Bloodcrete (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 6), page 8
Before they met the storm, her relative wrapped them in a sphere of living darkness. The water smashed into it like an avalanche from the heavens, but the sphere held. Despite herself, Fiyu held onto her relative's side like she was a child. Any of her own defenses would have been smashed by the ferocious storm that raged around them.
Protected by her relative's strength, Fiyu was able to calm herself and even attempted to soulcraft. Her nerves were too tense for delicate work, so she set herself to improving the pyramid atop her soulhome. Soon she ended up polishing every surface of her Corporeal Floor instead. If the storm didn't sweep them away, they were hopefully coming closer to the time when she would ascend, so everything needed to be perfect. Unless she could face a threat like this, she could never be a worthy companion for her relative.
Then, without warning, the storm stopped. Fiyu had stretched her senses in all directions for what seemed like days and felt nothing but storm, so she let out a gasp. The air around them was empty, then there was a strange barrier, then the storm still raged on the other side. Could they have entered the column of light?
"We are safe, so I will withdraw my darkness." Her relative touched her shoulder reassuringly. "We have entered the circle, so prepare yourself for light."
When he lowered the sphere, Fiyu took a deep breath... but it wasn't in dismay. The world around her was exceedingly bright, but her mask was equal to the challenge and she was accustomed to such worlds. Instead of seeing a hellish space, she realized that the space within the light would have been a paradise for most beings.
Beneath them extended a jungle of fantastical colors. At first Fiyu's senses were overwhelmed by the sheer diversity of plants and animals, all of them glowing in the strange colors she had seen from the outside. Their arrival disrupted a flock of bright purple birds, which burst from the trees and sent what looked like diamonds scattering through the air behind them, reflecting all of the colors.
There were too many places she wanted to look at once. Fiyu made herself look back first, to the barrier they had just crossed. Not far behind them, the light simply ended. It looked like she could have taken a single step and gone from the peaceful light to the storm. She could still see it outside the light, but heard none of the storm's thundering. Somehow it didn't slam against the side at all: there was a storm there that simply didn't exist within the light somehow.
Looking in the opposite direction, Fiyu couldn't see the other side, at least not through all the colors. But when she examined the curve of the dividing line on the ground, she saw that the light must end in the distance. The entire circle was roughly the size of a town, if she estimated it correctly: a Tatian town, not a reasonable one.
Fiyu braced herself for a multi-colored sun when she looked upward, but instead she discovered... nothing. There wasn't even any sky: all she could see when she looked up was the light cascading down. It was as if this column was formed of pure light and no other rules applied.
"How... how much of Siata is like this?" she asked. Relative Guchiro answered as he gently lowered them to a field of vibrant yellow grass.
"I cannot tell you a percentage, but there are regions of light wider than the largest cities. The Siatans call them circles, and I believe they all take that exact shape. In other regions, they are as small as houses and more frequent. Your senses should adapt, but I am told that spatial senses find these places disorienting."
"The Siatans come from these regions, don't they?" Both of the Siatans she had met would have been right at home in the jungle, their soft pastels blending in instead of jarring. "Or are there other species that live outside?"
"There is nothing outside that you would want to meet." Relative Guchiro gently took her shoulders and turned her to face him instead of the environment. "This would once have dismayed you, but I see you are stronger now. We are seeking the sublime birds that live in this region. Hopefully some of their feathers will be appropriate for you."
Eagerly setting herself to the task, Fiyu followed her relative's instructions for capturing the birds without harming them. She first managed to catch a bright pink bird that squawked and struggled in her hands. All of its feathers felt potent, so she pulled one out as gently as possible.
Though it flowed with cantae, she immediately knew that this was wrong. She could not imagine Friend Nauda wearing such bright pink feathers, much less herself. No amount of mental flexibility could ever convince her that such a thing was appropriate for her soulhome.
Next she tried to catch one of the deep blue birds, their feathers dark as twilight. Those were beautiful to her, and seemed promising, yet Fiyu still found herself dissatisfied. She could imagine weaving them together into a cloak, which might match her stealth technique, but it felt slightly wrong. What she needed was a sublime material that could embody darkness for her, and feather after feather proved inappropriate.
"Enough." Her relative pulled her back after the eighth failure. "We will have more time later."
"I can still continue," Fiyu said. "I want to finish my floor."
"But the birds are afraid, and we may have driven the most potent sublime beasts into hiding." Relative Guchiro left unstated that she was growing too frustrated, but he gently turned her to face him again. "You need not find your material in a day, Fiyu. We will find the right one, no matter how many circles we need to explore."
She nodded and tried not to show her disappointment. "But I don't want to waste time..."
"Use your stealth to help the beasts forget us. While we wait, I will show you a few more details necessary to complete your Corporeal Floor, and I have other lessons for you as well."
"Other lessons?" Fiyu enveloped them both in her stealth sphere and looked to him curiously.
"This is something that I regret I was not able to teach you before you were taken from me. Currently, your expressions are always clear on your face. They will be known not only by anyone with the right muscular senses, but to every single being using their eyes. Since that is most worlds other than Ichil, more control is necessary."
"I have been told this." Fiyu deflated, then realized she was doing exactly what he spoke of and tried to straighten. "What do you suggest?"
"You have already gained some maturity, but now you need emotional control. Most Ichili are taught this before they visit other worlds, but you will catch up." Her relative smiled beneath his mask, and she realized that he intentionally made the expression for her. "Let us begin the first lesson. Your emotions are a precious thing, to be revealed only to close companions..."
Relative Guchiro spent several days teaching her all the ways she needed to control not only her face, but her breathing and her blood flow as well. Many were difficult, and he said they would be until she gained greater control of her body. Fortunately, she could always take a break from the strange exercises to soulcraft or attempt to catch new birds. There seemed to be a nearly infinite variety in the dense jungle.
The light never wavered, so Fiyu simply slept when she felt tired, though even their tents couldn't quite keep out the light. Without her mask, she would have been quite troubled. When she woke early, she didn't try to return to sleep and just threw herself back into her work.
It actually happened when Fiyu wasn't working at all. She had exhausted herself soulcrafting and was simply walking along the edge of their little glade when she saw it: a sleek bird of the darkest black. First she was struck by the graceful beauty of it, then she realized that she needed it.
Fiyu crept closer with stealth wrapped around her... and the bird swiveled its head to look at her anyway. She rushed the final distance, grasping for the sublime beast, yet it slipped away from her, bursting through the canopy in an instant.
"That one, that one!" She cried out desperately, certain that if she lost the bird she would never find it again.
She saw ropes of her relative's darkness lash out to capture the bird... yet it somehow slipped around them. It took a concerted effort and her relative taking to the air to capture the bird, but at last he descended with it bound in his hands. Using her new lessons, Fiyu was able to detect that his eyes were slightly wider than normal, an involuntarily reaction even he couldn't suppress.
"This is remarkable," Relative Guchiro said as he approached. "Do you see how black the feathers are?"
The question seemed silly, since the darkness of the feathers had attracted her in the first place. But her relative was not a silly person, so Fiyu considered more carefully. When she tried to examine the feathers in great detail, she found them far more complex than she had expected. Each feather broke into thousands or even millions of smaller structures that threatened to absorb her full attention.
"Most objects called black simply reflect light that appears dark," her relative explained. "But these feathers absorb nearly all of it. Their color, if it was possible to determine it another way, is lighter than it appears. But the surface of its feathers lets no light escape, so..."
"It really is darkness given form." Fiyu smiled broadly, knowing that she should control it and not caring. How strange was life, that in this place of brilliant color, she had found the darkness she had been seeking?
Chapter 7
House Blacksilver only had three Authority-tier soulcrafters, so a summons from one of them was serious business. After confirming that Krikree wouldn't cause any trouble in the complex, Theo made arrangements. He soon learned that Dhan had already been notified of his presence, so they would be meeting in the most secure chambers of Blacksilver headquarters.
Usually Theo was more focused on taking action than tracking local politics, so he wasn't very familiar with that part of the complex. He'd half-expected to be taken to the secure chambers where he'd once received a shipment of powerful sublime materials, but instead they went in a different direction, into the central compound.
Eventually he arrived in a circular chamber with a large diamond-shaped table in the center. Dhan sat there alone, his mask lying on the table in front of him. The Blacksilver Authority had discarded his emotional mask as well, letting the deep weariness in his eyes show. Despite that, Theo couldn't help but notice that there were three chairs on his side of the table, perhaps representing the three Authorities. The other sides of the table showed use as well, likely representing other aspects of the House.
"We need to talk." Dhan pulled himself fully upright and gestured vaguely at the other chairs. "Sit anywhere."
"Is this where House Blacksilver makes its decisions?" Theo asked as he took a seat.
"Yes, but not right now. This discussion is... informal." After a long pause, Dhan sat forward and met his gaze. "I want you to know that House Blacksilver still values your membership highly, and we consider the propaganda spread by the Order of the Deepest Blue to be ridiculous."
"Alright, get to the bad news."
"We haven't been able to acquire a Noveni weirkey for you or find an accessible gate, and both are likely to be impossible for now."
Theo folded his hands in his lap and tried not to let his irritation show. He might not be ready to ascend that day, but the moment was getting closer and he needed preparation time in Noven. Still... "Why?"
"The situation is complicated and involves local issues." Dhan sat back, staring down at his mask instead of toward Theo. "We know you aren't very interested in House politics. We've let that pass, since you have such a good chance of becoming Blacksilver's fourth Authority. But if you want to know why our resources are limited, you need to understand the overall context."
"It's not about the Order of the Deepest Blue? Before I went to Arbai, the others told me that was the primary obstacle."
"They're a cause, but not the ultimate one. One thing you likely don't know is that their presence in the city is dependent on House Crimson. They were originally thrown out due to unprovoked assaults on citizens, but they were quietly permitted to give a more sober presentation. Since then, their work has been massaged and backed by Crimson funds."
"I see." Theo sat back to think about that one. The change must have happened not long after they returned from Slest, which would mean that it might be related to internal House Crimson politics. It could be worthwhile to interrogate Tythes, if Nauda could arrange it. "Why are they doing that?"
"Not to make this a test, but do you have any ideas?"
"Does it have to do with the reason they were capturing so many wild tribes members last year?"
Dhan shifted uncomfortably. "Actually, we still don't fully understand what they were attempting to do there. No, we believe the reason is more prosaic. Bear in mind that Wiltur is one of only three Strongholds in the entire city..."
"The House of the Lost." Theo snapped his fingers as it all came together for him. "They're explicitly formed by outsiders, so the public anger must be hitting them hardest. If Wiltur could push them out, then the only other Stronghold would be from the House of Coin. They're not inclined to take sides, and they're bigger than one city, so they might withdraw and let him become the unquestioned leader."
"That was our analysis as well. House Crimson has been on a propaganda campaign ever since the Wargames, trying to show the other Ruling Cities that they've dealt with their internal problems. They want to prove that they're the stable option to control all of Norro Yorthin, and I don't think Wiltur's ambitions stop there. He's remarkably well-connected and well-funded."
"Is House Crimson the ultimate cause, or is there someone else? The Order of the Deepest Blue originated with depths Fithans, so how much do you know about them?"
"Unlikely, and not relevant to the present war," Dhan said. "It's true that this new movement is trying to push some depths Fithan city states into the war, but that's a matter for the long term."
Even though Dhan dismissed it, Theo wasn't ready to let go of the idea so quickly. Given the hatred between the two sides of Fithe, movements that crossed between them were rare, and he refused to believe that it was a coincidence. If he didn't have higher priorities, he would have been researching the matter himself.
The most likely cause was Vistgil, of course. All evidence so far suggested that he developed passive systems in order to eliminate visitors from Earth before they could become a threat to him. Theo wasn't sure how to square that with his own experience, but it was the best fit for the data. Once again, he wished that he could talk to the House of the Lost... if only he could be certain they weren't another trap laid by Vistgil.
"So..." Theo refocused on his primary goal and rearranged the political pieces. "You're saying that House Crimson wants to gain control of Norro Yorthin, and that likely includes economic control. So he's preventing the acquisition of important tools like weirkeys?"
"More or less," Dhan said. "It's all being done through proxies, so everything is unclear. The House of Coin knows more, but they'll only rarely work with us."
"But none of this is really your specialty, is it, Dhan? You're a soulcrafter first and foremost. Are any of the lesser Houses in the city likely to have someone ascend to Stronghold? Adding one or two more to the city would render Wiltur's schemes pretty well obsolete."
Dhan stared at him as if he'd said something foolish, and Theo stared back. Eventually the Authority spoke. "I think it's unlikely that anyone in Norro Yorthin will ascend soon enough to be politically relevant."
"Not even you? You've been an Authority for years, and we've helped you find valuable sublime materials like the dewfossil."
"Impossible, under present conditions. I've assembled some powerful sublime materials at my current tier, but when I made an attempt, I saw that it was likely to deal too much damage to my soulhome." Dhan sighed and ran a finger around the edge of his mask. "I may have reached my limit. The only materials that would allow me to ascend more cleanly are very rare, and I hope I don't need to tell you that House Crimson would prevent them from getting anywhere near Norro Yorthin."
Ascending to Stronghold hadn't been particularly difficult for Theo before, but he knew he had been soulcrafting with an unfair advantage. Still, surely there might be a way to help. It was a bitter irony that if he had a weirkey to Noven, he could solve the problem that prevented him from acquiring it. Regardless, it would be foolish to spend resources on Dhan when Blacksilver was just a medium-sized House in one city.
"All of that is beside the point." Dhan abruptly set his mask aside and turned his full attention to Theo. "I did not bring you here to apologize. Everything I have been explaining is leading up to the crisis of our present moment. What I'm about to tell you must not leave this room."
"Go ahead." Theo sat forward despite himself.
"I hope you recall that a guest from the continent of Tymetron died in the Chasm of Lamentations. They blamed the Ruling Cities, and it seems that they want to destroy us, but aren't willing to go to war across continents. Exactly why is unclear. But we have obtained intelligence that they placed an artifact of immense power somewhere in Norron. It is already summoning more demons, and by the end of the year there will be so many that they would overwhelm the continent."
Theo's eyebrows shot up. He'd never heard of a device like that, but Magnafor had been able to summon demons back on Tatian. Whatever method he had used, this sounded like the weaponized version of it. "Is that what's causing the demons the Order of the Deepest Blue is complaining about?"
"We don't think so: this increase should be localized to a specific region. But the problem is much bigger than a few demons. Don't jump ahead."
"Fine, then explain."
"The artifact was not placed randomly. It was planted in the Dustwind Plateaus, an unorganized region between the Ruling Cities and the Asplundat Movement, in order to lure both sides into conflict with one another." Dhan moved aside one of his papers to stab a point on a map of the continent. "House Crimson was one of the only organizations here to learn of this, and they are moving for reasons unknown. Worse, Wiltur may have informed the Order of the Deepest Blue. Even if this is unrelated, they're going to use this to recruit more followers. They may have already begun in the Asplundat Movement."
