Silence - Chapter 35

3/3


* * *


The Manaship tore into the dark, listing to the side no matter how Felix jostled it. Half of the rigging had been severed during his fight with Bridgven, and the rest was pulling the sails askew. It was also far, far bigger than the small sloop he'd stolen before and only his prodigious Mana capacity allowed him to pilot it at all. Especially since he didn't have anyone hooked up to the engine. When Pit and Felix had made it back to the Manaship, he quickly went below, intent on pulling the Dwarven slave off the array no matter how disgusting he appeared. Except he found the man already dead with a smile on his lips.

Felix shook himself from the memory of it. Behind him, the Maw chortled.

Manaship Pilot is level 17!

Felix funneled what Essence he could—that's what the Maw called it, right?—into his core and Skill. He needed all the advantages he could get to pilot the huge ship alone.

Death follows you Felix Nevarre, like a faithful hound. You must learn to set it to course ahead. To hunt.

Pit growled at the Primordial, though it was spoiled by him sliding several feet across the deck. Silence, Enemy!

"What he said," Felix shouted. While there was no wind, the creak and sway of the Manaship was plenty loud, and the thrumming song of the engine—he could hear it through the Control Node—it was a constant low scream in his ears. "Brace yourselves! We're coming to some rocky terrain!"

Islands the size of men began to litter the Void and there was no way to avoid them. They floated at all heights so that they hit masts and sails just as easily as the bowsprit. More and more impacted them, slowing them only slightly, still too small to even dent the hull or dimple the sheets. Yet ahead the way thickened, the islands coming in heavier and heavier formations.

Felix had been flying in the general direction Bridgven was headed before they'd stopped for him. If the pirates' map was accurate, then he was heading straight back to the Ten Hands fortress. He had to catch them before they got that far. He may be strong and fast, but he held no illusions that he'd be able to take on an entire fortress. Not to mention that Desolation-fueled forcefield.

Briefly he contemplated flying up above the worst of the rocks, avoiding the chaos and damage he was headed toward. Yet to do so, Felix knew he'd have a good chance of missing the pirates in the chaos of the stone fields. Another island collided with the hull, jarring them hard. Felix was jostled at the Control Node, his ribs aching, but he pressed forward, scanning the horizon.

Questions burned in his mind, questions without answers. Why were people flung into the Void? To wither and die in this hellscape for no reason except that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or was there a reason?

The Maw said he was summoned, and so did that Geist. Vvim. Why? For what possible purpose would anyone bring him across worlds?

See! Enemy! Pit's screeling cry was hard to miss, and the joy and righteous anger across their bond impossible to subdue. Ahead!

Beyond the stones, three ships the size of his own were cruising through the rock field far steadier than Felix himself. They weren't moving fast, which was a spot of luck, because now the rocks were jamming into his ship hard enough to throw him off course. Felix buckled down, applying all the levels he had in Manaship Pilot to the task.

Piloting the craft was a matter of Willpower and Alacrity, at least to do so directly. The Mana engines seemed to drain poor souls of their Mana and Willpower, leaving them husks and the pirates freely able to pilot without strain. It was the dirtiest of cheats, and Felix felt his blood go hot just thinking of it; then again, his blood had never settled, not since he first saw the voidbeasts the night before.

Let us crush them beneath our heels! It is their Fate to die, and our Fate to sup upon them! The Maw cackled, long and hard, doubled up in the remaining shroud lines.

Am I a slave to fate? Felix snarled and so did Pit. No. I chose this. A free Maw or a clean death and I chose the latter. Maybe he ended up on the Continent because the Maw needed a Vessel, or some wizard somewhere summoned him. He was in the Void because he chose not to do that. Felix was a defier.

He would defy until the end.

If fate is real, I'm not gonna wither away and die piecemeal. He laughed, and Pit let out a piercing screech of dark joy. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna make it everyone's problem.

Felix checked his Mana. After everything, he still had a bit over seven hundred points of it left. Enough to handle the pirates, he hoped. Refusing to give himself time to doubt, he poured more of his Mana into the Control Node. The entire ship bucked, hard, before the streamers of green-gold energy exploded through the decks and up into the sails. The ship lurched forward, bashing another huge island out of the way to the sound of splintering bone.

C'mon! Closer!

The Manaship swayed beneath him, shuddering with every careless impact. Felix pressed onward regardless. The planks beneath his feet vibrated, everything did, as the engine below hummed higher and higher. Ahead, the enemy ships were moving quickly as well, but not nearly as fast. Instead, some sort of ward shoved the stone island away, clearing their path.

Closer!

The sound of cracking bone and crashing rock became constant as Felix's ship accelerated still more. He was moving a lot faster than the pirates, but the ship wouldn't last much longer. Already bits were shaking loose from above, raining down on the deck along with chunks of broken rock.

"Maw! How far can you travel from me?" Felix asked.

The Primordial was beside Felix suddenly and without warning. Its eyes were intense pools of wild greens and blues, without pupil or whites. Suspicion crawled across its face. Why?

"I need you to tell me if the ship, that ship," Felix pointed with his free hand at the rear-most pirate ship. "Does it have captives? How many?" He thought a moment, then added, "Better yet, tell me for all of them. But that one first."

What benefit does this favor gain me?

"I won't kill us by crashing this ship straight into one of those islands," Felix pointed off into the distance, where the rocks grew so large they rivaled large hills for scale. Far bigger than anything in Echo's Reach. "This isn't a compromise, Maw! If you can do it, do it!"

...Fine. But you owe me.

The Maw, sour faced and scowling, zipped out of sight. Far, far faster than their ship was moving. Felix held onto the Control Node, watching his Mana drain away faster and faster, and hoping. Hoping he wasn't too late.

The Maw reappeared, popping into existence beside him so suddenly Felix was almost thrown by the ship's latest collision.

The rearmost vessel only carries a few captives, fifteen. The majority of them are within the two flanking it. Close to three hundred split among them, and all of them are held in the lower holds, beneath the foremast.

"You're useful!" Felix said from between his gritted teeth. "Imagine that! Pit! Be ready!"

A screech answered him, his friend had his claws in the deck and his wings outspread.

Felix increased the pace, racing up to the trailing ship. The pirates finally noticed him, and a number of flaming green arrows arced through the Void, landing amid sails and decks. Green flames spread from them as if the ship were made of tinder, the sails flashing away in a sheet of verdant fire. He did not stop, but poured all his Will into the ship, all his Alacrity, for it to move faster.

His ship crashed into the rear of the next, demolishing his prow and tearing open the aft. The bowsprit, already half-torn apart, pierced through a Human manning one of the rear ballistae. Felix and Pit jumped at the moment of impact, their Strength and wings respectively carrying them over the shattering bone and raging green flames. They landed with a grunt, just behind the mizzenmast, only just avoiding an accidental tumble that would set off his Acrobatics Skill.

Which meant he didn't see the cutlass aimed at his neck until a Frost Spear took the pirate through the throat. The Hobgoblin clutched at his red-shaded skin, stabbed through with purple-white ice Mana, and a heavy shape knocked him to the ground. Pit bit, once, and the pirate went still.

"Good job, bud," Felix said. His ear perked up. More pirates were coming down the deck, at least six of them. "I'll take the left, you take the right?"

Pit nodded, and they both of them took off. Felix leaped the railing leading down from the quarterdeck, his fists lighting up with blue electricity as he came down on four grizzled pirates. They snarled and shouted, their own Skills igniting the air, but Felix hit the ground and released a pulse of kinetic lightning.

Reign of Vellus!

All four of them were thrown backward, their Skills misfiring or washed away completely. Felix advanced, not giving them a second to recover. Corrosive Strike claimed their lives, one after the other, until none remained.

"Assault! To arms!"

Felix narrowed his eyes and took a running jump, vaulting the barrels lashed to the center of the deck. He landed amid another battle, Pit versus eight pirates. The tenku was holding his own, his Wingblades dangers in such close quarters, but more grubby fighters were stomping up from belowdecks. They had to hurry.

Influence of the Wisp!

You Have Enthralled An Unknown Pirate (x6) for 3 Seconds!

All but two of them froze, washed in the same blue-white flames that limned Felix's outstretched arms. Power ate at them, though they couldn't scream, and Felix hurled an orb of dark acid at their gathered mass. Wrack and Ruin tore through them, sizzling through armor and limbs, while from the other side a forest of Frost Spears stabbed forth. Before the Enthrall could lapse, every single one of them were dead.

Pit shrieked in triumphant fury.

"Look sharp," Felix said to him. "More are coming."

A wave of new combatants ran up the nearby stairs, all of them bearing swords or short spears. Behind them, a familiar Ogre stumped up onto deck, his heavy muscles barely constrained by the canvas jacket he wore. It was the same one who attacked him back when he first met the pirates. He sneered at Felix, cracking his knuckles as green fire raced across the rigging. "Leave the Human! He's mine!"

The other pirates rushed around Felix, attacking Pit instead, and a storm of wind and ice began. The Ogre paid it no mind, instead sizing up Felix. He grinned, bearing broken yellow tusks.

"We meet again, little man," the Ogre said. The Ram, that was his name. "I was promised another shot at you, and I aim to take it here."

"Then take it," Felix snarled. He moved before the Ogre could react, shattering the deck beneath his feet and shooting at his midsection. Ram tried to bring his arms down, to slam Felix into the ground, but the Unbound's fist met Ogre gut before he had a chance.

Corrosive Strike!

Reign of Vellus!

Felix felt his eye burn, washing his vision with blue light as his two fists met the Ram's gut. Acid and lightning charred his clothes and armor and flesh, cooking him and peeling him, just as the kinetic Mana engaged with Felix's powerful Strength. The Ram folded, and Felix heard the sound of a six hundred pound Ogre break.

You Have Killed Stiilgar "The Ram" Raamstell!

XP Earned!

The Ram fell bonelessly to the deck, his eyes already glazed over in death. Felix frowned. He didn't have time for this. A glance at Pit showed him the tenku was doing fine, and had in fact lit himself on fire. Poisonfire burned through the chimera, fouling the strikes of the pirates around him as he shot off blast after blast of air Mana.

Influence of the Wisp!

You Have Enthralled An Unknown Pirate (x4) for 3 Seconds!

I'm going below, he sent to his Companion as more than half of the pirates froze in place. Pit only screeched in satisfaction.

Felix jogged down the stairs, moving fast. So fast, in fact, that he just barely missed being bisected by another pirate's hooked axe.

Relentless Charge!

He flashed ahead, bearing down on two more pirates and punching them in the face almost simultaneously. They hit the opposite wall hard enough to break their necks. He spun, spotting the axe-wielding Dwarf looking at him with fear. He dropped the axe and lifted his hands in defeat. Felix bared his teeth.

"Where are the captives?"

The Dwarf pointed a shaking hand to his left. Felix followed the motion, seeing a bone door banded with iron. A rare commodity in the Void. In his moment of distraction, the Dwarf charged, axe swinging upward to rip into Felix's chest.

He didn't miss it, not this time. His Perception caught the movement before the Dwarf took two steps, and his Agility and Strength made slapping the axe aside easy. The Dwarf's thrust went wide, and then terribly; Felix grabbed the haft of the weapon and drove it into the pirates' face.

You Have Killed An Unknown Pirate!

XP Earned!

Felix didn't notice the message pop up, because the moment he shoved the axe it was like he had been felled by an arrow to his brain. He screamed, shaking the loose pieces of bone all around, releasing waves of unformed Mana from his channels, Mana that scorched and froze and crackled with latent electricity. His channels burned, his core space trembling as Axe Mastery tried to rip itself apart.

It lasted only seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Eventually he stood, still shaking, and stumbled to the iron-banded door. He tried to shove it open, but his limb twitched hard, and his entire Strength slammed into the thing. Bone splintered and iron screamed as the lock was sundered and the door ripped off its hinges to fly into the room.

Felix heard gasps from within, but he couldn't see any pirates. He shook his head, fighting to clear his thoughts. Inside, only six Korvaa were chained up with voidleather bindings. He looked, desperate, but none were Estrid or the kids. A seventh was at the far end of the chambers, his body lashed instead to a complicated series of metal and sigaldry. The Mana engine.

The others first, he told himself. He hurried to the bound villagers, tearing apart their bindings with his bare hands. "Go. Up the stairs."

"What—what are—you're the Human!" a red plumed Korvaa gasped. "You're in league with the pirates!"

"Do I look like I am?" Felix snarled. He moved down the line, ripping more of the bindings. "This is a rescue. Go, everyone. Up the stairs."

"I don't take orders from you! I—"

"Father! Please! Let us run!"

The crimson plumed Korvaa gave Felix one last disgusted look and fled through the broken doorway. Felix heard them gasp in dismay as they stepped out there, but he couldn't waste more time on them. One last thing to do on board.

He rushed to the Mana engine, and the Korvaa lashed to it. The birdman gasped in agony and hope for help, and Felix recognized him as Lord Knowledge. The snowy owl-like Korvaa looked at him without recognition, as if everything was being pulled inward, drained by the ship. The spasm of pity he had felt vanished like smoke, but it didn't stop Felix from tearing the lashings apart. They sliced into his hands, but it was a faint sting through his Pain Resistance. The whole ship tilted as the Mana that had coursed through its planks evaporated into the Void. Freed, Knowledge slumped to the ground, almost catatonic.

Groaning in annoyance, Felix picked him up and dragged him out, thanking his luck that Korvaa were so light. He pulled him out of the cells and up the stairs, finding the villagers huddled together near Pit, who stood atop a pile of corpses, licking a shallow gash across his foreleg.

"You good, Pit?" he asked, depositing the weakened Knowledge into the hands of the villagers. "Any troubles?"

Your enemies are coming, the Maw stated. Felix jerked around following the Primordials pointing finger.

The two other ships were turning around, likely to investigate what was happening. They hadn't fired on them yet, but that was only a matter of time. Felix eyed the distance to the closest one. He wasn't going to give them the chance.

"Pit, protect them. I'll be right back."

He took a running leap from the deck, tipping the whole of the ship and throwing the villagers on their butts as he took to the Void.

Relentless Charge!

Relentless Charge!

Relentless Charge!

He chained his Charge, flitting through the Void like a comet, until he smashed into the deck of the next ship.

Reign of Vellus!

A full, circular blast of his power sent the astounded pirates flying back. A few even died, their bodies crushed into masts and the swords of their allies. The rest didn't survive long after.

You Have Killed An Unknown Pirate (x16)!

XP Earned!

A pressure was starting to build, somewhere around his middle. As if a heavy force was trying to press down on him, or into him, a burning light that was trying to reach Felix through the Void. It's all the System energy...it's still being blocked by this place. It was painful, but he could manage it. He had no other choice.

Felix grabbed the Control Node and piloted it over and slightly below his previous ship. "Pit! Get them on!"

Pit nudged the Korvaa, none too gently. They got the hint, and soon they spread their wings and glided down to his new deck. Felix was fairly certain the spread of green fire on the former vessel was a deciding factor.

Once they were all aboard, he pulled away from the other ship, now half consumed by the green fire.

"You and you!" Felix pointed at some Korvaa. "Go free the other villagers below, but stay down there! It's gonna get chaotic up here for a while." Felix powered down the ships engines, something that was just a matter of Willing it to happen. Hopefully that'd save whatever poor soul was attached below. He hadn't the time to free them, not yet. "I'm leaving you in charge, Captain Pit. Keep them safe. I haven't checked the hold for Estrid yet."

Pit chirped in confirmation as Felix ran off the deck. He leaped and Charged straight up, angling for the ship they had just abandoned. It was damaged, already catching fire more and more completely, but Felix didn't care. He used it as a run up, leaping off the edge and Charging across the Void.

This time, however, the pirates caught him with one of their ballista bolts, and he tumbled down. Felix grunted in blinding pain, too stunned to properly react, and his already speeding body was deflected. Momentum ruined, he became a cannonball of dense, Tempered flesh, one that collided with the lower decks. He tore through the bone planks, sprawling outward into a familiar room.

Mana engine, he realized. Gasping with pain, his Health down by ten percent, he shoved his left hand into the strange machinery.

Ravenous Tithe!

The whole ship went still, its power torn away and sucked into his Mana Gate. He barely had time to process the scintillating flood of power that poured into his core before the far door smashed open. More pirates were coming, but as the ship lost power the deck pitched, tripping them, and that was enough for Felix. He jolted forward, hands lighting up with green Mana and fingers held out in a flat blade.

Corrosive Strike!

One after another, he drove his hand into and through the pirates. They crumpled, screaming with hoarse voices and foul smelling breath, before they went silent forever. He didn't stop, even when he reached the captives, even when he saw Estrid watching him with wide, terrified eyes.

He killed them all.

"Felix?"

He gasped for breath, his three ship marathon catching up to him, but he didn't meet Estrid's gaze. Not yet. He kicked a sword to her. "Cut yourselves free. All of them. Come to the top deck when you're ready." He straightened up and walked to the locked door, iron banded as the other ships were. "I'll clear out the rest."

He released the lock and opened the door, coming face to face with three more pirates rushing down the steps. The leader was a heavy-set Human with three missing teeth and an eyepatch.

"Who the hell are you? Where're my men?!"

Felix didn't answer. Actions, he found, spoke louder than words.


* * *


Wearily, Felix piloted his newest ship toward the last, fueling it with his curiously topped off Mana. Absorbing a ship's worth of power apparently was good for the resource pools. Still, the buzz in his thoughts didn't alleviate the Stamina drain or sheer exhaustion after that protracted fight. His ship bumped up into the other, and the former captives streamed onto the still-powered vessel, reunited with many of their friends and families.

Felix recognize some of them, but not many. He'd spent much of his time on Bateo's farm, not in the village. Pit chirruped at him, barreling into his knees and nearly bringing Felix to the ground. He reached down and scratched him behind his tufted ears.

"All good here, Pit?" Affirmation came through the bond. "Good. Then I've one last thing left—"

Yes. Rid yourself of these hangers-on, feed them to your hunger and we can be on our way. The Maw flickered into existence next to him, and her gaunt face leered at the assemblage of Korvaa. Annoyance burned at him, but he ignored its violent desires. Felix was too tired to deal with the Primordial after everything else.

Felix scanned the crowd. There were perhaps a hundred and fifty Korvaa on the deck of the Manaship, all of them talking and crying and holding one another. Felix felt something prickle at the edge of his awareness, but he couldn't identify it, other than it wasn't any sort of incoming danger. He did, however, notice the Maw's attention focus on him before moving back to the crowd. He narrowed his eyes. His Bastion hadn't shuddered, and his Deep Mind remained inactive; the Maw wasn't doing anything that he could tell.

My Affinity, again? Felix swallowed and silently begged the universe. I don't want to feel this. Please.

Yet the feeling only grew as he moved through the crowd, searching now for his final task. He dreaded it, loathed it, but he had made a promise. He found Estrid leaning over some barrels, talking softly to her children. All of them, thank god.

Estrid met his eyes, and that feeling went from a tickle to a sudden flood of strangely distant song. A song that was terrified but was fluted with the golden tinges of airy hope. And as Felix approached them, he heard the song turn. The fluting disappeared, replaced by a dark, mournful dirge. Felix almost gasped, and did in fact stop, rooted to the spot. She knows, he thought. Oh man, she knows.

There was a flash of feathers, a rapid rustle of cloth, and Felix flinched back. He feared her more than pirates, more than voidbeasts. But all he felt was the soft, warm embrace of her arms and wings. "Estrid?"

"Thank you, Felix," she breathed, her voice thick. Her large eyes were bright with unshed tears, but the puffiness there suggested they weren't her first. "Thank you. For the hatchlings. For all of us."

"I—" Felix's words died in his throat, but he pushed them out anyway. "I found him. In the house. It was on fire, Estrid. We—we pulled him out but—"

Bateo's wife closed her eyes in a long, slow blink. Her beak, short and slightly curved, pressed up against Felix's sternum. "I know. I know what you're going to say and I hate that I do."

"His—his final words were to ask me to save you," Felix said through his own blurred vision. He managed a smile, somehow. "I keep my promises."

"Papa?" A small voice piped up from behind Estrid. It was Jain, the smallest of the hatchlings. "Mama where's Papa?"

"Oh Jain," she said as she knelt. Estrid wrapped her daughter in a tight hug, one that was soon joined by her other four children. Kili and Nell, at least, seemed to know what had happened, and their faces were a mixture of shock and gut wrenching loss. Pit let out a sharp, warbling cry and dove among them, spreading his wings over the children. The children clutched at him.

"He—he put himself between the scoundrels and the eyas," someone said from the side. Felix recognized one of the guardsman, the one that looked like a magpie. "I was already chained. I saw it. He didn't even hesitate."

"Hepset," Felix said to him. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Doesn't matter what I am. I flinched, let em torch the Conference Hall." The man's face was screwed up part way between a frown and grimace. "Ooro, were I half the Korvaa Bateo was, I'd have stood my ground."

"Don't be stupid, Hepset," Estrid snapped from below. Carefully, she disengaged from her children, though they still clung to her hips and legs. "You'd be dead, and for no good reason. The Hall can be rebuilt." She looked at Felix, seemed to see through him. "It wasn't your fault, Felix. Bateo...Bateo made his own choices. What you did...it was impossible." Tears came down again, but she was smiling. "I don't know how, but you saved us all."

God, she's comforting me!

It had gone quiet all around them, and Felix realized all of the Korvaa were looking at Estrid and the kids. And him. Even as Felix noticed that, someone raised their voice in a wordless cry. First one, then another took it up, until all of the Korvaa of Echo's Reach were shouting and clapping. Their wings rustled like an oncoming storm, but their voices were a song of joy and relief and grief all wrapped into a piercing cacophony.

"You!"

The word was hurled like a weapon, and the hate and inchoate fury behind it slapped into Felix's chest. His Affinity recoiled, pulling back into himself like it had never existed. Felix saw Grand Detachment, the peacock himself, struggle forward through the crowd. "You brought all of this down on us! I should have had you killed when Bateo brought you to us!"

The crowd, just so jubilant, was set to murmuring. Felix saw some hard looks pass between several Korvaa. Lord Detachment sneered at him. "You and your pet disgust me! You were in league with them the whole time! The pirates! The voidbeasts! All of it!"

"Hold a moment, Detachment, hold," said a calmer voice from the opposite side. It was the raven-like Wonderment, his hands palms up and spread wide. He had a nasty gash along his scalp that someone had wrapped with the scraps of a shirt. "We've all been through a lot. Molt, but I won't say we haven't. But you're saying crazy things."

"Crazy? Is it crazy that this Unknown wandered into our homes and the pirates followed after? Is it crazy that the wards were taken down, that voidbeasts attacked the farms, distracting the Rim Hunters so that the pirates could attack?" Each statement was spat out by the peacock, his tail spreading further and further. It was ratty and missing several feathers, but still impressive. "Do you deny that these things happened?"

Wonderment frowned. "They did. But the—"

"But nothing! He made it happen! He did! I know it!" The peacock was screaming now, and the murmurs only increased in frequency.

Felix felt a cool rage rise in his breast, an urge for violence he'd barely satisfied attacking the pirates. It would be so easy, he thought. So easy to just kill the bastard.

You risked everything for these...creatures, the Maw hissed at him. They pay you back in suspicion and distrust. They are not worthy of the lives you reaped to save them. None of them.

Yet he fought off the urge, leveraging his Willpower as his Bastion hummed along. "I don't care," he said, to everyone. The Peacock bristled and Felix focused on him. "Say whatever you want. After this, I'm done with you and your town."

Detachment scoffed. "And where will you go? Back to these pirates you've killed? Your allies?"

Felix laughed, and it wasn't calm or sane at all, he was afraid. He caught Estrid's eye. "I promised Bateo. I'm gonna kill them all."

The crowd went silent, but Felix didn't care any longer. He turned and strode to the port side of the Manaship, easily hopping back over to the other. "If you take turns you'll be able to pilot that ship back to your home, or wherever you're going."

"We'll take care of it, Felix," Estrid said. The concern in her eyes almost broke him, especially because he knew how torn apart she felt. "Felix. Come with us. There is nothing for you out there."

"Go, Estrid. Take care of the kids and run from Echo's Reach. I—" Felix cleared his throat, flaring his Will and steadying his thoughts. "I've a task to complete."