Unbound

Pulling himself away from the Revenants was almost physically painful. There was a part of Felix that only felt alive when he was in the midst of a bloody battle, and a not inconsequential portion of his core that ached to eat as much Primordial Essence as he could manage. Yet his Will was not to be denied. His Bastion severed the ever-increasing Echoes from within, and Felix raced up the pump station steps.

I'm in control. Pit cooed in fierce agreement.

Abyssal Skein is level 36!

Felix slipped into the pump station just behind the last of the Tin Ranks. They had rushed across the battlefield after he'd explained his plan to Harn, driving through the horde as it followed after Felix with rabid abandon. He almost felt bad for the Guilders, had they all not tried to kill him. The Bronzes and Silver Rank would get out just fine.

With his Bastion reinforced and his Willpower flared, he only felt a little guilty for Dabney too.

"Burnin' Revenants took the damn doors," Atar gasped. He was red faced and sweating, his limbs all but shaking as he recovered against a large curved pipe. "Why'd I follow you people? If those things turn around, we're dead faster than a fish in the Dry."

"I don't know any shaping spells, do you?" An Iron Rank scowled, her chest heaving just as much. "How long will they stay—occupied?"

"Long enough," Harn said, stepping into view. "Get to Cal. We need ta find the Nest quick. I'll—"

Stone Shaping!

A wave of mud-like stone spread from the floor, up the sides of the empty portal and all the way to the top. A web of metallic inclusions filled the mud-brown muck, enough to anchor across the entire archway. Altering the vibrations of the pattern as he sounded it, Felix ripped stone and metal from the foundation below them and put them all to work. With a grunt, he poured a final dose of Mana through the spell and cut it off.

Stone Shaping is level 45!

"Twin's teeth!" The Iron Rank stumbled backward from the newly formed door. Wall, really, as it had neither hinges nor handles, but was nearly seamlessly fused to the lintel and frame. "How—"

"Felix," Harn sighed.

Abyssal Skein sloughed from his skin, the touch of the Void leaving him feeling oily and in need of a bath. He'd asked what the effect looked like, and apparently it was as if Felix was bleeding into existence when his Skein dropped. The Iron Rank blanched and saluted, as did a slew of others nearby.

Make An Entrance is level 43!

"Don't—Okay," Felix half-heartedly saluted them all, fist to chest. "Uh, at ease."

"Felix, will this hold?" Atar asked, already running his hands over the stone wall he'd made. "Those things cut through stone like parchment."

"It should hold off the Revenants, at least a little. I pulled some metal from the foundations into the matrix of the stone," Felix tilted his head side to side. "A Ghoul is another thing entirely."

"Best we can hope for," Harn grunted. "C'mon. We need ta move."

Felix was lead into the large open chamber of the pump station. It looked remarkably like a water pump station back home, with pipes and everything. The pipes were seamless rather than held together with bolted flanges and stuff, and sigils were inscribed into literally everything, but otherwise it felt eerily familiar.

"This place runs the whole city?" Felix asked. Harn shrugged.

"Don't think so. There're a lotta places like this around town, mostly movin' and cleanin' the water supply from the Ianus," the man supplied. "Tainted supply might not hurt us too bad, but Untempered's can't live without clean water."

Felix hadn't made it a habit to go to such places back home, but he recalled doing a field trip in grade school to the water treatment facility. What he hadn't recalled from that trip was the magnitude of blood and viscera spread out across the entire floor.

"Did any of the Guilder's survive?" Felix asked.

"We don't know, but there're tracks like things were pulled back into the tunnel," Harn said.

"Tunnel?"

"Back here."

They moved to the far end, where Cal, Vess, and Darius Reed stood near a massive, gaping hole in the corner wall and floor. Chunks of rock and dirt were scattered all over, and smears of blood liberally coated the area. Heavy claw marks, the kind made from a big ass Ghoul marred the stone. Among them were smaller tracks, and signs of many somethings being dragged deeper.

Of them all, the Hand caught his eye first. The Adept combatant merely gave Felix a once over, looking at the dark scales that he'd not yet dismissed. Visceral displeasure spike through the man's Spirit.

"Have you seen her?" Cal grabbed Felix's shoulder while he was preoccupied, and she gripped it with considerable strength. He almost winced.

"What?" Felix looked between her and Vess, the both of them spattered with blood. "Seen who?"

Vess chewed at her lip, and her dark brown eyes were soft. "Evie is missing."

"Faster, lads! We've heretics to catch and a city to save!" An Initiate cried out from the lead, his voice just loud enough to reach every one of the Acolytes following him. A Skill, Evie did not doubt, and a worthless one at that.

A shouting Skill? What for? Use handsign like an adult, Evie griped. She pulled her stolen cloak closer around her shoulders.

The lot of them were hustling through the muck of a sewer tunnel, row by orderly row despite the foul sludge that filled the passage and stained their pristine armor. Evie had secured a red cloak and helm for her disguise, but her armor was still leather beneath it all. She ran in the middle, hidden in their midst as they raced along.

She had followed the not-little girl's trail, though it had been difficult. Only a very judicious—one might say sagacious—use of her newly unlocked Affinity attribute let her keep up. There was a tenuous connection between Evie and the not-girl, one she didn't understand. Still, it allowed her to sense the bare whisper of her movements, like a half-heard song in a crowded tavern.

Eventually, that song led her to the redcloak encampment—for all that "camp" was not the right word. The Inquisition had taken over the whole quarter, and it looked a proper city, as if the troubles of recent weeks had barely touched it's expensive walls. "Yyero's stinkin' ass, a spy," she has hissed, watching as the not-girl flitted into the depths of the enemy. But when her form once again flickered and faded, revealing a blond woman with dark armor and a black mask, then she truly cursed. "Not a spy. A Night-cursed Sworn."

The Sworn, if her Affinity wasn't wrong. It pulsed like a ringing bell at her understanding, and Evie knew the truth of it. It was the woman that kidnapped Vess back in the Foglands.

She's gonna tell them about the Nest. I've gotta—She peered around the sprawling encampment—I need to find out more.

Cal had always kept Evie from the big scout missions, even now, when she'd clearly proven her mettle. She'd fought a burnin' Domain Core! She was damn near Journeyman! Cal would say to hang back, report what she knew, be safe.

Evie had crept into the camp.

It was bustling, filled with merchants and messengers running up and down the causeways. Everyone looked a bit haggard, but those were the times. No one was sleeping well, not now. She followed the lingering traces of the Sworn, moving far more cautiously now than before, until Evie discovered a large, four storied mansion that was utterly packed with redcloak guards.

The Sworn had gone in there, not through the doors or even windows. Evie felt their connection strengthen the longer she lingered on it, paid attention to it. She watched that mansion for a fraction of a glass, feeling her Affinity flex and retract, like a muscle she had ignored all her life. Without warning, the muscle spasmed and flailed, and redcloaks began boiling out of the mansion like ants. And Evie knew exactly what had kicked their hive. House? Warren?

Regardless, they were going after the Nest, and Evie...she had to do something.

So now, cloaked and helmeted, she ran through the guts of the city. At first they were one large force, nearly six hundred strong, but after a while had split into three groups. Evie had tried to stick with the central group, the one where the Inquisitors and the Sworn were, but damn if she didn't get stuck with one of the flanks.

Evie had spent some time in the sewers. The tunnels pushing up at an incline meant one thing: they were going to city center, likely to the same place her friends were headed.

Gotta slow them down.

She just didn't know how yet.

"Since when?" Felix asked in alarm. His Perception had already snaked outward, pushing beyond the newly reinforced doors. All he could sense was chaos and rage out there. "She's out there? Alone?"

"No," Harn said, walking up and shaking his frog-mouth helmet. "I can't find anyone that saw her come with us when we left."

"Evie doesn't run from a fight," Vess said, turning on Harn. "She would not have stayed."

"Then she strayed instead," Cal said. She was stoic, but Felix could hear her Spirit tremble with unease. "Whether she stayed or went wandering, we can't wait for her. Those Revenants won't be held off for long, and we've got a Nest to find. Chorister, you said your people were down here?"

Felix quieted the unease in his Spirit as Aslei stepped forward. She'd been surrounded by Bronze Rank guards the entire time and had barely made a peep during their battle. Neither had she contributed, yet she was coated in a sheen of sweat and her Spirit stank of fear. She stared into the open pit and trembled.

"Yes. We slipped through the doors here—" she gestured to the hole. "The doors that used to be here."

"Alright, we move then people," Harn shouted. "Quick-like! Now!"

The team reassembled and went down. Cal, Harn, Bodie, all the high ranking combatants took the lead while the chorister followed closely behind. Bronze, Iron, and Tin Ranks came after, moving in relative silence down the inclined path. Felix could only pick out bits and pieces of what Aslei was saying at the front of the column, but she was clearly giving directions.

"Vess, Atar, I really don't trust the chorister," Felix reiterated for perhaps the tenth time. "This all feels weird."

"Which part?" Atar asked. "When we were attacked by an army of monsters, or when we descended into the earth to look for their Nest and save some illegally worshipping yokels?" He laughed, clearly out of breath even with the relatively light exercise. "None of this is normal, Felix."

"Even so," Felix maintained. "Keep an eye on her, and an eye on these choristers when we see them. If they tried absorbing these remnant pieces of the Ravager, it cannot end well."

They descended. Felix, Vess, and Atar took the rear. Partially for protection, but mostly because Felix could close it up behind them. His channels were starting to ache, sort of like burning muscles, but he had more than enough Mana for the task.

Soon enough, the tunnel was sealed up behind them, though he made sure to keep it from being air tight. Felix didn't know where they were going, but it was unlikely it would be well ventilated. He kept the spell going for as long as he could.

Stone Shaping is level 46!

"Where could she be?" Vess asked. Her spears hovered horizontally beside her, along with Felix's Blade of the Fang, and she juggled them worriedly on currents of wind Mana.

"I haven't the foggiest," Atar said with a shrug. "She's accomplished at finding trouble though. And you're adept at making it." Atar made two fists and crashed them together with a smirk. "We'll see her soon, I wager."

"Ha ha," Felix deadpanned.

"What of our connection?" Vess asked, and when Felix only furrowed his brow, she explained. "Affinity. You have proven that we can use Affinity to sense the connections between us. I have seen mere glimpses, but you claim more. Can you not check?"

"I can try," Felix said, chewing at his cheek. He'd followed the path of Oath strings from within a Domain before, how hard would it be?

He tilted his attention, similar to expanding his Perception except now he moved both inward and outward at the same time. There was a moment of resistance, where the world itself felt...reluctant. But then he pushed past that, and Felix felt the dense knot of multicolored threads that wound around his three Aspects. The silver chords were Oaths, sworn to him, and he could see those extend to Vess and Atar, terminating at their own chests. He located the one he felt connected to Evie, and it stretched outward but...downward as well?

"She's not near," Felix could feel that much. "She's also not above ground? Or—is there someplace lower in elevation than us?"

"Most of the city," Atar said. "We're stepped pretty high into the tiered mountain of Haarwatch."

"This feels...different. And closer than something else would be," Felix said, his eyes still closed. A warm hand gripped his forearm, keeping him steady and guiding him down the path. Silver threads wrapped around that hand, mingling with other colors he didn't recognized. Blue and green and white.

He lost focus and opened his eyes. Vess took her hand back with a soft smile.

"She's close? Siva's grace," she breathed in relief.

"Lower, but closer? Then she's in the sewers? By herself?" Atar groused. "Why's she always make things more difficult?"

"It is a talent of hers," Vess said with a smile. "If she is down here, then she will meet up with us. We can question her when that time comes. Let us move, however. We have tarried too long."

They agreed, and Felix continued to work his Stone Shaping until he'd nearly worn out his Mana entirely. By then they had a plug of stone blocking the path upward, one that would take even a Ghoul at least an hour to tear through. Atar and Vess watched his back as Felix simply walked and recovered, but it was unnecessary.

The tunnel was devoid of both threats and danger, aside from the uneven terrain.

Eventually, however, the tunnel cut across a wide set of stairs. Here the chorister had them turn, using the steps to more rapidly descend. The light, which had steadily been increasing the further they went, kicked up a couple notches. Instead of a uniform grayness, now the steps and rough hewn walls were picked out with a warm yellow light. Handsign came back along the line; they were close.

Felix signed at his friends.

Vess gestured at him before flashing him a smile.

Atar didn't do anything except roll his eyes and nod.

Soon enough, the column slowed and they filtered carefully out into a larger chamber. It was easily a couple hundred feet in diameter, a massive chamber that was as much natural cavern as it was carved hideaway. Pipes poked out from the walls, covered in a series of glowing inscriptions before arcing down into the ground again. His understanding translated the gist of them, which had a lot to do with sealing the pipes together. The inscriptions were like fittings, each piece of pipe held against another with magic. Felix even spotted the tiny (but numerous) siphon arrays on the nearest collection of pipes.

Cutting across the vast chamber was a crevasse and a sturdy looking bridge spanning it. The sound of rushing water echoed from far below, and it was clear where the Ianus ended at this point of it's journey. As the ranks spread out, Felix was able to pull himself closer to command and figure out their next move.

"—they are on the other side of the chamber," Aslei was explaining in a low voice. "We—we've only to cross the bridge and take the rightmost tunnel to the end." She let out a harsh, phlegmy cough.

"What's this place for?" Cal asked, peering around in cautious annoyance. "It doesn't have the stink of the Revenants."

"Access to the water below. Pipes go through the rock and into the gorge. There's a deep pool down there that the Ianus feeds," Bodie said from the side. Harn and others stared at him a moment in bewildered silence. "What? I read!"

"We're wasting time." Cal raised her hands and made a series of quick gestures.

They moved.

Felix was again at the rear as they crossed the chasm. Though the bridge creaked, it felt sturdy and overbuilt, each beam made of solid wood nearly four feet thick, with tall struts at steady intervals. It looked like something he'd see on Earth, built to withstand the elements and, more likely, monsters. The claw marks across it's thick floor beams were evidence of that.

Quiet as they all tried to be, there were still so many of them. The simple sound of their boots on the stone and wood was huge, echoing down into the crevasse and around the cavern. Felix winced at the noise, but if the monsters hadn't come to meet them yet, it was likely they weren't there at all. That didn't stop Cal from sending out a series of scouts however.

Atop the bridge, Felix could see into the gorge better than before. Bodie had been correct about the pipes. He could see them peek out of the cliffs like metal snakes, and there were a series of stairs carved into the side of the crevasse that switched their way down into the darkness. A distance that made Felix a little dizzy to consider.

"How far do you think that is?" Felix asked, but no one answered. He looked up to see Atar walking as dead center on the bridge as possible. "You okay?"

"Hm? I'm fine," Atar said, not stopping even once. Felix had to jog slightly to catch up. "I just would rather not be on this death trap any longer than I have to be."

"Atar, are you afraid of heights," Felix asked with a smile. "That's a surprise."

"I'm not afraid of heights," Atar said through his teeth. "I'm afraid of rickety bridges and deadly falls. There is a distinct difference."

"The entire crew crossed the bridge. If it were going to break, it would have done so when Bodie crossed, no?" Vess asked.

"...You may have a point," Atar conceded.

"Yeah," Felix grimaced. "A bridge is likely the least of our worries."

Almost on cue, screams began echoing from the tunnels ahead. Atar groaned.

"Why? Why did I come with you?"

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