Unbound

Escaping the Bethir nest proved to be simple enough. While strong, the creatures were not proficient at digging through solid stone, certainly not hundreds of feet of it. Once they had put enough distance between them and the squashed cavern, all signs of pursuit vanished. Which was lucky, because everyone, Felix included, was beat.

Perhaps two hours after their initial entry into the Bethir’s cavern, the team spilled out into another. It was a small cave, barely thirty feet wide at the largest point and filled with loose, uneven boulders that had been worn away by some sort of water in the ancient past. Now it was dry as a bone and utterly cut off from everywhere else.

It was perfect.

Four hours later, Felix sat up in the dark, breathing slowly.

“You slept deeply,” Vess noted, sitting only a foot away. Felix had leveled a portion of the cavern with Stone Shaping before he’d passed out, but the boulders remained. She leaned back against one now.

“And you didn’t sleep at all?” Felix stretched his stiff shoulders and back.

“I find myself too rattled to risk it. Easier to watch the dark.”

“There’s nothing here. No openings large enough for a threat to enter, either.”

Vess touched the side of her head. It was still marked with dried blood. “‘Watchful. Wary. Take nothing for granted.’ Those are part of the Dragoon’s Oath. I failed in that today. I would not fail again.”

Time ticked on, and they sat together in the dark. No words were needed, just soft breath, her head against his shoulder, and the faint sound of dripping water, echoing from far away.

“That fire you employed…it was different than your usual.”

“It evolved.” Felix let his Affinity roll through his center, and Astrum Ascendence answered. A wisp of cosmic flame danced among his fingers, changing hue with every passing second. First red, then gold, then blue and purple and green. “I was able to combine several of my shaping Skills into one.”

“Truly?” Vess lifted her head, staring intently at the floating wisp. “I thought you were having trouble reconciling them?”

“Something changed once I brought Cardinal Flame to Temper. And I think Pit’s evolution might be affecting me.”

Vess shifted her gaze to him, all but radiating concern. “In what way?”

“The Mote of Frenzy. It’s in me because Pit is in me. It’s…influencing my core space somehow.” Felix spread his fingers, and the flame lifted into the air, twisting around itself like a shimmering ribbon. “If I can get the other shaping Skills to Master Tier, I’m thinking I might have a chance to combine them all.”

“And if Pit completes his evolution before then? Is the Mote not used up in the process?”

“I…don’t know. It’s strong. Really, really strong. I can’t even remove Pit from my chest right now, because it hurts too bad.” Felix shook his head. “I have a feeling there’s more to the Mote than I was told.”

“Can I—?” she asked, reaching her hand out.

“Oh, yeah.” Felix guided the ribbon of flame down to Vess’ outstretched hand.

“Ah! It—it does not burn. It feels…cool?”

“I can control the temperature of it now.”

Vess spread her fingers and the ribbon ran a complicated pattern around and through them. “Quite beautiful. And useful.”

“Maybe. It’s not very good at destroying things, anymore.”

“What do you mean? It killed the Dire Bethir and all its brood.”

Felix scratched his nose. “I think that was more a matter of quantity. I gave them too much power for them to stomach. Look.” He picked up a palm-sized rock and pulled the ribbon of cosmic flame to coil around it. The colors shifted, gaining a saturated intensity that was painful to look upon. The stone blackened, charred, before slowly turning red hot where the ribbon pressed closest.

“If this was Cardinal Flame, the rock would have heated up in an instant.” He squished the rock in his hands, semi-molten rock deforming around his fingers. “That took thirty seconds at the base level of Essence.”

“Essence? Not Mana?”

“It takes both to use. Another drawback.” Felix had a feeling he was going to have to consume his enemies a lot more frequently.

“Perhaps it has other uses?” she suggested.

“Isn’t fire supposed to just…burn?”

“Normal fire. This is decidedly more arcane. The way it tore through those monsters was proof enough of that.”

Hmm. Felix considered the molten stone and ribbon of heat in his hand, before dropping one and dismissing the other. It plopped onto the ground like heavy clay before rapidly cooling.

“I am quite happy with it’s destructive might,” Vess continued. “And I am relieved you woke when you did. Those Bethir were…brutal.”

Felix couldn’t help but look at Vess’ injuries. Most were healed by potions or Tzfell’s limited magic, but none of them could fix her armor, which had been sundered from shoulder to waist. None but Harn, anyway, and he wasn’t even awake half the time. “I’m sorry I didn’t—I wish I had woken up sooner. Is your armor salvageable?”

Vess sighed and put her head on his shoulder again. “I doubt it. Once we reach my father, however, we can get all the supplies we need.”

“That’d be good.” Felix smiled, happy to have her against him again. “Sounds easy. I could do with some easy.”

Time stretched onward.

Felix began to grow restless. His Aspects felt better than they had in a while, and he was already over the exhaustion of his Temper. His friends needed more rest and recovery than he anticipated, however.

So after he finally convinced Vess to sleep, Felix sat and contemplated his path forward.

There was movement in his Spirit, but Pit was still uncommunicative. His evolution was continuing, but Felix got the distinct impression that it was almost done. Intuition more than anything else, as the System provided zero information on that front.

Pit? Are you aware?

No words answered him, but the faintest shadow of something flickered at the back of his Mind. Felix frowned.

Pit?

Flicker.

Felix pulled it closer, grasping at the edges of a distant flashing light. Fast impressions skimmed across his Mind, images that made no sense. Crumbling earth. A tree, torn up from the roots. A sky burnt black.

Fire.

The Mote? Pit, is this—are you dreaming?

Chaos reigned there, in the patch of Felix’s Mind that was connected to his Companion. Flashes came quicker now. A wall of water rising from a pitch black sea. Cold and ruthless. The sun, a bloody eye glaring from on high. A storm filled with teeth. Emotions followed: joy, anger, and fear that burst from his Spirit like bubbles.

The Mote of Frenzy worked its wild magic across the depths of Pit’s being…and across their bond.

Etheric Concordance is level 95!

Whispers.

Felix pulled back, jolting to awareness in the small cave. His Perception flooded outward, rolling across his friends, the ground, the walls; all of it. There was no pebble he was not aware of…and no whisper.

felix.

He stood up, and the cave was suddenly bathed in a flickering blue. His eyes burned. “Who’s there?”

felix. nevarre.

It was coming from the walls.

Felix tread carefully across the cave, carefully stepping around his friends as they slept on obliviously. He reached the wall and his fingers ran across the coarse stone, feeling only the ridges of ancient sediment. Then his fingers slipped through…into a shadow he had never seen before.

What the hell?

It was an opening barely large enough for him to squeeze through, and a wet wind rolled through it. The breeze was fresh and chill and it had not been there a second ago.

Felix flared his Perception, and this time he sensed the very physical opening. It wasn’t magical, at least not currently. Did someone shape a path open? How would I miss that?

Beyond the small opening, Felix could sense a tunnel barely wide enough for one person…and the remnant features of a real building. A wall of stacked stones. A pillar. A lintel, overshadowing an open doorway further in…where his Perception failed.

He squeezed through, though it took some doing with his wide shoulders. The tunnel was exactly as he’d sensed, though the height of it seemed taller. Strange. It was short in length though, and led right to the open doorway, beyond which was another, much larger room filled with shadows. Felix stepped up, but the moment he tried to pass through the door he struck his foot against an unyielding barrier. His hand found the same obstruction, though he could see nothing. The way was open, but he couldn’t enter.

A gilded notification flashed in his face.

System Alert: Access Denied!Bearer Of The Thief of Fate Title Is Barred From All Divine Locations Primordials Are Barred From All Divine Locations

His body seized, as if in the grip of something vast. The sounds of holy trumpets and violins blared in his ears, all but deafening him as he fought to simply breathe. Felix bared his teeth and pushed back, freeing himself from the omnipresent pressure.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered. “It’s another goddamn Shrine.”

He’d encountered one such place before. Vellus’ Shrine, which was located half on the Continent and half in the Void. He wasn’t allowed to approach that one either, anymore.

“Well, this is useless.” Felix put his hands on his hips. He could still feel the barrier, like the weight of a mountain compressed into a single doorway. “Maybe I can get one of the others to slip in.”

As if in response to his words, a new notification appeared. This time it was edged in gold and crimson, and the words themselves seemed carved out of fire.

Approach, Felix Nevarre.You Are Welcomed Within.

The barrier and pressure vanished, and a sudden wind howled through. As before, it was wet and cold, but carried with it a hint of freshness. Cautiously, Felix peered within.

The shadows of the room had vanished, revealing a dimly lit chamber containing little more than a wide slab and a tall obelisk. The slab, an altar Felix guessed, was split in half as if someone had once shattered it. The obelisk, however, much like the one in Vellus’ Shrine, was in one piece.

Well here goes nothing.

Felix stepped into the Shrine, and the floor immediately ignited. Traceries of gold and bloody red spread outward from his feet, expanding into circular arrays that soon covered the whole floor. They continued from there, creeping up the walls and framing the many alcoves. Nothing was contained in those alcoves but shadows and dust, and soon even the shadows were banished by the light.

Be Welcome To The Shrine Of Avet!

Exploration is level 82!

“So you’ve come at last.”

Felix whirled around. “Where are you?”

“Open your eyes, Unbound. I am here.”

The voice sounded kindly, like a grandfather speaking to a favored grandson. Felix clenched his fists, core poised at the edge of violence, as his eyes fell on another incongruous patch of shadow. Had that been there before?

The light of the arrays increased, banishing the dark around another collapsed portion of the Shrine. A piece of the wall had fallen, and pinned behind a five-foot block of pitted stone was a corpse. Its lower half had been crushed by the block where it impacted the wall, but its torso remained slumped over the top. Robes that might have resembled ones Zara often wore covered its bones, but they were rotted almost to dust.

The skeleton’s eyes ignited with a blackened green radiance. Necromancy. Its head moved, jaw working as if it’s recovering from something. Once again, that kind voice rolled from between its broken teeth.

“Quite a bit bigger than I imagined,” the skeleton announced. It peered up at him. “I don’t like it.”

Felix frowned. “Avet, I presume.”

“And smart too. Not a combination my siblings appreciate, I’ll tell you that.”

Felix bared his teeth, and was happy to see the skeleton twitch. “Name yourself and tell me what you want, or I’m leaving. Now.”

Bony hands lifted, palms out as if to stop Felix. “Hold on, hold on. Taking control of a Vessel is more trouble than it looks, boy.” It glanced at him slyly, blackened green eyes shining. “I imagine you know that.”

Adamant Discord!

Lightning jumped between Felix’s fist and the skeleton’s wagging jaw before the entire thing ripped free. It leaped into Felix’s hand, and electricity danced around his grip.

Avet’s eyes widened, skeletal hands slapping ineffectually at its—his?—missing mandible. “You—!”

“I’m tired of gods and their games,” Felix growled. “Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll tear your Vessel apart, piece by piece.”

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