Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred And Sixty Two – 862

Vess tried to relax.

The evening after they’d found the Nascent Fruits had been some of the tensest of her life. She had not been able to shake the bone-deep anxiety she felt for her Hatchlings, and only when Felix gave her the all-clear that morning had she found some measure of peace. A peace that was broken only by the sound of greedy, nibbling Hatchlings.

They fell upon the Nascent Fruits like a storm of empty stomachs.

At first, bellies full, the little monsters were sluggish and clumsy, but as the benefits began to propagate across their cores, so too did their activity increase. Full and happy, they were a lot less stubborn. Yin had spent a lot of time focusing on that, drilling flight formations into the ninety-nine Hatchlings as they navigated the convoluted branches of the Spirit Tree. Every once in a while, he would send an attack their way. He used his Dawnfire to corral and confuse the babies, startling them with a nip of pain like a Palehound herding a flock of Avum. He was always quite careful to never use its full force; such an act would devastate the Hatchlings, and they were not ready for anything approaching a true battle.

Instead, Yin would chase them around, urging them to hold their formations even as they had to evade his expert flight. It was quite entertaining, and truly, Vess wished that she could be a part of this early training. But after some discussion, she and Yin had both agreed that he, as the sole adult Drake among them all, should be the one to begin their training. Vess would fold in her expertise as they went, and besides, she had other priorities at the moment.

"So we just need to go down there?" Felix asked.

The both of them stood upon the steps leading up to her core, the enormous, golden Dragon temple. The steps they were on wound around the mountain, traversing its rugged height in a tight spiral. The steps were detailed with curling designs that reminded her of wind and water, but they were almost equally covered in moss and the beading moisture of the clouds that clung so close. Or had clung. A mere twenty paces below them, those very clouds swirled in sedate eddies—but they only looked calm on the surface. Below, they raged, roaring at the edge of hearing, as if those last few strides muted their fury.

"I find myself nervous," she admitted.

"I don't blame you," Felix said. He folded his thick arms, the dark scales catching a blue tint within the strange light of her core space. "The power that I’ve given you, the stuff you've gathered yourself, all of it is down there. That's a lot."

A piece of the tension across her back and neck melted away at his touch, and even more at his words. "Let us go, then."

They walked down the steps.

Breaching the cloud barrier was as simple as striding through a heavy fog, and yet, upon doing so, Vess was struck by the enormity of what lay below. A storm unlike anything she'd ever experienced was unveiled, its full-throated roar now unleashed. Felix threw up a hand, and the wind parted before them. They descended farther.

Even the mighty Tempest in Sunara paled in comparison to the fury of what lay in the chasms between the mountains. Raging winds and powerful currents of flickering white-green, silver, and golden Mana whipped around her in a chaotic maelstrom. Vess sucked in a surprised breath, but found herself choking on the air as it tried to force its way through Felix’s Intent and into her lungs. Felix growled, thrusting his hand forward again, and the wind abated. Vess coughed and caught her breath.

How long had this power been gathering quietly beneath the clouds? How did she not notice this place?

They stood upon a ledge, still high off whatever ground may lay below. The view was obscured by those raging currents and whipping clouds, but there were details aplenty there in the fog. Scales the size of buildings studded the mountain, accompanied by the leg and tail bones of mighty beasts, emerging like trees from the precipices. Far more common, however, were racks of broken crystal antlers that clung to the slopes, and it was these that the wind sang loudest among. A glazed hum among the pieces of Dawn Dragons, scattered on the terrain like detritus.

"I never visualized any of this," she said into the gale.

The more Vess looked, the more she realized that it was an accumulation. Mana swirled through the narrow chasms that threaded the mountains that represented her Skills, and where they touched, those scales blossomed, growing at a slow but almost visible rate. Those crystalline antlers had a great many tines, most snapped free by the winds, but always more were budding and branching.

Far less apparent was the scattering of dark mist, almost invisible in the press of clouds around her. The darkness did far more than the Mana, traveling alongside it and sinking into those features, building out the mountain, fingerspans at a time. If she weren't mistaken, significance was in there too. A deep sea of something moved just beyond her sight, far below, weighted down by its own immense mass.

"The Primordial power that has overflown from you, Felix. It has run riot down here."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"All of it settles here." She swallowed. “Building upon my core space without my knowledge. Inexorably changing my very center.”

He placed a hand over hers, and she looked at him. Where her hair whipped in the wild breeze, he stood there untouched by the storm, as if he were in a separate room. Held apart. Even the gloom refused to touch him, and his face was as clear as if sunshine were bright upon him.

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"Breathe," he said, softly. "You are the master of this place, no one else. Your visualization helped me when no one else could. Your talent there is second to none.”

“This is too much, Felix. Your excess might is reshaping the terrain—”

“My power? This is your power. Freely given.”

Vess clenched her jaw. He was right. She knew that. She and her friends had taken his gifts again and again, to improve themselves as well as save his life.

“Do you regret it?” he asked, so softly that Vess was surprised she could hear it over the gale.

“Never.” He flashed her a relieved grin and squeezed her hand. Ah but his eyes crinkle so charmingly when he smiles like that. She cleared her throat, but did not let go. “How can I make use of my power, then?”

“We have to harness it, and to clear out a space within yourself to ground your Pillars.” He gestured at the winds around them. "Can you do that?"

"Yes. This is the moment my instructors had been preparing me for, after all.”

Vess closed her eyes, breathing as she had been taught, isolating her thoughts and quieting her Mind until there was only the roar of the wind. Then even that faded.

She existed within a Void, bereft of influence, before she opened herself up once again to the chasm. Immediately, she sensed something.

Strands. Pieces of power woven together. Around her, the air steadied. The force of it pulled away from her and twisted, strands weaving together into a solid cable of power, Essence, Mana, and a thick weight that pulled at her attention.

"That's it," Felix whispered. “You got it."

Vess opened her eyes and saw that the cable before her was as thick as her wrist, pieces of white-green crystal, diamond antler, scales, and even the light of dawn's sunrise mingled with streaming tendrils of cloud and dark mist. She reached out, shaping her Intent around the strand until it was not her hands that held it, but the claws of a mighty, golden dragon.

"I think I'm ready," she said.

"I think so too. Holy crap, you're good at this," Felix said with a laugh. "And I need to check on the others. I believe you can do this yourself, but personally, I would love to be here to make sure you're as safe as possible. Is that rude?"

She smiled. "I don't think so."

"Good," he said with relief. "Can you wait until tonight?"

"Of course. I would be a fool not to sharpen every edge I could. Besides," she touched his cheek, "you keep me calm."

Vess rose out of her core space. The moment she did, her sense of Felix vanished, and she opened her eyes to see the upper branches of Atlantes’ canopy. She banished the sense of emptiness and faint dismay she felt with him gone. Vess had not lied to him when she told him that he kept her calm. When he used their Link to appear in her core space, it was like a warmth had been ignited in her chest. A comfort she was now disappointed to be without.

She shook herself, stretching out her muscles as she stood. You're a Dayne. Don't swoon over a pair of eyes and a taut rear-end. The words echoed at her as if shouted down a corridor from the past. Words her mother had told her time and again during her early teens. "I think you would have liked him, though, Mother," she murmured to herself. "And his rear-end is quite nice."

"Who’s rear-end we talkin’ about?"

With a clattering of chains, Evie landed beside Vess, her arcanite armor gleaming in the early morning light.

“No one,” Vess said, her Spirit perfectly veiled. She had far less control, however, over her flushed cheeks.

“Uh-huh.” She flicked her chain, engaging its shrinking enchantments before wrapping it once more around her waist and shoulder. "Why d’you look like you just woke up?"

"I was meditating, Evie."

“Meditating on a certain Emperor’s butt?”

“Evie!”

"You said it, not me." She rolled her eyes. "Meditating though. Ugh. Harn keeps trying to get me to do it again. Says it’ll help me, you know, weave my Pillars. But you know what? That's boring. So I came up here to see if you want to help me.”

Vess raised an eyebrow. “Help you how?”

“Help me not be bored.” Yintarion flew close, the Hatchlings close behind. They seemed to be chasing him now. “Actually, all of you could be useful.”

"And how would we help with that, Evie?" She lifted a finger. “And keep in mind, I am not pranking anyone. Not again.”

“Blind gods, it was one time. Aenea’s eyebrows grew back, anyway.”

“Evie.”

She held up her hands as if to ward off a blow. "It’s not bad! Beef and I had an idea."

An intense buzzing noise announced the arrival of the Sharpwing Matriarch, flying up through the leaves below. The Risen creature appeared as nothing more than a Human-sized lizard bearing with four wings that stood straight out from her back. It was an impressive and imposing foe, far more so than it had been in life thanks to the consciousness that gleamed from behind its blackened-green eyes—and the layers of chitinous armor.

"Good morning, Vess," Hallow said from within the Matriarch’s throat. "Beef and I asked Evie to join us, and she had the idea to approach you and yours.”

“Join you in what?”

“Training. A true spar between our forces. Evie and her Frost Giants, our Risen, and you and your Hatchlings. Do you think they are ready for it?"

Yin laughed as he flew in from above. "They are children, but they are Dragons! We will destroy you and whatever force you can muster, little girl."

"We?" Evie said. "Yeah, sure. You can help too, lizard. Vess needs the handicap.”

Yintarion snorted a laugh through his nose, the smoke bright and silver. “Bold words from someone so diminutive.”

"Bah,” Evie said, waving off the Dawn Drake. “We're doing this on the ground, though. The giants aren't good at heights.”

The Matriarch bobbed in agreement. "Location doesn't matter to my Risen, of course. Beef says that we shall prevail no matter where."

Yin roared in challenge, and Vess smiled as the Hatchlings took it up.