Deathseed: Chapters 13-14 (Patreon)

More soulcrafting this week, which I'm sure will be appreciated by many here. ^-^ Also a different POV, which I hope will help make this whole novel feel like a cohesive conflict despite the varying elements.

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Chapter 13

Seeing Navim soulcraft so intensely had lit a fire under Nauda. She might not be able to rush to Authority, but there was still so much she could do.

Soulcrafting was complicated enough and she'd made things much harder on herself by cramming three different towers into her soul. Instead of running from task to task, Nauda entered her soulhome and carefully took stock of her rebuilding. The only thing that was perfect was her exterior: the bondsfungi were cooperating and her tower doors modulated her cantae flawlessly.

To focus her mind, Nauda first spent a while in her life tower, pruning her heartoak. Barely any correction was necessary now, since the tree had grown to fill three entire floors and naturally reached its perfect size. The chasmheart throbbed powerfully within the trunk, granting her unnatural vitality that she hoped would improve even more in the future. Other than that, all she had on the first floor were a variety of storage chests and containers, but that was plenty considering how much she needed to store.

While climbing the tree, Nauda glanced at the mezzanine around her second floor. She'd restored some of her Nine Worlds Feast, but it was still lacking some worlds. At least there she wasn't behind her friends. She'd also continued developing the honey she'd received from the leafpuller beetles, further enriching her cantae.

The culmination of all those flows of cantae was the third floor. Royal bees buzzed around the heights of the tree and had expanded to two hives. They still didn't produce much sublime honey, so her healing abilities were limited. Her telescope sat in the boughs, pointed out one window to extend her analysis technique. The newest addition was the shadowmind Fiyu gave her wrapped around a Tatian fire, the heart of her new vitality sense.

Should she add something else to her lower floors? There was definitely room in the boughs on the second level, but the cantae throughout the tower was already nearing her limits. The problem was that she intended for all her primary techniques to be in her staff tower, so adding in some material randomly would mar her design.

After tending the bees and the tree, Nauda hopped out a window and over to her staff tower. She'd been steadily working on the bottom floor, which now included a perfect replica of her staff as well as numerous secondary materials. The entire floor was basically a massive heart chamber, flooding cantae up the tower around her spiral staircase.

On her second floor the cantae flow became more complicated, more worthy of her companions. She had three teardrop-shaped rooms each packed with powerful technique-enhancing sublime materials: the nullstone for her nullification technique, the staticstone for binding, and some of her oldest Archcrafter materials for her barrier wards. She'd taken a page from Theo's book and could circulate the cantae on her second floor before applying it to any technique.

Each could support the others: nullification could make her wards a little stronger, for example, or warding cantae could help bind a target in place. The problem was that she'd done so much remodeling that the synergistic effect was weak. Nauda nervously soulcrafted a few secondary materials and polished her door frames, hoping that the end result would work at Authority.

The third floor of her tower was where things fell apart. Taking a page from Fiyu this time, the teardrop chambers continued to rotate along with her staircase, creating a spiral flow. In theory she wanted to have three armaments and only three: her notemeralds, her nullification glove, and the warding necklace she'd received from Isorales.

Problem was, only her notemerald chamber was actually complete. Everything else barely functioned and was lacking in materials. All in all, she could only hope that the three would balance in the end. Fiyu and Theo were much more reserved when it came to armaments, so she was already pushing her luck.

When she ran out of work to do there, Nauda slid back down the central staircase. At least she felt at home in her soul now, after the alienation following the disaster. But as she considered her death tower, she was reminded of just how much work there was left to do.

Her bottom floor was her skull room... Nauda wasn't sure whether she should be more nervous about the fact that she had a skull room, or that she was proud of it. The floor was covered in plinths and other platforms bearing various skulls, from the ones she'd stolen on Tatian to those she'd earned fighting on Slest. She had enough skulls now that she might need to begin hanging some of them. Maybe she could get a little more efficiency with proper arrangement, but overall she was happy with the chamber.

A long time ago, her Tatian instructor had advised different staircase layouts for different cantae flows. Nauda had decided to have one of each, so she could only ascend her death tower via ladders. She realized absently that the ordinary Tatian wood wasn't particularly powerful and probably needed to be replaced eventually.

Her second floor was only three-quarters finished. She'd decided to dedicate it to big, blunt enhancement chambers, since she was trying to fight on the front lines and shield her friends. Instead of overwhelming central materials, she'd built each chamber from strong synergies enhancing different attributes.

One increased her strength, one maintained her stamina, one improved her speed... and the fourth sat empty.

There was nothing stopping her from throwing together all her strongest enhancement materials and filling the room. It would make her stronger immediately, more able to keep up with the others, and her blueprint already made her better than ninety percent of soulcrafters.

But that wasn't enough.

Nauda wanted so many things in life, and now that they were finally within sight, she couldn't let herself falter. She wanted to save not just Nlukoko, but every other oppressed city where she'd ever lived. She wanted to keep soulcrafting side by side with Fiyu as their relationship deepened. And, if she was honest with herself, she wanted Theo to look at her soulhome with approval.

So, instead of putting in more work, Nauda left her fourth room empty and ascended to her third floor.

Here things were even more bare. One of her rooms was filled by the bloodglass sculpture they'd won from the Wakespire: the thing was so overwhelming that the struggle had been finding materials that could survive in the same room. She'd carved a foundation for it from bloody Fithan stone and hung some blood-red curtains around the shrine, framing the sculpture nicely. That was probably about all the room could handle.

But how could she fill the other three? Nauda thought back through all the materials in her storage and discarded them one by one. None of them had the same savage cantae as the bloodglass sculpture.

Then again... did they need to? It was meant to be her death tower, not a blood or viciousness tower. Immediately that idea felt better for her. Rather than trying to match her finished chamber, the other three needed to match it with a different attribute. Only powerful materials with clear identities, ones that could blend together into the edge she needed.

Once that was clearer in her mind, Nauda knew what she wanted. She left her soulhome and ran to the Arbaian in charge of the sublime legacy. After looking through all the available materials, she spent most of her funds on a single item: a heavy stone called a mundhinheart.

Powerful rocks were a Disc a dozen, but this one actually matched what she needed. It had literally been taken from the legacy of a dead soulcrafter, so it couldn't match her death tower much better. More importantly, it radiated a sense of immutability. When she tried to carve a pattern into it, even the Esoteric Chisel borrowed from Theo couldn't chip it.

So the mundhinheart would represent her defenses, and the ability to stand firm and protect others that she hoped to develop. And once she'd made that decision, Nauda immediately made another: the mundhinheart should go in the chamber opposite the bloodglass sculpture. They would represent opposite traits, offense and defense, while balancing one another out.

That left two chambers in between, and she had no idea where she'd find suitable materials, but Nauda was happy to make progress again. Instead of polishing and tweaking, she threw herself into the work of finding materials to fully enhance the mundhinheart and build it into a proper chamber.

Surprisingly soon, Nauda needed to leave her own soulcrafting aside to go witness Navim's ascension. Technically it wasn't necessary, but she wanted to be there to support him and she had a few ideas to contribute. When Navim sent a message that he was ready, Nauda went to go meet everyone in one of the upper rooms. She arrived to find Fiyu and Theo present but no sign of their friend.

"He's on his way," Theo said. He leaned against the wall, slowly reading an ancient-looking book.

"Then I guess we wait for him, since we don't want to rush." Nauda sat down beside Fiyu and smiled at her, even though she needed to speak to them both. "I've been hearing more talk about going into Ruby Ericho. Apparently they want to sell off things, or negotiate with the Melancholy Page, or... I'm not entirely sure what all they plan."

"I am sure you will figure out more, Nauda." Fiyu smiled back at her.

"What about you? Having any success with the demons?"

"I have tracked some down, yes. We are securing the caverns in the region." Fiyu shook her head. "The largest difficulty is the school guards. They are not as jovial as the Tatians, and they do not try to touch me, but they want to engage me in conversation at all times. It is tiring."

"I'll talk to them," Theo said at the exact moment Nauda started to speak up. They glanced at one another and Theo hesitated for a moment before he nodded to her.

Before they could navigate any of those shifting roles, Navim appeared in the doorway.

"It is customary to ascend in front of the head of the school." The Mundhin spoke heavily, as if the mental currents that brought his words to her ears were mired in something within him. "In his absence, I am not sure that it is relevant where I undergo the ceremony."

"What kind of ceremony?" Nauda asked. "Do you have a special chamber for it?"

"Some schools do, particularly those more devoted to soulcrafting, but not ours."

"Then I suggest you find a location with particular significance to you. Perhaps one attuned to the sublime materials you've soulcrafted, or with personal meaning."

Navim turned his gems toward her curiously and Nauda realized she had just thrust a random suggestion at him. Theo closed his book with a snap as he spoke. "She's recommending that because they used something similar to enhance ascensions on Noven. I'm not sure there's anything behind it."

"But can it hurt?" Nauda asked. "I feel like there's something there."

"My relative did say it had a small effect," Fiyu agreed. "But it should be Navim's decision, and he may have already made plans."

The Mundhin was completely motionless except for his gem sphere, which rotated between the three of them. Eventually he spoke. "I have heard tales of location being relevant, but I had always believed that to be creative license. However, is it not possible that being in a familiar or pleasant environment would have a psychological effect on the soulcrafter? Because willpower is so essential to the process, the location could well have an indirect effect."

"It could." Theo stood up and tucked the book under his arm. "Fiyu is right: we can do this wherever and however you want."

"I find the idea fitting enough. Let us go to one of the reading chambers." As he passed out of the room, Navim reached out and used one of his smaller limbs to clasp Nauda's shoulder. Even though his hand was hard and rocky, she imagined she could feel the warmth within it. She smiled and followed him to their destination.

The room itself was nothing special, just cozy by Arbaian standards. Nauda could see how it would be a contemplative place for their scholarly friend. She glanced at the others but said nothing, not wanting to distract Navim as he sat down and entered his soulhome.

After double-checking the construction of his second floor and ascension pyramid, Navim focused his will and began walking up the side. Nauda was surprised at how calmly his ascension proceeded. So often in her life she had struggled fiercely against the pressure pouring from the heavens, but Navim moved slowly and surely.

It wasn't just his rocky body, Nauda decided as she watched. Navim was confident in who he was and exactly what he wanted. Unlike Nauda rushing her ascensions or Theo using tricks to pierce the sky, Navim had prepared every brick for this purpose and now walked the path he'd laid for himself.

Whether or not the location mattered, Navim ascended without incident. Nauda couldn't help but smile as she saw his heavy body rise into the air within his soul, glorying in the new power. When he returned to the physical world, he lowered his entire body in something like a bow.

"Thank you for joining me," Navim said, "and thank you for your assistance to this point."

"Congratulations, Ruler Navim." Fiyu smiled and patted one of his arms.

"I'm not going to insist about the heavenspear," Theo said, "but I imagine you want to hurry on your Ruler-tier soulcrafting."

Nauda was about to chide him, but Navim only chuckled. "Indeed, I have a difficult path of work ahead of me," the Mundhin said. "I have the majority of what I need, so the question is only prioritization. One unexpected benefit of our school's current difficulties is simplifying that process."

Since he seemed focused on his new work, Nauda only stayed with him a while longer and paid her own compliments before leaving. There weren't many Ruler-tier crafters anywhere and she didn't think there was a single Ruler-tier stoneshaper in the school. On Noven there had been a few Authority-tier crafters, but Nauda would bet on Navim over any of them, if he ascended again.

Theo's aggressive pace had infected her while she wasn't paying attention. Nauda shook her head and walked on.

The pleasure of Navim's ascension should have kept her in a good mood to do her own soulcrafting for at least several days. Instead, Nauda noticed a shift in the local politics that very evening. There weren't many Rulers at all in the School of Emerald Indulgence, so Navim's ascension had attracted attention even though he didn't bring attention to it.

His rivals definitely noticed, including Eliyai. It was only a day later that she announced their trip to the city to negotiate merging with the Melancholy Page.

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Chapter 14

In theory, Esaire ai Armeau was supposed to be supervising the construction. In practice, he struggled to focus on the miserable little Tatian city and his mind wandered. Watching the workers fumbling with their bricks only made him think of how much soulcrafting there was to be done, if he wanted to defeat Peanen.

If Esaire had all the sublime materials for his blueprint, he would have refused the job. But Peanen had apparently remodeled, so Esaire needed to do even better.

In the years since the catastrophic duel, Esaire had come to accept his grandfather's words. Pursuing a vendetta so far offered very little upside, for all the potential consequences. If not for the ancestral vault, it never would have been allowed to continue. Even now, it was probably better to put aside such ideas and focus on the power they could actually obtain.

And yet... the fact that Peanen appeared to fight him again, in the middle of such important work, felt like fate.

"You're needed in the palace." Grandfather Arceon spoke quietly from behind him, near the edge of the island. The old man was as strong as he had ever been, yet after ascending to Authority, Esaire had come to understand his limitations. That didn't mean he deserved any less respect, of course, since the old man had guided their family to this point.

"What is it this time?" Esaire asked. He turned away from the construction to face his grandfather fully.

"Without your sister, the two of them are at each other's throats again," his grandfather said. "This ruling by power, with no regard for seniority or wisdom... downright barbaric. As soon as we harvest the power here, we must return to civilization."

"I'll trust all of this to you, grandfather." Esaire bowed as he passed the older man, then lifted into the air to fly to the palace.

Though he would never contradict his grandfather directly, Esaire understood why the negotiations defaulted to Authorities. When forces from so many different lands came together, customs and traditions fell by the wayside, so the only valid law was power. That meant, despite his inexperience, that he could tip the scales between Ariano and Isantis.

The Noveni Authority had built a palace that was an exercise in pure ostentation: he had reached his limits and been driven from the richest lands, so he desperately tried to cover his shame with wealth. Privately, Esaire thought that the older parts of the city of Nlukoko had more class than the ornate lotus-shaped palace, but he kept his mouth shut for the sake of the alliance.

The other two Authorities present were arguing in the throne room, as usual.

Ariano of the Golden Wings sat on his throne, not posing as he did with others, but all of his wings folded crumpled behind him. In the beginning Esaire hadn't respected him, until his grandfather had warned him of the dangers of blocked Authorities. After seeing the man's full power... Esaire could probably dodge the bombardment of cantae, but if Ariano managed to land a full barrage, Esaire wasn't sure that his Corporeal Floor would survive.

Opposite him, Isantis the Blazekindler paced throughout the throne room. The dark-robed Tatian man was still a bit of a mystery, representing a side of the world that appeared to be far more civilized than the primitive villages. Speaking to him, Esaire always felt as though he'd stumbled into a new court where he knew none of the laws or customs. And there were those flames in the man's eyes, immensely lethal and ready to rise at the slightest provocation...

"There you are!" Ariano sat up, favoring one wing, and gestured for Esaire to approach. "This fool wants to take half our defensive budget to build walls around Nlukoko! As if the ground around the lake could serve as a good foundation."

"Such problems can be circumvented," Isantis said. He stopped pacing and swiveled to face them both - Esaire had never once seen him keep his back to an Authority. "That peasant woman who was with them will no doubt recruit more of her kind, so we must be prepared for an army of rabble."

"The Landguard will never permit such a thing! If they truly dare to return, their only hope is to strike as quickly as possible with their own elite forces. We should be searching for warding materials, to stop that assassin of theirs from striking again."

"I agree that the Tatian woman isn't a threat," Esaire said, bowing to Ariano. Before the winged man could gloat, he turned to bow to Isantis as well. "But I fear that neither form of defense will be useful to us. The dark-haired woman is quite dangerous - I know this, for she once killed a friend of mine - and she will be able to slip past all of them."

"What, then we simply sit in fear?" Ariano snorted as if the idea was absurd, but he shifted uneasily in his seat.

"No, we build weapons capable of dealing with Authorities."

"Your towers again." Isantis regarded him without expression, his eyes flickering. "I would not trust the underclass with such delicate construction. Better to use them as fodder for the rest of us. There are a number of rituals that mi-"

Ariano rose to his feet, arching his wings as if he expected them to end the argument. "Never say such a thing again! My subjects will be loyal and they will not be converted into kindling for you."

"Given what we saw of the enemy, they will be brushed aside uselessly. Your army will float into the sky in the first heartbeat."

Isantis and Ariano began bickering again, covering familiar ground: they both childishly wanted to maximize their profits from the alliance and minimize their costs. Esaire wasn't so childish - he wanted to persuade or trick them into maximizing his profits, like an adult. The question of what to do with Ariano's large but poorly-trained army was a real problem that Esaire had been contemplating, so he waited for a pause and spoke up again.

"Let me work with your army," Esaire said. "I will give them Deuxan sublime materials and specific training for the battle. Think of it as thanks for your hospitality."

"What good will your thanks do?" Isantis asked. "They'll die."

"No, they can be of use. Most importantly, if they are willing to surrender their blueprints to me, I can help them construct cornerstones. These will anchor them to the ground, resisting our foe's strange powers." Esaire explained the soulcrafting details to the others and saw their slow acceptance. Isantis seemed familiar with the technique, while Ariano was only concerned with whether the gift was poisoned and could compromise his army in some way.

It was nothing of the sort, but Esaire pushed the angle to keep Ariano on his toes. Once they'd agreed to his plan for the peasant army, he thought he had the advantage again. Despite their tiers, neither treated him as an equal, but he was earning their respect step by step. Before they could continue, Esaire cleared his throat and continued.

"If possible, I would like to improve the towers with more rarefied sublime materials. If we can specifically counter our opponents-"

Ariano sniffed and sat back. "I have already granted you enough materials. Perhaps Isantis can outdo me?"

"There is no time to search," Isantis said, "because I will be leaving for Myufuru. There is much to be done."

"Then you have a second?" Despite his efforts, Esaire's voice sounded uncertain and his throat was terribly dry. The power of those things, even just lurking in the ground before their final flowering...

"Yes. That way, even if all these opponents you fear do attack us successfully, all our efforts will not be in vain. We only need one and this alliance will be profitable for us all."

As if unwilling to consider any further arguments, Isantis walked out of the throne room. Instead of contemplating another one of those seeds, or all the arguments that went into those strategic decisions, Esaire turned back to Ariano. The ruler of the city had slouched now that his rival was gone and shot him a careless glance.

"Anything else you want to beg for, Esaire?"

"I thought perhaps we could work with one another." Esaire cast a false smile and gestured past the walls. "Wouldn't you want your city to be outfitted with anti-weirkey defenses? Could you perhaps acquire some through the gate to your home world?"

"Bah, the other side is a useless wasteland." Ariano waved it away, but he did sit up. "This idea of new defenses, however..."

They discussed the plans in details that made Ariano feel like he was getting the better end of the deal, then Esaire left the palace. Truthfully, he was giving up some advantages, but it would be worth it. When his hated rival returned, Esaire would crush him and erase his shame at the same time the entire Armeau family achieved their goals. Then he could return to Deuxan with a clear head and focus on higher goals, as befitting his new status.

But all of that required winning the battle first.

When Esaire found Grandfather Arceon again, he walked up beside him and spoke in a low voice. "We should bring construction materials from home. Don't go through Ariano, just do it ourselves. The towers need to be an Authority-tier threat to be useful in the battle."

"You are truly so confident they will return?" Arceon stroked his beard slowly. "You seem very certain that he will come back for you."

"I'm sure he will. Everyone saw what he did!"

"The more I think about the poisoning incident, the less certain I am that he could be responsible for it. This matter is very strange, my boy, strange indeed. I would not rule out that another court was attempting to manipulate us, to stop us from ever aspiring to higher things across worlds. If we-"

"He'll be back." Esaire folded his arms behind his back and stared up at the rising tower. "And when he tries to attack us, we'll be ready."