Deathseed: Chapters 7-8 (Patreon)

Still dealing with release hangover, lurching from thing to thing. Isn't over because the TWC4 audiobook will be coming out next weekend. One last note: the omnibus release could still use your support on Audible or Amazon!

I'm glad readers have embraced the idea of providing resources for a tournament instead of participating. I thought it was a fun idea, but I was half-convinced there would be a dozen light novels with names like Reincarnated In Another World as a Tournament or Isekaid as a Gold Medallion But I Can Only Run Tournaments. ^-^

In any case, this was only ever planned to be a small portion of the book and follow up on certain past plot seeds. However, I've always planned to go further along these lines, so hopefully it will be a fun part of future books. I feel like other characters are always creating elaborate contests for protagonists, but the protagonists are never on the other side. I actually wanted to have a later book where Theo and friends are running the contest, actually designing the rules to create the outcomes they want. Maybe the majority of the the audience will hate this, but I think it will be a fun way to show the characters are meaningfully progressing instead of getting fake advancements on a treadmill.

Anyway, on to the chapters.

-

Chapter 7

The rocks plunged down into the eryo's back, biting deep. Its flat humanoid face let out a cry and its eyes blazed, but it was pinned helplessly by Theo's gravity. He began lifting more rocks into the air, but Nauda waved him off as she stepped closer to the enormous beast.

"Wait, let me try something." Nauda spun her staff in place and then dropped it into combat position. Fiyu looked at her curiously and Theo reduced his gravity slightly.

First Nauda took a swing at the eryo's rocky hide and winced as her staff bounced off. If she fully activated her bloodglass sculpture, she could thrust and drive her staff deeper into its body, but she couldn't put enough force into a bludgeoning blow. She gestured for Theo to let the eryo free, only to be smashed into the ground by one of the massive paws.

After taking several injuries, Nauda accepted that she couldn't defeat the sublime beast. She nodded for Theo to finish it off and dropped back to use sublime honey to treat her wounds.

When Theo had suggested they go back to the Tatian border to fight eryos, she had been skeptical. After all, their claws might have been powerful sublime materials once, but she'd acquired them years ago and associated them with her earlier soulcrafting. Now, especially after trying to fight one of the things, she realized just how far above their weight they'd been punching.

Once her healing was complete, Nauda used her telescope to examine the sublime beast's soulhome. Unlike a sentient creature, it had a flat soul with widening rings. Because each ring was wider than the last, beasts' development wasn't so clear, but she saw four rings and estimated that the eryo was a threat that required an Authority, stronger than the one they had originally killed. Only careful strategy and the unreasonable nature of Theo's abilities had allowed them to kill one while they were mere Archcrafters.

They weren't punching above their weight anymore. Theo easily pinned each eryo in place with his gravity and Fiyu carved them apart with her cantae blade. Once, early on in their hunt, two eryos had tried to attack them together. After a few close calls, the pair had been rendered just as helpless, and after that it was just about hunting the others down.

Because she didn't want to sit around while the others did the work, Nauda got up and went to help Fiyu bind all the claws together. Once she had a bundle, she hefted it over one shoulder and dropped it off with the others. On the way, she glanced at Theo.

"How many of these are we going to kill?" she asked. "If we bring back too many, we'll crash the value of the materials."

"This is about more than just the stupid tournament." Theo wasn't quite back to his normal self, but at least he was in efficiency mode. "I think we give two or three as prizes, but also an additional eryo for House Blacksilver to trade or put into their book of materials to help out younger soulcrafters. Then we each store the materials from another eryo or two in our soulhomes, just as a backup. We may have to travel to a world where we don't have any money and it would be convenient to have something to trade that we don't need for our own soulcrafting."

"Alright, you clearly have this all planned out. So we hunt for a while longer?"

"One or two more, maybe. Depends on how many more we can lure up from the cliff."

On her way to help with more materials, Nauda wandered out toward the edge and looked over. The sense of vertigo looking down the impossible cliff was overwhelming, and it was made even worse by all the emotions that came with it. Part of her wanted to run back to her friends and tell them everything. Not because she had any great secrets or the details would matter, just because she wanted to share it all with them.

The problem was that it all seemed so irrelevant. Nlukoko was enslaved right this moment, just over the horizon. Even if she took her friends down to the cliffs or the lower part of Tatian, the trip wouldn't gain them any power or allies. If she wanted to accomplish anything, she needed to move one step at a time. Now that freeing Nlukoko was finally within her grasp, she shouldn't let herself become greedy.

It took them another day, but they eventually hunted all the eryos Theo wanted. They'd also stumbled across a few sublime rocks and a glistening emerald bird with gemstone wings. Not immediately useful in any of their soulhomes, but it was formed of extraordinarily rare materials. Even Theo seemed in a good mood as they returned to the Fithan gate.

"We keep walking in that direction," he said, "then we turn south... oh, about now. Let's speed up a little, while we're headed towards Nlukoko. Fiyu... now."

Her bubble of stealth passed over them. As soon as they vanished from the rest of the world, Theo slowed down and smiled. This must have been what the two of them had been discussing earlier, because Nauda didn't know what was going on. She folded her arms and stared at him until he explained.

"I'm fairly sure the Landguard has been watching us since we came out of the gate. They're not going to start a fight over it, but they're not happy to see us in Tatian again. Now we've disappeared... they'll be scouring the area between here and Nlukoko with no idea we're coming from the opposite direction."

"Alright, sounds like a good plan." Nauda glanced between the two of them. "Why aren't we going back to Fithe?"

"There's not much chance of spies in Fithe, but I still thought it was best to discuss our strategy here. It's quiet, at least."

Fiyu's bubble covered several large rocks, so they dragged them together to form a place to sit. After so much running around, Nauda was honestly glad to have time to discuss their plans. As he began drawing on the ground, Theo looked like his old self again.

"I was thinking about what Antha said, and I think she's right: we're basically fighting our own private war. Against an entire Deuxan family, but that's not so far out of our reach anymore. Unless either of you object?" He glanced up to see them shake their heads and then looked back down. "Then our task is to take down this army."

Now his drawings made sense: four Authorities, ten Rulers, and a squiggly line that apparently served to represent all the Farmguards. Theo barely gave them a second of drawing time before he tapped on the squares he'd drawn to represent the Authorities.

"These are our biggest problem and we need detailed intelligence on them. Esaire seemed to have ascended recently, so he's likely just a stronger version of himself. We didn't get much chance to see his... sister, mother, whatever, except for her giant floating blade, so she's a dangerous variable. But what about the others?"

"I do have some information there." Nauda tapped the next square. "Ariano may be a failed Authority, but only in the sense that he'll never be a Stronghold, not that he's weak. With that wing technique you saw, he can put out an enormous amount of destructive force, so he could annihilate a weak army on his own. Trying to rally a bunch of Farmguards is definitely a losing strategy."

"Was never planning on it. What about the Tatian man?"

"He's using a known design called a Blazekindler blueprint that lets him manifest unquenchable fire around himself, in addition to conventional fire techniques." Nauda explained everything she knew about Blazekindlers before shrugging. "Of course, that's assuming he doesn't have other techniques of his own. Considering he got to Authority, he probably does."

"I'm even more concerned about what he's doing there, but since we have no idea, let's move on." Theo began tapping the triangular Rulers. "Most of these are weak, but we have a couple problems. According to Bimanu, one of them is a strong craftswoman, so we can't underestimate their defenses. There's also Arceon ai Armeau, who's a peak Ruler and can't be ignored."

"It is a formidable force." Fiyu spoke somberly, but when she picked up a stick to draw symbols of her own, she seemed pleased to be helping. "We are also formidable. There is Theo and myself, and of course Nauda. My question is how much we can increase the strength of our army."

Nauda rolled her eyes. "I assume the easiest plan is for our great leader, the mighty Theo, to ascend to Stronghold and crush them all himself."

He snorted. "That'd be laughably premature even if it was possible. But that doesn't mean Fiyu and I don't need to soulcraft. We need to be strong enough to fend off two or more Authorities if the battle gets unbalanced. Ideally even defeat multiple, but we can't count on that."

"So we need allies." Since everyone else was drawing, Nauda used her finger to make triangles. "Our main plan is to get Krikree, who I assume is a strong Ruler by now. Are we assuming that Navim won't be fighting directly?"

"We shouldn't throw him into a battle like this, even if he'd agree. But I hope he can craft armaments that could turn the tide. For example, he could build us temporary armaments against the Blazekindler, or if we find any weaker Rulers, an armament from him could make them equal to Ariano's army."

"I hope we can find Nanjuma," Nauda said. "I mean, we have no idea where he is, but he'd be a powerful ally."

"I agree, it's just a question of whether we can find him in Myufuru. How many Tatian allies we can get is an unknown variable that's actually in our favor."

While they spoke, Fiyu examined the drawings seriously before she spoke up. "How should we represent Senka? I saw that she can unleash one very powerful blast, but I do not know how much effect it would have."

"That's our biggest surprise." Theo frowned and then drew an X shape on their side. "She could definitely overwhelm an Authority, if not actually kill one. Just one blast will probably exhaust her, but it can break any fortification or formation the Armeau family puts together. She's definitely an asset."

"What about Navim's master?" Nauda asked. "I don't know if he'd help, but that's another Authority."

"I doubt we can count on Uvvah Ulim to fight." Theo sat back and smirked. "Don't forget that we can make Authorities. We still have the heavenspears from Noven, so all we need are strong enough Rulers. They wouldn't be equal to us, but an expert like Nanjuma at Authority could easily counter Ariano. If we add those, the odds don't look so bad, do they?"

He sketched out three more Authority squares on their side, even though that was probably wildly optimistic. What Theo didn't say was that at this stage, trust mattered more than power: to spend a resource like a heavenspear on someone, they needed to be absolutely certain the soulcrafter wouldn't turn on them or flee when the battle got rough.

As they discussed strategy, Nauda tried not to feel any bitterness over how little she was mentioned. Perhaps Theo didn't want to pressure her, and Fiyu certainly meant nothing unkind. Was the most she could accomplish becoming a peak Ruler and fighting someone like Arceon? That might be an important part of the battle, but it made her feel like an insignificant hanger-on.

Eventually, however, even Nauda felt satisfied. Building an army wasn't something they could do in a short amount of time, but it might actually be possible for them to take back Nlukoko themselves. Her life really had changed in extraordinary ways.

"Alright, that's our initial plan." Theo stood up and carefully erased all trace of their drawings with his chaosgem. "Let's head back and give all this to Blacksilver."

"Then off to Arbai?" Nauda asked.

"Soon, but not yet. If we're going to fight an Authority-tier war, we need to be ready."

-

Chapter 8

More than anything, Theo wanted to soulcraft. Oh, he entered his soulhome every day and continued polishing his Authority floor or developing support structures for his central materials. But what he hungered for was entire days spent designing, doing the elaborate work that would prepare him to fight Esaire again.

But this was war, not training, and victory required more than mere power.

House Blacksilver had been astonished by the contribution of all the eryo-derived sublime materials and eager to repay them. Now they only needed to wait for Janne to return to take them to Arbai, which suited Theo just fine. There was one more important matter they needed to discuss before they left, so he waited in the courtyard until Nauda and Fiyu returned.

"You sure about this?" Senka asked. She leaned against his leg, yawning periodically. "If you can't win before the Landguard moves on you, things will turn bad real quick."

"I'm not too worried," Theo said. "Bimanu said that he would delay them as long as he could."

"Sure, but if you violate the official order, they won't come back with stern words. The next time they might just drop out of the sky and start attacking."

"That's why we need to be fully prepared before we start. Our opponents might have the odds on their side, but we do have the advantage of being the attackers. We can choose our own timing."

They might have said more, but at that moment Fiyu and Nauda walked into the courtyard. Fiyu appeared somber and wore a new cloth around her lower face, no doubt one of a great many preparations she'd made for their travel on Arbai. Nauda walked in more casually and glanced around.

"Janne isn't here yet?" she asked.

"No, but while we wait we need to talk about weirkeys." Theo glanced over at Fiyu. "You have your Noveni key?"

"Oh yes." Fiyu pulled the pale key from within her robes and smiled. "It is my first weirkey of my very own."

"That's good, but that wasn't what I meant." Theo found his second Noveni key and handed it to Nauda. "You should keep this one."

"Me?" Nauda accepted it but then stared down at the key. "I'm not going to be able to use this any time soon."

"It's a precaution in case we're separated. Someone in Esaire's family might get desperate and break a key just like Wiltur did, or maybe the Landguard will use a technique to throw us out, or something could just plain go wrong. If we end up separated in different worlds, I don't want us to take years to find one another again. It might make more sense to meet up in Norro Yorthin, but since we don't have weirkeys for Fithe, our regrouping location will be Ugustial. Just consider that our policy until we get more options."

He left implicit the fact that Nauda would need to ascend to Authority in order to use her key and that they'd wait for her. Judging from how she squeezed her hand tightly around her weirkey, she understood.

"Do you think the Armeau family has weirkeys?" Fiyu asked. "Are they likely to influence the battle?"

"If anything, weirkeys might work against them. One of the reasons that Authorities tend to survive more often, aside from strength, is that they can run away if necessary. Anti-weirkey defenses aren't so common that you see them everywhere, so just fleeing to another world is always an option."

"But if they had two weirkeys, could they not move elsewhere, then return to Tatian? That would allow them to slip out of any trap and renew their attack."

"That's more difficult than it sounds." Theo frowned and glanced at her. "Sometimes I forget you're still so new to this. Weirkeys are convenient, but they're slow on a fundamental level. They're extremely heavy as far as sublime materials go, which is why people generally don't keep them in their soulhomes. No matter how strong you are, it still takes some time to activate the weirkey, and that delay doesn't improve even as the speed of combat increases."

"My relative always told me that it was difficult to use weirkeys in combat, but I do not understand the details. I have learned the lessons, I mean that I do not understand them viscerally."

"They're also imprecise. A weirkey can get you near Ugustial, but even without the city defenses, good luck trying to arrive at a specific location. Plus, there's usually some warning when someone is approaching via weirkey, so any soulcrafters strong enough to worry about will be ready and waiting. Relying on weirkeys can be a fatal mistake."

Surprisingly, Nauda spoke up next. "You're both underestimating the amount of time. You and Guchiro are good at weirkey usage, but it usually takes more work to move within one world. If you're moving a short enough distance, it might be faster just to fly."

"Yes, I have felt this." Fiyu nodded somberly. "I still feel somewhat inept when I try to move between worlds and I require more practice."

For his part, Theo thought that Nauda was speaking more from personal experience. He raised an eyebrow in her direction and, after a little uncertainty, she launched into a story.

"When I was living in the lower part of Tatian, there was a small city ruled by an Authority. Classic warlord, you know how it goes. I wasn't strong enough to really follow the battle, but I saw him clash with one of his rivals in the air over the city. According to the rumors, he ended up at a disadvantage and used his weirkey to regroup.

"Except that it took him too long. By the time he returned to the city, his rival had slaughtered his Ruler subordinates, plundered his vault, and occupied the defenses. After that we had a new warlord in charge, not that life changed for most of us. I have no idea what happened to the former leader. He escaped, but he'd lost everything."

On his first visit to the Nine Worlds, Theo had been taught that using a weirkey basically meant forfeiting a battle. He suspected that was overly simplistic, and could think of a few weirkey-based strategies, but it seemed that the basic lesson held. Some of it was review for him, but it was good for Fiyu to have a strong foundation in the theory.

"Janne still isn't here." Nauda glanced over the sky and then looked back at him. "I'm sure you'd love to indulge your lecturing, so sate my curiosity: how do weirkeys actually work? I mean, everyone knows what they do, but they might as well be magic from my perspective."

"I... don't really know." Theo shrugged sheepishly. "Last time I was here, I just took them for granted. Maybe the deeper theory isn't broadly understood."

"Senka to the rescue!" She popped up from beside him and hovered into the air. "I'm happy to give some remedial lessons to you poor students of this benighted age. For this demonstration, I require only a simple cloth."

"Are you going to eat it?" Theo asked. Senka rolled her eyes at him.

Meanwhile, Fiyu's desire to be helpful apparently overrode her dislike for Senka, because she produced a dark cloth with a smile. Senka snapped it up, and after waving at Theo to create a neutral gravitational field, spread it out in the air.

"Alright, imagine that this cloth is all of reality. The real world isn't flat, but imagine that it is and we're looking from some unimaginable fourth direction. This might seem strange, but reality really is-"

"It's a representation of spacetime," Theo interrupted. "We can grasp basic concepts."

That actually seemed to surprise Senka slightly, but she took it in stride. She floated higher and poked two fingers down against the cloth. "Now, imagine that Fithe is here and Noven is over here. They exist in different realities, so no matter how far you travel, you'll never arrive. This space between my fingers is unbridgeable."

"Not even in theory, with infinite time?"

"As far as I know, it's never been done. But hush, fumpet, I'm lecturing this time." Senka tapped around the Fithe point with several fingers, then suddenly clenched her fist and crumpled up the cloth around it. "That's what a weirkey does. Its materials are so deeply tied to one world that the fabric of reality gets all squished up. Suddenly, there's not so much distance between Fithe and Noven anymore. You're practically there."

"It is not that easy," Fiyu said. "There are fragmentary worlds around the Nine, and you still must cross the void."

"Of course you do, but the weirkey manipulates that chaotic flow. With some training, you can slip into the current and end up in your new world. And once you stop using the weirkey..." Senka unclenched her fist and smiled. "Now you're on Noven. The weirkey doesn't actually let you cross the void between worlds, just makes it so that you don't have to."

"So that's why you can't travel on a single world with just one weirkey." Not about to let her take over the explanation, Theo reached down to demonstrate himself. "If you use a Fithan weirkey on Fithe, you're just stuck at that single point. Instead you use another weirkey to get some void between you and the world, then head back and navigate spacetime as it returns to normal."

He doubted that "spacetime" was a familiar concept for the Nine Worlds, but Theo was happy with the explanation. Fiyu asked some more practical questions for her own training and Senka answered roughly. She clearly wasn't a teacher, she just knew what she was talking about. It was actually Nauda who spoke up with a more interesting question.

"What about what Wiltur did?" she asked. "When he broke his weirkey, he knocked us all into Slest."

"Ah, that's like punching a hole in reality." Senka started to jab a finger down and then slowed. "I won't break Fiyu's cloth, but imagine it. The fabric isn't just bunched up, it gets torn open. Suddenly there are pieces of fabric flying every direction. Now, reality isn't fabric, so it will fix itself, but anyone who was caught in those parts of reality will be transported chaotically."

"It seems like an extreme tactic."

"One that's likely to backfire on you, but he was desperate."

They continued chatting about weirkeys and Theo could almost forget about the upcoming battle for a while. The underlying theory answered another question for him: the process of compressing spacetime wasn't dependent on cantae directly, which was why it didn't speed up as a soulcrafter ascended. That meant it was increasingly slow compared to the pace of combat, forcing more extreme maneuvers if someone needed to escape.

When Janne arrived, they all turned to her, eager for the next demonstration. The robe-swaddled woman blinked in surprise at their attention. "I'm glad to see you all well," she said quietly. "You need to go to a specific location on Arbai? I'm not familiar, so I can only get you in the right region."

"That will be fine," Theo said. "But do the best you can, because we're going to retrieve a Blacksilver member and a close ally."

"Whatever your group is attempting to do, I wish you well and wash my hands of it." Janne gestured for them to move closer around her and revealed a sandy Arbaian weirkey.

After all their discussions, of course Theo couldn't help but examine the process closely. They rippled through the non-space between worlds and approached Arbai, except they didn't really approach. He had always imagined himself floating in space over a planet and wondered if that was just his mental image because he'd seen Earth from space. Using a weirkey didn't give him an overhead view of the planet, by any means, he just had a sense for the world.

Janne's control of the weirkey was firm, but she hesitated because she didn't know the destination. The process was intuitive, so it was easier the more experience someone had with the locations involved. He realized that Janne was actually navigating more by connections between worlds than landmasses. They'd told her that the School of Emerald Indulgence was near a gate to Tatian, which felt like a pinprick in the fabric of existence. Or perhaps a wormhole, if the metaphor held.

When they emerged, they popped into existence high over the sands of Arbai. They were much higher than Theo was accustomed to, perhaps because Janne had arrived cautiously. Theo didn't think weirkeys could deposit someone directly into solid rock, but they could easily drop them into a storm.

Looking below, he saw a city built from sandstone in one direction, not one he knew, and a rocky wasteland that was more familiar in the other. No sign of the Tatian gate, despite the fact that Janne had tried to arrive close to it. He hoped they were near enough, but it would probably just waste time to try again.

"Is this right?" Janne asked.

"We are on Arbai, certain enough." Fiyu frowned and pulled her mask and cloth around her face. "Every part of it is too bright, but I believe I recognize Navim's home."

"I'll stay long enough to confirm, if you want to talk to anyone."

Theo left Janne's cantae to fly down and investigate. He didn't approach the city directly, since they might not appreciate an unexpected Authority, but instead descended toward an outlying fort. Unlike the squat rectangles of Fithe, this one was a half-sphere built from curving talons of stone that rose to battlements at the top. Not much use against him, but no doubt helpful for demons or ground-based forces.

A Mundhin Archcrafter with a combat form stood atop the fortress, turning his gem sphere toward him. "Greetings, traveler," the Mundhin said. "If you wish to enter our city, I can guide you to the proper channels."

"Actually, we're here for another reason," Theo said. "The School of Emerald Indulgence is to the east, isn't it? We could use a map or a guide, if available."

"You are too late, traveler."

"Too late?"

"Yes, even the gossip is old, not worth charging for. Master Uvvah Ulim has passed away of old age and it seems likely that his school will disband." The Mundhin guard regarded him with an unreadable gemstone gaze. "If you wanted the master's sublime legacy, I believe that is an internal matter still being discussed. His greater legacy is his knowledge, but that is being divided as the school disbands."

Theo stared out into the wasteland, trying to find the school. "Disbanded? Why?"

"I am not familiar with their scholarly politics, but I believe there is no scholar equal to his role. I do not know how familiar you are with our ways, traveler. It is not a simple matter for an isolated school to persist alone, much less to manage its scholarly reputation. Whatever you knew of the School of Emerald Indulgence, it is not what it once was."

So they'd barely arrived and already nothing was going according to plan. Even though Theo should have been worried about the effect on his strategy, he found himself thinking more about Navim and his school. Theo had enjoyed talking with the old Authority during their meetings and now he was gone.

What that meant for the future, no one could say.