Chapter Four Hundred And Fifty Seven – 457
"Felix, stop!"
Felix heard nothing but the roar of discordant harmonies, felt nothing but the searing heat against his hands and chest. The ritual tore apart, the layers of sigaldry flaring and burning out as the entire array collapsed under the weight of his charge. Potent energies ripped at him, slashing harmlessly at sudden black scales, but slicing his Garment to shreds. He landed outside the formation, hissing in pain and tearing at his shirt. The rest of his Garment was rent, revealing that the glowing cyan markings upon his chest and arms had turned a virulent, burning crimson.
W-what? The pain faded quickly, red turning to purple then blue, until there was only the phantom memory of its burning. Felix ran his claws over his naked chest, but instead of tenderness he found only hale flesh and diamond-hard scales. How the hell did she sense me?
The array broke down, devolving into a screaming mess of feedback and flaring, multi-hued lights. Zara hissed, the sound itself infused with a musicality that cut through the cascading dissonance like a knife. The lights faded, smothered by her Will, the very markings upon the floor scrubbed and slashed through in mere seconds. It was over so fast that his Garment hadn't even managed to reconstitute itself, only just dragging itself back up his legs into the semblance of ragged pants. Felix hunched, rubbing at his chest, as Zara approached.
"Avet's darkened eyes, Felix. What was that? Why did you sever the ritual?" she asked.
"I didn't," he explained, before going into a breakdown of all the figures he saw through the haze of his connections. "...and when I was looking at the last, the Gnome I think, that armored Imara showed up. She's clearly hunting for him."
"And the priest?"
"He was there, too. But Zara," Felix licked his lips, the memory of it still forcing his heartbeat to speed up. "She heard me. Sensed me. I was hooked onto the Gnome, but she reacted and stabbed me through the chest." He gestured to the scorched room and now-faded sigils. "That's why this all happened."
Zara paled. "Damnation. Did none of the others react to you?"
"One did. The big lizard guy, though I didn't see much of him except his eyes. He attacked me the moment I showed up." Felix grimaced. "He was in some nasty place. Sewers, maybe. Still, when he attacked it just forced me onward to the next connection, and it didn't hurt."
"Perhaps it is a thing of the Unbound. You are preternaturally gifted with the Chant, Felix. If they have pushed their abilities as far, then it is not unreasonable they could sense a glimmering of the harmonics that you were exploiting. I will have to speak with Mauvim and seek her counsel."
"Mauvim? Your boss?" Felix asked. She hadn't mentioned much of her organization, other than there was a network of Sorcerers out there.
"My friend and superior in the Order, yes. We speak through the artifact I mentioned to you." She straightened her robes, dusting pieces of charred chitin from her shoulders. "I hope that you will join me when I next speak to her."
"Yeah," Felix said. "I'd like that. Where's the artifact?"
"Here, in my quarters, but engaging its power atop water is an impossible task. The interference of the waves disrupts the delicate harmonics of the ritual. We will have to wait until we've weighed anchor and found solid land again."
Felix nodded. "Right. Two more days til landfall, at least that's what the Yttin suggest. We can take a short pitstop in Bogfeld. I promised those Menders I'd talk to them about selling healing supplies."
"A wise transaction. We can resupply and move toward the Shadowgate quickly from there. But," Zara held out a hand, halting Felix as he stepped toward the exit. "These visions of the Unbound...Felix I believe it is wisest to hold that information close. The less that know of their appearances and their relative locations, the better."
"Even Isla?" Felix asked. It was part jab and part genuine curiosity. He didn't like the lady, but Zara had insisted time and again that she was trustworthy. "Shouldn't she know?"
Zara scowled, bearing her shark-like teeth. "Even her. I cannot risk the Unbound, not if the Hierocracy already has one and is actively hunting the rest."
"That's fair. I'll keep my mouth shut. When we talk to your boss, we can figure out the best way forward." He resumed his walk, only pausing at the door as a hard emotion welled up in his chest. It burned, like stubborn rage and tired, immutable conviction. "Just be aware, I'm going to do what is best for my people. And that includes the Unbound. Understand?"
"I do," she said, and her scowl eased into something softer, more earnest. "But remember Felix, I am tasked with your care as well. The Unbound are our hope, and you are...a friend. I would be a fool to squander that."
"Hm," Felix grunted, unsure how to respond. So he gave her a half-nod and pulled open the door. "You would be."
Despite the constant storm and ceaseless swells, the journey proved to be mostly unremarkable. No more monsters accosted their fleet since the Regalia was sealed, and even the waves weren't so bad. The Manaships thrummed along, their engines drawing just enough power to augment the sails, going faster than most cars by Felix's estimation. All of that quiet meant more time to train...for everyone.
Darius and Harn pressed the Claw hard in the days that followed. While Beef continued the swimming regimen Felix had devised, soon Giants and Henaari and Legionnaires of all stripes were in the water with him, pushing their Bodies to the limit. It became a game at a certain point, a race much as it had with Beef and Evie, with the fastest swimmers then engaging in a waterlogged spar atop the nearest ship. It ran them all ragged, even Beef, but none could deny the effects.
Skill levels rose by the handful, new Skills were learned, polished and pressed into Apprentice Tier or beyond. Atar continued to improve as well, joining in on some of the sparring as he wrestled with his core space and new Skills. More surprising was Alister, who had developed a few Harmonic stats and even evolved his Greater Force Shielding into Rampart of the Unyielding Vow, an Epic rarity Skill. It was potent too, and far less costly to maintain in addition to being remarkably effective against melee fighters. More than once Felix witnessed an entire Talon turned aside by the force barrier, their charge blunted while Alister fired off a pin-point barrage of Grand Impetus.
The evolution was an unexpected event, but Felix made sure to keep an eye on Alister's core space after that. Not just his, either. The Claw as a whole were slowly evolving their Skills. Felix made it a point to use Fiendforge on every single one of them, inspecting their cores and attempting to monitor the connection he'd formed with them all. It wasn't so blatant as the Links with his closest allies, but there was a glimmering to all of their core spaces, no matter how varied they were. Red-gold and blue-white light lingered, just out of immediate sight, limning the edges of cores that were represented by waves and clouds and swords and once, horrifyingly enough, by a giant statue of himself. It was a huge one, cast from some greenish metal, and surrounded entirely by weapons half sheathed in the earth. Felix had made sure to keep clear of that particular Claw member.
A number of the Claw even combined their Skills, fusing things like Dodge and Acrobatics and Running into the Uncommon rarity movement Skill, Nimble Stride. Felix was there, utilizing his Fiendforge both for the experience but also to ensure nothing went wrong. The combinations and evolutions went off without a hitch, things that normally took an array and monster cores to fuel, all drawing on the ineffable connection they had to him. Felix could feel a small speck of significance flee him every time it happened; small enough that he barely felt it compared to the total weight within his core. To the warriors and mages of the Fiend's Claw, however, that speck hit them like a damn truck. Each and every one of them was laid out for hours after the event, and most were shaky for hours after.
"It's like swallowing the sky," one of them had muttered before passing out. Felix had only been able to shake his head and move on.
Get used to it. You'll need to face worse than that if you keep following me, he thought. He almost said it, but common sense caught up with him. He bent himself to his tasks instead.
Fiendforge is level 20!
...
Fiendforge is level 32!
Apprentice Tier!
You Gain:
+Decrease Significance Consumed In Forging!
+5% RES
+5% INE
He pushed himself hard, training alongside them all. He made time to spar with Evie, as well, and did not hold back. Evie wanted it no other way, for all that she complained when he defeated her every single time. Complaints turned to practice however, their sparring continuing long into the first night. She managed to tangle him up a couple times...until Felix shattered her Chains of the Protector and defied her Bonds of Dominion, until it was all Evie could do to simply keep up with him. Felix stopped holding back. It helped none of them, and he needed to learn how to fight at his highest capabilities.
Relentless Resolution is level 79!
Chains slices and slashed at him, ineffectual against Felix's scales, just as Evie's armor was pointless against his talons. Blood and sweat filled the sparring ring, but a grin never left Evie's bedraggled face, even when her Health dwindled closer and closer to zero. She would only swig a Health Potion and come back at him. She even managed to hit Adept Spirit while using her new Spirit Skills. By the end of their long hours sparring, all she required was her Mind and she would fully Tier up into Adept.
More than once, Felix tried to practice with Vess, but she appeared to be avoiding everyone. She was either holed up in her room or in one of the ships' crow's nests. Whenever he spotted her he could sense a rawness to her Spirit, enough that he shied away, unwilling to break her solitude even for training. From the little she'd mentioned to Evie, she was clearly still upset about her Skills and the Dragoons. That was his fault, he knew, and that knowledge burned at Felix. Yet there was nothing he could do, not according to Zara, as the Links he was forging were entirely new territory for even her.
So Felix distracted himself.
Their approach toward the Pass and Bogfeld beyond reminded him of the book he'd been given. The Vicissitudes, by Pagewright Vilas Tern. The same guy that Alister had hyped up in his core space. The book, however, was not about Manaships or ancient machinery. Instead it was a dry academic tome of some sort. The words were hard to make out due to the overly flourished hand that had produced it, but it had a lot to do with the moral functions of power. It was a surprise to see, considering the attitudes of...just about everyone Felix had encountered in the Continent.
Alister was surprised to see it too, and wasn't shy to say so when the mage spotted Felix reading on the stern deck. "Where did you get that?" he asked, mouth agape.
"A gift from the Prioress of the Menders." Felix raised an eyebrow at the mage's continued shock. "Why?"
Instead of explaining, Alister held out a trembling hand. "May I see it?"
"Sure." Nonplussed, Felix handed it over. Alister immediately began to comb through it, checking the back and front until he gasped. "What? What's going on?"
"Vilas Tern! The premier Pagewright of the Violet Tower in Levantier! This is a first edition, written in his own hand!" Alister practically gushed before he closed the tome reverently and handed it back. "And it is one of many books that was banned by the Lucent Towers themselves."
"Banned? For what? All I can tell is that it talks about morality and governance. Ah, right," Felix interrupted himself. Of course."No one wants to hear about that, do they?"
"Indeed they don't. Tern is a controversial figure, though he remains to be held in high esteem for his work on the Manaship. This particular tome, along with others, were not as well received. Nations outright banned him and his circle from entering their borders, and the backlash on the Lucent Towers was remarkable."
"Yeah." Felix looked at the table of contents, noting the entries. "'The Argument For The Dissemination Of Titles' and 'Treatise On The Functions Of The Omen' sound dangerous if you're an asshole who controls information."
Alister paled. "Little is known about the contents of that book, save for dedicated collectors. Simply suggesting that everyone share how they receive specific Titles would be enough to cause an uproar, let alone frank discussion of what an Omen might mean and the advent of an Omen Path." Alister shook his head, awe and worry warring for space in his Spirit. "These are secrets everyone keeps close to their chest, for to reveal them wouldfor manyfeel like they were weakening themselves."
"Hm, and yet information fuels subconscious preconceptions," Felix said, mostly to himself.
"It does. Some scholars suggest that the reason the guilds and societies of the Continent maintain secrets is to protect us from the wrong sort of knowledge." Alister scoffed and spat over the railing. "Knowledge is knowledge. I'll not let others determine what I can and cannot peruse...not if I have the power to do something about it."
"Want to read it after me?" Felix offered.
Alister just about lit up. "Yes! If you don't mind?"
He didn't, obviously. Felix read through the book fast, his Perception and Intelligence working with the potent formation of his Mind to devour the information it contained. The grammar was archaic compared to a few of the other books he'd read and the jargon was a bit unfamiliar in parts, but it was by and large understandable. There was nothing inside it that Felix found terribly controversial, but it was nice to see someone else contemplating the same ideas he had, ideas that Zara had continually told him were impossible to implement in the Continent.
Felix had been told that certain things about advancement could not be conveyed, as it would shape their growth, spoiling their potential. The book claimed that many others used the exact reasoning to squash any and all information on gaining and maintaining power through the System, and Felix thought it was just as bogus as Tern apparently did. He couldn't really gainsay the remarks about advancement; Felix trusted that Zara and Vess and Harn were all telling him the truth, but surely there was a line. What else were the guilds and societies and organizations good for? They provided training in specific ways to build their members up, whether it was a crafting apprenticeship or a mage's guild, secret Skills and Titles that would give their people an edge over others.
Why couldn't he do the same? Just more...expansively?
So aside from the violence and exhaustion of spars and training and Fiendforging, Felix set part of his Mind to worrying at that obstacle. In what felt like the blink of an eye, two entire days passed...and the shouts from the crow's nest came.
"Mountains! Stormeater Peaks five leagues distant!"
Felix thought it remarkable that no one had spotted them sooner, but the answer to that revealed itself as they drew closer. The Stormeaters were proving true to their name as a line of pitch-black clouds boiled against their sides. Each dark cloud was a calamitous thunderhead and lightning screamed across them while torrential rain and fist-sized balls of hail crashed into the water and mountains in a veil of violence.
"Burn me, that's what the Storm Ward is doing?" Atar asked. "It's obscuring the Pass entirely!"
The Storm Ward was a tangible presence, at least to Felix, and his Authority Screen pinged at him. He could feel his influence weave through the clouds, and following that feeling, Felix sent his Intent snaking up and into the hidden sigaldry far above. His Authority trembled once before strengthening, like a flexed muscle, and with a single raised hand, Felix parted the storm entirely.
"Blind gods..."
"...with a wave of his hands!"
Mutters and shouts rippled across his ship, and more likely sounded down the fleet, but Felix found his Authority curiously tenuous, perhaps because it was the edge of his Territory. Regardless, he had to place a considerable amount of his concentration on holding the storm away, allowing his ships to pass through it unmarred.
He could not say the same for the Stormeater Peaks and the Caleph Pass.
"What happened here?" Evie peered over the railing, taking in the enormous rents in the once-smooth walls of the Pass. "Looks like a monster clawed through it."
Felix's eyes, however, were on the water itself. It lapped against the highest point of the Pass, a patch of stone and soil that had once held a massive wall that Felix had conjured from the earth. The wall had been smashed to pieces. Some rubble had been tossed toward the sea, but the vast majority of it was collapsed inward, toward the Ghreldan Hills and Bogfeld.
"The sea." The worry that had been coiled in his chest unfurled. "The sea pushed through the Caleph Pass." Is that what the Territorial Boundary Warning meant? he wondered.
A Spirit blazed above them, and Felix felt its sudden terror as if it were his own. "Monster sighted! Monster sighted!" the Yttin lookout shouted.
A wave lifted from the waters ahead of them, as tall as their ship, twice as wide, and crested with a forest of vicious, razor sharp dorsal fins.
And it was coming straight for them.
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