Chapter Three Hundred And Forty Seven – 347
As a group, they all descended into the bowels of Felix's Temple. Vess had seen the Seat and Seal before, but none of the others had, and their reactions were pretty amusing. Evie stared in slack-jawed amazement, first at the huge Spirit Tree roots and then at the gold and silver lines of the inscribed formation. She hadn't a lot of experience with inscriptions, but even a blind man would've been able to feel the power that coursed through that first chamber. Atar practically vibrated with excitement; he'd been pestering to get a look at the array for weeks. The fire mage dashed about, running his hands over the complicated sigaldry and compounded glyphs stamped into the floors and walls, even as his eyes raked over the marked ceiling with naked hunger.
Zara's reaction, however, was the best of them all.
"Wild cries," she whispered. Her ice blue eyes roved across the interwoven, almost fractal complexities of the formation, gold and silver light dancing across her face. "I've never known a Nymean Temple to harbor such a treasure. This is beyond the scope of any modern Territory that I know of...the weight of it all."
"It is adequate, yes," Karys said, and Zara started. Her hand leaped to her throat, but she'd mastered her Spirit again, and weak or not Felix did not feel the fear that was evident on her face. Karys, ever the gentleman, bowed low to the Naiad. "I apologize for startling you. I...keep forgetting how my appearance affects you all."
"No. No it's fine," Zara said. She straightened, smoothing her blue on black robes before speaking again. "Felix warned me of your current Body, but not..." Karys tilted his head, the golden eye-fires in his empty helmet burning inquisitively. Yet Zara did not elaborate; instead she turned to Felix. "This is your Seat and Seal? How did you claim it? Right of conquest?"
"Sort of," he said and patted the crooked sword at his hip. "After the Archon was put down, well, I stepped into the center and claimed it."
"Just like that," she muttered to herself. The others were poking around at the edges of the formation, giving the three of them space to talk. The chamber was more than large enough. "I cannot imagine it was so clear cut."
Felix shrugged. "It asked me a question. I gave an answer."
"It did not approve of your answer," Karys reminded him. "Though that did not stop you."
"Yeah, I recall," Felix said, dryly. "What use is two thousand points of Willpower if you don't put them to use every once in a while?"
Zara stared between the two of them. "You...brute forced the System into granting you Authority?"
"When you say it like that it makes me sound like a jerk." Felix rubbed his chin, thinking back on the events. "It was more like...the System couldn't understand me." He shrugged again. "So I made sure it did."
The Naiad's face rapidly twitched between dismay, astonishment, and something bordering on intimidation. Then it smoothed, caught and mastered again by the woman's training. "What was the question?"
Why Do You Seek Authority, Felix Nevarre?
Why Do You Seek The Crown?
Felix jerked at the blue window's appearance, and Karys' chest rumbled apologetically. "My doing. This is the notification he received."
"How'd you do that?" Felix asked. "Can you access all of my old notifications?"
"Only those connected to this Seat. The tricks I learned Ages past have come in handy these past weeks," the metal man said.
"It spoke to you directly?" Zara asked.
"This is a function of the array," Karys explained. "Not how your...modern Seats handle things, but it is the traditional way. The Call and Answer before Authority can be bestowed."
"And your answer?" she asked.
"To help," Felix said with a laugh. He started walking forward, motioning for the others to follow. "The System thought it was too vague."
"It is not wrong," Karys murmured. Felix ignored him.
"C'mon. I didn't bring you here to show off my monogramed cavern floor." Felix sped up, parting the Mana vapor that was actively pushing the others back. He stopped, just inside the secondary chamber. He gestured and activated the illumination scripts. "Behold!"
"Whoa what are these?" Evie said, rushing forward to inspect one of the massive, circular carvings.
"We can handle a few voidbeasts," Felix assured her. "Hell, not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty sure I could fight off whatever decided to come for us. Voidbeast or no."
"Not this one. At my strongest I would not even be able to dent its skin. It was...a behemoth. A Primordial in the Void, somehow."
Felix stilled, a chill clawing down his spine. "Describe it for me. Please."
"Mountainous, with rust-red scales and yellow tendrils. It vaguely resembled what I know of as Narhollows, but it was like them as an emberfly is to a dragon."
Whalemaw.
"Fuck," was all he said.
"You know it," Zara said. It was not a question.
"I do. It's..." Felix sighed. "It's another piece of the Maw. The largest piece," he said.
"Another Ravager King?" Vess asked.
"Worse. This thing got the bulk of the Maw's power when we got banished to the Void," Felix explained, giving them a run down of events. "It chased me around the Void for weeks, though I managed to lose it. Twice. But if what you're describing is right, then it's even stronger now."
"Why's it chasing you?" Evie asked.
"His power," Atar said. Felix looked at him and nodded. "It wants his power."
"Yeah. The same reason I was able to rip the Maw's potency from the Ravager King; the Whalemaw wants the relatively tiny piece of Primordial power that's in me." Felix could feel the certainty of that in his bones. "It wishes to be whole. And apparently even knowing me is enough to draw it's attention."
"Of course. It could sense our connection," Zara said.
"And it'll do it again, if it's anywhere nearby. Unless..." Felix drummed his fingers on the edge of a carving. "Unless I could make a replica of the array that hid me before, in a village in the Void. Then maybe we could risk it."
"Give me the sigils and we'll make it happen," Atar said. "If Hector's here, then I'm sure it can be done. And if we garner no attention on this Passage thing, then we can bring the Legion right?"
"That'd be a sight," Evie chortled. "Imagine the look on those zealots' stupid faces."
"An entire army, though?" Vess asked. "How will they be fed? Billeted? Supplied with healing resources and replacement equipment? The Gheldan Hills might be neutral territory, but if the Paladins are already in the Expanse then it is a surety they will have a rear camp in the Hills. How do you propose we move an entire army without them noticing?"
"Do we even know if the Shadowgates will hold so many?" Zara asked.
"Sorry to interrupt, but the Shadowgates should be enough to send a sizeable contingent through them. They are far superior to these...remnant walkways you are describing," Karys said with clear disdain for the idea of these Dark Passages. "The Autarch's power alone could make do for several hundred soldiers in his retinue. And you should have a retinue, Felix, especially seeing as you shall be visiting a foreign city..."
"We're not visiting and I don't need a retinue. Besides, it's way better if we move with less than our full force," Felix said. "I wouldn't want to leave Nagast undefended. Let's not forget the challenge I apparently put out into the world. Someone is bound to come knocking eventually."
"Another good reason to move fast," Atar said, but followed it with a defeated huff. "Fine. A small army."
Karys cleared his throat, a sound like a metal file on an empty aluminum cylinder. "The Shadowgates still require a considerable donation of Mana and Essence to function. Some of that will be provided by your Seat and Seal, Felix, but the initial spark will have to come from you. And," he paused, eye-fires flickering between Zara and Felix. "The gates' connection to the liminal corridors between the Realms will need to be reestablished."
"Meaning what, exactly?" Evie asked.
Felix met Zara's eyes, and found her calmly considering him and the golden giant. He smirked. "It means we have work to do. All of us. And fast."
