Wakespire: Chapters 40-41

Shame I'm away for the week we get some big revelations, but I guess I'll just have to read comments after the fact. If you're reading this, the scheduling worked and all I need to do is remind everyone that I'm AFK and will reply later. If you're not reading this... then this sentence is pointless.

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Chapter 40

When Senka had said they were going somewhere different, Theo had barely blinked. He'd seen many alien worlds, plus over the past two months he'd explored diverse corners of Noven. After jungle mountains and desert in the clouds, it seemed unlikely that any landscape could really surprise him.

He was right: the difference was in the people.

The Noveni who lived in the cloudless plain looked similar enough to the rest when it came to their main bodies, except for nearly all having gray eyes. But instead of four to eight feathery wings, each had four enormous extensions of bone on their backs. The skeleton wings appeared able to move just as easily as flesh ones, though they didn't seem capable of flight. He wasn't entirely sure what good they were, though he'd seen one Ruler with vicious-looking metal spikes attached to her wings.

"I wish only to travel through your lands," Theo said to the group. He kept his fists together in the position Senka had shown him. "I require no food or supplies and intend to take nothing that is owned by another."

"Then go in peace. We need not meet again." The lead soulcrafter mirrored his fists, then the whole group moved away. That left him, in theory, able to search without causing any trouble.

So he turned back to the plain and began investigating the cache that theoretically existed somewhere within. Though this part of Noven didn't seem to have any mountains, it had a ridiculously large number of hills. The plain that had appeared flat from above was practically an ocean storm frozen into land. It could take a while if Senka couldn't guide him further.

She finally popped out from behind one of the hills. "Sounds like you got permission."

"That's what I got from them." Theo shrugged. "Is it really that easy?"

"They're just sensitive about people running around on their land. Oh, and they eat people who don't obey their laws."

"I don't think they do."

"Sporp, I'm losing my touch." Senka hovered up to land on his shoulder. "Yeah, the people here are pretty normal in most respects. I mean, they will come kill you if you attack them, but is that really so different from anywhere else?"

"Any other rules I need to know? And no more lies."

"Well, if I can't lie, then I don't have anything."

They embarked on their search for Senka's cache, weaving around the hills as she did her best to search her memories. Theo did wonder if there was a special reason that she didn't want to meet with them, since she'd stuck with him in almost every other region. He suspected that she might simply have been viewed as suspicious, given how skeptical the locals had been of him. If he hadn't been an Authority, they might have tried to force him out before he could give an explanation.

"You know," Theo said while they searched, "you have an awful lot of these caches."

"What can I say? I was a paranoid gurfoop." Senka's face screwed up strangely, almost like her cursed self. "I think I had a lot of enemies. My memory is still fuzzy on the details, but I definitely thought I had a lot of enemies, and I don't think I was wrong about that."

"Enemies who could destroy your entire organization by bending space, or enemies who just didn't like the look of your face?"

"Couldn't tell you, other than obviously not the latter, because my face is flawless. Oh, hey, hey, over there! I'm pretty sure that's it."

The hill she directed him to was pretty similar to all the others. Only as he circled around it did Theo realize that one side was unusually flat. It was overgrown with the gray moss that seemed to grow all over the hills, much like the other surfaces. When he brushed it off, he didn't reveal anything in particular. It seemed like normal earth.

"You need to hit it hard. Full power."

Theo sighed and drew on his full singularity. Humming with his new Authority-tier cantae, he could really output a lot of force. He sent it all in a raw cantae bolt against the flat surface, expecting it to explode. Instead the entire hill glowed the same color as his cantae, then part of the flat surface sloughed off.

Behind the dirt lay a wall of dark slate. Complex engravings wove their way all through the center, tied to some sort of defensive mechanism. It reminded him most of the vault door in the Chasm of Lamentations. If the requirements to open this one were as elaborate, they were going to have a problem. Senka ran her hands over the surface with a faint smile.

"I remember creating this... it doesn't look like it's been tampered with, but someone who was good enough could have reset the mechanism." Senka floated back and gestured to one of the points. "Alright, you need to make your cantae flow through this exact pattern. It's similar to what Tythes made you do."

"I was just thinking about that. Is this using the same technology?"

"Probably not exactly the same, but from what I saw of the door, it looked pretty similar. There are only so many ways you can use cantae to make a lock, after all. Now hurry up, don't make me get too excited for another empty vault."

Theo followed her instructions and was surprised by how difficult it was to push through the pattern. If his cantae had still been gaseous, the pressure would have instantly swept it out. When he finally felt something shift within the stone, he breathed a sigh of relief. The slate split in half, began to pull open... and stopped with just an inch between the doors.

"Right, you have to push it open." Senka experimentally nudged the slate and shook her head. "I'll have to leave that to you."

It took all his strength just to budge the slate doors a little at a time. He had multiple suns behind him, so the light poured inside and illuminated stairs downwards. They appeared to be surrounded on all sides by stone the same quality as the entrance slate, so there wouldn't be any way to get into the vault from the side. There was dust all over the steps, but that had been the case for most of the empty caches.

"There shouldn't be any traps at this point." Senka tugged on his shoulder and began hovering down the stairs. "Make some light and let's go see."

After emitting enough cantae to see, Theo headed down the stairs. They ended about one floor below, silk curtains covering the door to what appeared to be a normal room. Senka plunged through first and then whistled, so he followed her.

On the other side he finally found what they'd been hoping for: an untouched cache. This one appeared to be a practical workroom, with a table of perfectly ordinary wood. But the hammer casually lying on the surface was built from shockingly powerful sublime materials. When Theo tried to pick it up, the wood of the handle burned his hand.

The hammer had been lying out, but he spotted a wooden case with other tools. Theo opened it and began looking through the contents: half a dozen different spiritual tools for working sublime materials. There wasn't much else in the room, but these tools alone were an exceptional find. He looked back to find Senka and saw that there were two other doors from the first room.

"I remember this place better now..." Senka drifted through one of them and chuckled. "Right, the outside was my workroom and this is just a little place for a bed. We're not going to find a lot of sublime materials here, but at least all my stuff is intact."

"What about the other room?" Theo was already pushing through the remaining door, then he paused as soon as he realized what he was seeing.

Another table stood in the center of the room, much narrower and made of metal. There were built-in straps designed to bind a humanoid in place. Countless bloodstains stretched across the center of the table, blending into one another. When Theo examined one of the straps, he saw dried remnants that he suspected had once been human flesh. A bloodstained serrated knife lay to one side, just as casually as the hammer.

"Wait, that's... ah, nlermit." Senka drifted to a halt as as she entered the room. "I was afraid of this."

"And what exactly is 'this', Senka?"

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said this was a surgery table?"

"No, because I just saw the corner." Theo's attention had been arrested by the table, but after Senka distracted him, he'd taken a better look around the room. There were several vicious hooks along the walls in one corner, and one pair had a Noveni rib cage dangling from it.

"Right. So." Senka gave him a weak smile. "This is probably a good time to tell you that my greatest enemy was a torturer, and just in case, I should probably also claim she was my identical twin..."

Theo folded his arms and thought about what the room meant. Not the implication, which was obvious, but what it should actually mean for him. He turned his gaze to Senka and just stared for a while, making it clear that he wasn't in the mood for any more jokes. His plan had been to think everything over before asking questions, but she broke first.

"I think..." Senka took a slow, shuddering breath. "I think I wasn't a very good person, before. I'm not going to try to make any excuses for this. Don't think I was torturing innocents for fun, but... well, I'm glad you can't remember everything I can about this room."

He remained silent.

"I don't have answers for you, Theo. I wish I did. Just please... stop looking at me like that."

"Is this sort of thing the reason you were imprisoned?" Theo asked. She looked miserable enough, so there was no reason to torment her further.

"Please." Senka snorted, though it couldn't restore her good mood. "My organization wasn't exactly filled with good people either. Are you thinking I'm some kind of evil trying to free itself? Put that out of your mind. I was a soulcrafter, just a Noveni soulcrafter. I did some good things, and yes, some really bad ones. But I didn't want to hurt anyone, not for its own sake."

"What did you want?"

"Power." She answered immediately and for just a moment Theo saw a far different woman in her eyes. "I told you I wasn't a good person before, but... I think I also wasn't a particularly complicated one. We might not have liked each other if we'd met back then... but we didn't. That counts for something, doesn't it?"

Theo stared at her a while longer, then smiled. "I wouldn't have wanted you to meet me before either. So long as you don't have any plans to go running around torturing people, we can consider this a fresh start."

She smiled back but turned away. For a time they searched the rooms for anything else useful. The knife proved to be more tool than armament, but it was still potent enough to burn his hands. He discovered a shelf in the other corner that contained sublime cloth that was surprisingly durable, if not overflowing with cantae. Senka also opened a semi-hidden panel and pulled out a small metal case.

"Theo..." She remained with her hands on the case, not looking at him. "Maybe the smart thing to do would be to say nothing, but I want to be honest with you. I'm not exactly... filled with shame and desperate to turn over a new leaf. I mean, I'm not really proud of who I was, but more because I was petty than because I was amoral."

"Then perhaps we'd better talk about that." Theo sat down opposite her and waited.

"I don't know what to say. Everything you've done: trying to help the peasants, protecting the beetles on Slest, trying to make the Nine Worlds a better place... nobody thought like that back then." She finally looked up and met his gaze. "I like you, Theo. I'm willing to give this all a try. But I'm... fundamentally not the same as you and the others."

"Let us be the judge of that. What do you ultimately want?"

"I'm not sure I knew, even before. I told you, I was afraid of dying, afraid that someone would kill me. I just wanted to be so powerful that no one could ever hurt me again." Senka sighed heavily. "I think I was lonely. My isolation was part of what blocked my soulcrafting and made me vulnerable to whoever cursed me. So if I can regain myself along with the three of you... maybe that's enough."

No doubt everyone Theo knew would have had a different reaction, but none of them were there in that moment. When he looked at Senka, he saw a woman who felt entirely lost. Maybe some people wouldn't trust the coldness of her statements, but he thought they were more authentic than any abrupt emotional turn.

"Maybe it's enough. Maybe not." Theo gently put his hand on her back. "None of us have all the answers either. If you're willing to talk to us instead of running off and torturing people whenever you get the urge, we can keep traveling together."

Her face twisted in a bitter smile. "I'll see if I can contain myself." Senka sniffled and looked away, rubbing her face.

"What's in the box, by the way?"

"Huh? Oh, this?" Senka looked down at it as if she'd forgotten entirely. "I wasn't even thinking about it. There's nothing special, it's just my emergency kit. Probably not much there, but we can take a look."

She opened the box, which was mostly empty. The first thing to grab Theo's attention was the weirkey, but it was just another Noveni one - just what they needed. There were also several gemplates, similar to the ones that House Blacksilver had used to communicate between worlds. They appeared to be universally destroyed, their messages long ago spent. The only other item was an Ichili biolumin message sphere, but it had long ago dried out and its message had faded.

"I suppose this is all better than nothing." Senka shoved the box at him and hovered out into the workroom. "Sorry that all this trouble hasn't given you more."

"We got all your tools. That's worth a lot, at least assuming we can use them." Theo tried to pick up the hammer again and winced. "Are these warded against other people or something?"

"Nah, they're just powerful. These were the tools when I was trying to get past Bupplesniffer to... sporp." Senka gritted her teeth, then abruptly laughed. "I guess I need to try to take myself less seriously. Anyway, let's take all these. They might be hard to use before you ascend to Stronghold, but these should be fantastic tools for all three of you."

"Then you hold them for now." Theo pulled a sack from his soulhome and Senka helped by placing all her tools inside. As she did so, she shot frequent glances at him.

"Can you not tell Fiyu and Nauda about this, please? I'm afraid of how they'd react and... I don't want them to know. Maybe I've changed after all."

"I won't lie to them, but they don't need to know what your evil twin sister did." Theo tried a smile and Senka returned it immediately. "By the way, is there any chance that there are any clues about yourself in any of these hideouts? Did you keep a journal or anything?"

"Sporp no, do I seem like someone who kept a journal?" Senka snorted again and for the moment they just grinned at one another.

Once they had taken everything, they headed outside. There was no way to destroy the sublime materials that surrounded the hideout, so all Theo could do was seal the cantae lock, then dislodge enough dirt to completely cover the entrance. If he ever needed to return, he would be able to find the location, but he didn't expect that to be necessary.

Their work done, there was nothing to do but weirkey back to the city. Instead, they both stood and stared at the mound for a while longer. Eventually Theo glanced at Senka and offered his arm. She accepted it and they stepped across worlds.

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Chapter 41

There had been a time when Nauda and Fiyu sparred more often. The practice had slipped out of their routine for a reason they preferred not to discuss: after Nauda's soulhome had collapsed, she simply hadn't been an adequate sparring partner. Even after Nauda finally managed to rebuild, Fiyu had begun polishing herself as a Ruler.

Now, as they faced off across the chamber, Nauda felt like she was worthy. There was a gap between them, with Fiyu nearly ready to ascend and Nauda still assembling her third floor, but they could spar with one another without it being as awkward as children of vastly different ages playing together.

They traded blows back and forth, testing their newest soulcrafting. Training with Fiyu felt different, now that they had made their feelings, or at least potential feelings, clear. Her eyes wanted to linger on Fiyu's graceful movements and the way her hair flowed behind her... but Fiyu was very clearly capable of separating such feelings and would punish her for distraction.

It finally ended when Fiyu struck her in the stomach with her blade technique. Nauda winced and stepped back, wondering how much pain it would have caused with full cantae. Her bondsfungi would have tried to deflect the attack and her twisted heart would have begun regenerating, but it would still have been a gruesome injury. Definitely enough to end the match, even if they weren't running out of time.

"I think you were at a disadvantage," Fiyu said. "You have become very durable, but we cannot test this in safe combat."

"I don't know about that." Nauda rubbed her shoulder where some of Fiyu's bolts had caught her. "It sure feels like I took a beating."

"Oh, I do not agree. At some point, when we do not have to fear injury so much, I would like to test a full lightstorm against you. With your belt improvements, I believe that you would fare well."

Maybe she would. Nauda felt as though all her work on the notemeralds had finally come together and the armament was in tune with her soulhome again, shielding her from harm. The necklace Isorales had given her had also joined her other armaments smoothly and evened out the cantae on that floor. Wards weren't very useful against someone as agile as Fiyu, but it was nice to feel she could use them again.

One thing they left unsaid was that, in a few days' time, they wouldn't be able to spar together at all. Fiyu would be an Authority, with all her advantages reinforced by her ascension, while Nauda would be stuck at Ruler. Still just a weakened Ruler, trying to catch up. Unless Nauda found some way to ascend, she would be left behind...

"That should be the last match." Guchiro emerged from the other room, adjusting his cowl as if he'd just put it on. "Only two days remain before the Wakespire. You need at least one to clear your mind and polish your soulcrafting, and ideally another to recover."

"There is so little time." Fiyu's mood from the sparring deflated a little. "Then yes, perhaps we must begin. Should we do it here, for security? Or below the clouds for a more favorable environment?"

"You are about to become an Authority: you should accustom yourself to using weirkeys. For this ascension, only a specific place will do."

That was a new plan as far as Nauda was concerned. It seemed like Guchiro was in a hurry, so they went to interrupt Theo's soulcrafting as quickly as possible. He wanted to come along with them, of course, and Fiyu wanted that as well. Senka remained behind, either sleeping or having the decency to realize that Fiyu wouldn't want her there.

As expected, Guchiro's weirkey took them directly into absolute darkness. Nauda realized that she was the only one who was completely blind in it and automatically reached out. Should she have prioritized another sense, or some other method of seeing in darkness? Yet she needed so much else, and so quickly...

"Do not worry, Nauda." Fiyu took her sleeve and patted her arm through it. "This is a safe place."

Even aside from the darkness, it didn't feel safe to Nauda. The ground underneath her feet was hard and yet oddly fluid, constantly shifting away from her. But all that really mattered was that Fiyu felt safe so she could complete her ascension.

"I am glad you are here with me." Fiyu seemed to have shifted position to speak to Theo as well. "But I do not know how long the final part of the process will take, and you have work of your own to do. I will rejoin you when the time is right."

There was no arguing with that, as much as Nauda wanted to. She wished that she had been promoted to relative and could embrace Fiyu the way Guchiro did so easily. All she could do now was brush the other woman's hand, whisper a few words of encouragement, and then leave her to face her ascension alone.

Guchiro returned them to Noven, and once he was gone, there was no way back to Fiyu. Nauda resolved to remain focused for the entire remaining time, because that was what Fiyu would want. Instead of thinking about how they had agreed to reach Authority before making any decisions, she would concentrate solely on the soulcrafting in front of her.

Her life tower was mature and her staff tower had come into balance, so that only left the upper floors of her death tower. She had two days to do something about that...

~ ~ ~

Fiyu meditated on her own, simply stilling her mind to prepare for complex soulcrafting. It was much easier, now that her conflicted feelings regarding Friend Nauda had been resolved. Even her concerns about Acquaintance Isorales had turned out to be nothing at all. She could focus on ascension.

Over the past two weeks, she had built a structure atop her soulhome, more of a caldera than a standard pyramid. She didn't know why that was necessary, only that her relative had requested it. With that complete, she could ascend as soon as her first three floors were ready. They had already been reviewed many times, so all that remained was a little more polishing and adjustment.

Eventually Relative Guchiro returned alone. Instead of speaking, he sat down on the ground opposite her. His muscles were relaxed, and yet she had the impression that his body was very heavy. Some time later, he still had not spoken.

"I am considering additions to my ascension," Fiyu ventured. "The darkegg would strengthen my foundation, which would be helpful if I wish t-"

"No, not at this time." Her relative, inexplicably, had begun to soulcraft. "Do not misunderstand, the material is powerful. I would recommend that you use it when you ascend to Stronghold. But for Authority, there is something else you must do."

"What is it? Why have we not discussed this?"

"Because you are already completely prepared. While I work, examine this environment and tell me what you observe."

Fiyu obediently considered the landscape around them. No offending light at all, not even mediated by clouds above: clear black sky as far as her senses could reach. She remembered being taken to this place as a child, but now she noted more details. The ground was made of a dense metal, taking on a state that was neither liquid nor solid. It was a valuable sublime material in itself, and it reminded her of something else...

"The metal at my entrance and heart chambers." Fiyu spoke the answer at the same time she recognized it and her relative nodded. "That metal was taken from this place?"

"What you possess is a refined version of what you feel here. I have never told you its name and you must keep this secret." Relative Guchiro lowered his hand to the ground and, impossibly, rolled a sphere of the substance into his palm. "This is kinmetal. Unremarkable on its own, but capable of astonishing refinement. Most materials gain strength through ascension, but kinmetal will retain that strength between soulcrafters."

"I do not understand."

"Consider the name. In the beginning, the metal has no remarkable properties. But if a soulcrafter ascends with it, the metal is imbued with their nature. What makes it unique is that it can then be granted to another person with a similar nature with no loss of strength."

"So you refined the metal you gave me for my soulhome in your own?" Fiyu was pleased that her relative would do such a thing for her, but his face remained tight beneath his mask.

"I did, but now I want you to do something for me." At last Relative Guchiro stopped soulcrafting and drew a sphere from his chest: it had once been the same as the landscape, but his soulcrafting had rendered it harder and vastly more powerful. "I have removed this 'kinstone' from my own soulhome. It has been refined through many ascensions, not only my own, and strengthened on each occasion."

"You are giving it to me? How will you replace it?"

"No. If you follow my instructions, the kinstone will bind together your soulhome and strengthen you during the ascension. But, once the process is done, I want you to return the metal to me."

Finally Fiyu understood: not only the current plan but many previous statements her relative had made. This sublime material must have passed through the soulhomes of many other wards, growing in power along the way. Perhaps it was what he needed to finally ascend, and she was overjoyed to think that she might be the one to assist him to that point.

"Will you be weakened without it?" Fiyu asked. "I worry about the Wakespire if we are not fast enough."

"Put that out of your mind. This ascension will be slower, but there will be enough time if you apply yourself. Now, take the kinstone from me and place it atop your soulhome..."

Usually materials too powerful for her were difficult to absorb, but the kinstone entered her soulhome as if it belonged there. While carrying it through her door, she could feel the metal resonating. Yes, this was the very metal that had been carried by many of her relatives. She lifted it to the roof and then, following her relative's instructions, bound it firmly to her structure.

That part of the process was simple enough, but she still needed to make final refinements to her soulhome. Fiyu set about the task, no matter how long it took. At times she feared that time was running out and considered ascending. Every time, her relative reminded her that this ascension was something that would occur only once in her entire life.

After sleeping for a time, Fiyu felt prepared. She was uncertain how long it had been or how close her companions were to the Wakespire, but she tried not to consider such things. All that existed for her was her soulhome, the kinstone, and the sky.

Instead of a tempestuous ascension, her relative had showed her how to press into the sky slowly. Pressure trickled from above, only slowly becoming a torrent. This was the part of the process that she understood least, and a part of her feared that her ascension would be ruined without the usual rush of pressure. Only trust in her relative pushed her onward.

As the sky flowed down into the caldera atop her soulhome, the kinstone softened slightly. Its power flowed out and she struggled to contain it, just as her relative had taught. Instead of letting it melt, she guided the three flows of it down each of her three staircases. The metal flowed over her familiar stairs, on and on.

Before she could complete the process, dangerous new power rushed from above. Even though she had been prepared for the transition by observing many others, it still took her aback to feel her cantae as thick as water. Only the training ground into her bones made her respond instinctively. The pressure wanted to destroy her soulhome from the inside, but she made it flow along the spiral she had practiced.

When at last Fiyu overcame it, she saw that the kinstone had not melted. A fraction had flowed down her staircases and begun receding: the process left both the kinstone and her soulhome strengthened. She had been afraid that she would fail at this step, so she smiled as she cradled the kinstone and continued working.

The sky did not rush down at her as usual, but instead continued to bleed its power over her soulhome. Fiyu knew that she would ascend, no matter how long it took. All she needed to do was follow what she had been taught. As she continued soulcrafting, snow began to collect around her.