"So you are a Territorial Lord...of two complete Territories." "I am, yes." "And you defeated the Grandmaster Kel'lyv. Personally." Knight Commander Lavin looked at Felix and his retinue, now fully assembled within her command chamber. Alister, Atar, Zara, and Isla all stood beside him, while Pit snuffled around the crystalline pillar at the center of the room. The Commander and her second shared a look, and it was one of disbelief and no little fear; echoes of what she'd felt in their previous meeting. This time, however, Felix couldn't keep things in reserve. He had to give them enough reason to believe him, and Authority held a lot of weight. "And you are allied with the Nagafolk?" she asked. "We know them only at best a myth and at worse a threat. A tale to frighten children. No," she raised a hand, stopping Alister from speaking. "No, I saw them with my own eyes. I'll not doubt that. To ally ourselves with them, however, feels...dangerous." "They are sworn to me." Felix paced across the room, and his agitation was not limited to himself. The others were all shifting in place, eager to be gone. He'd explained the basics to everyone only minutes ago, but the Knights and Gallants they were leaving behind needed a little more detail. "They are also fighting the Fathom, who are responsible for the nastier monsters that have thrown themselves against you. We cleared the Den in the Caleph Pass, but I'm told there are more Dens established throughout the depths. I don't know their numbers, but the Naga claim they're outnumbered. It all points to a dangerous situation, one that I don't think you or your people should wade into." "Do you expect us to sit here, like a turtle in its shell, until we expire?" Covain asked. She pounded the table with her fist. "We've faced them before. I say we take the fight to them!" "Peace, Covain," Prioress Kartez said, sat beside them. The room only had a handful of others, and they were the highest ranking members of the Knights, Gallants, and Menders. "If there are more foes such as the Slaughter Nettle in this Fathoms' pocket, then I do not wish to waste our people so needlessly." "I regretfully agree." Lavin had steepled her gauntleted fingers and was regarding Felix across them. "We must protect our people. Will the new-built walls hold against such monsters, Lord Nevarre?" "They should. They're about as strong as I can make them. Can you extend your shields to cover the whole town?" "That is...not possible." "A shame," Felix said. If he had more time he would have offered to try and solve that issue. His curiosity still burned about that dead space, after all. "How far is this Nagast? It is not on any map I have ever seen," the Prioress asked. She was worried, but their recent bargain seemed to bolster her confidence a bit. The crate of healing supplies likely helped as well. "Far enough that I won't be able to come back and help you. Not quickly at any rate." "We will stand strong without you...Lord Nevarre," Covain said, biting off the end of her angry retort. She mastered herself after a second, but Felix didn't much blame her. The lady clearly had a lot of pride tied up in the Knights' capability, and he'd shown them up with his people. "I truly hope so," he said, but turned to the Menders. "Prioress Kartez, you have a meeting scheduled with my Chancellor in Ahkestria—per our agreement. If you have any needs or messages to send, relay them to him. I'll respond as soon as I'm able, but—" "But we are not your responsibility, Lord Nevarre." Lavin stood, pressing heavily against the table by the crystalline pillar. The movement carried with it a heaviness echoed in her Spirit. "Prince Tevin is our liege lord and it is him that we serve in our duties. I admit I agreed to your solution for Bogfeld because I was curious to see how you might fail. Yet you have achieved an impossible thing and proven yourself personally powerful...no doubt that played a role in the acquisition of your Territories. But your duties call you elsewhere, and we must remain. The Knights Ghreldan and the Gallant Lotuses do not require or desire your protection; we shall provide our own." The woman's words were perfunctory, almost cold, but her Spirit pulsed with a myriad of harmonies that spoke to a tightly controlled fear. He tilted his head, deeper than was proper. Some Knights and Isla in particular sucked in a sharp breath; surprise and disapproval mingling. "I will respect your wishes. We will be gone within the glass." Soon after, they were escorted out of the Commander's chamber, led along the covered pathways through their squat towers, until they were all deposited in the courtyard and left alone by the Knights. The festival had long been broken down, and where there were once tents were now halved as people had begun to return to Bogfeld proper. Felix had seen the Knights advising against it, as they did not know the capabilities of the new walls, but few citizens listened. Most had raced to grab their homes and begin the long processes of returning to normalcy. Felix hoped they were left alone, that his walls would protect them. No one deserved to be uprooted by catastrophe...let alone one that he could have stopped. Shoving those thoughts down, he gathered the Chanters and mages close, gesturing for one of them to erect a sound ward. Once Zara's blue sigils settled around them, he let out a tight breath. "Did you get anything from the pillar?" "No," Atar said and Alister also shook his head. "Not without seeing the interior of hte working." "The pillar is simply a glorified access point," Alister pointed out. "It carries none of the vital sigaldry, just a number of control glyphs and something related to light Mana projection." "Yeah, I saw that part." Felix put his hands on his hips, looking straight down at the dead spot beneath their feet. "Damn, I thought we could get something from it." "I was able to pull some information from their pillar," Zara chimed in. "What? How?" Atar demanded. "Delve deeper into the Harmonics, child, and you will discover a great many capabilities. Felix, they have a Domain Core fueling their defensive construct, you can hear it in the stone. That is the dead spot you have sensed, not because it's warded, but because they've used those same Mana crystals to create a lattice around the core to facilitate their working." She shook her head, seeming impressed despite herself. "There must have been a genius among their order at one point, for it is far more complicated than someone only in the Journeyman Tier could accomplish. This is Master work." "Can we copy it?" Felix asked. "We have the raw materials to attempt it, but I'll require time to experiment. This idea of yours has merit Felix, if we can make it work." "A big 'if,'" Isla added. Felix ignored the woman's skepticism. He'd explained his thought process to all four of them on their walk to the Commander's chamber, but she'd never really been part of it. The mages and Zara could handle it themselves. "Good. Focus on that while we travel, and hopefully we'll have something to offer Haarwatch other than just ourselves." "Don't discount that. Our growth has been great," Alister slapped Felix on the back. "We're far more than we were." "Not gonna be enough, but hey, I've got more than enough sigaldry to experiment with once we return," Atar said. He wasn't hobbling much anymore but he still had that extendable stave in his hand. "I'm not going down without a fight, in any case." "None of us are," Felix said, and walked out of the sound ward, heading toward the Redoubt's gates. "Time to move." Knight Commander Lavin stood atop her tower as the Autarch and his ten ships sailed off. The sun was still high in the sky, shining almost blindingly off the waves as the ships sped after the wake of its monstrous allies. Her second sidled up to her, and Lavin could almost feel the tension across Covain's shoulders. "Do you trust what he said?" Lavin sighed. Her gauntleted hands flexed against the parapet, as if to assure herself it was still there, still strong. "I do. He had no reason to lie to us, just as he had no reason to defend us from that monster wave. Or to spend so much of his own power on fixing our town. No. He has earned too much for me to waste time on disbelieving him now." "Perhaps that was his intent." "Perhaps. But how long do we hold onto distrust?" "He is allied with monsters!" Covain pointed out. "He deceived us, infiltrated the Redoubt and somehow wormed his pet into our Command chamber. If it weren't for his frightful amount of power, I would have charged him with espionage and strung up." "Enough. You are right: we cannot oppose them. I may not agree with the actions the Autarch took, but I cannot exert my will against...whatever he is. I suspect a hidden Grandmaster from the power he clearly contains, and that is in addition to the two other Master Tiers among his company. But he made a deal with the Menders—quite the favorable one for him, according to the Prioress—yet in return he has left her with a substantial amount of potions, tinctures, and salves." Those were worth as much as their warriors, for without the Menders' talents they would have been eradicated already. "What are we do to do, ma'am?" Lavin slapped the parapet and turned away. "The Fathom are not yet here. We will make use of the time given us and prepare. Send the Knights into the boats in force and clear the forest. Have the Gallants prepare the landscape. It may be flooded, we may be surrounded, but we can make the town a nightmare to accost." "Aye, ma'am. I'll see it done." It was far faster to reach the Haestus Temple by Manaship, which wasn't a surprise so much as a relief. Felix stood at the prow of the flagship as Garox lead the way back, Mind racing as he contemplated his options. His plans were in motion, and though he was flustered and worried that the Hierocracy broke his Enclosure, he was also surprised it hadn't happened sooner. It also meant, however, that there must have been a powerful figure with the Hierocratic army; Karys assured him the Enclosure could not have been breached otherwise—not even by an army of Adept Tiers. Death and danger lay ahead of them all. But the plight of the Ghreldan Hills tugged at Felix almost as hard. Nagast was in danger, but the Fathom was here, now, wreaking havoc on the peoples of the Hills...and he had promised to resolve their threat. That burned at him, more than a little. He wasn't perfect or all powerful, and he hadn't even given an Oath or anything, but Felix hated the idea of abandoning the Nagafolk. They might have been giant snakes, but he'd met enough Races and so-called monsters to not question when people were people. Garox slowed as they reached a portion of the waters that was clearly one of the many lakes, and as one his people dove into the deeps. He lingered behind, saluting Felix before diving himself. Felix called for the ships to stop, and the faint whine of Mana engines faded into the mild, somewhat balmy breeze. They had reached the Temple, apparently. What felt like moments later, his Inheritor's Will pulled at his attention like an insistent child. Felix put his hand on the hilt, finding it pulsing with heaviness that was quite unlike when Karys reached out to him. He unsheathed it. A glyph was glowing on the blade, just above the guard, describing a pattern that Felix knew had something to do with absorbing the power of Nymean Temples. Remnant Authority, Karys had called it. The sword had gotten heavier since he'd received it, taking a portion of the Temples he'd claimed into itself. It flashed, once more, just as the lake ahead of them collapsed into a sudden, roaring whirlpool. Like someone had pulled a plug far below the surface, the water was yanked into a vast, spinning tunnel that immediately dragged their ships toward it. "Ignite the engines!" Harn shouted. "Full speed backward!" "No!" Felix shoved his voice as loud as he could make it, all the while staring at his hooked sword. He had no clue how he knew what he knew; he simply did. "No this is for us! Ahead! Forward!" The whining engines growled to life and magic shuddered through the ship's framework like a living creature. Sails snapped taut, and with a lurching dip, Felix's ship surged into the whirlpool's edge. "You sure about this?" Harn asked, shouting over the roar of the water. "Yeah! Somehow!" Felix grabbed the railing and held his hooked blade aloft, now glowing with golden and cerulean light. "Take hold of something!" The flagship traveled once more around the rim before plunging into the depths.