Unbound

"What do you mean we gotta be tested?" Archie asked.

The Elf leading them through the jungle looked back at him, a glimmer of pride in his eyes. "We're bringing you to meet the Wyrms, but in order to see them, in order to access the true might of the resistance, you must pass through the test."

"I'm not great at tests," Beef said. "Is it, like, written?"

For some reason, Archie held his head in his hands. Beef looked at him. "What?"

The Elf smiled. “There is no writing required. You must only pass through the embrace of the Witness Flower."

"The what?"

"You will see."

The Elf and the other Wyrmkin had led them deep into the jungles outside of Morva. They traveled through vine-choked gullies and beneath the arching roots of some sort of enormous trees. They reminded Beef of mangroves he'd seen once in a nature documentary, if mangroves grew triple their normal size.

Bright flowers hung heavy from the roots and branches, coiled among wispy moss that fluttered in a stilted breeze. The scent of green, wet things filled the air, punctuated by the flowers’ sharp aroma. Beef regretted his cloak, the heat and humidity swiftly making his fur damp beneath its folds, and despite Archie’s warning glance, he took it off. A few of the Wyrmkin eyed him in surprise, their gazes lingering on his orichalcum-clad horns, but none commented.

Large bugs flitted through their path, forcing them to stop several times as the Wyrmkin hid their presence behind the mangrove roots. Beef wasn’t sure what the issue was—the bugs were low-leveled and no bigger than a large cat. He was positive the Wyrmkin could’ve handled them. Hell, Fafnir could have, and Beef had to continuously hold her back from murdering everything they came across.

The Elf, Leynard, held a necklace in his fist as the bugs buzzed by. It was shaped like a spiral, and it was glowing. Beef frowned then flared his Perception. All around them, through the gaps in the roots, he could see hints of that same glow. Was that why they stopped? Were they doing magic stuff?

Beef wasn’t anywhere near as proficient with magical theory as Atar and Alister, so he couldn’t tell what it was Leynard was doing, but it didn’t seem harmful. If anything, it was protecting them, as the bugs ignored them as if they weren’t there.

He looked to Archie, raising his eyebrows. The Delven was also watching Leynard, but he was a bit more aggro-looking.

“What’s that necklace for?” he demanded.

Leynard started, tucking the necklace back into his armor. “Our way through the jungle.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means protection,” Leynard said, stepping back onto the path. “Step with us. We must be swift.”

No one talked after that, though not for lack of trying. Beef kept chatting up the dour-faced Wyrmkin around him, and even showed them how Fafnir kept chewing on his finger—nothing. All he got back were grunts and stony silence. It was like taking a hike with a pack of Harns.

Thankfully, after another hour of walking, they reached their destination.

They stopped before an unprepossessing collection of roots. Leynard walked up to and fiddled with his necklace again. The roots immediately slithered out of the way like snakes, opening up to reveal a stone stairway leading down into the earth.

“You expect us to just go in there?” Archie scoffed. “That tunnel looks like a place where people get murdered.”

The Elf sighed. "You will be safe until the test. Then your fate is in your own hands."

"That's not a big endorsement for me to keep going.”

"Arch," Beef pleaded, "come on."

"The choice is yours," the Elf repeated. "You have not learned anything here that would concern us. Finding this place, accessing it, is warded against. If you wish to back out, now is your final chance."

Beef looked at his friend. He wanted to go on, but he could tell that Archie was nervous. "Look, I'm going in. This tunnel's not even made for someone my size, but I’ll take the lead, since you’re so scared."

Archie clenched his jaw. "Fine."

"The Wyrms tell us that we always have a choice,” Leynard said. “I will honor your choice here and illuminate your path.”

That sounds like something Felix says. Huh.

The Wyrmkin led the way, lighting torches as they stepped into the short tunnels. Beef had to stoop to fit, though at least it was wide enough for his broad shoulders. He wasn't quite folded in half, but it was definitely not up to code for an eight-foot-tall Minotaur.

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It didn’t take too long before they entered into a taller chamber, or what Beef thought was a chamber, but what he swiftly realized was a thousand foot high cavern. Roots dangled from the ceiling, dripping liquid into pools that caught the faint light that filtered through holes in the earth above. Rays of late afternoon sunlight shone down, angled and yellowed, catching like diamonds on the ripples of the shallow pools and casting enough light around to easily make out the path.

Beef briefly wondered how they navigated this place in the dark. Oh right. Night vision magic.

Every once in a while, he forgot he wasn’t on Earth anymore.

Stone shapes thrust out of the surprising squishy ground, littering the path they followed through the cavern. By the light of the beams, he made out that they were all unbroken segments of some larger building, put together by hands that were clearly very skilled, as the structure looked old as heck. Moss and tiny mushrooms sprouted from every cut surface and crack, but Beef could still make out figures carved into it: large, panther-like creatures with scorpion tails and sleek lizards with four legs and wide wings.

Harnoq and Dragons.

"What is this place?" he asked aloud.

"The Wyrms claim it belonged to the Dragons of old, that it was one of their strongholds in Ages past, before they were Lost. We know that it holds secrets, things no living mortals have witnessed. We are still delving into them. Our leaders, the Wyrms, are the only ones who can access those secrets. That is how we've remained protected. That is how we've grown this resistance into a true movement that will shake the Overlord's plans and rain ruin upon all that he does."

Geez. Beef tried to trade a look with Archie, but the Delven was scowling at the Elf. He at least seemed to be taking the guy entirely seriously—and that made Beef more than a little nervous.

The ruins spread out before them, assembled in bricks and blocks that protruded from the dirt and stone, much like the other half-sunk buildings. What made this different, though, was that it all came from the ceiling. An upside-down pyramid was before them, stretching from the shadowed recesses at the top of the cavern all the way to the ground, where its tip was buried. Four large, squared-off pillars extended from each corner, their tops marked with upside-down statues of harnoqs and Dragons. Beef could tell by their coiled tails, one lizardy and the other more like a scorpion’s stinger—the rest was buried in the hard-packed earth.

It's like the whole thing got flipped upside down.

The Elf led them around to an entrance on the side. A dirt ramp had been built up, leading to a section a bit farther up from the tip of the pyramid where a doorway had been broken open. It was circular and quite large, enough that Beef didn't have to stoop at all, which was a relief. The entry was nothing more than a large stairwell, except it was built upside-down and completely inaccessible.

So it did get flipped upside down!

A bunch of boards had been hammered and jerry-rigged into something resembling a ladder, and it led up along the center of the staircase. Yet surprisingly, even that wasn’t a squeeze—it seemed the ruin was made for bigger folks. Maybe even the Dragons he kept seeing.

“Vess is gonna be so jealous when she hears,” Beef whispered to Archie.

“Mhm. Focus on not stepping on my hands, hoof-boy.”

After climbing up several stories, the wooden ladder creaking alarmingly beneath Beef's hooves, they entered the only other chamber above them. It was quite big, perhaps taking up a good portion of the large pyramid they were within, though Beef wasn't quite sure how high they had descended.

Ascended, he corrected himself.

Within the chamber was a stepped-down, recessed area, down a flight of ramshackle steps. Dirt had been filled in over the stone until it was a thick layer sprouting with a low carpet of greenery. Planted in the center, though, was a giant flower. Taller than Beef, the flower was like a sunflower on steroids. The blossom itself was a vibrant blue marked at the edges with yellow, and each petal was the length of one of Beef's arms. It filled the fairly large room with a pungent and not unpleasant smell.

The Elf stopped them before they stepped down into the dirt pit around the flower.

"Behold," he said, "the Witness Flower. It is our test for those wishing to be admitted to the resistance."

"The flower's the test?" Archie said. "What do we do, walk around it?"

"Walk around it? No, the Witness Flower will bear witness to the power within you. If Adamants ever made it this far, this is our last line of defense.”

Beef half-laughed. “The flower?”

Leynard nodded. “Anyone marked by Divine power, whether they are a servant or an Adamant themselves, the Witness Flower will respond. The petals will wilt proportionately to the power they sense. An Adamant would wilt a full quarter of the flower just by standing in its presence; the Divine has touched them too strongly.”

“Oh.”

“If you have come to us honestly, then a few petals might wilt. Anything else, and you will have been proven liars."

"I mean, we're not liars," Beef said. "So I guess we’ll walk around the flower." He shrugged at Archie.

Archie shrugged right back. "Yeah, I guess."

Together, they stepped off the beam and onto the dirt. They took no more than three steps before the flower shuddered. Beef stopped, staring in wonder as the flower turned to face them as if they were the sun. It spread its blossoms, widening as if drinking in their presence.

"I think we're making it grow bigger," he said.

"What does that mean?” Archie shouted back to the Elf.

All at once, the Witness Flower sagged, its petals losing their luster and color as they withered rapidly. The entire flower shriveled, its petals falling in desiccated heaps before even the stalk bent and broke.

“Oh shit.” Beef looked back at Leynard. “Look, guys—”

The Wyrmkin had all drawn their weapons, and Leynard had his blade leveled at them. It glowed with an unreleased Skill.

"Divine touched," he hissed. "Deceivers!"

"I just saved you all!” Archie jabbed a finger at the bundle of blackened leaves. “Your dumb flower's just weak!"

Leynard hesitated for only a moment before he rushed forward. "Die, godslave!"

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