Crimsoncrest (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 10), page 23
While carrying one of the smaller rocks, Nauda suddenly dropped down to one knee. All at once it seemed too much. She was still stuck at Authority with a broken soulhome while the others were rushing ahead, advancing to Stronghold and fighting Dominions. Even trying was utterly futile, utterly-
"Hey." Tythes nudged her hand away from the rock with his foot. "You're letting it get to you."
Shaking herself free, Nauda edged back from the rock. Apparently she'd been pushing herself too far, letting the anti-life effect of the stones get inside her head. She should have thanked Tythes, but her mood was too dark to push herself to do that.
"It's hard to imagine sometimes." She found herself speaking, knowing she should keep her mouth shut but utterly exhausted. "Plutalgion is past Dominion and he can rule an empire, threaten a whole continent. And apparently there are whole organizations out there filled with people like that. The only reason they don't crush us is that we're not worth their time..."
"You're getting morose again, but you're not wrong this time." Tythes sat down beside her, eyes growing completely serious. "When I was younger, I thought my father was the greatest evil in the world. Really believed that if I became a good enough warrior, I could kill him and that would solve the problem."
"Is that what broke you?" Nauda asked. "Learning about the scope of the Nine Worlds?"
"Not exactly. The more important thing is that that my father is just a tool of greater forces. If I got to Stronghold, his backers could raise him to Dominion. If I managed to kill him, they'd just find another tool. I realized that the path I was on would never lead to any meaningful change..."
Whenever the two of them spoke Nauda first assumed he was lying, but Tythes didn't sound like he was trying to fake sincerity now. His voice was just flat, his eyes staring at nothing in particular. She realized that he was actually seated on top of one of the dark stones.
"So what's the solution?" Nauda forced herself to stand up wearily. "We can't get strong enough to fight them immediately. Just give up and indulge in life?"
"No, you have to use them against each other. I managed it once, back on the Dustwind Plateaus, but you were thoroughly unimpressed." Tythes stood up and brushed off his robes, smiling again. "Well, now we have the biggest forces in reality looking over our shoulders. It's going to be a real mess."
"Unless we let you go?"
"Oh, it's going to be a mess regardless."
The conversation was at once depressing and strangely motivating. Nauda walked away from Tythes and back to one of the smaller stones, hefting it in one hand before carrying it into her soulhome. Instantly it seemed wrong, worse than any material that simply didn't fit her soulhome, but she held it there longer, gripping it tightly.
~ ~ ~
Becoming a Stronghold had been one thing. Being acknowledged as one turned out to be something else entirely, something Theo found much less satisfying.
Of course the most dramatic news from the battle had been that Guchiro was a Dominion, which spread across both the Asplundat Movement and the Ruling Cities. But people couldn't talk solely about that, and many noted that Theo had not only fought as a Stronghold, he had done well against Tymetron. The stock of House Blacksilver was rising across the continent, no doubt stressing Antha and all the other administrators as they tried to keep up.
For Theo it became a strange irony: everyone wanted to give him what he wanted to gain his favor, but all he really wanted was to be left alone to soulcraft. Lots of factions could make promises, but the plain truth was that not many could really deliver the sort of sublime materials he needed. Homez had already given him access to the Movement's best quarry and most of the other promises were junk he didn't need.
He needed their flattery least of all, especially because it raised his profile. Even though he'd known it would happen, he still winced to think that he was becoming better known across the continent. If Vistgil was paying attention - and it seemed likely that he'd triggered the entire conflict via Raythe - then he knew about Theo.
Had he noticed and simply not cared? Was Vistgil working too many different games to pay close attention? Or could it actually be, unlikely as it seemed, that his pseudonyms and changes had avoided attention? He was afraid that the only thing keeping him alive was whatever laws bound Vistgil.
Or perhaps it was the eyes of the Eternal Spectrum, the Orphic Cabal, and all the other aeon-class organizations. In a way their attention might be protective, but it could also be the cause of future trouble. Theo couldn't rule out that one of them had sent Raythe, and at minimum the Salebrante was working through House Crimson.
At least it seemed that Tymetron was unlikely to attack again. A week had passed since the battle and there had been no sign of an army, only all the Tymetronese ambassadors leaving the continent. The appeasement faction of the Asplundat Movement had sent them with apologies, letters, and even some gifts, all of which had apparently been ignored. Theo and Guchiro had discussed the military balance and agreed that Tymetron probably couldn't afford a war at the moment.
Where did all of that leave House Crimson and the other closer machinations? Theo believed Fiyu when she said that Roker had been acting suspiciously, but he didn't see what the man could have done to the Asplundatcrest, aside from destroying it.
Theo was making great progress on his bricks - he finally had a complete chamber's worth - but found himself distracted by Krikree sitting nearby and peering at him. Sometimes she soulcrafted, but sometimes she just watched. When he opened his eyes in the physical world, she began soulcrafting again.
[Is everything alright?] he sent.
[Krikree soulcraft,] was the only response.
Well, he wasn't going to push. He guessed that Krikree might be upset about not being able to fight better in the battle, though she'd done extraordinarily well for an Authority. Or was she upset that he hadn't finished his work on the armorstone? For whatever reason she didn't want to talk to him.
Before he could get back to work, Fiyu landed on Outpost #127's balcony. "My relative and I have assembled secondary materials," she announced. "It is time for me to make further progress on my Immortality Conduit."
"That sounds like a good plan," Theo said. "If you manage to set that up, you'll be in an excellent position at Stronghold. But you're further along with your Conduit than I am, so I'm not sure why you're asking me."
"I require... additional insight." Fiyu dropped into the chair beside him and pursed her lips for a time, though thankfully it seemed she did want to talk. "Guchiro says that my soulhome has shifted from his in a few key ways. If I followed his blueprint, I would gain a functional Immortality Conduit, but not an exceptional one."
"So you need to make a tweak so that it matches the rest of your soulhome."
"That is correct, but I am still unsure. Everything I have considered... does not feel right. I hate to believe that I am blocked by a subjective barrier, but that seems to be the case."
This wasn't really Theo's strength, but he thought he could help her through it. "I know your blueprint pretty well, but you didn't have the full plans for your Conduit until recently. How does it work?"
"Three spiraling channels run through my staircases," Fiyu said, straightening and relaxing as she discussed her soulhome. "Guchiro says that a Conduit is like a sort of 'eternal cantae' that never leaves the soulhome, but gradually enriches all the other materials."
"And your channels are effective because they touch so much of your soulhome." Theo thought back to what she'd said previously. "In a poor-quality Conduit, sublime materials are burned and only briefly enrich the connected chambers. I assume you need some sort of cycle."
"That part is already complete. There must be a room or structure, often called an eternal chamber, at either the top or the bottom of the staircase that generates this immortal cantae and continues the cycle."
"Guchiro's is on his fourth floor and yours will be in the basement, I remember. You need help opening your basement?"
"No, that is not it." Fiyu deflated again. "Even if the Conduit is not complete, I should be able to send my own cantae through it. With testing materials, you understand, to confirm that the channels are whole. And yet I am... struggling. The secondary flow clashes with all my primary cantae and I weaken myself. My relative says this is not merely a matter of mental discipline, I must figure out another path."
"I have to admit that part is beyond me." Theo sat back to consider it for a second before he realized the obvious: he was the wrong person to ask about this. He cast a quick gravitational field, dropping Senka into the air and flipped her upright. "Senka, do you have any ideas about this?"
"I can guess." Senka didn't try to struggle with the shifting gravity, just shrugged in midair. "You can't think of an Immortality Conduit as another cantae flow you control with your mind - it has to be working constantly, even when you're asleep or injured. There are some mental tricks you can try to get over a barrier like this."
"And could you teach those to Fiyu?"
"That depends, is she going to be weird about it?"
They both glanced at Fiyu, who sat silently for a moment, possibly considering whether or not she would be weird about it.
"I suppose it is appropriate to listen to others," Fiyu said eventually. "I am willing to learn."
"Great. You're getting your eternal material from Siata, right? We should go visit Nauda - she might be able to help the mental part more than I can."
This seemed to cheer Fiyu somewhat, and Theo thought that was just as well. He realized, despite how irritated he had been thinking about people earlier, he would miss having them around - when he thought about hating people, he didn't mean them. But he did have a lot of work to do, and if this was what Fiyu needed, better she get it as soon as possible.
"Krikree too." The Slescan straightened with surprising seriousness, more motivated than he'd seen her recently. Was it possible that she was contemplating an Immortality Conduit of her own?
Whatever they had in mind, Fiyu grasped her weirkey and took them all away. Theo closed his eyes and listened to the silence for a time, then dove back into his soulhome.
~ ~ ~
Fiyu had already visited Friend Nauda in Siata on several occasions, but she had not truly explored the Great Azure. The Siatans were not hostile, they merely radiated a cool suspicion of foreigners that she thought was quite reasonable, so she remained in narrow paths that were permitted. That did not prevent her from enjoying the city of floating flowers as she flew to the edge.
There she found that the number of stones had been massively reduced, and many of the damaged areas were being repaired by hovering Siatans. Friend Nauda was currently carrying another massive stone, straining against both the weight and the spiritual force. She looked quite beautiful, all of her muscles working in unison while covered in a sheen of sweat, dedicated to a central purpose. Perhaps it was an illusion, but Fiyu thought that she seemed stronger than before, as if the work had refined her.
As soon as Friend Nauda became aware, which was sooner than before, she smiled at them. She still continued to remove her current boulder, so Fiyu sat down to wait for her. Prisoner Tythes was also present, lying on his back and groaning. Ally Krikree landed nearby and poked him experimentally, generating more groans.
"Glad to see you back," Friend Nauda said as she approached. "I hope nothing is wrong this time?"
"Guchiro and Theo have hopefully created space for us to soulcraft," Fiyu said. "I hoped to master more of my Immortality Conduit, but for that I need... advice."
Associate Senka floated up from behind her, finally rousing herself. She was roughly the size of most Siatans, yet utterly different to Fiyu's senses. Now she could finally explain that observation, if Associate Senka was a cursed individual instead of a natural being.
"I thought you both might want to hear more about Immortality Conduits," she said, glancing between them. "Not that-"
"Krikree too! Bad Senka-food!"
"Shut up, fumpet!" Associate Senka stuck her tongue out at Ally Krikree, who had skittered closer. "Look, I know that you all have basic knowledge, but I might be able to add something. I already told Theo about this, but the real reason I brought you here is because some of it just requires experiencing the steps and figuring them out for yourself."
"I'm actually not sure of the details." Friend Nauda wiped her hands and then, joyously, came to sit near Fiyu. "Do tell."
"Look, I'm not going to do a whole lecture. But the basic principle is that your Immortality Conduit is a separated flow of cantae, running through your soulhome yet isolated from it. All you really need is a channel and some sort of sublime material that generates the highly enriched cantae you need."
"Is it really that simple? I thought the location in your soulhome mattered."
"That's so obvious it didn't need to be said." Associate Senka dismissed the question with a wave. "But I suppose I can repeat the basic blook for you. While a Conduit is functioning anywhere in your soul, you will be sustained permanently. But yes, it needs to connect to some sort of Corporeal Chamber or the benefit won't reach your body. It's possible to become immortal and just... keep getting wrinklier and sicker."
Fiyu nodded her agreement, as she was quite familiar with this part. "That is why my Conduit runs directly through my Corporeal Floor," she explained for Friend Nauda, "which has already fused body and spirit. In theory, when it is fully active it will sustain me forever."
"But it runs through your entire first and third floor too, right?" Friend Nauda asked. "Does that mean that it also enriches your techniques and enhancement chambers?"
"Yes, that is so. My relative says that it is somewhat similar to an Ethereal Floor that cannot be opened, but he believes that is a less beneficial synergy. The hope is that all my fundamental techniques will become perpetual parts of me."
Associate Senka rolled her eyes at them. "You two love birds can examine one another's souls later. The main thing is that the larger your Conduit, the more energy it will carry and thus the more risk of exploding. Three floors is generally considered about the theoretical maximum, which means your Conduit will be under a blook-load of pressure. Are you just trying to wrestle all of that?"
"Certainly not." Fiyu reached into her soulhome to reveal the filtermirrors that she had been treasuring since Deuxan. "I intend to place these filtermirrors at both ends of my Conduit, where they will redirect all the force of the cantae back in the other direction, without my involvement."
"But you have three channels... there's no way to make that into a single circuit, so..."
"The entire Conduit will cycle, flowing up and down."
"Sure, that works." Associate Senka leaned back in the air and her eyes unfocused. "Back in the day, there used to be arguments about whether cycles or a single perpetual flow were better, but they're both perfectly good in the right context. One side will be a pure reflector, while the other contains the eternal materials."
"I am aware of this," Fiyu said with a slight frown. "But when I attempt to guide cantae through the channels as a test, it does not work."
"Likely because you're doing it too slowly, like normal cantae. An Immortality Conduit needs to be intense. If you want to test it, you need to set up half of your eternal chamber and really push the cantae through it. It's not like pouring water, it's like starting a landslide."
"I... see. But I fear that I do not have appropriate eternal materials. Indeed, all of our work here was in hopes of obtaining one, and we have not yet-"
Friend Nauda touched her arm gently and smiled. "Actually, I think I could ask the Siatans. The job isn't done, but I think I have a decent reputation with the locals and they seem like reasonable people. Maybe they can give you the material provisionally so you can prepare."
Fiyu's eyes widened and she looked between the others, hoping to get confirmation that this was possible. But as Associate Senka only shrugged and Ally Krikree cleaned her antennae, Fiyu realized that there were no elder relatives to guide them here. They would have to figure it out for themselves.
So Friend Nauda took them back into the city, leaving Ally Krikree to watch Prisoner Tythes. Her companion seemed surprisingly familiar with the landscape, easily navigating whether along the ground or through the air, taking them toward what appeared to be a pillar of solid glass. It was remarkable that Friend Nauda had already become familiar with this place, but it warmed Fiyu's heart to know that her companions were scouting other paths for them.
At the top they discovered houses of blue glass, not particularly intricate but remarkable in their perfectly smooth surfaces. Their contact appeared to be a Siatan named Mitaeo, who listened to Friend Nauda and then, marvelously, actually agreed.
"Your friend has been extremely selfless in her work," Stranger Mitaeo said to Fiyu as they floated higher. "If she has been doing it for your sake, we trust that she will finish her task. Only one of you may enter, of course, for security purposes."
Closer to the top of the glass column there was an entrance with significant defenses, as well as Siatans hidden within the glass. They appeared to be meditating or asleep, yet they had potent Authority-tier cantae. For all of Siata's apparent placid nature, real power lurked underneath the surface.
After nodding farewell and thanks to Friend Nauda, Fiyu entered the glass column. She was alarmed as she realized that the glass ahead actually blocked her senses, completely and utterly, and forced herself to remain calm. That was a reasonable precaution, if this was a vault of some sort. They rose through the glass tunnel, passing door after door, until at last Stranger Mitaeo turned and opened one of them with a strange word that twisted in Fiyu's ears.
Eternal power flooded from the other side as the vault opened. Fiyu let out a soft gasp as she saw row upon row of sublime materials, all of them radiating power that seemed to last forever.
