Skyvenom: Chapters 14-15 (Patreon)

Here are your chapters for this week.

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Chapter 14

Soon enough all of the Deuxans had tossed their armaments into one of the ambush holes and surrendered. The weaker ones were sent back to another hole, where they would be out of the way, while the Authorities and some of the others who were more important grouped together on the surface.

Part of Theo wanted to make them stay on their knees, but he decided that would be unwise. This group didn't seem capable of fighting them, and rubbing Deuxan pride in the dirt could have negative consequences. The whole point of the convocation of souls was to limit warfare to more civilized methods, and considering that those rules prevented Strongholds from assaulting them directly, it made sense to play along.

"Explain yourselves," Theo called out to the group. "What are you doing in Southern Ostic?"

"Oh, we're here to attack you," the male Authority said. "Technically this might be Southern Ostic, but look at it. Nobody cares too much about wasteland like this."

"And why try to attack us? Didn't we prove ourselves against your Stronghold?"

"I refused to believe you humiliated Sartozi aima Occoire." The female Authority at least had the decency to look ashamed. "I still can't believe you could fight such a powerful soulcrafter... but... clearly we underestimated you greatly."

Her male counterpart nodded. "Didn't they explain the rules? This is a Stronghold-level convocation, so Authorities can still fight each another. We thought that, even if we couldn't beat you, we could weaken your group so you lost standing in the convocation."

"How convenient," Nauda said contemptuously. She still held her staff carefully, ready to bind them if they tried anything - the ambush at Nlukoko had left an impression on her as well.

"It's the truth! Honestly!"

As far as Theo understood the rules, they were indeed telling the truth, so he gave Nauda a slight nod and she backed off. Convocations of souls avoided the worst collateral damage, they didn't prevent both sides from using every dirty trick in the book. Almost anything was fair game if it worked... and this hadn't. Theo wasn't sure if there were protocols for this situation, but it was definitely a victory for them.

"If Authorities can fight one another," Theo said slowly, "then why shouldn't we just kill you now?"

"Wait, please, no!" The female Authority gasped out the words as if she fully expected him to make good on his threat. "It's... it's in your best interest to ransom us back to our court! You've proved your strength, you're better off letting us demonstrate that!"

Theo put on his most ruthless expression as he examined them, as if he was the person he'd tried to be when he first returned to the Nine Worlds. "What you've proved is that Occoire Court is our enemy and will ambush us repeatedly. Considering that you've already shown willingness to use numbers against us, and you have more Authorities, we should start cutting those numbers down now."

"You can't possibly fight the whole of Occoire!" One of the Rulers leapt forward, fists clenched, but Theo didn't need Fiyu's senses to tell that the man was just blustering. When Theo turned to look at him, the Ruler took a rapid step back.

"You can gain riches and sublime materials in return for our lives." The female Authority wrung her hands together, eyes locked on his. "Do you really think we'd attack you again?"

"And Occoire Court isn't your enemy," the male Authority threw in. When Theo glanced at him sharply he hastened to explain. "Not entirely. Your real enemy is Esaire ai Armeau, right? Sartozi only helped him as a favor to larger powers. If sticking his neck out for some nobody isn't in his best interest, he won't keep pitting himself or us against you."

"Now you've gotten my interest," Theo said. "Exactly how did your court come to be involved in all this?"

"Clemency first! We'll give you... let's say one thousand Silver Crowns and all the military intelligence we have. Surely that's a fair deal?"

While Theo pretended to think about the offer, he realized that he didn't know. He understood the general rules of the convocation, but he wasn't a Deuxan native, so he couldn't judge the finer details. It had been a long time since he thought about the local currency, but he remembered they had wanted to buy a flying sleigh worth two thousand of these Silver Crowns.

So was one thousand a reasonable ransom? Theo wasn't sure and didn't particularly care, not compared to military intelligence. Maybe these random Authorities wouldn't know much, but if they could resolve all the ambiguity, that would be a significant weight off his shoulders.

"No!" Krikree said suddenly. "Not trust, kill!" She didn't look at Theo, but she emitted [Trick?] in his direction.

"Maybe you're right," Theo said with exaggerated consideration. "We need military intelligence, but how can we guarantee you won't feed us misinformation? Eliminating opponents is an unambiguous benefit."

"Kill!" Krikree pulled out her Fithan pickaxe and Arbaian warhammer to wave them around wildly. She looked absolutely bloodthirsty, but she was emitting [Trick!] the entire time.

"You fool!" The female Authority shoved her counterpart down and returned to begging Theo. "We're sorry for trying to deceive you - four thousand Silver Crowns for our lives, plus the military intelligence!"

"And a sublime antidote!" Her counterpart spoke up from the ground desperately, as if for the first time realizing this wasn't a game. "You were poisoned by your enemy, right? I don't know the poison, but I know what antidote he used to reduce the harm to himself!"

Theo stroked his chin. "An interesting offer, but I have no way to verify that antidote. It could easily be another way to harm me, or simply an analgesic that doesn't help the poison itself."

"F-five thousand! And I have more, maybe you can use some of my sublime materials!"

The others had been watching, the Deuxans in fear and Senka floating in back with a malicious grin. Fiyu's head swiveled back and forth between them; she must understand the basics, but she wisely remained quiet. Nauda, meanwhile, took that moment to slam her staff into the ground and lean on it, looming over some of the surrendered soulcrafters.

"Those strike me as reasonable terms for the Authorities, but what about the rest of you?" She smiled with clearly false pleasantness as she leaned closer. "Somehow I don't think you all planned to let us go home unharmed with a little ransom."

"I have five hundred!" One of the Rulers desperately pulled out a sack of money and the others followed suit, bringing forth money and various sublime materials. A few looked promising, but others threw out bricks and other materials that were honestly just pathetic.

This was further than Theo had planned to go, but no sense pulling back now that they were committed to this path. Honestly, the Deuxans might respect them more for engaging in extortion. If enacting a serious cost for this ambush meant fewer in the future, that was a win as far as he was concerned.

Eventually they had an uncertain amount of money and a pile of sublime materials. The Deuxans still looked anxious, and Theo didn't think that Krikree alone inspired that fear, so it must be believable that opponents would simply kill them and take everything anyway. The convocation was a form of war, after all.

But these random Deuxans weren't their enemy, and ruthlessness without purpose was simply foolishness. Theo looked over the assembled ransom and started to nod when he was interrupted.

"I also think that we should kill them." Fiyu nodded slowly with her best stern face. "They are bad people and it would be safer to eliminate them."

"Fiyu-queen good!" Krikree agreed, brandishing her weapons. "Kill! Kill and eat! Eat then kill!"

"Another thousand!" The female Authority desperately revealed another sack. "That's more than we have, we'll have to go back home to ask our parents! The family can afford it, but if you push so hard, it will ruin our reputations. Please... isn't this enough?"

"Perhaps." Theo looked over the assembled items and money like they were trash, then leaned in to focus on them. "More importantly, I want to know exactly what's going on in Occoire Court, and why you're getting involved with our conflict."

The story tumbled out from a dozen voices. These Deuxans clearly didn't know the inner details, but they threw out so many that Theo was confident that their words weren't coached lies.

It seemed that Anguedan was viewed as a backwater, but Esaire had arrived with support from some more powerful faction. Some thought it was Accilonia as the biggest court on the continent, others argued that it had to be someone bigger like the Demon Court - Theo assumed the latter and kept that to himself. Either way, this support had convinced Sartozi to take action on behalf of a smaller family.

He had expected to end the conflict instantly by virtue of his strength and been taken aback by the resistance, even humiliated to fight against mere Authorities. Afterward Sartozi had been seeking allies and was apparently finding others influenced by either Accilonia or the Demon Court, yet something was slowing down the process. There were many rumors about what and Theo strongly suspected they were all misinformed.

One thing the group did know for certain was the reason for their presence: they had actually been sent into Southern Ostic as part of the conflict with Greater Ostic. That was some squabble that had nothing whatsoever to do with Theo or Esaire, they'd just happened to stumble across the raiding party. Other than that, the group didn't seem to know much.

They were allowed to regroup and leave without being threatened any more, since Theo didn't want to come off as a barbarian. He wanted to incentivize the other Deuxans to take them seriously, not to retaliate against an enemy that fought without quarter. Nauda was better at the soft touch, so he retreated to count up everything they had acquired in their victory.

The sublime materials would take time to analyze, so he focused more on the money: nearly ten thousand Silver Crowns in all. He'd been dismissive of money for a while now, since you could only buy sublime materials for so long, but here he suspected he could find more uses for it.

[Krikree trick enemy beetles.] She skittered up beside him and began sniffing at some of the sublime meat in the pile.

[Not princes or queens?] Theo asked. Krikree glanced at the Authorities and her antennae twitched.

[Just beetles.] Krikree chewed on the meat for a while and seemed happy, except her antennae seemed to be drooping strangely. [Krikree plan trick. Krikree smart?]

[Of course Krikree smart.] Theo scratched her hair by her antennae and tried to emit the pheromones lightly, like he didn't even think about it. Ever since the breakthrough in Slest she had seemed more determined, but he was never sure how fragile that progress might be.

They could have remained like that for a while, but it seemed like Nauda and Fiyu were still wrapping things up. Since he was still too focused on the politics to sort through the sublime materials, Theo decided to distract Krikree instead. He picked up one of the Silver Crowns and held it up beside her.

[We do need these, but how did you know that?]

[Is food,] Krikree emitted without stopping her chewing.

[I'm not...] Theo realized he wasn't sure what pheromones could possibly work in this situation. [You know these are Silver Crowns?]

[Fungible medium of exchange. Can be anything, can be food. Navim-thinkrock teach.]

[I suppose that's true. So if Slescans exchange food, is food actually money?]

[Food is food.] Krikree regarded him from the corner of her eyes as if he was being strange.

And he supposed that since food had a fundamental use, she had a point. He wondered whether their entire exchange was tolerable within the Deuxan rules, or whether they were some sort of outside context problem. The Deuxan courts were a high context society with elaborate customs, so their group of Slescans, Tatians, and Ichili - not to mention himself and Senka - was like a bull in a china shop. Or Krikree in a meat shop, perhaps.

Still, even as he looked at everything they'd earned, Theo couldn't be entirely satisfied. He couldn't see all the possible consequences of this action, so it was possible that he'd made another mistake that would cost in the future. Since he was playing by the rules, the Deuxans probably wouldn't hold a grudge, but how confident was he in that?

The last intelligence they needed was the location of other troops, and the best routes into Greater Ostic. Once there, they'd have to entreat a Stronghold to assist them, and Theo knew that negotiation wouldn't go so smoothly. He didn't know whether or not he'd made any mistakes, but he supposed he was going to find out soon.

Chapter 15

As they returned to their journey, Fiyu noted changes to the landscape, but it was her inner landscape that proved most distracting. She was playing a game where the rules themselves changed so much that she could never feel completely comfortable. The rules of unlimited warfare were simpler, and in some ways that was easier.

Still, she hoped that she had done well supporting her friends. They now had more assets than they had before, and most importantly a military map of the region. With that information, they had turned north toward Greater Ostic, using a more efficient path that avoided all other Deuxan parties and would, with luck, take them to their destination soon.

And yet she still couldn't forget about the deceptions involved. Of course, deception was not unusual when dealing with enemies, but the manipulation was still very unfamiliar to her. Fiyu sat her in her seat and turned the matter over and over in her mind while she soulcrafted.

"You doing okay?" Friend Nauda climbed over the previous seat to side beside her.

"I am soulcrafting," Fiyu said, somewhat foolishly. She emerged to look at the other woman. "When I am feeling distraught, how can you tell?"

"Something about the way you sit, though I'm not sure what." Friend Nauda smiled and placed a hand over hers. "You've just seemed a bit on edge ever since the encounter."

"The battle was simple, but it seems that we will have more negotiation encounters. I am... not very skilled with those. Was my participation... adequate? I never feel certain if I am doing too little or too much when it comes to other worlds."

"You did fine." Friend Nauda rubbed her hand encouragingly. "Our group is so far outside what Deuxans know, they'll have trouble judging us. Maybe we should play things more cautiously when we negotiate with the leaders, though. Not just you, Theo and I don't have enough background information to be experts here either. We could use a Deuxan friend or ally."

It was always strange to hear Friend Nauda use such terms so freely. Fiyu only nodded in agreement, since the sentiment was true but there was nothing that could be done about it. Or perhaps... were their actions going to this new court an attempt to acquire long term allies? She wasn't sure if that was a meaningful thing to say or foolish. Silence between them was never uncomfortable, but she did wish that she knew how to fill it.

"Did you find anything useful in all those sublime materials they gave us?" Friend Nauda asked.

"Oh, yes, I did!" Fiyu stepped back into her soulhome just long enough to pull out the strange silver-gold mirror. "This is called a filtermirror. It is exceptionally good at catching and reflecting cantae flows of any sort, so it can be used to redirect cantae in ways that would otherwise not be possible."

"That's intriguing, but your soulhome is entirely smooth flows. Seems like it would be more useful for a much worse soulcrafter."

"Perhaps in general, but I think it will be very helpful for my Immortality Conduit. I will have three lines of cantae spiraling together all at once, and though they would not have lost too much in the original design, this will make the system even more closed. I will not be able to use this soon, but I have placed it in my soulhome so it will be prepared for later."

It was remarkable to be able to speak to another person - aside from Relative Guchiro - who understood her soulhome so intimately that she could say such things without explanation. Even more so that she was happy to share such things. Fiyu immediately began to think of Friend Nauda's soulhome and all the items that had been discarded.

"I suppose that you took that sublime beast skull? Was there anything else?"

"Even more seeds." Friend Nauda gestured at her heart, trusting Fiyu understood as well. "There are some interesting sublime plants that allegedly grow stronger based on your tier. Since I'm already developing the ground between my towers, I'm trying to grow those, starting with a fruit tree."

"And is that going well?" Fiyu asked. "I recall you had some troubles."

"A few, but whenever a plant turns out too weak, I just turn it into mulch to enrich the dirt. I don't know if it will ever be enough for a basement, but at least I'm developing a strong garden."

They continued to speak of their soulhomes and future plans. As a whole, defeating the group of Deuxans had been a great boon for them. Associate Krikree had especially acquired a large number of sublime materials that she eagerly worked into her soulhome. She still required more polishing and secondary materials, but she was close to having entirely remodeled her first three floors and refined them to a high level.

Only Friend Theo had received little, and he did not seem distraught. He refused to take the antidote pill he had been given until they could speak to an expert, which seemed a reasonable precaution given that their other poison-reduction efforts were sufficient. Fiyu spoke more with Friend Nauda, but she was eager to see what happened when Friend Theo broke through to open his basement.

Within a few days of travel north they reached the desert, and as the land grew sandier with every day, Fiyu watched in fascination. She had experienced deserts before, in the Emptydark or many times on Arbai, but the Deuxan ones were unique. Instead of irregular fragments of stone, the sands appeared to be formed from spherical pieces of metal.

Traveling with Friend Nauda, Fiyu could even see them through her eyes - literally, prioritizing her vision over other senses. Dunes of silvery gold sands rolled into the distance, shining almost molten in the day and serenely cool at night. It was so peaceful that Fiyu even removed her mask for a time and watched the sands. At times she could see the moon reflected in it, rippling over the dunes as if it was a living beast.

The days became increasingly hot and unpleasantly bright, however. One day Friend Nauda came closer and made a little tent over her, which also helped with the wind.

"This is better, Nauda," Fiyu said with a smile. She wanted to keep the other woman close by, so she fumbled for a topic. "Can you sense much life in the desert? It feels very consistent to me, but there are more moving masses than I anticipated."

"There's a lot more than I expected," Friend Nauda told her. "Those metal spires you see occasionally are actually plants, ones with surprisingly deep roots. And there are all kinds of animals, though they burrow or hide when we get close. It's shockingly alive, for a desert."

"Deserts aren't actually dead," Friend Theo said over his shoulder. "They're living ecosystems with complex life, they just usually get a bad reputation because they aren't favorable to our sort of life."

"Maybe so, but the Arbaian deserts we've seen seemed pretty lifeless."

"Same principle, different appearance, I think. Arbai has its own sort of life."

"Words imprecise!" Associate Krikree had been soulcrafting, but now emerged with her antennae stretching high. "Navim-thinkrock say 'desert' is many things. Real desert is alive, Arbai or other place. But sometimes area dead, people call desert. Not!"

"There are cantae deserts too." Betrayer Senka sat up, yawning. "Sometimes an area has no life, but it has useful sand or other sublime materials. If that happens, it can still be a locus of civilization, because people will bring in supplies to get at the materials. But if there aren't any, or it gets mined out, and there isn't any agriculture..."

Friend Theo nodded as if this connected with one of the strange facts he knew. "Then you get a real wasteland. That explains how Greater Ostic can be a powerful court in the desert, but there's a completely uninhabited region further to the west."

It was nice that everyone knew so much about deserts. Fiyu always felt positively toward her allies, but it was especially pleasant to know that they were knowledgeable traveling companions. If there were no demons, no betrayers, and no threats, it would be lovely to simply continue traveling with them forever.

Unfortunately, their journey could soon end. Fiyu feared that when they moved from the desert to civilization, everything would become much worse.

~ ~ ~

Now that they had entered Greater Ostic proper, Theo again felt the limits of his Deuxan knowledge. They weren't doing anything illegal, but were they violating social norms by pushing toward the capital instead of announcing themselves in some way? So far no one had tried to stop them and their brief visits to cities had been entirely civil.

Greater Ostic was definitely a far more important region than Anguedan had ever been. They passed multiple cities that seemed to have at least one Authority, which meant they had a larger and stronger court than Anguedan did, until recently. As he understood it, each of those had a court that dealt with their own affairs, but they also sent representatives to Greater Ostic Court, where they met under the power of a Stronghold.

Their entire reason for this trip, and if not their ally, their next major problem.

Other than confirming what he already knew - that Greater Ostic had a female Stronghold who was an active player in the region and a rival to Sartozi - they didn't gain much useful information from the cities. Theo was beginning to wonder if hurrying so much was a mistake when he saw something strange on the horizon. It almost looked like a smudge at first, but...

"Fiyu, is that what I think it is?"

She actually looked in his same direction, which was unusual for her, but it was her other senses that gave her the answer. "Yes, I fear that is a great storm of sand. You are concerned?"

"Yes, I don't want to see what these little metal pellets will do at high speed." Theo tapped his fingers along the driving crystals as he considered his mental map. "Cities must have a way through these, but I don't think we've seen one recently enough."

"I doubt it can hurt us," Nauda said as she joined the conversation. "I'd be more worried about damage to the sleigh. Surely we can shield it somehow?"

"No doubt we can pull something together, but there won't be much time to test before the storm gets here."

Before they could jury rig a shield, something else arrived first: a golden vessel streaking over the dunes directly toward them. It had runners along the bottom like an Anguedan sleigh, but the top was completely closed. Theo divided his attention between the storm and the new vehicle, just in case, but when it got close, a woman emerged from a metal plate. Deuxan, Authority tier, looked local.

"Hey there," she said.

Everyone stared back, surprising by the laid back greeting.

"We would have given you more of an escort," she continued, "but the storm made us hurry. Please come with us and we'll keep you from getting so much as a scratch. No point mucking up such a nice sleigh, right?"

"You're here on behalf of Greater Ostic Court?" Theo asked. It could be a trick, and if the woman lied, Theo wanted her to have to lie to his face.

"Oh, we just call it Ostic Court, because we include all the sub-courts. No point putting on airs." The woman floated out of her vehicle to approach them, her expression still apparently casual. "But yeah, Aima Nourise sent me to escort you to her. We presume that you're looking for allies in your convocation of souls?"

"You presume correctly."

The new Authority looked them over with a flat silver gaze. "I can't believe the three of you actually fought Sartozi aima Occoire long enough that he acknowledged you. Or, I should say... it's difficult to believe."

"If you have that news, surely you have news of how we fought him."

"It may not be obvious through your soul translation, but here the words 'news' and 'propaganda' are nearly the same thing. I know what was claimed, and I'm saying I'm skeptical. Are you that strong of Authorities? Which of the Three Masterworks have you attained?"

Even though Theo assumed he knew what she meant, better to be sure instead of arrogant: "What do you mean by the Three Masterworks?"

"A Corporeal Floor, an Ethereal Floor, and a basement. If you aren't familiar with the Three Masterworks, I fear you may be in over your heads." The woman didn't sneer the way most Deuxans might, but as her eyes flickered over them lazily, Theo thought he saw her opinion shifting.

Once Theo would have been angrier at being disrespected, but he felt nothing now, and not simply because he had greater knowledge of the Five Transcendent Monuments. The fact that this woman scorned them was just useful information about her, her assumptions, and her court.

He was careful not to make the same mistake and underestimate her. She had a perfect shielding wall that left him only knowing that she was an Authority, but he strongly suspected that she hadn't broken her soulhome ascending to that tier. Even though he was more focused on Strongholds these days, he couldn't neglect that fact that exceptional Authorities could still be a problem for them.

"I have a completed Corporeal Floor." Fiyu spoke calmly into the silence. "If you do not believe me, I can demonstrate it on you."

"No need for that." The Authority immediately gave them all a relaxed smile and raised her hands to either side. "Normally I might test you, but the Aima asked to meet you personally. If you'll be so kind as to follow me, I can escort you through the storm and straight to Central Ostic."

Both sides returned to their vehicles and began flying again. Just as the Authority had promised, the storm didn't touch them, instead flashing off some sort of barrier produced by the golden vessel. The result was a surreal experience, like they traveled through a cross section of a metallic sandstorm.

Even though that storm would have been the perfect time for an ambush, after the initial encounter, their escort was nothing but polite. Well, polite and far more relaxed than the average Deuxan. Still, Theo tensed up the closer they came to their destination. It might turn out that Deuxan allies were more dangerous than Deuxan enemies.