Soulhome

Book #1 of The Weirkey Chronicles

Version 1.3

© 2020 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.

Prologue

Stepping across space and time to enter a new world eventually became repetitive.

But it never grew dull. The liminal moment in which the vastness of a world not his own yawned before him. The hollowness filling his chest as he momentarily ceased to exist. The staggering disorientation as he stepped onto ground that changed him more than he changed it. Even as he entered into the truly unknown, he was accompanied by those familiar sensations.

Theo took a deep breath of air he'd never breathed before. In his years of travel, he had set foot in five of the Nine Worlds, yet he immediately knew that this was not one of them, nor was it his nearly-forgotten home. No, this was something new.

All color had died on the desolate plane that stretched before him, a wasteland of gray that consumed every horizon. Overhead, the sky arched white as bone. A black sun burned in that emptiness, casting shadows without objects. The only proper shadows lay behind him and the old wooden door that had taken him to this vacant expanse. Through it, he could still see the resplendent world they'd left behind.

Then he saw his companions as they stepped through, their shadows joining his own, the pale wasteland now occupied by four intruders. Eratius flexed all six of his wings, glowering as if he liked this world as little as all the others. Brigana held her spear ready, but seeing him unharmed, returned it to her back. Khaluu entered last, his foliage rustling as his bark-like face took in the landscape. The power of chaos closed the door firmly behind them, leaving only a wooden door and a new world.

"Have we left the Nine Worlds, Khaluu?" Theo asked as he turned fully to the others. Khaluu creaked as he inclined the upper half of his tree-like body.

"No ancestor of mine has ever set root in this place." His trunk floated lower, extending tendrils toward the ground, but they curled up as they reached the gray dust. "It is a lifeless world, yet the density of it..."

Brigana walked forward to stand beside him with a smile. "I take it this isn't your world, Theo?"

He shook his head. "No, this is nothing like Earth. What about you, Eratius? Do the hallowed libraries of Noven contain anything about such a place?"

"They contain many things." Eratius stalked past them, arching a feathered wing to shield his eyes from the dark sun and stare outward. "Unlike many ignorant fools, we do not believe that the Nine Worlds stand alone. But most of the worlds around the Nine are fragments and corpses... what purpose can coming here possibly serve?"

"Don't rule it out so quickly. I'm sure this place must contain sublime materials we couldn't find anywhere else." Theo walked beside Eratius and peered toward the horizon as well. "Can you see anything?"

"Possibly." His rival offered no further explanation, moving forward again to put more distance between them.

That was unhelpful, but so was Eratius. Theo shielded his eyes and squinted forward, drawing on the highest chambers of his soulhome. Enhancing his eyesight revealed nothing at first, the wasteland apparently endless, but then he realized that something was wrong with the horizon in one direction. A strange line had been drawn above the ground, almost as if there were two horizons. Unnaturally uniform, yet if it had been constructed by mortal hands, it was an impossibly vast structure.

A soft sound interrupted his observations. He glanced over to find Eratius on one knee, grimacing. His wings crumpled as if a strong wind had flattened him, and Theo searched for an attack, but there was nothing around them. Yet when he looked back to the others, he found that Brigana and Khaluu struggled as well.

"This place... it abhors us." Eratius lurched to his feet with a grunt, but instead of moving forward, he retreated several steps toward the door. Khaluu rustled his leaves in agreement.

"I have felt few worlds so hostile. To proceed, we must cast our cantae against it, and that would soon leave us drained."

"Theo, do you not feel it?" Brigana straightened as she marshaled her power within her soulhome, but her face was paler than normal. "I noticed the first step I took away from the gate, but you've been walking so easily..."

"This feels the same as any of the Nine to me." Theo frowned and looked down at his hand, his crimson ring a bloody scar on the gray wasteland. He did not truly know what it was, other than that it had been given to him when he left Earth. Since then, it had allowed his body to survive in the alien worlds of the Nine. "The artifact must work here as well. I'll scout while you all adjust."

Brigana nodded to him and closed her eyes, beginning to soulcraft to better prepare herself. Khaluu floated near the gate, pondering, while Eratius merely gave him a curt nod. So it was up to him to explore this new world. It would not be the first time he took the lead, as little as Eratius wanted to admit it.

Yet Theo had only taken several steps forward before Brigana caught up to him, her fingers brushing his arm. "Theo... please be careful. I wish I could go with you, but I need time to adjust."

"Do not worry about me. We can see there's nothing for leagues." He did pat her hand reassuringly, though, and didn't leave her so quickly. "You're already soulcrafting a defense, aren't you? Now that we've become Strongholds, you should have more than enough space for a chamber dedicated to it."

"Yes, but I wish I'd planned the soul architecture better. If I had known how strange the Worlds could be beyond the limits of Deuxan..." Brigana sighed to herself, then turned her gaze toward him with a strange expression. "Do you ever wish you could go back and rebuild your soulhome from the beginning? If I knew then everything I do now, I would have laid my foundations so much more carefully..."

"And spend years soulcrafting myself from the ground up? No thanks."

"Oh, but imagine if you could. You've truly become yourself here in the Nine, so you could lay a far better foundation. I can imagine it now... a field of golden flowers equal to the hero you are."

Theo blushed and looked away from her earnest praise. It was true that his time on Earth felt like a distant memory, and he had only discovered who he truly was after entering the Nine. When he looked inside, he saw the spiritual fortress he had soulcrafted and could recognize a great many mistakes that were now built into his soul. If he could begin again...

He had no intention of doing so, but he discussed it to keep Brigana company. Her soulhome was a beautiful silver tower, yet she spoke eagerly of how she could redesign it. Surprisingly, she'd given his own soulcrafting considerable thought as well. She had such a clear vision of a brilliant foundation and blueprint that he almost regretted that he couldn't rebuild using it.

In the end, however, her cantae reserves began to ebb. He gave her one more smile as she retreated toward the door, then he headed out into the wasteland. It was time to see just what this world had in store.

As it turned out, very little. Theo made sure to keep himself oriented, which was a simple task because the dust trail behind him was the only change marring the vast wasteland. Except for that line in the distance, which very slowly grew as he approached. Whatever it was, it was tall and unbelievably long.

Though he'd been told not to remove the ring, Theo experimentally slipped it off his finger. He felt no different until he tossed it into the air... and fell to the ground faster than the ring. In an instant the air itself suffocated him and the sun seared darkly through his body. Shuddering, he scrambled in the dust until his fingers brushed against the metal and he felt a cool wave of relief.

The ring clearly allowed him to walk in this world before he was ready, but he could turn that to his advantage, just like he'd mastered every challenge in his path. Any sublime materials found here could well grant them strength they could never otherwise imagine. Theo placed the ring firmly on his finger and strode forward into the wasteland.

"Well done, Theo." The voice emanated from all directions at once, but when he swung his head about wildly, he spotted a hooded figure floating in the wasteland not far from him.

Exactly the same entity that had greeted him all those years ago. The same one who had guided him from his life on Earth and given him the ring. Theo had never expected to see Vistgil again, yet this was no welcome reunion. Instead he found himself hesitating, long submerged memories and emotions from his old life swirling up to overwhelm him.

"This place is the end of the Nine Worlds," Vistgil said calmly, floating toward him without disturbing a single mote of dust. "You have grown strong and come far. If you so desire, you could return to your world. Not in the body you sacrificed, but to begin a new, fresh life."

"I don't want to go back," Theo said. He'd known that since the moment he'd seen Vistgil again, but speaking the words crystallized the thought. "This is a better life than I ever had on Earth. I mean, I miss chocolate and air conditioning, but there's no comparison."

The hood tilted to the side and he saw dark eyes looking at him in confusion. "Chocolate? Air conditioning?"

"Just things from my world. Never mind all that. What happens if we keep moving forward here?"

"I would not recommend that, Theo." Vistgil shook his head slowly. "This place is too dangerous for you and your companions. If you wish to live your new life, return to the Nine Worlds and live it to the full. Here, you will find nothing but dead worlds."

"But why are they dead?" Theo walked past the hooded figure into the wasteland, peering again at the line across the horizon. Now it looked almost like an impossibly tall cliff... "You said this is the end of the Nine, but there's something out there, right?"

"I am here not to give answers, but a warning. You are not safe in this place, and you grow less safe by the moment. Choose wisely."

As Theo turned back to look at Vistgil, he spotted a fleck of darkness far beyond. It would have been imperceptible in most worlds, but in the empty wasteland it screamed its presence. He squinted toward the source, then involuntarily took a step back as he understood what he saw.

Five titans strode across the wasteland in a straight line, their movements slow yet each step devouring the land before them. From the distance he could not see what weapons they carried, but their massive size was unmistakable. Even though titans were no longer a threat to him, since he had become a Stronghold, he still hesitated as he thought back to all the years when they had been lethal and invincible.

Even now, could he fight five of them? With his allies, it would be little trouble, but he was uncertain if they would be capable of fighting. How could five titans have come into being in such an empty place? They represented the third stage of demonkind, each created through the sacrifice of hundreds or thousands of lesser demons. He had encountered them only rarely, usually during the vast battles that occasionally spilled between worlds.

Yet as he watched, Theo realized that there was something worse. A line of dust separated itself from the titans, smaller but moving terrifyingly quickly. It grew larger by the moment, a muscular creature with bright red skin, cloven feet, and horns arching to either side. Though less intimidating than the titans, it sent a spear of dread straight into his heart.

"Just what is that?" he asked Vistgil. "A local fleeing the demons?"

"Demons are more numerous and more diverse than you know." Was it his imagination, or was Vistgil almost smiling underneath his hood? "You have traveled far, but you have not seen every threat the Nine have to offer. Again, I suggest that you decide quickly. Return with me to your Earth, or return to your friends in the Nine."

Just to be safe, Theo retreated back toward the gate, though he frequently glanced over his shoulder. The being was gaining on him rapidly, apparently inexhaustible. Vistgil seemed to imply that it was a demon as well, but Theo had never seen one like that... was it possible that a fourth stage of demons existed? If so, the idea sent a shiver through him.

Vistgil remained behind, motionless, and the demon tore past him as if he didn't exist. Perhaps he didn't, just some intellectual entity that guided travelers between worlds. But there was no time to consider that, as Theo realized that he was too slow. Though he was close to the gate, the demon would catch up to him first. There was no choice but to fight.

He drew the Hurricane Blade from his side and readied it. His soulcrafted body was already far faster than most opponents, yet the demon ran every bit as fast as he could. With the Hurricane Blade in hand, his speed was vastly increased, so he thought that he would have an edge. It was simply a matter of whether he could land a lethal blow before it struck him.

As the demon approached, it let out a roar. Its eyes burned with an unholy blue fire, and when it opened its mouth, he saw the flames gathering within. They flooded out almost immediately, but he was faster, flashing past the demon, seven strikes carrying the force of a hurricane cutting through its body.

On the other side, he found himself holding a broken sword.

Theo stared down at the hilt in his hands and nearly paid with his life as another blue inferno roared toward him. He managed to leap away, drawing on his wind chamber, but he remained shaken. Though he knew there were many soulcrafters more powerful than him, it had been years since he had lost a weapon so quickly. Worse, the Hurricane Blade had been a Stronghold-tier armament of great strength. Yet it had shattered in just a few blows...

Fleeing wasn't cowardice, it was the only choice in the face of such overwhelming strength. As he spotted the door ahead, Theo took in great gulps of air, hoping to shout a warning to his allies. Their only hope was to retreat through the door and destroy it before the demon could follow them. The titans in the distance didn't even matter, not compared to this new demon.

"Retreat!" His call came out ragged, but he saw them look up. Or perhaps they only noticed the clouds of dust and the demon close on his heels. "It's a fourth stage demon! Get through the door!"

Brigana drew her spear and adopted a cautious stance, while Khaluu began to glow with cantae. Yet Eratius ignored his words, stepping forward and flexing his wings as power surged within him. "Do you run every time you see something new, Theo?" He sneered as brilliant light gathered around his wings. "Let a Prince of Noven handle this."

A glittering beam of light exploded from his wings, and for a moment Theo almost believed that it might have stopped the demon. Yet a moment later, the demon plunged through, apparently unharmed. It released another burst of flame and Eratius dodged by taking to the air, but the shock was clear on his face.

Then the demon was on him in a leap that Theo didn't realize until it was already over. One of its horns speared through Eratius's chest. He slumped as if already dead, but the demon grasped two of his wings in one hand and tore them away, scattering bloody pieces even as the two bodies fell back to the ground.

"You must go." Khaluu spoke in his creaking voice, filled with a deeper weariness than Theo had ever heard. "Do not waste the shade I can offer you. At least, at the end, I can help you a little."

With that, Khaluu gathered his power, leaves rustling. A column of green light, his most powerful binding technique, speared from the sky. Theo had once seen it hold three titans in place for hours until reinforcements could arrive, and it had single-handedly ended a siege by freezing all the attackers in place.

The column of light shattered the instant it touched the demon.

Though the force still drove it back to the ground, the demon returned to its feet. It growled as it straightened, shaking a horn covered in Eratius's blood. Another column of green cantae struck from above, but it halted the demon for only a few rapid heartbeats before it took another step forward.

Khaluu couldn't possibly continue like that for long, which meant he was giving his long life for them. Theo wanted to thank him, but there was no time. He saw that Brigana had understood the same terrible truth and started retreating to the door. Though Theo fumbled for his weirkey, she had already begun to use hers, slowly forcing open the path between worlds.

"Get ready, Theo! I'll open it as quickly as possible!"

As he stepped up beside her, Theo realized that fleeing wasn't an option and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder. "No... Brigana, if there's only time for one of us to escape, it should be you. I'm... I'm not anyone special. Just a visitor from another world. You have a life you could return to, a w-"

Brigana cut him off with a fierce kiss. Theo was almost too shocked to feel it, then she was already drawing back, tears in her eyes. "I want all of us to survive, but there may not be time. Live, Theo. Avenge us."

"There should be enough time t-" His words were cut off by a scream of pain, and he couldn't help but turn to look, even though he knew what he would see.

Blue flames licked through Khaluu's boughs, scorching him despite all the defenses he had soulcrafted. Theo could see both his body and his soul burning away, the being that had once been a mentor to them giving his life to buy them so little time. Already the demon turned to stare at them through the ashes, without any satisfaction in victory, a machine of mindless evil...

Too late, he felt Brigana's hand grabbing his shirt. Once he might have been able to resist, to move through the air to take her with him, but he was still in shock. So all he could do was stare at her as he was hurled backward, through the door.

His last vision of Brigana was her tearful smile as the demon's claws swept down toward her. Then the door crumbled and he was alone.

Noven was a bright, peaceful world, yet now it felt very cold. The white marble scraped his knees as he struggled to his feet, grasping the fragments of the broken door. Around him, the peaceful wisps of cloud suffocated him. Nine suns floated overhead, yet their intricate dance could not warm him. Not when his life had cost the lives of all his allies.

"Unusual."

The words struck him like an attack and Theo swung wildly toward the source. Vistgil floated behind him, backlit by one of the setting suns, a silhouette against the golden disc. Theo's mind refused to believe what he was seeing and he could only stare as the hooded figure floated closer.

"Why would you have lived? I wonder if one of the others was involved... or perhaps there is something special about you after all." Vistgil sneered, all trace of otherworldly wisdom replaced by venal glee.

"What... who are you?" Theo asked. He realized now that his question came far too late.

Then there was a surge of pain and his arm was gone. Theo let out a cry of pain and clutched the stump, for a moment knowing nothing but agony. He stared in horror as he saw Vistgil holding his arm and realized that he was in the presence of something far worse than the demon he'd escaped. Some of the Dominions he knew might have been able to fight the demon, but this...

"I'm only joking, of course." Vistgil slid the crimson ring off the finger that had once been his, then threw the severed limb aside carelessly. "There is nothing at all remarkable about you. Every visitor from Earth is so eager to believe that."

Even though it was hopeless, Theo couldn't bring himself to surrender. Not in the face of such betrayal. He drew the fragment of his sword with his remaining arm and raised it toward his opponent, watching the amused smile between the shards of the blade.

Fingers closed around his throat, lifting him into the air. They could have snapped his neck instantly, but instead they merely applied a force that left him paralyzed, the broken sword in his hand as useless as a twig. Vistgil looked up at him with another smile.

"Before you go, I just want you to know that it was all lies. You weren't brought here as a reward for heroically sacrificing your life, it was a cosmic coincidence. You actually died in a meaningless car crash, merely part of a statistic. The fact that your soul found its way here was every bit as random, but you were so eager to believe it meant something more."

Theo wanted to fight to the end, but the power was overwhelming. Beyond that, the words fell upon him with the weight of truth. Years ago, he remembered being skeptical that he had really been chosen for anything. Somehow he had lost that skepticism, swept up in the deception that told himself he was meant for something more...

"Yes." Vistgil let out a sigh of satisfaction. "There's the expression that I wanted to see, that makes this all worth it."

Then his fingers tightened and Theo died.

~ ~ ~

At first, the repeated sound meant nothing. It was an eldritch call that he barely remembered, a word in a language forgotten. Then all at once he realized that it was the beep of a heart monitor and his mind returned to his skull.

It was a struggle to open his eyes, painful just to view the world around him. Yet Theo drank in the sight of the hospital bed. Not a restorative lotus of Siata, a warm pit beneath Ichil, or a healer's hut on Tatian. Just blank sheets in a sterile room.

He was back on Earth.

Despite all logic, Theo still reached for his own soulhome to try to restore himself. But of course there was absolutely nothing, because soulcrafting didn't exist on Earth. For a brief moment he wondered if it had all been a dream, yet he couldn't believe that. The memories of all the years he had spent among the Nine weighed upon him too heavily, and the deaths of his friends sat in his mind like hot coals.

Theo forced himself to keep looking. His legs were completely encased in casts, one of them elevated above the bed, which explained why he couldn't move them. The cold needle of an IV burned within one arm, so he kept it still, but even his other arm could barely wiggle a few fingers when he tried. Throughout it all, the heartbeat monitor continued its steady reminder.

All he could think was that it must have been another cosmic coincidence. Vistgil was probably right that he had been in a car accident, throwing his soul into the Nine Worlds. Yet he was still alive. Perhaps he had died for a moment before the doctors brought him back, or perhaps coming near death had been enough. When he had died in the Nine, his soul had instead returned to his old body.

He wasn't sure if that made any sense, but he didn't know if anything made sense anymore. Most of what he had been told about the abyss between worlds and the reasons people moved across it must have been lies. The entire time he'd been a piece in some game Vistgil was playing, completely unaware of the truth.

But now he had a few jagged fragments he could trust, even as they cut into his mind. In his moment of victory, Vistgil had let several valuable clues slip. Worlds beyond the Nine, the fact that the ring had held some real value... Theo realized something even worse. The way the demons had behaved could not have been a coincidence: they had been used as a tool. All the stories about them being mindless monsters must have been untrue, but what was their true purpose?

Once, he would have pushed aside the sheets and risen to his feet. But his real body lay near death and his soul was battered beyond belief. Only the constant heartbeat of the monitor reminded him that he was still alive.

Inch by agonizing inch, Theo drew his hand into a fist. He would find his way back to the Nine Worlds and take revenge on those who had done this to him. No matter how long it took.

Chapter 1

After so long, he barely recognized the feel of another world before him, he simply stumbled through the door. Then the emptiness consumed him and he gloried in it, welcoming the abyss between worlds. When he fell out the other side his world spun, but it was no longer his world.

Theo dropped to the ground, digging his fingers into the grass and dirt. He didn't even know where he was, but he could feel the spirit of the Nine Worlds in the air itself. His hands clawed at the alien earth, as if he could draw all of it into himself.

He wept. Forty long, miserable years, constantly haunted by the memories of another reality. For the first year he'd believed that he'd stumble on a door back at any moment, but he'd gradually realized it wouldn't be so easy and descended through stages of coping. At times he prepared for his return, at others he tried to build something new, and often he feared he'd die on Earth.

The final moments of his friends never returned to him in nightmares, as if they had no place on Earth, but he called them to mind until the memory was so worn he could barely remember their faces. All that remained was the pain and trauma, the sense of betrayal, and the final separation. Everything else in his life had been nothing but a cheap replacement for what he had lost, up until the moment he'd stumbled across an unmarked doorway standing in a field...

Pushing through the emotions, Theo took a deep breath and drew himself up, tears drying. If this entrance was like the last, Vistgil would soon be arriving, and that would be fatal. But he'd thought about this moment for his entire Earthly life and made plans for any contingency.

Judging from the vast orange sun shining warmly overhead, he had arrived on Tatian. That was a good start. Tatian was a boring world, but it was mostly harmless. Had he arrived in Ichil or Arbai he might have died before he could even begin, and an unfamiliar world like Slest would have offered him no advantages. Unless he was immediately killed, he could work with this.

Fields of amber spread in all directions, split only by dirt roads and the occasional fence of living stone. He stood within a grove of trees, heavy with sweet fruits. That could describe nearly anywhere on Tatian, so it didn't narrow much down. What mattered was finding some sort of cover in case he was being tracked.

Though the spiritual reality of his surroundings overwhelmed him at first, as he left the clearing, Theo took inventory of himself. Strangely, his body was young again, as if it was the same age as the last time he had been in the Nine. Yet when he tried to examine his soul, he found nothing - he wasn't even capable of seeing his soulhome, as if he wasn't a soulcrafter.

That wasn't shocking: after having his soul wrenched between incompatible worlds twice, it would have been more surprising if his old strength had remained. Besides, he'd been thinking about how he wanted to rebuild for years. It might be a long time before he became a Stronghold again, but when he did, he would be far superior to his past self.

Branches snapped to his left and he whirled, obsolete instincts trying to use power he no longer possessed. But what he saw wasn't Vistgil or some demon, but an ordinary man who appeared to be from Deuxan. When Theo saw the silver hair and ivory skin, for a painful moment he thought of Brigana, but they looked nothing alike other than their home world.

"What... what is happening?" the man asked, staring at him as if astonished. The words were composed of sounds that meant nothing to Theo, yet in his mind he heard the pure meaning as if it was his native language. Though the man might not realize it, he was no longer speaking a Deuxan tongue, but instead local Tatian. The wonder of the old sensation made Theo hesitate in his answer, then the sky cracked open not far from them.

An older woman fell through the crack before it closed, flattening some of the crops. In the glimpse he'd gotten of her, Theo thought that she might be from Fithe, though he wasn't very familiar with that world. This was more than just a door - there must have been damage to the space between worlds, to dislocate so many people.

Once, Theo would have leapt to help the old woman for its own sake. The bitter years attempting to find his way back to the Nine made kindness feel quaint, but he decided that tactic was for the best. He headed out into the field to help her to her feet. "Are you alright?"

"W-who are you?" She flinched from him, and he wondered if the hand he offered was a threat in her world, but eventually she allowed him to help her up. "I... I was just sorting all my pots and pans for the shop, when suddenly... suddenly..."

"You've fallen a long way from home. Just rest for now." Theo gently led her to one of the fences and helped her sit against the stone. The living material was warm and softer than it looked, which seemed to calm the old woman.

As he left her there, Theo considered his next step. Though he was ready to flee at a moment's notice, he was starting to doubt that this was an ambush. When he had first come to the Nine, he had been alone and soon greeted by Vistgil. This appeared to be a major disruption between worlds that he had only stumbled upon accidentally.

His theory was confirmed over the next hour or so as more strangers either fell through cracks in reality or stumbled toward their group from further away. Early on, a pile of rocks tumbled from the sky, soon rising and revealing itself to be one of the inhabitants of Arbai. Though the Mundhin might appear fearsome, it soon settled down calmly to wait.

Deciding that fleeing would only attract more attention, Theo stayed at the edges of the group, helping new arrivals remain calm. Some of them knew they were on Tatian, while others stumbled in confusion, uncertain about the very concept of other worlds. None of them had been doing anything unusual that might have opened a door, or at least that was what they claimed.

"Everyone! Please remain..." The loud voice trailed off, but it drew everyone's attention. Theo turned to see a Tatian man in brown robes standing atop a nearby hill. Like everyone native to the world, he had golden brown skin and light hair. He carried a gnarled staff of living wood, which marked him as one of their Farmguards, as well as a soulcrafter.

Fortunately, there were few selfish or violent soulcrafters on Tatian. The man stood blinking at the assembled group, as if a bit dismayed to find them so calm. But eventually he gave a broad smile and raised his voice again, the sound carrying without shouting as he filled his voice with cantae.

"It is wonderful to see that all of you are at peace. Please do not be afraid. An accident has upset the rivers that flow between worlds, casting many people into Tatian. You are not the first, and we can only hope you will be the last. We have made preparations to feed and shelter you, and in time we will find some way for you to return home."

Immediately some gave their thanks while other grumbled. The Deuxan refugees were particularly skeptical, looking for some scheme to exploit them, not understanding that this world had more than a differently colored sun. In all Theo's travels, he'd found Tatian to be a surprisingly gentle and naive world. When he'd been younger, he'd considered it bland but pleasant, whereas now it was just saccharine.

But useful, since the locals' first impulse would be to help the refugees free of cost. Theo could take advantage of their kindness both to hide himself and to get a head start on all his other plans. He would need to stay alert for Vistgil, but otherwise this might be an excellent beginning.

As the group of foreigners from other worlds began to buzz amongst themselves, Theo closed his eyes and tried to take in all the languages. Most of them spoke in the gentle tones of Tatian, their passage between worlds having fundamentally altered their souls' relationship to language. But several others, either multi-lingual or familiar with such travel, were speaking in their own tongues.

And Theo understood them all. As far as he had understood it in his past life, a person's understanding of language was transformed between worlds, so their original state was relevant. When he'd first visited the Nine, he had only known English, which allowed him to speak and understand the most common language in every location he visited. Since most worlds contained many languages, it had been a frequent annoyance, particularly when traveling far from an entrance gate.

There would be no such annoyances now. In his years away, Theo had learned three languages well and five more enough to hold a conversation. He'd even taught himself ancient Greek in the hope that it would translate into an ancient language in the Nine. That theory was still untested, but for the moment, he could understand every word he heard around him.

Not that they were saying much of any importance. Some wondered if a great battle could have broken open passages between worlds, while others just expressed confusion or uncertainty. A few simply grumbled about their schedule being disrupted, which he could appreciate for the pettiness if nothing else.

The local Farmguard returned with several more Tatian villagers bearing food. It was simple but nourishing, first the purple fruits that grew on every tree and then freshly baked spheres of bread. Theo devoured both, surprisingly hungry, but found himself growing impatient.

Though the wonder of returning to the Nine had carried him for a time, it was quickly ebbing away. The people around him might hail from many worlds, but they were still basically trivial and boring like villagers anywhere. Once he had journeyed with master soulcrafters and dined on the finest of sublime materials. Sitting in this miserable little camp wasn't taking him any closer to revenge or understanding, so if he no longer needed to hide...

Just as Theo was about to leave the group, he heard whimpering from between the stalks of a nearby grain field. When he turned to look, he saw a young woman on her knees, clutching her eyes.

In an instant, he identified her dark hair and robes. Somehow she had been wrenched all the way from Ichil, a cold and dark world. The existence of such a large sun must be blinding to her, and the cacophony of colors and sounds would be terrifying. If she wasn't a world traveler, she would never have experienced anything like it, and this pleasant world must have seemed like a chaotic hell.

Leaping to help her might have been logical, but interacting with everyone else had worn through his patience, and he had to consider if it was worth it. Before he could make a decision, one of the Tatian villagers stepped closer. He greeted the Ichili woman cheerfully and touched her shoulder, which was the worst possible thing he could have done.

She flinched backward, cried out, and threw up a hand. A burst of light briefly blinded the villager and he staggered away.

"Calm down there, miss!" The Tatian man rubbed his eyes, but continued smiling. "We're here to help, there's no need to be afraid..."

"You idiot, don't!" Theo's warning came too late, because the fool promptly reached out toward the woman again. Warm touching was common on Tatian, even among strangers, but on Ichil it was a shocking violation.

This time the light from her hand was no warning, but violent cantae flowing from her spirit. A torrential rain of bolts tore through the crops and descended on the villager and Theo.

Chapter 2

Theo tackled the man to the side, not quite fast enough. Several bolts struck the Tatian man, burning through his skin, and the impact drove them both to the ground. More bolts flooded from the Ichili woman's hand, devastating the surrounding fields. Other refugees began to scream and panic, scattering from their huddles.

On the ground, Theo was just glad that he hadn't been struck. Though his movement might have looked selfless, part of his goal had been to get the Farmguard in between him and all that raw cantae. Now the Tatian man was pushing him aside and pulling back to his feet via his staff, while Theo stayed low and reconsidered.

So the woman was a soulcrafter, most likely of the first tier. It was frustrating not to be able to see her soulhome, but without being a soulcrafter himself, Theo could only guess. He had no idea how many in the crowd were soulcrafters, though surely at least a few would be.

"Now see here, there's no need for that!" The Farmguard approached, thumping his staff against the ground. "These are peaceful lands, so we'll have none of this violence!"

He raised his staff and a warm light closed around the woman. It was the gentlest of restraining techniques... but to someone from Ichil, it must have seemed like a horrifying trap of light. The woman clutched her eyes and dropped to her knees, but she soon retaliated.

The hail of bolts tore through the light surrounding her and sent the Farmguard staggering back. Theo was surprised by the ferocity of it - he didn't think the Ichili woman was an Archcrafter, or her attack would have killed many, but she must have soulcrafted her first floor more thoroughly than the Farmguard.

Several others with staffs frowned and approached as well, beginning to surround her. Though she was blinded and still trying to shield her eyes, the Ichili woman could sense them, more power gathering in her hands. She yelled "Stay away!" in an Ichili language - she was so shocked that she wasn't speaking Tatian and probably didn't understand them.

This would only get worse. Theo had wanted to keep a low profile, but decided that he needed to take a direct hand or this would just attract more attention.

"She is frightened, not angry." He spoke soothingly as he touched the back of the first Farmguard. "I have walked her world, so let me speak to her."

"Stop her from destroying the crops," the Farmguard said, but he did gesture to the others to stay back. They might hate intruders who brought violence, but they were always open to cooperation. Theo touched another of the Farmguards reassuringly on the shoulder and stepped closer.

As he did so, he whistled a low tone. It took him several tries to recall the exact notes, but it soon came back to him. A simple series of three notes that carried over the empty fields of Ichil, announcing the presence of a friendly guest. Because it drew attention in the darkness, it was a position of intentional vulnerability.

When she heard it, the young woman hesitated, her head cocking so that one ear turned in his direction. "Who are you? What is this hell?"

"This is the world of Tatian," Theo said quietly, focusing as hard as he could and hoping his soul would naturally adjust to speaking her language. She froze, focusing on his location. "I want to help you. Let me give you something to help with the light."

He took a single step forward and her hand came up, ready to burn him, but she hesitated. Theo removed his outer cloak, set it down on the ground in front of him, then backed away. The Ichili woman clenched her eyes tighter, fearing some trap, but cautiously moved forward to take the cloak. She quickly wrapped it around her shoulders and face, warding off some of the blinding light.

"May I ask your name?" Theo kept his tone cool and remained at a distance. The woman shifted back nervously, but eventually answered.

"I am Fiyu. Who are you?"

"I am Jake." If he accomplished anything at all, using his real name would be idiocy. Besides, it was all alien gibberish to her. "I once walked in your world for a time."

"This place is terrible. So... so bright, so loud..."

"Others from Ichil have endured in this world, but you need more to shield your eyes." Theo found himself smiling, even though she couldn't see him. The expression felt false, and the warmth was all an act, but he did want to stop her from causing any more trouble. "No one here will harm you, and they will keep their distance now. I will try to find something better for you. Please wait here."

"I will wait, Jake." She sat down on the ground and miserably pulled the cloak tighter over her face.

The immediate disaster had been averted, but Theo wasn't sure what he was going to do next. He made eye contact with all the Farmguards individually to make sure that they knew not to approach her and waited until they nodded understanding. Moving past them, Theo looked over the group, trying to remember the Ichili people he had known and how they had dealt with the brightness of other worlds.

First, he acquired a piece of silk from one of the Deuxan refugees. They tried to make him pay for it, but he argued that none of them had any money and all food was free anyway. Silk was a good start, as it wouldn't be painful on Ichili skin, but it wouldn't be enough.

"You are creating a blindfold for the Ichili one." The rumbling voice took him off guard, but he saw that the Mundhin from Arbai sat nearby. It had nothing like a normal head, but a sphere of stone set with gems turned toward him.

"Yeah, that's right." Theo felt a bit of relief just to talk to someone who wasn't stumbling around in ignorance. "Are you a soulcrafter or stoneshaper? Could you help me?"

"You freely speak in many tongues, yet you are not even a soulcrafter?" The gemstones regarded him with the cool inhuman intelligence of Arbai, but only for a moment. "I lack materials, but I am a stoneshaper. I could create something from myself, if only I knew what she required."

"There's a dense black stone..." Theo wracked his brain, but couldn't come up with the details. "I don't remember the name in Arbai, but it's similar to obsidian except a bit translucent. What I need is a thin plate of it to set across the eyes, as dense as possible."

"I may know of the substance of which you speak, but it is beyond my ability."

"Can you approximate? Any dense stone would help."

"Approximation..." The Mundhin grumbled, but raised one blocky arm and began to work. In contrast to its massive frame and crude movements, the rock flowed from its body gracefully. It rapidly darkened, becoming similar to obsidian and taking the form he had suggested. When at last it was done, the stone separated from the Mundhin's body and fell lifeless.

Theo caught it. He didn't know the appropriate greetings for Arbai, but he knew that lowering himself was respectful, so he went down to one knee. "Thank you, this will be sufficient."

"I do not like this crude approximation. If you can give me greater specifications, I will craft for her a better shield against this light."

"You will have my thanks. I am fortunate to have another traveler of worlds with me."

"I had never left Arbai before today. I have merely read of these things."

That was right - Theo had forgotten, but Arbai had a reputation for scholarship. Its rocky, ponderous inhabitants lived longer than most, giving them decades to pursue their fields of study. Theo set that aside for the time being and walked back to Fiyu, wrapping the obsidian in the silk.

By the time he arrived, he had a blindfold with the plate of dark stone fixed in it. The edges might not fit perfectly, but it would be better than just his cloak. Or so he hoped.

Fortunately, nothing had gone wrong in his absence. The people of Tatian might be overly friendly and a bit simple, but they weren't complete idiots. They had seen his actions and offered Fiyu food and water by leaving them at a distance, some even mimicking the words he'd used. Their offers seemed disconcerting to Fiyu, but now that she was not traumatized by her sudden arrival, she could accept it in bemusement.

Theo approached to several steps away, then whistled the tones again. Fiyu's attention immediately fixed on him, or at least her cloak-bundled head shifted in his direction. "You do not need to greet me in that way, Jake. I understand where I am now."

"I'm glad you feel better." Theo stepped forward and set the improvised mask down in front of her. "I have something else that might help."

"I will try it later." Fiyu ignored the mask and instead shifted the cloak wrapping enough to shove a piece of bread inside, presumably getting to her mouth eventually. He felt a surge of annoyance that she ignored his work, but swallowed it as unreasonable. She was likely surrounded by as many people as she usually met in a year, unless she lived in one of the caverns, which he thought unlikely.

"I spent only a short time on Ichil," Theo said as he shifted closer. He would have preferred to speak to her without all the Farmguards hearing, but privacy was hard to come by on Tatian. "May I ask where you range? Perhaps the Broad Dark?"

Fiyu slowly ate another piece before eventually answering. "I have never even set foot on that continent. I range in the Inner Moonscape."

"I've never visited there, but that speaks well of you." In fact, it was a bit intimidating, since he thought of the Moonscape regions as highly dangerous, places where you needed to be at least an Archcrafter to survive. He doubted that she would lie about such a thing, and in any case, interrogating her would get them off on the wrong foot.

Instead Theo turned to smile at the Farmguards, who all eagerly smiled in return. "You said that there was a plan to return us to our homes," he said. "What did you have in mind?"

"We will do everything we can, of course." The lead Farmguard waggled his head cheerfully. "For those guests who have come from Deuxan or Fithe, we will escort them to permanent gates. Do not worry, they are only a month of travel away."

"You have no weirkeys?" Fiyu asked. Though her face was covered, her voice held naked concern.

"Only Landguards are capable of using weirkeys, and we are but humble Farmguards." The leader frowned as if this breach of hospitality hurt him personally. "The nearest Landguards are many months away, and even if they were to arrive, I do not think they have weirkeys for your world, miss."

Fiyu shrank back in disappointment, but Theo wasn't surprised. Moving between the Nine Worlds wasn't easy, even for soulcrafters, so most needed to use permanent gates. With extremely rare objects called weirkeys, someone could go to a specific world at will, but only a fourth tier soulcrafter could survive them. That was laughably far beyond his current position, but unlike everyone else, he wasn't trying to get home.

"Do not worry." One of the female Farmguards moved up beside Fiyu, mindlessly touching her on the back and receiving a flinch in return. "We do not know of a gate to your world, but we will find a way. Until then, you will be given a temporary home with us."

"No. I will remain here." Fiyu shifted further away from the Tatians and put her hands in her lap. "My relative will come for me."

"Oh? Who is it? A mother or father? An uncle or aunt? A brother or sister? A parent by marriage?" The Farmguard continued throwing out options hopefully, as if one of them would suddenly get a response. Fiyu remained unreadable, but Theo thought there was a bit of confusion in her posture.

Family relationships were everything on Tatian, but not so much on Ichil. Fiyu's "relative" could just as easily be her biological mother, a cousin once removed, or an unrelated man who was part of her adoptive family. Since the sides were talking past each other, Theo decided to speak up again.

"Fiyu, does your relative have a weirkey to Tatian?"

"I... do not believe so." Her bundled head sank, obviously disheartened. "I know he has a weirkey to Slest, but he has struggled to acquire one for Deuxan. But I will wait until my relative is able to retrieve me."

"That could take years!" one of the Farmguards exclaimed, unhelpfully helpful. "You cannot be without a home for so long! Come, come, I will allow you to join my family and we will care for you."

"Thank you, but no. I will wait for my relative."

"Why not prepare for him?" Theo asked. Since she couldn't see him anyway, he gave all the Tatian villagers a broad smile as if he'd just had an idea. "In fact, you could help us make our way back! If we can advance enough as soulcrafters, we would be able to return on our own!"

One of the Farmguards nodded. "We do have many sublime materials for young soulcrafters. What of you, stranger? How can we help you return to your world?"

"I fear that it does not neighbor Tatian, and I have no relative who will come for me." Theo hung his head. "I must forge my own path back home, so my only hope is to rely upon your generosity."

"We would be happy to help you, young one." One of the older Farmguards gave him a pleasant smile, but something was slightly off. "But you have not yet begun building your soulhome, and I worry that perhaps you do not understand how many steps there are to take. Perhaps our generosity must take the form of guidance."

Theo froze for just a second, smile fixed on his face. The old man was too cagey to be taken advantage of so easily - he'd been afraid of that, but he had another angle. "But I do not wish to impose on your generosity with nothing to give in return. I have some experience, however. If you helped me become a soulcrafter, I could more than repay you with the work of my hands."

"A wonderful idea!" One of the other Farmguards clapped her hands in delight. "With all these cracks in our world, there will no doubt be more demons, and our guests could help prevent the weaker ones from harming any homes."

Ignoring her, Theo instead looked toward the old Farmguard, who was still watching him. The man's expression was perfectly pleasant, but Theo saw a flicker of skepticism in his eyes. Or whatever Tatian had in place of skepticism. Just as he was considering his options, clouds shifted away from the sun, sending Fiyu flinching in the sunlight.

"I know of a technique that might be able to help you." Theo turned to her fully, putting as much compassion into his voice as he could and pretending to ignore all the others. "It would require a new chamber within your soulhome, but it would shield you from light and heat in other worlds."

Fiyu's head shifted toward him. "But I have nothing to give in return."

"Consider it a gift. There would simply be the matter of acquiring appropriate sublime materials."

"But... would they truly share anything so valuable with us?" Fiyu shifted to regard the others, her voice carrying the slightest hints of hope.

Was it an act? There weren't many things she could have said to better manipulate them, but Theo didn't hear anything except sincerity in her voice. This was exactly what he needed, since his arguments had already softened up the Farmguards around them. Even the old man was nodding reluctantly, and after the villagers conferred amongst themselves, he was the first to speak to them.

"So be it. We will guide you and every other guest who cannot easily return home to one of our cities. They have established a school for foreign soulcrafters there." The old man's eyes met his sharply. "If you contribute to our community, we will assist you on your path as a soulcrafter."

"Thank you, grandfather." Theo clasped the old man's hands and lowered his head respectfully, which got a chorus of positive responses from the villagers around them.

Unfortunately, many of them came to sit closer, asking questions about his home world. That was exactly what he wanted to avoid - he had cover stories planned to deflect attention, but he didn't want any of those stories to start attracting a reputation with mere villagers. Since they had descended on Fiyu, asking her more questions about her relative, Theo decided that it was time to retreat.

He'd forgotten how cloying people could be. Theo finally let his smile drop as he moved away and the sides of his mouth ached. There hadn't been a lot of smiling over the past forty years. But even as he adopted a more comfortable scowl, he felt a bit of optimism.

Arriving alongside so many others might turn out to be a blessing in disguise in multiple ways. Meeting Fiyu might be a particular stroke of luck, if he played his cards right. He had useful information for her, and she could be useful to him both for her strength and her knowledge. Given how uncomfortable she felt in Tatian, it wouldn't take much to create a bond between them, which could prove mutually beneficial.

Setting her out of mind, Theo wandered beside one of the fields and considered his next steps while he waited for them to move. There might not be any more immediate emergencies, but he needed to gain power as quickly as possible. He had to be a soulcrafter to accomplish any of his other goals, plus there was always the threat that Vistgil or a powerful demon would come for him after all.

Though no more people emerged, when he focused, he could still see faint lines of nothingness in the air, flickering as the world repaired itself. On the other side lay oblivion, countless demons, and every other world.

He just needed to survive long enough to see them all.

Chapter 3

Eventually everyone had gathered themselves and the few minor injuries had been healed. Several local villages offered wagons and the Farmguards formed them into a caravan. The youngest and oldest rode, but the others walked. Local farmers frequently called greetings, and many spoke to one another, but Theo simply followed and continued gathering his thoughts.

When he'd first come to the Nine, he'd been obsessed with becoming a soulcrafter, but now, he knew better. The transition was relatively easy, but meaningless. Without any soulhome at all, the new potential had nowhere to go, so it was the only ascension with no immediate impact, nothing but an invitation.

So more important than becoming a soulcrafter was finding the sublime materials that could properly build his soulhome. He could use anything from Tatian for the walls and chambers, but he needed something special to establish his essential core. The rest could be changed later, but the foundation and core chamber were critical. His lack of experience before had limited him on the higher tiers, so he'd put thought into avoiding the same problems.

Once he had a proper foundation and materials, he could easily step into his soul and build several chambers. Simple rooms to increase his strength, durability, and speed, just enough to make him less vulnerable. That would be enough to find better materials and truly soulcraft himself.

This time, he intended his primary chambers to be focused on his defense. If he soulcrafted enough defenses, he would be able to survive in combat against opponents at a tier higher than him instead of burning alive in their auras. In his previous life, he'd been mostly focused on speed, but that hadn't done much good against superior opponents. It was too easy to craft speed chambers and he had been too vulnerable to surprise attacks.

Theo wandered along with the main caravan, thinking through the exact design of his soulhome. He'd had a lot of time to consider what Brigana had recommended, and though he'd polished and developed the idea, the immensely complex core of her blueprint remained. This time, he would become a soulcrafter of the Dominion tier and beyond.

Thinking of Brigana eroded his plans with familiar pain. Though he wanted to believe that she had somehow survived, he knew that it was essentially hopeless. She had sacrificed herself for him and he owed it to her to make that sacrifice worth it.

But there were too many questions. In all the years he'd thought about his experiences, the only thing he was sure of anymore was that he had been lied to, then betrayed. He was familiar with many aspects of the Nine, but he needed to throw away what he knew about Vistgil and the demons. Something deeper was afoot and he'd only been a pawn in someone else's game. That fact would burn in his mind until he finally had his revenge.

Since the caravan moved so slowly, Theo was able to advance ahead and investigate the surrounding landscape. It was mostly the same endless farms and dirt roads, but he spotted a copse of trees with leaves that flickered like flames. Just what he needed. As soon as he could sneak away, Theo ducked into the nearest field and rushed along it toward the trees.

No one was really watching him, and the villagers would no doubt have given him whatever he asked for. Not that it would have changed what he was going to do. He didn't know how long he had, so he needed to obtain sublime materials by any means necessary.

Reaching the copse unseen, Theo began to search through the fiery leaves. He saw a few unripe pieces of fruit, but those would never do. Eventually he found what he needed in the upper boughs of one of the central trees. The leaves brushed against him, uncomfortably warm, and he retrieved several of the burning spheres.

Flamefruit were one of the best sublime materials available on Tatian, for young soulcrafters. Theo stared down at the fruit in his hands, marveling at the light burning from within and the tongues of flame licking over the peel. Yet despite their exotic appearance, he felt nothing from them except slightly warm fruit. For a moment he doubted himself, even though he knew that it was only that he lacked a soulcrafter's senses. These were what he needed.

Each fruit, when consumed by a soulcrafter, would enter a soulhome and serve as a strengthening material. He couldn't build a soulhome out of them, but they would be helpful for generating cantae. Though Theo only needed a few, he took as many as he could carry, since they might be traded to other soulcrafters. Soon he'd stripped the trees bare of all the ripe flamefruit.

He worried that someone would catch him in the act, the old Farmguard or one of the other travelers, but Theo managed to return to the caravan without anyone noticing him. Unable to find a proper pack, he dumped the flamefruit into an empty bag he found on one of the wagons. That was something else he would need to acquire, but it was a trivial detail compared to proper sublime materials.

Just as Theo was beginning to feel satisfied with himself, he saw a soft glow from one of the wagons ahead. One of the Farmguards sat in the center of a wagon, sliding into his own spirit as he began to soulcraft. Soon only a distorted shadow of himself remained, glowing a warm orange.

And that was all Theo could see. Most soulcrafters would only practice their craft in private to avoid anyone else examining them too closely. If Theo had been able to see, he would have looked past the blurry remnant and into the private world that was the man's soul. There he would have been able to see the core of the man's power in concrete form, built from sublime materials over many years.

Instead, he saw only the spiritual haze. That was to be expected, but Theo found himself unexpectedly bitter. There was so much he needed to recover, but just recovery would not be nearly enough...

As soon as the vast sun began to set, the Farmguards lit fires and began the evening meal. Though Theo had remembered that journeys tended to go slowly in Tatian, he'd forgotten how much of it was due to the relaxed pace of life. Of course, for them, they were hurrying to their destination, but that didn't mean traveling in the dark or skipping a meal.

Since staying with the group was still his best chance of moving forward, Theo simply retreated from the fires as they grew warm and boisterous. Away from the others, he could enjoy a slightly cool breeze. It rustled through the crops, sending their dark forms into a quiet dance.

He realized that it was only the end of his first day back in the Nine Worlds. Not a shocking start, but his first trip had been the explosive one. This time, he needed to survive in the long term, which would require far more strategy.

When he spotted a figure standing beside one of the fields, he knew that it must be Fiyu. He hadn't intended it, but it was unsurprising that she would have sought the darkness away from the fires. More notably, she had finally unwrapped her head and instead wore the blindfold that he'd made for her. Her slender face turned toward him and she smiled.

"Hello, Jake. It is less blinding now, but I hope that it will become dark soon."

"It won't get much darker than this." He stepped up beside her and stared skyward. "As the sun fades, the stars and moons come out, and they're very bright here."

"Oh. That is disappointing." Her dismay could not have been clearer on her face, even without being able to see her eyes, and Theo wondered if she'd ever had a need to hide her emotions. "Can you truly help me soulcraft a chamber to reduce this light?"

"You'll need to help me, and we'll need the proper materials, but yes."

"I hope that we can do so." Fiyu's head shifted away from him, one ear cocked toward the bonfire and the celebration around it. "They seem to be very happy."

"Yeah, that's how Tatian is."

"Are they a cult?"

Theo coughed in surprise, quickly swallowing his reaction. After clearing his throat, he shook his head out of habit before answering. "No, you will find that these things are normal here. The worlds are different in more than a few colors."

"So it seems." Fiyu's head drooped and she began to play with a strand of midnight black hair. "I hope that my relative comes for me soon, but I fear that this strange world is too far."

"Why not prepare for him meanwhile? He's training you as a soulcrafter, right?"

"That is correct."

"Then impress him with how much you've grown in another world." Theo reached into his sack and pulled out one of the flamefruit, offering it to her. "Take a look at this. It's a local sublime material given to young soulcrafters, but I think that for you it will be more challenging. Please, take it."

"A gift?" Fiyu reached out, delicately retrieving the flamefruit while staying as far from skin contact as possible. She frowned as she ran her fingers over the surface. "How strange. I am not sure if I will be able to use it in my soulhome."

Fiyu didn't hesitate, however, raising the flamefruit to her lips and tearing a piece from the side. It was sensible not to leave sublime materials unused where they could be easily stolen, so he approved. She rapidly consumed the fruit including the core and the stem, every bit of its power passing into her soul. Theo realized that he remembered many details about the strengths and weaknesses of flamefruit, but nothing about their taste.

"You are a kind traveler, Jake." Fiyu turned to regard him with a slight smile. "I hope that we can speak in the future. But for now, I am very weary from all the people."

"Yeah, I get that." Theo saw that she didn't understand, but didn't care. He just waved farewell and turned away. "You have fun soulcrafting."

Though he moved away, he did look over his shoulder. There was no glow or anything else to announce the transition, Fiyu's body simply faded into wisps of shadow. Her technique transitioning to her soulhome was flawless, so her mentor had trained her well. She might be on par with some of the Farmguards in terms of strength, but there was no question that she was destined for more.

If there was such a thing as destiny at all. Theo doubted it, all the more so after forty years on Earth. As he found a place to sleep among the wagons, he hoped that those miserable years had finally come to an end.

Chapter 4

Over the next several days, Theo followed the caravan and gathered what sublime materials he could. The little farms and villages along their path contained nothing truly valuable, even for the first tier of soulcrafting, much less Archcrafter materials or beyond. But considering that he had nothing and he would need significant materials to establish himself, it was worth it.

His most valuable find was actually given freely instead of stolen. Their caravan passed a village with a dying hearthtree, and before the villagers planted the new sapling, they cut down the old and distributed the wood. Though the local Farmguards took the first pick, they had more than enough, so they shared the rest with some of the soulcrafting guests.

Theo received several planks of the dark wood, which would be plenty once converted in his soulhome. He was one of the few who couldn't use them, so he added them to his sack and slept on it just in case anyone had theft in mind. The Farmguards seemed to have taken his suggestion to heart, however, and shepherded the new generation of potential soulcrafters.

Their caravan stopped at a larger village where it was entirely reshuffled. Most of the Deuxan travelers headed down a separate road toward the gate back to their world, but their numbers were replaced by new groups. It seemed that people had been falling into Tatian over a large area, so they were being gathered before heading to a larger city.

Most of the new arrivals were the usual mix of normal people, though there was one resident of Aathal. Though Theo briefly thought of Khaluu, they were entirely different species, so he soon set them aside. Instead, he focused his attention on a young man who was... wrong somehow.

Something about the way he leaned against the wall with his hands stuck in his belt was distinctly Earth-like. Or perhaps it was the way he stared over everything without the slightest surprise. Though he didn't seem to be a soulcrafter, he moved with confidence and immediately began gathering sublime materials.

In other words, they were exactly the same.

Though Theo considered keeping his distance out of caution, he decided that he couldn't overlook this opportunity. He'd heard of other world travelers from beyond the Nine, and even suspected one or two might have been from Earth, but he'd never been able to talk to any of them at length. His ultimate goal was to learn the truth, so this was an excellent chance.

"Hi there." Theo picked a quiet evening to walk up to him, polite smile fixed on his face. "This is crazy stuff, isn't it? I'm Jake."

"I am Magnafor." The other traveler fixed him with an imperious look, but Theo just kept smiling.

"Hi, Magnafor. Where are you from?"

"My home is a world very far from here, one you would likely not have heard of. So I have a long jour-"

"You sound like you're from New York."

Instantly Magnafor - though that was obviously not his name - shifted his stance. One hand clenched as if it expected a weapon, but neither of them were soulcrafters and they had nothing but their fists. Theo just stared at him with the same polite smile on his face, not giving an inch. Eventually Magnafor glanced around them and spoke in a lower voice.

"Don't draw attention to us, idiot. We'll have enough trouble as it is."

"Trouble?" Theo asked. The other traveler gave a strange shrug.

"I'm guessing this is your second time? You're too calm for it to be your first, and you're not terrified enough for it to be your third." Magnafor stepped closer to him, voice dropping to an even lower growl. "I'm not going to be your friend, and you're on your own after this. But you need to know that this isn't going to be easy, even if you get an Artifact of Elghiera. When you return here, you have a target on your back."

"Huh." Though that was troubling, Theo decided to play it cool. He wasn't sure if the crimson ring had been one of these "artifacts" but he could pretend it was. "The first time I arrived, I was given an artifact. You?"

"Yeah, that's how it usually goes. A man named Vistgil, right? It took me all the way to the Dominion tier, but I got overconfident and one of those high stage demons got me."

"Pretty much the same for me." He kept his expression neutral, though Magnafor had just casually said he'd attained a higher tier of power than Theo ever had.

"I thought I was dead, but it turned out that I'd just gone into a coma back on Earth. From what I've been able to tell, that's pretty rare. It took me almost a year to find a way back to the Nine."

Theo listened quietly, realizing that he might actually have the edge in knowledge. It was possible that Magnafor was withholding information, but the other man had said nothing about the pale world beyond the Nine and he hadn't met Vistgil again. But the fact that the mysterious man was intentionally meeting visitors from other worlds justified the conversation, plus Magnafor had implied he was on his third visit.

"The second time, I thought I had everything figured out. Grabbed a bunch of sublime materials, just like we're doing now. But... something was different." Fear slid over the surface of Magnafor's hard eyes. "It's like we're lodestones for trouble, demons appearing way too often. I think we're not meant to travel between worlds like this, and the more we do, the worse it gets. Even though I did everything right, I struggled through Archcrafter. I managed to reach Ruler, but I couldn't keep up and failed to make the big jump to Authority."

"But you found your way back a third time?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, but it wasn't easy. Took almost six months of constant searching. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I think someone was trying to track me down in the real world. It's... no, I don't wanna talk about it. Just be careful. Don't trust anyone from Earth, because I think they're looking for us."

"Thanks... Magnafor."

"You might want to think about getting another name, even if this is your second visit. I wouldn't count on getting a third, either." Magnafor shook his head, then pulled away. "That's all I know, and it's all I'm giving you. If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

Theo nodded understanding and let the other man stalk away, but his thoughts turned inward. Over his forty years on Earth, he'd tried to find others who had visited the Nine and been repeatedly disappointed. A few who claimed to know other worlds were almost certainly delusional. When he'd researched the subject, there had been some myths that he thought might have reflected reality, but nothing modern.

It surprised him that Magnafor had managed to reach the Nine three different times. Theo's surge of bitterness surprised him, thinking about the forty years he'd struggled to return while Magnafor had simply stumbled into two more doors. Even though he was technically more experienced, Magnafor was really just a kid.

But he'd had some valuable information: Vistgil had still been active a few years ago, still manipulating travelers from other worlds. Maybe he actually was from Earth, maybe not: the way Vistgil had spoken about cars suggested that he knew more than he pretended. It was completely impossible to guess why he took all these actions.

One thing did seem clear: Theo had been a mistake. He should have been dead and shouldn't have been able to find his way back to the Nine.

What that meant, he wasn't sure, but the warning suggested that he needed to change his current path. His core plan remained solid, but he needed to be prepared for unexpected threats. Even if no demons appeared, he would have to deal with people like Magnafor.

Since the Tatian Farmguards wanted to spend days socializing before moving on, Theo took the time to track down the Mundhin from Arbai. He'd intended to talk to him during their journey, but he'd been busy working with the Farmguards. Now that they had stopped, he managed to find the Mundhin at the edge of town.

By now, the villagers left him alone. They wanted to be hospitable, but beings from Arbai didn't need food or water, and they didn't socialize in the same way. So the space surrounding the Mundhin was blessedly free of their chatter.

"I should have thanked you earlier." Theo walked up and sat down on the fence beside him. "I didn't even ask your name."

"I am known as Navim, and it is no trouble." The sphere of gemstones turned to regard him. "The Ichili girl was in need of assistance. I am glad that my rough construction was able to assist her, but I feel its inadequacy every time I see her wear it."

"What you made was great, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind you perfecting your craft. But what about you? Do you have a path back home?"

"There is a gate to Arbai, though it stands far away. But the inhabitants of this world have proved surprisingly accommodating. I may travel slowly and write a monograph about my experiences. Such a work would not be exceptional, but it could assist my scholarly career."

Theo nodded, patting the warm stone of the fence beside him. "I suppose this living stone would be interesting to you, wouldn't it?"

Navim let out a rumbling sigh. "The stone of Tatian has been thoroughly studied by generations past. No, all I would have to offer is my own experiences, which are not so common. Most prefer to read of other worlds instead of experiencing them."

"Well, I hope it works out for you. But I was wondering if I could ask for your help again."

"I grow weary of the simple repair jobs the Farmguards request of me. Please, speak your request."

"Tatian is fairly safe, but I'm worried about the possibility of demon attacks, especially given how many cracks formed between worlds." Theo had decided that was the best justification and resisted looking to see if Navim believed it. "What I would like is a spear made of lightweight stone, an armament for a soulcrafter."

"But you are not a soulcrafter."

"I will be, and an armament from the first tier isn't going to harm me even if I overuse it. Come on, Navim, wouldn't that be a more interesting challenge than fixing fences?"

"Hmm. I can easily craft the spear itself, and perhaps bind the concepts of force and piercing into it." Navim murmured to himself for a time, then shifted several jeweled spheres toward him. "Activating those inscriptions would likely be harmful to you, but I will trust in your good judgment."

"Thanks, Navim." Theo stayed beside him and chatted for a while longer so that it wouldn't look like he'd just wanted the spear, but that had been his goal. Navim would take several days to craft it, then he'd have a weapon that was far better than any of the primitive armaments that could be purchased in the town.

Before they resumed their journey, Theo managed to improve his position in several other ways. He facilitated trades between the villagers and their guests, gaining a little profit each time, and soon had enough of the wooden plates used as money on Tatian. With those, he could buy something more valuable and make a greater profit. Tatian villagers might haggle cheerfully, but they didn't have many cutthroat merchants.

In the end, he finally left behind the simple clothes he'd acquired when he arrived. Instead he had pants and a tunic that wouldn't impede his movement, as well as better shoes. He also had a proper pack to store his sublime materials and a few other pieces of equipment he'd picked up. The only valuable one was a spirit chisel - it would be a useful tool for soulcrafting, once he gained the ability.

When Navim gave him a spear on the night before their departure, he almost felt prepared. Theo spun it experimentally, finding it lighter than expected despite being made of stone. He was no master with a spear, but he'd chosen it for a simple reason learned on Earth: with his limited strength, the reach of a spear made it a far more practical weapon. Once he reached the higher tiers of soulcrafting, he would simply be able to tear enemies apart with his bare hands.

Not that it seemed likely that he would need to tear anyone apart, as their peaceful journey resumed. Theo trained a little with the spear, just to get used to the movements, but that was simply developing basic muscle memory, not the advancement he really needed.

Two days later, the demons attacked.

Chapter 5

In his past life, Theo had experienced attacks that began with demons clawing their way into a world through cracks in reality, but nothing dramatic announced the start of this one.

Just a few cries in the distance that could have been mistaken for a celebration until they saw the fires. He'd barely even noticed, focusing on his own thoughts, but then all the Farmguards began to move. When he looked up and saw something rustling through the fields, he knew that it was an attack before he saw the first demon leap out.

Though demons manifested differently in each world, this one was familiar enough: a squat body with four muscular arms that it used to race across the ground. Those arms could also grab their prey and draw them to the creature's large mouth that split its central body. It leaped into the air toward the refugees with a mindless cry.

One of the Farmguards stepped into the way, striking the demon aside with her staff. It flopped into the field, but soon levered itself back to its feet. That was a bad sign: the weakest stage of demons should have been easily destroyed by soulcrafters. They were tougher and faster than most normal people, but not really a threat except in numbers.

Though he instinctively readied his spear, Theo didn't move into battle. Base demons could sometimes be defeated by trained fighters without soulhomes, but it was a senseless risk. In his years back on Earth, he'd learned the hard way just how fragile the human body could be. Used to leaping effortlessly, he'd broken a bone in a bad landing and it had never healed quite right. It could have been even worse, a wrong bump on the head potentially being fatal.

So going up against an increasing number of rabid demons? Not unless there wasn't another choice. He kept his spear ready as another demon rushed from between the bright stalks.

"The village is under attack!" A tall Tatian man leapt from one of the wagons and stomped on the demon just as it emerged, splattering dark blood over the soil. "You and you, guard our guests. Farmguards and soulcrafters, with me!"

It was a sensible enough strategy, and the Farmguards hastened to act now that they had someone to follow. Theo wasn't sure how he felt about leaving only two soulcrafters to guard all the refugees, however. Base demons had nothing but mindless bloodlust, but they were scattering from the battle in all directions.

Indeed, no sooner had the Farmguards fought their way toward the village than more demons began to rustle through the fields from the side. Not overwhelming numbers, but the two Farmguards couldn't deal with them all. This could get ugly.

Taking action might be the right choice, but it could draw attention and start a panic. Before Theo could decide what to do, he saw Magnafor and a couple of others sprint away from the wagons. Their movements looked purposeful, but a few others cried out and began to retreat. It seemed like he was headed for the village, so Theo decided to keep the situation by the wagons under control.

"Stay in a group!" he called out. "We're safest if we stick together!"

Not everyone listened to him, but enough did. He saw that Fiyu was standing beside one of the wagons, shielding her eyes even though she was wearing her mask. She was the only person he knew was a soulcrafter with a useful ability, so he closed the gap to stand by her even as more demons reached the Farmguards and began to attack.

"Fiyu, can you feel the difference between refugees and demons?"

"I only feel shapes, so I can discern the difference so long as the demons stay small." Her lips pressed together tightly, but not in fear. Growing up on Ichil, she would have faced worse than this. "But... my control is not very precise. I'm afraid I'll strike the others."

"Then get up high and pick them off while they're at a distance." Theo nearly patted her on the shoulder before remembering himself. Instead he gave a sharp whistle used by allies coordinating their locations. Fiyu nodded seriously and climbed up onto the highest wagon.

Meanwhile, the situation had gotten worse. The two Farmguards were drawing the majority of the demons, but not eliminating them very effectively. It seemed as though they had fully soulcrafted their first floors, which made them much stronger and faster than these lowly demons. But what they lacked was combat experience, so even if they were in little danger themselves, they failed to keep the demons away from the refugee caravan.

Growling to Theo's left drew his attention and he saw that a small pack of demons had broken away from the burning village. They had arced around the Farmguards, meaning that they were heading directly toward the wagons. He readied his spear, but knew that it wouldn't be enough...

A torrent of bolts of light seared into the group of demons, eerily silent as they tore apart flesh and bone. Fiyu had both hands raised, sending out a stream of the bolts until all the demons - and a large circle of crops around them - were annihilated. He saw that she had been right about her control: her technique appeared to trade power for accuracy.

Then suddenly there was no more time for calm strategy: there was a demon leaping at him with a snarl.

He jerked his spear like it was a sword, his old instincts failing him. The side of the stone shaft hit the demon and pushed it aside, but failed to injure it. Staggering, Theo struggled even to raise his spear again in the time that the demon flipped itself back to its feet and rushed at him.

Somehow he threw his spear up in time and the beast impaled itself on the end. Theo's fingers ached from gripping the spear and he realized that he couldn't have killed it with his own strength. Only the demon's strength combined with...

The demon reached up and clawed his arm. Theo fell back with a cry of pain, barely avoiding the next swipes of its claws. Though impaled through the center of its body, the demon wasn't dead: one blow from someone who wasn't a soulcrafter just wouldn't be enough.

There was no time to think, he just grabbed his spear and twisted it. That made the demon hiss, more anger than pain, and he felt another claw strike his leg. But he managed to jerk out the spear and then brought it down, over and over, until the demon finally stopped moving.

For a time Theo just panted for breath. His injuries burned at him now that the adrenaline had worn off, but they weren't deep enough to keep him from fighting. Or at least, as close to fighting as he could manage in this state.

With a moment to breathe, he examined the battlefield again. Fiyu still rained destruction down on demons at the periphery, but her bursts of light slowed each time, as if she was already exhausting herself. The Farmguards had dropped back to defend the caravan, but began to falter. A few of the refugees tried to fight, but only Navim was effective. Though he didn't move like a fighter, he was made of stone and the demons didn't seem capable of injuring him, at least not before he smashed them in between part of his body and the ground.

In the distance, he saw that there was no longer any fire or smoke from the village, so the situation must be under control... but there were three more demons rushing through the field toward him.

Fighting them together was suicide, but everyone else was occupied and he was all that stood between them and one flank of refugees. Theo gripped his spear tighter, fingers running over the inscription there. If he used the spear as a soulcrafter armament, it would launch forward with explosive force, but it might tear him apart as well unless he executed it perfectly. No, that was insanity. It was a cynical choice, but he needed to retreat, even if it cost the lives of other refugees.

Before he could back away, bolts of light flashed over his shoulder and smashed into the charging demons. Theo tried to move, but he was too late, feeling a bolt sear through his shoulder before he saw any sign of it. He crashed to the ground, losing his grip on the spear.

At first he just stared at the channel that had been burned out of his shoulder, the wound instantly cauterized. It had torn through him so easily... a similar bolt striking his head or chest could have killed him. Yet despite the pain, he was able to lever himself up. Fiyu had destroyed the three demons approaching, but there could be more.

"I am sorry!" Fiyu called over the battle, and when he turned to her, he saw the dismay plain on her face. His throat hurt too much to yell, so he just pointed toward the Farmguards.

Unfortunately, with the demons swarming over them, Fiyu couldn't fire indiscriminately. Her fingers twitched, as if looking for her chance, but there were no openings. The Farmguards might endure her bolts better than him, but they would still be injured, especially in their current state. Both were bleeding from multiple wounds, and his instincts wanted to help, yet he'd just gotten a good demonstration as to why jumping in was a bad idea.

When one of the Farmguards went down and a demon leapt at his face, Theo knew that he didn't have a choice. He ran in, skewering the demon in midair. Two of the remaining demons shifted to focus on him and he simply swung the skewered body into them, just trying to buy a little more time.

One of the surviving Farmguards whirled to his feet, cantae sweeping around him. In a series of vicious blows he crushed several of the demons and sent the others scattering back, tumbling over one another into a devastated section of the fields. After that, he dropped down to one knee, but the attack had finally been broken. Theo saw only one other demon, and Navim crushed it by dropping onto his back.

"You... you aren't even a soulcrafter?" The Farmguard he had saved rose to his feet, staring at him. "This bravery is madness..."

"I..." Theo still struggled to catch his breath, but smiled as he came up with a good line. "I couldn't stand by and do nothing while everyone else was fighting."

"Your bravery will not be forgotten, young traveler. We..."

Whatever else he started to say, Theo didn't hear it, because at that moment he saw something much worse. The surviving demons had gathered together, and a few more stragglers emerged from the field, but that wasn't the horrifying part. They gathered in a circle and one of them stepped inward, then suddenly crumpled up like a dying spider. Power pulsed between the demons, then a second sacrificed itself.

They were trying to summon a second stage demon.

Though the weakest of demons were creatures of mindless violence, they had another instinct: when they started to lose a battle, they began sacrificing themselves. It only took six sacrifices for them to summon a second stage demon, and a single one of those would kill all of them. Even a fully trained first-tier soulcrafter couldn't win that fight, and none of them had reached that state.

"Stop the summoning!" Theo grabbed the Farmguard's arm and jabbed a finger at the ring, where even now a third demon crumpled. "They're sacrificing themselves!"

"What? Just what... are they doing?" The Farmguard stared as if he hadn't seen it before, and there was no time even to get angry. Theo just whirled to the others and gave an urgent whistle.

"Fiyu, look!"

She noticed and understood instantly, shredding the group of demons with a hail of light. But the stream faltered out midway and, finally having emptied her soulhome, Fiyu collapsed into the wagon. Many of the demons had been killed, but a few remained. Too many.

How many sacrifices had there been? At least four, but could it be five? As the Farmguards stared in surprise, Theo realized that there was no time for anything else.

He hefted his spear one more time and ran toward the last demons. Another curled up and died... and he saw all their bodies begin to dissolve into dust. The sacrifice was complete, which meant he had only moments before the demon fully manifested. Even as he got closer, he saw it begin to form, a creature taller than most men...

Theo squeezed the inscription on the spear and thrust.

The power crafted within shot forward, exploding the forming demon's chest in a shower of ichor. But it struck his unprepared soul just as hard. Even as the dark blood struck him, Theo found himself torn away from the battle and cast deep into himself.

Darkness, but a familiar darkness.

Slowly he realized that he wasn't dead or unconscious. Theo drew hard on old instincts and opened his eyes: not his physical eyes, but those in his soul. He lay on the ground in the center of his soulhome.

It was almost nothing at this early stage, just a circle of brown grass that faded into nothingness in all directions. In his last life, the grass inside his soul had been green. Overhead, clouds roiled so close he could have jumped to touch them. Those embodied the limits of his current tier, which also meant that he'd become a soulcrafter.

Use of a soulcrafter armament was one of the methods of awakening as a soulcrafter, though not an advised one. Theo wanted to examine his soulhome for any potential injuries or begin all his plans, but as his disorientation faded, he realized that there was no time. Outside his inner world, his body would be a form of glowing light, and demons loved to feed on soulcrafters in the middle of their work.

Once, stepping in and out of his soulhome had been effortless, but he was out of practice. Theo threw his mind against it, hating how utterly blind he was to the threat. Eventually he began to sink into the ground, leaving his own soul and returning his consciousness to the real world.

Theo woke up and immediately blinded himself staring into the sun overhead. He groaned and reached up to shield his eyes, but his arm ached when he tried to move. Immediately several hands kept him pinned down - normal, Tatian hands.

His panic faded as he realized that he was safe. It must have taken more time than he thought to return to reality, because he lay in the center of a village. The battle was clearly over, and though he saw some destroyed buildings, the villagers moving between them were already beginning to sing songs of rebuilding. If there were no songs of mourning, then the loss of life must have been limited.

When he tried to look around, however, the sun continued to glare directly into his eyes. Theo grimaced and opened his mouth to ask for water... and a dark cloth suddenly dropped over his face. He caught a glimpse of Fiyu before the cloth completely covered his vision.

"What are you doing?" a Tatian man demanded.

"The light was hurting him," Fiyu said somberly. "It's too bright."

"Am I the healer here, or are you? I'll care for this brave one, don't you worry."

Brave one? Theo thought it was more like stupidity, but he supposed that his actions would have looked brave to them. In a world like Tatian, that counted for something. He heard Fiyu trying to say something to him, and the healer was tending to the burn on his shoulder, but he was tired and sleep seemed too tempting to resist.

This time, he would fall asleep a soulcrafter. It hadn't been how he intended to awaken, but it would do. As unconsciousness claimed him, he reached out and touched his soulhome one more time.

Chapter 6

When Theo woke up, he felt so good he immediately became suspicious. No aches and pains through his body and his soul only felt slightly overstretched. He sat up and found that there wasn't even a scar on his shoulder. It was almost as if the fight hadn't even taken place.

No, he couldn't think that. Not when his awareness of souls was alive and well. He looked around him at the other patients and could instantly tell which of them were soulcrafters, all of them first tier. The only non-patient was a young man moving between the beds, and he had no defensive wall, so Theo could immediately gain a sense for his soulhome.

It wasn't a vision, exactly, more like an instantaneous impression. The injured soulcrafters had small wooden huts of a few rooms, a few reduced to kindling after the battle. By contrast, the healer's soulhome was a fully crafted building of stone pressing up against the clouds. His soulhome might be focused toward healing instead of combat, but he was the most advanced person in the room.

By contrast, Theo had nothing. He closed his eyes and went to his soulhome, ready to examine it more carefully now that there was no urgent danger. It took only a moment to find the familiar path in his soul, then he was standing within himself.

At the moment, his soulhome was nothing but potential... not even a home, really, just a soul. In his first visit to the Nine, he had begun with only a simple plane of grass. He bent down and ran his fingers through the blades, wondering why they were shades of yellow and brown now. At first he thought it might be dying, but when he pulled some out of the ground, the blades resisted as if firmly rooted.

What did that mean, then? Perhaps his soul knew that he was an old man, even if his body was younger. So long as it didn't prevent him from building the soulhome he'd planned, it didn't matter. The grass extended further into the distance than before, giving him plenty of room to build a large first floor that could support those above it.

Eager to get started, Theo returned to his body and sat up. He found that his pack had been placed beneath his cot, so it was finally time to make use of all the sublime materials he'd collected. First he began to eat the flamefruit: they tasted good, but instead of filling his stomach, they passed directly into his soul. Then he began breaking apart the boards of hearthtree wood, the splinters dissolving into spiritual matter. Finally he grasped the spirit chisel and returned to his soulhome.

Within himself, the sublime materials had far more substance. The flamefruit lay on the grass, resonating with power. Just sitting in his soulhome, they would generate a little cantae for him, but not very effectively. Theo took one of them, removed the seeds, and planted them in the center of his soul. He'd need sublime materials to water and fertilize it, but once it grew into a tree, it would generate a steady stream of cantae. That would be enough to support him as a young soulcrafter.

Of course, it would all just dissipate into the air, leaving him with only a small stream. He needed a chamber to gather the raw power, and that was the reason he had the hearthtree wood. Within his soul, it became an entire pile of spiritual lumber. Perhaps enough to build a small log room, but that would be a weak soulhome. Not only could it contain just a little cantae, the materials themselves wouldn't strengthen him very much.

No, he needed a sturdier sublime material to truly craft his soulhome. The wood was needed for trim and all the other details that made the chambers he soulcrafted do more than simply store cantae. Theo sat down and began trimming one of the branches with his spirit chisel. He had several different ideas, but it would take time to regain his old skills at soulcrafting.

His blueprint had a simple layout, brilliantly executed thanks to Brigana's elaborate core. The central chamber would generate cantae, flooding it through doors in the cardinal directions into four technique chambers. Then he'd add four corner rooms dedicated to stable traits, mostly increasing his stamina and defenses. With more sublime materials placed within them, they'd reinforce both his soulhome structurally and his own power.

He wasn't sure how long he worked, but suddenly he felt the grass beneath him lurch. Without more than a second of warning, he tumbled back into the real world with a hand on his shoulder. While soulcrafting he had no defenses or awareness... that was something he needed to work on as soon as possible.

"Are you alright, lad? Soulcrafting is heady work." A kindly-looking old Tatian woman stood beside him, patting his shoulder. Theo instinctively smiled and nodded back.

"Yes, I'm more than fine. Thank you."

"No trouble with your body? No more aches and pains?"

Though he'd assumed she was a healer, when Theo looked at her, he realized that she was more than that. She instantly struck him as an Archcrafter, and when he looked further, he saw that her soulhome arched high in two floors. It was a peaceful building without any self-enhancement, so likely all her chambers had been soulcrafted for the sake of healing. That explained why his physical condition was perfect.

"I feel wonderful thanks to your healing," Theo said. He rolled his shoulders as if to demonstrate, but then frowned just a little. "Did the demons cause any damage to my soul?"

"To fully answer that question, you would need a greater expert than I." The healer smiled warmly and patted his shoulder again. "But I didn't see any sign of it. You're just a bit shaken up from awakening as a soulcrafter in such a violent way. They intend to help you young things with that, so never fear."

"Help us?"

"Oh yes. The attack ended with only a few sorrows, but it could have been much worse. They called me in to save some of the wounded, but I would have been too late if not for you young brave ones. Stepping up when you're just children yourself... well, it warms my old heart! So they wanted me to heal you right up, and they'll be helping you become strong Farmguards."

Theo smiled and nodded, though he had no intention of actually becoming a Farmguard. It seemed that things had worked out, despite the huge risks taken during the battle. The seeds he'd laid before must have sprouted, which meant he was likely to receive training from the Tatians. Exactly what he needed.

Though the healer seemed to have finished checking up on him, he knew he wouldn't get a chance to talk to many Archcrafters soon, so he stopped her with a question. "Have there been other demon attacks on Tatian lately?"

"Well, I don't know about the whole world, but our lives were peaceful enough until a month ago." The healer shook her head slowly. "They say there was a battle between soulcrafters of terrible power. I think they're just guessing, because anyone can tell that the rivers between worlds are disrupted. That leads to more guests coming through... and yes, more demons. If you help protect our villages from them, I'll keep you in good health!"

With another beaming smile, the healer shuffled off to check on another patient. Theo sat on his cot, trying to decide if that information should change his actions in any way. He'd never met soulcrafters capable of causing damage to the Nine themselves, but he also knew he hadn't reached the limits, so it was possible that the rumors were accurate.

Even if that were true, it was so far above him as to be irrelevant. He couldn't fight a full first tier soulcrafter, much less an Archcrafter, much less... whatever unfathomable power it took to damage worlds. More information was useful, but for the moment he needed to stay focused on immediate priorities.

Though he could put more time into soulcrafting, investigating the aftermath of the battle would be more important. Theo pulled on his cloak, noting that someone had restored the places where it had been damaged. Then he headed out into the village and ran his eyes over the cheerful rebuilding process.

Whatever else anyone might say about Tatian villagers, they were definitely resilient. Most went about their work ignoring him, but those who recognized him always came by to stroke his arms or shoulders and give thanks for his help. He wasn't really a hero to them, just an outsider they wanted to welcome into their community. Theo put up with their pawing and looked for other travelers.

Navim was immediately obvious, but he was also surrounded by workers, helping them to restore a building reduced to rubble. Theo focused on him further and saw that Navim's soulhome was a vast mound of stone, filling the first tier. Not close to ascending to Archcrafter, but his soulcrafting looked quite solid, explaining his skill as a stoneshaper.

Looking on, Theo hoped to find Magnafor, but there was no sign of him. Instead, in the shadow of the largest building in the village, he saw Fiyu huddling with a cloak over her head. When he tried to examine her soulhome, he could see only shifting shadows. Though she looked like she was desperately trying to hide from all the cheerfulness around her, he headed in her direction.

Shielded soulcrafting, an obscured soulhome, and powerful techniques... those were not the work of a naive first-tier soulcrafter. He presumed that her relative was mentoring her well, preparing her for the rigors of life in Ichil as well as future tiers. Even her unreliable bolts of light were likely only a temporary weakness that would be smoothed out when she became an Archcrafter. Truly powerful soulcrafters often allowed temporary weaknesses for the sake of long term strength.

When he approached, Fiyu's head perked up. "Hello, Jake. The Farmguards who came with us are kind, but there are too many new villagers who keep trying to touch me. And if I hide, they come looking for me."

"They're grateful to you for helping defend them, and you did play a huge role." Theo leaned against the wall beside her, not too close. "Unfortunately, you may not enjoy the thanks they try to give."

"It is very confusing how they seem to call all soulcrafters Farmguards. Even those of the second tier are rarely called Archcrafters. I have not seen anyone on the third tier, but are they Farmguards too?"

"That's right. Tatian isn't very concerned with ranks, so their lower tiers are scattered across the farms by family and custom instead of military tactics. But it's a safe world, so it doesn't do them much harm."

Fiyu was silent for a time, lowering her head so he couldn't see her, and eventually spoke quietly. "I am sorry that I burned you. I aimed as carefully as I could, but the technique is difficult to control..."

"There's no need to apologize. The demons would have done much worse to me."

"You are not angry?"

"It's fine, Fiyu. Honestly." Theo smiled at her, though it seemed unlikely that she could sense it. He realized that he wasn't sure about the finer details of conveying emotion on Ichil, not outside of the lighted cavern communities. Hopefully his words would be enough.

After another silence, Fiyu spoke up in a lighter tone. "They say that they will take us to a great city called Myufuru. I... do not think I want to see what a Tatian city is like."

"Don't worry, you'll be able to find privacy. In some ways, it's easier than in these little villages where everyone knows everyone." Theo glanced over at her, noting how she chewed on her lower lip. "They told me that their plan is to train us, but did they give you any more details?"

"I think they intend to create a... school, of a sort."

For a moment Theo's mind split between two realities: he had heard the word "school" but what Fiyu had actually said was something closer to "learningplace". Did schools not exist in her language? Usually the soul translation between worlds was perfect, but it did create strange compound words at times. If the new languages he'd learned let him hear both, that might improve his understanding, but it could also be confusing unless he could adapt to it.

"I am... coming to accept that my relative will not arrive soon." Fiyu toyed with the edges of her mask uncomfortably. "You are a soulcrafter now, Jake. Will you help me create the chamber you spoke of? I am tired of being blinded by this horrible light."

"No need!" The loud voice made both of them jump, then the tall Farmguard from the battle was striding up to them. He clapped Theo on the shoulder and raised a hand toward Fiyu before he remembered and pulled it back. "I've learned of this plan to have you travelers help us against demons, and I think it's a wonderful idea! You will have every sublime material you need to to adapt to our world, and we can give you more. For those who contribute most to the community, we even have some Archcrafter sublime materials to offer."

Theo tried to suppress any reaction, forcing his tone to mild interest. "Oh? How will you decide who contributes most?"

"I don't think that it has been decided, or at least it won't be by me. But other guests from far off worlds have already gathered at Myufuru, so I believe there is to be a good-natured competition. All for the sake of working better together, of course."

As much as the cultures of Tatian wanted to share everything, higher tier sublime materials simply weren't common enough to be given out freely. In his previous travels, Theo had mostly seen them given to Farmguards who defended less harmless regions, but apparently they could hold contests too. Even if the competition wasn't cutthroat, the chance to receive superior materials couldn't be ignored.

"Now, I already know the two of you, both your identities and your true natures." The man lowered his head to them with a broad smile. "My name is Famaj, and I am happy to meet two young soulcrafters who would risk their lives to save communities far from home."

"Hello, Famaj." Fiyu dutifully reflected the greeting, while Theo just nodded. "Will you go with us to Myufuru?"

"Yes. I have felt my own limits, so if I am to better serve my community, perhaps I must ascend." Famaj waved a hand as if it was no concern. "Never mind such things! Please, enjoy yourselves tonight. I have arranged a faster method of transportation for us to reach the city, so you will not have long with your new friends."

With that, he departed cheerfully. Fiyu sighed and pulled her cloak lower. "If I will be traveling with everyone, I need some time to reflect alone. We can discuss soulcrafting when we arrive at this school."

"Of course, Fiyu." She couldn't have given a more obvious cue to leave, so Theo nodded and pushed off the wall. "I'll see you there."

In the community, however, he wasn't sure what his highest priority should be. Navim was still busy and Theo didn't want to waste time with empty offers of food and drink. He spent a while looking for sublime materials, but the village's hearthtree had apparently been destroyed in the battle, so all they could give him were more flamefruit and some lumpy green vegetables that weren't a very potent material.

Eventually he found a quiet enough place - not occupied by Fiyu - and sat down to think. It was too noisy to soulcraft, but he could consider his next step. Before building too much, he needed to develop his foundation as he'd been planning for so many years. That limited his options in the short term.

Perhaps the first thing he should create was a door. He could carve the frame out of hearthtree wood and attach it to whatever he created later. More importantly, that door would allow him to remain conscious of the real world while he was inside his soulhome. No matter what steps he would take, that was an essential precaution.

Before he could step into his soulhome, however, Magnafor showed up in front of him. It looked as though he had become a soulcrafter as well, and his soulhome was already obscured, nothing but a blank wall. The other human gave him an odd glance as soon as they were alone.

"That was worse than usual. Much worse. I think the two of us being together is causing some sort of reaction. So from now on, I'm staying as far away as I can."

"Are they taking you to the school too?" Theo asked. Magnafor immediately winced.

"Damn, I was hoping you wouldn't go. I don't like it, but we'll just have to keep our distance. Those sublime materials they're offering are too good to pass up... and don't expect any mercy in the competition for them."

"Fine with me." Theo pushed his mind against the blank wall again, but couldn't get anything except that his opponent was a first tier soulcrafter. "I guess the battle awakened you too, huh?"

Magnafor immediately snorted. "Battle? More like an opportunity to take the sublime materials they were wasting. Don't be so soft, Jake. This world may seem harmless, but it's the softest trap of all: coddling you into stagnation. Never forget that we have targets on our backs."

With that, he moved away, not looking back once. Theo remained seated, just thinking instead of soulcrafting. The competition would be difficult enough without another experienced person from Earth. Magnafor had gotten even further in his first life, he had plenty of knowledge, and more importantly, he was ruthless.

Theo took a deep breath and decided to find out how ruthless he could be.

Chapter 7

Their method of traveling to the city arrived the next day in the form of a monstrous furry centipede. Just the head was taller than a person, and given the length, it weighed thousands of times more. Though the sections were somewhat insectoid, it had a furry face that managed to be insufferably cute. Theo had seen them before, but couldn't remember what they were called.

Famaj stood beside the creature, rubbing the fur while it licked his shirt and face. When Theo approached, he turned to greet him. "Jake! I hope you are prepared for the journey."

"I don't really have anything to prepare," Theo said, keeping his distance. "What's the name of these creatures?"

"Packbeasts."

"Of course it is." Theo avoided rolling his eyes, but it was a close thing. "Do we leave soon?"

"Just as soon as everyone who is coming with us to Myufuru is ready!"

Given the usual Tatian sense of timing, that wouldn't be very soon. Theo sighed, sat down in a secluded grove, and entered his soulhome. He carefully began using the chisel to carve one of the heavy branches into thinner boards that he could use to make his door. The exact craft mattered as well as the strength of the materials, but fortunately his soulcrafting ability exceeded his skill in the real world.

Before he could finish, someone interrupted him to say that it was time to go. Theo headed back to the packbeast and found that a relatively small group was going to the city - it couldn't be accidental that it included mostly soulcrafters and few local Farmguards.

Navim was most obvious, being fitted with a special harness so he wouldn't fall from the packbeast. Near the front he also saw Fiyu and Famaj, and intended to join them soon, but not yet. He eventually spotted Magnafor at the back and received a glower for his trouble. Otherwise, there were some Fithans and Tatians he didn't know, plus a Deuxan soulcrafter who had apparently decided not to return home.

They all took their places on the packbeast's back and began a swift but uncomfortable journey. It trundled along the dirt roads with surprising speed, all its legs levering it forward. Local villagers waved to them cheerfully, but no differently than they would wave to wagons, strangers, or particularly friendly animals. Though Theo tried to hold a conversation with a few others, it was difficult with all the dust and the odd squealing noises from their mount.

Instead he retreated inward, no longer troubled by the lurching movements once he sat within his soulhome. There, he continued working on fashioning the hearthtree planks into a door: not just an adequate arch, but a construct he could keep for a long time. Eventually he set it up, an entrance to nowhere, and let the scarce wisps of cantae flow through it.

It worked on the first try, though that was no accomplishment with such an easy bit of soulcrafting: when he looked through the door from within, he saw the packbeast instead of his soulhome. Even when he wasn't looking, he felt a solid connection to his body. Now if anyone attacked him, he could simply fade out of his soulhome without any delay.

Of course, his awareness was still limited. If he had better tools, he could carve elaborate patterns on the wood that would improve it further. But though any effort would help, the best results required specific techniques, and he hadn't studied those very far. Just having a door so he couldn't be ambushed was good enough for now.

As for the rest, it was difficult to know how to proceed. The flamefruit tree hadn't begun to grow without support, which was unsurprising, yet the seeds themselves seemed to have died. That might be natural, or he might need to put more work into getting the foundation right. Fortunately, all the other flamefruit sat in a pile, pristine as the moment he'd eaten them. Trying again would be simple, but better done in a school environment.

So instead he merely worked on the remaining pieces of wood, shaving off splinters and knots. The resulting pile of boards wouldn't grant him any power or accomplish anything whatsoever, but when he tried to construct something more elaborate, it would be good to have that work already complete.

At the pace of the packbeast and without stopping for many feasts, they actually reached Myufuru before he finished even half of the task. When he glanced through the door and saw they were near the end of their journey, Theo faded back to reality and looked forward.

He had never visited Myufuru before, but he might as well have. Like all Tatian cities, it had the rustic look of their villages expanded to giant size. It spread out in all directions, but the heart of the city was clearly a region of several vast hills. Where the elevation might have led to social stratification in other worlds, Myufuru was swarming with staircases with no walls in sight. Tiny huts stood beside vast houses formed from tree trunks both above and below. Ropes dangling wooden gondolas constantly flowed between the different levels, ferrying the youngest and oldest.

Of course, the entire city was filled with Tatians, living packed even closer together than in the villages. With that many people, Theo knew that the character of a place changed. There would actually be thieves and swindlers there, though along with them came industry, foreign goods, and services that simply didn't exist in the dull villagescape outside.

Some of the Tatians seemed utterly shocked, as this might have been their first time seeing a city. Famaj started giving them warnings about not greeting everyone on the street and not being able to trust people, but Theo ignored him. Instead he looked to Fiyu, who was wincing and covering her ears even though they had only just entered the outskirts. He really needed to teach her to soulcraft that defensive chamber.

They left their packbeast by an enormous gnarled tree with other packbeasts twined around it. Though some in their group wanted to explore and others looked shocked, Famaj led them all forward without any delay. Theo thought that was just as well, since he wanted to get his bearings and understand the terms of their school, but he soon found Fiyu shadowing him. She flinched away from the cheerful crowds but also didn't want to touch him.

After a moment of thought, Theo undid one of the straps on his pack and extended it to give her something to hold. It was little more than a safety blanket, but she clutched the strap and followed him closely, as if he could shield her from the exuberance of the crowds around them.

In a city the size of Myufuru, they weren't greeted aggressively, yet it was still an explosion of humanity far beyond any of the small villages. Theo was glad when they reached one of the wooden gondolas and headed directly upward. With the wind whistling around them, he felt slightly cool for the first time since entering Tatian.

Their path took them arching over the entire city to one of the highest hills. It broke the usual pattern of mixed equality, surrounded by a wall of living stone that looked like it could actually repel an assault, for all its gentle curves in the patterns of trees, plants, and flowers. There was an inscription over the entrance archway below, and fortunately he could read the looping characters: Myufuru Landguard Village.

Only one word of that mattered: Landguard. As little as Tatian focused on soulcrafting tiers, even they couldn't deny the huge gap between the third and fourth. Theo had met a few Landguards and none of them had been fools: if there was a serious attack, the Landguards acted as the military. In other worlds they would have been a ruling caste, but on Tatian they simply served all nations and villages equally.

There was one problem: he'd been told that the nearest Landguard was months away. At first he'd wondered if "Village" was a euphemism for a fortress, but as they slid over a mostly empty compound he reconsidered. Perhaps this was a headquarters and storage facility used by Landguards without any currently being in residence.

Before their gondola landed, he made sure to build a mental map of the area within the walls. The front gate had a normal village square surrounded by stacked huts that likely served as housing. Staircases led from it to clusters of kitchens, orchards, and stonesmiths, but also downward into what appeared to be a tunnel. Their gondola led them to an upper square with fewer staircases, some leading to a fortified building... and one to a vast tree.

Their gondola was attached to the middle boughs of the skyscraper-sized tree, which cast shade over the entire compound. They stopped before drawing too close, but he could see staircases had been carved into the side, leading up to a softly glowing peak. Lines of sealing staffs had been driven into the lower trunk, generating a Landguard-class barrier. None of them would be walking in there... that barrier could probably endure a full assault by an army of Farmguards.

He had no more time to examine the landscape as the gondola rapidly descended to the upper courtyard. As the door opened, he was surprised to find the area empty, but a bright head of hair began bobbing from one of the stairs as an old man approached.

Immediately Theo hesitated, letting others go ahead of him, but he couldn't say exactly why at first. The old man coming to greet them appeared to be simply a first tier soulcrafter, yet something wasn't right. Glimpsing his soulhome was a little too easy, slightly too straightforward. He might be a simple Farmguard... or he might be a soulcrafter powerful enough to have built a shielding wall.

"Welcome, welcome!" The old man spread his arms wide as if to hug all of them, and followed up on the threat with a few of the Tatians. His arms made Theo think of tree trunks despite being in the shadow of building-sized trees. "Oh, we're so glad to have you here! This place has been empty for too long, but all of you are changing that!"

"I'm glad to see you well, uncle." Famaj matched the old man's hug, then pulled back, all smiles. "Friends, please meet my dear uncle, Nanjuma. He is the head of Myufuru Landguard Village."

"Which isn't as much of an honor as it once was!" Nanjuma laughed at himself and turned to all the others, his hands on his hips. "But when we heard about all these brave soulcrafters and hopefuls, everyone agreed that we would be best able to welcome you. With your help, we should all be able to defend our communities better, and you should find a way back to your own worlds soon enough!"

"Why isn't this fortress in active use?" one of the Fithans asked. Nanjuma shook his head, then began to walk, demonstrating vigorously.

"You see these grounds? This village was established for the sake of some very valuable sublime materials, but those have fallen out of favor, just a bit. Everyone wants flamefruit these days, but our orchards are mostly duskfruit. Not in high demand, but too valuable to replant. But over that way, we have a mine growing perfectly serviceable stones, perfect for beginning Farmguards. I'm glad they won't go to waste."

Theo tucked away those details for future consideration, as he still had no way to sense sublime materials himself. Duskfruit were one of the few sublime materials on Tatian that weren't as warm and friendly, so while they didn't fit into his immediate plans, they were worth keeping in mind. A supply of stone would also be essential for building a solid first tier, so those were encouraging facts.

Nothing at all about Archcrafter materials, however, and though not many noticed the absence, he could practically see the thought in the way Magnafor shifted his weight. The other human managed to hold back at first, while Nanjuma continued to show them around the enclosed village grounds. It seemed that they were the fourth group to arrive, with several more expected, but most of the others were currently in the city itself.

"Though you are free to explore the orchards," Nanjuma said, "we ask that you take few sublime materials. We will give you plenty of them in time, but there aren't enough for any to be wasted. Please take a Farmguard with you if you enter the mine, simply so you don't accidentally damage any of our stones. Nowhere is off limits except the upper offices of the main building... we keep the Archcrafter materials there, and you'll be winning those soon enough!"

Normally Theo would have been incredulous that the old man would reveal the location so naively, but he suspected that Nanjuma was more than he seemed. Behind his barrier wall, Nanjuma was likely a Ruler, and not a newly ascended one. If he began releasing his cantae, he could likely flatten all of them instantly. The fact that he'd been put in charge of the facility by Landguards meant that he couldn't be naive about other worlds, either.

"What about the big tree?" Magnafor asked. His tone was utterly casual, but there was something hard in his eyes. Nanjuma met it with a smile.

"Those are the Landguard private quarters and vaults, and they sealed it after them when they moved. For your own safety, please stay away from the barrier. There isn't anything dangerous within, but sublime materials that are too potent can be dangerous on their own. If you don't already know that, well, heh, we'll have classes for that soon enough."

"Right, got it." Magnafor turned away, still too casually. A few of the Fithans stared toward the tree as well, but Nanjuma's twinkling eyes observed them all carefully. Theo turned away as if more interested in the mine.

He had to admit that he understood their interest in the bound area. The Archcrafter materials offered as prizes were still valuable, but they were nothing compared to the third or fourth tier sublime materials that might be within the Landguard area. Of course, none of them had a way to take down the barrier and it would instantly alienate their hosts even if they managed it.

In an ideal world, that might make sense to do in time. Fully soulcraft a foundational tier with the freely given materials and become an Archcrafter, then steal the rest. Higher tier materials could be converted down, but one lesson Theo had learned previously was that this was ultimately inefficient. Even Stronghold materials forced down to the very first tier weren't quite as good as the right materials native to that tier. But taking everything found within would pave the way through later tiers in a way that was normally impossible.

The presence of someone else returning from Earth, and potentially thieves from other worlds, made him reconsider that plan. Others might be planning heists and Nanjuma would be alert for the potential attempts. Getting out with the sublime materials wouldn't be easy.

"We won't begin classes until all the groups arrive, so you have some time to adjust to Myufuru." Nanjuma led them into an office, but only long enough to pull a set of sacks from a desk. He began tossing them to each student as he continued speaking. "You'll be given food, lodging, and sublime materials, but we want you to be comfortable here. Consider this stipend thanks for your work with us so far. Please, use it to enjoy the city!"

Theo caught the sack and nodded thankfully, resisting the urge to count his money, since that would be seen as contrary to the spirit of generosity. Many of the others immediately checked and compared, and though Nanjuma continued to smile cheerily, those eyes seemed to absorb it all... he definitely wasn't a man to cross.

With the money distributed, their orientation seemed to be over. Famaj led them to some of the empty rooms and invited each student to choose one that suited their fancy. Since they all seemed identical - bed, desk, cabinet - Theo picked one that was defended from exterior attacks but also had a nearby exit. He left his pack to claim ownership and headed out.

Now that he was finally free, it was time to take what he could from the city.

Chapter 8

On his way out, Theo scouted potential allies. As usual, Navim required special accommodations, though it seemed like the Landguard village actually had a special place near the mine to house Mundhin. Famaj had taken a room near Theo's, but seemed mostly interested in talking with relatives in the city. That left him free to explore the city, though he decided to track down Fiyu first.

Predictably, she had chosen a room deep in the women's building, far from the others. When he arrived, she was pinning sheets of fabric over the windows to block out as much light as possible. As soon as he neared the door, she shifted toward him and smiled.

"Hello, Jake. Are you going to go into the city?"

"I was thinking of it." He stayed outside of her space and just leaned against the door frame. "Do you want to come?"

"No, I do not. Would it be possible for you to purchase something for me? When I was thrown here, I lost a tool called a spirit lantern. It is designed to store and repurpose cantae from sublime materials, do you know it?"

"Yeah, I think I've seen those before. They should have something similar here, so if you'll just give me the money..."

Fiyu frowned and regarded him as if puzzled. "If you return with the spirit lantern, I will give you the money then."

Though he felt a flash of irritation that she didn't trust him, Theo realized he was being too human. On Ichil, his offer would never have been taken at face value, and he was asking her for a level of trust that wouldn't be given even to some family members. The fact that she had asked him at all was a positive sign, or at least he tried to take it that way.

"Alright, I'll look for your spirit lantern. I'll be back later this evening."

"Thank you, Jake. I will be here in my chambers."

He nodded and turned away, almost wishing that he'd given her his real name. It didn't really matter, though, especially given the limited trust between them. Instead of worrying about that, Theo counted his money and considered his highest priorities as he left the village.

The amount of money he'd been given was limited, and even combined with what he'd earned on the journey, it wasn't enough to buy sublime materials, at least not those of the quality he needed. That meant he'd need to rely on what he could earn directly from the Farmguards, which was more or less what he'd expected. He'd spend part on Fiyu's spirit lantern, pick up a few items he could use himself, and otherwise save the rest.

There were Farmguards at the entrance gate to the Landguard Village, ordinary soulcrafters but with fully built first floors. If demons attacked, he doubted any of them would falter in confusion, though they likely dealt with more ordinary problems in the city. They checked everyone, but already knew him by sight and merely waved to him as he went through.

A large Tatian city included countless potential diversions, none of which Theo had time for at the moment. Other potential soulcrafters from the school were also leaving at the same time and they might well take the tools he needed. Theo asked a few people on the street, focusing to use the local dialect, and was soon directed to a soulcrafter district not far away.

Once there, he looked through several stores and eventually found one that struck him as professional. They sold a gourd lamp that would serve as a spirit lantern, as well as a high quality spirit hammer. His chisel was better for wood or detail work, but he'd be working with heavy stone soon. The two cost more than he'd intended, and the customary bargaining process was aggravating, but his old instincts came back and he managed to get out of the store without being robbed.

As he started to return, he noticed a group of Fithans in the street. They weren't the ones who had come with him from the village, and beyond that they were a different species. Theo wasn't an expert on Fithe, but he knew the world had at least two major species. Those he'd met before had bluish horns, whereas this group was hornless with a reddish coloring.

What those differences meant, he didn't know, but it was clear enough that they were potential soulcrafters at the same school. More importantly, they drew his attention to a building that he'd completely ignored on his trip out. It was a finely crafted wooden structure with three stories, filled with windows to draw the eye to its real product.

Prostitutes framed themselves in the windows, both women and men. Their robes were more form-fitting than scanty, and the overall atmosphere was more warm than alluring, but the intent was obvious. This had clearly been what the Fithans had been looking for, so they crowded in, receiving a warm reception.

"You're an outsider too, aren't you? You don't look familiar..." A young woman leaned out from one of the ground floor windows, her curious expression suddenly giving way to a beaming smile. "Wait! Famaj said there were a few travelers from really far away who risked their lives to save a village. Was that you?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess I was one of them." Theo realized that he'd mostly forgotten this aspect of Tatian: prostitution was essentially not stigmatized, so long as it was done in a way that supported the community. It wasn't considered as healthy as marriage - or lovebonds or whatever saccharine term they used - but it was common once you got out of the tiny villages.

"Would you like to come inside? I'll give you a good rate if you tell stories about your home world!"

Theo considered it for only a split second. He had limited money and time, and this would be a waste of both. Even if he had been tempted, he remembered that the word was "warmthgivers" which was so irritatingly euphemistic that it left him repulsed by the whole idea.

"Thank you, but I need to get back to the school to work."

"Okay! Have a nice day!" She gave him another cheerful smile and looked back to the street, humming a pleasant tune to herself.

With a quick shake of his head, Theo put the incident behind him and headed back. He realized that even though he had a young body, he didn't feel like a horny teenager. In fact, seeing the young woman just made him feel like a tired old man, which he was in a sense. As much as he tried to forget his years on Earth, they had included a few relationships and a disastrous marriage.

It was easier not to think about that. He turned his thoughts back to his work.

Back within the village, he found Fiyu in the middle of soulcrafting, but her shadows faded as soon as he opened the door. Her mouth twisted nervously, so he simply tossed the spirit lantern to her. She ran her hands over it studiously, then she beamed.

"This will be sufficient. Thank you, Jake."

"No problem."

"What was the price?" Fiyu's face fell as she picked up her sack of money. "I... wish to be properly cautious, but I do not know what such a thing would cost in this world."

"When you're outside your home environment, you have to trust someone until you learn." Theo gave her the real price and she paid it with only a little hesitation. Though it seemed that she was busy, when he started to leave, she spoke up again.

"My relative had given me a number of sublime materials, so there is much work I can do. But when I have finished my current projects, I am... uncertain about the materials of this world. Do you think the teachers will be able to assist me?"

Theo shrugged, though he wasn't sure if the movement got through to her. "I'm sure they'll try their best to help you, so the real question is if they'll find anyone who can. I think they'll call teachers from further away, so maybe some of them will be experienced world travelers."

"I see. I am not familiar with these 'learningplaces' but I believe that my relative would want me to take advantage of the opportunity. I hope that we can study together, Jake."

"Yeah, me too. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Fiyu bobbed her head and then closed the door in his face. Only a little taken aback, Theo turned away and headed toward the mine. The sun might be close to setting, but the city was still awash in an orange glow as lanterns and bonfires were lit. It occurred to him that they must have a method to avoid widespread destructive fires, but he wasn't sure what it was.

In any case, he didn't intend to rest just yet. Sneaking into the mine might prove an unnecessary risk, but that didn't leave him without options. Theo instead searched for a Farmguard or someone else who could give him permission. He didn't expect to run into Nanjuma, but since the old man seemed to be calmly sitting on a bench and eating nuts, it might be a good time.

"Welcome back, young man." Nanjuma beamed at him and offered the bag. "Want a little treat?"

"No, thank you. But I was wondering if you could help me acquire some sublime materials to work on before school begins."

"Oh, but it will only be a few days until everyone has arrived! Why don't you enjoy yourself in the city first?"

"That's kind of you, but I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"Ah, youth. I remember when all of that still stretched before me..." Nanjuma gave him a foolish smile, yet his eyes bored directly into his soulhome. "As I said, we have plenty of sublime materials, but you will need to convince me that you can make good use of them."

Deciding that simple words would be useless, Theo stepped into his soulhome, then leaned through the door enough to speak. "I may not have soulcrafted myself for long, but I know many of the arts. I would like to begin the long, hard work of processing stone."

"Ah, you do know a few tricks! How does a young man who has barely awakened as a soulcrafter know such things?"

"Are you going to make me answer before giving me anything?" Theo asked, stepping back out of his soulhome. Nanjuma regarded him seriously, then his eyes twinkled.

"Enjoy your secrets, then! You're right about the amount of work that stone takes, and I don't think you can hurt yourself just preparing it. What did you have in mind? We have plenty of our awakened stone, but perhaps something from the soil of a hearthtree?"

"Does the mine produce any solarstone?"

Nanjuma rose to his feet slowly and popped another few nuts in his mouth, looking down at him thoughtfully. "It does, but I think you're underestimating just how hard solarstone is. You won't be able to put a crack in it, much less form it into bricks suitable for a soulhome."

"You might be right, but I want to try." Theo hefted the spirit hammer he'd bought and gave what he hoped was a disarming smile. "Why don't you give me one stone? If you're right, all I'll do is waste my time and hurt my hands a bit."

"Hmm." Then Nanjuma was simply gone.

He appeared a second later, and this time Theo was just able to spot a blur. The old man now held a large chunk of bright rock instead of his bag of nuts. Though he smiled cheerfully and thrust it forward, the implicit threat was clear: someone who could go to the mine and back in a heartbeat could just as easily kill a person.

"Thank you." Theo accepted the chunk of rock, not looking at it directly - though it wasn't blinding, it was unpleasantly bright. Deciding that this was also a test of sorts, he gripped it in both hands and focused his full attention on it.

For several terrible seconds his hands hurt and he was afraid he'd be proved wrong, but finally the stone crumbled away into his soulhome. Nanjuma regarded him with a cheerful grin. "Well done, young man! If you really manage to do anything with that bit of rock, perhaps I can find a little more for you. I hope you'll make this school fun for all of us."

"I'll do my best," Theo answered, though he wasn't sure exactly what that meant. Not wanting to push his luck, he returned to his room and then drew the spirit hammer with him into his soulhome.

Within, the chunk of solarstone was a large boulder. It would be a great deal of work, but he could slowly break it into pieces, then shape those into bricks of stone. His foundation still needed work, but building the walls of his first tier from solarstone was as good a start as he could ask for. Now that he had a proper material, it was time to get to work.

His first swing deflected off to the side, his spiritual hands stinging. Several more attempts failed to leave a scratch as well, though he was slowly remembering the old art. Gradually he managed to draw the weak stream of cantae into his spirit, strengthening himself as a soulcrafter until he could bring his full force against the boulder in a single stroke.

A tiny crack appeared in the top of the boulder... the first of many. Theo smiled and pulled the hammer back.

Chapter 9

By the time all the students had arrived, Theo had made less progress than he'd hoped. He'd shattered the first solarstone boulder into brick-sized lumps, but they'd proved remarkably resistant to proper shaping with his chisel. Breaking apart the first had been enough to convince Nanjuma to give him a second boulder, since he'd pretended that he hadn't tried to work them further.

The problem was that the heart of soulcrafting was vague and slippery. Raw power using cantae didn't necessarily translate to being able to work inside your soulhome, and though physical fitness and dexterity mattered a little, they weren't sufficient. The core work was fundamentally an act of willpower, and even though he remembered how to do each task, his years on Earth had weakened his capacity.

Still, it was better than nothing. Theo stacked his lumps into a circular chamber and stuck hearthtree boards over the top to make a primitive room. It might look laughable, but it was a nice little trick that let him store cantae quickly. If there was another fight before he could properly create his soulhome, he wouldn't be defenseless.

Though the arrival of the last groups was celebrated with a feast, both Theo and Fiyu skipped it. He'd seen relatively little of her, but knew that they'd meet again for the first class with all the students. The day after the feast, Nanjuma called out for everyone to gather in the main courtyard. Fiyu urged him to take a position by the edge and placed him between her and everyone else.

"Welcome, welcome!" Nanjuma boomed as if he was greeting everyone, but they were still getting organized. That didn't seem to matter and he went on booming in a hospitable fashion.

While they assembled, Theo looked through the group. There were perhaps a hundred people standing in the center of the square, mostly from worlds closely linked to Tatian. He spotted Navim, Fiyu, Magnafor, and a few others he was used to seeing. Famaj was nowhere to be found until his eyes moved on to the Farmguards standing at the edges.

They wore more elaborate robes, as if they were to be teachers, but almost all of them were first tier soulcrafters. Most had well-developed soulhomes, yes, just not what he'd expected from instructors. There were three Archcrafters, plus Nanjuma. Famaj and perhaps a young woman with a forked staff were near ascending. Among the others, only a few stood out for an unusual weapon or garment, implying they had come from some distance away. Everyone on Tatian had light hair, but a few had a strawberry blond color he hadn't seen before.

"At last, everyone is organized and in place!" Nanjuma leapt from the instructors' group to the top of the nearby building, not as a show of force, but simply because he couldn't contain himself. "We hope you have enjoyed our hospitality, but I hope you will relish our joyful work even more! Unless you choose to leave, all of you will be here for a full year from this date."

So they'd planned a year of studying? Last time, it had taken Theo about a year to become an Archcrafter, but he was certain he could do better this time. If the contest for the Archcrafter sublime materials took place at the end, it would be too late for him to really need it. For the moment, he put his plans on hold and continued listening.

"Now, I know that some of you are suspicious of our generosity, so let me tell you exactly how this will benefit all of us. Landguard specialists have confirmed that the waters between worlds are at peace again, and there have been no more surprise guests. However, the small cracks that opened will mean that demon attacks will increase over this broad area, to levels that we have not seen in years.

"Thus we can help each other! In addition to stopping some of the attacks, you will be trained by some of our promising young soulcrafters. Teaching is an excellent way to learn, so together we will increase the capacity of this entire region, even if most of you find your way back to your own worlds."

Though Theo had more or less suspected that was the case, it was good to confirm, and also explained why the line of instructors was relatively weak. If they really had a surplus of sublime materials, it was a viable strategy. Not every situation could be a win-win, but Tatian was good at finding them.

"Now, you are coming to us with hugely varying levels of understanding, so I must ask for your patience!" Nanjuma waved down toward the teachers and one ducked into the nearest building. "This first class will surprise some and bore others, but it will allow us to place you in the appropriate group. To ease the pain a little bit, we'll be distributing sublime materials and blueprints!"

The teacher returned followed by several villagers, each bearing a set of sublime materials. Enough to get started, and not a trivial gift, but nothing likely to change anyone's life. No, despite what was said about easing the pain, this was fundamentally a test.

Everyone seemed to be given exactly the same set of materials, so Theo waited his turn. The basket included low grade stone and hearthtree wood, but more importantly a set of seeds and sublime materials to help them grow. He'd lacked the latter because he assumed they'd be given eventually, so he eagerly took each and sent them to his soulhome.

That left only the blueprint, which he regarded dubiously. It laid out a fairly simple single floor soulhome for a Farmguard - competent, but nothing special. Though using a blueprint was obviously better than just soulcrafting haphazardly, Theo thought they could actually be detrimental: use of them didn't teach any of the critical principles of the art. They could produce strong soulcrafters, just soulcrafters who didn't fully understand why their soulhomes were built as they were.

"All of you are familiar with sublime materials, but do you actually know what they are?" The new voice came from an old woman, so short she barely came up to Nanjuma's chest. Instead of using cantae to strengthen her voice, she simply asked the question softly and waited for everyone's attention to turn to her. "Well? Does anyone want to venture a guess?"

"They're objects touched by the gods," one of the Fithans answered, drawing immediate ire from several others. But the old woman calmly spoke over the chaos.

"Perhaps. Others say they are echoes of the first song of creation, or normal materials enriched by the waters of chaos that flow between the Nine Worlds. I asked if anyone knew, in part because I certainly do not. I take a more practical approach." She reached into her sleeve and revealed a flamefruit in one wizened hand. "For our purposes, sublime materials are anything that resonates with cantae."

There was a long pause before Nanjuma eventually jumped in to ask the next question himself. "And what is cantae, grandmother?"

"The power that undergirds all worlds. Some say that it exists within all life, but this is false. Cantae is a power of reality itself, completely absent in most plants and animals, while greatly concentrated in even dead stone. It is one constant that exists in the same form across all worlds."

Though Theo was beginning to let his attention wander, since this lecture was remedial for him, her final words distracted him. Because they weren't quite true: cantae didn't exist on Earth. As far as he could tell, nearly none of the phenomena in the Nine Worlds did. That was a mystery he didn't think he'd easily crack, not when he had so many higher priorities in the form of Vistgil and his demons.

"As you will soon find, sublime materials resonate with cantae in different ways. For those of you capable of using it, the most notable fact - common to all sublime materials - is that they can be absorbed into your soulhome. Now, I hope that most of you are already familiar with them, but for those who are not..."

Theo let the words slip into the back of his mind, barely paying attention as he shifted into his soulhome. He might as well get some work done, though not just work: if any of the instructors were watching, they would be judging his capabilities. Being completely comfortable absorbing sublime materials and soulcrafting might put him ahead of some, but he needed something more impressive than his pile of rocks.

So he sat down and began to set up the boundaries of a vestibule. It wasn't a common type of chamber to find in soulhomes, and in his past life he hadn't even heard about them until he'd become an Archcrafter himself. The small room could store cantae, but more importantly it was excellent for transferring it. Building one would let him absorb it more rapidly, use it with less loss due to inefficiency, and even release it more forcefully.

Of course, at the moment his door and vestibule led to absolutely nothing except an empty clearing. It was certainly an irrational way of going about things, so he could only hope anyone worthy of being his instructor would understand. No matter what he did with a central plant, foundation, or walls, the vestibule would be a helpful addition, so it was an excellent use of his time while he waited.

"But not all sublime materials contain cantae within themselves, nor do they resist it. Certain classes are known primarily for generating cantae, and it is to those that we now turn." The words broke through his own thoughts and Theo found himself paying attention again as they moved to the flamefruit seeds.

Most of the lesson was straightforward, but he used it as an opportunity to reflect. Useful soulhome chambers generally required three kinds of sublime materials: one to generate cantae, one to protect and store it, and one to make it more effective.

The flamefruit would in theory grow into a tree that generated plenty of cantae and solarstone was an excellent material for building the walls. But to be an effective soulcrafter, he needed more than that. Using the hearthtree wood for other features would strengthen him a bit, but not substantially. He needed a truly rare sublime material to form the heart of his main chamber. His plan was to acquire an exceptionally hard stone or wood and place it as a centerpiece. Using it, the cantae he stored could make his body more durable than steel.

"You may find all of this a bit confusing," the old woman continued, "but within your soulhome, everything will be clearer. Soulcrafting doesn't operate by distant spiritual truths... the rules are deeply intuitive. Will thin boards with holes make good walls? Of course not! In just the same way, in your soulhome, walls that appear weak to you will leak cantae. Everything operates according to your deepest rational intuitions."

Though that was a good lesson for beginners, Theo had found that was only true up to a point, because intuition wasn't always a good guide to real life. Not to mention, some worlds didn't operate by rules that seemed normal to him. Some of the most valuable sublime materials he'd ever seen had been from Siata, where plants naturally floated in the air and grew without sunlight. His plans would require him to cross the Nine, which meant learning the "obvious" rules of many worlds.

Nothing in the lecture helped him with his problem. Theo stopped working on the vestibule walls and instead walked to the center, examining where he'd planted the flamefruit seed. Far from having sprouted, it seemed to be dead. Just to be sure, he planted a brand new seed and gave it water and fertilizer. He had a feeling that it was going to die as well.

That had something to do with the fundamental foundation of the soul, which was being skipped in the introductory lecture... and had caused him trouble in his past life. Not everyone was equally suited to every sublime material for reasons that weren't entirely clear. That was the main reason he was avoiding soulcrafting his core chambers: he needed something perfectly compatible.

But the flamefruits were just a temporary measure, not an important part of the blueprint that he'd designed together with Brigana. He could try different plants on Tatian until he found one that felt right. Whatever it was, it would need to be compatible with the solarstone base and walls, providing a rock solid foundation for his soulhome in the future.

As the lecture drew to a close, Theo returned from his soulhome. Around him, he saw that some were struggling to absorb the sublime materials, or their soulcrafting auras were wavering weakly. Hopefully he'd proved that he had mastery of those basic techniques, which would prevent him from getting placed into the lowest groups that would repeat fundamentals and no doubt end up pushed toward Farmguard blueprints. Beyond the basics, however, there was no point showing off - he needed to look alert and potentially useful to the instructors. Many others already had soulcrafted first floors, after all.

"Now, since you have all been such good listeners, we will move on to choosing new families!" Nanjuma rubbed the old woman on the back as he stepped up beside her. "We know you are all far from home, even those of you from Tatian, and we did not want you to be alone in a formal school. For that reason, you will all be placed in small family units that can support one another in more than soulcrafting."

Theo managed not to roll his eyes: Tatians might phrase it that way, but there was no getting around the fact that they were choosing teams. The instructors moved onto the stairs and looked over the group of students carefully. As Nanjuma explained how they would be chosen, Theo realized that it was going to be like schoolyard games: picking teams one at a time. It struck him as oddly competitive for Tatian, but at least he wouldn't be matched based on their assumptions about personality.

The first instructor was an older man who chose Navim without any hesitation. That made sense, as the Mundhin held both decent strength and very useful abilities. As Navim moved forward to stand beside his instructor, Theo looked to the others, wondering as to their strategies. If they had information about their previous fight, then Fiyu would no doubt be picked soon. Theo himself wasn't sure how long it would take and sat in irritation, hoping his progress wouldn't be inhibited by childish politics.

To his surprise, the second pick was a young Deuxan woman. She didn't feel exceptionally strong, but a glance at her soulhome revealed an intricate web of silver and glass. Perhaps access or familiarity with new sublime materials was being prioritized? Then again, he might not have taken the Deuxan woman's proper measure.

Famaj stepped up as the third instructor and Theo found himself waiting, irritated at his own anticipation. It might not make sense for Famaj to choose Theo first, but he had seen Fiyu in combat. That would shift the nature of the choosing, making him hope that he would be skipped until Famaj could choose him during the second selection.

Except Famaj didn't choose Fiyu.

Instead he picked a Tatian man who Theo hadn't even noticed until that moment and now reconsidered. It was true that he held a lot of cantae, but his soulhome was essentially just a large stone dome. Good for gathering cantae, but not much else. Comparing him to Fiyu's efficacy... Theo had to reconsider whether or not he was biased, and he was definitely too involved.

Next, an unassuming Tatian woman chose Magnafor. That was an odd choice, leaving him considering whether or not he had missed some essential element of the exercise. Perhaps Magnafor had further distinguished himself, or perhaps-

"The young Ichili woman, if she would be so kind."

Fiyu gasped aloud, while Theo quickly looked to find who had chosen her. It was one of the young Tatian women he'd noted earlier: relatively unremarkable, though her clothes were cut for easy movement and her short hair was a whiter blond than average. The most notable thing about her was the staff she carried, a wooden shaft studded with black stones at the bottom and along the forking top. It felt like a soulcrafter armament, though not one he knew.

At first he worried that he'd need to herd Fiyu in that direction, but she understood what they were doing and reluctantly went to stand with the other woman. The two of them spoke to each other too low to hear while other group leaders continued to choose their teammates.

Most of those were unremarkable, leaving Theo increasingly irritated as he wasn't chosen. He noticed that many of the leaders chose the Tatian soulcrafters, even though they weren't generally among the stronger candidates. Could it really be simple provincialism?

He realized that one of the team leaders actually wasn't Tatian, instead a Deuxan man wearing similar robes. In the warm sunlight his hair looked Tatian blond, but it was actually silver. Whatever the case, he broke the pattern by choosing a Fithan woman who Theo judged was probably the strongest person remaining, so that was logical enough.

As the second round began, Theo wondered just how long he would have to wait. When it was Famaj's second turn to pick, Theo tried to make eye contact with him... only for Famaj to choose one of the last Tatian Farmguards. Remaining with the others, Theo reflected on the inadequacies of Tatian culture. The downside of the all-encompassing warmth was that their loyalty was only skin deep.

Then he noticed that Fiyu was pointing directly at him. It seemed to be a disagreement between the two, though he still couldn't hear any of their words. Theo stayed still and tried not to respond in any way as the Tatian woman regarded him with a cool skepticism he didn't often see in that world.

"You, then." She wasn't as polite as before, but she did point at him. Theo nodded and rapidly moved to join them, trying to decide if this was really cause for irritation or if he was being childish. His ideal team would have included Famaj and Navim, but he'd have to make do.

Once he drew close, Fiyu smiled between them and the Tatian woman regarded him without expression. "She said that your name was Jake?"

"Yeah. And you are?"

"My name is Nauda. I trust that we can work together as a wholesome community despite the nature of this choosing."

Her statement was so generic he gave her a second glance, but he saw nothing but a bland Tatian smile on her face. Resolving to keep an open mind, Theo stepped behind her alongside Fiyu to let the choosing continue, though several others had chosen in the meantime.

Nauda continued to look through the candidates thoughtfully and Theo didn't have anyone to suggest. On her third opportunity, she chose a Tatian man named Kuber without hesitation. Though not the most polished soulcrafter, his soulhome had an unusually broad foundation that was worthy of note. Of all the instructors, only Nauda, the old man who went first, and a middle-aged woman made choices that Theo thought were rational.

After the third round, it was obvious they were down to less ideal candidates. Of course Tatian society couldn't allow anyone to be last, so the pattern changed and those remaining were scattered at once. Their group ended up with five more people: two Tatians, two Fithans of opposite coloration, and a Deuxan. None of them struck him as showing any particular potential as soulcrafters, though he had to admit that some people might think the same of him.

"You all have your new families, yes?" Nanjuma looked over them all with his hands on his hips and a smile of immense satisfaction on his face. "Wonderful! We will be providing instructors, classes, and materials at various times, as well as competitions later in the year. But your group leaders will decide which are most important for your family, so please take care of one another!"

Then part of his growth lay in the hands of Nauda - it was a small comfort that she was open to being swayed, given that she had listened to Fiyu. It was obvious that the Ichili woman considered their group much too large and shrank behind him... but also behind Nauda. Odd that the Tatian woman seemed to have earned a little trust so quickly.

With that, the ceremony was over and the groups began to split up. Theirs only made it a short distance away before the bluish Fithan regarded Nauda with a scornful look. "What gives you the right to decide how we soulcraft? I can't trust in your judgment, given how you chose me last."

"Please forgive me." Nauda clasped both her hands and bowed deeply. "I was judging not your considerable strength, but your flexibility in soulcrafting. I admired how you showed great facility with stone but I was deeply troubled that we could not provide you with better natural materials."

Her abject apology seemed to mollify the man, but Theo found himself considering. Despite what she said, the Fithan wasn't particularly strong, so he couldn't decide if that was poor judgment or simply Tatian flattery. But her other statement, if accurate, was a sign of a clear strategy: she wanted a group that would be capable of rapidly soulcrafting the sublime materials available to them. A perfectly sound strategy, if a bit boring.

"The remainder of the day will be devoted to introducing instructors, organizing classes, and familiarizing ourselves with one another." Nauda smiled warmly at all of them. "I hope that we can work well together, but I will not impose on you tonight. Please restrain your celebrations so that we can begin in the courtyard tomorrow at dawn."

So all he needed to do was suffer though one more night of Tatian hospitality, then the training could begin. Theo told himself that he could master even this challenge.

Chapter 10

The next morning, Theo was soulcrafting in the courtyard before the sun had risen. He'd hoped to have some time to analyze Nauda, but as she didn't arrive until exactly sunrise, all he accomplished was further breaking up his solarstone. Soon enough he would need to begin crafting bricks, hopefully aided by all of the classes instead of hindered.

Fiyu emerged on time and sat soulcrafting in the corner nearest him, and the others arrived not long after. Soon they were only missing Kuber, who wasn't on time in typical Tatian fashion, so the Fithan man who had made trouble the previous day was sent into the men's quarters to retrieve him. In the meantime, Theo learned that his name was Trathis, just in case he turned out to be a problem.

Actually, he was introduced to all of them - Nauda had them sit in a circle and give their names and origins - but Theo let most of the names run through his mind like water. Most likely none of them would interfere or assist with his goals in any way. Still, he paid attention as Nauda began what seemed to be a lesson.

"Nanjuma and the others will provide us with more knowledgeable instructors," she said, "but I hope that I can contribute some small insight to our soulcrafting. Perhaps not any great strength, but understanding. For that reason, I wanted to begin by touring one another's soulhomes."

"You can't enter a soulhome." Trathis didn't bother to hide a sneer. "Not unless you're a legendary king in some kind of children's story."

Nauda lowered her gaze in an apologetic bow. "This is true. I meant something slightly different, so thank you for your essential correction. Though I am certain that you have seen thousands of techniques superior to mine, please bear with it. Now, link hands and relax any cantae defenses."

Of course Tatian training was going to involve sitting in a circle and holding hands. Theo held his tongue, as he was curious just what Nauda intended, and extended his hands to either side. Kuber immediately grasped his wrist on his left, but his right hung in the air... Fiyu had been holding back from the circle. She reluctantly shifted closer and laid a finger on his hand as if it would bite her. That put her between him and Nauda... and then a rush of cantae sent him spiraling.

Not into his soulhome, but somewhere else. Theo pushed against it, and realized he could easily resist the effect, but instead allowed himself to be swept away. His soul and body remained motionless, it was as if his mind was being given a new vantage point.

He floated just above the ground of a soulhome, yet it felt insubstantial instead of deeply grounded in himself. When he tried to shift his weight, he saw that his feet didn't truly touch the ground - he was a blur of blue light as if he was soulcrafting. Around him, he saw the others as spirits, many of them spinning in confusion. Fiyu was a perfectly calm shadow, as if having her mind transported into another soulhome was less distressing than holding hands.

Nauda stood in front of them, the only person who remained fully concrete, so this was clearly her soulhome. The field surrounding the main structure was bright Tatian grass and the clouds overhead glowed as if an orange sun lay behind them. Her soulhome itself was impressively built, with sturdy stone walls covered in artfully growing vines.

Somewhat smaller than he had expected, given her status as a group leader. His gaze slid upward and he noted a structure like the base of a pyramid under construction atop the building. It pressed into the clouds overhead, which pressed back, the occasional chip of paint flaking away. So she was attempting to push past her first floor to ascend to Archcrafter as quickly as possible.

"This is my soulhome, such as it is." Nauda smiled at all of them and swept a hand to encompass it. "Since you are not truly within my soul, you should be able to float simply by willing it. Please follow me as I show you my soulcrafting."

Though a few had trouble, Theo found that floating came naturally and he flowed after her. Nauda checked to make sure everyone was following, then opened her ornate wooden door. The first room was spare, but the air hummed with stored cantae.

"This first chamber is a humble room with no special purpose," Nauda explained as she continued onward. "But it is essential for your soulhome to have balance for stability. I have three chambers that serve an essential purpose, so creating a fourth gives me symmetry."

Perfectly logical, though he wondered how she intended to expand in the future. Unless she had some truly exotic sublime materials, her second floor couldn't be broader than her first, and having only four chambers per tier would be very limiting, no matter how stable it was.

"The most important room in my soulhome is this: my heart chamber." Nauda led them into the second room, which was dominated by a large tree - though it looked Tatian, it was a variety that he hadn't seen before. She didn't explain that, instead telling the others basics about how the tree generated cantae and she used the chamber to channel the majority of it.

Ignoring that, Theo looked into the next room. It was another spare chamber, but there was a large window to the outside... and a telescope of golden brass. His eyes widened and he had to resist drifting closer: it was a finely crafted object for a soulhome, and almost certainly the source of this technique to let people view other soulhomes directly.

"Why's your staff here?" Kuber's question broke through his own thoughts and Theo looked back as he realized that he'd missed a detail. There was an exact copy of Nauda's staff standing in the chamber beside the tree, easy to miss because the trunk had partially grown over it.

"This is the spiritual reflection of my weapon in reality." Nauda walked beside the tree and ran her finger along one of the forked prongs. "Anyone can pick up a weapon and use it, of course, and even make it powerful by forcing cantae into it. But by including my personal weapon here, it can naturally hold cantae and I can use it more effectively."

"If it's a soulcrafter weapon, doesn't it need its own chamber?"

"Ah... my staff is a weapon used by a soulcrafter, but it is not a 'soulcrafter weapon' if you mean an armament with great power of its own. It is only a tool. If I held a powerful armament, yes, it would require a dedicated chamber for its full use, but that is beyond my current needs."

Kuber floated back, apparently satisfied, but Trathis spoke up before Nauda could continue her tour. "What's that telescope thing?"

"That is the spiritual construct that allows all of you to tour my soulhome." Nauda smiled over all of them. "I am quite proud of it, so I hope-"

"But what's it made out of? I haven't seen sublime materials like that on Tatian, so did you get them from somewhere else?"

Nauda frowned slightly, though she still responded. "I have lived my entire life on Tatian and I do not believe those materials were taken from another world. They are simply less common, especially in this region. Now, if there are no other questions, perhaps we can move on?"

The soulhome around him began to fade and this time there was nothing he could do to resist the process. Theo couldn't help but take a final glance around, noting two critical omissions. First, he doubted that such an elaborate telescope existed solely for the sake of pleasant little tours - most likely it allowed her to examine the soulhomes of others far beyond what the unaided spirit could see.

Second: Nauda had a fourth chamber that she kept locked tight.

"Fiyu, would you be willing to show us your soulhome?" Nauda asked the question rhetorically, but Fiyu's spirit flinched in surprise. After a very long pause, she sighed and nodded, her finger back on the physical plane digging into his palm.

Several of the other students let out cries of surprise as darkness engulfed them, but it was just the environment of Ichil. They stood on dark rocky ground, shadows encroaching on all sides, the only light a soft blue glow from the clouds overhead. As others struggled to see, Theo let his vision adjust and then examined Fiyu's soulhome.

While Nauda's structure could have been a quaint home on Tatian, Fiyu's defied any ordinary blueprint. There were walls of black stone, yes, but one chamber appeared to be a solid chunk of ice, directly beside walls of lava that flowed thick and dark. Theo hadn't explored Ichil enough to know anything about that and suspected that Fiyu's mentor had given her sublime materials from far away.

"Well!" The spiritual blur of Nauda put her hands on her hips and regarded the structure with what looked like pleasant, if hazy, surprise. "I hoped that Fiyu would show us variety, but this is better than I expected. Fiyu? You must be here, this is your soul..."

"I am here." Fiyu poked her head from out of the door, almost entirely cast in shadow. "But I do not wish to give a tour."

"That's fine, it can still help everyone understand. The rest of you... note the environment around the building. The shadows and the sky are nothing, just reflecting Fiyu's world of origin, but note how firm the ground is. This is Fiyu's foundation, which renders it effective for some things and less so for others. For example... I imagine that you do not have a tree growing in your heart chamber, do you?"

Though Fiyu paused for a time, eventually she bobbed her head. "No. I acquired a type of sublime wood and a sublime spark in order to create a fire. Its burning generates the cantae I need."

"Wonderful!" Nauda looked like she wanted to pat Fiyu reassuringly, but held back and instead turned to the group. "You see? There are as many types of soulhome as there are people. Look here, where the ice and stone merge so beautifully..."

Theo ignored the lecture and analyzed the structure for himself. Overall, Fiyu's soulhome was more specialized, not merely storing cantae but using it with great efficiency for specific techniques. He couldn't figure out which chamber generated all those bolts of light from the outside, but suspected that her fire lay in the central chamber.

If he understood the structure correctly, she was actually planning her outer wall to be a circle, not a square. It looked blocky because several chambers were still in progress: the ice had further to grow, and there was an area on the opposite side that appeared to be canvas strapped over a gap. Clearly a temporary sublime material as she finished her first floor.

Seeing Fiyu's discomfort, Nauda didn't keep them there long. Instead her eyes turned toward Theo and he felt a penetrating focus on his soul. Though she hesitated, waiting for an invitation, he had a feeling that she could have taken a look even if he tried to refuse her. He wished that he had a shielding wall, but building one would be a huge waste of resources while he was still a first tier soulcrafter, if it was even possible.

Instead he eased his soul and allowed her to guide everyone else in. Immediately he felt firm and grounded, the air itself resonating with him. Of course, his soul was nothing compared to the previous two, and he ignored the snickers from a few of the others.

"Like many of you," Nauda said as soon as the spirits arrived, "Jake is beginning construction on his soulhome. Can you tell us about what you're doing here?"

"There's not too much to explain. I've found the sublime materials I want, but I'm still preparing them. The wood is mostly ready, but the stone needs shaping before I can soulcraft anything, and that's hard spiritual work."

"Jake has made a good point: the best sublime materials require a great deal of time to process them. There are tales of soulcrafters spending months hammering stone or metal in the proper shape, and it is said that masters spend years preparing their materials before they begin to build a new chamber."

"What's this thing?" Trathis kicked at the pile of rubble, though his spiritual form couldn't touch it. Theo was still trying to decide whether or not to ignore this insult when one of the other men in the class spoke up.

"It's obviously a temporary cantae structure, Trathis. Don't be an idiot. What I want to know is... what's this door? I've never seen anything like it."

Nauda stepped beside her, her hand nearly touching the edge. "This is a door between the soulhome and the outer world, allowing a person to remain aware of their surroundings. It is... not a technique I would suggest trying before you have more experience." Her gaze shifted toward him, a cool curiosity that he simply met with a flat stare.

Soon enough they moved on, still in the order of the choosing. Kuber's soulhome was mostly empty except for a wide block of stone that would serve as a foundation. Theo had seen that much before, but actually standing inside, he could see that there was a temporary structure of wood to store cantae as well as more rocks being broken apart to one side. Clearly, Kuber was working toward something, but he refused to give any more information.

The remaining members of their class were even less notable, mostly single rooms to store cantae, or in one case, a tent surrounding a tree. For all his boasting, Trathis had nothing but a single stone chamber and a wooden lean-to against it. Enough to make him much stronger than a person who couldn't use cantae, but nothing remarkable.

Everyone emerged back into the physical world and most pulled their hands back, since they'd grown clammy while they drifted in spiritual realities. Nauda began to explain more basic lessons in a friendly, affirming tone that made Theo sick. He ignored her and instead considered how he would rank the entire class: they were all first tier soulcrafters, but that didn't make them equal.

Fiyu and Nauda were clearly at the top, though not directly comparable. It seemed that Fiyu was attempting to fully polish her first tier, while Nauda was building upward to reach the second. Both were valid strategies, though Fiyu would be more versatile while Nauda would be more powerful. They would need to shift their focuses as they became Archcrafters and moved beyond, of course.

Kuber was currently one of the weakest members of their group in terms of raw cantae, but had done more work than all the rest. If he had a good plan for his soulhome, all the foundation he'd laid could pay off, though Theo was still unclear on what blueprint would start in such a strange fashion.

After him came one of the other women, then Trathis, then the others. Theo himself would appear to be last, but only because the work he'd put in earned him little power. If everything came together, he would rapidly become far more dangerous.

At last the basic lecture finished, so he started paying attention again. Nauda gave all of them an overly broad smile and patted the knees of everyone within reach except Fiyu. "I see that you are a wonderful group of soulcrafters with great things ahead of you. Those of you without a heart chamber, your first task should be to construct one. Please ask me if you need different sublime materials or specific instructions, and if I cannot help you, I will find someone who can."

"When are classes?" one of the others asked. Nauda shook her head.

"I chose this group in the hopes that we could skip the simplest of classes, and I believe we can. So there is nothing to attend until tomorrow - I suggest you focus on your soulcrafting, particularly the most work-intensive parts. Meanwhile, I would like to speak to each of you individually. Fiyu?"

"I..." Fiyu shrank back and pulled her hood lower. "I would like some time alone."

"Of course. Come to me when you feel more comfortable." That meant her gaze turned to Theo next, since she was apparently going in choice order every time. "Jake?"

"Sure, we can talk." He rose to his feet, almost stumbling as pain shot through his knees. One of his legs was partially asleep, too, a consequence of having spent so long sitting and focusing on the spiritual. There were soulhome constructions that could avoid such things, often accessories in entrance chambers, but those were luxuries he couldn't afford yet.

The others departed, Fiyu fleeing to her room and most discussing what they had seen. Theo moved to the side, trying not to limp, and Nauda followed him. They walked from the courtyard, which was beginning to fill with other soulcrafters, and down one of the grassy stairways to a small ledge with a decent view. Once there, Nauda stood beside him, leaning on her staff and not making eye contact.

"I would like to be helpful to you, Jake. I hope you understand that. But to have soulcrafted a door first is... a strange decision. I would never dream of accusing you of anything harmful to community, but you do inspire great curiosity in me. I can only hope that is a forgivable sin."

There was something just a little off about her tone and Theo couldn't help but look at her, yet he saw nothing but Tatian earnestness. He opted for technical truth: "Let's just say I'm following a blueprint in my head."

"And what is that small foundation you're building beside the door? Surely if you intended to construct your first chamber, you would build something larger."

"It's going to be a vestibule."

"Ah. That is... another advanced construction." Nauda's eyebrows rose and he wondered if she knew its purpose. She and Fiyu had both soulcrafted doors, but neither had a vestibule. He didn't offer any information and eventually she continued. "If we are a family, I wish to be helpful to you, and I hope that you will help me. Do you intend to construct your central chambers soon?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. But I want to have the right materials first so that I don't repeat work unnecessarily, so I'm preparing everything else first."

"Though that is a reasonable choice, it is also a risky one, since you will be vulnerable to everyone who focuses on the short term. It is like the tale of the woman who stored up all her best food for a future drought and died without tasting any of it. Following a blueprint to become a perfect Ruler is wonderful in theory, but many of those with such aspirations die first."

His aspirations extended beyond the third tier, but Theo nodded in acceptance of her point. It was actually unusual for a Tatian to speak so directly of death, which made him think a little better of her. Maybe her excessive humility was partially defensive.

"So what can I do to help you, Jake? There will be no contests for at least a month, likely more, but I hope that you can reach your full potential, both in the far future and in time to assist the rest of us."

That was almost a reprimand, so he suppressed a smile and answered. "My blueprint is based on control of light - not light as a product of soulcrafting, but the light of the sun itself. Solarstone will form adequate walls, but I need a seed more potent than flamefruit. Perhaps better wood as well. I don't need legendary sublime materials, but I do need them to be suitable for the sun itself."

"An interesting plan." Nauda rolled her fingers along her staff thoughtfully, then nodded. "I will do what I can for you, then. Fiyu was quite insistent that you join our little family, so I hope that you will not disappoint her."

"What about you?" Theo reached out to brush Nauda's hand in a motion that would have been forward on most worlds, but was only friendly on Tatian. "What are your goals for all of this?"

Nauda hesitated just a moment, then gave him a bright smile. "You saw my soulhome, didn't you? I cannot become an Archcrafter in a month or even a year, but I hope to take steps forward. In the meantime, my only hope is to assist all of you so that we can move upward together. If we can win the central contests of this school, the sublime materials earned will allow me to ascend."

"That's a good plan." Theo smiled and remained where he was, looking over the city of Myufuru until Nauda left him.

Once she was gone, he glanced over his shoulder. He didn't think that he had a reason to mistrust her, and Nauda did seem dedicated to her task of leading the team. But at several times, both in her tour and in her goals, she had not been entirely honest.

Chapter 11

An entire month passed more quickly than Theo had expected. After stumbling from place to place, always concerned that he would be eliminated by someone targeting him, it was good to focus and make substantial progress. Though being directly attacked seemed unlikely, he remembered what Magnafor had said and threw himself into his work.

The students of the school had soon been separated into groups based on their experience soulcrafting: beginners, apprentices, experienced, and advanced. Everyone in his group had skipped the beginner group, since they'd mastered basic soulcrafting skills like entering a soulhome. Being in the apprentice group wasn't much better, learning dull construction techniques, and Theo had pushed hard to graduate out of it in the first week.

Though his instructors were shocked by his progress, Theo barely gave it a second thought. Being in the experienced group was no accomplishment at all, he needed to make it into the advanced group with Fiyu and Nauda. By knowledge alone, he easily could have joined that group - or taught it - but unfortunately he needed to rebuild his willpower and other spiritual skills first. He might have the advantage of his past life, but they had years of training over him.

His greatest success was finishing his vestibule, which was no small feat. It required redeveloping his skills enough to craft all the solarstone blocks perfectly, which took the majority of the time. Once he had them finished, Nauda was able to acquire a sublime clay to serve as spiritual mortar, so he put the structure together in only a few days. With his previous door affixed to the entrance and a little more trim of hearthtree wood, he had a chamber that would be useful for a long time.

Though primarily designed to transfer energy from his real chambers, it still did an adequate job of storing cantae: only the top students like Fiyu and Nauda had chambers that stored it more efficiently. Of course, it couldn't store as much as a fully sized chamber, but it allowed him to test letting cantae flow through his body again, making him stronger and more durable than a normal person.

It wasn't enough. If he faced highly concentrated cantae from an Archcrafter or advanced demon, they would tear through his defenses like wet tissue paper. Not to mention the even greater threats...

He was required to attend "experienced" classes, but they were less frustrating than they could have been. Nauda had a certain degree of authority over their training and allowed them to focus on the classes that might be helpful to them individually. They'd all been repetitive in terms of the intellectual content, but they'd allowed him to work on his old soulcrafting skills. The hours of practice during class had been essential in finally finishing the solarstone bricks.

Their single non-Tatian instructor seemed to teach irregular classes on irregular subjects. Theo had yet to attend a single one of the lectures, but hoped to potentially learn something new. Tatian was a good environment for early growth, yet also a suffocating one, free from too many concerns.

By far the worst thing in his life was the people. Most of the Tatians were just insipid, while the aggressive guests were equally bland. His years on Earth had slowly turned him into more and more of a misanthrope, but he realized that he'd long held out hope that when he returned to the Nine, he would stop finding people annoying. Now he wasn't sure if he had missed all the annoying tendencies of people there or if he was the one who had changed.

Maybe his ex-wife had been right, and he really was the one making himself miserable. The most frustrating thing about her was how often she'd made good points, but that was one of many issues he'd put behind him.

A few exceptions kept him putting up with the rest. Fiyu had adjusted to the school, treating the friendly hallways as the hostile environment between safe camps, just like Ichil. Fortunately, he was one of her safe camps and they often trained outside at night when she didn't find the light so oppressive. Though she could obviously blow him away, she could practice holding back and aiming precisely with her light bursts while he adjusted to using cantae to move his body quickly again.

Otherwise, Fiyu only spent time with Nauda and Navim, though he wasn't sure what she was doing with either one. Perhaps she was seeking another mask: she could still use a defensive chamber, just as soon as they had the proper materials, but a better mask would be more comfortable than the one he'd thrown together.

Though the Mundhin was busy, Theo had managed to get some time with Navim on occasion. It was a relief to get an intelligent conversation, though Navim seemed to lack cynicism. He treated every aspect of Tatian culture with either mild amusement or intellectual curiosity. So there was no outlet for Theo's venom, but it was still good to have respite from the endless Tatian babbling.

As for Nauda herself, their group leader had proved capable, if frustratingly bland. What annoyed him most was that she was so spineless in every interaction, always giving way when someone challenged her. He noted that she often didn't change what she was going to do despite agreeing, which was an insufferably Tatian way of handling conflict.

The only other person he spent any time with was Famaj, who greeted him as if the snub during the choosing meant nothing at all. Maybe it didn't, but Theo was surprised how long the resentment simmered within him, despite the fact that his group had worked out fine. He needed to remember that Tatian loyalty only went so far.

Near the end of the month, Nauda began presenting their group with more valuable sublime materials that she said were rewards. For him, she had a set of grape-like fruits that glowed so brilliantly it was difficult to look at them. They would certainly work well for his light-based blueprint, so he planted them and began building a trellis. Ideally he could use sublime glass for windows, to further focus the light theme, but that would need to come later.

Still, it was starting to come together. There were two essential elements of his new blueprint: Brigana's brilliant inscriptions at the base of his heart chamber and his scientific knowledge of light. Tatian villagers trying to use light would probably create nothing except pleasant warmth, but he knew better.

Light was heat, the electromagnetic spectrum, and solar plasma all rolled into one. Because they were all unified in his mind, he was certain that within his soul he could use them as a single concept. From that, he could create countless applications without fragmenting his soulhome into too many different concepts. That had been a problem with his past life, building a new chamber for every skill that came along even if it didn't strengthen the overall structure.

First, he intended to use light as raw energy to defend himself and even regenerate wounds, if possible. His second priority was to tap the sun itself to release beams of pure plasma - he might not be able to do it properly as a first tier soulcrafter, but the skill would grow more deadly as he ascended. Finally, he hoped to be able to explore more varied effects via the electromagnetic spectrum.

All of that would come later: for now, he needed to create a glorious core chamber that would generate cantae and channel it as pure light, enough for all eight chambers around it. He had light on his mind at practically all times, considering potential problems or variations, but always sticking to his core plan. Brigana had given him incredibly complex carvings, ancient Deuxan designs that would intensify the cantae flow of a light-based soulhome.

Still, light wasn't welcome when it was searing through his eyelids, waking him up in the middle of the night. Theo cursed under his breath as he sat up, shielding his eyes from the light coming through his window. He feared an attack for a moment before he saw that Fiyu was emitting the light from one hand, stopping once she saw him sit up.

"Fiyu? What's happening?"

"We must go, Jake. They have promised rewards for those who assist, but I do not trust the Tatians with locating appropriate sublime materials or with coordinating the battle. You must come with me."

"Right, okay." Theo shuffled to pull on his shoes and cloak, mind not yet fully engaged. "But where are we going? Why in the middle of the night?"

"You didn't hear? Demons are attacking."

~ ~ ~

Though Theo had seen a lot of things in his time among the Nine Worlds, he hadn't ever seen an acorn the size of a house. Much less one carved into seats, or one that could fly, or... not many weaponized acorns at all, really. Yet somehow now he was clinging to the side of one as they soared toward the sky, bright with the Tatian moons.

Even hurrying, he had barely joined Fiyu in time to grab onto the vessel before it lifted into the air. Nanjuma had been standing at the top near the stem, more serious than he had ever looked before. Apparently time was so of the essence that he really would have left behind anyone who didn't arrive in time, even Fiyu. Nauda and a few of the Farmguards didn't seem to approve of Theo's presence, since it was meant for advanced soulcrafters only, but there was no time to argue.

Apparently there had been a serious demon attack on a town some distance from Myufuru. The local Farmguards had repelled the first attack, but failed to realize that the demons were sacrificing themselves. Once a second stage demon stepped onto the battlefield, the tide of battle turned and there had already been losses. Worse, reports suggested that more second stage demons were being summoned.

Going against a force like that, Theo had to admit that he felt a little outgunned. All he had was a small amount of cantae and the spear Navim had crafted for him. It wasn't his ideal weapon, but he wasn't nearly confident enough in his raw strength to fight without one. As a soulcrafter, now he could use the armament without harming himself, so it would work well enough against base demons.

But if he had to fight anything worse... the thought trailed away as Nanjuma suddenly stepped over to the edge of the acorn's top, beaming down at them. Now that they were moving, his tension seemed to have gone.

"Hello, students! This is not the sort of lesson you should be learning, but there is no choice. Consider this a special lecture in advanced battle tactics. We're already moving to the battle as quickly as we can, so take this as an opportunity to prepare yourselves. Tell me: why are we bringing you along?"

At first everyone was taken aback by the ambush of good cheer, then one of the Fithan students ventured a guess. "The demons are so overwhelming you need every soulcrafter you can find?"

"Heavens forbid! No, barring a terrible surprise, I should be able to defeat all the demons that stand before me. But you are not being brought along simply to watch. Why?"

Though Theo knew the likely answer, he decided to stay quiet and avoid drawing more attention, just in case. The fact that the attack occurred so far away suggested it couldn't have anything to do with him, but it was always possible. That thought made him search for Magnafor, but the other human was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, several other obviously wrong answers were given. Finally Nauda ventured a better guess: "Has the battle spread out so far that you can't be everywhere at once?"

"Exactly!" Nanjuma leapt over the side, hanging the air alarmingly for a moment, before catching his feet in unused handholds and keeping himself horizontal. "When locked in battle with an opponent of a higher tier, the only logical strategy is to spread out and target weaknesses. I cannot duplicate myself or raise barriers over entire towns, so I can only do so much. Demons are generally unintelligent, but they will instinctively scatter. I cannot afford to waste time protecting the outskirts and chasing after every errant demon."

"Then what is our strategy?" Nauda asked.

"The local Farmguards said they evacuated the townspeople into a fortified region on a hill. I can see it from here... hmm. I will handle the western approach, while Farmguards will divide into groups to guard the north and eliminate flying demons. We'll first drop you students near the southern approach. There are not so many demons there, but repelling them is essential."

Though Theo couldn't see the town, judging from Nanjuma's fading cheer, the situation was serious. A weak area lacking soulcrafters combined with demons in higher concentrations than normal made for a deadly combination, though hopefully not for him.

As they drew closer, fires visible in the distance, everyone riding the acorn grew nervous. Eventually Theo decided to cut the tension by resolving an idle curiosity. He waved to catch Nanjuma's attention and then spoke up loudly enough for the others to hear. "How did you grow an acorn this big?"

"What makes you think I grew it?" Nanjuma spun to face him with a bit of his usual smile again. "No, I plucked it off the ground in my travels. If you have never visited the Heartgrowth, you will find it... grandiose."

Some laughed as if it was a joke, but Theo thought that the claim was probably serious. He'd never seen a tree large enough to have an acorn this big, not even in the forests of Aathal. The size likely defied physical laws of biology, so the enormous tree must either naturally use cantae or fundamentally break Earth physics. Each possibility was a bit troubling; neither was impossible in the Nine.

All chuckling died as they floated nearer and realized the extent of the demon attacks. Theo saw several second stage demons striding over the others, head and shoulders taller than most men. That was bad enough, but if all the demons sacrificed themselves... it took a great many to summon a third stage demon, but a titan would be the death of them all.

"The acorn will take the students to their destination, and I trust the rest of you to find your way. I must go." With that, Nanjuma leapt off the side of the floating vessel and plummeted toward the heart of the demon horde.

He struck as a meteor, a shell of neon green cantae erupting in the center of the demonic mass. All of the demons at the point of impact were instantly vaporized and fragments of the shell tore through the other forces. Nanjuma began striding toward the demons attacking the nearest Farmguards, limiting his power to avoid collateral damage, but that simply meant that he snuffed out lesser demons with his aura while he tracked down the second stage demons and killed them with overwhelming bursts of flame.

Definitely a Ruler, then, and a powerful one. Most of the others stared in awe, so Theo instead focused toward the dimly lit path below. A winding path around the side of the village had served as a road for wagons and now offered the demons another way to the fortified area. There weren't many demons there, but it wouldn't be easy to defend.

"There!" Theo had been focused on the ground, but Nauda was looking up, jabbing a finger out into the night sky. "It sees us, take it down!"

Theo didn't understand until a moment later, when he saw the demon flit across one of the moons, spiraling toward them.

Chapter 12

Though it moved too quickly to observe easily, Theo knew what it was: an over-sized dragonfly with knives for feet. Once he'd considered the insectoid demons nothing but spies or nuisances, but he could remember them threatening first tier soulcrafters. Suddenly the exact details of their strength were incredibly relevant, yet he couldn't be certain.

An arc of bolts lit up the sky as Fiyu struck, but the dragonfly darted away from them, flickering through the air with considerable speed. If it hadn't been targeting them before, it definitely was now, swooping down across the acorn as it descended.

One of the Farmguards hurled a spear, but the demonic dragonfly flitted aside almost contemptuously. All Theo could do was grip his spear and ready himself to attack if it got close enough, though he was likely to be useless until they reached the ground. It looped around them rapidly and he heard a cry of pain from someone on the opposite side, then suddenly it was sweeping at one of the students from behind.

Before Theo could think of acting, Nauda sprinted up the side of the acorn, her staff sweeping forward. The forks at the end caught the demon from the side, doing no apparent damage... yet the monster's flickering wings instantly stilled, as if it had been frozen in place.

"I can hold it." Nauda grimaced and got a better grip on her staff. "I need someone to kill it."

After a pause, one of the Farmguards tried to stab into the demon's side, but the blow glanced off its carapace. The dragonfly briefly began twitching, knives slashing at anyone who drew close, before it again froze in place.

"Hold it out." Fiyu spoke so quietly that Theo could barely make out the words from beside her, but somehow Nauda heard. She stepped nearer to the edge and extended her staff as far as it would go. "Now let go."

Wincing, Nauda jerked her staff away. Immediately the demon buzzed to life, ready to dart away... but it was caught in a flood of bolts so concentrated they were nearly a solid beam. The first few scattered off its carapace, but soon others punched through. When Fiyu lowered her hands, nothing was left but a few scorched fragments that fluttered to the ground.

"Good." Nauda smiled grimly and then turned her attention to the others. "We're almost landing! Everyone staying here, prepare to hold the position!"

The giant acorn scraped against the trail soon after, jolting a few who didn't have a good grip and sending them tumbling off the sides. There weren't many demons nearby, but two scrambled toward the fallen students, hands grasping. Since most of the Farmguards were jumping away to defend the village, Theo saw no choice but to take a hand himself.

He leapt from the side, gathering cantae within himself and then driving it out through his spear. It impaled one of the two monsters and all four of its limbs splayed against the ground, but then they began grasping for him. Not letting himself get distracted, he lashed out with one foot, reinforced with enough cantae to crush one of the grasping claws.

That stunned the demon long enough for him to pull his spear back and stab it again, this time killing it. Once he could have annihilated them so easily... but there was no time to reminisce, not with the second demon suddenly deciding that he was the greater threat. Still faster than he was, it leapt over the students' bodies, claws grasping, jaws opening...

The forks of Nauda's weapon caught it in midair and brought it to the ground. Theo got ready to strike it down, but he was too slow: Nauda twisted her weapon sharply and the force it projected snapped the demon into a bloody mess.

It seemed that the others had the situation under control, so Theo could spare a moment to stare at Nauda. He'd known she was a strong soulcrafter, but he'd still underestimated her. A few more demons remained and he joined her to fight them, but her ferocity left him playing support.

Her cantae filled her weapon, binding anything she touched in place. It seemed most powerful between the forks, but she also used it to sweep against the sides of the demons, sending them tumbling long enough for him to stab them. This time he activated the spear's armament inscription, the force tearing through the demon in an instant.

Nauda's weapon... it appeared to be a gentle binding tool, and he had no doubt it was used by some Tatians to nonviolently subdue disorderly revelers, but he'd also seen the lethal potential. He mentally revised his evaluation of her: Nauda might not be as flexible as Fiyu, but her soulhome was still well-polished.

At last it seemed they had control of the road upward. Theo kept his eyes peeled and scouted the edges, while some of the other students struck at the demon corpses to be sure they were dead. Several of their group had frozen, not striking a single blow, and some hadn't even made their cantae flow within them. Freezing in a first battle was common, so that was also useful experience.

Occasionally a demon approached from the main battle, but Fiyu generally annihilated them from her position atop the giant acorn. That gave him enough time to examine the battle, or at least what he could see of it. Nanjuma still swept around the battlefield in an overwhelming blur, now focusing more on rescuing specific people. The Farmguards seemed to be in control as well, or at least not falling back from their position.

Just when it seemed the battle was won, another flicker in the moonlight swept toward Fiyu.

"Above!" Theo yelled the warning even as he hurled his spear with everything he had. Fiyu flinched down instinctively as the demonic dragonfly descended on her and his spear struck one of the wings.

It wasn't enough. One of the blurring wings shattered, but after wobbling, the demon continued to sweep closer. Fiyu raised her hands to retaliate, but she wasn't going to be fast enough...

Then it froze in place. Despite still standing on the ground, Nauda had aimed her staff at the demon and frozen it from a distance. Though it was in perfect position for Fiyu to blow it apart, Nauda instead pulled backward, a reeling motion that drew the demon down to the ground. Once it was there, she pinned it to the ground with the forks of her staff around its thorax.

"This is the second of the three major breeds of demons." She was a little breathless, but gestured to the others to come closer. "It's essential not to mistake them for any of the other types, because they're faster and smarter. Usually they're less aggressive, but..."

The others pushed closer to get a good look, though they kept a healthy distance from the bladed legs. Having seen plenty of them, Theo stayed away and just looked around for any other attacks. It did seem to be close to over, but one lingering demon could cause a tragedy in a group like this.

Just when he started to look for his spear, one of the local Tatians came trotting up with it. The man handed it back and then embraced him warmly, which Theo suffered through. He did feel better being armed, but held back and let the others slowly kill the demonic dragonfly. His vestibule was nearly empty of cantae, even after so short a fight, serving as a grim reminder how much he needed to finish his primary chambers.

"You said there were three types of demons?" Kuber asked. Nauda shook her head slowly, leaning on her staff.

"They're slightly different in every world, so many more than three types. But across all worlds, they fall into three major categories. The weakest are the normal demons you know, the insects are the most intelligent, and the beasts... well, I hope that we don't see any of those."

"Nonsense!" The booming voice came from atop the acorn, where Nanjuma stood, good humor apparently restored. He held a demon at arm's length, a creature that looked somewhat like a wolf until its jaws opened. Half the creature's body was one enormous mouth filled with teeth, a maw on legs. "This is an excellent chance to finish your lesson!"

Nanjuma hopped down to stand among them and tossed the demon down carelessly. It instantly flipped to its feet, snarling, and Nauda tried to bind it with her staff. But even with it pinned between the prongs, the beast continued to twist and growl. Sweat began to trickle down the side of Nauda's face as she struggled to keep it bound in place.

"You were doing so well," Nanjuma said, cheerfully rubbing her back, "do you want to finish the lesson?"

"The third type..." Nauda had to pause to gulp in air, but after gritting her teeth and pushing the demon down, she managed to continue. "Beastly demons may look similar to the basic type, but they're stronger and tougher. Learn... not to confuse them."

"So they're the same, just a little tougher." It was Trathis, folding his arms as if he'd done anything much to contribute to the battle. Nauda continued to struggle, now unable to answer as the demon began to get its claws underneath it. There was no danger with Nanjuma standing nearby, but Theo still edged back in case it got free.

"They might all seem the same now, but not at the second stage." Nanjuma gestured toward the devastated hillside, cheerful as if he hadn't caused half of the destruction himself. "You saw the larger demons, correct? If six of these beasts sacrifice themselves, what they summon remains on all fours, but it's far more durable. And those little insects... can anyone guess what they become?"

"A predator." Fiyu spoke quietly, having joined them silently. She stepped forward and released a flood of bolts into the demon at point blank range, not letting up until it was annihilated. That done, she looked up to meet Nanjuma's gaze. "I hope never to see one again. Demons should not be taken lightly."

Those words seemed to have exhausted her capacity to interact with people, so she immediately retreated to hide behind Theo and Nauda. Nanjuma regarded her, gaze somber, then he nodded slowly. When he spoke to the others, his voice remained subdued.

"We have won a victory today, but many families have lost loved ones. Always remember that this is why we strive: if our souls had been better crafted, we might have been able to prevent every sorrow today. I hope that all of you will take these experiences to heart when we return."

Nanjuma left to speak to the villagers, though with a command to organize and prepare to return. Farmguards began to join them soon, some of them sporting wounds but without any apparent losses. Most seemed content to sit and recover, but Theo made himself move through the woods and search for the remains of demons.

He quickly found what he was looking for: scraps of fur, fragments of carapace, and the ash of the lowest demons. Each time, he quietly absorbed the remnants into his soulhome and hid them inside his improvised room as an additional precaution. Pieces of demons could be used as sublime materials, though they had no place in his blueprint. What mattered was that he could eventually sell them. Demonic materials might not be favored in Tatian, but he would eventually leave and travel to darker places.

Eventually they finished their work, leaving some of the Farmguards to help with the recovery. The rest of them climbed back onto the acorn vehicle and Nanjuma's cantae lifted it into the air. It might have been whimsical to ride back like that after the fierce battle, yet looking out over the damaged village and roads, Theo couldn't find anything lighthearted about it. Though it had gone well, he was exhausted and his mind struggled to engage.

The ride back was quiet and cool. Fiyu curled up in one of the seats and pulled her cloak over herself, more for the dark than the warmth. Nauda sat silently near the top, examining the metal studs on her staff. A few had been damaged or lost during the battle and she carefully noted each one. If she had been capable of it, she would no doubt be soulcrafting, but they were all too exhausted.

By the time they returned, some had begun to celebrate their victory and a few Tatians were even planning a feast. All Theo wanted was the sleep that had been taken from him, though he had to admit that he was hungry. Yet as they descended to the courtyard, he realized that something was bothering him. The vast tree at the top of the Landguard Village...

As soon as they touched down, he jumped off and went to look. That might have been suspicious under normal circumstances, but everyone was too distracted to care. Theo neared the barrier, which blazed as strongly as ever, and examined an area where the cantae rippled slightly wrongly.

One of the stakes that maintained the barrier had been replaced. It was a nearly perfect copy, but he recognized the silvery sheen: it was a technique from Deuxan that subtly manipulated a barrier. He considered mentioning it for a moment before realizing that would only cast doubt on the few Deuxan students, and he was fairly certain they were innocent.

But he was willing to bet that Magnafor had spent time on Deuxan. He might not have gotten inside the sealed area that night, but he'd gotten a step closer.

Chapter 13

Though only some of the students had been present for the nighttime battle, it caused a shift in the atmosphere of the school. For a while everyone was trading stories of the fighting, more than a few of which Theo suspected were embellished. He and Fiyu stayed in darkened rooms and continued soulcrafting, their plans only slightly changed by the acid testing.

The biggest change for him was the sense that there was another time limit actively working against him. Whatever resources he had, Magnafor couldn't get through the barrier too quickly, but he was obviously trying. Talking to him directly would only antagonize him and reporting it was likely to cause backlash, so Theo merely watched for clues as to what timeline his rival had in mind.

His role in the battle might not have been dramatic, but he was allowed to request a sublime material for his contribution. He asked for some noonstone, a more intense version of solarstone, and did his best to chip away at it. Fiyu spoke with him regarding local options and decided that none of the materials were correct for her defensive chamber, so she instead requested something for her own soulcrafting.

As a more subtle reward, Nauda gave him greater freedom about which classes he attended. The lead instructors didn't accept that one fight was enough to put him in the advanced group, but the way Nauda quietly understood spoke well of her. She couldn't overturn their decisions, instead allowing him to sit in on advanced classes.

That day he had volunteered to join one about sublime materials, in small part because he hoped it might be useful and in greater part because the instructor was the Archcrafter who had healed him long ago. Apparently she had come all the way to Myufuru to teach several classes about healing, but also a few subjects better suited to an ascended soulcrafter.

"Sublime materials are generally classified according to the same tiers as soulcrafters," she said, showing several simple materials. "But it is important to remember that, unlike with soulcrafting, these distinctions are artificial fences placed in the field. There is no significant difference between the strongest simple materials and the weakest Archcrafter materials. In fact, one or the other might be easier for you to use, depending on your personal inclinations."

So far, the lesson had been entirely basic facts he already knew. He worked on his soulhome while he listened with one ear, hoping everyone would assume that he was soulcrafting based on the lecture. Not every student was capable of doing both at once, but it was common enough that it didn't raise any eyebrows.

If nothing else, he hoped to get her opinion on the tree he was still attempting to grow. Despite his best efforts, and use of the sublime water he'd been given, it had only become a miserable little sapling. Whatever was wrong, it fell outside his knowledge and it was impeding his progress on the blueprint, so perhaps it was best to ask a local expert.

For a time he'd thought that his foundation was flawed in some way and put effort into it, watering the grass itself. Yet it had kept the yellowing aged look and only grown thicker and longer. He'd reluctantly asked Nauda and she'd said that his foundation seemed strong and uninjured, though too unfamiliar beyond that.

"Now, no doubt some of you are wondering why we're hoarding all the Archcrafter materials to ourselves instead of letting you use them. I thought that I might demonstrate the reasons why with a little challenge."

The words caught his attention and Theo rapidly left his soulhome, focusing fully on the class. At the head of the room, the old healer revealed a small box from her robes, undid the lock, and held it open. Within lay a single pearl, its luminescence overflowing the box. Definitely a powerful sublime material, and though it seemed attuned toward healing, he couldn't ignore it.

"This is a Pearl of the Falls, a somewhat rare Archcrafter material. Normally, it would be placed on a special altar within a healer's inner chambers, in order to focus their cantae. But as it happens, I already have one, so I thought I would let all of you... make an effort to take it."

A long time ago, Theo had gone through exactly the same lesson and proved himself incapable. This time, he had an idea. He threw himself back into his soulhome, pushed aside the noonstone, and rapidly began hammering at his newest boulder of solarstone. Soon enough he broke off an appropriately-sized chunk, but then he had to begin chiseling it out, which was no easy task.

Meanwhile, the healer continued speaking. "The challenge is this: if you are capable of using this pearl within your soulhome, it is yours. But if I teach you anything in this class, it is that this task is more difficult than you might think. I urge no one to take the challenge if their soulhome is unstable or if they are not confident in themselves."

Several students immediately rushed to make the effort, forced to stand in line. Most failed at the very first step, squeezing the pearl to try to draw it into their soul home and simply failing. One managed to pull it inside, but found it too heavy to carry. That led to a delay, as she had no way to remove sublime materials herself and the healer needed to carefully extract it. Extraction was a fairly advanced skill, and one he had no intention of learning soon, since it did him little good.

Meanwhile, Theo worked furiously on the piece of stone, hollowing out the center. He could use a plate of stone as a lid, but he needed something to bind the pieces together, to make the spirit of the object clear. Perhaps one of the new minor materials that had been distributed...

"I did it!"

Theo recognized the voice and looked up to see Kuber raising a triumphant fist, but the old woman shook her head slowly. "You've drawn the pearl within yourself, but the challenge is to use it in your soulhome. You may be ready for that step, but all of us will observe your progress."

The instructor beckoned to Nauda, who stepped up and helped the class form a circle. Even among the instructors, her ability to look directly into soulhomes was rare, so more than a few made use of it. Theo set aside his work reluctantly to take part in the demonstration.

Since the last time he'd seen Kuber's soulhome, it had gained a section of thick stone wall... but also a wooden wall. It seemed he was working furiously to create his outer wall, with barely any chambers within. That seemed entirely irrational, since he could have built a more durable soulhome if he worked chamber by chamber. As far as Theo knew, several small chambers held as much cantae as a single large one, and they were sturdier.

Only Kuber had any concrete form, carrying the pearl with both hands onto his foundation. He started to pull it into one of the makeshift chambers, but the walls immediately began to vibrate. With a frown, he adjusted one of the boards and shored up the wall a little, but when he attempted to bring the pearl inside, once again the wood started to tremble.

"Do you see the difficulty?" The instructor's spirit floated closer, gesturing to the makeshift room. "As young soulcrafters, your souls lack the stability to endure more powerful materials. Trying to place the pearl into such a small room... the cantae it generates will overwhelm the walls and could even cause permanent damage."

"Then I need to use a bigger room." Kuber scowled down at his foundation, then moved to his pile of sublime materials and revealed a tarp. He began to string it across one of the outer edges, forming a new chamber of massive size. Their instructor's frown was visible even in her spiritual form.

"I strongly advise against trying this, young man. Building a chamber around a sublime material is almost always unwise... there will be no time to change your mind if there is a poor reaction."

"Or the chamber will be able to contain the pearl's strength and I'll win your challenge."

The class shifted nervously, trading glances amongst themselves, but though the instructor took a step forward, she couldn't actually take action within his soulhome. It was theoretically possible, just not at the Archcrafter level. Theo found himself wincing, despite knowing that he couldn't be harmed since he wasn't truly present.

Soon enough, Kuber finished his new chamber. He closed off the last wall, then bent down to pick up the pearl. Even as he did so, the tarp began to flutter wildly, the air crackling with raw power. For an instant, his eyes widened in horror as he realized his mistake, but he only took one step toward the exit before the world exploded.

When Theo could see again, the tarp had been torn away, most of the wooden walls had collapsed, and even one of the stone walls had a large crack running through it. The pearl rolled innocently across the floor, harmless now that the pressure had been relieved.

Kuber sat on his knees, his spiritual body unharmed, but the damage that had been done to his soulhome was obvious in his slumped posture. Since the pearl was a healing material, it likely hadn't dealt any permanent injury to his foundation, but his attempt had destroyed many days of work. That wasn't even as bad as it could be: higher tier soulcrafters who failed to integrate a new material could see it crash down through lower levels, smashing all in its path.

"I'm sorry for this, my boy, I truly am." The healer floated beside him, trying to put a hand on his back and instead passing through. "Will you help me retrieve the pearl from your soulhome? You've given us a clear, if sorrowful, demonstration, so I'll do my best to make it up to you."

Soon enough she extracted the pearl and Nauda closed the link, returning them all to class. Only Kuber remained soulcrafting, no doubt still stunned and miserable. Theo noted with a final glance that his foundation was completely undamaged - the Tatian man might be overambitious, but he wasn't a fool. If he was desperate to reach Archcrafter, that could also explain why he was building such a simple room for his first floor.

"I hadn't wanted the demonstration to be so stark, but now you see it." Their instructor shook her head slowly. "This is why we ask that you trust your betters and not attempt to rush forward to sublime materials that you are not yet prepared for. Now, the nex-"

"I'd like to try." Theo spoke up for the first time that class and all eyes turned to him, most in surprise, and the old woman's eyes twinkling.

"Am I going to need to heal you again, young man? I thought you had a good head on your shoulders."

"I have something in mind." He stepped forward and, since she didn't stop him when he took the pearl, pulled it into his soulhome.

There, he ignored his simple buildings entirely and instead walked to the roughly hewn box, the shape and hinged lid making its purpose clear. Though it was no great masterpiece, it served a useful purpose: holding sublime materials without attempting to draw upon their power.

So Theo carried the pearl over to the box, dropped it inside, and closed the lid.

A few students winced, expecting it to explode, but the box held the pearl harmlessly. It granted him no strength, but the material was contained and technically part of his soulhome. Theo hefted the box inside his vestibule, set it down, and then gestured grandly.

Complete silence reigned until the old woman laughed loudly. "Well done, young man, well done. You've entirely missed the spirit of the exercise, but I suppose you've fulfilled the letter of the challenge. Are you really going to steal an old woman's pearl with a trick?"

"No, I won't." Theo carried the box back to her spirit, but his intent hadn't been to show off. When he drew closer, he spoke to her in a low voice. "But I've shown my ability to handle more powerful sublime materials safely, don't you think? This pearl would be better given to a healer, but could you help me find something more suited to me?"

"And I don't suppose you'll be interested in first tier materials, either." The old woman regarded him seriously, but as she took the box back and began the extraction process, she gave him a slight nod. "I will speak to Nanjuma and see what I can do."

That accomplished, Theo let her take the pearl and remained silent for the rest of class. That rough little box had been his most successful construction yet.

Chapter 14

Several weeks later, Theo didn't have his Archcrafter material, but he did have a promise that Nanjuma would help him find something in time. Considering that the promise was more than he'd had before, he accepted it as good enough for the time being. Meanwhile, he spent more of his time out in Myufuru, adjusting to the city and trying to determine which parts of it might be valuable to him.

There was more to the city than he'd thought at first, especially once he got away from the circular communities mimicking villages. Young people joyriding the gondola lines, elders playing slow games of skill, an entire community brewing various kinds of sweet alcohol. He discovered more recreational drugs than he'd expected, but because this was Tatian, they seemed to have few negative consequences and leave people mostly happy and calm.

Yet he couldn't bring himself to even consider participating in any of it, not for long. Even though he'd had forty years to come to terms with the death of his old friends, their ghosts returned to him. Brigana would have convinced him to take a break, Khaluu would have proven surprisingly knowledgeable about hallucinogens, and Eratius would have resisted at first but eventually joined them.

Being back in the Nine just made the pain worse every time he stopped to let himself think. Theo vowed revenge against the man who had killed them, then focused on what he could control: sublime materials.

Once, he had used weirkeys to step between worlds and search out the perfect materials, but they were in short supply and there wasn't anyone around who could use them. With that, visiting other worlds to find materials was a naive fantasy. Instead, the most practical way of acquiring sublime materials was simple economics: a city the size of Myufuru sold a great many things.

Though they were in a backwater of Tatian without many goods from other worlds, Myufuru did gather strange materials from the more unusual corners of Tatian. Theo kept finding materials that were close to what he needed, just not quite right. Bit by bit, he came to understand that there was a restricted market. It seemed to exist just beside the warmthgiver quarter, actually less respectable than them.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow outsiders in, and the guards were apparently immune to bribery. Swallowing his pride as useless, Theo headed back to the school to ask Nauda for help.

"You want to access the restricted market." She regarded him so placidly that he wondered if he could bully her into cooperating, but decided to stick to his plan.

"I need different sublime materials to help Fiyu adapt to this world. I've promised to help her, and I do have a blueprint, but I haven't been able to fulfill that promise. With your help, I might be able to."

"The light does seem to pain her." Nauda lowered her gaze, then nodded. "Very well, I will acquire permission. I know you would never use this trip for untoward purposes, but we can go together to speed up the process."

Obviously he had been planning to acquire sublime materials for himself as well, but nothing shocking or illegal. He decided that her coming was no impediment at all, since he truly did want to help Fiyu, so he agreed to the terms and they went off to collect her. Fortunately, it wasn't long until night, when she would be emerging from her quarters anyway.

He was worried at first when Fiyu wasn't in her room, but they found her in the upper courtyard, sitting with her legs dangling over a ledge. When she felt them approach, she gave a slight smile but didn't move.

"I'm surprised to see you out now," Theo said.

"It is too bright, but this is the least bright time. I do not like being inside all day either." Fiyu tilted her head back and took a deep breath, her enjoyment plain on her face. "Though the breeze is warm, it is still pleasant."

Nauda crouched on the ledge beside her, looking out. "You don't like being inside? I thought people on Ichil spent all their time in caves."

"Some do, but those are different tribes. We call them cavesteaders. My home is called the Inner Moonscape, and most caverns there are dangerous. We do have buildings, of course, but I am accustomed to sleeping beneath the clouds."

"The way you talk about it, it sounds beautiful." Nauda gave an odd smile. "I almost said that I'd like to see it one day, but would there be anything to see?"

"The Moonscape is not overly bright like your world, but you can still see. Some light from the moon filters through the clouds... not like the light here. It is... cool and blue."

What she didn't say was that the light in the Moonscape was a sign of danger, because certain vicious species hunted within it. Theo had seen the Outer Moonscape and did understand the beauty found in the interplay of the lights and clouds, but he had been too on edge to enjoy it back then. He was mildly irritated at himself for not considering that Fiyu might feel claustrophobic being indoors all the time.

"I want to keep my promise to help you with the light in this world," Theo said, "but to do that we need to acquire more specialized sublime materials. Could you come with us to find them?"

"Into the city?" Fiyu regarded him cautiously, her lips a thin line. "I have been preparing a chamber as you suggested, but... could I not describe what I think we need?"

"This will be for your soulhome, and you know it best."

Though she nodded, Fiyu remained seated and gave a melancholy sigh. Nauda almost reached out to touch her, then instead merely shuffled closer with a smile. "It won't be so bad, Fiyu. Couldn't exploring the city be fun?"

Fiyu instantly shrank back and pulled her hood more closely around her face, which was answer enough even before her muffled words. "No. No, I do not think that is likely."

Rather than trying to draw her out, Theo remained silent. She had grown up in an extremely dangerous environment and was used to doing things she didn't want to do, it was just a matter of giving her time to adjust to the idea. Eventually Fiyu rose to her feet and took a deep breath as if she was about to leap off the edge in front of them.

"I wish I could understand, but I don't." Nauda rose as well, shaking her head. "You've stood against demons without flinching, but going into the city bothers you so much?"

"I've had more practice with demons." Fiyu pulled her hood lower and nodded to them with grim determination. "But I will have the two of you with me, and you are no longer strangers. Let us go."

Odd as she seemed to find it, Nauda eventually inclined her head and followed along. "Very well, then. We will defend you against the trials of human interaction."

From anyone else, he would have assumed that it was a jibe, but Nauda's face had no expression whatsoever. Perhaps she really was just embracing the Tatian traditions of hospitality in a new form. Her use of "human" slowed him down only briefly, which was something he needed to work on. The people of every world tended to think of themselves as "human", even species like the Mundhin of Arbai.

The three of them headed out into the city, Nauda taking the lead. Theo was happy to let her, especially since her staff worked to part the crowds ahead of them - it didn't seem to carry any particular status, but its presence suggested that they were on official business and not to be invited to any celebration. Fiyu followed close behind Nauda but looked back toward him until he followed closer, their combined presence forming a slight protective barrier from the crowds.

It seemed Nauda knew a more efficient route, including a quick ride on one of the gondolas, because they reached the restricted market in record time. Once there, the crowds offered much more privacy, which meant that merchants typically only clasped arms instead of embracing customers. More importantly, they could finally begin searching among the sublime material merchants.

Finally he had access to materials that weren't so blandly benign. Bright leaves that burned at the touch, spikes of living stone that burrowed into flesh, fruit that could be both medicine and poison. His instinct was to grab everything that might potentially be useful, but given his lack of funds, he restricted himself to materials that would be perfect for himself or Fiyu.

They could have searched more efficiently splitting up, but that didn't seem to be an option. It took him some time to reach their first real find: a pitch black gum that the merchant said came from a distant shaded wood. Since it was less bright and life-aspected, Fiyu could use it as adhesive in her soulhome.

Their second find came from Fiyu herself, who was overjoyed to discover a fine black sand that could be melted into glass. He hadn't known that she had the technique, but that would certainly make their process easier. She eagerly ran her fingers through it, but then looked back to them.

"This would be perfect. Can we...?"

"I don't know about that." The merchant leaned forward and regarded them sternly - he was a soulcrafter himself with a polished soulhome, though not one as focused on combat. "This is an Archcrafter material, so it might be too much for base soulcrafters. It certainly wouldn't be cheap."

"This is hardly Archcrafter tier." Theo sneered down at the sand, even though he judged it to be roughly on the border between the two. "Don't try to cheat us."

"Just what are you accusing me of? Do you think I don't know how to do my job?"

"We're certain that you are a wonderful merchant." Nauda stepped in and gave him a beautifully innocent smile. "Surely a man of your skill and experience would always use that for the benefit of his customers. But perhaps you can offer a small discount for a poor traveler trying to return to her home?"

With Theo playing the gruff outsider and Nauda wheedling from the other side, they negotiated the merchant down from an exorbitant price to one that was merely painful. Fiyu seemed to grow bored and wandered to another stall, but as soon as the transaction was complete, she carried her sack of sand with a broad smile on her face. Unguarded as she seemed at times, she was capable of social deception as well. For that matter, he was surprised at how easily Nauda had lied throughout the negotiation.

They headed on, Fiyu mostly content and Theo now focusing more on his own needs. All she needed now was a sublime fabric to serve as a curtain of sorts, and he actually saw one that might work, but he kept quiet as he searched. He needed a source of fire so intense it was dangerous in order to serve as the core of his light defenses... and hopefully his offenses, in time. Even if he hoped the noonstone would work out, there was no guarantee.

Though the restricted market must sell such things, he wasn't able to find one on their path. The best he found that he could afford was a sublime material called magnigem: a plate of something that looked like quartz, but was so heavy he could barely lift it. Instead of generating cantae, it resisted the power effectively. Such a substance could have made an even better chest than the solarstone, or perhaps an altar for whatever his most dangerous sublime material was.

That took him a little away from the others, which increased Fiyu's distress. Nauda was distracted for once, staring at a panel of crystal at a nearby stall. Every time it shifted even slightly, all the fires and lanterns reflected into a kaleidoscope of color. A beautiful sight for those who were interested in that sort of thing, and Nauda clearly was.

"This is a work of raw beauty..." Nauda stared at it with undisguised awe. "I almost want to buy it just to have in my soulhome, even if it doesn't serve any purpose. Fiyu, isn't this beautiful?"

"I am not sure." Fiyu hesitantly shifted her mask up slightly, revealing a glimpse of a silver eye before she winced and retreated back into her hood. "There are many colors, but..."

"You don't need to agree with me, everyone finds different things beautiful." Turning away from the glass, Nauda regarded Fiyu thoughtfully. "Since you use senses other than your eyes, I suppose colors wouldn't be striking to you. And I suppose paintings would just be flat, and statues just shapes. But surely you must have a sense for beauty..."

"That." Fiyu pointed to a stall two rows over, one that was difficult for them to see over the crowds. Since this was apparently their next priority, Nauda headed toward it and Theo followed along, restraining any irritation. More time to search for materials, then.

When they drew close, it was revealed to be a statuette sitting on the table, portraying an old woman weaving at a loom. The wrinkles on her hands and face were wrought in stunning detail, but what was most striking was how natural the fabric looked, despite being made of stone. Completely useless as a sublime material, but Theo could admit that it was a work of art.

"And what do you like about it?" Nauda asked. Fiyu extended a hand without touching it, her fingers tracing the statuette's lines in the air.

"The details are even more intricate up close... and it creates the appearance of something soft out of something hard. That illusion is the most beautiful part."

"Most Ichili art is a bit more abstract, isn't it?" It wasn't really a question, but Theo decided not to sit out the entire conversation. "I remember these spheres that look smooth on the outside, but the interior is a maze of paths and shapes."

"Spheres of artistry!" Fiyu smiled as if the memory itself brought her joy. "Yes, there's so much intricacy within, and it strikes you differently from different sides. The best of them you can pore over many nights, always finding something new that escaped you before."

"They sound lovely." Nauda smiled in response, but her eyes were shifting toward him with a cooler gaze. "Exactly how have you spent so much time on Ichil, Jake?"

For some reason, in that moment the false name annoyed him. He wasn't about to reveal his previous visit, but he decided to offer some truth. So as they continued through the markets, he told them about how he had fallen through a door into a pitch black part of Ichil, studied under a traveling soulcrafter, and eventually helped save a community in one of the deep caverns of glowing mushrooms.

Both of them must have understood that he had been a soulcrafter in the past based on the gaps in his story, but they refrained from pressing him about it. That was worth something, he supposed. As frustrating as some aspects of his second life in the Nine had been, he'd come across worthwhile allies, at least for the moment.

In the end, they found the last material Fiyu needed without any more trouble and started on the return path. Just when it seemed like the entire trip might go smoothly, he heard sounds of a scuffle ahead. Nauda hurried to look, then sighed and reversed direction, pushing them back along an alternate path.

"It seems that the Fithans are causing trouble again." Nauda gestured to the side. "They're being thrown out of the warmthgiver district, so if we step through it, we should be able to avoid them."

"They seem very argumentative," Fiyu said, craning her neck to examine the conflict. Theo could see over the crowds more easily and saw that it was nothing too serious: just a few drunks bickering with one another, nothing that local Farmguards couldn't handle.

"It has been an increasing problem. Some want to remove them from the school, but I don't know if that would be an even larger problem."

"You don't understand, they're being polite." Theo glanced back one more time as they shifted onto a warmly lit street. "The standards for behavior in their home... well, Fithe is a world at war. Uh, do you even have that word? I hope it translated correctly."

Fiyu nodded quietly and said, "I know of war." Meanwhile, Nauda gave him that odd gaze he couldn't quite interpret before she spoke.

"The word doesn't exist in the local language, so what I heard was something like 'bloodargument'. But war is not unknown on Tatian, and other languages have the word, or at least had it once. Regardless, it doesn't excuse their behavior."

"That's not what I meant," Theo said. "It's just a cultural mismatch, or at least that's what I'm guessing. On Fithe, someone who acted as warm and friendly as most do on Tatian would be mocking or insulting. Being here is probably deeply uncomfortable for them, and we should be glad that no one has gotten killed. Honor duels are commonplace in many parts of Fithe."

Nauda frowned. "That is not an argument in favor of keeping them here..." Her words trailed off as they realized there was someone standing in their path.

"So this is where you were." Trathis stood before them, glowering as if they weren't in his group. "I was looking for you, Nauda, but you were nowhere to be found. Is this how you make your money, whoring yourself in this district? Have you turned the Ichili into a whore too?"

Theo was surprised for a moment, then immediately turned to Fiyu, afraid that she would react to the insult with violence. Instead her face was utterly blank, almost as if she hadn't even heard him. Combined with the mask covering her eyes, it was unnerving, and Trathis looked away from her to turn his irritation elsewhere.

"I'm so sorry to have given you the wrong impression," Nauda's voice was downright syrupy now and she bowed low. "I am not a warmthgiver, but if your disposition has left you with a need for one, I am sure that we could find someone who would accept compensation."

The combination of the blank stare and Nauda's sickening sweetness left Trathis hesitating. His scorn for them had rolled off the cuff, but now he seemed to be realizing that he'd insulted some of the strongest people in his own group. Theo decided to finish him off.

"Aren't you going to call me a whore too? I'm feeling left out here, Trathis."

"Look, I-" His words were interrupted as Nauda stepped in, touching his shoulder... and based on his wince, she squeezed harder than was necessary.

"If you have need of my soulcrafting, I would gladly tell you all I know in a conversation tomorrow, during our normal meeting. Perhaps for tonight we should allow you to pursue your own financial endeavors."

With that, she swept past him and the other two followed, leaving him shifting uncomfortably on the street. Trathis wasn't a particularly skilled soulcrafter and he'd clearly been in the wrong, but Theo still tucked away the incident in case it turned into a problem later. He wanted to ask questions, but Nauda seemed in a hurry until they returned to the school.

There, once they were alone, she let out a giggle. "Did you see his face? That was well done, Jake. I'm not sure I understand why he was so offended, but well struck."

"Different worlds have different assumptions about those things." Theo shrugged and decided he might as well ask now. "Is that even an insult here?"

"Not generally, but the way he said it, his meaning was clear." Nauda shook her head, still smiling broadly, and turned to Fiyu. "I was more impressed by your composure, Fiyu. I guessed it might be more disrespectful on Ichil... is it not, or did you just not give him the pleasure of a reaction?"

Fiyu looked between them blankly. "What is a 'sexmerchant'?"

Nauda snorted before covering her mouth to smother a laugh. Unable to prevent a smile of his own, Theo couldn't resist teasing a little. "What do you think it is, Fiyu?"

"Well... I have noticed that Tatians have sex rather frequently. Perhaps it is necessary to have merchants who specialize in the production and distribution of contraceptives, prophylactics, and sexual aids. I thought that this would be a respected profession, but perhaps it is considered lower class on Fithe?"

After a moment of silence, Nauda began laughing so hard she nearly fell over, keeping herself standing only by leaning on Theo's shoulder. The utter sincerity with which the explanation had been offered got to him too, so he struggled to contain his laughter as he saw Fiyu look between them in confusion.

"You are making fun of me," she pronounced somberly.

"No... not at all..." Nauda tried and failed to get her laughter under control, so Theo took over.

"I'm afraid your guess was wrong, Fiyu. Trathis meant something more insulting, but you don't need to worry: your response was perfect for preventing him from getting any satisfaction out of it."

"Yes, we weren't mocking you at all." Nauda managed to straighten up, though she still had a broad smile on her face. "I can explain it to you, if you really want. Right now, I'm not tired at all. Would the two of you like to share a late night meal?"

Fiyu lowered her head and turned away. "I am tired now. We will meet tomorrow morning and I hope that you can help me construct a defensive chamber."

With that, she departed, despite Nauda's abortive attempt at an apology. Nauda's amusement died immediately and she turned to him, but it was clear that her offer wasn't available to him alone. Still, instead of leaving, she spoke quietly. "Did I offend her, do you think?"

"Give her time to think about it," Theo said. "She isn't accustomed to being around people this long and might have wanted to rest anyway."

"But is it insulting to imply that she's naive?"

"Don't worry about it. She asked us to help her tomorrow - she wouldn't have done that if she was really upset. For whatever it's worth, I think she enjoys your company. Just give her time."

Nauda nodded thoughtfully and left him alone. Theo returned to his room slowly, trying to think about the soulcrafting they had planned for the next day but finding his thoughts scattering over pieces of his life that had been fragments for too long.

Chapter 15

Despite Nauda's concerns, in the morning they found Fiyu in the courtyard with a normal smile on her face. She sat in the most shaded corner, several sublime materials spread out before her. When they arrived, she gestured for both of them to sit across from her.

"Please, let us begin. I hope it will not be so miserably bright when the sun rises."

"I'm glad to be invited," Nauda said, "but am I truly necessary? I don't know anything about this defensive chamber you intend to create."

"Your presence is required. In order to give precise instructions, Jake will need to observe my soulhome more closely than he can accomplish himself. Please, perform your linking technique." With that, she extended a finger with each hand to touch their arms and closed her eyes.

Though Nauda hesitated and glanced at him, in the end she shrugged and drew them all inward. Soon they drifted within Fiyu's bleak soulhome, which had changed a little since he'd last seen it. The canvas wall had been replaced by dark stone, presumably refined from the pile remaining to the side. There wasn't much left, however, and Theo had to wonder what Fiyu would do when she ran out of sublime materials from her home.

"This will be the first time I attempt to create something that is not part of my relative's blueprint." Fiyu emerged carrying the sublime materials they had acquired the previous night... except the sand had been melted down into a sheet of dark glass. Theo was a bit disappointed that he had missed the process, since he could always use more knowledge of glass for his solar blueprint. "I will require your assistance."

"You've seemed extremely competent in all the advanced classes," Nauda said. "You clearly understand all of the fundamental soulcrafter techniques and others besides. Is developing this room likely to be so difficult?"

That was a question for him, so Theo shook his head. "I don't think so. We need to start with a source of light... you mentioned that you had a fire to generate cantae, or maybe you have something different for your light bolts technique?"

Fiyu nodded and silently led them to one side of her outer wall, an area of magma without adornment. She extended a single finger and tapped one of the stones, which began to slide out smoothly as if there was no mortar binding it in place, revealing glowing lines of magma within. Advanced techniques like that, ones that demonstrated that soulcrafting wasn't truly just construction, were unusual for first tier soulcrafters. Even Theo hadn't attempted to redevelop any of those skills yet.

As soon as the block of hardened magma came free, a blinding shaft of light pierced from the structure. Fiyu frowned in disapproval and stepped away, pulling up her hood. Squinting his eyes against it, Theo peered inside and saw that there was a crystal shining brilliantly, its power cascading off the walls, which seemed slightly reflective.

So this was the source of Fiyu's light. For her, this level of blinding light was no warm campfire or sign of home, it was both a threat and a stunning attack. As such, it was easy for her to channel cantae into those searing bolts of light. Like everything else about her soulhome, it was well-crafted, both in her relative's design and her execution.

"Will this be sufficient?" she asked. Theo leaned away, blinking the afterimages out of his eyes as he responded.

"Yeah, this is good. We can probably do this without using up a full chamber after all. The important thing is that you're creating a barrier between yourself and environments that are painful to you. Do you have a chamber that would be better suited for that?"

"I am... unsure." Fiyu tilted her head to the side, regarding both of them quietly. "To be truthful, I am confused about certain aspects of soulcrafting and our classes have not been helpful. I am capable of most techniques and my relative instructed me in the proper forms, but I do not understand why. I had hoped that you could offer me an exact blueprint, because I cannot improvise."

"It's your soulhome, so it needs to be your decision." Theo stood back, rubbing his chin and trying to think about where to start. Nauda beat him to it, floating up to gesture toward the entire soulhome.

"Soulcrafting is first about intent. Beyond a few basic rules, such as larger chambers holding more cantae, everything is subjective. What is a sturdy house and what does it look like? Different villages give different answers, and none of them are wrong. What matters more than how you swing a hammer is that you craft something that you fully believe to be a firm soulhome."

"That's oversimplifying," Theo objected. "No amount of belief is going to make a weak material into a strong one. You can't lean two boards against each other and pretend it's a castle, even if you're completely delusional. That's not even getting into how important it is to select the right sublime materials."

"But what makes the right materials? You can't simplify the differences there." Nauda gestured toward the shadows all around them. "If I tried to make my soulhome like this, it would be weak and uncomfortable, because this place seems cold and intimidating to me. But I'm guessing that it isn't to Fiyu."

Fiyu rapidly shook her head. "No, I find it very peaceful. Your soulhome is... too bright for me, but I think I understand how you enjoy it. So you are both right. We all must follow logical rules to craft an environment that is right for us, but our goals will vary."

"It's more complex than that, but yes. We've brought you materials that seem to be well-suited to the task of blocking out light and noise, but maybe we should have talked to you about them first. I know you might be familiar with Ichil, Jake, but you should have spoken to Fiyu first, since her own feelings about light are most important."

Since he didn't really disagree with any of the points, Theo didn't bother arguing and just moved on. "The quality and nature of the materials is important, and we have good ones. I'm confident that Fiyu can think of a way to effectively use them, regardless of individual details."

They both turned to Fiyu and she bobbed her head with a smile. Without speaking, she carefully replaced the brick in the side of the wall and then padded around the side. She stepped into a doorway, paused, then gestured for them to follow. Most of the doorways within were clouded in darkness that prevented them from seeing anything, but the shadows cleared in a room to the left, where Fiyu knelt down on the floor.

"This chamber is for my sensory technique," she explained, running her fingers along the outer wall. "It is the room most strongly associated with interacting with the outside world, for me, and all my sensory cantae flows through it. That makes it a good choice for this technique, right?"

She looked at them expectantly, so they quickly nodded affirmation. Fiyu carefully removed several bricks from the wall, roughly in the shape of the window, and Theo realized that she did fully understand. Still, she stared at it for a time before speaking again.

"The glass reminds me of the mask that Navim crafted for me, so it will stand between me and bright lights. I will place it as a... 'seeinghole'? Window? Yes, window. I see that the adhesive will bridge the gap between the glass and the stone so that the window does not weaken my defenses. But what is the cloth for?"

"That's going to be something called a curtain." He tried to show her, but couldn't touch the fabric and had to demonstrate until she hung it over the window. "This glass is so dark it blocks out most things, but you can open and close the curtain to control the light. Not only will it muffle sound, the fact that it's flexible will allow you to control how heavily the technique is used."

While they spoke, Nauda had been examining something on the other side of the room, but that made her look up. "Is this going to leave her perception of the world dimmed and muted? That could be a disadvantage in combat."

"No, this is where your subjective element of the process comes in." Theo turned back to Fiyu, looking her in the eye through her mask as well as he could in his mental form. "This part is important. You aren't soulcrafting all this to defend against light and noise, but to control it. If you do it properly, you'll still see bright lights, but you'll perceive them intellectually instead of being blinded. Does that make sense?"

Fiyu nodded immediately, as he'd hoped. Since she was already familiar with unusual perceptions, he suspected that this one would come easily to her. She began soulcrafting cheerfully, working with the bricks to create a space exactly the size of the glass pane she'd already crafted.

Occasionally she asked one of them a question, but for the most part she seemed happy to continue working silently. Theo kept floating there to... provide moral support, he supposed. He looked over to the other side of the room and discovered a stone pedestal rising from the floor. That had been what Nauda had been looking at, or more precisely the sphere placed on the top.

"Just why do you know a technique like this?" Nauda asked him. "Unless one of the Nine Worlds is far brighter than Tatian, you've never been in a place that was blinding to you."

"This is a specific version of a broader technique, one that I learned from veteran world travelers." Theo tried to rest back against the wall, but in this form he was never exactly comfortable or uncomfortable, just suspended. "Some of them have an entire chamber devoted to adapting to different environments. If they develop it enough, they could step into any world without the local conditions overwhelming them."

"Hmm. That's a useful technique. Probably not worth an entire chamber on the first floor, but perhaps later..."

"Right. That's why I'm glad that Fiyu could adapt it into a window so easily."

Still working but clearly listening, Fiyu bobbed her head in agreement. She had fitted the window properly, but applying the adhesive took more focused work. Leaving blobs of it off the side might be irrelevant in a real window, but within her soulhome, such minor flaws would only weaken the technique.

After a period of silence, Nauda bent down beside the sphere again. "Fiyu, this is one of those spheres of artistry you mentioned, isn't it? I wish I could feel the inside for myself, but... anyway, this is the heart of your sensory room, right? How does it actually work? What sense are you using instead of sight?"

"Nauda!" Fiyu turned to her with a gasp, mouth hanging open for a moment before it pressed thin. "I... why would you ask that question?"

"Is that offensive?" Nauda looked at her in dismay, then toward him. Theo regretted putting himself in the position of cultural translator, but since Fiyu was too shocked to answer, he didn't have a choice.

"Asking someone about what exact sensory techniques they use is an extremely personal question on Ichil. Think about how vulnerable it could make a person. There's one common technique that involves releasing and listening to sounds..." He chose that one because he was fairly certain Fiyu didn't use it. "If an enemy knew that, they could release counter-sounds and leave a person completely blind."

"I understand that it's a personal question, but..." Nauda floated beside the Ichili woman and reached out, trying to brush her arm. "I thought that we were friends."

Fiyu gasped and flinched away, just slightly. It was a barely perceptible movement, but Nauda saw it and her face fell. She receded so quickly that Theo was afraid they'd all be thrown out of the soulhome, but instead she just floated gloomily in the corner of the room.

Even though it should have been annoying to him, Theo just found himself wishing that he had a way of mending the disagreement. He thought the two of them would get along, it was just difficult to pick worlds more socially different than Ichil and Tatian. Before he could think of anything to say, Fiyu turned around and sat formally.

"I think we will become friends, Nauda. But please be patient with me. From what I have seen of your world, you use that word very easily, as if a person can have dozens of friends." Fiyu shook her head at the absurd thought. "In all my life, I have only held one friend close to me. Touching is also... not commonly done, even among relatives. I recognize that you mean no harm, but I still find it alarming."

"I understand, Fiyu." The relief was obvious on Nauda's face, even in her hazy form. She moved closer, but before she could say more, Fiyu continued speaking.

"Both of you may become my friends one day. Until then, I... do not wish to offend you." Fiyu reached out and took Nauda's hands, though her own trembled as she did so. "I do not want you to think that I dislike you, or dislike people. Your communities here are very warm and loyal. But I... being in them for too long, or even being with you, I quickly grow weary. Last night I was merely tired, not upset with you."

"No, I really understand." Nauda wiped the corners of her eyes, clearly wanting to embrace the other woman and restraining herself. "Please just be patient with me too. You don't need to keep... pouring your heart out like this."

"Thank you." Fiyu rapidly withdrew her hands, but she was smiling again. Unfortunately, both of them then turned toward him, the somber atmosphere tightening around them.

"I don't want you to misunderstand either, Nauda, and get the impression that I dislike people." Theo knelt down and looked her directly in the eyes. "I hate people. People are the worst. They should die in a fire." He relaxed back and grinned. "But you two are okay."

Their laughter was brief but genuine. They sat in silence for a time, and it might have been awkward, but then Fiyu returned to her work. "Nauda, can you maintain open doors between us? Could we all soulcraft together and visit from time to time?"

Wiping her eyes again, Nauda slowly nodded. "I can't create doors like that, but you can tap me in the real world, or I can teach you to knock. It's actually pretty easy, here..."

As she went on to explain the exact technique, the heavy atmosphere finally lifted. Still, when Theo drifted back to his own soulhome, he found himself smiling.

Chapter 16

Nearly three months into his time at the school, the first official contest was announced. Though no Archcrafter materials were being offered, the lower vaults would be opened and the winners would be offered a selection of the rarest first tier sublime materials. Despite claims about family, everyone would compete in teams, so excitement rapidly mounted.

Except with Magnafor, who Theo still saw from a distance on occasion. The other Earth-born human was scheduled to participate, but Theo didn't think that he cared about a few materials. Magnafor still intended to break through the barrier to the Landguard tree and steal everything there, which would make the contest prizes pale in comparison.

At the moment, however, he was blocked by Nanjuma's presence, so Theo thought he had more time. For now, the Tatian environment was good for his growth, so he intended to continue in it. Soon enough it might grow stifling, and at that time he'd need to try to steal the resources from out of Magnafor's hands, but that was a future concern.

Since the contest would pit all the young soulcrafters against one another, it was finally time for him to complete his preparatory work and establish his blueprint. After so long waiting, he found himself making excuses, but he'd done everything he could in his soulhome without a central chamber.

Unfortunately, his concerns weren't entirely imaginary. By far the biggest problem was that every tree he'd attempted to plant at the center of his soulhome had either shriveled and died, or grown so stunted that it generated little cantae. He'd been checked repeatedly by various healers, none of whom saw any problem with his health, body or soul.

That meant that he had no choice but to skip the introductory step: instead of bothering with a tree at all, he'd jump to the true form of his blueprint and develop a central chamber with more powerful sublime materials. Doing it all at once would be tricky, but far from beyond his abilities.

Theo entered his soulhome and looked over all his preparations one more time. It had taken months, but he'd fashioned hundreds of solarstone blocks and built the core structure of his soulhome: a square of nine rooms, three on a side. All of them were empty, leaving him with no special abilities or traits, but his capacity to store cantae was now considerable, for a first tier soulcrafter. On top of that, he had perfected his vestibule and door, and had even set up a crude fence with leftover hearthtree wood. Few had similar advantages.

Currently, the roof was the weakest point, just simple wooden planks. But he didn't need the roof at all for his blueprint, so he could replace it with stone when he was ready to ascend to Archcrafter. What mattered now was igniting a powerful light in the core of his soulhome, which would channel cantae to the eight other chambers, giving him plenty of space to build all the abilities he'd imagined.

He slipped back to the real world for a moment, confirming that the sun was just beginning to rise. Time of day wasn't critical to soulcrafting except in certain superstitions, but this would be a major undertaking and he wanted everything to be perfect. The first rays of the sun would strike him soon, his mindset was perfect, and he had all the sublime materials he needed.

This was it: the culmination not of three months of soulcrafting, but of forty years of planning.

When he returned to his soulhome, he entered the vestibule and closed the door behind him. No distractions. Slowly he walked through the outer rooms, clearing his mind as he made sure that they were completely bare. The magnigem, the demonic materials, and sublime fruit he had left all over were stacked outside so they couldn't react. Not that they would cause major problems, but they would slow down the reaction and weren't needed until the foundation was complete.

Finally he walked into the central chamber. Unlike all the others, which were bare stone, he'd taken care to polish the walls and floor. At the very center he'd inscribed a circle with the pattern of the sun, and his final materials lay within it.

A few remaining pieces of hearthtree wood remained around him and he recalled his plan to build a final defensive structure. It wasn't part of his blueprint, just a precaution in case there was excess energy from the process. He didn't think it was necessary, but propped up the defensive walls around the edges anyway, just to get himself in the right mental space.

Then he sat down and set to work. The ignition materials were fairly simple, just a spirit flint he'd bought in the market. It was highly potent, only affordable because this one would consume itself after a single use. All it needed to do was light the solar core until it created a reaction.

That solar core was the reason he had been chipping away at the noonstone boulder for so long. Eventually, it had cracked open to reveal a brilliant gem, one of many sublime materials that could ignite into a miniature sun. It wasn't the most powerful possible, but it was more than sufficient, and in the future, he'd be able to feed stronger materials into the blaze. He'd covered that aspect excessively during his years away.

There was nothing else to do. Theo took a deep breath, raised the solar core, and struck the flint against it.

Somehow he slammed against the outer wall of his soulhome, blown through the door by the explosion. If it had been his real body, he would have been incinerated, but he staggered up, his entire soul smoking. Shouldn't there be a sun ahead of him? He stumbled forward, part of him hoping that he had exceeded his wildest dreams, but a dark voice said that it couldn't be...

The heart of his soulhome lay empty.

Instead of a sun blazing in the air, supplying him with raw power, the central room had been devastated by an explosion. His eyes ran over the details repeatedly, refusing to take them in. The once pristine white walls had burned a glassy black, as if the stone itself had melted. His floor had been torn apart, leaving nothing but a small amount of rubble over barren earth. The flint and solar gem had been consumed, of course.

How the hell had it happened? Theo dropped to his knees, fumbling with the fragments as if he would find some mote of dust that would explain it all. But no trivial flaw could have caused such a catastrophic failure, it simply wasn't possible. All his careful plans...

To prevent himself from choking on despair in the central chamber, he forced himself back to his feet and struggled to the door. The outer chambers were mostly undamaged, though some of the roof had been torn off. Could the roof have been at fault? No, he dismissed that possibility almost immediately: the explosion had been instantaneous and the roof had been merely another victim.

In fact, he bitterly realized that it could have been much worse. The perfunctory defenses he'd put in place had blunted the explosion, preventing it from leveling his entire soulhome. Except as he stared at the empty white rooms, he wondered if that almost would have been better. Whatever the explosion had been, the heat of it had fused all the blocks together, leaving his foundation incredibly solid... and permanently flawed.

"Why?" Theo screamed his question into the uncomprehending clouds overhead, just as he'd bitterly asked for so many years on Earth. He stumbled outside, suddenly struggling to breathe. When he fell to the ground, he struck it angrily as if he could beat his own soul into submission.

There had to be some flaw that he could find, because that meant he could fix it. He carefully checked the demonic materials to see if they reacted, but they lay inert, just as theory would suggest. Nothing seemed to be out of place except the ugly hole in the center of his soulhome.

It had to be the fundamental elements of his soul, because everything he had soulcrafted had been perfect. There was a chance that he'd failed to understand some element of Brigana's design, since parts of it remained opaque to him, but he was certain he'd done his part. One thing he hadn't planned on was awakening during the demon attack, and he fixed on that as the likely explanation. Though it hadn't weakened him in any way, it had drained the grass in the field and he hadn't adjusted for that in his initial blueprints. That had to be the reason.

After taking several deep breaths, Theo walked back to the center of the chamber to consider his next step. The floor could be rebuilt, but the blackened walls were a problem. His failure had altered the fundamental nature of the solarstone and he might need to replace it. Unless the black coating was very thin...

He took out his chisel and chipped at it, but to his surprise he couldn't put a scratch on the dark surface. It glistened like volcanic glass, which wasn't something he knew very much about. Sublime materials like that existed in other worlds, but it wasn't generally created by spiritual processes.

By the time his fingers were numb, he still hadn't accomplished anything, but Theo bitterly told himself that he wouldn't give up. It would require more powerful tools, but he'd eventually eliminate the evidence of his failure and start again. He wasn't back to the beginning, just taking a detour.

Those words were no comfort at all. When he left his soulhome, he could still taste the scorched ash in his mouth.

Chapter 17

Days crumbled away, taking them closer and closer to the competition, yet Theo barely even considered them. So long spent preparing, all ruined in a single moment. He hadn't realized just how many of his hopes had been pinned on returning to the Nine as a brilliant hero. It had been all that got him through the terrible jobs and broken relationships that had marked his Earthly existence, yet now...

It wasn't that he stopped working. On the contrary, he avoided all classes and skipped meals to spend even more time in his soulhome, feverishly trying to find a way to reconstruct what had been lost. There might be no way to easily regain the solar gem and he couldn't afford another flint, but those were trivial obstacles. More important were repairing the damage and finding the source of the problem.

Both issues had proved stubborn. He hadn't been hopeful that anyone could directly heal soulhome damage, but he'd still asked the local healers and even the Archcrafter when she returned. Other than informing him that all the power he'd gathered had been reduced to the unworkable black residue, they were useless to him. A few confirmed that certain Ruler tier materials might have been able to help, but he had no way of obtaining those with his current strength.

Try as he might, he couldn't find a flaw in his execution, so the only logical solutions were that he had misunderstood the blueprint, or that his soul had been the problem. The Landguard village didn't have many useful books, but he'd checked them anyway, looking for any precedent of a demonic awakening ruining a soul. Not only did he find nothing, the scholarly consensus seemed to be that demons lacked even the capacity to interact with souls directly.

His only chance at new insight was speaking with Nanjuma, but the leader had been busy dealing with lesser demon attacks. Previously Theo had disregarded him as "only" a Ruler, never able to bridge the gap to the fourth tier, but he realized that was arrogant. Nanjuma had soulcrafted three extremely polished floors and spent a lifetime mentoring others. If anyone had a superior knowledge of soulhomes, it was him.

On several occasions, Nauda had attempted to draw him out of his room, and Fiyu had even showed up once. He'd been polite but ignored them, and though Nauda seemed hurt, she'd left him alone. Most likely she had used her observation technique and seen what had happened to his soulhome.

A bitter part of him was furious that they didn't try to help, but that was irrational: what could they have done? He had devastated his soulhome with a blueprint that was beyond all of them and they weren't exactly stumbling over legendary sublime materials. Their attempts to draw him out were what they had to offer, and he'd rejected them.

Once again, Theo found himself in the center of his soulhome, examining the blasted space. He'd removed all the damaged fragments, leaving only black dirt - the grass had never grown back and it had been scarred in a similar way to the walls. Other than repairing the ceiling, he hadn't been able to soulcraft in a meaningful way - he'd been smashing more solarstone into pieces just so he wasn't sitting idle, but every effort to clean the walls had failed.

He did know of a few solutions, all of them too far away to be of any use. There was a rare tool on Deuxan that could cut apart any sublime material within a soul. A water from Aathal that ate through anything not living like acid. Sources of light on Noven that could scour clean any impurity.

Without those, he didn't see any way of building past this. He had a solid first floor of his soulhome, but it was useless to him. Even if he built around the blasted area, which might make him strong enough to handle most opponents once he reached Archcrafter, he would never be able to face the monstrous demon he'd seen in the pale world beyond the Nine. And it would be a mistake to assume that was the worst he'd face.

Eventually he realized how long it had been since he'd eaten anything - his stomach actually hurt, though that could also have been the stress. Theo closed his soulhome and left his room, shuffling to the kitchen. Thankfully it was several hours before the usual time to eat, so he was able to take some of the previous day's bread and a few of the fruits and vegetables they were cutting.

He ate them but didn't taste anything, chewing over the same thoughts as he did every day. Before he could finish filling his stomach, Nauda appeared in the doorway. She said nothing until she sat down opposite him and so he just stared at her.

"You need to stop this." She gripped her staff with white knuckles. "I know that your soulhome took a terrible blow, but you need to stop-"

"Why should I?" Theo dropped the piece of bread he was eating and watched it fall with a dull clunk. "Everything I did was designed for a specific blueprint, but it failed. Depression is a rational response. There's no happy celebration that will erase the damage done to me."

"No, but you can stop doing more. You think that this misery is a consequence of what happened, but it's not. You're doing this to yourself."

"And you think that makes me feel better? You don't understand at all."

He thought he saw a flicker of pain on her face, then it closed in a polite Tatian smile and she lowered her head. "You're right, of course. You know far more about this than me and I was merely making a feeble effort to encourage you. I should not have insulted you by pretending to understand the pain that you, and you alone in all history, are suffering."

Though her words had to be a hollow shell of Tatian politeness, he just didn't care. Nauda stared at him a moment longer, then gripped her staff enough to rise and left the room. He remained there among the awkward cooks, trying to eat a few more bites before he gave up.

One thing she was right about was that he needed to change his pattern, which was clearly not helping him. In that conversation, he'd reminded himself too much of a teenager, a stage he thought that he'd put behind him decades ago. It was as if the failure in his soul had knocked his mind back as well, leaving him a bitter version of the person he'd been when he planned the blueprint long ago.

So instead of returning to his room, Theo went to talk to Navim. As he lived alone beside the mine, it was always easy to find the Mundhin, and this time there appeared to be no one asking him for assistance. Theo stepped through the broad door and into the rocky chamber. He wasn't sure if it mimicked civilization in Arbai, but to him it looked like a simple set of marble blocks, too high to be comfortable for humans to sit on.

They were the appropriate height for Navim to settle several pieces of his body on, however, and the largest block clearly served as a table. The Mundhin turned his central core to regard him, then turned back to his work. Unable to see from the ground, Theo moved forward and stepped up onto one of the blocks.

"Hello, Jake. I have not seen you in some time."

"I've been busy." Theo stared down at the melting strands of stone, several different varieties blending into something that could have been a complex device or a piece of art. "But I regret not visiting you more often."

"It is no trouble. The Tatians have been quite eager to have me mend much of their stone. It seems that if the living stone cannot be coaxed into the shapes they want, they are generally without recourse. I am puzzled over the fact that they have not developed stoneshapers of their own."

"I think there are some, but not this far out."

After that, Theo went silent. Navim worked in equal silence for a time, twisting several veins of stone together before finally hardening them. Then his gem-studded core turned up to focus on him. "So, what is it that you would have of me?"

Theo hesitated, the question throwing him from his grim mental cycles. "Does it... really seem like I'm just coming because I want something? I guess that's fair. But not this time. I just... need a conversation to get out of my own head. Do the Tatians really ask you for so many things? That doesn't seem very hospitable of them."

"They have done their utmost to thank me with gifts of food and warm embraces, regardless of my objections that I cannot use these things. I have found their hospitality to be somewhat focused on their own comfort, less about the true ideal of generosity and more maintaining a view of the world that they find to be comfortable."

And just like that, Theo was glad that he came to talk to Navim. "Believe me, I know exactly what you mean."

"Then I will ask again, reiterating that I will not be offended: do you require anything of me other than conversation?"

"Can you reforge soulhomes or shape legendary armaments that can be wielded by first tier soulcrafters?"

"I cannot do these things."

"Then I just want to talk." Theo bent down to pick up one of the stone blocks and, using cantae to lift the heavy stone, put it up on his seat so he'd have something to lean back against. As he did so, a different thought occurred to him. "But I suppose you might do something for someone else. Fiyu has outgrown the original mask you so generously helped create, so a better one might be useful."

"Her concerns are not yours." That was all Navim said, his gemstones completely unreadable. Theo had heard that the only way to read a Mundhin's mood was body language, not the unchanging gems, but all the ones he'd met had seemed unnaturally still. With no way of interpreting that statement, Theo decided to just move on.

"Then I want to think about something other than my own problems. What about you? Is your soulcrafting going well?"

"Again, I must inquire if you have an ulterior motive. Is this preparation for the contest?"

Theo paused, then laughed. "I hadn't even thought about it, but I suppose we'll be competing. Withhold critical information, if you prefer."

His tone must have been convincing, because after regarding him for a time, Navim spoke in a more relaxed voice. "In my time here, I have substantially developed my chamber devoted to stoneshaping, in addition to gaining experience with the art. I have also used some of their local stone to form a new chamber, though I do not know if it is durable enough to survive the ascension to Archcrafter."

"That's your goal, then? You want the Archcrafter materials, so you want your group to win the contest?"

"Yes, no, and no, respectively." Navim's sphere of gemstones remained still, but his arms rotated in a movement Theo interpreted as an idle tic. "Perhaps some of the sublime materials in this world would be useful to me, but when I say that I am more concerned with knowledge than with materials, I am not expressing a commitment to ideal scholarship. The master of my school can bestow upon me more than enough sublime materials to allow for ascension, if I prove myself as a student."

"One of the philosophical schools?" Even though he'd just set up his backrest, Theo found himself leaning forward. "I've never visited Arbai, but I've heard about them. Is it a big one?"

"Not by an objective standard, but we are well known within our field. I am one of the lesser students of Master Uvvah Ulim, of the School of Emerald Indulgence."

Theo had never heard of it, but nodded along as if he did. "If your master has enough high tier materials to distribute to all his students, he must be powerful."

"Certainly he is by the standards of our current surroundings. Master Uvvah Ulim has never cared for strength and ascended to the rank of Authority solely in order to obtain the ability to use weirkeys and travel the Nine Worlds. He spent his youth exploring as much of them as he could, but as his stones grew weary, he returned and founded our school. In it, he passes along his techniques only as a method to spread his philosophies of flexibility in thought."

"He sounds like a remarkable man, uh, Mundhin. You joined the school because you admire him?"

"Yes, just so." Navim's core shifted down to regard him. "He is an admirable scholar and I hope to make him proud. My monograph on the customs of Tatian will not be unique, but he will approve of the spirit of my research."

Though Theo wondered how much it was an academic school and how much it was a body of armed soulcrafters, he thought that question might not be appreciated. Best to try something more neutral... "Does the school teach soulhome blueprints as well? Clearly, you feel comfortable improvising new chambers. I thought you disliked approximation."

"To improvise is not to create a rough approximation." Navim drew back, as clearly offended as a cluster of rocks could be. "But to answer your question: no, my master does not believe in the use of blueprints. Instead, a student makes an attempt and the teacher asks questions of it, revealing flaws until the student learns better."

"Heh, we have something like that in the philosophy of my world."

"Oh? I would gladly hear more of this. Both I and my master would be glad to hear more of your world, if it truly does stand beyond the Nine."

Relaxed as he was, Theo hadn't realized that he was walking into a problem. He trusted Navim to a degree, but didn't want to start spreading information about Earth. If it was still largely unknown despite other travelers like Magnafor, that meant knowledge of it would be suspicious. If Vistgil or anyone else was looking for him, telling tales of home might be painting a target on his back.

He was saved an awkward refusal by a quiet voice that surprised him. "Navim? I would like-" Fiyu's smile froze as she entered and sensed Theo's presence as well. After a pause, she lowered her head and retreated before they could say anything. "I did not realize you had a guest. I will return."

Navim bade her farewell, but Theo just sat without saying anything. Clearly Fiyu would avoid him so long as he was in this state, which was a reasonable strategy. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, his concerns piling back onto him. It was too early for that, so he decided to press on to something else.

"Does Fiyu ask you for things as well?"

"Yes, but I consider her a friend. I attempted to utilize what I have read of Ichili customs and it seemed to make her feel at ease. Once she realized how much I valued her recollections of her world, she became more eager to speak than I expected."

"Yeah, Fiyu is..." He had been about to say she was great, but it didn't feel right to compliment her while he was giving her the cold shoulder. "Okay, I'm thinking about the wrong things again. Distract me."

After a curious pause, Navim did his best, leading to a long conversation ranging from the nature of Arbai to observations about Tatian to general philosophy. Theo knew he wasn't stupid, and he'd learned a fair amount over the course of his life, but he still felt a bit coarse talking to Navim. The Mundhin really was a philosopher at heart, thinking deeply on issues that didn't grip Theo in the same way. His life had been too dominated by his central concerns to spare time for abstract questions.

The conversation was refreshing, but as he had never been able to shake his other thoughts, he left it with a clear plan. Before returning to his room and his futile soulcrafting, he would make another attempt to visit Nanjuma. He'd check again every day until he managed to talk to the Ruler, and if that wasn't successful, he'd try something else. Wallowing like this was not an option.

As if summoned by his determination, Nanjuma was actually available that day, sitting on the edge of one of the upper buildings. Theo habitually glanced toward the sealed tree, trying to determine if the barrier had been damaged further, but then shifted his focus to the old man instead.

"Nanjuma? I wanted to request your advice on a question of soulhome blueprints."

"Of course!" Nanjuma hopped off the edge, landing easily beside him. "But if I recall which student you are, you didn't accept one of our blueprints, did you? I'm afraid I'm only a simple Tatian man, and if you want some exotic foreign blueprint, this old man may not be able to help."

The false humility grated, but Theo smiled through it. "You're still the most knowledgeable person I know on the subject. I've soulcrafted myself into a corner and I'm at a loss for what to do next."

"Well, then, let's take a look!"

All at once, Nanjuma's soul was pressing against his. It was almost an attack, but one he couldn't possibly repel, so Theo instead just rushed to enter his soulhome. He had a glimpse of a vast tower floating nearby... no, not a tower, an outer wall hiding most of Nanjuma's soulhome. Clouds wrapped around it soon, but not before a green blur leapt to land in his soulhome.

Nanjuma's spirit was formed from green fire, clearer than anyone via Nauda's technique but just as obviously not a real presence. The old man folded his arms and looked over the structure quickly. "Well, it looks quite solid from the outside! What seems to be the trouble?"

"I'll show you, if you come this way, but let me explain. I am following a blueprint from... a treasured friend, one much stronger than I am. I intended to build my soulhome around a single concept: light itself, both illumination and strength."

"That seems like an excellent decision." As they walked through the rooms, Nanjuma rapped his knuckles against the wall and actually seemed to touch it. That suggested he could have damaged the materials if he wanted, but Theo was well past concerns about being outclassed.

"Yes, but it didn't go as planned..." By the time they reached the center, Theo had explained almost all the details of his idea, though he left out the technical concerns that Nanjuma seemed to understand intuitively. The old man nodded and grunted approvingly at most of them, only shaking his head sadly at the damage done to the central chamber.

When at last Theo was done, Nanjuma remained silent for a long time. He bent down, his fingers grasping some of the dark soil, then ran a finger along the glassy wall. His spirit vanished abruptly, only to return with several yellowing blades of grass in his hand. After thoughtfully crushing them, he let the pieces slide out of his hand and turned back to Theo.

"Your blueprint's design is explosive, potentially dangerous, but your preparations seem to be adequate. I cannot examine your materials, so it is possible that there was a fatal flaw within one, but I agree that is unlikely. No, the core problem is you."

Theo sighed. "Thanks, that's just what I'd hoped to hear."

"No, you haven't heard yet. Listen well." Nanjuma loomed in front of him, one spiritual finger burning as it touched his chest. "This soulhome you described was designed for the soul of a young and hopeful man, one who thought of himself as a mighty warrior of divine justice. You, whatever else may be said of you, are not that young man. If you do not accept this, you will never be able to forge a true soulhome."

The words tore through him worse than any attack and Theo staggered back. His mind attempted to come up with justifications and counter-arguments, but here in the core of his soul, he believed it.

How could he have been so stupid? He'd designed the foundation specifically to be compatible with himself, refusing to believe that he'd changed. Somehow he thought that his entire life on Earth was just a meaningless interlude, but of course it had changed him. These past few days were proof of that: he wasn't young and hopeful, he was a bitter and cynical old man.

As soon as he accepted that, his purpose became much clearer. This visit to the Nine would not be a whimsical adventure and it never had been: he was out for revenge, and for truths he probably didn't want to learn. He needed a soulhome to match his true purpose.

"Well!" Nanjuma stepped back and chuckled. "I see a new light in your eyes, though not one that many Tatian elders would approve of. I'm glad I could be of some help, but is that all?"

"Wait just a moment..." He was desperately thinking now, reconsidering everything. It was impossible to scrap everything he'd already done, so he needed to reinterpret it.

Slowly and surely it began to come together for him. His ex-wife had once referred to him as a black hole of misery that sucked all the joy out of his own life... perhaps he could be that. There were countless details to consider as he threw out his old blueprint and began working anew, but one thing was clear.

"Nanjuma, I have a request to make. One of the instructors told you that I earned an Archcrafter material in her class, right?" Theo smiled darkly. "I'd like to choose it now."

Chapter 18

As much as Theo wanted to lock himself into a room and focus on nothing but soulcrafting, he thought that might be taking exactly the wrong lesson from his revelation. When there was a lecture by the sole Deuxan instructor at the school that Nauda urged everyone to attend, he decided that was the right moment to return. Nauda smiled when he arrived, though he wasn't sure if it was a real smile or not.

"I'm glad to see so many of you here." The instructor entered the room in a shimmering blur that faded as he reached the front. "Many of you are making significant soulcrafting progress, which means you are starting to look upwards towards the clouds. This lesson is about ascension, how it's accomplished, and why you'd be a fool to try now."

That was... somewhat disappointing. Theo's knowledge might not be perfect, but he doubted that it would be corrected by a second tier soulcrafter. He returned to his soulhome to get back to work, keeping only part of his attention on the lecture.

"Here on Tatian, little attention is paid to ranks and tiers... too little, if you ask me! I hold my tongue when it comes to culture, but in terms of soulcrafting, your limits are impossible to ignore. A few of you might even have come up against them if you've built high enough, and discovered that the clouds are truly overhead... and that they push back."

After that, the lecturer continued to talk about safe building heights and techniques, which Theo already knew. He glanced up briefly to the clouds roiling overhead, but they were irrelevant to him now. Ascending was impossible while he was so unprepared, and he wouldn't even have wanted to without having fully soulcrafted his first floor. No, for the time being, his concerns were on the ground.

With so much physical work done, his problem was now more spiritual: reinterpreting everything he'd crafted in a way that he could really believe on an intuitive level. Everything had been based around controlling the power of light, which was no longer possible. But even if his core plan had failed, in so many years on Earth he'd certainly had time to think about other soulhome concepts.

So instead, he intended to build himself around the concept of gravity. Solarstone was dense and embodied the sun, one of the largest sources of mass relevant to ordinary life. It didn't take much straining to refocus himself toward a fundamental law instead of a simple embodiment of an element.

The implications were vast, however. Gravity was a more precise and clinical concept, poorly suited for the soulhome of a mighty warrior... but that wasn't who he was anymore. Theo took a deep breath and tried to let go of his visions of himself as an invincible soulcrafter striding through the battlefield, shrugging off blows from all sides. His soul was cynical and brittle now... and extremely sharp.

Slowly he felt his soulhome shift on a fundamental level. The light itself dimmed and his solarstone blocks darkened. The grass surrounding his soulhome, once trying to mimic fresh young grass, shifted from yellow to gray. As it shifted, he could feel his soul coming into alignment, his foundation and his soulhome no longer straining against one another.

But he could also feel a deep spiritual exhaustion. Recognizing his limits, Theo faded out, tuning back in to the lecture.

"In Deuxan we would have a slate, but here you must use your imagination." The instructor placed one hand flat, then slid his second over it. "If you do succeed in piercing the clouds and ascending, your soulhome is reinforced, yes, but this is a secondary concern. More importantly, you will have opened up an entire second tier of space in which to build. Double the number of potential chambers, either to reinforce what you already have or to soulcraft new abilities."

"Does each ascension double the size of your soulhome?" a student asked. The instructor shook his head and slipped his lower hand over the top.

"No, each tier is roughly the same size as all the others. But the intensity of your cantae does continue increasing sharply, and more importantly each tier is qualitatively different from the previous. Third tier soulcrafters are called Rulers for a reason: they represent the first peak of attainment. At that stage, a person has rebuilt their soul so much that they are, in a sense, nearly a sublime material themselves. Rulers generate their own cantae at all times, even from their physical body, and thus most realms are ruled by third tier soulcrafters."

Theo frowned, as the last part was untrue as far as he knew. Rulers obtained significant advantages and did represent a peak of a sort, but they were rarely actual monarchs unless the Nine had changed in his absence. It might be true in the backwaters of Tatian, but he would have expected a Deuxan to know better. Usually regions were dominated by those on the fourth tier... but it seemed that the other students were thinking in the opposite direction.

"How are Archcrafters different from all of us?" Famaj asked. The instructor dropped his hands and instead folded them in his sleeves.

"We gain the ability to push further outward, crafting structures away from our core soulhome. The primary use of that is to build a shielding wall, which is why I can appear to be a simple soulcrafter if I choose. But that is a lesson for far later, when you have ascended and begun work as an Archcrafter."

There was silence after that, many of the students apparently awed by the ideas. Theo started to wonder if he was going to need to ask the obvious next question himself when he saw Fiyu shift. She sat near Nauda and poked her in the leg, prompting the other woman to speak. "Even a Ruler is still called a Farmguard here. If they are the third tier of soulcrafter, what is the fourth?"

"Ah yes, the Landguards." Their instructor shook his head in a gesture that might have been dismissal or respect. "In other worlds, they would be referred to as Authorities, and they represent heights of power far beyond simple soulcrafters. The path from Ruler to Authority is difficult... or so I have been told. The truth is that there, I am as ignorant as all of you."

Theo suspected that was not strictly true, though he agreed that it was beyond all of them for the foreseeable future. It was true that there was a chasm between Authorities and those below, but it wasn't the peak. Soulcrafters in the tier beyond that were known as Strongholds, the highest stage he'd reached in his previous life.

Except it wasn't his previous life, just his past. Theo set his teeth and resolved to accept all of his history, including all his time on Earth.

In any case, even back then, he had met opponents who outclassed him, and not just the demon at the end. The sixth tier was named Dominion, and they did represent the highest strength he knew of... but he suspected that it wasn't the limit. If he was honest with himself, in his past he had been self-centered and short-sighted, so he could only just now intuit the movements of greater powers yet.

All of that lay so far ahead of him that it didn't bear thinking about. Instead, Theo returned to his soulhome as the questions devolved to youthful enthusiasm, asking starry-eyed questions about the strengths of Rulers and Landguards. He knew those all too well, and they weren't sufficient.

Theo had nearly completed the shift of his soulhome, but there was still so much work to do. He walked inward and stared at the blasted chamber, which had still resisted every effort to change it. Conceptually, he had decided to embrace it: a blackened shell ruined by his past decisions was a perfect metaphor for his soul. That didn't mean that he could actually use it effectively.

Maybe one day he would find a plant that could grow in the dark soil, but everything he had tried on Tatian had instantly felt wrong. He'd taken a lot of duskfruit from the local grove, but though they matched him better than flamefruit, they still wouldn't grow. It was the same lesson he'd misapplied when he tried to start the reaction: his central chamber wouldn't be a place of gentle growth, it needed to be a cold principle. If it couldn't be the blazing of the sun, it would embody something more fundamental.

His conclusion, coming to him in a burst of insight while speaking with Nanjuma, had been to embody the principle of mass... but that was easier said than done. In an ideal world, he'd create a singularity, but he doubted that he would find any sublime materials representing abstract scientific concepts. That was likely far beyond his capacity at the first tier anyway.

What he did have was an Archcrafter-tier sublime material called a bogstone. Not visually impressive, just a dark sphere sitting in the center of the chamber, and swampy wetlands were not exactly as conceptually impressive as the sun itself. But the sublime material had a very useful property: the stone absorbed anything, sucking whatever it touched into itself. Though it wasn't truly the same principle as gravity, he thought it might be as close as he could get, from the resources he had available.

Unfortunately, he wasn't quite capable of using it. Even without generating any cantae, its mere presence put stress on his entire soulhome. Only the blackened walls of the central chamber resisted the effect, apparently impervious, but the force made the other stones tremble whenever he tried to use it. When he'd built a temporary roof over the central chamber, it had been blasted straight off. If he could repeat the process that had turned the center to glass, that might reinforce the whole building, but he lacked the resources.

No solution came to him, so Theo set about the simpler work of soulcrafting one of his outer chambers. Without a core chamber embodying gravity, he couldn't develop any techniques that he hoped would be the heart of his strength, but he could still improve himself in simple ways.

He knew that he would never be a physical powerhouse, at least not compared to others of his tier, but he couldn't afford to neglect his body. As he crafted simple furnishings from hearthtree wood, Theo continued listening in as someone finally asked a good question.

"What about demons?" It was a short Fithan woman he hadn't noticed before. Her question quieted the room, but she pressed onward. "When the demons sacrifice themselves to summon a second stage demon, is it their equivalent of an Archcrafter?"

"That's incorrect, but you've asked an important question." The instructor leaned back against the wall of the room, his gaze wandering out one of the windows. "The language for demons varies between worlds, but never let yourself be deceived into thinking they are the same. Teaching you about demons would be a class unto itself, so just remember this: the steps between demonic stages are vaster than those for any of the mortal races. If you think that their sacrifices will make your battle easier by reducing the number of opponents, stop at once. What they summon will be much worse."

It abruptly occurred to Theo that the system seemed to be net positive, as if in violation of conservation of energy. The thought was absurd, of course, since that law seemed less absolute in the Nine, and in any case he could easily explain it as absorbing power from another source. Yet even if it was wrong, the thought remained stuck in his head.

Previously, he'd never given much thought to how deeply unnatural the demons were. They didn't eat, didn't breed, didn't grow. Nothing about their nature made sense as normal living creatures, and their instinct to sacrifice themselves was bizarre, even by the standards of the Nine. In the past he'd assumed they were some kind of soulcrafting experiment gone horribly wrong, but how could soulcrafting produce something like that?

As he worked, Theo turned the problems over in his mind. He would find no answers via pure thought, but at least this time he could look. Perhaps he could learn the truth if he spoke to the philosophers of Arbai, or learned from the strange beings of Siata, or searched the divine archives of Noven. This time, he couldn't ignore those deeper issues, not with the memories of that demon in the pale realm still haunting him.

In his hands, the hearthtree wood had somehow become dark and jagged. Perhaps exactly as it should be.

Chapter 19

"May I join you?"

Nauda jumped when he asked the question, but Fiyu only smiled, having no doubt felt his approach. The two of them were sitting with trays of food in a shaded area of the courtyard, away from the noise of the dining hall. Fiyu might no longer be in pain from the light and noise, but she still preferred to stay away from them.

"Please sit down, Jake." Fiyu leaned over to pat a seat some distance from her, or normal spacing by Ichili standards. He bent down, carefully balancing his tray, and then got ready to eat. Nauda had paused, regarding him thoughtfully before she spoke.

"You look better. I'm not quite sure what you've done with your soulhome, but... are you out of your head now?"

"Sorry it took me so long." Theo swallowed his first bite before speaking further. "But I didn't come to talk about myself. The contest is in three days, isn't it? Have they explained the terms?"

"Two days, and yes, they have." Nauda took a drink from her cup and stared out over the city. "Thankfully, they won't be making it into a celebration for everyone, just a private tournament. It will be spread out over an entire month, with each family fighting one complete match each week."

Fiyu bobbed her head in agreement. "With a week between each match, there is time to scout your opponents and attempt to adapt. I did not think there would be time to craft new chambers, but Nauda pointed out that most are barely beginning their soulhomes and so might be able to soulcraft something significant within a week."

"So it's contests of secrets and flexibility. If you can make it through earlier rounds without revealing yourself, then you'll have an advantage in later rounds." Nauda regarded him thoughtfully. "Or if you can come up with something new. Are you going to be ready?"

Though Theo had gotten started on his meal while they spoke, now he had to stop eating with a wince. "Unfortunately, there's no way I can provide anything more than another body in the first round. But by the second round, I might be able to come up with something new. Can we be knocked out in the first round?"

"No, everyone participates in all the rounds regardless. But the total number of victorious matches will be counted, and on the third and fourth weeks, they will begin setting the teams with the best records against one another. Everyone who participates will receive a prize, of course, but only the top four teams will receive anything valuable, and only the winning team will be able to choose from the vaults."

"That is strange to me." Fiyu toyed with a long slice of fruit, her pale finger spinning it effortlessly. "Is it not insulting to give someone a meager reward for taking the last place in a contest?"

"Maybe for some, but not many here think like that. You should see the ordinary Farmguard tournaments: everyone wants to be noticed and impress their village, but there are rarely any true winners or significant prizes. In fact, often victorious towns only win the right to host the next feast."

"I see. That is... also strange to me."

They continued talking, apparently having grown closer in the time he'd secluded himself. Fortunately, it didn't seem he'd done any permanent damage, so he was free to focus on what he could add to the contest. Without his established blueprint, he needed all the sublime materials he could get, in case one of them finally cut through the knot he was dealing with.

Another thought occurred to him, however. "How much healing do the teams receive in between matches?"

Both turned to him, Fiyu nodding in agreement while Nauda looked momentarily puzzled. "No one would be left suffering, of course. I can't imagine there wouldn't be healing." Nauda's lips turned down as she understood. "Ah... but you're thinking that some injuries might not heal in a week?"

"Exactly. Would it be a viable strategy to try to crush every opponent so they can't fight the next week?"

"It might be effective," Nauda said slowly, "but it wouldn't be approved of. I don't know if they would change the rules for such behavior, but I wouldn't risk it. But you're right: we need to be be careful so that we're still in fighting condition each week."

"That strategy might also help other teams," Fiyu pointed out. "We wouldn't face the same team the next week, so would another group receive free victories?"

Theo nodded. "Good point. Nauda, do you think we're likely to sustain heavy injuries? I was thinking that we could try to alternate so that everyone has more weeks to recover, but I realized I don't know the terms. Individual matches? Fighting until surrender, or first blood?"

"No defeat terms were stated aside from leaving the ring, but they would not approve of heavy injuries." Nauda tapped her fingers against her tray, food forgotten as she considered strategy. "Each individual can only compete once each match, to prevent a team from only fielding their strongest members. But there are tactical questions when it comes to the order we go out... yes, there's a great deal to think about."

Fortunately, their group was more than up to the task. As they discussed potential strategies and which other teams were likely to be a major threat, Theo found himself relaxing. He might not work with Fiyu and Nauda in the long term, but for now, he was content to stand with them.

In just two days, they would all be tested.

~ ~ ~

On his first journey through the Nine Worlds, Theo had participated in countless battles and high stakes tournaments. Time and time again, he or an ally had come through at the last second, everything aligning just right. Now that he thought back to it without the lens of nostalgia, he found himself wondering if those events had been manipulated in some way.

In any case, he made no genius breakthroughs in the day before the competition: his soulhome was more stable, but just a dull container for cantae. Rather than risk further damage on anything drastic, he simply accepted that he wasn't going to win and determined to do the best he could for his allies.

As the time of the match drew close, he found Nauda seated on a bench in the lower courtyard, twisting her hands around her staff. He was surprised just how anxious she seemed and hesitated for a time. Most Tatians weren't troubled by too many worries, and she'd never struck him as particularly competitive. Yet here she was, as if today was the most important day of her life.

"Is everything alright?" he asked as he approached. Nauda flinched at first, but smiled when she recognized him.

"Don't mind me. Nothing but trivial concerns before the match, small problems like the fact that Trathis has abandoned us. He's joined another group."

"Maybe we shouldn't have antagonized him." Theo sat down on the bench beside her, patting her shoulder to move beyond concerns of blame. "I didn't realize that it was possible to change teams. Aren't we supposed to be families?"

"The instructors weren't happy, but they permitted him to join one of the smaller groups."

"Then we're down one soulcrafter. Does that put us at a disadvantage?"

Nauda smiled grimly. "It's actually an advantage in the short term. When I asked about groups with different numbers of members, they said that the team with fewer is allowed to use someone twice. So unless we're exhausting ourselves, we might be able to count on an additional victory."

"I assume you're going to send Fiyu out twice... unless you mean yourself? Is anyone on the team allowed to fight?"

"Archcrafters aren't permitted to participate, but yes, I can. I will attempt to face the other team's leader whenever possible, and if we have extra matches, I could likely win one. Today we're set against Mogi's team, so I expect us to win the majority of the matches."

Theo blinked, racking his brain for the name and coming up with nothing. "I don't think I know who that is."

Nauda gave him an odd smile. "I'm not surprised. You may not behave like Fiyu, but you're remarkably oblivious to people, and I don't simply mean by Tatian standards. Mogi is a Farmguard from the far Westlands. He's strong himself, but not a good teacher, so his group is relatively unremarkable. Mostly standard Farmguard blueprints."

That might be unremarkable for her, but Theo wasn't sure how he would fare. Most of them had begun with at least a little training as soulcrafters, and three months of steady training as a Farmguard wasn't trivial. If he recalled the blueprint correctly, there would be chambers dedicated to increasing strength, stamina, and speed, making them superhuman by non-soulcrafter standards.

"Umm..." The quiet voice from the side drew their attention and they discovered Fiyu shuffling up the stairs, her hood lowered. "I thought... I should wear it for the first time, since everyone will be looking..."

As she drew closer, she drew back her hood and Theo understood: the improvised mask had been replaced. Instead she wore a band of dark crystal that molded to her face, covering her eyes, forehead, and the bridge of her nose. He wasn't sure how it was affixed, as the bands disappeared into her hair, but it had the feel of a soulbonded armament, which meant it likely connected to her defensive window. Though he could almost imagine that he saw her eyes through the crystal, intricate patterns across the surface obscured her face underneath.

"So that's why you were visiting Navim?" Not really a question, but he asked it so that she would have something to easily answer. Fiyu immediately smiled at the name and nodded.

"Yes, Navim is very kind. I wanted to speak more with him, but there are always so many people entering his room..." Her smile faded and she cocked her head toward the arena. "There are so many people watching... I am confident in my soulcrafting, but having them all looking at me..."

"You'll be fine." Nauda stepped up to her, speaking warmly as she contained herself from making contact. "I'm sure you'll win your fights today and help us take the match."

"But everyone will be judging my appearance, and I don't know what to do with that... I went to a pool at night to look at myself. I think... I look strange in the daylight. Moonlight is much more natural. I don't... know if I have the wrong appearance, somehow."

Though Theo wasn't sure exactly how to reassure her, Nauda seemed happy to take the lead. "You don't need to worry, Fiyu. Everything is fine as it is... but if you're concerned about making a good impression, we could do something with your hair. You have beautiful hair, but it isn't shown very well, tied up like that."

"Really?" Fiyu reached up and unbound her hair, which fell messily around her shoulders. It quickly became clear that she was only accustomed to dealing with it a specific way, and Nauda kept starting to help and then pulling back to respect her personal space. At that rate, it was going to take them forever just to get it into a part.

Not interested in such fumbling, and not useful when it came to hair in any case, Theo looked away. Fortunately, several others arrived soon, including Kuber. The young man carried a ceremonial stick, the type a village leader might hold on Tatian except that it contained powerful cantae bound within. He couldn't judge just how powerful it might be, as it was all tightly sealed inside.

"Jake." Kuber jerked his head to the side to ask him to come away from the others, so he followed until the other man explained. "It's too late for the match today, but no one else will help me. I want to use this armament, but the Farmguards say that it's impossible."

"Let me see it." Theo tried to take the stick, but the other man kept it at a distance, just presenting it for him to look. "Obviously an armament, and it feels like a soul-bound weapon, but what is it?"

"It was a gift from my grandmother, an heirloom of our family. They say that it's... an Archcrafter armament. A powerful one that's been soulcrafted for generations."

Theo's eyebrows rose despite himself. That explained why Kuber was so desperate to reach Archcrafter, especially if the armament was truly something special. But even if they'd had more time... "I'm afraid the Farmguards are probably right. Is there a way to activate it only partially?"

"None of them asked that... but no, I don't think so." Kuber lowered the stick angrily. "This is everything I've been working toward. Without it, I'm just an ordinary soulcrafter. Surely there's some unusual blueprint that can allow me to use it..."

"Not a good one. It would be just like the Archcrafter sublime material: the pressure from it would destroy your soulhome. Here is what I'd recommend: devote an entire chamber to this, just as an ordinary short staff. Use it to channel cantae, or whatever it's meant to do. Then once you ascend, you can open the ceiling into a second tier chamber and use the armament at its full strength right away."

"That's the best you can offer?" Kuber stepped back, disappointment merging with anger in his eyes. "I know you got an Archcrafter material and you managed to make it work. Would you have a different answer for me if I was truly part of your family?"

"I'm being honest: that's the quickest way you could use something this powerful safely. If this goes well, you'll have new sublime materials soon enough, so plan for them."

Kuber stalked away to join the others, clearly dissatisfied. Though Theo thought about it for a while longer, he couldn't think of any logical way to build for an Archcrafter armament. Contrary to the accusation, Theo doubted he would get a request like that from anyone else, but if the Farmguards hadn't gotten through to Kuber, he wouldn't either.

Eventually a loud bell signaled that it was time and their whole group headed for the staircase. Stonecrafters had been working on one of the upper parts of the village for some time, but no one else had been permitted to see their work. Now that they reached the arena, he understood.

One of the benefits of living stone was how easily it could be reshaped. Where there had once been an old storehouse and a narrow street, they now walked onto a flat plane of stone. The newly grown stone felt soft under his feet, and that was no accident: it would mean fewer injuries when anyone fell to the ground. A shallow trough inscribed a ring in the center of the arena, forming the bounds of the combat circle itself.

Of course, most of the others were more focused on the audience, seated on benches that had also been freshly grown. Three stair steps of benches in a circle allowed a large number of people to watch, and also reminded him of large village bonfires. No doubt, when they did have contests in Tatian, they took a form much like this.

"Welcome!" Nanjuma stood atop a bench on one side, apparently delighted to see them. "Please, take your seats in the small area there. And Mogi, guide everyone to the opposite side! We will begin very soon, but please maintain a respectful silence as we form the circle."

Two portions of the audience seating had been removed, replaced by recessed areas with wooden stands to provide shade or privacy. Underneath there were several more benches for their team to use, exactly opposite the arena on the other side. In their recessed alcove, they couldn't see most of the audience, but they could watch their opponents directly.

As everyone shuffled into position, uncertain how to behave for the first match, an extremely old man tottered from the stands carrying a jar. He looked like he might be swept away by a stiff breeze, but Nanjuma walked beside him with utter respect, subtly touching his arm at one point to keep him from stumbling. When the elder reached the arena, his shaking hands tipped over the jar and crystalline water fell into the trough, forming the ring.

Theo examined it carefully, but didn't think that it was a sublime material, just unusual water. It sparkled in the sunlight and somehow retained that gleam even in the stone trough. By the time the jar was empty, a circle of shimmering water clearly marked the boundaries of the ring. Task done, the elder was led back to the stands and Nanjuma stepped up beside the circle.

"I ask all of you to remember that we come together today to strengthen our communities: not merely our strength of arms, but our strength of spirit! We compete against one another, but only as iron sharpens iron. A friendly competition has never done anyone any harm, but take care to guard your hearts from anger or jealousy as well as your bodies from blows."

That speech might have fared well with a purely Tatian audience, but this group was mostly from other worlds. No matter what pretty words Nanjuma put forth, they knew what this was: a competition for limited resources. Everyone might smile and agree, because he was the most powerful soulcrafter present, but they would never truly accept it.

"I believe all of you know the rules, so I will not waste time repeating them. And if you don't, I suppose you'll learn soon enough, won't you?" Nanjuma laughed to himself, then rubbed his hands together. "One more thing: I will be maintaining a defensive barrier between the ring and the stands, so please, show us the full fruits of your labor!"

With that, he stepped away and the match began. There was no announcer or fanfare, and the only judges were a group of several instructors who were not attached to any team. An old woman rose to her feet and spoke in a voice that was audible only because the arena was so quiet.

"Our first match is between Mogi's family and Nauda's family. As Mogi's family has ten members, and Nauda's family only nine, the latter will be allowed to repeat one family member. In addition, Mogi's family must put forward the first contestant."

As a muscular Fithan man stepped into the arena, Theo realized that he'd actually misunderstood the rules slightly. He'd been under the impression that each team would send out members blindly, but it seemed that they could respond to their opponents' choice. That added an element of vulnerability to any strategy, as anyone who stepped forward first would be targeted.

"Fiyu?" Nauda turned to her and smiled. "This one is yours."

She nodded and stepped forward, her hands tight in her robes. The match had begun.

Chapter 20

When Fiyu entered the sunlight and heard the audience cheering, she flinched, despite the fact that all the calls were encouraging. Still, by the time Fiyu stepped over the ring of water, she appeared fully in control of herself, hands ready at her sides.

A bell rang to signal the beginning of the match, but neither acted immediately. They remained motionless except the breeze moving their clothes, then without any apparent signal, the Tatian man hurled a sphere of cantae across the arena.

In a single motion, Fiyu stepped aside and raised her hand, unleashing a torrent of bolts. They slammed directly into her opponent's torso, driving him off his feet and out of the ring.

Just like that, the first match was over. The cantae sweeping past her had blown down Fiyu's hood, leaving her hair streaming in the wind - it seemed she'd redone it in a loose braid. Her lips were parted in slight surprise, as if she hadn't expected to win so easily, but it was already over.

Another Tatian man moved forward to help his teammate up - he felt like he'd finished soulcrafting his first floor, so he was probably Mogi. His gaze swept over Fiyu, not angry, but clearly marking her as a dangerous opponent. Winning the first match so decisively, that was likely on everyone's mind. Fiyu hesitated a moment, glancing back toward them with a bit of worry, but then politely lowered her head to the audience and returned to their seating area.

Several members of their team whooped, startling her more than the cantae blast to the face. But Nauda was prepared, leading her back down to her seat without actually touching her, a warm smile on her face. "That was wonderfully done, Fiyu. That's one match in our favor."

"Send out your fighter!" Mogi called from the opposite side, hands around his mouth showily, as if he actually needed to shout across the short distance. "Unless you're not so confident without knowing who you'll be facing?"

This was where strategy came into play. If they traded turns, that meant that there were effectively two different kinds of strength: the ability to remove specific opponents and the ability to resist an unknown opponent. The early matches would be the most dangerous, given that anyone from the entire enemy team could potentially fight.

Theo realized that would also lead to the matches dwindling to the weaker participants, which wasn't a very showy way to organize a tournament. Clearly, Tatian crowds weren't in it for the bloodlust. Mogi continued to taunt them, so at least he wasn't lacking competitive spirit. Judging from the way Nauda pursed her lips and marched out, she wasn't lacking either.

"I apologize for my cowardice in not leading my team into the arena." Nauda bowed deeply before stepping over the water. "As a small recompense, I will step forward now and do my utmost to challenge whoever is sent against me."

Mogi grinned... and turned away to allow another member of his team to enter. It had been a trap, and a hypocritical one, given that Mogi hadn't stepped forward either. The opponent who stepped up to face Nauda was an ordinary-looking Tatian woman who drew two small rods as she entered. Theo would have thought they were an ineffective weapon, except that they were covered in the same dark studs as Nauda's staff.

The instant the bell rang, Nauda thrust the prongs of her staff forward, but she wasn't quick enough. Her opponent raised both rods in front of her, blocking the invisible force. Nauda hissed and tried to push forward, but couldn't overcome her opponent. In fact, the other woman jerked one rod to the side, pulling Nauda with the movement, then thrust out with her other hand.

One of Nauda's legs trembled in place and Theo understood the trap. Mogi clearly knew about Nauda's technique and had prepared one of his team members who could do the same, but with two separate armaments. Most of Nauda's body seemed frozen in place as she struggled to level her staff toward her opponent.

With an abrupt wrenching movement, Nauda twisted her staff free of her opponent's force. But this time, even as she was beginning to thrust, the other woman flipped both rods upward, jerking Nauda's arms into the air. While she was off balance, both rods thrust outward, the air rippling as force caught Nauda in the shoulders and hips, driving her backward.

She fell back a step... but not over the ring of water. Nauda grimaced, straining against her opponent's force. Theo was surprised to find himself raptly watching the invisible match, while Fiyu clutched the bench beneath her so tightly her knuckles were bloodless.

Again Nauda twisted out of her opponent's bind, her staff sweeping horizontally. Once more, her opponent deflected the force with both rods, smiling as she started to extend one again.

Nauda reversed her staff, the base thrusting forward.

Though the force was invisible, it knocked her opponent off her feet, doubling her body over as if she'd been impaled through the stomach. She remained frozen in the air in that position, one rod clattering to the ground. A hush fell over the crowd and Fiyu breathed a sigh of relief.

Theo's combat instincts expected Nauda to slam her opponent into the arena, but instead she lowered the other woman to the ground gently. As soon as she touched the ground, the match was over. Nauda bowed to the other team with perfect humility, then returned to their side as the crowds began to cheer.

"Mogi's family, please choose your next contestant." The judges spoke gently when no one was forthcoming, but the other side continued speaking in low voices. They didn't seem furious, but Mogi had definitely been humbled by the defeat.

When they finally broke, they sent a Fithan man out into the circle. Theo frowned, trying to glimpse the man's soulhome and reconsidering his thoughts about strategy. This man hadn't followed a Farmguard blueprint, but his cantae felt unremarkable... Theo glanced toward Nauda.

"Is he hiding something?"

"No, I think he's bait." Nauda considered him a moment longer, then turned back to the rest of them. "Not their weakest, but they're trying to lure out more of our skilled fighters. Kuber, do you think you could fight him as you are?"

"Probably." Kuber stood up, reluctantly leaving the ceremonial rod behind to step into the circle.

Their fight turned out to be much less interesting than the previous, as neither combatant had any polished techniques. Though the Fithan man had a knife, Kuber disarmed him with a huge burst of cantae. His every movement was overpowered, as the only real advantage he had was the massive store of cantae inside his over-sized chamber. In a longer fight, his lack of organized rooms might have led him to lose, but eventually he managed to out-wrestle his opponent and throw him from the circle.

Three victories, no losses. Theo swallowed when Nauda pointed to him, because he had a feeling that he was going to break that streak.

He walked to the ring calmly, trying to display as much confidence as possible. It wasn't that he was completely helpless: he had a well-crafted soulhome that stored a decent amount of cantae. Over the course of his life, he'd honed his fighting instincts and learned several martial arts, plus he still had the spear armament Navim had made for him.

All he could do was stand and wait, hoping he could draw out one of their stronger fighters. Based on the amount of time it took Mogi's team to choose, he must have caused them a bit of worry. Eventually they sent out a middle-aged man with a heavily fortified soulhome.

That wasn't good, or it was great, depending on the perspective. Then the bell sounded and he had no more time to think because a wall of wind swept toward him.

It almost knocked him from the ring at the very beginning of the match, but his instincts told him to drop to the ground and dig in. The wind stung his skin with an edge of cantae, not quite a focused attack. The sapphire currents swirling around the man's hands definitely were, though. He leapt away from the first burst, which dissipated against the ground with nearly enough force to make him stumble.

His only hope was to get close enough to use his spear. Theo drew as much cantae from his soulhome as he could, reinforcing his body and moving him faster than his opponent could hurl the bursts of sapphire wind. Unfortunately, the older man didn't panic, merely raising another wall of wind to keep him back while steadily hurling bursts at him.

Without any special techniques of his own, Theo was definitely going to lose. His only hope was to put everything he had into a single charge, so he lunged forward.

As expected, the middle-aged man raised a wall of wind with one hand while sending out a burst with the other. Theo ducked underneath the burst and this time charged directly into the wind, throwing his own cantae against it in an uncontrolled blast. Then he was through, thrusting his spear forward and activating it...

His opponent's hands closed around the tip of the spear, catching the force in a swirl of his own cantae. Theo realized too late that he should let go of the spear, but the whirling force caught hold of his body and threw him into the air. Before he'd even finished tumbling, a burst of wind smashed into him, then another, then another, then he was crashing into the arena floor.

Outside the circle.

The conclusion was announced and the old man nodded politely to him, but Theo ignored him and the crowds. Defeat was bitter despite the fact that he'd expected it. When he returned, Fiyu gave him an encouraging smile like a knife to the gut, while Nauda clapped a hand on his shoulder approvingly.

"You made them use up one of their stronger fighters. That's good enough."

But it wasn't, not for him. It wasn't just that he had lost, it was that he had lost badly, outclassed in both power and technique. Theo sat on the bench gloomily, trying to figure out if there was another way he might have won, but given so little to work with, he didn't think it was possible.

Their next fighter went out in a heated wrestling match that ranged across the arena before Mogi's fighter won. It had been a close match between roughly equal opponents, making morale a more important factor and leaving Theo wondering if he was responsible for that loss as well. Mogi's team was certainly exultant now that they were catching up, and Nauda's expression suggested that she agreed.

"Fiyu, can you fight again?"

The Ichili woman bobbed her head agreeably. "Do you need me to?"

"Yes. We're both running out of skilled soulcrafters and we need to end their streak."

When Fiyu stepped out into the arena a second time, there wasn't a pause like before. Instead Mogi himself walked forward with a broad smile on his face, as if he had been waiting for that moment. Nauda bit her lip and reached out, as if she could take back the decision, but Theo pulled her hand back. They could only trust in Fiyu's strength now.

"You're strong," Mogi said, "but you should stick to ambushing opponents who aren't prepared for you. Just a suggestion for future fights."

Fiyu didn't respond at all, hands loose at her sides. Mogi tried to smirk at her, but it dissipated against the lack of response. He eventually bent down and readied his fists, fully serious. Unfortunately, it did feel like he had a fully soulcrafted first floor, so the fight wouldn't end swiftly like Fiyu's previous one.

The instant the bell rang, Mogi smashed both his fists together. A cacophony of flashing lights and blaring horns exploded over the arena, so intense that it nearly blinded Theo from a distance and made several of the judges fall from their seats. In the instant that Fiyu flinched, Mogi leapt across the arena to strike her.

He was met head on by a burst of light from both hands. His technique might have been disabling to Fiyu not long ago, but Theo felt a surge of pride when he saw her completely ignore it. With her soulcrafted window combined with her new mask, no attempt to strike at her weaknesses would be effective.

Though a huge number of her bolts landed, knocking Mogi backwards, they didn't drive him from the ring. He straightened with a grimace and emerald light flickered around his torso. It was some sort of spiritual armor, battered by all of the bolts but not broken. To his credit, Mogi didn't attempt any kind of distraction again, he just attacked.

His first leap was terrifyingly fast, nearly bridging the distance between them in an instant. Fiyu released a hail of bursts at his location, but he easily dodged aside, a surge of cantae preventing him from losing any momentum. She'd held back her other hand and the burst from it caught him in the face.

Mogi kept coming, grimacing as her bolts impacted against his armor but not about to stop. Just before his fist collided with her face, Fiyu shot to the side, quick as a shadow. He was puzzled for only a moment, and in that time she sent more bolts slamming into his side.

Seeing that her attack was ineffective, Fiyu retreated to the edge and conserved her strength. The enemy leader was hesitant as well, surprised that his opponent was so quick. He took a step forward, then retreated as soon as she raised a hand, taunting her into sending out more bursts. Considering that Fiyu couldn't release unlimited strikes, that was an effective strategy. Mogi began to shift around the arena, so quickly that he was just a blur, every movement a potential attack.

Fiyu spread her fingers wide and unleashed a hailstorm of light. Eyebrows rose and jaws dropped all around the arena as she utterly blanketed the entire ring with bolts. Even if Mogi could have dodged them, his strategy shifting from side to side sent him slamming into several of them before he could correct. The green aura protecting him began to crack and he grimaced before leaping into the air.

As soon as he did so, Fiyu raised her hands to strike. But Mogi brought his fists together again, this time releasing a shockwave of force that smashed aside her bolts.

In an instant he was overhead, his fist slamming down toward a defenseless Fiyu.

It looked almost like she fell forward at first, yet Fiyu tucked into a roll and passed just under his attack. Mogi stomped down into the arena, his boot gouging deep into the stone, whirling around to strike her before she could escape his range...

Instead, Fiyu extended a hand behind her, fingers aligned like a knife. A searing stream of bursts struck him in the torso, shattering through his aura and sending him flying back toward the audience.

Multiple people gasped and flinched before he collided with an aura of green cantae that had been invisible before that moment. Mogi flattened against the cantae wall, his chest bleeding severely. He began to fall forward and Nanjuma caught him before he hit the ground.

"You see? There is nothing to fear." Nanjuma smiled over the crowd, but his eyes moved quickly to find the healers. "Would someone come forward and help this lad? We'll take a brief break to return everything to order."

In that time, a pair of healers came to attend Mogi, who was conscious but in pain. Someone else walked out to repair the arena, the stone throbbing as if to a stony heartbeat as it slowly flowed back into position. Meanwhile, Fiyu walked back to their area very slowly.

Though she looked serene, Theo could tell that she was exhausted. She barely even flinched when everyone cheered her, then slumped down onto her bench. Nauda was smiling broadly and ended up clapping Theo on the shoulder as if she couldn't resist touching someone.

"That was exactly what we needed, Fiyu. They've sent their strongest, so we have this well in hand. Everyone else, I expect you to fight your best, but the remainder of this match is about gaining as much real experience as you can."

As it happened, they still dominated the remaining set, as Mogi's team had been severely demoralized. The remaining fights weren't particularly interesting, yet Theo found himself watching closely, invested in the outcome of his team. Of the remaining four fights, they won three of them, and even the loss seemed like only a temporary setback, the loser not even ashamed when she returned to their group.

So they'd won seven to three, a strong showing for the first match. Some of the fights had been a close thing, but they also had more to reveal. Theo was fairly certain that Fiyu and Nauda both had something left up their sleeves, while he hoped that in a week he would be an entirely different soulcrafter.

Just as he was starting to put his loss behind him and enjoy the celebration, Theo caught a glimpse of Magnafor in the crowd. He didn't even seem to notice anything that had gone on in the arena below, his gaze locked on the vast tree overhead.

Chapter 21

Not only did they have a week to prepare for their second match, they also knew exactly who their opponent would be: Famaj's team. The Farmguard was quite cheerful about it, expressing anticipation for the match without any hint of rivalry, but Theo still felt a flicker of annoyance. He decided to leave the reconnaissance to Nauda and focused on his soulcrafting.

Unfortunately, no prizes were awarded for the first round, he'd exhausted his money, and no one was handing out useful sublime materials. He'd acquired as much ore from the mine and fruit from the orchards as they would hand out, just in case, but hadn't come up with anything yet.

At the moment, he was staring at the bogstone while idly hammering apart a piece of stone. He hoped that inspiration would strike, but while it didn't, he at least wanted to accomplish something. Using some of the more ordinary sublime ore from the mine, he'd begun soulcrafting one of his empty chambers. He'd borrowed Fiyu's spirit lantern and was using it to melt down and reshape the stone into a specific pattern.

What he'd crafted was a representation of the time-space continuum, with objects of great mass distorting it, except instead of a planet he'd created a replica of his soulhome. It was a slightly dubious exercise, but he'd poured everything he knew about gravity into the construction of it. In theory, it would allow him his first technique once his heart chamber began working, not that it seemed likely to.

Once that was finished, he'd begun adding trim and more elaborate door frames, just to add some polish to the path between the room and the central chamber. He'd etched gravitational symbols on them, but didn't delude himself into thinking that would make a huge difference. Having a more polished room might strengthen his technique slightly. At best. Presuming he got any of it working.

With a growl of frustration, Theo took a massive swing at the rock. It cracked in half and several pieces went flying across the room, breaking against the glossy black walls.

Except some of the fragments slid directly into the bogstone, sinking into it rapidly and leaving only ripples. Those ripples grew and distorted one another until the stone began to lift into the air, its surface bubbling strangely...

And then it dropped back to the ground. The reaction was over, nothing fundamentally changed, and the bogstone was just a little more dense than before.

Yet as he bent down to examine it, Theo realized that he finally had his answer. He needed to transform the bogstone from a simple material representing a bog to a core representing a significant source of mass. What better way than to have it absorb other sublime materials? It was a bit of a mental stretch, but an influx of new cantae from other materials would help smooth over the process.

Theo sat down and took several deep breaths, trying to figure out if there were many major flaws in his plan. It was no blueprint considered for decades, but he thought that it would work. At worst, he didn't think that the bogstone could explode. He couldn't afford not to take the chance.

He started with the useless fragments of stone he had left over, but their reactions were similarly short-lived. A bit of experimentation led him to discover that if he spun the sphere, the ripples stabilized and it stayed in the air longer. But even though it was growing denser and denser, it didn't seem to be getting closer to a fundamental transformation. There had to be something, more of a reaction...

His gaze fell on the slate of magnigem. It was by far the densest sublime material he owned, stubbornly resisting cantae and other effects. Though he'd planned to use it as a pedestal for some future ability, it might also be just the right material for a transformation. After a bit more thought, Theo picked it up and dropped it onto the bogstone.

This time it wasn't absorbed easily, the two sublime materials reacting violently with one another and sending cantae in all directions. But the blackened walls resisted it, and he hadn't rebuilt the roof, so he only needed to endure the blast.

Lifting his new combined core into the air, Theo began squeezing it with his bare hands, throwing all his willpower against the mass. As he spun it, he reminded himself of who he was. A bitter old man who had been a fool as a child, spent miserable years seeking that lost youth, and had nearly lost his second chance pursuing that dream. His sun had collapsed, leaving nothing but a black hole that consumed everything...

When he opened his eyes, the sublime materials had surrendered to his will. A dark sphere the size of his head hovered in the air in the center of his soulhome, force cascading from it. Theo quickly spun it, forcing it to balance. This time the process seemed to ignite a reaction and it continued to spin... but also start to drift toward the ground.

Theo knew he was close, but it wasn't quite self-sustaining: it needed more mass. He experimentally threw all the remaining stone into the core and saw it vanish without a trace, increasing its mass a little further. Laughing as he realized that it would work, he rushed through his soulhome, grabbing up every sublime material without a critical purpose and hurling it into the core. Though he hesitated for a moment before adding the demonic materials, they were absorbed all the same. The nature of the materials didn't matter, they were all just mass to him.

At last, when he had thrown away everything else, a black core of power rotated in the center of his soulhome. It was as dense as all the sublime materials combined, though of course it wasn't really a singularity. No amount of willpower could bridge a gap like that.

Still, it had been a success. Cantae rushed from the core, some of it lost into the sky, but most of it flowing through his outer chambers just as he'd planned. Though he didn't like how it hung unsupported, it seemed to be locked into place by the blackened walls of the central chamber. Those had been his frame of reference, after all, and they had been created by the implosion of a metaphorical sun. The heart of his soulhome now felt stable.

When he walked to the only chamber that he'd soulcrafted, he discovered that it was drinking up the new cantae, just as he'd hoped. Now that he'd soulcrafted more than walls, he could do better than just reinforcing his body with cantae. Instead, he should be able to manifest it in an actual ability...

Returning to the real world, Theo tried his first experiment on a cup in his room, and found himself laughing again. Finally, it had worked.

Of course, he quickly discovered all the limitations of his new skill. He suspected that it would be possible for him to create new sources of "spiritual mass" and use gravity in extremely creative ways, but that required far more power than he had, or that he would ever possess as a first tier soulcrafter. So the only options available to him were to manipulate gravitational fields related to existing sources of mass, and only the world itself was massive enough to matter.

That would be enough, or so he hoped. He also discovered that he was limited to only a single gravitational effect at once, no matter how he tried to practice. However, he suspected that the limitation could be overcome with significant soulcrafting, which would be ongoing work for years. As much as he'd accomplished that day, it was just finding the path he intended to walk.

The process had taken him four of the six days they had before the next match, so Theo used his remaining time to stress test his core and single technique chamber. In between those sessions, he finally let himself consider their opponents again, as he could actually play a significant role on their team now.

Fortunately, he hadn't missed all of the interesting matches. He was able to attend one of Navim's fights, which the Mundhin won by virtue of being nearly impossible to push out of the ring. One of the last matches before the next round involved Famaj's team, and he was surprised to note that Famaj was near Archcrafter, his soulhome straining against the sky. If he obtained the right sublime materials from the contest, he could probably ascend.

Not that it would matter, if Theo played his cards right.

Only one observation ruined his good mood: he saw Kuber talking to Magnafor, and when he asked about it later, Kuber wouldn't explain anything about their conversation. But judging from how much soulcrafting he was doing, Magnafor must have given him a suggestion. Theo still couldn't think of any way Kuber could reach Archcrafter quickly to use his armament, but it was possible that Magnafor was more experienced when it came to that.

The day before the match, Theo sat in his room as usual, focusing on his preparations. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice someone outside his soulhome until he heard a soft cough and saw that Fiyu and Nauda were standing by his door.

"You have accomplished something, yes?" Fiyu craned her head at him curiously, trying to peer into his soulhome. "Must it be a secret? Will you tell us?"

"Sorry, I've just been distracted." Theo realized that it was senseless to keep shutting them out, he just wasn't used to being open with anyone. He got to his feet and brushed off his hands, even though he'd only been working spiritually. "Yeah, you should know about what I can do now. Actually, you can help me test. It would be embarrassing if I find out it doesn't work on a resisting soulcrafter."

Nauda raised her eyebrows. "You seem very confident."

Theo grinned. "Want to help me find out if it's justified?"

Chapter 22

When the day came, he was ready. Not a genius or a god, but his soulhome was finally more than a shell. After one final training session, he walked with Fiyu and Nauda to their preparation area. No one else had arrived, but they'd be coming soon, as it wasn't long until the match.

"What's our strategy for Famaj's team?" Theo asked. "I assume you've finished all your scouting?"

"He has nine members, just like we do." Nauda began ticking off her fingers. "Famaj himself is a straightforward Farmguard, but with significant cantae. His first pick was a man named Josiku, who is probably the physically strongest on their side. There's a Deuxan woman who I haven't been able to learn much about, but her soulhome is very well-crafted. Beyond them, there are three Tatians and a Fithan in the 'experienced' classes, which leaves just two apprentice soulcrafters."

"You sound more than ready." There was no need to go over their own side aloud, but he considered them briefly. He was confident in the three of them, but beyond that, their team wasn't strong. Maybe Kuber if Magnafor had found some magical way to let him ascend immediately.

"We should be." Nauda cast a smile at both of them. "Our capacity to react is excellent, especially given your new heart chamber. I mostly worry about every time we need to put forward a team member... I think I'll try to take that role first and spare the others who aren't as prepared."

Theo thought that protecting the weaker members of the team was probably a waste of her energy, but the fights would still be useful for her. As time passed, however, those lesser members failed to appear. It went from being irritating to concerning, and eventually Fiyu began casting glances toward the arena.

"We might be late... do you think they went to the arena instead?"

"Let's see." Nauda grimly took them in that direction, and as Theo followed he became certain that something was wrong.

When they arrived, they discovered that Famaj and his team were waiting, and the audience had mostly assembled, but their alcove sat empty. Nauda immediately left to track the other members down in their rooms, while Theo went to talk to Nanjuma. Though he stood in the center with a bland smile on his face, when Theo got close, he saw the concern in the old man's eyes.

"Our team didn't show at our meeting point," Theo said. "Do you know what might be wrong?"

"I can tell you that there have been few demon attacks recently, and no violence in Myufuru." Nanjuma's eyes briefly went unfocused as if he was looking through the ground itself. "We have the right number of soulcrafters within Landguard Village, but I cannot tell you about their condition."

"What happens if they don't arrive?"

"It would depend on the reason... but I suppose your family would be forced to fight with a limited group."

That was what he had been afraid of, and further fears were soon confirmed when Nauda returned. She only brought Kuber with her, and the Tatian man leaned heavily on her shoulder. When they finally stopped, he slumped onto a bench and looked as though he desperately wanted to vomit.

"A few of us... relaxed last night..." He coughed for a moment and accepted a drink of water from one of the Tatian healers. "This morning... I don't think I've ever been this sick..."

"All the rest are even worse," Nauda said. "I helped them to the healers, and I don't think there's any threat to their lives, but I hope someone will check."

Nanjuma touched Kuber's forehead briefly, then shook his head. "His body is struggling to repel a substance of ill intent. There is a rare event in which food can become sickening. Perhaps your team unfortunately ate the poisoned food."

Most seemed to accept that explanation, which was patently absurd. Since Nauda was too busy helping Kuber to the healers, Theo looked to Fiyu instead, and she simply nodded. Her focus shifted toward the other team, which was probably the right level of suspicion.

Famaj looked deeply concerned, and most of his team was confused. But the Deuxan woman sitting in the back had a smug smile on her face and didn't flinch from eye contact. In many Deuxan courts, poison was a way of life and a common means of promotion. The chance that she had mildly poisoned their team was high, but could he prove it? Probably not in any court, much less a Tatian circle.

"Are they just drunk?" one of the instructors asked. A few laughed and the Deuxan woman spoke up.

"Will we be robbed of our match simply because the other team made poor decisions?"

Her question prompted immediate disagreement, some arguing and many in the stands simply unable to avoid giving their opinions. It grew louder and more chaotic until Nanjuma coughed, the sound amplified so much that it crushed all others. The old man raised his hands for order, then spoke quietly.

"We will examine this matter to determine if any of our food has been tainted, of course. I think whether or not today's match continues should be determined by the two families involved."

Famaj stood up and stepped to the side of the ring. "There is no joy in competing against sickened opponents. We will continue only if the other family is willing to agree."

That pronouncement prompted a grimace in the Deuxan woman, which removed any remaining doubt in Theo's mind. She couldn't object without drawing undue attention, however, so the question turned toward them. Theo wondered if she could really get away with the poisoning, in a world as naive as Tatian, but the others clearly wanted his attention.

They formed a tight circle, for a time just glancing at one another, then Fiyu spoke quietly. "Many of their team members have cantae barriers. I think I could overcome any one individually, but I will soon exhaust myself."

"I think that's the wrong question," Theo said. "What we need to be asking is whether the experience is worth it. I'd personally rather get as many fights as possible, but it's true that we'll probably win fewer and reveal more of our abilities. But do we really need to be concerned with our exact win rate?"

Nauda took a deep breath, nearly spoke, then something shifted and her words came out flatter than he expected. "I would like to win this competition, but we also need to prove ourselves to everyone watching. Famaj and his family will have Tatian support after this is over. We need to earn it."

"Then you think we shouldn't fight?" There was clearly more that she hadn't said, but he decided not to press her on it. After a long pause, Nauda shook her head.

"We can try, if you're both willing. But we can't use our normal strategy."

"I should go first," Fiyu said. "If I have enough time to rest, I can recover most of my cantae. I might be able to make it through three fights, depending on my opponents."

"Then I suppose that's our choice." Nauda straightened her back and tapped her staff against the ground. When she turned back to Nanjuma, she looked completely confident. "We fight!"

The crowds cheered appreciatively, less in bloodlust than in admiration of her determination. Famaj looked at them for a time, and glanced back toward his own team thoughtfully, but eventually nodded and returned to his side. Nanjuma retreated to the stands and handed the ceremonial bell to one of the judges, who rang it immediately.

For the first round, Famaj sent out one of their Farmguards: the woman had an unremarkable soulhome, but she was reasonably strong. Normally Theo would have been happy to eliminate her, but he could only fight three times, so it was probably better to stick with Fiyu's strategy of going first.

Once Fiyu stepped into the ring, it wasn't really a fight. The Farmguard kept trying to close the distance between them, but she wasn't nearly as fast as Mogi, so she always collided with the scattering bolts. Even with Fiyu trying to conserve herself, her opponent was soon knocked from the arena and they took the first match.

That done, Fiyu returned to their area, sat down with her knees under her, folded her hands in her lap, and lowered her hood over her eyes. She had the right idea: there was no question that they'd win multiple matches, but if they ended up exhausting themselves, they'd forfeit all the rest.

"Should I go?" Theo asked, but even as he spoke, Nauda was already rising.

"No, I'll try. Even if they don't know about your abilities, they might send out one of their best to try to eliminate you right away."

Theo thought that he might be able to take their best, but it wasn't worth the argument. Nauda stepped out into the ring, set her staff firmly in front of her, and waited. Unfortunately, she didn't have to wait long before one of the Farmguards leapt to his feet. Judging from the man's expression, they again had a plan to counter her.

As soon as the bell rang, Nauda thrust her staff forward... and her opponent raised a fist in front of his face. Both of them froze in place, power clearly flooding between them. The man's sleeve began to tear away, ripped by the invisible force, revealing an ornate bracer carved of a bright wood. Whatever it was, it was obviously an armament.

They remained locked there for several heartbeats, then suddenly Nauda let out a cry and wrenched her staff away, dropping to one knee. Even though she had been the one attacking, her opponent looked unharmed. He smiled and began advancing, bracer still held in front of him.

When he drew close and pulled back a leg to kick her, Nauda struck. This time she swept her staff low, the force nearly sweeping him off his feet. She lunged in with a thrust and he put the bracer in the way, but this time she didn't attempt to use any force, she just struck him in the face with the head of her staff. He staggered back and Nauda thrust the butt of her spear toward his bracer, but he managed to leap away.

The two began slowly circling, weapons ready. Theo glanced to Fiyu, who looked concerned but confused, so he could only speculate. Whatever the bracer was, it must have absorbed or short-circuited the technique Nauda used to bind opponents in place. He realized that though her staff was likely extremely effective in many places, here on Tatian it was a known quantity with established counters.

Not making the same mistake twice, Nauda fought cautiously, and since her opponent was also willing to wait, the match dragged on. They stayed at a distance, Nauda occasionally making an attempt to bind a limb, while he only occasionally threatened. Yet given how Nauda was sweating, it didn't seem like she could last for much longer.

Except... he noticed that many of her interrupted movements led to the end of her staff tracing patterns on the ground in front of her. It was subtle, but she was laying down cantae in a way that he hadn't seen before. Though he couldn't see well enough into her soulhome, he had a strong feeling that this was the fourth room that she had kept locked.

Eventually Nauda let out a growl and thrust her staff forward, again trying to bind her opponent. He blocked once more, this time only briefly before Nauda sagged down to her knees, barely holding herself up with her staff.

Her opponent charged... and the instant he reached the line of cantae she'd been drawing, he was sent tumbling backward. The cantae burst was surprisingly bright, a wall of force exploding solely outward. When it faded, Nauda was back on her feet and her opponent lay unconscious outside the ring.

As she walked back to their side, Theo smiled at her. "Nicely done. Luring him into the trap was a good move."

"It wasn't entirely a lure." She remained controlled until she sat, then he saw her posture sag. "I didn't think they would have such a powerful armament - one of them must have borrowed it from family. That took more out of me than I expected, and I had to reveal my last trick."

"Not necessarily - to most watching, it might just have looked like you created a cantae shockwave. Or is that trapping technique well-known?"

"No. Not here." Nauda refused to give any more information, simply watching the arena with her Tatian smile fixed on her face defensively.

They'd won two matches, just not as well as he might have hoped. Fiyu was only slightly drained, but Nauda had been seriously weakened. It seemed that the other team knew it, sending out one of their weakest members to continue draining their cantae.

However, they hadn't planned for Theo. He stood up and stretched, walking to the arena at a relaxed pace. Even though his technique would be clear enough, he didn't think they'd be able to come up with a counter to it quickly, at least not other than the obvious counters he was prepared for.

When the bell rang, his opponent gathered all his cantae to prepare for a charge... and Theo simply extended a hand and created a gravitational field.

Instantly the Tatian man was struck by double normal gravity, and though he struggled to remain on his feet, burning through cantae rapidly, he wasn't prepared for it. In a matter of seconds, he dropped to one knee, then collapsed entirely. Theo withdrew his hand, smiled at the judges, and returned to his side.

For a little while there was silence in the audience as the healers came out in alarm, but his opponent was just exhausted, not seriously injured. The other side hesitated as well, which was even better, since it gave his teammates time to recover. He had considered prolonging the match himself, except that he hadn't yet soulcrafted enough to generate anything other than a field equal to the world's gravity.

From across the arena, Famaj gave him a nod of respect, though Theo didn't really want it. Not when he'd chosen the muscle-bound Josiku over him. Josiku actually stepped up next, flexing as he stepped into the arena.

"Looks like you came up with something strong. You think it'll be enough against me?"

Once, Theo might have risen to the challenge, but instead he just glanced at his allies. Nauda squinted toward their opponent, then shook her head. "If I could resist your field some," she whispered, "it wouldn't stop him enough. He's extremely strong physically, but he's slow and he doesn't have any ranged techniques. Fiyu?"

"Yes, I can." Fiyu unfolded herself and went out to fight him, which seemed to annoy Josiku.

Unfortunately for him, the muscular Farmguard had met his match. Fiyu simply kept her distance and rained concentrated bursts of light down upon him. Decently strong cantae flowed through his body, but it was clearly draining with each impact. He shouted at her to stand and fight him, but Fiyu dodged away from his clumsy attacks and continued wearing him down from a distance.

Eventually he collapsed, and the loss clearly hit Famaj's team hard. Fiyu had no expression on her face, but as she walked back, she swayed a little. Even if she had avoided injury, she'd clearly emptied most of her soulhome in the fight. They needed to buy her as much time as possible before she had to fight again.

He and Nauda glanced at each other, since one of them had to be the sacrificial lamb. Theo started to get to his feet, but to his surprise, Nauda pulled him back down and stepped forward. There was a burning determination in her eyes that he didn't quite understand, but he chose to stand down and let her go.

Soon enough, one of Famaj's Fithan competitors stepped out... and he was wearing the previous Farmguard's bracer, not to mention a smirk that was practically an act of war on Tatian. Nauda gritted her teeth and waited.

The same moment the bell rang, she leapt forward, her staff whirling around her. Not trying her ability, simply using it as a quarterstaff. Theo realized in surprise that she was actually pretty good, clearly trained in hand to hand combat and capable of reinforcing herself with cantae.

Unfortunately, her opponent wasn't relying solely on the armguard. He drew a sword and ably fended off her attacks. Combined with the bracer, he wove a skilled defense, especially since he was still fresh. Nauda eventually saw her chance and struck at the bracer with the end of her staff, but his sword batted it aside and then reversed, slashing across her chest.

The crowds gasped as Nauda staggered backward, but she wasn't bleeding. Theo hadn't been able to see well, but he thought that she'd managed to surge her cantae to defend against the cut. Wasteful, but better than a potentially disabling blow. Unfortunately, the effort left her on her hands and knees, gasping for breath.

Her opponent was too cautious to rush in, even though she hadn't apparently set up any traps, and instead began circling around her. Nauda remained on her hands and knees as he moved, then without warning lunged up, thrusting her staff in his direction.

Taken off guard, the Fithan only barely moved the bracer in the way in time. But it clearly did its work and Nauda gave a low groan, sagging as if her staff was the only thing keeping her upright. Her opponent smirked and remained in place, letting her exhaust herself against the bracer.

Nauda cried out and twisted her staff. The resulting crack rang over the arena and the bracer shattered into several fragments that clattered to the ground in the silence.

Her opponent staggered back in surprise... but Nauda's staff slipped from her fingers. It clattered to the ground and she followed a moment later, unconscious before her face hit the arena.

Chapter 23

Everyone stared at the arena, where Nauda lay with her staff still rattling to a stop beside her. Since the Fithan was still on his feet, they had clearly won the match, yet it didn't feel like a victory based on the reaction. The first Farmguard to use the bracer leapt up into the ring, even as healers came to attend Nauda.

"She can't do that!" He tried to scoop up pieces of the armament, but it had clearly been broken beyond repair. "This... this has been in my family for generations..."

Nanjuma stepped in front of him, gently pushing him back to his side. "You chose to bring your armament to this match and base your strategy around it. Having done that, you cannot refuse the crops you have sown. Sit back down."

It was nice to get some support from the authorities for once, but Theo realized that their situation had worsened. Assuming that Nauda wouldn't be able to fight her third round, they would definitely forfeit one match. That might be the best case scenario, if he and Fiyu couldn't continue their streak. When he glanced at her, she shook her head sadly, still recovering. So it was up to him.

He let it drag out by checking on Nauda, since the Tatians could never object to him being concerned for his "family member". But once it was thoroughly confirmed that she was just exhausted, not injured, he had no choice but to get ready for the next match.

Famaj looked troubled, as if he was belatedly concerned about their tactics. It didn't stop him from gesturing to the Deuxan woman, who eagerly stepped out into the ring. She drew two silvery knives from her hips and spun them around her hands, taunting them since they had no real choices about matching her.

Fortunately, he had a good chance. Theo pretended to look worried as he stepped out into the ring, eyes shifting between her knives and her feet. For a flickering moment it reminded him of sparring with Brigana, but the truth was that the two women didn't look much alike, and for the first time, those events felt like they had been ages ago.

The bell rang, a knife flashed out, and he raised his hand. Instead of generating a full gravitational field, Theo focused it solely on the knife, which fell to the ground sooner than it should have. As the Deuxan woman noted its path, he directed his hand toward her next.

His field couldn't quite flatten her to the ground, not with her flooding cantae through her body. She grimaced and managed to draw another knife, then exerted all of her effort to fling it at him. Again, Theo released the field on her to focus solely on the knife and make sure that it didn't reach him.

As soon as she was free, she leapt across the arena, hurling a pair of knives and drawing one more to thrust at his chest. Theo smiled and finally brought his gravitational field down on the entire arena.

The gravity wasn't any higher than before, but in the air, his opponent couldn't resist and hit the ground heavily. She clutched her remaining knife and started to get up, only for him to kick it out of her hand. Though he could have kept his distance and let her exhaust herself, he didn't want to risk her pulling out any other tricks. Instead he used one foot to shove her legs until they skidded heavily out of the arena.

When his victory was announced and he released the gravitational field, she pushed up, glaring daggers from her eyes as well. Her anger was somewhat limited by the fact that she was having trouble straightening, her heart no doubt struggling to recover from the heavy gravity. He bent down beside her and spoke quietly.

"Not everyone is naive here. If you poison anyone again, I won't hold back."

Seeing the moment of fear in her eyes was gratifying, but his main goal was to leave a deterrent. Theo returned to his own side, glancing inward to his soulhome. Even though he'd handily won two matches, maintaining the gravitational fields had emptied several chambers of cantae. It hadn't been a priority compared to finishing his heart chamber, but he needed increased reserves as well.

Reserves were going to be the problem, he realized as he returned to their side. Nauda was still sleeping unconscious between the benches, while Fiyu knelt, focused inward but not having restored herself yet. He didn't want to go directly back out into the ring, but there might not be a choice.

Worse, Famaj's team didn't waste any time. Another Farmguard waited just beside the arena, holding two different armaments. Theo examined him and the equipment he held, then smiled bitterly as he understood their strategy.

His side had to send out himself or Fiyu, using up their third match. They must have armaments prepared for both of them, ones specially suited to neutralize them, as with Nauda. Even if they managed to overcome the armaments, Famaj would step out after that, confident that he could defeat whoever was left. The other team's last remaining member was by far the weakest... they planned to send him out last, when Theo and Fiyu could no longer fight, and thus gain one last victory by default.

Fighting against the armament-wielder or Famaj would be fair challenges, but having to forfeit that last fight irritated him. Theo found himself looking down to Nauda. She'd seemed so earnest about needing as many victories as possible, yet he couldn't ask her why it mattered so much to her.

"Come on, you have to choose your next fighter." The Farmguard gave them a pleasant Tatian smile as he waited, weighing his armaments in his hands. "We're waiting."

It would have to be one of them. Fiyu turned her head toward him and he could see the uncertainty just in the tilt of her head. Either choice would put them at a disadvantage for all three of the remaining fights, but they also didn't have any other options...

"Wait!" A voice from the stairs drew everyone's attention and his head whipped around, expecting some sort of final revelation, or the results of the poison investigation.

Instead, it was the Fithan man from their team, clutching his stomach and limping up the stairs. He slowly made his way toward the ring, clearly in great discomfort but equally determined. One of the healers tried to help him, but he waved them off.

"I'm here... to fight on behalf of Nauda's family." The man took a deep breath and straightened as he stepped into the ring.

"Really?" The Farmguard gripped his armaments uncomfortably. "I thought that Theo or Fiyu..."

"I insist. Weren't you waiting?" Theo's teammate smiled and gestured for their opponent to enter, and he had no choice but to enter.

The bell rang. The Farmguard lowered both armaments to fight. And the Fithan promptly stepped back out of the ring.

Theo smiled and moved forward to catch the man before he collapsed. Many in the audience began to cheer, clearly supportive of standing up for family. They might have lost this round, but they'd completely thrown off their opponents' strategy, so Famaj and his teammates didn't look happy. As he helped the Fithan back, Theo realized that he didn't even know his name and felt a bit guilty.

"That was smart."

"I think... that Deuxan bitch poisoned us..." The man eased down onto the bench and clutched his stomach again. "I'll make it through, but... it feels pretty awful. But I heard you were still fighting and... couldn't let you do it alone."

"Well, you had perfect timing."

"I was waiting... at the bottom of the stairs..."

Smile broadening, Theo decided to throw his own pride away. He didn't know a lot about Fithan culture, but he could make an effort. "I'm shamed by the fact that you fought for us, yet I don't even know your name."

"It's Javes. And... it's fine." Javes gave him a vicious grin. "The fact that you took down the Deuxan... is thanks enough."

Unfortunately, even the heroic effort from Javes wasn't enough to end the match, not with two fights remaining. Theo glanced down at Fiyu, only to find that she was missing, having finally risen. When he walked up beside her, just within the shade of the tent, she gave a slow sigh.

"A little more time won't help at this point. I'll go out next and hope they send Famaj. I don't know if I'll win, but the last match will be easy for you."

"That's as good of a plan as we have, I think. Be careful."

"Always." With that, Fiyu headed out into the arena for the final time.

Instead of sending out Famaj, the weakest Farmguard entered with the armaments prepared. From the very beginning of the match, it was obvious that it wasn't going to be like the previous two. Fiyu moved more sluggishly and sent out bursts of light only cautiously. Her opponent used a glove that produced emerald armor that could deflect her bolts, but he was too weak to use it effectively.

As his small soulhome began to empty, the Farmguard grew desperate. He made a lunge through Fiyu's attacks to try to strike her, but she retreated before he could get close. The armament would have overwhelmed him in time, but he wasn't stupid: he poured all of his cantae into his body to gamble on a final rush.

In a single instant the Farmguard crossed the arena and struck Fiyu, yet she struck in the same moment. Not with her usual bursts of light, but ducking his strike and sweeping her hand to the side.

Theo didn't get a good look, but he was certain that he saw black cantae flicker around her hand like a knife. It had broken straight through the armor and cut a line of blood across her opponent's chest, and perhaps more importantly sent him collapsing to the side, body slumping over the ring of water. Fiyu also collapsed, but slowly pushed her way back to her knees.

He headed out to help her, not even looking at Famaj. For a moment he hesitated, wondering how to help Fiyu, and settled for offering an arm, which she gripped enough to rise. As they returned, she spoke very quietly. "Is he... alive?"

"Alive?" Theo blinked and looked to the Farmguard, checking that he was being attended by the healers. "He took a deep cut to the torso, but I don't think his life is in any danger."

"Good. I wasn't sure..." Fiyu's fingers dug harder into his arm. "I didn't want... to use that one..."

A lethal skill that couldn't be easily toned down, then. He wasn't really surprised that she had something like that, given her home on Ichil. All he did was smile and lead her back to a comfortable seat. "We can work on it later, if you want. For right now, you've done enough."

"But Famaj... will it work?"

"I guess we'll find out." Theo gave her a reassuring smile and walked back to the arena. Though he could have dragged the delay out longer, there wasn't any point. The last match wouldn't be won by brute force, if he won at all. It had gone on long enough and he was eager to finish it.

Famaj walked out slowly, though not because he was afraid. Instead his gaze slowly moved over the injured on both sides, growing sadder as he drew closer to the ring. When he arrived, he looked up at Theo and shook his head sadly.

"This wasn't the match I'd wanted for us. This is... not being a good member of our community. For that I apologize, but I cannot forfeit the match, because it would betray my family's effort."

"I wouldn't want you to." Theo flexed his fingers on both hands one at a time while forcing himself to smile. "What match did you want for us?"

"A conflict to prove the strength of our conviction." Famaj raised a fist and clenched it, flexing both muscle and cantae. "I hoped we could teach each other lessons that would strengthen all of us, not try to reduce the enemy's strength for the sake of mere victory."

The bell rang, but both of them ignored it. Theo gestured for his opponent to attack. "You've seen what I can do. What lesson were you going to teach me?"

"The limits of simple tricks." Famaj finally smiled, then cracked the knuckles on one hand. "But I'll admit, I'm curious to feel it for myself. Why don't you try to pin me down like you did the others?"

Theo complied instantly, covering the entire arena with a gravitational field before Famaj could set up anything else. The Farmguard grunted and dropped slightly, but caught himself with a quick step forward. Then he slowly began to straighten, rolling his shoulders and smiling.

"I've never felt heavy in quite this way... but it isn't going to be enough." Still smiling, he took a slow step forward, then another. "It's a good trick, but it will never work against an opponent with enough strength. Perhaps it's enough to suppress lesser demons."

Double gravity was proving less of an obstacle than Theo had hoped, even for a simple first tier soulcrafter. As Famaj walked forward, he seemed to be adjusting, his steps coming more confidently. His fists hung at his sides, but they were ready to strike if Theo attempted anything. Just as an experiment, Theo released a burst of raw cantae, but it dissipated off his opponent like smoke. Step by step, Famaj was closing the distance.

Theo flipped his hand upside-down and reversed the gravitational field.

His artificial field canceled the gravity of the world and Famaj's next step was weightless. For an instant before it landed, his eyes widened in shock, but it was too late: his firm push off the ground sent him floating into the air, sailing upward.

Flailing wildly, Famaj failed to change his trajectory at all, but did release a burst of cantae. Even prepared to dodge, Theo only barely got out of the way, but he only needed to dodge once. He reversed the field again, dropping Famaj to the ground at twice his normal weight.

Famaj snarled and pushed himself up, just in time to become weightless again. He sailed forward and Theo struck his shocked face with another burst of cantae. This one sent him sliding through the air, out of the ring, and into the barrier surrounding the arena. The audience was partially silent, partially cheering half-heartedly.

Eventually Famaj pushed himself up, shaken but not seriously injured. He moved toward the ring fast enough that Theo nearly activated another gravitational field defensively, but Famaj laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. As soon as he did so, the audience began applauding much more warmly.

"It seems you taught me a lesson about the limits of strength instead!" Famaj gripped both his shoulders, but not as a threat. "Despite how it started, this match ended well. I wish you and your family all the best as this competition goes forward."

Of course, that wasn't truly the end of it. The Deuxan woman glowered even more fiercely as the mood in the arena turned jubilant, and the Farmguard who had lost his family heirloom still sat dejected. If their teams fought again, Theo suspected it would go very differently, but in the meantime he resolved to be careful of poison.

When he turned back, he discovered that Nauda was sitting up and smiling. Fiyu hovered beside her, nervously trying to tend her without any direct contact, but she smiled as well when he approached. Despite the handicap, they'd won all but two of their matches.

"We won this time," Theo said, "but I think we're all out of tricks now."

Fiyu sighed. "Can we not celebrate our victory first?"

"I didn't say we shouldn't. I was actually looking forward to soulcrafting with the two of you, now that we've all tested ourselves like this."

"Perhaps, but not yet." Nauda shook her head slowly. "First we must celebrate, and I propose that we begin our celebration with hours of sleep."

There shouldn't be any way for that plan to go bad.

Chapter 24

Though Theo remained with Nauda like a good "family member", he spent most of his time soulcrafting. Using his new abilities under real circumstances had revealed more than a few weaknesses of varying types. Several points in the roof had begun to leak and would need reinforcing, which was a straightforward fix.

Less easy to pin down was the fact that his gravitational field room felt incomplete in some way, too spare. He was no interior decorator, but his soulcrafting senses suggested that the ceiling lacked something. Just throwing up drapes or dangling random objects would do no good, it needed to resonate with the rest of his soulhome in some way.

After his performance during the match, the instructors had agreed to move him into purely advanced classes, but Theo had rejected them in favor of staying with Nauda. The truth was, now that he'd rebuilt most of his spiritual skills, even the advanced classes wouldn't do him very much good. Now that he'd proved the viability of his gravity-based design, he needed to refine a blueprint equal to his old one.

Fiyu remained at Nauda's side while she recovered, first spending time recovering herself, then soulcrafting along with him. They didn't speak often, but every time Nauda made a noise in her sleep, Fiyu always looked to him as if he should do something about it. Sitting together in silence seemed to be enough.

With their leader unconscious, the instructors instead told the two of them about their next match: it would be against Archcrafter Nogibe's team. Theo didn't recognize the name, but eventually figured out that it was the old man who had been allowed to choose first during the student selection. The only person on the team who Theo knew was Navim, but the fact that their leader was an Archcrafter suggested that they would all be skilled. Nauda would know more, but apparently Nogibe's team had one of the best records, along with their own group and Magnafor's team.

Thinking about him was another sore point, though not so much due to the threat of stealing the sublime resources. With everyone so near the tree at all times, there wasn't much opportunity. But Theo worried about what Magnafor had said, particularly regarding the threats that would come against them. Playing at being a team might not be good enough, if people were truly hunting them.

If it came down to it, he would be as ruthless as Magnafor, or so he told himself. That didn't necessarily mean sacrificing anyone, not if he played his cards right. Yet he worried that any softness would only prove to be weakness, compared to the scope of the forces behind the demon he'd seen.

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 occasion, 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."

"No, not around here." Nauda hesitated, but nodded to herself as if coming to a conclusion, then spoke with more confidence. "I was born in a distant community. There, we have a word... I think it would sound like 'prideful humility' to you. You have noticed that some Tatians can go quite far in attempting to be more hospitable and humble than one another, yes?"

"Oh, I've noticed."

"Prideful humility is like a game being played with that tradition. I don't think your 'sarcasm' word is quite right. Sometimes it is mocking the other person if they are being excessively humble. At other times, it is using false humility to show them their foolishness." Nauda let out a surprisingly heavy sigh. "But it doesn't seem to be a tradition here, and I fear I have been taken at face value. No one realized until you spoke up."

"I noticed, Nauda." Fiyu drew back when they both immediately turned to her and continued slowly. "I did not understand the deeper meaning you explained. But when you spoke that way, I heard a different... inflection? Do you understand that word? It was not used like in any Ichili language, but I heard the difference and came to understand."

"Huh. Then that makes two of you, but the rest has been wasted."

Theo had been tearing through some meat while they spoke, but now swallowed and chuckled. "You're way too subtle. Your words might sound absurd to you, but there are others who act that humble completely sincerely. The sarcasm I know can be subtle, but it doesn't have to be."

Nauda leaned her head on one hand, regarding him thoughtfully. "I suppose you might be right. It was fun when no one understood at first, but it's gotten old."

For a time they said nothing, returning to eating, yet the atmosphere wasn't awkward. Theo wished that he could feel more comfortable with them, yet he found himself thinking about everything he didn't know. Nauda was clearly keeping secrets, potentially very serious ones. Fiyu might appear earnest, but he didn't know her true goals, and in Ichil, one did whatever was necessary.

"I... would like to tell you both something." Nauda set down her utensils and regarded them with grim intensity. "You might not know, but everyone else does: I am not from this part of Tatian. In a sense, I will never be fully embraced, not even if I married a local and lived my entire life among them."

"Tatian villagers have always seemed welcoming to me," Theo said. "Am I missing the nuances?"

"Yes. There is one form of hospitality for guests, and another hospitality for family. The latter is sometimes less warm, but it is more important." Nauda reached up and began anxiously playing with a lock of her hair, apparently without even realizing that she was doing so. "Living here is... a death by a thousand warm embraces. That is why I need this. It isn't just a school or a competition to me."

Fiyu bobbed her head sympathetically. "I have understood that you had something at stake. What do you need?"

"At first, I volunteered because not many wanted to work with foreigners, and I thought it might help them accept me. But I also need the sublime materials, because I have no family to grant me any. If this doesn't work... no one here is turned out on the street, but I will be carried further and further away from my goals."

"What do you mean about this not working?" Theo asked. "You need to win every contest?"

She took a deep breath, again meeting their eyes one at a time. "This information was not supposed to be shared yet, but I'll tell you. They plan to reduce the number of students after this contest. The worst teams will be sent on assignment to hunt demons, which might be good experience, but they will no longer be given sublime materials. I cannot allow that to happen."

"But we're not in any danger of that happening, are we?"

"No, but the contests will grow more difficult. By the end of the year, I need to have acquired everything I need, and hopefully reached Archcrafter. If not... well, it will be difficult. It would be wrong to ask you to take this seriously, because you already have, so... thank you for fighting for me."

"You are welcome, Nauda." Fiyu reached out and very briefly patted Nauda's arm, as if testing a hot stove. The Tatian woman gave a broad smile and wiped at her eyes.

Somehow in all their talking, they had finished off most of the food. Fiyu inquired if they needed to eat everything for soulhome purposes, and when told not, gathered some of it together in a bundle for Javes. She'd done a better job of thanking him than Theo, who had mainly just noted his existence.

But he couldn't think about their other team member at the moment, not with more serious thoughts gnawing at him. It would be so easy to just sit in the comfortable environment and enjoy the tail end of the meal. Telling them more wouldn't actually bring them closer together, and it could even cause problems. For him or for them. Yet he still found himself speaking up.

"You aren't going to have a full year."

His stark statement cut through everything else and Nauda immediately looked at him, narrowing her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"One of the other students here, the one named Magnafor, isn't interested in being handed any prizes, he wants to steal every sublime material in the Landguard vault. Nanjuma said it isn't possible, but I think that he'll be able to do it. I'd stop him if I could, but I don't know how or when... and to be honest, I need those sublime materials too."

Only silence in response, so he plunged forward.

"My name isn't Jake, and I've been here once before. In the Nine, I mean. But someone tried to kill me and they thought they succeeded. Now that I'm back, I'm sure I'll run into the same people and they'll try to kill me again. Even the demon attacks may be related to me coming through, I'm not sure. So I just wanted to warn you that you shouldn't plan on having a full year to prepare."

For a time they said nothing, and he didn't like Nauda's flat smile. Fiyu, however, eventually tilted her head to the side to regard him. "Then what is your name, not-Jake?"

"Theo. Please don't use it around anyone else, just in case... I don't know exactly who killed me last time, but they might find out somehow."

Nauda sat forward, false smile receding into a hard mask. "You want to steal everything from the Landguard vaults?"

"Well..." Now that he said it, he wished that he hadn't, but it would certainly be the most beneficial path. "I don't want anyone to get hurt in the process, not like Magnafor. I know that might not be what you want to hear, but the truth is that I'd take them if I could."

"Oh, I don't care." Nauda sat back with a slight smile. "I don't want anyone here to come to harm, but I don't care about their Landguard relics. No doubt some of the sublime materials would be useful to me too."

Both Theo's eyebrows shot up, despite himself. "Did I just gain accomplices?"

"You might regret it, because I'm going to shoot down any plan that I think won't work. But if things are really as bad as you say, then getting out with a vault of sublime materials might be the best plan. Just... don't lie to us anymore, okay?"

He nodded, prompting a bright smile from Fiyu. "It is good to know your relative name, Theo. But I will use your travel name with others."

Then he'd told the truth and it hadn't blown up in his face. Yet as Theo sat at the table, finishing the last scraps, they settled uncomfortably in his stomach. Last time, everything and everyone had been taken from him. This time, he was afraid that any connections were only potential weaknesses.

Chapter 26

After the feast, the three of them began to soulcraft together more frequently, making heavy use of Nauda's telescope. Though Fiyu still kept the majority of her soulhome shrouded in shadow, she seemed much more comfortable inviting them inside, even showing him the chamber that generated the dark cantae that had surrounded her hand.

The chamber was connected to the room of burning light that generated her explosive bursts, but the light was filtered through heavy plates of dark glass and ice. On the other side, the light gleamed dark and sinister. Compared to her bursts, which focused on heavy firepower, the dark aura was an extremely sharp edge. He didn't see any possible way to make the technique less lethal, even with all his experience.

That didn't mean that he couldn't help her at all, though. Since her primary weakness was lack of stamina, he helped her redesign one of her empty chambers to store cantae more effectively. Her relative's blueprint suggested that it would later be used for a support chamber that would improve her burst skill, but since she lacked the sublime materials to soulcraft further, she could at least use it for cantae.

Nauda was a bit more difficult to help. Now that she was more open with them, he saw that her final chamber contained endless inscriptions that were related to a sort of trap-laying skill. Also, a finely-soulcrafted chest that allegedly contained Archcrafter materials she had inherited. Since Nauda clearly didn't want to talk about them, he didn't press further, but that allowed him to guess why she was pushing so hard to ascend.

Her construction on the roof was a good start, but it wasn't going to pierce the clouds, not in the near future. Instead, they discussed potential counters to the technique that had allowed the armament in the last match to drain her. It was some sort of flaw in the binding skill she used, but a knotty one to sort out. With all three of them putting their minds to it, they came up with a few solutions, none of them easy.

In the end, the only immediate suggestion he could offer was building a smaller tower alongside her central square soulhome. Not building a soulhome as a single unit had disadvantages, but it wasn't fundamentally flawed, and it allowed her to soulcraft herself without compromising her progress toward ascending.

Of course, he spent the most time in his own soulhome, finishing the work on his gravitational field chamber and doing as much as he could on his enhancement rooms. His storage chamber became complete enough to let him shrug off unfocused cantae bolts, while his feast chamber strengthened him much more than would be expected for a first tier soulcrafter. Nauda seemed slightly intimidated by how much he added, but he could only see the distance between what he'd done and the new blueprint growing concrete in his mind.

With only a week, that was all they could do. Theo felt as though, after so much had changed between them, they should have changed more as well, but they had only the tools remaining to them. Soon enough, it was time for their third match.

~ ~ ~

With no suspicious illnesses and their opponent's leader not participating, it would actually be their first match of the tournament with even numbers: nine against nine. For the first time they had also arrived before the other team, gathering on their side while awaiting Archcrafter Nogibe's group.

"The biggest problems are fairly clear," Nauda was saying. "Navim is the most obvious, simply because he can ignore so many attacks, even some cantae. Theo, can you lift him?" There was something odd about the way she spoke about Navim, but Theo ignored it, because the answer was clear.

"It isn't a matter of lifting. I can make him weightless like anyone else." He considered that Navim still had inertia, but thought that he could either use the Mundhin's momentum against him or manage to push him out of the ring. "You want to hold me in reserve for him?"

"The problem is that they might be anticipating that and send him out against someone else. We need to be flexible or we won't win this."

"Seems clear enough. What about the other problems?"

"Do you see the Farmguard in back? She's from a southern community that has more difficulty with demon attacks, so she has experience and a tested soulhome. Then the Fithan man not far from her... he's a pure ranged fighter, almost like Fiyu." Nauda bit her lip and lowered her voice, eyes flickering behind them. "But the biggest problem might be our other members. I couldn't get much information about the rest of Nogibe's family, but they won't be weak. I don't know how well the others will compete."

Theo glanced back over the group, making eye contact with Javes but still not knowing the others very well. Normally he wouldn't care, but Nauda had been grim about needing to win this competition, so he wanted to find some way to shift the contest in their favor. Unfortunately, the best he might be able to do was win them a single match.

Only Kuber was missing... no, he was approaching now. His eyes had lit up in a different way and he clutched his family's heirloom armament in both hands, as if afraid someone would take it from him. Yet his soulhome didn't seem to have improved... if anything, it had simplified. When he arrived, he brushed past Fiyu - who gave a yelp of consternation - and sat down beside Nauda.

"This time, I can help carry us." Kuber didn't explain why, but the way his knuckles were white around the wooden stick suggested an answer. "If you need someone for a short, explosive match, consider me family."

Though Nauda hesitated, her eyes following the same patterns that Theo's had, in the end she nodded. After Kuber arrived, Nogibe's team soon finished assembling.

That day the instructors were late, but Nanjuma was ready with the bell and most of the audience had arrived. There were more than average, since this was one of the first matches of the third round, and the first to be truly anticipated. Theo's team had fought more unusual matches than any other, while Nogibe's had the best record, with only three losses total.

After today, that number would definitely increase. But as Theo looked over the sturdy soulhomes of the enemy group, he wasn't confident about an overall victory. Maybe it was more important to focus solely on winning his own fight.

"And now, let us finally begin!" Nanjuma smiled broadly at both sides. "The match between Nauda's family and Archcrafter Nogibe's family... Nogibe will begin by selecting one of his students."

Instead of leading with any of their strongest, they sent out a young man covered head to toe in inscribed wooden plates. Armaments of some kind, but Theo was skeptical that they could be that powerful and they didn't look like effective armor physically. Nauda peered at him, then scowled and rubbed her eyes.

"The armaments prevent me from checking his soulhome. Anyone else?"

"I think this is a trap." Fiyu spoke extremely softly, but with confidence. "He wants to appear more dangerous than he is. It is a bluff."

"Then they probably want to lure one of us out, to waste our strength..." Nauda trailed off, considering their options. Before they came to any conclusion, Javes clapped his hands on his knees and levered himself to his feet.

"I'll try to handle it. I know I can't fight their best, so this might be my only chance to help."

When Nauda gave her approval, he walked out into the arena. The bell rang and the opposing fighter immediately began to hum, cantae flowing through the armaments in intricate patterns. Yet for all the light, Theo didn't feel any particular intensity of power.

Javes stepped forward, experimentally jabbing at his opponent's shoulder. The blow struck, but glanced off harmlessly. Though the armored warrior attempted to strike back, he wasn't particularly fast, and all the wooden plates slowed him down, so Javes easily ducked aside. They began trading blows, neither of them particularly effective, and neither looking like they would tire soon.

Since it was likely to go on for a while, Theo turned his attention to Kuber. "Are you going to use your family's armament? Unless you found a way to use it in a weaker form, I don't see how."

To his surprise, Kuber didn't answer, merely shifting his grip and avoiding eye contact.

"I've seen you spending time with Magnafor."

That forced Kuber's attention and he shifted away uncomfortably before speaking. "You told me it was impossible, but... you were wrong. Magnafor showed me how to use the armament."

"Out of the goodness of his heart, was it?" Theo leaned in closer, eyes narrow. "Just what did he demand in return?"

"N-nothing. Well, not to use it against his team. After what he gave me... I had to agree."

Giving an opponent a powerful ability in return for a single forfeited match? Theo couldn't help but be skeptical that Magnafor would make such a bad deal, even before he decided whether or not Kuber's words rang inauthentic. He wanted to push further, but what bothered him more was that he didn't understand how it was possible. Kuber hadn't ascended to Archcrafter, and there shouldn't be a way to support such a powerful armament with a first tier soulhome.

Before he could decide what to ask next, the match ended with a whimper: the exhausted fighters ended up wrestling with one another until they both collapsed. Still within the ring, but Nanjuma stepped forward and created a wall of green fire to separate them.

"Both sides have fought well, and any victory now would be mere luck." Nanjuma picked each man up with one hand. "We'll call this a draw!"

That was new, but probably the best they could have hoped for. Theo made sure to give Javes an approving look for holding out for so long, but his attention turned entirely to the next match. Would Archcrafter Nogibe have prepared specific counters to them, or would he be looking for good matches? The armament trick suggested that he was crafty, but...

"Put me in." Kuber nearly vibrated in his seat, cantae flowing through his armament. "Nauda, let me fight. I'll win for you, I guarantee it."

"Kuber..." Nauda watched him silently, but she seemed to have made a similar calculation as Theo, because she eventually nodded. "Show us what you can do, then."

Instantly Kuber leapt up and rushed to the ring. Though he seemed manic while moving, when he arrived, his body stilled as he clasped the inscribed rod with both hands. It really did seem as though he was capable of using an Archcrafter armament.

After only a brief pause, Nogibe made a small gesture. Navim rumbled to his feet and lurched toward the arena, leading to several gasps from the audience... but not Kuber. Eventually the two faced each other across the ring, which seemed much smaller with Navim's bulky stones occupying it.

Even before the bell rang, Kuber gripped the heirloom tighter and began to flow cantae. Navim waited until the signal, then hefted a cudgel-like limb of dark stone and swept it into his opponent's chest.

It was blocked by a sphere of orange fire.

As Navim recoiled, everyone stared at Kuber as he glowed like the sun. Instead of being blinding, the light was somehow as warm as the Tatian sun... and just as powerful. The sphere didn't dissipate, instead crackling around him as he took a careful step forward.

Feeling the cantae flooding into the armament, Theo suddenly understood Magnafor's solution. All of Kuber's soulhome was devoted to a single enormous chamber that powered the armament. Any rational blueprint would have devoted an Archcrafter-tier chamber to the weapon, but devoting the entire first floor could generate enough cantae to power it. The result had to be unstable, and it meant giving up any physical reinforcement, or other techniques, or...

But apparently it worked. Kuber stood in the center of an overwhelming defensive barrier.

The light flickered low, but not because his control was ebbing. Instead, Kuber needed to weaken the barrier to attack: he raised the rod in one hand, grinning, and forced his cantae into it. This time, the flood of light was blinding.

Navim exploded in a shower of stone and the audience cried out in horror. Even Kuber looked startled, all his cantae fading as he stared at the rubble. Theo ignored most of the broken stones, knowing that they could be healed, and searched for Navim's core. His sphere with the embedded gems was the heart of his body, and so long as it remained intact...

The sphere lay in the center of the rubble, a crack directly through the center.

"This match is over!" Nanjuma's voice thundered over everyone else and he swept forward to the ring. "Everyone remain where you are! Healers, step forward!"

As much as Theo wanted to run to check on Navim, he stayed back enough for the healers to arrive first. Yet the Tatian healers seemed at a loss in all the rubble, only a few properly checking on the gem core. By the time Theo dared to step in, Nanjuma was the only one doing anything useful, his Ruler senses thoroughly examining the area.

"His soul is still intact," Nanjuma said carefully, "but it was severely weakened. I cannot tell if he is dying or not."

"I... I never meant..." Kuber took a step back, staring in horror. One of the Farmguards came and took him by the shoulder, though as support instead of accusation. At most he was guilty of negligence, not understanding the strength of his armament, but it wasn't ultimately his fault.

No, that lay on Magnafor's shoulders. Theo didn't see the other man anywhere, briefly wondering if this could all be part of his plan. He quickly dismissed that theory: he couldn't have predicted that Kuber would end up facing Navim in a match. His real scheme would be something more flexible, so the question was why he had helped Kuber in the first place.

Even that mattered less than Navim's life, which hung in the balance. Theo had never visited Arbai, but he'd seen a few Mundhin in battle and he knew that once their core began to crack, their life was at risk. At first he stood back, hoping someone else would have more expertise, but Fiyu tugged anxiously at his sleeve.

"We must help Navim," she said, barely audible over all the shouting. "Do you know how?"

"I can try." Theo stepped forward, getting the attention of Nanjuma and the healers. "Everyone, listen! Our first response should be gathering all the other stones around his core. That might help him hang on for a while longer."

The healers rapidly began gathering the stones, relieved to be able to help in any way. Theo set up an inverse gravitational field in order to make them weightless, so they could position the rocks all around the core. It started to be more trouble than it was worth, since the rocks kept bouncing apart, but before he could change his mind, one of the Farmguards came up with a net and canvas that they wrapped around the floating rocks... the floating body.

"I do not think that anyone here can heal him," Nanjuma said sadly, placing a hand against the bundle of stone. "I presume that there are techniques to restore him on his own world, but the gate is some distance away, even at my highest speed. Can it be done?"

"You have a chance to save him!" Suddenly Magnafor was standing in the inner circle, speaking with the exact confidence that Tatians liked to follow. "He once told me that his school is not far from the gate, and surely they can help him. So if Jake keeps him stable and Nanjuma takes him as quickly as possible, you can make it."

Of course Magnafor wasn't so foolish as to smirk, but when their eyes met for a split second, he might as well have. This might not have been his plan, but he was adapting perfectly to the situation. If they journeyed to the Arbai gate, that would leave him free to reach the vault. Even if Theo was ruthless enough to abandon Navim, the Tatians would never accept it, and all eyes were on them.

That was the key. Theo gave a relieved smile and put a familial hand on Magnafor's shoulder. "I'm glad we have an expert on the territory with us! With your help, we can save his life."

Everyone around them nodded and grinned, desperate for a sign of hope. Magnafor smiled with hard eyes, but he didn't look panicked. Did he have an accomplice? Or had Theo fundamentally misunderstood his plan? There was no more time to consider, because Nanjuma swept all of them away toward the acorn vessel.

When lives were at stake, Tatians could move with impressive efficiency. Yet as he was pulled along, Theo had a feeling that they were already too late. Not for Navim, but for everyone else.

Chapter 27

Soon enough, they hurtled over the Tatian landscape, clinging to the sides of the giant acorn. Their previous trip had been at night, but now that Theo could see the farms and villages blurring underneath them, he was startled by how quickly it moved. Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised, as it was fueled by a Ruler's cantae, but the wind against the front end was fierce.

Only Nanjuma stood atop it, fully focused on taking them toward the gate. The rest of their group clung to the back side of the vessel, carrying Navim's body along with them. Fiyu had refused to leave, always keeping one hand on the ropes as if worried he would slip away. Theo and Magnafor had locked each other in place with their statements, so they were obligated to join the group.

Nauda and two Farmguards had come with them, and Theo wasn't sure how to feel about that. If he'd been thinking faster, he could have asked Nauda to stay back, interrogating Kuber and checking if Magnafor had any accomplices in the school. But there hadn't been time, and it was equally possible that Magnafor intended to do everything himself, which meant that having Nauda along would be a good thing.

"We are still some time from the gate," Nanjuma said, making his voice carry despite the wind. "Once we emerge on the other side, where do we go next?"

Though Theo looked to Magnafor, it was actually Fiyu who responded. "He told me that he fell into Tatian while doing a survey of gemspires to the southwest of his school. I do not know where the gate is, but if we can locate the gemspires, we can find our way."

"Good enough." Nanjuma bent down and their speed seemed to increase even more.

For a time they flew in silence, the wind shearing away all attempts at conversation. But eventually Nauda carefully climbed along the side, finding a better seat close to him. She didn't make eye contact, but she slumped in her chair in his direction, speaking so that he could just barely hear her over the wind.

"You think that this is Magnafor's plan?"

"I think he's improvising." Theo resisted the urge to look over at him and just leaned back so their heads were closer together. "What about Kuber? I don't think he intended to hurt Navim, but do you think he would betray us?"

"He feels like he's failing his family." Nauda's sigh was immediately caught in the wind. "Though he didn't say much, communities thrive on rumor. His grandmother was an Archcrafter and there was a Ruler in his distant extended family. If he was promised a path to power, I think he'd take it and not think about the consequences."

"That armament is serious. Do you know anything about it?"

"A great grandparent who became a Ruler spent their life crafting a perfect armament for Archcrafters. But do you really expect that to be relevant? You saw how horrified he was."

"I'm not sure." Theo closed his eyes and tried to think back over everything. None of it made any sense unless there was another piece on the table. In the confusion of the preparations, Magnafor had been able to slip away briefly and could have sent any number of messages. Everything hinged on unknown variables, and he didn't see any way to find them.

Hopefully, at minimum, they would be able to get Navim back home in time. Theo looked over toward the bundle, though he couldn't see the core at the center. It had been more cracked when last he saw it, but not beginning to fall apart. In the past, he'd known a Mundhin warrior who survived for days with a nearly shattered sphere, so he hoped Navim would live.

When at last they reached the gate, it was larger than he expected, an arc apparently made from tree roots that towered over the surrounding villages. Though the surface was clouded by a yellow haze, he could just see a rocky landscape on the other side. He spotted Farmguards on duty below, but they looked relaxed, working more to keep anyone from harming themselves than repelling an attack. Nanjuma swept down to them, explained, and jumped back before their vessel even arrived, so they flew directly through.

Instantly Theo winced as the sun seared straight through him. Unlike the warm sun of Tatian, which glowed softly even when you looked directly into it, the white hot Arbaian sun was blistering. It loomed overhead, scouring his skin even before the first sand stung his face. The air itself felt unbelievably dry, as if water wasn't even a distant memory.

Several of the Farmguards groaned and winced, but Theo had been mostly prepared. More importantly, he thought he saw the bundle of Navim's body shift slightly. Just being back in Arbai would probably help him a bit, as the dry environment was as healthy for Mundhin as it was hostile to most other species.

"The sand is painful, even from up here." Nauda began using a small amount of cantae to defend herself from the stinging particles and Theo followed suit. "What about you, Fiyu? Are you okay?"

"It's awful." Though Fiyu had an arm over her eyes, she hadn't cried out and still looked alert. "If you hadn't helped me soulcraft a window, this would be hell..."

Theo almost wished he had a window of his own, because even to his eyes the light was blinding. He shielded them and peered below, getting a better look at the landscape as his eyes adjusted. It was nothing but rocks, yes, but not just rocks. They floated over a region with great striations of blue and red stone, and ahead of them he saw a massive plateau that appeared to be riddled with tunnels, perhaps even civilization.

Though it was far away on foot, they were still moving at great speed. Theo was just beginning to hope that they would get Navim back safely when a beam of purple fire tore directly through their vessel.

Instantly it tumbled to the side, its momentum sending it spinning violently. It was all Theo could do to grab the side and make sure Navim didn't smash against anything, but they were spiraling downward. Fortunately, Nanjuma acted with great speed, green light wrapping around the acorn and two of the Farmguards who had fallen, guiding them all gently to the ground.

Another line of purple fire struck him directly.

An emerald aura lit up around Nanjuma, deflecting the attack, but the force of it propelled him across the rocky landscape. In the moment he had to look up, Theo didn't see any further beams of purple fire, but he knew they must be under attack by a Ruler, and perhaps other soulcrafters. They wouldn't have attacked from a distance like that if they had overwhelming force, but it still didn't look good.

Then they hit the ground, jarringly but not catastrophically thanks to Nanjuma's aura. Once it faded out, however, there was nothing more forthcoming. Theo felt the ground shudder some distance away and assumed that a battle had begun, but there was no time to think about that.

First, he checked that Navim hadn't broken apart further, but the Farmguards had bundled him well. The sphere had been banged around a bit, but his rapid shifts in the gravitational field had managed to keep it from smashing into anything. Suspecting a threat without having any sense of one, Theo carefully lowered Navim's body to the ground.

Around him, he saw that most of the others had scattered. Nauda was pulling herself up by her staff, apparently unharmed, while Fiyu stood with her hands at her sides, ready for an attack. The Farmguards looked more dazed... and beyond them, Magnafor was fleeing over the rocks.

Theo sprinted after him before he consciously decided to. This couldn't be a master plan or a pure coincidence, which meant that Magnafor had to adapt his schemes to the circumstances. It wouldn't take much to stop him, if he acted at the perfect moment.

As they sprinted over the rocks, Theo realized several things. First, they were definitely running back toward the gate, which suggested that Magnafor intended to make his attempt on the vault now. Second, he'd slipped into thinking that his goal was to stop Magnafor without thinking about it.

If they had been in a direct competition, that would have made sense, but he had the option of just ignoring Magnafor. He didn't really care what the other man did, and it could end up having nothing to do with him. Most likely no one would even be harmed, though if the soulcrafter who had attacked Nanjuma wasn't a coincidence, that suggested hiring mercenaries. The conflict between them definitely mattered less than Navim's life, but-

Then there was a man thrusting knives toward his face.

Theo had no time to counterattack, he just threw himself downward. The knives barely missed him and he managed to cancel his weight just before he fell very far, bouncing off the ground at a low speed. Though he wanted to keep sprinting, the rapid shift disoriented him, plus there was still a man racing after him with a pair of cantae knives.

Suddenly that man grunted and froze in place. For a split second Theo was puzzled, not seeing an attack and just looking over him. It was a Fithan soulcrafter wearing ragged leather armor. His motionless knives looked as though they had been well cared-for but heavily used, so possibly a mercenary down on his luck.

"Go!" The call was Nauda, forcing him to focus again. She stood behind them, her staff thrust out to bind the attacker in place. Theo immediately returned to his sprint, doing his best to catch up to Magnafor. He realized that he could move faster if he pushed off the ground and then canceled his gravity, which let him soar over uneven ridges that would otherwise slow him down.

Still, it was going to be close. He started to catch up to Magnafor just as they reached the gate, which was a smooth arch of stone from this side. Theo returned to running normally since he didn't want to blunder into an attack, but Magnafor seemed completely focused on escaping until they both broke into Tatian.

The wet air immediately enveloped him like a mist, but there was no time to think about that. Theo thrust out a hand, slamming a gravitational field down on top of Magnafor. His opponent grunted and his torso folded slightly, but he didn't fall.

"How much of this was your plan?" Theo asked. "Did you really hire mercenaries to attack us?"

"Why would I answer you?" Light flickered around Magnafor's hand, forming the shape of a gauntlet, and he immediately straightened.

Theo's eyes widened as he realized that Magnafor was entirely ignoring his gravitational field. Cracks were beginning to form along the gauntlet, but it held, and he probably had a second on his other hand. When Theo released a burst of pure cantae, it dissipated against a ghostly white breastplate that faded out a moment later.

From that, it was easy to intuit the design of Magnafor's soulhome: every chamber must manifest a piece of armor with a specific purpose. Such designs were inflexible but powerful, a good strategy for a first tier soulcrafter. The question was how many more chambers Magnafor had been able to soulcraft.

"I don't hate you, man. I don't care about you at all." Magnafor raised his other hand and a ghostly sword began forming in it. "If you wanted to steal everything yourself, you didn't move fast enough. Just stay out of my way and I'll ignore you."

Magnafor swung his sword and Theo moved to dodge, realizing too late that it was a distraction. Light flared around his opponent's feet and suddenly a boot formed of cantae smashed into his chest. Theo skidded back through the gate, painfully striking a ridge of stone and tumbling to a halt. He got up his in time to see Magnafor raising his sword again.

But it had never been intended for him: it swept to the side, chopping through the vines that formed the gate. Suddenly Theo no longer faced a view of Tatian, only stared through an empty arch of stone.

Could gates be easily repaired? Destroying a door had always been a good strategy to escape pursuit, but this was a large and well-established gate that had only been slightly damaged. The Farmguards on the other side had been too startled to act, but they'd be moving soon.

When Theo turned around, he discovered that most of the others had followed them. He saw the Farmguards first, stumbling toward the empty gate with panicked expressions, but ignored them. Nauda and Fiyu had disabled the Fithan mercenary and confiscated his weapons, which was a good first step. Theo strode over to them and grabbed the man's collar.

"Did Magnafor hire you? What did he offer?"

"Sublime materials like you wouldn't believe." The mercenary chuckled unpleasantly at him. "Are you Tatians going to kill me now? I don't think you have it in you... but you'd regret it when my boss gets here."

Despite himself, Theo did look up toward the region of rocky spires where Nanjuma had fallen. He saw no flashes of light, but an unnatural column of sand and wind was rising, generating a monstrous sandstorm in all directions. It would take a long time to reach them, not that they didn't have more immediate problems.

To his surprise, Fiyu stepped forward, generating a black aura around her hand. It seemed she intended to answer the mercenary's question with his death, but Nauda put a hand in her way. "There's no sense in killing him. He's just a hireling."

"There's no sense in keeping him alive." Fiyu's face was set grimly, but she did dismiss the aura around her hand.

"We have more important things to do. Could we just leave him tied up?"

"In this world, that would be the same as killing him."

One of the Farmguards whirled back to them. "All of you, be quiet! Nothing matters except opening the gate again! Do you have any idea how fast this place will kill us? We all need to work to connect with the Farmguards on the other side."

"How long will that take?" Theo asked. The Farmguard blinked and conferred with her companion, but they didn't seem to know immediately, which was answer enough. If they were worried about dying of thirst, that meant that they were thinking in terms of days, not hours. They didn't have that much time, especially since Magnafor probably had a way to return to Myufuru quickly.

"Do we have another option?" Fiyu asked. Theo rubbed his forehead in frustration, eyes wandering back over what little they had. When he saw Navim's body, he realized that they did.

"We can survive here for a few days, especially if we have water. But Navim might not survive that long, even if this battle doesn't reach us. We need to return him to his school as soon as possible." One of the Farmguards started to object, but Theo spoke over her. "The two of you can keep the mercenary captive and reestablish the gate. We'll make sure Navim survives and catch up to you later."

They couldn't disagree with a plan that focused on saving one of their fellow students, so Theo's group was off. As soon as he made Navim weightless again, they began to run as quickly as they could maintain, rushing into the endless rocky wasteland.

Before they were too far away, Nauda turned to look at him. "I want to help Navim too, but I don't believe those were your real motivations. Why are we doing this?"

"Because Navim said his master was an Authority in possession of many weirkeys. One of them must be for Tatian, which means that he can control where we return." Theo smiled grimly. "It will take Magnafor some time to return to Myufuru, no matter what method he uses. If we can jump directly back, our route might be shorter than his."

"Assuming that his master is willing to give us such a gift, despite being first tier soulcrafters with nothing to offer him."

"But we will return his student," Fiyu said hopefully. "He will wish to repay our kindness."

Nauda seemed to accept that, especially since they really did want to save Navim's life. Privately, Theo wasn't nearly as confident that it would be easy to convince the other Mundhin. On Ichil, most mentorships involved only two people with a close bond, but the philosophical schools of Arbai usually had hundreds of students. What made the decision for him was that at minimum this path might save Navim, which was the one thing he had some control over.

Though it would have been dramatic to sprint all the way to the plateau, they didn't have the stamina for it. His throat felt like it was entirely made out of sand and each breath became painful. When they slowed down to take a break, Fiyu revealed that she had a flask of water and he drank gratefully. It wouldn't be enough for an extended journey, but it would last them long enough.

Behind them, the gate lay dead. To the west, a sandstorm grew as two Rulers did battle. And ahead, a looming monument of dead rock hopefully contained their salvation.

Chapter 28

As if the sun wasn't bad enough, it remained perfectly still overhead, hour after hour. Its burning light continually sapped their will to keep moving, and especially to keep sprinting. When next they slowed down to recover, Fiyu was covered in sweat.

"I thought... the Tatian sun..." She stopped to wipe away sweat beading along her mask. "...was horrible, but this... is it always there?"

"I'm surprised it hasn't set," Nauda agreed. "How long can their day be?"

Theo shook his head as he realized that he would be the bearer of bad news. "I don't think it does. At least, I've never heard anyone from Arbai talk about the sun setting, or it being anywhere other than overhead. I'm not sure if their world is tidally locked or if it doesn't obey any rules I know, but the sun is there to stay."

His use of scientific terminology caught Fiyu's curiosity and led to a discussion of how each of them had understood the term, as well as similar words in their own languages. It was irrelevant and incredibly welcome. With nothing to do but trek across such a huge expanse of dry rock, anything that took their minds from the grim marathon was welcome.

They'd located the gemspires, which cast strange colors on the rocks around them, and used those to direct themselves toward the school's location. In theory, anyway. He strongly suspected that it was housed within the plateau, but if it wasn't in that direction, they'd have a serious problem.

When the sandstorm drew near, they began a final sprint toward the nearest cavern entrance that could provide shelter. Careful to prevent the inertia from Navim's body from overwhelming him, Theo wasn't paying much attention, but he heard gasps from the others. As he turned around, he understood why.

What had appeared to be a small cave from the outside was in actuality the beginning of a long cavern that extended beneath the surface. Looking inward was like gazing into the jaws of a crystalline beast. The stalactites and stalagmites were made from brilliantly colored crystals, and as they stepped deeper in awe, soon the ground and ceiling gained a similar rainbow hue.

Even as they walked further in, the cavern remained bright, shafts of colored light shining from above. When the sandstorm hit, those began to dim, but they were still able to see easily. He heard Fiyu murmuring happily in Ichili and guessed that it was similar to the Moonscape. It was certainly beautiful, but at the moment he couldn't ignore the looming deadline.

After they walked for a time, they turned a corner and suddenly came across a Mundhin. His rocky body looked so dull relative to the rainbow cavern that he leapt out immediately, and Nauda readied her staff. But the Mundhin merely turned to regard them extremely slowly, gemstone core sliding forward in something that might have been puzzlement.

"Uh, hello?" Theo started with a greeting - since this one wasn't hostile, they might as well be polite. The Mundhin flinched, then answered in a quiet voice.

"Foreigners. I did not expect to see foreigners here. Do you want some water?"

Just the reminder made his throat burn worse. "We'd be grateful for some."

"I am not carrying any of this substance. But all foreigners I have met demand water and so I thought I would inquire." The core began to shift away from them, back to the crystal spire in front of the Mundhin, which Theo saw was being dismantled by delicate stone tools. "Are you interested in my monograph about the refracting caverns? I do not have water, but I could give you an early draft."

"We're in a hurry." Nauda stepped forward, lowering her staff from defensive position but looking more irate. "Someone from your world is terribly injured and requires medical attention."

"Ah. Your presence has become less inexplicable." The Mundhin scholar started to turn away, as if to go back to his work, and Theo stepped in again.

"He's a student of the School of Emerald Indulgence, and we need to get there as quickly as possible. It's in the plateau ahead, right?"

"That is correct." The Mundhin stared a while longer, started to turn away, then shifted back. "I deduce that you want more information. The best path to the school, perhaps?"

"Yes. Please."

"These caverns will take you very near the entrance, if you take the central passage and then go left, though you still still need to endure this particular sandstorm for a time. I have read that foreigners do not enjoy sandstorms. However, I must tell you that there is no water at the school."

"We'll be fine." Theo pulled Navim along with them as they headed to follow his instructions. If these caverns took them close to the entrance, they'd made the right decision. He could also put to rest his deep concern that they had been entirely misled and traveling further from their destination.

Though Nauda gave an odd glance backward as they left the Mundhin scholar behind, she didn't comment on it. They remained silent as they trekked through the shimmering tunnel. Theo found himself staring up at the ceiling, noting the rise and fall of the sandstorm. It was oddly soothing, like a heavy rain while indoors. Of course, they'd soon be going out into it...

For once, they got lucky: the sandstorm died down before they reached the end of the cavern. That most likely meant the battle had ended, or at least moved. Without knowing whether Nanjuma or his opponent had won, he didn't know if that was good or bad, but at least they wouldn't have to risk heading out into a flesh-stripping sandstorm.

As they finally exited the cavern, they found themselves facing nothing but a final stretch of bleak ground leading up to the plateau. Close as it seemed now, it would take them some time. He heard Fiyu sigh as they left the caverns, but there was nothing to do but endure the final stretch.

Just as he was ready for a grim, silent trip, Nauda spoke up. "You think Magnafor is attempting to rob the vault while Nanjuma is distracted."

"Most likely." He hoped she wouldn't pursue it, but a glance back killed that hope.

"Somehow, he's going to break through a barrier that's beyond even Ruler strength, then disappear with a vault-worth of sublime materials. I'm not doubting you, not after he somehow hired mercenaries like this and destroyed the gate. But I think that you need to tell us more about everything."

"That's... complicated." Theo took a deep breath and considered whether or not to lie. Maybe it was the exhaustion, or maybe the haze of heat waves in every direction as they trudged on, but he found himself telling the truth. "I told you that Magnafor and I have been here before, but it gets worse than that..."

He told them more than he'd planned. Nothing about his old allies, but he did explain about Vistgil and his near death. Somehow he ended up talking about how long it had taken him to return and how much it meant to him before he resolutely shut his jaw. Revealing those weaknesses would accomplish nothing, not when they still had so much to do.

"You called it an Artifact of Elghiera?" Nauda asked. Theo blinked in surprise, not having expected that question.

"That's right. Have you heard of it?"

"Elghiera was an ancient world traveler. I thought he might be just a legend, but it's possible that he was historical. If so, then he spent a great deal of time on every world, including years on Tatian. There's no information about him leaving behind any artifacts, but he was a soulcrafter, so he might have been able to make armaments."

"Where did you learn that?" Theo turned on Nauda, grabbing her arm harder than he'd intended. "I tried to look up more about him and I never found a single thing."

"It was in a library. Not one near Myufuru." Nauda hesitated to say more, watching him cautiously. He didn't think she was harboring bitterness, but learning more about his past had clearly raised her suspicions. They stared at each other until Fiyu poked them both.

"Theo, Nauda, we must continue. Navim requires our help."

She was right, of course, so they began running again. Theo kept his eyes on Nauda, not saying anything but just focusing on her, and eventually she relented. After coughing a few times in the residual dust, she spoke up quietly.

"You said that you traveled across Tatian, but I don't think you really have. Far to the north, much further than our traveling so far... well, I read the tale I mentioned in a library there. Most legends speak about ancients as having more powerful soulcrafting than we do, and most of them are untrue. But if the ring you mentioned was so useful, perhaps it was true in this case."

"Later, once this is over, we should talk about it." Theo wanted to demand more answers, but he couldn't blame her for keeping secrets when he did the same thing. "But Fiyu is right: we have more important priorities right now. Let's hurry and hope they can help Navim."

Now that the end was in sight, they managed to sprint again. The plateau ate up more and more of the sky as they approached, but seeing the tunnels in greater detail was encouraging. Mundhin moved through some passages or sat on rocky balconies. Only one tunnel opened up on the ground level, at least within sight, and so they headed for it.

Two Mundhin stood guard, both of them Archcrafters and armed with body parts covered in spikes. When Theo and the group approached, one of them stepped into their path, deceptively fast for such a large pile of rock. This might be a school, but Theo realized that these two were warriors, not scholars.

"Why have you come to the School of Emerald Indulgence, foreigners? If you require water, we-"

"Not water!" Fiyu pulled Navim's floating body in front of them and pointed angrily. "This is Navim. He is one of your relatives and he needs your help."

As soon as they realized that the body was still alive, the Mundhin rushed to act. Though a few scholars stared at them curiously or ignored them entirely, they were immediately commanded by Mundhin who wasted no time. Several messengers rolled into spheres and disappeared quickly, while others rapidly took Navim's rubble and guided them further in.

Once they reached their destination, they were allowed to sit down, or rather told to stay out of the way. Tired as he was, Theo didn't object. They weren't given any water, but someone brought them a plate of blue cubes that were a bit rubbery, but filled with a sweet juice. Sitting down and getting something into his stomach made him feel much better.

No one asked them any questions at the beginning, as an atmosphere of tension surrounded the movements. Another Archcrafter appeared and cut open the bundle, examining the rocky fragments. He rolled his core at the sight of the damage, but then rapidly set up a gem platform.

Soon, a column of golden sunlight burned in the chamber. Navim's core was eased inside it and began to float, even without Theo's help. In fact, the raw cantae of the column burned straight through his field, so he released it. The healer and his assistants carefully took the other pieces of rock and placed them into the field as well. Slowly but surely, the damaged rocks began to glow with the light.

Only once all of that was done did the healer turn to regard them. "One of our students will live thanks to you, foreigners. When Navim disappeared, we were unsure if he had departed in pursuit of scholarship or if he had been destroyed by the inter-world disturbance. I am relieved that he endures."

"That is good." The relief in Fiyu's voice spoke for all of them, so Theo let it hang for a moment before he pursued their goal.

"The people who did this to him are still on Tatian, and their actions may soon harm others. We can't help Navim, but we can help them." It wasn't quite true, but now that they were safe, every wasted moment weighed on him. "That is why we're begging for your help: we need Master Uvvah Ulim's assistance to return in time."

"Ah." The healer rocked back onto his hind legs, the glittering gems of his core regarding all of them thoughtfully. "Such a curious group. I would hear your story, one day, but I understand that you feel this is urgent. Please understand that we do not trouble our master without due reason. There are a great many with their own crises that are also very important to them."

"Please, can we at least talk to him?" Theo considered bringing up the fact that they'd saved Navim, but decided that would be too far. They weren't idiots and it might just come across as crudely manipulative.

"You will be given an opportunity. Please follow my martial colleague here."

One of the guards raised a stone toward them and began to move down a corridor. Theo stayed back a moment, looking at Navim's body one more time, but it was obviously on its way to recovery. Repairing his soulhome would no doubt take longer, but at least he would have another chance.

Meanwhile, they were led through a twisting corridor much higher in the plateau. They quickly moved from active areas of scholarship to empty chambers with little ornamentation. Finally they were told to wait in an antechamber while the guard moved forward into a larger room behind. Theo strained to hear the conversation, which sounded like a rare language of Arbai, but could only make out a few words about guests.

"You may enter." The voice sounded as if dust had gained the ability to speak, swirling past them with the breeze. Since the guard stood at attention by the entrance, the three of them stepped forward into the main chamber.

At first, Theo didn't see anyone at all, just what he thought was a messy floor. But as he noticed several piles of what looked like gravel, he realized that he was entirely wrong. At the center of the broken rocks lay a vast sphere of stone, studded with countless sapphires in intricate patterns. Theo had never seen an old Mundhin before, but it must be Master Uvvah Ulim.

"I am told that you have returned one of my students to me. I am grateful." The gravel trembled as if an earthquake had begun, but then some of it gathered into a mass that lifted the sphere off the floor. Even only some of the rocks pushed the sphere high over their heads, so Uvvah Ulim must have been massive in his prime. "Hmm. A Tatian, an Ichili, and a Lost One from afar. A curious group. Perhaps your story would be of interest."

"With all due respect, there isn't much time," Theo said. "Do you have a weirkey for Tatian? We need to return to a city called Myufuru, bef-"

"With all due respect, Lost One, you have not yet given me any reason to act. Stepping between worlds is no small thing, especially for an elder such as myself. The price my school would require for such a thing is... beyond what I believe first tier soulcrafters could pay. Unless you saved my student solely as coin to use in such a transaction?"

Theo winced, not having expected such a hard refusal. Fortunately, Fiyu saved him by speaking up. "Navim is our ally and we wanted to help him. But we want to help others too."

"I can hear the truth in your words, young one. Less so in your friend." The sapphires turned to fix on Theo and he felt as though a great weight pressed down on him. "I have had little opportunity to speak to Lost Ones. If I do this thing for you, will you be able to tell me tales of worlds beyond the Nine?"

"I..." Though Theo didn't want to say anything about Earth, he supposed that he was already attracting far too much attention. "If that's the only way to pay, I will. I know two: my home, and a realm where the sky is white and the sun is black."

"Ah..." Uvvah Ulim released a long, heavy sigh. "The Cleansed Lands. I wished to travel them, despite the rumors of the risk, but I was never able to find the appropriate door. If you have traveled so widely, then perhaps you can pay my price... I hope that you live long enough to do so."

Suddenly all of the rocks began to surge together, forming a large body with three legs and many arms. One of the enormous limbs swept down, curling around them, and Theo caught a glimpse of something shimmering within all the stones - a weirkey.

They tipped over the impossible doorway, fell through the emptiness, and then stumbled into Tatian. Not only that, they stood on a central street of Myufuru underneath an enormous rock monster. A local woman sighed that she had dropped her basket and a few others clapped cheerfully, but otherwise most people just stared at them.

"You are not moving quickly, for young ones in such haste." Uvvah Ulim loomed over Theo, core staring directly down at him. "I expect you to keep your promise."

"I will." Theo swallowed, starting to move away. "I mean, I'll try. Thank you."

"You know how to thank me..." With that, the Mundhin vanished from the street, returning to his home. Theo stared a moment before Nauda grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the Landguard Village.

Though they were too far away to see the outer walls, the tree itself loomed high over the city. Its barrier shivered like a candle in the wind.

Chapter 29

They'd had some time to rest within the Mundhin school, so his soulhome had refilled with cantae, but that didn't mean Theo felt better. His skin was still scoured thin by the wind, his chest hurt where he'd been kicked, and his mind insisted he should lie down and sleep. Yet there was no choice but to rush to the end, because they had no idea how far ahead of them Magnafor was.

Nauda led them wordlessly to one of the special gondolas that took them directly into Myufuru Landguard Village. There was a Farmguard on duty, but she smiled her way past him, then they were off. Theo took the final moment to stay off his feet and ensure that his soulhome was filled with cantae, while he saw Nauda twisting her hands around her staff and Fiyu peering over the edge.

There had been a slight hope that they'd gotten far ahead of Magnafor and that all their haste had been unnecessary... but as Theo looked down, he let that possibility slip away. Demons crawled throughout the village and he saw only a few students in desperate fighting retreats. He didn't see any second stage demons and they hadn't yet spilled over into the city at large, but it was obvious that normalcy had been broken.

"It looks like the Farmguards are keeping the demons in," Fiyu said as they reached the wall. Theo looked back down and saw that she was right: they'd formed a perimeter at the main gate. A group of guards and students fought together to keep the demons from entering the main city, and they seemed to be holding their own.

"Is that him, by the tree?" Nauda leaned over the side of the gondola to get a better look. Theo had been looking at the tree itself, trying to determine if the barrier had already been breached or was only approaching failing, but lowered his gaze. A small group of soulcrafters gathered near the base.

"I don't see Magnafor, but I think I recognize some of them. It might b-" Theo cut off as their gondola lurched violently.

Fiyu realized it before he did, launching a burst of light into the sky. It illuminated part of a dark carapace as a demonic dragonfly swept toward them. Instead of targeting any of them, it ducked underneath another burst and sliced through the second rope holding the gondola up.

Even though Theo threw an inverse gravitational field over all of them as quickly as possible, he wasn't fast enough to stop them from falling. He desperately tried to apply two inverse fields at once to reverse their direction, but couldn't do anything more than slow their descent before they crashed down atop one of the houses surrounding the main courtyard.

Fortunately, they'd all soulcrafted defensive rooms, so the hard landing didn't break anything except the roof. The gondola had smashed below with great speed, breaking open one of the houses and crushing a lesser demon before it rolled to a halt.

Demons crawled all over the courtyard, swarming toward the entrance, but Theo ignored them. Either the Farmguards would stop them, or they wouldn't, but either way he couldn't get distracted. Magnafor was already near the tree, and if he'd been prepared for every other step in the process, he definitely had a way inside.

"Can you bind all the demons while we run through?" Nauda asked. One demon crawled up onto the roof beside them, but Fiyu eradicated it a moment later.

"I don't have any way of exempting you from the field," Theo said. "But I suppose I could make us all weightless and we could jump to the tree?"

"No." Fiyu pointed skyward and he saw another dragonfly flicker at the edge of his vision. "They will attack anything that goes too high."

"Then I'll just temporarily flatten everything ahead of us. Save your strength as much as possible, because Magnafor seems to have mercenaries and other allies."

They didn't have more time to plan, so that would have to be good enough. Theo jumped off the roof first, clearing as many of the demons in the courtyard as he could. As they raced up the first staircase, he extended a gravitational field ahead of them.

Fortunately, first stage demons were no more immune to gravity than anyone else. Some of them fell to the ground, pinned, but he was surprised how many struggled to rise. He held off on applying a second field because he needed to conserve his strength too, but the demons scrambling to their feet behind them made him nervous.

Without warning, a beastly demon burst from underneath the body of one of the others, lunging for him. Theo desperately started to switch his fields to bring it down, only for it to freeze in midair. Nauda held it fast, then Fiyu shredded it a moment later. They nodded to him and the group rushed on.

Working together, they easily cut through the dwindling demons and leapt up the next set of stairs. Theo barely noticed when they snapped through a thin barrier, one apparently designed to dissuade the demons. That was nothing compared to the barrier past the courtyard above, the flow of its power beginning to tremble more violently.

But first, Trathis stood in their path, blocking the way up the final stair. Their former teammate was carrying a new sword, and as soon as he saw them, he grasped the hilt. "So you decided to show up after all. If you think I'm letting you get in the way of-"

Nauda's binding hit him in the stomach, lifting him into the air with his sword partially drawn. Theo didn't bother to slow down, just marched past him - Trathis was nothing but a distraction. As they passed, Fiyu leaned closer to his face.

"You are an inept sex merchant," Fiyu said, then continued on with a pleased smile on her face. Theo glanced at Nauda, but she just tossed Trathis into the demons behind them and shrugged.

"Well, she's trying."

He smiled, but his amusement died as soon as they reached the top of the stairs.

There were eight soulcrafters standing in their path, mostly Fithan mercenaries, and that wasn't the worst of it. Magnafor knelt down just beside the final barrier, working at one of the stakes... and Kuber stood beside him. That was enough to make all of them pause, everything briefly growing quiet enough to hear the sounds of the battle against the demons behind them.

"That's inconvenient." Magnafor glanced over his shoulder and sighed. "You're too late to stop me, if that's what you're trying to do. But if you're willing not to make trouble, then I can cut you in on the sublime materials."

"No thanks." There wasn't really anything else to say, since he didn't trust Magnafor and wanted them all for himself, if he was going to take such a drastic step.

"Kuber, what are you doing?" Nauda asked. She took a step forward and all the mercenaries immediately tensed, but she held her staff loosely at her side. "You were fighting alongside your family this very morning, why would you turn against us?"

"He gave me the answers no one else would." Kuber gripped his armament tighter, his eyes shifting away nervously. "And if there's really so much inside, I... I won't need this family anymore. I'll be able to reach Archcrafter and beyond without any of you."

"And you really believe that he won't just abandon you as soon as he has what he wants?"

That made both Kuber and the mercenaries nervous, but before they could press the point, Magnafor stood up and turned back to them. "You know the flying crane can carry all of you, so if you just defeat them like you're supposed to, it will be easy to take you with me before the Landguards arrive."

And as he finished speaking, the full barrier came down. Theo's eyes widened as he understood: it hadn't been smashed through, but manipulated to enter a repair cycle. That was a trick he'd never learned, and he couldn't guess how it had been done... but most likely it wouldn't stay down for long. Magnafor didn't wait for any responses, just stepped over the line and began to ascend the tree toward the vault.

"Stop them!" Kuber cried out. The mercenaries charged, but there was no more time to play games.

Theo brought double fields down on them, sending them stumbling in triple normal gravity. Just as they'd begun to recover, he reversed it, negative gravity sending them into the air. This was the trick that had made gaining two fields so essential: the mercenaries fell directly upwards, accelerating all the while until they left his effective range.

When they reached the apex of their flight, he reversed both fields, sending them downward at triple normal gravity. Even several seconds of that acceleration drove them into the ground at such speeds that he was surprised they didn't splatter. Many exhausted their cantae surviving the impact, and even those with heavy defenses were stunned.

They didn't get a chance to recover, because Fiyu and Nauda struck without hesitation, Nauda binding them together and Fiyu flooding all of them with bolts. In a handful of seconds, the mercenaries' soulhomes had been devastated.

Unfortunately, there was one person standing in their way who was able to resist the technique: Kuber only grimaced slightly at all of the gravitational fields, his body now surrounded by a soft orange glow. There wasn't going to be any easy way to take him down, not with that Archcrafter armament. Theo stepped forward, intending to ignore him and go after Magnafor, only to throw himself backward the next moment.

The garnet blast carved a furrow through part of the courtyard, leaving a line of burning air where he'd been standing. When Theo started forward again, Kuber swept the rod in an arc, creating a widespread shockwave that pushed them all back. If Theo had been a few steps closer, he might have been blown to pieces just like Navim had.

If there was any way to fight Kuber, it would be exhausting his cantae, but they didn't have time for that. Not with Magnafor having nearly disappeared in the massive tree, and more importantly, not with the barrier about to return at any time. To stop him, Theo needed to get inside the barrier immediately.

Since Kuber wasn't wasting his strength unnecessarily, they had a moment to rest. Theo glanced back to the others and saw the same thoughts in their eyes. "Fiyu, I need you to distract him. Nauda, I'm going to jump... I need you to make sure I don't die in midair."

With that, they attacked, Fiyu beginning by raising both hands and flooding the courtyard with bolts of light. They scattered harmlessly against the orange sphere that lit up around Kuber, and he raised his armament to release another devastating bolt. Fiyu threw herself out of the way just in time, and Theo chose that moment to reverse his own gravity and jump toward the tree.

As soon as he was in the air, he was helpless, and he saw Kuber immediately target him. The beam of destruction would come at any moment...

Force binding him came first, striking his back and freezing his entire body in place. As Nauda redirected him, Theo was suddenly flung in a completely different direction, dodging the beam of destruction. The force released him on the stairs well above the barrier. It had worked better than he'd hoped, and with Fiyu raining more destruction, Kuber was too distracted to target him again.

Yet, instead of going after Magnafor as he'd planned, Theo found himself hesitating and looking back. If the barrier came back up while he was inside, he could stop Magnafor, yes, but he probably wouldn't be able to get back out. And as he saw Nauda and Fiyu struggle against Kuber, he didn't like what that would mean.

Just when it seemed like Fiyu had him pinned down, Kuber released another widespread shockwave, and the edge of this one struck her. She let out a pained cry and tumbled back across the ruined arena. Worse, Kuber was aiming directly at her for a finishing shot. Theo threw out a hand, trying to pin him down, but from the distance he couldn't establish the gravitational field firmly enough.

Nauda thrust out and her staff's force seized Kuber's hand at the last second, pushing it just to the side. His beam shot out into the village instead, demolishing one of the houses... but he grimaced and began forcing his hand back toward Nauda.

Her eyes widened and she struggled against him, but then his armament flared brighter. She tried to disengage, a moment too late to escape the rush of cantae flooding back at her. Nauda slammed her staff down on the ground, barely defending herself.

Theo saw her staff rupture in half and found himself running back down the stairs.

The breaking of her staff sent Nauda sliding back, and Kuber began to aim at her, but a fierce assault of bolts slammed into him from the side. Fiyu was barely on her knees, targeting him with both hands, failing to penetrate the aura around his body but making him stagger.

Before she could get through, the spherical barrier lit up again and the bolts began dissipating harmlessly. Worse, Kuber was turning to target her, and it looked as though Fiyu might have twisted her ankle in the previous fall.

With few other options, Theo cast a reverse field around Kuber... not aiming for him, but instead affecting all of the fragments of stone around him that had been created as the courtyard broke apart. They shot into the air, accelerating with reversed gravity, and Kuber turned back to look at him.

"You already know that can't touch me. Why are y-" Then normal gravity took over and the rubble slammed down all around him.

Though some of the fragments burned away against his shield, most of them slammed down into the courtyard, shaking his footing. Kuber actually staggered and fell to one knee, but the barrier around him remained steady. Still, it was the most weakness he'd shown yet.

Behind him, Theo heard the barrier thrum back to life. The last he'd seen of Magnafor was him disappearing into the upper boughs near the vault... but he'd made his choice.

He saw that Fiyu had retreated to a safe distance and Nauda had retrieved the top of her staff, neither of them willing to surrender. They needed an opening, and he intended to give it to them.

Theo created two reversed fields underneath Kuber's feet, targeting the shattered courtyard instead of him. A large chunk of the stone broke and began to rise into the air, nearly making Kuber lose his balance. That actually might have been the smarter move, getting back to the ground, but instead he merely swung around, sending another beam at Theo.

Having expected it, Theo leapt aside without even making his fields flicker for a moment. He'd planned to send Kuber straight into the stratosphere, but the orange sphere crackled to life around him and it was growing. As it encompassed the rock beneath Kuber, the gravitational fields faltered.

Fiyu released her largest burst of light yet, bolts hammering into the side of his sphere until it began to buckle. In the instant it did, Nauda thrust out the broken head of her staff and force finally caught Kuber. Not the arm controlling his armament, but his torso, slamming him down into the ground several times. The glow around him held, but Kuber looked severely disoriented, and when Nauda lifted him back into the air, Fiyu began striking him with more bolts.

"You... you won't..." Kuber clutched his armament tighter and the glow deepened to the red-orange of sunset, making Nauda cry out and slump to her knees. She kept her staff raised, but the exertion was clearly overwhelming her.

Slowly but surely, Kuber began to twist around to aim his armament at Theo again. Too exhausted to dodge, Theo brought two fields down on top of him, but even triple gravity only seemed to slow him a little more. Blood covered Kuber's chin and dripped from his nose, but the armament in his hand seemed to move with its own force, inexorably shifting to aim at him...

Theo targeted the rod itself and reversed both of his fields.

The Archcrafter armament, which had dominated the fight up to that point, fell upwards out of Kuber's hand. He stared at it in shock, and that was long enough for it to shoot skyward. Though Fiyu raised a hand to target him, it wasn't necessary: without the support of such a powerful armament, Kuber collapsed instantly.

So it was over, yet not over at all. Theo began to limp down the stairs, dozens of aches and pains emerging as the adrenaline wore off. He let the armament crash back down to the courtyard once he got close, then kicked it to a safe distance, just in case Kuber had anything left in him. But he appeared to be unconscious, and a glance at his soulhome showed that the great dome and foundation had broken in half.

"What..." Nauda had to pause to catch her breath, slowly working her way to a standing position. "What now? How do we... get through that barrier?"

"We don't." Theo sat down on a piece of rubble and ran his hands through his hair wearily. "I can't copy the trick he used to get in, so none of us can get through. He's probably already reached the vault, and this 'crane' vessel of his must be able to fly out, or his plan doesn't make any sense."

"You knew that." Fiyu shuffled closer, staring at him so intensely that he could feel her gaze even through the mask. "You walked back out to help us fight, knowing that you couldn't catch up."

"Yeah." It should have been a warmer moment, but he was just exhausted. Nauda came to sit down beside him, staring upward toward the silent boughs where the vault lay.

"Are we going to regret this?"

"I don't know." Theo looked up too, wondering what was contained within. Doing all this, he'd probably made an enemy. Magnafor might not be able to fight them now, but he had access to a huge store of sublime materials that could comfortably take him to the Authority tier. If he came for revenge, that might be an impossible threat.

As they watched, reality folded on itself and the tree was consumed by nothingness.

Theo's mind refused to believe what he was seeing at first, as the world itself warped into a tight knot. A rush of liminal power swept past him, but this was nothing like walking through a door into another world. This was the power of the worlds themselves, twisted into a weapon.

The vortex snapped out of existence a moment later, leaving only jagged remnants of the massive tree trunk. No sound, no fires, no remaining destruction. Yet he felt an overwhelming sense of horror and the certainty that nothing could possibly have survived that. Power was simply irrelevant if space itself no longer existed.

He only realized he was holding his breath when Nauda let out hers. "Was... was that how Magnafor planned to escape?"

"Impossible." Theo had seen many things, but not that. "No armament can do that, and his power just wouldn't have been capable of it. Could it have been something the Landguards stored in the vault?"

"I... don't think so."

They were silent for a while longer before Fiyu spoke the obvious truth. "It was a trap."

And though he couldn't know the truth for sure, Theo had a feeling that it wasn't a trap set for the Landguards. No one in a backwater like Myufuru could overpower the barrier, so only someone with deep knowledge of barriers could have entered. Someone who had traveled the Nine Worlds before.

Someone like him. If he had made slightly different decisions, or even just been faster than Magnafor, he would have been in the vault when it ceased to exist. Theo took a deep, shuddering breath as he realized that for forty years on Earth, he had been much less paranoid than he should have been.

Whoever stood against him, Vistgil or the demons or someone else, they weren't merely fumbling blindly. If this was really a trap, it had been laid before he even returned. Just how far did their schemes spread? What could be worth this much effort?

A green comet struck the stairs not far from them, but they were too exhausted to care. Nanjuma rose from a crouch, his eyes locked on the remnants of the tree. Though he cradled one arm that was severely burned, that didn't seem to compare to the pain in his eyes as he stared at the space where the tree should have been.

"No..." Nanjuma dropped to his knees and wiped his eyes before suddenly turning, his gaze touching the fallen mercenaries only briefly before it fixed on them. "Who are all these people? Was anyone in there?"

Too tired to answer, Theo glanced toward Nauda. "Magnafor wanted to steal everything from the vault," she said. "He convinced many of the students to cooperate with him. Kuber, Trathis, these mercenaries... they should be alive, but they need to be bound so we can decide what is to be done."

"Students turning against one another... our family cannot heal from this..."

Nanjuma looked more troubled about the loss of community than the demons, though as Theo looked back, he realized that he was wrong. Green flames were dying out over the rest of the village and he didn't see a single living demon, so Nanjuma must have annihilated all of them on his way in.

There were dozens of further questions, but as Theo looked around, he realized that there was darkness growing at the edges of his vision. The core in his soulhome seemed to be rotating unsteadily... when he tried to examine it, he collapsed into darkness.

Chapter 30

Theo opened his eyes to shadows and struggled for a moment before he realized that he was only surrounded by sheets, and the shadows were only because of the heavy curtains. It wasn't Fiyu's room, yet those were her curtains. His mind fixed on that fact uselessly until he finally reengaged and managed to sit up.

"You overtaxed your soulhome, drawing so hard on your new core that you did some damage." Nauda sat beside him, wearing a few bandages and cradling the pieces of her staff, but otherwise healthy. She smiled wryly at him. "Repairing it might be difficult, but it will only help you use your strange techniques. We couldn't have survived without you."

"Without any of us." Theo winced as his back twinged, but he was surprised that he mostly felt just exhausted, not beaten to hell. "What happened? Is there going to be an investigation?"

"There's no need for one. The students saw Magnafor use some artifact to trigger the demon attack when he made his bid. Most of them survived, by the way, since it looks like his main goal was to distract everyone else and buy enough time to get inside."

"And I suppose Nanjuma can confirm the rest of the story. Do you know what will happen to everyone who worked with Magnafor?"

Before Nauda could answer, Fiyu slipped through the door. Though she was looking behind her, she seemed to have heard their conversation. "The Farmguards have taken over everything now. They say it is a crime against the community... and they seem very serious about it."

"Tatian can get unfriendly when it comes to some things." Nauda rubbed her eyes wearily. "I suppose we should be glad there's no suspicion on us, and Navim's school can confirm if anyone tries to cast blame our way. Kuber's family will probably do everything possible to avoid a punishment. I don't think they'll succeed, but they'll make this a mess."

"I... do not think I want to be there for that." Fiyu looked back and forth between them, biting her lower lip. "The new Farmguards arriving... I don't like them. This might be your community, Nauda, but it will never be mine."

"No, it's not really mine either. Let's get some air and talk it over."

They headed out together, making their way through the damaged corridor. It seemed that he had been resting inside one of the less damaged houses, but even it had been severely shaken by the battle. No one stopped them, so they carefully made their way to one of the ledges that they'd once sat on, shaded by one of the surviving trees.

He'd slept until noon. It seemed as though it should have been night, yet instead it was obscenely sunny, as if the school hadn't been torn apart.

For a while he just sat there, thinking about what he'd done. The small part of him that regretted not following Magnafor had died during the night. If he'd made the logical choice, he'd have been torn from existence and it would be over. Even ignoring that, he didn't regret going back to help the others.

Just when he was about to say something, a living god descended to the village.

Though she wore the same robes as the familiar guards, there was no mistaking the Landguard for anyone local. She was surrounded by an aura like the sun, flooding out more cantae every moment than Kuber's armament could put into a blast. When the woman finally landed, not so far away, her aura dissipated.

Nanjuma came and bowed to her, and though she bowed even lower, it didn't fool anyone. If anything, her robes seemed even more plain and humble than those of the Farmguards, but it was just for show. The robes themselves were defensive armaments and her staff could have cracked the city in half. Beyond all that, there was an unmistakable vibrancy about her that was only obtained by those who had become Authorities.

"The Landguards are deeply sorry that we could not prevent this loss in your community." Her quiet composure didn't seem to hold much sorrow. Theo found himself moving a little closer, both to put more trees in between them and to hear better. "We had never imagined that the disruption between worlds could end so catastrophically."

"I saw the world... collapse on itself." Nanjuma took a shuddering breath. "Students died, and the spirits of the rest are broken. This... we will not recover from this."

"It is a tragedy, yes, but we must still act to prevent future tragedies. I have a question for you of the utmost importance: did you have any students who came from worlds beyond the Nine? They might have appeared ordinary enough, but there would have been something strange about them, something uncanny."

Theo's eyes widened as his mind scrambled to understand the implications. Fiyu covered her mouth and Nauda grimaced; even Nanjuma sounded surprised. "Why are you asking about students? There is no way that one of them could have been responsible for the final disaster, is there?"

"Not directly. They may even have been good-hearted and unaware that they were doing any harm." The Landguard sighed and lowered her voice, so Theo strained to hear. "The community of Landguards has come into some disturbing information from very high authorities. Certain outsiders from strange worlds bring trouble with them, drawing demons into our communities. Have you seen more than usual?"

"It's true there were more demon attacks, but... I had assumed the cracks that brought so many strangers to us..."

"Most of your students are innocent, and you did important work, but others come from terrible worlds. Some may be working with the demons, others may be unaware, but all must be dealt with. We have met a guide who can assist us, but the Landguards also require your cooperation."

Nanjuma didn't answer for a long time and Theo remained bound in place, wanting to listen and retreat at the same time. "There was a young man named Magnafor," Nanjuma finally said. "I don't know what world he was from, but he made many strange journeys away from the city. They tell me that he attacked the other students, but he died when the vault was destroyed."

"Wonderful." Immediately the Landguard's words exuded warmth and Theo could practically hear her embracing Nanjuma. "You have done well, Farmguard. More Landguards follow after me with weirkeys to restore your students to their homes. We cannot bring back those you have lost, but we will do our utmost to help your community forget about these terrible events."

The Landguard and Nanjuma remained there, speaking in low voices, but Theo slowly stumbled away. Convincing himself that it wasn't all connected would be delusion now. It wasn't just that someone had laid the trap inside the vault, they were working directly with the Landguards to hunt down people just like him.

"Theo?" Fiyu stepped up beside him, watching him anxiously. "Are you alright?"

"I... I am. I'm alive." He realized that it was just like that day so many years ago when he'd been thrown back to Earth. Whoever was behind this should now be utterly certain that he was dead, twice over if they had any doubt. Unless the Landguards found him, he could escape and become invisible.

And he desperately needed to do that, because he couldn't face the forces aligned against him yet. At the moment a single Landguard would be a hopeless battle, much less the forces of other nations and demons beyond them. His only hope was to gain the strength he needed without ever attracting their gaze.

"We need to leave." He was shocked to hear Nauda say it first, but she slipped away from the wall with a grim expression. "Most Landguards may be good people, but I don't want to be a part of this investigation. Even if they resolve everything here, outsiders will never be welcome in Myufuru again. You both want to leave too, right?"

"I do not think I can wait for my relative here," Fiyu said slowly, but then she offered them a slight smile. "But you two are not strangers. May I travel with you? Will you help me find my way home?"

"We can try," Theo said. "Do you think that Uvvah Ulim has a weirkey for Ichil?"

"No." Nauda interrupted whatever Fiyu had been about to say with a sharp shake of her head. "Make no mistake, the Landguards will be investigating Arbai as well. Not to mention... anyone else who might be looking. We need to get away, somewhere they won't expect us to go."

"Where, then? All the nearby gates will be on high alert, if only because of Magnafor's attack."

"We go north. Back toward home." Nauda's expression was somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "If the two of you think you've seen all Tatian has to offer, you're going to be surprised."

Then that was that. Theo took a deep breath as he accepted what they needed to do, meeting the eyes of his new friends. "Then we lay low until the Landguard leaves, quietly gather our tools and supplies, then slip out of the city at night. Agreed?" Both of them nodded in unison, then the three of them split up.

This time, the beginning of his journey in the Nine had been nothing like his first grand arrival. He would have to hope the ending would be different as well.

X X X

The story continues in Rainhorn, the second book in The Weirkey Chronicles:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BLKPSWM

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to all my alpha and beta readers for their feedback.

Thanks to Cultivation Novels, Western Cultivation, and GameLit Society for the community.

Appendix: Soulhome Architecture 101

(This appendix was originally posted on my subreddit, with character expressions and soulhome diagrams. These don't play well with many ebook formats, so they can't be included here, but I'm including the raw script due to reader requests. Here's the link to the full version:

https://old.reddit.com/r/TheBrightestShadow/comments/k6vxt8/soulhome_architecture_101_with_theo_nauda_and_fiyu/)

Soulhome Architecture 101

with Theo, Nauda, and Fiyu

Nauda smiling: Hello everyone!

Theo smiling: We're going to be explaining the art of soulcrafting from The Weirkey Chronicles.

Fiyu neutral: Are we self-aware now? Is this another meta-fictional story?

Theo neutral: This isn't canon; just go with it.

F smiling: That is better, but I do not understand why we are represented by heads.

T frowning: They're chibis, and I, for one, am personally insulted to be portrayed this way.

N grinning: It isn't canon; just go with it.

F neutral: Before we look at some soulhome designs, we will introduce the basics...

Basics

N smiling: The first part won't surprise you. Cantae is a form of energy that living beings can only use if they open up a space inside their soul, called a soulhome.

T neutral: You can use it to make yourself a little stronger, or shoot it as a bolt, but these things are child's play compared to building within your soulhome.

F neutral: Such people are called soulcrafters.

T frowning: You can't use just anything: only materials with spiritual properties - called sublime materials - can be pulled into your soul and used in construction.

N smiling: But inside, soulhomes follow simple logic. Bigger rooms can store more cantae. Physically sturdy rooms make you spiritually sturdy. Fancy rooms with valuable sublime materials crafted into patterns are more powerful than just throwing a magic rock inside your soul.

F neutral: Not everything is architecture. Usually you begin by creating a "heart chamber" that has sublime materials to generate cantae, which flows through the other rooms.

T neutral: The process rapidly gets more complicated, but we'll focus on the basics today.

F smiling: Let us look at some simple blueprints. I think that will make it easy to understand.

[Unplanned Farmguard Soulhome]

N neutral: We'll start with a humble village soulcrafter. They probably built one room at a time without too much planning.

T neutral: It's actually not terrible... squares are balanced shapes, and the internal doors will allow for strong cantae flow.

F question: Why do they have so many doors to the outside, though? Won't cantae leak out?

N smiling: That isn't obvious to everyone, Fiyu. They may have opened more to make soulcrafting easier.

T frowning: It's an inefficiency, but that's trivial compared to the fact that their design is lopsided. Feast rooms generate cantae, just not as much as heart chambers, so it should have been switched with the technique chamber.

N neutral: They were clearly doing the best they could with what they had.

F smiling: I don't think it's so bad. They have some cantae, a chamber to strengthen themselves, and room for a technique.

T neutral: I rate it 30/100. Thoroughly mediocre.

[Terrible Soulhome]

N disgust: Just... just what is this mess?

T disgust: This is what I meant when I said the previous one wasn't terrible.

N 06: I cannot imagine anyone in the Nine Worlds soulcrafting so haphazardly.

T neutral: They might have been from an outside world, just treating it like a game.

F neutral: ...I think I understand. They started with a plan to the west, then changed their blueprint as they kept building.

T smiling: Yeah, I think you're right. They began with a heart chamber, but after they built their first technique, they found some really valuable sublime material and built the circular chamber to take advantage of it.

N neutral: Young soulcrafters, take heed: valuable materials are better held for the proper time instead of thrown in at random.

F sad: Unfortunately, the cantae flow between the chambers doesn't make much sense. I think they would need to remodel to make this work.

N 09 minus the question mark: Looks like they just kept tacking on new techniques and a strength chamber as they needed them.

F smiling: The northern technique chamber is not so bad. It might be an upgraded technique, merging the flow from the heart and technique chambers. They are trying.

T disgust: 5/100, irredeemable garbage.

[Generic Farmguard Soulhome]

F 02: Oh! These were the blueprints they gave out at Myufuru!

N smiling: Yes, this is a common soulhome design for Farmguards. Note the extra large heart chamber evenly distributing cantae to every chamber.

F neutral: But this would be a soulcrafter at the peak of the first tier. Most of them have only finished some of the chambers and are thus weaker.

T neutral: The thing about common designs is that many generations have looked over them, so they're usually not bad, definitely better than the average hotshot with a random plan.

N neutral: I'm guessing you have some criticisms, oh wise one?

T frowning: Lining up the enhancing rooms and the technique rooms looks good on paper, but it's better to intersperse them. Strengthening rooms generate some cantae too, and that should flow into appropriate techniques.

N neutral: That's true. There's also no internal cantae flow within the soulhome, so the heart chamber has to keep up with every other room. But that's why it's larger than average.

F question: I am wondering... why is there an extra door to the west? There are already three technique doors.

T neutral: They probably built that room first and never closed up the door. If they did that... 50/100, serviceable.

F smiling: But they might reverse their blueprint on the second floor and send cantae upwards. That would improve efficiency.

N smiling: Archcrafter design techniques are too much for now, Fiyu. Let's move on to a more unique design....

[Generic Healer Soulhome]

T smiling: Good, we get to see a circular design. Circles are architecturally strong, so they can make soulhomes much more durable.

N 07: In my opinion, if someone can damage your soulhome, you've already lost.

F question: I have not seen a healer's blueprint before. Why are there so many chambers to generate cantae?

N neutral: Healing is complicated and extremely resource-intensive, so they need multiple sources.

T neutral: Yeah, you actually see designs similar to this everywhere in the Nine Worlds. It's a reliable blueprint.

F neutral: Hmm... I think they mix together different sources of cantae for different purposes? One pair for closing wounds, another for curing illnesses?

N 04: That's right, and each door is built as a sub-chamber so they can apply the cantae via specialized techniques!

T smiling: Healers are limited before they soulcraft multiple floors, but this is a solid 80 for a start.

Spoilers Ahead

F neutral: What is a spoiler?

T frowning: The next image contains minor details about how we soulcraft in the first book.

N smiling: You can skip the next part if you absolutely want to avoid all spoilers.

[Theo's Soulhome]

T smiling: My soulhome is a work in progress, but you can see the basic design.

N neutral: That vestibule to modulate cantae is seriously advanced stuff. Too technical to get into now, I think.

T neutral: Doesn't make a huge difference at early tiers, anyway.

F smiling: I like how the design is very orderly. All of the rooms are balanced and the connections are symmetrical.

N smiling: This is a good time to point out the subjective element. This would be a bad design for someone like a healer who wants fluid concepts, but it's effective because Theo wants many distinctly themed rooms.

F neutral: It is similar for me: I am better able to use light as a weapon because it is dangerous on my home world.

N neutral: It's worth saying that the sheer number of doors would be a weakness, if the heart chamber wasn't designed to set the cantae orbiting.

F neutral: That is true. It also loses some cantae space to the thick walls and pillars, but I believe our companion did this to support future tiers.

T smiling: You thought I was going to give myself a 100/100? No, the true strength of my design will barely be hinted before Archcrafter tier.

N 10: Your false humility is useless, when you've soulcrafted all this in just a matter of months.

F smiling: Can we see your soulhome next, Nauda?

[Nauda's Soulhome]

N neutral: I'm afraid my soulhome is rather modest, and my plans have been altered as I experienced a few difficulties in life.

F smiling: I like your heart chamber! Are the proportions based on the golden ratio?

N 04: Oh, good eye. Yes, I have powerful sublime materials in my heart chamber, so distributing their cantae effectively is important.

T neutral: The construction is solid, and you know I respect the craft on that telescope. But you're making poor use of the size of your soul, and it might not be easy to expand.

N neutral: I know, I know, you think I should build a tower.

T smiling: Separated soulhomes are rare, but there are legitimate reasons to design them that way.

F neutral: All of your chambers are mergers of cantae-generation, techniques, and strengthening. It is not how I was taught, but it is a consistent design.

N smiling: It's a more common model on Tatian than the previous Farmguard blueprint, honestly.

T neutral: Of course, the obvious thing Nauda has over either of us is that partially-constructed pyramid. When built high enough, it will make her an Archcrafter and unlock an entire second floor.

N neutral: I think ascension is probably beyond the scope of this introduction.

T neutral: Considering just the first floor... reasonably effective design, but with flaws. I'd say 65/100.

T neutral: Reasonably effective design, but with flaws. I'd say 65/100.

N 07: I'm humbled by your magnanimity, oh esteemable sage.

F smiling: I think that you are a 100, Nauda.

[Fiyu's Soulhome]

F 03: Umm... normally strangers shouldn't see this, but if this is non-canon, they can't tell anyone, right?

N smiling: I think you're safe, Fiyu.

T neutral: What's interesting about Fiyu's design is that it uses three different building materials, which would normally clash, but fuses them into several planned synergies.

F smiling: Yes. My relative said this blueprint was very difficult, but that it would be best for me.

N neutral: Which of the three materials is that entrance?

F neutral: ...

T neutral: Even though this breaks some standard rules, like having the walls and pillars not line up perfectly with the materials, in this case it's clearly done for a reason. You have to know when to break beginner rules.

N 04: I'm glad to see the window we helped you add to your sensory chamber!

F smiling: Yes, it is very helpful in these hellishly bright worlds.

T neutral: This is also a completely circular design, which makes good use of soul space and is highly durable.

N smiling: Honestly, the purity of the design doesn't do you justice, Fiyu. You have some powerful techniques in there.

F smiling: ...

T smiling: I'd say this is 90+, and only that because I don't know how well the blueprint flows into higher floors to justify the curve. It's clearly a design that's been refined over generations.

Conclusion

N 05: There you have it! A basic introduction to soulcrafting.

F neutral: Please follow precautions and obey your elder relatives when working on your soulhome.

T smiling: These principles would serve you well on every floor, but they're just scratching the surface of soulcrafting's complexity.

F smiling: But I think that is for future books.

N smiling: We'll see you in The Weirkey Chronicles!

(Again, if you'd like to see this conversation with full images, you can find it here: https://old.reddit.com/r/TheBrightestShadow/comments/k6vxt8/soulhome_architecture_101_with_theo_nauda_and_fiyu/)