Unbound

Chapter Four Hundred And Seventy One – 471

Chapter Four Hundred And Seventy One – 471

"The deal you are offering is quite generous, Lord Nevarre. Discounted pricing on alchemical products in exchange for our knowledge on herbalism and medicinal practices is tempting. Especially after inspecting this." The Prioress lifted the glass Health Potion and swirled it a bit. "A potent crafting, able to heal over a hundred points of Health. That is enough to bring many warriors back from the brink and into fighting shape."

Felix pulled out two other bottles, one a cloudy yellow and the other blue. "We can also create Stamina and Mana Potions as well. Lesser tonics and salves too, if potions are too pricey of course."

"Prize creations. Are these not for your people first? Alchemical creations often take a long while to lose efficacy, so you are putting your own warriors at a disadvantage by trading these treasures away." Her tone was one of a cautious mother, one that saw pitfalls stretching all around her. Curiosity and challenge fluted across the Prioress' Spirit. "Is our knowledge so valuable?"

Felix shrugged while suppressing a wince at the movement. "All knowledge is valuable, which you well know. Anyone with an iota of power here hoards knowledge, and usually it's for their own gain. My goal was always to support my people first, and learning more about the healing arts would go a long way to facilitating that."

"The knowledge of the Menders is something we have long struggled to keep as ours. As you say, the powerful hoard knowledge. Our ability with herbs and reagents of the Hills has protected us from the...eager hands of Knights and Princes alike. If I were to give them to you, then our power would be greatly reduced within the Hills. Your potions are remarkable, but we cannot bargain away the walls that keep my people safe."

They walked atop the Redoubt battlements still, as far away from the Knights as they could manage, but the fortress was not all that large. They were at least warded for privacy thanks to a small artifact at the Prioress' belt, just enough to cover the two of them. A few Menders were a respectable distance behind them, as well as four of his Shadows. They had found him during the move and had been stuck to his back ever since.

Felix rolled the Prioress' situation over in his Mind, and even considered once again if the trade he was proposing was worth it. The Menders had proven to have a potent grip on Herbalism, with the Prioress admitting that she was an Adept at the Skill. She was a Journeyman in Temper, of course, but her entire order was such a font of knowledge that he couldn't pass it all up. Apart from boosting his own Skills in Alchemy and Aria of the Green Wilds, it would help elevate all of his apprentices, not to mention open up new avenues for caring for his growing population. They also had access to rare herbs in the Territory, different than the ones in Nagast, and one of the last places with access since the flood had washed away a lot. Most of all, and the part that the Prioress was bucking against, was his desire for detail on their Titles and Skills. Those were an order's lifeblood...but how to convince her? He cleared his throat. "I can appreciate the need for the hoarding of knowledge and power, especially as all those around you do the same. 'It is a beast of infinite belly, that thing we call self-preservation, one that will eat and eat for survival and never count the cost on those around them.'"

"The Vicissitudes. I'm pleased to know you read the book." Prioress Kartez shook her head. "Tern has a great many ideas in those pages, all of them heady with a dream of what could be. That is not our world, however much we wish it."

"Now you sound like my advisor," Felix said dryly.

"They sound wise."

"They are. But I think all of us are stuck looking at the world as how it is, instead of how it could be. We can change the world just by sharing a little information. If we ally together, Prioress, you will be protected by all those that might tear you down. I am willing to swear an Oath on that."

The Gnome turned from the battlements to the waters beyond the Redoubt. They had wandered near the southern portion, where the forests and waves spread until they hit the bases of the Stormeater Peaks. "That is tempting. How would you protect us? Do you plan to conquer this land as well?"

Felix smiled past the ache in his veins. "No. I'm not a conqueror, not if I can help it. But I have connections with Ahkestria, and soon trade will be reestablished. I could arrange for protection for your Priory, absolutely, in addition to selling our healing items at a reduced price."

"Protection. You would leave your soldiers here? An occupying force in Tevis' lands would find themselves accosted in short order. And given the Path you claim to tread, how long before you can no longer avoid becoming the conqueror?"

"I don't have any interest in taking over Territories or fighting in wars. Really. Consider the folks I leave as guards against theft. They would follow your orders, but their primary objective would be to ensure that you and your newfound resources are secure." Felix spread his hands. "That sounds reasonable, right?"

The Prioress didn't answer him immediately, only furrowed her brow and folded her hands. Felix gave her the time to think, instead pressing his Perception outward. He'd been so laser focused on his conversation that he hadn't realized they were almost directly above the healing tents. The sounds of snoring, wheezing, and pain-filled moans were hard to miss now that he was paying attention, as was the thread of anxious desperation that wafted on the breeze.

"You're pressed thin here," Felix observed.

"We are always pressed thin when calamity comes to our doorstep. Whether it is disease, a hunt gone wrong, or terrible flooding, it is always a fight to gain one single life back from death's doorstep." The Prioress followed his gaze, stepping up onto the elevated rungs atop the inner wall. "My people put everything to make use of and expand their knowledge. It is our life's work."

Another sound bore along the breeze, one that few could catch but which Felix snapped up in a second. It was music, light and airy and entirely familiar. Flaring his Perception and Affinity stats harder, Felix followed the song to its source, several dozen yards away beneath a tent. He saw the flash of a blue dress and platinum curlsIslaand all around her the ambient emotions swelled toward euphoria.

"Whatwhat is that? What is happening there?" the Prioress asked. She pressed against the wall, lifting her slight Body just a touch higher.

"Healing," Felix said. "Healing in a way that you have likely not encountered."

Isla moved from one tent to another, this time giving them a far better vantage on her work. Human men, Orcish women, a gaggle of Gnomish children, the Chanter moved between them with skill and poise. A trail of relief and slumber followed her, while her odd magic wove bones back together and eradicated gangrenous flesh.

"How is she accomplishing this?"

"I suppose a conversation with our healer could be on the table," Felix said, rubbing his chin. The Prioress' clutched at the wall and her Spirit flashed with a brief pang of greed. "Knowledge for knowledge, perhaps?"

Negotiation is level 38!

The Prioress flared her nostrils, but her eyes didn't leave the flash of Isla's magic. "Keep talking."

The ooze wriggled in its container even when Vess wasn't poking it with her partisan, like it was trying to escape. All it managed was to slosh a bit in the deep tub of chitin she'd had Beef make, and the sides were so thick that its foul substance wasn't going to burn through it anytime soon. Men and women gave the tub a wide berthVess tooand though she had set it up somewhere a little out of the way near the stern, she could feel the eyes of the sailors on her like the midmorning sun at her shoulders. Her Affinity tagged them as concerned before she closed it off, squeezing her surroundings off from her attention. She had to focus.

Vess leaned over the tub, letting her Elemental Eye flare.

Elemental Eye is level 73!

The ooze exuded a sort of corrosive Mana that reminded Vess heavily of acid, but the color was all wrong. Normally a bright green, this was heavily tinted toward purple, and it coiled on itself in thick streams of vapor that looked far heavier than normal Mana. She stabbed it with her partisan again and the ooze recoiled. Its material split open, just as before, and Vess watched the thing discharge several bursts of that thickened Mana vapor. The vapor didn't rise up though, but clung to the ooze's side before congealing back into ooze and patching its own hole.

It was something she would have missed without her Eye Skill. Vess knew that because she had cut it previously, and other than an extensive amount of squirming, nothing remarkable happened before the wound sealed itself.

"That's disgustin'." Evie whispered.

Vess raised an eyebrow and fought to remain unfazed. Her friend had appeared like a ghost, utterly unnoticed. "Ahem. I would advise not placing your face so close to it."

Evie lifted her head, which had just been perched at the lip of the tub. "Ah. Probably smart." She settled back, leaning against the gunwale of the Manaship and let her thick braid cushion her head. Her armor was scuffed and scratched, her jerkin stained with some dark fluid, and a piece of bread was hastily shoved into the woman's mouth. She chewed, loudly. "Why're you so interested in this thing? It's pretty nasty. Just lookin' at it gives me a headache. When you had them harvest it I swear those Blades were gonna hurl right into their own laps."

Vess kept stabbing the creature, observing its healing capacity again and again. The ooze crept away from wherever it had last been stabbed, crowding the corners of the tub that were furthest from her spear. She doubted it could feel pain or even actual emotion, being a bundle of blobby Mana, but it had some rudimentary sense of space. "I need to know how this is interacting with the Fathom spawn we keep finding it on. My Analyze cannot get a grip on it though. Analyze."

Analyze Failed.

"How's stabbing it supposed to help?" Evie asked.

"It tells me that it has a sense of self-preservation. That whatever created this...abomination...it was done so with intent." Vess frowned down at the ooze.

"You've the right of it there, Lady Dayne," a new voice announced, and Zara walked up onto the quarterdeck. "That ooze is a vessel of Intent in much the same way your flesh is package around your bones."

Evie snorted. "Hah, gross."

"Intent," Vess repeated. The Naiad Chanter walked until she was beside her and peered curiously into the thick-walled tub. "Meaning this was created for a purpose. What purpose?"

"Felix asked a similar question. Manawarping is a process that takes time, but after investigating numerous remains and the harmonic traces left by the Slaughter Nettle, I do believe I know how the Fathom is inducing it." Zara pointed an elegant, ochre finger at the ooze. It wobbled, a few small tendrils forming in its mass before losing shape. "This is accelerating the process, introducing a form of dissonance into the weft of harmony."

Evie tilted her head, still chewing. She had gotten a small wedge of cheese from some inner pocket. "Dissonance. Like what Felix talks about. That's Primordial stuff though, right?"

"It is, but it is not exclusive to them. Long before I ever beheld a Primordial, I witnessed threads of dissonance cause mayhem across an entire forest. In its truest form, it is a perversion of the Grand Harmony. This is...a watered down version, atonal strains among the otherwise melodic patterns of true Mana. It acts as a catalyst, I believe, breaking apart the Mana systems inside the creatures it attaches to before it introduces a boost of its own corrupted Mana. This accelerates the Manawarping process, and, if I am not mistaken, makes them as subservient as any draconic Type."

Vess clenched her jaw. "So this Fathom is gathering a true horde."

"It would seem so, yes."

Distantly, the Redoubt's bells began to ring. Evie popped up to her feet, hand already on her chain. "Oh! I missed the last one. Maybe there'll be somethin' like the Depthwurm again."

"Another attack?" Vess asked. "I thought they said the monsters massed at nightfall?"

"They did say that," Zara agreed, staring into the distance. The Knights were scrambling faster than she'd ever seen them move. "There. Beyond the northern hills. At least ten creatures."

"Yes. I can barely make it out, but..." Vess kicked the lid shut on the thick, chitin tub. Sigils flared along the top, binding it closed. "If those are as big as they seem, you may get your wish, Evie."