Unbound

Felix leaned heavily against the railing, praying that it wouldn’t snap.

He was tired, though it was a weariness of the Mind rather than the Body. Official business with Karys had taken hours of his day to handle. Not having been there for several days, there had been a lot to do in the city, though most of the bureaucratic nonsense was easily handled by his Chancellor. What Felix had needed to get done was a lot more personal and pertinent. He had spent those hours talking to the various groups in his city: Frost Giants, Henaari, the Legion, Chanters, even the Yttin and Nagafolk. Every group had listened as he spun out his tale, explaining what he needed them to do.

Every group had agreed, without hesitation.

Felix’s grip tightened on the railing, sending small cracks across its surface. He forced himself to ease up—shattering his new balcony wouldn’t eliminate his stress or absolve his guilt. He’d given his people the information they’d needed, and they had agreed of their own free will—Felix just hoped he could keep up his end of the bargain.

He was happy to be back in his rooms now, overlooking Elderthrone from a balcony that he had shaped into the cliff no more than an hour previous. For a long time, he hadn't been able to affect the rock that made up the cliff around his Stronghold, but since returning from Levantier, it was as easy as breathing.

Grandmaster truly is a different realm.

Then again, he wasn't a normal Grandmaster, was he?

The balcony stuck out a dozen yards from the cliff, forged from his new Fiendstone. It looked much like the houses several hundred feet below him in the district known as The Foot, but it was more dense by an order of magnitude. Stronger, he assumed, though he'd yet to test it. Felix had taken his time designing it, too. Normally his style was stout and simplistic—as a descriptor, ‘crude’ certainly wouldn't be off the mark. But this one was inspired by the balconies he'd seen in the Wellspring Keep and the Scalebreaker Citadel.

It was graceful, the bottom of it arching outward into a patterned belly before rising up into a balustrade of delicate arches that reminded him of spun glass. He'd even darkened the tiles beneath his feet, turning the normally shimmering surface into a matte texture, separating them into distinct, hexagonal tiles. The more opalescent nature of Fiendstone stayed on the railing and external curvature, and it caught the light of the summer sun like a gemstone. The balcony contained very little, just the two chairs he'd shaped out of wood. They were freestanding and able to be moved about easily, as was the table between them. The remnants of a meal laid atop its polished surface, brought up from the kitchens Karys had established at some point.

Will that change, if we survive this?

He'd crafted the balcony out of boredom, but mostly he had wanted to see his city. It was bustling now, filled with people in the streets in the late afternoon sunlight, moving across the Scale, the Wings, even the Bitterward and the Ravenshold. At the far end, the residential and commercial sections spread outward beyond the original Fiendstone battlements. They gathered close around a tall structure on a distant hill, the Euphony. A school where Zara and her people taught harmonics to his growing populace. A populace he had to protect.

His Mind raced through ideas, moving pieces around the mental map that he and his friends had constructed. He had a lot to organize, so many threads to weave into what they had to attempt. A hand crossed his chest, wrapping around him from behind.

"Breathe, Felix."

He leaned back into Vess' arms and exhaled. "I am."

"You're not. You've been holding that breath for the last two minutes."

He turned. "Really?"

Vess peered into his eyes, and the light caught on the gold ring through her dark brown irises. "You are on edge. Trust your people. We are all working towards the same goal."

"I know." He let himself be led back into one of the two chairs. Vess sat him down in one before she took the other, holding his hand all the while. “Telling folks only fractions of the plan doesn’t sit well with me. They should know everything they’re getting into.”

“They know enough to make an informed choice. We ensured that.” Vess had foregone her Arcanite armor when they'd met for a late lunch, and was now wearing a loose blouse and flowing trousers that hugged her thighs even as they left her joints free from movement. Her dusky skin did not seem so dark compared to his black scales, nor did her brown hair woven into a thick braid seem less than honeyed loam compared to his midnight locks. “To tell them more would endanger everyone. That plan must remain in pieces.”

Felix scrubbed his face with his free hand and groaned in protest. Vess just smiled at him.

“Why do you have to do that?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“Make me feel better. I had a good brooding session going on and everything.”

Her smile brightened by several hundred watts, cheek dimpling in a way that made him glad he was already sitting down. “You chose to court me, Emperor Nevarre. All choices have consequences.”

A laugh squeezed out of his chest, and Felix felt the last vestiges of his sour mood drift away. “Emperor. Why doesn’t it sound so bad coming from you?”

“Why does it sound bad coming from others?”

Felix chewed his lip. “I dunno. You’d think I’d be used to all the Titles.”

“I think of them as new tools with which we can better serve our people. A hammer, a lathe, a—”

“A weapon.”

She nodded, but her smile faded. For all her casual dress, however, her spear still leaned against the doorframe, easily within reach. “‘In war or peace, a weapon remains to hand, to remind Threats and allies alike.’”

“Who said that?”

“My mother.”

Felix squeezed her hand gently. "How are you feeling since Sunara?"

"Ah, well. We've... After everything that happened, the battles and the Manaships, encountering the Chimera city within the storms, and then the gods..." Vess shook her head. "It has been a lot to take in.”

“The Chimera. I'm still surprised that there were so many. Happy, though," Felix said.

“As am I. They were exceptionally useful during our battle against Noctis and Vellus, as were the Sylphaen and the Korvaa. Their Races were more numerous than I have seen anywhere else. In my studies, the Sylphaen were all but extinct, and even the Korvaa were on the decline. I was happy to be proven wrong."

Stolen story; please report.

“Personally, I couldn't believe that Estrid and her children were still there. It was a shock when Pit told me,” Felix admitted. It was more than that, but he didn’t have the words to properly convey how he felt. Guilt featured prominently, of course. Guilt because Bateo had died due to Felix’s failures, but also because he’d never figured out how to return to the Void and save them.

"Do you wish to meet them?" Vess asked.

"No, I don't think I can. Not yet." Felix took a breath. "I’m happy that they survived. It's a weight off my Mind I didn't realize was there."

"Did Pit tell you how they were saved?"

"He did.”

“This Ondine is powerful. If she can breach the Realms with a Skill, then I fear what the gods may do with such power in their Vessel.”

“You're not wrong. Pit mentioned that she took on Noctis directly. That takes power… and guts.”

“I did not have the pleasure of meeting the Unbound, but she was well regarded by literally everyone that knew her. Her Guardian Beasts died for her safety, and Thalgrym and his ilk would have followed suit were she not whisked away so suddenly.”

“Thalgrym. I’ve heard about that guy. Is he going to be a problem to Pit holding Authority in Sunara?”

“Perhaps, but the Chimera have taken well to Pit. Thalgrym was a bit harsh to start, but after the battle against the Stormwardens, all of Sunara respects Pit a great deal.”

“That's good to hear. He's still beating himself up for losing Ondine.”

“We all lost her. Now we all shall get her back."

Vess squeezed his hand and he squeezed right back. They both sat there, quietly contemplating the summer sky and the distant purpled mountains as a cool breeze swept the cliffs.

After a long moment, Vess laughed. Felix lifted an eyebrow. “What?”

"I cannot believe that you have Hatchlings in your Mind Skill."

“Oh. I was wondering when you’d mention that.” Felix smiled. "You make quite the impression."

"Oh, I am aware," she said with a sly smile. "Unless you erect statues of all the girls?"

Felix flushed at the memory. When they had traversed the Shadowgate to Sunara originally, they had found the exit portal near a fountain with a golden statue of Vess. Evie still wouldn't stop talking about it.

"Just you," he admitted.

Vess smiled wide. "My father commissioned a statue of my mother when they were courting, you know."

"Really?"

"Truly. Though his family has ruled in Pax’Vrell for generations, my mother was out of his league. She was a decorated Dragoon Captain, known for fighting the hardest of battles and winning the greatest of victories. She had even reached Journeyman Tier before she was twenty years of age."

"Oh, wow."

"She was a force of nature." Vess smiled at her hands, still threaded with Felix's. "I learned the spear from her. She was everything I aspired to become."

Felix lifted her chin. "You're not doing too badly yourself, either."

"I know. I think she would be proud." She blinked away the brightness in her eyes. "Back then, she had many suitors. My father tried many ways to get her attention, and all of them failed. Until he commissioned the statue.”

“Did she just really like sculpture?"

Vess rolled her eyes, but her smile never wavered. "Art is revealing, Felix, and it tells the viewer as much about the artist as it does the subject. While my father did not craft it himself, he chose the pose the artisan was to portray, detailing everything down to the look in her eyes. When it was done, the statue was exquisite. He set it out to be displayed at the training grounds so that all of the dragoons would see it every morning.”

“And that worked?"

"It did. Many in the Order had long told her to court the ducal heir, but they were the sort that were impressed by Titles and fortune. My mother always said that the statue would have fallen flat, as many other attempts had in the past, were not for the hands."

Vess shifted her grip, moving her hands until they were fixed upon his scaled forearm, as if she were set to toss him. Felix watched, bemused.

"My mother visited the artisan, who insisted that my father had been extremely specific in how the hands were to be placed. That, my mother told me, was when she had decided that he was worth her time."

"Because of her hand placement?" Felix asked.

"Because he noticed how she, and only she, placed her hands upon her spear. It was part of her technique, an archaic one used only by her. She told me later that it was when she started falling in love with him."

"Oh, man." Felix leaned back as Vess released his arm from the same grip that he now recognized as how she held her spear. “That’s pretty adorable.”

“I agree.”

"My mom didn't mention my dad too much. It hurt her, I think. She would only insist that he was a kind man. He never had a sculpture made or anything, but my mom always loved the ocean.” Felix smiled at a slew of memories that tumbled past his Mind. “She’d always wanted to live on the beach, but we could never afford the prices there. When they settled down and got a house, well before they had me and my sister, it was as close as they could manage, but it was still miles from the water.

“My dad worked as a welder for some marine company, doing repairs offshore. He was near the water all the time, but he hated the open ocean. Still, it paid the bills, and every night before he'd come home, he'd walk the beaches near his job, collecting sea glass.”

“Sea glass?” Vess asked.

“Bits of glass that had been tumbled by the waves and sand until they rounded out into colorful pebbles. My mom had told him that the glass was beautiful.” Felix grinned. “He only ever grabbed blue and green because they reminded him of her eyes. Last I knew, she still has them all. Jars and jars of small, rounded glass. A sea, frozen in place on top of her mantle, that she could look at any time she wished.”

Vess closed her eyes. “How beautiful that love is the same, even worlds apart.” She opened them again and gazed into the sky. “How comforting.”

For a long moment, the two of them stared into the sky as it darkened. Felix sighed. Somehow, without his noticing, the tightness in his chest had loosened. As if the weight he’d been carrying rested on the balcony around them.

A peace stole into his Spirit. Perhaps it was because they were reminiscing, but it reminded him of his mother’s house. The sea was bitter and forested mountains filled the horizon, but despite being nothing like where he'd grown up, Elderthrone felt like home.

"I worry that we are set to lose this place," Vess murmured. Felix turned and she was already looking at him, her golden brown eyes furrowed as she worried at her lip. "What we plan to do is far more dangerous than what we have attempted before. We aregoing up against a Paragon.”

"Mauvim said that too."

"Yes, and she was rude, from what you told me, but not exactly wrong. But we have options. We can overcome our disadvantages if we do this right.”

“The list, yes. I've already given it to Karys. We're going to see how much we can get done until it's time to bind to the Chalice.”

“Less than a week is not a lot of time," she said.

Felix tipped his head back. The cliff top stretched up a couple hundred feet. "Do you think we're doomed?"

Vess reached back out to him, threading her fingers through his again. He looked back down at her. "We have survived worse than long odds, Felix. I think it is fair to say that we have survived exclusively long odds.” She grinned. "Together, we can handle anything."

Felix leaned forward, meeting her between their chairs, and let go of his troubles for a few glorious seconds.

Until a delicate knocking interrupted them.

He sighed. "We should probably get that."

"Or we can ignore it," Vess suggested.

“I like that idea a lot," Felix said, before groaning. "It's Zara. And Mauvim."

Without another word, the two of them stood up, separating from one another as they straightened their clothing. Vess retrieved her spear. In moments, they were at the door to his apartment. Felix opened it to find Zara and Mauvim waiting there in the large hallway beyond.

Zara blinked in surprise. "Vessilia! I wasn't aware—I apologize for interrupting.”

“I was just leaving." Vess leaned over and gave Felix a kiss. "I'll see you tonight?"

He smiled. "Yes. Don't be late."

She walked out, inclining her head to Zara and Mauvim both, though Felix noticed it was a touch shallower to the old Chanter. She's still annoyed at Mauvim. For my sake.

That only widened his smile.

"We've come to talk," Mauvim said, "about the Hierophant."

Felix's smile withered, but he stepped out of the way. "Let's go to my study."