Bloodcrete (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 6), page 22
"Wait, that wasn't propaganda?" That was one secret Theo didn't plan to share, but he would have to think about it later. "So we're causing more demons to be created just by existing?"
"All travel between all worlds generates demons. But the Nine are closely linked, while your origin is walled off by a larger wall of reality. This is the answer to your question: the beings of your 'Earth' are especially effective at generating demons."
"What does he get out of all this?"
"Unclear. The difference between all beings of your type is often opaque to us. Sometimes we can determine which beings are demons only because they do not kill one another as you do."
"So..." Theo had a few stray questions left, but he had the feeling that he wasn't going to get clear answers on everything. "You don't know anything else about his plans?"
"No, and we do not care to know. We wish to destroy him and then be left alone."
"Then I have another question. I know you said that linear time isn't natural to you, but maybe you're actually the best suited to this. Whenever I've gone between Earth and the Nine Worlds, a different amount of time has passed. Is that just how it works? Time is arbitrary within a world and not connected to others?"
"No." The being was silent for a very long time before answering. "All of the temporal lines are linked. Within the Nine, they are tied together. But the relationship between time in your reality and time here is dependent on specific variables of the space between worlds. It changes according to patterns, but we have not monitored those."
That answer was no comfort at all. Theo didn't have enough data points without talking to others, but based on his experience he had a good guess: the time difference seemed to be decreasing.
"What about the Artifacts of Elghiera?" he asked next. "Do you know about them?"
"Objects that enhance soulcrafting. Inappropriate for us. They predate our arrival. Vistgil grants them to most new arrivals, then removes them upon death to recycle. They are native to the Nine and not of interest to us, so we are unclear on other details."
"Alright, then. This is a different sort of question, but... do you have a name?"
"Such things are unnecessary."
Shut down quick. Theo shook his head and tried again. "That may be true for you, but do you see how 'my kind' uses them? If we work together, I'll need to refer to you and contact you, so-"
"No." The being began to drift backward, yet instead of shrinking its apparent size grew... without stopping, soon becoming larger than a house. "You have taken unusual steps to converse with us, but this has been draining. You are a Ruler. This will be the end of our collaboration."
"Wait, no!" Theo could feel the world starting to bend around him and struggled against it. "I can still be helpful to you. Don't you need someone to interpret Vistgil's actions you find incomprehensible?"
"You have already been a great help: we perceive that Vistgil is attempting to bind us in these conflicts to limit our effectiveness. Creating a House on Fithe was a mistake. We will instead withdraw so that we can strike at him more effectively."
"Do you have any idea what sort of power vacuum that would cause? I don't know how much individual lives matter to you, but there's a whole war out there that Vistgil has been setting up. Isn't it in your best interest to stop him?"
"At a meaningful scale, it is not relevant." The cloak was the size of a planet by now, its very presence threatening to overwhelm him. "We do not wish to see you again, but we wish you success against our mutual enemy. We will leave you a few items from our House that may be of use. Is there anything in particular you require?"
The best outcome would have been to change their mind, but Theo was starting to accept that would be impossible. And since they weren't likely to give him any ultimate weapons... "Do you have a weirkey to Noven, by any chance?"
"Trivial. This time is at an end."
A presence swept over him, and Theo braced himself for agony, but it passed surprisingly quickly. Instead of shattering again, he felt as though his mind swept back together, restoring the order that it preferred. Everything about him felt unpleasantly stretched, but it was infinitely preferable to existing in that other world.
When he could sense anything again, he was lying on his back in the Dustwind Plateaus. He blinked a few times, baffled by a sky that didn't reflect a thousand realities. Grass and dirt were pretty weird too, now that he thought about it.
Theo forced himself to snap out of it and sit up, but it was too late. There was no sign of the House of the Lost. He felt a few sublime materials lying in the grass and quickly snatched them before anyone else could show up first. The most powerful were a throbbing mass of twisted flesh and a bizarre shape, a living pattern that distorted every time he focused on it and seemed to wriggle in more than three dimensions. Just picking it up to move it into his soulhome was a bit of a challenge. In the process, something cool slipped out of his hand.
With his Ruler reflexes, he managed to catch it before it fell. Even before that, he knew what it would be: a pale white weirkey to Noven.
After so long struggling to earn one through complicated politics on Fithe, it had simply been handed to him by the House of the Lost. That was the benefit of dealing with such powerful beings, he supposed. Even if he couldn't use it, he only needed a single allied Authority to instantly go to Noven and proceed with his plans. Fiyu's relative would do nicely.
Still fractured from his time in the other reality, Theo saw nothing strange about his thoughts summoning other people. A moment later he realized that a large number of soulcrafters were closing on his location. He wasn't sure what they had seen, but it seemed likely that all of the House of the Lost had simply disappeared. As he recalled the political balance that felt like a lifetime ago, he realized just how delicate it might be.
He was grateful that he recognized those who arrived first: Fiyu, Krikree, and Guchiro. All of them were on high alert, and the Strongholds would notice eventually. With no idea what would come out of his mouth if he tried to speak, he made a vague gesture to Fiyu.
Somehow she understood and wrapped them all in a sphere of her stealth. The technique was far more powerful than before, flowing naturally out of her. He wanted to admire it, but they needed to move. Guchiro lifted them with his cantae and they sped to the side, moving far from the site that the House of the Lost had previously occupied.
Others descended on that location, but it seemed that none of them could penetrate Fiyu's stealth. Once they were safe, Krikree dropped her weapons and jumped up to grab his coat with all four arms. "Ivo-sister, what? What?"
"I just... had a very strange conversation with the House of the Lost." Despite everything, it seemed that he could still speak. "They said... well, they said a lot of things, but the important thing is that they left. All of this may be some sort of trap set up by Vistgil, and they want nothing to do with it."
"Is there great danger, then?" Guchiro asked. Theo could only shrug.
"Not directly, I don't think. I think the biggest threat is still the Ruling Cities and Asplundat Movement going to war with one another."
Compared to everything that he had discussed with the eldritch being, all of that felt petty. Theo was still gripping his new weirkey tightly, and he couldn't help but lift it in front of his face to examine. Even with a bit more perspective, he couldn't see any flaw in it. Noven was really just one step away.
And once he was there, he could do so much. Finish working on the materials he needed to finally become an Authority, for a start. He could find another river for Senka and get some answers from her. After that, he could investigate his old companion Eratius and see if there were any buried secrets there. He'd forgotten to ask about his former companions, but he doubted such eldritch beings would have remembered anything so petty.
"Do you intend to leave?" Fiyu asked quietly. Theo realized that they were all looking at him and knew he should answer quickly, but found himself without words.
With multiple realities at stake, a war on a single continent felt almost meaningless. He tried to tell himself that there was nothing ethically wrong with leaving Norro Yorthin to fend for itself. The rational decision would definitely be to move forward and acquire enough power to make a difference where it really mattered.
And yet... that was what Raythe Darkblade would do. It was what he had done before, flitting from world to world and never really investing. No matter how he searched his heart for any deep affection for Norro Yorthin, he found nothing... but he knew he wasn't going to leave.
"No, we need to resolve things here." Theo smiled at Fiyu, but only briefly. "That means we have a lot of work to do."
Chapter 21
With the House of the Lost missing, the balance had shifted, and Theo thought it was permanently unstable. New forces from Norro Yorthin arrived every day, each representing a new House, which would only make the Asplundat Movement increasingly uncomfortable. It was only a matter of time until they would feel the need to strike back.
While training with Fiyu and Guchiro, they all sensed that hidden reserves of bloodcrete were beginning to be moved out for use. Apparently he'd only stopped one of the later shipments. When the Norro Yorthin forces noticed this, they would be pushed to attack before their opponent was ready.
Theo considered whether there was an advantage to telling them, but he kept silent, because House Blacksilver was working to shield the local Fithans. There was no time for a full evacuation, especially because all Authorities were preserving their strength. Instead a circular defensive field was built around one of the largest farms, which would protect them only until a Stronghold decided to flatten the entire thing.
There was only time for brute soulcrafting work, but he had excellent materials: the House of the Lost had left him with sublime materials well-suited to abstract designs. The mass of flesh now occupied one of his enhancement chambers, intertwining his body and soul - not a Corporeal Floor, but the next best thing. He'd been puzzled by the powerful but distorting shape until he realized that it would be perfect for an acclimatization chamber. It could help his body adapt to lethal circumstances, from the arid wastes of Arbai to mind-melting hellscapes.
Placing those materials meant that his soulhome was finally completely filled with sublime materials. Unfortunately, the new strength they added made it even more difficult to harness the true power of his singularity. When he tried to bring out its full potential, it resonated so strongly with everything else that it threatened to shake his soulhome apart.
In a sense he was a victim of his own success. To wield this much power, it wasn't enough to throw materials together like in his first life - every detail needed to be perfect. Theo feverishly worked on his outer gates until they didn't rattle even slightly under his full power. But the corner pieces still struggled to maintain his spherical flow, so they needed even more polish...
All of the work only emphasized what he already knew: this wasn't enough for Authority. His strength was probably near the absolute peak he could reach at Ruler, especially if he could harness his full singularity, but he wasn't ready to ascend. Reaching Authority in time for the battle would be impossible unless something unbelievable happened...
No matter how Theo thought about the upcoming conflict, there were too many variables to control. So, even though he wanted to spend more time polishing his new chambers, he decided that he needed to venture out to the House of Coin camp. They had retreated even further, because they could see the writing on the wall as well as he could.
He approached in the air to let them see him, and Kathina emerged from their camp to intercept.
"Unless you're here to join us," she said, "you're wasting your time. This situation is a disaster waiting to happen."
"That's exactly why you need to invest in it," Theo argued as he landed in front of her. "The Dustwind Plateaus offer a buffer between the Ruling Cities and the Asplundat Movement, but they could be more. Your House is still upset about the trade you lost in Asplundat territory, right? What if you had a neutral party to conduct it through?"
"That would be great, but my superiors have already written it off." Kathina crossed her arms and scowled at him. "The entire region, I mean. There won't be any plateaus left by the time this is done."
"You think there's so little chance of a peaceful resolution?"
"They probably won't go to war over this, but the battle will do enough damage. And there are other factors."
Theo stepped closer and raised his eyebrows. "You said that as a prelude to explaining, right? Your House was trying to recruit me before, and you have to see that I'm going to be ascending to Authority soon."
"We believe this is House Crimson's final gambit." Kathina stepped beside him and inclined her head toward the small vessel where Wiltur waited. "Wiltur had already pushed the House of the Lost out of Norro Yorthin, and now he seems to have gotten rid of them entirely."
"They left for their own reasons."
"It doesn't matter. Whatever reason they're gone, it means that he's unopposed. He's been campaigning hard across the Ruling Cities, and if this works out for him, he'll have too much political capital. If we try to oppose him in Norro Yorthin, he can cut us off entirely. The House of Coin prefers a provisional foothold in such an important city to being cast out, so we'll be withdrawing."
House Crimson having complete control of Norro Yorthin was another unacceptable outcome, but her words inspired a different idea in Theo. "You might not be the ranking officer here, but I'm guessing you have the Authority's ear, don't you?"
"My star has been waning since I missed the Wargames, but I still have that."
"Then make a small investment in potential other outcomes. You have access to all kinds of Fithan sublime materials that won't do the slightest thing to help you oppose Wiltur's political power. But give those materials to me, and I can give you everything you want. A risk, but the potential upside will be worth it."
Kathina snorted. "You have a high opinion of yourself, don't you?"
"No, listen." Theo explained what he intended and saw Kathina's expression shift from open disregard to curiosity. He wanted to push the deal home but stayed silent and let her think about it. Eventually Kathina sighed and gave a weary shrug.
"I suppose if I'm running out of chips, I might as well gamble big. We can negotiate for the materials."
"Thanks for this, Kathina."
"You want to thank me, make the gamble pay off."
~ ~ ~
Though Friend Theo seemed obsessed with many soulcrafting projects, for the most part he was very diligent in his work on a gravity sense. Fiyu enjoyed working with him a great deal, in part because their senses would be complementary once his was mature. An even more enjoyable aspect was speaking to him about her own design: he might not be able to make major improvements to her relative's blueprint, but he had significant advice for individual rooms of her third floor.
Eventually she would develop new techniques there, and the Siatan feathers were already in place on her Corporeal Floor to create living darkness just like Relative Guchiro. But given the scope of the battle ahead of them, Fiyu focused all of her work on enhancement chambers. She already had many of the sublime materials she needed, so she focused on getting them in place to strengthen herself.
Her most substantial improvement was using the subliminalsteel to form a casing on her third floor chamber. It had been carried with her ever since the Chasm of Lamentations, too intense to fully install, but now she had a strong basis for her third floor room. Once she found the proper central material, it would immensely strengthen her ability to use her storms of light. She also moved all her sublime foods from their temporary place in her warmth chamber to the room that would become her full Nine Worlds Feast on the third floor.
It was difficult to work so hastily instead of taking each step carefully, but everyone acknowledged it was the correct decision. She found herself eager to test her new strength sparring, though that was too great a risk. If only Friend Nauda had been there as well, they could have all prepared a joint strategy for any potential battle.
The Strongholds remained still, watching one another for a weakness. At times it felt like they could attack at any moment, while at others it seemed they would stay in place forever. Some in the Blacksilver camp began to speak about opening negotiations again and talking down the entire conflict.
Random chance intervened, and the battle began.
Fiyu actually felt the inciting incident, and it was almost silly. An Asplundat soulcrafter had been trying to ascend to Ruler to prepare for the battle, and the ascension went wrong. When the cantae flooding from above cracked their soulhome walls, the soulcrafter panicked and ended up releasing a beam into the physical world.
Unfocused cantae wasn't immensely dangerous, and it would have been harmless if it had only gone skyward. But by sheer chance, the beam clipped one of the new arrivals' chariots, which crashed into the plateau. Anxious soulcrafters all over the battlefield assumed the worst and began to move. Faction leaders saw that it was too late to contain the chaos, so they began to give orders before their enemies could take advantage.
House Blacksilver at least avoided complete panic, readying themselves near the large defensive circle around the local farms. Fiyu thought this was quite sensible, since they could defend local allies while also using the circle to their advantage. She saw Friend Theo breaking apart boulders and sending them into the air, preparing to drop them on the first attackers.
"Just where is Dhan?" Associate Karchibol floated by her, yelling at everyone in range. "Is he going to abandon us at every opportunity?"
Extending her senses, Fiyu eventually discovered Associate Dhan meditating within a shielding circle in the Blacksilver camp. She opened her mouth to tell Associate Karchibol not to worry, but he had already rushed onward, yelling at younger soulcrafters who weren't repairing the defenses quickly enough for his liking.
