Chapter Three Hundred And Forty Seven – 347As a group, they all descended into the bowels of Felix's Temple. Vess had seen the Seat and Seal before, but none of the others had, and their reactions were pretty amusing. Evie stared in slack-jawed amazement, first at the huge Spirit Tree roots and then at the gold and silver lines of the inscribed formation. She hadn't a lot of experience with inscriptions, but even a blind man would've been able to feel the power that coursed through that first chamber. Atar practically vibrated with excitement; he'd been pestering to get a look at the array for weeks. The fire mage dashed about, running his hands over the complicated sigaldry and compounded glyphs stamped into the floors and walls, even as his eyes raked over the marked ceiling with naked hunger.
Zara's reaction, however, was the best of them all.
"Wild cries," she whispered. Her ice blue eyes roved across the interwoven, almost fractal complexities of the formation, gold and silver light dancing across her face. "I've never known a Nymean Temple to harbor such a treasure. This is beyond the scope of any modern Territory that I know of...the weight of it all."
"It is adequate, yes," Karys said, and Zara started. Her hand leaped to her throat, but she'd mastered her Spirit again, and weak or not Felix did not feel the fear that was evident on her face. Karys, ever the gentleman, bowed low to the Naiad. "I apologize for startling you. I...keep forgetting how my appearance affects you all."
"No. No it's fine," Zara said. She straightened, smoothing her blue on black robes before speaking again. "Felix warned me of your current Body, but not..." Karys tilted his head, the golden eye-fires in his empty helmet burning inquisitively. Yet Zara did not elaborate; instead she turned to Felix. "This is your Seat and Seal? How did you claim it? Right of conquest?"
"Sort of," he said and patted the crooked sword at his hip. "After the Archon was put down, well, I stepped into the center and claimed it."
"Just like that," she muttered to herself. The others were poking around at the edges of the formation, giving the three of them space to talk. The chamber was more than large enough. "I cannot imagine it was so clear cut."
Felix shrugged. "It asked me a question. I gave an answer."
"It did not approve of your answer," Karys reminded him. "Though that did not stop you."
"Yeah, I recall," Felix said, dryly. "What use is two thousand points of Willpower if you don't put them to use every once in a while?"
Zara stared between the two of them. "You...brute forced the System into granting you Authority?"
"When you say it like that it makes me sound like a jerk." Felix rubbed his chin, thinking back on the events. "It was more like...the System couldn't understand me." He shrugged again. "So I made sure it did."
The Naiad's face rapidly twitched between dismay, astonishment, and something bordering on intimidation. Then it smoothed, caught and mastered again by the woman's training. "What was the question?"
Why Do You Seek Authority, Felix Nevarre?
Why Do You Seek The Crown?
Felix jerked at the blue window's appearance, and Karys' chest rumbled apologetically. "My doing. This is the notification he received."
"How'd you do that?" Felix asked. "Can you access all of my old notifications?"
"Only those connected to this Seat. The tricks I learned Ages past have come in handy these past weeks," the metal man said.
"It spoke to you directly?" Zara asked.
"This is a function of the array," Karys explained. "Not how your...modern Seats handle things, but it is the traditional way. The Call and Answer before Authority can be bestowed."
"And your answer?" she asked.
"To help," Felix said with a laugh. He started walking forward, motioning for the others to follow. "The System thought it was too vague."
"It is not wrong," Karys murmured. Felix ignored him.
"C'mon. I didn't bring you here to show off my monogramed cavern floor." Felix sped up, parting the Mana vapor that was actively pushing the others back. He stopped, just inside the secondary chamber. He gestured and activated the illumination scripts. "Behold!"
"Whoa what are these?" Evie said, rushing forward to inspect one of the massive, circular carvings.
"They're"
"This is...this is Levantier," Vess said with quiet wonder. "I recognize the Lucent Towers, though none of the rest of it makes any sense. There is no mountain anywhere near Levantier, just the northern sea."
"The sigaldry on these interconnections," Atar said in a rush, not looking the massive circular portals but at the tiny inscriptions on the smooth floor. "Less complicated than the previous chamber, but no less inspired. I cannot make out more than an eighth of what I'm seeing, but it's truly amazing!" His eyes then caught on the gates. "Burning ashes, what are they?"
"Shadowgates," Zara said.
Felix frowned. "Yeah okay, they're Shadowgates." He glanced at the Naiad; only the woman's broken composure was compensation for his ruined reveal. She looked poleaxed, turning her head to look at all nine of the massive gates, as if she were trying to memorize their details all at once. "Portals between two far off points on the Continent."
"That's impossible," Atar started saying, but Zara interrupted him.
"No, but it is dangerous," she said. "Felix, do you realize what you've done? Shadowgates are a myth. A legend and a dream of every known power on the Continent, vast as it is. How? How is any of this possible?"
"They were sealed here. If the Archon hadn't tried to kill us, if i hadn't fed him to the Spirit Tree, if the roots of that Tree hadn't burst apart the sealed ceiling...ten thousand things happened." Felix laughed, not without warmth, but the bitterness was hard to hide. "I don't really care about 'how,' but if I can use them to save at least one other Unbound, then it'll be worth all the trouble."
Felix ran his hand over the details on one of the Lucent Towers Vess had pointed out. "I'm not entirely clear on how they work, but Karys is confident that they do. It's a place to start, at least."
"Well, only a few are operational at this time," Karys interjected. "I've been attempting to restore and clean what I could, but some are quite marred by the sheer weight of Ages, and others appear to be cut off."
"Cut off?" Ves asked. "How do you mean?"
"They require a paired gate to link to," Zara said, as if understanding had dawned on her. "Just as the Dark Passages do; these are simply more stable."
"Far more than simply stable," Karys scoffed.
Zara ignored the golden giant and stepped toward another Shadowgate, this one shaped as a field of wild, malachite grasses and deep, swirling pools of cool, multi-colored kyanite. Pale, pinkish feldspar hills rose up above, framing the opaque shadows within. "I imagine most of the paired gateways are either blocked or destroyed completely. I was not exaggerating when I said I have never seen these before; thousands across the Ages have hunting such artifacts, following ancient clues and hints left in rotting tomes and blood soaked Domains. This is why I suggest the paired gates are lost. They would have been found otherwise."
"Alright, well, how many does that leave us?" Felix asked.
"There are four that have the potential to be made operational," Karys said.
"That's a lotta 'ifs,'" Evie pointed out. "Potential's just a fancy word for maybe."
Zara ran her fingers across pools of tri-color crystal. "Of all the gates, this one is closest to our target. If you're right, and these all reside in Nymean Temples, then it is highly likely this resides within the Ghreldan Hills."
"The Ghreldan Hills are forty leagues from the edge of the Scorched Expanse," Atar protested. "Surely there is somewhere closer?"
"Not that I can identify. But you're right. It is still at least two weeks hard journey by foot. Less if we press ourselves, and less still if I press my Body to its limit." Zara clenched her jaw, her face a picture of determination.
"That'd leave you with nothing left in the tank when you found the guy," Felix pointed out. "You're not going alone. A small team, at the very least, one that can cross terrain fast. We head south, get into the desert, retrieve the Minotaur and come back. Bonus points if we can find your friend, Isla, but the goal would be to pull the Unbound out of danger."
"I...I approve," Zara said. "I can admit that I am far from my best. And you have grown exceedingly capable these months. We can accomplish this together, I know it."
"Uh, you're missing one major detail," Atar said. "If the Expanse is being overridden by the undead and Paladins, then Ahkestria will need aid. Felix," he said, turning to him. "You have an entire army here. Could we not bring them with us? Render assistance to my home?"
"The Dark Passages are not easy to traverse. These Shadowgates might reduce the threat, but nothing can eliminate it. The last time I traversed them we nearly died as a creature from the Void broke through. A large force would only call more attention than we can afford."
"Wait, what?" Felix asked. "I thought that wasn't possible. The sheath of the Void shouldn't be permeable through liminal space."