Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Six – 326
I'm sorry, what? Felix stared at the notification before him. Joined my what now?
Congratulations, Autarch!
You Have Vanquished A Threat!
The Risi (Frost Giants) Have Joined Your Fledgling Nation!
+25% To All Positive Relations With Giantfolk!
See Your Control Node For Further Options!
Oh, you bet your ass I'll be seeing my Control Node. He swiped the notification closed and clenched his jaw. He wasn't sure how much he trusted the Frost Giants' Oath, but he felt out of his depth. Felix scowled at the Witch as she lifted her head from prostration. She flinched, ever so slightly.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"My name has been cast aside. I am a Witch of the Rock, born among the swirling winds of the Hoarfrost and given unto the cold upon my seventh year, I"
Voracious Eye!
Name: Kimaris, Witch of the Rock
Type: Giantfolk
Level: 45
...
Felix waved away the rest of the information, not needing it. "Kimaris, then."The roots of this story extend from novell bìn origin.
The Witch flinched again, this time far more noticeably. "How do you know that name?"
He ignored her. "Kimaris, what are you plans now? Will you return home?"
The Witch visibly gathered herself, rising to her knees and making her just as tall as Felix. "We...can no longer return to the Hoarfrost. When the High Chieftain was selected, we cut ties with our land in the hopes of forming a new home here. Thatit did not turn out as we were promised. The Mother...lied to us." There was some whispering among the prostrated giants, but Kimaris' glare silenced them. "I would ask you for sanctuary, Autarch. For my people."
Felix kept his face carefully blank. "Let me think on it. For now, you can stay at the southern edge of the encampment. Please move your people in that direction."
"As you wish," Kimaris said before returning to her full height. All around the giants did the same, most of them taller than the houses he'd Shaped. Without another word, the Frost Giants left.
Once they'd left earshot, Felix breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"That was entirely unexpected," Vess said. She walked up to his side and stared after the giants, many of whom were easily visible as they began to set up their own sort of camp.
"Yeah. I didn't expect them to swear an Oath and then stick around," Felix said.
"Not that. You." Vess poked him in the shoulder before giving his clothes a once over. "What are you wearing?"
"Oh, I got a cool new magic outfit." Felix let himself be distracted, focusing on his Garment again. A tiny, barely noticeable piece of Mana fled his channels and the shirt and pants became a pale green tunic and dark blue cloth pants. The tunic was wrapped around his torso, set with an asymmetrical collar that Felix had seen once or twice around Haarwatch. "See?"
"Fascinating," said a light voice, and Atar pushed between Harn and Vess to grab the hem of his newly fashioned tunic. His own battlerobes were dirty and singed, and it looked like he'd tried his best to scrub blood from the hardened fabrics across the chest. "It's all controlled with your Mana Manipulation?"
Felix grinned at the mage. "Basically. There's arrays on the threads that respond to my Intent, apparently. Because I'm certainly not envisioning this whole outfit top to bottom."
"What...what Skill did you use?" Kylar asked. The swordsman had sidled closer and was watching the giants in the distance. "To parry those huge axes."
"Oh. I didn't use any," Felix said.
"I-I'm sorry, what?" Kylar stuttered. Shock played over all of their Spirits and Felix dimmed his awareness of them all. It felt like cheating, reading his allies' emotions.
"That was Strength alone?" Harn said with a bright look in his eye.
"Strength and Endurance. Tanked a lot of Stamina to take a hit like that," he said before pivoting the conversation. "Did everyone rest up?"
"Not much else to do," Kylar groused, but Vyne shoved him.
"Everyone's healing, or on the path," Vyne said. "Davum's still got a gash across his chest, but whatever was in that poultice the Henaari gave him has been helping."
Felix nodded, happy to hear it, but that same unease gnawed at him.
His people had nearly died fighting the hordes of the Archon. When Felix and his Spirit Tree had stopped the fighting and cured the Frost Giants, it had driven off the various monsters that the Archon had bound to his will. The area wasn't safe around them, not with Prismatic Wretches and Ghostfire Simians and other things creeping about, but none had approached since that night.
Felix was pretty sure it had something to do with the Atlantes Anima.
Vess pulled him aside. "Do you trust these Giants? They are Oathbound, but I cannot help but be skeptical of their allegiance."
"I'm not about to blindly trust someone that tried to kill memultiple times now. Maybe the Oathbinding is in good faith, or maybe they can work around it like I can." Felix took a kelaar fruit Nevia offered him in passing. "Thanks. The problem with being an exception is that you see all the weird, contradictory shit the System gets up to."
Vess nodded slowly, concern flickering through her dark gaze as she surveyed the stone houses and retreating Giantfolk. "It feels like the ground turned to sand underneath us. Oathbinding is the tried and true method of governance. My father uses it to enact trade agreements, to extract the truth in civil judgements, even as an oath of service for his military." Vess licked her lips and gave Felix a lopsided grin, cheek dimpling. "I'm only consoled by the fact that your Tyrant of Choice Title was hard earned. I doubt many could achieve the same."
"Yeah, I'm all sorts of special," Felix said distractedly. Vess and Harn were frowning at him. "What?"
"How'd you get so strong, kid?" Harn asked. His helmet was off, displaying the man's wide, crooked nose and scarred face. "You played with those giants like they were Tier I beasts."
"What happened in the Temple?" Vess asked in a softer voice. "You never said, after..."
True, Felix hadn't said much about what occurred in the Temple. Instead he'd emerged from the ruins to help his friends and scare off the monsters that still lingered in confusion. Patching each other up and erecting the few houses with Stone Shaping to keep them out of the rain had been as active as he'd felt capable of being considering the roiling pain that had been consuming his core space. One thing after another had kept him from advancing to Adept, and then he'd retired to sleep off the exhaustion that was still dogging at his heels. Felix tried to smile in a disarming fashion, but knew it was more of a grimace.
"It got dicey. But I advanced, and I forged my Path," Felix said. Harn sucked a breath while Vess' eyes widened.
"Siva's Grace, Felix. Your Path added so much? I have never seen you move as you did against the giants. It was over almost before it began."
"A Path," Harn said as he shook his head. "You keep surprisin' me, kid. Next you'll tell me you're Master Tier now."
There was a moment of silence between the three of them, where all Felix could hear was the subaudible thrum of the array. Then Karys made his own humming noise.
"Ah, I see. That is...strange."
"What is?" Felix asked.
"Do you allow me to share it with the both of you?"
"Go ahead," Felix said at the same time Vess gave a curt nod.
An image of a fancy room drifted into Felix's Mind, swirling into crystal clear clarity. A large, ornate chair made of gold dominated the room; it was studded with gemstones, and its back was fashioned into a roaring drake, wings outspread. Below it, inlaid in the polished stone flooring, were sixteen rings of sigaldry that contained a faint silver luminescence. It was clearly an array, made of concentric rings of sigils with a large glyph in the center below the chair. As all glyphs, it was a combination of sigils fashioned into an aesthetic whole; this looked like a raised spear with bat-like wings. Dragon wings.
"My family's Seal," Vess affirmed.
Karys made a light rumbling sound in his patched over chest. "Correct me if I am wrongmy memory is not what it used to bebut it appears that the array in Pax'Vrell is entirely mortal made. Yes?"
"Well, yes. Our Authority is given to us by the Hierocracy itself," she agreed.
"Contingent on their approval, I'd imagine," Karys said with a disgusted tone. "Temporary Authority."
Vess nodded, brows furrowed. "Yes. They could, conceivably, take away my family's Authority whenever they wished. It would cause chaos in many ways, but if they wanted to, they could." Vess looked at Felix. "System Authority is rarely granted. Lady Cal and now you are the first two I've ever heard of outside legends."
Karys disgust rolled off him, waves of it mingled with a cold anger. "That is not how it used to be. In my day, only the System could bless one with Authority enough to rule. Not even the gods had such power." Karys gestured, and the image in Felix's mind flashed around the concentric rings, showing complicated but intelligible glyphs and sigils. He could even pick out the meaning of a couple. "You have created a patchwork atop an ancient rite, gleaning just the barest hints of Authority from the Continent. And missing the point entirely."
"The point?" Felix asked. "What's the point of Authority, then? I had thought it was just to...you know, rule."
"The path of a tyrant is to rule without concern over the governed. Authority is a burden that only the most worthy should ever bear. Long ago, that is how it was done." The metal man looked at Felix with a hint of pride. "It is how it shall be done again."
"So this is my Seat of Authority, then?" Felix asked, a bit uncomfortable. There were...expectations in Karys eye-fires and Felix didn't know if he measured up. He forced a bit of a laugh. "Where's my fancy chair?"
Vess smiled. "An old tradition. A seat for a Seat, if you will."
"Yes, the throne is not necessary. Your Seat and Seal are the true indicators of the mantle now upon your shoulders, Felix."
"Been meaning to ask about that. Autarch of Nagast. A Lost Territory that, by the map I saw, extends all the way north to the Hoarfrost, west and south to the Bitter Sea, and east to just beyond the Verdant Pass. That's...that's a lot of area to cover," Felix said.
"Most of it monster-strewn wilderness, as well," Vess added.
"Autarch is an ancient title, one rarely given even in the glory days of the Golden Empire. It is a mantle, as I said, one of responsibility to the people that inhabit the land you hold Authority over," Karys said.
"And what are those responsibilities?" he asked.
"The same as any with enough power. To protect and defend your people, to raise them up so that they may raise you in turn," Karys said, and by his cadence it sounded like something he'd learned by rote a long time ago.
"My people include a few Humans and a bunch of Frost Giants, now," Felix said. He took a breath. "Shouldn't be too hard, right?"
Vess patted him on the shoulder. "Best to start small. My tutors have been schooling me in governance and diplomacy for my entire life. I shall be here to help you, whenever you need it."
Felix smiled widely at her and she lightly squeezed his shoulder.
"Indeed, and this Dwelling Stone will aid you further, Felix," Karys said.
Vess let her hand drop and she blushed, looking back at the ex-Paragon. "What is a Dwelling Stone?"
"Time to find out," Karys said with a pleased note. "Felix?"
"I got it." Repressing the urge to touch the spot on his shoulder where Vess had grabbed him, Felix walked over to the Dwelling Stone and easily hefted it into his arms. "Just bring this to the Seal, then?"
"Yes. The Seal and your Control Node are one and the same."
Felix stepped out onto the array and let the Mana vapor envelop him. It was almost blinding with his Manasight flared, so Felix kept it at a low burn, only enough to see the power at work around him. The moment he reached his Seat, the floor rumbled. A piece of the stone beneath him lifted up, twenty or so finger-thin hexagonal columns rising to create a slanting platform before him. The top of it depressed, the columns moving so that a pocket was created, one exactly the size of the Dwelling Stone he held.
"Hoo boy. Okay. Here goes nothing," he said. He placed the Dwelling Stone on the platform, and it was immediately lit up with brilliant purple light. Traceries of gold and silver formed atop the hexagonal pillars, climbing up and over the Stone in a lace-like lattice. The designs almost looked fractal to him, but squinting past the bright light showed him they were in fact tiny, tiny sigils.
You Have Established A Home!
Home's Rank Has Been Increased To Stronghold!
Defensive Fortifications Gained!
Offensive Fortifications Gained!
See Stronghold Menu For More!
A Dwelling Stone (Legendary) Has Been Detected Within Your Stronghold!
Assessing Stored Options...
Options Expanded Due To Increased Rank Of Dwelling...
Options Expanded Due To Threats Eliminated...
Complete!
A Dwelling Stone (Legendary) Contains The Following Patterns:
Tier III Forge
Tier III Alchemical Lab
Tier III Storage Facility
Tier III Glyphworks
Do You Wish To Install Them All?
