Unbound

Wait. That's not the Archon.

Felix's heart was ready to seize in his chest, but its thundering slowed as he took in the creature before him. It was a massive construct, similar to the Archon in size and general design, but made of weathered stone and covered in greenery. Literally. Ivy, mushrooms, and small, blue-bell shaped flowers adorned the thing, as if it hadn't moved in hundreds of years. A large glyph glowed upon its chest, a combination of growth, guardian, and eternal.

Voracious Eye!

Voracious Eye Failed.

"Whoa. That doesn't happen often. What the heck are you?" Felix murmured. Eyeing the swirling cloud of Sprites, he carefully stepped forward. Pit growled caution at him, but Felix was increasingly certain this room meant him no harm. He had Authority, right?

The ground was tiered here, descending by a foot every dozen yards in a series of concentric circles. The overgrown Golem was at the bottom of the tiers, at the lowest point where the massive, green-gold tree was emerging from the cavern floor.

It was as thick as a skyscraper, and the roots at the bottom were matched by the distant braches at the top of the cavern, almost lost in the gloom. Were it not for his Perception enhanced sight, Felix wouldn't have even made out the roof of the cave he found himself within, easily several miles tall. There were no leaves, just a glorious green-gold trunk filled with a luminescence that dwarfed the light of the Sprites.

As Felix stepped down, his feet rang with a certain tonality, like a wine goblet being played by deft fingers. Shudders of energy spun outward from his steps, ripples in a pond that had remained still for a very, very long time. Each tier down added to the song, until by the time he reached the bottom the air was filled with a complex, weaving concerto. It tasted of silvered springtime, and smelled of the high heat of summer, flush with life in a way few things ever were. The song was but an echo, however, to the thrumming contained within the tree itself.

Voracious Eye!

Type: Spirit Tree

Lore: Spirit Trees are a rare and powerful organism imbued with elemental Mana dependent on their growth cycle. The one before you is attuned to Life, Water, Light, and Shadow.

Herbalism is level 34!

...

Herbalism is level 43!

Felix stumbled as the influx of System energy tried to bowl him over. His cores sang as they spun, exuding light and power as nourishing as any spring rainfall upon his Herbalism Skill. Felix could feel it growing, changing as the pattern flexed under the surge of energies.

"Whoa," he said. That about summed it up.

Closer now, the Spirit Tree wasn't tree shaped at all, but formed into a humanoid figure draped with green-gold moss and cascading lights. It's feet melded seamlessly into roots taller than houses, as its lifted hands converged perfectly with the branches far, far above. It was a pillar holding up the earth itself, and smelled of age, soft breezes, and new growth. It felt primal. Vital.

Then Felix noticed that the Sprites still flitted about not just the Spirit Tree, but the strange Golem as well. Standing on the same tier as it was intimidating, though in a way that was different than the Spirit Tree. The Tree was huge, a presence that he couldn't quite encompass. The Golem—if that's what it was—exuded an air of ancient patience and timeworn strength and, while certainly bigger than him, it didn't approach the majestic form of the Spirit Tree.

He walked closer, inspected the Golem with all of his senses. His first assessment was correct and it was made of stone, but there were traces of metal in there as well. Moss gathered in the crevices and joints, adding to the flora that sprouted from all over the overgrown sentinel. Small, almost invisible creatures crawled through it all, like insects but translucent. It's eyes were empty, a void where it's helmet opened to the air, save for the colony of mushrooms that had taken up residence along the left side of its face.

"What do I do here?" he asked the Sprites. The little creatures didn't answer, only circled the Golem before spiraling up the Spirit Tree and back into the swarm. "Okay, cool. Thanks."

What do you think, Pit?

His Companion was silent for several seconds, before sending him the mental equivalent of a shrug. Authority?

Dunno. Let's check.

He accessed his Authority again, the little tower icon expanding into the same greyed out menus. The option of [Access Vault] was still there, however. He selected it, and a new series of options arose.

[Drain Well]

[Fill Well]

[Access Belais Crystal Array]

[Commune]

All but the last were greyed out.

The well?

"I mean, it was a big empty well, right? Maybe it was meant to water this Spirit Tree?" Felix had no idea, but something like the Caryatid Anima probably had exotic needs when it came to nourishment. "I'm more interested in the array. Belais Crystal is the same mineral we saw in the Revenant Nest."

Ooh, Pit said as memories of that encounter flashed in his Mind. Felix could see them, taste them, as they flickered through his active memory. Shiny.

"Big and shiny. And magical. The fact that it's greyed out suggests it's either broken or inaccessible. The only thing there is Commune." He considered the tree and the Golem. "Commune with what, though? The tree?"

Worth a shot?

"I suppose," Felix shrugged, trying to ignore the slow growth of unease in him. He selected the option.

[Commune]

The green-gold light of life Mana flared into blinding brilliance as a series of glyphs appeared in mid-air before him. They were complex, a melding of several sigils as all glyphs were, but also more. The green-gold symbols thrummed with a potency that emanated from the Spirit Tree itself, and for a second Felix thought he'd guessed right. Power welled, gathered from the dripping Mana in the Spirit Tree...until it shot outward, directly into the stone Golem.

Eidolon System Engaged.

"Oh no."

Liquid Green-gold light splashed onto the Golem, spraying upward into a corona that smelled of a dewy spring dawn. The flora growing from it, far from being knocked off, flourished and expanded. Mushrooms ballooned, ivy crawled farther, and those dangling blue-bells sprouted and opened. The stone itself rumbled, cracking and creaking, while within its dark helmet two green flames burst alight.

"Who-wakes-me?"

Its voice was like a stretch of sandpaper overtop a lion's guttural roar. The sound of boulders grinding against scree, tumbling down a mountain.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Eidolon Exult

Type: Construct

Level: 6E48-$

HP: ?????/?????

SP: N/A

MP: N/A

Lore: An ancient construct built as guardian for this place, the Eidolons were creations of the Nym. Little else is known.

Strength: More Data Required

Weakness: More Data Required

Damn it, I really hope this thing isn't hostile.

"Who? I-I see naught but golden life! Who-stands-before-me?" The Eidolon's voice didn't get any better, and in fact stuttered over words, like a scratched record or glitching audio file. "Declare yourself. Who seeks to commune with the Spirit Tree?"

Felix licked his lips and squared himself up before the Eidolon. "I do."

The flames in the Eidolon's helmet pivoted, focusing on him. "I see, a new Authority rises. I-I cannot move. How long has it been since your predecessor?"

"Uh, several Ages, I think," Felix said.

"S-several Ages—!" The Eidolon's voice, rough and deep, trembled with anxiety. "I have slept so long?"

Wait, no. That's its Spirit. Felix blinked. It has a Spirit?

"What are you?" Felix asked. "You look like...are you an Archonic Construct?"

"I am an Eidolon! Sworn to s-serve those who rule the great city of Naevis, and to guide those who wish to commune with the Spirit Tree." It jolted very slightly, but enough that the plants on its frame shuddered. "What manner of—I appear to be immobile. The joints, the fixtures, the array itself is corroded. But if it has truly been Ages, then it is remarkable I am still here at all." The fires of its eyes swiveled toward Felix once again. "Thank you, Authority-bearer, for waking me. Let me perform my duties. To begin with—"

A beam of green-gold light shone onto Felix, sweeping over his form in a single swift instant. "A life scan. You are as expected. A—A Primordial?"

Shock and alarm flooded the construct's Spirit, and Felix flexed his knees, gathering his power to run. The Eidolon creaked again, as if it were trying to moved toward him. "No, more than that. Primordial. Nymean, as well. And—"

It stopped rocking, and those eyes flared brighter than ever, enough that Felix had to squint.

"Unbound."

Unlike before, there was no alarm or beginnings of fear. Instead, Felix was surprised by an absolute avalanche of joy.

"An Unbound has returned! Oh glorious ancestors!" Its voice rang from the cavernous chamber and set the Sprites to flow away in waves. "And what is this? Not only Unbound, but an Inheritor? Will wonders never cease?"

Myriad, mirthful noises erupted from the empty chest of the stone Eidolon, and Felix started to relax. It seemed it liked Unbound enough to overlook his Primordial Race.

"Ahem, yes. I am Unbound," Felix said. "And you're a guide construct? Why do you have a Spirit?"

"I am an Eidolon, not some simple guide. The effort of thousands went into my forging, so complex was the process. My Spirit and Mind taken from my mortal Body, placed in this holy receptacle so that I might be of use for Ages to come." Its voice faltered. "Ages already past."

"You were mortal before? A Nym?" Felix asked.

The Eidolon's Spirit shook, as if rousing itself from slumber again. "Yes. I was a humble servant of the empire long, long ago. My final reward was to continue that service, to live on and aid the city I loved."

"This was...a common occurrence?" Felix asked. He hated the idea of being shoved into a golem, bound to serve others for an eternity. Or as close to one as he could imagine. "Wait, are all Golems people?"

"Golems? You mean those mean creations of steel and orichalcum? No, those were never more than children's playthings. Idle projects of a few brilliant but bored Minds. The Eidolons were one of our artificers' greatest accomplishments. How do you not know of this?"

"Things change," Felix said. "So being put into an Eidolon was a reward?"

"An honorable and voluntary service, one that would raise a House to exalted status within a generation!" The construct-that-was-once-a-person cut itself off. "Or it was a desolate sentence for the most depraved of criminals."

Felix's eyes widened in horror. "People would be sentenced to have their Minds and Spirits ripped out of their Bodies? Forever?"

"Only the truly heinous. It was not a punishment often enacted."

"How do I know you're the former and not the latter, then?" Felix asked. He was careful to keep out of melee distance with the creature, for all that it appeared immobile.

"My word," said the Eidolon. "And the array on my chest should clear up any confusion."

Felix raised an eyebrow. "All I see is a glyph."

"Yes, that is it," it said. Its voice rumbled and scratched, as if catching on some internal mechanism. "C-can you not read it?"

"I—" Felix frowned. "Gimme a second."

Felix focused, flaring his Manasight and Theurgist of the Rise together. The glyph rippled, meaning teasing slowly from its shape. He already identified growth, guardian, and eternal, but now he began to see more.

Title: Architect of the Rise engaged!

Manasight is level 57!

Manasight is level 58!

Manasight is level 59!

Much more.

The glyph just about exploded, it's details unfurling like a thousand, thousand folds in a piece of paper the size of a dinner plate. Within each wrinkle there was meaning. Not scribed or engraved, but embedded in the glyph itself. It was an array, the simplest and most profound array he'd ever seen, with minimal effort put into the sigils and their permutations while still achieving something utterly remarkable. It's packed with Intent instead of scribed notations. Modern inscription used a longhand version of something the ancients apparently did with their very Will.

Theurgist of the Rise is level 66!

...

Theurgist of the Rise is level 70!

Wow! Already Felix could see the ways he could use this technique, were he to grasp it. Small nodes of Intent were bundled along the shaping of the glyph, all of them lit with Mana but the bundles shining brighter still. Amazing. It's—huh. They're not just Intent. They're Memories.

Without warning, Felix felt pulled by a sudden and inexorable gravity. Between eye-blinks, he found himself elsewhere.

What the hell?

Felix stood in a large chamber, smaller than the Vault but far nicer. The floor was polished marble, a blue kind veined with white and gold. Hexagonal pillars lined the hall, each made of gold or at least painted that way, and between them were a large crowd of people. Folks of many Races, but mostly Nymean, all wearing clothing that was part drapery and part armor. They all looked weary, and saddened, as if the sun weren't shining brightly through twenty-foot tall casements down the length of the chamber. It felt like a funeral, though he saw no coffin.

A dais stood at one end of the chamber, and atop that was a dark throne upon which a woman with dark hair, icy eyes, and a crown with nine tines sat. She spoke, and it was like a whipcrack of thunder.

"Paragon Karys, come forth."

He recognized the flavor of things. The odd clarity and sudden, disorienting transportation. He'd been pulled into one of the Memories in the glyph array.

A man that looked remarkable similar to the Eidolon stepped carefully out of the crowd. It was as if the image of the Eidolon was superimposed over his stooped, aged form. He had dark skin marred by wrinkles and age spots, and his tightly curled hair had more grey than black in it. His eyes however were as bright as any in the crowd—a shade of summer grass. The man—Nym—came to attention before the regal figure.

"Paragon Karys, you have proven yourself in a thousand ways over the course of your career. You are a man of impeccable standing and stalwart virtue. You stand before us, ready for the final—and longest—chapter in your service. Do you have anything to say?"

Karys stood taller, his aged stoop unbending for a moment. "Only that I wish all could have the opportunity to serve the Empire as I have, as I will."

The queen—empress?—straightened upon her throne and her mouth curved into a sad smile. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears.

"We shall remember you, Paragon Karys. This War will not stop until we have more heroes such as yourself step into the fray. Your surviving family will be elevated among the greatest of Magi." The empress gestured and figures of stone and glittering orichalcum strode forward. "We bid you fondest farewell."

The figures, Eidolons all, took Karys in their gentle grip.

"And welcome to the final battle."

The Memory twisted. The world turned incandescent—

—and Felix stumbled back, his heels hitting a stone step. The Eidolon loomed over him, still festooned with flora.

"I was once Karys Taiv, Paragon of the Golden Empire. I am now your servant," the Eidolon's eye fires flashed. Knowledge and wonder flitted across the Eidolon's ancient Spirit. "Inheritor of the Herald's Hook."

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