Crimsoncrest (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 10), page 33
That was just about the last thing she'd have expected from Theo and she stared at him for several seconds. Eventually, however, she squeezed the petal in her hand. "Maybe I will. But where am I supposed to put this?"
"You get to decide," he said with a shrug. "I look forward to seeing what you soulcraft with all of this."
With that he left her soulhome, and it seemed like he intended to walk away in the physical world. Nauda leapt after him faster than she intended, calling for him to stop. He paused and looked back at her curiously.
"Don't just ignore the custom," she said. "If you have a brilliant idea for the crestflower as a sublime material, go ahead, use it. But if it doesn't mean anything to you... think about whether or not it should."
To his credit, Theo seemed to consider her words seriously. He nodded to her and floated away, more contemplatively than before. For her part, Nauda plunged back into her soulhome, now carrying two petals as well as the complete flower.
Fiyu's petal she fused into her heartoak, above the sunlessrose already woven into the branches. But the rest... well, that could be fun.
~ ~ ~
Once Fiyu had thought of the Nine Worlds as numerous environments that she would one day explore. The more time she spent among them, the more she realized that the more difficult journey was through all the people they contained. There had been struggles at times, but she was immensely pleased by this crestflower ritual.
In truth, she thought that the crestflowers were less beautiful now that the intricate petals had unfolded. Each had interesting ridges, but otherwise the internal structure of most plants. However, the meaning of the petals meant far more than their intrinsic beauty, so she felt warm every time she thought about how she and Friend Nauda had exchanged lifemate petals.
Returning to her soulhome, Fiyu walked down to her partial basement and gently placed Friend Nauda's petal inside her eternal chamber. She would have to find a way to protect it there, but she would fuse it into her Immortality Conduit, to represent the connection that would last forever.
That left her with two petals, and only one of them was certain. As she looked at the crestflower, however, Fiyu realized that it wasn't much of a choice after all.
She returned to the physical world and moved away from the others, discovering Friend Theo sitting apart and soulcrafting. It was strange that he had invited her into so many crowds and so often stood apart himself. When he felt her he spoke without leaving his soulhome.
"I'm working on something better for you," he said. "Something deeper than this ritual."
"That is okay, Theo," she told him. "I would still like to give you this petal."
He hesitated at that, finally emerging from his soulhome to see that she was extending the orange petal to him. His eyes met hers and seemed to pierce through her mask. When he finally took the petal from her hand, he did so with the appropriate solemnity.
"You were my first friend when I was lost and alone," Fiyu said. "I have had companions before, but I have never had a friend like you. There is no custom for it, but I believe that one day we will be relatives."
"Thank you." Friend Theo drew the petal into his soulhome and nodded to her. "I know how much this means to you... I'll return it with something that means as much to me."
Fiyu trusted that he truly meant this, so she smiled, gave Friend Theo a familial bow, and then departed. She had one petal remaining and she knew exactly where it was meant to go.
Relative Guchiro had not joined them, capable of enduring such crowds but deciding against it. He sat alone on a nearby hill, surrounded by enough of his stealth technique that few others would be able to find him. Fiyu landed behind him and approached quietly, holding the last petal.
"In the Asplundat Movement," she explained, "there is a custom where these flowers-"
"I didn't participate," he said, "but I remember. I don't have one to give you."
"That is alright, what matters is that I want to give this to you." Fiyu sat down beside Guchiro and handed him her relative petal. "You raised me from a child and guided me this far. I could not ask for a better relative."
"And I could not ask for a better ward." Relative Guchiro put an arm around her shoulder and Fiyu happily leaned against him.
She was pleased to sit here together, but she was more pleased when her relative drew the petal into his soulhome. Even though he had seen so much and become a Dominion, his soulhome would have a piece of her inside it. And now that she had distributed the pieces of herself, Fiyu was content.
~ ~ ~
Even though there was work to be doing, Theo kept thinking back to what Nauda had said. He'd never particularly cared about customs like this, even on Earth... especially on Earth. Looking back, he wondered if not participating in rituals that mattered to others had been part of what had made his relationships there slowly wither.
He was certain about his decision, though: he was planning a gift for Fiyu and Nauda that would actually mean something to him. One with real utility, yes, but that was who he was. Yet even though that should have resolved the issue, he couldn't stop thinking about it.
His soulcrafting was interrupted yet again, this time by Homez. It should have annoyed him, but Theo felt like he'd gotten closer to the other man during their time in the Asplundat Movement and found that he didn't mind so much.
"I gave my family crest to my great grandmother," Homez said, "because you don't really have a choice there. But would you be offended if I gave my friendship crest to you?"
"I suppose not." Theo got back to his feet and accepted it gravely. "Will it cause offense if I don't return the favor? This ritual might seem all warm and fuzzy to some, but it seems like a recipe for a lot of grudges and hurt feelings to me."
"Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't already ground your crestflower into powder to increase your soulhome efficiency by one percent."
Theo chuckled and turned the flower over in his hands again. "I haven't decided how I'm going to grind it up yet."
"I just... want to make clear that this isn't just a symbol." Homez sounded far more serious now and Theo turned to meet his gaze. "I know it seems almost too fitting: reaching out to a soulcrafter from the Ruling Cities. But I've truly enjoyed getting to know you and your friends. And you... you seem focused on the bigger picture in a way not many others are, and that's a welcome relief."
"I don't know about that. I'm just obsessed with soulcrafting."
"You might see yourself that way, but I don't agree. Tonight you exchanged strange psychic messages with a Slescan, then navigated friendships with a Tatian and an Ichili. I'm trying to bring a few Fithans together, but you're building something across entire worlds."
It hadn't ever felt like that to Theo: he had simply been doing the obvious, whether he was rationalizing it all to himself or trying to change. Somehow it had all spiraled into more than he expected... and as he thought about that, he realized what he wanted to do.
But he couldn't simply walk away, not after Homez had reached out like that. They stood together on the hill, staring toward the mountain and all the potential it contained. After so long preparing and debating strategy, there was nothing more to say about that, and Theo sensed that the other man didn't want to talk about it.
"Looks like you have one crest left," Theo pointed out.
"Ah, the always-fraught lover's crest." Homez held it up in one hand and sighed. "There's poetry written about ungiven crests, you know. I've never been quite that melodramatic, but there's nothing like this night to make a person feel lonely."
"Bah, relationships are overrated."
"Maybe to you. My extended family won't let me forget that I'm getting older and older without finding someone. You know, speaking of being a symbol, this is the one way I'm really a failure: a good Asplundat citizen would have gotten married and had multiple children by now."
"Children are overrated too."
Homez chuckled and shook his head. "Is there anything you don't think is overrated?"
"You." Theo put a hand on the other man's shoulder and stared into his eyes as soulfully as possible until Homez burst out laughing.
"That actually... got me..." He stumbled back, wiping an eye as he got his laughter under control. Despite himself, Theo grinned along with him.
"Forget about their expectations, Homez. We're all going to be taking the burdens of the whole continent on ourselves tomorrow. Do whatever has meaning for you tonight."
"Will you be doing the same? Does that mean more soulcrafting?"
"Actually, no." Theo had been about to leave, but turned back as he realized he had a simpler option. "You use an Arbaian weirkey as your second, right? Let me borrow it."
Even though that was probably a violation of protocol, Homez handed it over. Theo burst into the air, no longer drifting at a sedate pace, and sped back to the village. There he soon detected Krikree and Senka, who were apparently trying to get inside the kitchen to acquire leftover bread. Krikree emitted recognition pheromones as soon as he got close, while Senka cast him a flat gaze.
"Do you want to go to Arbai?" Theo asked.
"Navim-thinkrock!" Krikree leapt onto his shoulder immediately.
"Anywhere is better than this sappy place." Senka floated up near his head. "Why are we going there?"
"To spread the sappiness across the Nine Worlds," Theo said, then used the weirkey before she could object.
They reappeared in Arbai over the School of Emerald Indulgence. Despite having a modern understanding of time zones, Theo was still momentarily disoriented when he went from night to the brilliant Arbaian day. Having the familiar bluff in sight let him reorient quickly, though: it seemed like Navim, Eliyai, and the other scholars had been building it even larger than before.
The appearance of an unknown Stronghold would have caused trouble in most places, but here the Mundhin swiftly identified Theo as a known quantity. When he descended toward one of the upper balconies some inclined their gem spheres respectfully and he realized that he was actually sort of a patron of the school.
And on Earth he'd ignored all the alumni letters begging for money. Strange how these things happened.
It seemed like Eliyai had renovated the old upper chambers, as she was the School's new Authority, but Theo didn't want to talk to her. Instead he sought out Navim, who he discovered working with various lenses in a lower workshop. This was the first time anyone showed any concern, as Navim set down his work with some urgency.
"Salutations, Theo." Navim began looking through stone cabinets. "I hope your need is not great, because my work on armaments has been limited by-"
"I don't need anything this time," Theo said with a smile. "Yes, we may need to contact you again when the Fithan war gets underway, but not today."
Krikree finally couldn't restrain herself any longer and leapt forward, crawling atop Navim's upper body while emitting [Navim-thinkrock!] repeatedly. Senka began poking at some of the tools on the nearby tabletops. Taking all of this in stride, Navim shifted to a more comfortable position and watched him with glittering sapphires.
"What occasions this visit, then?" he asked. "Not that I am displeased to see you, but I cannot believe you crossed worlds for no reason at all."
"It's a Fithan custom, actually." Theo explained the crestflower ritual as he removed his from his soulhome, then plucked the crest representing friendship and handed it to Navim. "We haven't been able to spend as much time together as I'd like, because we have our own obligations, but I'm honored to call you a friend, Navim."
"I could say the same." Navim extended a smaller limb to gently take the petal. "I fear that such a sublime material is unlikely to survive within my soulhome, however."
"You don't need to cherish it, just see what you can make with it. Not necessarily for me, just... have fun."
If Mundhin could smile, Theo was sure that Navim smiled then. Even though there was so much work to do, Theo lingered for a while longer, discussing the newest changes to the environment and the local philosophical scene. Apparently Eliyai had been forging new connections with Ruby Ericho, which had caused a number of disruptions.
By the time Theo withdrew Krikree still wasn't done, chattering to Navim about her recent scouting. He found a quiet place to soulcraft - blessedly easy on Arbai - and entered his soulhome again. Now, with his mind feeling so much clearer than before, he began to work.
Before his spiritual hands had been trembling from exhaustion, but now Theo picked up his hammer confidently. He retrieved Krikree's partially-finished armorstone and took it to his mass anvil, then began delivering firm strokes. Maybe it was the rest, maybe it was something mushier, but the soulcrafting was so much easier now: each blow increased the mass of the armorstone as well as its power.
He had finished and was beginning to look at the felinesolars when he felt Krikree in the real world, crawling up beside him.
"Navim-thinkrock good," she declared. "Theo-sister soulcraft? What? What?"
"As a matter of fact, this." Theo emerged with the armorstone in his hand.
[!!!] Krikree emitted a pure pheromone that he could only imagine as exclamation marks, then grasped the armorstone. She practically smashed it into her face, tapping her antennae against it as she turned it over and over in all four of her hands.
Eventually she declared [Good!] and seemed eager to take it into her soulhome. Before she could, Theo broke off another one of the petals and handed it to her.
Krikree stared at it. "What?"
"This is the family petal," Theo said. "Krikree-sister, right?"
"Sisters!" Krikree shoved the petal into her mouth eagerly.
She may or may not have been soulcrafting it, but either way, she seemed intense about what she was going to do. Theo stepped out of the room, through the cool shady corridors of the Arbaian school. As he did so, he turned the crestflower over in his hands, considering the ritual that he had originally dismissed entirely. Those two gifts were the only ones he had planned, leaving one...
"Burn it." Senka popped up in the corridor nearby, arms folded. "Relationships are overrated."
"That seems like a waste," Theo said mildly.
"Then chuck it into your singularity or something. Get rid of it, is what I'm saying."
"Would that mean I love myself?"
"You mean you don't? Sounds pathological."
Theo chuckled and crushed the petal into his soulhome, leaving it with the other old materials he was planning to use for a new singularity. After a moment's thought, he decided that didn't bother him. He'd leave the bubbly romance to Nauda and Fiyu, and none of the relationships he'd built meant any less for not being romantic.
"Alright, go collect Krikree," Theo said. "We need to get back."
"You really need to get a full set of weirkeys," Senka grumbled. "Once you're properly equipped, you can do this sort of thing all the time instead of as weird last second gestures."
They pulled together, bade farewell to Navim, and then returned to Fithe. Most of the lights had gone out, but he saw a flickering bubble in one of the outer homes where the others were no doubt awake. Theo let Krikree and Senka go, but lingered outside, soulcrafting in the cool night air.
He gently picked up the Ruler-tier felinesolar and brought it to his anti-mass anvil, then paused. The material seemed so cooperative, hammering it felt wrong. Besides, its properties mimicked glass, so blunt force risked shattering it. No, what he truly wanted to do was split it cleanly...
Theo found his Esoteric Chisel and tried to estimate the exact shape. Before he could do so, the felinesolar split in exact halves, almost like a pet understanding the trick it was supposed to perform. The halves weren't quite Ruler tier on their own, but that didn't matter. He moved to his fifth floor and found the felinesolar installed there, making sure that the spheres were still resonating strongly. Once they felt completely linked, he returned to the physical world and finally entered.
It was clearly the end of a long day with the last embers fading. Krikree had already curled up at the end of one bed and Senka was snoring over a footstool. Ideally Theo would have liked to get materials for them as well, but his resources were limited. Besides, as he saw Fiyu and Nauda waiting for him, this felt right.
"These are the gifts I was promising," he said, handing them each half of the felinesolar. "This is bonded to my singularity technique and should protect you from it. That way I can use it in battle without worrying about either of you."
"Oh..." Fiyu hadn't seen the felinesolars up close and marveled over it, while Nauda regarded hers more thoughtfully.
"Are you sure it will be enough?" she asked. "The cantae is protective, but to shield us from a technique like that?"
"I think it will." Theo sat down heavily beside them. "This is more than a trick, it's soulcrafting the bond we've carried this far. But you're right, we shouldn't just trust in it. Are you two awake enough for some last minute training?"
Nauda pretended to groan and Fiyu sighed, but both smiled as they got to work.
Chapter 35
The morning dawned bright and clear, which matched Fiyu's foul mood. She had finally arrived at the fateful day and she had not yet ascended.
She was so close, yet the more she failed to ignite her Immortality Conduit, the more she felt that something in her blueprint must be fundamentally wrong. If she failed to discover what, she could lock those errors into her soulhome through ascension, ruining her chances. And if the others were correct and the only problem was in her head, what did that say about her?
"I think we should stop trying," Associate Senka said. "You should prepare your soulhome for combat."
"Will you be joining us?" Fiyu asked. "You would make an excellent surprise."
"Yeah, but we have way too much attention from the aeon-class organizations for my liking. No, I might not be so effective in a battle like this."
