Chasmfall (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 4), page 19
None of that left them exactly optimistic, but the cliff walls became even more sheer around the island, so even if they wanted to pass, they really only had one choice. Nauda went first, since she was the best defended, a clean jump landing her safely on the island. When she indicated for them to follow, they both leapt somewhat more carefully.
The front tip of the island was showered by dangerous spray from the river, but the rest was somewhat shielded from it, perhaps the safest place this deep in the chasm. In the exact center of the island, the triangular white building sat quietly. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but the moaning voices of the Chasm seemed quieter on the island, and silent when he walked closer.
Just as he remembered, a large stone door was embedded in the side facing the center of the island, covered in inscriptions but without any mechanism that could be manipulated. Unfortunately, even with more experience than his first visit, none of the inscriptions meant anything to him. Theo walked closer to see if he could determine anything else about the entrance.
"Well, it looks like I got lucky." The voice came from above the doorway, and though Theo leapt back instinctively, he realized that it wouldn't matter. If the Authority had wanted to kill them, he could have done so.
Worse, it was the Authority he had seen representing the House of Burning Leaves, half his face nothing but scar tissue. He wore dark green armor with the sigil of his house inlaid in crimson, no doubt an old and powerful armament. Even if he wasn't the most powerful Authority in the Chasm, their situation had just become far worse.
"You see, this door is very cleverly made, impossible for Authorities to open." The man extended a leg over the side, tapping the building with one heel. "Now, I'm going to need you to open it for me. Based on how well you cooperate, I'll consider leaving some of you alive. But the boy... he definitely needs to die for humiliating the House of Burning Leaves."
"Your name is Mattan, right?" Nauda stepped forward as if to speak to him, but Theo noted that she and Fiyu both stayed at his back. "We all represent Houses of Norro Yorthin. Surely any quarrels we have can be settled within our city."
"You're not House members. You're leeches on Fithe itself. If you won't cooperate, I can kill all of you and find allies to open the door. But if y-"
At that moment, Fiyu's stealth technique rippled out past him and Nauda tapped his side. If he hadn't been so familiar with both of them, Theo might have hesitated, but instead he intuited what they wanted. The instant the stealth covered them, he leapt in the direction Nauda had pushed him.
Even taken off guard, Mattan had an Authority's reflexes. Raw cantae slammed down on the space where they had stood a moment earlier, their jump having just barely cleared it. Fiyu poked them both from behind, and though Theo wasn't entirely sure about her reasoning, he timed his next jump along with both of them, moving around the right side of the building before creeping further.
"That is really quite a remarkable technique." Mattan began stalking around the roof, examining the entire island. His eyes passed directly over them, but didn't pause any more than normal. "Hmph, you're lucky that this place helps hide you. But do you really think you can run?"
His first attempt was to drop his power over the entire island. Ordinary soulcrafters might have been flattened, but given their treatment by Authorities and their careful soulcrafting, they could still move. The air felt more like liquid, but they could make their way out. If their opponent had been a weaker Authority, it might have worked.
Walls of green cantae lit up around the island, then Mattan gestured toward one end. A column of light slammed down over it, vanishing just before another flashed a pace further inland. More and more of the columns began battering the island, as if he planned to find them by brute force.
Given their opponent, they didn't dare speak, but their thoughts were clear enough. Fiyu focused solely on keeping them hidden while Nauda glanced skyward. Theo wasn't sure if the barrier had a ceiling, or if he could lift them without being noticed. He eyed the advancing columns of light, wondering if they could dodge through the search, but he was still just an Archcrafter and the columns were moving remarkably fast.
"Hey, pay attention!" Out of nowhere, a fish slapped Mattan in the face. He was so stunned that he stopped his light columns and spun to look for the source.
Theo had half-expected Senka to be trying to rescue them, though it would have been a suicidal effort even for her. Yet the voice had been male... and to his surprise, Theo saw Tythes standing on the other side of the island, rooting around in the pockets of his long jacket.
"There it is!" He pulled out another fish and hurled it at Mattan, who snatched it out of the air.
"What is this? This... this fish isn't even a sublime beast! How could it survive in this river?"
"Oh, it's not. I heard this river didn't have any fish, so I brought some from home. But I ate the third one, so you really should have had the decency to let the second hit you in the face too. I put real effort into this, and you're ruining it. Can you just slap yourself for me?"
"You..." Mattan stared at him in shock, then let out a cry of rage and unleashed a lance of cantae. This one wasn't aiming to bind anyone in place, but a full-fledged attack designed to kill an equal.
Tythes dodged by falling over onto his side. From that position he tipped backward and struck the ground hard, sending him flipping into the air at unnatural speed, his body a whistling blur. Mattan hurled another lance of cantae at him, but the spin somehow deflected it and a moment later he drove his head directly into the other Authority's stomach.
As they struggled atop the building, Theo realized part of what was wrong with Tythes's soulhome. Though he had a flawless barrier wall that suggested his blueprint was strong, he fought like someone who hadn't soulcrafted a single chamber. Nothing but spending lots of cantae reinforcing his body and moving himself around. Such techniques were only used by incompetent soulcrafters... or those who wanted to avoid letting anyone see their techniques.
Whichever one of them won the fight, Theo didn't like their odds. Despite the risk, he began generating a singularity between his hands. It wouldn't be lethal to an Authority, but if it could draw in enough of their cantae, it might be their only chance at harming either of them.
Unfortunately, the fight ended as Tythes flipped backward, his feet connecting with the other Authority's jaw. The man hurtled upward, bashing against one of the chasm walls before flying out of sight. Tythes ended the maneuver standing on his head on the edge of the building... and then slowly rotated to look at them.
"I wish you wouldn't do that." Tythes extended his cantae, much more subtly than Mattan had, and snuffed out Theo's cantae before it could form a singularity. "I just saved your lives, after all. And please drop that stealth technique. I promise you that I won't search so stupidly, and that will just waste all our time."
After a long pause, Fiyu let the bubble fade around them. Nauda moved to the head of their trio, raising her staff for all the good it would do. "And just why are you here?"
"To altruistically help my fellow citizens, of course." Tythes tipped over the edge and flipped once to land on his feet, grinning at them. "Now, out of sheer gratitude, all of you are going to work for me."
Chapter 20
"As it happens, I consider myself a master negotiator." Tythes sat atop a rock and stroked his chin self-indulgently. "The previous Authority to approach you offered to torture and kill most of you. I believe that I can beat that offer."
Even though he was unquestionably more powerful than them, Nauda scowled at Tythes while he rambled. After confirming that Mattan wasn't coming back any time soon, they had all moved to one side of the triangular building, hiding themselves from anyone looking from above. Technically anyone else could come down, but Nauda had noticed an increasing number of distortions overhead.
"The good news is, I think we can work together. My father will not stop harassing me about acquiring some sort of Scepter of Sparkling, or something like that. The problem is, getting it would be way too much of a pain. If I make you do all the work getting into this building that no one has ever been able to enter before, then I should be able to get him off my back. You can have the excess sublime materials, I'll drop you off somewhere safe, everybody ends up happy."
"You expect us to trust you?" Nauda didn't bother to keep the contempt out of her voice. She wasn't going to offend such an unstable Authority, but she wouldn't let him walk over them, either. "The last time we met, you insisted that we duel and swore that you'd tear me apart."
"No, that doesn't sound like me." Tythes glanced at her briefly, almost as if he didn't even remember her. "Believe me, I'll be good for it. Soulcrafting is far too much work after Authority, so I figure that you can take away the extra sublime materials and save me the trouble. I consider myself a very reasonable man, so I think this is more than fair."
Though she seethed at her memories of him, Nauda went silent. If he was going to play this game, her interference wasn't likely to make anything better. Fortunately, Theo was already moving on to another approach. "If you made your way here so easily, why can't you reach the end of the river and get the scepter? Surely finding it would be easier than doing something that's never been done before."
"Oh, but you see, there's a deadlock further north. All the Strongholds are ready to gang up on anyone who tries to reach the final position. My father in particular tried to push north, only to run against a Stronghold from the Asplundat Movement. On top of that, the House of the Lost is being truly strange about all this. Not taking it seriously at all! But simultaneously taking it much too seriously, if you know what I mean."
"I do not understand," Fiyu said. Nauda expected Tythes to mock her, but he just shrugged and continued.
"They used their huge technique to keep everyone inside - which is absurd, because it means more work - and then began searching the Chasm. But not for the scepter or the vault, for a person. We have no idea who, but they're acting downright murderous. Really, they seem to be off in their own little world, but whatever they're doing is getting in the way of everyone else."
Tythes glanced between them, but when they didn't volunteer any more questions, he shrugged and moved on. "Anyway, I consider myself an extraordinarily handsome man, so I decided to try to win a victory while everyone else is distracted."
Fiyu frowned. "I do not understand how those statements are related."
"What are you talking about? Shouldn't you be helping me open that door?" Since they didn't really have a choice, they went to join him at the door. Tythes slouched up to it and rapped on the intricate designs with one hand. "Somebody dead put much, much too much work into this. You see, it requires cantae of a precise intensity and quantity. Anyone who has ascended past Ruler will burn straight through it, defeated by their own strength."
"You can't modulate your cantae down?" Theo asked.
"Whoever built the door was thinking of that, and it's extremely sensitive to high intensities. Anyway, did I say I wanted your help? Shut up and help me." Crouching down beside the door, Tythes ran a hand over the inscriptions, briefly not looking so foolish. "But the lock is nothing that can be easily opened by lower tier soulcrafters, either. Ten years ago, my father brought a number of first tier soulcrafters to unlock it, hoping that their weak cantae would do the trick. They all turned to ash. But I'm sure that won't happen again, so now I need you to come over here and touch the Instant Death Door."
Nauda edged closer, wishing that she saw any other option. Despite his nonchalance, Tythes had clearly studied the door, pointing out several spirals where they were meant to place their hands. It was an unusual sort of lock, nothing like what Nauda had seen before. The technique itself involved gently pouring her cantae through the inner workings, but it was like trying to push water through stone.
After over a minute, perhaps a fifth of the door glowed with cantae, but they could push no further. Tythes sighed and tapped the door, his cantae immediately overpowering theirs. The metal reacted instantly, power flashing across it like lightning through water. In an instant all of them were thrown back, though when Nauda checked the others, none of them had been harmed.
"Oh, this is obviously going to be a such a pain." Tythes slapped himself across the face twice. "But the three of you did better than most others who've tried. Did I mention that everyone adding cantae needs to be able to work together well? That's also a requirement. Did I mention that you have to wear special hats? You don't have to, so it would be silly if I'd said that."
Gripping her staff to contain her irritation, Nauda forced her tone to remain civil, if not polite. "Then just what are you going to force us to do?"
"We're going to stay here until you can open the door for me. One of you is already a Ruler, and the other two are close, so it just requires some practice and a little more power. I'll force feed you some sublime materials, make you ascend, then we can open it. Come on, buck up, this will be fun! If you try to run away from the fun I'll kill you, of course."
When Nauda looked to her companions, she could already see the expected reactions on their faces. Fiyu disliked the situation strongly, but intended to keep her head down and accept it. Theo kept his face neutral, but she could tell that he was planning to turn the situation to his advantage. Though Tythes wasn't truly their ally, if he intended to make them ascend, he would both defend and assist them.
"Alright, do you understand?" This time, Tythes seemed to be actually expecting a response, so Nauda decided to speak for the group.
"Thank you for your immense generosity, Lord Tythes."
"It really is immense, isn't it? I'm so glad we can help each other."
The ease with which he accepted the false praise irritated her, so Nauda broadened her smile. "We've never seen such magnanimity from a more powerful soulcrafter. We thought we'd entered the Chasm of Lamentations to find sublime materials, but we should have been searching for you."
"Good." Tythes examined his fingernails with an air of self-satisfaction. "I'm glad that you seem like reasonable people who can cooperate."
"Truly, tales of your kindness today will be told for millennia."
"Well, I wouldn't go quite that far myself, but I do seem to inspire depthless awe in everyone I encounter." Tythes smiled back at her, an exact mirror of her own false expression, and Nauda gave up. There was absolutely no getting through him that way.
And, given the gap in strength, they had no way of escaping him. Their only way out might be through the impossible door that sat darkly before them.
~ ~ ~
For almost the entirety of their third day in the Chasm of Lamentations, Theo had no choice but to assist with the door. If they had been limited to the original three days, he would have been furious. Instead, it was a rather more ambiguous imprisonment, like an invisible countdown to an explosion, only an ominous ticking sound every moment.
The door itself was the most obvious challenge, requiring a difficult mix of strength and skill. After several attempts, Theo was willing to admit that it couldn't be done with skill alone. He still possessed most of a Stronghold's facility with complex cantae work, yet his best efforts only brought the door to half lit. Most likely the only viable option would be to find more cantae, either by another soulcrafter or ascension, either of which would take time.
But the more difficult enigma was Tythes himself. Observing his behavior in a concentrated stretch, Theo was almost completely convinced that the Authority used apathy to hide a darker purpose. Exactly how malicious it was, he couldn't be sure, yet he felt certain that Tythes lied continually and methodically.
Growing bored after several attempts, the Authority left the rest of them and wandered to the other side of the island with vague threats. Though Theo couldn't parse his exact intentions, he was sure that the arbitrary contradictions and cruelty were themselves the message: a reminder that his strength put him beyond any sense of reason. It was annoying enough that Theo sometimes hoped that Mattan would return to fight him again, but when they weren't interrupted, he decided to commit to the problem itself.
Tythes had left them with a chamber blueprint that Theo judged was useless for anything except unlocking the door and thus immediately discarded. Their second decision wasn't so easy. The solution that had struck him as most obvious, both of his companions crafting a vestibule to increase their cantae efficiency, had been disregarded.
For whatever reason, Nauda didn't feel that it matched her soulhome, while Fiyu felt that her present environment was not right for making permanent blueprint changes. He managed to convince her to craft a temporary room that would serve the same purpose, so she set about her work.
When he turned back to Nauda, she glanced toward Tythes, then drew Theo into her soulhome. Even though they were alone there, she lowered her voice. "Alright, I understand that the room he gave us wouldn't offer any advantage. But would cantae alone help?"
"Possibly." Theo glanced toward her home, eyeing the third floor with only a few chambers fashioned. "Are you thinking of expanding?"
"That's right. I have the bricks stored for it, and if necessary we have plenty of sublime stone. By the time I finish my third floor, I'll be able to store quite a bit more cantae, and in the process I'll be able to show him progress. The benefit is obvious, but do you think I can get away with it?"
"Very hard to tell. He's opaque by design."
They both peered out of her soulhome enough to examine Tythes, who currently sat on the side of the island, throwing rocks into the water. Possibly in an extremely inept effort to skip them across the surface. When he ran out of rocks, he fell over onto his side to scrabble for more, refusing to actually stand up even when it meant crawling.
"I say you focus on your third floor," Theo said as they pulled back. "I think he's more serious about this than he looks, but that he won't harm us, especially if we seem to be making progress. Given the room you have to grow, you should be able to focus fully on your Ruler tier."
