Wakespire (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 7), page 24
Back at the palace he found that Fiyu and Nauda were gone, but Senka was rolling around on the floor. The instant she saw him, her eyes snapped into focus and she grinned.
"Theo, I'm ready to do some traveling!"
"To your former caches?" He smiled and realized that this was just the distraction he needed. "Alright, I can take you."
"That quickly? Well, I do have a couple that should be completely safe, so let's go." Senka floated up to his shoulder and gripped his coat. "Take us away from Noven, then I'll give a little nudge back and you handle the rest, okay?"
It was a somewhat advanced weirkey technique, but Theo wasn't particularly concerned about that. He followed Senka's instructions and tried not to think about the emptiness yawning around him. Nothing happened, despite his submerged fears, and they appeared in the sky over a new area of Noven.
For the first time since he'd entered Noven, mountains actually surrounded him. Even though the cloud layer looked about the same as everywhere else, the peaks emerging from it were absolutely enormous. He couldn't see any sign of habitation and he understood why: the peaks were icy near the clouds and only grew more lifeless as they rose.
"There's nothing complex about this one," Senka said from his back. "Just some sublime materials stuck in a really inhospitable place. Fly up that peak there. No, not the tallest one, the other one."
He flew toward the mountain and finally let himself forget about Eratius a little. As he flew higher, the winds became more intense, almost more than an Authority's cantae could overcome. After increasing his mass substantially he was able to fly, but he didn't dare use any gravitational fields for fear of unintended consequences in the fierce winds.
Partially hidden near the top of the mountain Senka had indicated, he found an entrance to a cave. It had been entirely frozen over, so he shattered the ice. Senka finally let go and floated ahead of him, poking at various rocks as if experimenting. At last she grinned and turned a specific set.
One wall of the cave, identical to the others before that point, began to split open. Two doors creaked apart, revealing... an empty room. Just a cube of stone with nothing inside it.
"Of sporping course." Senka sighed as she drifted into the room. "I knew it was a long shot, but I had hoped this cache would survive. I intentionally placed it in a continent without one of those cultures that's really obsessed with climbing mountains."
"Just ordinary thieves, do you think?" he asked.
"I mean, I don't see what else it could be. I didn't tell anyone about this location and I don't think whoever cursed me could get that information from me. My mind was scrambled, not looted."
"Too bad."
"You sound... odd." Senka turned back to him and cocked her head to the side. "I was so eager earlier, I didn't even ask you how your search went."
"Similarly disappointing." Theo gestured toward the empty vault and his hand moved with more frustration than he'd intended. "Actually, maybe you could take a look? I feel like I'm missing something. Eratius always talked about being an important prince, but the records of him say he was a random commoner. I just... don't know what to think about it."
"Why not? We can visit the other caches later."
So Theo leapt to Rotorial again, this time taking Senka with him. The attendants at the hall of records gave him a strange look when he returned with a strange imp on his shoulder, but they didn't stand in his way when he requested the same record books. All three of them to hide his search, just in case, even though Theo was beginning to think there was nothing to find.
Senka didn't need to read the books for long before she shook her head. "It sounds like a pretty universal story to me. A kid goes somewhere new and reinvents themselves. Pretends they're the person they always wished they were. Do you have a good reason to believe otherwise?"
"I just suppose, after the trouble with Brigana and Esaire, I expected more." Theo shook his head as he stared down at the book. "It doesn't make sense..."
"Think about it logically. Vistgil led you here and guided your path, so he probably gave you your allies. Who better than a Noveni lying about his past to keep you insulated from the real Noven? Then afterward, he wanted to erase all traces of his manipulation. With your Deuxan friend, that required annihilating an entire family. But with a Noveni commoner, he didn't need to do anything."
"Maybe. But Brigana's family really was semi-important, so why would he let us meet?"
"Do you think he was micromanaging every single step along the way?" Senka shrugged and closed the book. "You said you had a third companion, right? I say before you get too concerned, look them up. I'm guessing that you'll find out they were someone else who Vistgil could control. Brigana might have been an exception, a relationship he didn't intend and had to clean up later."
That made more sense to Theo. He reluctantly returned the books to their places while looking over his shoulder at Senka. "Khaluu was from Aathal, so there's no way to investigate him for now. I can help you search more caches, if you want."
"I doubt they'll be much better, but I do want. Come on, that will be more fun than this stuffy place."
They left the hall of records, then the city. On his way out, Theo looked back over his shoulder one last time, almost wishing that people were coming after him.
Now that he'd had more time to reflect on it, he understood why he was so disturbed. Brigana's family being eradicated was tragic, but it suggested that Theo's life had been important, maybe even a threat to Vistgil. Finding out that his "greatest rival" had been a nobody mercenary suggested that his first life meant nothing. It was safer than a trap, but much grimmer.
As he touched his weirkey, Theo felt something he hadn't expected at all: anger. Not at Eratius due to his lies, but on his behalf. He'd just been a young soulcrafter who had wanted to be somebody and been killed because it was more convenient for Vistgil to eliminate all loose ends. It was more sad than anything.
When he could, Theo would investigate Khaluu to see if his last companion held any secrets. Maybe by that point, he would have enough power to really challenge Vistgil. Then he could kill him... not just for himself, but for Eratius and Brigana and everyone else he had sacrificed.
Chapter 28
"Okay, this one will actually be dangerous."
Theo and Senka had gone back to eat with the others and get a full night of sleep, plus Senka had spent a while running wildly into walls. Now that they were refreshed, he was ready to focus on soulcrafting and searching out materials with her. But when she began the conversation with such a serious phrase, it sounded like there was more at play.
"Is the next cache guarded?" he asked.
"Not a cache at all. This is something more serious... or maybe not." Senka floated out to the balcony and sat on the side railing, staring off into the mountains. "Before I was like this, I was a member of an organization. A major one, by which I mean one spanning multiple worlds. My memories of them are unusually scrambled. Suspiciously so. But I've been remembering very carefully about what I can't remember and I think I've come to some negative conclusions."
"So this is dangerous because of the organization?"
"And the region, but that's trivial. The real threat is that, assuming I have it figured out and that they're still there, that they'll attack us for some reason. These people were not weak, Theo. In fact, if you don't want to do this now..."
"Would a month or even a year make a difference?" Theo asked. He leaned against the railing so their heads weren't so far apart. "If this organization soulcrafted beyond Dominion, I'm not going to be catching up any time soon."
"Your best chance is probably your tunneling... have those portals been working?"
"Still mastering the process." Theo prepared his cantae, just in case. "Not sure how much that increases our survival odds if things go really wrong."
"Probably not much, but I wanted to give you a choice." Senka grinned over at him. "On the other hand, they might welcome me with open arms and give all of you magical rocks that instantly turn you into Strongholds!"
"I'm sure. Alright, let's try it."
This time Senka was much more cautious when she suggested the direction they should use for weirkey travel. Even before Theo had fully emerged, he could feel a difference. The very air felt charged with cantae, and the sky overhead was roiling.
The sky? Theo looked up at the twisting mass of clouds, then back down to the layer of puffy white clouds that had become almost natural to him. The layer below seemed much the same as anywhere on Noven, but the sky above looked like a thunderstorm about to break. It shouldn't have been possible for clouds to form so thick above the cloud layer, but he couldn't deny what he was seeing.
"There are two separate cloud layers here?" Theo asked. "What does that mean?"
"Oh yeah, greatstorms. I have a distinct memory of someone explaining the atmospheric science to me, but I wasn't really listening." Senka grabbed his shoulder and kicked his back. "Alright, that way! Only use a gravitational field, just in case people are monitoring."
Theo completely neutralized his gravity and then used the slightest boost of cantae to begin floating in the direction she pointed. Since she seemed so tense about it, he narrowed his gravitational field until it only affected him and the smallest possible area around him. Now they were flying as subtly as they could without Fiyu's stealth. He wondered why Senka hadn't asked Fiyu to come along and decided it was probably intentional.
For a while they traveled in silence, but Theo couldn't help but look up at the storm. Not only did the clouds twist violently, he occasionally saw flashes of blue lightning within them. "Is that storm safe?" he asked.
"Not at all. Not remotely. I've seen greatstorms kill Authorities in one bolt."
"In that case..."
Senka patted his head. "Authorities weaker than you. Don't worry, we won't be here long. I didn't direct us that far out, so we should be seeing our headquarters soon. Actually, I'm surprised we can't see it now."
With no idea what to expect, Theo just looked around the cloudscape and stretched his gravity senses as far as he could with good resolution. He didn't really feel much of anything with substantial mass ahead of them. Then again, Senka's former organization might be so far beyond him that he didn't have any chance of sensing them.
Gradually the clouds beneath began to thin and he could even see a point where they vanished in the distance. As they flew closer, and the empty space grew larger, he felt Senka's arms digging into his shoulder. Judging from the pressure, this was not what she had expected.
Finally the corpse of a mountain came into view. Theo could see the base of what must have been an enormous peak stretching across the earth because none of the clouds would get anywhere near it. He couldn't even see the opposite side, just the gentle curve of the clouds surrounding the remnants.
Because a perfect sphere had been torn from what should have been a mountain peak.
It was wrong to think of the mountain as having been decapitated - more like its entire torso had been ripped away, leaving the arms to crumble onto what remained. Senka shivered at the sight and Theo had to suppress a flinch. Not because he knew anything about the area, but because he recognized the devastation: a spatial knot had been formed here, erasing existence itself to annihilate whatever had once stood on the mountain.
"So... it's not supposed to look like that." Senka's attempt at humor fell completely flat and she sighed. "It wasn't our policy to wipe out old bases or even move. Everyone was too hidebound for that. So it was probably destroyed."
"And likely a long time ago," Theo pointed out, "if you look at the erosion."
"Techniques like this weren't beyond our power, but even our worst enemies... I don't know what to think... they might have gone out in a war, they might have destroyed themselves... I just don't know..."
"Oh sure, you get your past annihilated because it's important."
Senka stared at him, then snorted and whacked his head. "That's horrid of you and I love it."
"I wasn't sure if that was too far. Did you lose friends?"
"Nah, there's a good chance those fumpets betrayed me to whoever cursed me. I was with them because I needed an organization to gain power, not because we shared any ideals." She floated off his shoulder to get a better look. "There used to be a village of servants down at the bottom, but I don't see a single brick of it left. All the valuable materials would have been destroyed on the mountain and everything else probably decayed."
"So there's no reason to explore further?"
"The longer we stay, the more risk from the greatstorm. No, there's nothing here. Sorry I wasted your time on nothing."
"This isn't nothing." Theo reached for his weirkey, but he didn't use it just yet. "The fact that it was destroyed tells us something. This was the sort of organization that lasted for centuries and hosted many powerful soulcrafters, right?"
"I can't say we were the most powerful, but we were right near the top. The Nine Worlds can't support very many organizations with that much power."
"Other soulcrafters would probably have taken over or looted, but this total destruction seems like Vistgil. That tells us something useful."
"Assuming you're right." Senka folded her arms somberly. "I'm not sure I believe that, but it would make sense. I haven't seen any sign of our ancient rivals, so it seems like the most powerful organizations were systematically destroyed. That matches the fact that there aren't as many soulcrafters beyond Dominion as there used to be."
"Maybe because Vistgil doesn't want anyone who can challenge him."
"Maybe." Senka's body abruptly went limp and she flopped onto his shoulder. "Let's get out of here. I'll figure out my next cache some other time."
"Sure." He flew further away from the corpse of the mountain, just in case, and prepared his weirkey. "What was your organization called, by the way?"
"Does it matter anymore?"
~ ~ ~
Fiyu was not sure how she felt about weirkeys becoming common for them. It was one thing for her relative to be able to transport them between worlds, which he did only when necessary and prudent. Now Friend Theo and Betrayer Senka were constantly appearing and disappearing at random times. It was fortunate that the city defenses prevented them from entering the rooms directly, or they would likely be popping up directly beside her at all times of day.
But even she had to admit that their increased mobility allowed her to soulcraft more quickly. Between Friend Theo and Relative Guchiro, they were able to acquire almost anything she required. Only the most valuable of materials would be beyond reach, and by this point she had acquired her core materials and only secondary soulcrafting was necessary.
The ephemeralia she had received from Isorales was working well. She had suspended the glass orb in her soulhome by cooling sublime water from Ichil into ice. After some advice from her relative, she had succeeded in cooling the sphere as well without cracking the exterior. Once it had reached the temperature of the rest of her chamber, it resonated strongly.
Now what she needed, more than anything, was a way to train her incorporeality skill to refine the chamber. For the time being she focused on her soulhome, just in case she had no choice but to ascend. She didn't want to, but new dangers could emerge at any time.
While Fiyu was in the middle of work, she felt the familiar movements of Theo arriving. This time, however, he did more than greet her.
"Can we get your help?" he asked.
Fiyu left her soulhome to rise to her feet. "What is it?"
Betrayer Senka was the one who answered: "One of my caches is protected by a sort of... lock of darkness, you could say. It's too intricate for Theo's gravity sense and I'm useless, so you're our best chance."
"I will do what I can."
As they departed, however, Fiyu could not avoid analyzing Betrayer Senka further. Seeing her transition so much, Fiyu thought that she had pinpointed a number of differences between the false Senka and her real, if treacherous, self. Her strange body had no proper muscles, but it held itself in different positions. The false form moved much like a child, spine stretched and arms rotating wildly. Her real self slouched slightly, kept her arms restrained, and narrowed the material around her eyes.
Judging from her tests so far, Fiyu thought Betrayer Senka was not fully aware of her own tendencies. When she occasionally pretended to be foolish in order to bother Friend Theo, she might shift some of her patterns to mimic a child, but not all of them. If Fiyu was very observant, she would not be deceived.
They moved from Ugustial to a pleasantly dim region. Instead of pure darkness, the area beneath the clouds was lit in subdued blues and whites as the suns overhead were filtered out. All around them she could sense wispy plants, with cloud-like heads to absorb the faint light and thin flexible stems that swayed in the wind.
"This was an agricultural region," Betrayer Senka said, "but I had an old, old cache here. There's a chance that it got overlooked."
"I will try to help," Fiyu said.
Betrayer Senka led them to a shaft into the side of the mountains, one of many. Fiyu had been concerned that the location might have traps of extreme power, but it appeared normal enough. Instead of dangers, there were thin lines of sublime materials that seemed fragile and designed to break.
"This is as far as I got," Friend Theo said. "Senka says that if you break any of the lines or bring light into the shaft, the cache at the end will lock down. There's supposed to be a lever at the other end, but I couldn't risk getting there. I've been improving my tunneling technique, but it's disruptive to the environment..."
"Yes, I see the difficulty," Fiyu said. "It should not be a great problem, but please do not distract me."
She carefully began making her way through the shaft. Usually it was simply a matter of placing her feet carefully, but occasionally a thread of sublime materials hung like a spiderweb. There was no sign that anyone had broken any of the lines and the dust was heavy over the entire shaft, which boded well for the cache containing items of value.
