Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy – 270"The storm must have passed," Atar noted, blinking into the bright sunlight. It was edging toward sunset, but the sky was almost blinding after the dark caves.
"Summer storms," Alister mused. "Here and gone."
Felix looked up at his friends as they exited the shallow cave mouth. Moving the cave had proven to be an illusion, but a vividly convincing one. Felix had even felt the stone beneath his hands. Whatever magic they were using was far, far stronger than anything Thangle had used. However, once Wyvora had explained what it was, Felix's Willpower, Perception, and Intent were able to muscle past it. The illusion shattered into pieces. The Henaari's shocked expressions had been satisfying at least.
"Uh, what happened?" Evie asked. She pointed at the bodies currently cocooned in stone restraints, leaving only their noses free, and at Wyvora who was merely standing aside with a conflicted expression on her face. Harn just chuckled. "Who're they?"
Felix frowned at the Henaari guards. "They tried to capture me and leave you in the tunnel. So I...convinced them otherwise."
"Does this change our reception?" Vess asked, ever the eye on the ball. Her impromptu floating gurney of spears still carried Davum and Vayne behind her. They hadn't woken up the entire journey, and their Health had deteriorated again.
"Wait, what? You said you had healers." Kylar rounded on Wyvora and grabbed the hilt of his swords. "My team needs a healer!"
"Quiet, oaf," Kikri said. Kylar actually listened, which was surprising to Felix. "Let the Fiend answer Lady Dayne's question."
"It might," Felix answered, ignoring the outburst. "But I didn't hurt them too badly. What do you think Wyvora?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but Evie snorted. "You're asking her? Didn't she just attack you?"
"Not her, not this time," Felix said. "Still. What do you think?"
Wyvora wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and darted a glance at the rest of his team. When none of them interrupted, she dropped once again to her knees and kowtowed three times. Each time she hit her forehead harder against the earth. "This one apologizes profusely for the actions of one's sisters. This one begs that you do not kill them."
"Kill them? They didn't try to kill me, why would I kill them?" Felix asked.
"It'd save time later," Evie muttered but Atar elbowed her in the ribs. She frowned until Atar gasped in pain and clutched his arm.
"This one does not presume to understand the intentions of a Pactlord," Wyvora said.
Felix wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose. His Aspects weren't quite recovered from the fight previously, and he'd had to strain them again. "Enough with theLook. Honest opinion. Will your people try to murder me and my own if we walk in there with your sisters all," Felix rolled his hand. "Stoned?"
Wyvora lifted her head slightly and peeked up at him. "This one...believes it will be seen as an act of aggression. Even from a Pactlord...such treatment would not be forgiven easily."
Felix grunted. "Yeah, figured as much. Okay. Let's just...bind their hands? Evie, Alister, you're on prisoner duty. Harn, are you bleeding again?"
Harn shrugged.
"Great. Let's move then. How far is your camp?"
"It is two leagues south, along the river."
Felix altered the Stone Shaping around his prisoners, letting them stand up and move their feet, but bound their hands behind their backs. Wyvora took possession of their spears and numerous knives they had hidden around their person, and they were marched ahead of everyone else.
"You'll follow quietly, or my friends will be more than happy to gut you," he said to them as calmly as he could manage. Still, he couldn't help the edge in his voice. They glared over the top of their stone muzzles. "Yeah, the irony is a bit much for me too. Let's all just walk calmly back to your camp, okay?"
The journey was simple enough. They travelled downhill into the lush forest, walking along an ancient path of laid stone that was heavily overgrown with moss. More of those massive ferns, easily tree-sized, and tons of hanging vines and brilliantly flowering buds. It reminded him more and more of the area where he'd first woken up. Once or twice, Felix thought he saw a carved stone monoliths in the deeper greenery, but they were quickly swallowed by the tree cover and their rapid pace. He would have stopped had his people not been hurt.
They soon came to a river, though it was more of a wide stream, and they took the time to slake their thirsts and refill their stores. Tempered Bodies might not need sustenance as much as Untempered, but they needed some and it had been a while since their last resupply.
Felix noted several crocodile-like creatures on the far bank, disguised by their moss colored bodies and utter stillness. There were even a few in the deeper portions of the water, and those were all a mottled grey-blue-green color. His Eye called them Veiled Aquabbar, and they were all Tier II creatures bordering on Tier III.
Voracious Eye is level 53!
A few swam closer, but Harn stepped forward and flared his Spirit. The crocs milled in place a moment, as if considering their chances. Harn only stood there, resolute, and eventually the crocs turned back toward easier prey.
"Predators are cowards," Felix noted.
"Always are," Harn grunted.
They walked along the ancient causeway, more of a ground-eating jog really, as it paralleled the river. The ground around them rose and fell, hills and dales all covered in old growth forests that stretched just as high as those outside this odd mountain valley. Further in, Felix could now spot cliffs to every side, as if they were in some sort of giant crater.
What's in the center, then? Felix wondered.
A few short minutes later, they had arrived. "We are here," Wyvora said simply.
Felix looked about, but the path seemed to end at a thicket of dense thorns that stretched over his head and choked off the undergrowth beneath the trees. The river continued onward, unhindered, but unless they wanted to wade in, the path was hidden.
"Another illusion?" Vess asked from behind the tip of her spear.
Wyvora hesitated, looking to the muzzled guards, before nodding. The guards jerked in their bonds, clearly angry.
"Open it up, if you please," Felix said. No need to anger anymore people than he had to, and they were in a hurry. She'd likely bypass their protections faster than his team would tear them apart.
Wyvora, hesitance gone, stepped forward and ran her hands across the maze-like bramble. The plantlife shuddered and twisted, curiously folding in on itself until it vanished completely. Without warning, a thick flock of small, dark birds burst from the thicket. Felix jerked back as they tore upward, fists blazing with sudden acid before they simply vanished again.
"What was that?" Atar asked, his voice strained a bit.
"Looked like birds," Kylar offered. Evie gave the swordsman a look. "What?"
"You may pass freely now, Pactlord," Wyvora said. Felix's Perception twinged as he spotted the guard's expressions, which had turned from apoplectic to confused.
"I appreciate it," Felix said and led his team through. "Tearing it down would have taken too much time."
Passing through the thicket was more than crossing space, as he felt the distinct tremble of passing one of their strange wards again. Once through it, the Mana of its construction was evident in the myriad flows of violet, green-gold, and white-green vapor all twisted and bent into a complex array of magic. His team flowed passed him as he stopped and stared at it.
It's an array...but made out of Mana itself, he thought with a shock. No stone or wood to act as a medium. That's like the 101 on Inscription. How'd they do this?
"Felix?" Alister called out, and he pulled his attention away from the warding array. "You should see this."
Felix walked to the front of the group and found themselves atop a slight rise, while below them spread out an encampment filling a bowl-shaped valley to the limit. Dozens of Henaari walked to and fro, passing beneath free-standing archways of elaborately carved wood and stone. Buildings abounded, interspersed with many large trees, all in the vein of the outpost they had run into a few days prior, wood and stone constructed with a distinct skill and style. Most interesting though, was that in the center was a large ruined tower, complete with flying buttresses and mounds of ivy. A tree grew up inside the tower, breaking through and expanding out of one side, and its branches hung heavy with a bright blue fruit.
"Wow," he breathed. "You made all this?"
"The Dawncrafters are the greatest artisans on the Continent," Wyvora said with pride.
"The tower too?" Atar asked, squinting. "That is a tower, right? Kinda far to tell..."
"No, we did not make that," Wyvora voice was steady, but her Spirit echoed with something like sadness. Why?