Unbound

"You...want this?" Felix asked, holding the Omen Key. Pit squawked in outrage.

Not yours!

The massive Urge cocked it's head, and it crowed in a voice of ten million birds.

WHY?

"Why...what?" Felix asked.

WHY DO YOU OFFER AN OMEN KEY?

Felix was confused. He gripped the translucent key, too hard he feared, but a Strength that could bend steel did nothing to it. "I...have nothing else to offer," he said slowly. Nothing he wanted to part with, at least. The Omen Key would have hurt, but if the Raven really didn't want it...

INTERESTING. The Raven hopped about, leaping from the titanic swells beneath it and up on to the cliff ledge itself. It landed with a deafening whumph and a rasping caw. AN OMEN KEY IS NOTHING TO US.

"Nothing?" Felix looked at the Key. "Isn't it valuable?"

Felix gratefully put the Omen Key back into his pack. "So you only take things that are of use to you? That isn't my understanding of your...motivation."

WE SEEK THAT WHICH IS HIDDEN OR LOST, THOUGH THAT WHICH SHIMMERS DOES HOLD GREAT ATTRACTION TO US. YOUR OMEN KEY WAS NOT HIDDEN OR LOST...IT WAS GENERATED BY THE SYSTEM FOR YOU DIRECTLY. A RARE OCCURRENCE BUT NOT WHAT WE SEEK. WHAT WE NEED. The Raven leaned in closer again, and it's huge beak nodded at Felix's side again. A talon formed of ten thousand feathers arced from the sky, and it took all of Felix's Willpower not to flinch. Instead of cutting him in half, it merely tapped against the hilt of his Crescian Blade that hung next to his satchel. THIS IS DIFFERENT. LOST FOR SO VERY LONG. YOU FOUND THIS, CLAIMED IT. WE SENSE...DEATH.

That was no better in Felix's mind. He'd done a lot to get that sword back, and it was tied to the Temple. He couldn't give it away. Felix didn't say that, instead gripped its handle. "I've killed a few things with it, yeah."

KAAW! A FAMILIAR DEATH. YES.

Felix's memory flashed back to the Henaari corpse he'd found. The sword had been beneath its bones, tangled in wildflowers and grass stalks. The Raven rotated its head, until it was looking at Felix almost upside-down.

YES. OUR FAVORED DAUGHTER. LOST TO US. YOU FOUND HER?

"I suppose I did," Felix admitted. He watched those talons, those wings and beak. A single strike might not kill him outright, but it would be very bad. Pit, easily able to feel Felix's tension, spread his stance.

HMM. YOU FOUND HER. YOU WATCHED. YOU SOUGHT OUT THE PREDATOR THAT KILLED HER. THIS IS GOOD.

Felix nodded slowly. He had found the Henaari and buried it—her—when he could, but he didn't recall fighting her killer. There were so many monsters around the Waterfall Temple. How would he have known? Unless...

"It was the Orit that killed her?" he asked.

The Raven cawed, its voice multitudinous and louder than the surf that roared below. THE TWISTED ONE. WE SENSE ITS BLOOD ON YOU, SPILLED IN BATTLE. MORE.

"I mean, I killed the Orit. And the two Bloodtainted Guardians," Felix said. The Raven didn't seem impressed, just...distracted.

WE SENSE OLD THINGS COME TO ROOST. YOUR BLOOD. IT SMELLS OF...LOST THINGS.

The Raven's head tilted upright, and it hopped closer. Nearly fifty feet closer. Pit growled at it, and the Raven regarded the tenku with its blank gaze.

GUARDIAN BEAST. THE SECOND WE HAVE SEEN. WE ARE NOT INTERESTED. It sniffed, the sound of bellows. WE NEED MORE. TELL US.

TELL US.

Felix felt gripped by a certainty that the Raven would not let him leave without another offering. By habit, he tried to feel at the Urge's Spirit, but flinched away from a screaming maelstrom of black feathers. He sensed neither emotion nor intent from whatever composed the godling, only overwhelming noise. Felix jerked back, cutting off the connection and unsheathing his Crescian Blade. He held its bronze blade aloft, letting the dim light gather against the edge. The Raven tilted its head again.

Felix brought it down, and sliced open the palm of his hand.

OOOH.

Blood pooled, thicker and more viscous than Felix remembered it being. He squeezed his hand, and the blood spilled outward and onto the earth. The Raven lunged and shoved the tip of its gargantuan beak into the stone and soil, tearing up the blood with a squelch of mud. It snapped its head back just as quickly, undulating its throat until the mess of dirt and leaves and rocks slid down its gullet.

KAAAW! KAW!

Felix barely held his ground as the Raven screamed. The giant bird trembled, the surf crashed, and thunder crashed hard enough to shake the leaf-strewn earth. The Raven flapped its wings, once, twice, kicking up gale force winds that Felix had to lean into in order to keep his feet.

UNBOUND! NYM! PRIMORDIAL!

Its voice was again the million throated cry of dark birds, and the storm above them intensified. The wind streamed, no less intense, and trees were starting to topple around them. Leaves flung into the air, wet and half-rotted, but Felix kept his eyes on the Raven. Its beak was wide as it screamed, as were the burning mouths of thousands of others in the darkness of its breast. Fear flared along his bond, but so did determination. Neither Felix nor Pit were going down without a fight.

And then it was all gone.

The storm quietened, the wind died, and even the surf went silent. It felt like Felix had gone deaf; he almost checked his Status Conditions had he not noticed that the Raven had gotten closer once again, cooing all the while. Its eyes were calm and devoid of anything but an animalistic intelligence.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR ROLE, UNBOUND?

"My role?" Felix narrowed his eyes and kept his Blade between them and the Urge. "I don't—what's that?"

WE ROSE FROM THE URGE TO SEEK, TO FIND, TO UNCOVER AND LET SHINE. WE ARE MIGHTY, BUT NOT ALL POWERFUL. WE HAVE A ROLE IN CREATION. AS DO WE ALL.

Interesting to hear, but Felix couldn't help but feel some emotional whiplash. He didn't know what to expect from this creature. It seemed to have something of an intelligence, even if it was just a lot of birds mushed together. "I don't have a role. I'm just...I'm here. Surviving."

ALL HAVE A ROLE. FROM PRIMORDIALS TO GODS. EVEN THE RUIN.

That caught his attention. "The Ruin," Felix repeated. "I've heard that before. A force that ends civilizations, that wipes out entire Races, even destroying records of them. How?"

CREATION IS FILLED WITH GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS. TERRIBLE THINGS. THE RUIN LIMITS, FOR THAT IS ITS PURPOSE. IT'S ROLE. IT IS THE MOST PRIMAL OF URGES. AN URGE OF FEAR. OF JEALOUSY.

No one had ever given him this much information. Felix pressed. "Not destruction? Isn't that what it does?"

DESTRUCTION! CAW! DESTRU—DO YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF POWER?

"The what?"

THE PATH TO MASTERY. OF TEMPERING YOUR MORTAL FORM.

"I've been told it's something of a quest for immortality," Felix hazarded. The Maw had said as much.

KAHAW! KAW! IMMORTALITY! YES. SIGNIFICANCE BUILD INTO YOUR BEING WITH EACH AND EVERY TEMPER. A SOLIDITY, A RIGIDITY THAT EVENTUALLY CANNOT BE DENIED. TIME AND AGE WILL NO LONGER TOUCH THOSE UPON THE PATH TO POWER, BUT THAT IS A SIDE EFFECT! The Raven hopped again. IT IS ABOUT FINDING YOUR ROLE! THE URGE THAT DRIVES YOU! ONCE FOUND, YOU FUEL IT WITH SIGNIFICANCE!

Felix could almost hear the capitalization of the concepts the Raven was crowing at him. "The Urge that drives me? Wait, Significance. I've heard that before." Zara had explained it as a solidity, an...affixing of one's self as they grew more powerful. The result of Tempers and the choices one made along the way, just as the Raven said. "What is it, exactly?"

IT IS THE CESSATION OF WHAT COULD BE AND THE SOLIDIFICATION OF WHAT WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE, the Raven squawked. IT IS MEANING TURNED TO POTENCY, AFFIXING ALL THAT YOU ARE AND MAKING YOU MORE. NO LONGER MORTAL. A NEW YOU, CHANGED, TRANSFORMED. It cawed twice at an almost deafening volume, now that the the world had gone silent. ONLY THE GREATEST REACH SUCH HEIGHTS.

ONLY THE GODS.

Had lightning crashed dramatically as the Raven said that, Felix would not have been surprised. I always suspected. Vellus called me ascendant, traveling the Broken Path...that is where the gods came from? They just reached the peak of the mountain?

"Not you? I've heard many call you a god," Felix said. He still didn't know what the Raven wanted from him, but maybe he could get more answers from the thing.

WE ARE BUT AN URGE. POWERFUL, YES. STRONG ENOUGH THAT WE COULD END YOU, UNBOUND. PRIMORDIAL. BUT WE WILL NEVER BE MORE THAN WHAT WE ARE. IT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF MORTALITY, WEAK AS YOU ARE. The huge bird shook itself and smaller forms took flight from its back, fleeing into the dark sky. WE FOLLOW OUR ROLE. IT IS PATH ENOUGH.

AS UNBOUND, YOU ARE UNTETHERED TO THIS WORLD. UNMOORED FROM CREATION ITSELF. IT IS A CURIOUS THING. A BLANK SPOT IN THE WEAVE OF POWER. A PRIMORDIAL'S ROLE IS FAR DIFFERENT. ONE OF THE UNSEEN TIDE HAS NOT BEEN SEEN IN MANY, MANY LONG YEARS.

"What do you know, Raven?" Felix asked.

DO YOU FEEL THE THREADS, UNBOUND? the Raven asked. THEY ARE THE TIDES OF THE INVISIBLE SEA THAT SURROUNDS YOU. IN AN ANCIENT AGE—BEFORE THE ADVENT OF HUMANITY OR THE ELVES, BEFORE EVEN THE NYM—THE PRIMORDIALS ROAMED. ALL OF THEM HAVE THEIR PURPOSE, A ROLE, EVEN THE ONES GONE MAD.

"Aren't they all insane?"

ARE YOU?

Good point.

THINK ON YOUR ROLE, FELIX NEVARRE. THERE MAY COME A TIME WHEN THE ANSWER WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE.

"Can't you just tell me?"

KAW! KAKAAW! KAW!

Felix watched for a full half-minute before it dawned on him that it was laughing. At him.

WE ARE PLEASED, FELIX NEVARRE.

"What?" he asked. "Why?"

YOU BRING TO US SECRETS. YOU CARRY THE BLOOD OF THINGS ONCE LOST. IT IS FAR ABOVE WHAT WE REQUIRE FROM THOSE WHO SEEK OUR BLESSING. WHO FOLLOW OUR ROLE.

Felix considered not speaking, but found he couldn't help himself. "I'm not following you or your role. Like you said, I don't know my own yet, but it's my own. No one else's."

CAW! CAAAW! GOOD!

"Good?"

THOSE THAT FORGE THEIR WAY WILL DIE, OR THEIR VERY PASSAGE WILL UNCOVER WHAT WE DESIRE. WHAT WE NEED. The Raven shook itself, it's shaggy throat feathers wobbling. WE SENSE A GREAT MANY UPHEAVALS IN YOUR FUTURE, UNBOUND. FELIX NEVARRE, HE WHO WAS LOST, WE ARE PLEASED.

Without warning, the Endless Raven lunged at him.

Unfettered Volition!

Felix blurred, moving fast enough to tear the air and earth around him, lifting his blade into Sword Form #2 while his offhand shoved outward to stop it's advance. Yet the Raven snaked past all of his defenses, arriving almost instantly to drive it's beak into Felix's chest.

Instead of being pierced, Felix was thrown backward, hurled all the faster by the intense renewal of winds from its wings. Pit squawked in alarm.

BE LOST NO MORE.

Darkness consumed them both.

He heard the chirping of birds.

Felix surged to his feet, lightning crackling along his arms. Vision came shortly after hearing, but it was too bright. Golden sunlight shone sideways through rents in the stonework and directly into his eyes. He groaned, and blinked rapidly, his bleary eyes slowly adjusting. The birds had stopped, spooked maybe, but Felix could see now. He wasn't in the Raven's Realm any longer. He was back in the tower.

And it was dawn.

"Pit?" Felix turned once, then again. His heart hammered until he found his friend snoring softly in a darkened corner. "Jesus. You scared me. Hey! Get up!"

Pit warbled groggily at him, but got to his feet.

"Yeah, I know you're tired." Felix rubbed at his face with his palms. "I'm more tired than I've been in a while. Whatever that big bird did to us knocked me on my ass."

The soreness he'd felt in his Aspects was worse than before. Felix felt like he could sleep for days if he let himself, but he hadn't the time. They'd lost enough of that already.

Who knows what they did to our team while I was away. Felix hoped the Henaari wouldn't attack his people during this whole ordeal, but he really didn't trust the Matriarch. Be ready to fight, Pit.

This time the tenku let out a chirrup that was almost mean-sounding. Felix was impressed.

When they emerged from the minor labyrinth of the tower—now far easier to navigate in the morning light—Felix found a changed sight. The camp-wide crowd had dispersed, likely hours prior, and only eight Henaari guards and his three friends were nearby. All three of them were asleep, Atar and Evie leaning against one another while Vess had her head cushioned on Evie's lap. It was almost sweet, had the armed guards no loomed over them like executioners.

"You've returned!"

The voice caught Felix utterly by surprise, earning a squawk of fear from Pit and a flinch from him. It was the Farwalker, face still drenched in shadow despite the rising sun. He was in his rudimentary wheelchair and Wyvora was behind him. Both of them looked fresh as daisies.

"Didn't feel as long as it was," Felix said while he lowered his clenched fists. Wyvora flinched, only just noticing he'd spun on them. He imagined he moved a bit too fast for her to track. Hah, take that for sneaking up on me. "That big—Raven was a big talker though."

"She spoke to you?" Wyvora asked. Her wide-set eyes looked ready to pop out of her sockets. "With...with words? I—"

"Where is he?!"

To the side there was a grunt and clatter as his friends half-woke, while before Felix the Matriarch emerged from a large, ornate structure. Despite the finery on her body, she looked haggard, as if she hadn't slept at all. She was flanked by the Synod, as well as a number of armed guards, all of which converged on the tower and Felix.

"You're awake, Tava," said the Farwalker. He tilted his hooded head at them all. "I trust you slept well?"

"Enough of your banal pleasantries. We are here to pass judgement on your...guest," the Matriarch said with open derision. "He has entered the tower and gone to see the Endless Raven. What, if anything, does the boy have to show us?"

"Felix?" Vess' voice cut through the chatter. He looked over to find all three of them up and pressing closer, though their guards' spears were bared. Vess looked relieved. "You are unharmed...."

"See? I told you they'd be alive," Evie said with confidence.

"You said 'I bet he eats the bird in half a glass,'" Atar said.

Evie shrugged. "I mean, it's a safe bet."

"Eats the—" the Matriarch's face was a thunderhead, and the Synod all looked horrified. "You dare joke of such things!"

"Wasn't really a joke," Evie muttered, glaring right back at her.

Felix, meanwhile, had noticed something. "I did see the Endless Raven. We spoke for a bit and it sent me back here," he raised his hand. "With this."

Everyone turned to look at Felix as he revealed a foot long feather. It was dark and glossy, and it radiated equal parts of gentle inquisitiveness and avid interest. Henaari gasped.

"A Feather of the Raven!"

"He brings back such a treasure!"

"An outsider—!?"

"Impossible!" the Matriarch cried. The diadems in her woven hair wobbled as she stepped toward him. "That is—you are—!"

"Here," Felix said, holding out the feather. "Analyze it yourself." He knew what she'd find.

Name: Feather of the Endless Raven

Type: Favor (Urge)

Lore: Granted only to those the Raven approves, a Feather is a visible sign of regard from the Endless Raven. Other purposes, if any, are unknown.

"It is true," she whispered. It was like someone had stolen the wind from her sails, as she practically deflated. "How?"

"Not only a Feather," the Farwalker said. Wyvora rolled him closer to Felix and he reached out a wrinkled but steady hand. "May I?"

"May you what?"

"Show them what you've earned," he said. "It is harmless."

Curious, Felix nodded. The Farwalker touched Felix's chest and lights burst upward. A series of bright stars poured from Felix's chest, each accompanied by a staccato bloom of blue-white and red-gold light. Around them, his friends and the Henaari both stumbled under a sudden, indefinable pressure. Even Wyvora and the Matriarch abruptly strained against a invisible weight, though Felix felt nothing except a heaviness in his chest. The Farwalker, for his part, merely looked astonished before he did something and stopped the sensation.

"That was—"

"—Spirit of a beast!"

Above them all, the stars that had escaped resolved into a series of shapes. Patterns of light both like and unlike Felix's Skills formed in the air, all of them unfamiliar. One surged to the fore, however, and it resembled nothing so much as a pair of wild, outspread wings.

"The Raven's Mark," members of the Synod whispered.

"Impossible," the Matriarch repeated. Felix was starting to think it was her favorite word. Her tired face had gone pale and her ringed hands shook as they covered her mouth.

"He is worthy of the Right of Wander," the Farwalker stated. His voice had a slight resonance to it, one that Felix was sure carried to the very edges of the camp. "Felix Nevarre and his Companion Pit are protected by the Endless Raven."

The Henaari all bowed their heads.

"As the Raven wills," they intoned as one.

"Night, that's creepy," Evie said, loud enough for him to hear. Felix saw Atar elbow her again, and this time he got the softer part near her arm pit. She hissed in pain and Atar looked inordinately proud of himself.

"It is time, I think, for us to talk," the Farwalker said in a normal voice.

Icons in Felix's vision began to blink and flicker, and he nodded. "Yeahhh. We've got some things to discuss."

But first, Felix sent to his Companion. Looks like we have notifications, Pit.

Pit trilled in pleasure.

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