"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 teamplus Alisterall 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. WeI 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 thouFELIX! 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 lingeredinertin 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.