Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy One – 271As his friends were led toward the center of the encampment, Felix followed close behind the swaying tail of A'zek and the prowling form of Wyvora. He was careful to maintain a healthy distance from them both. He didn't think either would attack him after all that, but Felix had been wrong before.
Caution, Pit chirped. Felix couldn't agree more.
Voracious Eye!
Name: A'zek
Race: Chimera - Harnoq
Level: ??
HP: ????/????
SP: ????/????
MP: ???/???
Lore: A chimeric beast, harnoq are solitary creatures without need for mate or pack. They excel at taking down large prey, attacking with claws, jaws, or their barbed tail which contains a potent toxin.
Strength: More Data Required
Weakness: More Data Required
Protected, he noted. There was a sense of resistance around A'zek, similar to the Inquisition but far stronger. It felt more like how his Veiling Amulet functioned, but several steps removed and not quite like anything he'd experienced. A spell or something, maybe.
"Is your curiosity sated, Felix Nevarre?"
Felix started, finding A'zek looking at him with a large, slitted eye. It was a dark black in the gathering gloom, but flashes of newly lit torches cast earthy highlights across his irises. A'zek looked amused, though Wyvora at his side was less so.
"Hrm," Felix said. "You're blocking me."
"And you're not using Analyze," A'zek said, and this time it's expression morphed into worry. "A...hungry Skill, your Eye. And it's not the only strangeness about you, Pactlord." Felix only inclined his head and the harnoq snorted. "You can release your Companion now."
Felix took a sharp breath and looked at Wyvora, but A'zek had started walking again. "It's considered rude to hide so in polite company."
"I did not tell him," Wyvora said.
Pit trilled in interest and Felix agreed. In a flash of light the huge tenku emerged from Felix's Spirit. This time A'zek was surprised, spinning and leaping backward in alarm.
"By feather and claw," the harnoq cursed. "You're an ox!"
Pit merely tilted his head in confusion before warbling at the smaller chimera. Pit was at least twice his size. I am tenku. Beast of Harmony. Child of Guardians.
A'zek paused at that, gaze flickering between Pit and Felix. Wyvora simply stared, confused. "Indeed." He turned and continued on the half-sunk path of ancient stones. "Follow."
Felix and Pit followed silently, with the tenku trotting closer to the harnoq. Felix was quiet however. The words Pit had used were familiar. He'd said them weeks ago, after Felix had begun to fix his Bastion of Mind Skill, but why had never been explained. Pit didn't even remember, but to Felix they were tantalizing. Important, somehow.
The sun had dropped behind the mountains by the time they reached a small, unassuming yurt off to the side of the encampment. It was far from the center and the ruined tower, where his friends had gone, and Felix was curious about that. Clearly the Matriarch and her retinue were all in the center, the most interesting part of the area.
So why's this guy way out here? Felix had a feeling politics were involved. Clearly the Farwalker had pull enough to order the Matriarch around. It wasn't someone he wanted to piss off...at least not yet. So when Wyvora opened the solid wooden doorway of the yurt, Felix stepped through, Pit fast on his heels.
The interior was round, spacious, and heavily festooned with furs and cloth that swung low from thin wooden rafters above. There were no windows, but lanterns made of paper hung throughout, orbs the size of his head lit with small flickering flames, illuminating the whole space with a warm, buttery light. Felix stood easily in the yurt, but Pit had to hunch uncomfortably as they entered.
"Whoa," Felix said.
In the center of the room, above a shimmering brazier, there hovered a complicated construction of what appeared to be white-green light. Felix's Manasight identified it as air Mana...but it's not vapor or even liquid as Felix's often appears. It's rigid. Solid-seeming. Crystalline. As he watched, it created several rotating shapes of strange invention, each expanding and shrinking in time to a beat he couldn't hear. It was hypnotic, and it took the harnoq's deep voice to shake him from his trance.
"We have arrived, Farwalker," A'zek intoned. The harnoq pushed between Felix and Pit and stepped forward into the center. Wyvora lingered somewhere near the doorway. "I have brought Felix Nevarre and his Companion."
On the far end of the room, half obscured by gauzy draperies, a figure moved. Felix clenched his jaw and kept his hands at his sides, but it was a close thing. The figure leaned, shifted in what looked like an oversized chair made of wood and bone. His face was in darkness, but the lanterns shone on his legs and torso, revealing a soft body draped in suede and silk.
I can't sense him. Felix flared his nostrils. It's like he's not even there. Pit?
Nothing, Pit agreed.
"Thank you, A'zek. Was the Matriarch much trouble?" His voice sounded strong. Confident.
"She abided by your wisdom," the harnoq said. The Farwalker snorted in amusement.
"She merely listened to the winds. Now she waits for them to turn in her favor. Bah," the Farwalker scoffed and adjusted himself. The chair sudden rolled forward, and Felix realized it was on wheels. "Enough talk of her. Release me, Raven. Let me see this Pactlord for myself."
With a curious rush of wind and faint cawing, the darkness around the Farwalker's face vanished completely and Felix beheld an old, old man. A Henaari, clearly, as the Farwalker's head was elongated with a high forehead and cheekbones sharp enough to cut. The man smiled, displaying a set of white, even teeth and a nest of taut but wrinkled skin.
Voracious Eye!
Name: The Farwalker
Race: Henaari
Level: 94
HP: 244/5984
SP: 112/177
MP: 6332/6481
Lore: Henaari are a nomadic, matriarchal people that are known for their dedication to the Endless Raven. They excel at physical Skills and have a mild aptitude for the magical arts.
Strength: More Data Required
Weakness: More Data Required
Unlike his Companion, the Farwalker hid nothing from Felix's Eye. He felt none of the odd resistance and he could perceive him easily now that those shadows had fled. The man was an Adept Tier or perhaps more; unlike others, his power felt fuzzy and ill-defined.
"Your name is 'The Farwalker'?" Felix asked.
The Farwalker smirked. "It has been for many, many years. A consequence of a task well done, I'm afraid."