Silence - Chapter 05

Felix clenched the Mana Gate located in his right palm. It wasn't visible on the surface of his skin, in fact it didn't even seem to be there except to his more arcane senses. The Gate sent out a quiver of searing pain that felt like holding a bolt of lightning in his hand.

"MMMPH!" Felix grunted, but kept applying pressure. According to the Maw, the process for strengthening one's Mana Gates was relatively easy. His problem, however, lay in another issue.

Ah yes, the other reason you mortals choose to train your Mana Gates so early is to prevent them from locking open. Quite painful to rectify, I've been told. The Maw's false concern would have been better sold without the contemptuous sneer on its face.

Painful was an understatement. It was like forcing closed an iron door that had fused it's hinges into a solid whole. His nerves screamed in agony, despite his Pain Resistance, and he could only imagine how much worse it would have felt at full blast.

The searing agony meant he could only focus on one Gate at a time, but it was a grueling experience just the same. Pit tried to help, attempting to send Felix's sensations of warmth and comfort through their bond, but they all came out a bit sour. The tenku kept pacing around Felix's supine form, his body language betraying the unease that boiled within his Rottweiler sized physique. Felix felt for the poor guy, but he didn't have the attention to spare. Already, one small slip had resulted a loss of all his efforts up to that point, and Felix wasn't willing to do that again.

Focus!

Felix marshalled his Willpower, easily his greatest stat, and pushed through the pain. He felt something tear in a blinding burst of anguish before something slammed shut. It felt like a tiny jolt in his right palm, vibration more than anything else, but...he'd done it.

Fire Within is level 35!
Mana Manipulation is level 10!

Excellent. You've done that faster than I had hoped. The Maw glanced around at the darkness again. We don't want to remain here much longer.

But Felix wasn't listening to the Primordial; instead he was focused on his palm, and the deep, uncomfortable pressure that had immediately started to build. It felt like...like sticking his face out of the window of a moving car. He felt clogged. He couldn't take a breath. He—

He released his Gate. Mana belched from his palm, vibrant and blazing bright in the Void, before Felix felt his Gate begin to draw in more from the ambient levels around them. What little there was.

Tch. The Maw had it's arms akimbo as it regarded Felix. It watched his puff of Mana vapor as it spiraled off into the Void. Now we run. Before the beasts arrive. Fool boy.


* * *


Felix learned two things during their renewed flight.

One, the Maw hadn't been lying when it had said the Void was a desert in terms of Mana. His regeneration, so impressive on the Continent, wasn't even keeping up with his expenditures of Relentless Charge. According to the Maw, he'd been venting Mana ever since he'd started developing his core, only the abundance of Mana had hidden it from him.

The second thing he discovered was, while his Endurance was more than impressive for his level, the constant, low-level drain on his Mana and Stamina burrowed into his bones. Felix had been running for...a day? Time was uncertain in the unchanging Void, and the nigh-featureless terrain was impossible to measure distances. He was tired, and Pit was no better.

Eventually, what felt like hours later, he was able to close his first Mana Gate at will.

Acceptable. Now you must learn to fluctuate the opening to let Mana in and out, the Maw instructed. It had been floating beside him, tireless as ever.

"Let it out? I thought the purpose was to keep us from being tracked?" Felix asked.

For now, yes. But you'll need an influx of Mana, just as you'll need to release it to activate your Skills. If your core starves of Mana, it will be snuffed out. That is not a fate you wish to put upon yourself, Felix Nevarre.

The tone of her voice was stern, and Felix couldn't help but envision a possible result of his core winking out. He doubted it would be pleasant.

"How will I avoid the voidbasts? Or the Whalemaw?" Felix asked, blowing his breath as he walked to recoup his energy.

Whale—?  The Maw fixed Felix with a gimlet eye. The Whalemaw is sensing me, my influence on your Mana. You've been Marked boy, Body, Mind, and Spirit. Every part of you has been touched by my power. That you walk free is a testament to your idiocy. What fool would kill themselves rather than attain apotheosis?

Felix could tell the Primordial didn't like what he'd done, but he was rather proud of the achievement. Existential terror notwithstanding. "So it will find us again? No matter what I do?"

Most likely, yes. What I teach is to avoid the voidbeasts we pass more than preventing the thief from tracking us down. The Maw floated onward. The Void is...annoyingly vast. Control your Gates, reduce your vented Mana and it will buy us time.

"Time enough to kill the Whalemaw?" Felix asked, disbelieving. The Maw didn't bother to answer him.

Time kept trudging forward, as did Felix and Pit. They snatched bits of sleep when they could, but fear and the knowledge that any of the floating rocks could house hordes of voidbeasts did not let him rest. His Endurance and Vitality meant sleep wasn't as necessary as it once was; his Aspects had also undergone the First Threshold—having all risen above 100 points before level 50—and worked as a more unified whole than before. It did not stop exhaustion from stripping away at his concentration, blurring the hours even more than the repetitive terrain.

He refused to stop, and had taken to carrying Pit in his arms to let the tenku rest. All the while, Felix fought with his "rusted" Mana Gates. He managed his left palm perhaps a half day after his right palm, but had barely scraped the edges of his right elbow when the Maw stopped them.

Something is wrong, it muttered.

Felix focused ahead, looking beyond his flesh for the first time in hours, and his eyes spasmed in pain. Light bloomed just beyond a series of large stone islands, each one double the size of where he'd lost the Whalemaw. As he watched, the light filled with the flicker of green flame, and he could hear a faint booming. It was muted, like all sound in the Void, but the fact that he could hear it from such a distance meant it must have been loud.

"What is that?" Felix swallowed. He set Pit down next to him, waking the dozing chimera, and readied himself to fight. "Is it more voidbeasts?"

No, it's—the Maw hesitated, before baring her flat, yellowed teeth—Mortals.

People, Felix translated, and a desperate sort of joy rose up in him. There are people beyond that ridge.

Yet before he could make a move toward it, a small shape crested the floating rocks and slalomed down it's craggy side. It was long and thin, and a single triangular sail was mounted atop it.

A...boat?

A Manaship, the Maw hissed. There was joy in its voice. We have but to steal it and our pace will be greatly enhanced.

The boat—Manaship—seemed to use the floating ridge as a speed ramp, increasing its velocity with every passing second before pulling up sharply and rocketing outward. Toward them.

Hide, but ready yourself, Felix Nevarre. You must take them out as they draw near, but do not damage the ship!

"I'm-I'm not attacking some random person," Felix protested. "They can help us!"

They are likely fleeing a heinous deed. Or do you think explosions of fire are common place in the Void? The Maw sneered at him and flexed her skeletal thin hands. And do innocent mortals typically emblazon a grinning skull upon their standards?

Felix focused on the speeding ship, and just as the Maw indicated, the triangular sail was inked with a dark skull. His Perception was enough to pick out that a single Human was piloting the ship, and was frantically looking behind them far more than ahead. The reason why was soon clear.

"Holy shit," Felix breathed as a far larger ship crested the ridge. It had two masts, each festooned with multiple sails and a prow designed to mimic some sort of undulating monstrosity. A massive sea monster was detailed on its main sail, one eating smaller ships.

"More pirates."

Bolts of green flame launched through the air as the bigger ship coursed after the smaller. Despite his dislike of the new Skill, Felix flared his Voracious Eye at them both.

Name: Death's Companion
Type: Manaship (Damaged)
Lore: Manaships are vehicles designed from rare materials and powered by Mana to propel them through the skies. Or, in this case, the Void.

Name: Night's Wake
Type: Manaship (Damaged)
Lore: Manaships are vehicles designed from rare materials and powered by Mana to propel them through the skies. Or, in this case, the Void.

"Those are cheery names," he muttered, hunkering lower behind a floating rock. He wasn't planning on stealing either ship, but hiding was at least a good idea. "What is going on?"

Death's Companion was the smaller vessel and it raced ahead, weaving a serpentine trail as it attempted to dodge the flood of green fire bolts from the Night's Wake. But it was doomed to fail. The Night's Wake suddenly glowed a brilliant multicolored hue, the light shining from the planks of its sides, and put on an immense burst of speed. Within seconds, the larger vessel had overtaken the smaller, and hooked ropes had latched onto it like a spider catching a fly.

"Wind 'er in, boys! We're havin' meat tonight!"

Catcalls and jeers met the boisterous cry, and Felix could see the man on Death's Companion blanch in fear. He was a stocky Human, with a ill-kept beard, dozens of scars, and a number of violent weapons strapped to his person.

Name: Keggus Pike
Race: Human
Level: 37
HP: 427/613
SP: 164/483
MP: 15/54
Strength: Vitality
Weakness: Intelligence

Felix had started to mentally edit out the Lore on Humans; he'd read it enough at this point. To his surprise, the Skill complied and it vanished. He didn't have time to investigate that more, because the two ships collided relatively violently only feet from his location.

"You'll never take me alive! The Keelhaul Krew will never work under the likes a Captain Nokk!" Keggus declared, drawing two cutlasses from his belt. He charged across his ship's deck and leaped into the air, as if the mad man intended to board the Night's Wake and fight.

A bolt of green fire tore through the man, killing him instantly.

Holy—that—Felix flinched and hid again, but he was unable to suppress his curiosity. He peeked back over the edge of the rocky island, just in time to see a collection of strangely dressed men and women lean over the railing. A Dwarven woman with a face covered in geometric line tattoos stood with one foot on the prow of the ship, grinning down at her prize. Unfortunately for Felix, she was sharp as well as bloodthirsty.

"Oi! Who do we have 'ere?" The Dwarven captain met Felix's eyes and grinned. Her teeth had been filed down to points. "Another of the Keelhaul Krew, eh?"

The entire motley crew turned their venomous stares on Felix, and he ducked back below. He heard the Dwarf laugh.

"Get 'im."