Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Two - 302

Felix woke them all an hour before dawn. How he knew the time while within a lightless cavern he wasn't quite sure; he could have counted back the hours to determine it, but instead it was simply a feeling. A tingle at the edge of his senses when the sun began heating the land.

Strange.

Most of them grumbled, though the worst of it came from the Haarguard. Not that they were mad at him, but every single one of them was still affected by the protracted fights the day prior. Felix felt for them, but there wasn't time. They'd have to keep up.

Felix and Harn took the lead, Pit and A'zek and the rest behind them as they traversed the honeycombed passages. Pit sniffed at the tunnels ahead and let out a piping chirp.

"What's that? What do you smell?" Evie asked him.

Pit twisted his head, tilting it from side to side, as if he heard something he couldn't place. Nothing clear came across their bond, just uncertainty and confusion. Felix patted the chimera on the flanks, trying to ease his worries.

"Whatever it is, we'll handle it," Felix promised. Pit merely nodded, mollified.

"I only feel the weight of the mountain," A'zek said. He was practically invisible in the dark, even to those with Night Eye or other sight Skills. Felix could make him out, but only because of the Mana in the earth around the harnoqotherwise it was as if A'zek wasn't there at all. Even his baritone voice sounded like it was coming from down a deep, dark well. "There is something to these ranges. Something ancient."

"We'll be out of them soon enough," Harn grunted. "Quick now. I'd like to see daylight."

They followed winding, twisty tunnels filled with uneven footing and pockmarked ceilings, as if something had burrowed through it. Soft chittering came to them occasionally, a click-clacking that set Felix's teeth on edge. It reminded him of cicadas, but by the sound of them they were the size of Pit, at least. Felix was tempted to wrap them all with Abyssal Skein again, to avoid any unwanted attention, but the idea of it made him queasy. The Skill seemed to be mended, healed even, but it felt like a broken leg only just recovered; were he to put his full weight on it, he might break it anew. Instead, they all moved carefully, quietly. Some better than others.

That pressure they had felt while climbing the mountain, gone when he'd woken by the campfire, had increased with every mile of mountain they traversed. Soon the Haarguard were stumbling, unable to stand straight, and even Evie and Vess were struggling. Atar and Alister were gasping for air, Wyvora too, and she leaned upon A'zek to keep her feet. The two chimera, Harn, and Felix were relatively unburdened, though the pressure was like a blanket across his senses.

"I was wrong," Harn said. The dark pressed against them like a velvet shroud and the man spat. "It ain't wards on this mountain. It's natural, grown into the rock."

"The mountain is doing this?" Felix asked. "How does that work?"

"Significance builds in all things, Unbound," A'zek said. Felix glared at the harnoq then at the struggling Haarguard. The cat merely shrugged and kept speaking. "The oldest of things have the most significance, the most meaning within them. Is it so remarkable that a mountain as old as the Ages would have garnered this much?"

"That would mean the mountain or the range itself has Aspects to gather that meaning," Felix said. "You're saying the mountain is alive? Sentient?"

"That is entirely dependent on your definition of living, of sentience." A'zek looked upward, and strangely so did Pit. The both of them stared at the same spot above their heads. "There is...a being above us. A creature of the elements."

Harn drew his axes, and Felix flared his Manasight, hoping to peer through a thousand feet of rock. He saw nothing but Mana, swirling yet rigid in a way that only earth could be, and nothing of a living creature. "I don't feel anything. Does this creature have to do with the mountain's significance?"

"Perhaps," A'zek shrugged. "It sleeps...I can tell that much."

What is it? Pit asked.

"Ancient. More than that I do not know."

Felix took a breath and set it aside. There was nothing he could do about some old monster living atop a mountain, not with everything else on his plate, and simply accepted it. He had learned, the hard way, to roll with the punches and only fight the battles he could win. His life would have been far more exhausting if he acted otherwise.

He did a fair impression of Harn's grunt and continued on, only pausing long enough to ensure the rest were following.

At the worst of it, Pit had Davum, Kylar, Vyne, and Nevia draped across his back, while A'zek took Kikri and a woozy Wyvora. Evie had taken Vess' arm, and, surprisingly, Alister had to grab onto Atar. The force mage had looked little better than the Apprentice Tiers at one point. But they pushed through it, navigating further into the maze of craggy tunnels, and now they were angling again but this time it was downward. Then they saw the light, coming slantwise from a thin crevasse. The tunnels dipped further, pushing down into the depths of the mountain, but each step down increased Felix's anxiety even as it lightened the pressure from his Spirit. He knew the Archon's Domain was far below them, but Felix could not help but fear drifting blindly closer.

"Stop," he told the others. "We'll exit here."

"H-hope you can open that a mite wider, Felix," Evie said. She too was now leaning on Pit, and her legs shook like she'd just finished running ten miles. "Vess' got those child-bearing hips, you know?"

Vess smacked her friend, hard enough to send the girl sprawling, which made Vess lunge to catch her. Evie chuckled the whole time.

Harn rolled his eyes, but he too regarded the crevasse with doubt.

"I'll widen the opening. I think we're far enough away from the mountain's...whatever for me to shape the stone." I hope, he added silently.

Felix turned from his team and put his hands directly on the stone, fifteen feet below the deep fissure. He didn't activate the Skill, but instead leaned against his Will, Intent, and Affinity as he'd been taught. The shape of his Skill shimmered in his Mind's eye, the twists and turns of it, the vibrations, the...frequency. His Affinity crooned, catching the song of it, and Felix levered his Intent and Will, coaxing his own Mana through the pattern and into his channels. He held the shape he wanted, needed: of a door, a threshold through which they could walk out of the tunnels. His core space buzzed, rippled, and shook as the song took him, rolling through his veins like an ocean's surf. Focus.

Stone Shaping.

The Mana flowed out of him, dusty brown and shimmering with potency. It sank into the stone beneath his hands, and as before the stone was simply changed. No intermediate forms or gel-like consistencyit was a solid wall one instant, and in the next it was a threshold without gate or door. It was about ten feet wide and twenty feet tall, more than enough to allow all of them through. Sunlight streamed onto him, hot and too bright after the cool darkness of the earth, but Felix reveled in it.

"There, see? Easy." Felix grinned back at them, but everyone pushed past him, equally as excited to see the light of day. The grin turned into a bemused frown, before fading entirely. Not that I expected a thanks or anything.

"Thank you, Felix," Wyvora whispered. She had climbed off A'zek's back at some point, and now she stared at him from entirely too close. In a flash, she kissed his cheek, and the sparking feel of her Spirit in his senses was disorienting, to say the least. Before Felix could react, she was gone again, moving down the green slope before them.

"What was that about?" he muttered.

A'zek gave him a long look as he passed as well, and Felix couldn't help blushing. He could feel Pit chuckling, somewhere ahead, and even Karys somehow gave him sidelong looks. I didn't ask for that!

Mhm, Karys sent, while Pit trilled a series of delighted notes.

Great. He hesitated, looking down the incline. I hope Vess didn't see that.

It was a silly hope. He'd never been particularly lucky.

The walk down the mountain was entirely different than their ascent. The ground was covered in loam and wild grasses, small plants and stunted, wind-swept trees. All of which only increased the further they descended. It was an almost leisurely walk, which allowed their people to regain a bit of their Stamina back and shake off the oppressive pressure of the peaks.

The view was amazing too, though they were careful not to be caught out in the open. Felix scouted ahead, leaving the others to recover, and he found himself atop a thick Kelaar Tree, eagerly plucking the red and white splotched fruits that dangled from its many branches. Amid the greenery, he peered down the mountainside, idly munching on the fruit and fighting off an inappropriate sensation of nostalgia.

Nostalgia? For what?For almost dying? Please. He was at least two miles above the forest, and from his vantage could see a familiar forest spread out across a wide valley. At the far end there were a series of ridgesnot quite mountains, but taller than hillsthat dominated the western horizon. His twice Tempered eyes caught a strip of blue flashing in the afternoon sun, and Felix followed it as it wound across the valley floor, disappearing here and there in the forest. The river. If we follow that, we'll find the waterfall.

He hopped down and crept back toward his team, eager to tell them the news. Yet when he reach the dip in the earth where they hid and crossed the simmering line of wards, he found himself interrupting an argument.

"come this far, and now you wish to set us aside?" Kylar said. His hair and mustache had grown a little unkempt during their time in the wilds, and now it all but stood on end, as spiky as the jarring notes of his Spirit. "You deny us the satisfaction of the finished Quest?"

"We didn't know the Archon was free, kid," Harn said. "Now we do. You saw how it was in Shelim. It's only gettin' worse now."

"We've a right to stay on, see it through," Vyne said in his steady voice. "We've bled just as much to get this far. More so. I almost died fending off that Arcid's blow. I think we should have a choice here."

"Burn me, you almost died and you want to finish the job?" Evie hissed.

"All Harn is suggesting is that you five stay here, to guard the way back," Vess said patiently. "We're not besmirching your honor, or calling your bravery into question. Holding the retreat is necessary and vital, and, yes, less risk than engaging whatever the Archon might have waiting for us below. That does not mean it is lesser, or that any of you are either."

"It's a choice," Felix said, entering the conversation from the shadows. The Haarguard perked up, just noticing him. "Plans fail. Always do. Haven't met one I haven't seen go screwy in the first three minutes of a fight. And make no mistake, this will be a fight. The Archon is...he's driven, maybe insane, but definitely driven." Felix put his hands on his waist and looked up. The sky was blue, but the west had begun to lighten into a faded white-orange. "He's expecting usme, at least. This is beyond risky. I don't even know what he's trying to get ahold of, other than it's dangerous. The Quest is clear on that." Felix gave them all a once over, teammates new and old. "The Quest is for a Nymean Temple. An eighteen star Nymean Temple."

While Harn and the others knew that already, the Haarguard all went deathly pale. Good. The Guilders from Setoria knew about Nymean ruins: the more points on a star within the ruin, the more murderous the ruin would be. Felix could still easily envision the terrifying door in the Waterfall Temple, warded with a green lightning that had almost killed him the first time he'd encountered it.

"Eighteen stars..." Kylar whispered.

"Blind gods," Nevia cursed softly.

The others only shuddered in mute agreement.

"So as I said: it's a choice," Felix said. He looked them all in the eye and tried to convey a calm he didn't feel. Zara was right. He couldn't coddle people, his team least of all. "The river is down below, less than a few miles away, and we only need to follow that to its source to find the Temple. You have until nightfall to choose. After that, and it won't matter."

The walk down the mountain was quiet after that.

An hour and a half later found them off the mountain and well into the thickening forest. He passed out the Kelaar fruit he'd picked before and pointed out the trees to his team, in case they wanted more. They had to eat on the move, but it had been a while since they'd even done that. Days, Felix realized with dulled surprise. He made sure everyone had some food and water as they hiked downward, crossing the distance to the river far faster than he had expected.

Now that they were out of the mountains, even the slight, vestigial bits of pressure had faded and a spring had returned to everyone's step. Bright, almost neon eels swarmed into the sky as the light faded, like living ribbons of light. All around them creatures like Mana Voles, buzzing insects the size of crows, and even a pair of sharp-hued Razorwing Skinks sped by them. The creatures hadn't been corrupted by the Archon, but neither had they even attempted to challenge Felix's team.

That's a nice change. Felix couldn't help the wry smile that twisted his lips.

There was wonder and beauty in the Foglands, and all of it had been hidden by illusion. All to keep a Primordial locked away, and a Lost people secrets hidden. Regis and Holt had said the Nym horded monsters, and he guessed that was at least partly true. Karys himself admitted they'd locked up plenty of threats in the past.

As the Haarguard wrestled with their decision, Felix found his thoughts drifted back to Vvim's Memory. The Geist had been right: there was a lot he had missed. Even reviewing it with his Keen Mind picked up strange details he hadn't noticed at first. The constructs had torn through the people in the audience, killing dozens if not more, and the whole time the ArchonMerodachhad simply laughed. Laughed and laughed while he a bloody, cylindrical blade in his coat, hidden from the court.

Felix shook his head at the thought of it. The Archon was vile even before it was trapped for thousands of years under a mountain. He shuddered at the thought of such an imprisonment. He might be a violent, probably-insane enemy, but Felix couldn't help but pity the Archon. A little.

Soon after, they came upon the river itself. It was wide, easily a half mile, and the shallows were dotted with immense green and white flowers. River Lilies, according to his Eye, useful for eating as well as in tinctures to improve circulation and remove impurities in one's channels. Felix made a mental note of them. They would be useful to clear a portion of the build-up caused by the absorption of monster cores.

Voracious Eye is level 62!

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 57!

Ironically, for all that he recognized the area and wilderness around him, Felix didn't know the name of the river. Or if it even had one. The last people to live here died thousands of years prior.

The River Eile it is called, Karys said. The flow of it has changed much, but those enormous river lilies are impossible to mistake. They would only grow on the River Eile, back when I lived in the Western Reaches.

"Really? Why?" Felix asked.

Simple, really. It was because the...the soil? No. No, it was the leaves of...

Felix exchanged a look with Pit, and concern flashed between their bond. "Don't worry about it, Karys."

O-of course, the sword replied. Felix couldn't help but imagine the stooped old man staring absently at his own hands, and a strong thread of confused melancholy drifted from the blade. Unsure what to do, Felix pretended he hadn't noticed. That'd only make him feel worse, right?

"Felix! Look!"

Vess was pointing across the river, where a herd of beasts had congregated in the water. They looked like stags, almost exactly save for their moss-covered backs and crystalline antlers. And the fact that they were twice the size of elephants. A buck stood watching, snorting air through his nostrils at them from a mile away while does behind him drank sedately. There was no question that the creature had seen them, and Felix was thankful it wasn't more aggressive. It seemed like it could have crossed the river in minutes.

"Beautiful, aren't they? I have never seen Moss-Back Stag before, let alone one so big," Vess murmured.

"They are huge," he marveled. "How?"

"Magic, I suppose," Vess said. She made a face. "That answer does leave something to be desired, though, does it not? I imagine there is a better one out there."

Above them, a bird cried out as it dove for prey, and the water rippled with schools of fish nipping at insects. Night was coming on fast, and already the Twins had risen above the horizon. Felix turned and took in his team as they refilled their flasks. Yet before he could say anything, Vyne and Kylar stepped forward as if they had practiced it. Vyne spoke up first.

"Sir, we've decided that we will stay behind and guard your retreat, as Harn has suggested," the shield warrior said. The others were a bit behind and nodded along with him. Vyne seemed frustrated, but his Spirit was directed the emotion at himself more than anything. "I only wish we could be more help. Stronger."

Felix clasped the man on the shoulder and grinned. "Give it time. I'm told living is the best way to do that."

"Aye, sir."

Kylar shifted as if he were about to speak, but hesitated. Felix narrowed his eyes, only slightly. "What is it?"

"They will stay behind, but I choose to go with you," the swordsman said. Only the barest hints of nervousness and fear tinged his Spirit, and Felix wasn't sure if he should be impressed or annoyed. "My sword is your sword, sir."

Felix clenched his jaw, but nodded. "As you wish, Kylar." Felix caught Harn nodding at him while Vess looked on with a faint smile. He cleared his throat. "Alright. Apprentice Tiers, Harn will let you know what you need to do, while I speak with the others."

Felix hid behind a grin.

"We've an attack to plan."

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