Unbound

After tea was had, and nerves had settled as much as Felix imagined they would, Tern set his saucer down and grimaced.

"I suppose it is time for me to fulfill my end of the bargain," he said.

that would be nice.

The Elf narrowed his eyes at Atar. "Such a strange, chatty Urge for something bent on destruction."

"Undying Flame," Atar corrected. "He just likes to burn.”

“Ah, my mistake. At any rate, I'm allowing myself to be distracted.” Tern took a breath and let it go. “I do not know why I left the Tower."

"Excuse me?" Atar blurted.

"What do you mean?" Felix interjected, raising a hand to cut off the mage. "You don't know why you left the Tower. What does that mean, exactly?"

Tern looked nervous, not so much out of fear as it was out of discomfort. "Tower Master Tiir discovered an artifact," he explained. "A weapon, though I do not know its shape or provenance. Developing it has become an obsession for him, and everyone in the Tower, save the apprentices, have been pulled into working on it, each of them Oathbound to keep it secret.

“I should have known where this artifact originated, yet I cannot recall.” He gripped his robes hard, just above his knees. “I saw it. I was there when it was tested."

Zara sucked in a breath. "Tested? On what?"

"I do not know.”

“If you worked on it, then you swore an Oath as well," Felix reasoned. "What was the Oath?"

"I only recall that it bound me. All else was burned away when I left the Tower. My memories of the artifact and the Oath itself are gone, as well as a span of weeks that are like the Void itself to me.” He looked to Zara, and his elderly features were worn. “You ask me why I have not left the city, and this is it. Only a horrible calamity could chase me away from my home, and I cannot recall any of it. That, more than anything else, drives me mad."

"What can you remember?" Felix asked.

"Faint flashes. A color. A stray sound.” Tern shook himself. “In my bones, I know the artifact was powerful and ancient. I recall feeling…humbled by its majesty."

"So, a Grandmaster Tier artifact, at least. If it is as strong as you say, the cost to power such an artifact would be astronomical. How would it—" Zara stopped herself. "They're using the Vent, aren't they?”

“The giant geyser of Mana?" Atar whistled. "Ambitious.”

“Yes. They’ve continued to test it, typically at the height of day, when the glow from the Vent is least visible. Each time, the Vent's stream slackens for a few moments."

"Doesn't the Vent power all the enchantments in this city?" Alister asked. Tern nodded. "What is the source?"

"A deep pool of the purest liquid Mana we've ever encountered. We do not know why it exists, or what seems to produce the endless bounty, but it has been the source of Levantier’s strength since the first days. It's a natural treasure that cannot be touched or even approached without specially enchanted equipment, otherwise your flesh melts from your bones."

Sounds like a stronger Mana Well, he thought. Aloud, he asked, “What happens if this artifact uses it all up?"

"This city is powered by the Vent. All of its enchantments, the flow of magic that moves between Towers and neighborhoods—if the Vent is used up, then the city will fail…and the Towers will fall out of the sky.”

Felix sat back. "Killing countless thousands."

Atar gritted his teeth. "Then we need to stop it."

yes.

Atar tilted his head. "Really? No arguments?"

do you think me a monster, atar? i do not revel in death. we will save these pathetic wretches, and they will worship our majesty.

"Ah, there it is.” Atar rolled his eyes. "Is this is why you won’t help us access the Violet Tower, Tern? Because of your Oath?"

"My Oath does not prevent me from returning. However, the Violet is locked tight against all visitors and has been for some time. Normally, petitioners would be allowed within the halls, but now the few who are allowed are highly vetted and limited in number. Were you to try and stray from the group, you'd be at risk of imprisonment, or worse, if caught."

"Then we won't get caught," Atar said.

Alister put a hand on the mage's arm. "I'm not keen on being imprisoned again so soon. We should find out what we're headed into before deciding to bust down their doors."

"Bust down—How do you plan on doing that?" Tern snapped. "The wards around the Violet Tower are powerful and have only grown more complex in the months since I left. They are paranoid of anyone learning anything about their project. No matter how hard I've tried to coax details from their people—friends that I've known almost all my life—it has failed. Their Oath binds them as tightly as the wards of protection binds their Tower. There is no way in."

"What we need is more information," Felix said. "And I think I have a way."

"What could you possibly do?"

"I can get your memories back."

"Impossible.” Tern closed his eyes and sighed. “Blind gods, what’s happened to me? I once refuted the very idea of impossibilities. It is only lack of knowledge that holds us back…and you are Unbound.” He took a breath as if girding himself. “How?”

“Well, it would...um..." Felix scratched his jaw. "It would require your blood."

"How exactly would my blood help you recover my memories?”

“I don't think memories can be destroyed. Not by Oaths, anyway. Taken, sure. Suppressed, absolutely. But our Bodies remember something about it. I'm not sure what, but the memories linger on. I've seen it.” Felix forced a smile. “If there's a chance the Oath didn't destroy the memories, I can get them out."

"This is a Skill of yours?"

"It is."

"Curious. Is that a feature of being Unbound, or is it something to do with being Nymean?"

"Neither. Just something I picked up along the way."

"It's worth a shot. I do agree with that. How do we do this?"

The knife was sharp, but it required a considerable portion of Felix's Strength to pierce Vilas Tern's Grandmaster Body. His old skin resisted the blade like toughened leather, but after an application of leverage, Felix cut through. Blood welled, a deep, rich red that Felix caught in a saucer.

"That's more than enough," Felix said, once a few drops had landed. Tern wrapped a bandage around his cut, and he watched Felix as he lifted the saucer, inspecting the dark liquid.

Empyrean Embrace.

The blood vanished.

"It turns to luminescent smoke," Tern said with a bit of wonder. "That is far more interesting. I thought you were going to drink it."

gross.

Felix sat down in one of the high-backed chairs, letting the others' talk flow past him. He felt at the bit of Mana and Essence that now flowed into his core space. It was tiny, infinitesimal even, when compared to consuming entire monsters. Pieces of Urge still hung like a sparkling nebula in the branches of his Divine Tree, and the glitter of his revolving Skills lit up the infinite dark that surrounded him.

The piece of Tern fell, drawn onward by Felix's pull, bypassing the branches where it would normally catch. He guided it, shaping the way with his Intent until it fell into the orbit of one Skill in particular. Ephemeral Evocation. The small streamer of mana and Essence dropped, sinking into the distant surface of the humming Skill and vanished.

C’mon. Work.

Felix flared his Affinity, sounding the pattern of Ephemeral Evocation. It spun, a light coursing across its cloud-streaked surface again and again. Each rotation sent sparks spiraling out into the dark like flint and steel.

Whirl. Strike.

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Whirl. Strike.

Whirl.

The Skill thrummed, and color leeched from all around him.

Felix grinned as the world shattered.

Things reassembled swiftly as shards of Memory merged back together. Felix now stood in a room covered in light. Purple sigaldry filled the walls, radiating in circular patterns across glass surfaces, many of which were slanted into desk-like shapes. Men and women of various Races, robed in purples and white, were at the glass surfaces, running their hands across the sigaldry as mana flashed from their fingertips.

Mages moved around with purpose, shifting equipment Felix had no name for as large Crescian Bronze blocks were moved about on a complicated scaffolding set into the floor. Some of the mages were studying the blocks, communicating among themselves as inscriptionists made complicated markings on thinner orichalcum plates that were also being set into the scaffolding just above the Crescian Bronze. It extended higher, too, as if making space for more.

From his vantage, Felix could see the shape that had emerged from the Crescian Bronze blocks. They were assembled into an eight-pointed star, and the orichalcum was being set into a similar pattern directly above it.

"Form the mithril pattern next," said a woman beside him.

Felix glanced to the side, then up. A full seven-foot-tall deer-woman stood next to him, replete with branching antlers extending from her head. She was dressed in standard mage’s robes, purple and white, just like the rest, though she had a number of gold necklaces looped around her neck and a complicated belt wrapped tight around her waist.

Unbound! She is here.

"Keep the tertiary throughlines tight, we cannot afford misalignment," she added. Her voice had a vague English accent.

Several people below them grumbled.

"Listen to her," said a man dressed in deep purple robes. He was on Felix's other side, and he was a Hobgoblin, his crimson skin dark in the mostly purple light of the room. There were no windows, and it threw his white hair and goatee into stark contrast. "Pagewright Elowen knows this artifact better than all of you. It must be perfect; nothing else will suffice."

Words emanated from Felix's chest, but he did not start them, nor did he control them. He swiftly realized that he stood within the body of Tern himself.

That’s new.

"Are we certain this is necessary, a weapon such as this?"

"Do you hate progress or merely fear it?" the Theron asked sharply.

"This isn't progress. This is needless escalation. If we use this weapon, it will usher in a new paradigm on the continent. Millions will die as they race to match us, and it will be on our heads.”

The Hobgoblin, Tower Master Tiir, cut him off. “You of all people know that we already make weapons. For once, this will not be for the Hierocracy."

Tiir smiled and gazed into the distance as if seeing a glorious future. "If we perfect this, our hold over Levantier will be unassailable. We wouldn't need to bow and scrape to the Hierophant and her thugs, nor would we lose our greatest developments to the appetites of warmongers. We would be free."

"Free to what? Preside over the continent at war?”

“If we make the weapons, we will be in control. That was your original pitch, Vilas, was it not?" the Theron asked. She smiled, but the expression didn't reach her eyes. In the light of their mage's assembly, her eyes briefly flashed vibrant silver. "You placed us on this path. We are merely seeing it through."

The words sparked something in Tern's mind, because sudden flashes surrounded Felix, glimpses into memories of previous months, showing Tern laboring over dusty tomes, excavating a forest with a crew of hundreds, and uncovering a magically sealed ruin beneath a tall hill.

Felix frowned. Tern said the Tower Master had found this artifact. Did he lie to me, or did the Oath alter his memories even further? The flashes around him were degraded, like images that had been compressed too much, covered in static and jittery artifacts, as if they'd been damaged. I'm going to guess the latter.

"This was meant to face down true threats. It is a weapon of last resort against enemies beyond all of us. You know why I originally devised this. It was not to start a war. It was for defense."

"They have given us no choice," the Tower Master said gravely. "The Hierophant's fist has been ever heavier as she's made her demands for the thing she is building, for the army she wields. And now the Umber Tower has made another move against us. Well, we need to test this, don't we? This is the last time they will ever attempt such a thing again."

"My lord, the Chthonic Star is ready."

"Good," Tiir said. "Begin preparations."

The far side of the room opened up, an aperture twenty feet across forming in line with the artifact’s positioning. Two long windows were also unveiled, their glass revealing a bright, beautiful winter’s day.

"No," Tern whispered. "Can't you feel it? This is—the power these blocks are pulling is too much. This cannot be controlled. You will destroy the city if you use it on the Umber."

"It can be controlled," Elowen said. There was no doubt in her voice. "The designs you drafted were potent, and my additions have only made them more so. Powerful though it is, this is a precision instrument." She gestured to the Tower Master. "But all instruments must be calibrated."

"Begin," Tiir commanded.

Immediately, a low hum rippled through the chamber, rising in pitch as the purple light of sigaldry faded all around them. Power was being diverted in bright, inscribed lines toward the artifact. Enough that the hairs on Tern’s arms lifted straight up.

Flitting thoughts came to Felix, snatches of Memory. Adjusting the Tower’s array that sat over the Vent—a key benefit to being the ruling Tower of Levantier. Of devising amplification channels across the lower levels so the Vent’s power wouldn’t be diminished. Tern had done a lot to make this artifact work, yet Felix felt the mage’s visceral fear. His concerns were real and earnest.

Felix felt the shift when it happened, as the flush of Mana drained from all around them. It gathered in the artifact—the Chthonic Star. The metal began to glow, the light of it swiftly becoming blinding and casting all of their facility into an impenetrable white.

Static tore across the fabric of the Memory, turning the edges of Felix’s vision jagged and blurry. Felix felt the Memory slipping from his grasp. He held on tightly, clamping his Will and flaring his Skill.

Ephemeral Evocation is level 49!

He lurched forward, skipping through time as the Memory ran into raw edges, only to resolve in Tern bent and bleeding from his ears.

What—how’d he get hurt?

Everyone was bloodied, including the Unbound and Tower Master. Mana gathered around the artifact like a shroud of liquid light, pulsating in time with a reckless hum. The sound and concentrated power beat at them, tearing across their protective wards and stabbing into their Spirits.

Still, the others watched the Chthonic Star with a joy Tern couldn’t match.

Without warning, the Star flared, and a concussive blast rocked them. The wards flared a bright, dangerous red as they absorbed the power of the artifact, and for a moment, Felix was relieved.

That wasn’t so bad—

A beam blasted from the triple-layered Star, and it was colorless and almost invisible. It tore through the aperture of the Tower, the only evidence of its passage the heat ripples it left behind.

Tern and the others ran to the windows.

In the distance, where the caldera of the city rose up, and the Umber Tower lifted barely above the skyline, wards shattered into a rainbow cascade of power. They were powerful, enough to stop even his Grandmaster's Skills for quite a while.

The invisible beam popped them like soap bubbles.

Through the blaze of light, Tern could see the target. He, too, sparked with colorful light for a brief moment before it was blasted away. The target fell, the Tower Master of Umber falling from atop his own private ship.

“Success,” Tiir said, low and savage. “Fall, you wretch.”

Yet the beam did not stop there. It shot through the city, clearing the buildings by mere feet before it seared into the countryside…and a neighboring mountain. A distant boom rolled across the city like thunder, louder than anything Tern had heard in his life. Dust and debris rose into the sky like a plume of smoke, and a distant fire caught upon the peak.

Beside him, Elowen laughed, joined swiftly by the Tower Master and crew as they swiftly devolved into a ragged cheer. Before them, the artifact flared, the Crescian Bronze glowing as Mana flowed through it. The orichalcum and mithril heated up, going from yellow to cherry red to a brilliant white, before the metal began to melt entirely.

"Shut it down, quickly!"

The Star went quiescent as the flow of Mana was cut off.

A Weapon Of The Enemy, Used Against Them Long After They Have Fallen. A Delicious Irony.

The voice was sourceless, and yet all around him. Felix knew it, and he fought to keep his presence as still as possible. He'd had more than one experience with higher powers in memories.

Tern, however, spun around, looking for it. All he saw was Elowen and Tiir standing next to him, lit from the still glowing star. Their shadows stretched before them like voids cut into the chamber, darkening their features until it was like he was staring at strangers.

Faces loomed from within the dark—women with long hair obscuring their features, and limbs that had too many joints, ending in hands with pale claws. Threads of silver wrapped them tight, though none tighter than Elowen herself. Her throat was bound, her antlers strung into knots, and it was she who turned to him.

"Thank You, Vilus Tern. It Will Suffice."

The Memory lurched once more, and Felix was suddenly racing down a hallway, wards flaring as mages cast spells at him.

Tern gripped his head as a silver thread weighed him down, tearing away pieces of his thoughts as they rose up. He was aflame, but it was a fire of the Mind.

Static speared across the Memory, covering parts of Tern as Felix tried to understand what he was seeing. Tern’s hand glitched away.

Chains wrapped around him, but they were illusions. Or perhaps they never were there to begin with…they shattered at Felix’s touch, and Tern flinched. The heavens burned, and the skies blackened.

He grasped his head and screamed.

Their thoughts were a mess, and Felix could only watch from within him as Tern collapsed.

The weapon…

It cannot be finished…

Felix knew, just as suddenly Tern did. The Memory was clear for a brief moment, before it, too, was consumed by static.

I know its purpose—

The Oath collapsed atop of him, and Vilas Tern shattered.

"I know," Felix gasped as the world reassembled itself. He lurched forward, shattering the low table before him with his heel. It collapsed as if it were made of paper.

"Did it work?" Tern asked, pushing to the front. "What did you see? What did I forget?"

Zara held him by the shoulders, though she was grimacing with the effort before Felix sat back of his own volition. "What do you know, Felix?"

"I know," he repeated, blinking away the afterimages of destruction, and the voice that still echoed in his head. "I know what the artifact is for. You figured it out, Tern. The pieces were all there."

Felix swallowed and Willed his heart to stop pounding.

Chains shattered at his touch…a star to fire into the heavens…

“Their chains,” he said. “The gods intend to sunder them completely.”

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