Wakespire: Chapters 26-27 (Patreon)

There's a lot going on behind the scenes these days, enough that I don't want to overload these notes. For this week, check out the new version of the Wakespire cover! You can expect to see more of these.

Anyway, in the chapters this week, Theo gets some answers. Perhaps not the ones anyone was expecting.

-

Chapter 26

When Theo finally returned to Ugustial, he had been looking forward to a hug from Nauda, a smile from Fiyu, and a lot of sleep. Instead, he arrived to find them both injured and sullen. Even the city itself seemed grim, with more armed soulcrafters on the streets. The central palace of the Wakespire, which had been a place for petty rivalries, was now fortified.

"Just what happened here?" he asked after he deposited a sleeping Senka in bed. Fiyu lowered her head and Nauda shrugged grouchily.

An hour later, he had the whole story. The attack had clearly been tightly planned, pinning opponents who ordinarily would have been more mobile in a vulnerable position. What frustrated him most was that the princes of the city didn't seem inclined to prosecute anyone. As far as he could tell, they considered all nonlethal fighting related to the Wakespire to be simply part of the competition.

"There haven't been any more attempts," Nauda concluded. "We assume they were tracking Guchiro's movements and, well, you weren't there. It would have been a very different situation if you had been."

"I would have been," Theo said, "if they had clearly scheduled their ambush beforehand."

"Please do not argue." Fiyu had been soulcrafting the entire time and now emerged. "Theo could not have known that such a thing would happen."

"I'm not blaming him," Nauda said with a frustrated shrug, "I'm just pointing it out. We can't optimize every hour of our time in between rounds as if no one else will take action. We don't know how complicated this really is and what might happen next."

There had certainly been some troubling suggestions in their story and he wanted to know more. At that moment, Theo didn't feel much like optimizing the rest of his time at all. Most of his mind was still trapped in the Archive of Misery and his emotions felt grated raw. The only reason he hadn't snapped at Nauda was that he was exhausted.

"I'm going to sleep first," Theo said slowly. "After that... maybe we could all get something to eat? It's been too long since we've eaten anything but manna."

"Oh, perhaps this is a good time to ask Isorales." Fiyu beamed with such sincerity that Nauda's expression softened. Theo wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about but decided to just sleep and worry about it in the morning.

The next day he woke up mid-morning, the first time he'd overslept in years. It seemed that the others had a meal of sublime food prepared, which was welcome. Throughout the morning Senka remained asleep, so he explained about the Archive of Misery and showed them the strange sublime materials he'd collected. Some of them might have been useful, but they were all hurting and none of them wanted to discuss soulcrafting in much depth.

At noon a grand golden disc arrived outside the palace. Theo had expected to meet Isorales, but instead a Noveni woman in Jadadictus wraps exited. "Prince Isorales regrets that he cannot join you," she said. "It will take him some time to recover from the attack. Still, he hopes that you will enjoy the feast, compliments of the Jadadictus lineage."

The disc itself appeared to exist solely to escort them to the restaurant. It climbed high above Ugustial before sliding toward one of the highest spires. Theo expected to dock next to one of the tallest towers, but at the last moment the vessel rose again: not to the towers, but to one of the vast panels that floated above the city.

Theo had seen people and buildings on top of them before and assumed they were workers managing the structures over the city. Some might have been, but the golden panel they landed on was clearly more. The structure on top, simply flat from above, proved to be a restaurant that was lavish even by Noveni standards. There appeared to be a thin filigree of ivory along the edge that blunted air currents, letting everyone enjoy the vantage point without worrying about wind.

Just like the travel there, everything else was decided for them: no menus or decisions, just a table by the edge of the golden disc. Theo would have been concerned, but apparently Nauda had made her request very precisely. They were served an enormous variety of Noveni sublime food, including from beneath the clouds. He idly wondered if Senka would have had opinions, but there were other issues to discuss.

"I think we need to discuss the Dortorus accusations," Theo said after his first several bites. "Do they have a legitimate issue, or is it just an excuse?"

"He seemed..." Fiyu circled her spoon around her plate as she sought for a word. "...very zealous."

"I don't have any answers, but I did talk to Isorales and figure out the timeline of events." Nauda finished chewing a triple-branched wing of sublime meat, wiped her mouth, then set her napkin down to talk. "Several months ago, Katarikus Terefilia dies. There are rumors of foul play but no actual evidence. Then in the month before the Wakespire, someone in the Dortorus family shows up dead and one of their vaults is robbed."

"Are there any actual facts to connect those?"

"Isorales seems to believe that the Dortorus family is furious about their security failings and just seeking someone to blame. I certainly don't know the real truth."

Theo ate through a small cup of sublime pudding while he thought about the events. It was studded with softly glowing berries, but even their intense cantae couldn't hold his attention. "In a city as big as Ugustial, there has to be a base rate of murder. But the local authorities apparently haven't acted?"

"I'm not entirely sure I understand how their legal system works," Nauda said. "I think it ultimately comes down to the princes. Each family is doing their own investigations and they must not have found any real evidence or they'd bring it up for prosecution."

"Even Ractifus Terefilia? He doesn't seem to care about Katarikus being dead, except for how it can enrich him."

"Relatives hating one another is sad indeed," Fiyu said quietly, "but I do not know if he can be blamed. If he wanted the sublime legacy, wouldn't he seek it another way?"

Nauda immediately poked her spoon at Fiyu in agreement. "Exactly! From what I've heard, he's the deciding vote among the judges when it comes to everything related to the Wakespire. He seems to have shut down as many internal rivalries as possible unless they had evidence to offer. That's why I'm inclined to think there's no real evidence."

If only it was that simple. From his few interactions with the man, Theo thought Ractifus was generally fair-minded. That had nothing to do with whether or not he was ruthless. It was entirely possible that the man wanted to rush through the Wakespire with as few issues as possible, take his wealth, and leave Ugustial for good.

Since there was no real answer, they ate in silence for a time. Fiyu was the one to break the silence, pushing forward a sparkly bowl. "You must try this. The crystals appear sharp, but they are actually sugar. Underneath the crystalline layer, the interior is savory. It is an intriguing combination."

"Huh, you're right." Nauda relished her spoonful, then looked toward him. "With this meal, I think our Nine Worlds Feasts will be complete for Noven. But as soon as we're free, you need to take me around to other worlds so I can restore the parts I lost."

"If only it was so easy," Theo said. "Once we all hit Authority, weirkeys will go from useless to essential for our development. Right now I only have a Siatan weirkey, and I don't know enough about Siata to find high quality sublime food."

Fiyu bobbed her head. "My relative has been soulcrafting for quite some time, and even he has only a few weirkeys. But I believe he would be willing to share."

"Ideally we should have multiple for all of us. At minimum, two each so that we can move freely in the same world. Most organizations put a premium on them, but we should be able to find more." Or so he hoped. As Theo thought about his former weirkey usage and his old allies, that only made him think about how controlled his previous experience in the Nine Worlds had been. If Guchiro couldn't find weirkeys easily, maybe he'd have a more difficult time as well.

He couldn't even think about that for long, though. The possibility of finally investigating another one of his old allies loomed over the dinner with his new friends.

"I'm guessing you have a busy schedule of training planned," Nauda said. Judging from the way she had shifted forward, she must have seen the absence in his eyes.

"I'm sorry I have to go again." Theo looked between the two of them, making sure to hold their gazes. "But I don't want to be away when you need me. I'm afraid I don't have a system for us to contact each other, but I'll stop by every day or two to check in."

"Oh, you don't have to do that. We have a ton of our own work to do."

"But please be back well before the Wakespire," Fiyu added. "I am concerned there might be another incident or reason for them to move the date."

Theo accepted her point: it was easy to think he could schedule every element of his life, but there were too many unknown variables. Instead of packing every last day before the Wakespire, he would simply take on tasks one at a time and complete what he could. Then he would definitely be present and prepared for their serious attempt to win the competition.

Until then... he would begin with Eratius and the secrets of his past.

-

Chapter 27

As far as Theo knew, most of Noven was covered by a thick layer of clouds. While investigating the homeland of his old rival, he realized that he'd missed something obvious: not every part of the world was covered in land.

When he'd arrived at this location by weirkey, he'd been surprised to see the utter lack of mountains. The clouds stretching in all directions were instead punctured by vast updrafts of air. Floating through the mist swirling around the edge of one of these revealed a glimpse below: a vast sea churned, patches of glittering sapphire visible within the shadows.

The region below looked unnaturally stormy, and even the sky above was unusually cold. Theo had expected his acclimatization chamber to handle the difference but ended up wearing the scarf and gloves that Fiyu had insisted he take. Perhaps eventually he would be strong enough to walk through the arctic or volcanoes, but not yet.

His real objective wasn't the sea but the city that rested upon it. Eratius had boasted so many times about the beauty of his home city Rotorial and Theo had to admit that he had described it well. Instead of gold and ivory, the city was formed from wood painted in gentle colors. Its edges shimmered where they met the clouds as mystical forces held it aloft. The clouds around the city appeared to be much more dense than those he'd seen elsewhere on Noven.

The truth was, he was staring at the cloudscape because he didn't want to find answers. Not even because of the potential consequences that might come along with them, if Vistgil really had laid a trap. Just the simple fact that he really might not like what he learned.

Theo descended toward the city and didn't make any effort to avoid the guards.

"State your business, traveler." They were armed but wouldn't dare threaten an Authority.

"I have lineage business at your hall of records," Theo said. "I will not be long."

"We welcome the trade of any Authority from a strange world." The guard spoke a bit gruffly, but he seemed to be trying to pay a compliment. "Stay as long as you like, so long as you don't make trouble. Whatever customs or duels you have at home, leave them outside the city."

"Thank you. I should have no need to disturb anyone."

Once he had been approved, Theo descended the rest of the way and landed on a green docking area. Everything was peaceful, yet his heart was beating faster than it had when fighting enemy Authorities. There was the very real possibility that Vistgil had left some sort of trap around information about Eratius. It might have been a social trap, like the ancient vendettas on Deuxan, or it could even be the lethal world-collapsing voids that he'd already seen used twice.

Those risks were why he'd come alone. Yet as he flew toward the largest areas of the city, he wished that he had someone to discuss the problem with.

When they'd traveled together, Eratius had never stopped talking about his lineage and how noble his family had been. Theo had never actually visited his home, so he wasn't sure exactly how important his old rival's family was. It had clearly been an immense source of pride for Eratius, not to mention the cause of numerous duels. Assuming that Vistgil hadn't killed them all somehow, there had to be something left that would give him some clues.

Though Theo didn't know anything about Rotorial in particular, he knew to fly to the wealthiest part of the city and from there symbols carved into the buildings led him to his destination. Not every culture on Noven cared about lineages, but this one definitely did, so of course they had extensive records.

Inside he discovered a quiet room, much like libraries across any world. Several attendants were sorting records behind a desk and regarded him with mild interest when he arrived. They were clearly familiar with outsiders, if not his exact species.

"I'm here to look up the lineage of a Noveni friend." Theo's voice faded and his throat felt very dry. Even though nothing was likely to happen, he didn't want to utter the name. "Would it be possible to search for it myself?"

"It will be much faster if you let us help," one attendant said. "The records are very complex, particularly depending on the prominence of your friend's lineage."

"The matter is... a bit sensitive. I'm seeking to return a sublime legacy to the proper heirs." The lie had come together almost before he thought about it. It seemed absurdly obvious, clumsily inspired by the Wakespire, but these people lived half a world away and had never even heard of the event. A sublime legacy was a sufficient reason for a matter to be secretive without attracting too much attention.

"Alright then. What era do we need to find?"

Theo gave the appropriate year, which he'd carefully cross-referenced with Senka after he'd determined how much time had passed. The attendants gave him slightly strange looks, since it was more than a century ago, but they didn't object. Instead they led him to a blue-painted room that was filled with a number of over-sized books.

Unlike the over-extravagant books at the Wakespire, these were densely packed with text on every page. After the attendants gave him the appropriate book, he used a gravitational field to hover it to one of the reading tables and then begin examining all the records.

The lineage names were alphabetized, but here soul translation faltered. He saw the names in English even though none of the Noveni alphabets had anything like the same sound order. That left him with no choice but to browse until he got to roughly the right sound, then narrow it down. He focused to reduce the soul translation, trying to actually see the original characters. They didn't mean anything to him, but he could be sure he wasn't mixing up the letters.

And yet he couldn't find anything. Theo flipped between pages in increasing anger as he ran out of theories. It was as if there was no record of Eratius's lineage at all. Surely Vistgil couldn't just erase any hint of his existence, not in a world even more records-obsessed than Deuxan.

Swallowing his frustration, Theo decided that it was no more of a risk to ask someone. He floated the book back to one of the attendants, who frowned at it.

"Will your cantae damage the book?" she asked.

"I'm not using cantae directly, just producing an effect." He adjusted his gravitational field to show her the book's movement. "It's under no more stress than when resting on a table."

"Well, good. What did you need?"

"I haven't been able to find my friend's lineage. I may be making a mistake, of course."

"Let me see." She didn't so much as blink when he gave her a name similar to Eratius - not the same, just in case there was a social trap, but close enough. The attendant quickly confirmed that he had been looking in the right sections and found nothing.

"What does it mean if he isn't here?" Theo asked.

"These should be all the lineage records from that decade, but there are other books. Here, let me get those." Because the attendant seemed pleased by his gravity trick, she helped him locate two more large books of records.

Theo analyzed the exteriors, wondering why the quality was lower. No shimmering paper or elegant bindings with these two. The left book had a much lower quality cover and the right was basically just a pile of papers bound together. It didn't make any sense for Eratius to be in either of these.

Armed by what he'd learned of the local alphabet, Theo looked through the second book much more quickly. Again, no sign whatsoever. Judging from the introduction of the third, the people contained within didn't really have proper lineages and were only tracked for the sake of the city. Theo assumed that he must be fundamentally overlooking something and flipped through the book with only one eye on the names while thinking about other possibilities.

Then, to his utter surprise, he found Eratius. Not just his family, but his exact name.

All other thoughts fell away as Theo read through the entire page. Eratius's father, who had allegedly been a great prince of the city, was listed as a minor merchant. His mother, who he'd always spoken of as an Authority-tier seamstress, was listed as a sublime material refiner who had only reached Archcrafter. Both of them had died of old age. Eratius was listed as their son, but all it said was that he had been hired by outsiders as a mercenary and never returned.

The most obvious answer was staring him in the face, yet Theo struggled with it. Unless this was some trick with incomprehensible motives... had Eratius simply been lying?

Now that he thought about it, with years of experience on Earth in between, certain things made more sense to Theo. All the fanciful stories Eratius had told about his home had been fantasies. Theo had taken his repeated references to his noble lineage as absurd arrogance, but now he realized that they were the lies of a man over-sensitive about his common upbringing. And the way Eratius was so prickly about his heritage was because he knew it was all a lie.

What did any of that mean? Theo wasn't even sure how to think about this turn of events and wasn't sure he wanted to. He had been prepared for a record of death or traps from Vistgil, not this empty answer.

To escape his thoughts, Theo left as quickly as possible. He returned the books politely but didn't even leave the city before using his weirkeys. Maybe he could get information from Isorales that could shed light on all this. So far away from Rotorial, surely no one knew about any secrets involved with Eratius.

Back at the palace he found that Fiyu and Nauda were gone, but Senka was rolling around on the floor. The instant she saw him, her eyes snapped into focus and she grinned.

"Theo, I'm ready to do some traveling!"

"To your former caches?" He smiled and realized that this was just the distraction he needed. "Alright, I can take you."

"That quickly? Well, I do have a couple that should be completely safe, so let's go." Senka floated up to his shoulder and gripped his coat. "Take us away from Noven, then I'll give a little nudge back and you handle the rest, okay?"

It was a somewhat advanced weirkey technique, but Theo wasn't particularly concerned about that. He followed Senka's instructions and tried not to think about the emptiness yawning around him. Nothing happened, despite his submerged fears, and they appeared in the sky over a new area of Noven.

For the first time since he'd entered Noven, mountains actually surrounded him. Even though the cloud layer looked about the same as everywhere else, the peaks emerging from it were absolutely enormous. He couldn't see any sign of habitation and he understood why: the peaks were icy near the clouds and only grew more lifeless as they rose.

"There's nothing complex about this one," Senka said from his back. "Just some sublime materials stuck in a really inhospitable place. Fly up that peak there. No, not the tallest one, the other one."

He flew toward the mountain and finally let himself forget about Eratius a little. As he flew higher, the winds became more intense, almost more than an Authority's cantae could overcome. After increasing his mass substantially he was able to fly, but he didn't dare use any gravitational fields for fear of unintended consequences in the fierce winds.

Partially hidden near the top of the mountain Senka had indicated, he found an entrance to a cave. It had been entirely frozen over, so he shattered the ice. Senka finally let go and floated ahead of him, poking at various rocks as if experimenting. At last she grinned and turned a specific set.

One wall of the cave, identical to the others before that point, began to split open. Two doors creaked apart, revealing... an empty room. Just a cube of stone with nothing inside it.

"Of sporping course." Senka sighed as she drifted into the room. "I knew it was a long shot, but I had hoped this cache would survive. I intentionally placed it in a continent without one of those cultures that's really obsessed with climbing mountains."

"Just ordinary thieves, do you think?" he asked.

"I mean, I don't see what else it could be. I didn't tell anyone about this location and I don't think whoever cursed me could get that information from me. My mind was scrambled, not looted."

"Too bad."

"You sound... odd." Senka turned back to him and cocked her head to the side. "I was so eager earlier, I didn't even ask you how your search went."

"Similarly disappointing." Theo gestured toward the empty vault and his hand moved with more frustration than he'd intended. "Actually, maybe you could take a look? I feel like I'm missing something. Eratius always talked about being an important prince, but the records of him say he was a random commoner. I just... don't know what to think about it."

"Why not? We can visit the other caches later."

So Theo leapt to Rotorial again, this time taking Senka with him. The attendants at the hall of records gave him a strange look when he returned with a strange imp on his shoulder, but they didn't stand in his way when he requested the same record books. All three of them to hide his search, just in case, even though Theo was beginning to think there was nothing to find.

Senka didn't need to read the books for long before she shook her head. "It sounds like a pretty universal story to me. A kid goes somewhere new and reinvents themselves. Pretends they're the person they always wished they were. Do you have a good reason to believe otherwise?"

"I just suppose, after the trouble with Brigana and Esaire, I expected more." Theo shook his head as he stared down at the book. "It doesn't make sense..."

"Think about it logically. Vistgil led you here and guided your path, so he probably gave you your allies. Who better than a Noveni lying about his past to keep you insulated from the real Noven? Then afterward, he wanted to erase all traces of his manipulation. With your Deuxan friend, that required annihilating an entire family. But with a Noveni commoner, he didn't need to do anything."

"Maybe. But Brigana's family really was semi-important, so why would he let us meet?"

"Do you think he was micromanaging every single step along the way?" Senka shrugged and closed the book. "You said you had a third companion, right? I say before you get too concerned, look them up. I'm guessing that you'll find out they were someone else who Vistgil could control. Brigana might have been an exception, a relationship he didn't intend and had to clean up later."

That made more sense to Theo. He reluctantly returned the books to their places while looking over his shoulder at Senka. "Khaluu was from Aathal, so there's no way to investigate him for now. I can help you search more caches, if you want."

"I doubt they'll be much better, but I do want. Come on, that will be more fun than this stuffy place."

They left the hall of records, then the city. On his way out, Theo looked back over his shoulder one last time, almost wishing that people were coming after him.

Now that he'd had more time to reflect on it, he understood why he was so disturbed. Brigana's family being eradicated was tragic, but it suggested that Theo's life had been important, maybe even a threat to Vistgil. Finding out that his "greatest rival" had been a nobody mercenary suggested that his first life meant nothing. It was safer than a trap, but much grimmer.

As he touched his weirkey, Theo felt something he hadn't expected at all: anger. Not at Eratius due to his lies, but on his behalf. He'd just been a young soulcrafter who had wanted to be somebody and been killed because it was more convenient for Vistgil to eliminate all loose ends. It was more sad than anything.

When he could, Theo would investigate Khaluu to see if his last companion held any secrets. Maybe by that point, he would have enough power to really challenge Vistgil. Then he could kill him... not just for himself, but for Eratius and Brigana and everyone else he had sacrificed.