Page 75 of Unbound

Tomorrow, I'll meet with Rector Voss, and I'll hope like hells he's not about to interrogate me about Typhon or my affinity. If he so much as suspects what I am, the “meeting” could be more like an execution.

16

The western wing library has become my sanctuary. Unlike the main library where many still study for more generic topics, this one is reserved for aspirants and above. It's older, with towering shelves that reach to vaulted ceilings and narrow windows that let in shafts of colored light. Ancient tomes are chained to the shelves, their spines cracked with age and use. The air smells of dust, parchment, and aged leather.

The only sounds are the occasional rustle of a page being turned or the scratch of a quill.

I've claimed a table in the furthest corner, hidden behind a shelf of texts on elemental taxonomy. It's late evening, and most students have already left for dinner. Perfect for reading more of my unbound book away from prying eyes. I’ve long since memorized and destroyed the key Bastian made for me, meaning it’s safe to read the book in slightly more public places.

Typhon lounges beside me in his dragon form, tail curled around the table's legs, wings tucked tight against his serpentine body. He lifts his head occasionally to scan for threats before returning to what I can only describe as a draconic nap.

"You should eat,"he grumbles as my stomach makes an embarrassingly loud noise."Human bodies are inconveniently fragile. Without food, you grow weak quickly."

"I will. After this section."

I'm close to a breakthrough with the book. The text is often impossibly dense, and I'm catching things on my second and third readthrough that I didn't on the first. Mostly, though, I read it every chance I can get because it’s my only source of information about what being unbound means. About what I am and the history of people like me.

Tonight, I’m reading about “manifestations” for the hundredth time. Supposedly, unbound can develop a unique, one-off kind of power independent of the affinities. Things like enhanced strength, making plants grow from nothing, matter manipulation, and even terrible things like the ability to pull the blood from people’s bodies with their mind.

These manifestations seem to be the reason humans eventually hunted down and exterminated unbound people. Apparently, Lorkan Grace manifested a power so terrible that people saw the existence of unbound as an existential threat. Worse, unbound can also tether people somehow, just like primals tether elementals. Lorkan was also said to have used the human tether for some nefarious purpose, but the book is vague on the specifics, so I’m rereading again for hopes of finding something I’ve missed.

After half an hour, I’m left with the same uncomfortable conclusion. No matter how many times I try to read it a different way, I can’t see another explanation. Unbound can tether people. Lorkan used this ability to make some kind of monstrous army that threatened civilization itself.

"I smell your fear,"Typhon observes, rising to full alertness."What troubles you?"

I hesitate. Typhon can always feel my thoughts, but I’ve learned it only happens if he’s trying to pay attention. At times, he seems to tune me out, like when I’m focusing on the book. He finds the subject upsetting for some reason and prefers not to talk with me about it. But maybe tonight he’ll be willing to help shed some light on it for me.

"The book. Can unbound tether themselves to other humans?"

Typhon's eyes narrow to slits. It's a few moments before he responds."Yes. Lorkan Grace was the first to discover a quirk of this ability. Somehow, he was able to twist what had been a typical tether into something more like slavery. To pass fragments of his own manifestation to those he tethered, changing them into monstrosities and beasts he could command.”

"Monstrosities? What do you mean?”

"Creatures who walked the world as humans, but they fed on the life essence of human or elementals. I believe Lorkan used this essence to grant himself eternal life of some sort. As far as I know, he was never found or killed. It’s very possible he still lives, along with his creatures.”

"You didn't think this would be worth telling me?"I demand.

"You already think yourself a monster, angry human. I did not want to add fuel to the flames. The past of what people like you have done does not change you. I wanted you to have time to think on this before you knew more. Perhaps, with time, you can use your abilities for others as you did for me. To free them from madness.”

"Wait… you think I could do that for other rogue elementals?"

"Yes. Not now, but when you’re stronger. The elemental world suffers greatly from the rogue elementals. Especially the ancients, like me. You met the royal council on the day of your affinity trial. The leaders of elemental kind toil to find a way to stop the destruction of these rogues—to fight the madness slowly corrupting our strongest. You could be the key. I suspect it’s why they allowed you to live, even though unbound have the ability to cause true death to elementals.”

“Wait… true death?”

“Yes. With enough strength, unbound can draw an elemental completely dry. It’s the only way to truly kill us. To erase us from existence. Humans hunted your kind because they feared Lorkan’s creatures and his influence. My kind joined the fight because we feared the true death. But we paid deeply for our mistake. Without unbound, none can cleanse the madness slowly taking us.”

Before I can answer, a shadow falls across my table. I close the book and slip it out of view by instinct, hiding it in my lap.

"Late night reading?" Raith asks, voice low and rough. The fire markings of his affinity glow in the dim library light.

He carries a smell of woodsmoke on his body—a scent I've come to crave and enjoy.

I slip the unbound book into my bag, tucking it between more innocent texts. "Just research."

Raith's eyes follow my movement, but he doesn't comment. Instead, he slides onto the chair opposite me, his large frame making the wooden seat creak. "You missed dinner."

"I lost track of time."

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