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

Hey, you guys remember that Theo sketch from a while back? I finally got the colored version! At this stage we can't ask for major changes, but if anyone notices issues that could be improved with minor tweaks, please speak up!

Meanwhile, one more worldbuilding post for TBS with a full map. Also look forward to some more incoming art of various kinds.

With that done, there's nothing left but the chapters!

-

Chapter 11

After weeks in the Dustwind Plateaus, Theo had made significant progress on some fronts and none at all on others. His soulcrafting took his third floor ever closer to ascension, as he installed all of Navim's available windows and perfected a few carvings. Politically, he understood the situation better: the locals were more of a force than anyone had realized, and they were repelling the Asplundat Movement just as much as the Ruling Cities.

His largest accomplishment had been his anchoring chamber. It still needed another material to be finished, but it was strong enough to grant him a new technique: now he could bind an object to a point in space, which synergized well with his mass technique. Most usefully, he no longer needed elaborate gravitational fields to let him hover - if he reduced his momentum enough, the anchoring point would stop him, then he could float easily on neutralized gravity.

In terms of finding the source of the demons... no progress whatsoever. Theo had spent several days down in the dust storms, his anti-mass chamber struggling to keep it away from him, and found nothing. Every time he helped the locals, he asked them about demon attacks and updated his mental map. So far, that suggested the phenomenon was too random to pinpoint.

Which made sense, if someone from outside the continent was trying to pin it on outsiders. Theo had given up on an easy solution like finding and destroying the device. Now he would settle for figuring out exactly what the Asplundat Movement was doing, and identifying a few other forces he'd seen from a distance.

Some of the locals had tipped him off to Asplundat soulcrafters moving into the canyons. Allegedly they hadn't attacked anyone or set up permanent bases, but they might be up to something: potentially searching for information on the demons, Theo guessed. That required more investigation, preferably alone.

"Senka cocoon." Krikree had pinned Senka with one arm and was poking her with the butt of her spear.

"Senka doesn't get it! Stop saying weird blook!"

"Bad Senka, not. Become talking Senka. Metamorphosize."

"That's dumb! You're dumb!" Senka flailed enough to escape her arm, but Krikree moved in front of her in an instant.

"Metamorphosis require food? Rocks food?" Krikree tried to shove a rock into her mouth, but Senka spat it out forcefully.

"Nuh-uh! You're just a blooky cheep cheep. Senka doesn't like you!"

"Talking not. Cocoon."

Of all the things happening on the plateau, that was definitely one of them. Theo decided that he could leave Krikree to wrangle Senka and headed below to search out Asplundat soulcrafters.

Again, it would have been convenient to have Fiyu with him. But his shielding wall was sufficient, especially since he'd finished the gate and polished the outer surface in his spare soulcrafting time, so he should be mostly invisible. Especially if he avoided intense uses of cantae and just used the gravitational effects derived from fundamental techniques.

He'd expected it to take days of searching, but Theo found the Asplundat soulcrafters in less than an hour. They cloaked themselves in a hazy obscuring technique - good enough to hide in a sandstorm, just not anywhere near enough to stop him from feeling the mass they were transporting. Theo frowned and crept closer so he could see through the distorted field.

It wasn't an invasion, just a small military force escorting a set of floating wagons. He made sure to check all the soulcrafters first: almost a dozen Archcrafters in their dull gray armor, one Ruler surrounded fully by stone armor, and a few others assisting or observing. That settled, he let his attention focus on what had initially caught his gaze: the contents of the wagons.

Each was piled high with stones that glowed a lurid red and radiated dangerous cantae. Powerful, but all of Theo's instincts warned him that it wouldn't be a good idea to touch it. As he looked closer, he saw some sort of liquid on the stones, then realized that they were actually releasing it. He wasn't sure how it emerged from the stones, but it oozed down the sides like unusually thick blood. Actually, now that he looked closely, there was something oddly artificial about the edges. Theo leaned further from his hiding place, trying to determine what bothered him. The edges didn't look like natural rocks, more like something had been broken apart artificially...

"Spy!"

The shout came from one of the lesser soulcrafters Theo had dismissed, and as stone armor began to form around the man, Theo realized his mistake. One of the observers was actually a perfectly cloaked Ruler, and an observant one. As he turned to point at Theo, his face came into view: it was Homez, the Asplundat soulcrafter they had met in the Chasm.

Theo cursed Nauda for letting the man live out of a misplaced sense of mercy and abandoned any attempt to hide. He was tempted to begin forming a full singularity right then and consume them all, but that might be a mistake. The wrong move could set off a war, and this might be his chance to learn more...

Instead of attacking, Theo began gathering cantae between his hands and shouted to the entire group. "What are you doing here?"

"That's our line," Homez snapped back. He hadn't fully closed his helmet, but his armor was otherwise ready to fight. "We have the right to travel in this unclaimed region, but what right do the Ruling Cities have to send an agent to manipulate the population here?"

"I'm not trying to manipulate anyone. Don't pretend you aren't doing something suspicious here." Theo had considered lying, but Homez might remember him and that could just lead to more problems. He kept gathering cantae as discreetly as possible and pretended he had the moral high ground.

"Why are you even trying to lie?" Either Homez was an excellent actor, or he was truly puzzled. "Ruling Cities agents have been infiltrating the plateaus for months, clearly preparing for an attack on us. I understand why your leaders might deny it officially, but we've found you out - why pretend?"

"What agents? Where, exactly?"

"You really don't know?"

"Most likely it's a rogue House," Theo said. He didn't release any of his cantae, but he adopted a more passive stance in case there was really a chance to talk this out. "I was sent here to investigate your aggressive actions, but also some parts of the Ruling Cities. There's more going on here than either of us realize, so if w-"

A boulder ejected itself from the other Ruler's armor and Theo barely ducked out of the way in time.

"Do not listen to the servants of tyrants!" A woman's voice rang from the second suit of stone armor. "All his lies are designed to delay us. Kill him, now!"

So much for that. Theo cast a gravitational field and instantly hit all his opponents with over ten times their normal gravity. The Rulers were protected within their stone suits, and even the partial armor shielded the others a little - it might be mass-produced, but it wasn't garbage. He could have killed many of them then, but Theo held off a little longer.

"This one manipulates our weight," Homez said to the others. "But you can resist, and it will not affect-"

Before he could explain further, Theo released the cantae he had been generating in three separate techniques: a small singularity that consumed some of the red stone, a gravitational field that lifted the wagons, and a point of anchoring that tipped them to the side. Instantly the shipment became a cascade of bleeding stone that showered all over the canyon floor.

Both Rulers flinched, giving Theo time to observe more. The lesser soulcrafters completely ignored him in their efforts to dodge the rocks, and one who was struck tore off his armor with a look of pure terror. That was useful information. Before any of the others could recover, Theo struck them with points of disorientation that left them collapsing.

In seconds, his only opponents remaining were the two Rulers.

"I could have done worse," Theo said calmly. "I don't know every scheme of the Ruling Cities, but this isn't-"

"Lies!" The woman raised her fist and a boulder broke off her armor to fly toward him.

Something about this one was different. Dodging would have been easy, but Theo instead dropped high into the storm on a new field. That got him completely covered in the red dust... but he was grateful the next moment when the boulder exploded with concussive force.

Homez leapt at him the next moment, much faster than such heavy armor had any right to be. Theo was forced to retreat through the storm as the two Rulers pursued him. The woman could cause the most damage with her explosive boulders, but Homez was actually the bigger threat: the man was a well-polished Ruler who had already fought him once, with the patience to choose his moment.

Maybe he could have beaten them both, but it would have been a risk. Theo instead evaded until he could get around them, then circled to the fallen shipment. He wouldn't risk touching the dangerous sublime materials and instead lifted a large number of them via gravity. When the Rulers closed on him again, he flicked a few rocks toward them with bolts of cantae, and as expected they dodged.

"Just what is this?" Theo asked. "You implied you were bringing this here in response to Ruling Cities aggression. Are you sure you're not the ones striking the first blow?"

They didn't attack, though he wasn't sure if they were listening or just figuring out a way to get past the bleeding rocks. Theo faked a smile and focused on Homez's armor.

"You can't tell me that you're sneaking this stuff in with the permission of the locals. You're terrified of it touching you. Isn't the Asplundat Movement's whole purpose creating an equal society where stronger soulcrafters can't rule over others? How do you think the Dustwind farmers would feel about this?"

"I don't like our methods," Homez answered. "But we-"

"Homez!" The other Ruler spat out his name. "Don't speak with propagandists."

"Can you honestly tell me that your cities aren't in league with outsiders?" Homez continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I don't want to reject anyone, but I saw what your House of the Lost did in the Chasm. The Ruling Cities are bringing great evil into the world for the sake of their own power. If we don't take action, we'll be overrun with demons and conquered like all the rest."

So they had noticed the increasing demons. The female Ruler had gone silent as well, perhaps because Homez was repeating Asplundat doctrine. Theo could almost see it from their perspective as well, so he considered his answer carefully.

"If we could control demons," Theo said, "why would we summon them here instead of inside your cities?"

"You cannot pierce the Movement's defenses so easily!" the other Ruler spat. He had to wonder if the inside of her helmet was covered in spittle.

"Ruling Cities intelligence believes that the demons are being generated here to turn us all against one another," Theo said. "I was also told that some Houses are trying to turn this to their advantage, just like you always preach. But if you want to help people, you won't do it by fighting us indiscriminately."

"Who would turn us against each other?" Homez asked.

It sounded like he was actually listening. Theo decided that talk of multi-world conspiracies would just sound unbelievable, so he opted for a different tactic. "I can't tell you that I know for sure. But I know one thing: if the demons keep proliferating, who will suffer most? Higher stage demons will devastate the local soulcrafters, while the strong ignore them... on both sides. If you let them become victims of this struggle, you're no better than any Ruling City."

"And just what solution are you offering? Letting them all join you under another of your tyrants? Don't pretend that you'd be happy with them joining the Movement."

"Let them be an independent region." Theo didn't have anything close to the authority to negotiate continental politics, but he could give it a shot. "Acknowledged by both sides, joining neither, free to choose their own affairs. That's what you want, isn't it?"

Homez seemed to be considering his words carefully, but then the other Ruler moved. She had been increasingly angry throughout their conversation, her agitation visible even in the movements of her armor, but now she raised an arm with another explosive boulder... and pointed it at Homez.

"Do not betray the Movement." More and more cantae was gathering in the boulder, and she seemed actually willing to fire it at him. "Your ideological weakness has already compromised the mission. If you do not submit to correction, I will be forced to take action."

"Keristha, wait." Homez turned fully to her and spread his arms to either side, offering a target. "The Asplundat Movement's ideas must triumph honestly. If the Ruling Cities would really accept a neutral zone, we could save so many from them..."

"I'm sorry to see my doubts about you were right." Keristha finished speaking and released her boulder.

Theo's torsion bolt hit it the second it left her hand. The wave of concussive force staggered Homez and knocked Keristha across the canyon floor. She skidded close to the fallen crimson rocks... and before Theo could finish her off, she reached out to grab them.

The bleeding rocks leapt onto her armor, sinking into the darker stone. Theo could hear the Ruler crying out in pain, but her armor was spiking dangerously. It looked like she would almost double in height, and her cantae was growing rapidly. Even though he knew he should attack, Theo couldn't help but watch: the new sublime material appeared to be leeching stability from her soulhome and returning it as explosive power. He knew of materials that traded life for temporary power, but not like this.

"In the name of the Asplundat Movement," Keristha thundered, "I condemn both of you to die! No one can stand in the way of the future, for w-"

"Not!" Krikree landed on top of the armor and swung her pickaxe with full force.

Her swing shattered the forming stone helm, and Keristha staggered. She started to retaliate, but Theo moved first: the first singularity he'd cast had been quietly absorbing stone during the conversation and now it slammed into her armor. It tore apart the outer layer, and an instant later Krikree's next swing punched deep. The crimson armor staggered to one side and landed on one knee, as if the Ruler somehow clung to life, but then she fell and her armor collapsed lifelessly.

Krikree hopped to the ground and kicked her feet oddly to remove the ooze that had collected on it. Theo thought he saw burns on her chitinous skin, but it seemed she had resisted the material draining her. Once clean, Krikree oriented herself toward him, crouched, and pointed at the fallen statue.

"Rock bad."

"Thank you, Krikree." He turned from her to Homez, who watched them carefully. Homez had taken no action during the brief fight, but he wasn't so amateur as to be stunned for that long. His inaction meant that he had allowed them to kill his companion, or perhaps his minder. "Are you willing to negotiate?"

"Keristha wasn't a cruel woman." Homez crouched down beside her wearily, then his stone armor began to slough away. "Overzealous, and her time as a truthwatcher made her worse, but she truly believed she was doing what was necessary for the world. I wish.. that it hadn't come to this."

 Homez might be feeling sympathetic, but to Theo "truthwatchers" sounded like a secret police. Lots of ideological movements that got out of hand had something like that, and this Keristha had certainly seemed like she intended to execute Homez for ideological impurity.

Eventually Homez rose to face them. "This really wasn't a ploy?"

"I truly believe someone is manipulating us," Theo answered. "I don't know who, not entirely. But I want to know everything about the House that has been working in this region, because they might be our enemy as well. The enemy of all the Ruling Cities, I mean."

"We need time to heal." Homez gestured to the fallen soulcrafters, who were just struggling back up. "If you want to negotiate, give us that, at least."

"Not to be too suspicious, but that sounds like you want a numbers advantage."

"You may have seen our worst face, but in the Asplundat Movement decisions are not made by the most powerful. Just because Keristha died does not make me leader. Listen to me: if you want to work together, let me convince the others so you can negotiate with all of us."

Theo rolled his eyes, but he waved his acceptance. "You can start with pointing out how I could have killed them all instead of disabling everyone."

After brief negotiations, they agreed to all move up to one of the plateaus. That would let them see one another... and more importantly none of them wanted to be in the choking dust storm any longer than necessary. Theo had dropped his defensive anti-mass during the fight, so he was coated. His coat might clean itself, but his skin and hair were absolutely filthy.

Krikree merely shook herself off at first, but then spent a very long time cleaning her antennae with all four hands. She seemed intensely focused, so Theo didn't ask about Senka and just looked for her himself. She had been left alone, so something might have happened to...

No, she was balancing on her head and making faces at him.

Theo decided to ignore her and just used some water from an everpitcher to clean off a little. Homez appeared to be true to his word, simply helping all of the surviving Asplundat soulcrafters recover. That wasn't really a concern, since Theo could take them out again - actually, they looked pretty bad, since some had been struck by collateral damage from the battle between Rulers that he hadn't even noticed.

"Give Senka slorpies!" She leapt at him, trying to grab the everpitcher, and Theo swung it out of the way automatically.

"No. You are so obnoxious like this."

"Nu-uh, Theo is the obnoxy one! Gimme!" Senka launched herself at his head and began flailing wildly to grab the everpitcher on the other side.

"Calm down."

"Hmph! Theo is a blookhead!"

"Sure I am. Just don't ruin the negotiations, okay?"

Senka crossed her arms and pouted theatrically. "If you don't give Senka slorpies, she's gonna scream her sporping head off."

Just when Theo's patience was about to run out, he hesitated. Was there a glint in her eye? "Wait a minute... Senka, are you back?"

"You sporping think?" She abruptly gave him a vicious grin that the false Senka never could and stepped closer, no longer moving like a child. "I woke up during the fight, but I wanted to mess with you because it's just too much fun."

"So are you back for good?"

"I wish. No, I'm going right back to being a nlerm idiot. We need to talk while I'm still awake."

"Now?" Theo glanced toward the Asplundat group, but there wasn't really a choice. Despite himself, he smiled back at Senka. "Alright, let's talk. Do you know something about this entire conflict?"

"Not as much as you'd hope." She gave a shrug that looked odd on her tiny body. "It does seem like you're right about there being foreign interference. I think they want the Ruling Cities and Asplundat Movement to tear each other apart and kill off as many outsiders as possible, then Tymetron can come in and mop up the rest. But I'm just guessing there."

"So you're aware even when you're acting like an idiot?"

"It's a shield of buffoonery, thank you very much! But no, my awareness comes and goes."

"If you don't have information about that," Theo asked, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Honestly, I just need to talk to someone. I feel like I'm losing myself, so..." Abruptly Senka shot him a caustic glance. "You're so sporping weak as a soulcrafter, you need all the help you can get. Right now Vistgil could just flick your head off."

"Alright, let's talk soulcrafting. In the Chasm you said 'it's all fractal' - what did you mean by that?"

"Did I say that?" Senka rubbed her forehead with both hands, and it didn't look like she was faking. "My head was so sporping scrambled I might have been babbling. But you figured out what I was probably trying to say, right? You asked how many tiers there are, and the answer is nine."

So they'd been right about that. Theo was glad to know, not least because it meant he hadn't given Nauda terrible advice. "For most of the groups around here, anything above Dominion is basically a myth. I suspect that some of the people claimed to be extremely powerful Dominions are actually beyond, and it may be different in more powerful regions, but it sounds like the Nine Worlds have declined since your time."

"Definitely seems that way to me. In a way, it's not surprising. Getting to the seventh tier isn't intuitive, because it actually requires taking a step backwards. Anyone who's focused on short term power and doesn't know the tricks would never get there."

"What are the secrets, then?"

"Easy on the ambition." Senka smirked at him. "I was giving you blook earlier, but you're actually ascending at a good rate. Doing it right is better than doing it quickly. You need to focus on a solid Authority ascension, not four tiers up."

"Fine, fine." Theo rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "I'll slow down for your sake. But at least tell me what the higher tiers were called."

"Even in my time, they were rare enough that they didn't have simple names that translated between all worlds. Instead they had titles from a language almost forgotten. Beyond Dominion, the seventh tier of soulcrafting was called a... Bupplesniffer."

Theo stared at Senka. Senka stared back. Krikree twitched her antennae.

"Are you sporping kidding me?" Senka smacked her head with both fists. "There's no secret to the names, what reason would they possibly have to lock them?"

"You'd reached that level before, hadn't you? Maybe they wanted to prevent you from claiming your old title."

"Pretty sure they're just fumpets." Senka sighed and shook her head. Though her mood had been good, now he saw that her eyes were beginning to darken again. "I'm still struggling to remember most elements of my past, but for the record, I think I had reached the seventh tier and hit a major roadblock. I might be able to offer some help, but with my head like this, I don't want to advise you wrong. I need to rest."

"Does that mean you need to... go away?" Theo set a hand on her shoulder, trying to make it clear it was a gesture between adults instead of condescension. "I don't like dealing with the other you, but I don't want you to harm yourself."

"I've been thinking about that. It seems like when I push against the curse's limits, the backlash is particularly bad. If I fade out early, I should be able to control myself better... ya big fumpet!" She promptly shook off his shoulder and bounced away doing a little dance.

Theo didn't say anything for a while, just staring after her. He wasn't exactly sure what he felt. After some time, Krikree crept up beside him and whispered, "Senka-what?"

"Good question." He didn't have time to say more before Homez approached. Theo shook off all other thoughts and forced himself to think about politics again as he approached the Asplundat soulcrafter.

"We've come to an agreement," Homez told him quietly. "Not everyone believes you, but few of us are comfortable with what the Movement has been doing here. We will withdraw for now, and if you can bring us stronger proof of your claims, I promise I will do everything within my power to prevent the Asplundat Movement from harming the innocent."

The words sounded sincere, for all that mattered. Theo knew that he only had a little leeway to press them, so he searched for the right question. "Exactly what is that sublime material you were transporting?"

"It's called bloodcrete. I can't tell you its secrets because I don't know them myself, but the Movement manufactures it when it's time to go to war. They really do believe that the Ruling Cities are courting demons in order to consume the Dustwind Plateaus and then assault our territory."

"Some factions may want that, but not most." Theo made sure to maintain solid eye contact with Homez and tried to sound sincere. "I'm almost certain that this entire conflict is being manipulated. I wasn't sent here to prepare for war, just to find proof."

"If you ever find it, let me know. There are many who would view this agreement as a betrayal of the Movement, so I cannot do anything overtly. But if you can bring me stronger proof, I might be able to prevent my superiors from starting a war neither side wants."

Before they left, Homez gave him a few code words and an identification slate. For all that the two sides proclaimed different ideologies, the slate appeared to be basically the same technology as Norro Yorthin. After confirming that it didn't contain any sort of trap or tracking mechanism, Theo slid it into his coat and said his farewells.

Now he had a method to contact Homez. Allegedly. Theo watched the Asplundat soulcrafters retreat and hoped that this hadn't all been a mistake. It could still have been deception, but he doubted it. This was the edge he needed.

So Theo reached into his soulhome to trigger the signal to House Blacksilver.

-

Chapter 12

One of her ants was dead. Nauda stared down at the crumpled body and wondered exactly what she should feel.

As she explored the abandoned termite city, she had done her best to keep all of her ants alive, which pushed her new healing skills to the limit. They were simple creatures, mindless and merciless, so they never gave her the slightest gratitude. Part of her felt a bit sad anyway, part of her was just frustrated by the limits of her healing, and part of her considered it as a purely military setback.

Because the city was huge, and she only had so many loyal troops to conquer it. So far she had discovered some sublime materials, beetle hives, and enemy ants. Now she had one ant dead, and two injured enough that they couldn't fight effectively. Given that she still struggled with the compass, that wouldn't last.

In the end, with no input from the others, Nauda decided to bury the dead ant. None of the others seemed to care, and there was a good chance they'd just eat their own companion given the chance. Since they had enough goo from the local beetles, she decided that it was worth burying the ant that had fought for her this far.

Beetles were the one thing she had more than enough of. The local mounds seemed similar enough to those she knew, if a little more proactive. They were quite pleased to be free of the little rogue ant groups, since they were even more oppressive than those ruled by a hive. Just taking her troops to clear out spires that guarded valuable materials made the beetles eager to trade food with her. That, at least, wasn't going to be a problem.

She wished there was a way to recruit the ants as well. From her brief conversations with Queen Yeshir, Nauda thought that simply never happened. The Slescan way was to eradicate all enemy soldiers as well as even more neutral assets like beetle mounds. Still, it all seemed like such a senseless waste.

Too late, Nauda realized that she was dreaming of changing Slescan society. She didn't even have the strength to make any impact on her home world and she was imagining how she might change another. Clearly trying to do anything now would be futile and probably lead to unintended consequences. That didn't stop her from wondering if it might be possible.

When she returned to the hive, her ants sat around the entrance and went still. She wasn't sure if they even had a concept of relaxation, but that was what they did if she didn't give them a command. Nauda ignored them and went to find the beetles.

[Nauda. Welcome.] Bluepetal approached her first - she'd learned that many members of the local hive actually had names, and she had been doing her best to remember them, but translating the signalscents was difficult. It was easy to remember Bluepetal, because he had scarring all across his back. [Success?]

"None." She dropped to sit down next to the scarred beetle. "I think I know the rough part of the city, but there are too many tunnels."

[We could help.]

Instinctively Nauda turned to look at Bluepetal, but she couldn't make out anything from his insectoid face. "You mean help search the city?"

[Yes. With guards, would be safe.]

"I could use help, but what do you want in return?"

[Safety.] Bluepetal shifted closer to her and rubbed his forelegs together. [Here, we are vulnerable. Wild ants will only steal our food. But a true colony could kill all of us. If your group is here, then others will follow.]

It was a more complex collection of signalscents than Nauda had heard before, and unlike the others, she had the feeling that Bluepetal was making an effort to make his pheromones understandable to her. She understood what he was asking, she just hated how her arrival had coerced them into it. No doubt Theo would advise her to make promises and take them for all they were worth, but...

"I don't know what I can offer," Nauda said. "I might be able to get you transports to take you back to the beetles I told you about. But the queen there doesn't really care about me, and she might decide to kill you and I wouldn't be able to stop her."

[This is no different than the threats we already face.]

"That's... depressing, but maybe so. Just let me be clear. I'm not from this world, and I can't stay forever. I have kin of my own who need help. So one day, I'll leave, and any protection I can offer will go too. So I might not have anything to offer."

Bluepetal was silent for a long time before speaking again. [The termites said that no one could harm us. They had an army and a great city. Now all are dead. We will help, if you offer what you can.]

That was technically good, but Nauda fixed on the first part of his sentence. "Wait, you knew the termites? Just how long ago... how old are you?" Soulcrafting on Slest could be strange, but she didn't think he could be anything more than an Archcrafter.

[Old. Our kind lives much longer than the others know.] Bluepetal shifted forward. [We still have some industry. We can join the beetles you know and teach them. We will provide enough value that your queen will be less likely to destroy us.]

"Well, if you can help me find the weirkey, I'll do what I can to make it happen." Nauda smiled at the old beetle, wishing she knew what kinds of affectionate gestures they might have. This mound didn't rub horns like leafpullers, so she settled for making the pheromones echoing her voice as intense as possible.

[Then it is agreed. We will take you to the most profitable regions.]

"Wait... most profitable?"

[We know more of the city than we have pretended.] Bluepetal twisted his head from side to side and she wondered if it was just her imagination or he looked a little mischievous. [Some regions have been raided or degraded, but some remain intact. There could potentially be valuable finds there.]

"The weirkey, I hope," Nauda said, "but you mean more than that?"

[Sublime materials. Preserved food. War acid.]

"War... acid?"

[A termite invention. Filtered from certain beasts and enhanced, capable of destroying even cantae defenses. With it, we would have a weapon against invading colonies. It has sat forgotten for too long.]

"And just why do you know so much about this acid?"

Bluepetal sat back and didn't answer, again with something she couldn't help but interpret as a smug expression.

But the beetles were as good as their word. With their guidance, she was able to focus on the most useful parts of the city. They discovered the acid Bluepetal mentioned, stored within specially-treated vats and apparently still quite potent. Nauda decided that it was best not to let Queen Yeshir know about its existence and had it stored in a location where she could access it easily.

More importantly, working with the beetles allowed her to adopt a much more efficient system. She had bands of soldier ants go along with beetles to map the entire region where she thought the weirkey might be - fortunately, the ants obeyed her commands to accept the beetles. Whenever they encountered rogue ants, they retreated while the beetles let out a cry. Nauda would then leap from her position to back them up and reduce casualties. She didn't lose her second ant until an entire month later.

Only rarely did Nauda need to go out herself to take readings with the compass, which left her with plenty of time to soulcraft. Since the ants and beetles brought her back any extra materials they found, she could make more progress than before.

Her rebuilding had been rather brute force up to that point: creating strong walls and stuffing them with powerful materials. Now that she wasn't a broken excuse for a Ruler, Nauda focused on all the smaller details that she'd been neglecting. Doors, wall ornaments, pedestals. Sublime materials that generated cantae, enhanced her centerpieces, or shaped her flow. There were dozens of things to do.

She actually adjusted some of her former work so that it followed her theme. For her death tower, she used almost entirely dead materials to complement the skulls: Slest offered an abundance of chitin and bone that could serve all her purposes. There were fewer strong plants, but for her life tower she found vines for support and moss to carpet the floor. Her list of refinements was growing ever longer, but at least she didn't feel like she was a soulcrafter with all power and no skill.

Filling her staff tower would be a more difficult task. She decided that she would use materials that had never been alive, and Slest was short on sublime rocks. When she returned to Norro Yorthin, she would have to speak to Navim and see what she could find on Arbai.

Eventually the weirkey hunt actually brought her down from her tower. She could interpret all the needles and dials well enough to roughly triangulate positions... and it seemed like there were at least two concentrations of power. That had been what had confused her for a long time. Once she reconsidered the measurements as different sources overlapping, she was able to read the results much more clearly.

There were indeed two points of interest: one within a sealed building and one inside an ominous termite spire that lacked exits. With no way of telling between them, Nauda picked the one closest to ground level and broke her way in with brute force. It took longer than she expected, as the simple walls were actually somewhat reinforced sublime materials.

The chamber she discovered contained only a doorway to nowhere... and Nauda hesitated as she realized that she was staring at a gate. If the city contained a gate to another world, why had it been locked away? She couldn't see much of anything on the other side, and it didn't feel like anything in particular. That made her nervous, but after throwing a few rocks through had no negative consequences, Nauda stepped through herself.

It was dim on the other side, so Nauda generated enough cantae to see. Immediately she understood why it was dark: the gate opened into a cave. She didn't need to walk far before her path was entirely flooded with boulders.

In theory it could have been a natural process, like an avalanche, but Nauda suspected otherwise. When she bent down beside the boulders, she noticed old symbols etched into the floor. Not exactly like the wards she used, but close enough for her to guess. Their power had mostly faded, so the entrance was primarily blocked by the rocks.

If Fiyu had been present, she could have sensed beyond the cave. Theo probably would have looked at the dust and pronounced they were in a world he knew like the back of his hand. Nauda wasn't sure how she was going to move forward.

"Well, this was underwhelming," she said. As she spoke, she listened carefully to her own words, trying to hear the sounds instead of her mother tongue in her head.

Nauda realized that she was speaking a Fithan language. She was almost sure of it. That meant she'd found the first gate she knew of between Fithe and Slest, which could be valuable. There was no guarantee it would be anywhere near the Norron continent, but it came out on land, and that was good enough for her.

After a few minutes attempting to clear the rocks, Nauda realized that it would be a daunting task. It seemed like the Fithans really had buried the entrance under a whole avalanche. Had they not wanted a gate to a brutal world like Slest, or had it been buried when the termite city was destroyed? Something to ask Bluepetal, but for now Nauda mostly wanted a simpler type of help.

She ordered several of the ants to follow her, and they marched through the gate without hesitation. But when she ordered them to begin clearing the rocks, they sagged to the ground. One of them even had its central body part crack, leaking out its internal juices.

Nauda grabbed the ants over her shoulders and pulled them back through. On the other side, she began healing their injuries, which felt more intensive than expected. It really was like they couldn't exist in other worlds, which was a bit puzzling. While she worked, she gestured for Bluepetal to come closer.

"Do you know why this gate was buried?" Nauda asked.

[I do not. The termites were not generous masters.]

"That's fine. Do you know why the ants couldn't survive there?"

[Uncertain.] Bluepetal was silent for a long time, but unlike most of the beetles, he wouldn't just leave it at that. [Some have said that other worlds hate ours. One termite said that Slest has something other worlds do not. I do know that I would not survive.]

"I wasn't going to send you through." Nauda finished healing the last ant and sat back to stare at the gate. She doubted that other worlds "hated Slest", especially because she had seen that Krikree suffered no ill effects. Theo had claimed he was able to use pheromones just as easily over there, so Slest didn't contain something fundamentally alien.

Deciding that it was worth running an experiment, Nauda asked the beetles to bring her several containers of acid. She tested them with one finger - the acid created a nasty burn - and then stepped to the other side to test again.

No apparent difference. Nauda sucked on her injured fingers and waited for her living core to restore her flesh before she attempted anything else. She wasn't sure she could discover the reason, but the rule seemed simple enough: the Slescans that looked the most like insects were the ones that died. Even Yeshir had implied other worlds were unpleasant to her, and she had an Authority's power. The incompatibility didn't seem to affect Slescans like Krikree, so objects would likely be unaffected as well.

Perhaps it had something to do with the reason that insects on Slest were so much larger than other worlds, even before cantae got involved. Nauda didn't particularly care about the deeper theory, she just needed to understand how it worked. After waiting a little longer in case the effect took time, she poured the acid onto the boulders.

It bubbled and hissed, eating into them as rapidly as rocks on Slest. Nauda hadn't seen anything resist the acid except the film the beetles produced to handle it, though she assumed that powerful enough sublime materials would be unaffected. Unfortunately, the rocks were just plain durable: it would take an enormous amount of acid to burn all the way through.

Since there was no guarantee the gate would lead anywhere important, Nauda decided to leave it for later. The fact that there had been a link to another world proved that she had grasped how the compass worked, at least in part. Hopefully the remaining source in the tower would be the weirkey.

"Alright, let's open the tower." Nauda gestured for all the Slescans to follow her and headed toward it. "Bluepetal, do you know why this one is sealed?"

[I do not. But you should be careful.]

Since her fingers still stung a little, Nauda only shattered the strongest wall before letting the ants do the rest. They dutifully began carrying away the remaining pieces and stacking them in a pile. Most of the beetles stayed far back, just in case, but Bluepetal remained nearby and watched the work.

It seemed to be going quickly enough. Nauda took out her compass and examined the readings again, wondering what she would do if she didn't find a weirkey. She had tried to do a large loop of the city before beginning her search, so she didn't think there were any other important points. Of course, it could be that Yeshir was only guessing about a weirkey being left over, or that Tythes had set all this up purely to waste her time.

[Enemy.] [Enemy.] [Enemy.]

Nauda sat bolt upright. She didn't usually pay much attention to the ants' pheromones, because they were so much less personable than the beetles. But the feeling of so many of her ants chorusing at once demanded the attention, and she turned just in time to see a monstrous sublime beast ooze out of the tower.

"Retreat!" she yelled, but it was too late. One of her ants had automatically attacked what looked like a wall of yellow flesh. It immediately became trapped and its thrashing only made things worse. In a matter of seconds, it had withered away, drained by the yellow wall.

That wouldn't have stopped the other soldier ants, but fortunately they obeyed her command. Nauda picked up Bluepetal, hoping he would forgive the indignity, and ran to a safe distance. She looked over her shoulder to the slime and saw it crash through the wall. At first it seemed shapeless, but as it twisted she made out legs, then eventually a head. The eyes were so tiny they would have been invisible if they hadn't glowed a brighter yellow.

"Bluepetal, do you have any idea what that is?"

[Horned aciddevil. Raised by termites for war.] Bluepetal emitted a scent that wasn't exactly anything before returning to coherent pheromones. [They are not usually so large.]

"So there's an overgrown weapon of war crawling toward us. The gifts of Slest never cease."

The only good news was that the horned aciddevil wasn't particularly fast. It reminded her a bit of a packbeast, especially as it emerged from the tower, but one clearly built for war. Not only was its skin covered in deadly slime, it had spikes emerging from every segment of its body. And even if it wasn't fast, it was crawling toward them with murderous determination.

Before it could catch up to any of her allies, Nauda gripped her staff and leapt into battle. She stabbed the prongs as deep as she could, but failed to penetrate far into the beast's bulk. Even tearing her staff out to the side only opened a surface wound.

Too late, she realized that the aciddevil was twitching to the side. A segment of its body taller than she was slammed into her and sent her tumbling back over the ground. Nauda only barely managed to control her tumble into a skid. As soon as she stopped, she groaned and tried to shake off the slime that had touched her. There was no damage to her staff or clothes, but her skin burned everywhere it touched.

It was easy to understand how this could be a weapon of war. Soldier ants would throw themselves against it and die by the hundreds in its slime. An ordinary beast might be overcome, but the slime drained energy via a cantae technique, so each death likely strengthened the beast. Even a royal guard might not be able to kill it easily, given its size and spikes.

Nauda paused to consider exactly how strong the creature was. Through her telescope technique, even in its partially-repaired form, she could see several rings in the beast's soulhome... three, perhaps four. It was less clear with sublime beasts, assuming this was just a beast. Anywhere else, there would have been no doubt, but on Slest she decided she needed to be sure.

"We don't need to fight!" Nauda shouted, trying to throw pheromones into every word. "We're not your enemy!"

The aciddevil gave no indication that it heard and continued crawling toward the fleeing ants. Fine, she hadn't expected that to work anyway.

Leaping up to one of the lumpier termite towers, Nauda tore free a large piece of the stone and hurled it. With all her strength behind it, the rock struck hard enough to make the beast's entire body twitch in pain. It finally turned toward her and she struck it directly in the face with the next rock.

That might be hurting it a little, but the aciddevil's body appeared too squishy to be easily killed by blunt force. The end of its tail had nearly left the tower, so Nauda leapt into action before she could think twice. 

She started with a literal leap, taking her over the beast's body and to the side of the tower. Just as she arrived, she put all her momentum into a single blow with all the cantae she could muster. Her blow shattered the side of the tower and sent stone cascading down. Many of the pieces landed on top of the aciddevil, and though they didn't bury it, she at least pinned its back half. 

The creature thrashed angrily but made no sound, which was a little eerie. Nauda's blow had knocked her back, so she considered her next option from a safe distance. She could jump back up and hurl rocks, but that seemed ineffective so far. It was far too large to bind with her technique, and she didn't see any way to kill it with wards.

Perhaps her nullification... Nauda quickly pulled her armament glove from her soulhome and tugged it over her hand. She sprinted toward the side of the aciddevil, casting force in front of her as hard as she could. The cantae powering its slime did seem to weaken, so she stabbed as forcefully as she could.

Her staff went deeper than before, but not deep enough. This time Nauda jumped back before it could slam her. She retreated to her Slescan allies to consider her options.

So far the horned aciddevil was a little bruised and bleeding from the two wounds she had caused. It was far too large to die of blood loss before it escaped the rubble, since it was already worming its way free. Maybe it would die if she knocked the entire tower on top of it, but that was beyond even her strength.

"I don't suppose anyone has any ideas?" she asked the silent ants.

[Acid.] Bluepetal gestured toward her with a foreleg. [I have none, but if you still have some, try it. The acid and the slime will counteract.]

It was worth a try. Nauda pulled out everything she'd stored in her soulhome for testing and advanced toward the aciddevil. As soon as she got within range it strained toward her, eyes burning with yellow hunger. Up close she could see its mouth, small for the creature's size but big enough to consume most Slescans.

She leapt into the air, intending to come down with her full power. To her shock, the aciddevil reared up to follow her path. Nauda barely managed to hurl the acid in her off-hand, directly into the creature's face, then grasp her staff with both hands before she arrived.

Her blow struck the aciddevil hard enough to explode its head, but instead her staff rang off something. She still cut a deep gash into its face, then there was no more time: it slammed her to the ground, then twisted down to bite her.

Nauda lunged back up, her bondsfungi hardening around her. She met the beast head on, thrusting directly into its face. Once again her staff deflected off something hard underneath, but the beast fell back. It attacked and she met it again, ignoring the slime splattering over her as she struck again and again.

When the aciddevil faltered, she went in for the kill: Nauda thrust her spear not at its face, but directly into one of the glowing eyes. 

This time the prongs went deep, plunging half-way into the creature's head. The aciddevil thrashed violently enough to throw her, but Nauda could recognize death throes. She waited until the long creature finally lay still, then went to retrieve her staff. It was undamaged, just disgusting.

When she turned around, she saw all the Slescans looking at her. The ants didn't care, as usual, but Bluepetal and all the other beetles were emitting impressed pheromones. Nauda was too tired to feel anything but slimy, so she just began giving orders.

"No one touch the body unless you know what you're doing. Soldiers, move around it and begin exploring the tower for anything of value. Beetles, figure out what we can do with this thing. If it's a sublime beast, it must leave behind usable materials."

For a time Nauda just sat and caught her breath. She was a little burned in places, but the bondsfungi had defended her fairly well. The force of its body striking her would definitely leave nasty bruises, since the sublime beast had been at least as strong as her. If it hadn't been bred to fight a very different sort of threat, she likely wouldn't have been able to kill it.

The slime covering the aciddevil's body had started drying as soon as it died, so the beetles soon began to dismantle it. Not something she usually wanted to see, though a bit satisfying after the battle. It didn't appear to be quite like the smaller creatures of its type that she had seen. Each of its horns turned out to be a bone-like prong, extending from a very narrow spine.

By far the largest sublime material from the body was the heavy skull. Its surface was apparently undamaged from her blows, so she resolved to find a place for it in her death tower. After she'd let the Slescans clean it up, of course.

By the time the ants returned, Nauda had almost forgotten about the reason for the entire battle. They dropped various objects in front of her, mostly junk... and then one of them extended its jaws up toward her hand and she saw the weirkey.

It was no larger than a key to a normal door. Just a simple key with a spiked pattern on one end and simple teeth on the other. Other than being made of blue chitin and making her compass go wild, it could have been any other key.

Nauda picked it up and stared at it. So much work for one little thing. She hoped that it had been worth it.