Unbound

With the Regalia locked away, Zara was assured that the Fathom spawn would leave them alone entirely, save for perhaps chance encounters. He was told that draconic Types—the weak ones, at least—were notoriously cowardly, and their fleet represented a significant threat. Felix was still worried about the Fathom following the beacon lit by the Paladins' previous ritual, but there was little he could do except warn Klzix through his Bastion of Will.

That had gone off without a hitch. While contacting the Yttin Chancellor had been a chore of finding the right Link at the right time and momentarily strengthening it, Karys had assisted Felix in the endeavor. Now he had a somewhat reliable way to communicate among his two Territories, even if he had to wait for Klzix to fall asleep.

Ahkestria warned, ships protected, and everyone on the look out had done a great deal to put Felix's Mind at ease. The gods thing was a worry, but it was one he was firmly determined to leave for Future Felix. As their ships sped across the heaving sea, he turned instead toward long overdue tasks. His friends, and the affects of his Tier IV Links with them.

Atar was meant to be first, though convincing the man to let him peer at his core space had been a chore in and of itself. To put him at ease, Felix started with Alister instead. The force mage had no reservations about Felix stepping into his core space; far from it, the man was happy to have someone to talk to about everything. While Alister had not been part of Felix's new-forged Links, he was essentially a base-line that he would compare to the others.

"Oh, wow," Felix said, his visualized projection standing atop a wide, white marble platform. He quickly realized that comparing Alister's inner workings to the rest might prove...difficult. "This is amazing."

"Really?" Alister said, surprise and pleasure rolling from his Spirit. Interestingly, Felix found it was far harder to mask one's emotions within your own core space. "I had thought it would seem...plain, compared to the others you have seen. Atar's, for instance?"

Felix laughed. "Atar's was beautiful and detailed, but this is another level entirely. Is that a machine of some sort?"

At the center of the spherical room was a contraption made entirely out of thick columns of blue force Mana. Plinths of white marble connected to it from most directions, forming a narrow set of support structures that encased the slowly spinning contents. It was a strange cross between a mechanical clock and a gyroscope. Gears and wheels made entirely of blue force Mana were accompanied by white marble discs and blocks, all of which were rotating around one another in a steady dance.

"Yes! You know of them? The only records I ever had were the Mana engines in the Guild Archive, and those were nearly a century old. Ancient records of an even more venerable technology." Alister walked forward, his blue-hued shoes tapping against the lightly veined marble flooring. The mage's entire projection was blue, from his clothes to his skin and hair, as if he'd crafted himself entirely of his attuned Mana type. As he reached the platform's edge, he pointed toward the circular walls around them. "This entire structure I based off of the diagrams of Vilas Tern. They were recovered from a Second Age ruin, preserved instead of Lost. One of only a handful of others like it."

"The Pagewright of the Violet Tower? Of the Lucent Towers in Levantier? Ah, right. Unbound. I imagine you've not had many chances to read up on local geography, let alone magical theory."

"Not really, no. A few books here and there. Found some nice maps in Ahkestria, and took some books with me when I left. I was pretty sad the Eyrie got knocked down before I could access its Archive."

"Me too. I loved those stacks," Alister said with a blue smile. "Oh, here! It's starting!"

A steady hissing filled the air of the circular chamber, like the inside of a white ball that was angrily deflating. But instead of collapsing, the walls opened up entirely, revealing a network of blue gears and pistons behind the marble paneling. Like the isolated platform they stood upon, the entirety of the spherical room was made of white marble, veined very lightly with blue, and the curved panels all pressed inward in time with the core mechanism. Ripples of stone and force-made machinery rolled through Alister's core space, each piece of the outer wall shimmering and humming with a unique vibration to Felix's ear.

"Those are your Skills?" he asked.

Alister nodded. "Yes. They shifted depending on their levels of course, but that is where the majority of my Skill reside."

"And now they are moving because...?"

"Because my core is releasing its regulated stream of Mana, which is in turn being taken up by my Skills and distributed evenly among them. When I am actively using a Skill, such as...now." A piece of the wall moved closer to the center, flowing with the elegant machinery but remaining nearer the blue-hued gears and chugging pistons. Waves of force Mana burst and spread, bathing the marble edifice and collecting in a series of apertures on its surface. "The Skill draws closer and the core, which is moving and drawing in more Mana from my channels there, which in turn are pulling in Mana through my Gates."

"Pulling free force Mana from the environment outside," Felix said, nodding along. "That's a clever visualization. It's like a force pump and generator combined, drawing in your power and distributing it out among your core."

"I was actually inspired by Tern's depictions of ancient ethericraft. Precursors to the Manaships we're riding upon now. Far more advanced than these, in fact," Alister added with an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I only required that we have enough ships to house our people and enough sails to keep it going. The Mana engines weren't part of the deal originally, but House Iretus have some very talented shipwrights."

"Indeed. The simple thrust the engines are providing is remarkable, though I imagine it's quite expensive to maintain," Alister said. "You're using Mana crystals to fuel it?"

"Yeah, though this ship I'll power myself when needed. The others are going through a lot of wealth whenever the engines are fired up, which is why having proper sails was a requirement." Felix sighed, less concerned with the monetary worth of his vast store of Mana crystals than with the potential they represented for their crafters. He hoped they'd be able to keep most of them.

Alister winced. "You're burning gold to propel us along. That is quite astounding, Felix."

He shrugged. "The engines are meant for emergencies. I'd rather lose all my money than risk anyone's life unnecessarily."

Alister was silent after that statement, releasing only a soft hum of appreciation and pride that Felix shut out of his senses. The two of them stood there a bit longer, watching the mechanized motions of Alister's core. After perhaps fifteen minutes, Felix had sussed out a pattern that appeared to play through the space, but only when the mage wasn't activating any Skills in particular. The core would build up with Mana and once it reached a certain amount that was when the walls opened up and pressed inward. The Skills would prioritize themselves based on size, the largest lingering the longest near the core while the smaller pieces carved marble would flit in circular patterns around the larger ones. The Mana would spread out, depleting over the course of another few minutes, until the Skills all returned to the spherical walls. Then the process would begin again.

"This is fascinating," he said at last. "Truly unique from the others."

"I'm glad I measure up," Alister said with a laugh. "Though I admit to being surprised. I am not so nearly interesting as a noble Dragoon or an Urge Blessed fire mage."

"Alister. You built this whole place out of half guessed diagrams in tomes four times as old as you are. That's impressive." Felix stretched, though he didn't need it, before slapping the force mage on the back. "Thanks for allowing me to visit your space. When you are ready to Temper, I'll help guide you if you want. My Fiendforge has proven pretty useful to Evie and Atar, at least."

"That would be my honor, Felix," Alister said.

"Great!" Felix clapped his hands. "Next up is Atar, then."

Transitioning to Atar's core space was simple, though taking Alister with him was next to impossible. Felix had hoped that it wouldn't be too hard, considering how he'd pulled Klzix into his Bastion...but apparently it required more than brute force to enable such a thing. True, real connection had to exist, and while Alister and Atar were in a relationship, it still didn't have the juice of a System established Link.

Part of that, perhaps, was how hard Atar fought against the whole idea of it. He'd agreed, but his Spirit was clearly unwilling, providing a serious amount of friction to the entire process. Felix had eventually given up on the task entirely, resorting to stepping along into Atar's core space, something that the fire mage only fought back against once before accepting it.

As he landed, Felix could see why.

Where before his friend's core space had been a sleek temple or library filled with burning braziers, black surfaces and golden sigiladry, now it was a blasted crater. Far different than Alister's complex machinery or Vess' transformed mountains, Atar's core space looked like it had been hit by a meteor. Ash fell from the sky, which was filled with dark smoke that rose constantly from something just out of sight. Everything smelled burnt, and the scoured and pitted stone beneath his feet was so hot Felix was surprised it wasn't molten. "Atar?"

"Here."

Felix turned and it took all of his bodily control not to take a leaping step backward. Atar was a bundle of charred bones, bound together with thin bands of cloth. Barely. His charcoal skeleton looked likely to fall apart at the merest hint of a breeze, and the only thing that seemed sturdy about him was the odd white fire, edged in bright crimson, that filled his ribcage and skull.

"This is what happens when you tear out the root of yourself," Atar said. His blackened jaw worked soundlessly for a moment, and the flames of his eyes darted around the broken space as if unsure where to look. "I...I know I look a horror. It has worried at me since I awoke. The only comfort I hold is that the same thing happened to all of the Flame's followers."

"I heard many died," Felix said quietly.

"And more wished for death's embrace," Atar said and his jaw closed with a snap. "The pain was incredible, and were it not for my...special circumstances, I don't think I would have endured it." He held out his arms, waggling his charnel fingers. "I barely did."

"Yet you're free," Felix pointed out.

"That I am. I know we've barely talked on it, but the Link that you established—strengthened, whatever—I think it was all that kept me living through the Highest Flame's depredations. It was the only rope off a very deep precipice, one I, in my arrogance, thought I could handle alone." Atar shook, his bones quivering before he hugged his burning chest tightly. "I couldn't. Without that Primordial strength, I would have been burnt to a crisp, and the Flame would have limped on."

"The story I heard on everyone's lips is how you killed the Urge," Felix said.

Atar clacked his jaw again, this time in annoyance. "I know what they're saying, and it's not true, not really. I dealt the finishing blow, I absorbed the thing into my channels and blasted out my core space, but it would have survived had it not been for you cutting off its primary source of sustenance."

"Tomato, potato," Felix said. "What does it matter? You're still alive, and the Urge is gone. I call that a win."

Atar hesitated before shrugging. "It means a great deal and also very, very little. My Skills have been scattered across my core space, drowned in dust and ash, and even my core has been swallowed up." He ran sharp fingers across his sternum, through the licking flames within his chest. "I salvaged this, my core flame, in order to keep my visualization stable. I had been hoping that I could rebuild it all from around this base...but it is slow going. The pain, it doesn't stop."

Felix stepped closer to his friend and smiled. "That's why I'm here. To help."

Atar's flame eyes flickered in a blink. "What of checking the others? Evie and Harn and your Minotaur friend? Vess?"

Felix only let himself pause a second before waving the mage's words off. "Based on our speed, we've half a week until we reach Caleph Pass. I can spare the time. And Vess has taught me a bit about visualization techniques that should prove useful here. So what do you say?"

Atar smiled. Cautious joy and, oddly, shame wafted off of him thicker than the heat waves from his flames. "I would appreciate it."

Felix didn't spare the time to hunt down his friend's feelings. The part that mattered in that moment, above all else, was action. Felix was getting pretty good at that.

"Fiendforge," he whispered, and felt the core space tightened. Smoke billowed, bulging sideways as his Will and Intent clamped upon the whole of it, while in his hands he manifested two brilliant red-gold flames. "Cardinal Flames. You ready?"

"As ever."

Felix reached up before slamming his hand into the stone at their feet, sending wave after wave of lambent red-gold energy threading through it all. "First things first: we need to find your core."

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