by Sarah Lin
Despite being in the middle of the battle, Theo found himself dissatisfied with his own roadblock. All the skill in the world couldn't earn him the right sublime materials, and he wasn't willing to soulcraft anything that didn't contribute toward his final blueprint. He needed a solid building material to begin soulcrafting his second floor, plus so much more... Theo wrenched his attention back to the battle.
Most of the other demons ignored Nauda, instead rushing for the weaker soulcrafters... but when they reached the line, they smashed into a barrier wall that flickered into being. It existed for only a moment, but powered by an Archcrafter's cantae, it sent them reeling back.
Finally in range, Theo pinned them to the ground with gravity and Fiyu tore them apart the next second. Instead of continuing to fire, however, she came up behind him, coughed a bit on the dust they'd kicked up, then spoke quietly. "There are no good rocks to stand on."
"Got it." Theo reversed gravity enough to carry her into the air, where she could rain destruction over the rushing demons.
Since she could easily destroy her own targets from there, Theo focused instead on a group of demons on the far side. They promptly fell into the air, and he let them sail far up before he brought them down again with all the gravity he could muster, crushing them all as they impacted on the ground.
Across the battlefield, Nauda was taking apart the rest. A demon managed to leap at her from behind, clawing at her shoulders, but she whirled with surprising speed, grabbing its head with one hand and bringing it down hard against her knee. By the time the body hit the ground, Fiyu had annihilated the last group and the horde of demons was gone.
"Thank you." An older Fithan man from the retreating group bowed to them, but a younger man promptly shoved him aside and pointed further west.
"They're sacrificing!"
Immediately they all turned their attention in that direction, and in the moment it took Theo to observe the scene, it was almost too late. The next group of soulcrafters in the line had collapsed even worse, failing to prevent a circle of demons from crumpling up to summon a second stage demon.
Theo struck first, trying to flatten the entire group, but he was too late. The last of the demons disappeared and something new emerged, briefly an inchoate form before the massive second stage demon appeared. It gave a savage grin and launched itself not at him, but at the retreating soulcrafters.
Their cantae bolts dissipated harmlessly against the demon's skin as it knocked a woman aside carelessly, smashing through her soulcrafted defenses. A man lunged in to impale the demon, but it bent aside from the thrust and then broke his arm with a single blow. Unless they did something, that demon would tear through the entire group.
Nauda hurled a cantae bolt that glanced off the demon's head - such strikes weren't her strength, but the Archcrafter cantae caught the demon's attention. It bent down and then lunged for them, crossing the distance in terrifyingly little time.
One of its feet slammed into the ground and suddenly sent it sailing skyward. Theo had been trying to retrain his instincts to send opponents up instead of down, since more opponents could resist heavy gravity than could resist its reversal. This time, it had paid off.
He let it sail upward and then slam down, but despite the force of the demon's momentum, he didn't even hear anything break. Instead, it merely began to climb up, grinning savagely in their direction. It probably had unnatural durability, then, and no amount of slamming it against the ground would kill it. Though he wanted to test how well it would survive against truly massive speeds, Nauda made an upward gesture and he nodded in return.
Theo sent the demon upwards at a slow pace, giving Fiyu plenty of time to pepper it with bursts of light. Nauda leapt up under her own power to strike it from behind, but the demon twisted with surprising agility. Somehow it caught her staff in one hand before it could hit, pulling Nauda in the air and forcing Fiyu to cut off.
The demon swiped across Nauda's face and she flinched back, but it didn't stop her from thrusting out with the fork in her other hand. It caught the demon's arm as it pulled back for another blow, binding it in place. Both combatants spiraled like that, each binding one limb of the other...
Until Nauda wrenched both down and slammed her forehead into the demon's nose.
Dividing his field into two, Theo let the beast drop and sent Nauda skywards. The demon crashed down, again being flooded by Fiyu's bursts of light. They might not be able to kill it, but they did burn, and the demon turned on her with a low growl.
At that moment, Nauda struck from above, at the precise instant Theo and Fiyu released their techniques. The demon had a moment to look startled, but not enough time to avoid her streaking blow that smashed its skull down into the ground.
Though it managed to survive, it couldn't get up in time to avoid Nauda stomping down onto its neck. When the demonic presence faded, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Nauda might be able to fight toe-to-toe with a second stage demon, but they were a serious threat to Fiyu and Theo didn't want to get anywhere near one until he had more Archcrafter rooms constructed.
A chariot of dust careened down toward them and they stepped back on instinct, but Jothan pulled up expertly and dropped from the vehicle to land beside them. "Huh." He glanced down at the fallen second stage demon, then grinned at them. "I was coming over to take care of it, but the three of you know what you're doing."
"Jothan." Fiyu approached him with a nervous smile. "Have we contributed enough to the city? Will we be allowed to travel freely now?"
"Oh, after today, you've done more than enough. Actually, since you've done so much for us, I'll fast track you in. Grab your things and come by the tower, I'll get you the official guard commendation."
With that, he hopped back up to his chariot and sped off, back toward the city walls that loomed over part of the horizon. Fiyu smiled broadly and Theo felt the corners of his lips turning up as well. They'd been delayed a bit, but not set back, and now they could enter the city with a strong position.
Norro Yorthin had been built in three vast rings, though he'd only heard rumors about the innermost wall. The gate from Tatian sat in the outermost, a sprawling mess of buildings constructed in different styles. Though it was surrounded by a guard station that remained on high alert, there was little traffic through the gate, since it opened into a wasteland on Tatian.
That thought brought him back to the impossibly tall cliff Nauda had shown them. Theo shook off the memory and focused on his present goals.
They'd arrived flush with cash from their hunting on Deuxan, so they'd found simple accommodations and set about earning their commendation so they could truly explore the central city. As he grabbed his pack, Theo found he had no emotional attachment to the simple room, he just wanted to move on. More than anything, he was annoyed to have to carry so many things instead of keeping them within his soulhome.
"Heya! Didja kill some demons? Didja?"
Then there was the other annoyance... Senka popped up from behind one of the low cots with a grin on her face. The little imp promptly latched onto Nauda's leg, letting out little whines when Nauda attempted to peel her off with her staff. "We're actually getting into Norro Yorthin today," Nauda said. "You don't have to come with us, but you can't stay here."
"Senka will come! The people here are all fumpets!"
"Everyone is a fumpet to you," Theo muttered as he headed out. Senka either didn't hear or pretended not to hear, instead flopping from Nauda's leg to Fiyu's. The Ichili woman seemed to treat children differently, because she just took Senka's hand and led her as they headed out. They'd secured their sleigh with the guards to keep it safe from theft, so they mostly walked for the time being.
Though Senka was definitely not a child, whatever she was, she could pass as one since children were exempt from the usual paperwork requirements. Besides, Theo wasn't going to waste any time getting special permissions for her. Commendations for Fiyu and Nauda would benefit all of them, bu
t Senka remained a wildcard who could easily hinder as much as help.
They made their way to the guard tower near the gate quickly enough, passing by others who were waiting for audiences or begging for entrance paperwork. There were plenty of soulcrafters in the crowd, but in a hub city like this, that meant absolutely nothing. Even being an Archcrafter didn't give any automatic authority, because Fithe only cared about how powerful you actually were. That benefited them, since Fiyu remained a first tier soulcrafter but was quite capable.
When they stepped into the office, Jothan turned from one of the desks with a smile on his face and several stone plates in one hand. "As soon as you accept these, all of you will be officially citizens of Norro Yorthin. As new, unaffiliated citizens, you'll be entitled to... basically nothing. But it will be easier for you to join a House or travel, and merchants might not cheat you as much."
Accepting the stone plate handed to him, Theo looked it over carefully for traps, unlikely as it was. But it was mostly inert stone, the only complex part of it an inlay of silvery ore. It was a sublime material, just not a strong one, probably there to make the identity plates more difficult to forge. He might have been able to do it himself, if he'd known the necessary details, but in this case it was easier to just follow the rules.
"All you need to do is pulse cantae gently through it to bind the plate. Cantae doesn't have unique signatures, so... but I don't need to tell you that, do I?" Jothan laughed at himself and instead just waved vaguely at the plates. "Point is, this isn't some sublime masterpiece. Don't lose them or let them get stolen. Your real identity is found in city or House records."
Binding the plate was trivial, so Theo turned it over to look better first. His false name was etched on the front, identifying him as Deuxan to hopefully deflect some attention. Beyond the pattern in the silver, the plate was mostly blank except for a carved line along the bottom with the sigil of the city guard. That was what made this effort worth it, in theory.
"Does the guard commendation earn us anything?" Nauda asked. Jothan could have kicked them out, since his job was done, but he sat back on his desk and folded his arms.
"On its own, no. Lots of people in the city have worked with the guard, sometimes just for money. But the commendation marks you as soulcrafters worth at least a little, so when you join a House, you'll be able to negotiate a better starting salary."
"Everyone speaks of these House organizations." Fiyu had already tucked her plate into one of the many folds in her robes. "I have not yet seen them."
"Oh, but you have!" Jothan gestured vaguely to points outside the room. "The money exchange by the gate is run by the House of Coin. Those soup lines for the poorest peasants? Courtesy of House Blacksilver. Even this tower is maintained by the contributions of House Crimson. They and all the other big Houses are the main contributors to the city guard."
Though he'd been focused on work, Theo had absorbed some information about the city, but talking to Jothan was a much better chance, so he decided to risk a question. "You suggest we join a House?"
"Unless you really intend to just pass through, absolutely. Nothing gets done here without the Houses being involved."
"Then which one would you recommend?"
"No comment." Jothan straightened from the desk, his expression growing serious. "The city guard is officially independent, and we do take that seriously. We're the only force that works on behalf of everyone, free of internal politics. Everything else is quid pro quo, but you can't run a guard like that."
The phrase "quid pro quo" buzzed in Theo's mind as his soul simultaneously heard several things. He thought the literal words were "blood for blood" but the phrase was so well-worn in the Fithan language that the specific words were almost irrelevant. Apparently it had a commonly understood meaning similar enough that his soul heard the Latin phrase, but he could only guess at what Fiyu and Nauda heard.
"We will remember your words, Jothan." Fiyu smiled broadly at him and bobbed her head. "Thank you for helping us."
"No, thank you for assisting the city guard." Jothan stepped forward and clapped Theo and Nauda on the shoulders, which he'd only started doing after several demon fights. He'd never gotten close to touching Fiyu, which made sense if the city had an Ichili population. Fiyu might not find Norro Yorthin comfortable, but she'd be given enough personal space in relationships, or something close to it.
Elsewhere, there might have been longer goodbyes, but Fithe didn't stand on ceremony, so Jothan turned back to his desk. Recognizing the dismissal, the three of them left his office, soon being joined by Senka. A few stared at them exiting the guard tower, but more out of boredom than any suspicion. In a city this large, Theo hoped that they could completely disappear.
Once they did, then he might be able to make progress in peace. Against the forces that were threatening him, he needed far more strength, so sublime materials and soulcrafting time were essential. Perhaps more importantly, in a city like this, he might be able to learn more about his enemy. Hopefully this would be a good base of operations for a long time, it was just a question of how...
"I've been talking to some of the villagers," Nauda said as they walked toward the main gates. "Everything really does revolve around the Houses here, but they don't seem to resent them. If anything, they just hope to get employed by one of the better Houses."
"I see." Fiyu had spent much less time learning about Fithe, focused almost solely on gaining information about the gate to Ichil. "What I do not understand is how they can run a military based on contributions from civilians. What if a House decides not to pay?"
"They do, sometimes, and that's why the city guard is so serious about trying to stand above politics. But making contributions is a way of buying influence, and failing to make payments would be a sign of weakness, so apparently it works well enough." Nauda's gaze slid over to Theo. "But I suppose these petty observations are all incomplete, oh knowledgeable one?"
"Not here." Theo smiled as he stared at the entrance. "I only spent a few days on Fithe once, and it wasn't this part of the world at all. I'm learning along with you."
"But you've known many Fithans."
"They must have been from a very different culture, because they had clans and powerful families. Here, the Houses seem to be wholly independent organizations. As far as I've been able to tell, family means nothing here. World of origin doesn't mean anything either. So we're all starting off in the same place."
Ahead, the second wall of Norro Yorthin stretched upwards... and a wall of dust stretched even higher. The inner city appeared to be surrounded by a tornado of dust, not whirling intensely but incredibly vast. He could presume that it broke the dust storms that swept through the rest of Fithe, but he didn't actually know that for certain.
Theo found his smile growing wider as he felt that little thrill of discovery that he'd so often lost in his second life in the Nine Worlds. As they walked through the gates of Norro Yorthin, he finally walked into the unknown.
Chapter 2
The first thing Theo noticed within the city was the relative lack of dust. It was still stirred up by the feet of the crowds, but compared to the constant dust storms outside, the air was practically clear. He noted that the streets were bone dry, but they seemed unnaturally clean, suggesting that the city had some sort of street cleaning organization. Another sign that they'd reached real civilization.
"There are many people." Fiyu's eyes were so wide that he could actually see a hint of them through her translucent mask. She shuffled to the side, tugging on their sleeves to move them into defensive positions. "They are all bumping into each other."
"I'm afraid Fithan crowds can be a bit rough." Theo managed to pull out of his personal thoughts to give her a reassuring smile. "But if you can bear with it, we should be able to find private rooms. As soon as we find a secure place, we can use our sleigh instead."
"But where?" Nauda asked. "If I understand the signs, there are several inns near the gate, bu
t those would be temporary at best. Where are we actually staying?"
"Perhaps we do not need to stay." Fiyu smiled uneasily as she looked back and forth between them. "If I can return to Ichil, I may be able to contact my relative. He is a skilled soulcrafter and he would reward you as thanks for assisting me."
"Fiyu..." Theo had known this was coming but put it off, which he belatedly realized was a bad habit he'd thought he'd outgrown in his years on Earth. "I do think we should investigate the gate as one of our first priorities, but we have no idea where it leads on Ichil. Statistically, it's very likely that it will be nowhere near anywhere you know."
"I am aware, but I may still be able to send a message to my relative." She gripped their sleeves a little tighter. "If I was able to return, you should come with me. We could continue traveling together on Ichil."
Theo had been intending to gently lower her expectations so she wouldn't be crushed, and now had to consider the opposite outcome. If Fiyu did find an easy path back home, that would entirely throw out his current plans and potentially break up their group. Then again, her relative must be an Authority, so his weirkeys could prove even more valuable. The question would be Nauda...
"I'd like to visit your home, Fiyu." The other woman stepped closer, but instead of brushing her in the Tatian fashion, just moved to better shield her from the crowds milling around them. "But there are many other things we need to do, and I think many of them are best done here."
Though Fiyu bobbed her head agreeably, Theo saw a bit of tension in her stance. Despite everything, she might still be afraid that they would leave her, or simply be contemplating that their goals might take them in different directions. He wasn't sure how close they'd grown in her personal calculations, but Ichili didn't form connections often.
"There's no point making decisions now," Theo said before the mood could worsen. "A city this big will have countless opportunities and we need to judge them first. We should check the gate to Ichil, but also the gate to Arbai. It's another low chance, but it might take us close to where Navim lives, and the master of his school might have a weirkey to Ichil."