Unbound

It wasn't long before Felix found himself in the center of the encampment, surrounded by Henaari, and staring at the darkened opening of the ruined tower.

"I feel this has been a bit rushed," he said to Pit. The tenku blew a sharp breath from his nostrils and rustled his wings. Concern wafted through their bond.

Tower...smells wrong, Pit sent.

"Wrong how?"

Wrong season.

"Wrong—?"

The crowd of Henaari shifted, the warriors and craftsmen moving aside to allow through Vess, Evie, and Atar. They found him easily and Evie shoved her way forward.

"Outta the way, string beans!"

"Why are you all here? Where's Harn and everyone?" Felix asked.

"Still getting patched up. Alister is watching them," Atar said and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "But a couple dour looking friends of yours came and ordered us here."

"Said you'd gotten locked into a trial?" Evie raised and eyebrow. "A little early to be breakin' laws, Felix."

"What is happening? And what is that?" Vess asked, pointing at the tower. Her eyes flashed with Mana as her Elemental Eye activated. "Something dark and cold lives in that place, Felix. Please tell me you are not entering it."

"Well," Felix said as he scratched the back of his neck. "Funny story—Hey!"

Vess had smacked him across the shoulder. It wasn't a hard hit, at least not to him, but it was surprising regardless.

"Do not joke. Why do you have to do this?" Vess asked.

Felix sighed. "Sorry. They have information we need for my...task. And...and I think if I don't, they're not gonna heal our people anymore. Honestly, I think they might attack us if I try to walk away."

"Two-faced jackals," Atar hissed. "Let them try."

Felix pushed down Atar's fists. "I like the enthusiasm, man, but I'd rather not fight an entire town."

Vess shook her head. "Better we fight than have you face what I suspect is in there."

"Wait, why? What's in the tree-filled safety hazard?" Evie asked.

"The Endless Raven, I think," Felix said. Evie and Atar shared a look before staring at Vess. The heiress had clenched her jaw so hard he was worried she'd crack a tooth.

"You don't know what you are facing. It is an Urge, Felix. They are defined by what they want. Extremely so. But they are also unstable. Erratic." She pushed her dark brown hair back, out of her face. Quite a few strands had escaped the simple tail she'd put it in.

"So the Raven just wants discoveries then? That's it's deal, right?" Felix asked. "So I just tell it how a washing machine works and it'll leave me alone?"

"A washing machine?" Atar asked.

"I don't know how those work, now that I think about it." Felix considered things a moment, his Mind working quickly. "Huh. I don't know how much of anything worked back on Earth."

He was stalling and distracting himself, he knew. His friends knew it too.

"Perhaps you can appease the Urge, but I do not know. Death follows the Raven and those that follow it. That is known." Vess swallowed and looked away, at the tower. "This is a foolish risk."

Felix's expression softened and he gave Vess a smile. "I'll be fine. It's just another god. What's the worst that can happen? Ow!"

Evie had smacked him right on the top of his head. Metal-backed gauntlets and everything. "Don't be dumb."

Felix rubbed at his skull and took a deep breath. All of them were gazing at the tower, now. "No promises."

With little warning, guards replete with hooked spears and bucklers stepped forward to push his friends back into the crowd. Felix moved to stop them, but Vess waved him down even as one of the Synod spoke up.

"All penitents are allowed to give final goodbyes to their loved ones. Now they will witness your Trial." The woman, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the Synod, waved her hands at the guards. They continued to push his friends back.

"I don't like this a whit," Evie said. "You touch me with that spear and you'll find it somewhere you really don't like."

However, all three of them didn't fight as they were pushed to the sidelines, though Atar had his fists clenched and his Mana on the cusp of ejected from his hands and feet. Vess calmed him with a whispered word, yet she looked little better.

"You must leave your weapons behind, outsider," the Matriarch said from among the Synod. She hadn't done a costume change, but he wouldn't have put it past her. The lady seemed preoccupied with appearances. Or maybe it was just her own pride. "The Raven tolerates no blade in its presence."

"No," Felix said, loud enough to be heard over the casual mutter of the crowd. The gathering went silent, even as it gained new members by the second. "Is your god threatened by a mortal's sword?"

The woman sputtered. "No, no of course not! It is tradition!"

"Don't care." Felix walked to the tower's yawning opening, Pit trailing after him. The Matriarch didn't follow, though he heard her whisper something furiously to a member of the Synod.

The Farwalker and Wyvora were both waiting for him at the entrance, the former in his elaborate looking wheelchair and being pushed by the latter. Felix could feel that chill wind against his skin, like an open freezer compared to the summer's heat. The Farwalker looked at him—he was pretty sure but it was hard to tell with the magic face shadow—and nodded.

"You who have claimed the Right of Wander shall enter the Realm of the Raven. As do all Henaari, you shall seek a Blessing from the Endless Raven, or else you will be forced to revoke the Right of Wander. The consequences of which are dire."

Yeah, I get it, Felix thought. Fail and my team's not getting outta here.

"Is it too late to ask for that boon now?" Felix asked with a nervous smile.

"No," said the Farwalker. Felix swore the guy smiled at him. "Let us save some surprises for later." He gestured to the crumbling opening in the tower. "Hold fast to your spirit, for the dark is not a place for weakness."

Cool, cool, cool. "Do you guys practice ominous phrases?"

"Are you ready, penitent?" Wyvora asked, clearly ignoring him.

"Nope, but when has that mattered?"

The Farwalker's face was shrouded in that darkness, but he swore the man smiled. "Then enter. And may the Raven walk with you."

Ready bud?

Yes. Pit chirped quietly from his side.

Let's do this then.

Felix and Pit entered the tower expecting all sorts of nastiness, yet they found only rock and root. Tumbled down blocks of weathered stone covered the floor, and had the sun not set several minutes ago the holes they left above would have filled the space with light. Instead, Felix only saw shadow, dust, and the gnarled roots of the big tree that grew up the center. The corridor led him to the left.

"This is anticlimactic," Felix complained as they walked further in. "For some reason that makes it creepier, though."

Pit trilled in agreement.

Felix had little trouble navigating the detritus-strewn floor. His Manasight, as always, was a useful tool for the dark, though he had to focus to see beyond the cloying vapor of shadow Mana. The cold breeze continued fitfully, bringing with it the scent of wet and salt. Odd, but not unpleasant, and it brought streamers of color to interrupted the shadows.

The path wound around, spiraling through ruined arches and half-crushed lintels, but that huge tree was always in the center. Up close it looked dead and desiccated, riven with deep cracks like a dry riverbed. Yet Felix could still see green-gold life Mana pulsing through it. As he came around the final corner, he saw why.

The tree was six or seven feet wide and filled up a good portion of the interior. A series of spikes were driven into the trunk, around which the tree was lively and not dead. Green-gold threads pulsed from the metallic spikes, each one glowing painfully in his Manasight. The threads spiraled up through the trunk, pushing toward the branches high above and fueling the emerald leaves he'd seen earlier from afar. Without his Manasight, the spikes were curved and silvery, with whorls of green-gold etched into their sides.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Talons of Mzal

Type: Artifact (enchanted)

Lore: Dawncrafted Ages past, they are spikes that channel life Mana into whatever they are thrust within. When removed they leave no mark. Other effects unknown.

Artifact? Never seen one of those before. And Voracious Eye can't even see all that it does. That alone cemented what his senses were already telling him. The Talons were dangerous.

That breeze started up again, but this time he could tell it was coming directly from the tree itself. Pit lifted his head and sniffed. The wind had a bite to it, like deepest autumn, and smelled of rotting leaves, cold rain, and winter on its way. Pit nudged him.

See? Wrong season.

"Got me there, bud," Felix said and reactivated his Manasight. "But isn't this interesting? This isn't air Mana."

The wind blowing past him was not white-green, but instead thick strands of purple, black-grey, and deep blue. All of them...woven together somehow. Braids of Mana undulated around him, flows of liquid that turned solid as he perceived them. Just like the solid working in the Farwalker's yurt. The Mana then surprised him: it collapsed onto the tree, between the Talons of Mzal, and with a flash of dark light the trunk disappeared.

And so did everything else.

"Shit," Felix cursed, hands lighting up with acid Mana. "Stick close Pit."

The darkness faded swiftly, but as it passed, it revealed a new landscape entirely. They were in an autumnal forest, filled with fiery colors turned soggy with constant storms. Misting rain and cloying fog rolled between the trees, while somewhere in the distance there was the roar of breakers against the shore.

"Is this an illusion? Or are we really here?"Felix quested outward with his senses, but everything he touched felt extremely solid. They had either been transported or it was the best illusion he had ever seen.

The trees were sparse all around him and the ground was covered in wet, burgundy leaves. Yet patches of the earth still smoked, as if fires were banked beneath the damp debris, and twisty columns of hazy smoke rose up to join the dark clouds above. Among the trees were things that Felix originally mistook for large boulders, but which turned out to be alive. Giant Fire Beetles ambled about, each as big as Pit, huge but content to leave them both alone for now. They made sure to keep their distance.

What do we do? Pit asked.

Felix shrugged. "Look around. Keep an eye out for any birds, I guess."

As they walked, the forest thinned even more, until it was clear the way ahead stopped at a promontory. From a distance of five hundred yards, Felix could make out the spray from the pounding waves below, but the ocean before him wasn't half the noise he was hearing. The sky was alight, if faintly, and crackling thunder chased every crash of the sea.

The beetles were more numerous here for whatever reason, and the thinning tree cover left Pit and Felix little option but to pass slightly closer to them. The Giant Fire Beetles, however, did not like that. The first one they came near turned and charged at them immediately, its shell lighting up with all the radiance of magma. Pit lunged forward, using Rake across its exoskeleton and rupturing whatever Mana process was going on. The creature exploded in a burst of orange vapor and thick, scalding offal.

"Klikkikikikik!"

Another two charged at them, incited by the first explosion, and Felix summoned a Shadow Whip into both hands before bringing them down, hard. The tough tendrils smashed both beetle faces into the soggy ground before the whips exploded into black-grey vapor, expended. It was followed by two delayed detonations as the beetles expired.

Pit grappled with another, and a fifth came at Felix from the cliff edge. A ball of molten orange Mana formed between it mandibles as it ran, but Felix wasn't interested in getting burned.

Unfettered Volition!

Bursting forward with all the grace and speed he could muster, Felix slammed into the car-sized Giant Fire Beetle foot first as he kicked it directly under its abdomen. There was a brief moment in his Perception where Felix was unsure if it would explode or not, before the entire beetle lifted from the ground. And shot into the sky, trailing orange Mana like a comet.

From out of the smoke and clouds, a massive, jagged beak caught it.

And swallowed it.

A third sound emerged, one masked by the storm and surf. The sound of screeching avians. Millions of birds materialized from the dark, forming around the massive beak as it swallowed the Giant Fire Beetle. Magpies, crows, starlings, and ravens swirled and swarmed, dark feathers meshing until they formed a creature equal to the hungry beak.

"The Endless Raven," Felix whispered.

Its head alone was the size of a city bus, and it's body was more like a jumbo commercial passenger plane. Except its wings trailed off into the dark and smoke, as if it truly had no end. It undulated its head and throat, and the faint light of the Giant Fire Beetle vanished into the creature's gullet before it twisted and fixed Felix with a single, house-sized eye.

OFFERING?

"Uh..."

SHINY?

It's...just a big bird? Felix was dumbfounded. He'd expected...well, he wasn't sure what he expected, but not this.

OFFERING?

Right. What do I offer? It likes found things, and apparently shiny things. Felix wracked his brain. He recalled the stones and small objects arrayed around the Shrine they'd found, which brings up another memory. He fishes around in his satchel a moment longer before pulling out the small book he'd found, one filled with cramped Henaari script. He held it out.

"For you."

The Raven tilted its head and pushed closer. It was still in the sky, hovering somehow, but also its head pressed forward until it took the book from Felix's fingertips, snagging it with its massive beak.

CAW! it screamed, and Felix jumped. Pit's feathers ruffled at the sound, half his body puffing up. The Raven flapped its wings—once—and vanished.

"Okay?" Felix said after a moment. Was that it? How am I supposed to leave, then?

CAW!

With another trumpeting call, the Raven descended from the cloud cover, and somehow Felix could tell it was pleased. He chalked it up to being bonded to a half-bird for months. The Raven stooped again and shoved its beak into Felix's personal space.

MORE OFFERING?

MORE SHINY?

"I don't have anything," he said. Not anything I'm willing to part with...

Pit nudged him, then clawed at the ground.

"What?"

Stones are shiny.

"Oh. Oh," Felix said. "Will that work?"

Find out, Pit replied.

Stone Shaping!

Felix poured his Mana out of his channels in a torrent of dusty-brown, and the ground before him turned to mush. Flexing his Skill, Felix pulled rock around, shoving dirt and stone as he delved. Deeper and deeper, sensing the types of rock layers beneath the earth. Loam and clay and limestone, followed by a number of rocks he couldn't name but could feel. They felt hard and flat, unimpressive. He moved on.

Felix had never done this before and the process of it felt awkward at first, but his high Intelligence and Willpower helped him push through the unusual application. He sorted through layer after layer, all while the enormous Urge stared at him with something approaching annoyance. It was taking too long. Then, somewhere perhaps forty or fifty feet deep, Felix felt stone he hadn't before. Crystalline, almost.

With a final surge of his Skill, Felix gripped all the he could and brought it up, up, up onto the surface. The soup that had become the ground before him split and parted before the oddly gelatinous arrival of a large crimson and brown stone. More than large, it was fifteen feet wide as he shaped it together again, sloughing off sides and leaving them smooth and polished.

Stone Shaping is level 60!

Stone Shaping is level 61!

Stone Shaping is level 62!

The Raven, far from being annoyed, looked elated. It bobbed its head excitedly, each motion followed by a blast of stormy winds that sent the sparse trees swaying. It picked up the stone and tipped its head back, swallowing it.

YOU HAVE DELVED AND REVEALED, FELIX NEVARRE. WE ARE PLEASED.

"Oh, whoa. Okay." Felix jerked in surprise at the Raven's sudden diction. "I'm glad you're pleased."

YET WE SENSE MORE IN YOU.

"More—?" Felix held his hands out. "I have nothing more to give, Endless Raven. Pit?"

The tenku shrugged and shook his head.

YET MORE REMAINS. THERE. UPON YOU.

Felix followed its gaze to his hip, where his satchel rested next to his Crescian Blade. Felix opened the top of his satchel and rooted around for a moment, looking for something, anything. He touched on jerky and trailbread, a change of clothes...nothing that would interest a demigod or whatever Urges qualified as being.

Felix's hands touched something else, hidden in the bottom of his bag. It was cool to the touch yet sparked in his grip, and Felix swallowed nervously before withdrawing his hand. Glittering in the muted lightning, he held a key made of a clear, faceted gemstone.

Omen Key.

The Raven's eyes glittered.

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