Chapter One Hundred and Eleven - 111
Felix hurried through the rain away from the Initiate. A knot clenched his insides.
He had transformed again. Against his will. Again. After the close call just an hour earlier, he thought he'd be up for it, his impressive Willpower able to fight it off. But this time it had come upon him without warning.
Almost. Felix frowned as he vaulted over another alleyway. It was far easier to navigate the complicated warrens of the Dust from up there. There was the anger again. It crept up on me the moment I saw those damn sigils.
Felix paused atop another tenement, leaning against a large water barrel. The thing was full and spilling over in small rivulets along the sides as the rain kept coming down. It had been the sigils. They had crawled into his head, same as when he'd read the Archon's notes under the mountain. They were insidious, and somehow, in some way they were connected to the Maw. He knew it, though he couldn't say where the knowledge originated. He still had his journal and the Archon's papers, tucked safely in the satchel at his side. Some deep part of Felix had warned against looking too deeply at the sigils and he'd been proven right this morning.
The sigils are clearly similar to the Archon's. Different characters, absolutely, but in the same alphabet or whatever. Felix's brain hurt to dwell on them, the crawling sensation of a trapped heartbeat returning even through his memories. He set the recollection aside for now. Plenty of time to review it when he spoke with Atar later that day.
He started moving again, using Relentless Charge to clear a particularly large gap between buildings. He couldn't sense anyone below, but held Abyssal Skein regardless. His body took to the task nearly effortlessly, landing with soft knees and continuing to run. His mind, however, dwelled on what he had seen.
The Inquisition had used some sort of Skill to raise the dead. Or a spirit projection, at least. Felix assumed it was a Skill, but the presence of that music...somehow the Initiate tapped in the Grand Harmony and was able to replay the victim's last moments.
Could I learn to do that? How do you even tap into those chords? Felix sensed the music when the System took action; level ups, stat allocation, that sort of thing. He even heard it when Atar, Evie, and Vess all Revealed their Omens. Distinct compositions for each of them. However all this time it had been reactive.
Could he change that?
Moreover, what did it mean that the Inquisition was using an ability like that? Was it a special power they learned, a Skill granted by their allegiance? Questions swirled in Felix's brain, but he had no answers. Not yet.
By the time he landed with a splash on the streets below, Felix had amassed a simple bulleted list of objectives going forward.
Figure out the Grand Harmony thing
Avoid becoming a monster
Train, train, train
Admittedly, it was a simple list, but it teemed with uncertainties. But at the end of the day, what he needed to do was get stronger. Power, on the Continent at least, was the only solution people seemed to take seriously.
Trendle answered the door this time, letting Felix in without blinking. The big man simply locked the door behind him and walked off, twitching his extremely large mustache.
Put a dang walrus to shame, Felix thought with a smile. He was impressed.
Shouting soon caught his attention, and Felix realized that Atar had arrived earlier than expected. Felix released Convergence and Pit appeared next to him in his Dire Wolf disguise. He wasn't even wet.
"Wish I could ride around dry and cozy while you do all the grunt work," Felix murmured through a grin. He ruffled Pit's head as the tenku let out an oddly birdlike woof.
"You brought me all the way out here for this?" Atar was saying. His voice carried well, and Felix didn't need to see the teen fire mage to find him. Beyond the back area, Atar was standing with Cal, Harn, and Evie. He slashed his palm through the air. "I can't do it. It's impossible."
"We need to get into that Domain, V'as," Cal explained calmly, though her eyes were hard. "My people need to get stronger and we need money to get out of this nowhere town."
"You're not alone in that thinking, which is why I think the Elders have restricted access. With the Redcloaks blocking the gates and the monsters breaching the Wall, everyone is scrambling to get stronger." Atar paced, hands on his hips and blonde hair expertly coiffed. "But even if the Guild wasn't, the Master Inquisitor has decided to reinforce our guards, putting his own people on the Domain entrance as well. At this point, I doubt anyone can get through, not unless you're prepared to fight your way in...and out again."
"What if we're disguised?" Felix interrupted, nodded at everyone. "Good morning, everyone."
"Hey Felix," Evie smiled, reaching out to ruffle Pit's head. She'd really taken to the little pig. "Thought you had errands this morning."
"I did. The bookshop's been closed for days. No one has seen Zara since before the attack." Felix looked at the other three. "You heard anything about that?"
Cal frowned and Harn shook his head. Atar perked up. "The bookseller? At the Elder Crown?"
"That's the one. Where I saw you and your friends."
"Ah," Atar seemed...embarrassed? That's weird. "I haven't been back since you...since that night. But the owner is well known. I can ask around if you'd like?"
Taken aback slightly, Felix shrugged. "Sure, I guess. That'd be helpful. Thanks Atar. Oh!" Felix fished out the enchanted mace he'd looted from Mehren. "You can make use of this, right?"
Harn tipped his head back, his stoic way of being surprised, and took the weapon from Felix. "We can, yeah. Oh, nice enchantment on this one. Rank II is hard to come by out here."
Oh really? Felix thought about his boots and satchel, both with Rank II enchantments. Pit's Stone of Wild Echoes had a Rank IV enchantment on it, and Felix's Amulet of Veiling had a Rank XI working. If Caerwin made those items as he suspected, then...Just how powerful is she?
"So, disguises?" Felix asked again.
"Spirits forbid," Atar cursed. "Why were they there? Can you tell me what you saw?"
"Easily. My Born Trait is all about memory, if you recall."
"Oh right," Atar looked excited. Felix laid it out, describing the scene and the grisly sigils. He recounted the Guild's and Inquisition's arrival, though he left out the ghost stuff.
"He claimed Sorcery had been done there?" Atar asked, rubbing his fingers against his baby smooth chin. Felix doubted he'd grown even a patch of stubble yet.
"That's what he said."
"Strange. Nothing like that has been picked up before." Atar started pacing, and his expensive seeming black and maroon robes billowed.
"I've heard it thrown around a few times. What exactly does the Inquisition consider Sorcery?" Felix had an idea, but needed to know if it was true. Or if he was missing another aspect of the picture.
"Mm? Oh, as far as I can tell it's nonsense," Atar said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He kept pacing. "I've heard it described in colorful terms, but mostly as 'dark song' that 'corrupts all it touches' and other such bunk. In Te'thys we have no Inquisition stepping on our necks. I've never heard of this Sorcery they tout up here."
A song. The Grand Harmony? But no. He used the Grand Harmony to cast that ghost replay spell. I'm not discounting hypocrisy, but if it's not Harmony, then what could it be? A thought flashed through his mind, the memory of a buzzing unpleasantness as he faced against the Maw.
What about its opposite? Not Harmony, but Dissonance.
The power of the Maw.
"And they were similar to the notes?"
Felix was drawn back into the conversation by Atar's question, and he fought to hide his suddenly queasy stomach. "Extremely. Not the same symbols, but the same language definitely."
"And do you...have those notes with you?" Atar asked, hopefully.
"I do. And no, you can't have them back." Felix rolled his eyes, though his left hand carefully clutched at his satchel. "I gave you that book from the Elder Crown, wasn't that enough?"
"Ugh, I wanted that for reference into script writing. It is not my area of expertise. If you're not going to give me your notes, then take it back. You might find it useful." Atar fished the book from his own bag and handed it to Felix. Felix took it and resolved to peruse it later.
"Where'd you get that bag, by the by? It boasts impressive enchantments. Like Harn mentioned, Rank II enchantments are hard to come by out here in the outskirts."
Felix shrugged. "System Quest reward for defeating the Risi."
Deception is level 10!
"You got credit for that? I guess you did your part, true enough." Atar sighed. "I'd like to go see that body, but if the Inquisition has it in their grips they're not likely to part with it."
"They do seem...confrontational and possessive," Felix agreed.
"You don't know the half of it. Living in the Eyrie means I get to experience the questionable joy of constant conflicts between the Guilders and lower ranked Inquisitors. Minor stuff, simple arguments and the like. But any chance to put Guilders 'in their place,' they take it." Atar sat in a chair opposite Felix with a definite huff.
"What's their deal?"
"Their 'deal?' They follow their High Laws, mostly to the letter. They're the investigational arm of the Heirocracy. A Master Inquisitor was sent here, you know? Not some nobody. Hand picked by the Grand Inquisitor herself, I've heard."
That all meant little to Felix, other than that whatever they were doing here was considered important. He said as much.
Atar laughed. "You've probably heard by now. Dispatched when the Foglands stopped being foggy and started producing erratic monster variants. They got here awful quick though. Which means someone tipped them off. The capital is far, far away."
"Who would do that? And why?" Felix asked. They were moving farther afield of his questions, but he hadn't heard this. More information on his pursuers was always good. "What would they benefit from having an obviously zealot organization shut down the entire city?"
"Perhaps they didn't know the Inquisition would shut it down? Or perhaps they didn't care. Hard to tell." Atar leaned forward and pointed to the west. "But what happens when an entire region full of rare raw materials is suddenly made available?"
Felix nodded, recalling their conversations in the Geists' Tower. "Right. There's money to be made."
"And where there's money, there's power. That, at least, we had plenty of in Te'thys."
A sudden shout and flash of prismatic light caught their attention. Felix leaped to his feet and saw Rory standing triumphantly by one of the thicker posts they had carried in. "There we go! Time to test yerselves!"
Without another word, the wooden posts began to shimmer with Mana vapor before pulling themselves up from the ground.
