Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Four - 124
A soft but strident note filled the air. Almost unwillingly, Felix felt his attention pulled away from the Naiad before him. He turned toward the stage, where a beautiful woman wearing grey robes stepped up. Unlike the rather plain set of the chorister of Yyero, her's were embroidered with silver designs along the collar and hem, forming complicated knotwork constructions. Felix recognized her from Caerwin's shop, and in fact behind her he could spot that older, bearded man as well. He was dressed in blue robes and was directing a cross look at the bald chorister in brown.
They were all priests at her shop, that day? Felix frowned through the sweetening chords. Then the watcher on the roof...another chorister?
Felix's Voracious Eye pulled up her name and level, but a powerful resistance blocked him from seeing the rest as anything but question marks. It didn't even denote her obvious affiliations, unlike the Acolytes he'd Eyed. She was either a much higher level or had something blocking him.
Name: Aslei Tunn
Level: 42
The song continued despite his investigations, a series of vocalizations that lilted softly through the air. Felix could even hear a strange reverb, an echo throughout the chamber as hearts calmed after their previous rage. That same internal harmonization, that secret music, he was hearing traces of it from everyone around him. Somehow, the chorister was attempting to settle things down with some sort of song magic.
Song magic. Sounds like a new age album.
"You feel it too, Felix? The Choristry of Siva, goddess of luck, healing, and plenty. It's an alluring tune." He turned to see Zara's bright blue eyes fixed on him. She was a little shorter than Felix, an inch or two taller than Evie herself. "Your Affinity is stronger than I suspected."
"Is that what it is?" Felix pursed his lips and looked back over the crowd, now with heads bowed in prayer. "Why are they doing this? This and whatever the hell that brown-robed guy did is straight up manipulation."
"Ah, so you sense that as well. I'm impressed." Zara grins, baring her sharp, triangular teeth. "Few unlock their Affinity, let alone improve it at such a young age."
"Affinity? Is that one of those harmony whatits?" Evie looked between the two of them with a frown. She seemed almost completely recovered. "Did someone use a Skill on me? How come I don't have any Status Condition notifications?"
"You won't. The choristers are quite skilled at what they do, though Yyero's follower is more of a...blunt instrument. Aslei has a far lighter touch."
She was right. Felix's Bastion was clearly blocking the chorister's Skill from affecting him, but he could feel a faint pressure around him, moving through the space as if it was seeking people out. The brown-robed chorister, the follower of Yyero apparently, had used his Skill and it appeared as a nearly invisible cloud that sparked against those it contacted. This woman's power was truly invisible, and only Felix's strange combination of Skills and Harmonic Stats could pick out the edges of it. He could even sense that it was reaching into Evie, just as he could sense when Zara reached out and banished it from around them.
Zara laughed at Felix's look. "You expect me to tolerate their games?"
"I'm just surprised at all of this," Felix said cautiously. "I was invited here to meet with...a friend. She neglected to mention this was going to be a religious rally."
"Religion and politics tend to infect all things, I'm afraid." Zara's laugh lines quirked as her brows drew down; an expression of resigned disdain. "Even when people should know better."
The Chorister of Siva ended her lilting hymn, and much of the crowd looked up in quiet joy. She looked up, her face marked with five dark dots under her eyes while twin lines stretched down from them to her jawline. She smiled gently. "Be welcome, my friends and fellow Haarwatchers. Be welcome under the gaze of the true gods."
There was a susseration among the crowd, as if people were trying to cheer but were too relaxed to do it.
Or doped up, Felix thought with a frown.
"Today we have gathered to celebrate our oneness with each other, with the ancient gods of our ancestors who still live on. We have also gathered to protest the dire treatment we have all belabored under, from the Guild and now the Inquisition.
"Too long we have been forced to give up our choice, to surrender ourselves to the blinding light of the Pathless, and in so doing ruin our chances at strength and success."
Murmurs grew as her touch lightened, and people began to regain their senses.
"You all deserve the power the System offers, the power the gods once guided us toward. In Ages past, the sentient Races were giants upon the Continent, contending with the greatest of threats and walking down the pure Path. We seek that again. And it starts with you."
Aslei pointed out at the audience, her voice never rising into a shout or cry, but still echoing across the vaulted chamber. Felix could feel a rising thrumming from the gathered folks, a sympathetic hum with the chorister's simple words.
Is another Skill being used? Felix glanced at Zara, who had pursed her lips.
"Just watch," she mouthed.
"We must show them the power we hold," Aslei continued. "Beyond the strength of levels and battle. We show them that we are all worthy of respect, of choice, and of freedom.
"The monsters in the Foglands grow stronger as the Mana flows ever more potent. We do not know why, and that is because we have lost our way. Turned aside from the true Path, having broken it apart with lies and conflict. The Inquisition and Hierophant keep us weak, all so they can stand above us.
"But we few have persevered, despite the strong-arm tactics of the Inviolate Inquisition and the spineless inaction of the Guild. You faithful few are our core, our feet on the ground of this great city. Without you, without the solidarity of our people, this will not, cannot work.
"We hold the faith, and we will be victorious."
The crowd exploded into a riotous cheer. Far from the violent eruption of before, this felt like the earned adulation of an experienced politician or beloved figure. It felt...pure, almost, and Felix was briefly tempted to lower his walls and just taste that experience. Just for a moment.
"Don't."
An ochre hand on his shoulder brought him back to his senses, and when a puff of silver something erupted from his mouth Felix almost growled in anger. Pit screeched in tandem, and the construct flickered and was torn to pieces.
"Interesting," Zara observed. Felix glanced at her, transferring his ire toward the Naiad.
"What is all this?" he snapped, gesturing to the entire chamber.
"Rebellion, Felix. They're talking of rebellion." Zara looked at them both calmly as the people around them cheered louder.
Evie goggled at her. "What? How? They'd be crushed."
Zara shrugged, her sharp teeth bared in a silent snarl. "That's what I keep telling them. But they drive on, regardless."
"What's you're part in this?" Evie asked. "Why would they trust the former Archivist for the guild they hate?"
Felix looked away from the silver-robed chorister at that, interested in the answer. The Naiad went quiet.
"And what, exactly, do you want with us, Zara?" Evie asked, looking between the two of them. "Thank for the, uh, help. But like he said, we came here lookin' for someone else."
"Oh I'm aware, Miss Aren," Zara flashed her shark teeth at her and Evie took a half-step backward. It wasn't just the expression, as even Felix felt the swell of pressure from the ex-Archivist, a taste of what he'd sensed when they first met. "I was the one who invited him, after all."
"What?" Felix blinked. "We haven't spoken--"
"Been a few days, mhmm," she nodded. Her smile widened and her voice altered, becoming older, tone flatter. "How's the Wild Song been treating your friend?"
Possiblities raced through Felix's head like shuffling cards, but the obvious one rose swiftly to the top. Felix narrowed his eyes, flaring his Manasight and all of the senses he had. He detected nothing, however.
"Caerwin?"
Zara smirked. "I knew you were a bright boy, Felix. Plain awful at organizing books, though. You ruined a perfectly good system, you know."
Felix shared a confused look with Evie. "How--why--?"
"I should think you, of all people, would appreciate the need for masks," Zara said with a twinkle in her eyes. Felix didn't even rise to the bait, instead thinking on his interactions with both shopkeepers. How could he have missed this? Felix's thoughts touched on Pit's enchanted stone before he made the connection.
"The Wild Song, huh? Those bracers aren't for strength enhancement, are they?" Felix nodded at the Naiad's forearms, which were covered in dark leather that had been inscribed with various sigils. Bracers that Caerwin had also sported.
Zara just grinned.
"What's with the robes?" Evie asked, clearly annoyed that she didn't understand their conversation. "Bold of you to playdress as a chorister, considerin' the company."
Zara tilted her head in the slightest of bows. "Zara has long sung the Choristry of Avet, though Caerwin has never pledged herself to any cause."
Felix furrowed his brow. Had he been wrong? "But you're the same person...aren't you?"
"Masks are funny, Felix. We wear them, but they also wear us." Zara's eyes flickered out toward the crowd. "We haven't much time, I imagine. Come. We must speak in private."
She reached out for their hands, but Evie snatched hers away. Zara tutted. "Don't be like that, Aren. The god of secrets and fire isn't going to steal your soul. At least not through me."
"That's exactly what He'd say though," Evie muttered. "But don't you forget that He's also the god of change. Violent change. After what we've heard here, I don't know that we should be talkin' to you at all."
Zara tilted her head, conceding the point. "True enough. I make no claim on the virtue of the gods, I merely share their chorus."
She gestured away from the crowd. "Do you wish to follow?"
Again, the two of them shared a long look. "You trust her, Felix?"
"I uh--" Felix found himself reaching out for that connection again, his Affinity, and in a way he still didn't consciously understand, he listened. The world narrowed, until only himself and Zara existed, until he could hear the thud of his own heartbeat and the rising tempo of the Naiads inner music. It felt...agitated, but confident. He could sense a truthfulness, somehow, but it was coupled with a sense of urgency that sent secondhand chords of panic back into his own chest. Felix broke off the contact with a gasp, and the world around them returned.
Zara blinked, very clearly shocked by what had just happened, though she regained her composure quickly. Felix took a steadying breath and nodded. "I think I do. For now."
"Good enough for me, I guess." Evie tilted her chin at the Naiad. "Let's go."
"Wonderful."
The three of them stepped away from the crowd, moving into the farther ends of the chamber, where the vaulted ceilings came down onto a series of brickwork pillars. Perhaps fifty feet away, an alcove was set behind yet another pointed trefoil arch. Felix couldn't detect anyone over here, though he wasn't sure; that faint stench seemed to stick to his physical senses in a distracting way.
As they drew close to the arch, two birds fluttered down from above. They landed on her shoulders easily, nestling into the folds of her dark robe. Felix hadn't sensed them at all, though that might have been because of their size rather than the general miasma in the air. They were quite small, a little brown and white owl the size of a teacup and a brightly colored kingfisher that was slightly larger.
Pit chirruped brightly in his head, and the two birds eyed him with interest. The tenku was always looking to make friends or fight monsters. Felix was happy he'd settled on friends for now. The fighting might have to come later.
They stepped through the archway and into a small open room. Bounded only by the archway in front, it was open to the vaulted ceiling; likely it was some sort of supply closet back when this all was an operational sewer system. Now there was only a simple round wooden table and five simple stools. It made Felix wonder how long the choristers had been hiding down here. Did they live there? Or just worship?
"My reasons for asking you down here were threefold, Felix Nevarre." Zara turned to address them once they'd cleared the arch. She led them to sit at the table. "The first was to give you...perspective. I would have you know the lay of the land in Haarwatch before we continue. As well as the roles I play."
"I'm gonna have to assume you mean the little rebellion out there, yeah?" Zara nodded and Felix sighed. "Okay. That's not something I want to get involved with...I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. Signing up for a theological revolution isn't my thing."
"Seat of your pants...?" Evie said with a grin. "I'm with him on that. I hold the old faith, but I'm not about to risk my neck on whatever fool thing these trumped up peacocks have planned."
"A reasonable position to hold," Zara agreed. "I too believe it is far too late to take the sort of actions they desire. They seek a peaceful resolution, a show of economic and political force by those that keep this city running. The time for such actions has unfortunately passed, and newer, more dire solutions must present themselves."
"More dire solutions?" Felix asked. "You mean more violent."
Zara tilted her head again. "If it must be so. Of them all, the Chorister of Yyero has the closest angle on it, if I'm to be honest. The others, however, do not listen well to a Chorister of the trickster god known for inciting incendiary change. They listen to Caerwin well enough, but she is only one voice."
"Ok that's gettin' real confusin'," Evie complained. "You're both right? Caerwin and Zara. Why do you talk about her like she's not you?"
"Nature of the craft, Aren." Zara bit her lips for a brief second, and her sharp teeth drew blood. "I'll explain in better detail if you accept my offer, Felix."
Felix nodded slowly. "Alright. Then what's the second reason?"
"The second is that I am in need of apprentices. I seek to pass on what I know, what few in the Heirocracy know." Zara looked Felix in the eye.
"Chanter magic," he said.
"Just so," Zara smiled. "Those that understand the harmonics of the universe are few and far between. You fell into my lap, Felix, just as I was searching for those with the talents to grasp the truths I bear. That is not coincidence. That is providence."
Felix grimaced. "Predestination is not my favorite concept. I'm not here because someone sent me. I'm--"
Felix swallowed his words and he felt Evie tense next to him. "I'm here for my own reasons," he finished.
"All that I know, is that you came to me when you were most needed," Zara held her hands out, placatingly. "Until last week, I had found only one other that could help me. And that has been---well. A challenge."
"Really? Someone else?" Felix was intrigued. "Who?"
"You'll meet them soon, if all things go right," Zara promised. "The third reason is the most important. Far more than my need for an inheritor. Something beyond the unrest the choristers are trying to capitalize upon. Have you sensed it?"
Felix and Evie frowned in tandem, but then the chain-fighter snorted. "Lady, I've been hiding from the Guild and the Redcloaks for weeks now. That's plenty of problems for me."
Zara smiled with her shark teeth. "Fair enough."
She looked to him. "Felix? Do you--"
"NO!"
The three of them spun toward the sound, and Felix quickly oriented on the stage. They still had a clear line of sight through the archway. The twins in blue had attempted to walk up next, but a woman in dark red robes stumbled to the stage, her eyes wild. Her robes were torn and stained, as if she had slept in them for years. Her pale-brown hair was tangled, half-matted and the other half trying to escape whatever clips or ties she was using.
"The Chorister of Vellus," Zara said with pity in her voice. "The poor thing."
Without warning, Felix's sight was subsumed by a vision of that terrible mountain. A cataclysmic storm tore across it, an eternal torment that sent blood-curdling screams crawling through his veins. The sudden memory was so visceral that Felix shoved the tips of his fingers straight through the wooden table top.
"Blood and ashes, Felix!" Evie said, startled by the loud crack from the table.
"Ah, shit. Sorry." The vision settled back into his Mind and Felix gave an embarrassed glance at the others. "Um, what's that about?"
"You're not a follower of any gods, are you Felix?" Zara asked, her eyes curiously flicking between his fingers and his face.
"Ah, no," Felix admitted.
Zara sighed lightly. "The Pathless claims the gods died, having lost their way beyond the heavens. But like the chorister said, the gods are not dead. They are slumbering, far away. Vellus, however...Vellus was Lost."
"Lost? Like how the Nym are a Lost Race?" Felix asked.
"The Nym? Yes, exactly like that. Records of the Ages past are moth-eaten at best, all first-hand accounts on the subject either destroyed or wiped clean in much the same way as the Nym. We don't know why or how, but the Ruin came for Vellus." Zara pointed at the stage, visible through the archway. "Those that still venerate Her always end up mad."
"Then why would anyone?" Evie said, aghast.
That's awful, Felix agreed, now closely watching as the red-robed woman fought against the blue's restraints. He was reminded of Old Mungle, the Sage of Vellus, a madman trapped in the Void. He too had the same timeworn affliction. The other choristers tried in vain to hold her back, but somehow the Chorister of Vellus shook them off and stepped toward the edge.
He wanted to ask Zara about her third reason, but Felix could suddenly feel a strange crackle in the air. A tension that lifted the hair at the back of his neck. Nothing like how the others had affected the chamber. What is this?
Zara sat up straighter, her blue eyes narrowing. Felix could sense Evie grip her chain harder, and he knew she was already looking for the exits. The chorister began to speak.
"Yyero's chosen speaks of a dire darkness. Of none to help. Of failed mortality. He is right."
The woman's voice was reedy and thin, all but trembling under the weight of the audience's regard. She spoke as if she couldn't help herself, as if each word pained her. "When death dropped from the skies, no mortal hand reached out to help us. To help you. But those in the Dust, they saw something else that day, didn't they?"
The quiet was heavy, thick with...something Felix couldn't identify. The chorister clenched her hands before her, before clapping them together, sending the sharp sound blasting into the crowd.
"Like lightning they came! The one who delivered the Dust from the predation of monstrous fate. Who was it? Who, on that day, dared defy the Guild? Defied the Inquisition itself?"
Whispers swept through the chamber like a breeze before a storm. Hands and head flapped like leaves, twisting and nodding and gesturing. Felix felt his gut sink even as his face began to heat up in embarrassment.
"The Blue-Eyed Fiend!" The chorister's voice cracked like a thunderbolt, stilling the whispers in an instant. "No mere mortal, but an avatar! A vessel of the great gods! A champion sent from the slumbering ones to protect their chosen people!"
Even from this distance, Felix could see the white all around the chorister's eyes. She panted with heavy breaths. "A mighty storm followed his appearance for days, proof of his provenance! Wings of darkest night! A voice of thunder! Eyes of midnight flame!"
Each shout sent fissures through the crowd, near visible tremors that sent the audience trembling. Felix could see they were getting worked up, and several of the Dusters (even Rafny and her coterie) had their fists upraised and were cheering.
"We ask for relief from the Inquisition, Blue-Eyed Fiend! We call on you! We beseech you! Aid us, defier!"
The chorister's voice had turned rough and ragged by the end, but the crowd went wild. That crackling in the air discharged into a jagged cry, one that was soon taken up by many. It was a wild, inchoate ululation; a stoked desperation that sent chills down Felix's back to hear.
A squawk from Zara's shoulder jolted Felix back from the mortified silence he'd fallen into. He looked at the Naiad's odd pets, and their gaze was fixed on the archway. A moment later, a young boy stepped into the alcove. He was perhaps fifteen years old and wore a simple but clean tunic and shorts, along with a set of strappy sandals.
"Uh ma'am?" He asked, voice shaking. The boy glanced back at the uproar of the crowd with wide eyes.
"Ah, yes. Come in, boy."
He stepped further in and made a beckoning gesture behind him. A woman followed, cloaked in black. Something ineffable had changed about her, but Felix couldn't have mistaken that dusky skin and dark hair. Her own eyes widened in surprise as she turned the corner.
"Evie! Felix!"
Chairs scooted back as they both stood, and Evie closed the distance in moments. She fairly tackled the heiress in a hug, hard enough that Felix hoped Vess was wearing armor.
"Fate beckons! The storm calls!" the chorister shouted from beyond. "Vellus draws all in her tireless tides!"
Then the wall exploded.
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