Bloodcrete (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 6), page 30
The glass became a deceptively beautiful rain. Nanjuma stepped aside, the local Ruler flinched back, and both Authorities ignored it entirely.
"Now you will face the Landguard's justice!" Bimanu grabbed Ariano by one of his wings and wrenched him around, pushing his face against the throne.
Another man ran into the chamber, apparently a Ruler. Bimanu glanced at him briefly and dismissed him, but Nanjuma looked again. Not only was he the perfectly polished soulhome from the northwest, there was something strange about his hair... Nanjuma would never have recognized it before he'd met Nauda, but this man was clearly a Tatian from below using dye to blend in.
"Bimanu, I think you sh-" Nanjuma's warning was interrupted as a group of three strode into the chamber.
Three Deuxans. An old man walked at the front, clearly a Ruler who had been soulcrafting for decades. To his right floated a woman at Authority, and to his left a handsome young Ruler. They made no attempt whatsoever to hide their identity, even down to being swathed in Deuxan silk. All three had the same silver hair and similar jaws, creating a strong family resemblance. Nanjuma knew there was a gateway to Deuxan near Nlukoko, but to his knowledge they had never sent so much as a delegation.
None of them even tried to negotiate: they immediately attacked with lethal techniques.
This time Bimanu was prepared: he lifted Ariano and hurled him directly into the female Authority's cantae bolt. Meanwhile the other two were moving to flank him, but Nanjuma had already moved into position.
He began with a cantae bolt toward the old Ruler, which the other elder contemptuously knocked aside. A moment later, Nanjuma's raised hand flew forward and struck him in the chest. Quite often, elders fought with cantae alone and ignored physical strikes. Clearly Deuxan elders had the same blind spot, because this one looked shocked as he crashed through the palace wall.
Nanjuma had braced himself, expecting a lethal attack afterward. But the Authorities were fighting in the air, the sycophant was cowering, and the lower Tatian stood with his hands behind his back, watching with only mild interest. That left the young Deuxan man, who drew a thin sword as he turned toward Nanjuma.
As he defended himself, Nanjuma was surprised at the young man's skill. He clearly had a strong foundation, yet there was something amiss: his shielding wall displayed repairs as if catastrophic damage had been done to his soulhome. Yet the young man had picked himself up and rebuilt, and his new Ruler floor gleamed complete above his wall. Nanjuma thought that he might eventually win, given time to leverage his experience, but it would be impossible in such a complex battle.
Without warning Bimanu tackled him through one of the walls. Nanjuma had been braced to react to Authorities, but hadn't anticipated his friend would move in such a way. In a flash they broke out of the palace and skimmed over the waters of Nlukoko. It bought them a little time... not much, as Ariano and his Deuxan allies were already emerging.
"This is beyond expectations." Bimanu set Nanjuma down on a strange slide-like structure and fumbled in his soulhome for a flower. "The Landguard needs to exterminate this invasion before it can grow worse. If something goes wrong, you can use this as well. So long as they understand..."
Cantae flowed through the sublime flower, and Nanjuma felt a link to someplace far away. The petals contorted into something like a face, and a woman's voice emerged. "What is it, Bimanu?"
"Bring the entire Landguard to Nlukoko! There are two Authorities and three Rulers openly dominating our community, trying t-"
"You should have spoken to us about this first," the woman said sternly. "We are aware of the current situation in Nlukoko. The Deuxans offered us assistance in dealing with a problem from their world, a community-destroying abomination called fleshmaskers. They may not match our idea of community, but we need their assistance to retain order."
Bimanu stared at the flower in shock, and Nanjuma breathed a heavy sigh. While the woman spoke, the others had caught up. Ariano floated at the front of the group, and his wings no longer looked so bent. Nanjuma knew that he couldn't fight even this one Authority, much less the entire group.
"You see?" Ariano's face twisted in something almost like a smile. "Everything is perfectly accepted by your leaders. The Armeau family has become an ally to Tatian. I'll forgive you for attacking me... in the spirit of healthy community."
It seemed that Bimanu was too angry to answer, so Nanjuma spoke. "Why now? The gate was silent for years, then suddenly this?"
"Deuxan is changing," the Authority said, "but there is no point explaining it to you. Have you even heard of the Demon Court?"
"You can't do this!" Bimanu glared down at the flower, ignoring everything else. "It doesn't matter what you call them, don't you see that we're allowing conquerors through our borders?"
"We must protect our communities," the Landguard answered. "That is all that matters."
The flower unfolded, its petals losing all shape. Bimanu let out a cry before grabbing Nanjuma and fleeing. Nanjuma watched the city shrink beneath them, but the smiles he saw on the faces of the conquerors only seemed to grow.
-
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to all my alpha and beta readers for their feedback.
Thanks to Cultivation Novels, Western Cultivation, and GameLit Society for the community.
Appendix: Soulhome Architecture 101
(This appendix was originally posted on my subreddit, with character expressions and soulhome diagrams. These don't play well with many ebook formats, so they can't be included here, but I'm including the raw script due to reader requests. Here's the link to the full version:
https://old.reddit.com/r/TheBrightestShadow/comments/k6vxt8/soulhome_architecture_101_with_theo_nauda_and_fiyu/)
Soulhome Architecture 101
with Theo, Nauda, and Fiyu
Nauda smiling: Hello everyone!
Theo smiling: We're going to be explaining the art of soulcrafting from The Weirkey Chronicles.
Fiyu neutral: Are we self-aware now? Is this another meta-fictional story?
Theo neutral: This isn't canon; just go with it.
F smiling: That is better, but I do not understand why we are represented by heads.
T frowning: They're chibis, and I, for one, am personally insulted to be portrayed this way.
N grinning: It isn't canon; just go with it.
F neutral: Before we look at some soulhome designs, we will introduce the basics...
Basics
N smiling: The first part won't surprise you. Cantae is a form of energy that living beings can only use if they open up a space inside their soul, called a soulhome.
T neutral: You can use it to make yourself a little stronger, or shoot it as a bolt, but these things are child's play compared to building within your soulhome.
F neutral: Such people are called soulcrafters.
T frowning: You can't use just anything: only materials with spiritual properties - called sublime materials - can be pulled into your soul and used in construction.
N smiling: But inside, soulhomes follow simple logic. Bigger rooms can store more cantae. Physically sturdy rooms make you spiritually sturdy. Fancy rooms with valuable sublime materials crafted into patterns are more powerful than just throwing a magic rock inside your soul.
F neutral: Not everything is architecture. Usually you begin by creating a "heart chamber" that has sublime materials to generate cantae, which flows through the other rooms.
T neutral: The process rapidly gets more complicated, but we'll focus on the basics today.
F smiling: Let us look at some simple blueprints. I think that will make it easy to understand.
[Unplanned Farmguard Soulhome]
N neutral: We'll start with a humble village soulcrafter. They probably built one room at a time without too much planning.
T neutral: It's actually not terrible... squares are balanced shapes, and the internal doors will allow for strong cantae flow.
F question: Why do they have so many doors to the outside, though? Won't cantae leak out?
N smiling: That isn't obvious to everyone, Fiyu. They may have opened more to make soulcrafting easier.
T frowning: It's an inefficiency, but that's trivial compared to the fact that their design is lopsided. Feast rooms generate cantae, just not as much as heart chambers, so it should have been switched with the technique chamber.
N neutral: They were clearly doing the best they could with what they had.
F smiling: I don't think it's so bad. They have some cantae, a chamber to strengthen themselves, and room for a technique.
T neutral: I rate it 30/100. Thoroughly mediocre.
[Terrible Soulhome]
N disgust: Just... just what is this mess?
T disgust: This is what I meant when I said the previous one wasn't terrible.
N 06: I cannot imagine anyone in the Nine Worlds soulcrafting so haphazardly.
T neutral: They might have been from an outside world, just treating it like a game.
F neutral: ...I think I understand. They started with a plan to the west, then changed their blueprint as they kept building.
T smiling: Yeah, I think you're right. They began with a heart chamber, but after they built their first technique, they found some really valuable sublime material and built the circular chamber to take advantage of it.
N neutral: Young soulcrafters, take heed: valuable materials are better held for the proper time instead of thrown in at random.
F sad: Unfortunately, the cantae flow between the chambers doesn't make much sense. I think they would need to remodel to make this work.
N 09 minus the question mark: Looks like they just kept tacking on new techniques and a strength chamber as they needed them.
F smiling: The northern technique chamber is not so bad. It might be an upgraded technique, merging the flow from the heart and technique chambers. They are trying.
T disgust: 5/100, irredeemable garbage.
[Generic Farmguard Soulhome]
F 02: Oh! These were the blueprints they gave out at Myufuru!
N smiling: Yes, this is a common soulhome design for Farmguards. Note the extra large heart chamber evenly distributing cantae to every chamber.
F neutral: But this would be a soulcrafter at the peak of the first tier. Most of them have only finished some of the chambers and are thus weaker.
T neutral: The thing about common designs is that many generations have looked over them, so they're usually not bad, definitely better than the average hotshot with a random plan.
N neutral: I'm guessing you have some criticisms, oh wise one?
T frowning: Lining up the enhancing rooms and the technique rooms looks good on paper, but it's better to intersperse them. Strengthening rooms generate some cantae too, and that should flow into appropriate techniques.
N neutral: That's true. There's also no internal cantae flow within the soulhome, so the heart chamber has to keep up with every other room. But that's why it's larger than average.
F question: I am wondering... why is there an extra door to the west? There are already three technique doors.
T neutral: They probably built that room first and never closed up the door. If they did that... 50/100, serviceable.
F smiling: But they might reverse their blueprint on the second floor and send cantae upwards. That would improve efficiency.
N smiling: Archcrafter design techniques are too much for now, Fiyu. Let's move on to a more unique design....
[Generic Healer Soulhome]
T smiling: Good, we get to see a circular design. Circles are architecturally strong, so they can make soulhomes much more durable.
N 07: In my opinion, if someone can damage your soulhome, you've already lost.
F question: I have not seen a healer's blueprint before. Why are there so many chambers to generate cantae?
N neutral: Healing is complicated and extremely resource-intensive, so they need multiple sources.
T neutral: Yeah, you actually see designs similar to this everywhere in the Nine Worlds. It's a reliable blueprint.
F neutral: Hmm... I think they mix together different sources of cantae for different purposes? One pair for closing wounds, another for curing illnesses?
N 04: That's right, and each door is built as a sub-chamber so they can apply the cantae via specialized techniques!
T smiling: Healers are limited before they soulcraft multiple floors, but this is a solid 80 for a start.
Spoilers Ahead
F neutral: What is a spoiler?
T frowning: The next image contains minor details about how we soulcraft in the first book.
N smiling: You can skip the next part if you absolutely want to avoid all spoilers.
[Theo's Soulhome]
T smiling: My soulhome is a work in progress, but you can see the basic design.
N neutral: That vestibule to modulate cantae is seriously advanced stuff. Too technical to get into now, I think.
T neutral: Doesn't make a huge difference at early tiers, anyway.
F smiling: I like how the design is very orderly. All of the rooms are balanced and the connections are symmetrical.
N smiling: This is a good time to point out the subjective element. This would be a bad design for someone like a healer who wants fluid concepts, but it's effective because Theo wants many distinctly themed rooms.
F neutral: It is similar for me: I am better able to use light as a weapon because it is dangerous on my home world.
N neutral: It's worth saying that the sheer number of doors would be a weakness, if the heart chamber wasn't designed to set the cantae orbiting.
F neutral: That is true. It also loses some cantae space to the thick walls and pillars, but I believe our companion did this to support future tiers.
T smiling: You thought I was going to give myself a 100/100? No, the true strength of my design will barely be hinted before Archcrafter tier.
N 10: Your false humility is useless, when you've soulcrafted all this in just a matter of months.
F smiling: Can we see your soulhome next, Nauda?
[Nauda's Soulhome]
N neutral: I'm afraid my soulhome is rather modest, and my plans have been altered as I experienced a few difficulties in life.
F smiling: I like your heart chamber! Are the proportions based on the golden ratio?
N 04: Oh, good eye. Yes, I have powerful sublime materials in my heart chamber, so distributing their cantae effectively is important.
T neutral: The construction is solid, and you know I respect the craft on that telescope. But you're making poor use of the size of your soul, and it might not be easy to expand.
N neutral: I know, I know, you think I should build a tower.
T smiling: Separated soulhomes are rare, but there are legitimate reasons to design them that way.
F neutral: All of your chambers are mergers of cantae-generation, techniques, and strengthening. It is not how I was taught, but it is a consistent design.
N smiling: It's a more common model on Tatian than the previous Farmguard blueprint, honestly.
T neutral: Of course, the obvious thing Nauda has over either of us is that partially-constructed pyramid. When built high enough, it will make her an Archcrafter and unlock an entire second floor.
N neutral: I think ascension is probably beyond the scope of this introduction.
T neutral: Considering just the first floor... reasonably effective design, but with flaws. I'd say 65/100.
T neutral: Reasonably effective design, but with flaws. I'd say 65/100.
N 07: I'm humbled by your magnanimity, oh esteemable sage.
F smiling: I think that you are a 100, Nauda.
[Fiyu's Soulhome]
F 03: Umm... normally strangers shouldn't see this, but if this is non-canon, they can't tell anyone, right?
N smiling: I think you're safe, Fiyu.
T neutral: What's interesting about Fiyu's design is that it uses three different building materials, which would normally clash, but fuses them into several planned synergies.
F smiling: Yes. My relative said this blueprint was very difficult, but that it would be best for me.
N neutral: Which of the three materials is that entrance?
F neutral: ...
T neutral: Even though this breaks some standard rules, like having the walls and pillars not line up perfectly with the materials, in this case it's clearly done for a reason. You have to know when to break beginner rules.
N 04: I'm glad to see the window we helped you add to your sensory chamber!
F smiling: Yes, it is very helpful in these hellishly bright worlds.
T neutral: This is also a completely circular design, which makes good use of soul space and is highly durable.
