Crimsoncrest: Chapters 28-29

Time for some unexpected twists this week, and I don't mean anyone suddenly being revealed to be a Fleshmasker. Though it's quite evident that my sense for what makes characters interesting over a long series is at odds with the genre at large, I hope people will enjoy some of the developments this time. ^-^

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Chapter 28

The dominant part of Theo was doing his best to remain invested, to help House Blacksilver and all the other Fithans who had given him a leg up in the world. That was the reason he had stayed in the Asplundat Movement's territory and coordinated with the others. But there was a smaller part of him that had been hungering for the sublime materials in Senka's cache ever since she had mentioned them.

Now that it seemed clear that Tymetron wouldn't attack in the near future, he thought he could justify some time away. So as soon as he caught up with Fiyu and Nauda, it was finally time. Even though Senka had been training Fiyu lately, she still seemed fresh and ready to go.

Just one or two more details. Theo touched the weirkeys in his pocket, but resisted the urge to use them and instead headed back to their room at Outpost #127.

Krikree crouched there, in the middle of soulcrafting. This time she didn't try to hide anything, though, and instead emerged to peer at him. "Krikree still experiment bricks."

"Sometimes that's what you have to do," Theo told her, scratching between her antennae. "It sounds like you're on the right track, so I'm sure you'll have it figured out by the time you get back."

"Not like bricks. Krikree want soulcraft big things, queen things."

"I like that too, but sometimes you have to focus on the fundamentals. You can't get lazy and start creating shoddy bricks or your whole soulhome could collapse. I could be making bricks at twice this speed, but I can't let my standards slip."

She perked up at that. "Theo-sister soulcraft bricks?"

"That's right. I'm still hunting for materials, but making bricks is honestly my highest priority right now."

"Krikree master bricks!" She crouched down, antennae vibrating intensely. "After, Theo-sister and Krikree soulcraft bricks!"

"Sounds like a plan." Theo gave her head one more rub, then left the room to join Senka.

Truthfully, he was a bit troubled that Krikree hadn't come to him with her doubts. An edgy old part of him thought that sounded mushy, but he pushed it back: he cared about Krikree. Whether or not they were truly "sisters" they were a part of each other's lives. It was hard to say if he could have done something better, or if this was just how she processed her own unique issues.

Speaking of unique issues, Senka appeared unusually restless when he met her in the sky. "Sporping finally," she muttered. "I promise you sublime materials and untold riches, and you say, 'No, I have to go make friends and pat a bug on the head.' "

"If I had left, the Asplundatcrest might have been destroyed," Theo pointed out. He wasn't particularly invested in the argument, but bickering came naturally when he was with Senka.

"Not like we can even use the thing. Besides, if the Asplundorks infuse it with their cantae, it will probably be unusable anyway."

"This is a sublime material that all the aeon-class organizations are fighting over and you're convinced it will be unusable?"

Senka snickered as she moved to grip the back of his robe for the transport. "Get moving first, but I have a story to tell you about that."

She'd already given him the exact location: an undersea city on the other side of the planet. It wasn't the city itself that held what she needed, rather it contained a gate that would put them close to her old cache. Since it was on Aathal and they still lacked an Aathali weirkey, this was their best option. She promised that it wouldn't be too long a trip and he hoped she was right.

When he came out in the undersea city, Theo was immediately on edge. Wearing his armament coat and looking like an outsider, he wasn't likely to be mistaken for a dust Fithan, but these cities could be xenophobic for obvious reasons. He saw blue skin and horns in every direction as he moved from the weirkey platform to the edge of the city.

It was a shame that he hadn't been able to spend more time in the oceans of Fithe, considering that they covered half the planet. He had gotten a much clearer understanding of Fithan politics than he had during his first life, but what other details was he missing? There were entire wars going on that he'd never touched, continents and oceans that hadn't even heard of Tymetron.

The undersea city was essentially a giant glass bubble on the ocean floor, filled with multiple layers of housing. As an outsider he wasn't allowed to venture into most of them, but he also didn't need to: there was a direct path from the entrance point to one side of the sphere. A gate was embedded in the glass wall, circular instead of the usual arch. It was made out of a different sort of glass, actually, one that was dark green even in the strange light, which was a bit odd.

"How do you think that came about?" he asked Senka. "Did the gate start out underwater and they built the city around it?"

"I don't know about this place in particular," Senka said, "but that's not usually how it goes. Somebody a long time ago, a soulcrafter way sporping stronger than all of these, probably built the entire sphere including the gate. City-sized spheres aren't exactly found lying on the bottom of the ocean, you know, so they try to keep reusing them as much as possible."

In their place, Theo would have been more nervous knowing that the sphere that kept out the water's crushing pressure was ancient. Then again, he didn't have Fithan psychology: they all seemed to be going about their business happily enough, ignoring the benthic darkness on the other side of the glass.

Strangely, Theo's gravity sense kept throwing up false signals that must have been figments of his imagination. When he focused, it was clear that the city was the largest source of gravity anywhere in his range, with even large schools of fish barely having any mass. Yet occasionally he hallucinated something much larger, as if a mass of teeth and tentacles would come swimming out of the darkness...

At least he hoped he was imagining that part.

Nothing attacked as he made his way to the gate, and the Fithan guards only inspected him briefly before deciding they didn't want to get in the way of a strange outsider Stronghold. Theo hesitated in front of the spherical gate, a small bubble of green within the black. He'd been through gates hundreds of times and knew it would work, yet still imagined if they turned it off somehow, leaving him flying into the ocean depths.

Well, he might actually survive the crushing pressure even at this depth, now that he thought about it. Theo nodded to the guards, made sure Senka was secure, then floated through.

On the other side he flew into Aathal, though the landscape around him wasn't as lush or gargantuan as he would have expected. There were only standard-sized shrubs within sight, and though the ground was covered in rich green moss, it wasn't particularly remarkable. If not for the mottled sky and pulsating sun, he could almost have been on several other worlds.

Unusual to come out in the air, though... Theo looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened.

The circular portal had been set not in the ground, but in the side of an enormous tree. It was easily the size of a skyscraper, spearing into the heavens thousands of times taller than all the other vegetation. This was the first time he'd ever seen a gate within something growing... except it wasn't. When Theo investigated more closely, he realized that the tree had died long ago and been petrified in this state, leafless branches clawing the sky.

"What happened here?" Theo asked. He'd intended to use his normal tone of voice, yet ended up speaking softly - it felt appropriate, as if this was a grave.

"I don't actually know," Senka answered. "This place was dead even back when I was alive, and it doesn't look like it's grown back much since then. But anyway, we need to fly northwest, so get to it."

He rose further into the air and then pulled the sleigh from his soulhome. It wasn't built to fully support Stronghold cantae, but if he pushed it to its limits, he could make good time without slowing. At first he moved cautiously, alert for any locals who might attack. When it became clear that the place was still uninhabited, he instead looked back over his shoulder at the lone giant tree, which grew smaller at a troublingly slow speed.

"It's still just a tree," Senka said. "Eyes forward."

"Because of the danger here?"

"Because we're here for more exciting blook than trees."

Theo sighed and settled in for the flight. "Didn't you say you were going to tell a story?"

"Oh, right." Senka cackled to herself. "Talking about unusable materials, I have a good one... there was this man, chosen soulcrafter of his clan, who wanted to create an unstoppable sublime material for himself. He decided to make it out of the corpses of his enemies, which he would let decay and condense into a single material. This was his goal for years, gathering up hundreds of them."

"It was a normal thing to just kill hundreds of people back then?"

"Don't bring your moralizing into my funny story! As the bodies decomposed, their power became more concentrated, forming soil that was incredibly rich with violence and bloodshed. He used that as fertilizer, compacting it all into a small stone. The problem was... it smelled like blook. Just absolutely awful. He had a grandiose name for it, but everyone started calling it the poostone and he never lived it down."

Despite himself, Theo snorted at the childish insult. "Did he really avoid using it in his soulhome just because of the smell? You'd think you could hide that."

"Oh, he did, but everyone pretended they could smell it anyway." Senka's unfocused eyes stared into the past and she grinned. "Which is all to say that sometimes no amount of power in a sublime material is worth it. Does it have a place in your soul if you believe it's absolutely stupid?"

"Has this been a long introduction to soften me up to the fact that your cache contains nothing but poostones?"

Senka cackled again, but shook her head. "I don't remember what all it had, I just remember I put more defenses on this one."

"You know..." Thinking back over the story, one detail stuck out. "I'm surprised that your curse didn't disrupt the name."

"Well, it was a deeply childish word, not a profane one. That was part of the insult."

"What tier would you say the poostone was?" Theo asked.

"Seventh or so?"

"So most of you were Ophaon-tier soulcrafters, having just ascended from Dominion?"

"Not exactly. Back then people who had potential or connections were treated differently, given entirely different blueprints and materials." Senka seemed to be looking backward again, no longer so happily. "When you have Immortality Conduits, it matters more what tier someone will reach than what they are for a few years."

"But I imagine, even back then, it was hard to get past Ophaon."

"Yeah, that's where I was stuck."

Theo nodded as if he was simply curious. "I've been talking to Guchiro and it seems like some people treat those tiers as a different world. Did you use terms like aeon-class back then?"

"Those are actually new," Senka said, returning to the present. "Sometimes people used 'realm' categorizations instead of 'class' but the fundamental laws of soulcrafting were the same. There's just a huge difference when you reach those later tiers."

"Did you care about the different between the first two realms, then? I imagine that ascending to Authority isn't as special if some people can reach Ophaon."

"Nah, Authority is still special, because you can use weirkeys. It was called the first step on the road to Bupplesniffer-"

Senka cut off, irritated... and then she saw his grin. As soon as she understood, she began whacking the sides of his head ineffectually.

"Nlermit, you absolute fumpet! Have you been trying to lead me into that all conversation?"

"More or less," Theo said unapologetically.

"And here I thought you actually cared." Senka flew away and crossed her arms in an exaggerated sulk.

"No, no, I was truly curious about the Ophaon tier. Ophaon is such an important stage, after all. And Ophaon is such a resonant, euphonic word. Ophaon, Ophaon, Oph-"

"You little blook!" Senka tried to shove her fist into his mouth to shut him up, but they both ended up laughing.

They continued flying across the deadened region of Aathal and Theo was able to soulcraft at times thanks to the sleigh. For the most part, however, he just enjoyed talking to Senka about higher tier soulcrafting. Unlike Dave, who knew everything but considered it premature to explain, Senka was fuzzy about most details but happy to discuss them.

From her he didn't learn exact rules for aeon-class soulcrafting so much as the general attitude of her time period. Even if she was unclear on specifics, she could guess why Dave had gotten stuck at Ophaon, or ramble about different builds and their general potential. He wanted to ask her about her own soulhome, but that seemed to be one of the pieces she struggled most to remember.

Eventually Senka cut off and waved a hand to the east. Theo slowed down the sleigh and began examining the area with his gravity senses, but he didn't notice anything in particular. His eyes were actually more useful: there was a small forest of fungi in one distance, apparently thriving in the blasted space. They grew larger than any he'd seen, some of them twice his height.

Unlike most areas of Aathal, however, which were riots of color, the fungi were overwhelmingly a dark gray. Theo was about to fly into them to look further when Senka shook a finger.

"The defenses start here, I think," she said in a low voice. "I should be immune, but you... need to be careful."

"You remember anything else?" Theo asked as he kept his distance, instead circling around one side of the fungal forest.

"I think there were spores... do you need to breathe? I suggest you stop that."

Before Theo got far, he saw something shift in the forest. He reacted immediately, a torsion punch prepared in one hand and a gravitational field in the other. For a moment he couldn't find the source until he realized that it wasn't something moving between the mushrooms...

One of the smaller mushrooms opened dark red eyes and stared at him.

Theo ended up staring back, unsure what he was seeing. Even though he had traveled with an Aathali man in his first life, Aathal was too large and diverse for Theo to have seen more than a fraction of it. Considering everything else that existed in the Nine Worlds, why not a fungal person? This one seemed to have a soulhome, so that was the easiest conclusion, but that didn't mean they were friendly.

"This place isn't safe for your kind, outsider," the mushroom intoned seriously.

"What does that mean?" Theo halted the sleigh and rose to his feet.

"Uh... I didn't mean it that way." The mushroom blinked red eyes and twisted, apparently uncomfortable. "I don't talk to a lot of people. I just mean... there are spores in the area, dangerous ones. They could colonize even an Authority."

"I'm afraid we need to keep traveling," Theo said. "Any advice?"

"I am here to study the ancient sporeroots, so I know a little of the dangers. If you clear a path for me, I can give you the details, one soulcrafter to another."

Theo was a little suspicious, awaiting a subtle attack, but the mushroom soulcrafter appeared entirely honest. It - Theo had no way of knowing what it might be - told him some of the details and asked for a path to a specific point. Senka nodded slightly at the mushroom's explanations and shrugged when it gave the location, so Theo decided that it was fine.

It only took ordinary cantae bolts to demolish a line of mushrooms. Theo had to wonder how the mushroom soulcrafter was going to move there, since it seemed rooted unlike Khaluu, but eventually decided that wasn't his business. He flew the sleigh higher and set to work soulcrafting.

"Do you still not have a chamber that will adapt to anything?" Senka asked, trying to distract him from his soulcrafting. "Those things should be standard, given how many hostile environments you face."

"Hey, I have an acclimatization chamber," Theo responded as he walked down the stairs into his basement. "My blueprint is too tightly designed to have a lot of spare rooms."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that when you die of mushroom."

Honestly, Theo was looking forward to this in a way he hadn't expected. So much of the time he could adapt with raw power alone, which was effective but not very imaginative. Now he needed to put together something that could completely stop spores, which was tricky without Aathali materials.

Now that he had a full basement of tools, however, he could be much more flexible. Instead of trying to soulcraft some sort of ad hoc immunity like he would have in his first life, Theo fashioned what amounted to a plague doctor mask. He hadn't used the animabladder from the Chasm of Lamentations in years, but he placed it in the beak with some cleansing materials that should actually protect him from threats, theoretically, unlike the historical plague doctors.

He replaced the sleigh in his soulhome, to prevent it getting infected, and then descended into the fungal forest. Senka hovered after him, watching closely for a reaction, but relaxed as they went deeper. She seemed to be entirely immune to the spores, and the flickers of her Ophaon-tier power would probably have protected her anyway.

"There..." Senka pointed ahead, to a thicket of tall and thin mushrooms. "Pull out that one, but be careful."

"This one?" Theo gripped the fungus and tore it out, then leapt backward as he felt a cantae trap burst.

Shards exploded beneath the soil, shooting toward him with intense force. But he had instinctively cast a gravitational field and anti-mass point, so they veered aside and only a single one grazed the edge of his coat. That one did punch through, which suggested the trap was more powerful than he'd expected.

"Manipulating gravity is unfair," Senka said irritably. "I put a lot of work into that trap."

"What, you wanted it to kill me for the sake of your ego?"

"No, but you could have at least gotten injured to be polite."

The explosion had taken a chunk out of the forest floor, wiping out a huge section of soil to reveal bedrock underneath. Except it wasn't entirely natural stone: one part was too smooth, with patterns that he remembered from Noven. It had been a while since he and Senka had explored one of her caches, much less successfully.

"You want to do the honors?" he asked, gesturing Senka forward with a bow. "You can get hit with the next trap."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, fumpet." Senka floated down to the stone and began running her fingers over the designs in a specific pattern.

Theo didn't understand every detail of the locking sublime materials, but he did memorize Senka's pattern this time, just in case. As soon as she finished, the stone began to rumble, grinding at first and then thumping into gear and pulling away to reveal a staircase. When Senka began to float down it, torches lit up on the walls.

"There's one more defense," Senka said over her shoulder, "in the antechamber. I can't remember what it is, though. Something different, I only had one. Uh... listen, I was joking before, but you'd better be careful. This could potentially be the most dangerous part."

At the bottom of the stairs was a small chamber that contained only a defensive door... and a silk cushion? Theo blinked, unsure what it could mean. It was like someone had set down a pillow in front of the door for reasons that escaped him.

It didn't help when Senka fell to her knees and let out a choking sob.

"Senka?" Theo moved cautiously after her, but he still didn't sense any danger. The cushion seemed ordinary, worn and a bit dusty. There were spheres of topaz-like sublime material on it, yet they didn't feel dangerous - in fact, they felt calmer and more peaceful than just about any sublime material he'd encountered.

"I didn't think... why would you stay?" Senka extended her hand toward the cushion, fingers trembling. "I didn't remember... I'm sorry, I..."

The sublime materials began to glow, and the light melted into a ghostly animal. It looked leonine, with bright yellow eyes and a shaggy mane, which put Theo on edge. Yet it didn't feel like a real sublime beast, just some sort of lingering echo. It didn't seem to notice him at all, just took a step forward and bumped its head against Senka's hand.

She made another choking sound and then the glow began to fade, dispersing into glimmering rain. Senka almost sobbed again, fingers clutching at the remnants. There seemed to be nothing left, as all the peaceful energy had receded into the spheres resting on the pillow.

"I don't deserve this..." Senka breathed.

The vault door was directly in front of them and Theo found himself looking over his shoulder. They might have drawn attention with the explosion, from the local Aathali or worse. Senka's shoulders were shaking but she pulled away when he reached toward her. Should he just leave her to her emotions, break through the door, and empty everything? That would probably be the smartest path.

Instead he found himself sitting down opposite Senka, his back to the vault door. He didn't say anything at first, waiting for her trembling to stop.

"That was Steti. There... used to be a sublime beast called felidays." Senka spoke like she was lecturing again, but her voice almost cracked.

"Steti was your... friend?" Theo asked gently.

"A pet. The little fuzzball barely had the brains to..." Senka sniffed and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Why would he stay so long? I never imagined..."

"You left him to guard the door?"

"Felidays were solar beasts, strong ones. They took care of children or... or guarded important things. But I... I was never a great owner. I didn't give Steti the attention he deserved, not really. When I left him to guard the cache, I thought he would wander off, or chase something, or... and then I was cursed and never came back. He could have slipped out, but he stayed on guard until he passed."

Theo looked toward the cushion, wondering if the indentations represented the sublime beast seated on it. That left the strange topaz spheres, which Senka scooped into her arms. He decided to wait and let her finish in her own time.

"They leave behind sublime materials called felinesolars when they pass, depending on..." Senka drew in a ragged breath. "Depending on their strength in life, but also... how they pass. They're only supposed to leave them when they pass away peaceful and happy, not... I don't deserve this. I wasn't a good enough owner, but Steti... I didn't..."

She lapsed into silence and this time Theo didn't think she would speak again. He stared down at the peaceful spheres, which almost seemed to be rolling into her touch. It was difficult to imagine the Senka he knew, who had not long ago told a joke involving hundreds of corpses, caring for a cat. Maybe a special sublime cat, but the glimpse he had seen, the way it had bumped into her fingers...

"You don't get to judge yourself," Theo said eventually, "not here. Steti apparently loved you, whatever you thought of yourself."

Senka gave another nearly silent sob and clutched the spheres against herself. Theo sat in silence for a time, then slowly extended his arm. When it neared her shoulders, Senka ducked her head and practically rammed against him, trembling slightly.

So they sat there together, saying nothing and ignoring the vault of treasures.

-

Chapter 29

How long had Nauda been cleaning up the soul-draining stones? The ordeal of touching each one made it feel like forever, but she knew it hadn't been long in the grand scheme of things. Or perhaps it was just being stuck in an unchanging pastel world while so much went on in Fithe.

Now only a few of the largest boulders remained, still a struggle despite all her training. Some of the Siatans had tried to help her, but the effect seemed even more dramatic on them and their strength withered. She had tried to budge them with cantae bolts or even her old binding technique, but the cantae-draining effect was too potent.

One of the last stones sat in a hollow, making it difficult to budge. Nauda ignored the pain shooting through her spirit and pushed, nudging the boulder a little. As soon as it rose, she swept her foot, creating a line of wards to keep it from rolling back.

That held the boulder, giving her precious time to recover, but she saw that her wards were crumbling away faster than she'd hoped. Gritting her teeth, Nauda reset her feet, put her shoulder against the stone, and pushed with the rest of her strength.

Finally it got out of the hollow, instead rolling a short distance in the right direction. Nauda dropped down to one knee, catching her breath. Just a few more... she'd be done already if she had help.

Tythes lay on the other side of the field, slumped against one of the remaining boulders that was twice his height. If not for how his eyes were closed, she might have thought that he was just casually leaning against it, and she still assumed he was loafing. He'd been even less helpful than usual during these past days while they tried to finish the work.

Nauda stomped over to him and grabbed his shoulder. "Come on, get back to work."

"I can't," he muttered, flopping back against the stone.

"No more excuses, we need to finish this!"

"Nauda, I can't."

When she took a second look, her perception flipped in an instant. She'd often seen Tythes apathetic and shirking work, but now his face was wan and his eyes heavy. In the past he had been an entire tier or more ahead of her, easily equal to the challenges facing them... and now, he wasn't.

"I have mediocre strength for an Authority," he said wearily. "You likely outstripped me as soon as you ascended. Yes, I was being obnoxious earlier, but I tried to move this one before and I honestly can't. You're not seeing stubbornness, you're seeing just how weak and pathetic I really am."

Normally she would assume he was indulging in self-pity, but his eyes looked so exhausted... "Why have you really stayed at Authority this long?" Nauda asked quietly.

"You know my soulhome was destroyed, but it's deeper than that. My self-identity as a warrior was what crumbled, and I can't rebuild that. Yes, I've spent years soulcrafting - I don't know if you understand how difficult it is to rework like that, but I've been trying. But even when it's done, I'll never be a warrior again."

His soulhome had such suspicious walls, Nauda had always assumed that he was hiding some sort of nasty secret. Yet now, with the perspective of having seen so many other Authorities, it didn't seem overwhelming to her anymore. It was strange to think that she might have surpassed him, and that if she ascended with her allies, he'd actually be weak to them.

"I'll handle the rest," Nauda said, taking his shoulder and moving him to sit down on one of the larger flowers. "I'm not trying to torture you, honest. But can you be honest with us?"

"Why not?" He waved a hand skyward with a bit of his old theatricality. "It's too late for my plan to work, anyway. I'd infiltrated the Asplundat Movement, and the plan was to get close to the crest and stop my father. Maybe if we'd all cooperated, we could have stopped this."

"Stopped what, exactly?"

"House Crimson getting so close to their goal, of course. I can't prove it, but I suspect that the Salebrante sent that outsider to trigger a conflict with Tymetron. That let Wiltur fight to defend the crest, earning more of their trust. Your friend stopped Roker from doing something, right? He has a plan to intercept the infusion process and take everything for himself. This is his moment to take the world stage and acquire real power."

Nauda frowned and thought back over events again. "I can buy that, but why are you doing all this? Even if you sabotaged House Crimson, what does that get you?"

"I suppose there's no point hiding it anymore: I was hired by the Eternal Spectrum." Tythes gave her a weak shrug. "They don't trust the House of Coin to do the job, and they probably don't trust me either. I assume they're hedging their bets, asking multiple factions to bring them the final crest. It doesn't matter to them who wins, they just want the sublime material."

"We already suspected that. Seems like one of the only good options is to sell it to them."

"Oh, but it could have been me instead. I had an amazing plan to infuse it and the marble slab would have had a huge picture of my face. Think about it: the effect of these aeon-class organizations fighting over a sublime material, then wherever it goes, they'd have to stare at my face the entire time they soulcrafted it."

For a second Nauda wanted to swat him for his ego, then she realized what he really meant. "You're saying that it isn't just about selling the material, it's about establishing a broader reputation."

Tythes flicked her forehead weakly. "Obviously. That was my father's real goal: infuse it so that it becomes the Crimsoncrest, and the name of House Crimson is spread across the Nine Worlds. Then it would be everything he's always wanted and I always feared: his old tyranny spreading further and further as his reputation grows."

"But if we protect it, the slab will become the Asplundatcrest. That would be good for the Movement, right?"

"Sure, if you want to be boring about it."

Nauda turned everything over in her head, looking for the gaps or deceptions. It sounded authentic so far, and Tythes sounded so weary... maybe this was the time to strike.

"We actually agree that it's best to surrender the crest," she said, "but we don't want to give it to the Eternal Spectrum. Too much greed, not enough loyalty. Do you have a way to contact the Orphic Cabal?"

Tythes sat upright and stared at her. "No, no, you don't want to give it to those crusty old scholars. The Eternal Spectrum is rich, wealthier than you can dream. They'd definitely give the best rewards for the crest, even if you're being stubborn and want those rewards to go to the Asplundat Movement."

"Not happening, but you didn't answer the question: can you contact the Orphic Cabal?"

"I suppose it might be possible, but why do you think they even want it? Maybe they're not as dangerous as some of the others, but they're still an aeon-class organization, so there's a risk. A huge risk, honestly, because they don't like being disturbed..." Tythes was starting to worm away, but Nauda reached out and grabbed the collar of his coat, pulling him back.

"Help us arrange a meeting," Nauda insisted. "After that, tell us exactly what House Crimson is plotting to steal the crest. If you do that, we'll help you stop your father permanently. Isn't that most of what you want, anyway?"

"And would you still treat me as a prisoner?"

"If you actually treat fairly with us here, you'll have prevented a disaster. You do that and we'll call things even."

After a long moment staring at her with dead eyes, Tythes smiled.

~ ~ ~

Fiyu had returned to her cleared space many times, striking at the foundation of her soulhome and attempting to drive lower. The only difference was that this time Relative Guchiro was watching her, and that made far more difference than she expected.

Her fingers slipped on the darkegg again, not landing a proper strike. When she sighed, she felt Relative Guchiro touch the edge of her robe in real life.

"Calm," he commanded. "There is no urgency."

"But there is," she insisted. "I must assist my companions, and the sooner I break through..."

"Your passion does you credit, but brute force is not the path to opening a basement early. What you have already done has enriched your foundation and brought you closer. To proceed, I would suggest a different method."

"What is it?" Fiyu emerged from her soulhome in anticipation.

"Take this." Relative Guchiro handed her a black spike that looked something like a tent peg, though it was sharper and clearly a sublime material. "It is a foundationstake, and it is one of the methods I used to open my own basement at Authority. Given what you have already done, you should be able to use it without excessive trouble."

She took a deep breath as she accepted the foundationstake and carried it into her soulhome. It felt far heavier than other spiritual tools, so it was tricky to position it in place and try to drive it into the ground.

"Patience, slow and steady." Relative Guchiro's words reached her like whispers from the outside. "It is not that your foundation is locked away, it is that you must push the boundaries of your soulhome down. You have taken the necessary steps, now you must gradually expand yourself."

It was fortunate that he had given the advice then, because Fiyu had been considering trying to stomp up and down on the top of the spike. Clearly, Associate Senka's strange training was infecting her. She tried to set aside all such things and follow his advice, working the foundationstake deeper even though it felt like there was nowhere to go.

Minutes slowly gave way to hours, and in the expanse of her mind it could have been days. Then, all at once, she felt something give. As if the unbreakable barrier beneath her soil had a crack in it, and the tip had slipped further down. Fiyu raised her hand, slow and controlled, and pressed down on the top with all of her soul.

The stake plunged deep, the ground of her soul trembled, and she felt her soulhome open. More importantly, the trembling ground released a new wave of intense cantae that made the air feel as though it was filled with joyous fire.

Pleased as she was, Fiyu didn't rush to leave immediately. Instead she picked up the foundationstake, which remained intact, and handed it to her relative with a smile. "Thank you, Guchiro."

"Keep it." He gently folded her hands over the spike. "I have no more use for it, but perhaps one day you can pass it along to a ward of your own. Congratulations on opening your basement."

Fiyu immediately set to digging, eager to see how far she could get, and soon realized that it would be immensely challenging. Even the upper soil felt shockingly heavy, and when she dug a few inches downward, she began to encounter dark roots of non-existence that blunted her tools. She emerged and folded her arms, considering the problem.

"You could very slowly enrich your foundation," Relative Guchiro advised, "but I would consider another path. Basements are traditionally developed at Stronghold, so I advise that you wait to begin truly digging until then. You could soulcraft for a year and not fully excavate your basement - I know from personal experience."

"But..." Fiyu looked down at the spiritual dirt on her hands. "I worked so hard to open it early. I want to gain more from it than just cantae intensity."

"You can. Instead of thinking of your basement as a new floor, think of it as space for you to finish your Immortality Conduit. Dig only a shallow space, then complete the most important components, without activating them. Then, when you ascend, you will be closer to a true Conduit than any of your companions."

Fiyu's eyes widened as she realized what he intended. Yes, this was a good plan: each of her companions could specialize during this stage and continue to support one another. Plus, she had already done so much work in preparing for her Conduit, she would not be delaying her ascension by too long.

"I... have been struggling with my Conduit," Fiyu admitted to her relative. "I had hoped to speak with you about the process."

"I may not be the adviser you need." Relative Guchiro shook his head slowly. "My Conduit follows the same design as yours, but I needed to develop it to be fully functional at Authority. That required very slow and deliberate methods that would not be suitable for you."

"Please tell me. It would help so much to at least know what you did."

"Very well... at Authority I built my eternal chamber and found the appropriate materials. The spiral staircases were already intact and highly reinforced, with a mirrored material at the bottom very similar to your own. But if I had attempted to activate my Conduit forcefully, the newer materials on my fourth floor would have shattered and damaged me irrevocably."

That matched everything Fiyu had heard, so she simply nodded in agreement. Even though the method was not applicable to her, her elder relative seemed so much more relatable than Associate Senka.

"I nearly closed the circuit, then had the cantae begin moving extremely slowly. Over the course of years, and including various enriching methods, I gradually conditioned all the materials to survive the intensity. By the time I completed the Conduit, it had reached the necessary state, but that took a great deal of time."

"I have been advised to activate mine all at once," Fiyu said. "Not now, of course, but I should prepare."

"That sounds like a similar method," Relative Guchiro told her. "But it's designed to prepare your materials for a later breakthrough instead of conditioning them gradually."

"Would that method be... inferior in some way? It seems difficult."

"I can think of no reason why the end result would be inferior. Indeed, it has the obvious advantage that it does not require years of slow acceleration. I strongly suggest that you build your eternal chamber, and if such exercises feel right to you, attempt them with the completed circuit."

There was no choice, then. At least Fiyu had a great deal of engaging soulcrafting to focus on instead of trying the same exercises, since there was no point until she had completed her work.

Over the next several days, Fiyu gradually scraped out a section of her basement while also building pieces of her eternal chamber. The final version would be much larger, but she focused on the component that would receive the full force of her enriched cantae. Her filtermirrors were more than up to the task, thankfully, and the eternaldark was a perfectly suited material. When she built up the final channels and walls, this section would be the weakest link, so she needed to carve and fuse everything precisely.

Fiyu had yet to actually make a decision about the shadowlamp, despite their discussion. It felt so much easier to continue soulcrafting with her relative instead of trying to sell it to so many different strangers. She told herself that this was acceptable because she needed to finish this work more than she needed additional materials. It was not as though sublime material requirements would disappear at Stronghold.

Soon Fiyu began to forget about all the outside conflicts, to think that she would have plenty of time to ascend. She could attain the next tier with her relative, then return and impress Friend Nauda and maybe even Friend Theo. Perhaps they could all be fully prepared before the crest was complete and she could fight together when Relative Guchiro when the enemy attacked.

Reality returned in the form of a weirkey activation not far from her. It was Friend Nauda, being escorted by Ally Homez. They rushed down toward Outpost #127 so quickly that even Relative Guchiro leapt to his feet, prepared for another invasion.

"Are you okay?" Fiyu asked. "Is Tymetron coming?"

"It's both better and worse than that," Friend Nauda said. "I pushed Tythes until he tried to contact the other organizations. At first it seemed like there would be no responses, now suddenly the Orphic Cabal wants to meet! I'm not prepared for this."

"Where is Theo? He should know what to do."

"I was hoping he was with you."

Friend Theo and Associate Senka had yet to return, so it seemed there were no answers. When Fiyu glanced to her elder relative, he only shook his head, as these were mysterious aeon-class organizations. It seemed they had no one to answer for them, and they would have to come up with something on their own.