Unbound

“Felix!” The darkness burned, nearly blinding him as it melted into white-hot slag. Gray hands pulled it apart, unbothered by the heat, and Atar’s white hair hung down in front of his relieved smile. “You’re still alive.”

A gray hand reached down and clasped his blackened scales. Felix grunted as he stood, but far less than Atar, who groaned with strain. “Blind gods, you’re heavy.”

Felix smiled. He had expected pain, yet other than simple aches and scratches he felt fine, considering—

He stared at his legs. They were both completely whole and entirely fine, aside from a somewhat pinkish hue to the skin. Felix lifted his arms, twisting them before his eyes; they, too, were both whole.

Bonds Are Strength, Hunger said with a rumble from within. They Serve Us.

A Memory flashed through him, of the dark creature seizing the power of the silver Oaths he’d consumed and diverting them all into Sovereign of Flesh.

That explained the notifications.

Lay of the Unfallen is level 123!

Lay of the Unfallen is level 124!

…

Sovereign of Flesh is level 124!

Skein of Fate is level 96!

…

Skein of Fate is level 111!

Master Tier!

You Gain:

+100 ALA

+75 AFI

+75 FEL

Atar put a hand on his shoulder, steadying him as the rush of power ran through his core space. “Skill growth?”

“A bit.”

“I can imagine. I gained a dozen levels in my Skills. I’m damn near Master Tier, and all I did was beat up some Adept Tier mages. Not…this.”

Felix looked around. The topmost chamber of the Violet Tower was demolished. Glass desks and screens were shattered, the polished floors were charred beyond repair, the roof was open to the midday sky, and the walls… All that was left of them was a few slagged pillars of orichalcum, and even that was well on its way out.

“What happened?”

“You mean after you blew up the top of the Violet Tower?” Atar shrugged. “Nothing much.”

“Atar and Flame ate all the fire, even the one that spread from up here,” Alister said from across the room. He was sifting through the rubble. “Which was a lucky break. Atar nearly died.” �

“Don’t be dramatic.”

“I’ve never seen so much blood outside of a body.”

Atar held up his hands, forestalling his boyfriend. “Look, it was a close call. But I’m fine now.”

i fixed him.

“Yes, and I appreciate that, Flame. But seeing his skeleton again was a bit more than I expected.”

it is not my ideal form, either.

“I am right here.” Atar huffed a breath. “Anyway, after everything blew up, and I heroically stopped the Tower from burning down, we ascended the final floors.”

Felix frowned. “How? I still have the ward key.”

“All the wards got burned out,” Zara said. She stepped across the rubble, walking by the side of a bloody Vilas Tern. “It made things easier.”

“That and the fact that every mage in the Tower is unconscious right now,” Atar added.

Felix’s gaze caught on a spike of silver that pierced through the broken chamber. “The Girded Vow.”

“You destroyed it. Somehow, and against all odds.” Tern coughed, covering his mouth with a handkerchief. It was spotted with blood. “With the anchor holding their Oaths gone, there was a measure of recoil experienced by all sworn to the Violet. I myself was laid out for a time until dear Zara here woke me, and I have the benefit of my Grandmaster Temper.”

Felix flared Skein of Fate, pushing his Perception toward the Skill’s pattern. It altered his vision, and he huffed a happy breath—the silver threads that had covered the Tower were gone. None of the unconscious mages around them were tied up with them, and neither was the large deer woman that lay nearby.

“You shielded her body from the explosion,” Tern said. “Brave and foolish. She was trying to kill you.”

Felix knelt over her. She seemed even larger all laid out, like a slender version of Beef. That was reinforced by her amalgam look: part deer, part humanoid woman. “Theron. I’ve seen them in Memories before, but they’re Lost just like the Nym.”

“We were surprised when one showed up in Levantier.” Tern limped closer. His robes were bloody, but he was nursing a large Health Potion. “They’re known for being very talented with Mana Skills, and she was no exception.”

After a final check for silver threads, Felix reached out and tapped her on a broad shoulder. “You still with us?”

Her breathing quickened, and Elowen groaned, squinting her eyes against the afternoon sunlight. “Felix Nevarre?"

“Hi there. Still want to kill me?”

“What?” She blinked rapidly, and her brown eyes were very dark. “I don’t—I don’t think so.”

“Good. It wasn’t going well for you, anyway.” Felix extended his hand. She reached up, but the hand she proffered was mangled, and she gasped. Felix reached down and took her by the shoulders instead, standing with a single smooth motion and pulling her back onto wobbling hooves. “You alright?”

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Elowen cradled her fist, jaw clenched against the pain, but it faded as she gaped at the destruction all around them. “Dear god, what happened here?”

“The Star,” Tern said. “It’s good to see you again, Apprentice.”

“Grandmaster Tern! You—” She frowned. “You left the Tower. Why are you back?”

“You know why.”

Elowen held a large hand to her head and pressed, as if she were trying to massage her brain. “Everything’s jumbled. I remember…swearing an Oath. Then a voice. Oh, it was so loud. It filled my head with such light.”

“You were under the influence of Siva,” Tern said, stepping closer to take up Elowen’s elbow. He was considerably smaller than the Theron, but she leaned against him. “We all were. The Oaths are compromised, and the Girded Vows are all tainted.”

“That’s taken care of,” Felix said. He kicked a bent piece of the artifact over, and it snapped in two.

“For this Tower, perhaps.” Tern gestured outward, toward the city all around them. “The others all use the same artifact, at least the most powerful Towers do—there are six Girded Vows that we’ve uncovered, but it’s an artifact we’ve never been able to successfully replicate.”

“Show them to me,” Felix said, and Hunger roused inside of him. “I’ll take care of those, too.”

Gently removing bandages from her kit, Zara wrapped Elowen’s wounded hand. “What do you remember, child?”

“Remember?”

“Of Siva and her purpose here. Did it have to do with the Chthonic Star alone? How did it all start?”

Elowen swallowed. She seemed more timid than the confident woman he’d fought only a dozen minutes ago.

"How far back do you need me to go?" Elowen looked to Felix. "I don't know how it started with you, but I woke up on the side of a mountain, scared and alone.”

“Sounds familiar. Mine was a beach.”

“Within the first five minutes, I almost died. In the end, I only survived because I found a kind woman living alone in the wilderness. A hedge mage, she took me in, helped me figure out the System and how to survive those earliest days. It was through her that I discovered I had a talent for divination. Seeing, scrying, and delving. It allowed me to gather information quickly, and with her help, I learned a great deal about the Continent.

“With her help, I traveled here, to Levantier, seeking entry into one of the Towers in order to further my education, find out why I was here, and how I could get back. It was there that I learned more about the Unbound…and the Ruin.” Elowen shuddered. “To have a gift for divination means I see more than others, and when I learned of the Ruin, it plagued me. Nightmares filled my evenings, haunting me with visions I could not remember. All that lingers, even now, is daytime skies black as any night and burning landscapes. It was also when I first saw the Light."

Felix frowned. "The Light?"

"A silver Light that shone across the world. It was something I would follow as I investigated the Skills I had developed, and it helped me as I took steps toward mastering them. It led me to Fate, guided my Temperings…and then it started speaking to me."

"Siva started speaking to you?”

"She did. I thought it was the System, at first. It seemed benevolent, even kind, and through my research and the intermittent words from the voice, I found more about the Ruin. That it is more than the gods, but also lesser than them. And that it was once controlled by the gods in the ancient past."

"Siva told you this?"

Elowen shook her head. "No, no. This I discovered on my own. Though, with careful questioning, I found that it seemed true. Are they controlling it now? Honestly, I don't know. After that, Grandmaster Tern had found the Chthonic Star. And that seemed a promising lead toward defending us from the Ruin. Everything I learned about it seemed like it could be a weapon that could protect us all."

"Could it?" Alister asked eagerly.

"I'm unsure. It is powerful, but it's not a weapon in the conventional sense. I can't sort out what are my thoughts and what were Siva's."

Tern shook his head. "I think not. But we have never tried. If it was a weapon that could take down the Ruin—if that was even my original purpose—I cannot recall. But it would be a worthy attempt.”

He patted the Theron’s upper arm. “I remember Elowen very well. You were a good student and a remarkably talented mage. I wanted to take her on as an apprentice, but Tiir wouldn't allow it. Not without an Oath to the Tower." He sighed. “The Tower Master and I convinced Elowen to swear upon the Girded Vow."

Elowen nodded slowly. "After that, things get more hazy. I…think Siva was meddling with my Mind more deeply than I thought.”

Felix held his chin, thinking. From her actions during their fight, he never got the impression that she was a Vessel of Siva. She hadn’t possessed anything close to Gabby’s blinding power—but she had definitely been infused with the Divine. A shadow of Siva had been guiding her. She admitted as much. She had been pushed toward discoveries that would benefit the gods. Not a weapon to wage war, but to break the chains of a Divine prison.

"That settles it," Felix declared, turning away from Elowen and the others.

Atar followed him, brow furrowed. "What?"

"I need to destroy the Girded Vows at all of the other towers. I can't let Siva keep her grip on this city."

"Alright, that's fair," Alister conceded. "But before we go herring off on another dangerous side mission, how about we finish this one?" He looked between them all. "We need to take her out of here and return to Elderthrone."

"Take me out of the city?" Elowen looked around at them, bewildered. "This is my home. The library in the Violet Tower alone is too valuable to leave."

"We won't have to leave it," Felix assured her. "I just need to find the Seat and Seal, and we can take the library wherever we go.”

“Really? That’s amazing—”

“But first,” he interrupted. “There's something I need to do."

He walked over to the Chthonic Star. The scaffolding around the weapon was entirely broken, and the thin plates of mithril and orichalcum were nothing more than melted splashes against the Crescian Bronze blocks. Several chunks of the ceiling had fallen on top of it, crushing part of it into the floor, but Felix couldn't see any deformation in the material itself. Crescian Bronze was far too strong for that.

He stopped a foot before the enormous weapon, and a shiver of fear snaked down his limbs. This thing had blown off his arm and leg with ease, and yet it looked so…useless. A bunch of simple metal blocks, tumbled out of alignment and carved with pretty symbols.

Felix laid a dark hand on the nearest segment. It was time to remove it from the board.

Empyrean Embrace.

The Skill roared to life in his chest, singing through the Mana Gate in his skull, before seizing the material before him—and was rebuffed. A Will not his own fought back against him…a Will that came from the Crescian Bronze itself.

It pushed at Felix, and as it did, a piece of its Intent flooded through. They weren't thoughts, but images that filtered through his senses, as if translating the sound of the wind into words and images.

Existence. Purpose.

Felix narrowed his eyes. What’s your purpose?

An image emerged of a massive boulder covered in moss. It was sheared perfectly in two, as if by the blow of some mighty being. The images became words in his Mind as it whirled through him. To find that which binds and to break it.

Hunger recoiled from the weapon, and Felix had a sudden understanding of why it had hurt him so much. It rolled through him alongside the Crescian Bronze's intent. The beam had dissolved parts of him at a fundamental level, tearing him apart where he was weakest. Only his Primordial Skills had allowed him to survive.

He stepped back, swallowing. "Guys, I don't think we can destroy this."

"It's too strong?" Atar asked.

"Crescian Bronze is notoriously difficult to destroy,” Zara explained. “Less than a handful of individuals have ever managed the feat, but they exist only in legend.”

"It's not that it's too strong, it's... It has a purpose."

"What?"

A sound struck through the world, vast and incomprehensibly deep. It traversed his spine, rippling across bone and sinew like a plucked string, before terminating at the center of his being.

The shadows flashed. Felix moved before he thought.

Stride of the King!

Inheritor's Will leapt to his hand, and he swung.

Emperor’s Vigilance is level 112!

Felix tensed his muscles and stopped the blow, his blade halting only a hair's breadth away from the neck of an armored woman.

His sister.