Wakespire: Chapters 18-19

I'm glad that some people were entertained by the joke yesterday. ^-^ Anyway, chapters today then back to your normal weekly schedule. There will be more notes next week, most likely.

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Chapter 18

Fighting so many opponents in a narrow tower had been nerve-wracking for Fiyu. Her mind had stretched to scrutinize the bodies of a full dozen opponents, doing her best to anticipate when they might attack. With all combatants on narrow pathways, there was nowhere to hide or retreat. Even with her utmost watchfulness, one of the Authorities had nearly struck Friend Nauda. The tower had become even more dangerous in the final seconds while they ran on.

By comparison, the second stage demons were trivial.

She had discussed potential strategies with her companions, but they hadn't been able to improve much on their original instincts: group the demons and let Fiyu eliminate them. With Friend Theo having ascended, the demons could no longer resist his gravity at all, so the room was completed with minimal use of cantae.

Unfortunately, their easy path did not continue. The next portal took them to the artificial mountaintop and its many invisible targets at the edge of her senses. It seemed an unfair test, too tightly designed for Noveni capabilities. They had discussed the room several times and the best solution they had come up with relied on Fiyu.

And she was uncertain if she could justify her companions' trust. One of the techniques on her third floor was supposed to be the evolution of her lightstorm, allowing her to guide the bolts collectively or individually. That had been the chamber she had struggled with most, despite her relative's best efforts. She had built enough to influence the movement of her lightstorm, but striking targets at such great range would test her limits.

Fiyu carefully released a few bolts with one hand and directed them toward a far-off target. Even after they left her, she could still feel them clearly and make them curve in the air. She managed to guide them toward the target, but at such a distance, some of them slid past instead of connecting. The target was more durable than she expected, so she needed a second strike to destroy it.

Even requiring two attempts, that was more efficient than a full lightstorm. She would be able to complete the room without exhausting herself too much. Fiyu took a breath and turned toward the next target.

"Another team has applied a curse. This chamber's difficulty will be intensified."

"Are you serious?" Friend Nauda growled at the sky.

"I really wonder if they have some method of cheating," Friend Theo said.

Their anger was somewhat affirming, but it couldn't keep Fiyu from wilting as she felt the changes. All of the mountain peaks receded from the central position and a thick mist floated around them. At such a great distance, it was almost impossible for her to pick out the targets. She could blanket each peak with bolts, but that would exhaust her and lead to the same problem as in their first attempt.

"I can still reach them," Fiyu said, "but the cost..."

Friend Theo picked up a rock and applied some sort of gravitational field to send it falling to the side. It accelerated greatly out toward the target but failed to connect and he grimaced. "Not precise enough," he said. "If we're going to waste cantae on this challenge, it's probably better to use mine than Fiyu's. But do we have a more efficient solution?"

While they considered, Fiyu did her best to destroy a second target. But despite her best efforts, it took a considerable number of bolts. The cantae bolts wanted to obey her will and simply couldn't, due to both soulhome and technique limitations.

"Alright, I have something we can try." Friend Nauda stepped up behind Fiyu, her entire body tense. "My telescope isn't particularly great at looking long range, since it was built for soulhomes, but it's still a telescope. I can use it without burning cantae, assuming it can help."

"We can try." Fiyu faced the third target and gestured for her friend to help.

She had known that Friend Nauda would need to touch her for the technique to work, but was still startled by it. Instead of simply brushing a finger, Friend Nauda laid hands on both her shoulders. Her fingers felt strong and so very warm...

Fiyu gathered her thoughts and accepted her ally's support. Unlike the technique that peered into soulhomes, the telescope was now attempting to extend her visual range. Even though Fiyu would have much preferred to use her other senses, she could identify the targets in the mist by sight alone. She took a deep breath and released a small lightburst.

This time when the cantae flew out, her eyes tracked it into the distance. With such a clear vision of her bolts, she could make them respond more closely to her guidance. They scattered mist in all directions and nearly all struck the target.

"Oh, this will work!" Fiyu smiled back to Friend Nauda and applied herself to the next targets. Now that she was more confident in the technique, she was able to use less cantae to destroy the remaining targets.

As soon as it was done, Friend Nauda withdrew her hands immediately. Perhaps that was to be expected, given her direct refusal in the Chasm of Lamentations. Fiyu busied her mind with thinking about the experience. If having a clear vision of her lightstorm had made it easier to guide them, then perhaps she could modify the design of her equivalent chamber. Instead of moving the bolts like part of her body, her senses would ride along with them to their target.

Through the next portal they again faced the chamber with falling spheres. Friend Theo once more neutralized them with gravity and this time Fiyu was able to assist in placing each sphere in its destination even more swiftly.

"We have to be doing this faster than the others," Friend Nauda said as they worked. "I wonder if the Dortorus team got ahead of us."

Fiyu nodded. "I also wonder if Isorales was able to catch up."

"Well, we're about due for one of those curse or blessing rooms, aren't we?"

"They're allegedly random," Friend Theo said sharply as he passed them. "They could arrive in any order."

"I'm not sure that's true." Friend Nauda deposited the last sphere and then kicked off the wall toward the portal. "Isorales said that people never ran into the office rooms back to back in any previous round. There may be other rules to the ordering."

Whatever the potential laws of the spire, they did not find an office in the next room. Instead, they faced the maze of blocks slamming into one another. All three of them hesitated, remembering what had happened the previous time.

Fiyu closed her eyes to focus. She could feel the entire pattern at once, like a maze where the passages shifted every second, some opening and others slamming closed. This time they had not been cursed by another team, but she still could not find a path forward. It was an obstacle to be overcome, not a puzzle to be solved.

"No luck." Friend Theo had been attempting to use gravity, but lowered his hand. "My field might be stronger, but there are several Authorities pumping cantae into those blocks. Seems they really don't want people solving this room with techniques."

"There's a brute force method." Friend Nauda stepped to the edge of the blocks and flexed the fingers in her gloved hand. "I haven't been able to test this, but..."

She tapped one of the metal blocks as it passed her by, without any strength. A wave expanded from her touch, nullifying the cantae that reinforced the obstacles. All of those that were touched drifted aimlessly along their previous paths, no longer slamming into one another with such startling force.

Soon they recovered and returned to their pattern with great violence. Friend Nauda smiled and rolled her shoulders. "Alright, I can get us through, I just need to use more cantae."

"Wait, save your strength." Friend Theo stepped up beside her. "While they're neutralized, I'll use a gravitational field. That should get us at least partway."

"Sounds like a plan. Fiyu, can you tell us when the far side opens up?"

"Yes." Fiyu nodded and got into position behind her companions. She ignored the front half of the maze, instead paying attention to the rest until the moment when many of the blocks slammed together and were about to open a partial pathway. "Now!"

Friend Nauda struck the blocks with more power, neutralizing an entire wave of the first blocks. Her companions rushed in and Friend Theo acted as well, dropping all of the drifting blocks. That left them free to run over the top, covering the first half of the room without difficulty before they plunged into the remaining half of the block maze.

The stones beneath Fiyu's feet began to restore themselves and she lost her footing. She had still timed things well, so she slid forward through the brief opening. But her friends were behind her, just a second later. When Fiyu skidded out the other side she turned back, horrified by the thought that she would see Friend Nauda crushed by the blocks once again.

But this time, her friend slammed her fist into the floor as the walls closed around her. Every nearby block recoiled, leaving Friend Nauda reeling within sphere of neutralized blocks. Friend Theo grabbed her and jumped the remaining distance, getting them all free of the dangerous area.

"Made it!" Friend Nauda pumped her fist in the air. "With a little more work, we should be able to refine the strategy."

"If I have time to work on my Authority tier," Friend Theo said, "I can do even better than that. But let's move on."

In theory, Fiyu should have been happy. They had made it through the room without any of her companions being injured and without draining themselves too much. But with that challenge out of the way, her mind immediately moved to the next. Every time she stepped through another portal, she might face the terribly bright sublime beast that had killed her the first time.

Well, not killed. But Fiyu still remembered the blinding light and flinched as she stepped into the next portal.

-

Chapter 19

From a fundamental strategic perspective, Theo wasn't sure why they were only occasionally given information about other teams. Perhaps the judges thought that having a model in every room would only distract the contestants from the challenges. As far as he was concerned, the fact that they only got to see the approximate positions of other groups in the office-like rooms removed strategy and added randomness. Of course, the ordering itself did that too...

In any case, he was glad to see another desk in front of them. They'd been through some draining rooms, so they could use a little time to recover cantae. More importantly, he was eager to know the exact placement of all other teams.

"Hey, good job." There was a young Noveni man sitting with his legs propped up on the desk and his wings flopped broadly over the chair behind him. "This is one of the curse rooms. Do you know who you're going to pick?"

According to the model, Theo's team was at the top of the pack but there was a Dortorus team on the very same tier. His mind instinctively presumed them to be in another decision room before correcting itself. He had no idea what challenge they might be facing.

Isorales was in the fourth position, two rooms back just behind the Terefilia team. He hadn't managed to fail and had even caught up a little, but that wasn't enough. Then again, perhaps that was for the best. After having made so much progress, Theo didn't want to forfeit their match as planned. He'd keep to their agreement, but if Isorales couldn't catch up in time for them to be in the same duel, then it wasn't his fault.

In any case, the correct decision would help both of them. "Curse Dortorus Gamma," Theo said as he walked past the desk.

"Done and done. Good luck." The official hadn't moved from his position, but Theo would have to trust that he'd applied the curse.

The next chamber contained the metal golem. Theo was almost surprised to see it, because in their first Wakespire round it had appeared so much earlier. Nauda might have been right about there being a pattern to the rooms, but randomness still played a major role.

"We hit hard with a lethal attack." Theo was already generating a singularity between his hands as he gave the command. "Set it up for me."

Even if this version of the golem wasn't strengthened by a curse, it had been a serious obstacle for them before. He didn't intend to waste any time with gravitational fields or lesser attacks that would probably just be deflected: his singularity was their best bet.

Fortunately, his allies understood the plan and acted swiftly. Nauda engaged the golem just outside melee range, using her staff to bind one limb at a time, while Fiyu threatened it from afar. He wasn't sure if they could have overcome it on their own: their teamwork was excellent, but the golem could lunge out surprisingly far with its blades and nearly caught them several times.

Not that it mattered. As soon as it was ready, Theo closed his hands around his singularity and tunneled it directly into the core of the golem.

It didn't have a chance. A human soulcrafter would have had a moment to escape before the singularity fully manifested, but the golem was mindless sublime materials and thus unprepared for such an attack. His singularity destroyed the core almost immediately and began drawing in the metal body of the golem. Despite the need to hurry, Theo stayed a little longer to make sure it absorbed the golem's entire body. Opportunities to consume such dense sublime materials didn't arrive every day. After his ascension, his singularity felt surprisingly hungry.

Through the next portal they faced the wall of targets that had so drained him on his previous attempt. Part of Theo wanted to take a new shot at them with the alacrispark and his Authority-tier cantae, but they had a more specialized solution. He swept a welcoming hand toward Fiyu, offering her the opportunity.

She spread her arms wide to encompass all the targets, almost as if she was going to embrace them. The blinding storm of bolts that annihilated the entire wall was much less friendly.

"That trial is indeed well-suited to me," Fiyu said as they ran to the next portal. "I will try to remain with you in all future trials so that I can resolve it."

To Theo's surprise, the next room was another office. The conspiracy theory building in the back of his mind, that the judges were intentionally giving them a difficult series of rooms with the easy ones as late as possible, diminished just a little. It was the same old man as the first room, so Theo was fairly sure this would be another blessing.

"Who are you going to bless?" the official asked. Theo just raised a finger for him to wait and examined the model spire.

To his surprise, Isorales had kept pace, just one level below them. The problem was that the Dortorus and Terefilia teams hadn't slipped up either, despite the curse. Isorales's group was neck-and-neck with those two, which would make it very difficult to line up a duel.

"Do we prioritize moving up?" Nauda walked beside him and examined the model. "The dueling room... wasn't it about here last time? It's possible that Isorales already passed his by fighting a weaker team. Or the dueling rooms might not be until a bunch of floors higher."

That would be very convenient logic... but Theo shook his head. "We can't second-guess the agreement too much. I think we need to wait. Let the other teams get ahead and they'll probably fight each other. So long as we're always advancing together, we're more likely to get a duel."

"Yeah, but aren't the others catching up?"

Unfortunately true: the second-highest Dortorus team had just slipped up another level and the third wasn't far behind. Even as they watched, the top two teams ascended past Theo's position. In a strange way, that let him relax. He'd chosen his path and accepted that they wouldn't be fastest this time, so now it was just about the timing.

The problem was Isorales and his team stuck a level below. Their speck of light remained frustratingly still... until it finally rose. Nauda breathed a sigh of relief and Theo turned to the official.

"We bless the Jadadictus team."

"You sure?" the man asked.

Instead of answering, Theo walked toward the next portal. Isorales was on the same floor as them, most likely facing a challenge instead of a decision room. With the blessing, hopefully he would be able to overcome it. After that, Theo would just try to move forward steadily and hoped their performance kept them in lock-step in third and fourth place. That was their best chance to face one another in a duel.

Of course, there were still a lot of variables... all of which vanished when they entered the portal and found themselves in the dueling chamber.

"I guess it's a good thing we didn't rush," Nauda said. "So we just wait and hope that Isorales is the one to come through the next portal?"

"And if it's not, we crush them." Theo wondered if it would be considered bad form to generate a singularity and hit the other team as soon as they arrived. Since the judges were watching everything and making subjective decisions, he decided to stick to honorable tactics.

Despite all their work, they could still fail through no fault of their own. The Dortorus and Terefilia teams were one level ahead. Both were formidable teams with Authorities, so hopefully their battle against one another would slow them down substantially. That would give Isorales a chance to pass them, but it required him not to screw everything up along the way.

A portal opened. Fiyu held her breath. Nauda gripped her staff tighter. And finally Isorales walked through.

He'd lost two team members and taken a cut on one wing, but Isorales himself looked surprisingly fresh. His weaknesses seemed to be mostly in his mind, not his soulcrafting. When he saw them, instead of breathing a sigh of relief he tensed.

"Uh... are we going to..."

"Go!" Theo jabbed a hand toward the opposite side. "You don't have any time to waste, because we're forfeiting. Just don't waste it."

As agreed, Theo walked back into their portal. Over his shoulder, he saw Isorales and his remaining teammate sprinting toward the next floor.

The next second all three of them walked into the rooms at the base of the tower. They emerged from a portal on the ground level instead of being dropped onto pads, presumably because the death-prevention technique hadn't caught them.

All three of them were uninjured and still mostly fresh. And they were out of the spire.

"Should we watch the competition?" Fiyu said. Theo almost didn't want to, but there wasn't really anything else to do until the end.

Nauda and Fiyu led him to the central room with a larger model, since they had already used it to watch during the previous Wakespire. It wasn't as good as viewing the combatants themselves, but then again, maybe that would have been nerve-wracking. Theo hated the fact that he had done about as well as he could have and the actual results were now completely beyond his control.

The Dortorus and Terefilia teams were on the same level, and thanks to the larger model, he knew they were in the same dueling chamber. Eventually the Terefilia light winked out and their team members emerged from the padded rooms. One of them had a hideous cut marring her dark wings with red, but they seemed to have avoided crippling injuries. Unfortunately, that let the Dortorus team advance, again pulling ahead of Isorales.

"What is he doing?" Theo muttered. Isorales had been given such a large head start, yet he was still only in second place.

Not long after, Isorales finally caught up... and then advanced a matter of seconds later. The model's explanatory text had already changed, but that could only be another decision room. Perhaps Theo had misjudged him and he'd faced an unusually challenging order of rooms.

On the next level, the Dortorus team disappeared. The Terefilia combatants cheered wildly, and they might have something to cheer about, if their battle had been the one to weaken the leading group. That placed Isorales's team as the highest, with all the others far behind. Some still had all four of their members, but they'd have to do extraordinarily well to overcome the point advantage of speed.

"You see?" Nauda said. "Isorales isn't weak, he just lacks confidence."

"Maybe so." Theo watched the light travel up another floor and had to admit that Isorales wasn't doing badly. With just two members left, he was still climbing.

Isorales took a very long time on the next challenge, yet still managed to climb one more floor before his light winked out. Theo went to go meet the Noveni in the padded chambers, only to find him nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he'd been acknowledged as the winner, hopefully fulfilling their agreement.

Not long after, the Terefilia team was declared one of the winners and escorted to a portal that apparently brought them to the judges. Theo hadn't been keeping score in his head and wasn't sure how far down the scale his performance would be judged. He only got an answer when the flaming wall finally lit up.

Wakespire: Third Round

1) Jadadictus Alpha - 165

2) Dortorus Gamma - 145

3) Terefilia Underclouders - 140

4) Belated Foreigners - 135

5) Dortorus Alpha - 120

6) Dortorus Beta - 110

7) Ugustial Beta - 80

8) Jadadictus Beta - 60

9) Foreign Mercenaries - 50

They hadn't done badly, even though they hadn't been aiming for victory. Scores were lower across the board, presumably because of combat in the early stages. Before Theo's group was called to the judges, Isorales emerged from the same portal, radiating relief in all directions.

"I got it!" He started to reach into his soulhome, then apparently thought better of it and just approached them with a grin. "I think we performed well, but we never would have been first if not for your help. Thank you."

"Of course." Nauda clasped his arm in the Tatian manner and then patted his shoulder. "But we're not going to surrender in the next round, so you'd better be ready."

"With these materials, I should be." Isorales impetuously hugged Nauda, then turned toward Fiyu and very wisely opted to back off and bow to her instead.

After that, he turned toward Theo with a much more serious expression. When he spoke, there was no sign of the gleeful victor from before. "Thank you for fulfilling your side of the agreement."

"I said I would, didn't I?" Theo raised an eyebrow at him, but Isorales didn't so much as crack a smile.

"I trusted Nauda, and I expected Fiyu to act honorably. But you... honestly, until the last second, I was afraid you were the type to smile until you had what you wanted, then stab me in the back."

Did he really come off like that? Theo did his best to give a disarming smile, which surprisingly wasn't that hard. Finally getting a lightegg had put him in such a good mood that he'd been happy to return the favor. It was even possible that Isorales could be a good ally to have in the future.

"No reason to stab you." Theo spoke casually and gave a quick nod. "I'd be happy to work with you again."

Before Isorales could answer, several officials appeared to guide Theo and his team to the mountaintop. They were swept through and soon found themselves facing the judges again. This time the atmosphere wasn't so heavy, but several of the Noveni glowered down from their thrones.

"You have performed well, but few sublime materials are left to you." The lead prince gestured carelessly for the guards to bring forward a chest. "We are more concerned about the fact that one of your number has ascended to Authority without announcing it."

"Is that wrong?" Theo asked. "You saw me last month and you know I was a Ruler then."

"It's improper to participate without a class," one of the older princes said. "You have not been penalized, but that must be amended."

"Do we need to bother with this?" It was the Dortorus prince speaking, looking even more bored than usual. "He's a competent Authority, nothing more. Throw him in 9th class with the rest and let's get on with it."

Several of the princes seemed to agree, including Jorotafes Jadadictus, who appeared entirely uninterested. But one of the younger princes, an Authority herself, leaned forward and clasped her hands over one knee as she made her argument.

"We know that he ascended barely a day before the Wakespire, yet he displayed all the same techniques as in the previous round. There was no sign of any weaknesses, despite the fact that there was no time to soulcraft fixes." She unclasped her hands to spread them to both sides. "The only conclusion is that his ascension did not produce any flaws. I move that he be granted the rank of Authority, 8th class."

"Ridiculous." Prince Dortorus slouched back in his chair. "You expect us to believe someone with a perfect ascension would just throw a match to that Jadadictus idiot? Those walls are probably hiding the wreck of his soulhome."

"If so, they would show some damage, but you can see as well as I can that they're untouched. And it's absurd to rank him lower when he simultaneously held off multiple 9th class Authorities. Frankly, the fact that we can't see the details is the only reason that I'm not suggesting he be granted 7th class."

Several of the other princes murmured disagreeably at that and they began to argue. Theo decided that his best strategy was to look humble, but he couldn't help tracking the conversation. Most of it was petty disagreement, more about status than fundamental soulcrafting quality. Theo wasn't arrogant enough to put himself up against veteran Authorities, but he thought he deserved the highest possible starting class.

"His first three floors form one unit and aren't linked to the fourth." Ractifus Terefilia spoke up, which was rare enough that it caught his attention. "Makes for a good Ruler, but fewer automatic improvements. If he wants that black absorption technique to be a threat, he'll need to soulcraft more."

That was the first good point Theo had heard among the Authorities, and remarkably astute. Theo's singularity was entirely focused around his first three floors, so while it was extremely dangerous, he couldn't immediately elevate it using rooms on his next floor. The technique would be lethal to Authorities, but Strongholds or Dominions would still be able to crush it until he came into his own as an Authority.

"Alright, enough!" The lead prince raised her hand for silence, then dropped it toward Theo like a guillotine. "We grant you the rank of Authority, 8th class. If you want to improve your ranking, you can show your full soulhome to officials."

"Thank you, but that's more than generous enough." Theo bowed to the princes with his best smile before he turned away. Nauda and Fiyu had already gathered the sublime materials they'd won, so they could simply walk back through the portal.

On the way out, Nauda arched an eyebrow at him. "I'm surprised you're not trying to increase that rank. Or do you not want anyone to see your blueprints?"

"It's not that at all." As they departed, Theo's practiced smile became a real grin. "Now that I'm an Authority, there are so many more important things to do."

He'd fulfilled his obligations to Isorales and supported his friends through the round. Now that he had another month, he wasn't going to waste it on local politics. There were higher priorities that had been waiting for far too long.