Unbound

The sun had only just barely set by the time Felix stepped outside. Three moons hung low in the sky, each a bit larger than the singular moon of Earth. The other two were either not yet up or hidden behind buildings, Felix wasn't sure. Even after weeks, it was still an odd experience, gazing into the night sky and seeing such blatant proof that he was so very far away from home. Their light was bright here in the dregs of the Dust Quarter, where street lamps were either broken or nonexistent. He'd learned their names over the past few days: the silver one was Siva, while the two others, both a leaden blue, were called the Twins.

Named after the old gods. The others were called Noctis and Yyero, their colors dark yellow and an almost burnished bronze respectively. But not Avet, or Vellus.

Avet, from what he had gathered, was a devilish figure that was a mix of trickster and monster. Those who dared to worship the old gods used his name only as a devilish epithet, usually intending nothing nice by the comparison. Vellus, on the other hand, he'd heard mentioned only once: the old Hobgoblin he'd saved just a few days prior.

Five moons, seven gods. Eight, if you count the Pathless. Felix gazed into the night sky and tapped his foot. And I have a quest to find each of their shrines...

Felix wasn't sure what his motivation for completing that quest was, and had placed it firmly on the back burner. Now that he'd been visited by Vellus though...it put the quest into a different light.

If gods are real, then I'm attracting their attention. I really don't like that. Felix's relationship with religion had never been easy, despite his mother's best efforts. The history, the misuse of power, all of it had turned him off at an early age. The idea that gods here were real...

Felix let out a deep, steady breath. Meditation flared and his mind calmed, ever so slightly. Pit cooed from within him as well, his soothing presence a balm against his anxiety. Gods and whatever interest they had in him were entirely out of his own power to affect, so the Nym turned his mind toward more immediate concerns.

Monster cores.

Rory had mentioned that by utilizing monster cores, one could clog or erode their foundation in various ways. Had he hurt himself by inundating his body with them? He felt different since waking, but not weaker. Stronger, in fact, despite losing so many stat points. It was hard to pin down exactly, but he attributed it to his repaired Skill. Regardless, he didn't feel as if there were build up in his pathways, and a quick check with Fire Within showed nothing wrong with the looping passages through his body. Nothing he could detect, anyway.

Some of the monster essence was used to evolve his Skill, but most wasn't. The Maw might have done him a favor, in fact, by stealing it to empower itself. He'd been forced to use what he could only assume was a resonance between his Skills to join them together. That was a tidbit he wasn't sure if he wanted to share or not. Whatever the mystery of Harmonics was, it was a veritable font of power. Pure, undiluted and undifferentiated Mana...or perhaps the energy that turns into Mana? It felt far different to his senses than even the rainbow cascade of Mana in the Void.

What else could be done with it? And how can I do it again?

"Alright," Evie practically shouted, bursting out of the heavy metal door and into the relatively cool night air. "Let's get a move on, yeah?"

The slender girl still had her leathers on along with her spiked chain wrapped about her shoulder and waist, but at some point she had done up her dark hair in a coiled braid atop her head. Eyes that glowed with a diffuse green light flared in his direction and she popped a hand on her hip. "Enjoyin' the view?"

Felix blinked. "When did you put up your hair?"

"Just now," Evie gave him a look he'd recognized from his sisters. A tightening of her lips and eyes, as if he'd just ignored something again. "You're going like that?"

Felix looked down at himself. He was still wearing his Khellish style tunic and trousers, his Far-Afield Boots, and had his Valdarian Satchel slung across his chest. His clothes were clean and hole free, despite his rough training, all thanks to their Rank I enchantments. His hair was still longer and shaggier than he liked it, nearly brushing his shoulders by that point. It had also started to curl in weird ways, something Felix usually avoided back home; he'd often kept his hair cut short, almost uniformly over his head. It hadn't been an important task. Honestly it still wasn't. Felix was sure there were things such as barbers here, but he hadn't cared to find one.

Though he did worry that he might smell. He'd bathed that morning (every morning, in fact, much to Wulfand's annoyance), but he spent a long time covered in blood and sweat and monster essence had leaked out of his pours and face. He didn't think he smelled, but Felix was rarely the best judge for that.

He didn't have time for that, anyway.

"We're late. Can you keep this pace?" Felix asked, beginning a fast jog down the street. Evie caught up easily, her loping gait eating up the distance. "Not bad, Aren."

"Heh, don't kid yourself, Felix. Are you sure you can keep up with me?" Evie laughed before taking off like a shot. With a grin, Felix followed after.

She was fast. Evie had mentioned her Agility was higher than his, but Felix didn't quite believe her. It was obvious now. Moreover, she moved with such fluid grace that if Felix hadn't already been jealous of her Acrobatics aptitude, he would have become so. As they came quickly to the end of the street, another wood and stone warehouse loomed ahead, easily four stories tall. Evie reached it first and leaped straight up into the air, her body nearly floating weightlessly into the moonlit sky. With that single jump, she had landed atop the roof.

Unfettered Volition!

Felix burst forward, letting his new Skill take control of his body. He maneuvered up and over the short wall around the warehouse, and then, through brute Strength, jumped more than halfway up the face of the building. With a casual thrust of his hand, Felix grabbed the sill of a high window and yanked himself still higher, tossing his body upwards and easily onto the rooftop. It was fast and smooth, though not nearly as fast as Evie's more direct route. Felix reveled in the Skill, however, feeling more in control than he had in a long time. Perhaps since he'd first started increasing his stats.

Unfettered Volition is level 16!

"Not bad, for a rookie," Evie grinned before she took off.

Felix got to spread his wings a bit with his new Skill, which, though low-leveled, allowed him to move much more fluidly than ever before. It wasn't the flawless grace of Evie's spins, flips, and turns, but it was very smooth. It was like his synapses didn't even fire, the delay between wanting to do a thing and accomplishing it reducing closer and closer to zero.

Efficient, he thought with a nod. It wastes nothing between thought and action.

The two of them quickly moved from the Dust and into the Wall Quarter, where they slowed their headlong flight. Felix wasn't keen on garnering any more attention than he needed to at that point, and with both the Guilders and Inquisition on high alert, running through the streets and over buildings definitely qualified as making a ruckus. Evie merely shrugged and followed him down to street level.

"You're good at that," Felix offered as they started quickly walking. "Fast and accurate. Do you have any ranged Skills?"

"What, like Archery?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Sure. I figured you'd take advantage of your high Agility and Dexterity." She made a face and Felix tilted his head. "You don't like Archery?"

"It's not that," Evie smiled to herself, a small, sad thing. "Magda tried to get me to fight ranged for years. Probably meant for me to stay back, away from danger. She was more of a mom than...well. Finally gave up when I set all my arrows on fire, though. I started working with the chain the next day."

Felix regarded the young woman beside him, feeling an echo of her ache. Like his own heart had been hollowed out by a spoon. Wait. That's not me.

Yet he felt it, like a soft reverberation in the air between them. It sounded like a minor key, drawn soft and slow over a deep hollow.

"Don't give me that look," Evie snapped, and the sound shifted toward an uptempo, almost atonal plucking. Felix blinked and the sound faded away entirely.

"Uh, what look?" He tried to recover, but he'd been obviously staring. "I don't--"

"The pitying look. Everyone's been doing it." Evie kicked a cracked flagstone into the river. It splashed with a deep ka-thunk.

"I'm not, I just was thinking about your chain work," Felix extemporized. Evie raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. "No really. I was thinking how it was a good thing you gave up on Archery. You found your calling with the chain."

Evie eyed him suspiciously a moment longer, before smiling. "I am good, aren't I? Acrobatics and Chain Mastery are my primaries."

"Yeah, I noticed. You're impressive," Felix smiled as she puffed up her chest in mock-pride. "I mean, at least compared to me. But then, I broke my Acrobatics."

Evie laughed and shoved his shoulder, but was barely able to move him. "Noctis' tits, you're heavy. What've you been eatin'?"

Felix scratched his jaw, and looked down a side street. "You'd be surprised."

"You fixed it though, right? Acrobatics?" Evie asked after a moment.

"Yeah, that's what today was about," Felix huffed a weary breath, glad for the redirection. "I've still got more to fix, though I'm not looking forward to it. Not if they're that difficult again."

"I'd probably just sunder em and let em go. Learn somethin' new, ya know? You pick up Skills fast, right? Since you're...ya know. Shouldn't be a problem to replace em, right?"

Felix wobbled his hand from side to side. "Hard to say. This way though, at least I know the Skill or something like it will be there in the end."

Then again, maybe I could just eat a big monster and learn some new basic Skills. Bringing them up to Apprentice Tier would go a long way toward getting back all those lost stat points.

Evie lowered her voice and glanced around. There was no one on the street for at least three blocks, as far as Felix could tell. The night was strangely quiet in the Wall Quarter. "What'd you end up with after everythin'? Somethin' good?"

Felix couldn't help glancing around as well, despite knowing nothing was there. "Epic."

Evie whistled. "Damn, Felix. Not many people have Epic Skills, and most of them are Bronze or higher."

"Could you imagine Tiering with an Epic?" Evie continued.

"Mhm, I can."

"Blood an' ash, that's right. You damn cheat." This time when she shoved him he stumbled forward two steps. Felix looked back, surprised. Evie grinned, victorious.

"Did you use your Born Trait? Talk about cheating."

"Damn straight. Had to max out my weight to do that though. You weigh as much as a merchant's wagon!"

"Benefits of Apprentice Tier and some really good daughts," he said.

"Vess had some quality gems in there, that's for sure. Bet she caught shit for losin' that." Evie's eyes went distant for a moment. Felix could feel the mood turning a bit maudlin again. Felix kept talking, not entirely sure what he was gonna say.

"Didn't have much choice though, it was either Tier up or die. I was lucky enough to get this Body." He looked down at his chest and hands.

"Mmm, sure were."

"What?" Felix looked back up with a confused squint.

"What?" Evie said with a grin. "I'm just admiring your sturdy Body."

"Oh," Felix said, forcing himself to push past the flush that burned his cheeks. "You, uh, you haven't finished your Formation yet, right?"

Evie's face went from playful to annoyed, and Felix once again felt those distant reverberations. They flipped between strange chords, an uneasy sensation in his guts. "No," she said.

"Sorry, is it a touchy subject?"

"No, it's--it's not that. The damn Guild was responsible for getting use our Iron Essence Draughts, and I was almost ready to advance my Spirit and finish my full set before we got back to Haarwatch." Evie tightened her hand on her spiked chain, and Felix thought he heard the metal groaning, ever so slightly. "Then the trial happened, Harn got demoted, all of our items deemed 'Guild property' were taken away."

"Including the draughts," Felix supplied.

"Right."

"Damn. I don't imagine their easy to make or find, are they?" Felix thought about his explorations around town. "I haven't been everywhere in Haarwatch, but I haven't seen a single alchemist."

Evie snorted, but it was a tired sort of laugh. "Definitely not easy. There are a few alchemists in this outskirt town, but those that could make it are workin' for the Guild already. I'll let you guess how likely it is they'll sell to me."

Felix frowned in thought and they kept walking.

The Wall Quarter was quiet as they passed through it. Although it was around nine by his best estimate, most businesses were closed and locked, and little more than the gently bobbing globes of magelight filled the streets. Wide thoroughfares, ones that Felix had only experienced during the light of day were strangely empty. After two entire blocks of this weirdness, Felix turned to Evie. The young woman was panning her glowing green eyes across the road ceaselessly.

"Is it usually like this at night?" He asked.

"Definitely not," Evie didn't stop searching, her eyes flaring with each sweep, almost like tiny strobe lights. "The Wall Quarter is busy at all times of the day, but especially in the evening. More taverns here than anywhere else, 'cept maybe Crafters."

"Then where is everyone?" Felix was unnerved by the quiet. His time in cities had always been punctuated by noise, whether it was there or on Earth. It wasn't a ghost town or anything; Felix could still see people moving around through some of the upper floor windows. Instead, it was as if everyone was just...staying off the streets.

Why, though?

Distantly, Felix thought he heard shouting a few streets over, somewhere closer to the Wall itself. It didn't seem panicked or violent, just loud. Funnily enough, it actually put him more at ease. Drunken shouting was par for the course.

He shared an eye roll and smile with Evie, and the two of them sped up. If no one was out and about, they had leeway to move as fast as they wanted. Still, the two of them kept to the shadows by unspoken agreement, neither of them interested in the attention of authorities. At the speed the both of them could move, they arrived at the wall between Quarters within minutes.

As if someone had drawn a magical dividing line, the streets in the Crafters Quarters were loud and lively. Whatever unease shuttered the nightlife in the Wall Quarter was outmatched by the sheer ribald frivolity of their higher quality alehouses and taprooms. Higher quality patrons, as well. More than a few carriages rumbled through the streets, pulled along by huge chicken-lizard Avum, each craft enameled and colored a variety of hues. A number were even inscribed with illuminated sigils, often surmounted by a decidedly non-magical House crest.

Among the throng, shouting and laughing, Felix could see a variety of Races. Mostly Humans, of course, but also Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and even a gaggle of Goblins that were furiously arguing at a street vendor. Flaring his Voracious Eye, Felix took it all in, noting names, levels, and their Formation status. The information washed over him, similar to how he'd come to use Analyze in the Foglands, his incredible Mind pulling it all into the depths of his memory. It was as if he were devouring their details, imbibing secrets that flourished and nourished part of his Mind.

Voracious Eye is level 27!

...

Voracious Eye is level 29!

Interesting. Felix felt for the Maw, but there wasn't a single twitch from his Bastion as his Eye Skill jumped in levels. With a name like Voracious Eye, that insight made sense. It hungered for information, for data. He was happy to oblige.

Mage lights bobbed on ornate lampposts, spaced evenly along each street. Folks were dressed nicely, in some cases too nicely. Those were clearly nobles, and Felix spotted quite a few of them. Fine, thin capes and dresses abounded, elaborately tailored and draped yet cool enough for the sweltering summer night. Most, however, were less melee focused than Evie. She stood out a bit, not that she seemed to care.

Due to the crowd, their speedy pace stalled out. Luckily he'd asked Jacinda for directions, and she'd said it was close by the Wall Quarter. Low key panic threaded through his heart regardless. Felix hoped they weren't too late.

With some prompting, Evie gave him a general run down of area, mentioning some of the better taverns. Based on how good the food was at the Drum Tank, Felix was eager to try something more expensive. Evie even mentioned that the best employed people with the Chef Title or Master Cooking Skill.

"It's pretty hard to advance the Skill, I'm told. Not enough variety in the local monster materials," Evie explained as she twisted between two people. Felix followed with less grace, instead pushing through the crowd as gently as he could.

"Monster materials? Normal people eat monsters, too?"

"Uh, yeah? What else are they gonna eat?" Evie gave him a look over the shoulder of a drunk Elf. "They're hard to prepare, sure, but with enough fixins you'll get somethin' damn good. Not like what Harn and Maggie made us back in that tower. Throw in a leveled Cooking Skill? Mm!"

Before they knew it, the crowds cleared and they emerged onto Weaver's Way.

"Is it normally like this?" Felix asked, gesturing back toward the crush of revelers.

"A little, I guess," Evie peered back. "Usually folks get kinda keyed up before the Festival of the Spheres. Add in that monster breach and well, folks're probably lettin' off steam. Ya know?"

The way forward was far clearer here, the march of taverns and alehouses having been left behind on the previous road. Weaver's Way, much as the name suggested, was dedicated to seamstresses and tailors. Felix even spotted a sign that looked like an old fashioned loom. A few people moved around, but it was far more like an active summer evening than a rowdy friday night in a college town.

"Cobbler should be just a few more streets this way," Evie said, up on her toes to see over a few carriages further down the street. "Not far."

They sped up, but made sure not to move faster than the others around them. It wasn't uncommon for people to have advanced stats, but they were usually Guilders and were easily remembered. The less of that, the better. Still, they made it to the intersection of Cobbler and Weaver's Way in less than two minutes.

It was a rather unremarkable section of the city. The architecture was nice but not the nicest he'd seen, and a few lampposts blinked in disrepair a bit further down the lane. Everything was clean and tidy, the stoops swept and shrubberies pruned before the closed up shops. Nearly every light was off, though a few of the busier stores still bustled with late business. Despite it all, there was nothing to indicate where Felix was to go from there.

"Where're we supposed to go now?" Evie asked. "There's nothing here."

Felix frowned, and that thread of panic started to weave around his chest. Had he come to late? Had she been waiting for him and left?

I knew I shouldn't have tried to combine my Skills today. I should have just waited. He all but growled at himself.

"Evie, do you see--"

Felix watched as Evie flinched during her search around them. Her bright green eyes, courtesy of the Night Eye Skill, flashed brightly each time she did.

"Why are you flinching?" Felix asked.

"What? I'm not flinching," Evie said, even as she did it again.

Wait a second...

Felix watched her turn again, and noted the direction she's facing when the flinch happened again. Flaring his Perception, he stared that same way. There was nothing but a poorly maintained building on the corner, cracks running up the stone staircase. Several broken windows covered the building's facade like missing teeth, and lent a definite air of urban decay. A man stood by the front door, shadowed by a triangular awning above him.

How did I miss that?

There was a faint hum in the air, like the lasting reverb of a final chord, and once Felix recognized that, the fuzziness of the scene before him vanished completely. Everything was brought into crystalline clarity, even the man only twenty feet away from them. He was a Hobgoblin, his skin red where it showed beneath his dark leather armor and cloak. He made eye contact with Felix and nodded, very slightly before opening the door.

Whatever had just happened, apparently he'd passed.

Voracious Eye is level 30!

Striding forward, Felix grabbed Evie's hand and pulled her along with him. "C'mon, I found it."

"What? Wher--Oh," Evie's voice was quietly startled as they moved up the front steps. "Uh, hello there."

The Hobgoblin didn't answer, just tilted his head slightly toward the open door. Felix took the cue and stepped through, Evie close behind.

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