Chapter Three Hundred And Forty Seven – 347
As a group, they all descended into the bowels of Felix's Temple. Vess had seen the Seat and Seal before, but none of the others had, and their reactions were pretty amusing. Evie stared in slack-jawed amazement, first at the huge Spirit Tree roots and then at the gold and silver lines of the inscribed formation. She hadn't a lot of experience with inscriptions, but even a blind man would've been able to feel the power that coursed through that first chamber. Atar practically vibrated with excitement; he'd been pestering to get a look at the array for weeks. The fire mage dashed about, running his hands over the complicated sigaldry and compounded glyphs stamped into the floors and walls, even as his eyes raked over the marked ceiling with naked hunger.
Zara's reaction, however, was the best of them all.
"Wild cries," she whispered. Her ice blue eyes roved across the interwoven, almost fractal complexities of the formation, gold and silver light dancing across her face. "I've never known a Nymean Temple to harbor such a treasure. This is beyond the scope of any modern Territory that I know of...the weight of it all."
"It is adequate, yes," Karys said, and Zara started. Her hand leaped to her throat, but she'd mastered her Spirit again, and weak or not Felix did not feel the fear that was evident on her face. Karys, ever the gentleman, bowed low to the Naiad. "I apologize for startling you. I...keep forgetting how my appearance affects you all."
"No. No it's fine," Zara said. She straightened, smoothing her blue on black robes before speaking again. "Felix warned me of your current Body, but not..." Karys tilted his head, the golden eye-fires in his empty helmet burning inquisitively. Yet Zara did not elaborate; instead she turned to Felix. "This is your Seat and Seal? How did you claim it? Right of conquest?"
"Sort of," he said and patted the crooked sword at his hip. "After the Archon was put down, well, I stepped into the center and claimed it."
"Just like that," she muttered to herself. The others were poking around at the edges of the formation, giving the three of them space to talk. The chamber was more than large enough. "I cannot imagine it was so clear cut."
Felix shrugged. "It asked me a question. I gave an answer."
"It did not approve of your answer," Karys reminded him. "Though that did not stop you."
"Yeah, I recall," Felix said, dryly. "What use is two thousand points of Willpower if you don't put them to use every once in a while?"
Zara stared between the two of them. "You...brute forced the System into granting you Authority?"
"When you say it like that it makes me sound like a jerk." Felix rubbed his chin, thinking back on the events. "It was more like...the System couldn't understand me." He shrugged again. "So I made sure it did."
The Naiad's face rapidly twitched between dismay, astonishment, and something bordering on intimidation. Then it smoothed, caught and mastered again by the woman's training. "What was the question?"
Why Do You Seek Authority, Felix Nevarre?
Why Do You Seek The Crown?
Felix jerked at the blue window's appearance, and Karys' chest rumbled apologetically. "My doing. This is the notification he received."
"How'd you do that?" Felix asked. "Can you access all of my old notifications?"
"Only those connected to this Seat. The tricks I learned Ages past have come in handy these past weeks," the metal man said.
"It spoke to you directly?" Zara asked.
"This is a function of the array," Karys explained. "Not how your...modern Seats handle things, but it is the traditional way. The Call and Answer before Authority can be bestowed."
"And your answer?" she asked.
"To help," Felix said with a laugh. He started walking forward, motioning for the others to follow. "The System thought it was too vague."
"It is not wrong," Karys murmured. Felix ignored him.
"C'mon. I didn't bring you here to show off my monogramed cavern floor." Felix sped up, parting the Mana vapor that was actively pushing the others back. He stopped, just inside the secondary chamber. He gestured and activated the illumination scripts. "Behold!"
"Whoa what are these?" Evie said, rushing forward to inspect one of the massive, circular carvings.
"They're"
"This is...this is Levantier," Vess said with quiet wonder. "I recognize the Lucent Towers, though none of the rest of it makes any sense. There is no mountain anywhere near Levantier, just the northern sea."
"The sigaldry on these interconnections," Atar said in a rush, not looking the massive circular portals but at the tiny inscriptions on the smooth floor. "Less complicated than the previous chamber, but no less inspired. I cannot make out more than an eighth of what I'm seeing, but it's truly amazing!" His eyes then caught on the gates. "Burning ashes, what are they?"
"Shadowgates," Zara said.
Felix frowned. "Yeah okay, they're Shadowgates." He glanced at the Naiad; only the woman's broken composure was compensation for his ruined reveal. She looked poleaxed, turning her head to look at all nine of the massive gates, as if she were trying to memorize their details all at once. "Portals between two far off points on the Continent."
"That's impossible," Atar started saying, but Zara interrupted him.
"No, but it is dangerous," she said. "Felix, do you realize what you've done? Shadowgates are a myth. A legend and a dream of every known power on the Continent, vast as it is. How? How is any of this possible?"
"They were sealed here. If the Archon hadn't tried to kill us, if i hadn't fed him to the Spirit Tree, if the roots of that Tree hadn't burst apart the sealed ceiling...ten thousand things happened." Felix laughed, not without warmth, but the bitterness was hard to hide. "I don't really care about 'how,' but if I can use them to save at least one other Unbound, then it'll be worth all the trouble."
Felix ran his hand over the details on one of the Lucent Towers Vess had pointed out. "I'm not entirely clear on how they work, but Karys is confident that they do. It's a place to start, at least."
"Well, only a few are operational at this time," Karys interjected. "I've been attempting to restore and clean what I could, but some are quite marred by the sheer weight of Ages, and others appear to be cut off."
"Cut off?" Ves asked. "How do you mean?"
"They require a paired gate to link to," Zara said, as if understanding had dawned on her. "Just as the Dark Passages do; these are simply more stable."
"Far more than simply stable," Karys scoffed.
Zara ignored the golden giant and stepped toward another Shadowgate, this one shaped as a field of wild, malachite grasses and deep, swirling pools of cool, multi-colored kyanite. Pale, pinkish feldspar hills rose up above, framing the opaque shadows within. "I imagine most of the paired gateways are either blocked or destroyed completely. I was not exaggerating when I said I have never seen these before; thousands across the Ages have hunting such artifacts, following ancient clues and hints left in rotting tomes and blood soaked Domains. This is why I suggest the paired gates are lost. They would have been found otherwise."
"Alright, well, how many does that leave us?" Felix asked.
"There are four that have the potential to be made operational," Karys said.
"That's a lotta 'ifs,'" Evie pointed out. "Potential's just a fancy word for maybe."
Zara ran her fingers across pools of tri-color crystal. "Of all the gates, this one is closest to our target. If you're right, and these all reside in Nymean Temples, then it is highly likely this resides within the Ghreldan Hills."
"The Ghreldan Hills are forty leagues from the edge of the Scorched Expanse," Atar protested. "Surely there is somewhere closer?"
"Not that I can identify. But you're right. It is still at least two weeks hard journey by foot. Less if we press ourselves, and less still if I press my Body to its limit." Zara clenched her jaw, her face a picture of determination.
"That'd leave you with nothing left in the tank when you found the guy," Felix pointed out. "You're not going alone. A small team, at the very least, one that can cross terrain fast. We head south, get into the desert, retrieve the Minotaur and come back. Bonus points if we can find your friend, Isla, but the goal would be to pull the Unbound out of danger."
"I...I approve," Zara said. "I can admit that I am far from my best. And you have grown exceedingly capable these months. We can accomplish this together, I know it."
"Uh, you're missing one major detail," Atar said. "If the Expanse is being overridden by the undead and Paladins, then Ahkestria will need aid. Felix," he said, turning to him. "You have an entire army here. Could we not bring them with us? Render assistance to my home?"
"The Dark Passages are not easy to traverse. These Shadowgates might reduce the threat, but nothing can eliminate it. The last time I traversed them we nearly died as a creature from the Void broke through. A large force would only call more attention than we can afford."
"Wait, what?" Felix asked. "I thought that wasn't possible. The sheath of the Void shouldn't be permeable through liminal space."
"That is how it usually is for Domains, yes. But the Passages are patchwork, gossamer cobwebs between weakened points of the Corporeal. Ancient pathways that require much skill in traversing and more power than is wise when travelling with a large group. Voidbeasts were expected, and they crowded around the periphery like sharkswe should not have drawn such a huge, terrible beast however. I still do not know what set it in pursuit, only that it was intent upon devouring us all."
"We can handle a few voidbeasts," Felix assured her. "Hell, not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty sure I could fight off whatever decided to come for us. Voidbeast or no."
"Not this one. At my strongest I would not even be able to dent its skin. It was...a behemoth. A Primordial in the Void, somehow."
Felix stilled, a chill clawing down his spine. "Describe it for me. Please."
"Mountainous, with rust-red scales and yellow tendrils. It vaguely resembled what I know of as Narhollows, but it was like them as an emberfly is to a dragon."
Whalemaw.
"Fuck," was all he said.
"You know it," Zara said. It was not a question.
"I do. It's..." Felix sighed. "It's another piece of the Maw. The largest piece," he said.
"Another Ravager King?" Vess asked.
"Worse. This thing got the bulk of the Maw's power when we got banished to the Void," Felix explained, giving them a run down of events. "It chased me around the Void for weeks, though I managed to lose it. Twice. But if what you're describing is right, then it's even stronger now."
"Why's it chasing you?" Evie asked.
"His power," Atar said. Felix looked at him and nodded. "It wants his power."
"Yeah. The same reason I was able to rip the Maw's potency from the Ravager King; the Whalemaw wants the relatively tiny piece of Primordial power that's in me." Felix could feel the certainty of that in his bones. "It wishes to be whole. And apparently even knowing me is enough to draw it's attention."
"Of course. It could sense our connection," Zara said.
"And it'll do it again, if it's anywhere nearby. Unless..." Felix drummed his fingers on the edge of a carving. "Unless I could make a replica of the array that hid me before, in a village in the Void. Then maybe we could risk it."
"Give me the sigils and we'll make it happen," Atar said. "If Hector's here, then I'm sure it can be done. And if we garner no attention on this Passage thing, then we can bring the Legion right?"
"That'd be a sight," Evie chortled. "Imagine the look on those zealots' stupid faces."
"An entire army, though?" Vess asked. "How will they be fed? Billeted? Supplied with healing resources and replacement equipment? The Gheldan Hills might be neutral territory, but if the Paladins are already in the Expanse then it is a surety they will have a rear camp in the Hills. How do you propose we move an entire army without them noticing?"
"Do we even know if the Shadowgates will hold so many?" Zara asked.
"Sorry to interrupt, but the Shadowgates should be enough to send a sizeable contingent through them. They are far superior to these...remnant walkways you are describing," Karys said with clear disdain for the idea of these Dark Passages. "The Autarch's power alone could make do for several hundred soldiers in his retinue. And you should have a retinue, Felix, especially seeing as you shall be visiting a foreign city..."
"We're not visiting and I don't need a retinue. Besides, it's way better if we move with less than our full force," Felix said. "I wouldn't want to leave Nagast undefended. Let's not forget the challenge I apparently put out into the world. Someone is bound to come knocking eventually."
"Another good reason to move fast," Atar said, but followed it with a defeated huff. "Fine. A small army."
Karys cleared his throat, a sound like a metal file on an empty aluminum cylinder. "The Shadowgates still require a considerable donation of Mana and Essence to function. Some of that will be provided by your Seat and Seal, Felix, but the initial spark will have to come from you. And," he paused, eye-fires flickering between Zara and Felix. "The gates' connection to the liminal corridors between the Realms will need to be reestablished."
"Meaning what, exactly?" Evie asked.
Felix met Zara's eyes, and found her calmly considering him and the golden giant. He smirked. "It means we have work to do. All of us. And fast."
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