Unbound

I hate waiting.

It wasn’t the waiting, really, so much as the boredom. Pit had already counted all the tiles across the chamber twice, watched the storm out the windows, and stared aimlessly through the swirling Shadowgate. Even the mosaic at the back of the chamber—while beautiful and fascinating—could only hold his attention for so long. He'd already noted how few of the tenku looked like him. Most were different colors or had odd beak shapes and plumage. Only two had the same russet and black coloration as himself, but those were far smaller.

How many Evolutions have the Chimera here undergone? From what A’zek told him, Evolutions were unpredictable and often took time. Two, like me? Three? More?

He was excited to find out.

“Hm.” He tilted his head, studying the mosaic. “Are these other ones a sort of Dragon? I thought they were Lost.”

"I believe they are wyverns," A’zek said, tapping the tiles with one large paw. “Our cousins.”

Huh. The feathered lizards certainly looked nothing like Dragons. While they were sufficiently lizard-like, they had only four limbs, two of which were their wings—and while they had long tails and manes like Yin, both were covered in colorful feathers.

"They look fast," Pit said, eyeing them critically. "Are they fast?"

A'zek lifted his chin. "My father once said they were the fastest amongst all Chimera."

A'zek stepped back from the mosaic, craning his neck to look at a detail higher up. "There's a figure here. I didn't notice them before."

"Where?"

"Between the wyvern's wings, there. It’s a small detail, like they're supposed to be in the distance. Look there, just below the storm clouds."

With the harnoq’s help, Pit found it. He was right. They were very small, less than a third of the smallest Korvaa in the foreground. It looked like nothing more than a bundle of hooded cloth whipping in the wind, with slender limbs sticking out from the bottom and one raised up high into the air. Pit recognized the design. It was similar to so many he'd seen before, always while wandering ancient ruins with Felix: armor belted over flowing robes and a cloak embroidered with what looked like vines and leaves.

"Nym," he said.

"I think so. Do you see their hand?"

Pit did. The upraised hand of the Nym intersected with the white and silver lightning coursing across the storm clouds, as if the figure were holding onto the lightning itself.

"Reminds me of Felix's Skill," Pit said with a thoughtful chirrup. "I thought that was a Primordial ability."

"Perhaps the Nym had a similar magic," A'zek said with a shrug of his feline shoulders. "It's interesting, though, and it suggests that perhaps more than just a few Chimera might have survived. There's a culture here, hidden away."

Pit stood up, paws almost dancing. "Then let's go."

A'zek sat back down. "All things in their own time, little cousin. We must wait for the scouts." With a showing of annoying patience, the harnoq lifted a leg and began to lick it.

Pit groaned.

It wasn't just the waiting. More than anything, he wanted to find his own kind. His mother had died defending him just before he'd met Felix, and Pit had never known siblings or extended family. His earliest memories were happy ones—just him and his mom flying around the Foglands.

What will it be like to meet them?

He and Felix were closer than blood, but there was something about his own kind that called to him. Even when they first met, Pit had felt strangely comfortable around A'zek, as if he'd known him for many years. And A'zek was a harnoq, a cousin to tenku, but not the same.

With an irritated grunt, Pit leapt, flapping his wings as Ouranic Dominion flared. Air Mana surged beneath him, spiraling around his Body in a tight cyclone that sent Pit soaring to the vaulted ceiling and their many windows. A series of ornamental perches were there, emerging from the walls at regular intervals, each carved into a bird claw grasping an orb.

He alighted there and regarded the storm outside. It raged, smearing the images with rippling rainwater, but Pit could make out a terrain of tall cliffs separated by chasms of surging sea. The Splintered Cliffs—the dominant area of Sunara—were well named, and the amount of distance between them was a challenge for their entire force. Those chasms weren't terribly wide, but in the hazy distance, that began to change. According to Vess, the farther out into the sea one traveled, the more rare the cliffs became, until only storm-tossed waters filled the horizon.

How are we going to find Chimeras if we can't reach them?

Those among them that could fly would be fine, but too many of them could not. Pit hadn't been paying a lot of attention during their meeting in the bastion, but he recalled bits and pieces. The others had hoped there was a way to navigate the area, but during their discussions, Felix had anticipated many staying behind to secure the Shadowgate and prevent any threats from traveling back into Elderthrone. Pit considered that a necessary bulwark—his home needed to stay safe.

Still, that left a sizable number that would have to travel with them somehow. Now, Pit could carry several of their team on his back. He still wore the Dragoon saddle he'd found in Fortress Fenwald, which held two dozen securely. If they really scrunched up, he could probably double that. And, if they didn't care about safety at all, perhaps a few more on top.

I could handle more, too. He was very strong now, and his four wings were basically made to carry heavy burdens through the air. Yet that would leave the majority of their forces stranded there. Useful when protecting the Shadowgate, but overkill by any reasonable estimation. Bah!They should just let me and the strongest go alone.

He could handle shadow monsters and gods. He'd done it before.

The storm roared as the far doors opened, emitting a trio of Henaari Dawnguard into the room. Pit watched from above as they shook off their enchanted cloaks and swiftly approached Vess.

"You have returned quickly. What have you found?"

"There is a broken keep at the top of the cliff. Little remains but rain-soaked ruins."

"Ruins?" Tzfell asked, eager. "Is there any remnant of who built them?"

"None. The keep is nothing more than a few stones forming the foundations. Everything else has been worn away. There are a series of fields and a thin forest, too. It seems we've emerged at the western edge of Sunara. The coastline is only a few leagues distant, and beyond them, we could spy the southern tip of the Rimefangs."

Bored as Pit was, he was tempted to fly up and take a look himself. Ruins could be interesting. Felix had found some neat stuff in ruins.

"An escape route, if we need it," Vess said thoughtfully. "Useful, though I had hoped for more."

The doors once more banged open, this time accompanied by a dramatically timed thunderstrike. Yintarion slid through the opening like an eel but twice as slick. He twitched his tail, slamming the doors closed behind him before swimming toward Vess, his sunset scales glistening, dripping upon the steps in rivulets of stormwater.

"I have found something down below," he announced. “Something very interesting.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Pit perked up.

"I am not a fan of rain," A’zek said with a hiss. "Can you not go faster?"

He clung to Pit's back, claws braced against tenku fur without care for injury. Pit didn't mind. The harnoq wasn't strong enough to hurt him.

Pit shook his head. "I don't want to lose the others."

The others in question were climbing down the long path carved into the cliff, leading down from the Shadowgate. Save for a small contingent of guards, most of their soldiers trailed behind Yintarion and Vess as they led the way down what was clearly an ancient road that had been worn away by the wind and sea. It was crumbling in most places, but even the most stable portions were without guardrails and slick with the storm. It made for treacherous footing, and they were taking their time.

Pit preferred to fly, though the winds tried to tear him down again and again—Ouranic Dominion was getting quite a workout, but he was entirely too big for such measly winds to affect. As he made slow descending spirals, he looked farther out into the purpled horizon where silvered lightning thrashed from sea to sky.

How hard will the storm be to fly through? Pit was eager to find out.

"Ah, they're reaching the bottom,” A’zek pointed out. “We can see it. Look.”

A veil of spray and fog parted beneath them, revealing the base of the cliff. There, the waves surged against the rocks, crashing in white breakers that shot up hundreds of feet.

"Get us out of this rain," A’zek growled.

"Oh, fine," Pit said.

He dove.

A'zek yowled in alarm, sinking his claws into Pit's barding.

Pit screeched in joy as the wind roared in his ears. He shot downward, pelted by rain, his wings tucked tight. The waves approached, breaking against jagged rocks like enormous teeth and casting immense, foamy waves that shot into their path. Pit blasted through them, salty spume trailing them like banners. A chaotic laugh ripped from his chest, booming in the rain as joy flushed through him like blood in his veins.

"Pit!" A'zek screamed.

The tenku snapped out his wings, catching the currents, and Ouranic Dominion flared. A second set of waves crashed up and over them, soaking them both, though the swirling air Mana blasted most of it away as they banked hard, just over the surface of the sea. A’zek yowled in panic, and Pit kicked off the waves with his paws, flapping hard as they shot across the fog and spray and toward a small cove, neatly hidden from above. There, the waves were abruptly calm, stopped by some strange feature.

It was huge.

Easily larger than the ruin that held the Shadowgate, Pit took it to be a cavern at first—yet the ceiling was vaulted, carved smoothly from the cliff itself with a number of support arches that extended from the immaculate walls. Two long platforms extended out into the calm water in a U-shape along the walls, originating from a large, open space that resembled nothing more than an empty dock.

Or a staging ground. It reminded Pit of all of the places just outside fortresses, where armies might gather.

He landed on the smooth stone a little harder than he intended, but then again, his feet were wet, and the rock was quite slippery. A'zek leapt off of his back immediately. The harnoq's fur stuck up in all directions, and he was dripping a small river onto the stone.

"I hate this Territory."

Pit laughed, his bigger voice making it sound like deep bells. He stopped when he caught the harnoq’s glare. "Sorry.”

A'zek rolled his eyes.

While the others wound their way down the treacherous trail, A’zek retreated to the far wall and kept himself busy cleaning himself of as much water as he could manage. Pit, however, was soon bored again.

The cove offered nothing interesting that Pit could find. The walls were smooth, like they’d been sanded down, and the stone was polished enough that he could make out the vague silhouette of his body as he prowled around. There wasn’t much to prowl, though. The entire cove formed that single U-shaped curve, big enough for hundreds of people but utterly featureless.

When Vess finally arrived, shiny glaive leading the way, she found Pit idly splashing a paw into the water from the dock’s edge. “Have you found anything of note?”

“Nope.” He slumped onto his hindquarters and lashed his bushy tail. “There’s a whole lotta nothing here.”

A soaking wet Laur followed behind the Dragoon, his eyes wide, and his mouth curved into a delighted grin. “Nothing? Did you see these wards? They’re so ingrained with the world around us that I can barely tell they’re present, but look!”

He gestured to where ten-foot waves slipped past the upthrust teeth of the breaker stones and met the entrance to the cove…only to be reduced to small ripples that lapped at the edges of the inner platform.

“It’s absorbing the water and force Mana and dispersing it!”

“That’s incredible…How?” Tzfell asked, following after the Elf.

“I haven’t a clue!”

As the others filed in, several more Chanters crowded around the two of them, as well as an Arclight or three. They all proceeded to make awed noises at the water.

Pit could admit that it was very neat. Seeing the big waves reduced to flat splashes in the span of a few feet was a cool effect, but it was hardly exciting.

“This place is too well made to have nothing here,” Vess said, raising her voice to address her people. “Search closely.”

They did just that. Sensory Skills were utilized by the dozen as each member of the Team combed the walls and floor, but there was nothing to find.

Pit groaned. “We should just go ahead,” he said again.

“We aren’t doing that,” A’zek said patiently. “Come on, settle back here and let the soldiers do their work.”

Pit dragged himself to his feet, moving from the edge of the empty dock. A’zek retreated to the back end of the U-shape that defined the space, but as Pit drew nearer, the harnoq lifted a paw.

“Hold.”

Pit cocked his head to the side. “Why?”

“The air. It feels…full.”

Pit rolled his eyes and stepped closer. “Full of what—Oh.” He stopped again and lifted his beak up to stare at the ceiling. “Yeah, what is that?”

“It grew stronger as you approached. Come closer.”

He did, until the two Chimera were level with one another. The sensation was soft, like warm air against their fur, but it had a sound, too: a chiming that perked up their ears.

Pit kept walking, passing by A’zek, but the sensation did not change further. “Hm, maybe it’s back where you are?”

The harnoq shifted, stepping closer to Pit, only for the escalation to resume. “I believe it’s responding to both of us.”

It kept intensifying, all the way to the farthest wall of the cove, where the glossy flooring met the polished wall. They stopped there, staring at their blurry reflections in the dark rock as soldiers passed behind them with their hands trailing across the ground.

"Blessed Raven…it's a door," A'zek said and placed his paw against the stone.

Lines scribed themselves into the wall, curling around into intertwining knotwork designs that spread from his panther paw. Wings, sinuous necks, beaks, horns, and claws etched themselves before their eyes, white against the dark gray stone before a light welled up within them. Someone exclaimed behind the two Chimera, but Pit didn’t pay attention—he only had eyes for the pair of giant doors that formed right in front of his beak. They were twice as wide as his wingspan and double that in height, taking up the entire cavernous space before they were finished manifesting.

The last line completed, and the sound of a vast bell shook them, drowning out even the rumble of storm and surf outside.

Authority Required!

“What have you found?” Vess asked, walking between the Chimera.

A’zek dropped his paw. “I am unsure.”

“Looks like a door to me,” Pit said.

“Big doors,” Evie observed. “What would need that kinda space?”

“Something bigger than giants,” Battlelord Ari rumbled.

“It requires someone with Authority to open it up.” A’zek inclined his wide head to Vess. “I believe you’re the only one here with any, my Lady.”

She chewed at her lip. “So it would seem.”

“I don’t think it’s dangerous,” Pit whispered, leaning his giant head down to Vess’ level. “But I’ll keep you safe if it is.”

A smile curled her lips, dimpling her cheek and warming the gold in her eyes. She patted him on the beak fondly. “I know you will.”

With her other hand, Vess reached out and placed it on the glowing lines. “Open.”

Authority Insufficient!

“Ah.” She pulled her hand back. “It requires more than I have to offer.”

“What?” Pit snorted angrily. “Stupid door.”

He slammed a dark paw at the stone, and they boomed in response.

Authority Acknowledged!

Be Welcome, Storm Tyrant!

Be Welcome, Child Of Harmony!

“Intriguing,” A’zek murmured.

“What’d I do?” Pit asked, looking frantically around.

Vess beamed at him. “It seems you have a measure of Authority yourself, Pit.”

“Since when?”

The doors split, the light gleaming vibrantly before fading as the two halves swung open entirely. Pit blinked through the flash, and his beak dropped open as magic bloomed inside the chamber beyond.

“Blighted Night,” Evie swore.

Pit danced from paw to paw. Now this is interesting!

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