On cue, Pit dropped from the skies with a clatter of claws and eight hundred pounds of muscle. The orichalcum battlements rang like a gong as he hit, each claw striking a different tone. Pit pushed against Felix, nuzzling his giant head against his chest in a way that was at first endearing and then quickly annoying.
Treat?
"You big pig," Felix muttered and pulled out a ream of jerky he'd had scrounged up earlier. Pit snagged the whole of it, gulping it down in an instant. "Hey! Some of that was for me."
Pit put his head down, feigning regret, but Felix could feel the jerk's Spirit. He was happy as a clam.
"I've got some food from my wife, if you want to share, Felix," Hector offered. Felix happily took him up on that, giving Pit a squint and grimace.
Pit trilled out pleased birdsong and leaped into the air, already taking laps again.
Pit's Flight is level 39!
Hector laughed. "He's a handful, that one. Still can't believe you've tamed a chimera, though."
"Tame is not entirely accurate," Felix said with a smile. "It's more of a partnership thing."
"Aye, a Pact. People've been talking about it since you saved the city," Hector sat down and pulled out a large, hard-bottomed satchel. He started pulling out various cloth wrapped items, and Felix's mouth watered. "I've heard quite a few have gone looking for their own Pact to make."
Felix sighed. "Yeah, those idiots below are all clamoring for me to tell them how to do it. They don't particularly care that it has drawbacks."
"Ah the Fiend's Legion," Hector laughed and handed Felix an unwrapped sandwich. Felix's Voracious Eye took it in: roast avum, onions, some sort of lettuce knock off, and thick brown bread. "You can't really blame them. They see you, how powerful you've become, and they want to emulate that. Kind of flattering, I think."
The Fiend's Legion was the name of the self-styled defenders of the city. They had taken up watch over the massive hole left in the Wall by the Apollyon, and were preventing any monsters from entering the city. There hadn't been many in the past week.
"You deal with it then," Felix groaned and took a bite. "Oh holy crap this is good," he said around a mouthful.
"I'll pass the thanks along to the cook," Hector said, beaming. "Nea hasn't had much time to cook, what with all the brewing and concocting she's had to do. Been living on what I could scrounge from the grocer down on Echo Lane, but Nea got mad when she heard. She went all out for tonight."
Felix smiled as Hector spoke. His voice was warm and he could literally hear the love he had for his wife in his voice; it rippled across his Spirit with such clarity that it humbled him. Felix and the Alchemist hadn't always been on the best terms, and it was interesting to see another side of her.
"How's your kid doing with all this? Amaya, right?" Felix asked. "Hard as this is for us adults, I can't imagine dealing with it so young."
"She's handled it well, though mostly that was because we found your camp so early on," Hector shook his head. He stared out over the battlements, back toward the city. Lights were picked out among the dark shapes of rubble and ruin, but far too few. "The first few hours, after the tower fell? It was a nightmare. Things are coming around now, slow as it is."
Felix nodded. He'd been unconscious for a large portion of those early hours, but he'd heard enough tales to last a lifetime. Revenants rampaging across the city, the Eyrie collapsing, people across the city dying in droves. He couldn't help but feel guilty about it. So much of what happened had beenwell not his doing exactly, but he had been involved.
Guilt didn't have to make sense, he'd found.
Hector and Felix talked and ate, weaving between topics of sigaldry and his family life. Amaya was a cool kid, a bit precocious, and reminded him of Gabby. His sister, the one he'd left on a boat with her hurt friend.
God, I hope they're both okay. That mom is okay and isn't missing me too much. The thought made him sad, enough apparently for Hector to notice.
"Sorry, I can go for days when I talk about my kid, ya know?" Hector smiled and wiped his hands. He began picking up the discarded cloths and replacing them in his satchel. They had worked through the large spread very quickly, but that was to be expected of folks with Journeyman Bodies. They needed the energy, especially if they were gonna work all night again. "You ready to get back down there?"
"Yeah, might as well get back to it. There's a lot to go," Felix said. He stretched and tried to think happier thoughts. Like all the Skill levels he'd gained since he'd begun this project.
"We're a bit away from the foundational arrays, but you're learning fast. We should have this Wall working again in a day. Two at most." Hector patted Felix on the back and walked back into the enclosure, where a set of spiral stairs led down into the guts of the Wall.
Felix hung back, looking at the sky. Stars were spread across the cloudless night, more than he'd ever seen in his life, and he could pick up a dark shadow flitting across them.
Back at it, Pit. Keep an eye on those dorks down below, yeah?
A single, hawk-like cry cut through the dark, and affirmation thrummed across their bond. Felix nodded to himself and got back to work.