Chasmfall (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 4), page 6
It seemed like he'd convinced both of them, but Theo increasingly wondered if he was able to convince himself. He believed that the risk was reasonable, especially given the reward, but so many other doubts lingered. Had he truly found the Chasm naturally, or had Vistgil been responsible for guiding him there? Was this still a part of his plan, moved to Fithe for reasons unknown?
More than the sublime materials, Theo hoped to find some answers.
Chapter 5
The Blacksilver Authority to take them to Arbai wasn't Dhan, instead an elderly Fithan man who appeared to have little time for them. He demanded they gather together with barely enough forewarning to collect their supplies, hectoring House staff to pull together some resources they apparently planned to trade. Fiyu was still readjusting her mask when he pulled out his weirkey and transported them all.
Traveling by weirkey instead of gate, the flesh-shriveling dryness hit Theo from all sides. He briefly glanced at the others to confirm that no one had been left behind, then quickly looked for their destination. Fortunately, there was no sandstorm at the moment, so it was easy to find the School of Emerald Indulgence looming, a honeycomb of balconies and tunnels.
"This the place?" the Authority asked.
"Y-" Theo had barely finished nodding when the man disappeared, leaving them in the middle of the Arbaian desert.
Fortunately, this time they were well-prepared and not under duress. Nauda had packed a significant amount of water, just in case, but Theo didn't anticipate that would be a problem. He set about lifting the barrels of granitebile with a gravitational field and neutralizing their momentum so they could be carried behind them. While he did so, he noted that Senka hadn't managed to sneak along, this time. It might have been his imagination, or maybe she'd truly been around less since his attempt to train her.
One thing they hadn't been able to do was call ahead, since all the Blacksilver Authorities wanted to do was confirm that the school still existed. There was a remote possibility that they wouldn't be allowed inside, though Theo doubted that was likely. Even if something significant had changed with Navim, they had a relationship of debt with the School of Emerald Indulgence.
Several Arbaians met them before they arrived, their bodies shaped like great spiked wheels. One of them uncurled just enough to reveal an emerald-studded core. "Why have you come to this place, outsiders?" There wasn't exactly suspicion in the echoing voice, but they clearly treated arrivals by weirkey differently than stragglers from the desert.
"I owe a debt to Master Uvvah Ulim," Theo said. "Some cycles past, he granted me a favor in exchange for knowledge. I have returned to pay that debt."
"And these barrels? What are all they?"
"Our hosts have sent a number of sublime materials along with us, common materials on Fithe that we hope can be traded for common materials of your own." He considered explaining about the granitebile, but the Arbaians who had met them were clearly warriors. Likely more educated than the average guard, just more interested in security than commerce.
"We know one of your relatives." Fiyu walked directly up to one of the guards and stared up into his gemstone sphere. "His name is Navim. He will vouch for us."
"Navim? Are they the...?" The guard trailed off before pulling back and the two conversed in low voices. Soon enough, they were told to follow but wait outside the main entrance while the guards walked further inside. Since there had been no wildcards up to that point and Navim was apparently still present, Theo let himself relax, focused more on potential random attacks than the situation turning truly bad.
While Fiyu stood and waited as if her presence could force them to capitulate, Nauda ambled up beside him and leaned on her staff. "They're being a bit unfriendly, aren't they? We saved a member of their community."
"I think they are being reasonably cautious," Fiyu said, smiling over her shoulder at them. "But I believe they will let us in soon."
"Most likely." Nauda smiled back, but released a sigh as soon as Fiyu turned away. "Really, though."
"I suspect we all look alike to them," Theo said. "It's a pretty daunting trek to the nearest gate, which is so unused that Tatian barely keeps it guarded. If they don't see many humanoids like us, I doubt they really register the details."
"...humanshapes? Is that a word in your language?"
"It sounds better there, yeah."
Fortunately, they didn't need to wait too much longer. There was some commotion on one of the upper levels, then an enormous mass of stone launched itself down at them. It would have been alarming if it hadn't been Navim, his upper body now branching into three limbs but otherwise as they remembered him. Nauda only flinched slightly and Fiyu quickly ran to intercept his landing point.
"Navim! We have returned." She smiled up at him and Navim lowered the gemstone sphere at his core so it was nearer her face.
"You have indeed returned. My only regret deeper than your absence was that I was unable to thank you for saving my life."
"I am sorry for that, but it was essential to return to Myufuru."
"So I heard." Navim's body rose higher to regard Theo and Nauda as they approached. "I am glad to see that all of you appear to be intact. The rumors regarding Myufuru were grim, and though I wanted to believe in your resilience, at times it seemed improbable. Please, enter the School of Emerald Indulgence as my guests."
They followed Navim into the catacombs, all suspicion falling from them as the other Mundhin confirmed the identity of the outsiders. Along the way, their stories tumbled together, a truncated version of their own travels mixing with Navim's rather more stolid account. It seemed that he had recovered from near death, written a monograph about the experience, and improved his reputation as a scholar.
Though he didn't even mention it, Navim had also ascended to Archcrafter, and developed a shielding wall that made it impossible to tell how much further he had soulcrafted. He'd also altered his body, growing shields of durable stone on several appendages. It was not a full war construct, lacking in offensive spikes and instead possessing smaller limbs for delicate work. Still, Theo had no doubt that his soulcrafting had improved along with his scholarship.
To Theo's surprise, their conversation advanced to a small cavern filled with a dense mist that reduced the burning dryness. Within, they were served water and actual food edible to humans. It seemed that in addition to his other work, Navim had established more of a connection to the gate in Tatian, ensuring that lost travelers could be cared for.
Not that there was much commerce, since the two sides had so little to offer one another. The Arbaian side of the gate remained unguarded, but the Tatians had organized more than local Farmguards after Magnafor had torn through them. It appeared to be at least a reasonable working relationship, which was more than the School had ever established with Tatian before.
Eventually the conversation fell off from the frenzied recounting and Navim regarded them all with his impassive non-gaze. The mental focus of his sphere soon came to rest on Theo. "I presume that you are not here solely for the sake of discourse and companionship. You believe that our School can assist you in the conflicts you have intimated?"
"We have several goals," Theo said. "For a start, I promised your master that I would return to speak with him."
"Ah. Master Uvvah Ulim was further weakened striking down a demonic incursion and is not seeing many visitors. I believe that he will wish to speak with you, but it may be some time before you can be scheduled between more important affairs of the school."
"What happens if he..." Nauda's question faltered out as she reached the obvious, but Navim raised a rocky limb.
"Do not be concerned, we understand that death is part of life here. Though Master Uvvah Ulim will hopefully lead the school for many more cycles, he is making arrangements for his passing. We may not be the largest school, but our philosophy is respected and he has never fostered a... I hope that the term 'cult of personality' is known to you. The School of Emerald Indulgence may change, but it will persist."
That was well and good, but it was a distraction, so Theo stepped in again. "We'll be staying on Arbai for approximately thirty days, and we have several things we want to do in that time."
"Approximately?"
"Depending on variables. We made arrangements with our allies to transport us back at a set time, but if your master has a weirkey for Fithe and is willing, we could return at another time." Though Theo was still parched, he made himself set aside his glass and focus. "We have a limited amount of time to soulcraft, and though I don't imagine you'll give us your finest sublime materials, some that are common here may be completely impossible to obtain in Norro Yorthin."
"Indeed, if you had not come with such goals, I would have been concerned regarding impersonation." Navim turned from him to sweep his focus over the others. "All three of you are welcome, and I believe that you will easily be able to earn your keep. This region is not rich with sublime materials, but I suspect you will be able to find something of use to you."
"What work will we be doing?" Fiyu asked. "I imagine all the maintenance of your building must be optimized for Mundhin labor."
"It is, but there's work to be found for other forms, and hardly menial labor. For example, I believe that your knowledge regarding this Chasm of Lamentations, and its inclusion in cyclical Fithan customs, would be of great interest to many scholars here. Perhaps we could collaborate."
"I would like that." Fiyu had been smiling the entire time, but managed to smile broader. "Do you think it is possible that, once our time here is complete, you might want to explore Norro Yorthin as well?"
"Perhaps, but it is too early for such predictions." Navim's limbs rolled underneath him and he rose to his full height. "At minimum, we will have this time together. Come with me and we can make use of it."
Chapter 6
Despite her best intentions, Nauda realized that she had been underestimating Arbai. She had thought that harvesting sublime materials there couldn't be anything except endless quarrying in the sun, but with every day that passed, she learned that there was far more to it.
There were gradations that she couldn't see, of course, which she'd somewhat anticipated. The local Mundhin lived in stone and they understood it with far more subtlety than others could, similarly to how they might conceivably view Tatian as "a bunch of plants". Since assisting them required learning at least basic differentiation, she was able to imagine how diverse the rocky plains appeared to them.
But what surprised her was the diversity found even by her foreign eyes. She traveled with Navim and the others through caverns of rainbow crystals, fields of sand that flowed like water, valleys that refracted the sun into stunning palettes of color. Soon she'd learned that Arbai contained more than just philosophers, including long traditions of art, some of which wasn't impenetrable to her.
That day, she worked within what she could only describe as a cloud of stone. Thousands of rocks floated together in a tumbling mass that somehow maintained its cohesion as it traveled over the Arbaian plains. She had asked for an explanation, but soul translation had failed her: the answers had included numerous words like "attractionforce" and "weightforce" that she could only understand superficially.
One thing was clear: the stone clouds only occasionally traveled through the region, so they needed to be harvested when the opportunity presented itself. Since she was smaller than all but specialized Mundhin, Nauda was sent directly into the cloud to retrieve rare materials. Each time she leapt up onto a piece of floating rock, it sagged under her weight, but she hadn't quite figured out why some floated back up and others went tumbling into the storm. Gradually she figured out how to navigate her way through the chaos, locating her targets.
One particularly swift-moving stone caught her attention and Nauda thrust her staff in its direction, only for it to tear through her binding. She lunged after it, redirecting off another floating rock, and grabbed it with both hands. On her tumbling way down, she banged against a few of the other rocks, but eventually regained her balance. That was one more acquired.
As she made her way out of the rock cloud, Nauda noticed another one of the irregular dark stones, which supposedly contained ore that the Arbaians needed. This one didn't resist her staff at all, so she pulled it along with her until she emerged into the exterior shell of floating sand.
"This way, Tatian." One of the Mundhin gestured toward her larger stone, so she slid it through the air toward them. They no longer called her outsider, but most of the miners had nicknamed the three of them by their worlds, or a lie in Theo's case.
Speaking of the other two, Nauda looked to find them. Theo was considered the most useful of their group thanks to his gravity, which allowed him to significantly alter the cloud, so he was working with the higher tier soulcrafters. Fiyu had helped a little measuring the density of the rock storms, but now stood near the edge with a few other guards. It seemed that they had killed a few demons in the meantime, though there had yet to be any problems like Navim had intimated.
"There you are." Navim turned from his rocky table to her, his voice slightly pleased if she understood Arbaian emotions. "Have you been successful?"
"You tell me." Nauda dropped the rock onto an empty space and Navim took it carefully. Rough as his limbs appeared, they peeled away the stone in subtle layers.
"This will be useful, but there is something more." Navim extracted a bright blue gemstone from within the heart of the rock. "A potent notemerald, though less useful for our purposes. Perhaps this sublime material could be part of your compensation."
Nauda frowned. "I'm not sure I understood that word. Aren't emeralds green?"
"Hmm... you say 'emerald' but I am not sure that is quite correct. Our materials are notemeralds, with superficialities both similar and different. Your soul may consider them most similar to emeralds."
Though her mind did several flips as it adjusted to his meaning, Nauda thought it was clear enough. More importantly... "I think I saw another gemstone glinting in the cloud, very similar to this one, but it was red. Could it be another emerald?"
"These storms usually contain a wide variety. They were not on our list, but I think it would be in your best interest to locate them. It is said that a complete set can be quite valuable for armaments."
"Good, then I'll try to find it again." As she turned away, Nauda patted Navim on one rocky limb. She still wasn't entirely comfortable navigating the Arbaian concept of touch: reaching toward a central sphere was clearly inappropriate, while touching an outer limb didn't convey a Tatian sense of affection. A world traveler like Navim, at least, understood her meaning, but she wished that she had a stronger understanding.
Back inside the rock storm, Nauda attempted to track down the crimson gem she'd seen earlier. It was nearly impossible in such a mass of shifting stones, but she did locate another small dark rock, and to her surprise stumbled across a yellow emerald within a much larger stone. Prying it out without causing damage took a little work, then she tucked it into her pocket.
Since such a firm foothold was rare within the cloud, Nauda straightened and looked around. She saw a few Arbaians also harvesting lower in the storm... and some sort of trouble within the sandy region. It seemed that the demons that purportedly followed such storms had finally arrived.
It shouldn't have been any problem at all, given the size of their group. Fiyu's storms of light could easily tear through first tier demons, while the Arbaians had Archcrafters and a few Rulers with spiky limbs built for combat to deal with the more powerful demons. They should have been exterminated quickly, yet as Nauda made her way from foothold to foothold, she was surprised that the numbers seemed to be increasing, perhaps in response to such a large gathering of soulcrafters.
When she reached the edge of the battlefield, she hesitated before the melee. The shapes were slightly unfamiliar, but she could easily see that the small blocky demons were the first stage, attempting to sacrifice themselves to become the larger four-limbed demons. Vaguely like the local Mundhin, though much thicker and lacking a gem-covered core. Just striking them would be useless, and there were so many soulcrafters moving around her it was difficult to know when to act.
"This is good practice." Theo appeared from nowhere, barely glancing at her as he flattened part of the battlefield with one of his fields. "When we enter the Chasm, we'll be fighting alongside lots of soulcrafters just as powerful as us, and some stronger. Get used to the competition."
Annoyed by his lecture, and doubly annoyed that it was necessary, Nauda did her best. The demons resisted her bindings to some degree, but they seemed to be incredibly stupid, blundering directly into her wards. Nauda tried to set those up at the edges, stopping the demons from scattering further and sacrificing themselves.
The numbers declined rapidly, yet something wasn't quite right... she frequently saw second stage demons emerge, yet didn't see many die. As the battle turned against the demons, they rushed into circles and sacrificed themselves, growing into something larger, and yet...
When she looked backward, Nauda saw what she'd feared: multiple second stage demons had gathered inside the cloud, disguised among the other rocks. "They're sacrificing!" She managed to scream over the storm and pulled a large chunk of rock to show the location, and the Arbaians quickly reacted to her, but it was too late.
Six of the second stage demons dissolved into sand... and something much larger began to emerge from the center of them. For an instant, the third stage demon consisted of inchoate mass, but the rocks held them back for too long and it fully emerged into their world.
