Bloodcrete (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 6), page 20
Fiyu wanted to wring her hands and give up, but she couldn't, not with her relative just behind her. She understood a little about the House of Coin, so she tried to think about what Friend Theo would say... "This region will need many supplies in the aftermath. Shouldn't the House of Coin be the one to supply them?"
"Assuming everyone here isn't dead." Acquaintance Kathina looked like she was about to say something else, but then there was a brief and fierce discussion in the group. Eventually she turned back and shook her head. "We'll remain in range while we extract a few more assets, but you can't convince us to get anywhere near the Strongholds."
This was not what Fiyu had hoped, but it was better than nothing. Her relative seemed to agree that they could do no more to convince the House of Coin, because he flew them back toward the central plateau. Associate Krikree made statements regarding beetles that Fiyu did not understand in the slightest, as there were no beetles present.
It seemed that the initial arguments had largely passed, leaving the different sides to debate who was attacking who. Unless the Asplundat Stronghold was blatantly lying to everyone's face, the Movement truly believed that Norro Yorthin had launched an unprovoked attack. Exactly why, she didn't specify. House Blacksilver had sent Associate Karchibol, who was not helping calm tensions. Adversary Wiltur pretended to be a neutral party, but he clearly wanted something else.
All of that was too much for Fiyu to untangle, so she looked to the fighting groups. They were still flattened by Adversary Wiltur's power, but up close she could sense them in much greater detail. As she had suspected, one side was Order of the Deepest Blue soulcrafters wearing Asplundat armor - she wasn't sure what to make of that.
What surprised her was the other side: it was composed of random Fithans and Arbaians, and one strange individual. At first Fiyu was entirely uncertain about him, then she connected him to something Friend Theo had once said: there had been another person from outside the Nine Worlds in Norro Yorthin. This must have been him, and if so...
"Guchiro, we have to tell them." Fiyu brushed his outer robes to pull his attention from all the Strongholds. "The Asplundat movement will use this as proof against us unless we speak first..."
Her relative listened to her, and his body grew tenser. She understood why: taking this action would involve stepping into a debate between great powers. But there was no other choice, so her relative flew in to join the negotiation.
Chapter 19
Fiyu nervously kept track of her relative as he neared the others, hoping she wouldn't sense any attacks. Several cantae techniques were immediately directed toward him, but he kept his defenses down in a display of control she couldn't have matched. He stopped at a respectful distance and spoke calmly.
"One of these attackers is a known criminal in the Ruling Cities. He assaulted someone in Norro Yorthin and then fled. He cannot be taken as a representative of the city."
"Lies!" There was a brief argument among the Asplundat soulcrafters, then an Authority marched forward. He raised a piece of stone that Fiyu quickly realized was an identity slate. "This shoddy story is only intended to preempt our proof: this slate clearly identifies the outsider as a member of Norro Yorthin!"
"Why would they send an attacker with identification?" Relative Guchiro asked.
"Because you thought that you could claim the Dustwind Plateaus before we could stop you! We would never have been able to intercept your assault team if the Order of the Deepest Blue had not assisted us."
"Did they give you that slate?" Associate Karchibol spoke up sharply but clearly. "The Asplundat Movement claimed that they were not involved with the initial battle, yet now you reveal that the Order gave you supposed evidence of our guilt, already taken from the battle?"
All sides began to yell at once, and Fiyu found herself confused and uncertain. She was no longer vulnerable to such outbursts, but she couldn't untangle all the sides. Many facts about the situation seemed unclear to her. Her first theory was that it had all been an accident, but now she wondered if more than one side had a deception in play.
"Enough!" Adversary Wiltur shouted over the arguments and floated into the center of the field. "Let us ask the culprit himself."
A rope of red cantae floated out and wrapped around the man from Earth, pulling him into the air in front of the others. He had been glowering constantly from his bound position, but now produced concentrations of glowering that Fiyu had not known existed. Before anyone else could speak, a member of the Order stepped forward.
"This one is an outsider! Just as we have always taught, they work against us, and they summon demons! Ask the locals, this one has been worsening the attacks for months!"
"Shut up! My name is Raythe Darkblade, and all of you are idiots!" The outsider thrashed in his bonds. "Stop preaching this nonsense about outsiders. If you'd just listen to me, I could fix all of these stupid problems."
Multiple members of the Order began yelling imprecations. Adversary Wiltur frowned and his neck tightened as he examined the field, as if he was slightly troubled. The Asplundat Movement insisted that this was further evidence. Associate Karchibol yelled for everyone to be silent.
Amid it all, the outsider managed to grip something in his pocket. An enormous flare of cantae exploded from him, cracking the ground and sending a shockwave through the air.
Darkness surrounded Fiyu as her relative protected her in a sphere. Outside, her senses could barely keep up with the sudden explosion of movement. Many soulcrafters assumed treachery and attacked one another. If the Strongholds had joined them, they would have sundered the plateau, but they rose into the air to begin testing one another. Amidst it all.... where was the outsider?
Fiyu identified him with her senses just before the darkness slid away and she spotted him as well. The explosion of cantae from his device had freed him, and now he was running toward one of his allies. A Fithan Authority, and Fiyu suddenly felt certain that she knew why.
"Guchiro, there!" She cast out her senses in their direction, and he instantly understood.
Her relative burned across the distance in a streak of black, separating them with a wall of darkness. The Fithan Authority immediately attacked, and the two began trading bolts of cantae. After barely glancing at them, the outsider ran away from the fighting.
Though Fiyu wanted to follow him, she wasn't sure that she could. Without her relative, she was immensely vulnerable in this battle: even if the Strongholds held one another in check, there were multiple Authorities doing battle. Associate Krikree followed nervously and muttered "Fiyu-queen?" regularly. Fiyu decided to retreat in the same general direction and tried to extend her senses as far as possible to regain a sense of control.
Yet she only found the exact opposite. There were demons crawling within the chasms and up the sides of the plateau. Worse, they all moved in controlled ranks. When Fiyu looked beyond, she saw exactly what she had feared.
A second stage insectoid demon sat behind the rest of the ranks. The insect-like variety was slightly less powerful, but they were far more intelligent. When she had been a child, one of them had nearly killed her before a relative had saved her life. Feeling a similar shape after so long made her shudder, and for several heartbeats Fiyu was frozen in place.
But her new senses never faded, so she was immediately aware when the demons began combining. A small group of first stages crawled up the plateau, but they were only a distraction. The leader was guiding the others to rapidly summon new demons, and they had already formed five humanoid demons. If they could summon a third stage titan, it would be a threat even to Authorities, and the battle would become far more chaotic.
Fiyu pushed herself through her fear and rushed to the edge of the plateau. She took a deep breath, feeling her cantae flow naturally through her body, and then unleashed a burst of light.
It exploded from her hands more broadly than she had expected, shattering the river of dust. Once her light would only have injured the second stage demons, but now it tore through them. It was so explosive that many of the fighters in the main battle turned toward her, and she almost hoped...
No, the insectoid demon had skittered to the side and evaded her attack. It looked up toward her, eyes glittering within the storm, and Fiyu froze in its glare. She distantly felt it raise a blade-like arm, then something sharp shot through the air toward her.
Only her ingrained combat instincts made her dodge aside, and the bolt still bit into her shoulder. Fiyu fell, clutching the wound, and struggled to refocus. That horrible creature was no doubt crawling toward her now, and she... she should have been able to fight it, but...
But she remembered...
Worse, she saw that the wave of distracting demons had reached the top and was advancing toward the farms. The local Fithans had been hiding within their homes while the Strongholds argued, but now they emerged to defend their land. Associate Krikree ran out to join them, drawing four weapons. It wouldn't be enough, she could see that. Even if they could throw back the first wave, they would be killed when the lead demon directed the others to sacrifice themselves into higher stages.
She wanted to at least defend the local Fithans, but they were too mixed with the demons already. The other fighters were turning away, more concerned about their rivals than a little collateral damage. Associate Krikree looked to her for guidance. Relative Guchiro was nowhere to be felt, likely still fighting the Authority. There was nothing she could do...
Fiyu saw rocks begin to rise into the air and gasped.
Friend Theo floated in the sky alongside Associate Dhan! Her companion raised a hand and the gravitational field intensified, lifting all the demons away. A deft wave of cantae from Associate Dhan sliced through the battlefield, taking out the demons and protecting the locals. All at once, Fiyu could breathe again.
"Are you alright?" Friend Theo floated down beside her and Fiyu was so overcome that she grasped his hand.
"Theo! There is a second stage leader, we have to kill it!"
He understood immediately and lifted her in his gravitational field. They flew over the side and down into the dust storm where the demons had gathered. She realized that he was using another technique as well, something that pushed the dust away from them, but the next moment all thought of techniques vanished.
Because the demonic leader was gone. She could still feel a few demons fleeing into the other canyons, but there was absolutely no sign of the second stage demon. It must have hidden within the crevices, and even now it might be watching her with a predator's gaze...
"Wait, Theo... the one from your world who started the conflict... I can feel him, over there..." She directed his attention, and to her surprise he let out a growl.
"Raythe? Seriously?" Theo pulled her along with him as he rushed after the fleeing person. They caught up with him quickly: the outsider had a Ruler's power, but he was only running normally. "What are you doing here?"
"Just who are you?" Unknown Raythe turned to look at them with a strange expression. "Wait a minute, are you from Ear-"
"Don't draw attention to us. What are you doing messing around here, with the Order of the Deepest Blue attacking outsiders?"
"That's exactly what I was trying to stop! These idiots have no idea how to run a society. I've been trying to tell them, but only a few will listen." Raythe drew himself up and scowled. "They didn't tell me there were any others. That's lame. You can play around in Fithe if you want, there are eight other worlds for me to explore."
Fiyu felt him grab something else in his pocket, then her senses slid away into an endless pit. Unknown Raythe vanished through a hole in reality, traveling to another world faster than she could follow. Perhaps if her relative had been present, he could have stopped or at least tracked the outsider, but it seemed that he had escaped.
"What's going on here?" Friend Theo asked her. "Dhan was just supposed to return me to Fithe, but we arrived in the middle of a disaster."
"So did I," Fiyu said. "It is all very confusing, but I am glad you're here."
"I'm not sure what we can do about Strongholds fighting, though..."
But her companion was unaware of the changing situation above, or at least he was until he belatedly began applying the new sensory technique he had been soulcrafting. She had already noticed that the cantae had died down and most of the forces had split. None of the Strongholds truly wanted bloodshed, not with so much uncertain, and the other soulcrafters had gradually followed suit.
By the time they returned to the surface, all sides had retreated to separate plateaus. They still looked like they were ready for a war, and Fiyu realized with dismay that Unknown Raythe would have been the central evidence. The person who had caused all the trouble had apparently attacked everyone and disappeared, which would give everyone any justification they wanted.
For a very brief time, Fiyu felt more optimistic. Relative Guchiro joined them, and he was unharmed. Associate Krikree also emerged, and she was so pleased to see "Ivo-sister" that Fiyu was encouraged by proxy. Since Betrayer Senka had not followed them, they only needed Friend Nauda and they would have an enjoyable group.
None of that lasted longer than the time it took them to rejoin the main Blacksilver encampment. Everyone was arguing about whether to attack the Asplundat Movement, whether to join up with the other Houses, and a dozen other things that left no room for her arguments. All of the discussion seemed very confused and unproductive to her.
Since it seemed that combat would not begin immediately, no side willing to start a continent-wide war, Fiyu and her companions made camp. Soon the four of them sat together, and she could tell from the tension in her relative's legs that he disliked these developments. Before he could voice an objection, Friend Theo spoke.
"I think the problem here is that no one is sure about anyone's motives." He glanced around the group, but no one objected. "I suspect Raythe either blundered his way here or someone manipulated him. It doesn't matter either way: everyone else is building conspiracies where there might be none."
"But wasn't the Asplundat Movement here before?" Fiyu said. "They were saying you reported that they had a war material called bloodcrete... is that actually true?"
"They did try to ship some into the area, but I think that was a preemptive measure, just like sending me. The truth is, both sides suspected that they'd have to go to war over the Dustwind Plateaus anyway. I suspect that someone from Tymetron sent the demons here to set off that conflict."
That statement required a discussion of his broader theories, and Fiyu soon felt as though she had a basic grasp of the situation. She had assumed that the large number of demons had manifested due to the collection of soulcrafters, but the fact that there was a mysterious artifact summoning them made the equation much worse. Combining the two could lead to even more dangerous demons, which could upset any balance between all the political forces.
Relative Guchiro clearly understood the same threat, because he pledged to scrutinize every inch of the Dustwind Plateaus in case they could pinpoint the artifact. Friend Theo twitched like he wanted to ask a question, but didn't. Instead, they discussed whether or not locating the artifact would actually prevent the war, and how they could potentially assist.
Truthfully, there was little they could do there. After a pause in the conversation, Relative Guchiro spoke again. "You suggested that everyone is here with false impressions. Is that actually true of every faction?"
"Good point." Friend Theo began counting them off on his fingers. "I think Norro Yorthin or the Asplundat Movement as a whole are truly motivated by the military concerns. But the Order of the Deepest Blue... they could easily be working for Tymetron, or manipulated by them. They still have some forces here as well, so we need to be alert for them."
"I was thinking of your House Crimson."
"Actually, they worry me more than anyone else. I can imagine why the Order is acting this way, but I don't understand what House Crimson can get out of this. In an uncertain fight like this, anyone who keeps their cards hidden is at a significant advantage."
"Umm..." As all attention turned on her, Fiyu forced herself to continue. "Could it be that Wiltur wants to establish himself as a leader? He acted like he was the only adult and the others were children. Would it benefit him if he was the only one who could negotiate a settlement?"
Relative Guchiro and Friend Theo discussed her suggestion. It was strange seeing the two of them speak to one another, and she found her head swiveling back and forth. Ordinarily Friend Theo reminded her of someone her own age, but when he spoke to her relative, something about him seemed much older. In any case, she was relieved that they took her suggestion seriously, even if they felt there was a missing variable.
"Gold beetles?" Associate Krikree had been completely silent up to that point, but now she pointed out toward the House of Coin camp. Fiyu realized that she had been following the conversation much more than she would have before. Perhaps staying with Ally Navim had been good for her.
"It's worth remembering them." Friend Theo spoke slowly as he stared out toward it - again not using his gravity senses. "I don't think they would have orchestrated any part of this: they wanted to trade with the Dustwind Plateaus, and they even used to have Houses in Asplundat territory. But their profit motive could have an effect on the conflict."
"Krikree not understand." She crouched lower and began cleaning her antennae. It was possible that she was speaking for all of them, because they simply didn't have enough information.
When the pause stretched longer, Fiyu decided to speak up again. "Would you like us to advise you regarding your gravity senses? They are not precisely like Ichili techniques, but there is considerable overlap."
