Unbound

The first thing Vess helped him do was clear up the grass in his field of statues. Some grass was left, but the vast majority was eliminated and the ground below it resolved into a pattern of concentric circles. Each of the circles was made of a metal-like chitin, bright green in color and somewhat raised from the Golden Death Beetle’s carapace. They looped between the Skill statues in convoluted knots, intersecting some but not all before they inevitably led to the center.

It was his center that was the problem.

His core, now a ring of blackened green light, had been buried deep inside his elaborate mansion. Safe, or so he had thought when creating his core space. With Vess’ assistance, Beef realized that his layers of protection were actually hampering the flow of power in his core space. His visualization was too tangled in some places, too solid in others—his entire set up required an overhaul.

Hours went by as Vess and Beef practiced her visualization techniques. Together, they developed a sort of stepped well design, turning the flat field into a spiraling path that led inward and downward, with each of his Skill statues positioned at specific intervals. Vess inspired the design but Beef was the one who shaped it, visualizing the specific bricks and steps in the new formation, all while maintaining the pattern of those metal-chitin loops. He based the design on a specific type of well, a communal construction that he recalled seeing in some sort of documentary. Deep in the center of the well, down in a thick darkness that reminded Beef of the Passages, was his core. It was a spinning ring made of blackened-green light and broken statuary. Arms, legs, and faces swirled among the ring, colliding and coiling through the light as they were slowly polished from dull stone to translucent gems.

It thumped like a heartbeat, driving the Golden Death Beetle forward and providing power through the looping circles of metal-chitin and into his Skills. Bright pulses swirled upward from the dark depths in time with that enormous heartbeat, regular intervals accompanied by strobe lights and a satisfying, almost imperceptible song.

As the last piece of brickwork clarified, Beef let himself sag backward. He dropped a leg, bracing his wobbling muscles as he marshaled his Strength…yet after a moment, he already felt stronger. Steadier. The fields around them blurred by, Hallow’s steps a distant thunder, and he didn’t even notice the beetle’s wobbling.

“Excellent job, Beef! I am quite happily surprised. Normally such changes would require a great deal of time to enact, but we have been at this for a mere four hours.”

“That’s fast?”

“Incredibly so. Perhaps sometime you can ask Felix how long it took him to learn my techniques.”

“A powerful Mind is not always a boon,” she said by way of explanation. “Nor is advancement. My techniques were developed for those who have barely begun their path, and they grow far less effective when you have several Temperings under your belt.”

“But I’m fully Tempered into Journeyman Tier,” Beef noted. It had been difficult, changing parts of his core space, but not that troublesome. “Doesn’t that mean it should be harder?”

“I—yes. Yes it should.” Vess hesitated, frowning into the middle distance. “I apologize if this comes off as rude, Beef. Please know I do not mean to offend you.”

Beef winced. He knew it. Something was wrong with him. He was still so far behind Felix in strength, and he had no clue why…but maybe this was it. Maybe it was something about his core that was broken or faulty. “I can handle it,” he said.

“Your Mind and Spirit are open.”

“I knew it, I—” Beef blinked. “What? Is that a bad thing?”

“It means they are more malleable than I expected. You take to change far more rapidly than someone of your Temper should—partly, I believe, due to your relative youth.” She stared thoughtfully down into the newly made well. “In this case it was a benefit, but as you advance it is our solidity that protects us. To reach the pinnacle is to accumulate a vast amount of significance within our Skills, and then our Tempered Aspects themselves. If you remain too amenable to change, I do not know if you can handle the rigors of Master Tier and beyond.”

Beef stared at the lady, his insides all churned up. He had felt so good a second ago, and now he felt like a failure again. “How do I fix that?”

“I do not know,” she admitted, her tone apologetic.

“Bring the boy to me.”

The voice echoed around Beef's core space, piercing in a way that Hallow’s voice never matched. Vess looked up, startled. “Are you sure, Yin?“

The only response was a deep rumble, like distant thunder.

Vess looked at him. “It seems my Companion might have a solution. Would you care to see my core space?”

Beef’s eyes widened. “I can do that?”

“The benefit of our Links to Felix. Come,” she took his hand. It was so much smaller, but her grip was firm. “Hold on…and let go.”

“What do you—AHH!”

They fell upward into the sky. Azure turned to black as they passed the edges of beef's core space. The Minotaur looked down, beyond his feet, to watch as his core space shrank below. It resembled a tiny orb, a toy world filled with golden fields of grain, rolling hills, and a proliferation of small, stunted trees. Blue clung to the air like a halo, and as they rose higher into the thick shadows he saw his golden death Beetle scuttling across its surface like a small dog balancing atop a large ball.

Whoa.

His attention was drawn away from his core space as a new light hit them—twin stars, one shining red-gold and another blue-white. They fell between their radiance and Beef’s world twisted into incomprehensible chaos. Thankfully, that faded a half-second later, and suddenly they were falling across a new sky. A new world.

“Turn with me!” Vess shouted over the wind.

She moved, rotating her body so her feet were angled toward the approaching core space. Beef flared his Willpower and Alacrity, able to just about spin his bulky form as they streaked across night-touched skies and into a mountain range covered in clouds. Winds whipped at him, parting the clouds and stealing the breath from his lungs almost as much as the sudden appearance of a massive, golden maw.

Beef screamed.

They fell past it, and only then did he realize it was a statue. He was so embarrassed, he barely noticed as they landed in the midst of a wide, stone-paved courtyard.

The clouds were gone now, and he could see the structure ahead in all its glory. The Dragon was huge, a dozen times bigger than the Sailwhale and perhaps five times bigger than his Golden Death Beetle. Its wings seemed to spread across the entire horizon, blanketing the rocky peaks in a curious mix of shadow and reflected light.

Beneath the Dragon was a building that only sort of resembled a house. The enormous sculpture’s legs were worked into pillars, its belly becoming the sloping roof, while enormous doors led within. Those were worked with green and white gemstones, polished to a brilliant sheen.

“This place…there’s so much detail!” Beef marveled at the courtyard beneath his hooves. Each paving stone was so well-realized that they made his own efforts look like a baby playing with clay. “How did you do this?”

“A lot of trial and error over a great many years,” Vess said. She looked proud though, and swept her gaze around the wind-swept area. “Each peak is a Skill, shaped to reflect my abilities. But this is where I keep my core.”

The two of them ascended the steps and the white and green doors opened at their approach. Beyond the threshold the floor became a polished expanse of marble, surrounded by fluted columns decorated with the spiraling shapes of serpentine Dragons. In the center of it all, was a structure that looked similar to the base of a fountain, but in place of water there was only a column of liquid Mana. The column split at the top, spraying outward as a fountain might before it flowed into a horizontal ring. Mana colored white-green and silver flowed through the ring, and the ring itself connected segmented pieces of yet another large metal Dragon. It was horned and bearded, much like the statue outside, and shared many similarities with her Companion.

Except size, Beef amended. This thing is wider than my old house. “Hey, that’s kinda like mine.”

Vess grimaced. “I noticed that, yes. I apologize. My influence may have left its mark on your core space.”

“Nah, that’s okay. I didn’t have a better idea, and this looks sick as hell.”

Vess frowned, casting her gaze over her core. “How—? Ah. I am assuming that means it is…interesting?”

Beef blushed. “Oh. Sorry. Like, it means, uh, it’s cool. Awesome.”

Vess’ frown transformed into a wide smile. “Thank you. Come this way.”

They followed the perimeter of the core fountain, around to a decorated alcove hidden in the back. There, between braziers of brilliant fire, a cat-sized golden Wyrmling was curled upon sumptuous cushions of embroidered silk. Yintarion of the Cerulean Skies lifted his head regally, and smoke curled from his nostrils. His crystalline horns caught the light and cast rainbow reflections, and his scales glittered like polished metal, but it was the objects beneath him that drew Beef’s attention.

“Dragon eggs,” he said, and couldn’t help the shiver of awe that ran through him.

“Yes,” the Wyrmling said, his deep voice strange coming from his tiny mouth. “Their eternal care is my penance for the dark deeds I once performed.”

“That was not your fault, Yin.”

A tiny, five-fingered claw lifted up, forestalling Vess’ words. “Let us leave that familiar argument by the wayside, little Dragoon.” He fixed Beef with his liquid gaze; gold on gold, without any trace of a pupil. “You were brought here to fix a deficiency in your Aspects.”

“Oh. Yeah. My…malleability, right? It can be fixed?”

“It can. But it requires sacrifice.”

Beef scrunched his snout. “Like…a virgin blood sacrifice?”

“What?” Yin asked, his regal pose disrupted. “Why would I—what does virginity have to do with this?”

“I don’t know, you said it!”

“I did not!”

“Boys,” Vess said. Her face was a weird mix of pale and flushed, and a smirk fought against her control. “Please. Yin, explain what you need from him.”

“I was doing so before he interrupted me,” the Wyrmling stated as he flowed back into his regal posture. “I have a method to fix your deficiency, but it cannot be attempted until I have advanced. Once I have, it will still require a great deal of pain and effort on your part.”

“Okay. I’m not a huge, uh, fan of the last part, but ‘no pain no gain’ right?”

“...Right.”

“What exactly would be required of him?” Vess asked.

“He must help us. I have hunted down most of what I need to begin my Evolution; the elements churn within my belly even now. The last piece of it will come from the Dwarven mountains, and it will require your particular Skills to capture it alive. However, it was a unique sort of creature, rare even in my time.” Yin sighed. “I do not know if its kind still lives.”

“Hunt down a monster? I can do that.” Beef was pretty confident of his battle capabilities, at least. Most of the time. “What then?”

“Then, once I have Evolved…once I can complete my penance…then I shall attempt to bind your unique Spirit to something truly exceptional.”

“Truly?” Vess asked. “Yin, how?”

“Wait. What are you talking about?” Yin’s eyes flickered downward. Beef gasped. “You’re kidding!”

“I would not dare,” the Wyrmling said. “If you aid me, Beefhammer, Minotaur and Unbound warrior, I shall bind your Spirit to a hatchling.”

“Yeah!” Beef shouted in unrestrained glee. “A fucking Dragon!”

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