Chapter Two Hundred and Forty Three - 243"Intent and Resonance are both important to any grand working. But it is Affinity which defines the result. Keep careful watch over it."
-Landrus k'Nand, 1458, Second Age
Zara Cyrene was late.
She was not in a habit of being late. The Grand Harmony was built upon exacting intervals of time, and the Cantus Sodalus had long stressed that its Chanters emulate its benign punctuality. Trailing Felix as he worked upon the Territory Quest had helped her hone that ability, but it had also strained her in ways she had not expected. She had been sent to find the Unbound, gather them and educate them, but she hadn't expected to care. His near encounters with Primordials and the Divineimpossible as it seemedhad put her will to the test. She had nearly intervened.
Compassion was not always a virtue. Not in this.
The wild days following the Inquisition's defeat and DuFont's death had since occupied much of her time. From teaching the young ones more about the Grand Harmony to giving what aid she could to the new Lady of Haarwatch, each and every moment had been filled with the fervor of enterprise. It was an invaluable opportunity for the Cantus Sodalus to gain influence on a rising ruler, and one with true System Authority? Even stunted as it was by DuFont's unwise expenditures, it was a powerful tool for any ruler.
Already Quests has been issued, and not by the System, but by the Lady Boscal herself! It was a revelation to Zara, a way of interaction with the System that none but the Hierophant enjoyed. Evidently true System Authority holders could issue Quests in relation to their Territory, though so far the only ones they had been able to access were requests for raw materials like ore, monster cores, stone, and lumber. The people had gotten to work quickly, but it was a long haul toward getting Haarwatch on its feet.
Still, Zara had great hopes for Cal, and for their continuing alliance.
That exuberance had led to her current quandary. She had become wrapped up in the new challenges Cal faced and had lost track of time. So now Zara rushed, flitting through the rain-soaked streets on a late summer's evening, headed for the quarters she had long thought destroyed. The walls remained standing, however, as well as the expensive glass at the front. Above the door a nine-pronged star greeted her, a decoration from an older tenet, yet it had proven strangely prescient. Who would have guessed the Unbound would have come to her as a Nym, albeit one on his way to something far stranger.
She passed inside.
There were no books withinthey had long been moved to another locationand the inscribed sigils upon the walls had long faded in potency. She caressed them as she passed, igniting them with a minor effort of Will, and was greeted by a rustle of phantom feathers. The rafters above her head filled with close to two hundred birds, varied in type and level to a casual Analyze, though harmless enough. As she passed the counter one specific avian, a small but fluffy owl, landed atop the weathered surface.
"Sing the song of passage, milady," it chirped in the common tongue.
Zara smiled, lips over her sharp teeth, and let out a short, melodic whistle. From her lips came the sound of thick paper turning in calloused hands, and the creak of cured skin, bound with glue and thread. The small owl let out an appreciative hoot and flitted back up to the rafters.
"Keep an eye on the door," Zara murmured before moving into the back room.
Hidden along the side of her office was a second door cleverly built into a false wall. No magic or music hid it away, just tricky engineering. She tripped the disguised latch and in she went, closing it behind her.
Within was a long, narrow room that smelled of sage and must. At the far end, to which she hustled, there was a basin of water atop an elegantly carved wooden stand. The basin was made of beaten copper, and it was empty. Another whisper of Will set aquamarine power flowing down Zara's fingers and into the bowl until the liquid Mana began to swirl rapidly in a counterclockwise motion.
A note escaped Zara's lips, a sound that reverberated in the narrow room as if it were an amphitheater. Blue and gold briefly flashed in her vision as the System noticed her song, but soon the aquamarine increased, and the swirling Mana rose out of the copper basin. All at once, it formed into the shape of a skull. It was followed by tendons and muscle and skin forming over the skull, layering over itself until it formed a facsimile of a floating, withered head.
"You're late," the head accused.
"Forgive me Mauvim, it has been a busy day," Zara said with bow of her neck. "I have been advising the new Lady of Haarwatch, guiding her in the power she now finds within herself. It is remarkable what power true System Authority grants a person."
"Babysitting nobility, newly made or not, was not your task. What of the Unbound?" Mauvim's voice was sharp as a whip, and Zara thought she heard a note of worry. "Is he ready for what is coming?"
"He is..." Zara let herself trail off, her Spirit tracing the faint connection she had with the boy. He stood somewhere to the west, most likely the Wall again. "There is still work to be done."
Mauvim hummed to herself, her jowls quivering. "Then you must push him. Things are changing quickly. Word has spread, along back channels and secret messengers, of more arrivals."
"Did our people find them first?" Zara asked, and it was as if a fist clenched her heart.
"Unclear. Silence has taken hold. The Hierocracy received word of a 'Great Threat' to the south and has sent its paladins to seek them out. Three entire battalions into the Expanse." Mauvim shook her head and continued. "Early word from Isla is that the Unbound has taken the form of a Minotaur of all things, but I've not heard from her in weeks. Regardless, if the Expanse doesn't kill the Unbound, the paladins will."
Zara frowned. The paladins were worse than the Inquisitors, and far stronger. "Does Isla request aid?"
"She wouldn't even if she could. You know the scrutiny she faces in the sands."
Zara did indeed know. The Quiescent Expanse was nearly as anathema to Sorcerers as the Hierocracy, if for different reasons. "And of the others?"
The tiny head of her mentor harrumphed. "Little is known. To the north weve heard rumors of a Gnome with strange powers, and the east is as quiet as ever, but that is to be expected. The border lets little through, even information on the strains of Song." Mauvim fixed Zara with a single, unblinking eye. Rendered of Mana and catalysed Spirit it was far more elastic than her true face, which the ancient Sorcerer only used to enhance her meaning. "Your experiment. It is through? He is truly Nymean?"
"Yes," Zara nodded. "Things and information has changed since last we spoke, however." She swallowed, a bit nervously. Though she had reported the results of the Territory Wide Quest, she had not gone into much detail in her last missive. When last she had fully reported in, Felix had just arrived back in Haarwatch. With quick words she explained the events that had unfolded the past several months. Mauvim, for her part, listened with increasingly boggled eyes.
"...and that brings us to now. We have the city under control, and we're attempting to shore up defenses before any more redcloaks arrive or the threat of the Archon manifests once again."
"Two cores? Divine and Primordial?" Mauvim muttered to herself. Her Spirit lashed wildly from fear to hope and back to terror. "And his Race...he has become a Primordial? But what of the infection? The curse all Primordials suffer under?"
"Entirely absent," Zara said, though she couldn't quite believe it herself. "The Maw's influence nearly ruined this region, but when Felix absorbed the last of it all of those changes were nullified. Somehow they boy is free of the Blind Gods' curse upon Primordials, though we have not yet dared to experiment with his blood."
"Remarkable," Mauvim breathed. "Denied a god, a Lost one no less, and fought off an invasion. He is the greatest candidate yet, Zara. We must bring him in. The others need to meet him."
"That is the plan, but...the dangers here are not to be ignored. There is much to do before he can access the interior of the Continent." Zara could feel the wounds in the city where the Archon's Mark had cut into the ambient Mana. "The Archon must be dealt with, once and for all."
"Very well," her mentor sighed. "Little is known of your true situation in the west, at least as of now. But word has spread of the Foglands opening up for the first time in recorded history; that would have been impossible to hide. The Inviolate Order was clearly suppressing it before, but now the new spreads like wildfire among the merchants. Talk is of rare resources the likes of which we've never seen. Your little town will be awash in new presences sooner rather than later. You do not have much time to get him out of there before things get further complicated."
Mauvim drew herself up, for all that she was a projected head of Spirit and Mana. "The Order is making moves. Your dispatch of the Master Inquisitor was felt, even here, though the Grand Inquisitor has not yet taken action. She sits within the Enclave, still. As long as she remains far from you, you can remove your threats with time enough to secure the Unbound." Mauvim paused again. "I feel a quiver in your Spirit. What is it?"
Zara grimaced. "A few redcloaks survived, and they ride for Setoria with news. To report that Haarwatch has fallen to a Primordial."
"What!?"
Zara bore witness to a great many curses and off-color phrases, ones she had never before heard in her long life. So many that the ancient woman eventually ran out of languages and merely sputtered in rage.
"I will see what can be done about Setoria. But we run short on time, all of us," Mauvim managed after a while. "We cannot tarry. Events are pushing forward faster by the day. Is this Felix worthy? Will he serve?"
"The boy has made questionable Choices, some of which he hides. But I believe he is worthy, yes," Zara nodded to herself, letting conviction swell within her Spirit. "I believe he will serve against what comes."
"He must. They all must. The darkness on the horizon has begun to blot out the edges of the Song. It is faint, but the seers all speak the same. Ruin advances."
Mauvim fixed Zara with ageless eyes. "We must all be ready for the war to come."
Felix stood upon the battlements of the Wall, peering again into the darkness of the forest. The sun had set and three moons were hovering before him, two blue and one silver. The Twins and Siva. He glanced at them, his Perception enough to make out their pocked faces and empty seas. Other than their color they seemed so very similar to the moon of his home, yet his Affinity tingled.
Vellus was chained to her own moon. Are the other gods the same? He chewed his lip. Am I staring at more gods?
Pit let out a derisive note as he flew by, buffeting Felix with wind and making him laugh.
"Yeah, I'm not a fan of the gods either at this point," Felix said to his Companion. "Makes me wish I could go back to being an atheist. At least then it was just other people trying to screw me over."
"What was that?"
Felix looked up and saw Hector Ty'nel stepping out of one of the Wall's many enclosures. A Human of middle years, he was around the same height as Felix and bore a well groomed goatee. He was wiping a series of styluses on a rag that sparked in the dark.
"Oh just complaining," Felix said. "Pit's a good listener, even if he won't sit still."