Wakespire (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 7), 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.
Book Six: Bloodcrete
Theo escorts a merchant ship sailing the Arbaian sand seas, while Fiyu and Guchiro harvest sublime materials from the Shadowlands of Ichil. Nauda scouts the borders of Queen Yeshir’s colony on Slest, and is inducted into her royal guard as a reward for finding a rare cache of sublime honey. As she works with her beetle allies to cultivate the royal beehive, she is interrupted by Tythes, who abruptly hands her a sublime compass and tells her to search for a Slescan weirkey before an impending conflict breaks out on Fithe.
Theo returns to Norro Yorthin and collects Krikree from the farm where she’d been working while he traveled. As he resumes teaching her about other worlds, he introduces her to Navim, whose rocky nature initially befuddles the Slescan until he stoneshapes a new pickaxe for her. Dhan asks Theo to investigate rumors that the rival continent of Tymetron has placed a demonic artifact in the Dustwind Plateaus, a sparsely-populated neutral region lying between the Ruling Cities and the Asplundat Movement.
Fiyu and Guchiro finish collecting shadowminds in Ichil and move on to Siata, where they trade for materials and hunt for sublime beasts in the colorful islands of light scattered amid the stormy darkness of the rest of the world. Nauda leads a scouting mission to an abandoned Slescan termite city and uses her nascent healing skills to win the trust of the local beetle colony.
When demons attack a farm in the plateaus, Theo narrowly avoids striking the returning Senka as she unexpectedly rushes out of the dust storm. As Theo struggles to persuade Krikree that the impish being is an ally and should not be eaten, Senka eventually emerges briefly from her cursed state. She tells Theo that she needs to travel with him to Noven to find the next of the five rivers that can cure her.
Fiyu finds the final materials she needs to complete her Corporeal Floor, and Guchiro returns to Ichil with her to prepare for the unique ascension. Her physical and spiritual forms merge, strengthening her body and making her cantae techniques an inseparable part of her being.
Theo fails to locate the demonic artifact, so he changes tack and instead investigates the Asplundat Movement’s activities in the Plateaus. He spies on a convoy transporting bloodcrete, a dangerous material that fatally expends a soulcrafter’s cantae in return for explosive power, but is recognized by an Asplundat Ruler named Homez who he’d previously encountered in the Chasm of Lamentations. After a brief battle that demonstrates the dangers of bloodcrete, Homez and Theo parlay and agree to share any information they uncover about the demon incursions.
Nauda and her Slescan allies battle a giant horned aciddevil, and are rewarded with the prize she had been searching for: a Slescan weirkey. Her sublime compass also leads her to an abandoned gate between worlds which leads to an unfamiliar location in Fithe. She returns to House Blacksilver, and Dhan discovers that the gate leads to the Gold Wastes, a small island nation near the continent of Tymetron. Theo is sent through the gate to gather intelligence while Nauda returns to Tatian to continue rebuilding her soulhome.
Fiyu and Guchiro travel to the Depths Fithan city of Nondol in search of materials for her Ruler floor. Guchiro meets with the city’s leader, a Stronghold named Heshfer, but is unable to recruit his assistance because the city is threatened by a sublime beast of unfathomable power.
Theo visits the city of Eltario and earns some information by sparring with local soulcrafters. He discovers that the empire of Tymetron is led by Plutalgion, a soulcrafter beyond Dominion with an affinity for demonic materials, and that Tymetron’s expansion is only kept in check by Giatrice, the equally-powerful leader of the Gold Wastes.
Fiyu returns to House Blacksilver to find it in chaos, with the city preparing for war with the Asplundat Movement. She travels with Guchiro and Krikree to the Dustwind Plateaus, and a tense negotiation begins between the opposing factions. The Order Of The Deepest Blue accuses Raythe Darkblade of being responsible for attracting the demons, and a skirmish breaks out when he escapes amid the arrival of a demonic horde. Theo and Dhan arrive to help stabilize the situation and an uneasy truce begins.
Theo is abducted by the House Of The Lost and taken to their home dimension to be interrogated. They confirm that unlike Vistgil’s other pawns, Theo’s link to Earth has been broken, and his body and soul are now fully rooted in the Nine Worlds. He learns that the Lost have been fighting Vistgil ever since he invaded and sundered their world, and that only four other humans known as the Siblings have ever managed to escape Vistgil’s control. Theo’s offer of an alliance is rejected, but the Lost deliver him back to Fithe along with a gift of sublime materials and a Noveni weirkey.
The truce inevitably breaks, and a full-scale battle begins with the Asplundat Movement making full use of their bloodcrete in a giant golem. House Blacksilver takes a defensive position protecting a local farm, and Guchiro detects the demonic artifact as it begins to work more intensely. He sets off with Fiyu to capture it while Theo works with Homez to fend off the Order cultists, but their path is blocked by a titan-class demon until Nauda arrives atop a giant Tatian acorn and destroys it with Slescan termite acid.
The battle worsens when six titans sacrifice themselves to summon a fourth-tier humanoid demon, the same kind that had killed all of Theo’s allies at the end of his first life in the Nine. All three of the battling Strongholds join forces to destroy it, and Guchiro uses the brief lull in the fighting to reveal the demonic artifact. The subsequent negotiations are derailed when a Deuxan fleshmasker assassinates the Asplundat representative and the Order cultists abscond with the artifact.
Nauda, Theo, and Fiyu split up to search the battlefield and recover the artifact. Nauda finds it, but loses it to Homez in the ensuing fight. She pleads with him to destroy it, but he leaves to deliver it to the Asplundat Movement. Fiyu and Guchiro encounter and defeat the remaining Order cultists. Theo defends the Blacksilver lines, but is attacked by a fleshmasker Authority who severs Krikree’s arm before being defeated.
Tythes disrupts his father’s plans by attacking the fleshmasker army with an invading force of Slescan ants, and the battle turns when the Asplundat Movement’s bloodcrete golem is destroyed and Wiltur annihilates the remaining fleshmaskers. Nauda uses her healing honey to stabilize Krikree and reattach her arm, and the battle ends when Dhan ascends to Stronghold and the Asplundat Movement retreats.
In the aftermath, Nauda meets with Homez, who confides that the demonic artifact was mysteriously damaged beyond repair before being claimed by the Asplundat Movement. She runs into Tythes as she returns, and he confirms that the fleshmaskers were loaned to Wiltur by an influential inter-world organization aiming to condense the Norron continent into a single power under House Crimson. Nauda rejects Tythes’s offer of an alliance and returns to her allies to prepare for their trip to Noven.
Chapter 1
Theo flinched when the light of nine suns hit his eyes. Not because of the light itself, but because of the memories that came with it.
For so long, he'd been focused on returning to Noven to acquire the materials he needed to ascend, not thinking about how he'd died here. All his friends had been killed by the demon in the Cleansed Lands, but Vistgil had finished him on a sunny platform much like the one he stood on. Theo managed to swallow his reaction and push it behind him, but it took more effort than he had expected.
They stood on the severed top of a mountain, like so many peaks in Noven. He remembered these mountains from his first life, so he spent more time looking at the suns than the environment. The brightest blue sun shone directly overhead with two white suns nearby, washing out its color. Several other suns burned red just above nearby mountains, giving certain angles a bloody gold cast. This was actually one of the darker time periods of the Noveni cycle, though he couldn't remember what it was called.
"Are you alright, Fiyu?" Nauda asked. The others stood in a tight knot near the center of the peak, and Nauda shifted closer to Fiyu as if she wanted to protect the other woman from the light. Senka sat silently and Guchiro was a shadow even amidst all the light.
"It is okay, Nauda. I am prepared." Fiyu frowned up at all the suns as if to register her disapproval. "There are always this many?"
"They rise and set like any suns," Guchiro answered before Theo could. "They follow complex cycles that I have not memorized. There is rarely any true night here."
"Oh dear... but it is fine. I am unharmed."
While they spoke, Theo continued scanning the mountain peaks around them. Noveni peaks could be unnaturally high and sharp, just like he remembered. He spotted little glints of light moving around some of the sheer cliffs and hoped they meant his goal was within reach.
"Is this the place?" Nauda walked up beside him to examine the same mountains. "Are you finally going to tell us about these sublime materials that are so important?"
"I will unless we're being monitored. Guchiro?" Theo glanced toward the older Ichili and waited for his nod before continuing. "Alright, no more secrets. If this goes well, we can all acquire an extremely useful material for our ascensions."
The others moved closer so he didn't need to speak in a loud voice, except for Senka, who wandered randomly about the edge of the peak. Perhaps she was indulging in her cursed side to build up stamina for later. In any case, she didn't need to know any details, so Theo ignored her and gathered his thoughts.
"We have several goals in Noven," he said, "but my first is a sublime material that I failed to use properly in my first life. They're called lighteggs, and they're relatively unknown. Because they don't put off much cantae, they're not generally used in soulhomes, and they're too dense to carve. The secret is that during an ascension, they can be broken apart to permanently strengthen a soulhome."
"The specific material is unfamiliar to me," Guchiro said, "but I know the principle. What benefit does this breaking process offer?"
"If lighteggs are properly scattered, their power soaks into the foundation of a soulhome. Allegedly this can help the creation of a basement, but I was still waiting to use it properly when I... in my last soulhome."
"And we can locate them here?" Fiyu was right on her relative's coattails, apparently examining the surrounding regions with her senses. "There are many spaces within the mountains, so they could be difficult to find."
"Lighteggs may not be real eggs, but they're created by sublime beasts. They used to live in this region and I think I see some, so let's go." Theo gestured for the group to follow him back to the sleigh. It had been the last member of their party, in a sense, but Guchiro had easily been able to include it in his weirkey travel.
After so long walking scattered paths, Theo felt a little nostalgic as they all climbed back into the sleigh. Its original silver Deuxan paint would have matched the brilliant Noveni landscape rather well. The deep red paint job had fit in on Fithe, but seemed to absorb the Noveni light and glow crimson. Theo hopped into the driver's seat and waited for the others to join him. It seemed like Nauda had intended to move with Fiyu, but she ended up in the middle because Fiyu stuck close to her relative in the back.
That left only Senka, who skipped closer and whacked directly into the side of the sleigh. Theo sighed and cast an inverse gravitational field to lift her up over the side. The impact seemed to have woken her up, because she muttered something about "this blooky place" and then flopped down into the bottom of the sleigh.
With everyone situated, they began gliding over the landscape of Noven. Past the edge of the flattened mountaintop, a sea of clouds stretched in all directions. Mountain peaks rose like islands, cast in glorious shades from the many suns. Some were peaks of pale stone that simply reflected light while others blossomed with trees that grew broad despite the altitude. They shimmered with their own colors, particularly when the light of a new sun caught them at certain angles.
"What's underneath the clouds?" Nauda leaned over the edge of the sleigh, examining the white froth beneath them. Theo opened his mouth to answer, but Senka spoke first.
"There's a lot of space down there, but it's less populated. I think you can understand why."
"Another world split in half..." Nauda glanced at Senka thoughtfully, but returned to staring over the side. "Do they get any light down there at all?"
"It depends on how thick the cloud layer is," Senka said. She was still at the bottom of the sleigh, but waved through the floor. "In some places, you get a lot of refracted light. Here, it's probably completely dark."
"Could we explore below?" Fiyu asked. She leaned forward with a smile. "Might there be some of the sublime beasts we seek down there?"
Theo shook his head and kept flying the sleigh. The fact that Senka answered those questions about Noven so quickly was interesting, but ultimately it couldn't distract him. He had been sure that he'd seen some of the sublime beasts he needed before, and now that they got close to some of the sheer peaks, he was certain he was right.
Finally he spotted one: a speck glittering a different color than the vast white cliff face behind it. The circular being winked in the light as its individual parts turned, but Theo wasn't concerned about its anatomy, just what it carried. He set the sleigh to drifting and rose into the air on a gravitational field to try to capture it.
Less than a minute later, Theo regretted the attempt. They'd been easy to catch before, but he had been an Authority with a lot of enhancement chambers and an armament called the Hurricane Blade. Even with all his advantages, he couldn't fly well enough to catch such an agile creature.
"Guchiro?" He turned himself in the air and gestured in its direction. "Can you?"
By way of answer, Guchiro floated into the air and pursued the sublime beast through the air. It sped up even more, escaping his grasp several times, but shadows extended from his grip and he soon bound the creature. After a brief frown, he brought it back to the sleigh for everyone to examine.
There were different species of this sublime beast and Theo wasn't sure of any of their names, but they were unmistakable. Each one was composed of several rings that glistened with scales, except occasionally the scales opened to reveal bright golden eyes. The rings met one another at strange throbbing joints of light that somehow pivoted as the rings rotated around the central point or even spun like wheels. He had no idea how their anatomy worked other than that he was sure they didn't obey Earth biology.
"What a strange creature," Nauda said. She poked at one of the wheels and then pulled her hand back. The sublime beast spun furiously in place but couldn't escape Guchiro's grip. "These things lay the lighteggs?"
"Not quite. They generate them." Theo pointed through the rings to the middle of the beast's spherical body. Though the majority of the space was empty, a small dark gold pearl hovered at the very center. "They eat various sublime materials and excrete new material around their core. These build up over time, similar to an oyster, if you have anything like that in your worlds."
Nauda frowned but Fiyu immediately bobbed her head. "I believe I understand. Is this one complete? Must we kill the creature to acquire the material?"
"This one may be a juvenile," Guchiro said. "I don't know their life cycle, but the material in the center is much too weak to be used as a sublime material."
"They keep getting bigger until there's no more space," Theo explained. "Once that happens, they deposit the lightegg and begin growing a new one. We need a fully sized one, ideally one that's fresh. But now that you know what we're looking for, we can search these mountains for fully developed lighteggs."
Everyone set about the task eagerly enough, though everyone but Guchiro and Theo needed to stay in the sleigh. Nauda drove them around the mountain peaks while Fiyu extended her senses to search for caverns. Theo searched based on his experience from before while Guchiro quickly became adept at capturing the sublime beasts.
And releasing them. Because as many as he captured, none were even close to fully developed. As the search wore on, Theo frowned more and more often. It had been so easy, before...
"Theo!" Nauda bellowed to him from the sleigh, and when he turned to look he saw that Fiyu was beaming. Their search along the cliff faces must have borne fruit.
When he used his gravitational fields to propel himself to their location, he discovered a rather large cavern that had been heavily occupied by the sublime beasts. The only entrance was vertical above a sheer drop, but that was no trouble for them. A flock burst around him, spinning wildly around themselves, but their primary defenses against predators were remoteness and speed.
"They don't make nests," Theo said as he pulled the others out of the sleigh, "but some species leave the lighteggs in caves like this. Also look for any rocky fragments from their shells."
"Like these?" Fiyu had already discovered one and held it toward him. "I could feel them from the outside. They are very dense and I am not sure what use they would be."
"As a primary material, not much. But they convert well into your soulhome and they make good temporary materials for ascensions. Grab enough for all of us. Even if you don't use them for the Authority ascension, they're strong enough that they might be usable later."
While the others searched, Theo drew the fragment into his soul and examined it. Within, it was a concave piece about the size of his chest. Nowhere near as dense as the lighteggs and weak enough to break into bricks, making the shell fragments adequate materials. He'd never been worried about building his pyramid to prepare for ascension, since any material would do, but this would take another issue off his mind.
Theo left the soulcrafting for later and joined the others in their search. Unfortunately, they didn't look happy. It didn't take them long to explore the cavern, and though there were countless signs of occupation by sublime beasts, they hadn't found a single lightegg. Nauda scowled at her general vicinity while Fiyu continued collecting as many shell fragments as she could.
