Chasmfall: Chapters 23-24 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

Loads of announcements today:

• For those of you interested in JC Kang, he just released a new book. He's been a big supporter of me from near the beginning. ^-^
• Soulhome is officially the first of my books to hit 500 reviews! I was surprised that it beat Street Cultivation there, but the ongoing rush of attention to the first book swept it ahead. The next milestone is 1000 reviews... not sure if I can make it, but I'll keep forging onward!
• By coincidence, we've also passed 500 patrons here for the first time. Thank you all for your support!
• The audiobook deal for TWC is now confirmed, but I don't want to say anything about it until we're closer to revealing the first book. It should definitely be going forward, I'm just uncertain about when releases will happen. I think many of you will be happy, though.
• TWC is posting on RoyalRoad again. At minimum, I'll post the entire fourth book, but I'm not sure how the fifth will work. 

Anyway, this week's chapters have a return that's been planned since the first book! It may seem odd to have a character be absent for three books - I know some readers don't like it - but I hope that in the full scope of the series it will seem appropriate.

-

Chapter 23

Theo was just contemplating whether it was time to ascend when he felt the surge of cantae. Not Rulers this time, and not soulcrafters waging war far in the distance: it was an Authority burning in the chasm. To their south, but not for long at their speed.

By the time he opened his eyes back in the real world, he saw Mattan bounding toward them. His armor from the House of Burning Leaves had been dented, but he didn't look injured, and he'd been careful enough not to bring down any more chaos on them. Though the river would have harmed him, he didn't seem concerned, leaping from wall to wall as he rapidly approached the island.

All at once, he was overhead, hurling a javelin of solid cantae. Tythes moved faster than he had in days, vaulting out of his hammock and using the posts to knock the javelin out of the air. The cantae hissed into the river with only a mild spray, but it was enough for the enemy Authority to land on the island.

Mattan rolled his shoulders and neck, more cantae crackling his his hands. This time, he definitely wasn't running, but he didn't strike quite yet. "Tythes! Your father can't protect you any longer."

"This is kind of a bad time for me," Tythes said, flipping up the hammock posts as if he intended to use them like swords. "Can you come back? In, say, two or three days?"

As soon as they had noticed the invader, Nauda and Fiyu had wisely converged on Theo's position. Nauda took point with her staff, Fiyu was prepared to use her stealth technique, and Theo was ready with a gravitational field. None of that was particularly comforting when Mattan turned to look at them.

"Do you realize just how pathetic your protector really is?" Mattan sneered broadly enough to encompass the entire island. "You used to be the scion of House Crimson, but you've lived up to all the worst rumors. You're washed up, if your soulhome is even stable. You'd already have died if your father wasn't the leader of your House. There's nothing left of your promise but a pitiful cautionary tale."

"Hey!" Tythes thrust a post in his direction. "I resent the implication that I have a father!"

Mattan hurled another javelin, and though Tythes deflected it, he didn't look as confident as before. Though Theo hadn't heard those rumors, he immediately credited them as more than insults. There was something strange about the way Tythes fought, and certainly with his behavior. A severely damaged soulhome could explain that as well as hidden strength.

"I'm going to kill him, then I'm tearing the three of you apart." Mattan lifted his arm to shoulder height, a brighter javelin forming. "Just sit there and watch a real Authority fight."

"Nah." Tythes waved a hand in their direction and a wall of cantae swept them aside.

Theo felt a surge of panic as they flew out over the river, but they hadn't been knocked in. Instead they struck the chasm wall near a narrow ledge, large enough for them to land on. In midair, Fiyu wrapped them all in her cantae, so he helped redirect them to a different landing point, just in case Mattan targeted them after all. But neither Authority was looking away, instead facing off on the island.

At the first javelin of cantae, Tythes ducked underneath it and slammed both hammock posts down into the ground. They pierced deep... and this time he lunged forward, stepping onto them. The stone foundation of the entire island broke with a terrible crack and an instant later Tythes unleashed a burst of raw cantae into his opponent's face.

Mattan weathered the blast with a defensive shield, but it didn't matter. The entire upper half of the island, weakened by all of Tythes's behavior, went hurtling backward into the river. Tythes gripped the entire chunk, stone and building alike, in a fist of his cantae and let it sail merrily down the river.

As he went, he waved cheerfully to Mattan, then hopped up onto the building for the ride.

The other Authority was astonished for a moment, giving Tythes a significant head start. Theo was puzzled by how he managed to use his cantae to propel heavy stone in the midst of the Chasm, but he'd had plenty of time to experiment. Mattan howled and set off after him, jumping from wall to wall, but Tythes only needed to hurl lazy bolts of cantae backward to inhibit his progress.

Soon the two had vanished further down the river, the gap between them widening. Theo remained standing on the narrow ledge for a while, not entirely sure what to make of it.

"Do we need to move?" Nauda asked. "In case he comes back?"

"There's no way to go except forward, but not yet. We might catch up to the fight." Theo gestured toward the remains of the island, now a crater with water occasionally lapping over the sides. "I want to investigate what's left first. Fiyu, please keep your technique up at all times from now on. The fighting will probably get denser from here."

"Is there likely to be anything left? I don't like how close the river is now. A few big waves..."

"That's why now is our only chance to check." Since Fiyu nodded her agreement, Theo decided to jump back, and Nauda came with them in the end.

The crater that remained of the island was pure rock, stripped of the top layer that had formed. When he examined the edges, he found several familiar post shapes, the surfaces between them breaking like some kind of stress fracture. It had definitely been planned for some time, then, the question was if Tythes had ever been serious about the three of them opening the door or if this was just a contingency plan.

With anyone else, he would have assumed that riding an island down the river was a near suicidal play. Given the evidence, he assumed there was more behind it. Even though it was no longer their problem, he had to admire the audacity.

"This rock is itself a sublime material," Fiyu said quietly, kneeling to place one palm on the ground. "Very dense, with durable cantae. But it would only be good for bricks, and I am not sure how you would extract it."

"If we had an Authority," Theo said, "we might be able to pull the whole thing out."

"I am not sure. Even Tythes struggled to lift the stone, I believe. It is difficult to fly here."

The two of them began to examine the remnants of the island more carefully. Theo had been hoping that the building had a basement level, or that part of the bottom had torn off and scattered the contents within. There was no sign of the building, however, only a right angled indentation that must have been the space where part of the foundation had been torn away.

"How much longer are we staying here?" Nauda stood near the front end of the island, eyeing the river rushing around them. "I can't hold the water for more than a second, so if any more of it comes over, we'll be in trouble."

"Just a little longer." Theo felt something at the edge of his awareness, a point of intense mass. If it wasn't a remnant of the building...

He found the approximate center of the island and stared down, feeling the imperceptible tug of something beneath them. Perhaps near the very core of the stone that had fallen into the river. When he gestured at Fiyu, she tilted her head briefly, then nodded confirmation.

She knelt down and used her cantae knife to cut out a cubic section of the stone. It strained her to extend her cantae underneath, and Theo struggled to generate an effective gravitational field, but they managed to lift it out. Since the block appeared to have the same density all the way through, she hopped down into the hole to cut deeper.

"I really don't like this..." Nauda's voice had gotten lower, and Theo didn't think she would fearmonger, but she didn't sound panicked yet. He focused on assisting Fiyu with the next block downward.

This one definitely had something odd at the core, so they began working to shave off the edges. Just when Theo thought he could see something within the dark stone, Nauda gave a cry and hit them from the side. They sailed through the air and he saw a white wave break over the side, washing through the crater.

Though the remains of the island didn't surrender to the river yet, when they landed back on the ledge, it was threatened by another wave. They might have been able to risk further work, but they didn't have much time. Before Theo could watch for long, he was startled as Fiyu dropped to the ground, the stone thunking from her hands.

"It is... very heavy." She pulled back a finger, sucking a place that had been pinched. When Theo examined the irregular chunk that remained, he was surprised about how heavy it felt compared to the entire block, as if it had been a large fraction of the total weight.

"Was this worth it?" Nauda kicked at the rock idly, then winced. "Wow, that is heavy."

"It's dense," Theo said, bending down to examine it more carefully. "Denser than most sublime materials by far. I think it's related to the rest of the island, and I can imagine uses for it, but there's not much time for that now."

He tried to draw it into his soulhome, but only hurt his hands trying to crush the stone. With years of soulcrafting experience from his past visit, and mostly renewed spiritual skills, Theo hadn't experienced difficulty like that in some time. Even his best efforts to absorb the material, even after Fiyu helped shave off the additional stone, failed to absorb it.

"Something else to deal with later, then." Nauda reached down to grab the rock, and though she had to shift her stance to pick it up with her legs, her Ruler's strength was sufficient. "We've waited long enough not to run into them. Do we keep moving forward?"

"I think that's the only option." Theo stared back at the dying island one more time, then they continued walking down the river.

Though they made their way along the cliff cautiously, it was obvious that their time in the Chasm of Lamentations was nearing its end. The further they went north, the more frequently they saw signs of damage to the chasm walls. Not merely surface impacts from Rulers, huge gouges that must have been caused by Strongholds. Though the sky remained dark overhead, something must have shifted that led them to fully commit.

When the western cliff broadened into another shore, they actually saw a few bodies along with signs of battle. Not long dead, but no sign of other soulcrafters. He considered examining the battlefield more closely, but as they walked along the opposite chasm, Nauda confirmed that everything had been picked clean.

In a conflict like this, retrieving sublime materials was clearly more important than retrieving bodies.

Even though they didn't sense a single opponent in range, they remained within Fiyu's bubble. Fortunately, with two fully crafted floors and a vestibule, she was able to maintain her stealth technique for extremely long periods. So long as they stayed away from the battles that involved vast swaths of destruction, Theo thought they were actually safer than most... albeit walking directly into danger.

At last they reached the end of the great pale river, where it broke apart into a small delta around the final ruins. The cliffs closed overhead, leaving them in a cavern so vast that atmospheric disturbances floated near the top. As soon as the ruins came into sight, the pressure from the cantae being used hit them like a wall. They could push further in, but there was a psychological toll just to taking in the sight before them.

Already familiar with the landscape, Theo had it easier than his companions. The chasm, previously so linear, split into three branches within the vast cavern. The western path fell off sharply, water tumbling over various falls before leaving the cavern and then the dimension entirely: he could see a vague red glow of Fithe beyond. To the east lay a particularly jagged chasm, many of the spikes bearing corpses. It seemed that the various powers fighting on the plain had fought their way down that one.

Of course, the greatest prize lay in the center cavern, a fragmentary city of pale blue buildings. Some of them were lost in the branching river, but the city had once been built on hills, so many still survived. That terminal point was the most dangerous part of the Chasm of Lamentations, even before considering all of the Strongholds and other powers who fought over it.

"Well, we're not walking into that." Nauda stared out over the chaos with her hands on her hips. "Even if Fiyu's technique is perfect, we'd get evaporated by accident."

"I confess, I'm not sure which way we should go next." Theo accepted that they couldn't just wade into a battle so far above them, but refused to believe there wasn't some useful action they could take. 

They stared out for a while longer before Fiyu abruptly spoke up. "Oh, it is House Blacksilver!"

She pointed to the east, where a shoreline existed under a large cliff overhang. Not truly part of any of the three branches of the river, it appeared to be a relatively peaceful zone. He spotted defensive wards or camps from several groups, all of them apparently Houses from among the Ruling Cities. No representatives of the Asplundat Movement at all, since their primary forces were entrenched in the lowest part of the cities.

Just as Fiyu had noted, one of the defensive rings held the three Blacksilver Authorities. Since no one else was likely to give them any information about the battle, he accepted that they might be the only way of finding an angle. Nauda led the group in that direction, picking out a path over the branching river. Some parts of it had been dammed by falling chunks of stone, so the water splashed dangerously as it was redirected, but they were able to find a path more easily than before.

As they drew closer, he got a better look at the three Authorities. Dhan's robes were soaked in blood around one arm, but he stood as if uninjured. Janne was wrapped up in more robes than usual, not even her face visible. Karchibol sat behind them, holding a chest injury... and Senka sat not far away from him, chewing on a rock. Theo wasn't sure how he felt about that.

The entire group was surrounded by a ring of metal that he suspected put off some sort of reactionary barrier. Often more powerful than a constant barrier, but weak to a sustained assault or extremely swift attack. Probably a reasonable decision for their environment, though he was more concerned about its effect on their stealth technique.

He didn't have to choose, because Nauda stepped from out of their bubble and tapped her staff on the ground. All three Authorities flinched or whirled on them, drawing cantae from their soulhomes, but they calmed a moment later. Janne bent beside the circle to allow them entrance, restoring it as soon as they stepped inside.

"How are you still alive?" Karchibol asked. "When the Asplundat Movement made their largest push, we thought you had surely perished..."

"We made it, one way or another." Nauda frowned toward the battle. "Did Tythes of House Crimson come flying out of the main chasm to hit the battle? He would have been followed by an Authority from the House of Burning Leaves."

"Tythes?" Dhan spoke up with a frown. "No, there's been no sign of him. I did see Mattan arrive, but he only met up with the other soulcrafters from the House of Burning Leaves. I'm not sure where they went."

"In that case... what are you trying to do here, and how can we help?"

The Blacksilver Authorities exchanged glances, then Karchibol spoke slowly. "I'm afraid even we cannot tip the scales of this battle, so the three of you should give thanks that you are still alive and retreat as soon as it is possible."

"Why isn't it possible?" Fiyu asked.

"Because anyone who attempts to travel to the waterfalls is immediately targeted by a Stronghold, or the House of the Lost, or that... awful being by the vault. We are waiting for the battle to break, then we'll escape with all of our sublime materials. This has been risk enough."

Theo was most curious about the "awful being" referenced, but Dhan spoke up before he could ask, pointing to the west. "House Blacksilver representatives are waiting at several points around the Chasm, but the most practical is in that direction, past the waterfalls. But as Karchibol said, it isn't safe for anyone to travel that way."

"Where's the Scepter of Separation?" Nauda asked. "I assume if anyone found it again, it would have shifted the battle. Do we know where it fell?"

"Again, supposedly in the waterfall region. It was lost ten years ago while one House was using that retreat path in much the same way. That's why that direction is so closely guarded."

Then perhaps it wasn't so difficult after all. Theo glanced at Fiyu, and when she nodded, he turned to address all three Authorities. "What if the three of us sneak there and try to acquire the scepter?"

"Preposterous!" Karchibol's eyes attempted to leap from his skull. "If the three of us cannot make it, how can mere children survive?"

"Perhaps..." Janne spoke up for the first time, staring over them. "These three were able to sneak up on us despite all our defenses, after all. I don't think any other House brought Archcrafters, so their cantae might slip past. It could work."

Dhan sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I have a feeling that we'd need to use force to stop you from going. Just be as cautious as you can, alright? And if by some miracle you find the scepter, take it out of the Chasm as soon as possible. Trying to use it in the battle could get you killed, or break the armament itself. Remember, it might work against higher tiers, but each usage will degrade the artifact."

"We understand." Theo glanced at his companions to check, but he didn't see any hesitation in their eyes. They were used to confronting opponents much stronger than themselves, and it might actually be safer for them to retreat than to linger around the edge of such a vicious battlefield.

"Senka too!" The imp promptly latched herself to his leg with almost painful force. Janne frowned as she looked down at her.

"Your... creature appeared at some point and refused to leave. If she has survived this far, the decision is up to you."

"Senka too!" She promptly clamped her teeth into his pants leg as well. He saw nothing but stubbornness in her eyes and decided he didn't have the energy to fight her.

"Let us escort you part of the way," Dhan suggested. "Fiyu, can you extend your technique to hide all of us?"

Fiyu paused for a moment, then shook her head. "That would be very difficult, especially here."

"Then just hide the three of you. We'll move our barrier further west so that you at least have a more direct path to the waterfalls."

Since the plan seemed entirely reasonable, Theo didn't object. Janne knelt to manipulate the metal ring, which began to float along the shore. The representatives of other Houses glanced at them briefly, but they all seemed fixed on the battle, which was unquestionably the higher priority.

Before they reached the end of the shore, an explosion far larger than the rest rocked the center of the city. Theo strained his eyes to get a better look, trying to sort through all the cantae flooding around the blue buildings. A Stronghold-tier soulcrafter had just gone flying back, struggling to regain her balance in the air, and her expulsion had clearly tipped the balance. Yet the source of the explosion had been deeper, a large building armored like a vault... and a figure standing in front of it.

"Who is that?" Theo asked, numbness beginning to creep through his body.

"Him again." Dhan frowned and peered out over the ruins. "I thought that he didn't get involved directly unless someone attacked the door. Karchibol, can you show us closer?"

Though Karchibol grumbled, he began a farseeing technique far more powerful than any they possessed. It swept over the entire group and Theo's mind floated over the chaos. Past the soulcrafters staggering from the impact, between warriors still engaged in bloody battle, to the large vault doors.

Where Vistgil stood waiting.

-

Chapter 24

For just a moment, Theo doubted himself. It had been an entire lifetime since he'd seen the man who had pretended to be his ally before slaughtering all of his friends. The cloak he wore covered him completely and couldn't be unique. And yet he was absolutely sure that the man was Vistgil.

Second, he finally realized something: the darkness over the Chasm of Lamentations had always been focused on a particular point. Perhaps they had also intended to grant everyone more time, but as he saw the shadows gathering around Vistgil, Theo was certain that he had always been their true target. Though he couldn't feel cantae directly through the vision, it burned so intensely that he still felt it from across the battlefield.

Most strikingly, Vistgil appeared to be in some pain, bound in place. Theo wondered, for a very strange moment, if he would meet his oldest enemy only to watch him die in a conflict that he knew nothing about.

A man in a gray robe descended to the floor in front of him, actually managing to fly despite the pressure. Theo could instantly tell that he was a Stronghold-tier soulcrafter from the Asplundat Movement, apparently breaking from their model of stone armor. He raised a hand and ropes of cantae began to leap from the ground, snaking around Vistgil's limbs and quickly wrapping him up entirely in a shapeless mass. The blob spun to the side and the Stronghold stepped forward, toward the vault door.

Before he could arrive, a figure half again the height of most humans stepped up beside him. It was also covered by a robe, but unlike Vistgil, could not possibly be mistaken for human. Instead the robe contorted as if something twisted underneath, and purple tentacles emerged from the sleeves and base. The face itself was impossible to see, but Theo was certain it must be a soulcrafter from a world outside the Nine, one that was considerably less humanoid.

"Stand back, Outsider!" The Asplundat Stronghold's voice boomed out, reaching everyone nearby. "We have bested the guardian and now the vault is the property of the Asplundat Movement."

Instead of answering, the tentacled figure flicked one sleeve in the Stronghold's direction. A gash tore through the air and released a scream that drowned out even all the sounds of the Chasm. Shadowy purple tentacles exploded from it the next moment, attempting to grasp the Stronghold. He immediately countered with his gray ropes, failing to realize that the attack had always been intended as a distraction.

As soon as he was fully committed, the strange figure gestured toward the vault with one flipping tentacle. The doors creaked open, and an instant later, a spark of cantae flew inside. That actually puzzled Theo, since the spark didn't feel particularly powerful. It was intense, yes, beyond any cantae he'd felt, but not even formed into a bolt. Cantae like that couldn't be an attack, couldn't be any kind of technique, so he didn't-

Then the entire Chasm of Lamentations screamed as the ruins folded in on themselves. A vortex of twisting reality, like the sun compared to the shadows of the distortions of the Chasm, expanded over the city. For a brief moment, the surfaces of the ruin turned in impossible directions, a tesseract that spread in every direction.

And then nothing. Where the highest hills of the ruins had once stood, only smooth blue stone remained.

"Are you mad?" The Asplundat Stronghold was overwhelming the remaining tentacles, fighting his way free, his face contorted in rage. "How many invaluable artifacts have you destroyed?"

The figure didn't respond in any way, instead looking to the side... where Vistgil emerged from the mass of gray ropes.

He didn't explode his bonds or cut through them, he simply walked out as if they didn't exist. The darkness that had before seemed to bind him so tightly no longer had any apparent effect. As he emerged, he brushed one of the ropes off his sleeve, the entire arc of cantae dissolving immediately.

"Years of planning, foiled." Despite his words, Vistgil chuckled as if mildly amused. He didn't once glance toward the Asplundat Stronghold, fixing all his attention on the shifting hood. "I should have known you were too clever for that, but it was still a close thing."

"A draw." The unknown figure finally spoke, a strange crackling voice that seemed to echo from a great distance. "Your games have gone on long enough. They end."

"Perhaps, perhaps not."

For a moment, it seemed as though the two of them might strike one another, and Theo felt certain that it would be the most powerful duel between soulcrafters that he'd ever witnessed. All around the ruins, the fighting had stopped, even those too stupid to realize the import having noticed when half the battlefield folded out of existence. Even the voices of the Chasm seemed to hold their breath.

Vistgil raised a hand in invitation... and the tentacled figure retreated. Theo thought he caught a glimpse of three eyes glowing within the shadows, ringed by tentacles, but it was moving away. With a theatrical sigh, Vistgil turned away and began walking into the air, not flying but as if taking invisible steps.

"No!" The Asplundat Stronghold hurled a bolt of cantae, so intense and perfectly formed that it could have torn through a hundred of Theo.

It struck Vistgil in the back and one of his shoulders twitched slightly. When he looked over his shoulder, his smile was so cold that Theo flinched even from a battlefield away.

"That wasn't particularly wise." Vistgil brushed at his shoulder as he turned around in midair. "Is this even worth the time? Fithe is doing perfectly fine, aside from that one annoyance."

"You will not leave before you answer to the Asplundat Movement!" The Stronghold let out a cry and unleashed a huge torrent of gray flames that lit up a third of the sky.

And yet, when they met Vistgil, they stopped. It wasn't that he weathered the fire: when they touched him they ceased to exist. The eruption of flame split in two directions, searing into the cavern and causing a partial collapse, yet an empty swath of stone stood untouched behind him.

When Vistgil stepped down, he didn't seem to overpower the cantae, he simply annulled it. Though Theo couldn't sense exactly what had been done, he didn't think he was looking at a special technique, just a gap in power that he didn't know existed. A long time ago, he had been a Stronghold, and Vistgil had killed him easily. This time, he wasn't surprised or in shock, so he watched every moment.

Not understanding, the Stronghold continued releasing wave after wave of cantae, joining gray ropes to his flames. Vistgil walked through the assault and struck him on the forehead, a blinding white line piercing his body and the city beyond.

Unlike the gray flames, the brilliant beam disappeared an instant later. The Stronghold-tier soulcrafter dropped instantly.

Though his allies in the Asplundat Movement roared in anger, they were too stunned to attack immediately. Vistgil spread his arms wide and turned in a circle, as if inviting further attacks. When none came, he turned away and disappeared into the ruins.

All at once, Theo stood back on the shoreline. The body that he'd nearly forgotten was clammy and gasping for breath. Around him, House Blacksilver stared in shock, Karchibol most of all. Only Fiyu and Nauda looked toward him instead of the devastated ruins, perhaps putting together his stories. Senka had her face buried in his pant leg, releasing a constant low moan.

"Just... what was that?" Dhan asked. Karchibol merely sat shivering, while Janne answered quietly.

"A Dominion-tier soulcrafter. One who has passed beyond even the champion of Dris Kolonb."

Theo doubted it, and he realized that he would accomplish nothing more with this group. He made sure not to look too confident as he turned to Dhan and got his attention. "As far as I'm concerned, that's just another reason that we should retreat. All the Strongholds will be distracted, so this is the best time for us to reach the waterfalls."

"Right... the scepter." Dhan shook himself and regained a bit of his old confidence. "It clearly isn't safe here, either. Go. If anyone fires on you, we'll try to intercept them, but once you enter the other branch of the chasm, we won't be able to help you."

Simply nodding acceptance, Theo urged the others to continue. He didn't even bother struggling with Senka, since there was no time to waste, and she followed silently for once. Fiyu had maintained her sphere around them the entire time, despite the events, and now she renewed her efforts.

Though they crossed the ruin-studded river carefully, they weren't in any danger. Most of the strongest soulcrafters were looking toward the central ruins or trying to gain an advantage in the new balance, and any who looked in their direction would see nothing. Because the river itself was a threat, they concentrated on their work over the fastest-running part.

The impact of the Stronghold's blast caused stones to continue falling from the ceiling, though the cavern was in no danger of collapse. By far the greater threat was the mist rolling in from the damaged areas, causing soulcrafters to retreat or die. Theo signaled for their group to put on their masks, actually reducing the danger as they moved further away from the battleground.

But as they neared the first waterfall, they reached the end of both silence and safety.

"That man..." Nauda shook her head slowly. "You're going to tell me that he was the Vistgil you talked about, aren't you?"

"Completely unchanged, even after a hundred years." Theo glanced back over his shoulder at them, but there was no time to stand and talk, so he pressed forward. "He must have set up another vault as a trap, and tried to coax his opponents into opening it and dying in the reality fold."

"Who were those opponents?" Fiyu asked. "One of them was a Lost One, and I recognized it from the House of the Lost. Do they all take that form? Underneath the robes, its body was composed of many tentacles, and a core that... I cannot describe, because I am not sure I understood it."

"One thing we can agree on," Nauda said wryly, "we can be glad that Theo isn't that kind of Lost One."

Though Theo had been considering that angle, he hadn't come to any conclusions yet. Since they still hadn't reached the waterfall, he shared his thoughts aloud. "I think Vistgil must be exploiting connections to worlds outside the Nine. With Earth, he manipulates people to come and kills them. With this race that leads the House of the Lost, they're his enemies. It isn't a war, he's trying to control something..."

"Why?" To his surprise, the interruption was actually Senka. Though she trotted after him with a childish gait, her eyes bored into his. "Why why why?"

"I wish I had any idea." Theo wished he could stop and rub his eyes, but he needed to pay attention to the river. "There will be time to discuss all that later. We need to get over the waterfalls and search out this scepter."

"Are you sure?" Nauda asked. "You just got clear proof that he was setting up a trap in the vault. What are the chances that the scepter's location is trapped as well?"

"It's possible, but I think that was just bait. Vistgil seemed to lose interest as soon as his opponent left, so I think his interest in this is done. Our greatest strength is that he doesn't even know we exist, so this is still a chance to gain an advantage against him."

They agreed silently, and had the decency not to say that a few sublime materials wouldn't make any difference against that kind of power.