by Sarah Lin
What interested him more were the gemstones, which he had Nauda capture from time to time. He wasn't sure if House Teal approved of that, but no one stopped them, so he collected quite a few by the end. It would take a few experiments, but he thought they might be a functional material.
When the whirlwind finally died down, five of the soulcrafters had made it to the summit. That wasn't particularly stiff competition, but Theo knew that any powerful soulcrafters who wanted to win could do so at will. The real contest would be if two came to the same event, so he couldn't assume that he could win whenever he wanted.
Fiyu greeted them when they climbed back out of the quarry, first frowning at their bruises but then smiling as they talked about their progress. "Then this was a success?" she asked. "I feel I am closer, but such a storm is still complex for me."
"We got a lot of practice and some interesting sublime materials." Theo patted the gemstones he'd tucked away and smiled. "Let's fail again next month."
Chapter 20
As the last of the demons fell before the three of them, Theo had roughly ten percent of his mind on the battle and ninety percent running over the numbers again. Unfortunately, they didn't add up, and this time the problem was money.
Since the last week had been quiet, free of both danger and opportunity, he'd taken the chance to investigate the city's markets more carefully. To his surprise, he'd discovered a high end sublime material store selling something that couldn't be better suited for him: a stone from Arbai called a "drysupernova". Checking its properties in the store, it could easily produce an implosion reaction, plus strengthen his singularity.
The only problem was that it cost over a thousand Fithan Discs.
It was just sitting there, available for anyone to purchase. The perfect material, so near within reach, yet potentially gone the moment someone else bought the only one. After discarding risky possibilities such as stealing it, Theo thought the only viable path was to earn it as quickly as possible.
He currently had roughly three hundred Discs, and every month he'd earn another 110 from his salary, plus 175 from his portion of the granitebile profits. That meant more than two months until he could afford it, which was unacceptable. Even asking the others to loan him money wouldn't be sufficient, so the only choice was to take a flashier route.
His calculations were interrupted by the demons, who didn't last long enough for him to even finish his thoughts. It really was easy when they didn't find a way to sacrifice themselves. As he started to pull the surviving remnants into his soulhome, a familiar chariot swept past and a Ruler leapt to land beside them.
"You again!" Jothan landed beside them with a grin on his face. "I haven't seen the three of you in a long time, but I'm glad to have you helping."
"We joined a House and got involved in a number of things." Nauda stepped forward to handle the smiling and hefted her new staff. "Take a look at this."
Jothan let out a low whistle. "If you were aiming for an armament like that, I see why you stuck to those broken tools for so long. Why are the three of you even back out here doing menial tasks like this?"
"Our House is inviting merchants to the city and they want everything to be especially under control, so they offered more merits than usual for the task."
"Well, the city guard thanks you. We have the demons under control so well that it actually becomes a bit of a problem again, since people consider the work beneath them." Jothan scratched at his jaw, then shook his head. "I wish I could give you something, but you know about the guard's neutrality."
"Actually, there is one thing." Theo spoke up casually, as if it had just occurred to him, though it was one of the reasons he'd agreed to join the demon extermination. "Work at our House is a bit thin, so we're looking for other opportunities. Do you know of any other neutral institutions in the city?"
"Depends on how neutral you want, but a few. Have you heard of the Yorthin Coliseum?"
It was absurd to think that they wouldn't have, but Nauda was the first one to respond. "Of course, but I got the impression it was just an arena for the Houses to work out their problems indirectly."
"Sometimes, but they use it because the arena was built by the city itself, a long time ago." Jothan gestured toward the walls, as if that helped point out a single building among thousands. "If you actually stop by the coliseum, you'll find they have a lot of events. Many you have to pay to join, but try the tiered tournaments. They have three, up to Ruler tier, and the only requirement is being the right tier of soulcrafter."
They chatted for a while longer, Jothan apparently eager to give his opinion on various subjects, but his first suggestion remained the best. Everything Theo had heard about the Yorthin Coliseum had led him to believe it wouldn't be relevant to him until much later. He still didn't want to participate, since it would reveal too much about his soulcrafting, but the others could get real value out of it.
Eventually they said farewell to Jothan and headed back into the city proper on their sleigh. Since they had finished their task earlier than expected, Theo agreed that they could visit the coliseum. On their way, Nauda leaned over the side and pointed out a tall building with an ornate facade.
"I've never been to an auction house before." She glanced back toward him as he drove. "Is that a possibility to earn money, or have you already investigated it?"
"Not a good option. They have some serious auctions that are invitation-only, but only House representatives get to attend those. All the rest are worthless... there are no sealed bids and no one is anonymous. It seems like an ego game for people to show how wealthy they are, so you'd overpay for everything."
"How do these 'buyingwars' work?" Fiyu asked.
They had to take a while to explain the concept to her, and Theo got distracted on the exact mechanics. He was confident in his basic economic calculation, however. Given time and fund limitations, the auction was useless to him. Even if he returned later, it would annoy him to pay so much above market value.
When they drew near the Yorthin Coliseum, the rest of the path became obvious, because its outer wall towered over all the nearby buildings. He'd known it existed, but never gotten close because it lay deep within the center-most circle of the city. However, the street toward it was filled with people of all classes, so much so that they needed to slow down to avoid the wind beneath their sleigh angering anyone.
Once they got past all the pedestrians, it wasn't difficult to find a place for their sleigh. On their way inside, Theo examined the rich red stone of the walls and realized the cantae was denser than he'd thought. After a moment wondering if it would be an unnecessary lecture to his allies, he decided to state his thought anyway.
"You see this stone? It's an Authority-tier sublime material, and I think the entire arena is built out of it."
"How can you tell?" Nauda stepped out of the way of the moving crowds to peer at it closer. "When the materials don't generate cantae, they all just seem similarly dense to me. I know it's strong, but what would be the difference between Ruler-tier and Stronghold-tier bricks?"
"There's a big qualitative difference at Authority." Theo shot a quick cantae bolt at the wall and it disappeared without a trace. "Two Rulers could exert their full strength against one another and they wouldn't put a scratch on this."
Nauda experimentally thrust with her staff and the sharp ends only skated off the surface. "Huh. Could you build armor out of materials like that? For lower tiers, I mean."
"The sheer weight might make it hard to use, but I think it's been done. But such materials are strongest when in solid shapes like this and reinforced. And they're extraordinarily expensive: this building is probably worth more than several Houses combined."
"Oh!" Fiyu straightened with a smile on her face. "But since no one can chip off any of it, it is safe in public like this."
Theo nodded. "That might be why it's owned by the city neutrally, though. It probably has equally strong barrier generators, so anyone who
wanted to use it as a fortress would have an advantage."
They walked in further, separating from the audience to find a desk for competitors. There, the clerk clearly had very little time for them, answering questions tersely or just thrusting a finger at a slate on the wall. It seemed that many of the rules of the Yorthin Coliseum were well-established.
As Jothan had suggested, there were scheduled tournaments for the first three soulcrafter tiers. An Archcrafter tournament actually took place in several days, though when Nauda signed up, Theo declined. Meanwhile, Fiyu investigated the first tier tournaments and decided to enroll in the biggest, over two months from that date.
"You're not joining." Nauda shifted back to stand with him while Fiyu completed her work. "Because you don't want Esaire to see what you can do?"
"Yeah. They'll be spying on me as often as possible, so I couldn't give my all in a tournament."
"And yet it's fine for us to participate?"
"Esaire won't be watching you as closely, plus he saw you both fight back on Deuxan." Theo shook his head. "It would actually be good experience, since I imagine the Archcrafter competition will be fierce. But if Esaire knows too much about me, the plan won't work."
"After the duel, then." Nauda gave him a smile that he returned, but then Fiyu joined them again.
They could have watched some of the current events, but Theo judged them to be cheap entertainment for the masses. Even a city with this many soulcrafters couldn't sustain constant competitions between them, so there were a great many other events. Many of them seemed to involve ritualized taunts, which bored Theo and confused Fiyu.
On their way back, Theo took a different route, just for the sake of further scouting. He didn't see anything that surprised him, since Norro Yorthin felt fairly familiar by now. Yet while they passed through a shadier neighborhood on their way to House Blacksilver, Nauda suddenly straightened up.
"What about gambling?" She nodded her head toward a rough-looking building with a symbol of several inscribed sticks. "You used to go earn money at it in Deuxan, so why not here?"
"I wasn't betting my life back then." He did glance over his shoulder at the gambling den before driving on. "But there's also the fact that I don't know Fithan games very well, and they seem to involve less skill and bluffing. If they're games of pure chance, then it's impossible to gain an edge without cheating, and I assume they'll have countermeasures for that."
"If the games are chance," Fiyu said carefully, "then are all the options equally probable? That does not seem fun."
"I don't think that's why a lot of people gamble, Fiyu."
Nauda shook her head and leaned back against her side of the sleigh. "You're not giving them enough credit. I've played that sticks game with some of the others at the House, and it's not pure chance. There's always the same set of sticks in the cup, so you can guess what's left."
Theo glanced back at her swiftly, nearly driving the sleigh into a rake propped up in the back of a wagon. "I figured the game was like rolling dice, because of how they throw the sticks. But they go through a whole set?"
"Yeah, each has specific symbols, then the ones that land face up are counted. You have to play with sets of ten, I think. Why, can it be cheated?"
"Not cheating, exactly..."
~ ~ ~
Several days later, when the tournament began, Theo was almost annoyed that it interrupted his work.
He'd gone over some Fithan games with Nauda and discovered that many of them were vulnerable to an equivalent of card counting. The sticks could land on several sides, so they were slightly more variable, but he developed a point system that was statistically sound. How much it could potentially earn would depend on how the local gambling houses allowed betting.
Aside from that, he'd broken up his soulcrafting with investigations into the sublime material market of their House. Unfortunately, he didn't see any opportunities that were equal to the granitebile, and though that had earned him a decent reputation, they weren't going to give him weirkey transportation just to test theories.
His most promising idea had involved certain wood technology in Aathal, but it had been taken from him by an Authority as soon as he suggested it. That was particularly disappointing, because he'd wanted a chance to go through the gate. Even though he'd confirmed that the gate didn't lead anywhere near where Khaluu's family had grown, he still wanted to return to the world. Aside from the sublime materials he might find there, it would be a nice change of pace from dusty Fithe.
Instead of doing any of that, he waited in the stands with Fiyu. The Archcrafter tournament had an absurd number of entrants, since the only requirement was having ascended, so it began with a massive melee round to filter out the majority. It hadn't begun yet, the contestants still waiting, so Fiyu scanned through the crowds in the vast arena.
"There she is!" Fiyu sat back, nodding to herself, and Theo saw Nauda where she'd indicated. "Her body feels very tense. Do you think she will win?"
"Her odds aren't good."
His statement made Fiyu frown and she extended her senses over the crowd of soulcrafters. "I believe that Nauda is very skilled. She has high quality sublime materials for her second tier."
"She does, but she isn't done soulcrafting the floor. Norro Yorthin has thousands of soulcrafters, so the competition is going to be dominated by people who are at the absolute peak of Archcrafter."
"I see. I understand the logic."
"That doesn't necessarily mean that Nauda is weaker than them, in a real sense. Some of the 'best' Archcrafters will be people who are stuck at that tier and just keep refining themselves there forever. You don't want to rush ahead, but if you just keep soulcrafting one tier you can end up in a dead end."
Fiyu bobbed her head in agreement. "I understand, but I will still cheer for Nauda."
In the end, Nauda made it through the melee, but it was surprisingly hard fought. Fiyu's "cheering" amounted to clapping or nodding her head when Nauda accomplished anything. She did make a good showing of herself, since her new staff made her binding technique immensely effective. Most of her targets were completely paralyzed by it, and he estimated the skill would only get stronger when she finished soulcrafting chambers specifically tied to the armament.
However, her binding technique was limited in its number of targets, and thus poorly suited to a melee. Nauda was bruised and bleeding by the time the final sixteen Archcrafters remained. Not only did she get an unlucky draw, chosen for the second fight, her opponent was a bad matchup, and his speed techniques eliminated her in the first round.
That was a respectable performance, but Theo knew that if someone said anything like that to him, he'd be insulted. Her opponent's taunt at the beginning of the match had been rather restrained due to her injuries, which would only rub it in. They left the stands to go down and meet Nauda, who did look a bit discouraged before she forced a grin.
"Do you have any encouragement or edification for me, oh-"
Theo cut her off with a deep bow. "The passion of your performance shook me to my core, leaving me speechless."
He hadn't been sure if that was the right approach, but her forced smile relaxed into a wry grin. Meanwhile, Fiyu fidgeted between them, beaming but also uncomfortable. "Um... Nauda. I think that you fought well. I wanted to give you physical encouragement, but the idea seems very awkward now. Um... Theo, you do it."
With that, she pushed him forward into Nauda. They both chuckled, but he gave her a hug for Fiyu's sake and then they left the arena. Even as he laughed and talked with them on the way back, he found himself thinking that if he lost, he wouldn't get such a nice ending.
Chapter 21
Even though the gambling house was one of the more reputable in the city, it was still a cesspit compared to the House complexes and competitions they'd spent most of their time in. Everyone went around armed, though common criminals wouldn't idly tangle with an Archcrafter. Many of the patrons smoked a heavy herb that left an acidic sc
ent fogging the air. Hosts and hostesses moved among the games, implying sensuality without ever crossing the line, at least on the surface.
Theo leaned back in his chair, tapping the blank ends of his sticks against the table. He pretended to stare out the window, scratched his side, and engaged in a number of other behaviors designed to distract the other players from the fact that he was cheating.
The first component, which had served them well for the past several days, was the point system he'd created with Nauda. It was slightly more complex than counting cards, since it needed to account for the variability in how the sticks fell, but otherwise it was just a matter of following the system and betting when the odds were in his favor. In larger gambling houses that used more sticks, his advantage only increased, so he engaged in other behaviors to distract from his heavy bets at the end of the round.
His second component was careful research. He'd returned to the State of Rest and inquired about opportunities for gambling, and after rejecting a number of offers for private games, gained a decent understanding of the city's gambling houses. From that, he determined the best targets and picked nights when eyes would be focused on other events.
Of course, all his distractions paled in comparison to Fiyu, who sat across the table. When the dealer laid down another stick, she immediately peeked at the symbols on her sticks, then gave a small smile. It was such an obvious tell that he could see the other gamblers' minds turning flips as they tried to decide whether or not she was bluffing.
Her apparently simple nature had won them a massive bet of over fifty Fithan Discs in a different gambling house, since it had allowed for a glorious bluff. That had been hard to replicate, but she still did an excellent job diverting attention.
When the dealer turned to him, Theo pretended to consider before calling for another stick, which dropped onto the table with the others. They were close to a full set on the table, which was one of the highest payouts in the game, but the wager was getting too high for everyone. Instead of staying in the game and calling for more sticks, which would have increased his likelihood of winning, they began dropping out.