Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Nine – 329

Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Nine – 329

"My first order of business should be more reliable stairs, I think," Felix mused. Even abstaining from Adamant Discord, his own Strength, Dexterity, and Agility let him leap up through the holes in the Temple with relative ease. Vess was right behind him, landing with no less grace despite her lesser stats; no doubt due to her high level Grace and Born Trait that let her leap extraordinarily high.

"Personally, I like the express path," Vess said with a grin that dimpled her cheek. "Trudging up stairs, even at high speeds, grows tiresome."

"I'll keep that in mind," Felix said. He tapped his lips, thinking on the power at his fingertips. Questions boiled up and over in his Mind, too many to count. He focused on only a few while they ascended the levels toward the outside. Toward this...judgement, he was to perform.

Felix frowned. A'zek had gone on ahead, intending to inform the Farwalker of the "Autarch's approach." He had leaped upward at an impressive pace, but not fast enough that Felix's eyes couldn't track him. Yet he still vanished from his Perception, even that extra awareness his Authority afforded him. Likely a Blessing from the Raven. The Urge's power is better than my own by a long shot.

That fact made him a little uncomfortable. He had invoked the Raven during his fight against the Urges imprisoned in the Mana wellan action that had no doubt strengthened the Urge of Findings In The Dark but one that was necessary to weaken and dazzle the far more vile Urges he had faced. It had helped Felix beat the dangerous monstrosities, but the Raven's motives felt inscrutable. It loved shiny things, new things, old things that folks lost or buried, but what did it want with it all? Was there a plan to the avarice he'd glimpsed in those huge, black eyes?

"What is a Residential sequence?" Felix asked, pushing his Mind away from the issue. "The Dwelling Stone was imbued with it, according to its Lore." The terminology sounded like it was some sort of packaged code, waiting for use. But everything Felix knew about coding was from movies, which typically showed a person flailing on a keyboard while lights flashed on the screen. Small terms and words flitted by his Keen Mind, enough to convince him that he didn't have the understanding to properly convey what he meant, so he changed tack. "Is it like a...pre-built array in the crystal?"

"Of a sort, I" Karys said from Felix's waist. The sword puffed a heaving sigh of green-gold vapor. His Body was still below, investigating more of the array in the hopes that it might trigger old memories. "No details come to Mind, and I do not know if that is because I do not know them, or there are more holes in my memory. Suffice it to say, the Belais Crystal held a pattern that the System extrapolated into your Seat and Seal, and thus into your Stronghold."

"Mhm," Felix said. That much had been obvious. He'd grown used to the specific weirdness of the System and its vibrational underpinnings. Skills were patterns of sound and light, why not a whole Forge too? "So it's a Stronghold, then. Where are my big walls and towers?"

Vess laughed.

"I would suggest you continue to explore your Authority," Karys said.

"Do you mind sharing while we move?" Vess asked. She looked at him with a touch of hesitation, but ploughed on through her next sentence. "I would very much like to see how your Stronghold functions."

"I don't mind at all," Felix said as he brought up his new menus and flicked them in Vess' direction. A copy of what he was viewing rotating into her view, visible to his sight as well.

The Song of Stronghold

Stronghold Defensive Strength: 20%

Stronghold Offensive Strength: 5%

Chancellor: None Selected

Master of Glyph: None Selected

Master of Forge: None Selected

Master of Treasury: None Selected

Master of Alchemy: None Selected

Two other tabs lined the side, Map and Improvements, but before he could investigate them, a secondary box popped into view.

You Have Established A Stronghold!

Do You Wish To Name It At This Time?

Ugh, I'm bad at names, Felix groaned. No. The box vanished, but not for good he feared. What do I name a half broken Temple and some forest?

He moved on. Under Improvements were subsections for Fortifications, Living Spaces, Professional Spaces, Garden, and, surprisingly, Spirit Tree. When he selected it, he got a warning message.

Spirit Tree Is Still Attuning To Its Surroundings

Do Not Attempt To Harvest Until Attunement Is Complete.

Okay, leaving that alone then.

"Stronghold Defensive and Offensive Strength are both pretty low," Felix said. "I'm guessing that's based on the general...disarray, huh?"

"Precisely," Karys buzzed from the hooked sword. "It counts only the condition of the Stronghold itself, not the people that may or may not defend it. It does not, for instance, factor you into either calculation."

"If you build defensive structures and construct weaponry at your Forge, then those percentages should rise," Vess said. "My family's castle has quite a few such structures and is well defended against outside attack."

"Do you know how to make those things?" Felix asked.

"...Not as such, no," Vess admitted, a tad sheepishly. "My education was always on governance, diplomacy, and combat. The Path of the Ruler, Father calls it."

"A spell of mine," Felix said by way of explanation. "A defensive one. I'm sorry if it caused you problems." Though he was surprised it was so thick as to limit the Henaari's movement within the Territory. Felix couldn't even see it around him, and none of his people had mentioned it as bothering them. Was there like a white list? People it doesn't effect?

The Farwalker waved a hand, as if uncaring about it. "No matter. We were already coming to you, to seek your judgement." He waved a wizened hand at the masked figure between them. "The Matriarch's crimes have come to light, as all things must."

Felix's Eye had confirmed it was the Matriarch as he'd fallen, and he stared curiously at her bindings. It was all a simple, braided rope, but the mask on her face was wooden and shaped into the visage of a hooded serpent. His Manasight picked up threads of power flaring along its rim and likely beneath the wood itself, Mana that seemed a combination of purple augmentation Mana, dusty brown earth Mana, and an oily sepia tone that he hadn't encountered much before. "What is with the mask?"

"It is a precaution and a dishonor," one of the Synod said. She was a slight woman for a Henaari, which meant she topped Felix by two inches, and had iron-grey hair cut into a practical bob at her jawline. She inclined her head at Felix a touch deeper than the Farwalker had done. "It disrupts the connection to her core space, to her Blessings, and silences her deceiving tongue."

"The Leviathan is the Endless Raven's greatest enemy, a serpent that dwells in the deepest dark and thrives upon secrets and lies," the Farwalker explained. "To be clad in its visage is to be given the greatest insult." He lifted a tattered book, the journal of a former Matriarch Felix had found months back. "The journal of our blessed leaderOcialashed much light upon the dark actions of this traitor. It was she who laced Ociala's food with subtle poison, who sabotaged her gear, and hid a monster lure within her belongings. The clues of it all, and Ociala's suspicions, all tidily written within this journal. When the extent of the Matriarch's deeds were discovered, she tried to run." The Farwalker shook his cowled head. "In your fog, she made it less than a mile before our scouts caught up with her."

"I see." Felix clenched his jaw. The treachery of the Matriarch didn't surprise him. The fact that she had something to do with the former Matriarch's fall? It made sense, if only based on how the woman had acted around Felix and his team when they'd first met.

"That is when her...newer actions came to light. The Dawnguard that she sent to follow you carried with them a dagger. An artifact of the Raven called a Dire Talon, a weapon that could end a life with no more than a scratch, or could be expended to claim a hidden space for the Raven. She has confessed that they were to claim your Temple, and kill you in the process." That same Synod member spoke again. She bowed at the waist, far lower than any so far. To Felix's surprise, all of the Synod and the crowd beyond did the same. Even Wyvora and the Farwalker. "We ask your forgiveness, Autarch. Though the Raven seeks out hidden things and to claim them for her own, She is not a creature of treachery. This...wretch's actions have marred all of us."

"We offer her up to you, for recompense and justice as you see fit, Autarch," the Farwalker continued. "This has moved beyond the purview of our people and even the Raven. As the wronged party and lord of these lands, you are the arbiter of her fate."

Felix regarded them all, calming his inner turmoil all the while. It sounded like they expected him to have her killed or something, and while he was disgusted that she had tried to snake the Temple out from under him, he didn't plan on murdering someone. Besides, he had a better idea.

He stepped forward six paces, feeling the anxiety in the Spirits of the Henaari watching. The fear. None of them wanted murder either, he could tell, but at the same time they were utterly committed to letting him choose. The Farwalker, of course, was a blank spot in his senses, but Felix was fairly certain he knew how the man felt toward the Matriarch. The bound woman's Spirit flared and shook, somehow aware that Felix approached, and she quietly began to fidget in her bonds.

She went deathly still as Felix laid a hand on her masked face. Right between the bulging eyes of the wooden snake.

"You have hurt your people far more than you've hurt me," Felix said to her, but not caring who heard him. "I will not kill you." A soft set of indrawn breaths came from the crowd, and the Matriarch trembled beneath his hand. "You will not thank me at the end, I don't think."

Chthonic Tribute!

Unite the Lost!

Acting on a hunch, Felix reached into the Matriarch with his newly evolved hunger and grabbed at her core space. He didn't seek to break her into Essence or drain her dry, but to instead seize a portion of her significance. It was like catching smoke, but Felix was able to claim a portion of itthen he burned it, letting Unite the Lost consume its potency. Fuel it.

A brilliant light burst from above, like a spear from the heavens but emanating from the Spirit Tree above them. The Matriarch screamed, her body wrenching backward as the light stabbed through her body and into the earth. Her scream transformed, mingled with the screeching crow of a thousand birds as a massive flock streamed from the light just above her chest. The Henaari cowered and Vess drew her spear, but the flock merely spiraled around the beam of light before vanishing into the distance. The light winked out.

The Matriarch's scream cut off, and she fell bonelessly to the ground.

Target has been cleansed of all Marks!

Felix stood over the woman's whimpering form before glaring at all the rest of them. "I've removed her Mark. Her connection to the Raven is gone."

More murmurs slithered through the crowd, now far more upset and disquieted. Even the Synod were exchanging furtive, terrified looks. Then the air above them all shook.

CAW!

THE RAVEN IS PLEASED!

ALL BLESSINGS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE LEAST DAUGHTER!

CAW!

FOLLOW! ATTEND THE AUTARCH!

HE IS ANOINTED. HE IS UNBOUND.

HE WILL UNVEIL THE DARK.

Those murmurs turned to frantic rustlings and whispers, and the cry of "Unbound?" became a staccato punctuation upon everyone's lips. Felix, meanwhile, grit his teeth. He figured he couldn't keep that a secret forever, but the Raven had shit timing. Or she isn't as pleased as she claims, he thought.

"So you are Unbound," the Farwalker said with relief. "That explains a great deal, and yet reassures me not at all."

"Join the club," Felix said wryly. He frowned at the Raven's message. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

The Farwalker lifted his hands and pulled back his hood. The veil of shadows parted and revealed a lean but heavily wrinkled face with wide-set eyes and a large forehead. He grinned. "The Raven does not command us in all things, but She is our guiding light." The Synod had gathered close, talking among themselves. "I do believe your Stronghold has grown today, Felix Nevarre. Autarch."

Felix shot a glance at Vess, who smirked at him. He suppressed the urge to sigh. "That's what I thought you'd say."

As one, the Synod turned and dropped to a single knee.