Auxiliary
also known as Aux, Auxiliary
The deadpan voice in Zellion's head, formerly a Knight Radiant's spren bonded to him in his old life. Aux carried him from world to world after their oaths broke, then spent the last of himself burning his own personality away on the surface of Canticle to give Zellion back the strength of those oaths for a single sunrise. What remains is his body — summonable as a shapeshifting tool, weapon, or shield — and a final instruction: defend the people who needed defending. The voice does not answer any more. STD:TSM:Ch 47
A disembodied voice in Nomad's head who refers to himself as a knight's squire, valet, or hero — and to Nomad as the opposite — in a deadpan running narration he keeps up because his actual voice is completely monotone. He can be summoned physically as a shapeshifting piece of metal: a crowbar, a hook and chain, anything Nomad understands well enough to picture. Aux states plainly that he is already dead. STD:TSM:Ch 1 superseded at STD:TSM:Ch 47
Known facts
- already-deadStates flatly that he is already dead; whatever he is to Nomad now is a post-mortem persistence, not a continuing life.STD:TSM:Ch 1
- truest-form-is-swordHis deepest form is a silver Blade roughly six feet long, condensing out of white mist when summoned. Nomad had assumed he could no longer reach it; in this chapter, by aiming the throw at a stone pillar rather than a person, he calls the Blade once before the Torment notices and forbids the form again.STD:TSM:Ch 4
- bracer-under-bracer-trickCan be shaped into two thin bracers slipped underneath Nomad's outer freeze bracers — connected to each other by a rod between them rather than touching the way most of his shapes must — separating the freeze bracers from skin and defeating their effect entirely.STD:TSM:Ch 5
- connection-grants-languageGiven enough reserve to spend — for Nomad in this chapter, the contents of one ember power cell — he can spin a Connection between Nomad and the planet they are on, retuning Nomad's soul so the local language comes out as naturally as his birth tongue. It takes a few minutes to set.STD:TSM:Ch 6
- claw-stash-trickBriefly formed as a specialised claw to latch Nomad's stolen rifle to the underside of the hovercycle during arrival at Beacon — a covert stash so the weapon would not be confiscated when Nomad was searched.STD:TSM:Ch 9
- silent-around-witGoes quiet whenever Wit is around — he knows Nomad often feels double-teamed when both of them are talking at once, and out of courtesy lets Wit hold the conversation alone.STD:TSM:Ch 10
- used-to-fly-with-nomadRemembers, painfully, that he and Nomad used to fly together — a kind of motion that did not rely on propellant — and that he loved it, before what happened with the Dawnshard ended that life.STD:TSM:Ch 20
- of-the-highsprenRefers to his own kind as the highspren — a people he says were too static for too long, and from whom he is glad to have grown apart. The remark identifies him plainly to a reader who knows Roshar as one of the highspren that once bonded the Skybreakers.STD:TSM:Ch 28
- takes-a-sharp-bladed-formFor the first time since Nomad forswore weapons, Aux sharpens the end of the crowbar he is being held as — at his own gentle suggestion that this is not a weapon, just another tool, made to protect the city. The implement is described as a symbol from Nomad's past, practised in secret and later displayed in grandeur, sharp enough to slice through metal. Nomad rams it up through the jammed lock and slashes free the docking mechanism that was holding the water-carrier ship.STD:TSM:Ch 30
- cannot-summon-the-blade-on-his-ownLocked in the Cinder King's vault and out of options, Nomad asks Aux to form the sharp implement he used under Beacon's hull. Aux refuses. He tells Nomad it is not his soul that is cankered and not his oaths that were broken — it is Nomad's. The bladed form is something Nomad has to summon for himself; Aux cannot do it for him. Under Beacon Nomad managed it for a heartbeat. In the vault, with the Torment pressing back as hard as it has in a long time, he cannot.STD:TSM:Ch 35
- words-are-power-with-meaning-and-intentTells Nomad quietly, as the Beaconites press an adoption-name onto him in their landing circle, that words wielded with both meaning and Intent behind them carry real power — and that the Greater Good's naming-prayer is a case in point.STD:TSM:Ch 39
- shape-shifts-spear-blade-hook-shield-machete-ballAcross one running dogfight Auxiliary is reshaped in Zellion's hands as a spear, a man-tall Shardblade that opens a gunship's cab like a tin lid, a grappling hook, a shield laid over a primed bomb to ride its detonation, a metal ball tossed across the gap to Elegy that reforms in her grip as a machete, and finally curved claw-hooks to catch the Dawnchaser's hull. The day proves how fluidly the two of them can switch forms now that Zellion is back in active service.STD:TSM:Ch 42
- burns-his-personality-to-give-back-the-oathsOutside on the surface, with the sun about to break the horizon, Auxiliary tells Zellion what he has never said out loud before: *whatever you did, I never betrayed my oaths.* He offers the leftover strength of his oaths back, as a final gift, by burning away his own personality and leaving only the weapon-body behind. Zellion protests; Aux tells him he does not get to decide. *This is my destination, but not yours.* Warmth spreads through Zellion as the sun rises, and the old armour forms around him; his eyes come alight.STD:TSM:Ch 45
- shield-grown-into-life-support-domePowered by a sunheart taken from the Refuge and slotted into its back, Auxiliary's shield form can be ordered to grow into a mirror-finished opaque dome large enough to enclose the surviving population of Beacon — floor and ceiling both — and to maintain temperature and life support inside through a sunline crossing overhead. Zellion uses it once, as the last living act of Aux's corpse, after which the body is committed to the role and left behind sealed beneath the sun.STD:TSM:Ch 47
- shield-left-behind-as-dome-over-beaconBefore stepping into the duel, Zellion left Aux formed as a shield over the Beaconites sheltered in the dark zone. The Cinder King names this aloud as a death-touch on him: kill the offworlder and the dome falls. Zellion confirms it inwardly. The shield is the second oath weighting his refusal to die — paired with the promise he made to Aux in the last sunrise — and the proximate reason he reaches for the Torment's reversed power instead of giving up.STD:TSM:Ch 52
- burned-away-entirely-from-the-cognitive-realmConfirmed by Zellion alone on the atoll: Auxiliary is not merely silent, but truly gone — nothing of him is left in the Cognitive Realm. The shapeshifting body is now a corpse separated from the soul that inhabited it; there is no voice to interrupt and no conscience-stand-in to answer for him. Zellion is, on the next world, completely alone.STD:TSM:Epilogue
Events
- STD:TSM:Ch 11 Speaks in Nomad's head throughout the council debate — pushes him to warn the leadership what they will actually find behind the door, then concedes; later argues, in private Alethi, about whether change comes by revelations in light or by slow erosion.
- STD:TSM:Ch 12 Stays in Nomad's head throughout the flight — bantering about adverbs, checking on the magma-formation deduction, and asking in Alethi whether life under the Cinder King could really have been worse than the dark.
- STD:TSM:Ch 13 Closes the sunheart math for Nomad in Alethi — concluding that the sunlight itself must be Invested. Spots the scout for Nomad using his eyes, and warns about the Cinder King's accumulated Investiture.
- STD:TSM:Ch 14 Banters with Nomad in Alethi through the chase — needling him about his old claim to be the sensible one, observing aloud that Rebeke looks comforted afterwards even though Nomad said nothing actually helpful, and politely refusing to be called a god.
- STD:TSM:Ch 15 Asks Nomad to be empathetic when Rebeke tells him she does not want to be a killer like him; refuses to be drawn out by Rebeke's casual mention that the Chorus spirits fabricate.
- STD:TSM:Ch 15 From the merlon on the rim, observes that he cannot decide whether the Beacon people are naive or impressive. Nomad answers him in Alethi about the trained nature of killing.
- STD:TSM:Ch 16 Asks Nomad trepidatiously what he is planning as the flagship arrives; then steers him through the parlour with a running, sarcastic commentary on the Cinder King's philosophy of leadership. Materialises as a thrown metal sphere to knock the king's bullet from the air.
- STD:TSM:Ch 17 Forms as a thrown metal sphere that meets the bullet, then as a door brace clamping shut the cabin door, then as a crowbar to pop the cycle's chain.
- STD:TSM:Ch 17 Briefs Nomad on his Skip capacity, holds the riot shield against rifle fire, and — once they are out of range — releases it.
- STD:TSM:Ch 18 Directs Nomad's eye to the captured ship, narrates the boarding action in his ear, and works frantically through the floor of the fight to keep his body upright as the Charred beat him into the corner.
- STD:TSM:Ch 19 Narrates the council from inside Nomad's head as he plays possum on the floor, then asks for clarification when the engineering switches on, and lets Nomad win the argument that — yes, even a being of fundamental forces should pay attention in physics class.
- STD:TSM:Ch 20 Asks the questions that walk Nomad through propellant theory in their workshop session — and then, gently, the question about the way they used to fly together. Remembers loving it. Steers Nomad back to the work when the regret threatens to seize him.
- STD:TSM:Ch 21 Sounds out Nomad's working theory of soul-scar removal aloud, catches the eavesdropper at the door before Nomad does, and observes that the locals are unimpressed by him because their entire society runs on mist beings that materialise objects on demand.
- STD:TSM:Ch 22 Watches the Chorus mutter through its lore at the glass and remarks, dryly, that at least now Nomad knows how the city keeps its history straight. Suggests the Chorus fabricates the way he himself does: dissolving raw stock and pulling a finished form out of the mist.
- STD:TSM:Ch 23 Watches the engineering team start to rescue Nomad's flawed first design, observes that it is convenient, gets corrected — it is expected, not convenient — and later notes the BEU count on a typical Beaconite soul.
- STD:TSM:Ch 24 Estimates the BEU count of an ordinary hovercycle's stone, theorises about Connection between the Cinder King and his cinderhearts, and pleads — unsuccessfully — that Nomad not stab himself with a sliver of sunheart for fun.
- STD:TSM:Ch 25 Manifests as cuffs and a chain mid-fight when Nomad needs to relock Elegy to the wall. After the dust settles asks, unaffectedly, whether Nomad is all right. Defends his sarcastic register to Zeal later, claiming he is merely being extra clear.
- STD:TSM:Ch 26 Murmurs in the back of Nomad's head through the day's work — congratulates the team on the one prototype that flew instead of exploded, marvels at the rainwater falling down the high stone country, and reads the new "star" overhead the same instant Nomad does.
- STD:TSM:Ch 27 Summoned as a rough wireframe of a city-ship on the engineers' table while Nomad sketches where the boilers will hang underneath. Otherwise quiet through the chapter — present, watching, the moment after the Night Brigade ship is spotted heavy in the back of Nomad's head.
- STD:TSM:Ch 28 Talks with Nomad the whole way up the mountain — wheedles him about the plan to find the door, plays valet jokes while Nomad can't even breathe enough to answer aloud, and ends the climb with the quiet confession that he is glad to be there, even after everything, watching the view from the top of the world with his friend.
- STD:TSM:Ch 29 Keeps Nomad company at the controls — pokes at why he has been avoiding command positions ever since, threatens to recruit him a cinderheart for compliance, then later admits openly that Elegy just did his job — being conscience — better than he has lately. He explains himself to Elegy as the friend riding in Nomad's head, his body the tool Nomad summons when needed.
- STD:TSM:Ch 30 Formed in succession as a crowbar to wedge frozen latches, a chain-and-hook climbing rig, a wider knob anchor, a long pole — and finally, gently, with Nomad's consent, as a bladed implement to slash the docking mechanism free. When the chain slips and Nomad is hanging by his fingertips, Aux offers his own remaining substance to let Nomad fly. Nomad refuses. Afterwards Aux thanks him for caring.
- STD:TSM:Ch 31 Forms handholds along Beacon's deck as Nomad crosses it in the dark, then rides anxiously in his head through the crash sequence — asking what he is doing, finally begging him to just push the stupid button.
- STD:TSM:Ch 43 Carried by Elegy as the Shardspear, then recalled to Zellion's hand as glowing mist before she can return it.
- STD:TSM:Ch 44 Quiet observer inside Nomad's head; his only line is a wry judgement that they have gotten exactly what they deserved.
- STD:TSM:Ch 45 Spends most of the chapter in conversation with Nomad and ends it by burning away his own personality to restore the oaths he never broke.
- STD:TSM:Ch 47 Present only as a body and an absence — Zellion still has the shield form, but the voice does not answer when he speaks to it. He summons the shield, slots a sunheart into the back of it, and orders it to grow into the dome that protects Beacon's survivors from the sunline.
- STD:TSM:Ch 48 Present only as the armour Zellion is wearing — a body without the voice. The armour glows the ember red-orange of sunhearts and trails smoke; under repeated hits it cracks like glass, the shoulder piece bursts in a spray of sparks, and the rest dissolves away in seconds when Zellion's strength runs out.
- STD:TSM:Epilogue Summoned back as a sword the moment Zellion judges the Beaconites safe in the dark, used to cut off the gravity bracer, and later reshaped into a mirror to signal a passing boat — but does not speak. Confirmed gone from the Cognitive Realm entirely; only the body answers a hand now.
Backreferences
- factTorment
- factTorment
- factTorment
- factBreath Equivalent Unit
- factSigzil
- factSess Nassith Tor
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factthe rings
- factember power cell
- factSigzil
- factThrenodites
- factGlowing Eyes
- factthis world
- factthe Chorus
- factSigzil
- factSkipping
- factRebeke Salvage
- factaxon
- factzephyr aether
- factSigzil
- factBreath Equivalent Unit
- factGlowing Eyes
- factSkipping
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factAuxiliary
- factSigzil
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 31
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 32
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 33
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 34
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 35
- factAuxiliary
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 36
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 37
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 39
- factthis world
- factarmor fragment
- factSigzil
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 40
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 41
- factElegy
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 42
- factAuxiliary
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 44
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 45
- factAuxiliary
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 47
- factAuxiliary
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 48
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 49
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 52
- factAuxiliary
- summarySTD:TSM:Epilogue
- factAuxiliary