Unbound

Chapter Seven Hundred And Sixty – 760

After clearing out what he could from the Mana Wells, Felix walked back into the central chamber, thinking hard on what he’d found.

He’d seen Urges locked up in Nymean prisons before, of course. He’d experienced them firsthand—they had liked to spout off nonsense, too. The Manawarping was an interesting wrinkle, though it didn’t change his tasks much. Far more enlightening was the fact that a Primordial Spawn had been locked up.

He knew that Primordial Spawn formed when a Primordial’s flesh curse took root in otherwise normal monsters and beasts. That’s how the Revenants formed, by corrupting the denizens of the Domain under Haarwatch. The only other example he had were the Dustwights made by the Primordial of Withering Dust, and they were formed from the corpses of the dead that had been left in the desert. None of them had displayed as much intelligence as the Abomination just had—they had all been fairly mindless.

What about the Bloodbeasts? The Dread, the Seven-Legged Orit, and the Bloodtained Guardians, too. Except for the Dread, they’d all spoken to him. The Orit was a lot more eloquent than the Guardians. The Dread was stronger than them all, and it hasn’t tried to speak once—I’m not even sure it could, being all…squidly.

So, it wasn’t power. Was it age? Evolution?

Did it matter?

He wasn’t sure, but it unsettled him. If the creature hadn’t been so eager to die, he might have left it alone…but then indefinite imprisonment was little better.

Maybe Paxus knows more.

Once he’d returned to the central chamber, it wasn't hard to find the roots emerging through the cracks in the wall. They were fresh and slick with the water that dripped along their lengths and puddled beneath them in shallow pools. Felix knelt next to the first one he saw, placing his hand on the damp root and sending a cluster of his Will, Intent, and naked Affinity out into the dark.

A moment of silence answered him, but it was swiftly followed by a rushing noise like waves crashing across a distant beach. The sound amplified, growing until a blush of bluish purple surged up across the root.

“Autarch, you stretch my Authority in new and welcome ways."

Felix stood as the faint, bluish image of the Nymean researcher formed, projected by tiny streams of illusory Mana. "It doesn't hurt, does it? You look and sound kind of scratchy."

"There is no pain. The interference is due to being at the limit of my companion's reach. She has not spread so far through the Territory in a very, very long time."

"Huh. Oh, are you also still in Elderthrone?"

"I am. How does that work?"

"I can be in many places at once, now. It is a strange feeling. And, as I said, my Authority is stretching in new ways. I find it quite exhilarating."

"Huh. If I fix this place up, will the Abundance Anima grow faster?"

"Fix it. Ah, yes, you mean your Unite the Lost. You have the requisite significance to use it again?"

"I do."

"Then, yes, she will grow faster. It is her purpose to connect the research facilities of this Territory. And we are both old and set in our habits. Growth will come."

"Gharion. It's called Gharion now. I just claimed it."

"So Etriska has told me." The man smiled. "Congratulations. It is welcome to hear Nymean names once more. If I restore this facility, will you gain control over it?"

"Unless you assign another caretaker. Yes."

"Good. Good. That's my plan."

"Do you have any idea what sort of research was being done here?" Felix asked, thinking on what he’d found. “The Mana Wells here had an interesting guest.”

Paxus’ entire projected image sharpened, gaining a new, detailed intensity. “Like the Creature?”

“No,” Felix said swiftly. “Nothing like that. This was a Primordial Spawn, and apparently it had once been so powerful and terrible that it took a Superior Elemental and something called the Cadre Corporeal to capture it.”

Paxus paled. “Does it still live?”

“No. It was…I took care of it.”

The spirit looked relieved and impressed. “To have taken such effort to subdue…it must have faded in power during its long incarceration. Or perhaps you are quite a bit stronger than you’ve revealed.”

Felix shrugged. “I’ve got Willpower for days, Authority over this whole place, and a Primordial Skill that lets me eat my enemies. We met on uneven terms.”

“To say the least. Still, in my day, the Cadres were only ever engaged for the most dire of threats.”

“What were they?”

“The elite of the Elysian Halls. There were three Cadres, each composed of no more than a hundred knights that were dedicated to facing down threats to the Realms.”

“Three,” Felix echoed. “This one was Corporeal. The others were Cognitive and Ethereal, I assume?”

Paxus inclined his head. “Their duties were far above mine, often dealing directly with the Empress, I understand. For them to have been called against this Abomination you described…it must have done terrible things.”

“According to its lore entry, it terrorized Etrionn, They Who Hold Up The Sky. Whatever that is.”

“The Walking City.” Paxus looked troubled.

“It was an important place?”

“A center of learning among the Singing Fields. Etrionn bore the Obsidian Tumult without ceasing its constant journey. Etrionn was inviolable. To hear of its trouble, even Ages removed, is harrowing.”

Felix almost asked about the Singing Fields or the Obsidian Tumult, but he was getting off track. “It wasn’t the Creature, at least.”

“It is not every day a goddess splinters a piece of her Divinity. For that we must be grateful.” Paxus looked around him, and Felix got the impression he was seeing with more than his eyes. “If this facility’s function was not related to the Breach, there are still similarities to my own. Based on what I sense here, it is likely that it involved Spirit Trees and their effects on the Green Wilds.”

“Really? That explains why I found these.” Felix opened his pack and showed the spirit the six jars he’d taken.

“Aha! Seeds of Remembered Light! It is glorious that you've recovered them!” The spirit's eyes shone, quite literally gleaming. “Do you plan to rehome them?”

“I was thinking of it, yeah. Any suggestions on what I should do with them?”

“Plant them. Nurture them. They are a precious thing, Lord Unbound, and must be dealt with accordingly.”

"The jars indicate different species of Tree. Why is their information all the same?”

“Ah yes. The etching is a record of the Tree they were harvested from and is designed to honor their memory, not control the fate of their offspring. Such is the way of parents. When planted, the seeds will sprout into new Spirit Trees, able to attune to the Mana of their region and take on qualities unique to their circumstances. The only record of their progenitors are the ancestral memories contained within their deepest heartwood.”

Felix blinked. "They've got ancestral memories?”

“Indeed. Abundance Anima can recall the most vivid impressions from Ages before she ever sprouted. It is an ancient call, resonating across their heartwood from the verdant song of the Green Wilds.”

Green Wilds again. Felix chewed his lip, thinking back. “Have you ever heard of the Grim Nightshade?”

Paxus straightened. "That is another name I did not expect to hear spoken aloud."

"That's a yes, then?"

"It is."

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"What exactly is it? Is it like an Urge?"

"No…and yes. You must understand that the Green Wilds is not a singular thing. It defies exact definition by its very nature, as it is always shifting, always growing, even as it decays. Yet, there is a song that encompasses all that it was, is, and could become. An impossible song. The Grim Nightshade is a manifestation of that song, echoing across all three Realms of Creation.”

“He looked like a mouse to me.”

Paxus laughed, and even he seemed startled by it. “Like an Urge that is born into the Cognitive from the collective Will of mortals, the Grim is believed to have come into being during the earliest days of Creation, when the fecund earth first stirred. It is a primal creature, powerful but limited, wise yet uncaring, violent and peaceful, much as nature itself."

"So the world just thought up the Grim?"

"In a sense. But the Grim is far more than an Urge can be. It represents a piece of the fundamental Harmony all around us." Paxus gestured to the room around them, and his arm flickered in and out of existence. "It is a large part of what we studied in these places: how the Green Wilds function and interact with the greater melodies.”

“By greater melodies, you mean the Grand Harmony?”

"Yes," Paxus said with a grin. "And no."

Felix rolled his eyes, and Paxus laughed.

"I am sorry, Autarch. I do not mean to be flippant or evasive, but I said it is the nature of these things to avoid categorization. One cannot describe the greater melodies by words alone. Only by walking the circumference of them do we understand the shape they take. Only by cautious approach can we appreciate their depth. To pin things down with words is to reduce them, like tearing off a piece and declaring it whole. It is impossible to do with the Green Wilds, let alone the Threnodies of War or the Cardinals."

Felix froze. "Back up. Repeat that.”

“The Threnodies of War? Based on your Skills as you have explained them, I believe you have a passing familiarity.”

“Not that." He had Wild Threnody as his primary weapons Skill, and he was familiar with its description. “The Cardinals. What are they?"

Paxus hesitated, a strange expression flitting across his face. “The Cardinals were primal forces beyond even the Grim Nightshade, though if you were frustrated at my lack of details there, you will find that emotion duplicated. Even less is known of them, only that they vanished before the Nym founded their first city.”

“When was that?”

“The Age before the Great War we fought against the gods. What some called the War of Creation, when the gods and Primordials clashed.”

"Primal forces," Felix repeated. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"I am unable to answer that, Autarch. All we've ever known about the Cardinals is that they are dangerous and that they are gone."

Felix stared off into the distance, his eyes meeting a half-broken mosaic of some giant furry animal. Avet and the Pathless both called me Cardinal.I have Skills with it in the name. I even have an entire Omen Path called Cardinal Fiend. What does that mean?

He re-focused, catching the last words Paxus used. "You said they vanished. To where?"

"We do not know. It is one of the persistent mysteries of creation, one that the Elysian Halls once dedicated entire chapters to solving. To my knowledge, little was ever learned, save that they were important to the Grand Harmony."

Felix swallowed, chasing the ideas down in his mind. There were too many odds and ends, things that didn't add up. “The Elysian Halls, I've heard them mentioned before. What were they?”

"A companion to the Empyrean Halls, where I studied and trained on my path. The Elysian Halls, however, stood at the apex of the Golden Empire. They were a place of miracles," Paxus said. His sharp features softened, as if he could see something glorious. "Where the Realms could be guided to better all beneath our banner.”

One part government capital, one part magical center. Got it. It was what Felix always kind of assumed. “The Herald was in charge of it?”

“The Herald, yes. She of a Thousand Faces was the greatest of us. She led the Elysian Halls in its darkest Age. I did not see the end of those times, but from what I have gathered, she also led us in our final battles."

"Right." Paxus ended up disembodied well, before the Ruin showed up. “Do you know where the Elysian Halls used to be? If I show you a map, could you point it out?"

"I could, yes."

Felix didn't have one on him, but he had plenty back in Nagast, and Paxus was there, too. "Ask Karys to bring you a map. He's got an old one based on how the Continent used to look. It should be more helpful."

Paxus bowed. "I will do so, Lord Unbound."

At a loss for what else to say, Felix turned back to the chamber around them. "I suppose it's time to fix this place up."

He walked out into the center of the chamber, a short distance from the spirit, and lifted his hands. Unite the Lost.

Essence, Mana, and significance marshaled within Felix's core space for a half instant before exploding outwards, bursting through his channels and into the world. Debris shifted, leaping back into place as it was carried aloft by the waves of power. In other places, the clutter was simply obliterated. Dirt and pools of water vanished beneath his Skill, leaving pristine surfaces in its wake. Mosaics reassembled, regaining their luster in an instant, and the entire place thrummed like a plucked string.

Most notably, though, the roots of the Abundance Anima flourished, growing rapidly across the reconstructed walls through portholes surrounded by yet more mosaic designs, as if the facility had been built that way from the start. Magelights flashed, brightening as sigildry was restored, filling the entire space with mimicked sunlight.

The Skill quietened within him, and Felix let his arms fall heavily to his sides.

"That wasn’t nearly as expensive as I figured," he said, touching his own chest. His store of significance was still going strong. "How much power did that Urge have?"

Around him, the facility was utterly changed. Well-lit corridors extended in all directions, covered in art and devoid of the faint mildew smell Felix had only just gotten used to. Roots, sheathed in Mana vapor, coiled next to him, planted now around the base of the repaired spiral staircase like a small hedgerow. It sparked once, and Paxus reappeared.

"Looking good," Felix said. The spirit no longer looked like a blue-tinged projection. He had color and heft to his dark skin and braided hair, as if he were truly standing next to Felix. It was a bit spoiled by the fact that one of his legs clipped right through the staircase, though.

"I am feeling quite a lot better, too.” He bowed. “Thank you, Autarch. You have greatly empowered my Companion." The spirit ran his hand across the vapor-sheathed root of the Abundance Anima. “And, by extension, me. I can feel every inch of this structure now, and I think I have the measure of its capabilities. Given enough time to grow and greater resources, we could even help produce greater alchemical reagents in the chambers here. I imagine that would be quite useful to you."

Felix grinned. "It would be, yeah. I dropped a Primary Beacon in the capital up north, but if you can get them there…”

"We are in your debt, Lord Unbound. It would be no problem at all."

By the time Felix left the first ruin, night had fully fallen. That didn’t stop him from tracking down the other connected ruins, though.

Over the next several hours, he visited each of the remaining high-ranking Nymean facilities, emptying their Mana Wells of threats and mentally cataloging the contents. As the map had indicated, they were all nearly identical to the first facility, though none had a Primordial Spawn or even a full Urge trapped within their Wells. Instead, he devoured a series of elemental monstrosities and bestial abominations, all of them quite strong and all of them flawed. Manawarped.

It was a flawed way to imprison anything, especially if it caused such a reaction, but according to Paxus, it was a choice of last resort. Only the worst of the worst were shoved into the Mana Wells to rot. Only creatures the Nym couldn't destroy. Karys had once said something similar.

Even the weaker monstrosities would have wreaked havoc on the world if they were to be released. Most people would have had a hard time killing them. If he had possessed a different Skill set, one without a Primordial’s Hunger, even his exceptional stats wouldn't have ensured his success.

He spent the monsters’ significance well, though not in nearly the quantities he expected or feared. Each time he finished with a facility, he restored it with Unite the Lost. Yet when he entered the second ruin, he found it far less damaged than the first. Magelights mostly functione,d and elaborate mosaics and frescoes were partially repaired. The trend continued on each successive facility, stairs and sigaldry more and more whole with each visit, until he reached the final one and had only to spend a tiny fraction of significance to bring it to full repair.

“The power is flowing across Abundance’s roots, my Lord. It is remarkable,” Paxus said with a full throated laugh. “She is conducting your power through each ruin like lightning across a lake.”

The Abundance Anima spread each time, growing with the influx of his power and even sprouting new saplings above the entrances to the ruins. Paxus took control of the structures and their unique magics, one after the other.

It was pretty damn cool.

All in all, the task he’d set for himself took less time than he anticipated, though by the time he was finished, it was well past midnight. Slipping into a Dark Passage, however, meant he returned to the new capital of Gharion within minutes. There, he found Lavin and the Deepking. The Knight Commander had secured the capital in much the same way the Deepking and his Nagafolk had secured the nearby bodies of water. Someone had even produced Felix's banner, and it now flapped above the highest spire of the palace. The thing was massive, easily the size of a house, and each ripple of wind made the flames around the eye appear to flicker.

Their conversations went on through the night, though much of it was a formality. The Knight Commander and Deepking had already developed a solid idea for a governmental structure for Gharion. When Felix heard it, he immediately agreed. A council meant to govern the Territory for all of their peoples, each group maintaining a measure of sovereignty over their own but working together as a council of equals. Menders, Gallants, Knights, and Nagafolk would all work as one. There were more particulars to it, things Felix didn't have a lot of experience with, but both the Deepking and the Commander seemed sure of what they were doing.

The largest portion of the night ended up trying to decide who was going to be Chancellor. He had originally set his mind on Lavin, but the Commander seemed relieved to not be in charge any longer, so they put it up for a vote. By that point, representatives from all the major orders had gathered in Garon’s former palace, so debates and long speeches filled the early hours while people gathered behind their respective candidates.

It was, however, a pretty earnest affair. When the dust settled, the Prioress of the Blessed Fen, Alessa Kartez, was chosen. She was a gnomish woman Felix had met several times, and he liked her and her order of healers. She was kind, clever, and cared about everyone without regard to political alliance.

It was a good choice.

When dawn graced the reforged land of Gharion, Felix finally found himself back in the damp halls of Haestus Temple. Garox and the other Nagafolk were in a flurry of activity as families were gathered together for a trip north. They were so busy, in fact, that they had mostly ignored Felix, save to welcome him hastily to their home and bid him farewell at the Shadowgate door.

Certainly better than fawning, he thought with a stretch and a smile. They did have a lot to get done. The lake beside the Garon’s old palace was to become a new nest, and already the Deepking had begun construction in the depths, though Trixie had assured him that Haestus would still be occupied and guarded.

Not Garon’s palace. The Primarch’s, he reminded himself with a frown. Primarch. Colossus. King. Autarch. Felix activated the Shadowgate, and it swirled into dark life. So many self-important titles.

I think I might be starting to prefer Fiend.