Unbound

"Give me a moment," Felix said to the Farwalker. The man nodded and had Wyvora roll him backward and out of the way.

Felix strode forward, heading toward his friends. They looked tired and a little rumpled, but overall in good spirits.

"Felix! What took so long?" Evie asked as Pit shuffled toward her. He shoved his giant head into her hands and enjoyed a series of nice scratches.

"Did you meet the Endless Raven?" Atar asked, clearly excited. He looked at the foot-long feather in Felix's hand. "What was that like?"

Vess said nothing, only putting a hand on Felix's forearm. "I'm fine," he said.

"Good," she said. "What happened?"

Felix opened his mouth to tell them, but realized it would take longer than he wanted. "We talked. I gave it some stuff and I learned a few things." He waved his hand to dismiss the questions he saw in their faces. "Later. I've gotta handle these notifications."

"...Fine. But we'll hear it later," Atar said with a frown. He turned back to the Henaari guards that stood close by. "I need to get back to the healers. Take me." He started walking and the guards gave each other consternated looks before splitting up. Two went with Atar while the rest stuck around, clearly more at ease with Felix's group since he'd earned the Raven's favor, but not enough to leave them alone entirely.

"I should go check on Harn, too," Evie said, then gave Felix a sly smile. "Did you eat the bird?"

"Evie," Vess admonished.

"I'm just saying, Felix has a track record," Evie said, but put her hands up in surrender. "Fine fine. You tall guys wanna take me to the healers too? There's a shellfish I gotta check on."

That left only a single guard to watch over the both of them. Felix didn't like that they were still being guarded. Why?

"Thanks," Felix said, meeting Vess' eyes. They seemed lighter in the morning sun. A golden brown. "For waiting like this."

"Of course," she said and plucked something off his shoulder. It was a wet leaf, colored a bright autumnal orange. "From the Raven as well?"

"Something like that. It wasn't nearly as bad as you feared," Felix said. He smiled at her raised eyebrow. "I promise, I'll tell you all about it as soon as I can. Probably once we've left this place behind."

Vess nodded, satisfied. "Something we should do soon. I feel...uneasy here. And not just because of the Urge. There are things under the surface here, and our presence is stirring them up. That Matriarch and her council, the Farwalker. I am unaware of the currents at work, and I detest that."

Felix eyed the guard and shifted slightly so that Vess' body was between them. He moved his hands quickly and as subtly as he could manage.

she signed back.

he signed. He'd literally combined 'distance' and 'walk' but it got the point across.

"Then I shall leave you to it, Felix," Vess said out loud. "I will go and see how our friends are faring."

Felix watched her go. Vess was a pro at intrigue, so it was likely she'd get to the bottom of things before lunch. And if things went sideways, well, she also kicked ass. The guards might be a problem, but they'd been reduced, and Felix sensed many among the encampment were either still asleep or just waking. He was still looking, thinking, when something hit the back of his knee, hard.

"Wha-hey! Pit!"

Notifications, Pit sent. Stop staring.

Felix looked between his Companion and Vess, who just then disappeared among the buildings and odd, free-standing arches. "I'm not staring."

Pit just looked at him.

"Shut up."

He called up his notifications.

+10 FEL

+10 EVA

Voracious Eye is level 55!

Manasight is level 56!

Exploration is level 47!

Negotiation is level 21!

Unfettered Volition is level 57!

Armored Skin is level 72!

Dang bird hit me hard, Felix thought. He rubbed at his chest, but his tunic wasn't even ripped.

Etheric Concordance is level 67!

...

Etheric Concordance is level 69!

"Oh, nice," Felix said, and Pit chirruped in agreement. Each level made understanding each other just a touch easier, as if they grew more and more inseparable.

Pit's Skulk is level 49!

Pit's Bite is level 52!

Pit's Rake is level 53!

New Title!

Stigma of the Chosen (Legendary)!

You have borne the Marks of three beings above the bounds of mortality! Greatness awaits you! Whether you like it or not. You can now see Marks of all Tiers on yourself and, with some practice, others. +10% MIG, EVA, ALA, FEL

That's it, then. Those were other Marks. Felix grimaced. He had a pretty good idea where most of them came from, but he'd seen five patterns of light, not just three as the Title said. Hm, but I can see my Marks now, and other people's too. Handy. Title's got a nice boost though, and to my Harmonic Stats.

Harmonic stats were...confusing at the best of times. He made use of Resonance and Resilience to boost his regenerations, but little more than that. His Intent and Affinity were his most used Harmonic Stats, allowing him to influence the world around him with the former and sense an empathic connection with the world through the latter. His Might and Evasion had to do with feats and defense of the Body, while Alacrity and Felicity dealt with feats and defense of the Mind. All four of them doubtlessly came in handy, but unlike his Strength or Willpower, they were not stats he'd ever felt 'go active.'

Pit and Felix both felt System energy course through them as their stats were modified by the new Title. As always it was a colorless wave of light that rolled into his core space, hitting his two rings and converting to surging beams of golden-blue radiance. Unlike previous times, Felix could see the light richochet between his [Thunderflame Core] and his [Cardinal Beast Core], before partitioning. Some flew outward into his core space, while the rest flowed down the ribbons that connected his cores to his Tempered Journeyman Skills.

That's new. His awareness floated closer. Wonder what it means?

"Pactlord."

Felix resurfaced to find Wyvora standing a respectful distance from him. He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"The Farwalker would like to speak with you."

Ready, Pit sent. He was digging his beak into his covert feathers, but had stood up.

"Alright," Felix said, and the Henaari started walking away. Pit followed and Felix was about to when he spotted something on the ground. He bent down and picked it up. It was the leaf Vess had plucked from his clothes. It looked like any other leaf, if out of season, but what caught his eye was the small wisp of purple Mana had had started to leak from its edge.

Why not? Ravenous Tithe.

The hand-sized leaf burst into dark violet smoke, streaming from his hand directly into his mouth.

"Pactlord?"

"Hm? Coming."

Wyvora led him back to the Farwalker, who sat in his wheelchair, lightly stroking A'zek. The giant cat regarded Felix with fierce brown eyes that flashed in the morning sun. Few others remained nearby. The Matriarch and the Synod had all retreated, and the guards had followed them save for the one or two he could sense nearby, watching him.

"So," the Farwalker said. His face, cowled and hooded, was still a nest of unnatural shadow. "You have met the Endless Raven. How did you find the experience?"

"Unique," Felix said with a thin smile. "That portal thing though, that's interesting. Talons of Mzal, huh? How do they even work?"

"A bit of ancient magic. Urges, you see, operate slightly differently than you or I. Where as we live our lives in the Corporeal Realm, Urges dip between all three. In order to visit an Urge, one must either be invited into their territory, be taken, or you get extremely clever."

"Uh huh, and I assume you did the latter," Felix said.

"Not I, but a Matriarch of old did, yes. The Talons are used to form a sympathetic bridge between its material and where the Raven roosts. Affinity and Resonance established with a leading Intent and the Raven's own power fuels the rest," he said.

"A bridge. How? Wait," Felix crossed his arms in thought. "The Urge's role. Finding things in the dark, bringing them to the light. Is that the connection?"

The Farwalker leaned forward. "Exactly it. The influx of life Mana upon the dying tree is enough of a beacon to attract the curiosity of the Endless Raven. Where did you hear of roles?"

"The Raven was pretty chatty," Felix said. "Wouldn't stop talking once I gave it some rocks."

"Rocks?" Wyvora said, and by her tone she was aghast and confused at the same time. "You gave our god rocks?"

"In my defense, they were pretty shiny," Felix said. Wyvora sputtered while the Farwalker laughed.

"You've found the way to the Raven's heart, Felix Nevarre. I am impressed."

Not like it was hard. The bird kept shouting "shiny shiny." You'd have to be an idiot not to figure that one out.

Outloud, Felix merely smiled. "I try."

"You succeed. It is something I am quite curious about. Come, walk with me." The Farwalker gestured and Wyvora began to push his chair along a stone path. It was broken by stretches of earth, as it was not something the Henaari had built but found, along with the tower behind them. Still, the chair barely jostled, a testament to either Wyvora's care or the chair's craftsmanship. "How did you find your Companion?"

Felix raised an eyebrow and Pit let out a deep chuff of air. "That's a bit of a story, but I saved him from a monster that was trying to eat him. Here, in the Foglands."

"Eat him—?" A'zek looked disgusted. "Who would even dare?"

"The Seven-Legged Orit."

The harnoq stopped in its tracks, though the rest of them kept walking. "Truly? You bested a Twisted One?"

"More than one, by my count," Felix said. "If I'm guessing right on what you mean by Twisted One, Pit helped with the last two."

A'zek growled. "A creature touched by madness, twisted in shape by the blood of the Teeth Below."

Felix's mouth thinned and he nodded. "Yeah, we're talking about the same things. Blood Beasts. Primordial spawn."

A firm, insistent grip grabbed at Felix's forearm. It was the Farwalker, and his body language was taut as a drum. "Primordial. It remains in the Foglands?"

"...No," Felix said. Not as it was, at least.

The Farwalker didn't release Felix's arm. "It is unlike a Primordial to simply leave, not without terrible consequences for those left behind. Many Henaari have been lost to their kind. Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. The Maw is gone." That was absolutely true, and Felix didn't even feel guilty saying it. He wasn't the Maw, after all. "It was trapped beneath Shelim, in a labyrinth built by the Geist. We...I found it. I ended it."

The Farwalker held onto him a heatbeat longer, staring up at Felix's face from the darkness of his hood. Then he let him go. "You speak the truth. Remarkable. Impossible."

Felix snorted and tried to downplay it. "Less impossible and more just very, very annoying. Pit was essential in surviving it. I'd be dead if it weren't for him." Pit pushed out his chest, and pride for Felix thrummed through their connection. Felix ruffled the enormous bird-dog's head. "How did you and A'zek meet?"

"He stepped on me," the harnoq said in a flat tone.

"I did not. I stepped on the ground, and the ground fell apart," the Farwalker said.

"And then you stepped on me," A'zek insisted. "I remember it quite clearly. You've Tempered your Mind too well to keep the memory from me."

"Bah!" The Farwalker motioned to have Wyvora push him a bit faster. Felix walked beside him, passing beneath a number of ornate, free-standing archways. "Regardless, he was skin and bones when I found him, and I fed him until he was returned to full Health. As payment, I asked that he help me find an object I was hunting here in the Foglands."

"Mm," the panther-like A'zek hummed. "We never did find it."

"No," the Farwalker said and sighed. It was wistful and a little amused. "Just all those snakes."

A'zek shuddered.

Huh. You'd think a half lizard would be fine with snakes.

"Our meeting is emblematic of my people," the Farwalker continued. "We wander, we search, and in the doing we find that which was Lost, hidden, or otherwise forgotten. My Companion Pact with A'zek was the first in our clan's history, and though we keep only oral records, they reach far. We know that, though our Urge guides us, whispers her Blessings, we have roamed long before we discovered her holy purpose. Why has long been forgotten, though I have...guesses."

Felix remained silent. This felt less like a conversation and more like a lecture.

"To see another Companion Pact established not only nearby, but both Chimeras? Though our pacts were established centuries apart, it is a curious parallel. The Endless Raven teaches us that coincidences are rarely without meaning, even if it is not a direct connection." They had come to a circular intersection, where the archways opened up into a wider area of tamped down dirt and half-submerged flagstones. Several Henaari in robes and armor walked around, all of them taking a moment to bow before the Farwalker before giving them all a wide berth. He ignored them. "I noticed that you were surprised at the sight of your Marks."

"I've never seen them before," Felix admitted. "Though I have a good idea of who gave them to me."

"Oh? That is unusual. Most Marked remain unaware of their status until it is revealed to them," the Farwalker said. "Do you mind if I bring them up again?"

Felix looked around at the crowded intersection. "Here?"

"Before was to show the Synod and dash the Matriarch's hopes for your failure. I can project them just for us, if you wish." At Felix's nod the Farwalker once again reached out and touched his chest. A wave of light was released, solidifying into a series of patterns above their heads. Felix saw the outspread wings of the Endless Raven, now highlighted in his vision. In fact, all of them were.

[Mark of the Endless Raven]

[Mark of the Maw]

[Mark of Vellus]

[Mark of the Archon]

[Mark of the Cantus Sodalus]

Both Vellus' and the Maw's Marks were faded, though in entirely different ways. The Maw's was sunken, like it was barely emerging from the darkness, and Felix instinctively understood it was because he had absorbed and incorporated so much of the Maw into himself that it was now inert. The Mark from Vellus was basically obliterated, the pattern of light scattered like far flung stars, all save for a single branching shoot of crimson at the very center. Just as the crimson growth in his core space; the only surviving remnant of his connection to the Goddess of Storm, Tide, and Blood.

The others were more concerning.

"Do you need me to explain these to you?" the Farwalker asked.

Felix's heart raced as he pointed at the fourth Mark, one of red-yellow energy infused with flashes of bronze-like rigidity. "This one. What can a Mark accomplish?"

"It is a tool of recognition, an accolade in most cases. That is how the Raven treats them. To the unscrupulous, it can be used to subvert one's Will and Mind."

"Can it track location?" Felix asked, careful to keep his voice level. He initiated his Mediation, breathing slowly and purposefully.

"Perhaps. But to do that it must first overcome the Will of its target," the Farwalker said. "Do you fear such a thing?"

"Fear is a bit of an understatement," Felix said. The Mark of the Archon pulsed regularly, like a heartbeat, or a tumor. "How do I get rid of a Mark?"

"Troublesome, especially in the case of one put in place by those of greater power. If it were someone of your level and advancement? Such a thing is easily broken. The difficulty only increases with each advancement Tier above your own, and in the case of Urges or...or gods," the Farwalker's eyes widened a bit as he stared at one Mark in particular. "In that case, it is all but impossible."

"Hrm," Felix said, focusing inward. Had his Will been compromised? His Bastion was secure, its walls as high as ever. His Mind, while strained by his spell, was sound. He was safe, right? The Archon couldn't find them. So absorbed was Felix in the search that the Farwalker had to clear his throat quite loudly.

"Ahem. That Mark...the shattered one." The Farwalker licked his lips, and Felix realized the man had dropped his face shadow. He looked nervous. "Can you tell me who bestowed it upon you?"

Felix's eyes flicked up to the array of Marks. An idea wormed into his head, and he bared his teeth. "Perhaps we can trade for it."

The Farwalker's eyes narrowed, but a small smile thinned his lips. "Oh, and what do you wish to trade?"

"Knowledge of this," he pointed to the Mark of Vellus. "In exchange for items of equal value."

The Henaari regarded him carefully. Based on what Felix knew of the Henaari, knowledge of Vellus' existence and location should be worth quite a lot, provided they didn't know about it. Felix was worried he'd turn down the deal, but the man's curiosity got the better of him in the end. "Very well. An equal exchange."

"In addition to the boon you already owe me," Felix clarified. The Farwalker flashed a smile of large white teeth. Amusement warred with excitement on his face.

"As you say, Felix Nevarre."

Felix immediately pointed at the shattered Mark. "That is the Mark of Vellus. Goddess of the Storm, Blood, and the Tides."

"What?" The Farwalker's hissed exclamation came at the exact same time as Wyvora's panicked yelp. The toughened warrior looked suddenly terrified. "How?"

"Ah ah, you first," Felix said. He pointed at the last Mark, the one called the [Mark of the Cantus Sodalus]. "What's this?"

The Farwalker visibly collected himself. It was like he was reining in a dozen lunging dogs on leashes, all of them straining to reach the treat of Felix's knowledge. "Ah, that. That is of less concern than the others, I imagine."

"Why?"

"Because, unlike the others, I can see the Tier of who placed that Mark. Master Tier, but that is quite the step below even the one you are concern with," the Farwalker said.

"What is the 'Cantus Sodalus'?" Felix asked. "That sounds like Latin."

"Latin? I have not heard of that language, but the words are an ancient dialect from the Interior," the Farwalker said. His brows drew down in remembrance. "Cantus means Chanter, unless I miss my guess."

Zara. Felix felt a knot in his gut. She's Marked me? Why? He tried not to assume the worst, but first the Urges, Primordials, Gods, and assholes. Now his friend? His teacher?

"Felix?"

The Unbound looked up, away from his own spiralling thoughts. The square had filled with people at some point, and all of them were frozen with expressions of fear, while at their feet the ground writhed with blue-white electricity. Felix could feel the heaviness of things pulling into him, like a bowling ball on a mattress, and small stones collected at his feet. Gasping, he cut off the Skill and tried to apologize, yet every Henaari fled the moment the Skill deactivated.

"Felix, are you alright?" the Farwalker asked.

Pit warbled and pushed his head up under Felix's right arm. The Unbound licked his lips and absently scritched his Companion before looking guiltily at his hosts. "That was...I'm sorry about that. The Skill got away from me."

The Farwalker shook his head. "None were harmed. But you seem out of sorts, and I am realizing it has been quite some time since last you ate, yes?"

In answer, Pit's stomach gurgled loud enough to startle several nearby birds into flight.

"We could eat," Felix said in an attempt at dry humor. "But what of your questions?"

"We'll talk over a meal. I promise it will be delicious."

Felix grinned. "How can I say no to that?"

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