Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Thirty Nine – 339

Chapter Three Hundred And Thirty Nine – 339

I'm fine, Pit sent as Felix ran his hands across his fur and feathers.

"I'll believe that when I see it," he muttered. The call with Zara was important, but Felix needed to know if his friend was hurt. That Spirit Fruit was dangerous. He sent his senses questing into Pit's flesh, trying to see...something. Anything. But other than a strong heart beat and the gurgle of his internal organs, his mundane Perception couldn't pick up much.

"Shouldn't we get to your Seal thingy?" Evie asked.

"I agree. I'm concerned about Pit as well, but if Lady Zara is asking to speak with you..." Vess trailed off at the look Felix gave them both. She raised her hands in defeat. "Ah. I suppose she can wait, after all.

Felix nodded gratefully at them both. "Hold still, bud. I have to try something else."

Pit warbled agreement before Felix engaged his manipulation Skill.

Cardinal Flame.

Mana rose through his channels and pooled in his right palm, a crackling blue and red liquid. More light than liquid, it swirled up from Felix's palm and flowed down and into Pit's own channels. Cardinal Flame, while usable offensively, was mainly a control and shaping Skillfor Mana specifically. He hadn't tried this particular technique before, but Karys had said it was possible if hard. And without a Skill to guide him, it was going to waste a lot of Mana. Felix pressed on regardless.

His Mana probefor lack of a better worddelved into Pit's channels, following their twisting concourse. Wherever it went, a sort of feedback was felt in his Spirit, like a blind man's touch. It was electric and icy cold and burning hot; strange sensations, any way you could describe them. Combined with their bond, it provided Felix with a tactile map of Pit's channels wherever his Mana spread. They felt very different from Felix's own, less looping and more diverging lines, as if each pathway was connected to a dozen others. He wasn't sure if it was because Pit was a chimera as he had no frame of reference for others, but it was a maze within his Companion. A far cry from Felix's relatively straightforward pathways, and his Mana was dropping fast as he searched, hunting through Pit for any sign of damage.

That feels...not good, Pit sent.

"I'm sorry, man. I'm trying to be gentle." Felix looked at Pit's Status. "You're not losing any Health or gaining a Status Condition. Let me check a little longer."

Pit huffed a breath through his nostrils, but nodded.

Felix switched his attention back to the wisps of Mana that washed through his Companion. There were flecks of...he hesitated to call them anything. Anti-sensation, maybe. His Mana fed nothing back to his Spirit, like they were tiny dead spots. Worriedly, Felix marshalled even more Manadropping his reserves by nearly halfand pushed through the tenku's entire system, sweeping it like a wave down narrow passages that all led to his core.

He blinked.

Upon entering the core space it felt like falling into a vast cavern, utterly unmoored from sensation, save for what blasted out of the core itself. A brilliant, gem-like stone sat within his friend, black and streaked with crimson. It was arcing with energies, pulsing waves of brilliant Mana that formed a shifting cage of wild power around it. That net or cage was like static across his Mana, interrupting the smooth flow of things as it spat and flared chaotically. It felt a lot like the aura of power around the Spirit Fruit, he realized, and the flecks of nothing were present here as well. And in far greater number.

Felix knew little of monsters and how they advanced, other than it was a natural process that resulted in them growing larger than usual in most cases. That was why he'd so often fought apes and insects and bison far larger than anything on Earth, though some of those had likely started big in the first place. Pit wasn't a monster, though. He had a Race, not a Typethe latter being a designation by the System for those that weren't what it considered sentient, or so it had been explained to him. Felix had some issue with that piece of information, as the Frost Giants had a Type yet were as intelligent as most folks he'd met on the Continent. So it wasn't clear cut, that was obvious, and Chimeras made it stranger still. From what he'd gathered in Shelim, the Chimera were made or evolved from other creatures entirely. The how and why was, again, a mystery, but it ultimately meant he had no clue whether Pit's core was abnormal or not.

The power is unnerving, and those flecks worry me, he sent to Pit. Affinity isn't hearing anything jarring about it, but you and I both know that ability isn't as reliable as we could hope.

Pit trilled in reluctant agreement. Felix pulled the big bird-dog's beak down and pressed their foreheads together. "I just don't know what it could do to you. Don't eat any more"

A trilling noise filled both of their ears, and a blue box flashed before them.

Atlantes Anima Spirit Fruit Has Been Fully Digested!

+20 STR

+20 END

Felix met Pit's eyes and he grabbed the chimera by the beak before he could lunge for another Fruit. "No. Bad Pit."

They're good!

"No, they're strange and I need to figure them out. No more until I can figure out what they're doing to you, okay?" Felix asked. Pit sat back on his haunches in the biggest sulk he'd ever seen.

Fine.

When he was sure his Companion was behaving himself, Felix looked at the others. "We need to move these down to my Lab."

"Alright," Evie drawled, eyeing the large Green Shaped crates. Each one weighed at least twice what she did, and there were three of them. "How do you figure we'll do that?"

Green Shaping is level 24!

It had taken almost all of his Mana, but Felix was able to use Green Shaping to rig an impromptu harness system for the crates. With Evie's aid to lighten the load with her Born Trait, and the assistance of Vess' Spears, they managed to lower all three of the large boxes in short order. Felix could have, perhaps, hefted the lot of them with Adamant Discord but he had no idea how the crackling lightning of his Skill would have affected the Fruit. Cooked them, most likely.

"I'll be back for the rest of them as soon as possible," Felix promised. He patted the tree trunk awkwardly, not quite sure if it could hear him. "Uhm. Thank you."

The sedan-sized leaves rustled in a sudden breeze, and Felix felt the faintest pressure against his Spirit and Mind. It was unfocused and dilutedas if it were a Mind spread out over miles of terrainbut definitely there. With a wondering final look around him, he dropped from the branches.

The fall was only a little faster than his ascent, and Felix only accessed his Adamant Discord in a final pulse upward, slowing himself that he landed in his Temple with only a muffled boom. The others were all looking in the crates, Harn and the mages peering at them with wonder and no little hunger. None had grabbed any, so Felix was assured Vess and Evie had warned them off.

"How soon before you can make something useful out of them?" Atar asked. "I'm pushing closer to Adept every day, especially in Sigaldry."

"Aye, and the same here. I've been hoverin' around Adept for years," Harn said, engrossed in the power wafting off the Fruit. "Be nice to cross that threshold."

"I'll work on figuring that out soon. First I have to go talk to Zara, apparently," Felix said.

"She's here?" Alister asked in confusion. "How?"

"I'll explain later. If you all could get these to the Lab, I'd appreciate it. And keep my assistants from touching them. I don't want anyone tempted until we can figure out a way to make them safe." The others quickly agreed and Felix and Pit left them, dropping once more through the crevasse in the Temple floor.

Soon enough they found their way to the Seat and Seal, where Karys was fiddling with a collection of hexagonal pillars. Each one was covered in a fine mesh of interconnecting sigils, gold and silver light flashing with his every gesture.

"Oh, Felix. Thank the ancestors," Karys said with a sigh. "She is getting quite impatient."

"This is the communication array?" Felix asked, pointing at the chest-high pillars. Chest-high on Karys, that is, for Felix it was well over his head.

"It is the mouthpiece of it, yes. The array is built into the formation of this Temple, on a level that I cannot quite parse." Karys nodded to several swirling lines of sigladry that disappeared into the thrumming complexity of the main formation. "This is all you need to access however. Come, step to it."

Trading a look with Pit, Felix moved forward as Karys backed away from the pillars. As they switched places the hexagonal pillars lowered until they were chest height to him, rotating as they did so and revealing more scrolling sigaldry down every single stone plane. A glyph beneath his feet lit up, humming with power fed into it by the pillars and responding to Felix's presence.

Autarch, A Transmission Is Pending.

Vassal State Of Kesra, Designation: Haarwatch

Identification Marker: Zara Cyrene

Warning. Transmission Origin Is Suspect.

Do You Wish To Receive?

Suspect? That's...what's that mean? "Yes." He'd find out, one way or another.

Transmitting...

"know if he'll even answer. IFelix? Felix are you there?"

Felix grinned. It was definitely the voice of the Chanter he knew, whatever his array suspected. "Zara. Glad to hear you're still alive."

"I should be the one saying that. What happened? Did you...How did you claim Authority?" Though he couldn't feel it over the transmission, Felix imagined her Spirit to be a crowded mess of emotions.

"That's a long story. You're in Haarwatch?" he asked.

"...Yes. We arrived just a day ago on a pair of Manaships we acquired for the task." Zara's voice paused, and the sigils around him dimmed. They were pulsing with each word she spoke, each of the pillars vibrating at a specific pitch in order to replicate her voice. "We were stopping only to drop off the Haarguard, and then we were coming to you. Did you secure the Temple? Did the Archon claim the power within?"

"Are you alone?" Felix asked.

"No, Cal is here, as is the Hand," Zara said.

"The Hand?" Felix choked out.

"Indeed. He is quite concerned about his ward."

"She's fine. Upstairs, actually, when she isn't hunting for materials," Felix said, hoping that his voice sounded casual. "If it is just the three of you, then I'll explain."

Felix went into a truncated story about the events leading up to and surrounding the claiming of his Authority. He left out Vvim, anything to do with being Unbound, and any and all details about his Omen Path, leaving a bare-bones story that he could tell was raising more questions than it answered. But he did reveal that he now had Authority over the Territory and his own personal Stronghold that he was currently trying to bring up to snuff.

"and there's where we stand, at least for now," he finished.

"A Spirit Tree, in this barren wilderness?" Zara murmured. "Has it borne fruit yet?"

"We can talk about that when you get here, I think," Felix said, diverting the subject. "I'm more interested in who else you can bring with you."

"Bring with us?" she asked.

"Yeah, there's aspects of the work here that I need help with, and not enough people to do it with. Zara can you ask Cal who mightwait, no, lemme try something." Felix ran his finger across a series of glyphs at the top of the central-most pillar. Each symbol let out a different tone as they activated.

Vassal State Representative Detected.

Do You Wish To Expand Transmission?

"Yes."

Connection Established.

"Whoa that feels odd," said a new voice.

"Hi Cal," Felix said brightly. "Welcome to the group chat."

"The what?" Zara asked. Felix ignored the question.

"Next time a little warning would be nice," Cal continued. "Seeing a glowing glyph form under my feet doesn't bring back the most pleasant of memories."

"Oh, sorry. I actually have no idea how this works on your end. I'm in a big chamber designed for it. Guess I thought it'd be similar for you," Felix explained.

"No, Zara just started talkin' about the 'music of the spheres' and it 'shifting' but we didn't know what she meant. At least, not until that array burst outta the floor. Burned right through my carpet, too."

"My apologies, again, for not clearing the space properly beforehand," Zara said. Her voice didn't sound the least bit contrite. "But let us return to the matter at hand. You wish to have more residents at your Stronghold?"

"Wait, do I need to repeat myself for the others?" Felix asked.

"No, they can hear you, they just could not communicate with you until you did...whatever it was you did," Zara explained.

"Ah good. Cal, do you have people you can spare? Anyone who wants to move out into the Foglands can, at least, anyone that can fit on Zara's Manaships," Felix said. "We may have stopped the Inquisition this time, but I doubt we'll be left alone for long."

"You are right there," Zara said. "The notification of your ascension to Autarch was blared out to all the Continent, and that is bound to draw challengers. Your Enclosure is powerful, but not against the gathered might of the Hierocracy. If the Hierophant chooses to intervene, she would tear it apart like tissue paper."

Felix swallowed. He knew the defensive array wasn't a perfect solutionmore of a stopgap, reallybut to hear again how it could be trounced so easily and by the person he least wished to face...if he hadn't already been worried, that would have done it.

"My Stronghold is Rank II now, which has afforded me some new options, as well as a few other unique features." He briefly mentioned the Forge, Glyphworks, and Alchemical Lab. "I could use help advancing them, as well as increasing my fortifications here."

"The Legion will want to come," Cal stated. "Gods know they've been begging me to chase after you for weeks now. The Orders will leap at any chance to follow in your footsteps, Felix."

"Oh," he murmured. He'd made it a point to not think about the Fiend's Legion, but he still remembered every face he'd met back in Haarwatch. "Right. Well, I suppose they can come too. But only if you don't need them"

"I definitely don't," Cal said quickly. Too quickly, perhaps. "My Haarguard are enough to protect us, and now that you are within the Foglands I don't think we'll have nearly as many issues with monster hordes."

"Well, I can't control monsters, but the one who was sending them at you is gone." He glanced at Karys and his golden Body. "More or less."

"If you are speaking of who to send from your Vassal State, I would like to make a request," Karys said. "Someone to act as a proxy representative of your Vassal State, empowered to make agreements between our two settlements."

"Can't any agreements be over this?" Felix asked, gesturing to the pillars.

"What?" Zara asked. "Who are you speaking with?"

"My giant robot adviser is telling me you need to send a representative," Felix explained. "Someone you trust Cal, to make decisions on your behalf. It has to be in person, I guess."

"Hm. Alright. I can do that," Cal said.

"Robot?" Zara asked.

"Yeah. I'll explain that later too."

The conversation wound down after that, each of them hammering out what might be needed and what Felix could possibly do to help Haarwatch in turn. Pit, meanwhile, fell asleep by the entrance. It was decided that the two Manaships would leave in a day, after they'd been loaded up with volunteers, and would likely reach Felix in a week or so. Provided they had enough Mana to burn, that is. Felix remembered well how fast a Manaship could fly, if you gave it the right sort of fuel.

All in all, he felt positively optimistic when the line darkened and the hexagonal pillars lowered into the floor once more. The array around them dimmed until it was a bare glimmer of silver on the stone, the tips of the pillars utterly indistinguishable from the floor over the chamber.

"Amazing," Felix muttered to himself. "I have a landline."

"Felix."

Karys stood at the edge of his Seal, staring further into the rooms beyond. There were seven chambers, including the one they were in, all of them connected in a ring. But all of them were darkened. Except...

"Is that?"

"Yes." One of the six chambers was burgeoning with light. It went straight backward, a single silver line pulsing with traceries of gold as power moved between the Seal and this new array formation. "I had not noticed it when the Stronghold ranked up, but it must have opened at that point."

"What's in there?" Felix asked.

"I do not know. It will not allow me close, not without your authorization," Karys said. "But it feels...significant."

Felix stood, glancing at his sleeping Companion. "Well, let's go find out."