Bondsfungi: Chapters 11-12 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

Early chapters because I may get too busy later today.

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Chapter 11

Over the course of his lives across multiple worlds, Theo had stepped into a number of dressing rooms, but never with anything at stake. Technically he stood in the dressing room of Hessika and Oland's shop, but as he pulled the items of clothing on one at a time, he stepped into his soul and did some of the most delicate soulcrafting of his life.

The problem was that he was working with cloth, which broke so much more easily than stone and couldn't be easily repaired with his skills. Yes, the tailor couple would fix any errors made, but he was already running his stores low purchasing so many new materials. Irritatingly, the process of making clothing that was supposed to serve as armor involved treating it like the most fragile of materials.

Theo lifted the white cloth to the wall, carefully placing one pin after another. It was a special type of bindingsteel used by tailors and armament crafters, which would strengthen the material in the end but could so easily tear through it meanwhile.

Behind him, the stone he'd retrieved from the Chasm pulsed with enough cantae to flap the materials he worked with. Theo had at first resisted the idea of using this chamber for an armament, but in the end he had decided that a lack of defensive capacity was one of his biggest weaknesses. Instead of a technique, the corner chamber would channel the raw defensive power of the stone that had resisted the annihilating river into his armament clothes. It was the strongest defense he was capable of crafting, and unlike an active technique, it would always help him passively.

Technically he could have gained a slightly better efficiency ratio by creating an elaborate replica of all his armament clothing within his soulhome, but Theo didn't want to be tied to specific clothes that he might outgrow. Instead he'd modified his carvings a little and tied each wall to one of the materials. Those could be reworked later without him needing to waste time renewing his armament chamber.

At last Theo completed pinning the white cloth to the wall - the far wall, of course, in keeping with the overall design of his soulhome. He'd already pinned the dark cloth to the inner wall, where it soaked up the cantae flowing from the central stone. That left the two walls surrounding the doors, which had less space to work with but should be appropriate for what remained.

Back in the dressing room, Theo was disappointed to see that his coat was still ragged. Regardless, he pulled it on and felt the layer of protection settle over him. He'd discussed the full process with the tailor couple, but he still needed something else.

"Do you have the leather?" Theo asked, opening the door enough to reach through.

"Right here!" Oland cheerfully shoved what felt like sturdy boot leather into his hands. "Do you need any help with that? Leather is always a bit more difficult to work with, since it doesn't coop-"

"I'll let you know if I falter, thanks." Theo pulled his hand in with the same motion that he drew the leather into his soulhome. Unlike all the powerful materials he'd been using lately, soulcrafted clothes had been designed from the very beginning to be accessible.

Piece by piece, Theo completed the remainder of his room. The most substantial elements of his outfit remaining were his boots and his belt, so he separated their materials on the western and eastern walls. That still left some oddly empty spaces, so he asked them for a few more materials to cover the remaining pieces: metal reinforcement, cufflinks, buttons, and the like.

All in all, the process took them several hours, but it was easy compared to the soulcrafting he usually attempted. Theo understood again why many soulcrafters sought to rely on armaments. He hoped that in his case, it would be a column of support for his blueprint instead of a crutch.

When he finished, he was ready to sweep out the door... but there was someone else in the room, ordering sublime clothing. They were quite audible, since they seemed to have strong opinions and Oland was doing his best to keep them from hectoring his wife. Theo paused, wondering if he was really going to wait in order to have a more dramatic exit. Well, it wasn't like he didn't have other work to do.

Theo returned to work on bricks, since he'd let those fall by the wayside again. He'd constructed his fourth chamber on the third floor, and definitely needed to build more, but the other necessary types of soulcrafting were so much more dynamic. It wasn't too long before the other customer left, so Theo finally stepped out of the dressing room.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Oland clapped when he emerged, which made Theo smile.

"It looks exactly the same," he pointed out, "and wouldn't you just be complimenting your own work?"

"The customer makes the clothes, we always say!" Oland moved closer to fuss with some of the details while Hessika regarded him quietly. She couldn't examine his soulhome, but she could very likely tell how well his internal work flowed into the external armament.

"I can feel the defensive strength," Theo said, "but I may have made some minor errors, because none of the damage seems to be repairing."

In response, Hessika merely pointed past his legs. Theo twisted to look and immediately saw the difference. Nothing had changed earlier, but several old rips in his pants were gone and his boots were as black as if they'd just been cleaned. Some of the damage to his overcoat had repaired itself as well, and when he looked closely he thought he could even see a tear knitting itself back together. The large hole that had been caused by an Authority's javelin still gaped, but at the current rate he thought it would close in less than a day.

"Oh, then perhaps everything is done after all." Theo fidgeted with his collar, but it actually felt as though it fit him even better than before. Thanks to his armament chamber, the clothing was in a sense part of his soul.

"Always happy to get more business from you!" Oland chuckled and shook his head. "Unfortunately, we've probably just ensured that you never have to visit us again. We're really terribly bad at business that way."

"I'll be back if I ever have a need." Theo settled the final payment and left the couple with a spring in his step.

The test he really wanted was of his clothing's raw defensive capabilities, which he couldn't exactly ask Hessika and Oland to do. Fiyu was always happy to test, but she tended to hold back enough it was hard to be sure how valid the results were. Of course, the reason he'd finally made himself finish the armament chamber was that he had a very good opportunity to test it coming up soon.

Tomorrow, House Blacksilver was going outside the city to confront the wild tribes.

~ ~ ~

For a few days, Nauda had been proud of herself for acquiring the information and arranging the collaboration between Blacksilver and the House of Coin. She remembered Jefria and all the other villagers who suffered outside the cities, and though she couldn't change their lot, she could do a little to help them. If her actions stopped House Crimson from doing more damage, they would be worth it.

Then it slowly became clear that she wasn't going to be allowed to join in the expedition. The wild tribes were too unpredictable and gave no quarter, so she would be a liability. None of them said it explicitly, but that was their implication. She tried to take comfort in the fact that she had at least convinced Theo to get involved.

When they left her behind, Nauda focused on the good that might be done. Even in her weakened state, she could improve the world a little, and that was what mattered. The positive thoughts carried her into her soulhome, where she was determined to rebuild her way up.

That was when she discovered the bondsfungi, spreading not only across the ruins, but on the other side of her first barriers.

She swallowed her emotional reaction and forced herself to soulcraft. Carefully examining the spread, reinforcing her successful barriers, putting down further stakes. Yet the ruins of her soul were still lit by an unnatural blue light, an undeniable signal of her failure.

Nauda worked until her hands were only numb lumps, then she continued working because the alternative was so much worse.

-

Chapter 12

In the end, Theo was surprised to learn that the only people joining him were Dhan and several Blacksilver soulcrafters. The group had decent combat potential, and he had never expected Blacksilver to commit all their Authorities. But he'd assumed that Nauda would join them, since the operation was her idea, or for Fiyu to provide stealth. He still thought Fiyu would have been a good addition, though he wasn't going to force her to leave the city if she didn't want.

They traveled in an armored chariot, which raced over the wastelands before gradually gaining altitude to hide within the clouds. In theory they would be able to hide from the House Crimson fighters to observe what they were doing before they decided whether or not to act.

"Don't lose focus, even for a second," one of the Blacksilver Archcrafters told the others. "The wild tribes still possess a strength we've lost in the cities, so they'll tear through your defenses. If it comes to violence, put them down quickly and don't get surrounded."

"Is their cantae actually more intense?" Theo asked. He didn't think increasing intensity was possible aside from ascension and highly advanced techniques, but it was possible that he'd missed details in his past life.

"Not more intense, just more vicious. Their techniques are lacking in polish, but they make up for it in raw power."

Theo was skeptical, in part because he didn't think much of the Archcrafter - Nauda could probably beat him even in her current state. He glanced back to Dhan, but the Authority was soulcrafting with no sign that he was paying any attention to the conversation. It was true that this might be beneath him, unless House Crimson had also invested their higher soulcrafters into the fight for unknown reasons.

Given that their real purposes were still unknown, Theo thought that was a safe bet.

Past the smaller communities surrounding Norro Yorthin, they traveled over empty wasteland for a long time before they finally spotted their targets. The House of Coin had given them accurate information: there were soulcrafters in House Crimson livery doing battle with Fithans in rough leather.

Despite everything he'd heard about the wild tribes, the battle looked like an ordinary enough Archcrafter fight to Theo: cantae bolts, armaments, a few more exotic techniques. They had a pair of Rulers in their horde, but Theo thought that old Nanjuma from Tatian could have easily taken both. He was tempted to see if he could flatten all of them with a single gravitational field, but their goal was observation instead of confrontation.

And that paid off rather quickly: the barbarian Fithans weren't being killed or pushed away, but subdued. One of the Crimson Rulers had some kind of stunning technique, and as soon as one of the wild fighters had their defenses battered down, they were immediately neutralized and tied up with the others.

"Troubling." Dhan rose to stand at the side of the chariot faster than Theo could react. "This is a violation of our agreement with the tribes, at the very least, and House Crimson has been lying about their activities."

"What would they be doing with captured Fithans?" Theo asked.

Instead of answering, Dhan slowly shook his head... and then abruptly snapped into action as crimson flames engulfed the chariot.

Theo defended himself in time, but it didn't matter because Dhan had shielded the entire chariot. That was good, because the flames burned with an Authority's cantae. When they faded, Theo expected to see the wild tribe leader, but instead spotted a man in House Crimson robes. Not someone he knew, just a muscular man with a shaved head.

"This is a House Crimson affair!" He thrust a hand in their direction, carrying a short staff that appeared to be made of solid ruby, clearly some sort of armament. "You have no r-"

"House Crimson has been lying about its affairs." Dhan stepped from the chariot into the air. Beneath them, soulcrafters on both sides were shouting in surprise, but the two Authorities looked only at one another. "Exactly what are you doing here?"

"You'll run back to the city if you know what's good for you."

"Or something will be bad for us?" Dhan asked, cantae beginning to flow through him.

The enemy Authority waved his ruby staff in their direction. "Or you have an accident and I report that all of you were regrettably lost in battle with the wild tribes."

"Yeah, you tell 'em, bro," Tythes said, leaning against the other Authority's shoulder.

Theo was irritated that he hadn't noticed Tythes approaching, but it was clear that no one else had either. Dhan's hands formed fists, the Blacksilver soulcrafters let out cries of surprise, and the other Crimson Authority gaped before he flailed angrily at Tythes.

"What are you doing here, you miserable cretin?" He hurled a cantae bolt at Tythes, who easily stepped out of the way.

"Roker, Roker, is that any way to react to a dear ally supporting you against the enemy? You know that I'm your most loyal supporter, a brother by the blood of battle, if not birth. I would climb the highest mountain for your respect, pluck the stars from th-"

"I don't need your help," Roker bellowed, "as if you have anything to offer but foolishness!"

"Well, I tried." Tythes shrugged and turned to face the Blacksilver group. "Hey, do you want some help? I'll be your most loyal ally."

Before any of them could respond, Roker lifted the staff and was briefly engulfed in a column of crimson flame. It released a shockwave of cantae that silenced the battlefield and made even the other Authorities brace themselves. When it faded, Roker lifted the ruby staff with a savage grin.

"You might make feeble jokes, but you know what this means, don't you?" Roker asked gleefully. "Your own father has chosen me. You're a pathetic has-been, and as soon as I control House Crimson, I'm throwing you out on the street."

"I thought you were going to fight Blacksilver," Tythes said. His voice was unusually flat, without any of his usual insouciance. The effect of his sentence was to draw their group back into it, and Theo prepared to use a field to pull all the other soulcrafters out of the way if the Authorities truly began to fight.

"It... it doesn't matter! I can take you both!" More crimson fire began to burn around the armament, as if Roker really intended to fight both. Dhan pulled his mask over his face, and Tythes flexed his fingers.

Would they actually go through with it? Theo thought he saw both reluctance and willingness in the Authorities. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that the wild tribes were using the opportunity to retreat, which he thought was in no one's best interests. Before the tension could spill over into a fight, Theo lifted himself with a gravitational field and approached the Authorities, ready to evade at a moment's notice.

"War is approaching," Theo said, "and you all bicker among yourselves? Does this serve anyone?" He'd been ready for them to attack him for his presumption, but they actually seemed to be listening, so he continued. "This has passed beyond a conflict you can solve with a fight. If you need to compete, why not do it against the wild tribes we're all supposedly here to deal with?"

Theo met their eyes one by one, still ready for evasive maneuvers if necessary. He thought that none of them really wanted the fight except Roker, so an alternative might provide a path away from a conflict. But earlier Roker had implied he'd kill the entire Blacksilver group to silence them, and though suppressing the incident was impossible now, he might still attempt it.

Instead, Roker laughed and returned his staff to his back. "Hah! Make it a contest of bodies, then. I won't even use our House's armament, but I can still take out more of the barbarians than you can, Tythes. And you, Blacksilver, compete with us if you think you really can."

Without another word, Roker slammed down into the wasteland, blocking off the retreating tribal forces. Tythes glanced at Theo briefly, then shrugged and fell out of the sky. He tumbled wildly before colliding with one of the barbarians head first, immediately laying out the man.

That left only Dhan, his eyes hard behind his mask. When he looked at Theo he gave a brief nod of respect, but he didn't join the competition. After a brief gesture toward the Blacksilver soulcrafters, he floated to the perimeter of the battlefield.

His gesture apparently meant that they were free to do as they pleased, because the chariot began descending and some of the others leaped out to participate. Tythes and Roker were easily taking out barbarians, Roker shouting out his totals as he went, but their overwhelming power scattered the wild tribes in many directions, which meant there were fights for everyone.

Standing above the fray might seem more sophisticated, but since the crisis had passed, Theo wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. He lowered himself down to the edge of the battle, seeking out an Archcrafter for an experiment. One of them was an ordinary enough soulcrafter in rough leathers wielding a spear, so Theo put himself in the man's path.

"You think you can stop us?" The barbarian let out a yell and charged him, then promptly pancaked against the ground.

Theo frowned and weakened the gravitational field. He didn't feel any particular danger from the man's cantae, but he'd wanted to be cautious just in case there really was something to the wild tribes' reputation. If so, it had to be in their higher ranking soulcrafters. The barbarian roared in anger and pushed himself to his feet, which displayed a lot of raw power, but Theo could easily have applied ten times as much gravity or simply dropped him into the stratosphere.

Instead, he released the field. Immediately his opponent lunged forward, stabbing him in the chest with his spear... but the tip failed to penetrate his coat. Both Theo and the barbarian stared down at the point of impact, then Theo grinned. Instead of using any of his techniques, he simply kicked the barbarian in the chest and sent him sprawling.

Though Theo intended to fight with skill instead of brute force, he decided that this was a good time to test all the strengthening chambers he'd been soulcrafting. It would have been stupid against real opponents, but this fight was already over.

One of the wild tribe's Rulers leapt from the dust, slashing at Theo's arm. He instinctively moved as if he was still a swordsman, which meant that the blade slashed across his shoulder. There was just enough time to notice that it had cut through both coat and flesh before a fist struck his jaw and sent him tumbling to the ground.

Theo caught himself. He'd taken a blow to the arm and he could taste blood in his mouth, but those were distant, irrelevant facts. The Chasm stone reinforced all of him, not just his clothing, which meant that his body was now much more durable than an ordinary soulcrafter. The barbarian took an involuntarily step back and Theo realized that he was grinning.

He launched himself at his opponent the next moment, beginning a vicious brawl. The barbarian was strong and tough, and definitely better at grappling, but it didn't matter. Theo simply threw all of his enhancement chambers against his opponent's strength and battered away until the barbarian didn't get up anymore.

When it was over, Theo rose to his feet a bit unsteadily. Fighting a physical specialist like that had been mindless, but if he'd fought for real, there wouldn't have been a contest. Theo had no intention of melee combat against more dangerous opponents, but he was satisfied that his supportive soulcrafting had been effective. If an opponent did make it through his techniques, they wouldn't be able to take him out in a single blow.

Several Archcrafters from the wild tribes stood nearby, weapons in hand as if they intended to attack him together but couldn't work up the nerve. Theo noticed that the blood was vanishing from his clothes as they repaired themselves, so it must have looked like he was healing instantly. The cuts remained underneath, and they were actually starting to hurt now that the adrenaline wore off, but his opponents didn't know that.

Theo smiled at the group and they scrambled to flee in the other direction.

Instead of following them and getting involved in the aggressive competition between Tythes and Roker, Theo observed the entire battlefield. All of this felt too easy, particularly given the wild tribes' reputation. He half-expected one of their stronger soulcrafters to attack and tried to search the entire area just in case.

For a brief moment, he thought he felt a dark presence watching from the clouds. When Theo whipped around to look, he saw nothing.

That set him on edge and drained some of the pleasure from his fight, but no one attacked them in the end. The Crimson Authorities finished their contest, Roker crowing about having defeated more opponents and Tythes stealing his belt before running off. Dhan gathered the Blacksilver soulcrafters, instructing them about reporting the incident. Though the contest had dissipated the tension, there would still be consequences when everyone learned what House Crimson was doing.

Many of the barbarian soulcrafters had run off, but those that had been captured had simply disappeared. Theo wondered exactly what they would be used for and had a feeling that he'd find out soon enough. Most likely it was a simple answer like recruiting them, or using them as raw materials in forbidden arts, but any answer would have a political impact.

One of the injured barbarians was struggling to his feet, raving about how the wrath of the wastelands would gather and raze their city to the ground. Theo left him behind.

~ ~ ~

"How could it have spread so far, so fast?" Grekig stared at her soulhome in undisguised dismay. Even after two full doses of sublime lava, there was still a faint blue glow throughout her soul.

"I don't know." Nauda had spent so long trying to destroy the bondsfungi that she was afraid her spirit itself was infected, even though that should be impossible.

"I'm trying to be understanding, Nauda." Grekig knuckled his upper lip as he turned away. "No one suggested that bondsfungi are easy to expel, especially since they've been feeding on your cantae for so long. But at some point, you have to accept that this is under your control. Recovery will take your full focus."

Leaving her soulhome behind, Nauda just stared at him as he paced around the meditation room. There was something new in his tone that she didn't like, or perhaps it was just coming to the surface. She did her best to understand his frustration and wondered if she was the most difficult case he'd ever worked with. Grekig didn't talk about other recovered soulcrafters very often, but she got the impression that most took whatever they could get and were grateful.

"This is a drastic step, but we could get the Authorities involved again." He finally came to a stop, nodding to himself. "Now, it's easier to destroy than create, so it's not as if they can simply repair the damage. But if you lowered your defenses, it would be possible for one of them to scour everything in your soulhome. Even the bondsfungi couldn't survive that."

"Could my foundation survive it?" Nauda asked quietly.

"Nauda... you need to understand that your condition is severe and all ordinary treatments have failed. The results might limit you, but not so severely as letting this mess completely overrun your soul. You have to accept the life ahead of you, not the life you might have wanted."

"I don't want to be like y-" Nauda cut off before she could say the last word, but it was too late.

Grekig didn't yell at her or even look as frustrated as he did at times. If anything, he seemed a little hurt. The next moment she saw his face close off and knew that it would be permanent. He carefully wiped his hands off on a cloth and picked up the remaining sublime lava before walking to the door and holding it open for her.

"Clearly, you have higher priorities than truly recovering." Grekig gestured to the open door. "I have done all I can for you. There's no need to attend any further meetings."

After briefly considering an apology, Nauda decided that it was pointless. She remained composed as she walked out the door and until they walked in separate directions. But as soon as Nauda was alone on the busy street, she sagged, barely holding herself up by her staff.

She should have known that this was coming, given the successive failures. Perhaps she truly was at fault, her mind on some level wanting to be injured. There was no point thinking about it, not when thinking had failed her so spectacularly.

As she struggled forward, the lower hem of Nauda's dress caught on one of the spikes of her staff and part of it tore. She hadn't made such a clumsy mistake since her earliest training. But when she looked down, Nauda realized that her dress was ragged and dirty. It had been with her ever since Nlukoko, gradually wearing down so slowly that she hadn't noticed. Now there was nothing left but a miserable rag.

Nauda tried to grip her staff tighter, but there was no strength left in her hands.