Chapter Three Hundred And Forty Five - 345
"Wherehow did you approach without my noticing, Felix?" Zara asked.
Felix only shrugged. "My Agility and Dexterity are pretty good now."
"That shouldn't matter, it's your Aspects that resonate with the Grand Harmony," Zara said, her own Spirit still doing that shuddering spasm. Felix frowned. "I can see you, but you feel..." she blinked. "Everywhere." She looked up, directly at where the Tree was soaring above them. "Spreading around us like the branches of a tree."
"Ah," Felix said. "Yes, well. My Spirit Tree and I have more in common than I had figured, I guess."
Zara stared before she laughed. It felt as tired as it sounded, and it unnerved Felix. She's more worn out than I realized.
He had been working with Aenea, attempting to fashion a Cleansing Potion. It was the best she could manage, but said it would be possible with the materials on hand and System provided equipment. Unfortunately, it was not a swift endeavor. Aenea said it would take at least a day to properly make, and even that was pushing it. Which was when Karys made Felix aware of strange vibrations emanating from near the Temple. With no reason to linger in the Alchemical Lab, Felix stepped out to look at it and found the rarefied vibrations coming from Zara's residence. It was no less surprising that his friends were there, practicing.
"Wait, Felix is a Tree now?" Evie asked. "How many things can you pack into those muscles before you burst? Maybe make yourself into a Manaship next. It'd make travel a lot easier."
"Shut up," Felix said, smiling.
"Since you're all here, I won't have to repeat myself," Zara interjected, and gestured for them all to follow deeper into the bore she'd made in his mountain. Twenty strides in she paused and looked around herself; Felix could almost feel her feather-light touch testing the boundaries of her crafted room. Wards of aquamarine light were sunk deep in the walls of the place, wards that Felix guessed prevented sound and light from exiting this mostly sealed cavern. "Please. Conjure a chair. You may wish to sit for this."
Taking cue from the others, Felix drew on his Affinity and Intent, sounding his Skill and shaping its effect. Four armchairs rose from the striated stone floor, as if injection molded from the earth itself, with nothing more than the faintest whisper of sound. Zara looked impressed.
"You have come a long way, Felix," she said.
Felix disregarded her words, though he didn't miss the disgruntled look from Evie and Atar as they all sat. Zara ignored them all, contemplating her folded hands as if secrets were written there. "I belong to an...organization. Called the Cantus Sodalus."
"I'm aware," Felix said, surprised at the anger in his own voice. He had hoped for a flash of emotion from the woman, but she had mastered her Spirit once again, and only silence met his senses. "I saw the evidence of that in the Mark you left on me."
Zara clenched her jaw. "That was only to keep track of you, Felix. When you left the city, I could not risk you falling beyond my reach."
"So you Marked me? Without my consent?" Felix asked. "I thought we were to trust one another?"
"We are. But there is more that you do not know. Could not, until it was time. I" Zara ran a hand through her sea-green locks. "My order"
"Chanters, I assume," Vess said.
"Indeed. All of us are well-versed in the mysteries, dedicated to preserving the ancient histories and uncovering the secrets of Lost Ages. To keeping the world alive, no matter the cost." She met Felix's gaze. "Four years ago, the Divine Oracles of the Hierocracy all saw the same thing, echoed across the fabric of the future. A silence stalking the far flung higher realms, expanding as it came. It left every one of them broken in Mind and Spirit, sundered by the experience, unable to utter anything but a single word."
"Ruin," Felix breathed. The others stilled, their attention sharpened.
"Exactly so. Most passed the warning off as a false cry, after all, the Ruin is a myth. The Hierophant, however, believed. She sent the Orders out to find any scrap of information on the Ruin, sought anything that would stem its advance."
"But the Ruin destroys everything in its path, even evidence of its passing," Atar pointed out. "That seems to be its primary function."
"Which is why they found it so hard to find reliable information," Zara said. "Until they stumbled upon a record that had long evaded even our grasp: the ritual to summon the Unbound."
Felix could feel everyone staring at him, but he couldn't spare them any mind. He leaned forward. "Are you saying I was brought here by the Hierophant? To do...what? Fight off the Ruin?"
"That was the intention, yes," Zara admitted. "But not as you may be thinking. The Hierophant believed with enough Unbound under her banner, she could muster defense enough to save a chosen few. Not the entire Continent, or even the entire capitol. Just the elite."
"Typical," Atar muttered, and Evie nodded along with him. Even their scowls were similar.
"How would they know the Unboundwe would work for them?" Felix asked. "What would have stopped us from turning on them as we grew stronger?"
"There is a great deal you still have not experienced, Felix. If the Hierophant were to hold sway over you, from the start? When you were at your weakest? There would be no defending, no future revolt," Zara snapped, her sharpened teeth more growl and grimace. "They would own you, Body and soul."
"Oathbinding," Vess stated, dread in her voice.
"Among other techniques, yes," Zara affirmed. "The prevailing order in this nation rules for a reason. Their strength cannot be contested, not alone. If the Hierophant's plan had come to fruition, they would have held the reins of nine Unbound soldiers; beings of incalculable potential. Imagine what nine of you could do, Felix."
He couldn't begin to think of it; the idea was too massive. Alone he'd bested Master Tier existences and fought back ancient godlings. What, then, were the other Unbound doing now? What impossibilities had they achieved?
"My order opposed the Hierophant's plan. Not that the Unbound shouldn't be summoned; we need you, for good or ill," Zara said. "Instead, we wished you all to be free of the Hierocracy's control and infiltrated the summoning ritual with one of our own. He...sacrificed himself, to keep you free, Felix. Your arrival was cast to the four winds, with no one able to tell where you'd land. Because the Oracles had gone mad, the Hierophant also had no way to find you. We hopedstill hopeit will be enough to let us find you all first."
"And apart from tracking my every movement, what is the Cantus Sodalus' goal?" Felix asked.
"My order has dedicated itself to search for you all, to gather you and keep you safe from the powers of the Hierocracy. Because none of you are invincible."
"Dunno. Have you seen him punch a Frost Giant?" Evie asked. "Pretty powerful, if you ask me."
Zara shook her head. "No matter how strong you have become in the last few months, you cannot hope to stand up to an entire nation."
"Then what do you propose?" Felix asked. "The Hierophant wants us as a personal protection squad against the Ruin, and likely against anyone else that they dislike in the meantime. But what do the Chanters want?"
"We...we want to save the world, Felix. Or as much of it as we can manage," Zara said. Her cheeks seemed hollower than before, her eyes baggier. "All of us were sent hunting for signs of your arrivals. To all corners of the Continent. Only I have had any true success, though hints of the others trickle through rumors and far flung reports."
"So you want me to fight too?" Felix asked. "Against a...force that obliterated entire civilizations? How? I've seen the coming of Ruin, and it is not something I can punch into submission." Felix's Mind flickered with dark violet flame, of being pinned by the innumerable hands of the divine. Of being utterly unmade...
"The ancient legends speak of the many miraculous things once done by the Unbound. You are greater than you know, Felix." Zara included everyone in her gaze. "All of you are important in the struggle to come. Especially since we've no clear idea on where any of the other Unbound might have landed."
"I do."
Zara stopped, and it was a measure of her fatigue that her Spirit was audible to Vess and Felix both; he could see the heiress wince at its intensity. Her Spirit flip-flopped, a fish floundering in consternation and astonishment. "How?"
Felix frowned, his eyes feeling dim as embers. "Dreams."
The next thirty minutes were spent explaining his recurring dreams to Zara and the rest. He hadn't really shared them with anyone outside Pit and Karys, and the latter only because he'd been there for one of Felix's many rude awakenings. When he briefly touched on his Omen Path and the vision of seven Unbound all being held by Paladins...that had piqued Zara's interest immensely. Yet when she inquired deeper on his Path he shut her down; Felix had no interest in sharing the details of his Omen Path and only gave the bare minimum of what she required.
"You have built a connection to the other Unbound, one that I'm assuming exists regardless due to your all being summoned together," Zara mused as she walked. "Your Affinity has grown, and your power...Whatever happened to you during your Omen Path must have strengthened the link, enough for these visions to interfere with your dreams."
"Why dreams, though?" Atar asked. "Seers and oracles operate on the whimsy of dreams, but Felix is neither of those."
"Dreams, all dreams, touch upon the Cognitive and Ethereal Realms. Thoughts drift along connections, skirting the vast expanse of the Void, intermingling and diving into the confluence of all things...There is much that even the dreams of mortals can unveil," Zara said.
Felix frowned at the thought. "So my Affinity has snagged onto these strengthened connections and is...transmitting events around them? How does that work?"
"You are not seeing events exactly the moment they unfold, but echoes upon the fabric of the Continent," Zara explained. "Seers function similarly, though they call it by different terms. None would admit that what they do is closer to Sorcery than their limited understanding of magic. The Masters and Grandmasters know, but true Seeing as done by an Oracle is too powerful to be tossed aside. Bah." She waved her hand, dismissing the lot of it. "They are finding resonance with your own nature, and the echoes follow after. If we can establish a stronger link, then we might even be able to locate them. Before the Hierophant or any other nation can."
"And what makes your group better than the rest?" Felix demanded. "All I am hearing is justifications and excuses. How would you use us, Zara?"
The room went quiet as Felix and Zara matched stares. It was not so much a battle of Wills as it was an effort of sincerity; Felix wanted her to offer him a reason, an idea, something. Yet in the end, the Naiad let her eyes drop.
"We would ask that you fight the Ruin," she said.
"That is precisely what you are admonishing the Hierophant for attempting," Vess accused, and Zara held out her hands.
"No. No, I am asking. We are asking. To fight against this is not something one can be coerced or tricked into attempting, it must be a decision made with the fullness of the truth. A Choice." Zara looked again to Felix. "That is what my order is offering you. A Choice to fight...or to flee."
"Flee?" he asked.
"Where there is a summons, there must also be the inverse," she explained. "If you wished itif you Chosewe would give whatever aid we could to send you home."
Home. What?
Before Felix could even begin to process that, Zara knelt upon the ground. She lowered her head, but kept her vivid eyes on his own. "Please. Eight others such as yourself in the hands of those madmen; free for them to shape, to influence. It would be almost as bad as the Ruin itself. Please help me find them."
Felix's jaw worked, Mind awhirl with the implications of all she had revealed. In the end, however, he found his resolve. "...What do you need me to do?"
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