Bloodcrete (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 6), page 2
In the aftermath, Guchiro returns Tythes and Gethyrue to Norro Yorthin before departing for Ichil with Fiyu. Nauda decides to remain in Slest to continue healing and rebuilding her soulhome, while Theo and Krikree return to House Blacksilver amidst rumors of impending war...
Chapter 1
Sun burning directly overhead. Floating stone beneath his feet. Nothing but sand to every horizon.
After more than a month on the seas of Arbai, Theo would have expected himself to have become used to it. But when he looked over the side of the ship, he still felt slightly unnerved. The local word was translated as "ocean" in his head, but it had no equivalent of waves. Instead the sand trembled as if it was atop a giant drum, sometimes chaotic, sometimes rising in visible waves of force, sometimes writhing and twisting into the air.
From his discussions with the local sailors, he thought that the entire region was in a constant state of liquefaction. The heavy bodies of Arbaians would sink directly into the sand unless they had formed specialized dish-shaped limbs to increase their surface area, as the sailors had. That alone made the region one of the most dangerous in the world, despite the relative lack of predators and other threats.
Theo had tested standing on the surface a few times and disliked the experience. Even in the firmest areas, he began sinking almost immediately. When the sand ocean was whipped up into a frenzy he doubted it would provide much resistance at all. Thanks to his gravity abilities he could fly, but he still had to imagine going over the edge and simply plummeting into a suffocating storm.
"Hey, Salviyah." He called upwards, aiming in the direction of the sailors in the rigging. He couldn't make out individuals very well against the blinding expanse of the sail, but she twined her way down the mast with great speed.
Like most of the sailors, Salviyah was an Eubhan with a serpentine body of stone. Unlike the few he'd met, she had a flaring hood like a cobra. More importantly, she was a native of a local region and formed from unusually light stone, so she could easily move through the trembling sands. He didn't get much sense of gender from her beyond "snake", but it sounded like the other Arbaians referred to her that way, at least through soul translation. More importantly, she was bright and willing to entertain his questions.
"What is it?" She coiled up on the deck beside him. "We haven't reached the deposit yet."
"No, I just had an idle question." Theo stepped closer to the edge of the ship and stared down. "Just how deep has anyone gone? Since you don't need to breathe, what would the limits be? If you sailed to one of the lightest regions and just let yourself fall... how far would you go?"
"There are some who delve deeper in the sands," Salviyah said, "but most of what they intend to harvest is within several hundred meters of the surface. In my homeland, the Guild of Citrine Expansion has attempted deeper explorations. The primary limit is damage to the device used to return to the surface. I believe the deepest trips that anyone returns from are two or three kilometers."
"And? Does the sand get denser the lower you go?"
"It does, even in the lightest regions. Not sure why."
Another dead end. The average Arbaian sailor was more philosophical than the stereotype from Earth, but his company out here was adventurers and mercenaries. Theo wasn't quite satisfied with that answer, though. "If you had an Authority or someone else who could fly, wouldn't that remove the limit?"
Salviyah settled lower and gazed into the sands thoughtfully. "The surface may be mostly free of life, but it is said that in the depths, there exist sublime beasts so vast that they cannot survive on the surface. Of course, this would be perfect fodder for sailors' legends, but I did see a great beast that was pulled to the surface at an exhibit. I can believe that they would be a threat even to powerful soulcrafters."
"Interesting. Could their movements be related to the liquefaction of the sand?"
"Why would it be?"
"On most worlds, you only see this phenomenon with shaking forces, such as earthquakes. Theoretically a large enough creature underneath the surface might add to the shaking."
A stony tongue flickered from Salviyah's mouth, which was a trait he hadn't seen until coming to the sand oceans. She hesitated for a moment, then shifted upward. "I have not seen evidence for such a theory. Why are you so curious?"
"Just have to wonder about the limits of it." Theo shrugged. "There has to be something at the bottom." It didn't surprise him that it hadn't been thoroughly explored, since even on Earth the sea floor was largely unknown. Some Arbaians might have the answers, but they would be moving in circles of power that he couldn't yet access.
"I believe the foundation is solid stone, like everywhere else on Arbai." Salviyah twisted her head to look at him, which was impressive given her hood. "And don't think this is idle theory. There are regions of gassand that have been explored to the solid base."
"Wait, gassand?" The word was soul translated, but he still didn't understand for a moment and it seized his attention. Even before Salviyah explained, the answer was starting to come together...
"Like this region, but more extreme. You are educated enough to understand the states of matter, yes? Here, the sand operates as a liquid. In gassand regions, it cannot maintain any coherence at all and behaves like a gas."
"That sounds... dangerous."
Salviyah let out a low chuckle. "Beings from other worlds who foolishly ventured in have died instantly. Even we face lethal levels of erosion there. But all I know of gassand is hearsay, albeit academic hearsay. You must find someone else for your questions."
She slithered away, her scales propelling her over the deck with startling speed. Theo still had plenty of questions she could probably answer, but respected that she had work to do. Maintaining a ship over liquefied sand was a difficult task and, even though he had an important role to play, when it came to the day to day operations of the ship he would mostly just get in the way.
As he kept staring into the sands, Theo found himself surprised by how intensely his curiosity persisted. Yes, he wanted the powerful sublime materials he could find within the sand ocean - that was the entire point of the trip. But more than that, he wanted to know. He needed to reach Authority and higher tiers to survive, but he also wanted the strength to plunge into the sands and find out just what existed at the deepest depths.
Technically, he could have learned in the same way on Earth. Theo stood back and thought about that for a time, wondering if it reflected a flaw in him. His original world contained many wonders as well, and in some ways it was even easier to learn there, with nearly infinite information at his fingertips for free. He wasn't sure if it was the struggle of finding out or the exotic nature of the Nine Worlds, but they lit his mind on fire more than Earth ever had.
Not that any of that helped him. Theo suppressed such thoughts and focused on objective realities. He would need to get his fill of exploration while gaining the strength that would allow him to survive against his enemies.
So far, his journey had uncovered one excellent match: a sublime material called an inertialvoid. It seemed to absorb inertia, so it was a perfect match for many of his skills. At the moment he could only use it to zero out his momentum, making flying via gravity much easier, but it could easily adapt to other uses as he developed. With a little more polish, that would fill one of his third floor chambers.
With more work, his voidflint could fill another enhancement chamber, making all of his skills more lethal. That left two empty chambers: his blueprint suggested that they needed to be used for self-enhancement since he already had skills, but he had yet to make final decisions. He wanted something that improved his mind, but the last was still an open question.
Still two empty chambers on his third floor, and one underdeveloped on the second... sometimes that made him feel far from ascension, but Theo tried to think about it the opposite way. His ideal blueprint had twenty-seven rooms in the first section, and he'd filled twenty-four. If he could perfect everything, he would ascend to Authority far more powerful than he had been in his previous life. The problem was perfecting all those details...
"Framkis! Off port side!"
The pseudonym caught his attention - he was going by "Framkis" again because this trip was connected to Norro Yorthin. The call came from the head of the vessel: the Mundhin named Balmun stood there as usual. He had funded this entire expedition, intending to turn a profit on certain materials that could be found only in the sand oceans. This was just risky and unusual enough that he was willing to hire outsiders like Theo.
Since the call could just as easily be an attack as a sighting, Theo hastened to join him. As he walked up, he extended his new senses into the sand around him. Unlike a fully developed skill, he needed to turn his awareness inward: within one of his chambers, the abyssfluid trembled within the depthclaw shells, drawn toward sources of mass.
He could easily feel the ship beneath him, while the sailors were mostly blurry movement. Nothing out in the sand as far as he could tell, but given all the hazy edges, that didn't necessarily mean anything. When he opened his eyes to double-check, he didn't see anything in particular around the ship.
"There, do you see it?" Balmun stepped closer to him and pointed a heavy limb out into the sand. "Just a little one... it could be junk or it could be another lode."
After Balmun pointed it out, Theo could just identify a small region where the sand was spiking upwards more than usual. He spiritually pushed all the abyssfluid down within the depthclaw shells and lowered his senses as deep as he could. As soon as he stretched far enough, he felt it: a point of mass considerably denser than the surrounding area. It wasn't exactly like any of his natural senses, just a very clinical awareness in the back of his mind.
"I think it's a lode," Theo said. "It feels a little bigger than the others, if anything."
"Then it's not junk!" Balmun turned away from him and began yelling commands to the sailors. By this point, Theo was more than used to the routine.
While the others pulled in the sail to bring the ship to rest near the point, Theo hopped over the edge and into an inverted gravitational field. He let his momentum float him out over the place he could still feel the heavy object. Not moving or in any way suspicious. Shame - it would have been interesting to run into one of those deep sands beasts that Salviyah had been telling him about.
Instead, he merely hovered in place and cast another gravitational field much deeper into the sands. It needed to be a relatively minor one, only barely overcoming the local gravity, so that the materials below wouldn't smash into the sand on their way up. Despite the fact that they were rocks that were constantly buffeted by the sand ocean, they were apparently more fragile than they looked. As he'd discovered when he'd gotten impatient on their first attempt.
By now, he could do it without thinking. Theo's mind wandered as he kept the gravitational fields constant. Blacksilver records had indicated that the type of sand he needed could be found within the Arbaian oceans, but the problem had been getting it. The sand was fiercely desired by Authorities with many different soulhome blueprints, so most of the expeditions that could acquire it would just muscle him out.
That had eventually led him to this ship and its unusual mission: they were looking for ordinary rocks, not a sublime material at all. The heavy rocks like the ones beneath him didn't interact with cantae in the slightest, but apparently they were useful for Arbaian construction. Balmun thought that by taking a light crew and hiring Theo instead of a local expert, he could acquire it for a fraction of the usual cost.
So far he had been right. Theo was just getting bored, since his only good find had been the inertialvoid and none of the secondary materials he'd found would-
"Framkis!" The name emerged from a rocky scream and Theo realized that he had been too inattentive.
Small dark creatures darted around the ship, cutting at the sailors from all sides. They looked like skeletal fish with four spiky fins, but he didn't need to know anything about them to feel that they were demons. Now that he focused, he could sense their mass, but he'd had no idea the ship was under attack.
Demons out of nowhere after a mostly peaceful trip. Theo knew he needed to help the sailors, but first he worried about what exactly it meant.
Chapter 2
The darkness closed around Fiyu comfortingly. Deep within the secure chamber, she could not be disturbed by light or even sound, since the thick walls wrapped her in silence. As soon as they had helped Acquaintance Gethyrue return to her home, they had been free to travel in purely Ichili spaces, without any unnecessary light.
What Fiyu wasn't certain about was why Relative Guchiro had taken her to this place in particular. The previous hideaway had been secure and appropriate, as far as she knew. It had been better equipped in some ways, such as containing the healing pit. Clearly there was a reason, but her relative had given her preparatory soulcrafting and then departed on an assignment of his own.
Since she had completed her work, Fiyu again examined the chamber around her. It was a cube half again her height, its walls reassuringly thick and dense. Cabinets lined one wall, their interiors filled with the sorts of supplies she would have expected. The softest thing in the room was bedding in one corner, but that held no secrets.
Unquestionably the most unusual aspect of the room was the recess in the floor that was filled with sand. It tingled in her senses, oddly neutral to all cantae. She knew that some adults would sit within such gardens to meditate, but her relative had never taught her such things. Some cultures would draw complex patterns in the sands as a form of art, or so she had been told. Was she meant to do one of those things? Was her relative watching her to see how she would express herself without guidance?
Movement outside the chamber caught her attention, but she immediately identified her relative. He entered the appropriate combinations and stepped through the anterior chambers. By the time he joined her, the outer door had closed and even the whispering light from outside was gone.
"It seems you are already done," her relative said as he approached. "Good. I hope that you are rested, because it is time for us to do some intensive soulcrafting."
"Are we prepared?" Fiyu asked. "What steps are necessary to complete my Corporeal Floor?"
"No." Relative Guchiro spoke sternly, but his legs did not display any tension as if she had made an error. "Once you listened to me as a child, but now you are an adult. You must not be dependent on me."
"Then..." Fiyu nearly asked another question. It was almost confusing at first, since of course she needed to rely on her relative's vastly greater experience. But this was similar to how Friend Theo sometimes behaved, and so she could surmise... "You want me to lay out the steps for myself?"
"Good." She could feel his smile beneath his mask.
"But... you will tell me when I make errors, yes?"
"First clear your second floor, and remove all temporary materials from your soulhome. Then we can discuss your blueprint."
Fiyu nodded and slipped into her soulhome to do as her relative said. She had stored a great many materials that she hoped would one day form part of her Corporeal Floor, but now she removed them all and carefully set them on the floor in the physical world. Only the darkburn bonsai gave her pause... it had served her well as a temporary heart chamber, but it would not manage well outside her soulhome. She temporarily relocated it to the field by her door.
When she reemerged, she had intended to ask her relative's opinion of this decision, but she fell silent. While she had been working, Relative Guchiro had removed sublime materials from his own soulhome. A surprising array of them were spread across the edge of the sand pit, overwhelming her senses in multiple ways. In the past, he had always given her a single material at a time so she could learn carefully. It seemed that those days were past.
"These are the sublime materials I had assembled for your Corporeal Floor," her relative said quietly. "I tried to teach you the principles behind the blueprint. Can you determine the purpose of each and demonstrate it here?"
At last Fiyu understood why they had used the sand chamber. She stepped into the smooth field of sand and drew the blueprint for her second floor with a finger, forming a diagram easily understood by any sense. It was more unusual than most: two large rings around a small central chamber, with three wedge-like rooms splitting the rings.
Just like her first floor, this divided her available space into thirds. This time the division was not elements, but aspects of her body. The dark third represented her mind, the ice third her exterior nature, and the molten third her interior nature. That meant a total of ten chambers, into which she needed to sort all of the sublime materials.
Many of them were easily categorized. Her outer nature included traits such as her hair, fingernails, and toenails, and she identified the materials for those... though she privately felt that the cloudspider silk she had collected would better represent her hair. The concrete part of her interior nature was simple: her heart, her lungs, her stomach, and so on. She stumbled when it came to placing her "abstraction interior" - she had been taught that it included her body heat, but she was unsure of many other details.
Eventually she finished, some of her final placements guesses based on an even distribution of the sublime materials. When she looked up at Relative Guchiro for approval, he slowly moved to crouch on the opposite side of the sand.
"Mostly correct. Some would work, but might be more efficient elsewhere." Her relative shifted several materials, largely between the outer and inner circles. "If you had finished your childhood development on Ichil, this would have been appropriate for you. But now you have journeyed across many worlds, so you must define your body more broadly. Which of these do you believe are no longer appropriate?"
