Unbound

Chapter Forty Seven - 047

"Hey what is that?" Shirt comfortably on, Felix nodded at the vial she held.

"This? Haven't seen a stamina potion before?"

Felix felt a rush of excitement. If he could replenish his Stamina even faster, then he could train far longer. "You have any more?"

"Some, but we burned through a lot during that big battle, back when we met. They get less effective over time anyway." Evie shrugged and tipped back the last of the potion before letting out a tiny burp. "Just taking one now to replenish before I gotta fight Harn. Bastard's tough as hell."

"I noticed," Felix rubbed his ribs, a phantom ache from one of many bruises the warrior had put on him. It was all healed by now though. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask. How much do you know about other races?"

"Hm?" Evie looked up as she rooted around the fire pit. "Which ones? I know lots." She peered around again and grumbled to herself. "Where'd that meat go?"

Felix looked down at the tin platter and moved surreptitiously away from it, scooting down the circular bench. "How uh, how many races do you know?"

"Like met? Damn near all of em, if I had to guess. Least the common ones." She gave up her fruitless search for the remaining monster meat and plopped down on the bench alongside him. Her armor was beaten and scratched but sturdy, and the blue tabard thing she wore hung limp in the firelight. Felix couldn't spot her chain, which was usually wrapped around her arm or shoulder. "Elves, Dwarves, Alfein, Nixies and Naiads, though they're the same thing really. Just don't let em know that. Learned that one the hard way."

Evie reached into the huge rucksack and somehow found a stack of hard biscuits and jerky. She started munching while she talked. "Goblinoids, of course. I even saw an elemental spirit once, but they were pretty standoffish. Don't see them much in the cities. Birdfolk I heard of, but never met one, same with the lizardmen down Te'thys way. Atar'd probably know more about them." She chewed loudly, food spraying slight as she spoke. "Why?"

Felix was slightly overwhelmed at the list of races she just...spat out. He added them to a list of details for the future, when he had more time. He tried to steady his thudding heart, evening out his breath with his control Skill. He had to be careful here. "I was looking around upstairs. Saw a sculpture of a bunch of chimera and of another race, this one called a 'Nym' or something. You ever hear of them?"

Acting is level 7!

Keep that face nice and neutral!

Evie tapped her lips, chewing slowly. "Nym Nym Nym. Why does that sound familiar?" She snapped her fingers. "That's right! The Night Market in Amphora! They had this weird floaty pyramid with that name on it. Nym. No one knew what it did, on account of it bein' too weird. What'd that guy say about it..."

Evie drifted off, eyes up and staring at the middle distance. She screwed up her face, as if trying to eke out the last drop of a memory. "Said something about old ruins? Real old, like Third Age old. I do remember that no one could even Analyze it. Kinda like the fog here..." She stopped scrunching her face and turned to Felix, her green eyes bright. "Hey, speaking of which; how can you see through the fog?"

Felix frowned. "You still don't believe me?"

Evie waved her hands. "No, no. After today I'm a believer, but it's weird. You came outta nowhere, you can see through the fog, you got a chimera friend who, no offence, is creepy as Yyero's backside..." Pit quietly growled from his slumber across the room, interrupting them. Felix frowned. Maybe the mishmash of bird and fox/dog was ungainly, but Pit was far from creepy. What did she see when she looked at Pit?

He asked her.

Uh same thing you do? Got eyes dont I? Blurry and dark, like smoke made monster. Four eyes. Great huge claw wing things in its back. Like I said. Creepy." Her neck and shoulders twitched involuntarily, and she gave Felix an apologetic look.

Felixs head rocked back, though he realized he shouldnt have been surprised. So the illusion was affecting how they saw Pit? Does it extend to all monsters?

How about the giants? What do they look like?

Youve seen em. Blue skin, ugly, big beards. Why all the questions?

I dont think were seeing the same things. The giants sound the same, so thats weird, but Pit doesnt look like that. Hes a chimera, sure, but he just looks like a cross between a black bird and a big fox. Normal feather wings and all," Felix said, scratching his jaw. His beard was slowly coming in--barely more than bristles at the moment--and it finally was starting to irritate him.

Huh. No shit? Evie shoved another hunk of bread in her mouth and chewed as she considered Pit from afar. She swallowed and said, Wish I could see it. However you do it, its not somethin I got.

Felix shrugged. "Maybe it's my Manasight? I'm pretty sure the fog you're seeing isn't real either."

"Manasight? What's that?" She paused. "Wait, what? Of course it's real. Just cuz you got special peepers doesn't mean--"

"It's an illusion. A really good one, probably, since it affects such a large area. I don't really know how magic works," Felix added. "But it's not really there. It clearly affects how you all see the monsters around here too, like Pit."

"Thats nuts." Evie took a big bite of jerky and chewed it for a moment. "Never heard of a spell that big or one that could last so long. Not even at the capitol. Cant be possible, right?"

"It makes sense," chimed in Magda, who had been sidling up into the conversation for the last twenty seconds. Felix had eyed her out of his periphery but didn't want to mention it. Why not just come sit down? What's that about?

"The fog being a spell fits with the idea that an artifact can dispel it. If it were natural, I figured it'd be easier to get rid of, yeah?" Magda sat down, her leather creaking as the metal bit jangled. "But how can a spell affect even information gathering Skills? Analyze doesn't work out here; neither does Herbalism or Tracking."

Felix shrugged, absolutely out of his depth. "Not a clue. Is there such a thing as large scale magic? Like a big, I dunno, ritual or something that would activate over a large area?"

Magda tilted her head. "Maybe. But the amount of Mana you're talking about is...it's bigger than what everyone in Haarwatch could pool together, and then some."

Evie let out a low whistle. "That's a lotta juice."

"Yeah, a lot," Magda agreed, still looking thoughtful. She turned to Felix, casually. "You said you found some carvings of Nym? Where?"

Knew you were listening in. Do you still not trust me? Despite his thoughts, he half-smiled and gestured to the wall where he had descended. "You're welcome to check it, if you can make it up there. Not even sure how I did; the staircase disappeared after I came down."

Magda half rose to her feet before making a series of gestures to someone out Felix's line of sight. He could hear metal scraping softly against metal as presumably Harn walked toward where Felix had indicated. She turned back to Felix. "Are you sure?"

"Well, yeah. I walked through the archway and then it was gone when I--"

"No," Magda interrupted him. "About the Nym?"

"Uh, yeah," Felix felt his pulse suddenly spike. "Why? What's...is something wrong?"

Magda had pulled a dagger from a sheathe at her back. Felix looked at Evie, who met his eyes and shrugged. When Felix looked back, the big woman had stepped out of the fire pit and toward one of the carved walls. She searched them a moment before she pointed with the dagger at a particular scene. "Was this there?"

Felix stared at her a moment longer before following the direction of her dagger. Among the natural scenes depicted along the carved walls, here the nature motif changed into curling vines that formed an elaborate circular frame. A figured stood among the smaller white stone figures, the ones that looked like children. The taller figure was made of slightly different stone, darker and smoother than the off white of the walls. The figure held a crooked scepter in their hand, and was wearing long flowing robes with armor belted on over it.

And above their head, a tiny but definite four pointed star.

"Well that looks familiar," Felix muttered. He could practically hear Magda's eyes affix onto him, and he turned toward her. "Yeah, it looked just like that."

"That's a Nym? They look boring." Evie grumbled through a mouthful of food. "No horns or nothin'?"

"You're sure? Just like this?" Magda repeated.

"Yes, damn it. Why?" Felix was getting annoyed with the shield warrior's constant confirmations.

"Harn and I spotted this earlier, though didn't see any others. I had hoped it didn't mean anythin', maybe just a decoration. But if you saw what you saw, then we're in trouble." Magda stared at Felix with worried eyes. At some point Vessilia and Atar had wandered over toward them all, and Felix could see them look on questioningly. Magda started talking again, her voice softer.

"We've been to a lot of ruins over the years, and out of all of them, the only one that nearly killed us was littered with pictures of them." She pointed again at the robed Nym with her dagger. "After that job went sideways, we found others that had seen these figures before. All of them were in ruins, ones that were hidden or sunk beneath the earth; all of them, without exception, were deadly."

Harn spoke up, and Felix turned to regard the warrior. "Those carvings can be found across the Continent. Always the worst places, but also the ones with the greatest treasure too. This tower and the others like it might be somethin' these creatures built, somewhere they hid their deadly treasures."

"But who were they?" Atar asked, his eyes bright in the firelight. He seemed eager for this knowledge, and Felix wondered why. But he turned his attention toward Harn and Magda, hoping they could shed more light on his own newborn heritage. Magda shook her head and shrugged.

"Don't rightly know," Harn said. "We know the name, we know they were around up until the Third Age, and we know they're Lost." Gasps rose among the Tin Ranks, and Felix perked up. He'd heard the term too many times to miss out now.

"Lost?" Felix asked, working to project an earnest ignorance. For a moment no one answered, but the Atar hopped in, no doubt happy to prove his knowledge.

Acting is level 8!

"The Ruin." Scattered nods and solemn looks crossed their faces. Felix just stared, eyes bouncing between them all.

"More importantly, it means this city is much more important than we realized," Magda continued looking between them all. "Entire nations would bankrupt themselves to find intact Nymean artifacts."

"That also means we're in for a shitload'a trouble." Harn walked over to join her. "Like Magda said: Nymean ruins are dangerous, deadly so. Yer lucky ya didn't die on those stairs, Felix. The same goes fer the rest of ya; no wanderin' around."

"How dangerous?" Vessilia's voice was soft, but her tone demanded answers. Nobility, huh?

"Let me put it this way, Lady Dayne," Magda said, capturing their attention again. "The old timers at the Guild have a rule for Nymean ruins. Count the stars."

"Count the stars?" Vessilia asked, eyebrow raised. "As in, how many figures?"

Magda's face was grim. "No. The star points. The more there are, the worse the danger ahead."

"And how many points did the stars have in that ruin of yours, Lady Aren?" Vessilia asked.

Magda swallowed and sheathed her dagger.

"Two."

An hour later, Felix laid uncomfortably on his borrowed bedroll, with Pit snoring lightly next to him. The big lump had been sleeping for the entire time, and he envied Pit's relaxation. Ever since Magda had revealed what she knew of the Nym, he hadn't relaxed once.

I'm a Lost Race, that's what the system notification said, way back when it altered my Apprentice Quest. That has something to do with the Ruin, which, okay, sure. Seems obvious enough on the surface. Big cataclysm comes along, wipes a people out. People later call it something ominous.

Felix bit his lip as he stared up at the ceiling. They had banked the fire and it had all but gone out, filling the space with only a dim red glow off to his right. Still, orange Mana flared and danced across the ceiling tiles, each one perfectly etched into the monolithic stone of the tower itself. Felix found it so easy to get lost in his own Manasight, gazing from one iridescent marvel to another. He didn't know if everyone could see Mana like he could, but he couldn't imagine going back to how it was before.

It's beautiful, this place. Despite everything I've gone through; brushes with death more often than I care to count, the terrifying joy of growing stronger, the constant low buzz of fear. It's all so beautiful, just the same.

Felix thought back to Magda's words, his Born Trait perfectly replicating her voice: count the stars. He had seen stars like that before; not upstairs of course, though he'd have to maintain that lie later. No, he had seen an entire array of those stars in the Waterfall Temple. Each alcove contained a Nym holding a star, increasing in complexity until he came to the massive green metal door. That portal had been carved with an elaborate and highly detailed mural showing Nym standing amid some sort of tree branches. And surmounting it all was an eighteen point star.

If the star points dictate danger, then just what is behind that door? Nothing good, of that he was certain. Thinking back on it, Felix was almost glad he had left that Temple, otherwise there was a non zero chance that he would have already attempted to open that damn door.

Balfur saved me from myself. He sighed. Pity for the hurt and displaced Irontooth Ape still ate at him; and was perhaps a product of his Memory. Perhaps his family survived. He was chased by what I assume was the giants, away from these towers and into hiding. Could they still be around?

Felix squeezed his eyes closed, cutting off that thought. What would be the point? Would could I even do for them? Except force us into a fight that they probably would lose.

Balfur was their champion, he could clearly recall. The strongest of them, and Felix had ended him three levels ago.

He held up a hand, regarding it in his special sight as near-invisible wind Mana buffeted against it and dim orange fire Mana splashed against its edges. His hand was muted flesh, but spinning through him like blood was the blue electric fire of his Mana, sparked with a faint golden brilliance.

Whatever I am, whatever I've become, seeing these things has changed me. Maybe the Nym were evil masterminds who littered the world with death traps, or maybe there's more to them. Either way, my changed Race doesn't change who I am. Not even my Omen can do that, another choice taken from me somehow.

What was it Atar said? "You don't choose your destiny..." He was so certain about that, in a way that only a teen can be. Last time I was that certain I had convinced myself that smoking cigarettes was definitely cool. Teens don't know shit.

Destiny is whatever the fuck I make of it.

Only fifty feet away and separated from the group by a thick blanket, Magda leaned against a nondescript block of stone.

Perhaps it's a counter, like a kitchen? She looked around herself, unable to identify any of the functions of the various blocks and holes scattered about the room. Fuck if I know. This whole tower gives me the creeps. There was no telling what unpleasant surprises the Nym might have left here.

The blanket suddenly lifted, revealing the silvery form of Harn as he ducked nimbly into the chamber. Magda grumbled to herself, pushing down a familiar jealousy with the warrior's Agility. I had to carefully slide into this room or else pull that entire blanket down around my head.

Harn stepped up to her, nearly six inches shorter but nearly as wide, he was a badger of a man. Loyal, tenacious, and fierce in a fight. There were few she'd rather have at her side, and none were as good with an axe. Magda trusted her partner's eye, especially in regards to combat. Which is why they were meeting.

Wall of Force!

With a slight mental exertion, Magda gathered up and let spread her Mana, pushing out a solid dome of yellow light. It was bright and obvious, but with the others asleep and the archway covered, it should stay unnoticed. Besides the redirection of force, the wall also muffled sound, which was the reason she used it.

"So, what do you think?" She asked.

Harn sucked his teeth. "He's...somethin' else."

Magda narrowed her eyes. "Explain."

Harn sighed. "The kid is determined, I'll give em that. Didn't stop once, not even when I cut into his hip with a sword. He just kept movin' forward. It was impressive."

"Nothing strange about him? Nothing on where he's really from?" Magda was concerned about that part the most. She had he suspicions, but that's all they were. For now.

"No, he didn't really give nothin' up," Harn said.

"Not even his stats?" Magda pressed. Harn let out a short bark of a laugh.

"What you want me to go out and just ask him? He's tighter than a barquist with lockjaw. Shoulda' seen him clam up when I asked for a list of his Skills. Had to back it up to anything above level twenty."

"You must have some idea? He used a spell on you, right?"

"Oh yeah, he damn near yanked the sword outta my hand. Me," he added, making sure Magda noticed his emphasis. "He's prolly at least above 90 Intelligence, 100 maybe if he's nearly whoopin' my Strength."

"What? How? His Strength must be 70 alone, and his Endurance...you saw him running today."

Harn nodded. "Coulda been potions, though."

Magda scoffed. "You know it wasn't. I heard him ask Evie what she was drinking. It's like he hadn't even seen one before."

"That's another thing. He's...the gaps in his knowledge're huge."

"He's a noble, I bet my shield on it," Magda nodded. "Sheltered and raised on high level mobs and dangerous stat farming. Why he's out here is impossible to guess, but I put my bets on him knowing someone in that Guilder op. The way he stumbled outta the mist? Fighting off giants to save someone he didn't know? No one does that without a grudge to settle."

"Maybe," Harn scratched his jaw and sighed. "But still, he seems like a good enough kid."

Magda nodded, less reluctantly than she might have that morning. "He's...well he's earned at least some trust. Not too much, though. I'm not letting anyone comprise the mission."

Harn nodded and patted the big woman on the back. "We're close. We'll get her out."

"We better. Callie would do the same for either of us. Not to mention all of the others. Those Guilders don't deserve to die at the hands of those blue bastards." Magda clenched her hands, hard enough that she could hear her tendons creak like old wood. "Speaking of, you ready to go soon?"

Harn nodded. "Just gonna catch me a wink or two, then I'm gone," Harn paused a moment while he looked at his partner. "What'll you be doing in the morning?"

"Sparring. I think it's time to see what our new recuit can do," Magda said through a wide grin, already focusing on the morning.

She didn't see Harn shudder.

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