by Sarah Lin
When Nauda finally stirred awake again, all such thoughts faded.
"You didn't need to stay." Nauda sat up and wiped her eyes. "These healing slumbers are completely safe. I didn't even sustain any significant soulhome damage."
"But are you okay?" Fiyu asked. Nauda stared a moment, then smiled weakly.
"Yes, I am. But I'm... very thirsty."
Fiyu hopped up to go fetch her a cup of water, leaving the two of them alone. Theo filled her in on what he'd learned and she agreed that Nogibe's team would be a serious challenge. He considered explaining his concerns about Magnafor, but it felt unnatural. Just as he'd compartmentalized his time on Earth, his mind held those concerns at a distance.
When Fiyu returned, she'd acquired not only a cup of water, but also Famaj. He bent down on one knee beside the bed and lowered his head. "I must apologize, Nauda. Though I would never hold back in a fair competition, I did not realize that the armament would cause you so much pain."
"There's no need to apologize when the fault was entirely mine." Nauda lowered her head, humble beyond belief. "I should have anticipated that you would find a method to target me specifically and found a better solution. Nothing grieves me more than knowing that I damaged your family member's precious heirloom."
It took all Theo's self-control not to roll his eyes, especially as the two of them continued to be sickeningly positive toward one another. Whenever he started to feel like he understood Nauda, she'd sink back into the Tatian culture so deeply it was nearly a parody. Maybe some differences between worlds could never be fully bridged.
When Famaj finally left, Theo decided that he was too annoyed to let it pass. "Do you really need to let him walk over you like that? You weren't to blame for any of that. If you can't say it yourself, I'll be the rude one and tell him off."
"I would be immensely grateful for that," Nauda said. "I am often woefully incapable of standing up for myself in social interactions. If you would be willing to bravely defend me from humiliation, it would be nothing less than my salvation."
Theo stared at her, his first instinct warring with what he knew of Tatian culture. She'd spoken with utter sincerity, without a hint of any cutting edge, but it was too much. Just a moment ago he'd been thinking that she sounded like a parody of a Tatian. He'd never once encountered it in that world, but...
"Nauda, are you being sarcastic?"
"I don't know this 'lyingwit' word." Yet as she spoke, Nauda regarded him with narrow eyes that he couldn't help but think of as sharply intelligent. "You may be attempting to understand Tatian culture via your world, but the two are very different."
"You're right, I'm sorry. Dreadfully, painfully sorry. Let me throw myself at your feet and beg forgiveness for assuming that I could possibly understand the smallest element of Tatian culture."
For a moment Nauda was truly surprised, then she gave him a smile with just a shade of a grin. "Maybe you do understand after all, but that's a bit blunt, don't you think?"
"Agony!" Theo clutched his heart. "I'm ashamed by my fumbling attempts that are nothing but a crude caricature of your noble words."
"You can stop now." Nauda was still smiling, however. "Maybe we can talk about this later, but not when I've just woken up. Besides, we're confusing Fiyu."
The other woman was indeed looking back and forth between the two of them, head tilted to the side. Theo decided not to give in and appealed to her instead. "Come on, Fiyu, there has to be sarcasm on Ichil."
"I think that it is better for people to say what they mean," Fiyu said carefully. "But if the two of you wish to say the opposite, that is not harmful."
Though he smiled, Theo was mostly thinking about every past conversation he could remember. Some of them made much more sense if he assumed that Nauda was intentionally over-exaggerating Tatian humility. He suddenly wondered if he had misunderstood their entire culture, yet he couldn't think of many other examples. In her conversation with Famaj, he'd been trying to out-humble her, while she'd been mocking the game itself.
She treated sarcasm like it was a familiar rhetorical trick, not something she'd invented, so it must be natural to some culture on Tatian. He'd known there were many places in this world that he hadn't visited, but he'd assumed they would be mostly similar to the endless fields and villages he'd seen everywhere else. Just when he was about to ask her more, Nanjuma strode into the room.
"Wonderful to see that all three of you are well!" He touched both Theo and Nauda on the head while simply smiling warmly at Fiyu. "You fought one of the most interesting matches of the contest so far. I only wish that it had taken place under better circumstances."
"Have you found out what happened?" Nauda asked, no trace of sarcasm in her respectful tone now.
"I have, but..." Nanjuma slowly sat down on one of the empty cots and regarded all three of them thoughtfully before speaking. "Can I trust in your discretion?"
"Of course. I think we all already suspect the truth, but we won't be vindictive. So long as there is justice of a sort."
The word "justice" was rare on Tatian, leading to a long pause. Eventually Nanjuma nodded and spoke quietly. "Your suspicions are likely true: one of the foreign members of Famaj's family poisoned several of yours. Residue of the poison has been found and the testimony of witnesses gives us a target. However... the poison was clearly only meant to cause minor discomfort, not injury or death. Normally it might be reprimanded, but there are other considerations."
"What considerations?" Theo asked. For the first time, he saw Nanjuma wince.
"One of our guests is a young member of a Deuxan court, one that rests on the opposite side of a gate not so far away. They might never lead soulcrafters into Tatian, but it is important to maintain good relations. Accusing one of their members of a crime would be unwise in a number of ways."
Which just meant that life wasn't any different here than in most other worlds. Theo sighed and looked away, while Nauda simply closed her eyes, so it was actually Fiyu who spoke next. "Will the poison be used again?"
Immediately Nanjuma beamed. "Oh, I can promise you that it won't! Even if the investigation is officially inconclusive, I had a warm personal conversation with the person in question, as well as the rest of her family. They have a thorough understanding of our cultural values now and I trust we can live together peacefully."
Having just learned that Tatians were capable of sarcasm, Theo analyzed the words more carefully than normal. Once he would have taken the words at face value, but they could just as easily be interpreted as a threat. Actually, it was probably both, the language of hospitality being applied to sharper ends. Even if Tatian culture was blandly polite, he'd been foolish to think that intelligent members of it wouldn't develop threads of nuance.
"The rules have been modified for future matches," Nanjuma went on, "but your match will stand unchanged. However, I wanted to offer a token of personal apology for the discomfort you experienced. All your suffering comrades have received treatment that will strengthen them against future poisons, but the three of you have little need. What would you say to a private feast?"
"We would be immensely grateful." Nauda answered surprisingly quickly, bowing low. Trusting that she understood something he didn't, Theo remained silent as Nanjuma beamed and rose to leave.
"Then I hope all of you have a wonderful day! The feast will be prepared for tomorrow night, so please dedicate yourselves to your studies until then."
With that, he began to walk out, but Theo followed him before he could speed away. He wasn't sure how the feast would work or if Nanjuma would be present, but he thought that this might be his best opportunity. Though he hesitated for a moment, wondering how much to reveal, in the end he felt like he couldn't let it go unspoken.
"Have your investigations uncovered anyone trying to break into the Landguard tree?"
Nanjuma stared at him in honest surprise, then the old man scratched at his beard thoughtfully. "I have noticed the barrier weakening on oc
casion, but that is the way of things, especially when it has been abandoned so long. But why would they? The Landguards didn't leave anything of great significance."
"But the trash a Landguard leaves behind might be precious to first tier soulcrafters."
"Do you have proof? Are you willing to stand against someone in front of the community?"
"I..." Put like that, Theo realized that he wasn't willing to go against Magnafor so directly. Gaining new enemies would accomplish nothing, especially when Magnafor could likely slip away. "I don't know for sure, but I've heard some speak of the sublime materials contained within. I think it's possible that someone might make the attempt."
"I will consider your warning, young one, but I do not think it will be a problem." Nanjuma leaned against the door frame, gazing toward the tree that hung overhead. "When the Landguards came to found this school, they cleared out any potentially harmful materials and left behind a barrier that even I do not know how to unbind. There is no need to worry about theft."
"Wait, found the school? I thought this was a Landguard training village."
"Oh, it was, back when I was young. But it was abandoned long ago, and only recently they returned to reestablish it, saying that it might be necessary if the number of world travelers increased. And I suppose they planned wisely, because not long after, all of you fell through the cracks into Tatian. But no more questions, young one! There is a great deal to do to prepare for your feast!"
With that, he blurred away, leaving Theo alone. Not truly alone, since in a moment he would turn back and join the others. But for now, he had questions to consider, not least of which was how unpleasant this feast was going to be.
Chapter 25
As Theo soulcrafted a slightly better roof, he considered his next major step. The difficult part wasn't coming up with ideas, it was soulcrafting rooms that would give him an immediate advantage without hindering his long term designs. And there, the problem was that he had too many potential designs and he'd need to experiment to choose the perfect one.
His central chamber was far beyond what would be expected from a first tier soulcrafter, so he'd leave it for the time being. Being able to creative gravitational fields was a useful skill that wouldn't be neutralized simply because it was well known, but it also wasn't sufficient. Soulcrafters with self-enhancing chambers would be able to resist it even on the first tier, and just pouring more work into it wouldn't scale well against Archcrafters or anyone who had the ability to fly.
What he truly needed was a destructive technique to strike the opponent while they were struggling with the changing gravity. That was where he was most tempted to go with a shortcut: he could easily have crafted a ranged attack that would work better than generic cantae bolts. But if he did that, he'd be creating future work for himself, or even limiting his growth.
Soulcrafters who threw together chambers of whatever techniques they needed at the moment tended to run into limits compared to more thoughtful blueprints because there was no synergy between their rooms. His techniques on his first floor couldn't be merely useful, they needed to be components that could feed into higher tier skills. Ultimately he wanted to soulcraft a chamber that could create a singularity, but the cantae simply wasn't potent enough on the first floor, plus he needed to increase the mass of his core.
He considered focusing on the spear that Navim had crafted for him, or maybe even requesting a better one, but discarded the idea. Even after he reinforced his body, it wouldn't be wise to go rushing up to his opponents. Better to take them out from a distance, one way or another.
In the end, he decided that a new technique room would require more time than he had, leaving him with no advantages for the next match. Instead, he would focus on improving what he already had and soulcrafting some chambers to enhance himself overall. The simplest task would be to strengthen the gravitational technique to allow more than one field, which would allow for a highly useful trick. But for enhancing himself...
Theo gathered together all the sublime foods he'd collected to that point and created a feasting chamber. It would enhance his physical strength, and more importantly it would channel cantae better than an empty room. Over time he could substantially improve that chamber, but it would be useful even in its earliest stages.
Second, he decided to make the chamber just beyond his vestibule into a formal storage room. He reinforced the door frames, built some sturdy chests, and otherwise tried to fill it out. Though not the pure defensive chamber he'd planned for his old blueprint, it would efficiently make him tougher as well as being extremely useful even as he soulcrafted higher.
When Nanjuma came to take him to the feast, he was annoyed... until he realized what Nauda had understood from the beginning. Instead of sitting around a bonfire with dozens of people in a community, he arrived in a small room with a single table loaded with food. It was only the four of them, and Nanjuma left after giving them grandfatherly pats.
"These are all sublime materials?" Theo asked as he sat down. Nauda smiled and gestured over the table.
"This is a traditional meal, though a very rare one. Be sure to eat at least one of everything, because the complete set in your soulhome can be reassembled. In addition to generating cantae, it can keep you partially fed in lean times."
It was certainly an impressive table. Stacks of brightly colored fruit, heaping bowls of vegetables, sides of meat like were rarely served on Tatian. Each of them had a little house made from stiff vegetables artfully cut, which was disgustingly twee as far as he was concerned, so he decided to demolish it first. Not only were they all sublime materials, the person preparing them was a soulcrafter improving their potency, not just a cook.
To his surprise, even the stupid house tasted good. For a time they just ate, Theo making sure to absorb some of everything and prepare the meal inside his soulhome. Adding these to the more mundane Tatian foods increased the cantae generation of his feasting chamber while making him a bit tougher. But once that was done, he began to relax and just enjoy the sublime materials as food.
"This is good." Fiyu made the pronouncement while smiling warmly at both of them. "I didn't think I liked feasts, but this is much better than the noisy meals in the villages."
"Three people is not exactly a feast." Nauda gave her an oddly fond smile. "But I suppose it might be for you. Is it just you and your relative traveling at all times? Do you ever... find community? Meet with friends or family?"
"Oh, of course! Usually we traveled alone, but sometimes there was a third, or even a fourth when necessary. There are communities, but it is safer if only one person enters to do business. I have two other relatives who range the Inner Moonscape and when we meet it is always a joyous occasion."
"I suppose I can understand that. How often do you meet?"
"Hmm.... perhaps once a year?"
"Once a year?" Nauda nearly dropped her fork, eyes wide.
Fiyu chewed a bite thoughtfully before speaking. "I understand that might seem to be a long time, for Tatian. But I enjoy it. We have been apart for so long that we have all grown and can come to know one another again. There are always many stories to tell, then we can return to our ranging."
"I can't imagine having family and being apart from them for so long. For most Tatians, a month is a long journey away from home..."
Though Nauda still seemed stunned by the idea, Theo noted a crack in her statement and decided to poke at it. "If you've never been away from family that long, does that mean that you have family nearby you haven't told us about?"
"That is... a separate issue." Nauda set her jaw and didn't seem inclined to answer. He considered pushing further, but recognized that it was clearly a sore point. She'd said "I can't imagine having a family" and he wondered if that wasn't the important part of her statement. In their entire time in Myufuru, he'd never seen her interact with relatives like most of the other Tatians.
The silence could have been awkward, but Fiyu seemed not to notice,
pondering something as she pushed vegetables around her bowl. "When I spoke, I said 'year'... 'seasonturning'... I do not like this word."
"Does Ichil have no seasons?" Nauda asked. Since Fiyu still looked thoughtful, Theo answered.
"It depends on where you live. Some areas are permanently frozen, others go through seasons of thaw and freeze, others have stranger seasons related to the clouds. The whole world isn't the same, you know."
"Thank you for this great wisdom that I could never have received from anyone else."
Again, that sarcasm, now so clear that he couldn't understand how he'd missed it before. Theo wanted to ask her further about it, now that they had nothing to do but eat and talk, but Fiyu was still thinking on her previous subject.
"My relative taught me that my words would transform between worlds, but I find it very strange. I can... hear my voice and my mind at the same time, yet there is a thin chasm between them. Small and yet important. I am grateful that I can speak to you, but I wonder if my soul is changing, to express such different things."
"It isn't anything permanent," Theo said. "If we go to Ichil, you'll be speaking naturally and the two of us will have our souls translated. Mostly it works well enough, though scheduling and military matters can be difficult if people don't have control of their language."
"Yes, I noticed that... some do not even seem to think about it, yet I have also heard Fithans speaking in a language I don't understand."
"If you focus, you can still speak another language. Actually, you were doing it on instinct when you first arrived, and it sounds like you're always hearing the subtle differences. That can be overwhelming for some, but if you adjust to it, you'll have a stronger comprehension of everything said."
"Hmm." Fiyu delicately picked up a piece of fruit and nibbled on it before continuing. "But my soul cannot translate everything. When you and Nauda speak in this 'lyingwit', I hear your words, not your intent."
"I guess souls have their limitations." Theo looked toward Nauda and raised an eyebrow, wondering if she'd softened enough to discuss it yet. "Are you going to admit it now? I'm honestly really curious if I've been missing subtle implications in Tatian conversations all this time."