Archcrafter: Chapters 34-36 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

Well, A Hollow Mountain is off to an odd start. I won't complain that the sales of The Brightest Shadow have actually been up higher than the new release, but it's a pattern I haven't seen before and I don't know what to expect. In case any early readers see this, please leave a review if possible! Not many seem to be going through, for some reason.

In TWC news, expect a post with some new cover options tomorrow. Three posts in one weekend, I know. This is the longest book in the series so far, but we're still getting close to the end. Some fun bits in these chapters too, so I hope people enjoy. ^-^

-

Chapter 34

Generally, when they soulcrafted together, Theo used Nauda's technique to check in on their progress. That day, he needed absolute focus, so he remained within his soulhome with the door closed, almost no awareness of the outside world. Senka was blessedly absent - he'd seen her perhaps once since they'd returned - and the other two provided a degree of security so he could concentrate.

He did have some idea what they were doing. Nauda was continuing to improve a chamber dedicated to her staff, as well as trying to enhance her nullstone. Fiyu was polishing yet more details as well as working on the roof to prepare for Archcrafter, if not trying to ascend. But he set both aside, because it was time.

Theo stood in the center of his soulhome, staring up at the singularity spinning above him. It was an unusually powerful core for his tier, and just using the techniques he'd developed in his corner chambers would be enough to make him above average. He didn't need to be above average, he needed to be exceptional, so it was time to bring his entire blueprint together.

With a deep breath, he began drawing every chamber of his soulhome together, a single complex flow that he'd never have been able to do in his first life. Average techniques drew on two chambers: a core source of cantae and a chamber to apply it. Strong techniques would add cantae from above or below, maybe even support rooms, using three or four chambers at once.

His singularity was going to draw eight into his central column.

They all flowed together relatively easily, which he'd expected since he'd been carefully selecting his sublime materials for a single purpose from the beginning. When he faltered briefly, it wasn't because of his soulcrafting, just a final mental barrier: his soulhome was unified, but he was still split between his first life, his life on Earth, and a thousand mirrored versions of who he could be now. One day he'd need to resolve that conflict, but for that moment he accepted it and pulled the technique together anyway.

The other eight chambers shivered as their cantae bled out into the voids being created as he drew everything into his core. Overhead, the shutters above his singularity slammed open and everything flooded upward, leaving his soulhome in a torrent.

In the real world, Theo raised his hands facing each other, expecting a useful failure... and a seed of darkness appeared between them. He'd honestly been expecting multiple attempts to refine the technique, and now he saw the singularity floating between his hands, drawing air and cantae into it.

Startled, Theo lost focus and the singularity dissipated. He found himself smiling in satisfaction, glad to have validated his new blueprint. After so long focusing toward this technique and bending everything he had toward it, the final step came together smoothly. Of course, nothing that powerful could be used easily, but now that the soulcrafting theory was confirmed sound, the rest was just a matter of training.

"I'd like to show you something." Theo spoke softly, expecting to need to get their attention and let them finish their work. Instead, he found both Nauda and Fiyu already staring at him from their positions.

"You've finally finished soulcrafting?" Nauda asked. Theo grinned as he got to his feet.

"Never. But my soulhome has advanced far enough to support a singularity."

Fiyu rose to her feet, smiling encouragingly. "What I felt was very strange. I believe I have understood your explanations, but they remain unfamiliar to me."

"It's a bit of a difficult concept, especially trying to recreate it by soulcrafting." Theo knew that what he'd created was several steps removed from a true singularity, but some of those were necessitated by the nature of cantae and others would hopefully make it easier to actually control. "I need the two of you to help me test it, because it's going to be difficult to use in actual combat, at least for now."

He felt Nauda examining his soulhome and let her. Several seconds later, she nodded to herself. "I see what you mean about your soulhome needing a third floor to create a full sphere. Until then, I'm guessing it's going to be a bit slower?"

"Hopefully not too slow to use. I need to improve that and test its limits."

Theo concentrated, this time accessing the technique without returning to his soulhome. What he was attempting to create was a relatively small singularity, but even that consumed his cantae at a terrible rate. Creating one at full power would be a challenge and he doubted that he could manage more than two, even under ideal conditions. Until he ascended further, this would be a final technique.

Manifesting another small singularity, however, was easy enough, and this time he held it stably between his hands. The others peered at the dark speck, noting how everything flowed inward. Though Nauda seemed merely interested, Fiyu shivered and took a step back.

"It is... I have never felt anything like this. My senses don't know how to react. It is impossibly dense, like a pit that descends so deep that I cannot see the bottom..."

"Infinitely deep, if I got it right." Theo had been wondering what she would see, but if it felt infinitely dense to her, then that was a good sign he'd pulled it off. Meanwhile, Nauda started to raise her staff to poke it, so he had to stop her. "I wouldn't test with anything you value. Do we have something else?"

"I think so." Nauda ran to the side and grabbed a board that young trainees used to practice simple physical techniques. "I'll just pass it through, I guess."

He separated his hands further to give her space and Nauda swung the board against the singularity with more cantae than he'd expected. It passed through cleanly and she brought up the board, staring at the hole that had been torn in it. When Nauda poked it against the singularity directly, the board was immediately torn apart by the event horizon, consumed without the singularity becoming even slightly unstable.

That was good, but Theo searched futilely for time dilation. There might not be any visible, given the size of the singularity. For that matter, there wasn't much of an accretion disc, just the darkness of the event horizon, and he'd need to do further testing to find out whether or not his technique needed refinement. What mattered most was that it wasn't draining him to maintain the singularity, not with it sucking in everything around it.

"Could it pass through anything?" Fiyu asked, eyes wide even through her mask.

"Not yet, unfortunately," Theo said. "The black hole is ultimately made from cantae, and the gap to Authority is too large. Once I ascend that far, it might be able to threaten anyone, but that's in the future." He relaxed his sober analysis and allowed himself to grin. "But this would definitely pierce straight through a Ruler, no matter their cantae."

"And so you have your strategy for the duel." Nauda tapped her staff on the ground as she watched the singularity thoughtfully. "So you're going to fire the sphere at a vulnerable target?"

"Actually, probably not. Even this small version is proving difficult to move." Theo could shift the black hole slightly by moving his hands, but it required focus and drained his cantae. His fingers curled in, forming somewhat of a cage around it, and if he moved them too far away, the technique threatened to become unstable.

With assistance from the others, Theo ran a few more experiments. Anything manifested by his own cantae wouldn't hurt him, so he could touch it harmlessly, but Fiyu and Nauda felt it drain their cantae if they got too close. Cantae bolts fired against it were absorbed instantly, actually strengthening the black hole. A constant stream of cantae attacks couldn't overwhelm it, unlike many techniques based on absorption. He was reasonably confident that anything short of a developed technique by an Authority would only feed into the technique, but it had another limitation.

"Fiyu, I need you to hit me with a light burst." Theo walked several paces away, pulling the black hole along with him. It seemed to grow spiritually heavier the longer it existed, so he was doubly glad for his wormhole chamber. "I need to know its full range."

"I will try to be gentle." Fiyu removed a pair of silver bracers he hadn't noticed before and stepped into place across from him, palms raised. He let more of his cantae flow into it, increasing the darkness to roughly the size of a fist.

Her first burst of light was much too modest, a stream aimed directly at the black hole. Not only were those that struck it absorbed, others curved inward, drawn in by the spiritual gravity. Nauda whistled, but Fiyu focused and widened her arms a little, preparing a broader assault.

Though a large portion of her blast fell into the event horizon, it didn't extend far enough to protect his full body, and some bolts were actually bent inward in his direction. Theo fell backward as the bolts burned against his cantae and his focus collapsed... but the singularity endured for a while longer, growing larger and soaking up cantae in midair before finally disappearing.

"So it's not unstoppable." Nauda stepped over to offer him a hand up and pulled him back to his feet. "You said you would create a large one - would that protect you?"

"This is a secondary effect. It's not a defensive technique." Even though Theo was starting to feel drained of cantae, he thought he could manage at least one more miniature singularity. "Let me show you the last aspect."

He repeated the technique, which came a little faster this time. Something this potent would never become instantaneous, but he could reduce the time it took to generate with practice. Most importantly, he finally planned to use his wormhole chamber. It had been simply feeding gravitational cantae into his core from the beginning... but now it was going to do something more.

Once he had another singularity between his hands, Theo took a deep breath and focused... and then clapped his hands together around it, fingers interlocked.

A grinding explosion sounded to their left and they jumped in surprise, even Theo. He'd intended to tunnel the singularity to a point in the air above them. Instead, it whirled in the middle of one of the roofs surrounding the training courtyard. It had been built from sublime materials, but those were rapidly falling into the event horizon. As the intensity of the technique increased, more pieces of the roof began to tear free, rapidly orbiting around the black hole, which grew, and grew...

Theo quickly released the technique before it could deal serious damage to the Blacksilver complex. Some accidents during training were to be expected, so hopefully they wouldn't deduct any merits.

Abruptly he realized that he was still thinking like his life depended on merits. Now that he'd finally created his singularity, he no longer desperately needed every scrap he could find. Of course, that was no reason not to continue optimizing, since he still needed more edges for his duel against Esaire. Yet he felt that the first chapter of his new life had finally come to a close.

"Well done, Theo." Fiyu smiled at him and brought her hands together. "It is an extraordinary technique. I hope it will allow you to survive the duel."

"You don't have too many of those in your soulhome, do you?" Nauda regarded him thoughtfully, then shook her head. "Well, you know what you're doing. Can we help you get it ready for the fight?"

"Generating it now is one thing, but in a fight is another," Theo said. "I'll need you to seriously threaten me so I can get used to creating it under pressure. But for right now... right now, I think I need a nap."

His soulhome exhausted, Theo laid back on the hard marble of the courtyard and was asleep almost instantly.

-

Chapter 35

Though Theo was incredibly busy, he couldn't possibly fail to notice the upcoming date when he had only one month left before the duel. He wasn't sure if the past five months felt like far more or far less time. In any case, he couldn't afford to let himself get distracted by the impending deadline.

Training with Nauda and Fiyu had been mostly successful, getting him used to manifesting his singularity even when being threatened. Unfortunately, he couldn't improve endlessly with just brute effort, and the technique was definitely going to require strategy to employ effectively. Fighting the two of them together, he only managed to gather enough cantae half of the time, and with their awareness of the technique, they might have been able to dodge even if he aimed for them. Certain steps would be too slow until he ascended and he'd have to work around that.

Perhaps the biggest problem was that the two of them combined weren't the same sort of threat as Esaire, who would be coming at him with focused speed and a Ruler's cantae. Theo didn't know anyone who was the same sort of soulcrafter, and didn't want to over-train against a single expected opponent anyway. That was a good way to develop rigid thinking instead of actual skills.

Still, he had another trial to pit himself against: one more quarry run with House Teal. This would be the last one he could attend before the duel, so he intended to make the most of it. Hopefully Nauda and Fiyu could sneak in, then he'd see if he could manage a singularity even in the whirlwind with attacks from all sides.

"Is something different about this time?" Theo had been distracted by overall plans while they drove out to the quarry, but Nauda leaned forward, shielding her eyes. "You notice anything, Fiyu?"

"There are more people than the two times I attended." Fiyu had been driving to let him soulcraft more, and now frowned along with Nauda. "They feel like an average group of soulcrafters, but they are much more tense than normal."

"Huh. I wonder if we're missing something."

That might be, but Theo didn't notice anything that struck him as substantially different. No Tythes, Esaire, or strange outsiders lurking in the crowd - more Fithans than usual, if anything. The House Teal official was the same Lady Baryara as always, standing in the same dignified pose. Fiyu was right about the tension in the crowd, however, which was visible in their faces in addition to whatever details she detected.

Fortunately, no one challenged the presence of Nauda and Fiyu. They'd probably be disqualified if they were noticed by Lady Baryara, but Theo didn't care about that in the slightest. He wondered if he could taunt some other soulcrafters to get them to come after him and increase the difficulty further.

"House Teal, in its wisdom, has decided to bestow a greater gift than our usual." Lady Baryara actually skipped her usual speech, a new tone of confidence in her voice. "We have increased the intensity of the whirlwind and the draining effect within the quarry, but we also offer a greater prize: a Chasm Invitation."

Immediately Theo's priorities shifted. He couldn't overlook the chance to acquire a second Invitation without a huge expense, even for the sake of training. As he took a second look at the soulcrafters around him, he realized that many were rough men and women, one large group even bearing weapons. No doubt some Houses had heard rumors of the prize and sent skilled soulcrafters to acquire it.

Fighting this many veterans might be beyond his abilities, but all he needed to do was win, and after nine hours in the whirlwind, Theo thought he had a chance. He turned back to his allies and spoke in a low voice. "Change of plans: don't enter, because I don't want to give them any reason to disqualify me. Stay alert in case anyone tries anything suspicious."

They nodded, and then there wasn't time for anything else, because Lady Baryara was clearly ready to announce the start. Theo stepped up to the side of the quarry as the whirlwind spun up to full speed. Unlike usual, nearly everyone else moved to the edge as well, some even putting a foot onto the slope, all ready for the signal.

"Begin!"

Theo leapt down the slope, like most of the others, but he also cast a gravitational field over himself. As a result, gravity pulled him down faster than the others, though several sprinted at nearly the same rate. He leapt across the base of the quarry, exerting his speed chambers to their fullest extent.

On the way, he lost ground to a Ruler who blazed forward. Some of the others might be faster than him, but that didn't mean they'd win. Theo was immensely familiar with the whirlwind by now, even in its intensified form, and he had never once tried to seriously win the competition.

He did now, slamming two gravitational fields down over the entire quarry as powerfully as he could generate them. Rocks began to plummet in their arcs and most of the others stumbled in surprise, but he hadn't applied it to himself. Instead, he cast the third field only around himself, reducing himself to a fraction of his normal weight as he sprinted up the side. A few rocks still spun at him, but he dodged with extra bursts of speed.

Then he was sprinting up onto the top, so fast that his reduced weight nearly sent him sailing off. He managed to stay back, releasing all his other fields. Around him, he saw a few who had managed to sprint through much of the whirlwind, but they had been focused on one another, not a lone Archcrafter who had ignored everything but the summit.

Seconds after the competition had begun, he stood in front of Lady Baryara, who stared at him in surprise. Since he'd stayed on the ground the entire time, she couldn't object, but she had clearly not expected the competition to end so quickly.

"Thank you for this opportunity," he said, doing his best Nauda impression. "Would you bless me with the Chasm Invitation now?"

The woman gave him a sour look, but she also pulled a piece of white marble from her robes. Other than being inscribed with the symbol of House Teal, it was identical to the one Fiyu had. That meant they only needed one more... but he had higher priorities.

Around them, one of the Rulers broke to the top to take second place. Many of the others fought with one another in the returning whirlwind, apparently interested in the monetary award, but he saw some of the strongest soulcrafters leaving. They could easily have reached the summit, clearly interested only in the Invitation. He could see the growing dissatisfaction on Lady Baryara's face and decided that his plans didn't need to change.

"If I understand correctly, your goal with this competition is to drain cantae for your ongoing mining operations. Since you have already kindled the whirlwind, would you permit me to train here until it fades? It would generate considerably more cantae for House Teal, so-"

"Fine." The woman pushed past him irritably, shooting one more glance in his direction. "If you steal so much as a single tornadogem, you will face House Teal's retribution."

That suited him fine. Theo looked across the whirlwind, which had restored itself to its full ferocity, and waved to Fiyu and Nauda. When he gestured downward, they understood, and both entered the quarry to meet at the bottom.

"I guess I need to get an Invitation now," Nauda said as they came together. Theo shook his head.

"Now that we only need one more, I'm sure we can find a way, even if we need to spend a lot to buy it. What I want to do is train like we planned. Between the new whirlwind and both of you, this might be a good test."

"Unlike the trial itself, which quailed before your might." Nauda smiled and spun her staff into a combat position. 

Meanwhile, he realized that Fiyu had disappeared... so she intended to fire at him from within her stealth technique. A perfectly valid strategy, and even if it didn't match what Esaire would do, he wanted to test his limits. Theo leapt back away from Nauda's first attempt to bind him, landing on the side of the inner slope to get distance from both of them.

The intensified whirlwind whipped rocks more quickly than before, and he couldn't afford to ignore it or dodge on instinct. That meant his attention was split in many ways, plus there were still soulcrafters training or trying to achieve another of the lesser awards.

He almost put them out of his mind, before he noticed a group of Archcrafters moving in his direction. They looked experienced and a bit angry, perhaps intending to steal his Invitation from him. Not wanting to deal with that at the moment, Theo put a reverse field beneath them to send the group out of the quarry.

All five glowed with a cloak of blue cantae and charged.

In that instant, Theo realized that he'd miscalculated. The cloak around them was unquestionably Esaire's technique to nullify gravity, which meant that this was no theft. Esaire hadn't just been preparing himself, he or his family had trained local mercenaries for this precise hit. None of them looked like pushovers, either, so this could be bad.

Then a storm of light crashed into the charging mercenaries and one of those in the air froze in place, then smashed into the ground. Trusting in his own allies, Theo threw out a hand and hit the first of them with gravitational torsion.

Thankfully, the cloak couldn't shrug off such a complex twisting field, but the Archcrafter he struck wasn't just some pawn of the Armeau family. He kept charging, despite the fact that the torsion broke one of his arms, and reached out with a technique.

If he'd been as slow as he was a few months ago, Theo wouldn't have noticed the stone melting beneath his feet in time. As it was, he barely sent himself upward in time to avoid the liquid stone rising upward to wrap around his legs.

The emergency retreat gave him no time to defend, and a few rocks slammed into him, but then he was high above the whirlwind looking down. He saw Nauda exchanging blows with two of the mercenaries, keeping them at bay but giving ground. Fiyu flickered in and out as she rained more lightstorms against their opponents, at least distracting them. Unfortunately, that left one focused on him and generating a significant amount of cantae.

Theo reversed his gravitational field and sent himself downward, a second before a beam of solid cantae tore through the air where he'd been. Unfortunately, the mercenary didn't look surprised, and he'd barely landed before he needed to leap aside from another solid beam. The sublime stone of the quarry wasn't immediately destroyed by it, but several boulders shattered and their fragments joined the whirlwind.

So their opponents were trained, prepared, and positioned facing the whirlwind. House Teal must have noticed, yet Lady Baryara had ignored the attack, perhaps as retaliation. As he dodged aside from the next cantae beam, Theo didn't like his odds.

-

Chapter 36

The mercenaries were good, better than Nauda had thought at first. Two or three of them could have overwhelmed her, if they hadn't been so singularly focused on Theo. She had assumed that they would be holding back, since murder was illegal here and any investigation would surely lead straight back to Esaire ai Armeau, yet they attacked with full fury.

Of course no one was coming to help them. She couldn't trust those who ruled here more than anywhere else.

Theo retreated through the whirlwind, casting his gravitational torsions, but their opponents were experienced and most had armament breastplates, so the strikes weren't devastating. He shifted to put Nauda between him and the mercenaries, which she thought was a cheap tactic... until she caught his gaze and a slight upward glance.

With her in their path, the mercenaries charged at her in a tight formation. She couldn't have stood up to them like that, but she didn't need to. Nauda hit them all with a wave of nullification, and in the moment their cloaks were disrupted, Theo sent all of them falling into the sky.

It was only a short time before they rebuilt their cloaks and dropped back down, but they fell surprisingly high in that time. Knowing that the landing wouldn't kill them, Nauda thrust out her staff and caught one, slamming him into the side of the quarry. The others landed heavily and were soon coming for her again, shoving aside an innocent soulcrafter who didn't understand that lives were on the line.

Just as Nauda began to strike for another of them, a nearby boulder snaked out, wrapping around her arm and hardening. She tried to pull free and realized too late that the stone was reinforced with her opponent's cantae. Even though Fiyu rained bolts down on the group, four of them peeled away to attack Theo and one came to finish off Nauda.

Her right arm was bound too firmly in place to easily pull free. Nauda grabbed at the stone with her left, pretending to be shocked, as the mercenary approached with a sword overhead. When he got close enough, she dropped her staff, catching it with her free hand and thrusting out.

The tines of it pierced his chest before the force bound him in place, leaving him frozen in that position of pain. Nauda tried to push him downward with one hand, but one of the other mercenaries clapped her hands together, releasing a shockwave that rippled through the whirlwind, sending innocent soulcrafters flying in all directions. Fiyu was caught as well, breaking free from her invisible sphere and tumbling back over the ground.

Nauda's opponent broke free and knocked her staff from her hands while she was still off balance, then swung down at her face. She barely managed to catch her staff with one foot and kick it back up, catching it just in time to freeze her opponent with his blade in front of her face.

Letting out a growl, the mercenary began to flood cantae through his body, breaking her binding and bringing the sword closer to her face. Off balance and with one arm still bound in the rock, it was all Nauda could do to hold him back, her strength ebbing as he leveraged his superior position...

Fiyu appeared behind him, her blade thrusting into the gap in his armor just above the neck. It wasn't a gory wound, but it must have penetrated deep, because the mercenary twitched and then dropped his sword. Its cantae dying, it deflected off Nauda and fell to the ground, though she couldn't hear it hit over the sounds of the whirlwind and the battle.

With a slight smile Fiyu moved beside her and tried to cut the rock binding her in place. After only a few attempts, it was obvious that even her focused cantae blade wasn't going to cut through the rock. She stepped back, dismayed.

There were four mercenaries still in play, so there was no time to hesitate. Nauda released a burst of nullification from her right arm and smashed her other fist into the stone where it looked weakest. She managed to break off the section that bound her arm, and as soon as it separated from the rest of the stone, it weakened enough for her to easily smash it apart.

"Fight from cover," Nauda told Fiyu. She left unsaid that Fiyu was at a disadvantage against such armored opponents, but she saw the sorrowful understanding in the other woman's eyes before she vanished into the wind. If only she had chosen her words better...

Where was Theo during all this? She was torn between anger that he hadn't helped and worry that the others had used their numbers to finish him... and then she saw him across the vortex.

A sphere of darkness hovered between his hands, thrumming with power, and this black hole was no training exercise. The other mercenaries sent out bolts of cantae, but they were all immediately sucked into the void. When the woman clapped her hands again, Nauda was forced a step back, but the force itself seemed to be consumed. Even the whirlwind itself was beginning to falter, a new pattern flowing around where Theo stood.

Then the stone beneath his feet rushed up, clamping around his legs. Theo grimaced in pain... and his hands swept closed.

When the black hole appeared in the center of the mercenaries, the vortex itself seemed to roar in pain. The soulcrafter that shaped stone was consumed instantly, Nauda seeing only a split second of their body being torn apart before it fell into the darkness and nothing remained. Standing nearby, the others tried to flee, but it seemed to pull them inward. Cantae began streaming from their bodies, fueling the black hole as it grew larger.

Though Nauda saw true fear in the mercenaries' eyes, they were strong enough to avoid instant death. One of them dug his sword into the ground to hold himself in place, another used a burst of force to push her out of range, and the third began crawling further away.

Nauda realized that they wouldn't make it... but that they would last longer than the others. All around the base of the quarry, innocent soulcrafters had fallen either in the whirlwind or during the battle. As the black hole grew in intensity, their bodies began to edge closer. If they were drawn in...

"Theo, stop!" Nauda leapt beside him, noting that he seemed completely mobile now that he had released the technique, breaking free from the dead stone and moving to attack. At first he didn't seem to hear her, and she hated the merciless gaze he turned toward the mercenaries. "This will kill everyone!"

Finally his gaze left his opponents and he saw the others. Unconscious soulcrafters were sliding faster now, some even lifting into the air. A few desperately attacked the black hole, their cantae only fueling it further. One young man screamed as he clutched the ground, his fingers turning bloody as he was dragged inexorably closer.

Nauda asked herself what she would do if Theo didn't relent and simply killed them all... but something shifted within him and he released the technique. The black hole collapsed inward and vanished.

For the first time since the whirlwind had begun spinning, the quarry was silent. A few groaned on the floor of the quarry, others wept or fled. The whirlwind itself seemed to have been destroyed, leaving the quarry filled with settling dust.

The mercenaries didn't hesitate any longer. A spherical shockwave hit them both, which they managed to push through, but they were immediately assaulted by a sweeping beam of cantae. Nauda managed to dodge aside, but it caught Theo in the shoulder and he was spun to the ground from the force.

On his knees, he raised his hands again to begin another technique, only to be knocked back by the next shockwave. Nauda thrust out her staff, binding the mercenary with the shockwaves in place.

Another lunged from the swirling dust and Nauda leapt back too late. His sword caught her side and part of her arm, opening a nasty wound. 

Nauda cried out in pain, staggering back and trying to avoid the next thrust. The swordsman was caught by a twisting field of gravity that knocked him backward, but Theo was exhausted and couldn't apply enough force to finish him. He managed to get to his feet, but she knew that his soulhome was nearly depleted.

Theo didn't say a word about the fact that they would have won if she hadn't stopped him. They simply glanced at one another, accepted the odds against them, and turned to face the mercenaries.

~ ~ ~

It was cruel and unfair. Fiyu knelt behind a rock that provided some cover from the horrible wind, wishing that someone would step forward to help them. There should have been guards, or allies from the Houses, or relatives who would prevent this ambush from occurring.

But there was no one. No one but her.

A tear touched the inside of her mask as she realized how little she could help her companions. Even with her new bracers, her bursts of light were insufficient against the mercenaries with their defensive chambers and armaments. She had been little more than a distraction, her strikes frequently failing utterly. Even the lethal blow she had landed with Friend Nauda's help had very nearly failed to pierce the mercenary's defenses.

There was no one but her... she had no choice but to make herself into someone who could help.

Fiyu balanced her sphere of silence around herself and then plunged into her soulhome. She hefted the eldenwood on her roof and managed to stand it upright, quickly racing to attach more support lines. 

It soon stood tall, driving into the heavens... but could she do the same? The top of the wood was beginning to crumble as the pressure tore into it. Outside, Fiyu could feel terrible forces racing across the battlefield, but she shut them out, focusing herself on this one thing.

She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the gnarled wood, lifting herself into the air. It was easy at first, bracing her body against the pillar, but with every handhold upward, the air grew thicker and it began to reject her. 

The peaceful shadows all around her began to whiten, light pouring down that she couldn't control. Though she tried to raise her defenses against it, here in her soulhome, her mask seemed useless, the brilliance blinding her. It was nothing like what she had expected, waves of light cascading down over her and attempting to throw her from the pillar.

For a time she clung to the side, regretting making the attempt. She should have waited for her relative to help her ascend, not attempted this madness. Fiyu wasn't like Friend Theo or Friend Nauda, striking out and making a new path. When she had journeyed somewhere new without guidance, she had only failed, and she would have died if her friends had not saved her.

Fiyu's hand rose against the light, grasping higher.

The pressure from the sky above struck her more forcefully with each step up, and the light burned into her skin. She had long ago become completely blind, feeling nothing but her path upward. Hand over hand, her skin cracking and burning in the light.

When her hand reached up and felt nothing, Fiyu nearly panicked before she realized that she had reached the top of the pillar. When she began to draw her cantae up into herself, she heard the pillar crack and begin to give way. Instead of faltering, she thrust her hand upward into the light and let out a scream.

And pierced through.

Darkness flooded down, wrapping her in its embrace. Suddenly she could feel again, her eyes soothed by the shadows that wrapped around her. The pillar was burning away, its task complete, but the cantae just kept flooding down. It filled her soulhome to the brim and overflowed, some of it disappearing into her soul and more gathering in the partial basin she'd built atop her roof.

Other parts of her soulhome had received slight damage, but the edges caught that flood briefly, holding it for her. As she landed on her roof, the touch of her soulhome restored her strength. Fiyu took a deep breath, grasped all the cantae above and below, and returned to the quarry.

There, she felt the world with new clarity, her senses reveling in an Archcrafter's strength. With them, she could easily feel her friends, innocents... and her enemies.

~ ~ ~

As Theo fell back yet again, he wracked his brain for a solution, but he was coming up short. Their opponents were fighting cautiously now, both afraid of him and confident that no one would attempt to stop them. Nauda had dealt a few good blows, but now bled from several more injuries. He had made several attempts to generate another singularity, all of them fizzling out in his empty soulhome.

Then Fiyu emerged and an onslaught of light exploded from her.

The swordsman was immediately blasted off his feet and smashed into one of the quarry walls, dropping with his armor smoking. Another mercenary clapped to generate another shockwave, but Fiyu's cantae seemed endless, bolts hammering into the shockwave and buckling it backward, a swath of light overcoming her.

Somehow the last mercenary leapt overhead, his armor in tatters, but still alive. He landed and launched a concentrated beam of cantae down at Fiyu... only to be met with a flood even more intense than all previous. It not only battered back his attack, the other bolts arced around it and smashed into him. His body was eclipsed by a searing stream of light, and when it faded, there was nothing left.

When Fiyu dropped her hands, there was again silence. She panted for breath, but when they turned to her, she smiled. Despite everything, Theo couldn't help but smile too, seeing her strength as an Archcrafter.

It didn't last long, because he saw one of the two remaining mercenaries twitch. "We need to kill them." He grabbed Nauda's shoulder, since she could do so most easily, but she resisted.

"Why not take them prisoner? Force them to say that Esaire's family hired them to kill us?"

"Could work, but they'd also reveal what they saw. We need to kill them before they can get word back to Esaire."

Her gaze met his without flinching, clearly thinking of all the other soulcrafters in the quarry. Was he going to kill all of them? As he truly considered the balance, Theo realized that it was hopeless and his secret was out. Even if he'd intended otherwise, the choice was taken away from him soon after that.

"Enough! House Teal will not stand for this any longer!"

Theo sneered toward the top of the quarry and saw why Lady Baryara had suddenly gained such confidence: the city guard had arrived. They appeared to have healers with them, but also a pair of Rulers who looked combat ready. He had only a short time before they began controlling the situation, so he turned his eyes to the surviving mercenaries and began walking toward them.

To his surprise, they screamed and rushed away, throwing themselves into the custody of the of the city guard.

"Will they see justice done?" Fiyu asked. "It is obvious that Esaire was responsible for the attack."

"They don't care." Theo dropped down to sit on the slope, his injuries and exhaustion finally catching up to him. "We could try to use their techniques as evidence, but they don't care about long trials here. I'm sure that Esaire hired them through a proxy and covered his tracks. Even if we proved a connection... they'd probably just tell us to settle it with a duel."

"Oh, I see."

"And now Esaire will know that I'm just an Archcrafter with a new technique." Realizing that he was being too self-absorbed, Theo forced himself to smile at Fiyu. "Congratulations, by the way. We couldn't have made it without your help."

She smiled and bobbed her head, but he could see the understanding in her eyes. Nauda dropped to the ground with a low groan and began checking her wounds and torn clothes. Soon Fiyu joined them and they waited in the quarry for a while.

Less than one month left.