Unbound

Mounted atop Pit, the pair took off into the sky.

Still, the sun blazed in the tropical jungles of Jaast, and the heat was oppressive, clinging to their limbs like a wet cloth. Even the rapid breeze from their flight barely cut through it. Abyssal Skein coated them in its oily embrace, fading them from notice even as they climbed up into the bright morning light. Just for good measure, Pit even summoned his Gloaming Shroud. For all intents and purposes, the pair were practically invisible as they soared.

The jungle blurred below them as they tracked the upraised stone structure that was a strange highway, the same one Felix had pointed out to Harn before he'd left him days ago. Pit flew as fast as he was able, but they stayed just below the speed of sound. Felix could hear the barrier that tried to form into clouds around Pit's four wings, but every time they drew close to breaking it, Pit eased back by a hair.

They'd read the message, but after their reception at the Shadowgate, neither of them knew what they were walking into—if there were more monsters, Felix had no intention of giving them any warning. Before they had left, he’d shut down the gate in order to prevent any monsters from breaching Elderthrone behind his back, but he worried at what Yyero or the other gods might pull. His Mind whirled with ideas as they flew, plans and schemes to keep his Shadowgate safe in the future.

This will never happen again. Ever.

They reached the first turn off of the elevated highway structure, the one that Harn had mentioned they had used to reach the nearby town. Morva, it was called. It was only a short distance away from there, separated by several ravines and thick jungle before things opened up into cleared lands. Acres upon acres of farm cut into the jungle, where people had tamed the wilderness.

A piece of him shifted at the sight of clear cut hills and tilled rows of earth. It resonated off of his Skills in familiar ways; a song he’d heard many times before. The first few strains of the Aria of the Green Wilds rang through him before Felix shrugged it off.

He didn’t have time to indulge himself.

Those lands were being actively tilled by small figures far below while wagons rumbled on the rough roadway leading to a walled town. Morva's gates were open, and there were people doing something approaching guardwork. They were mostly portly older folks leaning against their pikes and sweating beneath their armor, but a few were large turtlefolk complete with spiky shells and rubble-like skin, and others were a type of hairy bipedal goblins the size and shape of bears.

Pit descended, drawing closer to Morva’s rooftops, and the guards noticed. They pointed up, clearly startled as the pair of them swooped out of the sky to circle the town. Faint shouts of alarm filtered up through the morning air, but Felix ignored them.

"There," he said, pointing near the center, right at the bank of a winding river that cut its way across the entire settlement. "Land there."

Pit dove, speeding up his descent. That misting fog gathered around them as they shot toward the earth. Screams rang out from the town below, many cowering nearby in the outbuildings of a giant cathedral with mithril-capped spires. The remnants of iron cages were piled high in the front, their bent bars crushed as if by something massive.

Men and women of many Races began to ring bells, shouting at one another as they raised their pikes to the sky. Skills gathered at their tips, glowing bright, before a few fired off prematurely. They pinged harmlessly off of Pit's legs and wings, unable to pierce his fur or feathers.

Pit squawked. "Wow. Rude.”

"People! Stand down!" New figures in sleek armor and blue cloaks appeared from beneath roofs and shadowed doorways. "Calm yourselves!”

Pit's four wings snapped out, slowing them down as the fog around them burst into a roar like thunder, and hurling several ranks of the militia onto their asses. He alighted beside the pile of scrapped iron bars with all the grace of a songbird.

"Lord Autarch!” Mervin Cors, lieutenant of the Fiend's Legion, rushed forward. "Stand down, Morvan militia. Stand down!”

Felix peered around him from atop Pit's back, taking in the terrified crowds and the sweating local guards. "Where's Harn?"

"The Commander is in the Hall of Justice," Mervin said, gesturing to the large cathedral. "I can take you in, sir."

"Good."

Felix dismounted from Pit, and both of them followed Mervin across the short bridge toward the cathedral gates. The militia, gathered not too far off, were held back by a cordon of blue cloaks but that didn’t stop their gazes. Nor the fear and awe that rang out from their Spirits.

"The Autarch…"

"He's the one!”

“Lord Hammer mentioned—”

“The Fiend."

Felix ignored them. He didn't have time to feel uncomfortable with their regard. Mervin led them through the large doors and into a wide antechamber decorated with black steel sculptures depicting two strangely shaped figures: one bearing a sword and the other merely an open hand.

"The Twins," Felix knew almost instinctually. He'd never laid eyes on them, not in this form, but they both made sense.

"Judgment and Mercy," Mervin said. "We've torn down every sign of their influence here, but these statues persisted. As far as we can tell, they're only made of iron, but they turn away any blade that touches them."

Felix frowned, his steps slowing as they passed the statues. "Really?" he said. He reached out his clawed hand and gripped the air.

Empyrean Embrace.

There was a moment of resistance, as if a wall stood between him and his Intent. But then the full might of Felix's Will fell upon it—and the wall sundered. The iron before him dissolved into dark smoke, both statues devoured in a single ethereal bite.

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"Well," Mervin said, "we hadn't tried that."

Pit laughed.

"At any rate, Commander Kastos renamed the place for Justice after we freed it from the Adamants."

"Adamants?" Felix raised an eyebrow and lowered his arm as they continued to walk.

"Devotees of the Twins. They rode giant snakes and had some nasty force-attuned skills. Dead now, though, thanks to Lord Hammer and the Terrible One."

"Terrible One?" Pit chirruped curiously. "Who's that?"

"She—well, you'll see."

Passing through the antechamber, they entered what seemed like the general area of a church, complete with pews and an altar. Felix was tempted to devour every sign of the Twins, but someone had done a good job at defacing nearly the entire place.

“The Commander. Though Lord Hammer helped too,” Mervin explained again, and Felix was annoyed that he’d forgotten. He was getting frazzled. “Sir, if I may ask: have you heard what happened?”

“I have.”

Mervin winced. “What now?”

Felix sighed. “Now we shift focus.”

He broke down his plan, at least the outline of it—the part Lieutenant Cors would need to know. It was enough to occupy them both as they traversed the series of wide hallways leading further back into the very large cathedral. Mervin guided them through the widest of them, opening the gates with a gentle push as the perfectly balanced doors swung open on oiled hinges.

Inside, there was screaming. Men and women in rough armor faced down enormous chitin-covered serpents, and they were not doing well.

"Are those the Adamants?" Felix asked.

Figures rode atop the chitinous snakes, likewise garbed in insectoid armor layered over mithril plate. Both theirs and the serpents' eyes glowed with a sinister blackened green light as they rushed forward, striking fast with lance and fang. The militia fell back, shields raised to ward off the blows they couldn’t handle. All of them were either cast back into nearby walls or pummeled into the thick layer of sand.

"Oh, Felix!" Beef called out, waving at them before setting his icy hammer onto his broad shoulder. He hustled closer. "You're here! I thought Harn's letter said we'd be back tomorrow. Did something happen?"

"Something like that." Felix stepped out onto the training ground, eyeing the beaten and bruised militia. "Looks like you've been busy."

"Oh, we wanted to train them up a bit before we left." Beef swallowed, looking guiltily at Felix before he barreled onward. "There's lots of monsters out there, you know. Morva’s learned the hard way that they need to get strong themselves before leaning on another bandit king or Overlord guy."

Beef gestured to the side. "So me, Hollow, and Fafnir here have been running them through their paces."

Felix eyed the dog-sized Hatchling that prowled among the risen adamants. It was black-scaled, with hints of green across its back and wings, much as she had been when they'd parted ways. Now, however, she was more. Bigger, more powerful, more aware. Chitin sprouted from her elbows, neck, and tail as if it had grown from her bones, making her look like a walking machine of death.

"I can see why they call her the Terrible One."

Beef chuckled. "She bit a guy that tried to pet her when we got back into town. We patched him up, but the story spread fast."

"She enjoys it," Hollow said, voice echoing from Beef's crystalline armor.

"She still has a separate Mind?" Felix asked, somewhat surprised.

"Oh yeah, she's crazy stubborn. Hollow thinks it's because she was a Dragon before, but I think it’s just her personality."

Felix let his gaze wander. The militia fought against the Risen for another round, though Fafnir was busy preening herself on the sidelines, refraining from joining in. His Legionnaires were nearby too, looking similarly relaxed as they enjoyed the show.

Mervin cleared his throat. "Shall I go inform them of our new orders, sir?"

"Yes. Get them ready to move. You've got two glasses.”

“Sir." Mervin saluted before hustling off toward the Legion, already flagging down a sergeant.

"New orders?" Beef frowned. "Didn't you get our message? We're almost done here. Then we can go help."

Hollow hummed loudly, her four eyes turned upward in concern. "I don't think our message reached the Autarch, Beef."

"What? Then how'd you know to come here?”

Felix frowned. “Where's Harn?"

"Right here, kid."

The grizzled warrior walked out of a set of wooden doors on his right, flanked by Archie and several higher-ranked Legionnaires. Harn dismissed them with a few terse words, and they joined Mervin as the rest of the Legion filed out of the training grounds.

"We gotta talk."

“—then she vanished,” Archie said, wincing at the memory.

Felix nodded. He and the others had gathered in the Hall of Justice’s refectory, sat around a long wooden table in the middle, where a few terrified cooks had set out a meal fit for at least thirty soldiers. They all dug in, Felix hungrier than he expected, the four of them accounting for half of the food while Pit took care of the rest. He’d told them of the events in Levantier, at least the shorter version, and they had filled in the blanks that weren’t covered by Harn’s missive.

The fact that the Kobolds had started their own little army was a bit of a shock, as was finding out that they were heavily involved in forming a resistance against the Twin’s little tyrants. He felt proud of these teens he didn’t even know. The fight against the Adamants and the Overlord was impressive and more than once Felix had been caught up by the tale’s twists and turns.

He wasn’t surprised, however, about how it ended.

“So Gabby just grabbed the Kobolds and vanished?”

“Aye.” Harn spat onto the ground, clearly uncaring that they sat within a church of sorts. Then again, the polished floors were already scuffed by boots and profaned by mud and blood, what was a bit of spittle? “Only after pulling the entire swamp on top of us and beatin’ all my soldiers unconscious, though.”

“Unconscious?” Pit tilted his head. “Come to think of it, she didn’t kill anyone in Sunara either.”

Archie shuddered. “She was just as fast and strong as I remembered…but she didn’t even try to kill me. She had me in her crosshairs too, but it was like…” The Delven chewed a strip of meat from the haunch in his hands. “I dunno. Like she had a plan and I wasn’t part of it.”

“If she’s giving you a clue to find her, then her actions here make a mite more sense,” Harn said. “I still don’t understand why she had to take the kids.”

“To keep up appearances.”

They all looked at Beef with varying levels of surprise. “What? It’s obvious right? She’s out of the Pathless’ control, but she still had Divine influence all over her? That means she’s still in trouble. Maybe she’s under an Oath to them?”

“Can’t be. Felix ate all the Oaths.”

“Clearly not all of them, Pit.” Felix flexed his hands, unsure what to do with them. He settled for resting them atop the polished wooden table. “I don’t know what the gods can do among themselves, but they’ve bound Gabby somehow. The trick is getting close enough to rip her restraints apart. To do that, we need to get to Amaranth.”

Felix pushed himself away from the table and stood. “But first I need to finish the job here.”

Archie raised an eyebrow. “What’s that mean?”

“The Seat and Seal,” Hallow said from Beef’s chest. “It awaits.”

“Yes!” Pit gobbled down the last of his meal, which amounted to a fifty pound roasted bird monster. “Showtime.”