Chapter Forty Seven - 047"Hey what is that?" Shirt comfortably on, Felix nodded at the vial she held.
"This? Haven't seen a stamina potion before?"
Felix felt a rush of excitement. If he could replenish his Stamina even faster, then he could train far longer. "You have any more?"
"Some, but we burned through a lot during that big battle, back when we met. They get less effective over time anyway." Evie shrugged and tipped back the last of the potion before letting out a tiny burp. "Just taking one now to replenish before I gotta fight Harn. Bastard's tough as hell."
"I noticed," Felix rubbed his ribs, a phantom ache from one of many bruises the warrior had put on him. It was all healed by now though. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask. How much do you know about other races?"
"Hm?" Evie looked up as she rooted around the fire pit. "Which ones? I know lots." She peered around again and grumbled to herself. "Where'd that meat go?"
Felix looked down at the tin platter and moved surreptitiously away from it, scooting down the circular bench. "How uh, how many races do you know?"
"Like met? Damn near all of em, if I had to guess. Least the common ones." She gave up her fruitless search for the remaining monster meat and plopped down on the bench alongside him. Her armor was beaten and scratched but sturdy, and the blue tabard thing she wore hung limp in the firelight. Felix couldn't spot her chain, which was usually wrapped around her arm or shoulder. "Elves, Dwarves, Alfein, Nixies and Naiads, though they're the same thing really. Just don't let em know that. Learned that one the hard way."
Evie reached into the huge rucksack and somehow found a stack of hard biscuits and jerky. She started munching while she talked. "Goblinoids, of course. I even saw an elemental spirit once, but they were pretty standoffish. Don't see them much in the cities. Birdfolk I heard of, but never met one, same with the lizardmen down Te'thys way. Atar'd probably know more about them." She chewed loudly, food spraying slight as she spoke. "Why?"
Felix was slightly overwhelmed at the list of races she just...spat out. He added them to a list of details for the future, when he had more time. He tried to steady his thudding heart, evening out his breath with his control Skill. He had to be careful here. "I was looking around upstairs. Saw a sculpture of a bunch of chimera and of another race, this one called a 'Nym' or something. You ever hear of them?"
Acting is level 7!
Keep that face nice and neutral!
Evie tapped her lips, chewing slowly. "Nym Nym Nym. Why does that sound familiar?" She snapped her fingers. "That's right! The Night Market in Amphora! They had this weird floaty pyramid with that name on it. Nym. No one knew what it did, on account of it bein' too weird. What'd that guy say about it..."
Evie drifted off, eyes up and staring at the middle distance. She screwed up her face, as if trying to eke out the last drop of a memory. "Said something about old ruins? Real old, like Third Age old. I do remember that no one could even Analyze it. Kinda like the fog here..." She stopped scrunching her face and turned to Felix, her green eyes bright. "Hey, speaking of which; how can you see through the fog?"
Felix frowned. "You still don't believe me?"
Evie waved her hands. "No, no. After today I'm a believer, but it's weird. You came outta nowhere, you can see through the fog, you got a chimera friend who, no offence, is creepy as Yyero's backside..." Pit quietly growled from his slumber across the room, interrupting them. Felix frowned. Maybe the mishmash of bird and fox/dog was ungainly, but Pit was far from creepy. What did she see when she looked at Pit?
He asked her.
Uh same thing you do? Got eyes dont I? Blurry and dark, like smoke made monster. Four eyes. Great huge claw wing things in its back. Like I said. Creepy." Her neck and shoulders twitched involuntarily, and she gave Felix an apologetic look.
Felixs head rocked back, though he realized he shouldnt have been surprised. So the illusion was affecting how they saw Pit? Does it extend to all monsters?
How about the giants? What do they look like?
Youve seen em. Blue skin, ugly, big beards. Why all the questions?
I dont think were seeing the same things. The giants sound the same, so thats weird, but Pit doesnt look like that. Hes a chimera, sure, but he just looks like a cross between a black bird and a big fox. Normal feather wings and all," Felix said, scratching his jaw. His beard was slowly coming in--barely more than bristles at the moment--and it finally was starting to irritate him.
Huh. No shit? Evie shoved another hunk of bread in her mouth and chewed as she considered Pit from afar. She swallowed and said, Wish I could see it. However you do it, its not somethin I got.
Felix shrugged. "Maybe it's my Manasight? I'm pretty sure the fog you're seeing isn't real either."
"Manasight? What's that?" She paused. "Wait, what? Of course it's real. Just cuz you got special peepers doesn't mean--"
"It's an illusion. A really good one, probably, since it affects such a large area. I don't really know how magic works," Felix added. "But it's not really there. It clearly affects how you all see the monsters around here too, like Pit."
"Thats nuts." Evie took a big bite of jerky and chewed it for a moment. "Never heard of a spell that big or one that could last so long. Not even at the capitol. Cant be possible, right?"
"It makes sense," chimed in Magda, who had been sidling up into the conversation for the last twenty seconds. Felix had eyed her out of his periphery but didn't want to mention it. Why not just come sit down? What's that about?
"The fog being a spell fits with the idea that an artifact can dispel it. If it were natural, I figured it'd be easier to get rid of, yeah?" Magda sat down, her leather creaking as the metal bit jangled. "But how can a spell affect even information gathering Skills? Analyze doesn't work out here; neither does Herbalism or Tracking."
Felix shrugged, absolutely out of his depth. "Not a clue. Is there such a thing as large scale magic? Like a big, I dunno, ritual or something that would activate over a large area?"
Magda tilted her head. "Maybe. But the amount of Mana you're talking about is...it's bigger than what everyone in Haarwatch could pool together, and then some."
Evie let out a low whistle. "That's a lotta juice."
"Yeah, a lot," Magda agreed, still looking thoughtful. She turned to Felix, casually. "You said you found some carvings of Nym? Where?"
Knew you were listening in. Do you still not trust me? Despite his thoughts, he half-smiled and gestured to the wall where he had descended. "You're welcome to check it, if you can make it up there. Not even sure how I did; the staircase disappeared after I came down."
Magda half rose to her feet before making a series of gestures to someone out Felix's line of sight. He could hear metal scraping softly against metal as presumably Harn walked toward where Felix had indicated. She turned back to Felix. "Are you sure?"
"Well, yeah. I walked through the archway and then it was gone when I--"
"No," Magda interrupted him. "About the Nym?"
"Uh, yeah," Felix felt his pulse suddenly spike. "Why? What's...is something wrong?"
Magda had pulled a dagger from a sheathe at her back. Felix looked at Evie, who met his eyes and shrugged. When Felix looked back, the big woman had stepped out of the fire pit and toward one of the carved walls. She searched them a moment before she pointed with the dagger at a particular scene. "Was this there?"
Felix stared at her a moment longer before following the direction of her dagger. Among the natural scenes depicted along the carved walls, here the nature motif changed into curling vines that formed an elaborate circular frame. A figured stood among the smaller white stone figures, the ones that looked like children. The taller figure was made of slightly different stone, darker and smoother than the off white of the walls. The figure held a crooked scepter in their hand, and was wearing long flowing robes with armor belted on over it.
And above their head, a tiny but definite four pointed star.
"Well that looks familiar," Felix muttered. He could practically hear Magda's eyes affix onto him, and he turned toward her. "Yeah, it looked just like that."
"That's a Nym? They look boring." Evie grumbled through a mouthful of food. "No horns or nothin'?"
"You're sure? Just like this?" Magda repeated.
"Yes, damn it. Why?" Felix was getting annoyed with the shield warrior's constant confirmations.
"Harn and I spotted this earlier, though didn't see any others. I had hoped it didn't mean anythin', maybe just a decoration. But if you saw what you saw, then we're in trouble." Magda stared at Felix with worried eyes. At some point Vessilia and Atar had wandered over toward them all, and Felix could see them look on questioningly. Magda started talking again, her voice softer.
"We've been to a lot of ruins over the years, and out of all of them, the only one that nearly killed us was littered with pictures of them." She pointed again at the robed Nym with her dagger. "After that job went sideways, we found others that had seen these figures before. All of them were in ruins, ones that were hidden or sunk beneath the earth; all of them, without exception, were deadly."
Harn spoke up, and Felix turned to regard the warrior. "Those carvings can be found across the Continent. Always the worst places, but also the ones with the greatest treasure too. This tower and the others like it might be somethin' these creatures built, somewhere they hid their deadly treasures."
"But who were they?" Atar asked, his eyes bright in the firelight. He seemed eager for this knowledge, and Felix wondered why. But he turned his attention toward Harn and Magda, hoping they could shed more light on his own newborn heritage. Magda shook her head and shrugged.
"Don't rightly know," Harn said. "We know the name, we know they were around up until the Third Age, and we know they're Lost." Gasps rose among the Tin Ranks, and Felix perked up. He'd heard the term too many times to miss out now.