Unbound

As Felix suspected, fixing the Shadowgate was easy. It barely had any damage to it, save for some ineffable internals he still didn't understand. Once those were repaired, his Unite the Lost cut off, and the shadows at the center of the active gate swirled with a current that was a bit unsettling to watch. Standing so close to it, Felix could even feel a small breeze through the dark. It was faintly scented with citrus and loam, the hallmarks of a familiar Tree.

It took longer for Atar to break the seal on the door. He hadn't been joking about all the alarms set into the sigaldry. By the end of twenty minutes, he had found thirty-seven of them, each keyed to a different place nearby, along lines of sigaldry etched into the stone of the floor and ceiling.

"Many people seem concerned with this place's security," Atar observed.

"Judging by the lack of visits to this chamber, I think they are only concerned with keeping what's theirs out of their rival's hands," Zara corrected. "The Tower Masters are conniving folks. Knowledge is the currency of Levantier, and artifacts are physical manifestations of that. They will not be eager to let anyone know of this place, especially if we are not in Levantier proper."

greedy.

"As are most who covet power." Zara placed her hand on the door. "Are we ready to see where we've arrived?"

Abyssal Skein!

A cold oil spread over them all, and the five of them faded from everyone’s awareness, just as Zara leaned forward and pushed open the vault-style door. It pivoted with ease, likely enchanted to remain soundless, but Felix was still relieved that it did not creak or groan as the room beyond opened up to them. It was an antechamber, and flexing his Perception, Felix let out a soft breath.

"It's empty.” He stepped through the gap, hands flexing, claws ready in case he was wrong—but there was no need. No guards stood in the chamber or even the ones beyond. The dust was not quite as thick here, but it still gathered in the corners, neglected where it could be easily missed in the darkened corridors.

The small party left the storage chamber. Felix led the way, followed by Zara, Darius, Alister, and Atar. Being a city, either within or close enough, the chance of his mini-army going unnoticed was less than zero. The five of them, however, had a far greater ability to disappear and properly scout out their surroundings.

The Chanters and soldiers were left behind to keep the Shadowgate guarded. Atar resealed the door with a few careful inscriptions, which to an uncareful eye would seem to be fully closed and warded. He kept the security measures inert, of course. Were anyone to come and check on the general area, it would not be obvious at first glance, giving their people time enough to escape if a true threat appeared.

The leaders of each group had explicit instructions for several eventualities, handed down by Darius. Even the Chanters had listened and barely made a fuss. Felix was glad for that. He didn’t like leaving them on their own, but it was their best option.

Outside the antechamber, they found a maze of hallways that were clearly just as abandoned as the storage facility. Slowly and carefully, they crept through empty corridors, senses primed for any sound of movement or voices in adjoining rooms—yet there were none. Instead, they passed through chamber after chamber, all of them ornately decorated and furnished.

Except now thick cloths were draped over chairs and lounging couches and wide tables, clearly untouched for a great many years. Even the wainscoting was piled high with grime, not to mention the many bas-relief sculptures of mountains and hills that were set into the walls like frameless paintings.

Twice more, they were forced to disengage sets of wards. These were in far worse condition than the storage facility, their sigils guttering like candles in the wind. It took barely any effort for Atar and Alister to bypass them completely.

"This feels eerie," Darius muttered. He had cleared yet another room, and his giant sword was out and ready to fight. There was nothing to face, however. He resheathed it with a grunt. "I don't trust all this silence."

"The silence is a good thing," Zara said, patting him on the arm. "It means the neglect of the storeroom is not an isolated incident, and that suggests we are quite lucky indeed."

"Lucky how?"

They walked into another large chamber featuring a slew of tables and chairs, these too all covered in dusty sheets. The ceiling was carved with scaled serpents wrapped around shields, their edges painted with a gold that had mostly chipped away. The chains for a chandelier hung from the center, though no light remained, only empty hooks and greased links clotted with dust.

Zara smiled wide, baring her sharp teeth. She gestured. "That is how, Darius."

At the far end of the room was a massive fireplace big enough to fit a Frost Giant inside. Above it was a sculpted crest, molded from the stone, showing a Tower floating above a city and made of a deep, russet stone and molded bronze. Felix noted the distinct gleam across its surface, like light reflected through a prism.

"Paint and plaster," he said. "What do we care about a crest?"

"An official crest," she corrected. "Note the shimmer across the Tower.”

“How many people are allowed to display an official crest?" Felix asked.

"Only the Tower itself."

Felix flared his Perception, snaking his senses through the adjoining hallways and corridors as far as he was able. He could feel the air shift farther on, and for the first time, the faintest vibrations above them suggested movement. Walking, perhaps. "People are here, but only several floors above us. I don’t sense many of them. Aren't these Towers supposed to be filled with mages?"

"Some are," Zara said.

"So we are on Tower grounds,” Atar confirmed.

“Indeed. The Umber Tower. This is good and explains a great deal."

Darius lifted the edge of a sheet, disturbing a cloud of dust from the chair beneath. "Like what?"

Zara jerked her chin toward Felix. "Like why there are so few people here. The Umber Tower has seen better years, its holdings greatly reduced since the Schism thirty years ago. I would imagine recruitment has been stalled due to that lack of power and perceived authority.”

“So this is a storehouse of a weaker Tower?" Atar asked.

"Yes, and their weakness should benefit us greatly.”

Felix turned away from the shimmering crest. “How weak are we talking?"

"Their Tower Master was assassinated. Officially, he slipped and fell from his coach, off of a floating island, and into a passing skiff."

Alister raised an eyebrow. "That seems unlikely. Personal wards are common enough in larger cities, let alone here, as are enchantments designed to prevent slips or accidental falls.” “The Tower Master is the most powerful mage of their order, having reached at least Master Tier. For a Tower Master to die in such a way is preposterous. But it was the fiction everyone clung to. To admit otherwise would have started a war."

Atar frowned. "This Schism wasn't a war? I heard it was a bloody conflict.”

“More of a…political reorganization. Faction wars in Levantier are rare, and they come with massive consequences and large death tolls. The Schism was tame by comparison. The Towers vied for superiority, and when the dust settled, the Violet Tower was the true power in Levantier, leaving the Umber Tower and others like it to languish in relative obscurity."

Felix walked to the far end of the chamber and eased open the door. Beyond was a wide but short corridor that ended in a large stairwell leading upward. "Looks like we're at the bottom floor of this Tower." He looked at Zara. "How much caution do we need to take here? Do I need to continue holding Abyssal Skein?”

“Stealth is advisable while we're down here. Too many questions would be asked if we were found. However, having strangers and locals walk their grounds is not unusual for any of the Towers. They are ostensibly open to the public as educational and commercial resources. Some more so than others. Last I heard, the lesser Towers were teaching select Mana Skills freely."

Felix snorted. "So they teach some people basic Mana Skills and then what? Entice them to join?"

"Something like that," Zara confirmed.

They made their way up the stairs, rising several levels before they saw the first sign of any people. The Umber Tower, weak as it might be, was still very large. Felix only got a small grasp of its size and dimensions as they climbed. Dozens upon dozens of rooms flashed by his awareness before they ever reached the ground floor, and when they crested the top stair on their long ascent, they found dozens of robed people hustling up and down the small corridor with little space around any of them.

Shit. Abyssal Skein was great for going unnoticed, but utilizing it in a crowd was a recipe for disaster.

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“Over here,” he directed, leading them all to an alcove as a gap appeared in the hustling figures. Shadowed by another set of stairs leading upward, they had a moment to breathe.

“Not so busy as the Eyrie, but this is more people than I expected from the weakest Tower in the city,” Atar said, leaning against the cool stone. He flinched and took a careful step away from the wall.

“Levantier is bigger than Haarwatch by several orders of magnitude,” Zara said. “Ahkestria as well.”

Atar sniffed.

“Look at that,” Alister said, pointing through a window at the back of the alcove.

Through the glass, Felix spied a wide lawn filled with scraggly trees and ill-kept flower beds all contained within a sizable compound surrounded by brown stone walls, beaten copper panels, and stained glass windows. The Umber Tower’s grounds.

The Tower’s sides rose up very high, casting the grounds into early morning shadows, and no matter the angle he tried, Felix could only make out the tiniest sliver of blue sky far above. The walls were covered in sigildry, written on a scale larger than anything he'd ever tried. A sheen of sepia Mana hung from the sides of the structure like flags mixed with a lightshow as the glow they put off rivaled the sun that had only barely risen above the horizon.

Darius drummed his fingers against the sill. "We're in Levantier itself, then."

"Yes, the Umber Tower should be located to the southwest of the main city. They are shifted in elevation and position, depending on their prominence in the control of the city. We should be close to the ground and the main thoroughfares throughout.”

“Easier to get around," Darius said in approval. "So long as we navigate this."

Among the scraggly trees and withered flower beds, the grounds were quite busy. Figures in roughspun robes hustled about, sweating and huffing as they carried stacks of books, scrolls, and even covered trays that steamed from what was clearly food. Others, in much finer robes, walked a bit more sedately, though many of those also hurried, intent on making it into certain doorways and chambers, like students rushing to class. Felix imagined that's exactly what they were.

“Are the struggling ones servants to the Tower students?” Felix asked.

"No, they are Beginner Tiers, and they're working for the Adept mages, running errands and performing tasks. It is a common thing for all those who are freshly joined to the Tower to serve the lower ranks of the Tower hierarchy. Apprentices and Journeymen are still technically students. Once you reach Adept, you have essentially graduated from their programs, though you have not yet reached an esteemed status within the Tower. Well, within most Towers."

There were a lot of non-robe wearing people walking around, too, folks Felix assumed were just locals. Zara soon explained that many of them were looking to consult mages, request services, or even trade resources they had been given. Felix witnessed a number of people carrying plants in jute sacks, others with crates of filled bottles, and even a pair with a few lumpy monster cores rattling around in a wheelbarrow. Business, it seemed, even for a weakened Tower, was booming.

Beyond the grounds were the gates, beaten copper monstrosities with a smaller door built into their sides, and these were manned by guards wearing brown and green armor. It was clear to Felix that they would not be able to leave the Umber Tower unless they got through the guards. Yet another reason to drop their stealth.

"Analyze calls them Umber Hulks,” Alister said. “That seems a bit optimistic. I'm positive we could take them out easily."

"Perhaps," Zara said. “But their armor is empowered with earthen magics, not to mention their individual Skills. The Umber Tower may be weak politically, but they are still a potent school. It is well known that these guards can tunnel straight through earth. Umber mages are quite a terror while land-bound. It is just in a city of floating Towers—”

“That is not quite the threat it would be elsewhere." Atar laughed.

insects. we will be in no trouble from such as them.

"Perhaps. Keep silent regardless," Darius demanded. "The last thing we need is knowledge of an Urge bound to a Human. These mages would capture you for studying in a second."

"I would like to see them try," Atar said, lips curling from his teeth.

"Atar."

Alister laid a hand on his shoulder, bringing him up short, and the fire mage's expression flickered through confusion and embarrassment in quick succession. "Ahem. I mean, lead the way, Commander Reed."

Felix dropped Abyssal Skein and the feeling of chill liquid vanished from their skin, like water evaporating in the heat of the day. As it did, he felt a curious shifting in the music around them all, as if the melodies in their vicinity grew suddenly more complicated for a single beat. A passing Beginner Tier looked at them curiously but continued onward, carrying a tall vase full of what smelled like wine.

They stepped out into the corridor and the crowd parted around them. Two sets of iron-banded doors later, they stood on the overgrown grass of the Tower grounds. They were immediately clocked by passing folks, both locals and mages of the Tower, likely because of the curious tableau they struck: an armored soldier, foreign mages, and a strange man with a black jacket and a hooked blade.

No one stopped them, of course. It seemed all sorts came to the Tower for aid and services.

At the exit gate, however, they were stopped by one of the guards. He was a Hobgoblin, and his red skin clashed a bit with his brown plate armor, but he filled it well—he may have only been Apprentice Tier, but there was a certain sense of danger about him.

"Oi, oi, hold up. I don't remember you folks coming through here. What was your business in the Tower?"

he asks too much.

Eat Him, Hunger growled from within.

Jesus. Quiet, both of you.

"We were visiting with the Apprentice Forge," Zara said smoothly, speaking over the quiet mutterings of incorporeal monsters. "We were about to head on a trip south and needed some charms to protect us along the river road."

The guard eyed them, but eventually gave a nod. "Aye, that road is trouble. Been much more so since the Black Sun."

Zara looked around and lowered her voice. "I noticed that the redcloaks had thinned in recent days."

"Vanished, more like," the guard snorted. "Say what you want about their methods, but at least they guarded the footpaths around the mountain. Now we all gotta worry about monsters." He jerked his head toward the gate. "Go on, and have a safe journey, Lady…?"

"Lady Reed," she said, smiling primly. "And thanks be to you, guardsman."

They exited swiftly after that, the copper door opening with a minor squeal, and they walked through and down a sloping rampart.

"Lady Reed?" Darius asked, a smile in his voice, if not on his face.

"I was required to think on my feet. You were within eyeshot, Commander."

"Interesting," the man rumbled.

Felix blinked. He was fairly certain Zara was blushing.

"Yes, well," she cleared her throat. "Welcome, gentlemen, to Levantier proper."

Zara had been right. The Umber Tower was close to the ground, and getting off meant climbing down a detached set of stone stairs flanked by more bored Umber Hulk guards. It was mildly busy outside the gates, where a few smaller structures sat across bridges. People hustled around on them, but not many, especially when compared to the hustle and bustle of people in the streets below. That was a veritable sea of people wrapped in flowy robes that were mostly a deep brown save for the occasional jewel-bright dye in blue, yellow, or red. Humans, Orcs, Elves, Goblins and all the rest mingled among one another, talking in so many languages that their voices were the gentle roar of waves breaking against a rocky coast.

The cobblestone streets were lined with buildings that shimmered with enchantments, much as the Tower behind them. Obvious to the naked eye, the arrays were carved into stone and wood and metal, arranged artfully yet with a clear intent to show off. Even the smallest, most narrow shops were festooned with glyphs. Beyond the roofline, distant buildings floated in the air, wreathed in their own colorful magics.

"Don't dawdle on the Tower's edge," a guard hollered.

Atar sniffed.

impudent. destroy them.

They hopped from the Tower's base and onto the detached staircase, passing the guards and descending thirty feet to the street. Before they could reach the bottom, though, Felix sucked in a tight breath as he felt an invisible veil part around him. Pain stabbed at his senses, grabbing his attention even though it couldn't quite pass his resistance. There was a disturbance everywhere, tugging at his attention like catching his hair on a spider's web. Tingling goosebumps crawled down his arms, and neck and he could almost feel the phantom touch of clawed appendages—

Like centipedes with Human faces.

"Felix, is something wrong?"

He turned, looking up at the Towers that floated above the clustered high rises of the city. He licked his lips. "It's Siva. I can feel her influence. She's up to something here.”

Skein of Fate!

The Skill burned in him, igniting with an internal fire as its patterns hummed against his Affinity. All around him, the world sharpened and blurred like a focusing camera until the shadows of elaborate threads appeared. Burnished silver tangled around every single passerby he saw, wrapping around neck, chest, and limbs like marionette strings. They drifted across his Perception, assailing him with a phantom fire like steam on a fresh burn—Oath strings had never affected him in such a way, and now it felt like he was cast back into the Pool, swimming through that forest of silver and shadow, chased by monsters.

"Her touch is everywhere, on everyone." Felix spun, taking in the crowds as they passed. "What's going on here?”

“Oaths are not uncommon in the major cities, and far less so here,” Zara said. “The Towers demand basic Oaths from all who directly use their services, typically ones of secrecy, so that Tower techniques remain their own.”

"Doesn't that weigh on their spirits?" Alister asked. "I thought people could only hold so many Oaths before they collapsed."

"That is true, but the weight is mostly borne by the Towers themselves. They’ve ancient artifacts designed to act as a proxy for these sorts of bindings. It allows a limited type of Oath to be tied to the artifact instead of people, like the Tower Master, who normally would be the one to bear that weight."

Felix frowned. "That feels disingenuous. Oaths shouldn't be used like that."

"An entire city of people would disagree with you," Atar snorted. "These fools would swear over their souls for a touch of power."

Felix refrained from pointing out that Atar would have done the same a little more than a year ago. He shook himself, trying to banish the goosebumps from his arms and the pain from his Spirit. He felt assaulted by Siva's influence. It wasn't touching him. It wasn't affecting him. But it was an unpleasant burr that wrapped around him nonetheless.

"We need to get moving. I don't want to spend more time here than we have to."

Felix placed a hand to his temple, feeling the presence of his crown without summoning it.

Adamant Discord.

Bright silver lines fell away, and pale blue lines sprang up in their place. Unlike the Oath threads, these were everywhere, touching everything in the world around him, many of them connecting to his chest, others to his friends, others still to distant bodies in the sky and far off on the mountain and beyond.

Felix banked the Skill, keeping it humming, but at a low intensity. Electricity jumped between his fingers, but no more than that. As the majority of lines faded away from his awareness, only the thickest remained, and those led north.

"Come on.”

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