Wakespire: Chapters 12-13

While going about my business, I noticed that Street Cultivation has passed 1000 ratings on Amazon! That makes five of my books that have reached that point, after having none not so many years ago.

Not sure how likely Street Cultivation 2 and 3 are to reach that point, but the most recent two TWC books are almost certain to get there eventually. Please review if you haven't, haha. ^-^ Hitting four digits doesn't offer any actual benefit, but it looks nice and might persuade more readers to try the series.

Anyway, these chapters... better not comment before, as these answer a question that has been the source of much speculation.

-

Chapter 12

With half the month gone, Theo was beginning to get nervous. He had decided to focus on what he could change and not worry about the variables beyond his control, but that strategy was running out of runway. He couldn't brute-force train his way to Authority.

The most satisfying work had been finishing his anchoring technique and adding supporting materials to his alacrispark chamber. Both rooms were ready... or they would be, if he'd gotten the proper materials to filter the alacrispark. He could overcome that problem if he spent enough, but there was no way he could buy his way to a lightegg. That wasn't a problem, assuming the hypothetical that they won the next round.

That left him spending way too much time making bricks. His pyramid was coming together, a solid block of shell bricks climbing to the densest part of the sky. With a few details missing below, there was no point finishing up the brickwork, especially because he could always do that while exhausted.

Instead, he'd begun adding additional shielding to other parts of his soulhome. The pressure flooding from the heavens would threaten everything he'd developed, so even though his blueprint itself was meant to bear the burden, it didn't hurt to have more. He'd used leftover or inappropriate materials to board up his windows and reinforce the more delicate aspects of his design. With luck, the trials of the ascension would destroy the shielding and simply reinforce his main design.

Problem was, he was running out of that work too. So when Nauda returned to their rooms with a suggestion for all of them to go out, he was actually receptive to the idea.

"It's some sort of ritual that enhances ascensions," she explained. "I don't know if it will actually be useful to any of us, but it's only available to contestants for a limited time. Only part of a single day. It sounds like several teams will have new Authorities, so it's a good chance to investigate the competition."

"Is it an official event?" Theo asked.

"There aren't any competition points involved, but the princes in charge of the Wakespire have apparently approved it."

"Probably part of their plan to strengthen the entire city, then. It could be worth going."

"I would not mind," Fiyu said. "I have never seen an Authority ascension before, and I would feel more prepared to have witnessed some."

All of them, even Nauda, had been spending a lot of time indoors, so it was agreed as simply as that. They headed out into the city the next day with Guchiro reluctantly in tow. He didn't seem interested, but Fiyu had persuaded him that it would be an educational opportunity for her.

They rode their sleigh out of Ugustial to one of the many mountain peaks surrounding the city. Unlike the others, this one had been carved into a perfect cylinder. The white stone sides were bright enough, then the vast top appeared to be covered in a golden mirror. The day was unusually hot and, when investigating the suns, Theo realized that several of them were lining up overhead.

If Senka had been there, he would have asked her about this solar event... a celestial conjunction, or perhaps an inverse eclipse. She had been absent frequently as of late, and only babbled or wandered when she was conscious. The others had no special knowledge of Noven, so he could only theorize that the alignment of the suns was relevant to this method of enhancing ascensions. He'd thought that locations only mattered for Dominion, but maybe they had a technique that worked for Authority.

Multiple groups had already arrived, parking their flying vehicles around the sides of the column and then forming small clusters atop the mirror. Despite all the sunlight beating down on it, the metal top of the tower was completely cool. It was still bright, so Fiyu wrapped a shawl around her head and even Guchiro pulled a cloth up over his mask enough to shield his eyes.

"Welcome!" The greeting came from a slender woman with golden wings who stood among a number of Authorities of various groups. "My name is Nifanos Dortorus, Authority 1st class, and I will be overseeing this ritual. I, and my fellow judges, wish all of you glorious ascensions. As a special blessing on this august day, all of you will receive classifications immediately based on our judgment."

It seemed that there would be several people serving as judges. All of them Authorities, but more importantly he didn't recognize any of them from the competition. Aside from Nifanos, there was a Terefilia with black wings and a hulking man with white wings who Theo hadn't met. All of them seemed to have some connection to the major factions, except the Jadadictus lineage was unrepresented.

"Now, who would like to ascend first?" Nifanos gestured broadly to the center of the mountaintop and stepped away.

No one moved at first, then one of the Terefilia Rulers marched out. Theo didn't recognize him exactly, but the group of four Rulers made him fairly certain that was their team in the Wakespire. Apparently one of them was actually ready to ascend, ahead of projections.

As the man stepped into a shallow pool in the center of the golden plate, Theo felt a touch on his arm. Nauda was raising an eyebrow and already had a finger on Fiyu's hand, so she must be offering use of her telescope. He'd forgotten that she'd finally repaired it. In any case, there would be nothing outside but some glowing cantae, so he was glad to get a better look.

The Terefilia man's soulhome was three floors of black stone with silver edges, in the standard Noveni circular design. His interior blueprints would be the real test of his mettle, and unfortunately that couldn't be determined easily. Within his soulhome, the man climbed to the top and then began casting his will into the sky.

Instead of a pyramid, he used a number of dark stones that had been stacked together. They appeared durable enough to support him as he resisted the pressure and tried to pierce to the next tier. He was either confident or hasty.

Watching an ascension from the outside was surreal. Theo remembered the agonizing struggle that stretched on and on, but seeing someone else endure it, it didn't seem to take much time at all. The man just staggered up a few steps, more like a drunk than a soulcrafter.

Then the sky began to give way and the change was unmistakable. Cantae flooded down over him, but it wasn't reinforcing his soulhome. Instead it penetrated straight through everything he had soulcrafted, rushing through it with violent new intensity. The Ruler staggered under the unexpected assault and a crack resounded through his soulhome. A fissure splintered its way up the side of his wall and it was growing by the second.

He let out a cry and reasserted himself, gaining control. His interior cantae flow must have been strong enough, because there were only a few more soft cracking noises from within. Then he finally broke through. The cantae that had been damaging his soulhome infused it and the cracked stone glowed with new power.

"Our first ascension is a success - an auspicious sign!" Nifanos Dortorus announced in the real world. "Step forward and let us grant you your class."

While the judges spoke to one another, Nauda glanced between Theo and Guchiro. "Was that normal for an ascension? I haven't really seen the jump to Authority before."

"Successful but flawed." Guchiro didn't seem inclined to offer any more than those three words, so Theo stepped in to give a better explanation.

"He had the willpower to ascend, but his blueprint wasn't quite there. It's much more difficult to actually experience it, of course. He'll obviously need to repair that crack, and there's probably some damage inside, but his soulhome has been greatly strengthened."

"And is the crack fixed in place?" Nauda asked. "Is he stuck with it?"

"He could try to replace the entire wall, but it would never be as strong as his materials that went through the ascension." Theo had run afoul of that very mistake before. "It would be smartest to keep what he has and accept the remnants of a crack. That's how major errors get permanently fixed into a soulhome."

Meanwhile, Fiyu touched her relative's sleeve. "All of this light... do you think that it greatly assists their ascension?"

"I'm not impressed." It was difficult to tell Guchiro's expression or even tone with his face so covered, but his eyes examined the scene coolly. "It might make the process slightly easier, or condition the soulhome for certain Noveni materials. Not a good use of a unique ascension."

Unique for the soulcrafter, but not for everyone else. The crowd was getting restless, waiting for the next attempt, so the judges split up. This time it was the black-winged Authority who made the announcement.

"Congratulations, you have been granted the status of Authority, 9th class."

The Terefilia man and his allies looked pleased while some others grumbled. They were all soon pushed away so someone else could move forward. This time it was a middle-aged woman with white wings, not someone Theo recognized from the competition. She stepped into the center, then began climbing up the side of her soulhome with practiced ease.

Her design was all highly polished gold, covered in windows lined with silver. It looked impressive enough, but when the woman attempted to pierce the sky, she struggled. She didn't throw herself into the pressure fast enough, so it built up continuously. Theo heard something that sounded like shattering pottery from within the soulhome and fragments of bright green grass began to tear away from her foundation before she finally broke through.

When she finished, she was left gasping. This time, it took little time for the judges to make their decision.

"Congratulations," one of the white-winged judges said, "you have been granted the status of Authority, 10th class."

"Thank you." The woman looked a little disappointed, but she mastered herself and bowed to the assembled groups. "Contestants of the Wakespire, please consider me if your teams require an additional member."

Another unknown Ruler arrived next and Theo was fairly sure he could predict the man's rank. Not only did his soulhome take relatively little damage during the ascension, the world around him grew bright as his cantae overflowed. Sure enough, he was awarded 9th class. Some in the audience cheered, but Theo was beginning to get bored and wondering if he could go back to soulcrafting without causing offense.

Next came another golden-winged Dortorus, and since Nauda again touched Theo's wrist, he decided to watch. Immediately the soulhome caught his attention. It was just as large as all the others, but it had four doors and Theo didn't see an obvious reason why. They were composed of different materials as if each one had been cobbled together at random. Even without looking inside, he noticed a small crack in the stonework of the third floor, as if it had been completed in great haste.

Instead of a pyramid, the man had a firmly-entrenched ladder reaching into the sky. Whatever sublime materials it was made out of, they held against the pressure, and the soulcrafter himself clearly had the willpower to ascend. But his blueprint...

When the cantae flowed inside, his entire soulhome began to shake and a terrible grinding emerged from within. Theo winced just before it happened: the crack he'd seen on the third floor exploded, an entire room tearing itself apart and scattering sublime materials.

To his credit, the Ruler kept pushing upward and he managed to break through. But the resulting cantae, instead of restoring him, spun him to the side and slammed him into the ground. His foundation, which had been bright grass before the ascension, was now blackened and torn by fissures.

"That's... a botched ascension?" Nauda asked it like a question, but there was no need to answer. The judges only glanced at one another briefly before Nifanos spoke.

"Your status is unranked Authority. Please step aside."

The new Authority looked devastated and it seemed like the other Dortorus members were going to reject him. Some were murmuring about his ascension being rushed, while Nauda and Fiyu spoke about technique. Ignoring all of that, Theo stared at the ruined soulhome until the very last second when they were pulled out of the man's soul.

He was definitely more prepared than that Ruler. Just in case, Theo began working on more shielding.

~ ~ ~

When Nauda had suggested they all attend the event, she had mostly hoped that it would shake them out of their routine. Now she found herself watching with grim fascination.

Even in a city as large and powerful as Ugustial, they didn't have an endless number of Rulers who could even attempt to ascend to Authority. A relatively unremarkable woman ascended next and was granted 9th class, after which she slipped away without a word. The others seemed to ignore her, more interested in how much power the Dortorus team would gain.

Judging from the chatter around her, their lineage had two Rulers who would attempt to ascend and the second was considered the better chance. If they'd succeeded, they would have had an intimidating five Authorities on their teams. Even four might be an insurmountable advantage and the Dortorus woman leading things soon regained her confidence.

But before they could send forward their next candidate, Isorales emerged from the crowd. He'd been so far back that Nauda hadn't even noticed him. He looked even paler than usual and she could see how much effort it took for him to unclench his fists. Once he stepped into the center, however, he became calm and entered his soulhome.

Nauda followed as quickly as she could and was taken aback. Unlike the Noveni designs that had become so familiar to her, Isorales had built his soulhome from blue and white stones. It wasn't merely a straight tower, either, but four towers that wove around one another with no space in between. That meant the exterior of his soulhome looked like a giant braid instead of conventional walls.

"Is that stable?" she whispered to the others.

"I believe the towers reinforce one another," Fiyu said. She looked to her relative, but he was silent.

"I want to see the inside," Theo offered briefly, before going back to his own work. He wouldn't admit it, but the previous failed ascension had shaken him.

It looked like it had shaken Isorales even more, though, because he was still standing atop his soulhome and hesitating. He'd laid down several heavy slabs in step formation, which should have been more than enough, yet he hadn't exerted his will yet. Physically his body was unmoving, but through her telescope Nauda could see that his spirit was shivering as he raised a hand.

At first it looked like all was well: the pressure didn't seem to slow him at all. But as it increased and began to flow into his soulhome itself, it began to shudder. Abruptly Isorales let out a soft cry and pulled away.

The pressure subsided and the sky returned to normal, ascension aborted. Isorales hung his head and trudged out of the central pool. A few of the contestants jeered, but most remained silent.

"His soulhome did not appear obviously flawed," Fiyu said quietly. "Why did he stop?"

"Mental weakness." Theo spoke the judgment without hesitation and Nauda only wished she could contradict him. "His soulcrafting might have been good enough, but he didn't have the will for it. He might not ever be able to ascend."

"It was not unwise." Guchiro regarded the young Noveni man thoughtfully. "He recognized that he would fail and stopped before any harm was done. Better delay than permanent damage."

Either could have been right, but Nauda found herself looking at Isorales's face instead. He looked more deflated than anything, as if disappointed in himself. They hadn't spoken much, yet she felt for him. Clearly he was under a lot of pressure to support his family and felt that he couldn't.

Since the next person was only the remaining Dortorus, Nauda left her companions to go talk to Isorales. He tried to turn aside when she approached, but when he couldn't slip away, he gave her a wan smile.

"I couldn't do it. I'm not sure I have it in me."

"Well, I know I definitely don't." Nauda shrugged and hoped her smile was self-deprecating in the right way.

She wanted to ask him more and wasn't sure where to start. Theo had mentioned something about his lineage being important, and apparently his grandfather was a legendary artisan. Those might be sensitive subjects for him or even the cause of his distress. If he had been Tatian, she would have known how to comfort him, but touch could be so easily misconstrued. Instead she stuck with her smile until it was too late.

The next Dortorus candidate had walked to the center and begun his ascension, but that wasn't what drew her attention. First she heard the crowd gasp, then she saw a dark form lunging toward the center. A man with ragged black wings struck the Dortorus Ruler across the face with a club. He reeled with a bloody lip... and his soulhome lurched dangerously.

Guards caught up to the attacker the next moment and jerked him back. It was too late. The Dortorus Ruler's ascension had been disrupted and he couldn't regain control. Even as he struggled to break through, cantae burst into flame and burned a black swath across his soulhome.

"Treachery!" Nifanos Dortorus rose into the air, cantae burning around her. "I should have expected as much from your kind."

"He's not one of us!" The Terefilia judge flew up to intercept her, and with his wings arcing blackly, no one could avoid the obvious conflict. "This madman may have come from the undercloud, but we have no idea who he is."

"Liar!" Nifanos punctuated her cry with a bolt of cantae that sent her opponent reeling.

In the several seconds it took the streak of cantae to fade, the mountaintop dissolved into chaos. Many of the Noveni fled so instantly that Nauda wondered if she shouldn't join them. The Dortorus and Terefilia factions certainly didn't seem inclined to wait before assaulting one another.

If so, the Dortorus side would clearly have the advantage of numbers. They had so much of an advantage that one of the teams turned on Nauda and her friends. She automatically drew closer to them and, without realizing it, drew Isorales along with her. Just when she hoped they could all retreat, one of the female Rulers jabbed an accusatory finger in their direction.

"Just get out of here." Her wings twitched angrily as she advanced on them. "People spend their lives preparing for a sublime legacy like this! And you just... just leap in and start taking rewards? Without a complete team, without even understanding the rules?"

There was still growing chaos around the mountaintop, but the Dortorus team didn't seem concerned. Maybe that was because they had one of their leaders at their back, currently fighting against the Terefilia judge. It seemed like the Authority's attacks were growing wilder and brilliant green streaks flew in all directions, even injuring some other combatants.

It looked like Theo planned to fight, so Nauda jumped in first. "We meant no offense! We have our own struggles that took us here."

"I don't want your excuses! I want you to take what you've earned and go, not continue insulting us." The female Dortorus was definitely preparing some kind of special technique judging from the cantae running down her arm, and she had three powerful allies including an Authority.

But it was the more powerful Authority in the air that Nauda should have been worried about. An enormous torrent of green cantae flew in their direction so suddenly that Nauda would have been incinerated if it hadn't been deflected by a wall of darkness. Guchiro floated into the air, creating a wall of shadows that shielded their group. It seemed like he was able to push back the other judges as well as the Dortorus team, so they had a moment to catch their breath.

Nauda turned back to Theo and the others desperately. "Can we just get out of here?"

"If we do, they'll target us later." Theo spoke without even looking at her, staring through the dark shield into the chaos beyond. "Here, everyone knows they're in the wrong and they'll be punished. We need to prove ourselves now or-"

Whatever he'd meant to say, it was interrupted by the explosion of the wall of darkness. Nauda had no time to see what had happened to Guchiro, she was too busy fending off staff strikes from a member of the Dortorus team. They had rushed through the fragments of darkness, already attacking. Fiyu had joined in the defense, but Theo was staring overhead.

"She has an Ethereal Floor!" he shouted. "Move, move!"

Nauda didn't understand, but one of Theo's fields had already grabbed her and pushed her backwards. In the sky, the Dortorus judge burned like an emerald sun, her cantae exploding beyond what an Authority should have been able to bear. Even as Nauda watched, streaks of green shot through the woman's wings and began to glow brightly.

Cantae struck the entire mountaintop and Nauda was blown off her feet. Without even thinking about it, she had moved to try to shield Fiyu and even Isorales, who had been lingering nearby. It didn't really matter. Even though the main attack hadn't struck them, the shockwave alone blew them off the mountaintop, into the clouds below.

-

Chapter 13

As the shockwave forced them downwards, Theo realized the vast gulfs between Authorities. He had started to cast a gravitational field to keep them from falling, then abandoned it when he realized just how much power was beating down over the landscape. The Dortorus judge had been holding her own before activating her Ethereal Floor, no doubt when threatened by Guchiro, so things were about to get much worse.

He wished that he could have watched their fight, but he was too busy keeping the rest of them alive. Theo drew all of them together with a point of mass even as they fell through the clouds, then cast a field to reduce their gravitational acceleration without canceling it.

Not enough. He'd again underestimated the shockwaves emanating from above, which pushed them deep into the cloud layer. Soon they were tumbling out the other side in darkness and it was a very thin consolation prize that his gravity senses activated automatically.

They informed him that their group was going to be shredded across the slope of craggy mountains.

A powerful inverted field managed to slow their momentum enough that the first impact was only jarring, not injuring. They bounced off the slope, tumbling further into the darkness. Theo had been to an undercloud region of Noven once before and found it a surreal environment, but this area was almost as pitch black as Ichil.

Nearby, he could feel that Fiyu and Nauda had grabbed hold of one another. A random Noveni had somehow come along with them, despite Theo focusing on their group - he must have been too close to Nauda when the shockwave hit. Theo's senses weren't precise enough to determine the extent of the group's injuries, so he focused on arresting their movement with another gravitational field

As they slid to a halt, Theo turned to the group. "Everyone alright?"

"We suffered no injuries," Fiyu said. She sounded distracted, but relatively calm. "Do not worry, this region does not appear to be dangerous."

"Right, it might be more dangerous above the clouds, given the-" Before he could say any more, bright golden light pierced the darkness.

When he turned to look, he saw the Dortorus team descending toward them. It seemed like the shockwave had blown them through the clouds as well, but they had an Authority with them. His cantae had flowed around the group, turning their fall into a controlled glide.

A glide directly toward them. They didn't think the fight was over.

"Were you part of the attack?" one of the group demanded.

"We aren't even from this world!" Nauda shouted back.

Theo was more interested in examining the odds, because he presumed combat was inevitable. The Dortorus team was one Authority and three Rulers, which was formidable from the start. He also disliked the fact that the female Ruler who had started antagonizing them was still gathering cantae around her arm. If she had maintained her technique through all the jostling, it must be strategically important.

On their side, he had the three of them... and the random Noveni. In the golden light that now illuminated the crags around them, he could see that the man was the one who had failed earlier. Isorales, maybe. Technically he was a Ruler, but after seeing him give up on his ascension, Theo wasn't counting on any help from him.

The odds were decidedly against them. Theo focused on his cantae flow to prepare. The sphere lit up faster than before, thanks to the alacrispark, but the distortion in his theme made it unstable. He couldn't harness the full power of his internal singularity in that moment... but he could draw on most of it. If he struck at the right moment, that might be enough.

"Enough!" It was the Ruler with the cantae all down her arm again. "We'll take you in and sort the facts out later."

She raised her hand and Theo braced himself to move, but the effect was nearly instantaneous. The cantae was uncoiling from her arm one instant and blanketing the landscape the next. It manifested as a violent rainbow that washed over him, throwing his body into disarray.

A disabling attack. Theo smiled as he realized that it was very similar to one of his own chambers and thus poorly suited to attacking him. Some of the energy washed off his coat, his inertialvoid made his own body an inviolate space that could resist outside influences, and his acclimatization chamber was rapidly helping him adjust. He was nearly immune to the attack.

Someone's cry of pain drew Theo's attention, even though he didn't recognize the voice. It was Isorales, clutching his ears and falling to the ground. No help from him.

Beside the fallen Noveni, Fiyu and Nauda were still standing. Fiyu's Corporeal Floor strengthened her body enough that she wouldn't be disabled by some minor shaking, while Nauda... he thought that she was just enduring the attack. No doubt that twisted heart she had in her soulhome was working overtime, regenerating the minor injuries caused by the disruption. But given the way she raised her staff, it looked as though she was immune as well.

The failure of the rainbow light clearly intimidated the Dortorus team and the other Rulers hesitated instead of attacking. Their Authority finally snarled out a command and rushed to attack, golden light expanding from him. Fiyu met it with a lance of darkness that knocked him off course.

Theo should have joined that fight, since Fiyu would be outmatched, but one of the other Rulers leapt at him. When Theo tried to cast a gravitational field, he was surprised to see the Ruler light up with an aura and sail through it. These were strong soulcrafters, so of course they had defensive techniques of their own.

"No more tricks!" The Ruler landed a punch to the chest and turned it into a grapple, then began striking him. "I hate little worms like you who-"

Instead of trying to use any of his other techniques, Theo grabbed the man's arm and chucked him. He might not have been physically focused, but he hadn't neglected all of his enhancement rooms. Shocked at his thin opponent's strength, the Noveni Ruler wasn't prepared for a counterattack. Theo hurled him back toward the others, managing to hit one of the other Rulers.

Now that Theo was free, he focused on harnessing his full singularity. His first thought had been to end the battle lethally, but as he saw the others fight, he realized that the Noveni didn't consider this a battle to the death. No, he didn't want to get into trouble. They'd already proved they were no push-overs, so his goal was to disengage.

He just had to find the right opportunity, before any of his allies could take an injury...

~ ~ ~

Even though enemies were threatening them, Fiyu struggled to focus on them from the very beginning. She had felt secure at first, safe with her relative at her side. But then when the enemy Dortorus had begun attacking wildly, her relative had needed to depart. At first Fiyu had been confident in his victory, then increasingly worried for his safety.

She had been educated about Ethereal Floors, but she had never seen one in action.

Enemy Nifanos had at first appeared inferior to Relative Guchiro. Quick and experienced, but dependent on green streaks of cantae that appeared mostly useful for quickly taking out weaker opponents. Her relative easily evaded or deflected them while binding her limbs with arcs of darkness. He was attempting to deescalate the battle before it could grow out of control, which Fiyu thought was wise. When their attacks met cantae to cantae, her relative won, likely due to the added intensity from his basement.

Then it had all changed. The hot aura of cantae had been the most obvious, making Enemy Nifanos burn as oppressively as any of Noven's suns. Worse than that, new power flowed through her, as if she had been holding back part of her soulhome. Lines of liquid cantae, more dense than the rest, flowed from her core over her wings.

Not only did the transformation make her streaking beams increase threefold, her cantae grew more intense. Her next beam shredded through her relative's shield of darkness and Fiyu's heart leapt to her throat as she feared for him. He managed to twist out of the way and shifted to a defensive strategy as his opponent vented her new power.

Even when Fiyu and her friends had been knocked below the clouds, she still attempted to follow the battle with her senses. The clouds were unusually dense, but her senses were now a part of her and could pierce them.

Though he fought very cautiously, Relative Guchiro did not give way. Enemy Nifanos went from occasionally throwing a beam in his direction to focusing her full attention on him. As she failed to strike, and a lance of darkness even scored one of her wings, Fiyu could feel the tension in the woman's body rising.

Then the light struck Fiyu and all her attention was forced back to the battle.

The Authority of the Dortorus team had always been the greatest threat simply due to his soulcrafting tier. But his light was fundamentally different from the others and Fiyu realized with dismay that it was tangible. Like a twisted version of her own darkness, he could extend light in physical form. Terrible shafts or tendrils of light that could worm their way into any safe space...

Fiyu quickly realized that, against a superior opponent, she couldn't afford to pay attention to anything other than her own battle. The first attack might have bested her, if Friend Nauda had not stepped in and used her staff to briefly arrest his strike.

No matter how she tried to retreat, Fiyu found the enemy Authority chasing her. Whenever she tried to use her new darkness technique, mostly to assist her allies, he would immediately shatter her darkness as if it was offensive to him. She escaped him through her stealth technique and he promptly began emitting thin filaments of light over the battlefield. Unless she could escape their advance, he would be able to locate her by detecting which filaments touched her.

Why did he hate her enough to use such a wasteful technique? Fiyu could feel that the muscles in his back were tense not just with battle, but as if he had something against her. There was no way to solve the conundrum. It was all she could do just to escape his assault.

Then, just when she began to despair, Friend Theo acted. A gravitational field took hold of all the enemy soulcrafters, even the Authority who had just expended so much of his cantae. This one was far more powerful than she had seen before, sending them plummeting up into the clouds.

At the same time, Friend Theo used another field to drop all of them to the side. As they flew over the landscape away from the mountain, Fiyu realized his intent. She extended her stealth technique over her friends and also the strange Noveni with them. To the disoriented enemies, they would have seemed to simply disappear and could be anywhere in the shadows.

After redirecting their path several times, Friend Theo let them all settle down on the soil. They had flown deep into the valley, the clouds now so far overhead that Fiyu couldn't sense through them. Other than the pleasant lack of sunlight, the landscape on the underside of Noven appeared very similar to the above. Between the density of mountain rocks, she could feel rich soil and plants that felt very similar to those she already knew. It appeared to be a peaceful place, not like the danger of many Ichili regions.

"So cold..." The Noveni man had wrapped his wings around his body and was shivering. Fiyu had not noticed the difference, but she sensed that Friend Nauda's skin was prickling as if chilled.

Fiyu had prepared for this possibility! She quickly reached into her soulhome and removed one of the coats to wrap around Friend Nauda. There was gear for the others as well, but Friend Theo's clothing was more practical for cold environments than Friend Nauda's dress. It did not appear to be too cold, merely lacking in sunlight and somewhat chilly.

"We need shelter," the Unknown Noveni said. "Several suns will be setting soon, so the temperature will drop rapidly..."

"That's not a problem," Friend Theo said. "I can just-"

"Don't do anything rash. My grandfather will send someone for me, we just need to hold on long enough."

The words made Friend Theo's facial muscles twitch for just a moment. Fiyu was unsure what it meant, but instead of simply carrying them all upward on a field, he sat down to wait. She had to presume there was some reason he wanted to meet this relative of the Noveni.

"Are you alright, Isorales?" Friend Nauda bent down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll be okay... that attack just felt like it flipped my stomach upside-down." He shivered again and Friend Nauda quickly placed the coat over his shoulders. "Thank you. I can't believe you fought the Dortorus team for so long. I thought for sure they were going to knock us out of the Wakespire right here."

"We're tougher than that, and so are you. You took some nasty hits there."

"My soulhome has a few tricks, I just... I don't know..."

Fiyu watched their interactions and her coat with mild consternation. That coat had been meant for Friend Nauda, not Unknown Isorales. Worse still was analyzing the tension within Friend Nauda's musculature and attempting to read it. Did she care for Unknown Isorales in some way? It could be very difficult to understand her emotions because she displayed such high levels of familiarity with everyone.

"The two of us should talk," Friend Nauda said to him. "If the Dortorus team is playing so aggressively, we need to stick together."

"I guess we could. I'll need to talk to my family."

Why was Friend Nauda so interested? It was possible that she was romantically attracted to the Noveni. If so, Fiyu should have been happy for her friend, but she struggled to find that emotion. Everything was much too complicated, so she was glad when Friend Theo changed the topic.

"Who was the man who attacked during the ascension?" he asked. "Judging from the wings I'd guess he's a Terefilia, but is that reductive?"

"I don't know him," Competitor Isorales said, "and I'd bet no one else will either. I'm guessing the investigation will show he was a random malcontent from below with no provable connection to the Terefilia lineage."

"But you think they paid him?"

"Or did something to inspire his attack. What he did was a crime... I don't know how it works in your worlds, but there are limits to how much you can harm someone here. Still, if they can't prove any connection... I don't know how it will turn out, but they might be assuming the investigation will take too long to prevent their advantage in the Wakespire..."

In the meantime, however, it would be considered an escalation by all sides. Even if the attacker truly was uninvolved, the Dortorus teams would target the Terefilia teams on the assumption it was a planned attack. That would only make the entire contest more dangerous. She hoped they could make it through... she hoped Relative Guchiro was well... she hoped Friend Nauda...

Fiyu sat down and focused on meditation. There was some discussion of how they would be found, which revealed that Competitor Isorales carried an armament that served to locate him. It was being suppressed by Fiyu's stealth sphere, so she released it. While they waited, the others chatted or soulcrafted.

When she extended her senses as much as she could, she was fairly certain that the battle overhead had stopped. Only two other people had fallen through the clouds, and neither was Relative Guchiro. She could only trust in his strength.

During the conversation, Unknown Isorales proved to be kind and polite. It would have been simpler if he had been inconsiderate, but he expressed thanks for their help and never disturbed Fiyu. He was clearly troubled by the cold and dark judging from the occasional flinches in his legs and wings, but he suppressed those reactions as well as he could. Overall, his movements reminded her of a small animal fearful that predators would swoop down at any moment.

After several hours, a great vessel broke through the clouds. The disk was formed from several dense materials, including rings of sublime metal that put off large columns of light. They swept over the land, clearly searching for fallen soulcrafters. Though it ran against her instincts, Fiyu forced herself to sit calmly and use no stealth while the others caught the attention of the vessel.

It soon swept down toward them, and as it drew closer Fiyu could feel multiple Noveni crew. The only one who stuck out to her was an old man who stood at the prow. At first because he was a Stronghold, then because she realized she recognized the patterns of his wrinkles. He had been one of the judges after the Wakespire, which from context made him likely to be Prince Jorotafes Jadadictus.

"There you are." Unknown Jorotafes leaned over the side and frowned down at Unknown Isorales. "Looks like you saved my grandson's sorry wings."

"We were mostly defending ourselves," Friend Nauda said. "What happened in the battle overhead?"

"No deaths, a few injuries. It's being written off as hotheadedness." The old man snorted as he looked over the group. "These youths are all the same tier as you, Isorales. What are you doing letting them save you?"

"I'm sorry, grandfather." Unknown Isorales lowered his eyes and his broken wing trembled in an odd pattern that did not seem physically necessary.

"Well, that's the state of things. You all have the gratitude of the Jadadictus lineage."

"Thank you." Friend Theo stepped forward and bowed, strangely tense the entire time as if anticipating. "I must say, I am a great admirer of your work. Even the slightest bit of sculpture from you would more than repay our efforts in-"

The old man snorted again and turned away. "If you want to earn a statue, you'd have to give me something of value."

Fiyu stared in dismay even as they boarded the vessel and rose toward the clouds. That was not an appropriate way for a relative to behave. She had thought that Unknown Isorales was perhaps unaccustomed to danger, but now she reconsidered the patterns of his muscles and concluded that his fear had social origins.

When at last they broke through the clouds, Fiyu didn't even care about the suns beating down on her: she could sense Relative Guchiro. He flew toward them so rapidly that clouds scattered underneath him, alarming the guards aboard the vessel. They weren't fast enough to stop him and Unknown Jorotafes only glanced in his direction, so Relative Guchiro was able to sweep up beside her in an instant.

Fiyu immediately went to his arms and let his cloak enfold her. She wanted nothing more than to return to their rooms and remain in her tent for the rest of the day. There had been more than enough of other people and their strange problems.

-

You'll get more information about them throughout this book, but now you know that Ethereal Floors are finite transformations. Basically, they are my way of containing transformations within a more organized system. No "super forms" due to heredity or just because. Everybody can create their own transformations based on the same rules of soulcrafting, with the same tradeoffs as everything else.

The introduction to this concept is highly optimized Ethereal Floor, but someone could also gain a bunch of muscle or manifest an extra powerful sword for a limited time. They're a substantial advantage while activated, but you'll have less floor space and enhancement than an equivalent soulcrafter who didn't build one.