Chapter Three Hundred And Ninety Three – 393
Felix walked up a mountain, and the winds tried to tear him off.
This is... He was astounded at the detail all around him. After using his Cardinal Flame and Fiendforge to peer into Vess' core space, he hadn't quite known what to expect. Something to do with the spear, he imagined. But this...
Everything looks and feels real. How did she do this?
Felix was climbing up a winding staircase carved into the mountain, one that was as ancient as the peak itself. Its sharp edges were worn smooth by the ceaseless wind, but in its recesses clung small bits of moss and plant matter, surviving in the lee of their age-old shape. At the base, where he had entered her core space, clouds covered much of his vision, but each step increased the power of the wind and those clouds were pushed away. He took the steps slowly, but soon he rose to the very top, where the peak flattened itself out into a wide plateau. As if a god had sheared the top off with a sword.
He blinked at the swirling gusts of winds, stepping through them to emerge onto the top layer. Dominating the area was a massive temple that looked like a fusion of many eastern styles back on Earth, yet was heavily mixed with details that were wholly of the Continent. Thick, unadorned pillars were holding up a curved, pyramidal roof, and red tiles overlapped across its top. A wide porch surrounded the temple, adding about twenty feet of polished wood and stone before someone could even walk through the temple's main doors. Said doors were metal and gleamed in the omnipresent light.
Her core is in there, he thought. He was certain of it.
"What, ah, what do you think?" Vess asked.
Felix turned from the sight of her temple and gazed outward. Other peaks stretched into the distance, each of them only lifting a few hundred feet above the cloud layer. They stood on the tallest of course, but those that clustered closest to the temple were taller than those further out, with some only barely peeking above the clouds.
"This is amazing, Vess," Felix admitted. "How the hell did you do this?"
"Do what?"
Felix turned to look at her, his eyebrows raised. "Do what? The detail! The amount is staggering, and" Vess stood before him, garbed in her usual white-enameled armor and spear, but she was glowing. "Whoa. Why are you glowing?"
Vess looked at her arms, confusion clearly etched across her features. "I am not? But the detail is a mental exercise given to me by my tutors. They explained that specificity was helpful in visualizing one's core space, though the reasons behind that have never been clear." She shook her head, and to Felix's eyes a puff of shimmering annoyance followed after her movements. "I have practiced every day for multiple hours to get to this level of detail. In the core space and my own appearance."
That's what I'm seeing. She's so viscerally here that its...resonating with her core space. "Huh. Well, I don't know the reason, but I could stand to try those exercises you're talking about. I'm sure your tutors weren't pulling your chain."
Vess smiled, cheek dimpling. "No, I imagine not. It is just disheartening to strive toward a goal without knowing the purpose of so much of the training. At least spear work is straightforward." She whirled her partisan, performing a simple thrust. Yet the moment she did, the wind howled in its wake. "Simple and easy to understand."
"Uh, yeah." Felix's eyes tracked that wind. It impacted the clouds many mountains away, splashing into them. "Are all these peaks your Skills?"
"They are," Vess said with a nod. "Is this...how do I compare? To the others?"
Felix laughed before he saw how serious the Heiress of Pax'Vrell looked. "You're a thousand times more stable than Evie, and your space is far more detailed than Atar's. Better than me on both counts, I think," he finished with a laugh.
"Really?" Vess' face lit up, and she tucked her hair behind her ears. That glow increased across her chest and arms, pulsing like a heartbeat. "I must admit, that is a relief. I have not had my core space checked since I left home. Not even Darius can perform a Sounding."
"Well, glad I could help. Interesting that there's a Skill to do this. I'm just cobbling techniques together to be here," Felix admitted.
Vess flashed another smile. "Do you want to see more?"
"More?" Felix asked. "Inside the temple?"
Instead of answering, the spearmaiden stepped past him and walked up the large, beautifully ornamented steps of her strange core space. Felix followed behind. They passed the wide, smooth columns and across the wooden expanse of the portico. The door, a metal portal built in a dark, cherry-wood frame, was surmounted by complex knotwork designs. On the door itself was an etching of a dragon, picked out in gold upon the weather tarnished silver. It was maned and antlered, and in its long, serpentine body was held a spear and an orb of swirling winds.
"That's a Dusk Dragon," Felix said in surprise. "I recognize it from my Omen Path."
"Truly? You saw a Dusk Dragon?" Vess ran her hand across the polished gold features of the creature. Rather than a lizard, it had a decidedly canine set to its face. "They were our protectors in the last Age. The Dragoons were formed because of them, because of the knowledge they imparted upon our Order. They all perished in the turning of this new Age, a long, long time ago."
"Well...I didn't see one living, no. Sorry. It was a statue in my Path," Felix said.
"That is odd. My Order claims only our Path touches upon their memory. Why would your Path take you before them?" she asked.
Because of you, I'm pretty sure. That's what he wanted to say, though it felt awkward to admit. Felix felt close to Vess, but they hadn't ever said anything out loud. And she's too young, he told himself, for probably the hundredth time. I mean, not that much younger than you. But shut up. Focus on the details. You're here for a reason.
"I'm Unbound. Who knows why anything happens." Mentally slapping himself, Felix ran his hands over the door as well. "It is beautifully carved."
Vess regarded him with her dark brown eyes. Felix could feel her regard, but refused to look at anything but the fine detail on the door. The gold was polished and shiny, with small scratches on the metal, but here and there he spotted a faint haziness. More a suggestion of shape and color than reality.
"It is a faithful replica of the Temple of Winds, in my home," she said. Vess' hand pressed right near his face, and shoved open the door. "As faithful as I could make it to be, that is."
A chill wind sprang from inside the Temple of Winds, cutting right through Felix's resistances. He blinked, and beheld a single large interior of polished wood and stone flooring, delicate tapestries, and thin columns around a central space. There, in the center, was a massive dragon.
And it was glaring at him.
Felix hissed, fire and lightning blooming along his visualized limbs. He set himself, but stumbled when he heard a high laugh from his side.
"I am sorry to laugh," Vess said between breaths. She stuttered with brilliant light, rolling from her dark hair and armored shoulders. "But it is only a statue, Felix."
She was right. Felix stood, feeling more than a little embarrassed. "Your core?"
Vess only nodded, eyes still bright.
Felix stepped closer, actually paying attention this time. The dragon was a statue, but it was also more than that. It was made of blue and silver stone, veined with milky white that pulsed in time with the white-green light in floated within. Pieces of its body were segmented too, filled with that swirling white-green light, so cleverly designed that even the hair of its mane waved in that wind. It was clearly another Dusk Dragon, with it's elongated, dog-like face, antlers and serpentine body that resembled Asian myths back home. There was an...intensity and resonance with the sculpture that gave it a sense of life, though. As if it could spring from the light at any moment.
"It's beautiful," he said.
"Thank you. It is a memory, passed to me from my mother," Vess said. Felix glanced at her and found her gazing fondly at the dragon. "We do not even know if it is a true recollection, or if it has been warped by time and the hands that held it. I built my core space around this idea. The same one my mother had."
"And your mom is"
"Passed. Many years ago now."
"I'm sorry, Vess. That's...I'm sorry," Felix said, lamely.
"No need. I miss her terribly, but that was not your fault." Vess sighed, but a pulse of happiness shivered through her frame. "Finding out she had worked with Zara in the past, that she had used the Chant, that was nice. Learning a new thing about her, something so few knew, it was like having her here again. Just a little." Her smile returned, dimple and all.
Felix shook his head, his own smile impossible to repress. "I get that. I...well I miss my own mom a lot. Her and Gabby, my sister, they're back home. On Earth." Felix's smile faltered a bit. "It's hard to think of them, dealing with my disappearance. I can't even send them a letter or something, let them know I'm alright. So it's like I lost them both."
Vess reached over and squeezed his should again. "It gets easier. That is a cold comfort, but I found it helpful to get through my longest days."
"Yeah." Felix looked back at her core, vaguely ashamed at the tears in the corner of his eyes. He forced a smile. "Well. Better to survive, or else I'll not even have cold comforts to look forward too. You've given me a lot to think about."
"I am pleased to hear it." Vess hesitated a moment before, all in a breath, she spoke. "Do you want me to show you my visualization exercises?"
Felix's grin this time came easily. "Absolutely."
Some hours laterwell after Felix shook off the mental fatigue of Vess' exercisesFelix gathered the inner team within his master suite.
"Why is this so much better than my room?" Evie said, immediately claiming a couch and a bowl of dates. "What're you, some kinda king?"
"When is this damn Disciple coming to have us visit the Council?" Alister snapped. "I don't like how those Knights have been looking at us."
"She will be back soon, no doubt," Atar said to them all. "That little...firebrand was always very punctual."
"How do you know this lady?" Evie asked from her position on the settee. She lazily chewed another candied date. "Old flame?"
Alister laughed. So did Felix. "Is she trustworthy?" he asked.
"Enough. We had a rivalry going back when we were vying for apprenticeships." Atar leaned back against the overstuffed leather chair. "She was pushy then. A little rude and self-centered, but that's been polished out of her apparently."
"What about the Temple?" Felix asked. "We haven't had the best of luck with religious types. And, well, Urges."
Atar nodded seriously. "I know. The Highest Flame is...
"What about this Council?" Harn grunted from the corner. He was still in full armor but had his helmet dangling from his hand. "A whole set of Masters puts my teeth on edge. And what's this about your old boss? A Grandmaster?"
"Zara knew of this and had no issues!" Atar protested. "She and I spoke of this before we left your Stronghold, Felix. I told you this."
"You did. Don't worry, man. You're not on trial here. But I also haven't had a chance to talk to Zara about it. Or why she was so comfortable with this interaction." Felix ran a hand through his sweat slicked hair. He could ignore the heat and its pains, but apparently his Body still had to sweat. "Since she's not here, we can't know. But there's no reason for this meeting to turn violent. We're just paying a visit to their City for trade, that's the story."
"And to warn them," Atar insisted. "About the Paladin's attack."
"Love, I don't think they'll believe us," Alister said. "We have no proof."
"We saw them in Felix's vision. They are gathering their forces in the desert," Atar said.
"We didn't really see 'em, though," Evie said. She had somehow twisted so her head was hanging off the edge of the settee while her boots drummed against the tiled walls. "Not since the pass."
"But"
Felix held out a hand, and everyone quieted. "Listen. We know they're a threat. The Paladins are here to look for the Unbound, and he's here. I don't doubt they'll lay siege to this city to find him. But we can't mention the Unbound to the Council or anyone else. You saw how freaked out Darius was when he was told, and he's on our side."
"In my defense, the concept is terrifying," the Hand said from the far end of the room. "The Ruin and Unbound and all of you just...running in its direction. Madness."
"Sometimes the proper direction lies along the most dangerous Path," Vess said.
"Did you just quote your father at me?" he asked, a small smile on his face.
"The point stands. The Unbound are too tempting a target to try and control. I'm not worried about me, but this Minotaur. He's strong, but is clearly just coming into his own. We can warn them of the Paladins, but leave it to me. I need to find the way to approach it that isn't too insane or a death sentence." Felix shook his head. "What a pair of options."
"Regardless, our primary goal should be to establish good relations, and give us a reason to stay in the city," Vess said. "Once we find the Minotaur, we spirit him away and leave."
"Exactly what I was thinking, Vess. Perfect. Any objections?" Felix looked around at the core team, waiting for someone to point out an issue or complain, but all he saw were steely eyes and iron resolve. "Alright. Let's do this."
Felix looked at the door.
"Just as soon as Zara's back."
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