by Sarah Lin
Just as he started to adjust to his dodging, he noticed several others coming down the side of the quarry. Many were struck and fell, but one man swept down at a confident pace. At least, he thought it was a man: they wore loose clothes, a hood, and a mask that covered the lower half of their face. He would have thought they were trying too hard to look mysterious if not for something off about them, though he couldn't put his finger on what.
The mystery figure crossed the bottom of the quarry in the flash and started up the other side, and that was when Theo got worried: they didn't seem to be having any more trouble in the more intense winds. Nauda noticed too and ran to get ahead of them, so Theo decided to do his part and dropped several gravitational fields on their competitor.
Though the figure stumbled, a bolt of cantae crackled back at him. Theo's eyes widened as he saw it shoot toward him in an irregular line, leaping unevenly in a way he'd never seen before. He managed to dodge, despite the bolt flickering back in his direction at the last moment.
Nauda pulled ahead, but the figure released another bolt after her. She dodged, even with it fired at her back... and the bolt leapt backward to strike her legs. As she winced and skidded partway down the mountain, the hooded figure pushed past her.
If they'd wanted to, that bolt could have been much more destructive, since he suspected the mystery competitor might be a Ruler hiding their strength. When he tried to examine their soulhome, he saw only spiritual static. Throwing aside such concerns, Theo decided to try a riskier trick and used reverse gravitational fields.
As the figure fell upward, one of their legs stretched downward and grabbed a rock underneath. In the time Theo wasted hesitating, abruptly realizing that this figure was something that only pretended to be humanoid, it twisted its upper body all the way around and shot a much larger bolt of spasmodic cantae at him. By the time he'd dodged, the figure had escaped his field and was racing Nauda for the top.
Theo headed after them, taking a few hits from rocks because he was more interested in seeing the results than in a bit more training. He made his way through the vortex to the clearer area, unsure what he'd find.
The hooded figure extended a hand wordlessly to Lady Baryara, who handed him the skull. That accomplished, it rotated unnaturally stiffly and returned to the quarry, passing through just as easily as before. Nauda leaned on her hands and knees, catching her breath. She was soon awarded a sack of money by Lady Baryara and didn't look happy about it. Theo kept his head down so that he wouldn't be declared third place and waited for her.
It took longer than he expected before Nauda slid down to join him with a strange expression on her face. "I guess I should have pulled back, but I thought I could pass him at the end. He ran oddly, but his last sprint was even faster than mine."
"Did you get any information about him?" Theo asked. He hadn't noticed anything off about the running style, but that might make sense if his suspicions were true.
"If you mean with my telescope, he completely blocked it somehow. The only thing I heard with the official was that he represents the House of the Lost. This is the first time I've seen them take much of a role in anything in the city."
"They're supposed to be one of the main powers." Theo stared after the hooded figure for a moment, then turned back to the whirlwind. "Help me grab some tornadogems if you can."
Nauda took her frustration out on them, snagging the golden stones out of the vortex one after another. Theo spent his time dodging, pleased at how it had become easier, right up until the point that Lady Baryara descended beside them, wrapped in a dark green aura.
"Just what are you doing?" she demanded. Theo immediate slid back down the central slope and gave her a polite bow.
"As you can see, I'm struggling to dodge the stones. I saw that those gems were related to the speed of the tornado, so I thought that perhaps I could lower the speed. Is that not permitted? Forgive me if I have assumed too much of the generosity of House Teal."
"Hmph." She glared down like she didn't believe him, but in the end turned away. "Do as you will, but you cannot have past winners assist you. Be gone, girl."
As Nauda reluctantly left, Theo just returned to his dodging. It still wasn't easy, and he knew that Esaire would be even faster. Still...
Theo's hand shot out and he snagged one of the gems from the storm. The sharp edges bit into his palm, but he tightened his fingers around it and smiled.
Chapter 31
Technically Fiyu should have been purchasing sublime materials to prepare for the tournament she would participate in, but as she looked over the record of her merits, she instead thought of her companions. Though she still believed her decision to wait was the correct one, she admitted to herself that she was unable to contribute as much to their journeying group without ascending.
With the materials she'd purchased in Sweetfruit Cavern, she'd enhanced her curtain and integrated it into the rest of her sensory room. She was now completely confident in her ability to resist any assault of light or noise, though her chamber couldn't expand enough to detect the beast that had deceived her senses. No simple refinement could accomplish that.
Since she was running out of refinements to her first floor, Fiyu had actually begun to pursue Friend Theo's plan. She had purchased something from a Fithan tree called eldenwood, which was durable enough to resist the clouds overhead. The first several times she tried to set it upright, the pressure from above knocked it back down, then she realized that she needed to attach the ropes first.
Once she got them all hooked to her roof, it almost worked. If she'd gone on to secure another set of ropes to the ground, it might have been stable enough for her to climb to Archcrafter. And yet in the end, she lowered the eldenwood to her roof.
It wasn't that she feared that she would fail, though it was true that she had never attempted to ascend before. She also didn't worry that her ascension now would damage her future soulcrafting. But it felt deeply disrespectful to her relative to simply ignore his plans and push forward. She was confident enough in her own skills to choose comparable sublime materials to those she lacked, but ascending was a very different process and the blueprint for her second floor was difficult.
Yet she did admit that she was being a poor companion to her friends. For a long time, she had been collecting merits and Fithan Discs, in the hope of using them once her relative returned and helped her onward. Relative Guchiro had many resources, but she could still contribute some to be a good relative.
Since he was not likely to hear her message for some time, being a good companion currently meant making use of those resources. Currently Friend Nauda and Friend Theo had entered the city to participate in a social assignment for the House, so she resolved to accomplish something of her own and departed the Blacksilver complex.
There were a great many stores and merchants within Norro Yorthin, and all of them would serve Ichili customers, but few made them truly comfortable. When she did not have others to assist her with the crowds, Fiyu had occasionally gone out to better scout the regions near the Ichili gate. While there, she had met Acquaintance Hirot again, and he had suggested that she visit a particular mercantile house when it came to sublime materials or armaments, one of the few not controlled by the House of Coin.
When she arrived on the narrow street, she was forced to leave the sleigh, but at least the people in the neighborhood kept a more polite distance between them. This was good, as she had yet to master the method she had seen some Ichili use, slipping between crowds without being touched. Fiyu held her portion of the money tighter within her robes, pulled the bundle of eryo claws closer, and looked about for the indicators she had been given. There was no sign written in obvious words, only a specific pattern within the stones out front, visible to most Ichili senses but hidden to others.
She entered and was immediately met by an Ichili woman wrapped in many furs despite the heat, confronting her from several paces away. "State your business."
; "I was advised to come here by a stranger named Hirot," Fiyu said. "I wish to purchase an armament without being betrayed by merchants."
"This is reasonable. We do not often cater to first tier soulcrafters here."
"I desire an armament that will be useful to me after I ascend. I believe that I also have sufficient funds for such a purchase."
"If your funds are found to be inadequate, we will discourage you from returning here." The Stranger Sentry stared at her for a time, and when Fiyu did not budge, she nodded. "I will escort you to our current armament specialist."
They moved down a side hallway, everything tastefully lit so that it would be just barely visible to the eyes of most. Each doorway they passed was covered by a curtain of beads that shimmered oddly, somehow blocking her senses from discerning anything beyond. Fiyu became mildly concerned, though given the semi-trusted location, she thought it was a good idea for privacy.
Eventually she was escorted into a room filled with soft objects, from Fithan rugs to pillows she recognized from home to unfamiliar chairs made from Ichili wood. A partition had been set up between the two halves of the room splitting a table in half, the one dense object in the room, though it did not prevent her senses from feeling a man sitting on the other side. There was a closed window in the partition to allow for items to be passed through. Overall, she thought it was a pleasant, comfortable arrangement.
"What armament do you require?" the stranger asked.
"I am uncertain." Fiyu spoke as she sat down, then immediately felt a tensing of the man's muscles in annoyance. Recognizing her error, she continued on. "What I require is an armament that is usable for a first tier soulcrafter, but not irrelevant when I ascend. This is a difficult request, so I did not want to burden you with more specifications."
"Not impossible, if you're not going to try to build a room around it yet." The man shifted on the other side, leaning onto the table with more receptive musculature. "Why don't you explain your blueprint so far and tell me what you might want?"
Though Fiyu would never reveal details of her blueprint easily, she was free to speak of the three sublime materials that formed her primary walls. She also spoke of her techniques and other details that she thought might be relevant. This was a trusted encounter, after all, and dishonesty would reflect poorly on her.
"What we have will depend on what you have." The window slid open with a clatter. "Show me how much you are willing to pay."
The truth was that Fiyu intended to spend everything she had, though that was not a truth she was required to share. She began to remove everything she had stored away or kept with Nauda: Fithan Discs, craftgems, even the limited Ichili money she possessed and the Silver Crowns she still had from Deuxan. In all, it seemed a sadly small pile, but she pushed it through the window.
After a pause, the man shook his head to himself. "For this amount, I can acquire you an armament that meets your specifications. But in the interest of courtesy, I must inform you that it might not meet your expectations. Are you willing to spend more?"
"I have no more money, but..." Fiyu's head drooped, but she had feared this. She reached into the bag she carried and pulled out her third of the claws they had taken from the dead eryo. Though she hesitated to place them all on the table, she did not believe they were a sublime material suited to her, so she thought it was better to spend them here.
The claws were large enough that the man needed to turn one sideways to fit it through the window. Once on the other side, however, his senses pored over the claw with such intensity that she could feel them rippling even from her side. Soon enough, he set the claw back down and turned to face her again.
"These are a valuable sublime material. Would you be willing to reveal where you found them in exchange for compensation?"
"Yes, but in the interest of courtesy, I must tell you that you would not be able to use that information. This sublime beast was killed by a companion of mine and I could not replicate the feat or the hunt."
"Pity. But yes, with these, we will be able to offer you an excellent armament. Please wait here." He vanished through another beaded door on his side of the room, leaving her alone.
On her own, Fiyu had time to consider whether or not the lie had been irresponsible of her. It was possible that the Ichili in the city could venture through the Tatian gate to hunt eryos, though she did not know how difficult that would be, if they lacked an ability like Friend Theo's. Because her companions were so concerned about security, she decided to withhold the information, even in this company. Though Ichili society could be trusted to some degree, betrayal was always possible.
While she waited, Fiyu entered her soulhome to work, but found herself struggling to decide. The number of improvements she could make to the interior were steadily decreasing and the exterior could hardly be more polished. Before she could generate the full willpower to begin any new project, the man returned from the other side bearing several heavy objects.
"First is a Darkling Knife, which can easily absorb and enhance cantae from your hand." As he spoke, the man slid each object through the window to her side of the table. "Second is a Voidwraith Cloak, which matches most stealth abilities. Third is a bolt of Voidwraith Cloth, if you wish to craft your own garment. Fourth are these Soulsilver Bracers, which will increase the intensity of applied cantae. Fifth is a Companionsphere, which generates a powerful defensive field. All meet your specifications with potential for growth. Choose."
Fiyu looked over each armament, admiring the quality of the work and the cantae within. She must have underestimated the value of the eryo claws, because the tools she had been offered were much more suitable for a Ruler or above than her. And now she would need to choose among the treasures.
She was most attracted to the Voidwraith Cloak, which was both elegantly inscribed and very soft. Most importantly, it would make her stealth technique more potent, perhaps allowing her to avoid the gaze of more powerful soulcrafters... or sublime beasts such as the one that had deceived her.
After much hesitation, Fiyu decided that she should not make the decision based on fear. As she had seen with Friend Nauda and Friend Theo, many conflicts required them to stand and fight. She judged the Soulsilver Bracers to be the overall most powerful, since they would increase the potential of her bursts of light. When she picked it up, she felt increased tension from the other side.
"That is your decision? I must tell you, that is the most expensive, and may also be difficult to soulcraft even at Archcrafter, being more suited to Ruler."
"I will choose these." Fiyu rolled back her sleeves and slipped the bracers onto her wrists, finding them easy to tie into a comfortable position. The cantae contained within the etched silver surface was actually somewhat intimidating, but she would master it later. In the short term, it might help her contribute to her companions when it mattered.
While she experimented with them, the man on the other side took everything she had offered. At the end, he slid the pile of Ichili coins back to her. Apparently that was all that remained of the money she had been saving for many months. Fiyu touched the bracers on her wrists carefully, hoping that they would be worth it.
"That concludes our business. Please depart."
"I will do so." Fiyu bowed to him and then slipped through the beaded door.
No one came to escort her, as conducting a successful deal had likely made their relationship incrementally closer. If she remained in the city, perhaps she could return again in the future and establish another ally. For the time being, she let her sleeves hide her new armament and returned to the sleigh.
On her way back, Fiyu realized that she had not truly spent all her resources: her merits with House Blacksilver had been accumulating for quite some time. They did not have many sublime materials that suited her, but perhaps...
Chapter 32
As another month dwindled, Theo was for once allowed to soulcraft in peace. He still went on assignment with the others and tried to
push more value out of his ventures in Aathal or with granitebile, but that was maintenance. What would help him survive the duel were the new chambers he'd worked on.
Surprisingly, he hadn't been able to find out information about the wormhole sublime material he'd purchased in Ichil. Whatever it was, his instincts told him how valuable it was, so he put in the work first.
The most obvious option, the one he would have taken when he was a young man, would be to place the wormhole chamber above a ranged attack. Having a cantae bolt that could skip over space to strike instantly was no joke, and the potential for it still inspired him, but he forcefully set that aside for his Ruler floor if ever. Instead, he thought about the blueprint from the other angle and placed the wormhole above his very first chamber.
When he'd begun carving the walls for his gravitational fields, he'd used one of the most obvious symbols of gravity he knew: the fabric of space and time being warped by an object. Wormholes, even if theoretical, were just a logical extension of that. Instead of strengthening his gravitational fields, which were already adequate, he had the cantae from the room flow upward into the wormhole chamber.
That reinforcement wasn't enough to create a wormhole on its own - he'd tested - but he knew it was a close thing. When both chambers flowed together into his central core, they might be able to transport something small... something like a singularity. He couldn't test that process until he actually had a completely balanced second floor, but the flow between the two was quite strong.
So far, he hadn't made any decisions that weakened his blueprint in the long term, but his soulhome was turning out strange. The cantae generated by his second floor overflowed into the unfinished first, and whenever he tried to use a spherical flow, it swirled around itself strangely. His speed chambers on the second had more raw power than the enhancement rooms below, which could be easily corrected, but he didn't think he could waste time on a little more strength when his opponent was so dangerous.