Unbound-Chapter Nine Hundred And Seventy Four – 974

Aeonis was renowned for its many gardens, a fact that was hardly surprising given its nickname, the Giant's Grove. What was surprising, at least to Felix, was the sheer size of it all. The city walls were as tall as those of any other major metropolis, but their immensity did not diminish once he’d entered the gates. Wide thoroughfares, larger than most major highways back home, stretched out before them in weaving curves around grassy hills topped with tall trees and wide obelisks marked by swirling carvings. What could only be market squares dotted the roads, opening their curved lines up into circular fields set with flat, seamless stone and surrounded by tall buildings. Fountains marked each square, newly bubbling with water and four times the size of any fountain he'd seen in any other revived city.

The buildings themselves were as tall as office buildings, six to seven stories high—at least if they followed normal, Human dimensions. When Felix checked one of them at random, he found the first floor to have a ceiling nearly thirty feet tall. Others were far larger. Although little furniture had been repopulated with the city's resurrection, what was there indicated that every building he'd checked were simple residences, places where its populace once ate and slept. The beds alone were immense, large enough to easily accommodate a Frost Giant.

Watching the Risi walk through the city was like watching a Human walk through Harwatch. It looked natural, as if the place was built for them. Yet another reason for the moniker Giant's Grove.

“The Gigas must have been very similar in size to the Frost Giants,” Felix said, passing another overly large fountain. It sported an immense deer-like creature leaping over a rocky ridge, and the water cascaded down its flat edge like a waterfall. Pit leaned over it, drinking from the cold liquid. Ripples spread into the circular pool below, where wide lilypads supported bright yellow blossoms.

“Gigas.” Vess pursed her lips. “Is that not your sister’s Race?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is she?”

“Exploring on her own, somewhere near the rest of the team.”

“Does she know this city bears her people’s name?”

“I mentioned it. I’m not sure she cares.” Felix tossed a rock into the water. It plunked satisfyingly and splashed Pit.

“Hey!”

Felix stuck his tongue out at his Companion. Pit swiped a paw into the water, chortling when Felix got soaked.

Sonata of Dominance.

Water sloughed from him and his clothing in a wobbly ball that gathered just beyond Felix’s chest. He narrowed his eyes.

Pit ran.

Turns out, bus-sized tenku were easy targets. The waterball splashed over his Companion’s rear end, forcing a tight, agonized warble from Pit’s beak.

“Boys,” Vess chided. “What shall I do with you?”

“I have several ideas.” Felix kissed her, squeezing her just a bit. “But maybe after we’re done exploring.”

Vess laughed, a husky sound that sent shivers up Felix’s back. “Perhaps.”

The three of them continued their walking tour of the city, passing from district to district with an ever increasing curiosity. Vess was delighted by the art and sheer size of the buildings, while Pit simply enjoyed the scale of things—it wasn’t often the huge Chimera could run carelessly across city streets. Here, he barely took up an eighth of the average road.

For Felix, he was interested in the organization of Aeonis. He’d revived many cities from the depths of the Ages, and while all of them were different, many bore similar patterns. Hevaan in Jaast, for instance, had portions of its city separated onto vast, elevated disks. Aeonis did something similar, but each district was built into a substantial mountain that had risen from the land during its rebirth. Now each district was separated by dark, striated stone filled with emerald canopies and blooming flora that filled the air with an intoxicating perfume. Vast steps, sized for massive strides, climbed up those mountainous regions. They ascended through massive archways carved with swirling patterns and topped by pale statues of a great many people. They were heroic in visage but often wore common clothes or bore simple implements like hammers or lathes or even a needle and thread. It was like marching up a gallery dedicated to the people that built Aeonis itself.

Although the three of them could have flown about easily, walking the streets provided as much relaxation as Felix had experienced in weeks. He strolled hand in hand with Vess, Pit bounding forward in his full Primordial Stormlord size, eagerly inspecting every sight and sound. The Chimera hopped excitedly from fountain to statue to decorated wall beside some odd shopfront, cooing in interest before flitting off.

Felix lingered before the sculpted wall. “Oh, I like this.”

Words in a language Felix didn't understand were scrawled across the stone in tall, angular letters above a series of images carved in bas-relief. Some was in buff rock, but other more intriguing hues were laid among them, forming shapes and values that were nearly lifelike. They picked out massive figures, their shapes blocky yet elegant, creatures from another era. Their flesh swirled with patterns inset into their bodies, fractal swirls that sprang from the corners of their joints and fingers. Their faces were squared with heavy jaws set below eyes picked out in bright metal, while crowns of woven leaves anointed their brows. They hunched, the land itself mounded upon their backs, saplings and flowers and vines that trailed about them like tattered cloaks. Moss clung to their cheeks like ancient beards, and they strode across a curved landscape while flowers grew in their wake. At the top, just beneath the unknown words stars gleamed, distant and cold in metallic blues and whites.

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“It is beautiful,” Vess agreed. “Those stars look familiar, as well.”

Felix nodded slowly. “Mhm. There’s something Nym-like about them—”

“No. Those stars are sharper and often with more points. These are different. See here,” she pointed to one of the lower carvings, where the lifted stone was depressed into an elongated shape that was only technically a star. “There’s something…stretched, about these. They remind me of the depictions we saw in the Dark Passage. Inside Aja Nadir.”

Felix scratched his jaw. He remembered the place that sat at the edge of the Dark Passage within Gharion, where they’d found monsters and a sea of star-like motes contained with a monumental fortress. At its bottom, they’d faced down a dangerous prisoner and earned more than a few treasures for their trouble.

“I suppose it does.”

“I have thought of him often since receiving my Omen Key,” Vess admitted. There was no need to explain who she was referring to: Castarius, the Primordial Urge. A being that according to everyone they knew, should not have existed. “These stars, their blue-white hue and shape…I cannot shake the idea that he was connected to this place.”

Felix quirked an eyebrow at her. “Intuition? Or something more?”

“A feeling only. Perhaps we will find more if we continue looking.”

“Hm. Let’s do that, I think—”

His sword buzzed at his waist. "Felix, the Beacon has been set up in Aeonis, and the transfer of raw materials has already begun."

"Ah, excellent Karys.” Felix grabbed the hilt of his sword. “What about the Shadowgate? Has it been found?"

"Yes, in fact, your Claw has found it near the base of the Sovereign’s Palace. It seems—ah, yes, they have just put in a request for you to activate the gate."

Felix and Vess looked toward the center of the city, but they couldn't see it through the winding steps that led upward to the next section, let alone the massive stone archways and buildings ahead.

Pit leaned closer. "You wanna lift?"

"An excellent idea," Vess said, climbing aboard the tenku. Felix hopped up as well, and with the mighty beat of his wings, Pit cleared the second district of Aeonis. He climbed higher, leading them up past the greenery-laden roofs of the giant domiciles and indeterminate shops. Forests extended across their peaks, a bounty of wilderness intermixed beautifully with the stone, metal, and wooden structures.

Felix adjusted his sword. "Karys, where in the city did you say it was?"

"I’ve marked it on your map."

A flex of Will brought up his Authority map, and the city laid itself out before him in illusory lines that he shared with the others. “It looks a lot smaller like this,” Vess noted.

A red mark gleamed on the map. Felix pointed. "There.”

Pit banked, headed toward a collection of spires, all of which were decorated with immense statues. Unlike the laborers and craftsmen depicted on the vast staircases, these were clad in robes and armor reminiscent of warriors and mages. They sat on wide ledges flanked by birds and beasts, like an army waiting to defend the city from threats. The enormous giants were also present, but so were Elves, Orcs, Minotaurs, even Humans.

Felix spotted the purple cloaks of his Claw well before he could see the Shadowgate and Pit flew down in a tight, descending circle. Pit landed on a nearby roof, claws rebounding off of soft grasses before they climbed down to a wide courtyard where his people lingered. They greeted him with bows and murmured “my Lord”s but Felix only had eyes for the Shadowgate. It stood just outside the courtyard, beneath a tall eave and amid a babbling brook and two blossoming trees. It was beautiful, and its surface gleamed as if it had been built just that morning.

I suppose it was.

Robed soldiers quickly moved away from Felix, Vess, and Pit, leaving the area around the Shadowgate to them. He could still feel their eyes on him, of course. Every single one of them bore the lightning mark of the Arclight Legion pinned overtop the dark clawlike badge denoting their Talon within the Fiend’s Claw—they would have been mages before joining up. He wasn’t surprised by their fascination with the Shadowgates. Hell, he still found them incredible.

“It’s not on?” Pit said, tilting his head at the empty expanse of circular stone. “Is it broken?”

“No. It just needs to be connected to the rest of the Heart of Darkness.” Felix reached out, placing his midnight claw against the stone curve of the gate. His fingers pressed against a facsimile of the Atlantes Anima. “I’ll fix that.”

Felix accessed his Authority screen, selecting the sub-menu of his Shadowgate. He could see his two hubs picked out in a dark map, like knotted bundles of roots, they spread outward across vast distances. With a flicker of Will, he brought up his Authority map as well, overlaying the multicolored roots atop his Territories. The two largest bundles were located in the northwest and southeast; Elderthrone and Hevaan, respectively. All of the colored in pathways led to each of his Territories, even to some that he’d yet to visit due to his sudden Authority over them. The Heart of Darkness in Hevaan, however, had many pathways that were dull and gray, indicating gates he’d yet to establish to locations that extended well off his map. They were a concern for another day.

He focused on Aeonis, which was a single dark dot at the center of his empire. Where a rootlike pathway once existed between Elderthrone and Amaranth, now it was faded out. Worse, pieces of it looked slashed apart, as if someone had erased parts of it…or a moon had fallen on top of it. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"It looks like a broken connection." Felix selected it.

Do You Wish To Connect The Aeonis Shadowgate To The Heart Of Darkness In Elderthrone?

“Yes.”

Stand By.

Light sparked behind Felix's eyes as significance, Mana, and Essence surged across his network. Even from a vast distance, Felix recognized the touch of Atlantes. His first Spirit Tree reached its influence through its Grove, the branching roots of which had long since spread through the entirety of the empire’s Shadowgate network. On his map, Felix could see the progress of its power as color filled the grayed-out connection, spreading down from Elderthrone toward their distant Territory. Before it made it more than halfway, however, the coloration stopped.

ERROR!

Interference Detected.

The Giant’s Grove Supersedes Your Authority!

The power of Atlantes vanished and the connection grayed-out again. Felix glowered at the notification. “I’m the Sovereign of Aeonis.”

Insufficient Authority!

The Elders Deny You!

Felix blinked. “Who the hell are the Elders?”