Bloodcrete: Chapter 2 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

Originally I wanted to write up something longer this week (some hopefully interesting notes about the long term of the series), but it has been a rough one for me, so you get a chapter instead. Lots of things are currently pending, like a new book release probably next weekend. But meanwhile, things march on.

The edits required for this book are varying. For example, I just made some modifications to the first chapter (though didn't update it yet), giving more details about Theo's soulcrafting. I felt like certain elements were too ambiguous, so hopefully the information will create a stronger throughline. In other cases, the edits are added descriptions or character interactions. Fortunately, there are no intended edits for this Fiyu chapter.

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Chapter 2

The darkness closed around Fiyu comfortingly. Deep within the secure chamber, she could not be disturbed by light or even sound, since the thick walls wrapped her in silence. As soon as they had helped Acquaintance Gethyrue return to her home, they had been free to travel in purely Ichili spaces, without any unnecessary light.

What Fiyu wasn't certain about was why Relative Guchiro had taken her to this place in particular. The previous hideaway had been secure and appropriate, as far as she knew. It had been better equipped in some ways, such as containing the healing pit. Clearly there was a reason, but her relative had given her preparatory soulcrafting and then departed on an assignment of his own. 

Since she had completed her work, Fiyu again examined the chamber around her. It was a cube half again her height, its walls reassuringly thick and dense. Cabinets lined one wall, their interiors filled with the sorts of supplies she would have expected. The softest thing in the room was bedding in one corner, but that held no secrets.

Unquestionably the most unusual aspect of the room was the recess in the floor that was filled with sand. It tingled in her senses, oddly neutral to all cantae. She knew that some adults would sit within such gardens to meditate, but her relative had never taught her such things. Some cultures would draw complex patterns in the sands as a form of art, or so she had been told. Was she meant to do one of those things? Was her relative watching her to see how she would express herself without guidance?

Movement outside the chamber caught her attention, but she immediately identified her relative. He entered the appropriate combinations and stepped through the anterior chambers. By the time he joined her, the outer door had closed and even the whispering light from outside was gone.

"It seems you are already done," her relative said as he approached. "Good. I hope that you are rested, because it is time for us to do some intensive soulcrafting."

"Are we prepared?" Fiyu asked. "What steps are necessary to complete my Corporeal Floor?"

"No." Relative Guchiro spoke sternly, but his legs did not display any tension as if she had made an error. "Once you listened to me as a child, but now you are an adult. You must not be dependent on me."

"Then..." Fiyu nearly asked another question. It was almost confusing at first, since of course she needed to rely on her relative's vastly greater experience. But this was similar to how Friend Theo sometimes behaved, and so she could surmise... "You want me to lay out the steps for myself?"

"Good." She could feel his smile beneath his mask.

"But... you will tell me when I make errors, yes?"

"First clear your second floor, and remove all temporary materials from your soulhome. Then we can discuss your blueprint."

Fiyu nodded and slipped into her soulhome to do as her relative said. She had stored a great many materials that she hoped would one day form part of her Corporeal Floor, but now she removed them all and carefully set them on the floor in the physical world. Only the darkburn bonsai gave her pause... it had served her well as a temporary heart chamber, but it would not manage well outside her soulhome. She temporarily relocated it to the field by her door.

When she reemerged, she had intended to ask her relative's opinion of this decision, but she fell silent. While she had been working, Relative Guchiro had removed sublime materials from his own soulhome. A surprising array of them were spread across the edge of the sand pit, overwhelming her senses in multiple ways. In the past, he had always given her a single material at a time so she could learn carefully. It seemed that those days were past.

"These are the sublime materials I had assembled for your Corporeal Floor," her relative said quietly. "I tried to teach you the principles behind the blueprint. Can you determine the purpose of each and demonstrate it here?"

At last Fiyu understood why they had used the sand chamber. She stepped into the smooth field of sand and drew the blueprint for her second floor with a finger, forming a diagram easily understood by any sense. It was more unusual than most: two large rings around a small central chamber, with three wedge-like rooms splitting the rings.

Just like her first floor, this divided her available space into thirds. This time the division was not elements, but aspects of her body. The dark third represented her mind, the ice third her exterior nature, and the molten third her interior nature. That meant a total of ten chambers, into which she needed to sort all of the sublime materials.

Many of them were easily categorized. Her outer nature included traits such as her hair, fingernails, and toenails, and she identified the materials for those... though she privately felt that the cloudspider silk she had collected would better represent her hair. The concrete part of her interior nature was simple: her heart, her lungs, her stomach, and so on. She stumbled when it came to placing her "abstraction interior" - she had been taught that it included her body heat, but she was unsure of many other details.

Eventually she finished, some of her final placements guesses based on an even distribution of the sublime materials. When she looked up at Relative Guchiro for approval, he slowly moved to crouch on the opposite side of the sand.

"Mostly correct. Some would work, but might be more efficient elsewhere." Her relative shifted several materials, largely between the outer and inner circles. "If you had finished your childhood development on Ichil, this would have been appropriate for you. But now you have journeyed across many worlds, so you must define your body more broadly. Which of these do you believe are no longer appropriate?"

Fiyu bit her lip and looked over the materials. The troubling part was that her relative might not be able to give her the correct answers, because they were specific to her. It was simple enough to determine if a material had an elemental nature, but what types of materials could fully represent her? What if she made a mistake and her transformed body was forever flawed?

Remembering how Friend Nauda had returned from soulhome collapse and bent the bondsfungi to her will, Fiyu resolved not to let the challenge overcome her. She didn't know the names and details of every material, but she could feel them. When she turned a material over in her hands, it would feel leaden and alien or dark and soothing, like another piece of her body.

Slowly Fiyu sorted through the sublime materials. She needed to remove more than she wanted, since many of the purely Ichili materials no longer felt right. Darkness that was the absence of light was no longer enough, not after facing the searing brilliance of other worlds. Only the sources of positive darkness that could hold back the light could carry her through other worlds.

By the time she was done, Fiyu stared over the blueprint forlornly. There were more empty spaces than she wanted, and worst of all was that the three wedge chambers sat empty. Where the broad thirds represented her three natures, the wedges needed to embody the overlap between natures. Each of them needed a single powerful material that could unify both.

And, if she was truthful... Fiyu picked up the dense shielding stone that was meant to represent her perception of the outside world. It was a bulwark against the outside, but that was no longer how she interacted with it. Instead she saw the world filtered through her mask, so she needed something else. She hesitated and looked up to her relative.

"This is... wrong, is it not? Because of my mask?"

"Not only that, but because of the windows you added to the first floor of your soulhome." Relative Guchiro raised a hand to stop her attempt at an apology. "You were not wrong. Previously your design was meant to be a solid tower, impervious to everything outside. Instead you have adopted filtering to keep yourself safe. That is a valid path, but you need to follow it in the remaining aspects of your blueprint."

"Then..." Fiyu looked over her own materials, hoping that something would leap out at her. The glass she had created with Ally Navim was appealing, but that was appropriate for controlling windows and she needed sublime materials that generated cantae for her primary chambers.

"You have more than you think." Her relative waved a hand over the sand and a material she had nearly forgotten about rose into the air. The liquid colder than ice hovered within its case from the Chasm.

"Does it go... here?" Fiyu placed it in the outer chamber of her mental third.

"Why would it?"

"Because... because it is permeable, but strong. It doesn't refuse the outside world, but it can resist it. By moving like liquid, not enduring like a solid."

"Good." Relative Guchiro smiled again and shifted the liquid ice's position in her soulhome. "I believe this, combined with a few minor materials, will serve you well enough. What next?"

Somewhat encouraged, Fiyu set herself to the remaining problems. Her relative was urging her to make her own decisions and she desperately wanted to prove that she wasn't as timid as before. Instead of interpreting the unclear boundaries of her mind, Fiyu switched to the sections that represented her body. There, she felt certain that she had made good choices.

The cloudspider silk was a better representation of her hair. She was sure of it now. The astralcorpuscles would be her muscles and her bloodembers her body heat. Many of the lesser materials from her relative were still appropriate, but she rearranged them so every part of herself was properly represented. But once she reached the chambers for her internal organs, Fiyu began hesitating again.

Eventually, she reached to grasp the mistheart and raised it between them. "I found this in a very dangerous world. Could it be my heart? I know it seems to be made of mist, and it's light instead of dark, but..."

"Do you believe that it should be?"

"I... I do. Yes, it must." Fiyu set it down in her chamber with more determination than she really felt and was relieved when she sensed her relative's smile.

"I believe that was a wise decision. Ultimately, this will be your body, and you will determine what is most appropriate." He slid his hand over the mistheart, feeling the cantae emanating from it. "This material is quite powerful, and mist is not so inappropriate. On your third floor, you will develop new abilities based on your transformed body, including incorporeality. Allowing threats to pass through you, just like the mist."

Fiyu smiled back and began looking through her remaining materials. Unfortunately, though her mood had much improved, she wasn't sure any of them were appropriate. She could twist herself into knots to justify some of them, but they weren't the comfortable matches she needed for her Corporeal Floor. And so she began setting them aside.

"The darkburn bonsai... cannot be placed here." It remained within her soulhome, but she drew a representation of it in the sand outside the blueprint. Her relative nodded.

"A powerful material, but wrong for the floor. It might serve as a heart chamber for your third."

"One of my new companions offered me this, and I have greatly appreciated its cantae, but..." Fiyu picked up the sunlessrose to show her relative.

"A very appropriate material for you," Relative Guchiro said, "but not for your Corporeal Floor. I suggest growing a small garden of them around the base of your tower. This is earlier than I planned for you to begin a feature such as a garden, but it will be in no way weakened by beginning as an Archcrafter. There will be time for that later."

"Then I have these solidembers..." She lifted the pouch that Friend Theo had given her, still unused. "I know that they do not belong in my soulhome, but they are meant to improve an ascension. Umm, you could probably tell that. But could they help?"

For once her relative's jaw tightened in complete refusal. "Not this time. There will be special conditions for this ascension, so you do not want to add any additional challenges that might distract you. But keep them for future soulcrafting."

"What about this?" Fiyu carefully lifted the subliminalsteel she had won from the Chasm of Lamentations. Even from a distance, she could feel the edge whispering against her skin as if it wanted to cut her. "It is one of my most powerful materials, and I thought that it could sharpen the cantae around my hand. Should it represent my fingers? In the outer physical chamber?"

"It might, but I suggest against it. I believe it would be more appropriate on your third floor."

"I will need many sublime materials there as well." Fiyu gingerly set it beside the darkburn bonsai's image. "Do you have Ruler-tier materials for me as well? Or are those just as changed?"

"A few will help you, but we will need to search for more." Relative Guchiro smiled with an odd twist of the muscles in his jaw. "Ironically, I was planning to take you to Fithe later for certain materials. It will take more time, without a weirkey, but it will be worth it."

"Really? I have found some good materials, but overall the world seems..."

"Not from the land. So far you have been exploring the upper half of the world, but in the Fithan depths there is cold and darkness to match Ichil. We will go as soon as you have ascended."

The idea lit up Fiyu's imagination, so she resolved to finish their planning swiftly. Unfortunately, the remaining gaps weren't so easy to fill. There were large gaps in her mental third, and all three wedge chambers remained empty. After considering her remaining materials, she decided that all of them would be compromises and so she gave up.

"I do not believe I can fill the rest," Fiyu said. "Will it be greatly difficult to find materials for the unifying rooms?"

"It stalled me for some time, when I was your age. Fortunately, you do not need to soulcraft alone." Her relative raised a finger over the connection between darkness and ice. "The sublime ice you used has given me a new idea. This chamber must represent the unity between the mind and the external. What do you think of this?"

Relative Guchiro reached into his soulhome and revealed what appeared to be an icicle. It certainly emanated powerful cantae, so Fiyu eagerly examined it... only for her senses to pass through, as if it had no density at all. She frowned and tried more carefully, feeling how the sublime material wavered in and out of phase in a way she hadn't seen before.

"This is ghostice, from the Widest Ice," her relative explained. "I discovered many strange and deceptive materials there. Most are inappropriate for our techniques... but for your Corporeal Floor, it might be just right."

"Thank you, Guchiro!" Fiyu carefully took it, gathering cantae so it wouldn't slip between her fingers, and placed it in the appropriate wedge. "Do you have other suggestions?"

"Unfortunately, that is the only gap I can fill. The unity of mental and external... perhaps I will recall something from my travels. But the unity of mental and external will be difficult. We may need to travel further to find something appropriate."

It would have been better if he had more sublime materials, Fiyu knew that objectively, but in a way she was glad. She had greatly enjoyed the hunt for new materials and it would not have felt right to have all of her second floor handed to her. But when she looked over the sand blueprint, she saw a mix of her relative's guidance and her own travels, just as it should be.

Two problems remaining, then...

"What about the central chamber?" Fiyu asked. It was small on her Corporeal Floor, nothing like a normal heart chamber, but immensely important. "You never told me exactly how it would work... is there some secret?"

"A secret kept from a child, but not from you." Relative Guchiro reached into his soulhome with both hands and revealed a bead of dark metal in each. Fiyu immediately recognized them as the same material that formed the archway into her soulhome, then hesitated. They looked identical, but their natures... "One of these, you should draw into your soul at once. The other, you must keep near your physical body. Do you know which is which?"

Fiyu didn't hesitate. After all her travels, her intuitive sense for sublime materials was far more precise. The left-hand bead emanated powerful cantae and so went into her central chamber, while the right manipulated cantae in the real world more effectively than it would work inside a soulhome.

Her relative smiled and handed her a small pouch on a string. "Good. Use this to keep the outer bead close to you. When the time comes for you to ascend, you will use both at once."

That possibility lit up Fiyu's imagination, and she eagerly placed the bead inside the pouch and slid it underneath her robes. The pouch settled just against her heart and felt right there. But it would be premature to ask about her ascension, not when the mental aspect of her floor remained unfinished.

"What about my mind?" she asked. "I feel as though I have changed more in this aspect, but I am not certain I know myself..."

"I believe you will. And soon, you will find the appropriate materials." Her relative stood up as if they were done and began moving away. Fiyu scrambled to gather up all the sublime materials. Most went into her soulhome, but those she had discarded...

"Wait, shouldn't you take the materials that didn't match?"

"Keep them." Relative Guchiro waved idly over his shoulder. "Perhaps you will find a place for them, perhaps you can give them to a ward of your own. I have no more need for such things."

Fiyu gasped, but her relative pretended not to notice. She carefully placed all the other materials into her storage chamber, then spent a little while rearranging her Corporeal Floor. This distribution left her temporarily weaker than her old design, but soon it would all be unified. More importantly, it all felt right, except for the gaps in the mental chambers.

By the time she caught up to her relative, he was undoing the barriers to the outside. When the stone door slid aside, it revealed the landscape of twisting shadows. She could feel each of them in her senses, as if the shadows had actual weight. They crawled over the ground like grasping fingers or dissolved into the air as a strangely heavy smoke.

"This place contains a great many sublime materials that are difficult to use. There is one in particular called a shadowmind, which exhibits a rare trait: each one is unique. All interact with one's mental processes, but in very different ways."

"Oh!" Fiyu came to stand beside him and let herself smile. "Then is this where..."

"Welcome to the Shadowlands," Relative Guchiro said with a soft smile. "Here, you will find your mind."