Unbound

"Calm down, Beef."

Hollow's voice was as soft and soothing as ever, but Beef didn’t care. He paced nervously across the wild meadow set into his manor, stepping heavily past the statues of his Skills at the edge of the stepped Well. The feature dominated the center of his core space, progressing downward in tiers toward his glowing core. Each chitin statue was bigger than ever before. They gleamed with a blackened green light from every crevice and carving upon their bodies, and even the moss that clung to their bases was lush and vibrant. Surrounded by his visualized success, Beef had hoped he would feel some form of confidence return, yet he couldn't shake his nerves.

He walked closer to the railing. The Well of Skills sat atop of an enormous, sprawling mansion, clinging to the back of the Golden-Bronze Beetle. The landscape swayed with each scuttle of the Beetle’s legs, though not as much as one might expect. There was a sure-footed swiftness that had them almost gliding across the fields of golden wheat. In the distance, the horizon curved, as if he were looking at the Earth from far above—except here, the planet was tiny enough that the Beetle completed a full circumnavigation in an hour.

Winds blew, shifting the golden wheat around and tossing about the small, stunted trees that spread out among them. The beetle's legs moved with a delicate efficiency, never tearing up the land or breaking through the trees, not even so much as disturbing the grain as it moved. Beef took it in, trying to let the precision of it comfort him.

"Your plan is solid," Hollow said again.

“But what if…” Beef shot a look across his Skill statues. Beyond the wide mouth of the Well was another section of his sprawling manor, built from yellow brick and bronze. Set into the nearest wall, however, was an off-white door, covered in scratches.

Beef pulled his gaze away, but it was hard. "What if I don't do it right? What if I screw up?"

"That's why we're here," said a voice, and it was like thunder across his little world.

Beef threw up an arm as light burst from a single point in space. A statue of chitin formed from the earth, mimicking the identical shape of a powerfully built man. As fast as it sculpted itself, the statue cracked, cheating turning to flesh, hair, and the black scales of the monster he called his friend.

"Hi, Hollow,” the man waved at the Graven Aegis standing nearby. He didn’t take his eyes off Beef though. “I only heard the last part of that, but listen to your friend here, man. We've got your back."

"I know," Beef said, fully turning back toward his friend and the well, "but what if…”

“Did you change your core space?" Felix asked, looking around.

Beef's mouth snapped shut, and he very carefully didn't look at the scratched door. It wasn't new, but had Felix noticed it?

"A little. Yes, a little."

"I see a bunch of sigaldry all over this house," the man leaned over the railing, "and the big beetle, too. I didn't know you were into inscription."

"It's magic," Beef said, incredulously. "Of course I'm interested. I'm just not, like, good at it."

"He's being modest," Hollow said, stomping closer. Her Graven Aegis form gleamed more brightly here than it ever had in the real world, as if her magic was amplified in this place. "He has been studying forging techniques and inscription for the past day and has gotten a decent grasp of the basics. His Inscription and Manafolding Skills have already hit level 32."

"I had help from Harn and—it doesn’t matter. They're not right," Beef complained, gesturing to the markings across his manor and Beetle. "They don't look like normal sigaldry."

"They don’t. Hm." Felix pointed down at the Beetle's back, where the housing gave way to the grooved contours of its shell. "Those glyphs look more like constellations than anything else.” He turned. “They're on your Skill statues, too."

Beef groaned. “Yeah. I was trying something but it’s not working. I am proud of my progress, it’s just not where I want it,” he added, holding a hand up to Hallow before she could start consoling him again. She meant well, but Beef couldn’t stand the coddling sometimes. At least she doesn’t look like my mom anymore.

"What's the end goal here?" Felix asked, walking up to one of his Skills.

"I want to make them all move."

Felix blinked. "Interesting. Like the Risen?"

"Nah, I took inspiration from Orun."

Felix looked at the statues again. "Oh, you're right. I thought maybe these were just random sigaldry that you kind of... but no, they look very similar to the inscriptions on the Eidolon Exalts. You know those are very complicated arrays, right?"

Beef wilted a bit. "Yeah, I know, I just thought maybe I could... never mind, it's stupid."

"No, it isn't. But you’ve been studying addition and subtraction, and these operate more like calculus.” Felix pointed at the central cluster on the abdomen of the Skill statue. “They're complicated because they use memories."

Hollow tilted her squapped head. "How?"

"We’re not a hundred percent sure, but Karys and I think the memories are extracted as a part of the transference ritual. The memories act as anchors, holding the Exalts in a sort of stasis."

Hollow nodded. "Yes, anchor glyphs to bind the Mind and Spirit together with their new Body. That is complicated magic. Orun made mention of the transference."

“He didn’t mention memories?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“He might have,” Beef said, sheepishly. “A lot of what him and Telys were talking about was a little over my head. Wait. Does that mean I could add memories into these arrays and make them work?

"I’m guessing there's a lot more to it than that, but at its most basic level that’s how they function. I delved into the Exult’s memories this way before, and they’re a cluster of important events from their lives. If you were gonna do that, you’d need a source for the memories, a way to extract them, and to choose the right ones.”

Beef put his hands on his hips and looked down at the grass. Ideas swam through his Mind, slow and hazy at the moment, but there was something at the tip of his tongue. He shook his head, trying to rattle it loose, but only succeeded in driving the elusive thought away. Beef groaned.

“Tell me about your Pillars,” Felix said. “Where will they go? Here, in the Well?"

"Nah." Beef walked away from the Skill Well. The thing descended downward toward his core, shining brighter with the blackened green light of necromancy. But Beef didn’t need a foundation there, in the heart of the Beetle. “That wouldn’t make sense.”

He walked to the railing and pointed over the edge…toward the agile legs that plied their way across his little world. “I’m going to put them there.”

"The legs?" Felix said. "But this is an insect—" The man paused. "You gave your beetle nine legs?"

Beef laughed. "Yeah! It was really tricky, but the Multipede was the key. Big centipede creatures bunch their legs in groups as they move, which makes their movement a little more slithery but keeps it all smooth."

“Fascinating.” Felix peered down at the moving appendages. "You've etched out spaces within them?"

"That was tricky too. I needed to open up space for the Pillars to be woven across the leg and then through the body, but I couldn't have the Beetle fall apart, you know? So, I had to figure out a bracing structure to make that work. But honestly, I want the Pillars to be part of that movement because that is really what this place is. It's—” Beef paused, groping for the right words. “It's entropy given new life."

He looked at Felix, trying not to wince. "At least that's what I was thinking."

Felix slapped him on the back hard enough that the breath was knocked out of his lungs. "That’s incredible, dude! The concept you’re establishing is—I can see the vision.”

Beef grinned, and the wind rushed through the wheat fields around them. “You can? Hah! I knew it was a good idea! I told you Hallow!”

“Yes,” she said, tone flat. “Good job, Beef.”

Felix smirked at the Graven Aegis for some reason but Beef didn’t care. The sun seemed suddenly brighter. “What do you need to know?” he asked the man.

“Your process. You're going to fill the hollow sections you've made in the legs with the Pillars?"

"I am. The weaving will be through the middle and around the joints, then I’m gonna layer chitin over it all. Give the whole thing some armor plating by layering my entropy through it all and giving the woven leg a denser structure. It should more than compensate for any weakness introduced by hollowing it out.”

Felix scratched his head. "That’s a good plan, and not something I would’ve thought about. Did you learn all this structure stuff from the books in the library?"

"Not really, no. I learned most of it from my dad." Beef smiled, staring out into the golden fields as they swayed in a wind he couldn't feel. Clouds gathered in the sky. "He was a civil engineer. Had all these drawings around the house. He worked on bridges and stuff.”

“Did he teach you a lot?"

"I guess so. I don't remember it like that, though.” Beef scratched his jaw as memories prodded against his Mind, summoned in muted colors and faded soundtracks. “He took me out looking at things all the time. Projects he was working on or just things he admired. Showed me the drawings and all that math." He shuddered. "The math was a bit too much for me, but the drawings—they were beautiful. All the variables accounted for, all the allowances considered. How weight was distributed across different shapes. It's... It's always been so interesting to me.”

The clouds thickened, and the sun dimmed ever so slightly. “And now—I don't know. All this construct work with chitin just makes me think of him." He swallowed. I hope he's alright.

"Why wouldn't he be?" Felix asked.

He started. He didn't realize he'd said that last part out loud. He forced a laugh. "Of course he is. Just, uh, I left suddenly, you know? I was in my room. Lightning. You know the rest."

Felix nodded. "I'm familiar. I left my mom behind, but then I wasn't a teenager living at home.” The man paused, staring out at the fields. They were still golden, but the color had dulled with cloudy sun. “After this is all over, do you want to go back to Earth? I asked you before, but you never gave me an answer."

"I thought about it a lot. But—" Beef flinched away from memories of rain. Of lightning. A slick roof. Of his dad—falling—just out of reach. All of the Strength in his Minotaur Body seemed to slip away, and Beef felt…small. "I'm afraid to.”

The clouds rolled, bruising the sky purple and all but obscuring the distant sun. On the far side of the Well, the scratched door loomed. He couldn’t see it, but Beef could feel it pressing against his Mind.

"We had a fight," he said, his voice thin. "I pushed him and he..."

Cold rain fell on them, Beetle and wheat.

The door cracked open.

“There was a storm.”

Lightning flashed—not from above. It had come from inside the scratched room. His heartbeat sped up.

"My dad slipped. He fell."

A crashing sound echoed from out of that door. Hallow and Felix turned toward it in alarm. Beef looked up at the sky, unwilling to look back even as the old wood creaked open farther. He never looked in there anymore—he wanted to pretend he’d outgrown that part of himself—but he knew it was still there. Waiting.

He sucked in a ragged breath. "I left him, Felix. The System took me and I don't know if... What if he got hurt? I’ve been gone so long…what if I'm too late?"

"Oh, buddy." Suddenly Beef was wrapped in two scaled arms, clutched by claws that could rend steel and stone like butter. Yet all they did was squeeze firmly. Beef jerked away, but he couldn’t fight Felix’s Strength…and he didn’t want to. He leaned in, his muscles melting as something inside of him gave way.

His cheeks felt warm in the cold rain.

The hug felt good. It wasn't like his dad's hugs, but it was close. Despite all of his muscles and the size and power he’d stolen from the Minotaurs, the hug made Beef feel safe.

His throat hurt and his eyes burned. Sometimes he let himself forget how much he missed his home.

Across the Well, the door opened further—and this time Beef saw it. His childhood bedroom was revealed in the light of a computer monitor and bathed in the crash of lightning through a thin glass window. It remained the same as it had in his previous core space, as it had on the night he had disappeared. The storm shook the windows and the latch barely held.

Felix glanced at the door, but the guy didn't ask about it. He just held him as his breathing slowed. And eventually, slowly, the scratched door closed again.

"I wish I could give you a better, more sure answer," Felix said after a time. "All I can promise is that if we make it out of this thing, I'll see what I can do."

He nodded, sniffling. "Okay."

"First, we have to tackle the obstacle ahead of us." Felix pushed Beef to arm's length and locked eyes with him. "Are you up for that? It's okay if you're not."

"No." He wiped his snout and eyes with the heels of his hands. "No, I can do this. I've got a plan."

"It's a good one," Hallow added.

Felix smiled gently. "Tell me."