master-student much more than the close kinship of other Radiant bonds. Szeth describes the highspren as always judging his worthiness.
=== Wit ===
Auxiliary considers Wit to be an ally with regard to helping Nomad return to better mental composure and is willing to disobey Nomad's explicit orders not to contact Wit to achieve that end. At some point in the past, Wit spoke to Aux and taught him about the subtle difference between an idiot and a fool.
=== Elegy ===
Auxiliary is initially derisive of Elegy, sarcastically calling her "charming" when she invites Nomad to fight her. Elegy is later able to correctly guess that Nomad is talking to someone in his head similarly to how she hears the Cinder King in her own. When Elegy probes Nomad about how he can pick and choose his fights, Auxiliary becomes exasperated at Nomad's circumspection and asks why he doesn't just give her the answers to her questions. As Elegy's questions become more difficult for Nomad to answer, Auxiliary admits that she is better at doing his "job" of moralizing Nomad than he is himself.
Unlike anyone besides Nomad, Elegy seems to be able to faintly hear and even understand Auxiliary when in close proximity to Nomad. Perhaps because of this unusual connection, Nomad later offers Elegy the use of Auxiliary as a Shardspear. Auxiliary is a little concerned with how violently Elegy wields him and suggests to Nomad that he will blunt the tip if she goes too far. When later wielding Auxiliary as a machete, Elegy considers the weapon to be magnificent in the way it allows her to never stop moving and fighting.
=== Beaconites ===
==== Zeal ====
Upon observing how Nomad interacts with Auxiliary, Zeal believes that Auxiliary must be a shade. Auxiliary develops a fondness for Zeal, expressing jubilance upon Zeal's appearance at the Cinder King's vault.
==== Rebeke ====
Auxiliary finds it is endearing that Rebeke believes Nomad cares about their social customs rather than just trying to understand their arcana for selfish reasons.
==== Contemplation ====
Contemplation believes Auxiliary is a manifestation of Adonalsium's plan and will in the cosmere.
=== Cinder King ===
The Cinder King first encounters Auxiliary when Nomad interrupts the Cinder King's creation of new Charred at the Union arena. He is initially confused by Auxiliary as he doesn't understand what he is seeing but becomes intrigued by the spren and sees him as a potential source of power to solidify his rule over the planet. Conversely, Auxiliary is sickened and disgusted by the idea that sunhearts are made from living people whose lives the Cinder King collects as a "tax". Auxiliary also considers the Cinder King to be extremely dangerous, warning Nomad that a person who has leached Investiture from thousands of people would be highly Invested.
As with other human behavior, Auxiliary has a hard time understanding the motivations that would result in such a stark difference in the Cinder King's attitude between their first and second meetings. Upon hearing the Cinder King express his background and twisted philosophy of power, Auxiliary muses that he does not consider him to be normal, well adjusted, or reasonable. However, Auxiliary does initially consider the Cinder King to potentially be smart, a sentiment that is rapidly erased after the Cinder King breaks his oath to Nomad.
== Trivia ==
* Auxiliary's dialogue is rendered in italics and without quotation marks, the same way that a POV character's internal monologue is denoted.
* It is unknown if Nomad will still be able to Connect to other planets in the future without Auxiliary's help.
* Auxiliary was William DeMeritt's favorite character to narrate in the audiobook.
* The voice DeMeritt uses for Auxiliary in the audiobook was a collaboration between DeMeritt and the Dragonsteel team. DeMeritt was initially concerned that using a true monotone as the character is described would quickly become grating in the audio medium and considered which accents in English lend themselves to the monotone feeling without being truly monotonous. Wanting to avoid the sci-fi/fantasy cliche of some kind of UK-based accent, DeMeritt asked the Dragonsteel team if he could use a modified version of the Wakandan accent (initially developed by Beth McGuire -with whom DeMeritt apprenticed in graduate school- based on the Xhosa accent) as it places equal stress on every syllable evoking a monotone.
* The Highspren plushie sold by Dragonsteel as part of the Words of Radiance Leatherbound crowdfunding campaign is modeled after what Auxiliary would have looked like before his death.
* Auxiliary's original name, 12124, can be read as A-U-X, as 'A' is the 1st letter of the Latin alphabet, 'U' the 21st, and 'X' the 24th.
== Notes ==
category: Shardblades