Unbound

Evie ducked beneath the glacially slow swing of a mace, tucking up into her opponent's guard and stomping the inside edge of his foot. She flared her Born Trait, enhancing her own mass as she did so for emphasis. The Boneman—as they hilariously called themselves—yowled in pain and shifting himself back, choking up on his weapon to strike down at her...but he was ten heartbeats too slow, and Evie already slid through his grasp. She flicked her chain, it's blades blunted by her Skills, and caught in the man's legs before yanking him completely off them.

"And that makes twenty three," she said, the barest edge of a pant in her voice. She tucked a loose strand of midnight hair back behind an ear and grinned at the Legionnaires still waiting for their turn. "Who's number twenty four?"

Their eyes jittered between her slight, unassuming form and the latest in a lengthening line of failures. He was being lifted by Kikri and Nevia, commandeered from the Alchemy Lab to assist the trial, but neither were healers. They gave him a Health Tonic and got him to his feet, allowing him to toddle off to the growing patch of ground that held the twenty two others she'd fought.

"No one's volunteering?" Evie asked. "Where's that eagerness gone?"

"Don't taunt them, Evie," Harn growled from across the way. He had his own roughed out ring of stone; a mini arena Felix had fashioned before swanning off into the sky to do...whatever it was that he did. "Test their mettle. That's all."

"Hmph," Evie said, pursing her lips and looking over her challengers. There were several with lightning bolts stitched into their battlerobes. Evie had fought six Blades, five Bones, and twelve Fists, but she hadn't tried her hand against the magic ones yet. "You. You're next."

The lightning boy in question took a tentative step forward. He was a Half-Orc, though on the slender side despite his Race's bonuses to Strength. Clearly he devoted his free stats toward the Mind and Spirit side of things, because lightning began crackling across his fingers even as he nervously licked his lips. He bowed. Evie bowed back.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Loqius," he said. The lightning flickered out once before surging back to life from his palms.

He nodded, and Evie sprang forward, chain in hand. She was met by a wall of crackling lightning, which made her laugh in surprise. She leaped, lightening herself so she all but flew over the Mana construct. Mid-air, she unspooled her chain, letting it whip downwards at the mage with just enough speed to hurt but not kill. Yet the Half-Orc surprised her, twisting just enough to only take a portion of the strike, he grabbed at and recast the lightning from his wall...straight up the chain.

Every muscle in her body seized for a brief moment, forcing her to land hard on the packed earth. She couldn't even pull her hand from the chain itself, as if it had been welded to her skin. Loquis rushed forward, his hands now draped with flickering planes of force Mana, clearly ready to hit her while she was down.

S-smart, she thought through the scramble of energies inside her. With a silent scream of effort, she engaged her icy core.

Scorpion's Tail!

Without moving her arm at all, the chain in Evie's hands whipped out and took Loquis' feet from under him. The mage tried to jump free, but moved too late, and his battlerobes limited his mobility. He fell, and the effect of his lightning spell dissipated immediately.

Bindings of the White Waste!

New, phantasmal chains of white ice burst from all around the Half-Orc, grappling with his limbs and securing him to the earth. Ice crackled across his arms and feet, the insular nature of the Mana preventing his magic from manifesting properly. He tried to grab the chains, but hissed as the extreme cold burned him.

"Ah ah," Evie tutted as she climbed back to her feet. She ached all over, but she didn't let it show any more than she had to; she had an image to maintain, after all. "Not normal chains, are they? Gotta be honest, you surprised me with that lightnin' spell. Caught me square. I'm impressed." She stopped, several strides from the mage's sprawled body. "You yield?"

Loquis met her gaze, the fight still blazing in them before he nodded sharply. "I...yield."

The chains dissipated, turning into purple-white vapor, and Evie helped the mage back to his feet. "Good. Go stand over there." When the Half-Orc started walking toward his injuried fellowed, Evie stopped him. "No. Not with them. There."

She pointed to a far smaller group of Legionnaires between the two mini arenas. Loquis' mouth gaped and his eyes widened, clearly flabbergasted.

"Congratulations. You get to risk your life with us," Evie said with a smirk.

"Next!" Harn shouted.

Felix desperately wanted to head back to the Lab, but a Henaari messenger had reached him even before he could leave Evie and Harn's testing of the Legion. It appeared the Farwalker needed to speak with him, and Felix had an inkling why. Secrets, it appeared, were hard to keep in a place as small as his Stronghold.

Adamant Discord sent him hurtling across the sky in a parabolic arc from the barracks to the edge of the Eire River. Not bothering with his Abyssal Skein, it was far faster and better suited his mood. Speaking to the Legion, bringing some of them along, that was necessary. Especially if they were going up against an entire army. The Henaari, however, had no reason to follow him into the desert to fight Paladins and actual, literal undead. That last bit was still screwing with him; he'd seen a lot of messed up things on the Continent, but real necromancy hadn't been one of them.

Grumbling to himself, Felix swept past the rows of bowing Henaari on the—far nicer—streets of their part of town. They all seemed to regard him with a mixture of awe and quiet approval, far different than the chaotic, buzzing clamor in the Spirits of the Legion. It was easier to ignore, for one thing, and Felid did just that as he made a B-line for the Farwalker's wooden hut. It looked exactly the same as it had back in their hidden camp, and likely was; Felix had come to learn the Henaari's version of Green Shaping drew on patterns much as a Dwelling Stone did, though in far less complicated ways. Still, they were able to store and rebuild a house with startling fidelity. It was another thing that Felix wished to learn, yet never had the time.

The hut's door was open, and the Farwalker was inside, contemplating the crystalline lattice of Mana that extended from a wooden plinth in the center of his hut. The lattice revolved and shifted, each turn twisting it into a new pattern, yet if he were to touch any part of it the thing would feel as solid and warm as a glass filled with hot cider.

"Welcome, Autarch, to my humble home," the old man said, lowering his dark hood. "That you came with such speed honors me. I know much is asked of you, and more in the weeks to come."

Felix came to a stop a few feet from him and the Mana lattice. He folded his arms. "What do you know? And how?"

"I know that you will soon be leaving us, at least for a time. And...the Chain Maiden is fast, but perhaps not as fast as her own tongue," he finished with a smile.

Evie. Felix sighed. "It was bound to get out eventually. I assume you called me here to discuss my expedition."

"Yes, I did indeed." The man wheeled his chair around to face Felix directly. "I understand that you are entering into a significant amount of danger. Is this accurate?"

Felix nodded, slowly. "It is."

"We must discuss your Companion, then."

"What?"

"Guardian Beasts," the Farwalker said. "We've spoken on their nature before, but always in the vaguest of terms. I have given you and Pit some advice, and I know that A'zek has been mentoring the young tenku these past weeks so that his first evolution will not take him completely by surprise."

"Pit's told me a bit about it, though it sounded like a lot of Skill training rather than lessons on...whatever he's supposed to be doing," Felix said. "Vaguest of terms is the right way to say it. I still don't have an understanding of what Pit's Path even means."

Unlike with his own Path of the Cardinal Fiend, Felix had not seen nor experienced a vision of potential future with Pit's Path. The chimera had chosen his own when Felix was...indisposed.

"Generalities and ambiguity, while maddening, is a necessity in this case," the Farwalker explained. "No Guardian Beast walks the same Path, and to speak in absolutes only muddies the waters of understanding. Just know, Pit is long past when his first evolution should have occurred. His latency is curious, but no doubt a function of his bond with you. A Pact that has transcended itself." The Farwalker shook his head, chagrin and wry amusement on his face. "Etheric Concordance. Such a Skill I've never heard of in any of the ancient tales, but then, the rules do not apply to an Unbound. For an Unbound...his Guardian Beast would be a thing of terrible potential. Terrible temptation."

"Temptation?" Felix asked.

"The Path winds strange, Felix. No two are alike, though they may share a name, and power has a way of corrupting even the most stalwart of us." The last was said sadly and a touch bitterly. Felix's own thoughts touched on the former, ousted Matriarch. "You both must take care. Our Choices define us, you more than most, and by extension, Pit. They may guard us, but we must guard them in return. See that your friend does not lose himself on his journey, whatever its turns may be."

"I will." Of course he would. It was Pit. "But...I don't like that there's so much to...everything. The System itself is just shrouded in mystery, and every time I think I get a handle on it I run into something like this." He took a deep, controlled breath.

"Explanations are counter productive at a certain point, Felix. I could describe a sunset to a blind man for years, but he would never truly see it." The Farwalker looked back at the Mana lattice as it shifted between a thousand varied shapes. "I can only gesture at the truth hidden within this world. What little I know, that is."

Felix shrugged it away, suppressing his frustration. A strong Will was useful, now and again. "Mm. Was that it?"

"No. There was one other thing." A smile returned to the Farwalker's aged face. "A'zek wishes to go with you on your journey, but the old cat fears leaving me alone. Instead I would send some Dawnguard with you, Felix."

"That's not necessary," he started, but the old man waved him down.

"It is. For us. You are the first foreign power we have sworn ourselves to for as long as memory recalls, and our memory is long, Felix. Pride is a...complicated thing. Long has our pride been tied to our independence and competence, our cleverness and guile. These past few weeks have put some of my people to rustling, whispering of 'better times.'" The Farwalker shook his head. "They must find a new sense of pride. The Raven bid us to follow you, but that is only one of the reasons why the Synod chose to kneel. We sense great things in your future, Felix Nevarre. Unbound Autarch who brings to life Lost things with a wave of his hand. My people must know that you see us as worthy of sharing in that future."

For all his annoyance at the Farwalkers vague words on Guardian Beasts, Felix still felt guilty that he'd lost touch with the Henaari's community; all of this was unknown to him. Not much of a lord, am I?

"I can take a few of them. No more than, say, twenty," he said.

"That would do. I'll have the most capable sent with you. The rest shall defend this Stronghold in your absence."

"Shouldn't come to that," Felix said, reaching out and clasping the Farwalker's wrist. "We'll be back long before you've anything to worry about."

"Let us hope."

There was a small, rocky area behind the Healer's Ward. It was covered in long grasses and waist high rocks that protruded from them with a quiet majesty. Trees sprouted, tall things that dwarfed the houses around them, but also smaller growths that fenced the area from neighboring eyes. Or would, eventually, when there were neighbors.

The Hand met Vess out here, as she had requested. She hadn't expected him to be fully armored, however.

"You've recovered?" she asked, skeptically. The man had no bandages, but she wouldn't put it above him to have ripped those off the moment he'd had the chance. "Your Body—"

"Is well enough," Darius said, his voice like gravel. "He didn't hit so hard as all that."

Vess simply raised an eyebrow. Darius' frown intensified before it wavered, and then disappeared entirely.

"I..." Darius took a large, almost regretful gulp of air before releasing it. "If you plan to follow the Autarch into battle, I will not stop you."

Vess peered at him, hands gripping the haft of her partisan. She didn't question how he'd learned of it all; the wind carried many things in its embrace, secrets most of all. "I do not believe you."

"Pfah, believe what you must," he said, restrained frustration overflowing. "I am your minder, but you've little need for me. But," he lifted his massive sword and pointed it at her, hilt first. It halved the distance between their two bodies. "I will follow with you."

"No," Vess said, adamant. "I will not have you breathing over every decision I make, nor your disapproving glare. If you want to serve my interests, then you shall remain here and protect the Stronghold."

"Protect it from what?" he asked. "These wilds are dangerous, but he has pet Giants and Henaari at his call, and not one of them weak. That barrier? The one he summoned with his Authority? It will withstand countless blows." Darius shook his head, but his sword remained between them. "If you must tread into danger, then let me be a bulwark against it. For your father's sake."

She couldn't parse his Spirit with her Affinity, not entirely. Flashes of anger where there, but there was an earnest timbre to it all, and his face was more...vulnerable than she was used to seeing. "What is this? You have never been so...What do you hope to achieve? Is this about getting back at Felix?"

"Nothing more than your safety. The fight between myself and the Fiend was the final nail in our...disagreement. He defeated me fairly, with everything I had pitted against him." For the first time, the sword wavered slightly in his grip. "My honor, my duty is appeased, and the weight of our opposition no longer hangs between us. I know now that were I to fall, he could protect you."

"I am not a frail creature, to be protected by minders," Vess said, her own anger boiling up at Darius' reasonable tone. "I need neither you nor Felix to guard me."

"Prove it," he said, and the greatsword moved. It flipped, once, neatly landing hilt first in his hand. The wind of its revolution threw Vess' hair back. "We fight, here and now. If you can best me, then I will remain behind to care for things in the Stronghold."

Vess gritted her teeth, but eagerly took up her spear. "And if not?"

"Then perhaps I am still of use to you, your Grace," he said, inclining his head. "Begi—"

Before he finished his words, silver Spears descended upon his position, forcing the man to parry them with a wide, horizontal swipe of his blade. Vess detonated them all and moved, air Mana screaming along the edge of her partisan.

She dove into the breach.

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