Wakespire: Chapters 32-33

Above the post, this is perhaps the final cover for Wakespire? If this goes well, you should be seeing brand new covers for all the books, though they'll take time.

Meanwhile, more Wakespire! Challenges! Revelations! There's a lot going on in this book and I hope people enjoy the balance.

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Chapter 32

Though her companions' performance had been admirable, Fiyu was concerned about the enemy. At every point so far, they had been keeping pace. She had anticipated that other teams would adapt to the Wakespire as well, but didn't like having them at her heels.

After their ambush in the previous chamber, she should have felt somewhat more secure. They had struck a blow against their opponents while taking no injuries themselves, after all. But her senses had observed a different set of wings than the usual, and there had been too many Authorities. Because the Dortorus lineage could not have ascended so many soulcrafters, it seemed likely that they had grouped all their Authorities into one team. They had abandoned the strategy of advancing three teams: instead the weaker two would feed blessings to advance their leaders.

She had been somewhat alarmed by the appearance of a brand new room, so seeing the wall of targets next was soothing. This was one chamber they had discussed directly with Isorales and they had determined that he didn't have any more efficient way of destroying all the targets. So Fiyu simply used her lightstorm and tried to use her improving control to waste as little cantae as possible.

When they entered a tower filled with dangerous objects, Fiyu was able to relax somewhat. Friend Theo had described this room to them because he had failed in it during their first attempt. It might have been a challenge to climb the walls earlier, but now their group had two Authorities.

"Fiyu and I will go first," Friend Theo said, even as his cantae flowed underneath her feet to lift her into the air. "If you stay behind us, our path through should work."

They rose into the air toward the first obstacles, which were a layer of spinning blades. Not truly much of an obstacle for them. Fiyu remained alert in case there was anything Friend Theo missed, but his new sense was sufficient for large objects. She also tracked the other two behind them to be sure they were unharmed.

Lacking Friend Theo's dexterity with cantae, Acquaintance Isorales had wrapped his arms around Friend Nauda and lifted her into the air. This was practical and Fiyu did not like it. Friend Nauda was somewhat stiffer than normal, but not as stiff as Fiyu would have been in her position.

Distracted by such things, Fiyu noticed the wires somewhat belatedly. "Ah, Theo..."

She gestured to them just in time and Friend Theo rapidly threw them to the side to avoid one of the razor wires strung across the room. Nearly invisible and much too small for Friend Theo's senses. At least his gravity senses: they glistened in the light enough to be visible to a cautious person. Now that he was tracking them, Friend Theo was able to fly the remaining distance through the maze of wires and to the portal at the top.

The portal spat them out from the floor of another office room, though it contained a new Noveni official. Fiyu believed that she recognized this one from their first attempt. Every Noveni had slightly different wing patterns that could be felt even when their wings were folded. She had been refining her system and now hoped to be able to identify all of them without error.

"Welcome to the next Room of Blessing," the official said once Friend Nauda and Acquaintance Isorales emerged. "Who will you choose this time?"

Clearly the others were much more interested in the spire that showed the progress of all teams. Fiyu joined them and immediately identified the light that represented the team of Dortorus Authorities. They were a full floor behind, but for how long? Most of the other teams were much further back except the dark Terefilia light.

"Does it matter?" Theo asked. "Your Ugustial team hasn't reciprocated yet."

"They may be held back, or they got a curse room early..." Acquaintance Isorales shifted awkwardly and lowered his wings.

"It's possible they won't even get to the next room. We already helped them once, let's choose someone else."

"The Terefilia lineage helped us before," Friend Nauda pointed out. "They may not be friendly, but we want them hating Dortorus more than us."

"Good enough. Let's go."

Fiyu took a deep breath and regained her focus before they entered the next room, as it could contain anything. And yet, to her surprise, it was the dueling chamber. She remembered it clearly from when they had fought the Gatrium man. Yet it seemed unlikely that anyone would be joining them soon.

"Corrupt all the way through..." Friend Theo muttered under his breath for a while before turning to address everyone. "Alright, it seems they're going to make us wait to fight someone. Catch your breath and recover so we can at least start at our best."

Friend Nauda sat down and began eating one of her honey cakes, which seemed to help her recover more quickly from the injuries she had carried ever since the dark room. Acquaintance Isorales sat on the opposite side of the room and started meditating. It might not restore his cantae, but perhaps it would calm his mind so that he would be more helpful to them.

Meanwhile, Fiyu was too restless to sit. She went to stand where Friend Theo was leaning. "You believe that the judges have manipulated the order against us?"

"I don't know for sure," he said, "but it's not fair that they make us lose our lead just so we have someone to fight."

"I believe that they only award points for being the first to enter, not for time. If we are victorious, there will be no difference."

"Not to the other teams catching up to us. It's still twisting the nature of the whole Wakespire."

"They have assembled all their Authorities." Fiyu automatically expanded her senses as if she could feel them, but the spatial distortion prevented her. "Do you believe your plan will still work?"

"The fundamental technique isn't any different. It might be a little harder to get them in place, but it will still work." Friend Theo shifted his eyes back the way he did when he was annoyed. "Not that speed matters, given how they're slowing us down. Anyway, start with the plan, and if it doesn't work, we'll just have to fight as well as we can." 

This was reasonable. Fiyu considered going to talk to Friend Nauda, but her emotions were too uncertain. In the middle of such a challenge was the worst possible time to consider such things, so Fiyu suppressed that part of herself. The battle to come might be very dangerous, especially if it included Adversary Cannium. There had not been enough time to determine all the wing patterns...

Soon enough the Dortorus team arrived through their own portal. Four Authorities, including Adversary Cannium and his blaring light. They had surprisingly few injuries, despite having taken the full force of their ambush. At a glance she thought that their soulhomes had been substantially depleted, however.

"You put together your best." It wasn't Adversary Cannium who spoke, instead one of the women carrying a sword. "I think our best is a little better. No running away this time."

"Why would we run away?" Theo grinned mockingly at them and walked out to the center of the room. "Let's see how you do when you're not just picking on Rulers."

Four Authorities should have been an impossible fight, particularly under such tight constraints. But her companions looked determined, and even Acquaintance Isorales held himself firmly when he rose to join them. The two groups faced off and the battle could begin at any moment, perhaps to their disadvantage.

So Fiyu acted first, taking several steps forward before cloaking herself. The Dortorus team panicked when they saw her disappear and began reacting violently: shields raised, weapons out, cantae bolts through the space where she had been. In fact Fiyu simply ran to the side. Her role was to make them fearful and cautious, which would buy Friend Theo more time.

Acquaintance Isorales did well at playing his role, as he assaulted the enemy with all three of his rings. They flew wildly, swooping at them from all sides and delaying a little longer.

That was when the Dortorus team noticed that Friend Theo was developing a singularity. They immediately recognized the threat and rushed at him, but they had failed to notice the wards. Friend Nauda had been walking from side to side as if looking for a weakness when she was in fact laying wards. The Authorities smashed into them, and though they soon began hacking through, it blunted their charge and gave Friend Nauda a chance to strike them.

The plan had been executed perfectly up to that point, then it all started going wrong. Acquaintance Isorales had been preparing to fire his beam technique, but one of the enemy got behind him with remarkable speed, stabbing her sword through his shoulder. Another Authority managed to grab Friend Nauda and hurled her to the ground.

Fiyu wanted desperately to help, but it was too early...

Then Friend Theo finally clapped his hands together and his singularity moved to the center of the room, within the Dortorus group. Several noticed and fled, but one was too slow. When the singularity got close to him and began draining away his cantae aura, he instantly disappeared. The others flinched in surprise, but it was too late.

Fiyu unleashed her lightstorm, Friend Nauda began using her binding technique, and even Acquaintance Isorales managed to grab the Authority who had impaled his shoulder and throw her. All for the purpose of getting them closer to the singularity. As soon as they came near, they vanished as the spire sensed the lethality and whisked them away.

Adversary Cannium roared and began extending light in all directions as he forced his way toward Fiyu. She attempted a lightstorm, but it scattered off his aura harmlessly. Only Friend Nauda's interference pulled him away, close enough that he popped out of existence.

"This is absurd." The leader had her sword dug into the stone of the floor and glowered at them. "This would never be enough to kill all of us, you're just manipulating the rules of the game."

"Right, because that's how you play." Friend Theo applied several more gravitational fields and she finally lost her grip, skidding back toward the singularity and disappearing. Her sword clattered to the floor.

When the black speck disappeared, the tension in the room drained away. They hadn't truly been able to fight four Authorities and even the brief fight had left them weakened and with several injuries. But they had completed the dueling chamber and eliminated their greatest rival without sustaining serious wounds.

"They're going to be angry about that," Acquaintance Isorales said.

"If we get the sublime legacy this round," Friend Theo said as he picked up the sword, "then it won't matter. The judges are adding more restrictions every round, so we need to try everything now."

Yes, they needed to win, for Friend Nauda's sake if nothing else. Fiyu gathered herself and joined the others as they approached the portal. Whatever they faced, she would give it her best.

But when she saw the sublime beast in the room ahead of them, already burning with new cantae, she faltered.

-

Chapter 33

"This is what we saved all that cantae for!" Nauda called out to the group. "Stick together and let's finish this quick!"

Nothing she said was particularly substantial, but she thought they needed it. Fiyu had flinched when they entered the room with the sublime beast and Isorales had been faltering for a while. In theory they could eliminate the sublime beast easily if they were all operating at their best, but it would be so easy for one of them to make an error and ruin everything.

Theo struck the first blow with a gravitational field: now that he was an Authority, sublime beasts couldn't so easily resist his cantae effects. The sphere of jaws and flame smashed into the ground heavily and should have been killed in that moment, but Isorales was slow in setting up his attack. The crystals in its hide began to glow and it shuddered upright while shooting beams of light in all directions.

Nauda tried to form a ward, but one of the beams blasted directly through. She shifted to her backup strategy of grabbing the cantae with a binding, which led to her being thrown around the room. Fortunately Isorales finally released his beam, knocking the sublime beast down. Nauda was able to get behind it and thrust her staff into its back. From that position, she was able to mostly bind it in place.

All of that was enough for Fiyu to get into place, but her strike wasn't enough. It severed one jaw, which opened up a mass of the beast's fiery core. That core was about to explode and it would catch Fiyu directly in the face...

The next thing she knew, Nauda had abandoned her position and leapt. She collided with Fiyu an instant before the raw flames struck her back.

Both of them were blown across the room and skidded over the stones. Nauda instinctively gripped Fiyu to shield her, but the blast had stopped. Fiyu was safe underneath her, but her expression was filled with consternation. Probably because any touch offended her so much, even to rescue her.

"Nauda... Nauda, we need to help the others fight..."

Behind them the sublime beast let out a roar of pain. Nauda rose in time to see it crash to the floor. The others had managed to kill it, but Isorales was nursing a horribly burned wing. Theo shot her a glance that made her angry before she realized that he was right.

He had been watching closely and would have used a gravitational field to move Fiyu out of the way of the sublime beast's attack. They hadn't discussed that specific scenario, but she should have predicted his action. Instead, Nauda had been so worried for Fiyu that she'd leapt before thinking. Now they were awkwardly getting to their feet and pretending that none of it happened.

Their group didn't make it through the next portal as quickly as before. Only the strangeness of the next room pushed aside Nauda's humiliation.

They stood on a small platform at one corner of a vast chamber, but it was almost entirely filled by tubes. Each was large enough for a person to walk inside, formed of dark blue glass and barely translucent. Several of the tubes had openings that met the starting platform, but they all snaked away into a maze that was impossible to decipher.

"I can barely see the exit over there." Isorales pointed into a dense tangle of tubes. "But I have no idea what path will get us there."

"If we have enough time," Nauda said, "we can try every path. Four tubes, four of us."

"We don't have time." Theo lifted them all with a gravitational field and she didn't understand until she looked below: water was filling the room. It had already nearly reached their platform and was beginning to spill into one of the tubes. Within minutes, the maze would be substantially filled, and it seemed like soon the entire maze would be underwater.

"Everyone please be quiet." Fiyu pulled her cloak tightly around herself and concentrated, no doubt trying to analyze the maze all at once. Finally she gave a very small nod, as if to herself. "This way. Please follow me."

Once Theo lowered them they ran down the tube, water already splashing at their ankles. Unlike the spiraling tower, there was no flat base, so Nauda's feet slipped on the curved floor. They raced through the glass maze, choosing between multiple corridors on several occasions. At one point their tube turned back down and there must have been another entrance for the water, because it was already partially flooded.

Theo levitated them above the water and Fiyu continued guiding them. It was all Nauda could do to keep up. She found herself staring at Fiyu's back and the way her braid twitched back and forth as she ran. Everything had started going wrong when Nauda had acted instead of thinking, because she'd been shoving down her emotions instead of confronting them...

When they hit the next portal, Nauda almost didn't realize it. Suddenly they were stumbling into another room and there wasn't water sloshing through her sandals any longer. She dropped to the ground and took a while to catch her breath and recover. With the chaos fading, she realized just how much her back hurt. Her defenses with the notemeralds were strong enough that the blast hadn't instantly sent her out of the spire, but it had burned deep.

"What even is this?" Theo asked. None of the others seemed collected enough to answer.

Looking around, Nauda observed that they had entered a somewhat larger room than average. The space was flat without any clear obstacles, just a number of stone obelisks with patterns carved in their faces. It felt like many of them contained different sorts of sublime materials too, but Nauda couldn't make out anything else.

"It looks like these are made to receive cantae, but I'm not sure about the effect. Nauda?" Theo glanced back toward her and she pulled herself forward.

The old Theo would definitely have scorned her for her errors. Now he seemed just as focused, but he simply wanted her help. She limped her way to his side by one of the obelisks and had to grip his shoulder to avoid falling.

"So the cantae enters some sort of armament inside the stone..." She placed her hand against the side and felt the thrumming of a working armament. "This one is oriented to fire... but the other side wants life cantae."

"Maybe we should test them? Start with the life side."

She nodded and experimentally pushed cantae into the carved surface. Almost immediately, a gout of flame shot out and covered her. Most others would have been incinerated, but Nauda only staggered back trying to beat off the flames. It hurt, but not nearly as much as the sublime beast's blast.

"You alright?" Theo glanced at her briefly, then as soon as he nodded, turned back to the obelisk. "This is diabolical. It looks like each obelisk has a clear key it needs to activate, but the inner workings are hard to interpret. I assume the room is filled with both traps and locks, but I don't understand how they fit together..."

"It's a puzzle." Isorales spoke up from his position leaning against one wall. "A classic style from a foreign land. They're designed to test your cantae interpretation. I used to do these for fun... but they were never this big... or this dangerous."

"This room was probably designed to stop us." It seemed like Theo was excited for the challenge and began examining all the obelisks.

For her part, Nauda just leaned on her staff to avoid collapsing. Maybe he was interested in the room, but she didn't think she had it in her. If it had been another physical challenge, she would have recovered enough to face it. Her mind wasn't recovering at all from its fractured confusion, so the mental challenge was beyond her.

It looked like the others had worn down as well. Fiyu sat huddled and pretending to be stronger than she actually was. Isorales was still nursing his burned wing and it looked like he'd lost his nerve. They were likely still in the lead, but the attrition was getting to them.

"The Ugustial Beta team has applied a blessing," a voice said. "This room's difficulty will be decreased."

"Dozens of rooms in," Theo muttered, "and we finally get our first blessing."

The room began shifting before their eyes, many of the obelisks receding into the floor. By the time the shift was done, there were only a few remaining. Theo seemed to find the remaining puzzle insultingly easy, though he had the decency not to grumble about that while they were all so weakened. After some experimentation and help from the others, the obelisks made a clicking sound and a portal lit up on the opposite wall.

Nauda hadn't even understood the basic objective of the puzzle. No matter. Had to focus on the next challenge.

In the next room they stood at the base of a large slope. It stretched up at a steep angle, but didn't look impossible to climb. There were no holes or suspicious contraptions on the walls that might have contained traps. After Fiyu shook her head and Isorales shrugged, it seemed like there was nothing to do but experiment.

Since she was most able to take a hit, Nauda stepped forward first. As soon as she stepped onto the slope, cantae began draining out of her soulhome. It rushed through her leg so rapidly that she felt it tingling with little needles and tipped forward. When she automatically put out a hand to stop herself, cantae began draining out of her arm as well.

A gravitational field lifted her into the air... and needles promptly stabbed her from every side. "That's worse!" Nauda screamed. "So much worse!"

Theo pulled her back and, once she was clear of the slope, all the draining sensation vanished. It had emptied most of one of her soulhome's rooms: not so much on its own, but thinking about climbing the entire slope suggested that the challenge would be exhausting. She wasn't confident that trying to sprint up the side or just flying through would have been easy, either. While she recovered, Theo made an attempt at his tunneling technique, but the slope's draining effect tore apart his window in the air.

"The slope drains cantae wherever you touch it," Nauda explained, "but it penalizes flying. I'm not sure what the trick is."

"There might not be one." Theo folded his arms and tried to scowl the slope into submission. "If I'm counting correctly, this is the twentieth room. They might have designed it with no solution, to try to eliminate all teams."

"Then there's no solution?"

"We'll just have to make one ourselves. Everyone get ready, because we won't be able to stop once we start climbing. We might need all the cantae we have to get to the top, so we only have one shot at this."

The numbness filling Nauda's mind might have made her poorly suited to solving puzzles, but it seemed perfect for this challenge. Just a steep slope. At the moment she felt like she could trudge her way up a mountain. None of the others looked particularly happy about it, but they all prepared themselves.

"Ready? Let's go. Nothing to do but climb up."

Despite what Theo said, he cast a gravitational field around them as they took their first step. Not enough to send her into the air, but Nauda felt surprisingly light, like she weighed nothing. Her steps almost pushed her into the air until she adjusted her strength. The slope's draining effect still hurt, but she could press on like this.

 A third of the way up the slope, none of them were doing well. Fiyu was quietly panting for breath as if suppressing her misery. Isorales staggered and grimaced every time his wings brushed up against anything. Theo had wrapped his arms around his cloak and marched determinedly on, but because the draining ignored blueprint efficiency, he was suffering just as much as the rest of them.

"I won't make it." Isorales spoke up with a pained cough.

"Don't talk like that," Nauda started to say, but he raised a hand.

"I'm not giving up early, I'm thinking about strategy. There's no point in trying to get everyone through the room when a sacrifice would be worth more." He stopped climbing and his bronze rings floated from their place on his back to position themselves behind everyone else. "I'll push as long as I can."

Nauda blinked as she felt the ring nudge against the back of her feet. It wasn't trying to lift her off the slope, just pushing. She worked her heel up onto the side of it, then let it slide her upward. The bronze rings screeching against the stone slope matched the painful drain on her soulhome, but it worked. She was rising with no more cantae drain than before while she could finally rest her exhausted muscles.

They reached the top third before the ring suddenly vanished. Nauda skidded back a step before she caught herself and looked over her shoulder: Isorales was gone. His soulhome must have been fully drained and he'd been taken out of the spire. It was up to the three of them now.

Theo pushed on at the lead as if nothing would stop him, while Nauda had fallen back a step. That placed Fiyu in between them, still struggling on but clearly suffering more every moment. She began to sway and slowly tipped to the side, one arm reaching toward the stone to catch herself...

Once more Nauda moved to help her. This time, she was so weary that she had plenty of time to think about it. Fiyu might not want to be touched, but she would want to complete the challenge. Above all, Nauda wanted to help her.

So Nauda stepped forward and wrapped an arm around the smaller woman's waist. To her shock, Fiyu didn't flinch. Instead she leaned into her, sharing their weight as they continued forcing their way up the slope.

"Nauda... you are a good friend." Fiyu sounded a bit delirious, but leaned onto her shoulder in a way that gave Nauda a new surge of strength. She'd carry Fiyu to the top of the slope no matter what it took.

"I'm sorry if I've ever hurt you." Nauda shouldn't have been spilling her heart, but she was so exhausted she could barely think. Fiyu leaning against her seemed much more important than any silly Wakespire. "Back in the Chasm, I was confused. After traveling with you so long, it's easy to forget about the differences..."

"I only wanted to stay close to you. I value you so much, Nauda... no matter how you feel, I don't want us to be separated..."

Nauda gritted her teeth and pushed on, lifting Fiyu along with her. She wanted to reach the top and finally talk, but her vision was growing dark...