Unbound

“Jesus fuck!”

Felix exploded to his feet, breaking the flagstones beneath him as if they were glass. He put his hands to his neck, tentatively at first and then with growing confidence. It wasn’t broken, and when he pulled his hands away there was no blood.

He took a breath and looked around. “What new hell did I walk into now?”

Felix blinked.

“Oh. Well, that’s a nice change of pace.”

He stood upon a walkway made of pale blue stone, but around him was a meadow as wide as a city block. The walkway traced along its edges but did not bisect it, leaving the green interior to run wild with grasses and flowers. Insects darted about, highlighted by the early morning sunlight that shone slantwise from the eastern hills. They moved in clouds that ebbed and waned as the lilt of song washed across the air, as if they were dancing.

Which made sense; the singers were dancing as well.

A great crowd of Nymean men and women filled the meadow, armor set aside for flowing robes of pale green and luminescent purple. Wide belts of silver holstered rods of polished wood and stone, while others held staffs made of woven saplings still fresh with green leaves. They stepped in time with one another, pressing together and pushing apart by turns, hands lifted and feet turned just so. Their voices were raised in a bright melody that resonated with the deep portions of Felix’s gut, and somehow it brought forth the scent of fresh turned loam and newborn shoots.

They’re Chanting. Magic was being performed, harnessed and amplified by the Harmonics that rang out into the morning air. But it’s more than that.