by Sarah Lin
Archcrafter
Book #3 of The Weirkey Chronicles
Version 1.0
© 2021 Sarah Lin
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The story so far...
Book One: Soulhome
Theo’s first journey in the Nine Worlds ended in tragedy. The mentor who first taught him how to survive in the Nine demanded that he return to Earth, and when he refused, killed him and his allies. Theo survived only due to a quirk of fate, his soul returning to a hospital bed on Earth.
After struggling to find a way back for forty years, Theo finally returns to the Nine Worlds, this time emerging in the peaceful world of Tatian. Reborn as a young man, he finds that he retains none of his former soulhome’s power and must start again from scratch, starting with rediscovering the ability to wield cantae.
As travellers from other worlds emerge from the cracks in reality, he meets a shy Ichili woman named Fiyu and Navim, a Mundhin stoneshaper from the world of Arbai. Together, they set off to help the local Farmguards to guide the refugees back to their home worlds. Along the way, he also meets a hostile young man named Magnafor who he quickly recognizes as a fellow visitor from Earth.
Before long, Theo is pressed into action alongside Fiyu, Navim, and the Farmguards to defend the other travelers against a demonic invasion. The last few demons sacrifice themselves to summon a powerful second-tier demon, and in desperation he activates the cantae inscriptions on his spear to destroy it. The power almost kills Theo, but in the process, it awakens his soulcrafting abilities and grants him access to his soul’s empty foundation.
Having proved themselves in combat, Theo and some of the other refugees are invited to the Landguard village in the city of Myufuru to be trained as soulcrafters. Soon afterwards, the students are split into teams to compete amongst each other, and a young Tatian woman named Nauda selects him at the urging of her first pick, Fiyu.
Soon, Theo has to put his nascent soulhome to the test when demons attack a nearby village and the students are sent to help deal with the attack. Nauda proves to be a strong fighter, with an unusual binding technique allowing her to freeze the demons in place while others attack them, and Fiyu’s lightstorm bolts prove essential for dealing with the flying insect-like demons.
Afterwards, Theo attempts to ignite the solar core which will serve as the heart of his soulhome, but to his horror it explodes catastrophically and permanently scars the walls of his central chamber, leaving his plans in tatters. Forced to change blueprints, he remodels his bright sunlit soulhome concept to instead revolve around a dark singularity.
As the student teams begin to compete against each other, Theo creates his new blueprint’s first technique chamber: an ability to cast gravitational fields over his opponents. The unusual skill proves effective in combat, but some Deuxan foul play forces Nauda, Fiyu and Theo to fight alone after the rest of their team is poisoned. Against the odds, they win the match, and are rewarded with a private feast where they are served potent sublime foods.
Theo decides to inform the head trainer, Nanjuma, of his suspicions that Magnafor is planning to break into the Landguard village’s vault of high-tier sublime materials, but stops short of making a direct accusation. He is more forthcoming with his teammates, revealing a little of his history, and to his surprise they agree to help him.
When the next match starts, one of Theo’s teammates uses a powerful Archcrafter armament to fight Navim, but loses control and a blast from the staff shatters the Mundhin’s rocky body. None of the local healers can help, and Magnafor suggests that they rush to Navim’s homeworld, Arbai. As they arrive in Arbai, however, Magnafor betrays them and returns to Tatian, sealing the gate behind him.
Stranded in the Arbaian desert, Theo and his allies rush to bring Navim to his school, where he can be healed. Theo strikes a deal with the school’s master, a fourth-tier Authority with the ability to use weirkeys, to return them to Myufuru so they can pursue Magnafor. They arrive to find the training village overrun by demons. They pursue Magnafor through the battle, but are delayed by his allies long enough to watch him reach the giant tree housing the vault… just in time to watch the entire tree to twist in on itself and snap out of existence entirely.
In the aftermath, Nanjuma is questioned by Landguards about visitors from other worlds, but to Theo’s relief he only mentions Magnafor. Nauda and Fiyu are just as keen to leave as Theo, and they agree to venture into the north of Tatian, back towards Nauda’s home.
Book Two: Rainhorn
Theo, Nauda, and Fiyu split up to avoid attracting attention and agree to meet at the city of Nlukoko. On the way, Theo narrowly avoids being caught by a Landguard searching for interlopers from other worlds. Soon after evading him, he is joined by Nauda on the outskirts of the city, and discovers that Fiyu has already arrived, cloaked in her new stealth ability. Together, they find their way past the guards and into Nlukoko.
As they explore the city, Nauda explains her plan: to earn enough money to afford a vehicle and supplies to venture into the wilderness to the north of Nlukoko, to find a gate to the world of Fithe. The large city on the other side is a hub with gates to several worlds, including Fiyu’s home, Ichil, so Theo and Fiyu quickly agree.
While Nauda and Fiyu look for transportation, Theo visits the city’s expansive library to research Elghiera, a mythical soulcrafter who traveled widely across the Nine Worlds and left behind powerful artifacts. In his first life, Theo had been given a protective ring which Vistgil called an Artifact of Elghiera, but Theo is unable to find any concrete information about them before his reading is interrupted by the sounds of a demon attack.
Joining the battle, Theo rescues a small, unusual being called Senka before helping to defeat a powerful second-stage demon. As he leaves to find Fiyu and Nauda, Senka attaches herself to his leg and refuses to leave him alone, complaining that a “big mean fumpet” is looking for her. Soon enough, a Landguard arrives to meet with the Lord of Nlukoko, so Nauda suggests that they make a break for the city’s gate to Deuxan and lay low until the Landguards move on. They succeed in slipping through the gate, but not in evading Senka, who follows them through and attaches herself to their group.
After finding their bearings, the group head towards the nearby city of Anguedan. On the way, they are introduced to the harsh side of Deuxan’s stratified society when they encounter a minor noble commandeering a wagon from some villagers. Nauda confronts him and Theo narrowly guides her away from being pulled into a duel, explaining that even minor insults are often answered by combat challenges in Deuxan. They decide to take some minor revenge by stealing from the noble's private forest, and Senka unexpectedly helps them by sniffing out some buried sublime materials.
Theo visits a local establishment to gather information and is shocked to discover that a century has elapsed since his last visit to the Nine. He returns to find that Fiyu has unwittingly insulted a young member of the local ruling family, who promptly challenges her to a duel. She misunderstands the rules and nearly kills her opponent before Theo intervenes. Unsatisfied, the group’s leader, Esaire ai Armaeu, forces another duel which Nauda wins, despite having her arm broken, and earning a bloodprice from Delarde, one of Esaire’s Archcrafter companions.
Back at their inn, Nauda reports that they will need to earn a lot more money to be able to afford a sleigh which would allow them to return to Tatian and travel to the gate to Fithe. They agree to remain in Anguedan until the upcoming rainhorn hunt, to take
advantage of the high prices paid for the slain sublime beasts. Nauda decides to skip paying for a healer by instead ascending to Archcrafter, reinforcing her body and unlocking space for another floor in her soulhome.
While they wait for the hunt, the group earns money through guard jobs, demon extermination, and a bit of gambling on the side. Theo also visits the court library of Anguedan, hoping to learn about the family of his old ally Brigana ai Teraeves, but discovers he is being followed by Esaire. Finding no information about the Teraeves family, Theo manages to extract himself before attracting any more unwanted attention.
When the Rainhorn Hunt begins, Theo, Nauda and Fiyu find they can hunt the beasts effectively by combining Nauda’s strength, Theo’s gravity powers, and Fiyu’s stealth. However, they are unable to avoid being ambushed by Esaire’s allies, and Theo finds himself forced into a wager against the noble scion. They decide to purchase their sleigh early so they can leave immediately after the hunt, but on the last day, they are drawn into another fight and are forced to flee to Tatian by stealing one of the Armeau family’s sleighs.
After stopping briefly in Nlukoko to gather supplies and make another visit to the library, Theo is aghast to find that Senka has followed them… and that she did so by hitching a ride with some angry Deuxans. They immediately flee the city, but the Armeau family gives chase. They maintain their distance for a time, but are forced to hide when an enormous sublime beast called an eryo ambushes them. When the Deuxans catch up, Theo and his allies barely escape and take refuge in a cave as Esaire is wounded fighting off the eryo.
Before the group can move on, Delarde finds them in the cave and they are forced to fight him to the death. Theo extinguishes the lights to help Fiyu remain in stealth, and Nauda uses a blast from her nullstone to open Delarde’s defences long enough to administer a killing blow. Before long, all of the Deuxans are defeated, but one of them creates a cantae explosion with the last of his energy, summoning the still-hungry eryo to the mouth of the cave.
Exhausted, Theo wracks his brains for a solution while his allies recover. Soon, he realizes that their only chance is to use the beast’s size against it via his gravity techniques, but that he will need the cantae of an Archcrafter against such a powerful beast. He uses some sublime fairysilk to fashion a makeshift trampoline and pushes through the barrier above his soulhome, flooding him with newly-powerful cantae. Together with Nauda and Fiyu, he manages to slay the eryo by bombarding it with rocks accelerated by his multiplied gravity fields.
After harvesting the eryo’s carcass for its powerful sublime materials, the group sets off for the gate to Fithe. When they arrive, Nauda shows them something unexpected: an enormous cliff running around the entire planet, separating the lush verdant half of Tatian from a blackened wasteland on the other side. As they depart for Fithe, Theo realizes that he knows much less about the Nine Worlds than he had previously thought.
Back in Deuxan, Esaire is chastised by his grandfather Arceon for allowing the vendetta to get out of hand. Struggling to explain himself, he mentions that Theo had been searching not just for money or sublime materials, but also information. Arceon unexpectedly reacts with shock when Esaire mentions the Teraeves family name, and Esaire is no less confused when the family head abruptly decides that they need to arrange a trip to Fithe...
Chapter 1
Theo might have entered an entirely new world, one he barely knew, but one thing hadn't changed: demons tended to run in straight lines.
Most young soulcrafters would have been terrified by the sight of nearly a dozen demons rushing toward them, but now that his plans were starting to come together, numbers were nearly irrelevant. Extending a hand, Theo drew the cantae within his soulhome into his gravitational chamber and dropped a field onto the demons, flattening them with several times normal gravity.
That alone couldn't kill them, but his only goal had been to stop the momentum of their charge. He didn't even bother to shift his hand while reversing the field, since that was only a concentration aid, and let the demons fall up into the air. Before they could fall far, he carefully added other fields in both directions until he had them pinned in place.
Of course, that wouldn't kill them either. But the flood of cantae bolts tearing through the entire group definitely would.
He glanced over his shoulder to check on Fiyu, who stood atop a rock that jutted from the dusty wasteland. Though he could have smiled at her, she was much too focused on the battle going on around them for any communication beyond combat information. Regardless of the fact that the risks were low, she took the challenge deadly seriously.
Technically they were hunting demons to earn their place in the Fithan city of Norro Yorthin, but Theo had judged that objective trivial compared to their abilities. So over the past week, they had been focused on practicing use of their skills. For Fiyu, that meant launching more controlled storms of light from hiding, while his was a little more complex. As an Archcrafter he could finely tune each of his gravitational fields, but it still took practice to be able to get an opponent hovering off the ground - slamming enemies up and down was much easier.
If they did enter the city, however, they'd be likely to face situations where lethal skills were less useful, so he needed fine control. Even the lowly first stage demons were good for practice, since they always resisted with perfect violent malice.
His thoughts screeched to a halt as a demon burst from the underbrush, loping toward him. Theo instinctively cast a gravitational field on it, but to his surprise, the beast kept charging, even when he intensified the field. Its maw opened wide, revealing layers upon layers of teeth...
Which froze in the air a pace from his head, quivering and slavering. Theo took a deep breath and looked past the demon to Nauda, who stood with her fork extended in its direction. She didn't taunt, since they all had to watch each other's backs in the field, just nodded.
"You want to finish it off?"
"Thanks, Nauda." She could easily have done so, meaning that it was a chance for him to practice one of his other skills. Theo extended his hand toward the beast and attempted to create twisting planes of gravity within it that would create a gravitational torsion effect. The technique had become much easier now that he was an Archcrafter, but it was still a complex skill, and demons were resistant targets.
Not resistant enough: the insides of the demon crumpled up and when Nauda dropped it, the beast lay still. That breed was highly durable, but it seemed even they needed their internal organs.
"I believe that we are nearly done." Fiyu spoke from atop her vantage point, finally beginning to smile. "Perhaps today will be enough?"
"It's certainly a bigger outbreak than normal." Theo put a hand over his eyes to scan the horizon, noting other demons and the groups of soulcrafters exterminating them. Nauda took a position between them, squinting at the group to their east.
"Do you think they need help?" Nauda asked. Theo glanced briefly and then shrugged.
"Last time they got angry with us for getting in their way. If things fall apart, we'll have to trust the city guard to take care of it."
Fiyu nodded. "We do not want to offend anyone before we truly enter the city. But... I am surprised that they can have so many demon incursions near such a large population. It seems a great risk."
"It's because of the gates," Theo explained, "and they most likely have multiple Authority-tier soulcrafters using weirkeys to travel further. The fabric of the Nine Worlds is weaker here, so they have to deal with more of this sort of thing."
As the conversation continued, Theo began to walk over the battlefield, gathering up what remained of the demonic bodies and drawing them into his soulhome. They were useless for most soulcrafting purposes, but he could throw them into the singularity at the core of his first floor. Hopefully, once it gained enough spiritual mass, it could become a singularity in truth.
Norro Yorthin was a massive hub city on Fithe, just as Nauda had promised. It had no fewer than fou
r gates to other worlds, and during their week of demon hunting, he'd learned that they led to Tatian, Ichil, Arbai, and Aathal. In his previous visit to the Nine Worlds, he'd seen a few bigger hub cities, but not many. After rushing through the countryside of Tatian and Deuxan, he'd finally arrived in real civilization, so he might be able to spend a while there profitably.
Unfortunately, the gate to Tatian was not the most prominent, standing in an outskirt of the city proper. Their group could have bought tourist passes to the city, or tried to sneak their way in, but if they wanted to use the other gates, that meant getting proper identification. If he understood Fithan culture, that was better earned than bought, which was why they were helping the city guard with demon incursions.
"Reinforce the west!" A chariot formed from a whirlwind of dust swept past them, the figure within shouting down to them. "Almost done!"
Theo couldn't see the figure through the wind chariot, but recognized the voice as Jothan. The man was a Ruler-tier soulcrafter who served as part of the Norro Yorthin city guard, one who had been reasonably friendly to them. Of course, he could have handled much of the demon incursion himself, but he was saving his cantae for if the battle got truly out of hand.
"Alright, we check west." Theo glanced to the other two, but they were already moving, Fiyu dropping from her vantage point to join them. He didn't give them a second glance and focused on the problem.
Ahead, he spotted a group of Fithan soulcrafters retreating from a group of demons swarming out of a cloud of dust. They were first tier soulcrafters with mundane soulhomes, but at least they were keeping in good order as they backed away instead of scattering and causing a panic.
Nauda swept ahead of them, trailing her staff behind her to trace a line in the dust between the demons and the Fithans. It appeared useless, though he knew better. At the end of the group she turned on the demons, swinging her staff overhead and crushing the nearest. Two more blows, two more down - ever since she'd begun working on Archcrafter rooms, her physical strength had been increasing.