Wakespire (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 7), page 13
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.
Chapter 14
For a couple days after the incident, Theo focused on polishing work, never pushing himself to exhaustion just in case they would be attacked. Eventually he accepted that the matter wouldn't turn into a larger problem. Compared to worlds like Deuxan, Noven did a better job of avoiding feuds by escalating everything to higher authorities, who were generally invested in the status quo.
At least, the cultures he'd seen did. Theo tried to set aside his assumptions and just focus on soulcrafting.
The brief conflict with the Dortorus team had left him a little dissatisfied, yet for once he didn't think he needed to change his strategy. If he fixed the problem with the alacrispark, resolved a few minor issues, and ascended, his blueprint would work perfectly. In fact, based on how the Authorities had fought and how Fiyu had even managed to trade a few blows with one, he suspected that he wouldn't need to worry about 10th class Noveni Authorities.
Which meant he was back to the same old problems. Without a lightegg, all he could do was make some more bricks, do a little more polishing, and-
"Give Senka yummies!"
She crawled up over the side of the balcony railing and then flopped to the floor. Theo sighed.
"Seriously, give me some sporping food! I haven't eaten in ages." Senka, suddenly speaking much less playfully, tossed a sack in his direction. He negated its momentum instinctively with an anchoring point and pulled it closer, meanwhile gesturing toward the nearest table.
"There's lots of manna over there. Assuming it tastes fine to you?"
"Everything tastes equally awful." Senka hopped up onto the table and began shoving fistfuls of the pellets into her mouth, so Theo took the time to examine what she had brought him.
Instead of random rubbish, the sack contained several sublime materials. The heaviest slid out first: a number of dark stones that appeared ordinary enough until they caught the light. They seemed to alternate between soaking up the sunlight and expelling it in flashes. Less dramatic but perhaps more powerful was a rough blue material that puzzled him until he abruptly recognized it as fragments of bark. Like the pieces he'd taken off oak trees as a kid, a very long time ago.
"Winterbark and lightstriker stone," Senka said between fistfuls. "Maybe not the strongest materials, but they have some rare qualities."
"Modulating energy," Theo said softly as he turned them over in his hands. The winterbark had seemed ordinary at first, color aside, but now he realized that it was manipulating heat. "Exactly the sort of thing I needed for the alacrispark. You collected these for me?"
"Stole 'em."
Theo sighed and looked up toward Senka, who didn't look even slightly guilty. "Look, I know I don't have much room to talk, but did you steal these from someone who needed them?"
"I stole it from a cruel and ugly man who was, at the moment of the theft, kicking a small child." She stopped eating long enough to stare at him. "In all the chaos over that fight, it was easy to slip into a warehouse. Trust me, it won't be traced back to you."
That hadn't been his concern... but the ethical question fell away as he realized the potency of the materials in his hands. He hadn't been planning on creating the modulating materials on his own, but it was well within his capabilities. What he needed to do was have the heat of the alacrispark absorbed by the winterbark and the light channeled into the lightstriker stone. If he crafted everything right, the result should neutralize all the disruptive cantae and return his spherical flow to perfection.
"Thank you, Senka." He made sure to look away from his work long enough to really smile at her. "Are you doing alright? I haven't seen you much lately."
"Other than this, I've been trying to rest up. I need to conserve my strength." She swung her legs over the edge of the table, one atop the other, and for a moment looked more like the adult she was. "I don't mind supporting you for now, but after you reach Authority... we should be able to help each other."
"Well, thanks to this, that day will come a little sooner."
Senka nodded to him briefly, then flopped onto her side and rolled away. He hesitated when she went over the side of the table, but she just squawked and kept rolling over the floor. Best to leave Senka to her Senkaisms.
There was so much work to do, and so little time before the next round of the Wakespire.
~ ~ ~
When Nauda had been an adolescent, she'd been forced to physically train until her fists were bloody. Somehow, years later and worlds away, she found herself engaging in very similar training. This time she was using a staff, and the object she struck was a stone pillar instead of a wall, but the process was much the same. The aches and pains were like old friends.
