Unbound

"Herald's Hook?" Felix asked. He looked down at the sword at his waist. "That's what this is called?"

The Eidolon, though immobile, somehow gave the impression of a kneeling man. "It is the blade of the Herald herself, used in so many countless battles that I would never forget its look, or the distinctive Mana signature upon the Ethereal."

Felix had heard of the Herald before, from the Maw and elsewhere. He knew that it was the Herald that chained the Maw to the Essence Anchor originally. She had been strong. Beyond strong, if she was able to defeat the Maw at the height of its power. He held out the Crescian Blade. This was her sword?

Voracious Eye!

Voracious Eye Failed.

Ever since he'd earned the Blade—and gotten the Inheritor Title—Felix had been unable to glean anything from the weapon. Before it only listed it as an "unknown sword" which had been particularly unhelpful. Only his Manasight had ever detected anything, and that was the hidden array just above the small crossguard, the one formed into the interior of the metal itself. It was what let the sword cut through spellforms, and Felix was certain that there was more to it. Even more so now.

Is that why it could unlock the Temple? To the stone guardian, Felix said, "So you're Nymean?"

"I was. I am now Eidolon. Charged in my final days with protecting the Spirit Tree before you."

"Your Memory...your empress had you fighting a war," Felix said. "What war?"

A melancholy danced across its Spirit, gone quickly. "It does not matter. It has been Ages, and I can tell by my state and the condition of this Vault that it did not end well for my people." It cleared its throat, a stentorian blast that echoed in the cavernous chamber. "Let us return to the task at hand. You have gained the Authority to access this chamber, which means you, and you alone, have the right to its bounty."

Felix wanted to ask more about the Nym, about this war, but the words "bounty" caught him. "What bounty?"

"Why, the Spirit Tree itself," the Eidolon said. It paused, and Felix could sense its own inspection of the tree before him. "The purpose of this Vault is to nurture the Spirit Tree, but it is clear that something has failed. I can sense its death looming above its eternal boughs. Too long this land has been unclaimed, too long the world above was drowned in magics malign to the Nymean sorceries that birthed this miracle." It sighed. "Typically the ruler of Naevis would enjoy a single spirit fruit to be enjoyed each year. Such a thing would rejuvenate their Aspects, strengthening their foundations for further ascension. But the Caryatid Anima has not borne fruit in Ages, I can feel that in the weight of its heartwood. Too light. Too porous to have produced anything."

The Eidolon's attention pivoted back to Felix. "It waits upon a true Authority to bequeath its last bounty, hidden within its core. It awaits you, Inheritor."

Felix wet his lips. "Do I—?"

"Approach the Caryatid Anima, Inheritor."

Enraptured, Felix walked forward. Past the Eidolon and closer to the Spirit Tree. The thing was big, way bigger than the Eyrie had been. It almost defied logic, and certainly didn't fit within the space it inhabited. Something about it...flexed at the edges, as if it existed here and elsewhere at the same time. Mana surged all around him, the air and earth and shadows all coming alive in a way that had been incredibly muted before. He drew closer.

"Place your heart hand upon the Tree's flesh and feel its power." The Eidolon's voice was a soothing, mesmerizing rumble. If it had some ill effect, it did not touch him across the enormity of his Willpower, but Felix was certain neither the construct nor the tree itself meant him harm.

He reached out and placed his left hand—the one closest to his heart—directly on the nearest root. Power coursed through it, like a live wire. His hand jolted back, but it didn't burn. Felix cautiously placed it down again. His Affinity and Manasight detected cables of life Mana rush through the roots of the Spirit Tree, some thicker than himself, and Pit cooed in delight.

Beautiful.

Yeah, Felix sent back. Yeah it is.

"Open yourself to it's power, Inheritor. Open and so shall its Spirit."

Felix did just that, wrestling down his own caution and believing in the soothing, peaceful power before him. By sheer force of Will, Felix let down his guard and immediately felt an alien presence press against him. Pit bristled and stood in its way.

Friend? Pit sent. His feathers ruffled in Felix's Spirit. Or enemy?

Distantly, though it pressed against them both, a not-voice called back.

Friend...

That was apparently enough for Pit, and the tenku stepped aside. The presence quested into Felix's core space, tendrils like roots flashing forward with no ill Intent. Felix figured he should be terrified, but it was...palliative. Pains Felix hadn't even been aware of, things that his Song of Absolution kept dimmed to almost nothing, they lifted with a deep and abiding rush of silence.

Only to be replaced by the gentle swell of something else. Something he couldn't quite define. Before Felix's eyes, the trunk split and broke, unleashing a stench of dry rot and the crumbled corpses of a thousand insects. The opening widened until it was more a doorway than a knothole, and within there was a dim light.

I offer...take...

The not-voice was faint and growing weaker, for all that it caressed against the orbit of his two cores. Felix stepped forward, talons already shifted upon his hands, and tore it wider with a single slash. Green-gold light fountained into the chamber, acting more like liquid than light but washing over Felix without sensation. He slashed again, and again, until a shape the size of a watermelon dislodged. It was the source of the gushing life Mana, and it glowed like a tiny emerald sun.

...take...it...

Felix gripped it. The not-voice and his Herbalism Skill pushed at his instincts, informing him with whispers and suggestions. Felix shook his head before ripping the watermelon-sized seed in half.

Green-gold light exploded. It expanded from him in a growing ring, and where it hit life grew upon the stone. The Eidolon itself was suddenly twice as covered with flora as before, and the tiered steps sprouted a hundred varieties of weeds and fronds and crawling vines. From between the two halves of the seed dropped a single, course pit, no bigger than the stone in a peach.

You Have Claimed The Seed Of Remembered Light!

Herbalism is level 44!

...

Herbalism is level 50!

Journeyman Tier!

You Gain:

+5 INT

+5 PER

...

Due To The Influence Of The Caryatid Anima, Your Skill Has Evolved!

Energy thundered through him, swirling from the System and the Spirit Tree itself. Felix could feel the Tree withering as it gave him and the seed in his hand all that it had. His cores spun, the discordant harmony of their contact was a jarring counterpoint to the sweet music of the Spirit Tree's final act. Within, the pattern for Herbalism pulsed and changed.

Herbalism (Uncommon) Has Evolved Into Aria Of The Green Wilds (Legendary)!

Level Has Been Maintained!

Aria of the Green Wilds (L), Level 50!

Embracing the Untamed Chords, you have found accompaniment to the Songs of War! Coupled with eyes to see and ears to hear, you have begun to see the Wilds with the senses of a true magi! Mana cost decreases slightly per level.

Song of War...Wild Threnody?

The Eidolon rumbled beneath it's new green covering. "The Treasure of the Vault...is yours."

Voracious Eye!

Name: Seed Of Remembered Light

Type: Consumable (Ancestral Seed)

Lore: Spirit Trees are rare and they can live for thousands of years. Even more rare are their seeds, within which is contained an exact copy of its Essence, ready to begin anew.

Alchemical Properties: If consumed, regain all Health, Stamina, and Mana and permanent bonus to Vitality and Endurance equal to one's level.

Voracious Eye is level 56!

..thank...you...

The presence inside him vanished entirely, and the room went dark. Sprites vanished, flitting off into the dark like snuffed fireflies.

"Whoa!" Felix blinked into the sudden gloom, and put the Seed into his satchel, tucking it into an inner pocket where it'd be safe.

Manasight is level 60!

He focused, drawing on the faded Mana in the room. The scenes of life that had filled the space just moments prior were dying as he watched, and even the Eidolon's covering was withering to nothing. He drew deeper, pulling at the earth and darkness held within it, until the chamber appeared lit by a too distant sun.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The Caryatid Anima has passed, leaving you with its Ancestral Seed." The Eidolon's voice seemed faded somehow, though it still sent small pebbles skipping near its feet. "It was all that kept this Vault sustained. Now it, and myself, shall fade into whatever lies beyond the Corporeal Realm."

"What? You're dying?"

"Mm," it rumbled. "I sense your distress. I have died once already. What is one more time."

Felix clenched his jaw. He had a lot of questions for the Eidolon, last remnant of a Lost civilization and all. "You don't have to die. I can take out out of here."

"You'll never lift me, Inheritor. You may be strong, but I am more than simply stone." The Eidolon's voice was heavy, slowing with every sentence. "Leave me, and let the earth reclaim this place. I am glad to have seen one such as you, an Unbound, returned to our Continent. I am glad."

The tree behind him cracked and snapped, it's trunk withering just as the plants around them had. Felix looked up, and the branches in the impossible distance quivered.

He ran back to the Eidolon.

"This is stupid, let's go," Felix said. He grabbed the construct around the legs and pressed his heels into the floor. The Eidolon groaned.

"Indeed. You are strong. But it is impossible." More creaking cracks sounded from above, but Felix ignored it all. He pulled. "You cannot—"

"RUUUAAHAHH!"

With an almighty roar, Felix tore the Eidolon from the earth, along with an entire foot-thick root that had grown up into it. Felix kicked it once, twice, and it snapped off in a spray of dust and fibrous strands.

"W-What are you doing!? Set me down!"

"I'm saving you, man," Felix grunted.

He started running, just as the first, mammoth branch hit the earth. The ground rippled, and a wave of force sent Felix and his Eidolon flying.

Adamant Discord!

The world blazed electric, reversing Felix's potentially terminal velocity and sending him up instead. The Eidolon bellowed atop his back as it was lashed with violent lightning.

"Sorry!"

Adamant Discord!

Up it he air, Felix reoriented for the exit. But now he had to avoid rivers of wood and stone and darkest loam as the chamber fell apart all around them. Pit screeched in warning, and Felix lashed outward with his Crescian Blade, bisecting a six-foot thick branch. The two halves fell to either side as they rocketed forward.

Almost...there!

Felix and his hollering payload shot through the narrow tunnel leading to the well on the front end of a wave of earth and woody debris. Lightning wreathed them both, and Felix flared his Skill and those steel cords for all they were worth. He pulled!

Until his shoulder clipped the jagged edge of the crevasse, and the both of them spun wildly out of control.

Cataclysmic thunder snuffed his lightning, and everything went dark.

Due To Your Tempered Essence of Manes, You Feel A Connection!

Felix woke to groans so loud and unsettling, that he was immediately annoyed. He realized they were from him only seconds after waking, and blinked into a haze of Mana streams. Shadow and earth predominated, but the tell-tale hints of water and ice lingered at the edges of his Perception. He could breath, so he knew he was alive and unburied, and as the tangle of Mana sorted itself, he realized he was at the bottom of the well.

He'd made it.

But the Eidolon hadn't.

"You...are awake," it said. The construct was planted in the earth, surrounded and pinned by an avalanche of stone and dirt and desiccated wood. "I am...pleased you have...survived, Unbound."

"Yeah," he said with a cough. He rolled to his feet. "What about you though?"

"I...am," it stated. "But not for very long."

"I can dig you out, bring you topside," Felix began, but the Eidolon stopped him.

"No. No, the debris pierced my core." The Eidolon gestured with it's one free arm, and Felix saw a steady trail of steam pouring from the construct's chest. "And even then...I feel myself fading without the...power of the Anima. Whatever brilliant arts the Magi placed upon me, they have faded...in truth. I am at my end."

"No, goddamnit," Felix growled. He strode forward. "I got more questions for you—"

Due To Your Tempered Essence of Manes, You Feel A Connection!

Felix swiped away the notification, but the Eidolon's eye fires widened.

"I felt that," it said. "What is—"

Due To Your Tempered Essence of Manes, You Feel A Connection!

"You've a Body Essence...intrinsically tied to ancestral Spirits," the Eidolon continued. New strength had entered its voice. "You...My true form was lost to time's relentless turning...but the stone construct you see before you was imbued to be my new Body. I can grant you what potency remains within its shell."

"Wait, what about you? If all you are is some Aspects bound to this rock robot, then what happens if you give those up?" Felix asked.

"I will pass on, released at last from the Corporeal Realm to find my final reward in the Ethereal."

"Desolation," Felix said. "You think there's something beyond that maelstrom?"

"There is, though it takes proper eyes to see it." One of the green-gold fires shrank rapidly before expanding again. It had winked at him. "Perhaps I shall meet you there one day, Inheritor."

Felix just nodded. He figured the Paragon wouldn't take kindly to Felix's thoughts on gods and religion. "What do I do?"

"Simply accept," the Paragon said, and with a last gasp was filled with a brilliant green-gold light.

Eidolon Exult Karys Taiv Has Given You Access To His Infinite Potential!

Do You Accept?

Y/N

Felix swallowed, but selected Yes. Nothing happened, at least at first.

"Thank you, Felix Nevarre."

"For what?"

"For choosing to become a Nym. For granting me this final wish." The Eidolon creaked and crumbled at the joints, enough that its stone form began to buckle just slightly. It stopped once it had tilted ever so slightly forward in a bow, despite being sideways. "Go, with the Herald's grace, Last of the Nym."

There was a swelling in Felix's cores, and the steam that had been pouring out of the Eidolon's chest pivoted toward him. It's eyes flared bright, twin green-gold lights that shimmered brightly.

CAW!

The Endless Raven Smiles Down Upon You!

Titles: Thief of Fate and Stigma of the Chosen Engaged!

Ravenous Tithe!

Without his conscious will, Felix felt his Primordial hunger pulse and pull. The Eidolon's flames widened in sudden terror, before everything—absolutely everything—vanished.

CAW!

You Have Been Blessed!

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