Unbound

Felix found Beef and Hollow in the mess hall attached to the training yards.

It was a wide and elevated building, open on one side to allow folks to watch their peers challenge the various areas, and had a particularly good view of the Dragon's Roost. As Felix climbed the interior steps, ignoring the whispers and bows that trailed behind him, he found it to be quite pleasant. It felt a little bit like college, except the food was definitely better.

The hall was half filled with Dragoons scarfing down their breakfasts before going off to their various duties. At the far end, nearest the windows, Beef and Hollow sat alone. Hollow was still wrapped around the Minotaur as a suit of crystalline armor while Beef ate heaping spoonfuls of what looked like porridge and berries out of a mixing bowl. Hollow was eating too. A crystalline appendage extended from Beef’s elbow, and was latched onto a plate full of metal blocks.

Felix, however, was far more interested in what Beef was doing with his left hand. In between bites, the kid was summoning chitinous structures onto the surface of the table.

"Good morning," Felix said, sitting down at the table.

"Oh, hey Felix! We were just talking about you.”

“Hello, Autarch," Hollow said from Beef's shoulder.

“Hi there Hallow. What were you talking about?”

“Just when we were gonna leave the city,” Beef said, pushing aside his now-empty mixing bowl. “We’re getting kinda antsy.”

"I’ve been feeling a bit restless too," Felix admitted. "That's pretty impressive, Beef," he said, nodding to the complicated structure on the table.

"This? Thanks. It's not much, I'm just playing around with some basic geometry. I found that when I construct things with proper supports I can get them a lot stronger, like those platforms in the swamp that could actually hold us. But the problem is," Beef pushed over one of his less complete structures and the entire thing collapsed. “It's hard to do on the fly. This takes time."

"Does it require too much energy?"

"That, and it's complicated. I can't visualize this stuff easily, so I'm practicing it as much as I can."

"Smart. That'll make it faster to do in battle," Felix tapped his lips. "Maybe we could have you study some architectural designs. I have to assume they have stuff like that in the library, either here or in Ahkestria."

"Oh, that makes sense," Beef thought a bit. "Yeah, if I knew more about how things kind of work together, then maybe I could do this faster. Maybe. I don't really know."

"Sounds to me that your problem is you’re improvising these structures well before you’re ready. Like you said, it's hard to do it right off the cuff. It’s the same thing with training your hammer, right? You swing it a thousand times, the same motions over and over, so that when you have to use it in a fight your body just sorta takes over. You're not thinking about it, and that makes you a better fighter. If you can do the same thing, but with structural engineering, or whatever you wanna call it, then all the better, right?"

Beef sat back, a smile on his face as he looked off into the middle distance. "Huh, yeah." He laughed. "Yeah, I think we can do that. Oh, I wanna go do it now."

"Now, before you go running off, could I take this structure? And Hollow, could you give me a piece of your crystalline body?"

“Sure.”

"Of course, Autarch. What do you need them for?"

"I need them for an array."

"What’s the array do?" Beef asked. "Is it like the summoning thing for that monster mouse?"

Felix shook his head. "Vess told me about that, and no, I'm definitely not doing that. I'm looking for the rest of us," he said in a low voice.

Beef's eyes widened. "Is it that easy?"

"I very much doubt it'll be easy," Felix stood up. "Have you seen Archie?"

"Uh, not since I woke up, but he was spending a lot of time upstairs near the Shadowgate."

"Really? Why?"

"He said he's interested in them for some reason. Maybe he's eager to go see Nagast?"

Felix smiled. "Aren't we all?"

Just as Beef had predicted, Felix found Archie near the Shrine. The man was standing just outside the ruined study that Felix had nearly demolished during his encounter with Siva. He was staring through the doors and wringing his hands, like he couldn’t make himself take another step.

Felix cleared his throat.

Archie, startled, exclaimed, "Christ, don't sneak up on me!"

Felix hadn't, but he didn't correct Archie. Instead, he spread his hands wide in a gesture of apology. “The Shrine’s inactive now; Siva couldn't use it anymore, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“I’m not afraid,” Archie said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Just cautious. What’re you doing here?”

"It’s my Seal in there,” Felix said with a smirk. “What are you doing here?"

“Oh you know.” Archie glanced into the Shrine, then back down before meeting Felix's eyes. "I just wanted to see this Shadowgate thing. Everyone's been talking about it, and honestly, it freaks me out a little bit."

Archie had only had access to his Affinity for a few weeks, and it was obvious from the way he clumsily tried to hide his emotions from Felix. His Spirit was practically screaming, and it was a chaotic mix of anxiety, fear, and annoyance.

Annoyed because he admitted he was afraid of something…or because I’m here?

"Come on, then. I'll show it to you." Felix walked past him and crossed the broken room beyond. gesturing for Archie to follow. He crossed into the Shrine first, but the moment Archie stepped past the threshold, an electric shock rippled up Felix's spine.

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“Wait!” Felix said, and shoved the small man back.

Gold and silver magic sparked up right where Archie had stood, flaring into geysers of jagged light. It collided with Felix, but did nothing, ricocheting and burning in the air before it formed into a familiar glyph. A burning blue eye surmounted by a crown. Felix pressed his hand against it, and it dispersed into a scattershot of energy.

"Okay," Felix looked around. "It's safe now, I think."

"You think?" Archie got back to his feet, clearly spooked. "What was that? He... that wasn't, uh..." He didn't cross the threshold again.

"No, it wasn't Siva. Or any god. It was the Seal. I think it was protecting itself." Felix pulled up his Authority Screen, but he'd never before seen options for protecting the Seat and Seal.

Seat And Seal - Wards - Scintillating Sear

Scintillating Sear - Defensive, 200 Mana / Second. Fatally Burns All Those That Enter The Seal Without The Requisite Authority.

"What the hell. When did this show up?" He had no recollection of setting that particular ward, or even seeing a sub menu for his Seat and Seal in the first place.

"What?" Archie asked. "What is it?"

"Just an option I didn't know I had. The protections were automatic, I think, once I claimed the Territory."

"Oh, so I almost died because you didn’t turn off the security system. Great."

Felix poked around his menu a bit more. "You're safe to walk in now. I've whitelisted you."

Archie gave him a long look before he inched a foot over the threshold. Nothing happened, so he cautiously put weight on it…and still nothing happened. With a relieved sigh, Archie finally crossed completely.

“See? It’s fine now. C’mon.”

Together, they walked further into the Shrine. Keyed up by the recent event, Felix kept an eye out for attacks from any sides, whether from the Seal or the gods, but all was quiet. Even the Divine feeling of the Shrine was gone: the pool in its middle was dry and its foundations cracked. The power had all been drained, first by the Pathless, and then by Felix.

Much like outside in the study, the ground was broken apart. Here though, it revealed the elaborate gold and silver lines of the ancient Seal of Pax’Vrell. It flowed like water beneath them, the light ebbing and flowing as if the sigils of the Seal were windows into an illuminated sea.

The pieces of the Shrine were still there, though—the important ones, at least. The Altar and the Obelisk, designed the same as structures he'd seen in the Shrines of both Vellus and Avet. He kept an eye on those as they passed, until they crossed off his Seal and into the space beside the Shadowgate.

The construct looked exactly as he expected: a circular opening into a deep, more-than-natural shadow. The base and surface were covered with various precious and semi-precious stones, all of them carved to depict a scene of unspoiled nature. A waterfall fell down one side of it, sculpted from a single piece of sapphire, while trees made of malachite and serpentine covered the bottom, cracked and toppled as if a company of loggers had gotten to them.

"Wow," Archie said. "This is beautiful."

"Used to be, yeah. It's in way better condition than some others, though." Felix ran his senses over it, and he spotted quite a few flaws in the structure of the gate. “Hm, there’s something—ah.” Around the back of it, the entire thing had come free from the wall at some point, twisted askew and shattered at several points. “At some point, the gate got shifted from its original position, just like the one in Haestus.”

"So it doesn't work? I thought this was supposed to take us to your, uh, capital."

"It will, I just need to fix it first."

"How long is that going to take? I don't know if I want to wait months while you tinker around."

Unite the Lost.

Essence, Mana, and significance rushed from Felix's hands, pouring over the circumference of the gate and altering it in real time. Stone reassembled, designs flowing back into place, and the shadows within the gate centers strengthened until they were a pool of liquid black. The air sang as it realigned itself, snapping into place with a vibrant hum that pulsed off into the distant west.

Just like that, it was fixed.

Huh, that didn’t cost me nearly as much significance as normal. Felix cut off the Skill and he smiled. That was certainly good news. A piece of him, perhaps his Authority mixed with his Adamant Discord, could feel a distinct connection between the gate and a far-off place to the west. Elderthrone, no doubt. Most interestingly though, there was another strand that led off somewhere else that was indistinct.

He reached for it, but it retreated. Felix tried to follow the sensation, but it was impossible. All he knew was that it went off in a different direction than Elderthrone. He shook his head and wondered—not for the first time—if there was another Heart of Shadows somewhere hidden on the Continent.

There has to be, right?To span an empire you’d need more than one hub of portals. You’d need a network of them.

"How the hell does that work?" Archie said, interrupting his train of thought.

"The Skill returns certain things to a previous, unspoiled state. How is, um, not something I can answer," Felix said. He waggled his fingers. "Magic."

"Certain things?”

Felix dropped his hands. “Only things touched by the Ruin in some way. I think.”

“Right. How come you can do that, then? I don't see other people reversing time or whatever the hell that was."

"It's a Race-specific skill. You could learn it, too. You just have to eat a Primordial of unending hunger, like," Felix counted on his fingers, "three times?"

Archie blanched. "How many of those are there?"

"Just the one." Felix hesitated. "Uh, well, two, I guess, if we're counting the monster whale in space."

"I'm sorry, the what now?"

Felix waved a hand. "Long story. Not really important." He walked closer to the Shadowgate and peered at its construction. "This thing should be fully functional now. We’ll be able to head out soon.”

Archie put his hand on the Shadowgate, running his fingers across the pristine sculpture of a waterfall. "Why the holdup? Why not leave now?"

Felix sighed. "Too many things." He walked away from the Shadowgate and toward the defunct Shrine again. "First, I need to check this place over. I haven't had a chance since the battle."

He made his way back to his Seal, but this time there were no sparks. "The whitelisting still holds," he said with a grin.

"Yippee.”

“I'm still weirded out that it set auto defenses. It shouldn't have, not without notifying me." Felix stepped toward the top of the former Shrine, stopping as he came to the Altar and Obelisk. "Maybe it was because of these."

"What are they?"

"The most important parts of a Shrine, I think. Altar and Obelisk. I don't know how the Shrines work, other than they give the gods power in some way. And that power can be stolen or redirected. The Pathless tried that, using his Priests to steal a portion of Siva's power which allowed him to boost his army during our fight. Remember that golden glow around all of them?”

“Ugh, yeah. Made fighting any of ‘em a pain in the ass.”

“Well it’s all gone now. But there's gotta be a reason these remained when the rest broke."

"Gods," Archie shivered. "First the Pathless, and now this lady. There's what, five left?"

"Six, and all but one of them is actively opposing us."

"Right, Avet, the chaos guy. He doesn't seem the most trustworthy."

"I agree.”

“And the Shrine is totally not working anymore? How do you know?"

"I destroyed it myself. Ate it."

Archie shook his head. "You always say that so nonchalantly. 'Oh, today? Yes, I had some salmon in the legs of a god. Needed salt.'"

Felix bared his teeth. "The Pathless isn’t worth the fuss." He ran his hands across the Altar and a deep chill suffused his fingertips before shooting up his arm. He gasped.

Title: Nemesis Of The Silver Weaver Is Active!

Your Oaths Shatter!

Authority Recognized.

Traces Of Divinity Detected.

Do You Wish To Restore And Reactivate This Shrine?

Y/N

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