Unbound

Alister sat on a balcony above the chamber where the Grandmasters were meeting, sipping tea next to his favorite fire mage. He and Atar had no real desire to be in attendance, but Alister couldn’t help being curious about how it would all go. He knew the complexities of diplomacy were not Felix's strong suit. While he did not wish to impose himself between the powers of dozens of Grandmasters, Alister feared something would go wrong.

"Stop worrying," Atar said between bites of a biscuit.

It was easy enough to say, Alister supposed, but far harder to embody. Felix stood with Zara and Vilas Tern alongside his crystalline throne, waiting patiently as Legionnaires led the Grandmasters up from far below. Apart from being the most obvious place to meet a powerful delegation, it was also the center of the Ourea Anima’s power. While the Breath of the Beast aura did not much matter in this regard, the other, more protective aura did. If the Grandmasters were truly foolish and they tried to escalate things to violence, the Primordial Shelter would fizzle out their attacks.

In theory.

Yet as they watched the former masters of Levantier settle into the seating in the audience chamber, Alister noticed a distinct calm among their Spirits. None of them seemed willing to start fights, and even noted rivals were, if not cordial to one another, at least tolerant.

"Ignore them," Atar said. "If Felix needs help, we're here. But he doesn't. I'm more interested in how you feel."

"How I feel? Oh," Alister set his cup and saucer down. "You mean because of the Link?"

"Yes, because of the Link. It's new for you, and this was your first influx. How are you handling things?"

"Well enough, I suppose.”

“Alright. Fine.” With a smile, Alister gave up his sense of the outside world, diving down into his center.

Previously, his core space had taken on the form of a spherical room containing a vast machinery made entirely out of thick columns of force Mana and plinths of white marble. Narrow support structures encased a spinning core, which Alister had fashioned from the ancient diagrams that Vilas Tern himself had uncovered in centuries past. Felix had called it a strange cross between a mechanical clock and a gyroscope. And after explaining what those words meant, Alister supposed he could see it.

Gears and wheels made entirely of blue force had been accompanied by white marble discs and blocks, all of which rotated around one another in a steady dance. All of that remained largely the same.

"I've been trying to incorporate Felix's Boon into the Impulsion Engine, but so far it has only turned the pristine white and blue gears into something different. Certainly more powerful, but—I’ll admit it’s a bit underwhelming so far."

"It’s still early. More powerful how?" Atar asked. The man's voice echoed from close by as if he were whispering in Alister's ear, though the mage himself was not present in Alister's core space.

"Well, these cylindrical pistons and gears have formed things that I did not visualize, such as these whirling, bladed barrels. They spin beneath the force of my Mana now and are stacked atop the whirling center.” Alister drifted closer, just outside the spinning portions. Blue Mana compressed and expanded inside the stone and metal components, making hardly any noise at all. “Copper’s all over the place too. Bolted panels and those pistons I mentioned, the ones pumping away with each rotation of my gears—they’re all made of the stuff. Still, the complicated and heavily engineered machinery is mostly unchanged.”

The same was not true for the ceilings and walls.

Once they were solid white, sealed and polished like stone. But now eight immense copper devices sat along the edges of his Engine. They were each a great many sizes larger than his family's manor once was, shaped like a barrel on its side and filled with inscribed gears that turned with a steady, unfailing cadence. Each movement clicked like a tool ratcheting into place and was accompanied by large marble and copper bands that arced overhead. Each band connected two of the great gear homes forming a semicircle above.

"They don't touch," Alister said, his eyes still closed. He was suddenly aware of a loud discussion from the Grandmasters below and almost rose completely out of his core space before he felt Atar's warm hand on his own.

"Ignore them. Tell me more."

Alister smiled and sank away once more.

"The bands don't touch, but each ratcheting moves them a small amount, and I think they’re meant to traverse the whole way across the hemisphere above.” Alister rose, drifting closer to the wide bands of metal and stone. “Stars are carved into the bands, dozens of them, hundreds even. It all reminds me of an orrery I once saw in the Eyrie, a replica of the night sky, they called it. The bands are at least fifty strides across, absolutely massive, and they have more than just stars on them."

"What else?"

Alister looked up, where two enormous gemstones were set into the apex of his core space, where once there was only smooth marble. Now the bands split at the center, forming an eight-sided star shape that's half-filled by each gemstone.

“I can't work out how the metal moves around itself. It's folding," he said, "bending in ways that no natural material could ever manage, all to maintain the shape of that stationary star."

"What about these gemstones?" Atar asked.

"They're brilliant. Literally filled with light. One shines blue-white, and the other is red-gold.”

“That’s Felix’s influence right there. Stars too, I imagine.”

“Oh, I see what you mean. Hmm. Well, Mana courses down from them, filling the inscribed stars along the bands, before it feeds down into the gearhomes and the other parts of the Impulsion Engine. There on the floor, it mingles with my force Mana, driving the machinery to amazing new speeds."

Alister opened his eyes and smiled into Atar's gray face. "It's frankly incredible.”

"No changes to your Skills?"

"They're located within the machinery, as always, though now they're marked by copper panels. Things are still settling, though, so they might change further." Alister wanted to run or fight, exert himself and push his powers to their limits to see what changes those might bring. "I'm eager to train them once more.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Felix has that effect on people," Atar smirked.

"What about you? You've incorporated so much into your core space that I cannot imagine it has changed much, but we know very little about any of this. Perhaps this Primordial affects us in new ways."

"That is preposterous!" shouted a man from below. The pair of them glanced over and above the balcony railing, they could only see a man waving his hands about inside voluminous white-green sleeves.

"It's blatant favoritism!" another said loudly, but Alister was already disengaging from them all. Their Spirits were well-leashed, but he'd spent a lot of time listening with his Affinity—none of the Grandmasters were actually angry.

"Posturing for scraps," Atar scoffed. “It seems Felix has incorporated the Umber Tower into the Wellspring as an official guarding force.”

"Ignore them. Tell me about your Midnight Temple.”

“Oh, if I must." Atar sighed, but a small smirk played at the corners of his lips.

As he described it, Atar's Midnight Temple wasn't much changed, though the moons in the sky had grown closer and the constellations between them were a brighter silver. Pillars of solidified fire filled the black obsidian floor, white tinged by orange and bloody crimson. There was, perhaps, Atar admitted, a touch more crimson than before thanks to their recent acquisition.

The strength siphoned from Felix's struggle had deepened the dark sky and clarified the details across every inch of Atar's Temple. Obsidian shone like glass, chipped into a razor's edge where it was marked with sigils that spread outward in convoluted arrays. Those gathered strongest at the base of his solidified pillars and again all the way inward, around the nest where Flame currently slept in a deep, exhausted slumber.

"It's mostly the same," Atar admitted. “Just a bit more polish. Though I think I might join you in training soon.”

"I wish I could see it myself.”

“What, me training? It’s not so rare as that.”

“Your core space. Hearing the details is fascinating, but seeing it.” Alister sighed. “Seeing what is fundamentally you

“Unfortunately, neither of us have a Skill for delving.”

“But we're Linked now."

"To Felix," Atar corrected.

"Just to him? I seem to recall you complaining about being dragged through Evie's icy wasteland and Harn's Armory."

Atar lifted a finger. "I was not dragged, but yes, that happened. It was Felix's doing, though, not ours.”

“So it's possible.”

“I suppose it is. Perhaps we can figure out a way to do that ourselves." Atar took a sip from his teacup. "It's worth thinking on."

"Explain yourself!"

"What's this now?" Alister asked, sitting forward along the balcony. He peered down at the assembled Grand Masters and saw a woman in blue and white step forward out of the crowd.

Atar clucked his tongue. "Grand Master Aquamarine. Water magics.

keep her away, Flame hissed.

"Oh, you're awake now."

i've always been awake.

“How creepy.”

"What do you mean the Towers are yours?" Aquamarine demanded down below. Her black hair had fallen loose from her elaborate coif, as if she'd been jostled on her way to the front.

"It means what I said," Felix replied. He was calm, almost bored looking as some of the most powerful mages in the Continent muttered angrily at one another. "The Lucent Towers are no longer independent bodies. That’s why I’ve moved them here under the Wellspring Keep.”

“We have served our Towers for decades, if not centuries, Warden. We will not have them taken from us by an upstart would-be king."

Rumbles of agreement rolled through the Grand Masters until a man in red-orange robes stood up on the opposite side of the crowd.

"Grand Master Carmine. Fire magics," Atar said.

amateur.

Atar grinned, but Alister focused closer. The two Grand Masters traded a short glance as the newest stepped free of the crowd. A short, conspiratorial glance. He'd seen enough to recognize the signs.

"They're up to something."

Atar shrugged. "Do you think it matters?"

Carmine's jaw clenched, his slender fingers folded across his elbows as if he were finding the perfect stance with which to debate. "I know your Spirit Tree dampens our ability to fight you, Navarre, but not our resolve. You take away our Towers and you will have blood on your hands. Not a mere Schism this time, but a full-out mage war."

Zara and Tern both tensed at Felix's side, but he only watched the Grandmaster. His eyes caught the fading afternoon light. "War," Felix spoke as if turning the word over, inspecting it from multiple angles. "Is that what you’d call this infighting and proud posturing? For what end?"

"Autonomy," Aquamarine spat.

"An interesting choice of words. Do you grant your people autonomy?"

"What?" She looked at the Grandmasters all around her, but they seemed equally confused.

"Do you not bind your Apprentices in Oaths, restricting their words and actions from the very first day of their joining?"

"We grant them power. That gives them reach beyond anything they'd ever achieve without us. By becoming mages, by swearing those Oaths, they are set free."

"They are very much not," Felix said. "The Oaths of this city are tarnished by Siva's influence. I've only recently learned that all Oaths have been. They are no longer to be used."

That, more than anything else, drove the Grandmasters to their feet. Arguing started immediately. Their voices boomed over one another until Atar and Alister had to activate sound wards around their balcony. That muffled their Tempered voices, but only just.

"Without a Tower’s Oaths," the Grandmaster in white-green robes said, "Their secrets will be laid bare to all of our competitors! We would be ruined!"

"That is why you aren't competitors anymore.” Felix’s voice was louder than theirs, cutting through theirs like a thunder on a clear day. Felix spread his hands. "The Lucent Towers will be united from now on."

"Kill us then," Aquamarine announced, lifting her chin high, "for you will not take us or our Oaths without a fight."

"It's too late.” The words came from the sole Master Tier in the audience. He stood, his brown robes clutched tight. "Our Oathbinders claim that their Skill is broken."

"Ours as well," a woman in yellow added. Dour agreement rang out through the chamber, followed by a wafting of nonplussed panic.

Felix raised a hand, and silence descended. "Siva, Goddess of Fortune and Oaths, is dead by my hand. You all saw the message." He met their gazes one by one before pointing out the window where one of the moons had already risen. "Even her moon is destroyed. Everything she held domain over is now gone. That includes her tarnished Oaths."

His claws lengthened into curled talons, and Felix grasped at the air. For a terrible moment, Alister was convinced the man was going to tear a hole in the sky itself. Instead, streamers of silver light poured toward him, spiraling from the Towers that floated within their view. The stream soon became a river of liquid silver, marred by flecks of darkness and rust, all of it pouring toward Felix's open maw.

He ate all of it, as the Grandmasters watched in growing horror.

"Those—!”

“You—!”

"Those were the last remnants of your Oaths," Felix said, just as the final wisp disappeared into his mouth. His eyes burned electric blue. "Your Girded Vows are gone. No more coercion. No more lies. From this point forward, we are working together."

Grandmaster Carmine swallowed. "For what purpose?"

Felix turned toward him, and the man quailed. "To save the world."