Deathseed: Chapters 11-12 (Patreon)

Do I have nothing to say this time? Apparently not; I'm run a bit ragged these days. Please enjoy the chapters. ^-^

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Chapter 11

The conclusion of the battle brought everyone in the school together almost by necessity. Nauda felt horribly out of place as one of the few humanoids among all the Mundhin, but she was mostly ignored. Everyone else was too busy repairing damage to the stone, healing the wounded, or arguing.

Mostly arguing, to be honest. The Mundhin debated what should be done, whether something should be done, and whether taking action was a coherent paradigm for the discussion.

Despite that, it wasn't chaos or a waste of time. She'd been in plenty of community meetings that were less efficient, because despite all the conflict and pedantry, the Mundhin did make several key decisions about improving their defenses. The real argument, the one that couldn't be so easily resolved, was about whether or not this attack meant that the School of Emerald Indulgence should be closed permanently.

"This is another proof that we can no longer defend ourselves," one of the scholars argued. "We may not be so fortunate the next time demons attack." This line of reasoning set off an immediate chorus of objections.

"These attacks are uncharacteristic, both in frequency and intensity."

"The demons could well be drawn by the death of our master, in accordance with my theories..."

"Preposterous! You're contorting the demon attack data to fit any interpretation."

"I argued, I thought convincingly, that we should have hired mercenaries from Ruby Ericho."

"We shouldn't rush to action. Uncharacteristically frequent attacks are likely to regress to the mean."

"Should we resolve all our problems by presuming that the source will simply disappear?"

Even though Nauda couldn't follow all the rivalries and some of the more detailed arguments, the end result was clear. The School of Emerald Indulgence wouldn't cohere into a single community without a strong leader. Just getting higher tier guards or more resources, or even an Authority, wouldn't be enough. To survive they needed someone respected enough to corral all the scholars toward common purpose.

"Whatever direction the demon attacks may take, can we not agree that more caution is required?" It was the scholar who had set off the most recent storm of argumentation. She - if Nauda was guessing correctly based on the voice - had been consistently nudging the discussion. "Rather than continue to take such extensive risks, we should unite at a secure location."

Whoever she was, she was clearly an important voice in the school. Nauda looked over to ask Navim, but he had moved away from her position, closer to the floor. That left only Krikree, who crouched on a stool and flicked her antennae toward whoever was speaking. Well, if she'd been here so long...

"Who is that?" Nauda asked with a surreptitious gesture. Krikree immediately snapped into her reporting posture.

"Eliyai-thinkrock! Ruler tier, important thinkscout. Navim-thinkrock doesn't like, but gave Krikree food. Wants become hive queen."

"Huh, that's actually pretty helpful. You said she wants to become the leader, but what does she want in the short term?"

"Wants say many words."

Not so helpful. Nauda looked away from Krikree to examine the Arbaian more carefully.

Eliyai, presuming that was truly her name, had the same general shape as the others in the school. Her outer limbs were particularly bulky and shell-like, giving way to numerous delicate limbs underneath. All her core gems appeared to be rubies, glittering even in the shady room. She didn't seem particularly strong for a Ruler, but then again, she wasn't trying to gain control of the school by force of arms.

"Surely all of us want our school to survive." Arbaians didn't gesture very often, but Eliyai did now, raising her largest limbs to encompass the building. "All this uncertainty is why I again urge us to go to Ruby Ericho and join with the Melancholy Page sect. Since we last spoke, I have received confirmation that they would be glad to support our scholarship."

"Only under their name." Navim spoke up for the first time and many Arbaians turned to listen. "You claim we will found our school again later, but how will that come about, with the Melancholy Page offering funding? No, we would be taken apart, scholar by scholar. The School of Emerald Indulgence would be no more."

"The Melancholy Page is the only sect to have offered us support! It is flagrantly unfair of you to treat them like scavengers."

"If you believe the label to be inaccurate, why have they never agreed to support us before? How many among us have gone to the city only to have the Melancholy Page try to preempt our research?"

This argument seemed to have an impact on the listeners, so Nauda assumed that he was telling the truth. Eliyai waited for the murmurs to begin to ebb before she countered. "You criticize every plan, but what protection can you offer our school? Demons will not be held back by nostalgia for our late master."

"You criticize me on grounds of protection when my allies were the ones who saved us?" Navim gestured toward Nauda and she hastily sat up, doing her best to look fearsome. It probably would have been more effective if Fiyu and Theo had been there, but she carried their shadows with them. Plus, in this school she and Krikree were among the highest ranked soulcrafters.

"And how long will they stay?" Eliyai asked the question plainly and then let the silence stretch. "Will they become our new masters and the identity of our school will be lost after all? Or will they travel on and our fundamental problem will remain unchanged?"

There was no good response to that, because it was true. Navim didn't try, instead pivoting the argument in a different direction. As far as Nauda could tell, they were going in circles now. The fact was that their physical reality put them at a disadvantage, and no amount of rhetoric could change that.

At least she came to understand the politics of the school better. Many thought it was dead and wanted to disassemble it for parts. Eliyai and her allies wanted the school to gather its resources and join this Melancholy Page sect. Navim had supporters who wanted to remain, but they didn't have solutions for their main problems.

Neither did Nauda. But as she sat and listened to the debate, ideas began to form.

~ ~ ~

Though the sun on Arbai was deeply unpleasant, Fiyu was pleased to discover that the locals did not design their buildings in order to maximize the amount of light that entered. There were numerous rooms with reasonable amounts of light within the center of the school. One of the deepest, both within the tunnels and beneath the ground, was a library chamber filled with an assortment of scrolls, books, and engraved stone plates.

She had been spending her soulcrafting time there in any case, but she was pleased when Ally Navim chose it for their meeting. Friend Nauda appeared to be quite motivated, so Fiyu sat down at the table beside her and smiled in support. Perhaps they had enough knowledge to assist Ally Navim now.

"The way I see it, this is a three way fight." Friend Nauda explained what she had learned, but at the end turned toward Ally Navim. "The problem is, I'm no Arbaian. Is that how it looks to you?"

"You have accurately identified the factions, but I would prefer not to use a military metaphor." Ally Navim clasped two limbs together against the table. "Every scholar at the school will respond to rational incentives. The fact is, many negative truths prevent anyone from presenting a perfect solution. If we could change the facts on the ground, the factions would fluctuate dramatically."

"The biggest problem is that you don't have an Authority, right?" Friend Theo reached into his soulhome and revealed one of the heavenspears. "This thing can push someone from Ruler to Authority. At a long term cost, but how many of your warriors were reaching Authority on their own?"

"That is a truly remarkable sublime material... but insufficient. A school needs more than power to function, especially because we must both retain and attract scholars."

"What facts do you want to change, then?"

"The School of Emerald Indulgence produces scholarship and certain gemstones, which are moderately valuable but not enough to justify the existence of our school." Ally Navim retrieved a map from one of the shelves and placed it on the table. "We trade with three neighbors: the city of Ruby Ericho, the Tatians at the gate, and a group of mercenaries to the east."

"Arbaian mercenaries?" Friend Nauda leaned forward with an odd smile. "Are they as scholarly as the rest of you? Do they insist on a treatise justifying their service?"

"They follow the philosophy that they will fight if you give them money."

"Hah, fair enough! Is there any chance we can change your relationship with them?"

"It is unlikely, and attempting to ally with them would cause a great deal of disapproval."

"Then that's out." Friend Nauda tapped on the map. "You already have your rival suggesting you all go to Ruby Ericho and join that other sect. Do you have ideas for other alliances in the city?"

"Some, but likewise insufficient." Ally Navim sighed heavily. "As you have likely determined by process of elimination, our most promising path was a stronger alliance with the Tatians. This is exactly what's been made more difficult by their recent disruptions."

Friend Theo sat forward. "What exactly can you tell us about that?"

"To my knowledge, the Deuxan forces are centered in Nlukoko, but they range widely to all nearby cities, including Myufuru. When I traveled there in an effort to acquire allies, they made it clear that I was not welcome. Thus, the very reason you come for our aid is one of the reasons we cannot offer it."

Everyone lapsed into silence for a time and Fiyu regretted the sad twist of fate. They could best help Ally Navim by removing the invading Deuxans, and the best way to remove the Deuxans was to help Ally Navim. When faced with such dilemmas, the usual solution was to find another path.

"I am of no use in these debates," Fiyu said. "But can we change other facts to assist you? What about the demons?"

"I would have said no, but I saw you eliminate the titan." Ally Navim turned toward her with what she hoped was regard. "Would you be capable of scrutinizing the region around us, in particular this empty space? Northwest of the school, here. If you can track demon appearances, or better yet thin their numbers, then this location would be much safer."

"Yes, I can do this." Fiyu sat back, pleased that she could contribute. She would still listen to the others' plans, even if she doubted that she could assist them. Given how delicate the Arbaian politics were, it would be better if she understood as well as possible.

After only a brief pause, Friend Nauda spoke up. "I was just about to suggest that we have Fiyu go through the gate under stealth to scout, but the demons are probably higher priority. We can do that later if-"

"Scout!" Associate Krikree, who had been silent up to that point, crawled half-way onto the table.

"Can you get through the gate without anyone noticing? I heard that it's under a much heavier guard these days."

"Krikree good scout!"

"Not yet." Friend Theo cut off the entire discussion with a wave of his hand. Whatever had been troubling him, it had eased from his muscles as he became invested in the Arbaian problems. "I want to soulcraft with Krikree so that we're at our best. And Navim... I know this problem isn't solved with power, but you'd be more respected if you ascended to Ruler, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, that is so." Ally Navim settled back and clasped his limbs. "I was quite close, before these events distracted me."

"Well, the two of us can work on that. If you want to use the heavenspear, you could jump two ranks in fairly short order, but hitting Ruler would let you balance Eliyai better anyway."

This seemed a reasonable plan to Fiyu, but Friend Nauda snorted. "Of course your solution is to soulcraft as much as possible." She leaned forward onto the table. "The facts of the situation matter, but we also need to change minds. I'll talk to the scholars and convince them that a stronger relationship with Tatian could support the school."

"Fine, we can approach this from all sides." Friend Theo got up sharply and gestured to Ally Navim, as if he intended to begin right that moment. Likely he did.

Fiyu remained for a short while longer, patting Friend Nauda on the shoulder before departing. The arguments among the Arbaians were too much for her, but Fiyu finally had an opportunity to find her new shape as an Authority. Hunting demons through the tunneled wastelands would be the perfect opportunity to test her newly expanded senses.

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Chapter 12

When Theo had offered to help Navim ascend, he'd truly had nothing but altruistic motives. The fact that their discussions might help him solve his own problem was just an unexpected bonus.

Arbaian soulcrafting had always been a gap in his knowledge. First because he'd been a child with blinders on, then because he only cared about himself. Now, as he read through books to gain a better understanding, he wasn't learning any principles that could be used for his own soulhome, yet he felt as though he was broadening his horizons. It was worth it to help Navim... and he'd get into more relevant subjects later.

"These are my blueprints," Navim said as he finished drawing the final line. "You can see how the stone cauldron won't be complete until the Ruler tier, so your assistance is immensely helpful even if I disagree with your plan to resolve this via power."

"How much of this second floor blueprint is actually soulcrafted?" Theo asked. They could have used Nauda to look directly, but he wanted to mostly leave her to her own work while they focused on theory.

"Nearly all of it, including the pyramid for ascension. The primary limitation is this chamber lacking a suitable sublime material. It requires a gemstone with sufficient cantae generation to create an analytical laser."

Theo glanced down at the chamber and considered. The traditional Arbaian soulhome was heavily based on curving rooms, which had annoyed him for only a few minutes before he understood the principles. They weren't as rigidly orderly as his cubical design, but they were extremely mathematically precise. Navim didn't have curving rooms due to arbitrary soulcrafting, his blueprint followed the golden ratio and had cantae spiral outward to rooms of increasing potency. Plus, the curving walls did provide additional stability.

So Navim's work was complete except for one missing material. His soulhome was dedicated primarily to his arts, including armament crafting and stoneshaping. Even though Theo wasn't as familiar with such designs, he thought Navim's was solid, aside from some enhancement chambers that didn't support his crafting rooms. It sounded like he could actually develop a laser in the academic sense, not just a laser-like weapon.

"Your blueprint seems largely excellent to me," Theo said. "We should focus on finding appropriate sublime materials for you so you can ascend."

"Largely excellent?" Navim didn't sound offended, but did latch on to the word. After a moment of regret at his honesty, Theo decided to plunge forward.

"Your goal is a hybrid soulhome focused on crafting with some combat enhancements, right? That's viable, but the two aspects don't synergize in several places. On your first floor, for example, it looks as though you began with an enhancement chamber to strengthen stoneshaping, then converted it to a chamber that strengthens stone. If-"

"What?" Krikree popped up beside the table, thrusting her face into the papers.

"These are Navim's blueprints," Theo said. "We're discussing his ascension. Now, I was saying that strengthening stoneshaping and strengthening stone seem similar, but they favor different cantae flow rates, so there's an inefficiency in-"

"Why?"

Theo stopped and looked over at Krikree. She stared back at him, antennae high. He didn't think she'd ever thrown out "why" queries before, so he glanced toward Navim.

"We have been seeking to expand the nature of her questioning," the Mundhin said, perhaps with a hint of amusement. "It's a valid question, is it not?"

So they might have turned Krikree into the average three year old child. But since it was a valid question, and he wanted to encourage Krikree to be more interested in fundamental soulcrafting, he turned toward her to answer.

"A chamber that enhances stoneshaping adds cantae in slow, controlled amounts at specific times in the process. But an enhancement chamber is designed to output as much supportive cantae as possible, at all times. When the fast cantae hits the slower stream, it creates inefficiencies."

"Why?"

"Well... you can think about cantae like water flowing. When two streams collide, if they don't blend, there are eddies that waste your strength instead of making it all flow to the proper destination."

He thought that Krikree might ask why again, but she muttered "soulcraft" to herself and settled down.

"I would be insulted if an amateur questioned my stoneshaping," Navim said, "and so I will not question your analysis of all the relevant variables when it comes to soulcrafting. But what do you suggest?"

"That depends on exactly what you want." Theo looked over the table, doing his best to meet the gemstone sphere eye to lack of eye. "A little inefficiency is worth it, if it serves a higher goal. Why did you alter your blueprint this way?"

"Though it feels embarrassingly emotional for such a decision, the truth is that I made alterations after being nearly killed in the tournament on Tatian. To realize that my mind was so fragile, and could so easily have been destroyed by an Archcrafter technique... I have sought a degree of security, in addition to my crafts."

"There's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of soulcrafters balance strength and art."

"But again, what do you suggest? Every room of my blueprint is uniquely shaped, so it lacks the modularity of your design. I cannot simply move sublime materials, not without creating more of the inefficiencies that so concern you."

"That's true on one floor, but each floor flows in parallel." Theo tapped one finger on the first floor and shifted his other hand to the third. "Move the enhancement chamber to your Ruler tier and replace it with sublime materials dedicated to stoneshaping. Then your first floor will have a calmer flow and the third can be consistently faster."

"Moving the materials, and enhancing them for a later floor, is theoretically possible. But this would be a substantial remodeling effort, and would weaken my soulhome in the broadest terms."

"Only until you ascend to Authority. Even if you don't use the heavenspear, you'll get there eventually."

Navim stared at him for several seconds and eventually chuckled. "Your faith in my abilities runs rather deep."

"Navim-thinkrock good!" Krikree leaned over to poke one of his limbs. "Very smart. Become rockprince."

After considering the blueprints for a short time, Navim regained his calm and focused wholly on Theo. "Implicit in your suggestion is that my third floor will operate at a higher speed and intensity. You believe that is the direction I should go?"

This was the part that Theo was less certain about. Analyzing soulcrafting, that was easy. Getting into people's heads, and the emotions involved... less so. Especially because he didn't want to treat Navim and his other allies like they were soulcrafting projects to be solved, as Nauda had said to him once. So Theo took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.

"On my world," he said deliberately, "it can be offensive to assume you know what another person is thinking. I don't know about Arbaian society, but I don't want to do the same."

"It is only offensive if your mental model of me is offensive. Continue."

"If I had to guess... I think that you've been avoiding higher intensity designs because you think that using them will inevitably draw you into combat. That they'll expose you to serious risks."

Navim's central core sagged. "You are... not incorrect. It is less my old fear of harm than a worry that if I pursue any combat-capable techniques I will become someone else. I mean no offense to you and your allies, but I seek a life of artisanry instead of fighting."

At least he hadn't been offended. Theo smiled and began tracing his fingers over the third floor blueprint. "I'd urge you to view power as merely a tool. The strength that could hypothetically be used for combat is also necessary for truly powerful crafting techniques. Move all your enhancement chambers here, let their cantae flow together. Your work will inevitably involve power that could be used for combat, so you should at least place that power efficiently."

"What you say is reasonable. Give me some time for consideration." Navim leaned forward and used one of his most dexterous limbs to begin altering his blueprint.

It seemed like he'd accepted Theo's point. Maybe it also had a psychological impact, but Theo was no therapist. If he could help resolve the soulcrafting side of things, that was probably the best he could hope for. Once Navim's design balanced the craft and combat elements better, it would make him remarkably flexible.

"Ivo-sister soulcraft." Krikree popped up beside him with her antennae twitching in the way that signaled happiness.

"Don't worry, Krikree," he scratched around the base of her antennae, "we'll work on your soulhome too, once there's time."

"Why?"

Theo blinked down at her. Sometimes it was difficult to tell her odd sense of humor, but he saw no sign that she wasn't earnest. "You're Krikree-sister, aren't you? You're an important part of the hive. Now that you've remodeled, you should be ready for more elaborate soulcrafting."

He'd expected Krikree to be overjoyed. Instead she shuffled back and began using her upper arms to clean off her antennae. It seemed like she had thinking to do, plus Navim had finished his design work and turned back toward him.

"This blueprint is logical," Navim said, "but the problem of a missing material remains."

"What's the point of having higher tier friends if they can't help with that?" Theo slipped into his soulhome and pulled out the gemstones from Senka's cache. "Look at these elemental stones. They're a bit powerful, but they could be used for a laser, right?"

"These are remarkable." Navim picked up one with a smaller limb and examined it with a magnifying glass removed from another part of his body. No, that wasn't quite right: he actually had a set of glasses fused into one of his limbs. "However, they are too intense. I do not believe that even you could integrate such sublime materials on your second floor."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Since his cantae had become so much more intense at Authority, he'd lost a bit of his feel for his wispy older cantae. Technically he'd never need to be concerned with that again, but Theo decided that it was still a mental shortcoming.

Instead of providing any quick answer, he returned to his soulhome and examined everything in his storage chamber. It was becoming a bit crowded with old materials that were no longer useful but he couldn't bear to throw away. Sometimes he told himself that he was saving them just in case they could be used in his Immortality Conduit and sometimes he thought he was just being sentimental.

Clearly many of the living materials were inappropriate for Navim. His laser chamber did need a gem, and Theo didn't have many of those lying around. Just when he thought he'd need to ask the others to check their stores, Theo spotted something blue winking from the corner of one shelf.

The sapphires from Noven. He'd almost forgotten about all the sublime artworks shoved at him in an effort to win his favor as a new Authority. Almost all had been tossed into his singularity, but he'd saved the sapphires that had been his eyes in a sublime statue because they were powerful. Perhaps...

"What about these?" Theo returned to the physical world and slid the sapphires across the table. "I have two, so you could make them resonate as part of the laser? Or cut apart one and use it as an enhancing material."

"Wise as you are in the ways of soulcrafting, here your lack of knowledge limits you." Navim examined the sapphires and gave a pleased affirming noise. "Two perfectly matched gemstones, and they even appear to have been internally carved with an optical intent. How curious."

"They, uh, used to be eyes in a statue."

"Whatever the reason, they will serve excellently for focusing. One can be placed in my empty chamber and the other can be placed physically, for a Corporeal link. I will require some time to complete the work."

Something subtle in Navim's tone, or perhaps his posture, gave Theo the sense that this was a deeply personal matter. Had he really implied that he was going to place the sapphire into his central gem sphere? Theo decided that it wasn't his business, so he slapped the table with both hands and pushed himself to a standing position.

"You have plenty of work to do, then." Theo gestured for Krikree to follow him. "The others wanted me to go investigate the sublime legacy anyway. Should I buy third floor materials for you?"

"You've seen my blueprint," Navim said, "indeed, analyzed it thoroughly. There are several materials from Master Uvvah Ulim that would be very useful in my future soulcrafting, if you are willing to purchase them."

"Consider it a down payment on all the armaments we'll be requesting from you."

Turning away, Theo headed higher into the school's tunnels. Nauda had caught on to the fact that the mercantile faction was planning to sell off the sublime materials they'd inherited, so they needed to be intercepted before they could sell anything useful. Since Fiyu was busy and they needed to throw an Authority's weight around, that was his job.

Soon enough they arrived at the upper chamber, where Uvvah Ulim had once sat. Theo felt a surprising stab of nameless emotion as he thought about the ancient Mundhin who had been little more than gravel. He'd been so fresh back to the Nine Worlds back then, so filled with conflicting impulses.

In any case, the uppermost chambers were no longer contemplative. Every sublime material that the deceased Authority had left behind had been carefully sealed, boxed, or distributed. It seemed he had passed in a state of great peace, so he had left even more behind than usual. Like the opposite of a death in combat that destroyed nearly all of a soulhome. That meant the upper floors were abuzz with activity, including a great many merchants intending to sell off his legacy.

Theo wasn't sure where to begin. He could have just shouted and, as an Authority, someone would have come to help him. But the Arbaians would not be impressed by that approach, and they needed to win local approval, so he needed to decipher all the activity. Or at least the system by which everything was organized...

"What scout?" Krikree tugged at his sleeve and looked up curiously. "Ivo-sister scout for Navim-thinkrock?"

"That's right. We need several sublime materials: the ones for Navim's third floor, those the school needs, anything that could be useful to Fiyu or Nauda, and any solar materials. Only Authority-tier materials, in the last case."

Krikree listened carefully and then scurried off with startling speed. Theo floated into the air to catch up to her, marveling at how she crawled up the side of one Mundhin to speak directly to his sphere, then rushed off. He would have expected that to be offensive, but the Arbaians appeared entirely accustomed to her. Maybe even welcoming. Only a few from the hard-nosed faction appeared to dislike her, and Krikree didn't attempt to scale them.

"She's remarkable, isn't she?"

With his gravity senses active, Theo couldn't be taken off guard, so he wasn't surprised to hear someone behind him. He was surprised to hear Eliyai's voice. She must have been obscured when he entered, perhaps intentionally, and now she walked up beside him.

"When Krikree arrived with Navim, she was a bit disruptive," Eliyai continued. "But she learned our rules and adhered to them with remarkable fervor. And she's very industrious when it comes to clearly defined tasks. I'd go so far as to say the school has become fond of her."

"Can't say I expected that," Theo said. "She found Arbaians rather alarming when she first encountered them."

"Yes, her mind is remarkable. Some of the scholars subjected her to intelligence testing, and she scored highly in some respects. But she's substantially lacking in others, particularly creativity, and her thinking shows astounding rigidity in certain domains."

Was Eliyai attempting to bait him? Theo regarded the Mundhin coolly, matching the ruby gemstones with his own stare. Whatever else Eliyai was, she was clearly an adroit manipulator, so she shouldn't be underestimated. She must have identified him as one of Navim's primary supporters and at minimum wanted to probe for information she could use.

"And what did you conclude about her intelligence?" he asked.

"Oh, but it would be premature of me to draw conclusions. I have never even been to the world of Slest, unlike one as well-traveled as yourself." Eliyai's central sphere tilted curiously. "I must ask: are the others of her species just like her?"

"They're used as servants by species with intelligence you'd consider more conventional." Theo had wanted to show a purely neutral face, but he couldn't help but smile as he watched Krikree skittering among the boxes. "But no, there aren't others like her."

"Likely an exemplar of her kind, then. Your friend Navim wrote a monograph suggesting that her deep concern with ontology may have been created for functional purposes. Oh... ontology is the branch of physics that studies the fundamental essence of being."

"I'm aware of the definition of ontology." Once, Theo would have snapped at her, because he was sure she explained it to him as an insult. Now he merely responded mildly, as if chiding her for the unnecessary explanation.

If he didn't know better, he might have thought Eliyai inclined her sphere in respect. He'd planned to remind her that he'd spoken directly with their school's master on multiple occasions and decided that would be going too far. Arbaian insults were subtle, at least when scholars weren't passionate about their subjects of choice.

Before they could continue talking, Krikree rushed back to him. "Ivo-sister! Scout complete, come!"

Theo waved goodbye to Eliyai and entered the main chamber. He could feel her gemstone sphere fixed on him and hoped that he was imagining the thoughtful stare.

"The bug tells me you want to purchase these stones." A gruff Mundhin shifted into his way as he approached a set of boxes. "These are prime Ruler-tier gemstones, earmarked to be sold in Ruby Ericho. I could earn two hundred fifty craftgems apiece for these."

Another Mundhin stepped in. "You're selling them in the city? I'll pay you three hundred for the largest and you can save on shipping."

"And take all the best for yourself? You know you'd pay even more at a jeweler. I'd want at least three hundred fifty."

"I'll pay you one thousand craftgems each," Theo said. Both Mundhin turned to him, the stare obvious even on their stone faces. Theo stared back as if mildly annoyed with the delays, which wasn't far from the truth.

Of course, merchants weren't impressed by higher tier soulcrafters who threw money around: they viewed them as marks to be milked as much as possible. Theo's plan was to outbid the greediest scholars and avoid being constantly negotiated upwards. It seemed to work, as several of the merchants slipped away to other business.

Once on his own, Theo began haggling down. Not reducing the price, just focusing on the few highest value gemstones - the only ones he'd wanted in the first place. Paying a premium was a fair price, to conduct the rest of his business smoothly. Before the others could figure out that he wasn't a fool, he swept through the different locations Krikree had discovered and purchased everything they needed.

The only problem was that he found nothing that was useful to him directly. An Authority's sublime legacy was extraordinarily valuable to Rulers, but for Theo nearly all the materials were too weak for soulcrafting. He did find a physically-charged rock that might be useful for Nauda, otherwise nothing aside from materials for Navim.

When they reached the end of the chamber, he glanced down at Krikree. "No solar materials?"

"Sold." Krikree's antennae drooped. "Too late. Krikree find, but sold to big hive."

"My apologies." Another Mundhin who had overheard their conversation stepped closer and bobbed an emerald-laden sphere. "We did indeed have several materials of extraordinary quality, centerpieces of the master's soulhome. But in the earliest days, when we were desperate to keep the school afloat, they were sold to Ruby Ericho."

"Where are they now?" Theo asked. Most likely it was useless, but suitable materials at his level didn't grow on trees. Literally, in the case of gemstones.

"Potentially still in the city. It was sold to a store specializing in sublime materials for higher tier soulcrafters and I cannot say if it has been resold."

"Thank you. If that's-"

"Actually, that is not all. Krikree also inquired about this." The Mundhin revealed a book carefully bound in hide and wire. "This was the only item in the sublime legacy marked for you personally, so we have been waiting to deliver it."

Theo took the book carefully. He should have thanked the Mundhin again and hoped that his reverence for the ancient text made his gratitude clear. The idea that Uvvah Ulim had remembered him and left something behind still left him with a deep sense of melancholy.

There had been enough work. Theo shoved all his purchased materials into his soulhome and walked back to the Tatian room with the book in hand. Krikree moved along with him, antennae waving, but said nothing. She lingered nearby as he carefully unwrapped the book and began flipping through the pages.

"What?" Krikree peered over the side of the table to stare at the text. "What?"

"It's a book of children's tales." Theo looked through the stories for special notes or hidden meanings and didn't find anything. Perhaps it was merely a gift from an old man. "They're stories from across the Nine Worlds. Some of them are related to what we talked about, but I... don't see how they'd be useful."

"Why?"

"I don't know, Krikree. I don't know."