Unbound

Pit's Flight is level 43!

Pit's wings propelled them through the dark skies, spotty lamplight and torches below and a sea of stars above. The moons had set, leaving it all the darker. For once Felix regretted his advanced Perception; without it he would have felt suspended in the inky blackness of outer space. As it was, he could easily pick out the rooftops and streets in the limited light of the stars.

At least I can enjoy the wind on my face, Felix thought with a deep breath. They were flying fast, eating up the distance between the Wall and city center. Being up here is nice.

Pit trilled in agreement, but said nothing else. He was focused on flying.

Honestly, he was impressed the tenku could hold them up this long. Felix had gained a significant amount of density when he'd hit Apprentice, and yet again when Journeyman Tier came and went. Pit's Stamina was dropping pretty fast, but he could manage a couple miles at the very least.

They didn't have that far to go.

Flickers of activity below caught his eye, where the search and rescue teams were still excavating portions of the city. Felix had helped with that for several days before being persuaded to use his powers for more pressing tasks. Any survivors found or monsters encountered could be handled by the Iron Ranks below, and there was always at least a couple Bronze Rank fighters among them for support. A chittering scream cut into the night, followed by a familiar swirl of air Mana. Felix almost had them swoop down, but the scream was silenced instantly.

Vess is still out there? Far as Felix knew, the Heiress of Pax'Vrell had been working non-stop for the past three days. She took breaks, far as he knew, but only to help Cal with some piece of statecraft. The woman was a machine; it was as impressive as it was worrying. Her Endurance isn't high enough for all this. She's gotta sleep.

Felix leaned into Pit's back and the tenku replied with a burst of forward momentum. He resolved to speak to Evie, get her to talk some sense into Vess. They were all driving themselves hard, but everyone had limits. Even if some of them liked to pretend otherwise.

The two of them landed in city center not long after that. It was among the worst affected by the sundered Domain and subsequent infestation of Primordial Spawn. The area was terraced as each Quarter rose higher and higher as it reached the heart of the city. Once, the apex hosted the Eyrie, the Protector's Guild tower and highest structure in all of Haarwatch. That had changed when the Ravager King—and Felix—had collapsed it from the inside out. Most of the tower had fallen on the Crafters and Wall Quarters, but a substantial amount had savaged the richest part of town.

After that, it had been host to the majority of the Revenant horde. Felix and his friends had eradicated them, but signs of their presence lingered. Claw marks on stone and trees, statues that had been utterly defaced or even decapitated. Like the one with the Human stepping on chimera; that one had ended up sliced into pieces somehow. Pit let out a pleased rumble in his chest and Felix snorted.

Not a Revenant, then. Felix patted Pit's flank. Good pig.

Still, he imagined he could still smell them, but knew it was just in his head. All that they were, Primordial Spawn, was now in him. He wasn't exactly happy about that, but he'd made peace with it. Mostly.

Felix dismounted and the two of them walked the cleared thoroughfare. Though it was something like four in the morning, city center was bustling. Men and women of all Races hustled through the streets, carrying stone or lumber salvaged from the surrounding structures. Inns had reopened, turned into massive kitchens and temporary housing for as many as they could fit.

The city was rebuilding, and far faster than Felix had expected.

It was odd to him. The civilization level was roughly around what Felix would call medieval times (admittedly not a subject he knew a lot about), but it was also incredibly advanced. The existence of magic changed the game, leading to the code-like sigil arrays and complicated enchantments. Add in the fact that anyone with half a Temper to their name could do the work of ten people back home, and their speed made sense.

That didn't even factor in Skills like Architecture and Construction (among many, many others) that Felix had only recently learned about. Construction, to his knowledge, had been long considered a base Skill. Not worth learning or mastering for those who would compete for supremacy on the Continent. Felix found it fairly wonderful that the Dusters, long considered the dregs of Haarwatch society, were now valued more than the richest noble.

The sound of hammers on metal drew his attention. On the other side of the square that had once held the Eyrie's lowest floors, a tall, six story building of granite had been newly erected. Felix could tell it was new, because in a space that was certainly prime real estate, both spots next to the building were completely empty. Much of the square was in ruins, with only some of it rebuilt. A sign had been hung out front, formed of more granite and carved with a series of letters he recognized as the common tongue of the Hierocracy.

Coldfire Smithy, Felix read with a smile. An image of flames had been engraved above the letters, too. They got it open. And in a good spot too. He was sure some noble was mad about it, probably complaining to Cal right now despite the hour. Felix let himself smile just a little bit more. For the most part, he was happy he didn't have to shoulder the System Authority, if just to avoid scenarios like that.

Hammer on steel and the faint wash of heat he could detect meant the smithy was up and running, too. No one was wasting any time. Their friend Oveh must have done most of the construction work, because the front of it was a beautiful, geometric design filled with complicated square knotwork. She was one of the few people he'd met who also knew Stone Shaping, and she had grown impressively. Felix could handle more volume undoubtedly, but the Dwarven woman was deft and creative. Her work was beautiful. Felix's style was more brutalist. Big, chunky, and hopefully useful.

"Felix!"

A soft pulse of his Spirit let him recognize the voice before his memory caught up, fast as it was. Elle, Dwarven armorsmith and proprietor of the Coldfire Smithy, strode from around the corner. She had a hammer in her hand and soot on her cheeks, but her smile was wide.

"Hi Elle," Felix waved, stopping Pit with a touch. The tenku warbled and pawed at the earth. "Sorry about him. I think he was excited to see the kitchens at Cal's."

Elle shook her head, but her smile didn't stop. "Chimera or not, he's just a big puppy isn't he?"

"The biggest and best," Felix agreed. "How goes the arms business?"

"Busy as can be. We've been making orders non stop, even had to hire some more apprentices and runners to get the volume out. Even so, we're still fighting to keep up with the volunteers to Cal's new guard."

Cal—Vess, really—had put out notice that the new Lady of Haarwatch needed a new guard to protect the city. It was made clear that this wasn't the Protector's Guild, though some Guilders had found their way into the ranks. He heard Cal had Bodie and Vivianne checking on everyone that applied. There was always the chance someone with a grudge might try to get even.

Felix had kept clear of the whole mess, though.

"How's your wife? Rafny still foaming at the mouth, making Apprentice Tier weapons?" Felix said with a smile.

Elle laughed, a husky noise that fit the beautiful smith. "She's chomping at the bit, ready to do some 'real work' again. You know she's still mad she couldn't modify those weapons of yours." Elle gestured to the bone club at his side and oversized sword on his back.

"Tell her the Revenant leather grips she added have been holding out great," Felix said with a grin. "But, I've been inspecting this thing for a while and can't find out much. Can you bring it to Rafney? Tell her it's a challenge." Felix took his Crescian Blade—sheath and all—off his belt and handed it to Elle.

The smith's eyes widened, and her Spirit danced in wonder. "Crescian Bronze, really? When do you need it back?"

Felix looked at the Eyrie, rising again brick by brick. Most of the reconstruction work was to rebuild something as the new center of town, and it was already a solid eight stories tall. He idly wondered if she were building a new tower.

"Soon, most likely. Things won't stay peaceful for long," Felix said, his mood falling.

Elle considered him with a tilted head, a full foot shorter than him but a dominating presence. "Always more fighting to do," she agreed. "I'll make sure Raf gets this back quickly. When we do, I have some things I've been working on too. Hopefully these don't break when you use them."

"I mean, thank you. A lot. But I don't think I need it. I've got my scales." Felix patted his chest. His Skill—Sovereign of Flesh—allowed him to form thick armor plating out of his skin and Essence, transforming them into scales harder than metal. "Anything that's going through my scales is gonna shear through armor, even if it is Journeyman Tier."

"Oh I'm aware, Felix. You live a dangerous life," Elle said but pointed her finger at his chest. "But what if your Skills aren't working? Slap an elision collar on you and you're gonna get run through, just as easy as any slob off the street."

Felix half-shrugged. "I mean, my Body is really strong, I think—"

"There's always someone stronger." Elle poked him in the chest, hard enough for it to hurt a little. "Always."

He didn't really have anything to say to that.

Evie sat among chains.

Her Mind was still and her Spirit as calm as the ankle deep water she sat within. It was cold, but she ignored that. Chains shifted, twisting, slithering in the air above her.

A clinking had started—had always been there—and her Spirit quickened.

Is that—?

Rain dribbled onto her and Evie swiftly reasserted her calm. It had gotten easier, clearing her Mind like this, but it taxed her in ways she didn't like. She knew she'd wake up later with a killer headache. Still, she pressed on. She was close.

Shapes were formed above her, twisting, moving things of clanking sounds and shifting links. If she gazed upward, Evie knew she'd see a complex web of spiked and bladed chains, all of them meeting and separating in a chaotic jumble. She had been trying to make sense of it all for weeks now, ever since Harn had helped her truly visualize her core space. It was hard, but Evie had made considerable progress.

Her core pulsed, a tower sized chain coated in ice and radiating a deep, unending cold. It continually froze the chains and water at her center, which only broke apart after it drifted far enough away. Something about the cold—the ice—filled her with strength and surety. Evie felt powerful underneath the pulsing chain, but her job wasn't just to bathe in her core. She had to rearrange it.

Evie pitted her Will against the cold, exerting influence over the cold and the chains both, and could feel them shift and the ice crack. The converging knots of links slipped and loosened, moving a span at a time. Chains fell away, looping outward and clarifying the knot she worked upon.

I think this one is...Acrobatics. More ice broke and some massive links fell away. Evie felt a surge of energy hit her, and golden-blue light pulsed from her center. She grinned. Yeah, definitely Acrobatics.

The water around her began to move. Icy cold touch lapped at her thighs and knees, rising higher. In the distance, beyond the clinking, she heard the pitter patter of raindrops.

Blood and ashes. Calm! No smiling.

Her Aspects had grown and strengthened, her Mana clearer and more intrinsically tied to her chosen elements. Water and ice swirled within her core space, just as her chains formed the bulk of it, all of it a representation of her power. But the issue wasn't strength, it was control.

Evie needed control.

The roar of oncoming rains increased, no longer held back by the tentative force of her Will. The water rose with it, until it was a racing wave headed for the center. For her.

Calm!

The wave hit.

"AH!"

Evie exploded into motion, rising from her meditative crouch already swinging her limbs, and struck a wall. She rebounded and fell flat on her butt before she recognized her quarters around her. Her cot was against the wall—pushed there along with everything else to give her more training room—and a nice woven rug was beneath her. The wall she had hit, however, wasn't a wall at all.

It was an arm.

"Taking more naps, Evie?" Harn grumbled. He was wearing normal clothes, civilian clothes, and his busted and scarred face stared down at her in faint amusement. "Did I interrupt your beauty sleep?"

"Get bent, old man," she muttered back, though not with any heat. "Where's your armor, anyway? It's weird seeing your face."

Harn pulled his thick arm back and folded both across his chest. The jacket and trousers he wore barely contained the man's bulk, though he wasn't much taller than Evie herself. A handspan or so shorter than Felix, even. He usually wore his armor everywhere, which wasn't unusual for Guilders or general adventurers, but made him stick out regardless. It wasn't huge or crazy complicated, and other than the weird frog helmet it wasn't all too different from regular old platemail. But she'd seen it expand and grow, or shift its shape to protect the man. It was weird.

Harn grunted—in amusement, she thought. "Get dressed, Cal summoned us."

"Oh? Summoned, huh? What has Her Lordship's knickers in a twist that it can't wait til morning?" Evie frowned out the window. The sky was black and dotted with stars. "Proper morning. I was this close to a breakthrough."

"Quests."

That shut her up. Evie smoothly extended her legs and stood. She was at the door before Harn even turned around.

"What're you waitin' for? We've been summoned!"