Chapter Three Hundred And Eight - 308Pit laid about on his back, wings askew and legs in the air while he snored. His tongue lolled, hanging almost in his own eye, but the tenku's rest was complete for all of that. Felix wished he was half so relaxed.
Felix watched the doors. Glared at them, really. As if they would suddenly move, shift, or otherwise give him the answers he sought if only he stared hard enough. How long had he been at it? Time felt...weird in the Path. Stretchy. Felix could recall fleeing the Urges just moments ago, but it easily could have been hours. His Born Trait only muddied those waters, but the point stood.
"Karys, how long have I been here?" he asked.
I...find myself unsure. A shrug, or a suggestion of one from the sword. But such is the way of liminal spaces.
"Liminal...what's that, Latin?" Felix asked.
It is the words of magi, Felix. I was never of their orders, but I know I did, once. A pause. A liminal space is a point of transition, from one place to another. A threshold.
"A Door," Felix suggested.
Quite right. Places such as these pull from the Void, a
"The same as Domains," Felix said with sudden recollection. The Maw had mentioned such things once, when he'd wandered the Void. "Time moved weird in the Void, too."
My understanding is that it functions as a dream, or perhaps dreams touch upon the Void. I am...I am unclear on the subject. I believe the Paths utilize the liminal space afforded by the Void, peeling it back to create this for you.
Felix looked about at the drab interior. Even the chandeliers slowly rotating above them were wooden and filled with dust. It was not very impressive, and that was reflected in the doors themselves. "So this is like a Domain of my own?"
Of a sort. A Domain, or even a Lair, is not as specialized as this. Paths are catered to they who owned the Omen Key.
"Hm. So are we moving faster or slower than outside?"
There is no way to tell, unfortunately. Not unless you try to tear apart these walls, and that is impossible. You would rip your hands bloody before ever leaving a scratch. It has been tried before....beforeit has been tried.
Karys was getting worse. Felix wished he had cared only as a friendhe thought of Karys as a friend, at leastbut more than that, Felix feared the knowledge he'd lose if the Paragon's memories dissipated completely. The advantage lost, he thought with an inward sneer at himself. I shouldn't care about that, but it's hard not to, especially here.
With a frustrated grunt, more at himself than the situation, Felix rolled to his feet. Pit snorted, woke, and watched him blearily through a single half lidded eye. He took it for granted now, how easily he moved and exerted himself, but not even an appreciation for his physical advancement was enough to appease the sour roil in his belly. He walked to the middle door, the dark red one. Not a single detail about them had clued Felix into their purpose. Was he meant to pick one blindly? What if he chose the wrong one?
Felix frowned, running his fingers over the scratched paint of the door. It was worn down by constant use and none of it gentle. It reminded him a little of the doors to the church off 4th Street back home. The place his family had long attended, well after Felix had grown tired of religion in general. He snorted. He supposed he didn't feel much different about religion now either, though his atheism had been soundly rebuffed. He wasn't a fan, but it was hard to deny the existence of gods when they tried to kill him or worse.
His eyes widened. What was that? For a brief moment, Felix had felt something quiver beneath his hands. The door. Or something beyond it, or...What?
It was coming from him.
Felix placed his hand on the door again, but this time he focused inward, toward his core space. The solar system formed around him, dual cores in the center, abyss and divine sprout, with his Skills arrayed in expanding concentric circles. There, settled in the closest row near his cores, was the origin of the faint trembling.
Ravenous Tithe?
His Skill shook as he kept his hand pressed against the red door, like a staving creature barely restraining itself from a meal. Why so eager? He looked at the door, flaring his Manasight once again, but just as before his Manasight was useless in that place. All he saw was a red door. But what would happen if I ate it?
He'd done it before, eating objects, though it afforded him very little Essence compared to monsters or the occasional person. But would it mean he was choosing that path if he Tithed the door? Or could he eat each one and then decide? And would eating them even do anything? He hoped it would let him get a glimpse of the Path ahead, but he had no way of knowing for sure.
Felix fell back, thinking. His Ravenous Tithe had grown since he'd first received it. Before, he'd had to "claim" his targets or at least be touching them. Repeatedly now, he'd pulled in Essence from across battlefields so long as he has been the one to kill them. Can't kill doors, though. Hm.
Shadow Whip!
He split the single whip into three easily enough, while the end of each whip became a grabby little hand that would affix to most surfaces. He snapped it forward, and all three hit the doors at the same time. They struck true, but that wasn't a concern with his Perception and Dexterity; that they held fast was the greater relief.
"Pit, stand back. I'm not really sure what'll happen here." Once his Companion backed into the dim hallway, Felix took a breath. "Here goes nothing."
Ravenous Tithe!
It took some doing, but Felix's Will eventually overcame whatever inertia the doors had: with a monstrous roar, all three doors collapsed into smoke and flashing light, pulled inexorably into his channels. Pure darkness laid behind each of them, Void-like even.
"Okay," Felix said slowly, letting his Shadow Whip dissolve back into his channels. The doors were open and nothing had exploded. He was gonna call that a success. "Okay, I think"
A Choice Has Been Made.
"What?"Even Pit made a confused noise at that. "I didn't make a choice! That's the whole point."
The Door Is Open.
ERROR
Multiple Doors Open.
Reconfiguring Paths.
Stand By.
The room flexed, as it had before, and suddenly the three open doorways became one single massive portal edged by chipping wood and peeling paint. Everything rippled, waves rising from solid surfaces in an upsettingly familiar manner.
"Pit! Converge!"
There was a flash of light before the long hallway wrapped around Felix's form. Pit nestled breathlessly into his Spirit, but was peering curiously out of Felix's eyes.
Why do I keep doing this?
That was the last thought he had before the entire world rippled and shattered into blue-gold light.
The Fool.
Wise And Unknowing, Brash And Kind.
Choices Define Us.
The Path begins.
Felix landed roughly, as if falling from a great height. He stumbled and tripped onto something soft. A couch.
His couch. His apartment.
He swept his eyes around, seeing the tiny studio he'd once lived in, recreated in perfect detail down to the takeout containers piled next to the overfull trashcan. Outside two small windows, a storm raged in the night sky, the flash of lightning the only illumination in the tiny apartment.
A phone rang.