Unbound

“One, what the hell is a Halcyon Hall and B, what is the Luminous Void?” Karys didn’t answer immediately, and Felix looked away from the metallic liquid to find his Chancellor gone. “I don’t like that he’s so quiet now,” he muttered to himself. “Karys? Where’d you go?”

“In the Heart of Darkness, my Lord!”

Felix glanced once more at the weird pool before turning around and exiting the Third Chamber. Luckily it was adjacent to the Second Chamber, arranged around the edge of his Seat and Seal as they were, and it took only a dozen wide steps to make it there. Felix’s Heart of Darkness spread out before him, another circular room filled with glowing sigaldry, but mostly dominated by nine huge constructions of incredible artistry. Shadowgates.

Karys was standing behind an inactive one, pointing at the floor. “Look at this!”

He did, noting the swirling, almost knotted array that clustered against the chamber’s stone walls. They climbed the dressed stone until about eye level, where they simply stopped. “These are new.”

“They are. I imagine they formed right after the upgrade.” Karys pointed further down, where nine other lines intersected with the wall in the exact same way. “They’re extending from the Shadowgates.”

Felix flared his Manasight, tracing the lines of sigaldry at the point where they vanished…and found that they extended through the wall itself. His Manasight couldn’t penetrate too deeply thanks to the construction of the Temple, but the array wasn’t just anchoring itself in the stone. “It’s…going into the Third Chamber?”

“It must be. The Halcyon Halls…they were precursors to the Shadowgates. This sigaldry is linking the Heart of Darkness, the hub itself, to the Third Chamber.”

“Precursors? So they do the same thing?”

Karys’ shoulders hitched, halfway between a shrug and a flinch. “I am…unsure. I know they were used by the Nym of old for a ritual, but the details were never explained to me. Or perhaps they were and…”

Felix didn’t press him. Karys had a number of holes in his memories thanks to his long sleep, and while he’d been making some process, Felix doubted it would be fixed any time soon. “A ritual. To do what?”

“To deepen one’s connection with one’s Territory, I believe.”

Felix frowned and walked back to the Third Chamber. The limpid silver pool remained undisturbed. “Let’s check. Voracious Eye.”

Name: Pool of the Halcyon Oath

Type: Artifact

Lore: Constructed in Ages past, the Pools of the Halcyon Oath were designed to establish a deeper harmony within a Territory. Cast yourself into the Luminous Void, and find yourself anew.

“That’s…more than a little vague,” Felix said after sharing the details with Karys. “But it supports your recollections.”

Karys let out a pleased hum. “As validating as that may be, I do share your concerns on the wording of the lore entry. A ‘deeper harmony within a Territory’ suggests a greater connection with your Authority, and perhaps that is all it means…but the last line. ‘Find yourself anew.’” Karys shifted, clearly uneasy. “I find it ominous, Felix.”

“Hm. So I think I have a reason why it’s called a Halcyon Hall,” Felix said. Karys nodded. “Right. What’s the Luminous Void, then?”

“It is an ancient name for a realm of confluence.”

“Like the Ethereal Realm?”

“Of a sort. We…the magi had developed a path. A way through the world. This is what the Shadowgates were derived from, where their construction was first inspired. The manipulation and development of these Pools allowed us to unite a vast portion of the Continent.”

Felix crouched, inspecting the sigaldry around the rim of the pool—from a safe distance. If the silvery water was a portal or something into the Ethereal Realm, he wanted to stay far away from it. That place had a deadlier and more appropriate name: Desolation. Felix had seen it, or an entrance into it, when he’d traversed the true Void. It had appeared to be a white hole, destroying all that came near even as it spat other things out. Submerging himself into energy like that felt close to suicide.

“A place of confluence…does that mean it combines the Void and Desolation together?” he asked.

“That is my understanding, yes.” Karys held up a hand. “If you wish to ask me ‘how,’ need I remind you that I was but a warrior within my people’s empire. Even if my memories were not riddled with holes, this was beyond my purview.”

“Fair,” Felix said. “Do you know if they used this a lot? Is it safe?”

“To my knowledge the use of a Halcyon Hall was for Territorial Lords and their most trusted vassals. The creation of the Shadowgate network made it all but unnecessary, so it fell out of favor well before I was born.” Karys stepped a few inches closer to the pool, arching his metal neck to stare into its depths. “As for safety…if it were truly safe, I imagine they would not have developed another method.”

Felix walked a bit closer, feeling a little like he was approaching the edge of a very tall building. For a guy that had zoomed about in the sky not fifteen minutes prior, it was decidedly strange to feel a powerful surge of vertigo. Felix blinked, but he did not waver. So close, the metallic-looking water seemed both mirror-flat and utterly bottomless, while the sigaldry around its border sparked and shimmered with a gathering purple vapor. Without further warning, a large cloud of purple Mana jumped outward and formed into a small, humanoid creature. Felix stumbled back, a dozen different Skills singing within his chest.

“Greetings, my Lord,” it said, bowing directly to Felix. It wore robes draped oddly around its head and shoulders, leaving its too long torso tightly bound by thick belts. Features that were a mix of a weasel and a Human child regarded him with a deeply serious expression. “You approach the Pool of the Halcyon Oath. To do so is to risk your very life.”

Holy shit. Felix closed his open mouth and took in the situation, from the faintly luminous outline of the little guy before him to the continued pulsing of the sigaldry at the pool’s edge. “You’re a Geist.” Relying on a hunch, Felix ran his hand through the space where the Geist stood and found nothing but air. “And an illusion to boot.”

The illusory Geist did not react to Felix’s hand, but it did straighten. It carried none of the awareness that Paxus had, down in the depths of Khasma. “The Seat and Seal you bear have allowed you access to the Pool, but to enter before one is ready is to face a certain and devastating death.”

“A warning,” Karys said. “And a clear one at that. Perhaps leaving is a wise course, my Lord.”

“Damn it.” Felix shoved a hard breath through his nose. “Kinda shit that I wasted my upgrade on this.”

Before Felix could turn away though, the Geist dropped to a single knee. “As Inheritor, you are allowed more detailed information. Please. Ask away.”

Felix froze, gaze flicking to Karys’ surprised flames. The big man shrugged, helplessly. “What? Ask…? Uh, who are you?”

The Geist’s eyes had looked dead before, fixed on a point that Felix couldn’t see—now they shifted, and something unspooled within them. It drove a hard shiver down Felix’s spine, like watching a snake smile at a joke. “I am knowledge.”

“Are you a real Spirit, bonded to this room or something?”

“No. I am a repository of knowledge left by my creators, designed to aid the master of his Temple. How may I be of service?”

Felix frowned. That weird look had almost convinced him it was a real Spirit like Paxus, but maybe it was just a complicated magic AI. “You’re composed of Memories,” he guessed. The Geist inclined its head in agreement. “What do I call you?” It stared at him, eyes betraying not a single flicker of awareness. “I’m not gonna just call you ‘Geist’ all the time. I’ll call you Knowledge, then. Cool?”

The illusion had no response other than to stand up.

“Right. So! You’re an aid. Why am I not allowed to access the Pool of Halcyon Oaths?”

“It is a death sentence to those without the proper preparations,” Knowledge said.

“Can you tell me the preparations required?” Felix asked.

“I can. To embrace the pool, one must have woven all nine Pillars, crossed the Third Threshold, and have begun the process of core manifestation.”

Felix blinked. He met two of those requirements right off the bat. He’d even crossed the Third Threshold like five months ago. “Pretty sure I’m good, aside from the last one. What’s a ‘core manifestation?’”

Knowledge remained silent.

“Cool cool cool. Can’t have people just explain things to me, that’d be too easy,” Felix muttered. “Karys? Have you heard of it?”

“I—” Karys paused, and an uptempo melody sprang from his Spirit. “I do not, but its mention had touched upon one of the holes in my memory.”

“That’s usually not a good thing.”

“No, not usually, but this one is strangely clean. As if things had been cut from me…” Karys looked up, his eye-fires gleaming despite the magelights around them. “I cannot know what that might mean, but core manifestation is a natural part of our progression into the higher realms of power.”

“Grandmaster stuff?” Felix asked. He chewed at his lip in thought. Felix had taken on a couple Grandmasters at that point, and thanks to clever thinking and the actions of his friends, he’d emerged alive. Not unscathed, but alive.

“It is unclear. I—” Karys’ eye-fires burned larger than before. “Felix.”

“What?” He looked up to find Karys pointing at Knowledge with a long, black-bone finger. The illusory Geist was staring at Felix with a sudden, upsetting amount of interest. “Oh. That’s creepy.”

“You are…resonating with this chamber. Might I delve into your Aspects and determine whether you are fit to attempt the Pool?”

“Uh, you think that’s a good idea?” Felix asked Karys.

“I cannot sense any malevolence from this amalgamation, but it is a…marvel I was unaware we Nym had developed. Were I in your shoes, no, I would not submit to a delving.” The golden giant hesitated, before scratching his golden helmet. “However, you…To err on the side of caution is not your way.”

A sharp laugh escaped Felix’s mouth. “Right. Okay, Knowledge.” Felix had a guess at what core manifestation meant…and he wanted to know if he was right. “Take a whack at it.”

“Hold still, my Lord.” Knowledge lifted a diminutive hand and a smoky wreath of Mana sprouted around Felix’s head, chest, and legs all at once. “This will only take half a glass.”

“Wait, what—?” Felix asked, right as all three smoky circles cinched shut. Silence fell, darkness swarmed, and the world dropped out from beneath him.

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