Unbound

Chapter Fifty Three - 053

Before him appeared to be a child-sized...anthropomorphic ermine. Perhaps only four feet tall, their body was long in proportion but stood upon two solid legs and held small, withered hands folded before them. A series of wrappings surrounded their body, like layered and elaborate robes once elegant, now moth-eaten. They were also old, their wedge-shaped face wrinkled and sagging as their almost emaciated neck strained to hold it up. Their ears were large triangles that flopped down from the top of their head, and eyes the unstained blue of summer sky regarded him with a cool sort of amusement.

They reminded Felix immediately of the Orit, if tinier. He kept his hand raised, the spell still primed and spinning. He tossed an Analyze at them.

Name: ???

Race: ???

Level: ???

HP: ???/???

SP: ???/???

MP: ?????/????

Lore: Unknown

Strength: Unknown

Weakness: Unknown

So they're either way too strong or have the ability to hide from my Skill. Felix mentally groused. I need to level this up faster.

"Who are you?" Felix asked again, amending his question; this was clearly a person, despite his first confused impression. The ermine face stretched into a sharp-toothed smile, the large blue eyes crinkling heavily at the edges. Felix stifled the urge to call for the Silver Ranks; he'd see where this went first.

"This one is Vvim." Their voice was strong and high, but rusty, creaking with disuse.

"...Good evening, Vvim. Why are you here?" Felix didn't see the need to beat around the bush, the creature had obviously been watching him for at least some time. Probably longer, since Felix had not been able to sense him previously. Curious, Felix flexed his Manasight in an attempt to see Vvim's aura. Nothing appeared. The creature laughed, a dusty cough that seemed kind.

"This one is very old. These eyes have seen many things in many lands, but this one was convinced there was so little left. Then you stepped into Shelim."

"Shelim? Is that the name of the city? You're..." Felix assessed the creature's size and proportions. "The carvings and statues. You're one of the original inhabitants of this city?" Felix was somewhat amazed; he'd expected any people from this ancient ruin to have long been dust.

"Ah. So soon our name is forgotten. Yes, that was unavoidable. We flirt with the edge of Ruin here." The creature shifted slightly, but Felix saw their face twitch in discomfort. They're in pain and their movement is slow. If this goes sideways I should be able to get out the door before they can kill me...maybe.

"Ruin? You're Lost?" Felix pulled himself back in, recalling the term bandied about the Nym.

"Not quite," Vvim's tone softened slightly. "But soon, perhaps."

Felix didn't know what to say to that.

"My...condolences, if that means anything," Felix frowned, feeling a reluctant pity kindle in his chest for this odd creature. Still, he kept Acid Stream in his raised hand, ready to use. "You still didn't answer my question, though. Why are you here?"

"This one is an Eye of the People. Long have we watched the city. A vigil measured not in days or years, but in centuries. The Eyes were told to wait for one thing, above all others, one sign that the end we sought might soon come," Vvim fixed Felix with a gaze at once both mild and unyielding. "We wait for the return of the Nym."

Felix's breath caught in his chest, and his heart started to hammer wildly. What? Is he saying...? "You wait for the return of a--a Lost Race? I'm told they're all gone."

"Not all," Vvim said softly, eyes turning to the southwest before flicking back to Felix. "Not all."

Felix's mind worked furiously, trying to find a way through this conversation. Vvim is waiting for the Nym. Do they know I'm Nymean? They can't, right? The fog should still be interfering.

"Vvim's eyes are old, but not blind," the creature continued, shifting their weight from foot to foot. "The fog does not blind this one as it does those poor mortals who wander into our land. The Geist are strong, they are wise, and they see much, Nym Who Is Not."

Surprise after surprise, this Vvim was delivering them like knockout punches. Felix reeled slightly, his secret exposed...but after a moment of thought, a number of ideas rushed to the fore. "You see through the fog? Like me?"

"Oh yes. The fog is an old friend, an ally to the People when we needed one the most." Vvim didn't appear to move, but Felix was startled to realize that they had somehow gotten within five feet of him. He took a hesitant step backward.

"So you see my Race, yeah? You can see that I'm Nymean, obviously," Felix half-laughed, but Vvim made a short slashing motion with one small hand.

"No. You smell of something else, of somewhere else," Vvim's nose wriggled. "The Grand Harmony names you Nym, but you are not."

"Then what am I?" Felix asked, irritated yet genuinely curious. For the first time, it felt like someone had answers to his core questions.

"This one...thinks you are a promise kept."

"That's vague," Felix frowned. "But I wasn't sent here by anyone. I'm here by accident."

"Are you? How do you know, child?" Vvim tilted their head, blue eyes earnest as they sought Felix's own. "Do you truly know why you are here?"

"...Do you?" Felix asked.

Vvim shrugged. "This one can only guess. And hope." The..Geist, was it? The Geist spread its arms wide, as if in admission of some failing. "You appear as the Nym once did, and the Grand Harmony sings that truth into being. Perhaps you were something else once, perhaps not. But this one has watched you, Nym Who Is Not, and this one finds themself...curious."

"Watched me? For how long?" Vvim didn't answer. "What makes you so curious? And what gives you the right to spy on me?"

"You are the one who entered my Tower, no?" Vvim answered with some mirth. "And I am curious about your relationship with the Large One and her metal attack dog."

"Magda and Harn?" Felix raised an eyebrow. "I've only known them for a couple days."

"And what do you think of their plan? Their rescue attempt?"

Felix was immediately on guard. If this creature heard everything, they could easily tell the giants. If they haven't already. "I think it's the right thing to do."

"Are you not afraid? Or are you so stone-hearted that the threat of four hundred giants does not touch you?" Vvim steepled their hands, tapping short black claws at the tips.

Felix didn't answer, and instead stared stonily at the Geist. He waited for their point.

"What is your goal, child? Not the Large One's goal; the safety of a paltry few from the hands of one of countless threats in this world. That is nothing. A few lives means little in the end." Vvim stared at him, his wide blue eyes searching Felix for...something.

What is this? Felix felt a hot, skin-prickling anger heat him from the inside out. The back of his neck itched and his jaw clenched. "What-?" Felix started to ask, but the Geist kept speaking in that same high, creaky voice.

"Why do you not run? Why save prey that has fallen into the hands of predators? Unless you mean to take them yourself." Vvim paused, nose wrinkling. "Is that your plan, Nym Who Is Not? Do you seek more meat for your fire? More blood for your belly?"

Felix back went cold, his freehand that held the vials feeling suddenly feeling clumsy and obvious.

"No! Of course not!" Felix protested, but he felt as if his guilt flashed across his face; he easily recalled considering the consumption of his allies' blood to learn their Skills. "I would never."

"Then why? You are mighty. This one saw what you did to the corrupted Ofrenok. Why not flee this place? Why risk your life for prey? Why defend those you have never known, for whom you have no reason to care?" Vvim's voice rose, not in volume, but in depth until it shook the air all around him. Felix couldn't think. Couldn't process even as icons flashed in his vision.

"WHY?"

"Because I'm terrified!"

Felix's voice felt gunshot-loud in the basin room, echoing slightly against the stone. Silence had fallen, the Geist's voice gone; once more they were only a small creature, more than a dozen feet away.

"Because ever since I arrived here, I have fought against everything." He dropped his spell and considered his right hand, calloused and coarsened by his experiences. "I have survived on luck, on Skills I barely understand, and on a hope that it's all been leading somewhere. That I can find a way out."

Felix looked up at Vvim, and though he did not know it, his eyes burned blue once more. "But I can't leave someone else here. To be killed and eaten and-and-and used up? For what? More power? More Skill levels?" He shook his head. "I couldn't live with myself if I did that. I wouldn't want to."

Vvim was silent, their raspy breathing the only sound in the basin room. Felix swallowed several times to soothe the lump in his throat, his emotions still a frenetic ball in his head that he couldn't quite parse. Then the Geist spoke.

The Geist nodded at the vials in Felix's free hand. "What do you intend to do with those, Nym Who Is Not?"

Felix narrowed his eyes, anger rising to the top. "Why do you care?"

"Mana lies within blood; life-force itself. Within that Mana is an ancient cry, far older than this one or even the People themselves," Vvim continued, not quite explaining. "The music, the lilting sounds of the Mother, the Song that ties the universe together. It calls to us through Mana."

"The Mother?" Felix repeated. "That's what the Risi called it. I don't."

"But you hear it, yes? A soft sigh beneath every movement, every action? A trumpet blast beyond victory, a lilting note with each sad ending."

Felix felt those emotions, one after the other, as Vvim described them. He was dizzied, his mind boiling with excess feelings. He answered honestly, too disoriented to do otherwise. "...Yes."

"Good. Then you are not beyond hope." Vvim shifted their weight, leaning back and..smiling at Felix. Their teeth were sharp and very white. "Hold tight to that feeling in your chest, the one you felt for the weak. It will serve you well."

Vvim snaped a clawed finger, the sound startling Felix into blinking, and when he opened his eyes again, they were gone.

"And beware the hunger, Nym Who Is Not," their voice creaked across the room, though Felix could no longer sense them at all.

"It is not to be trusted."

The silence after Vvim's departure was loud. It stood prominent in Felix's senses as he strained himself to perceive the tiniest of evidence that the Geist was still there. He found nothing.

All the while, Felix's heart hammered in his chest, his blood still roaring and adrenaline pumping into his veins. That messy ball of emotion still tangled his thoughts, and only after a few more deep breaths did he feel a wobbly sort of balance form. Meditation levels are paying off, I guess.

That icon was still flashing in his vision, temporarily forgotten in the heat of the moment. Felix toggled it and bit back a curse.

Affected by Skill: Touch of Catharsis

Effect: 50% Reduction in Alacrity, Emotional Instability Increased

That weasel made me upset on purpose! Felix huffed an aggrieved breath, but drew it out with an effort of Will. He took two more deep breaths, centering himself.

That tangle of emotions still affected his mind, and it felt like a sort of poison. He activated Fire Within.

Delving within his channels, Felix could see the emotions as a cloud of pale pink energy; pieces of it wafted through his channels but the vast majority was within his head, a storm cloud of rose vapor that shimmered with an internal light. But he'd encountered foreign elements in his system before, so Felix knew what to do.

He fed it to the Fire.

Wisp after wisp was pulled down into his core, where his Fire Within devoured it, burning it for fuel and sustenance. He only stopped when the main concentration of the pink Mana was dissipated, though Felix could still sense wisps floating free within him. Even so, the notification cleared. He opened his eyes and sighed in relief.

Fire Within is level 33!

The emotions were cleared away, leaving Felix feeling steady. His mind felt raw, like an exfoliated stretch of skin, but clean.

Then Felix felt rage. This one was fresh and entirely his own. How dare they do that! Why? What was the point? Felix detected no benefit to the spell, other than upsetting him. Wait, what is Alacrity?

Felix sat down, careful not to break the vials he still held in his hands. He checked through his status page but could find nothing in the term. It wasn't even in his Harmonic Stats listing, which he hadn't checked in a while. Then he felt his core, which had been steadily consuming those few wisps of pink Mana found in his channels, burn up the last of it.

He heard a sound like a far off trilling, sharply rising.

You Have Unlocked A Harmonic Stat!

Alacrity - Affects feats of the mind. Confluence of Intelligence and Agility.

Current Value: ALA - 26

Huh. Felix toggled open his Harmonic Stats and yup, there it was. Alacrity. Did I get that because of Vvim's Skill?

Harmonic Stats

RES:

43

REI:

21

ALA:

26

How many more of these are there? Despite himself, Felix felt a surge of excitement as he sat there, looking at his new stat. What exactly is a "feat of the mind?" It doesn't seem like it affects mental resistance, necessarily. Perhaps mental abilities in general? Harmonic Stats are strange.

He was getting distracted, he knew. Felix has been affected by an emotional manipulation spell. It had blasted right past his Willpower and his Bastion of Will Skill, the stat and Skill he was pretty sure protected his mental state the most. That meant Vvim was powerful. But what did they do with Felix when he was compromised? They asked questions.

Why? What was so important to the Geist that it had to talk to him?

They said they were waiting for the Nym. For me. "A promise kept," they said. Felix shook his head. It seemed more like the Geist was seeing if I knew why I was here, like it was...judging me.

A chill ran down his back.

For what?

Vvim left the boy to ponder their words. It was all they could do.

The strange child was Nymean, that was certain. The Song spoke of his Race, and the Song did not lie; it could be blinded, it could be made false, but not to Vvim.

The Touch of Catharsis made it very clear. The boy seeks out the prisoners not for vanity or power, but out of sympathy.Vvim shook his head in amazement, fragile hands splayed against their heavily dust-coated desk.

The Nym had made it a policy to stamp out those predators that sought dominion over the weak, a policy that long made them the hated enemy of many powerful monsters. Now this strange child appeared in Shelim, Nym of Body and Mind, to save the weak from the corrupt.

It would be storybook perfect, were it not for the hunger Vvim sensed within him.

A mark was upon the boy. Within Vvim's Sight there was a marring of his flesh, of his Spirit. In the Geist's powerful senses, they could sense Felix's body as a wash of electric blue and radiant gold; a strange aura to be sure, but not entirely remarkable. It was the bottom corner of his aura that raise concerns; it was marred by a sickly, insidious red, one that would have been hidden from most, but not Vvim. They would recognize that discordant touch anywhere.

Upon the boy's Spirit there was the faint imprint of teeth, and between them, circular suction cups.

"We are at a crossroads, my dear Family. The world stands on the precipice of a great reckoning, and this one cannot tell if it will be triumph or despair." Vvim's creaking voice sounded flat in the small chamber, the undisturbed dust muffling all sound. It was a sad noise, like an old door shutting behind a loved one headed on a long journey; one they might not survive.

Still. Not every infected fell. The mark was not death, nor was it the end. And despite the Geist's mounting concern, Vvim felt their chest quicken and blood rush through ancient veins. The boy was fierce and a compassion drove his heart, one that marked him as strange far more than his scent.

Alongside the rising excitement, a bubble of odd nerves rose up from Vvim's belly. A puff of ancient breath quivered the thick skein of dust upon the desk, dislodging a fair amount into the air. Only after the third such puff did Vvim realize what was happening.

They laughed.

They hoped.