Unbound

I'm sorry, what? Felix stared at the notification before him. Joined my what now?

Congratulations, Autarch!

You Have Vanquished A Threat!

The Risi (Frost Giants) Have Joined Your Fledgling Nation!

+25% To All Positive Relations With Giantfolk!

See Your Control Node For Further Options!

Oh, you bet your ass I'll be seeing my Control Node. He swiped the notification closed and clenched his jaw. He wasn't sure how much he trusted the Frost Giants' Oath, but he felt out of his depth. Felix scowled at the Witch as she lifted her head from prostration. She flinched, ever so slightly.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"My name has been cast aside. I am a Witch of the Rock, born among the swirling winds of the Hoarfrost and given unto the cold upon my seventh year, I—"

Voracious Eye!

Name: Kimaris, Witch of the Rock

Type: Giantfolk

Level: 45

...

Felix waved away the rest of the information, not needing it. "Kimaris, then."

The Witch flinched again, this time far more noticeably. "How do you know that name?"

He ignored her. "Kimaris, what are you plans now? Will you return home?"

The Witch visibly gathered herself, rising to her knees and making her just as tall as Felix. "We...can no longer return to the Hoarfrost. When the High Chieftain was selected, we cut ties with our land in the hopes of forming a new home here. That—it did not turn out as we were promised. The Mother...lied to us." There was some whispering among the prostrated giants, but Kimaris' glare silenced them. "I would ask you for sanctuary, Autarch. For my people."

Felix kept his face carefully blank. "Let me think on it. For now, you can stay at the southern edge of the encampment. Please move your people in that direction."

"As you wish," Kimaris said before returning to her full height. All around the giants did the same, most of them taller than the houses he'd Shaped. Without another word, the Frost Giants left.

Once they'd left earshot, Felix breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"That was entirely unexpected," Vess said. She walked up to his side and stared after the giants, many of whom were easily visible as they began to set up their own sort of camp.

"Yeah. I didn't expect them to swear an Oath and then stick around," Felix said.

"Not that. You." Vess poked him in the shoulder before giving his clothes a once over. "What are you wearing?"

"Oh, I got a cool new magic outfit." Felix let himself be distracted, focusing on his Garment again. A tiny, barely noticeable piece of Mana fled his channels and the shirt and pants became a pale green tunic and dark blue cloth pants. The tunic was wrapped around his torso, set with an asymmetrical collar that Felix had seen once or twice around Haarwatch. "See?"

"Fascinating," said a light voice, and Atar pushed between Harn and Vess to grab the hem of his newly fashioned tunic. His own battlerobes were dirty and singed, and it looked like he'd tried his best to scrub blood from the hardened fabrics across the chest. "It's all controlled with your Mana Manipulation?"

Felix grinned at the mage. "Basically. There's arrays on the threads that respond to my Intent, apparently. Because I'm certainly not envisioning this whole outfit top to bottom."

"What...what Skill did you use?" Kylar asked. The swordsman had sidled closer and was watching the giants in the distance. "To parry those huge axes."

"Oh. I didn't use any," Felix said.

"I-I'm sorry, what?" Kylar stuttered. Shock played over all of their Spirits and Felix dimmed his awareness of them all. It felt like cheating, reading his allies' emotions.

"That was Strength alone?" Harn said with a bright look in his eye.

"Strength and Endurance. Tanked a lot of Stamina to take a hit like that," he said before pivoting the conversation. "Did everyone rest up?"

"Not much else to do," Kylar groused, but Vyne shoved him.

"Everyone's healing, or on the path," Vyne said. "Davum's still got a gash across his chest, but whatever was in that poultice the Henaari gave him has been helping."

Felix nodded, happy to hear it, but that same unease gnawed at him.

His people had nearly died fighting the hordes of the Archon. When Felix and his Spirit Tree had stopped the fighting and cured the Frost Giants, it had driven off the various monsters that the Archon had bound to his will. The area wasn't safe around them, not with Prismatic Wretches and Ghostfire Simians and other things creeping about, but none had approached since that night.

Felix was pretty sure it had something to do with the Atlantes Anima.

Vess pulled him aside. "Do you trust these Giants? They are Oathbound, but I cannot help but be skeptical of their allegiance."

"I'm not about to blindly trust someone that tried to kill me—multiple times now. Maybe the Oathbinding is in good faith, or maybe they can work around it like I can." Felix took a kelaar fruit Nevia offered him in passing. "Thanks. The problem with being an exception is that you see all the weird, contradictory shit the System gets up to."

Vess nodded slowly, concern flickering through her dark gaze as she surveyed the stone houses and retreating Giantfolk. "It feels like the ground turned to sand underneath us. Oathbinding is the tried and true method of governance. My father uses it to enact trade agreements, to extract the truth in civil judgements, even as an oath of service for his military." Vess licked her lips and gave Felix a lopsided grin, cheek dimpling. "I'm only consoled by the fact that your Tyrant of Choice Title was hard earned. I doubt many could achieve the same."

"Yeah, I'm all sorts of special," Felix said distractedly. Vess and Harn were frowning at him. "What?"

"How'd you get so strong, kid?" Harn asked. His helmet was off, displaying the man's wide, crooked nose and scarred face. "You played with those giants like they were Tier I beasts."

"What happened in the Temple?" Vess asked in a softer voice. "You never said, after..."

True, Felix hadn't said much about what occurred in the Temple. Instead he'd emerged from the ruins to help his friends and scare off the monsters that still lingered in confusion. Patching each other up and erecting the few houses with Stone Shaping to keep them out of the rain had been as active as he'd felt capable of being considering the roiling pain that had been consuming his core space. One thing after another had kept him from advancing to Adept, and then he'd retired to sleep off the exhaustion that was still dogging at his heels. Felix tried to smile in a disarming fashion, but knew it was more of a grimace.

"It got dicey. But I advanced, and I forged my Path," Felix said. Harn sucked a breath while Vess' eyes widened.

"Siva's Grace, Felix. Your Path added so much? I have never seen you move as you did against the giants. It was over almost before it began."

"A Path," Harn said as he shook his head. "You keep surprisin' me, kid. Next you'll tell me you're Master Tier now."

"Not yet," Felix said with a grin. Harn clapped him on the back, hard, but Felix didn't budge. The man grunted, impressed.

"Wait wait, what's has your Intelligence and Willpower reached?" Atar asked. He licked his lips, nervously. "Your Mana?"

Felix just grinned and jerked his thumb back at the giants. "We should keep an eye on them for now. Pit? You mind watching them for a bit?" His Companion warbled an affirmative and trotted off. Felix sighed. "According to the System they're allies. More than that, maybe."

"More than that?" Harn asked. Atar frowned, though Felix wasn't sure if it was directed at his words or that Felix hadn't answered him. "What's that mean?"

Felix shrugged. "I'll know more in a bit. Gotta...consult with the Temple."

Vess raised an eyebrow. "That should not be how it works."

"What?" Felix asked.

"Authority. You gained a Territory, but you should be able to access its options wherever you are." She glanced at the Temple hidden within the cliff. He'd told his original team—plus Alister—all about the odd array. "And that array is strange, from what you have explained to me. Too complex by half, and with all those unused portions? I do not understand it."

"Perhaps the nature of Authority has changed since my time, Your Grace," Karys buzzed aloud. The hooked sword at Felix's waist puffed with green-gold light in time with each syllable. "You are correct in some ways, but not in others. Please, when Felix returns to the Control Node I would ask that you come with him, if you do not mind."

If Vess was taken aback she didn't show it, but only nodded to the sword. "It would be my pleasure."

Authority. Felix's attempt had no effect. "Is it blocked until I finish with our project?"

"It is, yes. I can explain within."

"What project?" Atar asked. He stepped closer and lowered his voice, excluding the Haarguard and addressing only Felix, Vess, and Harn. "And don't think I didn't notice you avoiding the question before. I know it's rude to ask for stats, but we're in the middle of some nasty monsters. We—I could use some reassurance, Felix."

Felix's head rocked back in surprise. He hadn't thought of things from their point of view. While he had been fighting monsters and advancing down his Omen Path for great rewards, they had all fought for their lives. Those scuffs and stains on the mage's battlerobes were cast into a different light, for all that Felix had known their origin before. He nodded and brought up his stats before flicking them at Atar, Harn, and Vess.

"Vess? I want to resolve this Authority thing now, if you don't mind. Please meet me at the top of the Temple," he said gently. She nodded, not even looking at the blue screen before her.

Adamant Discord!

Lightning surged down Felix's limbs and he pulled, launching himself hundreds of feet in a single bound.

"Willpower is over two thou—FELIX! What the hell is this?" Atar shouted behind him.

Felix just grinned into the sky.

He landed atop the Temple to find Evie sitting atop a crumbling ledge, looking down at the encampment.

No, he realized. Staring at the giants.

"Shit," he muttered to himself.

"Yeah. It's shit," Evie agreed. She didn't look over at Felix but he could see the tension in her shoulders. "I heard their Oath. You can't believe em, Felix."

"Not sure I do, Evie." He walked closer, but stopped when Evie took a deep, quaking breath. "You okay?"

"Thought I was over this, ya know?" Evie looked at him, and her eyes were a touch too bright. "Been months since I even cried about Mags."

Felix spread his hands. "You want me to get rid of them?"

Evie tucked her knees up, wrapping her arm around them. "Dunno. Yes. No. All of it. Just seems unfair that they'd get off, consequence-free after murdering my sister." Her chain clinked and somehow managed to sound menacing. "At least when they were Reforged I could call it fair punishment."

"They're here for now, but honestly I don't know what I'll do with them." Felix didn't have to look over the edge to sense them, moving around far below and casting some form of ice magic on the ground. "Harn'll be watching them. If they step out of line, I'll be the first to drive them out. I can promise you that."

"Thanks, I suppose," Evie said with a shrug. Felix watched her a while longer before releasing a quiet, tired sigh.

"I'll be down in the Temple, if you need me. Alright?"

"Alright."

And that was that, for now. Felix made a mental note to come back to it when they both had time to rest. The last thing he wanted was to ostracise his friends. Suppressing a sigh, he descended the levels of his aerated Temple, following the path of the Atlantes Anima's trunk until he reached bottom. It was mostly sliding along the bark and dropping through the holes he'd made, but his stats let him achieve it fluidly and without relying on a single Skill.

He entered the first chamber to find Karys standing over the very edge of the array, gold and silver light bouncing brightly off his tarnished armor. Vaporous light coiled about his arm as he let it drift above the sigaldry, like steam off of a hot meal. It was Mana, visible to Felix due to his Manasight, but typically invisible to most. From what Felix had gathered, Mana was weakest in its vaporous state and grew steadily more potent as it transitioned to a liquid and then a solid; but the sheer amount that crowded the huge chamber made Felix reflexively swallow. The abyss in his core growled.

"Shut up."

Karys turned. "Ah you're back. Is Vess...?"

"She's on the way," Felix said and stepped close to the array himself. He knelt by one of the array lines, flaring his Perception. The line was not a line at all, but thousands of tiny sigils strung together in complicated formations that together gave the appearance of a solid whole. Like pointillism, he thought. He had some decent knowledge of sigaldry from his experiences and work on the Wall in Haarwatch, but even the tiny section before him blew him away with its complexity.

The lines spread outward, from the Control Node where his personal glyph was etched in light, spiraling around it in a dizzying knotwork of loops and whorls. Each of those tiny sigils were built around other tiny sigils, called the primary, with each row of secondary or tertiary symbols modifying the effects of the central piece. Yet, tens of thousands of primary sigil arrays comprised the lines he saw, and more lingered—inert—in the connected chambers.

"I had only taken a minor glance before." Vess walked in behind him, staring in awe at the silver and gold lines of light. "Far and above more complicated than my father's Seat. This makes Pax'Vrell look positively provincial."

Felix stood and needlessly dusted off his knees. Nothing shook off, the Garment having discarded any dirt well before he bothered. "Why did you ask Vess to come down as well, Karys?"

The armored construct tilted his head. "She is well versed in Authority as it stands, and it will be easier to explain this once. Do you have any questions before we begin, Felix?"

He eyed the Dwelling Stone, sat just behind Karys' feet. "Yeah. I'm still not entirely clear on how this array conveyed Authority over the Territory to me. Can you explain that?"

"As well, please tell me why it requested him to define his motivations. It asked him, directly, why he sought Authority." Felix had relayed that much to her already. It clearly still baffled her. "That is not how Authority works, not to my knowledge."

Karys tapped his helmet, right where his mouth would be had he still possessed one. "To answer your question, I must ask a few of my own. Your father's Seat, you have seen it?"

"Yes, of course."

"May I read the image from your Mind?" he asked gently. Felix frowned. "As a mobile Spirit I've found parsing proffered thoughts to be a simple enough task, but only if they are willing. The unwilling Mind is far harder to crack, even an Untempered one. Choice affirms their defenses. It is why the System so hated what the Archon had done to the Frost Giants, why Felix was able to revert them at all."

"It is just a reading?" Vess asked, clearly as uncomfortable with the idea as Felix.

"A skimming, at best. Simply hold the memory of your father's Seat of Authority in your Mind, and I shall glimpse it."

Vess looked to Felix, and he nodded, slowly. Karys had proven to be worthy of trust. "Very well," she said.

There was a moment of silence between the three of them, where all Felix could hear was the subaudible thrum of the array. Then Karys made his own humming noise.

"Ah, I see. That is...strange."

"What is?" Felix asked.

"Do you allow me to share it with the both of you?"

"Go ahead," Felix said at the same time Vess gave a curt nod.

An image of a fancy room drifted into Felix's Mind, swirling into crystal clear clarity. A large, ornate chair made of gold dominated the room; it was studded with gemstones, and its back was fashioned into a roaring drake, wings outspread. Below it, inlaid in the polished stone flooring, were sixteen rings of sigaldry that contained a faint silver luminescence. It was clearly an array, made of concentric rings of sigils with a large glyph in the center below the chair. As all glyphs, it was a combination of sigils fashioned into an aesthetic whole; this looked like a raised spear with bat-like wings. Dragon wings.

"My family's Seal," Vess affirmed.

Karys made a light rumbling sound in his patched over chest. "Correct me if I am wrong—my memory is not what it used to be—but it appears that the array in Pax'Vrell is entirely mortal made. Yes?"

"Well, yes. Our Authority is given to us by the Hierocracy itself," she agreed.

"Contingent on their approval, I'd imagine," Karys said with a disgusted tone. "Temporary Authority."

Vess nodded, brows furrowed. "Yes. They could, conceivably, take away my family's Authority whenever they wished. It would cause chaos in many ways, but if they wanted to, they could." Vess looked at Felix. "System Authority is rarely granted. Lady Cal and now you are the first two I've ever heard of outside legends."

Karys disgust rolled off him, waves of it mingled with a cold anger. "That is not how it used to be. In my day, only the System could bless one with Authority enough to rule. Not even the gods had such power." Karys gestured, and the image in Felix's mind flashed around the concentric rings, showing complicated but intelligible glyphs and sigils. He could even pick out the meaning of a couple. "You have created a patchwork atop an ancient rite, gleaning just the barest hints of Authority from the Continent. And missing the point entirely."

"The point?" Felix asked. "What's the point of Authority, then? I had thought it was just to...you know, rule."

"The path of a tyrant is to rule without concern over the governed. Authority is a burden that only the most worthy should ever bear. Long ago, that is how it was done." The metal man looked at Felix with a hint of pride. "It is how it shall be done again."

"So this is my Seat of Authority, then?" Felix asked, a bit uncomfortable. There were...expectations in Karys eye-fires and Felix didn't know if he measured up. He forced a bit of a laugh. "Where's my fancy chair?"

Vess smiled. "An old tradition. A seat for a Seat, if you will."

"Yes, the throne is not necessary. Your Seat and Seal are the true indicators of the mantle now upon your shoulders, Felix."

"Been meaning to ask about that. Autarch of Nagast. A Lost Territory that, by the map I saw, extends all the way north to the Hoarfrost, west and south to the Bitter Sea, and east to just beyond the Verdant Pass. That's...that's a lot of area to cover," Felix said.

"Most of it monster-strewn wilderness, as well," Vess added.

"Autarch is an ancient title, one rarely given even in the glory days of the Golden Empire. It is a mantle, as I said, one of responsibility to the people that inhabit the land you hold Authority over," Karys said.

"And what are those responsibilities?" he asked.

"The same as any with enough power. To protect and defend your people, to raise them up so that they may raise you in turn," Karys said, and by his cadence it sounded like something he'd learned by rote a long time ago.

"My people include a few Humans and a bunch of Frost Giants, now," Felix said. He took a breath. "Shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Vess patted him on the shoulder. "Best to start small. My tutors have been schooling me in governance and diplomacy for my entire life. I shall be here to help you, whenever you need it."

Felix smiled widely at her and she lightly squeezed his shoulder.

"Indeed, and this Dwelling Stone will aid you further, Felix," Karys said.

Vess let her hand drop and she blushed, looking back at the ex-Paragon. "What is a Dwelling Stone?"

"Time to find out," Karys said with a pleased note. "Felix?"

"I got it." Repressing the urge to touch the spot on his shoulder where Vess had grabbed him, Felix walked over to the Dwelling Stone and easily hefted it into his arms. "Just bring this to the Seal, then?"

"Yes. The Seal and your Control Node are one and the same."

Felix stepped out onto the array and let the Mana vapor envelop him. It was almost blinding with his Manasight flared, so Felix kept it at a low burn, only enough to see the power at work around him. The moment he reached his Seat, the floor rumbled. A piece of the stone beneath him lifted up, twenty or so finger-thin hexagonal columns rising to create a slanting platform before him. The top of it depressed, the columns moving so that a pocket was created, one exactly the size of the Dwelling Stone he held.

"Hoo boy. Okay. Here goes nothing," he said. He placed the Dwelling Stone on the platform, and it was immediately lit up with brilliant purple light. Traceries of gold and silver formed atop the hexagonal pillars, climbing up and over the Stone in a lace-like lattice. The designs almost looked fractal to him, but squinting past the bright light showed him they were in fact tiny, tiny sigils.

You Have Established A Home!

Home's Rank Has Been Increased To Stronghold!

Defensive Fortifications Gained!

Offensive Fortifications Gained!

See Stronghold Menu For More!

A Dwelling Stone (Legendary) Has Been Detected Within Your Stronghold!

Assessing Stored Options...

Options Expanded Due To Increased Rank Of Dwelling...

Options Expanded Due To Threats Eliminated...

Complete!

A Dwelling Stone (Legendary) Contains The Following Patterns:

Tier III Forge

Tier III Alchemical Lab

Tier III Storage Facility

Tier III Glyphworks

Do You Wish To Install Them All?