Unbound

"Okay," Felix said, as they stood in an adjoining room near their Pillar-weaving friends. "So I lied a little. A Link with you also makes figuring out my Core Manifestation a bit easier."

"That seemed obvious," Elowen said dryly, reaching for a drink.

The two of them were alone in the room, which was set with a couple of couches and plush rugs on the floor, along with throw pillows for simple seating. Tapestries hung from the walls depicting wildlife and a series of dark ravens flying across a variety of landscapes.

"How would you like to discuss this?" she asked after taking a long sip of her wine. "I know you've Manifested already, so I’m not entirely sure where to start.”

"I haven’t, at least not officially.”

Elowen raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand.”

"My Core Manifestation has never actually been completed.”

“But I saw—”

“You saw a monster,” Felix said, shoving away the visceral memories of the Beast. “I need to figure out how to do this from square one."

Felix sat. "I can.”

“Then I’ll see you in a moment."

Elowen closed her eyes and lowered her head. The small chains across her antlers jingled softly, and her breathing came in deep and slow. It was always interesting seeing a person access their core space from the outside—Felix thought it looked a lot like falling asleep. Elowen sort of vanished inside of herself.

Felix crossed his legs on top of a plush green cushion and glanced at the wall separating their room from where his friends were located. Zara and Pit were left there, along with the Chanters they had gathered for support, arrays and monster cores ready to help. Already, Felix could feel his friends gathering their power into thick threads, and the most prepared of them was already weaving them together.

Harn's in the lead, with Vess close behind. How much of each other can they sense? He listened, tuning his Affinity toward his Links. It took only a few seconds before he closed his eyes and took several calming breaths. Pressed so close together on top of being Linked to him was sending out reverberations to them all.

Everyone. This isn’t a competition.Take the time you need to do it right. He squeezed shut his Links for a moment and focused on his bond. Pit, make sure Evie and Beef don’t overdo it.

I’m on it.

That had to be enough. Felix had too many other things to handle. He pushed the sensation from his direct awareness the best he could manage while still holding his Fiendforge, before closing his eyes and sinking down into his core space. He stopped himself just outside the net of opalescent roots, where the unrelenting black extended into infinity. There, if he focused, Felix beheld a series of bright blue threads that extended in thousands of directions. Some were thick, some thin, and others even had shades of color to them beyond the default blue. His Link with his friends were easily distinguishable of course, and Elowen’s most of all for its newness.

With a firm grip, he opened a hole opening into the blackness between his core space and the System, and he walked through.

There, Elowen waited, her oversized hands and forearms crossed nervously in front of her. "Well, what do you think?”

Felix looked around at a library that was, in a word, incredible.

It spread out around him for hundreds of feet—above as well as below. They stood upon a floating platform, in the center of what seemed like an infinite tower of tomes, while staircases and balconies with wrought iron railings moved around the space as if they had minds of their own. Books migrated across the sky like flocks of birds, along with liquid streamers of purple and gold Mana.

Felix tested the ground, finding it firm as anything. "Aside from this floating flooring, this looks like the library in the Violet Tower.”

"It was modeled after it, but I’ve made changes," she said.

"I noticed. The Tower library didn't go down for, what is that, thirty stories?"

"Sadly no. I’ve only managed twenty-two stories down…and twenty-two stories up."

"Whoa, that's..." Felix turned, taking it all in. "This is really good. The details alone are top notch. Did the Tower teach visualization techniques?"

"Thank you. They did, yes. They had their problems, but they were sticklers when it came to teaching their mages."

Together they walked the space, hopping between floating platforms that rose or fell among the stacks. Staircases rotated over and under them, books slipping between their wrought banisters as some of the shelves reorganized themselves. It was like a delicate dance, one that quickly made Felix dizzy.

It’s like Alister’s mechanical precision mixed with Archie’s chaotic crowds. He couldn’t get over how amazing it was to see people individualized centers—it was like glimpsing a piece of their soul. This is so cool.

Elowen kept explaining parts of the space to him, calling out which Skills were represented by various sections. As they walked, Felix actively sought out her core, but Elowen led them on a wide, circuitous pattern through her confusing labyrinth. It wasn’t until they’d neared the end of her tour that he caught a glimpse of her center—but instead of a ring core, he found a massive purple book set atop a gilded pedastal. The book was closed, but its pages gleamed from within like layers of gold.

Her core had become the Tome of the Witness.

"Is this what happens during Core Manifestation?” he asked.

“It is.”

Felix touched his sternum. “Where are your Pillars?"

"There.” She pointed down, through the gaps in the floating platforms. Below them, a number of bookshelves extended downward from immediately beneath her Core Manifesation. They were continuous structures, filled with books that were bound in leather and wood and metal, all the way to the distant bottom of her core space.

Felix looked up. “They go to the top too?”

The nine shelves there in her center threaded through her entire core space, top to bottom, like the framing of a house. The books within them shifted as he watched, and Felix paid close attention. Though they swapped in seemingly random patterns, the books never left their Pillar, only moving up, down, and laterally across the shelving.

Those must be the threads she wove them with. Interesting, and totally different than what I did.

“Cool, right?” Elowen stepped closer, hands on her hips. “I made it so they blend in with everything else, which helps strengthen my mental defense Skill.”

"Smart.” Felix glanced at the pedestal and the enormous glowing book on it. “So if your core is your Tome of the Witness now, does that mean part of Core Manifestation is replacing your ring cores with it?"

"Yes," she said. "That is the final step of the Manifestation." She paused, her chains jangling between her antlers. "I'm sorry, did you say cores, plural?"

"Mm-hmm. How do you decide what to Manifest?"

"I—" She reluctantly stopped herself from asking more questions, though it clearly pained her to do so. "It was part of the process taught to me by the Violet Grandmasters."

"What was that process, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't mind. When I had woven my Pillars completely and completed my foundation, I was given a task to devise a new organizational system for the library."

"Really?"

Elowen laughed. "Yeah. It surprised me as well, mostly for how incredibly difficult it was. But I had tasted the heights of magic, and they’d hooked me. I needed to explore everything I could. Figuring out my Core Manifestation was the next step, so I was up for the challenge.”

“I had to sort a bunch of books, once. Organizing all of it was a pain in the ass,” Felix said, thinking back on a particular bookstore he’d worked at for a day. “It didn’t help that I couldn’t read at the time.”

“Couldn’t read—then how did you do it?”

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He shrugged. “Figured out how to read. Then sorted them by general category.”

“Hah! I bet they hated that.”

Felix groaned. “She did. I still don’t know why.”

“Same on my end. The Violet library used a method that sorted books by binding method, which is incredibly stupid. Who the hell knows binding methods at a glance?”

“Librarians?”

“Basically. No one who walked into the Tower’s library could ever find anything without them. I knew there was a better way. I spent several weeks figuring things out, but ultimately I returned to the old standby," she said with a grin. "The Library of Congress Classification system."

Felix laughed. “What, didn’t want to try the Dewey Decimal?”

Elowen shook her head vigorously. “Absolutely not! Dewey was a racist, homophobic jerkwad and his system was basically an echo of that. God knows the Library of Congress system isn’t perfect, but it’s what’s used in large academic libraries—and at the end of the day, that’s what the Tower is—was,” she corrected herself with a frown. She shook it off. “I still had to modify it, of course. I was working with a whole new paradigm here. Magic, let alone culture and religion is totally different here—new classifications were needed.”

“Damn. That’s more than I know about libraries. I've used them a ton, but I wouldn't be able to reconstruct one.”

“I spent a great deal of time during my university years working in libraries. It is a familiar place. A comfort, really,” she added, gesturing around them.

"Anyway, I never managed to work out all the kinks, but I presented my brand new organization to them—only to find out I’d wasted my time. Apparently the Grandmasters didn’t expect me to succeed. They were astounded when they realized I had not only given them a new system, but that it was decently effective. Soon after, they revealed that they had already updated their organizational methodology the previous year, thanks to an invention by Grandmaster Tern."

Felix winced. "So it was pointless?"

"Yes and no. The work wasn't needed, but the act of it, the movement of information into streamlined categories for efficient discovery and understanding, that was the real exercise." Elowen walked over to a wide table where a stack of books rested. She scooted them off the edge. Much to Felix's surprise, the moment the books hit the open air, they split open, flapping like birds before taking off towards distant shelving.

"I had already established my Skills. I've only ever had a few, despite my Unbound nature. The woman who took me in warned me against overloading myself with too many abilities. She said that they would languish, unused, and that I should be careful in what I picked."

Felix coughed, for no particular reason.

"As such," Elowen continued, "my nine Skills are the ones I began with from Apprentice Tier onward, Tempering them all. This led to several advantages, but most useful was the ability to know what I was building toward."

"What do you mean?"

"They call Grandmaster the Tapestry Stage for a reason. I was taught that we are taking our Skills and weaving them into a new vision, one that resonates with the core of our being. Bolstered by our foundational Pillars, it becomes a Manifestation of who we are."

"Okay, I think I get the concept." Felix nodded along. Things were lining up in his head, but he had plenty of questions. “Why is it called the Tapestry Stage though? Just because we weave our Pillars? The theming is all off. Actualization, Visualization, Ring, Weaving, Tapestry, Core Manifestation…they just seem to be describing what happens."

"I asked the Grandmasters the same thing," Elowen admitted.

"What did they say?"

"'The ancients were mysterious in their ways.’"

"Boo,” Felix jeered. “What a cop out.”

Elowen laughed. "I know! They passed off other answers on me when that didn’t take, but every single one was different. I tried searching for my own in the library, but there were none to be found. I suspect they were named for purely descriptive reasons without an overlaying meaning."

Felix frowned. He didn't like that at all. He'd put an inordinate amount of time thinking about why the stages were called what they were. Zara hadn't known either. In fact, to speculate on why things were called what they were was one of her taboos. It was common knowledge that looking ahead and knowing too much about the advancement process would taint his journey.

"I've always thought there was more to it than just description," he said, drumming his claws against the solid table before them. "It may sound crazy, but I feel like there's a pattern here.”

“How so?"

"It alternates. Internal…and external." Felix started pacing as he worked through the idea. "Actualization is the internal becoming true, right? We're forming our channels and creating that kernel of power inside of ourselves."

Elowen agreed.

"So Visualization is the external shaping the internal, right? Our preconceived notions create this formation where our power begins to establish itself into a distinct form.” Felix spun around, pacing back the other way. His head was warm and his scales felt tight. “Ring Stage is power condensation inside the core space. See, it's back to internal. Then Weaving….Weaving is accomplished by going from outside inward and seizing the threads of external power we’ve made our own, and weaving our Pillars. And Tapestry is..." Felix stalled out thinking. "I suppose it's taking an internal vision and weaving it into another shape, one that complements our foundations. And then Core Manifestation is externalizing again, this time taking the results of the Tapestry and projecting it outward.”

He paused his pacing. “Does that make sense or am I crazy?"

Elowen nodded along. "That…holds up. Damn, Felix, where were you six months ago when I was struggling with all this?"

Repelling an invasion. Aloud, he said, "Assuming the pattern holds, that means after Core Manifestation is another internal process. Putting aside Tapestry for a moment, I wanted to ask you: what do you know about Paragon Tier?"

"Precious little," she admitted with a sigh. “Not for a lack of trying, though. From what I've learned, there are only a handful of individuals who have ever reached that level of advancement. You'd be better off asking the Eidolon Exalts in your service. I heard they were Paragon Tier."

"Once, maybe," Felix said. "The Ruin and being in stasis for literal Ages reduced their advancement and their memories, too. None of them remember how to reach Paragon Tier, or what's involved beyond pushing our Skills up to level 150."

Elowen groaned. "Of course, it couldn't be so simple. The Ruin," she shuddered. "I can't even think the word without my Mind rebelling against memories I don't even have anymore. What sort of nightmare could it be?"

Felix knew that reaction intimately. It had been his whenever he'd thought on the Ruin up until recently. Now, however, he could recall the look of it. "Words aren't enough to describe it," he said. "A lightless flame that burns all it touches, reducing everything to less than ash. To nothing. But even still, that's not right. It's more than that. An Urge once described it as a being of ultimate jealousy. I don't know if that's true, or if the stupid bird was having fun with me, but it makes sense. The Ruin eradicates everything."

Elowen winced with every word he'd spoken, but by the end, her expression was one of confused wonder. "I can remember what you said. How is that possible? Normally, these things are snatched directly from my memory. I can remember talking of it, but not what was said. How is that possible?"

Felix tapped his temple, and the bronze crown reappeared on his head.

"Ah," she said, "I don't suppose you have another one of those lying around?"

"Fresh out, sadly." He drummed his fingers on the table agian. "How did you figure out the vision for your Tapestry?"

"Back to that. After teasing me with talk of the Ruin," she put up her hands. "That's fair, I suppose. I find that topic more terrifying than not. As far as Tapestry goes, it's..." Her expression brightened. "Actually, you might find this useful."

Elowen gestured, and her core space lit up. The bookshelf Pillars glowed, but so did certain configurations of tomes on other shelves within their circumference.

Her Skills, he realized. Each one was made up of at least seven books, though some had twice or even three times that number. The lights from their bindings brightened, and the overhead illumination around them dimmed until they were surrounded by colorful stars grouped together within the dark expanse of the library.

"When I took away the visualization of my core space and looked just at my Skills, I saw them not as one big picture, right? But like an array." Elowen moved her hands, fingertips glowing, and painted with light. With smooth strokes, she formed lines over her Skills, turning them into connect-the-dot drawings. Leaving behind shapes that reminded him of sigaldry and glyphs. He didn’t recognize any of them though, as if they were formed out of a brand new language that shared an alphabet with what he knew.

As Felix watched, the Skills orbited the center, moving around her in a counterclockwise pattern, centered around the Tome of the Witness. Lines moved, twirling overhead as they joined and slid in tandem, leading Felix's vision to the center like a labyrinth spiraling toward the giant book.

"The pieces of your core space are placed around you in a specific pattern. This depends on the rarity, their Tier, even their relative potency. You can even arrange Skills into smaller groupings, and depending on your visualization, you can get an infinite variety. I like to think it's called a Tapestry because you are taking pieces of your power and connecting them to a wider whole, a unification of what your core space is. Once I saw this," she said, gesturing above, "I meditated on it for three months."

Felix almost choked. "Three months?"

"It took a great deal of visualization practice and honing the right, specific Skills to get where and what I wanted.”

Felix clenched his jaw, memories tumbling across his Mind. The Beast, the Divine Tree, his dual cores, and all of his Skills spinning around his center. There isn’t a bit of unity in any of that. He shoved the worry away for now, and focused on Elowen’s words. “You matched your Skills to your Intent.”

“Yes. I needed a way to see ahead. I am a Seer. My Skills are aimed in that direction, but my core space needed to be powerful enough to accommodate my goals.”

“Which were?”

“I need to anticipate what is coming.”

The Ruin.

She gestured to her core and the pages rustled. "When everything was finalized and I made my push toward Grandmaster…the Tome of the Witness manifested itself.”

“Just like that?” Felix was sure he was missing something.

"I’m simplifying things. I don’t know if I could convey how horrendously strenuous the finalization of Core Manifestation is—add into things a strange magic I can neither describe nor name. It’s like a hand from the System itself, reaching into my soul. Tern always told me that there is a uniqueness to our deepest selves, and that is what gets reflected in our Manifestations—if you do it right.”

“And if you’ve already screwed up and partially Manifested?”

“If you haven’t fully Manifested, nothing’s permanent. There’s been a lot of mages in the Tower’s history that screwed up their approach. It’s painful and it takes a lot of work, but most fix themselves in the end.” Elowen put her hands on her hips. “The real question you have to ask yourself is: what is your deepest self?"

He frowned. "I don't even know how to begin to figure that out."

"Well, the first step would be to consider how your Skills are arranged in your core space. Placement has meaning. Even when someone decides something on a whim, that decision gains depth with the accumulation of time and significance. It's not about what you were destined to unveil and Manifest, it's about what you’ve chosen.”

Elowen didn’t move, but a shift occurred all around her. Purple radiance flowed from the core space as if all things were made of glass, and a deep gold haloed her antlered head. “All of us choose what we become. A rare few of us are conscious of those moments.”

The Tome of the Witness manifested above her head, golden pages flipping rapidly. “Are you ready to show me who you are, Felix Nevarre?"