Bloodcrete: Chapter 1 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

The sixth book isn't ready for regular posting, but I wanted to give you guys a chapter now, both to get things started and to signal that editing is going pretty well. Most of the additions to the book are done or in progress, and though there will probably be new typos caused by these edits, I think the added content will be enjoyed by readers.

So yeah, expect a chapter from time to time. They'll be interspersed with releases and other content, but once those are done, we should go back to our regular schedule of multiple chapters per week. There will still be a hiatus in TWC at some point when you guys catch up to me, but somehow I'm still ahead.

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Chapter 1

Sun burning directly overhead. Floating stone beneath his feet. Nothing but sand to every horizon.

After more than a month on the seas of Arbai, Theo would have expected himself to have become used to it. But when he looked over the side of the ship, he still felt slightly unnerved. The local word was translated as "ocean" in his head, but it had no equivalent of waves. Instead the sand trembled as if it was atop a giant drum, sometimes chaotic, sometimes rising in visible waves of force, sometimes writhing and twisting into the air.

From his discussions with the local sailors, he thought that the entire region was in a constant state of liquefaction. The heavy bodies of Arbaians would sink directly into the sand unless they had formed specialized dish-shaped limbs to increase their surface area, as the sailors had. That alone made the region one of the most dangerous in the world, despite the relative lack of predators and other threats.

Theo had tested standing on the surface a few times and disliked the experience. Even in the firmest areas, he began sinking almost immediately. When the sand ocean was whipped up into a frenzy he doubted it would provide much resistance at all. Thanks to his gravity abilities he could fly, but he still had to imagine going over the edge and simply plummeting into a suffocating storm.

"Hey, Salviyah." He called upwards, aiming in the direction of the sailors in the rigging. He couldn't make out individuals very well against the blinding expanse of the sail, but she twined her way down the mast with great speed.

Like most of the sailors, Salviyah was an Eubhan with a serpentine body of stone. Unlike the few he'd met, she had a flaring hood like a cobra. More importantly, she was a native of a local region and formed from unusually light stone, so she could easily move through the trembling sands. He didn't get much sense of gender from her beyond "snake", but it sounded like the other Arbaians referred to her that way, at least through soul translation. More importantly, she was bright and willing to entertain his questions.

"What is it?" She coiled up on the deck beside him. "We haven't reached the deposit yet."

"No, I just had an idle question." Theo stepped closer to the edge of the ship and stared down. "Just how deep has anyone gone? Since you don't need to breathe, what would the limits be? If you sailed to one of the lightest regions and just let yourself fall... how far would you go?"

"There are some who delve deeper in the sands," Salviyah said, "but most of what they intend to harvest is within several hundred meters of the surface. In my homeland, the Guild of Citrine Expansion has attempted deeper explorations. The primary limit is damage to the device used to return to the surface. I believe the deepest trips that anyone returns from are two or three kilometers."

"And? Does the sand get denser the lower you go?"

"It does, even in the lightest regions. Not sure why."

Another dead end. The average Arbaian sailor was more philosophical than the stereotype from Earth, but his company out here was adventurers and mercenaries. Theo wasn't quite satisfied with that answer, though. "If you had an Authority or someone else who could fly, wouldn't that remove the limit?"

Salviyah settled lower and gazed into the sands thoughtfully. "The surface may be mostly free of life, but it is said that in the depths, there exist sublime beasts so vast that they cannot survive on the surface. Of course, this would be perfect fodder for sailors' legends, but I did see a great beast that was pulled to the surface at an exhibit. I can believe that they would be a threat even to powerful soulcrafters."

"Interesting. Could their movements be related to the liquefaction of the sand?"

"Why would it be?"

"On most worlds, you only see this phenomenon with shaking forces, such as earthquakes. Theoretically a large enough creature underneath the surface might add to the shaking."

A stony tongue flickered from Salviyah's mouth, which was a trait he hadn't seen until coming to the sand oceans. She hesitated for a moment, then shifted upward. "I have not seen evidence for such a theory. Why are you so curious?"

"Just have to wonder about the limits of it." Theo shrugged. "There has to be something at the bottom." It didn't surprise him that it hadn't been thoroughly explored, since even on Earth the sea floor was largely unknown. Some Arbaians might have the answers, but they would be moving in circles of power that he couldn't yet access.

"I believe the foundation is solid stone, like everywhere else on Arbai." Salviyah twisted her head to look at him, which was impressive given her hood. "And don't think this is idle theory. There are regions of gassand that have been explored to the solid base."

"Wait, gassand?" The word was soul translated, but he still didn't understand for a moment and it seized his attention. Even before Salviyah explained, the answer was starting to come together...

"Like this region, but more extreme. You are educated enough to understand the states of matter, yes? Here, the sand operates as a liquid. In gassand regions, it cannot maintain any coherence at all and behaves like a gas."

"That sounds... dangerous."

Salviyah let out a low chuckle. "Beings from other worlds who foolishly ventured in have died instantly. Even we face lethal levels of erosion there. But all I know of gassand is hearsay, albeit academic hearsay. You must find someone else for your questions."

She slithered away, her scales propelling her over the deck with startling speed. Theo still had plenty of questions she could probably answer, but respected that she had work to do. Maintaining a ship over liquefied sand was a difficult task and, even though he had an important role to play, when it came to the day to day operations of the ship he would mostly just get in the way.

As he kept staring into the sands, Theo found himself surprised by how intensely his curiosity persisted. Yes, he wanted the powerful sublime materials he could find within the sand ocean - that was the entire point of the trip. But more than that, he wanted to know. He needed to reach Authority and higher tiers to survive, but he also wanted the strength to plunge into the sands and find out just what existed at the deepest depths.

Technically, he could have learned in the same way on Earth. Theo stood back and thought about that for a time, wondering if it reflected a flaw in him. His original world contained many wonders as well, and in some ways it was even easier to learn there, with nearly infinite information at his fingertips for free. He wasn't sure if it was the struggle of finding out or the exotic nature of the Nine Worlds, but they lit his mind on fire more than Earth ever had.

Not that any of that helped him. Theo suppressed such thoughts and focused on objective realities. He would need to get his fill of exploration while gaining the strength that would allow him to survive against his enemies.

"Framkis! Off port side!"

The pseudonym caught his attention - he was going by "Framkis" again because this trip was connected to Norro Yorthin. The call came from the head of the vessel: the Mundhin named Balmun stood there as usual. He had funded this entire expedition, intending to turn a profit on certain materials that could be found only in the sand oceans. This was just risky and unusual enough that he was willing to hire outsiders like Theo.

Since the call could just as easily be an attack as a sighting, Theo hastened to join him. As he walked up, he extended his new senses into the sand around him. Unlike a fully developed skill, he needed to turn his awareness inward: within one of his chambers, the abyssfluid trembled within the depthclaw shells, drawn toward sources of mass.

He could easily feel the ship beneath him, while the sailors were mostly blurry movement. Nothing out in the sand as far as he could tell, but given all the hazy edges, that didn't necessarily mean anything. When he opened his eyes to double check, he didn't see anything in particular around the ship.

"There, do you see it?" Balmun stepped closer to him and pointed a heavy limb out into the sand. "Just a little one... it could be junk or it could be another lode."

After Balmun pointed it out, Theo could just identify a small region where the sand was spiking upwards more than usual. He spiritually pushed all the abyssfluid down within the depthclaw shells and lowered his senses as deep as he could. As soon as he stretched far enough, he felt it: a point of mass considerably denser than the surrounding area. It wasn't exactly like any of his natural senses, just a very clinical awareness in the back of his mind.

"I think it's a lode," Theo said. "It feels a little bigger than the others, if anything."

"Then it's not junk!" Balmun turned away from him and began yelling commands to the sailors. By this point, Theo was more than used to the routine.

While the others pulled in the sail to bring the ship to rest near the point, Theo hopped over the edge and into an inverted gravitational field. He let his momentum float him out over the place he could still feel the heavy object. Not moving or in any way suspicious. Shame - it would have been interesting to run into one of those deep sands beasts that Salviyah had been telling him about.

Instead, he merely hovered in place and cast another gravitational field much deeper into the sands. It needed to be a relatively minor one, only barely overcoming the local gravity, so that the materials below wouldn't smash into the sand on their way up. Despite the fact that they were rocks that were constantly buffeted by the sand ocean, they were apparently more fragile than they looked. As he'd discovered when he'd gotten impatient on their first attempt.

By now, he could do it without thinking. Theo's mind wandered as he kept the gravitational fields constant. Blacksilver records had indicated that the type of sand he needed could be found within the Arbaian oceans, but the problem had been getting it. The sand was fiercely desired by Authorities with many different soulhome blueprints, so most of the expeditions that could acquire it would just muscle him out.

That had eventually led him to this ship and its unusual mission: they were looking for ordinary rocks, not a sublime material at all. The heavy rocks like the ones beneath him didn't interact with cantae in the slightest, but apparently they were useful for Arbaian construction. Balmun thought that by taking a light crew and hiring Theo instead of a local expert, he could acquire it for a fraction of the usual cost.

So far he had been right. Theo was just getting bored, since he'd found only a few sublime materials and nothing that would-

"Framkis!" The name emerged from a rocky scream and Theo realized that he had been too inattentive.

Small dark creatures darted around the ship, cutting at the sailors from all sides. They looked like skeletal fish with four spiky fins, but he didn't need to know anything about them to feel that they were demons. Now that he focused, he could sense their mass, but he'd had no idea the ship was under attack.

Demons out of nowhere after a mostly peaceful trip. Theo knew he needed to help the sailors, but first he worried about what exactly it meant.