Bloodcrete: Chapters 1-4 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

I've grouped chapters 1-4 into a single post just for ease of reading. There have been a few edits to the first chapter, but they're not essential to reread (just trying to make Theo's progress this book clearer). These four chapters are sort of the first logical piece of the book, as they reintroduce everyone and kick things off.

Normally, I would need to do an entire revision of the book after so many edits, but that would take a lot of time and energy. To get the sixth book into readers' hands sooner, I've decided to skip this step for now. It shouldn't lead to major issues, but typos are more likely, and I'm also concerned about minor repetitions (like someone having the same soulcrafting thought twice in one chapter). Let me know if you spot anything, but otherwise I hope the book will feel like a strong step forward.

-

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.

So far, his journey had uncovered one excellent match: a sublime material called an inertialvoid. It seemed to absorb inertia, so it was a perfect match for many of his skills. At the moment he could only use it to zero out his momentum, making flying via gravity much easier, but it could easily adapt to other uses as he developed. With a little more polish, that would fill one of his third floor chambers.

With more work, his voidflint could fill another enhancement chamber, making all of his skills more lethal. That left two empty chambers: his blueprint suggested that they needed to be used for self-enhancement since he already had skills, but he had yet to make final decisions. He wanted something that improved his mind, but the last was still an open question.

Still two empty chambers on his third floor, and one undeveloped on the second... sometimes that made him feel far from ascension, but Theo tried to think about it the opposite way. His ideal blueprint had twenty-seven rooms in the first section, and he'd filled twenty-four. If he could perfect everything, he would ascend to Authority far more powerful than he had been in his previous life. The problem was perfecting all those details...

"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 his only good find had been the inertialvoid and none of the secondary materials he'd found 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.

-

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 internal and external... perhaps I will recall something from my travels. But the unity of mental and internal 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."

-

Chapter 3

Part of Theo was concerned that he hadn't acted in time to help the sailors, but he discarded it. What mattered was that his gravity sense wasn't yet advanced enough for combat use - if he could maximize that, he could use it toward any end he wanted. He absolutely needed to perfect the basics before he ascended, and most likely he would need Ichili expertise.

For now, he shifted his gravitational fields to launch himself back toward the ship. He left the first field intact behind him, still slowly raising the hunk of rock. However the battle went, there was no sense wasting time afterwards.

On his way, he spotted ten Arbaians on the deck, which was a problem because by his count only eight of them were soulcrafters worth anything. The number of demons was difficult to count because of the way they leapt from the sands, but it was at least two dozen. Eight allies, two civilians, and fast moving enemies... this was going to require some truly complex gravitational fields.

Then Theo realized that he was being an idiot. He'd designed his blueprint so he'd have more than one tool to solve problems.

When another demon leapt from the sands, Theo intercepted it with a torsion bolt. The tightly rotating gravitational field tore directly through the beast, leaving only a few fragments that dissolved before they even hit the sands. Theo dropped to the deck, casting right and left, killing another demon with each bolt.

One of the Eubhan lay on the deck, struggling with a demon that was tearing into its tail and apparently causing great pain. Theo might not be a physical fighter, but he'd been working on his enhancement chambers and they were more than good enough for first stage demons. He grabbed the demon off the sailor and glanced at it long enough to get a look at the small crystal-like teeth that could apparently cut into stone before he blew it away.

After picking off a few demons swarming the other fighters, Theo had mostly cleared the deck. No more were jumping at them... and they definitely weren't afraid, because demons didn't experience fear as far as he could tell.

"Look for sacrificing!" Theo called as he rose back into the air to scan the sands. Most of the sailors were too shaken by the attack to help, but at least Salviyah and a few others began searching.

Theo spotted them first: a cluster of six demons were swarming together. They began swimming in a tight circle and then dissolved, their matter coming together to form a second stage demon. Part of Theo was curious about what the advanced version of these fish would look like, but he lowered himself closer and sent a cantae bolt straight through its mass before it could fully form.

While he was hovering so close to the sand, he incited several more demons to leap at him from all sides. Even a year ago, that would have been a problem. But his enhancement chambers had improved his reaction time. His gravity sense might not be able to track the demons jumping at him, but he could shoot them out of the air before they reached him. Adding rare Arbaian foods to his Nine Worlds Feast seemed to have improved his mind more than expected.

Strengthening his gravitational field, Theo rose back over the ship to examine the battle. To his surprise, several sailors were struggling with the little demons and Salviyah was tangling with a larger one.

Then again, he shouldn't have been surprised. Theo regularly dealt with soulcrafters who were Authorities or stronger, and his ultimate enemies stood beyond Dominion, but those tiers were legends to the average person. The trained soldiers only had varying percentages of their first floor complete, and even Salviyah was only an Archcrafter. Even if Theo saw far more work to do on his soulhome, he was overqualified for this fight.

The second stage demon looked a bit like a fish crossed with an Eubhan. When Salviyah attempted to coil around it, perhaps to suffocate her opponent, it suddenly twisted and spikes shot from its body. Salviyah flinched back, her rocky body cracking in several places.

Theo used a pair of gravitational fields to separate them, sending the demon plummeting upward. He shot a torsion bolt, but it deflected off the demon's rocky hide. Without hesitating, Theo instead clapped his hands together around a tiny singularity.

The full form of his skill still required significant preparation time, but Theo had been practicing forming weaker singularities with only the cantae currently circling through his soulhome. This one formed quickly inside the demon and began consuming it from within. As soon as he confirmed it was dying, Theo let himself drop back down, casting more bolts to finish the other fights.

Salviyah appeared to be stable, and Balmun had pinned a demon to the other side of the deck. But there was a sailor missing, and the others were violently twitching their tails at him. It took him a second to remember that it was the Eubhan version of pointing. Theo flew over that side of the ship just in time to see another of the sailors sinking into the sand as the remaining demons swarmed.

His attempt to pull them all back upward with a gravitational field was too slow, so Theo threw himself into the sands. As he did so, he summoned the most intense point of anti-mass that he could within his coat. It immediately pushed the aerial sands away from him, but as he plunged into the ocean, the sphere of emptiness began to collapse. With his current cantae, he simply couldn't create anti-mass potent enough.

Still, it was enough to catch up to the fallen sailor and pick off the demons with torsion bolts. Theo wrapped his arms around the serpentine Eubhan and refocused on his anti-mass technique. Once he did, he managed to push the sand away from them, though he could feel the pressure on all sides.

"What... how?" The sailor stared at the bubble around them in shock, so Theo patted him on the scales reassuringly as his gravitational field lifted them back out.

"I've got you. Just stay still so we can get back to th - agh!" He cried out as a demon lunged from the sands, piercing his bubble and clamping its jaws into his shoulder.

Yet Theo's cry had been more surprise than pain. The demon's jaws exerted painful force, but the crystalline teeth couldn't fully penetrate his coat. He lifted that arm and tore through the demon at point blank range.

After that one was gone, the battle truly seemed to be over. When Theo rose into the air with the injured sailor, he didn't see any more battles or missing allies. As he released the gravitational field, he examined his shoulder and saw that there were a few holes. His coat was already healing itself, but he'd have to see about strengthening his defensive technique.

All of the sailors were staring at him, and Theo saw the Arbaian calculations in their eyes. They had known he was a Ruler, but this had been the first time he'd really shown his power. The attack itself might be a problem, since it was strange to be ambushed by such a large swarm of demons so far from civilization.

If this had been Norro Yorthin, they would likely have blamed him for the trouble. Even if he was claiming to be Deuxan, there was suspicion about anyone unusual thanks to the Order of the Deepest Blue. Their constant propaganda had been part of the reason he'd decided to take such a long trip, actually, but he knew they tried to argue against outsiders in Arbai as well.

But it didn't seem like they'd gotten to the sailors: some cheered and others beat their tails on the deck encouragingly. Theo automatically smiled and waved to them all, though the expression was just a shell of the person he'd been on his first visit. He pretended to care while he checked that Salviyah wasn't too heavily injured and that nothing else had gone wrong.

Meanwhile, his remaining gravitational field had finally lifted the lode out of the sands. It looked like another deposit of the type Balmun wanted. But when Theo gestured toward it, the Mundhin shook his head.

"The sailors need time to recover. Keep it there and we'll gather it later."

Disappointing, but not unexpected. Theo stayed floating over the ship long enough to be sure that there were no more demons lying in wait, then he created a perpendicular gravitational field and dropped sideways to begin exploring the region.

The sand ocean looked virtually identical in all directions, but even his rudimentary gravity sense was sufficient that he could never become lost. An object as massive as the ship stuck out to him, even at great distances. Theo redirected his fall to circle it, probing for anything unusual nearby, then he began exploring further.

Saving the sailor earlier had given Theo a few ideas he found intriguing. Once he got bored of scanning for more rocks, he weakened his gravitational field so that he descended into the ocean of sand. This time he maintained only a single field for his flight and focused all the rest of his power into a point of anti-mass. When moving slowly, it could push away enough sand to create a stable bubble around him.

Even though he couldn't see anything, he stared downward. After he had ascended a few times, he might be powerful enough to create a stronger bubble and go all the way to the bottom. He wanted to fight the rumored sublime beasts, and honestly he just wanted to walk on the ocean floor.

None of that benefited him for now, so he focused on testing his lesser used abilities. Gravitational fields, torsion bolts, and singularities were designed to carry him through the earlier tiers, but parts of his soulhome would only come into their own once he ascended. Most notably his ability to create mass and anti-mass, though they were proving a bit stronger at Ruler than expected. Since his bubble was stable, Theo tested making a point of mass that drew sand to it... in theory. Its spiritual mass wasn't anywhere near enough to overcome other forces, so it was mostly an exercise.

He experimented with using points of mass to draw sand away ahead of him and his bubble expanded slightly. As he traveled at various speeds, Theo tested a few of his other capacities. Rapidly spinning fields could produce disorientation, which was fantastically effective when applied to the inner ear but not much use elsewhere. Cast against the sand, it only added to the vibrations.

Two of his intended techniques barely worked at all. He hadn't even finished his anchoring column, which he intended to use for flight and to enhance other techniques. The last was tunneling: the tunnelegg from Slest was perfect, but he couldn't create a wormhole large enough as a Ruler. At the moment all he could do was teleport a bit of sand from one side of him to the other. At best he could imagine contorted situations where he might be able to drain gas from a room or something.

Combining all of it, he could... sort of swim underneath the sand. Theo searched around for anything within range of his gravity sense, but didn't come up with anything. He decided to take a break and just cruised along at a casual speed. Being surrounded by vibrating sand wasn't exactly relaxing, but he trusted his coat and his speed to get him to the surface in an emergency.

Meanwhile, he reached into his soulhome and pulled out an everpitcher. He'd got them from Aathal through House Blacksilver, in preparation for this trip. They looked a bit like pitcher plants from Earth, but thankfully they didn't digest meat. Instead they filtered various gases and produced drinkable water; the highly cultivated and enhanced versions produced enough to sustain a person. He had two more of them in his soulhome for the others, plus a few spares.

For the moment he just drank from the opening of the pitcher and enjoyed the water. Had he used anything like this on his first visit to the Nine? He couldn't remember - water had always seemed to be available, even when he went to Arbai.

Getting the everpitchers was only one step on his path to self-sufficiency. His blueprint gave him abilities broadly applicable across worlds, and he'd be even more prepared once he'd perfected his gravity senses. Right now he'd collect useful tools, but eventually he might transcend them. He had a clear idea of what he wanted to soulcraft up to Stronghold, but he would need to do research about exactly how Immortality Conduits and some other higher soulcrafting worked.

Distracted by all his plans, Theo almost didn't notice when something tugged on his point of mass. Then he flinched, thinking that he'd been negligent, only to sense no attack. In fact, he sensed nothing... Theo frowned and went still again, trying to focus solely on his gravity.

There was something in the sands. Not a massive object, just something that was interacting with his artificial point of mass. Squashing all mental hopes, Theo floated closer and intensified both techniques. Something seemed to be reacting to both mass and anti-mass far more strongly than the ordinary sand, but he still had no idea what it was.

After searching fruitlessly, Theo began to wonder if his approach was wrong. He couldn't see whatever it is, but it verifiably existed. So he closed his eyes and tried to herd whatever it was closer to him. Very small and slippery, but there was a source of cantae flowing through the sand that reacted to his power.

Eventually he opened his eyes and saw... sand. All he'd drawn into his bubble was a little ball of sand. Yet as Theo examined it, he began to suspect that there was something really there. When he ran the sand through his fingers, he could feel its cantae more clearly. His hands became especially dirty, too...

Suddenly understanding, Theo grabbed a second everpitcher and poured it out over the sand. The water flowed strangely due to all the artificial gravity, but he managed to get the sand drenched. To his delight, an outer layer of dust and other small particles washed away to reveal pitch black sand.

Theo eagerly began seeking out more of it from the depths. On Earth, black sand like this would have been native to a volcanic island, and he hadn't seen any volcanic activity on Arbai. But it was definitely a sublime material, so it might not have anything to do with those processes. It was definitely aligned to gravity, perhaps exactly what he had been looking for to create his windows.

It took him most of a day to gather enough, especially since the dark sand wasn't especially abundant. As far as he could tell, only small pockets of it existed deep beneath the surface of the sand ocean. But he hunted it, a bit at a time, until he had enough for all of his purposes, including experiments and potential false starts. Once it was converted to glass, he would be another step closer to ascension.

When he floated himself back to the deck, Theo dropped down beside Balmun instead of any of the sailors. "I need to go back to port."

"Now?" Balmun's gem sphere swung toward him incredulously. "Our course should take us further into the sea. The hold is barely half full! How do you expect me to turn a profit with such little stamina?"

"Even a straight path back would take us through territory we didn't explore. I'll find as many lodes as possible on the way."

"And can you guarantee there will be sufficient to fill our hold? Of course you can't. If that was mathematically likely, I wouldn't have charted such a long arc. Diverting from that course is simply illogical, you must see that."

"At top speed, I could fly back in a few days," Theo said quietly. "How do you calculate your profits if you don't have my abilities to find lodes for you?"

"That is... a rational argument." Balmun didn't look happy about it, but he shifted back across the deck. Most likely they would have to argue a little more and Theo would get what he wanted in the end. He could probably get enough momentum to return alone as he'd threatened, but it would be much more productive to soulcraft on the ship on his way back.

Vibrations over the deck drew his attention behind him, where Salviyah arched upright. "You're leaving, aren't you?" she asked.

"Once we return to port." Theo turned to face her, yet wasn't sure what to say.

"I had hoped you might continue traveling with us. We could explore beneath the waves together."

"One day we might, but I have obligations to fulfill."

Salviyah examined him a moment longer and then slithered away without another word. Even though it was completely irrational, Theo felt a little guilty for leaving them. In another life, he might have sailed on with them, exploring the extent of the sand ocean as well as its deepest depths. Part of him still wanted to.

But the truth was that he had no time to waste. Vistgil might not be hunting him down, but he had created an array of traps. If rumors were true, war was building across the entire Norron continent, and the Order of the Deepest Blue might have been specifically sent to kill people like him. He needed power as soon as possible.

The fact was that Arbai had nothing else to offer him, so he needed to leave.

-

Chapter 4

Most of Nauda's time in Slest had been spent hunting for sublime materials, assisting leafpuller beetle construction, and soulcrafting. The days of running from merciless soldier ants were long over, and there wasn't any sign of war in her region. After the brutal training of her arrival on the world, she had been glad to make quieter progress.

Now, however, she led a line of soldier ants into battle.

They marched over a region of uneven soil, a brownish blight marring the usual purple and blue of Slest. The entire area was composed of unusually sandy soil, which meant that it was inappropriate for tunneling. As such, the defenses were weaker, and the local Gray-Blue-Gold colony believed that a new threat might be encroaching. Thus this expedition.

Why Nauda needed to lead the expedition was another matter. She tried to view it as a normal community, simply requiring her to pull her weight, but she doubted she could ever view the vicious hives of Slest as true communities. In any case, the leafpuller beetles told her that the type of sublime honey she needed was native to such regions, so she hoped to finally find some in the process.

At the moment, all she was finding was sand all over her boots. They were moving down an incline into a region like a shallow dish, which gave the uncomfortable impression it was all a trap for an enormous beast. Actually... when Nauda examined the decline more carefully, she saw an unusual shift. Possibly nothing, but possibly...

"Hold." Her voice vibrated in a strange way when she spoke, and most of the bugs responded to the soul vibration instead of the sound.

Nauda crept forward on her own, testing the ground. It seemed like simply a soggy region, but something was setting off warning bells. When the sand suddenly gave way, Nauda vaulted backwards from a pit that opened up in front of her.

She caught a glimpse of jagged metal at the bottom, then pincers lunging for her. An enemy ant had hidden in part of the trap and she'd entirely missed it. Fortunately, as she continued to rebuild her soulhome her reaction time had improved, so the entire experience felt smoothly controlled instead of a desperate rush. Nauda managed to raise her staff in time and the ant impaled itself on the tips.

That alone didn't kill it, leaving the bug writhing on the end. Since the Slescans didn't ever interrogate prisoners as far as she could tell, she struck it against the ground to end its pain. As far as she could tell, the ants were only intelligent animals without much in the way of interior lives, but they didn't need to suffer unnecessarily.

When she looked back, she saw the line of her own ants waiting as if nothing had happened. However, the intelligent bug at the end of the line stepped forward. He didn't have much expression, but his antennae twitched wildly.

"How see trap?" he asked. "Scents perfect. No sign. Scents perfect."

"I guess that's why the queen sent me to lead," Nauda said. The Slescan use of signalscents was powerful, but she thought they relied on it too much. She had learned the word "pheromone" from Theo, though it still sat oddly in her mind.

"Trap old," the scout said as he examined the pit. "Abandoned. Maybe not invasion."

"So our entire pretext for coming here might be invalid?"

The scout only stared at her. That was how most Slescans reacted whenever she brought up anything that was even slightly abstract. Queens and other leaders clearly had the mental capacity to consider higher matters, but generally didn't seem interested aside from how it could benefit them. Another reason she was increasingly fond of the leafpuller beetles.

"How likely are there to be other traps?" Nauda asked. The scout immediately examined the area.

"Normal procedure. But old. Many gone. Unknown."

"Then I suppose we should test carefully." She glanced back to the ants and tried to project. "Follow me and, uh, be careful?"

They began to follow her again, but this time they said [Scout] to one another. Hopefully that was good enough. She didn't always grasp the signalscents very quickly, and even that had taken a lot of effort: days of learning directly from Slescans and multiple trips between worlds to readjust her soul translation. Even now she couldn't emit signalscents directly, only embed them into her speech.

It really irritated her that, even though she'd been living in hives for months, she still couldn't speak the language as well as Theo. Despite the way he claimed to hate everyone, he was surprisingly good at communicating. Come to think of it, he had always jumped to assist communication between her and Fiyu, as well as any other species that crossed their path. No doubt he would grumble something if she brought it up.

His personal issues might not be anywhere as serious as hers, but maybe one day she'd be able to pay him back for his help.

Her entire group explored the region carefully, the scout able to notice the potential traps after she demonstrated. The ants seemed entirely blind to them and she occasionally had to call halts to keep them from tumbling into pits. Yelling orders and demanding compliance bothered her even more than her lack of facility in the language, but that was how Slest worked and she would only do more harm trying to force Tatian thinking on them.

As they traveled further into the sandy region, they only uncovered a handful of other pits, and only a single other ambusher. The scout increasingly seemed to believe that the region was abandoned, perhaps due to the poor soil. They still needed to finish their explorations.

Towards the bottom, there were a few clusters of blue Slescan trees, and their roots firmed up the ground a little. Unfortunately, the lack of pit traps was balanced by all the new places for enemies to hide. The Slescans were probably better at this than her, so Nauda asked them to slowly encircle and explore the groves.

She found a few abandoned tools and part of a wall, all of them very old. And then, she finally heard it: a buzzing. Nauda held her breath as she stepped around a particularly broad tree and spotted the source: a beehive. It didn't resemble those she knew from Tatian, instead a series of clay pipes... rather large ones. 

As she realized that the hive was further from her than she expected, Nauda understood the bees were actually enormous. Each was half the size of her hand, with a wicked stinger on their tails. Aside from the purple and black coloring, they looked like bees from anywhere else, but she wondered how much damage they could do to flesh. Those stingers were likely designed to punch through the chitin of predators.

"What can you tell me about this hive?" Nauda asked the scout. He sat back on his haunches and answered rapidly.

"Royal bees. Not for scouts. Sublime material. Valuable. Not for scouts."

"Okay, but are they dangerous? Can I use the normal procedure for them?"

"Not for scouts. Not for scouts." His face didn't display much emotion, but he was actively edging backward, so Nauda waved him down.

"It's fine, you can stay there. I'll figure it out."

She began walking closer to the hives, keeping her eyes open for potential attacks. As she did so, she reached into her soulhome for some of her sublime flowers. The little bees that the leafpuller beetles kept liked them, so hopefully the royal bees would react in the same way. Nauda was trying to decide whether to use the lavender flowers, the orange, or some combination when she heard a rustling.

Her attention snapped up too late as another ant charged at her. It knocked aside her staff as it leapt, jaws snapping toward her throat. Nauda instinctively thrust her arm into the gap and grunted as the fanged teeth bit into her skin. She managed to swing her staff around and bash it to the ground.

As soon as she confirmed that the ant was incapacitated, Nauda checked her arm. The bite had drawn blood, but those jaws usually tore through flesh. As far as she could tell, ever since the fight at the beetle mound, the bondsfungi had been cooperating with her soulhome. They made her body more durable when threatened but didn't otherwise turn her to stone. Just to be sure, she pushed cantae within her soulhome, encouraging the bondsfungi to continue growing on the outside of her internal statue instead of anywhere else.

"Invader! Incursion!"

Nauda leapt to attention, but there was no attack. It was the scout again, examining the ant she had just killed. This was apparently so exciting that there was even a little emotion in his voice. She couldn't tell the slightest difference between this ant and the others, but perhaps this was another pheromone thing.

"This one is different?" she asked. The scout immediately nodded.

"Incursion! Not old. Enemy hive. Incursion."

"Alright, then. Be careful for more and get ready to carry it back to the queen. I need to take care of the bees."

Though Nauda had worried that the attack might have disrupted the hive, they seemed only mildly perturbed, not likely to attack. Based on the artificial look of the clay pipes, they had probably been raised by the old hive. If this ant represented a different army, it might have been coming to take them as well. Hopefully that meant the bees were domesticated and relatively easy to handle.

When Nauda edged closer, several bees did fly up into her path, raising their stingers. She stopped moving immediately and raised one of her orange flowers toward them. The bees hovered closer and buzzed around one another for a time, then seemed to relax. One of them moved toward her, but only bumped its head into hers a few times.

She reached out and hesitantly touched the bee's back. They were fuzzier than she'd ever realized, since Tatian honeybees were quite small. It didn't get upset at her touch, but then again it didn't seem to care in the slightest either way. Nauda set out some more flowers for them, then shifted closer to the hive.

When she began to lift the pipes, some of them buzzed in mild annoyance, but they didn't seem inclined to attack. She didn't know if the bees had any actual affection for their keepers, but they would at least tolerate her. As she carried the hive out of the trees, she noticed that the ants gave her a wide berth. Hopefully that was because the royal bees weren't for their caste, instead of being dangerous.

They retraced their steps to leave the sandy regions, so they didn't run into any more traps on the way out. Nauda instructed them to remain alert for an attack from the other side, just in case there really was a hostile hive, but nothing came of it. The scout seemed quite incensed by the body they carried with them, so maybe that would mean more to others.

Queen Yeshir waited for them far outside the region, discussing plans with her royal advisers. When she saw them, she sent off several of her royal guards and turned to her.

"Nauda! Not only have you brought back all my soldiers, you've brought me some royal honey!" There was just a whiff of some sort of scent and several smaller bugs began to clean out the pipes. This disturbed the bees more, but one of the royal bugs released a puff of smoke that seemed to make them sleepy. Overall they were much less gentle than Nauda would have been, so she decided to speak up.

"Yeshir, can you tell them not to harm the bees? I had wanted to experiment with this group."

"Oh, a few dead will make no difference to the hive. But if you want this one, you're welcome to it. This honey is inferior to my own in any case." Queen Yeshir stepped closer to her, an insectoid hand falling on her shoulder. "Now, tell me what you discovered."

Reporting quickly, Nauda described the abandoned traps and told the others to bring the dead ant forward. Yeshir seemed to find this much more interesting than her verbal report, examining it closely before straightening. Her casual attitude had entirely fallen away to reveal the war leader who would mercilessly order the deaths of her enemies.

"There is another hive." Yeshir turned to look past the sands, though it was impossible to tell where her glittering eyes were focusing. "No doubt coming to claim what remains of Blue-Red-Blue hive. This is going to be more complicated than I expected."

"Because they want the region too?" Nauda asked. "I thought you had claimed it fairly well."

"Oh, you hadn't heard? I suppose it's because you've spent so much time with those beetles. No, there are at least three different hives involved. Tythes-mate is currently dealing with one of them from a distance."

Of course Tythes was involved in this. But, though Yeshir's face was quite alien, Nauda thought she detected something odd in her posture. "Something's wrong with that? You haven't heard from him?"

"We couldn't travel together because it involved gates." Yeshir sniffed and turned away. "Royals may not be killed by other worlds, but the air is simply foul. No, I will let Tythes-mate handle such travels, I simply wish the conflict was more contained. We are still a young hive, and my sister queen has not yet hatched."

As much as Nauda would have loved to ignore Slescan politics, she absolutely needed to play the game, because it was one of her best sources of sublime materials. She had high hopes for the royal bees, but many military sublime materials were controlled by the most powerful, just like on other worlds. Nauda decided that it would be best to push, though she wasn't sure how to play the humility game on Slest.

"Do you need anything else, Yeshir? If not, I should return to my soulcrafting."

"Nauda, Nauda... always such a beetle yourself. But a useful one, and you should be commended." Yeshir stepped closer and put four hands on her shoulders, then breathed an intense scent directly into her face. "I declare you Nauda-guard for your work today. We may yet need your help when we engage in war with the other hives, but for now strengthen yourself."

Nauda did her best not to cough in the face of the great honor. If she understood, she had just been promoted to the royal guard of the Gray-Blue-Gold colony. In a sense, that was overdue, because most Slescan Rulers seemed to be part of that caste. Part of her worried about what duties might come along with that title, but she wasn't planning to stay on Slest forever.

When she turned back to the others, the ants had already wandered away and no doubt forgotten her. But the scout had dropped prostrate in front of her. "Nauda-guard. Honor."

"Thank you," Nauda said weakly. She didn't like Slescan deference, but it was better than Krikree calling her a queen and trembling in terror. In the past she'd tried to press the issue with other scouts, but they'd proved even more inflexible than Krikree.

Since her work was clearly finished, Nauda coaxed the bees back to their hive with more flowers and patted a few of them. They clustered around her with no stingers raised, so she hoped they had generally accepted her. She hefted the pipes over one shoulder and made her way back home.

For all that it was a mound of beetles, she really did think of the place as home. At least for now. Fiyu might be comfortable as a perpetual traveler, and Theo might never have a home at all, but Nauda needed a community.

It was a long trip back to the mound, since her speed was limited by not disturbing the bees. Along the way, she thought back to what Yeshir had said. She knew that something was different about the atmosphere on Slest, but none of the details. Tythes had mentioned that the Slescan air could be unhealthy for outsiders without adaptations, which she'd eventually made with help from Fiyu. Yeshir had implied that other worlds were even worse for the local bugs.

She wouldn't be deducing any answers from first principles, so she just idly turned it over in her mind along the way. Eventually she came into sight of the beetle mound, which was much easier than it had once been. Under her protection, the mound had expanded significantly and drawn in several other groups of leafpullers.

Though each group had begun with a separate dwelling, they had soon built tunnels that linked each area. A hill had been partially demolished and the earth used to build partially above-ground tunnels for urgent traffic. Lesser paths had been worn into the dirt and lined with small stones that appeared to be purely artisanal.

And if they weren't, the statues certainly were. The first Nauda saw was a spiral with curving spikes, somewhere between a thorny vine and a whirlwind. As she drew closer she saw more: some were abstract, while others were representations of Queen Yeshir, beetles, or local plants. Her favorite was a symbolic tree that almost struck her as a heartoak from Tatian.

Several beetles were currently at work, the same internal processes that let them create goo or the mud of their mounds working to reshape the stone of the statues. Creating statues out of spit sounded disgusting, but the results were strikingly pretty.

Once she drew near, some of the beetles began to greet her. Those in her path bumped into her and rubbed their horns against her legs. All around she heard [Symbiote] and even a few [Nauda-symbiote] signals. That was heartwarming, but she actually liked the statues more.

Nauda was no sculptor herself, but one night she had been shaping mud into her blueprint in order to better model her soulhome and avoid potential mistakes. The beetles had noticed and apparently been captivated, demanding that she make other objects. They soon picked it up themselves, building statues far more elaborate than she ever could.

That was one of the things she loved about the leafpullers: they had an actual sense of imagination. The soldier ants might be stronger and more effective, but they would never create anything new. In her time at the mound, Nauda had begun to learn their songs, realizing that they had some classics they repeated alongside new inventions.

[Nauda-symbiote. Royal bees?] It was one of the older beetles, easily recognized by its size and the large scar across its shell. Nauda wished that they had names she could learn, but so far it seemed impossible.

"Yes, this hive is ours now." She set down the pipes and arranged some flowers around the entrance just in case the bees felt threatened.

[Not. Royal. Danger.]

"Queen Yeshir gave this hive to me," Nauda said. She didn't like to rely on hierarchy that way, but her efforts at other paths had consistently failed. "There is a specific plan for its care. All the old honey was cleaned out, but we're going to feed them a certain set of sublime foods."

[Gather. Feed.]

"Yes, but the timing is important. We want to encourage honey growth at some time, but at others-"

[Not feed? No food?]

"We do have food, but... see, it's managing the growth of anything. Surely you manage goo production somehow, right?"

[Soldiers take. Start again.]

"Well, they won't take this time. Let's try this another way..."

It took Nauda some time to lay out her plan, in part because it was somewhat complex and in part for reasons she preferred not to think about. The beetles were friendly and creative and... probably not very bright. They might be open to new ideas, but they seemed relatively simple minded. When Nauda had tried to question their acceptance of the hierarchy - cautiously at first to avoid triggering a doomed rebellion - they hadn't seemed to understand most of the concepts.

She wanted to believe that it was her inability with the language, but as her capacity to understand the signalscents improved, she doubted it. All the conversations she overheard were about simple things and the beetles seemed happy without larger concerns. Of course they still deserved to be protected, and Nauda hoped to improve their lot in life, but she found herself a little lonely.

Most Tatians would have been happy in a community like this. The beetles were friendly and sociable, and all of them worked together for the common good. Part of Nauda enjoyed that, but... another part of her longed for Fiyu's cool regard, or Theo's cynicism, or...

"Hey, do you have anything to drink? I mean booze, not beetle goo."

Not that. Nauda groaned as she turned to see Tythes descend to the beetle mound. She hadn't seen him in... well, not long enough. Briefly she wondered why he wasn't fighting the other hive like Yeshir had said, but he was intentionally keeping his games obscure to her. "What do you want, Tythes?"

"Are you stupid? I just said I wanted a drink. If you can convince the beetles to make sculptures, can't you teach them fermentation? I'm sick of drinking goo."

"Doesn't Queen Yeshir have wine at her palace?"

"Ah yes, the many luxuries of being the queen's mate." Tythes slung an arm around her shoulders so his face was right next to hers and wiggled his eyebrows. "That's been even more fun than I expected. She can really scrape the old mandibles, if you know what I mean. Do you know what I mean? Because I have no idea."

"Tythes..."

"Frankly, whatever I was talking about sounds like entirely too much effort, and probably unsafe. I'm disgusted, repulsed, and disappointed that you would bring up something so depraved."

Nauda pushed him away and poked his chest with her staff to keep him at a distance. "Why are you here, Tythes?"

"Oh, I just wanted to harass you, and eat some goo, and give you this." Without warning his barrier of nonsense vanished and he raised a small object in her direction. Nauda at first flinched, expecting another of his Chasm tricks, but then examined it.

The circular object in his palm resonated powerfully with cantae, yet didn't seem to emit any itself. No doubt composed of sublime materials, but not any she knew. From the shape of it, she guessed that it might be some sort of compass, except that it had three needles instead of one, and a number of markings that made no sense to her whatsoever.

"I hope you've gotten your fill of beetle songs," Tythes said, "because playtime is over. Things are heating up on Fithe, so you need to find a weirkey."