Wakespire (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 7), page 32
"More or less."
"And how would you rate us? I assume Fiyu should be a Ruler, 1st class."
"She is." Guchiro could feel all he needed with his senses, but he made eye contact to investigate how she would react. To her credit, Associate Nauda did not flinch and appeared ready for truth. "You would be a Ruler 4th class. Your blueprint is superior to most of those here, so if you completed your current soulcrafting, you could potentially reach Ruler 2nd class."
The Tatian woman sighed and her muscles eased as if she had been expecting that. "I was hoping I could catch up, but I think even Authority won't be enough."
"If you do not rush your next ascension, it will amend much of the damage and you will be capable of facing most Authorities. But your soulhome delays its cohesion until higher tiers, so you will not reach your full potential until Stronghold. Until that time, you would not be among the elites of your tier."
"But I could?" To her credit, Associate Nauda didn't explode with effusive emotions. She also hadn't used the fact that he was an Authority against him, as some petty individuals might have.
Guchiro paused before answering. In his role as a guardian, he did not want to encourage the Tatian woman, since she would only rush in order to remain closer to Ward Fiyu. But as a relative, he had pledged to Ward Fiyu that he would assist her companions. To give anything other than an honest answer would be to betray her trust.
"You might," Guchiro said simply. It wasn't flattery, but Associate Nauda understood his manner of speaking enough that she was very pleased. Unfortunately, it seemed like she took this interaction as a sign that their relationship had become closer.
"Is it okay if I ask you a question? There's something I've been wondering about, but everyone else already seems to understand and I feel bad not knowing."
"You may ask."
"How does an Ethereal Floor function, on a soulcrafting level? I was taught it's the counterpart to a Corporeal Floor and I saw a few, but they were never explained. After seeing Nifanos use hers, I can't believe they're not more common."
"They are not widely explained because soulcrafters do not wish to reveal their downsides." Despite himself, Guchiro immediately slipped back into the role of an elder relative teaching a ward. "The cantae of an Ethereal Floor is isolated from the rest of the soulhome and richly saturated. It cannot be accessed normally and is difficult to control. When it is tapped, it produces a temporary state that greatly amplifies a soulcrafter's abilities."
"How? You mean like the more intense cantae we've seen Nifanos use?"
"There are many effects depending on what the Floor's chambers contain. A different soulcrafter with defensive chambers might instead enter a nearly invincible state. But regardless of the design, when those rooms are emptied, the state is lost and the chambers are useless. They require much longer to fill than other chambers and their cantae cannot be tapped for other uses, so they are also a limitation."
"So incredible temporary power at a cost. Huh." Associate Nauda sat back and considered it, but she was clever enough that it did not take her long. "Could someone just use the cantae from their Ethereal Floor for individual attacks? Only draw on it when they want to deal damage, I mean."
"This is a common thought, but is a mistake to attempt it. The process of tapping the Ethereal Floor is itself expensive, so each activation substantially reduces the amount of cantae you have available. It would be a very inefficient way to soulcraft a powerful technique."
"I see the downsides, but I'm still surprised they aren't more common."
"Soulcrafting always depends on sublime materials, thus their accessibility varies between worlds." Guchiro recognized that he had said more than was necessary, but he remembered his promise to his ward and decided to continue. "Some regions of Fithe have more ethereal materials, but the Norron continent contains few. They do possess more materials appropriate for a Corporeal Floor, which is a common trade-off."
"Is there anywhere that's rich in ethereal materials and scarce in corporeal ones?"
"Of course. But if you want an answer in the broadest terms, Corporeal Floors are very rare on Siata. I am not intimately familiar with your home world. Allies inform me that Tatian has some of both, but is severely lacking in sublime materials suitable to Immortality Conduits..."
They continued speaking on their way to the artisan quarter. Associate Nauda was an able student and Guchiro couldn't help but wonder what she might have been if she had been raised in a different culture. In any case, she was now better informed and a more capable ally for his ward.
In the end, his rank was not requested and so the entire conversation had been unnecessary. Just the reputation of the Terefilia lineage was enough for Associate Nauda to convince the artisans to accept her commission. She was able to collaborate with a sublime seamstress who appeared quite capable and greatly enhanced the exterior glove she wore. They were also able to purchase sublime materials to improve her soulhome chamber devoted to the armament, thus binding it to her more surely.
Again, a more capable ally. Guchiro had no investment in the matter beyond that.
With her improved armament, Associate Nauda was eager to train. Guchiro escorted her to an appropriate institution for such things and then returned to their current camp. He instinctively surrounded himself by a sphere of stealth, so he was unobserved when he approached and discovered that a conversation was already underway.
Associate Theo had just returned from another trip and, after a brief greeting to Ward Fiyu, focused on his soulcrafting. His work had been exceptional, and their conversations about higher floor designs had showed a keen soulcrafting mind. Guchiro kept the thought to himself, but he felt that Associate Theo would have been a less dangerous partner for his ward. The outsider was less likely to harm his ward accidentally... though the possibility that he would do so intentionally remained.
Unusually, it was Unknown Senka who was engaging his ward. Guchiro frowned and extended his senses to observe the conversation more closely.
"Anyway, I got you something!" Unknown Senka held a bundle containing a sublime material over her head triumphantly. "You can feel it through the cloth, right? This is a darkegg!"
"The equivalent from underneath the clouds? I understand." Ward Fiyu had been on her guard ever since Unknown Senka began the conversation.
"When I saw you couldn't use the lightegg, I knew exactly what would be more appropriate for you. You're growing roses in your foundation, right? If your foundation absorbs this, they'll grow much stronger, I guarantee it."
"It is a valuable gift. Thank you, Senka."
Ward Fiyu was making little effort to hide her feelings, even as she accepted the bundle. Unknown Senka was harder to read, especially given her unnatural body, but the shift in the position of her neck suggested she understood. After a short pause, the small creature left his ward alone.
Guchiro's senses tracked Unknown Senka closely. He was aware of many mysteries across the the Nine Worlds and beyond, more than an Authority would be expected to understand. But he had never witnessed someone who had been cursed in such a manner. All he had been able to glean from analyzing her soul was that it was an ordinary soulhome with the foundation distorted, crushing the rest into a compact sphere. A strange and devastating condition.
Beyond that, there was a distinct malice to her, especially when no one was looking at her. Guchiro was very familiar with his ward's dislike and he did not believe he was being unduly influenced. His instincts told him that Unknown Senka was perhaps a greater threat to his ward's personal development than any of the others.
The accident that had taken Ward Fiyu away from him had complicated her adulthood immensely. And yet, when he saw her working alongside her companions, he wondered if a solitary life on Ichil would not have robbed her of something.
Ward Fiyu could already have forced her way to Authority in an emergency, and she was drawing closer to the point where she was truly ready. Using the darkegg would be no great challenge for her. He wondered what she would think once he told her his true plans for her ascension.
Chapter 39
The Artisans' Gallery was the first time that Nauda felt like Ugustial actually had a community. She had expected a single palace to be converted to some sort of private event, but instead there were people dancing in the streets. Every part of the city seemed to be celebrating as a surprising number of artists brought out their wares.
They ranged from glorious statues of gold to amateurish wooden carvings. For once, despite the egos of the artists who vied for the top positions, no one seemed to care. Everyone was out celebrating, not just the princes of the city. From her conversations with Isorales, it was actually a public holiday and the Noveni equivalent of a festival.
Of course, Nauda and her allies needed to spend almost all their time in just a single one of the palaces playing politics. In addition to all the citizen artists, there were many professional soulcrafters looking to sell items that were both beautiful and powerful.
"There are a great many people," Fiyu said when they first entered. She had already placed herself behind Nauda and Theo.
"I think they must have been watching the Wakespire," Theo said. He was chewing on his lip the way he did when he was frustrated with himself. "I should have known that an event this expensive would involve everyone. This is a layer of the contest I hadn't considered because I was so absorbed with the scoring."
"Well, you win in the same way, don't you?" That was all Nauda could do to encourage Theo, so she turned to Fiyu. "If you don't want to be so surrounded, Fiyu, why don't you look for the more powerful artisans? There must be a few Authorities looking to sell sublime artifacts."
"I will do this." Fiyu nodded and then promptly disappeared. It seemed she planned to avoid not only attention, but even being seen.
For her part, Nauda wasn't comfortable being the center of attention, but wasn't too disturbed by it. Unlike Theo, she had expected that the lower classes of the city must have been following the competition. Even in the worst communities, everyone paid attention to the most powerful soulcrafters because they were part of the military. Noven was so concerned with status and glory that she'd guessed that everyone concerned themselves with the elites.
While walking through the streets, Nauda had spoken to some local Noveni and found out that the Wakespire brought a lot of guests to the city. Guests meant profits, so they were all very busy. Now it seemed like the artistic classes of the city had been busy as well, because they were coming out to try to give their best work to the contestants.
"Nauda!" A younger Noveni man gestured to her with a broad grin and beckoned her closer. "You've done so well in the Wakespire, we all wanted to carve you!"
She smiled automatically and looked past the young man. On the table behind him there was a life-sized statue of her made from gold. It was a bit exaggerated, and her staff had three tines for some reason, but it looked like he was very proud of it.
"It's very good," Nauda said.
"Would you like it?" The young man seemed a bit too eager and Nauda hesitated before giving her instinctive response.
"She hasn't seen everything yet." Isorales appeared beside her, looking resplendent in a blue wrap. Even his wings had golden armor running along their upper edges. He touched her arm and guided her away, and since she trusted him more than the random sculptor, Nauda followed.
"Was I not supposed to accept his gift?" she asked once they were out of hearing range.
"It wasn't a gift." Isorales glanced at her and shook his head. "I thought you might not have an Artisans' Gallery in your home world, but I guess things are even more different than I thought. He was trying to sell you the sculpture, or even get you to be his patron for future works."
"Oh." Suddenly the man's smile, and his sculpture's exaggerations, seemed much less benign. "That's why they're all here?"
"For those who don't have the ability to fight, this is their only way of earning the best sublime materials. Expect to receive more offers like that. Since you're foreign, you're not a good long term patron, but you might earn them more notoriety. Creating work for a famous foreigner would stand out compared to all the Noveni."
The sculpture proved to be the first of many. Not only statues, but paintings and vases and dresses and even crowns of flowers. Almost all of them were created from sublime materials and the artisans had made a decent effort of using materials that would match what they knew of her soulhome. A group of women offered Nauda a painting of herself carrying a baby and she no idea what that was supposed to mean or why they would consider it flattering. Regardless, they charged a price as high as all the others.
More than anything, the whole spectacle disturbed her. Nauda had wanted to enjoy a community coming together, not to be a public figure who others wanted to exploit for profit. Even though some of them seemed to mean well, she found herself refusing every offer.
It was a good thing that Fiyu had escaped, because she would have been dismayed by the chaos. Irritatingly, Theo seemed to be enjoying it. As the leader of their team, he received an unusually large amount of attention. He was soaking it up, easily playing the crowd with tales of the Wakespire. Well, he could handle it for all of them.
Just when Nauda was beginning to think the entire event would be a waste, they reached the end of one hallway. Isorales stepped into a little shop run by an old woman and Nauda realized that they hadn't been wandering aimlessly. He emerged carrying a necklace: a band of sublime leather with a bead of gold at the end. It seemed ordinary enough until Nauda saw the intricate carvings covering the surface: they were her own warding symbols.
"I, uh, I had this made to thank you for helping me." Isorales thrust it forward awkwardly. "I saw that you used armaments, so I asked Theo some soulcrafting questions. He said that you might want something to improve your warding technique, so..."
Unlike the dead gold that formed most of Ugustial, the necklace actually had an inviting warmth to its luster. The wards were all correct, too. Theo must have done more than simply provide suggestions: the armament would fit well on the third floor of her staff tower.
That hadn't been her original plan, but it was a good suggestion. Heart chamber on the ground floor, three technique rooms above, then three secondary armament rooms. This necklace could easily join her notemeralds and nullstone glove, which would be a nice balance. If even Theo approved, she must not be overloading on armaments.
"Thank you, Isorales. This is very thoughtful."
"Uh, may I?" He awkwardly held up the necklace and she wasn't sure how to refuse, so she let him clasp it around her neck. "I hope it's useful. If anything isn't right, just tell me and I can have the original artisans rework it."
"I think this will be fine. Again, I'm very grateful." Nauda smiled at him, but she thought she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. Fiyu, or just her imagination?
~ ~ ~
The Artisans' Gallery was an insidious lesson in who he really was. For a very brief time, Theo had thought that he might enjoy the praise and attention. For a little longer after that, he had hoped to meet talented young artisans who could be allies in the future. For the entire rest of the time, he'd realized that this was the opposite of what he wanted.
After interacting mostly with Fiyu and Nauda, or Navim and Krikree, or even House Blacksilver, he had thought he might have regained his old friendliness. Being surrounded by so many people proved how wrong he was. He hated how transparent they all were, how thickly they spread on flattery, how they wanted to leech at his time. One more old dream of the Nine Worlds that wasn't what he'd expected.
But Theo was also an old man and his misanthropy was shielded by layers of politeness. So he flashed a smile, welcomed the crowds, and played the game. They'd recently established that political allies might be more important than new sublime materials at this stage, so he didn't want to offend anyone.
Not that there weren't materials on display. Theo was offered some surprisingly well-designed armaments as well as crafted materials. None of them really understood his gravity blueprint, but they had apparently heard about his performance in the Wakespire and they made approximations. If he'd bought every single thing thrust at him, he could have filled two soulhomes with his own face.
Instead, Theo only gave funding to the artisans he thought displayed actual talent. They didn't try to flatter him, just offered up works of soulcrafting. Most likely, none of the sculptures or armaments they offered would take a real place in his soulhome. But they weren't charging that much, and he would have little use for local money after the Wakespire was over. Best to spend it making friends with artisan soulcrafters who might be useful allies in the future.
"Ractifus Terefilia has something for you as well." The voice that cut through the crowds was another messenger from the dark-winged lineage. With a flourish, the messenger unveiled a richly-painted portrait of Theo standing atop a mountain.
"That's... very good." Theo complimented it like all the rest, but he was actually taken aback. The frame, the canvas, the paints - all were sublime materials. Combined with a surprisingly good portrait of him, it was definitely the most powerful item he'd been offered. He should have been happy, but there was something a little off about his face in the portrait...
"The Terefilia lineage has no need for money," the messenger said, "so consider this a gift to congratulate you for your performance."
Which was a transparent way of reminding Theo where his loyalties should lie. Ractifus had gotten them into the Artisans' Gallery, but didn't want them getting swept up their celebrity. It was an effective gesture, so Theo withdrew for a moment to carry it into his soulhome along with all the other items he'd purchased.
Since no one could see his spirit's expression, he glowered at the pile of junk. None of it was strong enough for his soulhome except maybe the portrait, which still bothered him in a way he couldn't put his finger on. Maybe he just didn't want to devote his soulhome to glorifying himself. His ego was already big enough.
