Unbound

“Yours?” Tern asked as Felix strode from the elevator’s inscribed surface. He followed, the rest close behind. “What Authority does the Warden hold over these Kept?”

Felix gazed up at the statues that surrounded the circular platform they’d landed upon. Everything was made of the same dark stone, but the platform was bone-white with veins of burnished gold, and that material extended up into the statues themselves. “The Warden keeps them locked up. That’s the point of this Mantle.”

There were nine statues, each twenty feet tall and facing outward, away from the elevator. Though their individual faces all looked different, Felix had seen enough of their kind to identify them as Nymean. Necks a bit too long for a Human, features a touch too angular, and eyes a bit too intense. Moreover, each brandished two weapons. Swords, spears, maces, the variety changed without pattern. The star, however, grew only more complicated with its spiky points.

It went from a two pointed star, shaped like an orb with two spikes at the top and bottom, all the way to a nine-pointed star.

Felix pointed at them. “Those aren’t here for decoration. Those weapons they hold? Those stars? They represent defense against the things that exist here. Not to eradicate, but to contain.”

“Because those Threats that the Nym could not kill were sealed away,” Atar said, nodding along. “We know this.”

Felix continued walking, stepping off the circular platform and onto the long pathway. The moment he did, golden magelights ignited above the grooved edges, burning like small, dancing flames.

mmm.

“Don’t even think about it,” Atar warned his Urge.