Unbound

The posts, chains, and other materials lifted up on streamers of Mana, each one levitating to a preordained spot. The massive five-foot thick by twenty foot long posts stood up and locked into position, eighteen of them forming squared archways along the entire length of the warehouse. Slithering into place, chains attached themselves all along the tops, hundreds of them at varying lengths. Carved lines along the beams lit up with a light visible to everyone, though Felix still tracked the grasping tendrils of Mana vapor through his Skill. The vapor crawled among the opened crates, pulling out metallic cylinders and other odds and ends, hoisting them along until they affixed themselves to the ends of chains. On and on it went, for almost ten minutes.

The entire time, Felix watched with Manasight as power flowed in a steady stream from Rory into some sort of control node on the original post. What was odd was that the amount of Mana being transferred from Rory to the control node seemed rather small, a trickle compared to the river that must have been needed to maintain the setup.

Something else is at play here, Felix bit the inside of his cheek in thought. Perhaps a high level Skill that reduces the amount of Mana used for this? Or...is it the sigaldry?

Felix let the construction draw him away from his conversation with Atar, the wondrous working doing much the same to everyone. Eyes were wide and glued to the shifting materials. Felix analyzed the pillars, but they were made of a simple lethan wood, a common enough tree he'd seen a thousand times in the Foglands. It was more about the scriptwork than anything else. Those carved lines that curved around sections of the arches appeared to be smooth markings of light, but were actually tight groupings of tiny sigils.

Sigils of the Primordial Dawn is level 20!

He recognized a few of them, but the nature of sigils was that each symbol had many meanings. The light sigil he'd found under the mountain had meant light, sure, but it also could have meant shining and dazzle. Context and the presence of adjacent sigils changed everything. So the sigil for metal he spied was affected somehow by the two sigils next to it, though he wasn't sure how. His level just wasn't high enough yet, though he figured some formal instruction would do wonders for his knowledge gaps.

Another reason to find Zara, Felix bemoaned. Maybe Caerwin would know too...

Aside from a few markings in what he'd call the basic script, most of the sigaldry on the rapidly assembling training course were those strange flowing lines of sigils. As Felix paced around the base of a post, he saw the join of an archway marked with larger, more detailed inscriptions. Matched sigils that were pressed tightly against each other as if glued.

"Glyph pairs, lad. That's what they're called."

Rory had come up on him as Felix had inspected the work, and the Nym felt himself jump a little. "Didn't mean to startle ye. I noticed your gaze. Glyph pairs are an old sigaldry trick to attune smaller pieces of a larger whole." Rory slapped the post fondly. "Makes it easier for puttin' em together, not to mention controllin' the whole of the Gauntlet."

Sigils of the Primordial Dawn is level 21!

Felix's mind widened just a tiny bit more, the information Rory had offered burning new pathways through his brain. Off in the distance, he could hear those faint strings grow louder again as his Skill leveled once more. He focused on Rory's face, still flush with a certain amount of pride as the Dwarf regarded the assembly.

"And the lines? There are so many small inscriptions, and frankly they don't make much sense..."

Rory grinned and shook his head ruefully. "I'm no scriptie, but I've had enough dealings with the art to make a fair guess at things. Those're subordinate sigils, each one altering the last in order to make all this possible. If ye ask me how, though," he laughed. "I'd be guessin'."

Felix's eyes grew distant as the wheels started turning in his mind. The more he learned about sigaldry the less he realized he understood. It was a magic language that operated like complex code of sorts, and code had never been a strong suit of his; Felix was more of an art and book kinda guy during his formative years. He knew bits about how different languages worked, in a broad sense. Sigaldry felt like those languages back on Earth that had tonal structures, where the timbre could affect the meaning of each word. Or maybe it was more about syllable stresses?

Felix waited to hear that level up sound again, but was out of luck. Maybe I'm just out in left field, or it just wasn't significant enough to level up the Skill.

While he had been batting around ideas, Rory got on with his job.

"This is the Gauntlet! It will be your home for the next two weeks. Thanks to your generous leader and my own ingenuity, the Gauntlet is filled with strengthened obstacles reinforced further by magic. Your task is to move from one end of the course, to the other. It doesn't matter if ye get hit, or if ye break something. Ye get through, and ye've made it."

"That's a big 'if,' adventurers!" Cal shouted from nearby. She pointed to the far end, where a golden glyph pair was marked out against the final archway. "However, I feel in a generous mood. The first one to make it to the end in less than five minutes wins claiming rights on any one item in the Domain."

Excited chatter burst out among the adventurers, with Yan and Kelgan the loudest of them all. But even Portia and Trendle stepped closer to the Gauntlet, anticipation clear on their faces. There was some shoving and shuffling, but the Gauntlet was wide enough to let five of them move abreast. Bodie, Yan, Kelgan, Rory, and Trendle had all lined up.

"Begin!"

Felix watched the crew struggle forward, dodging flailing chains, erratically moving metal clubs, and a series of foot-long spikes that shot up out of the ground in patterns fast and thick. None made it to the second arch.

He felt a twinge in him, a need to challenge the course even when faced with the pain and injury visited upon the others. With an effort, Felix drew away. It wasn't time for that, not yet. First he needed a solution to one of his direst problems.

Felix walked up to Rory. Mana hung thick in the air, swirling in confusing eddies around the archways as the control node kept drawing more power from the Dwarf. Felix still didn't understand how the inscriptions didn't drain him completely, but assumed it must only take a small amount to maintain.

What happens if that flow is cut? Felix banished the thought as Rory's eyes turned toward him. "Rory, I have a question."

"Hm? Oh, good. I've a few of my own, lad." Rory gestured for Felix to follow him as he retreated back to the tables and benches. As the adventurers turned and challenged the Gauntlet again, the Dwarf settled himself onto a sturdy bench. The heavy wood creaked alarmingly beneath him, but Rory seemed completely at ease. "Now, we can talk with a little less distraction, aye?"

"Uh, sure." Felix sat across from the Dwarf, the wood groaning only slightly beneath his enhanced weight. "You're a trainer, right? For the Guild?"

"Aye. For a long time now."

"Why are you helping them?" Felix gestured back toward the Gauntlet. "This is a lot of expense to undertake, even for friends."

"Then you've not had very good friends, hm?" Rory fixed him with a gimlet eye before grimacing. "Can't say as I like the heading the Elders've been makin', either."

"How's that?" Felix pressed.

"What's with the questions, lad?" Rory raised a bushy eyebrow and twitched his mustache. "I don't think I like what you seem to be implyin'."

"I'm not implying anything," Felix spread his hands on the table and shrugged. "I'd rather know what I'm getting into though. Cal says she trusts you. I want that to be enough, but..."

"But ye don't know me. I get it," Rory rumbled and rubbed at his short beard. He pondered something a moment longer before he let his hand fall to the tabletop. "I've been trainin' folk for a long, long time. Longer'n you or your parents' been alive. I've seen some mesmerizing things in my life, wonders the likes I'll never see again. One of em was named Magda."

Felix felt his stomach drop at the name. Rory nodded. "Oh aye, I knew her well. Trained her meself on that same Gauntlet. She was the best of the best, strong and clever, but most of all determined. Nothin' was enough, not unless that meant she was powerful enough to crush anything in her way." He smiled, his eyes looking at something Felix couldn't see. "She was mad all the time. Fought damn near everything. Cared for nothin' but that little slip of a girl over there."

Felix followed the tilt of Rory's chin, seeing Evie as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She was performing a few stretches just outside of the Gauntlet, obviously eager to try herself.

"She woulda done anythin' for that girl, lad. She did, in fact. I heard the tale," Rory face was stern, but sad. "Cal told me shortly after she returned with....Ach, three hundred frost giants against a pair of shields. I shoulda known. Old age and a sick bed wasn't ever gonna be her end."

Felix shift uncomfortably and clenched his hands together on the table. The memory of her smile after she'd shoved him to safety...it was crystal clear and sharp as glass.

"So if ye want a reason for this, there it is." Rory shrugged, a small smile on his face as he looked at Evie. "I'll train Magda's sister up right, and if that means I'm buttin' heads with the Elders, then so be it."

A feeling of certitude and resolution pulsed from the Dwarf's aura like a cool wind, and Felix took heart. It assuaged the formless fear lurking in his chest, and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Glad to hear it," Felix smiled. "What do you know about sundering Skills?"

"Well, lad, ye seem to have been cursed with quite the motley Skill collection, eh?"

The two of them had retreated to the empty back room, the one with a metal table and chairs. Rory had silenced him the moment he'd asked about sundering Skills and hustled Felix out of the common area. "Don't want just anyone to hear about this, right?" He'd said by way of explanation, and that was true enough.

Felix had listed out his broken Skills for the Dwarf, who had spent nearly twenty minutes in silence as he contemplated. He nodded to a wall, gesturing to someone outside. "Harn teach ye the basic weapon mastery Skills?"

Felix nodded and Rory continued. "Figures. No doubt he planned to have you work them into Martial Mastery, typical for frontline fighters. Hard to do, but if ye manage it, it's a powerful Skill."

"How exactly is that done? The combining." Felix had been wondering about that. While he had received System notices for Skills combining or evolving, the mechanics were beyond him. If he could enact something like that intentionally...

"Generally speaking? Hidden conditions. I've been a Guild trainer for seventy five years, but the handful of combinations I'm privy to is a meager helping of what's truly out there." Rory frowned. "Power is not somethin' folks like to share, lad."

"Yeah, I've heard that before," Felix murmured. "I've heard some odd things about sundering Skills, for example. That it's painful, difficult. That it shatters the Skill entirely and removes it. Any of that true?"

"Absolutely, considerably, and sorta, in that order." Rory's frown became a mischievous grin. "The whole process was made to cater to rich idiots that Tempered themselves with the 'wrong' Skills. Which is ridiculous as it is. Sundering a normal Skill is a nightmare, to do so to a Skill ye've Tempered yourself with? You'd normally be better off slittin' your own throat. At least that way you'd die quick."

"So it's not possible?" Felix asked.

"It's possible, but not without a king's ransom in materials." Rory hesitated. "These Skills you've broken, they're not...?"

"Oh, no. I've not Tempered any of them, though one is...was at Apprentice Tier."

Rory let out a sigh of relief. "Good. We can work with standard Skills. Now, alright, the rarity of your Skills ain't too bad. Common will hurt, Uncommon will be worse, and Rares, well, they'll knock you on your ass, sure enough. No Epics or Legendaries, eh?"

He laughed. Felix smiled slightly.

"To answer your questions further, it's also difficult to sunder a Skill. To break it in the first place isn't easy either, but an unlucky few can find themselves in your predicament. I've had the misfortune of guiding five others in this process, though you're my first with so many broken Skills.

"And the Skill doesn't disappear, at least not a first. That's part of the difficulty, if'n ye want the greatest effect of your former Skill. There's a short window where ye can take a sundered Skill and combine it with others close to it," Rory explained.

"Close to it? As in synergy?" Felix asked, caught up in a sudden idea. Rory looked taken aback.

"Actually, yes." The Dwarf collected himself with a blink and continued. "Synergy is the System's word for it. A connection between Skills that allows them to work together more easily. The greater the Skills' synergy, the easier the merger. If successful, you end up with a much stronger Skill than before, usually of a higher rarity as well."

Whoa. Felix mentally listed out his Skills and started moving them around. He had ideas, but he didn't know the restrictions. "Are there limits? How many Skills can be combined?"

"Gettin' ideas, eh? The five times I've done this, no one has combined more than two other Skills into their sundered Skill."

That sounds like a challenge. Felix licked his lips and traded glances with Pit. The tenku let out a chirruping huff and rolled his eyes. He turned back to Rory. "How do we start?"

"To sunder a Skill, first ye've gotta push the skills, practicing them until ye've reach critical spread, the Skill widening within your core. It'll be the worst pain of your life, but that's how ye know it's working." Rory mimed pulling something apart in his hands. "Then, ye can either tear it apart with an effort of Willpower and an alchemical draught. End of story, Skill sundered.

"Combining Skills requires three things, a formidable Will, a tolerance for pain, and having unlocked Intent. Do ye have Harmonic Stats unlocked?" At Felix's nod Rory smiled. "Excellent. One less worry. After taking the steps to sunder your Skill as normal, ye fold into it at least one other Skill that will go toward a new combined ability. These should be somethin' related to the broken Skill, otherwise ye'll end up with a useless new Skill if it even works at all. Remember: synergy. Folding the new Skills into the broken, you must apply your Willpower and Intent, fusing them together. Come."

The two of them stood up and walked back out of the room, toward the wall where a few crates had been stacked atop each other. These had been unused by the Gauntlet assembly process and were still nailed shut.

"You'll also need a source of energy," he tapped one of the crates and the lid popped off almost by magic. Inside were roughly spherical gemstones, and immediately Felix could sense an intense potency from them. "You can use these beast cores to push yourself, it's the easiest way, though it has drawbacks."

Felix didn't like the sound of that. "Like what?"

Rory did a half shrug. "Some folks out there like to use beast cores to enhance their capabilities. They're great for boosting the strength of Skills or even the size of your channels. But impurities from beast cores build up there. These impurities will lead to issues at your next Formation, sometimes resulting in a true impasse. I've heard of them even weakening your foundation at certain concentrations."

Like plaque in an artery, Felix mused.

"Is there another way? Some other source of energy that won't riddle me with weaknesses? I've got so many to repair." Felix didn't like the idea of using something that would result in weakening himself.

"Sure, but there ain't chance ye can get a Domain Core. Maybe over in Setoria or Pax'Vrell, but here? In this economy?" Rory laughed. "Beast cores're the best you'll get."

Rory pointed back at the empty room. "Go and have a think. Meditate if ye've got the Skill. For the next step I'll need ye to be able to visualize your core. Not think about it, but truly see it in your mind. Let me know when ye've managed it."

The Dwarf started to walk away, clearly headed toward the group of exhausted Guilders sitting at the beginning of the Gauntlet. Another two attempts had failed.

Easy enough. Felix took a look at his core, using Fire Within to visualize his channels and center of his power. Aside from the looming aquamarine cloud of dense Claude-energy, it looked much the same as normal.

"Done." Felix called out. Rory stopped mid-step, no more than fifteen feet away. He turned around slowly.

"Are ye sure? Ye need to truly, honestly see it before ye. Like a dark forest spread only for yer eyes. Or an earthen vault, with your Skills buried as treasure all around. I've heard it described many ways. Do ye see that, truly?"

"Yeah. My core is blue fire and lightning, and surrounding it are symbols of light, patterns that represent my Skills." Felix felt he missed the mark on describing it, but that was the gist.

"I'll be damned," Rory huffed. "Well, I guess Harn can handle the crew for a bit while I focus on this."

Felix glanced at the Mana tether between the Dwarf and Gauntlet. "Don't you need to control the course?"

"Not as such. It takes a small bit o' Mana to maintain, but the sigaldry does most o' the work. Means I can put my attention toward the next step."

"What's that?" Felix asked.

"We gotta build ye up before we break you."

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