Chapter One Hundred and Five - 105

Chapter One Hundred and Five - 105

Tucked away in a blind alley beneath a leaking awning, Felix took a chance and let loose. A flash of light, a little brighter than usual in the dim morning, and Pit re-materialized next to him. The tenku regarded Felix with a tilted head, curious.

"Let's see what this Stone is all about, eh?" Felix held out the diamond cut malachite in his palm, level with Pit's face. The chimera nudged it with his beak, but it just sat there. Inert. "It says you have to bond it by blood."

Pit understood right away. He raised a clawed paw up and slashed at his foreleg. He had to do it a couple times before he could draw any blood, then dribbled it onto the malachite. A surge of horns swelled in their ears, as if someone was trumpeting a charge, but it faded quickly.

Pit has Claimed the Stone of Wild Echoes.

The stone lifted, floating under its own power. Felix and Pit watched it with fascination, the polished surface glinting in the overcast light. Then, with a burst of speed, it slammed into the tenku's forehead.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"Whoa!"

By the time Felix reacted, it was already over. The green diamond stone shone bright against Pit's black plumage, centered directly above his eyes. Felix extended his hands gently, almost but not quite touching it.

"Are you...okay?"

Pit warbled an affirmation, and sent a pulse of thoughts along their bond.

"I don't know." Felix tilted his head, moving it around to look at the stone from different angles. "Try activating it like a Skill, maybe?"

Pit tilted his head in mimicry of his Companion, and with a sudden shimmering chime, his body...disappeared. In its place was a large dog the same size as Pit. A Dire Hound, Felix supposed. To him, it appeared like a heavy jawed, giant fox more than a dog. Pit looked at Felix with his bright golden eyes, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

"This is amazing," Felix whispered. His Eye couldn't even tell there was a Skill or spell active. He ran his hands along Pit's back, feeling only coarse fur. "Is it an illusion or a transformation? How the hell does it work?"

Whatever the Wild Song was, it was powerful. That was clear. Even Pit's wings were gone, as if they'd never existed. Felix stood up after a while and patted his friend's head. Even the stone was invisible. Pit leaned in for neck scratches, of course.

A crack of lightning disrupted his musings, and Felix looked up into the blackened sky. It was raining buckets still, the precipitation pleasantly cool on his overheated skin. Felix was feeling more and more uncomfortable indoors, he realized. Outside in the fresh air felt just...right, to him. Pit, of course, was a wild creature and the moment Felix's attention drifted the chimera started bounding up and down the alley. He soon made a game of splashing in the puddles there, and Felix tried to let himself relax.

Breathe.

Thunder shook the skies again, resonating in his chest like a timpani. Large, fat droplets spattered down onto the street and eaves around him, interrupted occasionally by a stiff westerly wind. It smelled of petrichor and grilled vegetables from a few streets over, earthy and savory in his nose.

Breathe.

His jacket was soaked, as was everything except his feet. He had good boots. His new satchel too had a weatherproofing enchantment on it, so he didn't worry much as he spread his arms and enjoyed the downpour. It made him feel...normal, somehow. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine being home again.

Miss you too, Bumble.

Felix's eyes snapped open and he forced himself to breathe deep again. His recall kept surprising him. It was unreliable beyond thirty days into the past, but sometimes a memory would dredge itself up and replay, gemlike in clarity. He'd purposefully kept from thinking about home, his real home, ever since the Anchor.

Figures that it'd fuck him up right when he was trying to relax.

"Well, the only thing for it is to get to work, I guess," he clapped his hands and turned to Pit. "C'mon boy, let's go visit--"

Splashing in his direction, Pit panted in glee. Water poured convincingly off his impeccable disguise, the tenku looking exactly like a big dog.

A really big dog. A really big wet dog.

Perhaps going to the Elder Crown isn't the best choice right now. Felix doubted Zara would appreciate him leading a sopping wet mutt into her shop, Dire Hound or no. Considering she was very likely steaming mad about his, ah, reorganization...

Yeah. Best to leave that for tomorrow.

Felix walked down the alley, Pit at his heels. It was nice, not having to hide the chimera. Convergence was wildly useful, though perhaps not for its intended purpose; the ability to hide Pit had been a definite boon since entering Haarwatch. The boost to his Harmonic Stats that it offered had been less frequently useful. But then, he didn't really understand what those stats did; something he planned to rectify.

"Felix. Welcome back. After last night, some of us were worried about you. The creatures invaded right after you left us." Cal looked him up and down as if checking for injuries. "You fought them?"

Felix only shrugged. "No one else was."

"Rotten Guilders..." Karp muttered, and Felix gave him a look. The bearded man only frowned and moved away, toward Yan and Bodie nearby.

"Been hearing a lotta wild stories," Cal drawled. She took a slow sip of a flask at her hip. "Apparently some hero decided to take on all the bugs, alone."

Felix's face soured. "I'm not a hero."

"That's not what people are sayin'," Cal continued. "They're sayin' this hero smashed through the bugs like they were nothing. Still took him a half hour to take care of em all though. Mighty slow. Sounds like this hero could use some practice. If he's as strong as the washerwomen were saying this morning, well, then I imagine he can take some proper training."

Felix smiled. "That's exactly why I came by."

Evie squealed in excitement. "Avet's eyes, yes. Time to fight."

"Alright," Cal leaned back against a padded post and regarded him. The four of them, Cal, Evie, Felix, and Harn had all relocated to the far side of the warehouse nearest the obstacle course. The others were all busy in the back or in the sandy arena fighting pit, and they'd been warned to give them privacy. "How do you want to progress? I know you can fight, I've seen it, but is that what you want to do?"

Felix paused. He hadn't considered that before, and he said as much.

"I had a feelin'," Cal smiled. "Most folk born here develop a particular set of Skills based on how they wish to live their life. Often, they'll let their Born Trait guide them in those choices. This, generally, leads to Skillsets and Titles that reinforce one another, giving a particular lean to their proficiencies."

"Don't always happen that way, though," said Harn, who was still not wearing his customary silver armor. Felix found it very strange to see him out of it, like a turtle without a shell. "A lot of folks get caught up in bad situations, or shit, they get forced into developing Skills that ain't best for their Born Trait. Happens all the time."

Cal nodded. "You've got this Keen Mind. It's not a Trait I'm familiar with, but Harn tells me it has to do with memory. I imagine that'd make you good at knowledge Skills, yeah?"

Felix shrugged. "I suppose. I have perfect recall for thirty days back. Beyond that I have an increased chance for perfect recall, though it's not a sure thing. I picked it when I thought my Race and Omen were leading me toward being a wizard."

"A wizard?" Evie asked, mouth scrunched around the word. Pit was in her lap and enjoying head scratches.

"Oh, a mage, I guess. Big hat, big beard? You don't have wizards here?" Felix looked around at them.

"Haha, big hats and big beards aplenty. Never heard the word before, though," Evie grinned. "Wizard."

"Anyway," Cal cleared her throat and nodded at Harn. "After you put your trust in us, I was talkin' over your Skills and Titles with Harn. You're just...all over the place. It's like you picked up every Skill and Title you could, somehow. Which is damn hard to do."

"Something to do with being Unbound, maybe," Felix shrugged off the difficulty, forcing nonchalance into his tone. "But the why of it was survival and necessity. Every Skill was won through combat or experimentation, and the Titles were mostly accidents I was lucky enough to survive."

Deception is level 9!

"When I got here I had no idea how all of this worked. There are still mysteries to me that are probably common knowledge to all of you. I fought tooth and nail; I survived...my enemies didn't." Felix shrugged, but his face was troubled. "I don't...in my world, fighting to the death is called murder, no matter how you dress it up. Here's it's so normalized. I feel like I should hate it but...it's exciting, it's--goddamn it--it's fun. Is that screwed up?"

Cal shrugged, nonplussed. "Not on the Continent. Plenty of battle nuts here. The strongest usually are, anyway."

Harn grunted. "You got a long way ta go before being Silver or Gold Ranked, but Cal's got the right of it. Battle is in the people's blood, leastwise those that do best in it. I've seen you fight more than her, and you got the spark."

"Now you just need the skill," Cal chuckled. "That's where we come in."

"Honestly, I enjoy magic too. I'd rather roll all my Skills into my fighting style, if that's possible." Felix looked uncertainly between the two of them. "Can that be done?"

"First, a question," Cal asked while stepping closer. "How much pain can you handle?"

This time, it was Felix who grinned.