Deathseed: Chapters 19-20 (Patreon)

Last chapters of the year! Look forward to my year in review post tomorrow, though.

Meanwhile, these chapters cover more stuff I've been looking forward to. ^-^ From the very beginning I've wished I'd written more Navim into the earlier books. He's not in the main three, but he's as important as any of the other secondary characters. You'll see more of him as time goes on.

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Chapter 19

Years ago, when Navim had been young, Master Uvvah Ulim had warned him about eternal assistants who would never become scholars. Always chasing after the brilliance of another, believing it could be acquired by osmosis. Forever near real scholarship, but ultimately serving as a tool instead of ever pursuing their own path. It was a lesson he had taken to heart.

As Navim received gift after gift from his allies, he wondered if there should be a similar warning for soulcrafters.

Intellectually, he didn't truly believe that Theo would use him. Perhaps the man he had been when they first met on Tatian, but not the Theo he saw now. They expected to receive assistance from Navim only because he was committed to them, and they had given him assistance far out of proportion with any benefits they could expect to gain.

Still. Even as they dedicated themselves to the central issue of his life, he wondered if he was becoming peripheral to theirs.

In the wake of their demon venture, Navim invited all of them to the Pragmatism Refreshment Plaza. Their mixed group received a moderate amount of attention upon entry, but the other inhabitants quickly treated them as unremarkable once they sat down at a table. Navim placed himself in the central position and inspected the assembled group.

"While the School of Emerald Indulgence has not been saved, our circumstances have dramatically improved." Navim had prepared an oration but decided to speak extemporaneously. "Few joined the Melancholy Page and, if I use the foreign phrase correctly, the bleeding has been stemmed. The general consensus is that our demise has been exaggerated."

"What else can we do?" Nauda asked while displaying a compassionate face.

"There is little else to be done in Ruby Ericho. Before we return and attempt to resolve the school's problems, I wanted to thank you directly. I know that Arbai has limited food for your kind, but we do have occasional visitors or rare species that require liquid sustenance. This location provides flavored drinks, which I hope will be a small relief after so long eating from your rations."

Navim gestured for the staff to assist them and watched his allies ask questions before ordering their drinks. He had never had "dinner" with anyone, but he understood the social purpose of a meal. In the absence of proper food, he hoped that the liquid establishment would be an adequate substitute.

As they drank and spoke, the others displayed various positive faces. Theo and Nauda rotated between serious faces and facetious faces, as was their wont. Navim judged his effort to be largely successful. Even if his allies needed to return to Tatian to fight a grim enemy, they could not operate at maximum efficiency without some degree of rest.

For his part, Navim said relatively little. He could not partake of the assorted drinks, of course, and in a broader sense he could not take part in the community. Ordinarily he might have enjoyed the discursive conversation, but at the moment his thoughts were too focused on the School of Emerald Indulgence and the path forward.

The following day, Navim made requests of a scholar named Banila and tracked down a market of curiosities. There he acquired a number of necessary items and, after some preparatory work, went to distribute them to his allies. They had scattered throughout the city to pursue their own objectives, so he was forced to locate them one at a time.

Nauda and Fiyu had returned to the Pragmatism Refreshment Plaza for a second drink and, while consuming it, displayed various affectionate and shy faces to one another. Alien mating habits were an academic curiosity to Navim, but he understood romance well enough. In his opinion they would benefit from more clear conversations laying out their basic assumptions, but he was also self-aware enough not to share this suggestion.

Once they had completed the necessary greetings, Navim placed the first of his findings onto the table. "Arbai has very few animals in the sense you understand them," he explicated, "but this is the body of a rockslider lizard. Some have theorized that it must have traveled from another world centuries ago and, against all odds, adapted to our environment."

"That's interesting, but what does it do?" Nauda poked at the body while displaying a curious face.

"It is one of the only sublime meats available anywhere on Arbai. Combined with a few other items, it might compose a meal." Navim revealed his next several items, lecturing as he went. "This is sunsalt, which I believe is chemically identical to what your bodies require. Then there is a variety of stone from the Ashvale Desert to the far south that leaks an oil that can be consumed by some. Finally, there is a stone flower that releases petals delicate enough that they might be eaten."

"I also have something." Fiyu did her best to display no face and revealed a number of mushrooms.

Navim wanted to investigate them further and perhaps give them to a colleague, but he recognized that their interest was entirely in consumption. He urged them to try the various food materials and awaited the results of the experiment.

As he had feared, alien digestion was not so easily solved. Unexpectedly, the results were asymmetrical. Nauda displayed a disgusted face when attempting to eat the mushrooms, while Fiyu displayed the similar face when trying the meat and oil. They seemed somewhat surprised, so Navim offered his best theory.

"All of these items are only marginally tolerable to other species," he said. "However, I do not believe that you will require all of them in order to augment your Nine Worlds Feasts. Perhaps it would even be ideal if your feasts were to diverge to some degree?"

They concurred with his conclusion. Both could eat the sunsalt, so Nauda ate a meal of flavored rockslider meat while Fiyu prepared a dish of the mushrooms she had acquired. Fortunately, there was some excess, so Navim stored the remainder for a future meal. Meanwhile, Nauda appeared to have learned of a sublime drink, so she ordered one for both of them, then a third when he requested it.

The two clearly desired to continue their courtship by making emotional faces at one another, so Navim left them to their task. Fortunately, as a Ruler he could easily store the alien food within a carefully wrapped container in his soulhome to avoid contamination. He had already begun stockpiling many sublime materials that he might want to use at a moment's notice.

When Navim attempted to locate Theo, he found only Senka sleeping in the team's quarters. She poked her head up to look at him, then flopped it back down.

"Hey, Navim. Why are you so sporping eager?"

"I am distributing sublime food to the aliens in our group." Navim suspected that the word was twisted to something like "human" via soul translation, even though it did not match his thoughts. That was a question for another time. "Could you make use of it?"

"Nah, it would probably get crushed in my soulhome." Senka pushed herself up again. "If you're looking for Theo, he went off on his own. To do more soulcrafting, what a sporping surprise."

"You appear to disapprove."

"Brilliant sporping deduction, ya fumpet."

Navim heard only a distortion interrupting her sentences, but after conversation with Theo, he had become able to parse it. "I see you are attempting to curse," he said. "Has anyone ever suggested that you use profanity as a method of deflection from emotion?"

"Uggh." Senka grabbed her head and feigned a pained face. "If you do any more of that, I'm going to succumb to the curse and annoy you as much as humanly possible."

"On that note, I have something for you." Navim pulled a thin chain from his soulhome, formed from white gemstones. "You may not have helped me much directly, but I have enjoyed our soulcrafting discussions and I recognize that you have helped our allies. I thought that this might assist you."

"So it's an armament, but what does it do?" She clasped it around her neck and immediately winced. "It feels like it's trying to flow relieving cantae over me, but the curse won't allow it. All positive sensations are converted into misery."

"I had feared as much. Touch the stone within the clasp and you will activate the second feature."

Senka reached back to do so and immediately her expression changed. Navim had been academically curious about Senka's curse for some time, but this was his first opportunity to experiment with it. He had begun with a therapeutic necklace and suspected that it might backfire. The second feature used the same armament structures, but instead spread absolute neutrality. If it worked properly, Senka was feeling nothing along any emotional axis.

"That's... better." She lost control of her displayed face, and it seemed likely that she would soon deflect with either profanity or mockery.

"If you press the other side of the clasp," Navim said, "the necklace will create a loud ringing sound in the ears of a single target."

"Wait, really?"

"No."

"Nlerm, you actually got me." Senka displayed her teeth in a characteristic face that Navim had not fully decrypted, but he believed was a mixture of happiness and aggressiveness. "You're alright, Navim. Listen, if you're looking for Theo, you're going to need to head that way..."

The humor had been successful. In Navim's opinion, Arbai was one of the more humorous worlds in the Nine, with a dry wit that was seldom found elsewhere. Yet his travels had revealed that it could be rather too dry to be appreciated by some, and he was admittedly inexperienced in the styles of humor that Senka preferred. He was pleased that he had been able to adapt his original idea to her sensibilities.

Navim followed her directions to find Theo, but remained silent. Not only was Theo in the middle of soulcrafting, he was engaged in a delicate operation. His only acknowledgment was to lower his shielding wall so that Navim could observe.

At that moment, Theo was holding the heliospike in the center of his newest floor and pouring too much cantae into it. Though he said nothing, Navim experienced some discomfort at the idea. The heliospike was an immensely powerful sublime material that many soulcrafters would have made a central part of their soulhome, yet Theo intended to use it as mere reinforcement. Beyond that, it was one of the last parts of Master Uvvah Ulim's legacy...

He would never have voiced any objection, and then it was too late: the heliospike glowed like a miniature sun and imploded. In an instant, Theo's newest floor was blackened like the rest of his interior, immensely reinforced as well as tied into the full structure of his soulhome.

It was some small comfort that the sublime legacy appeared to be more than enough. Theo emitted a whistle without clear meaning as he emerged from soulcrafting.

"Usually I have to do a lot of chiseling after," he said, "but the fourth floor is basically ready to go. That's impressive."

"I have something else to contribute to your soulcrafting." Navim revealed the sublime foods that he carried within himself. "Traditionally, the Arbaian portion of a Nine Worlds Feast is built from other worlds in a mere facsimile. I have attempted a more rigorous solution."

"That must have taken an impressive amount of work, and the foods contain a lot of cantae." Theo observed the materials and displayed no face at all. At times such as this, he seemed almost human, and Navim found it easy to relate to his analysis. "However, this isn't truly 'Arbaian food' is it?"

"It is an Arbaian recreation of food as other worlds understand it. You will be declining?"

"This could really strengthen a Feast chamber, but... I don't think it's right for me. I need to be pushing my body further away from these norms. Most Arbaian species draw energy from crystals, right?"

Instead of responding to the rhetorical question, Navim reached into his soulhome and revealed a golden crystal. He raised it in one appendage to demonstrate, then drained some of the energy. Theo watched with an inquisitive look that seemed so little like an alien face that it was almost Arbaian.

"Alright, give me one." Theo took a fresh crystal and held it in his hands. After making several attempts, he displayed a distinctly annoyed face, as was also common for him. "Do you think I'm overambitious h-"

"Yes."

"Overambitious in this specific context."

"Under ordinary circumstances, it would be impossible for an alien to consume Arbaian energy, because our physiologies are so different." Navim revealed several more crystals of different varieties. "However, your body is a form artificially created by an outsider, and it has already been modified by your soulcrafting. Only you can answer whether or not you could truly integrate our crystals into your Nine Worlds Feast."

"I'm going to try. Give the food to Krikree, please."

It seemed clear that he wished to pursue his experiments further. When Navim last saw Theo, he appeared to be attempting to crush the crystals down to a more edible size. This was not a method that Navim would advise in the slightest, but he decided that Theo should be left to his own academic inquiry.

Though Navim's final goal was to locate Krikree, he had no information about her location. He began by investigating regions near the others where she might be scouting, as he had noticed such behavior in the past. Before he located her, she located him.

"Navim-thinkrock! What?"

"I am giving sublime foods to all our number," he said, "and I have at last found you. Do you consider this palatable?"

When he placed the assembled items onto the ground, everything from crystals to mushrooms, Krikree immediately crouched beside them to investigate. "Food?"

"That question may not have a definitive answer, as I have just observed."

"Not food?"

"Well, that raises the question of what food truly is. If it refers to anything that can be placed into your mouth and consumed, then the category contains a great many items. But if it includes only items that can be digested, then those foods that the body rejects must not qualify. On a similar vein, if food refers to items with nutritional value, then some highly palatable and desired items cannot be considered food."

"Lots of different foods," Krikree said.

The brief phrase might appear to be ignorant at first, but Navim had come to understand better over the course of their time together. For all that Krikree's thoughts were rigid, she saw to the heart of matters more often than many scholars he knew with far larger vocabularies.

In this case, he thought that she had made an astute observation: the word food itself referred not to a single concept, but to multiple concepts. His thoughts were not necessarily delving into a fundamental tension, only blurring the lines between those conflicting definitions. It seemed that, for all that Krikree adhered to absolute definitions in some domains, she was perfectly willing to abandon them and embrace relativism in others. As usual, her thoughts gave him a great deal to consider further.

"Food," Krikree said as she chewed on the meat, then she put one of the crystals into her mouth. "Not Krikree food." She continued with a sequence of other materials. "Food. Thinkrock food. Not food."

Her classifications, while highly individualized, did appear to be correct for her. Navim hoped that his contribution had strengthened her soulhome in some small way. Though the two of them were technically at the same tier, he estimated Krikree's potential to be far higher than his own.

"I will leave you to your meal," Navim said as he rose. "I hope that it brings us closer to our mutual goals."

"Protect rockhive. Then protect Nauda-hive. Then other hive."

Yes, perhaps that was the correct philosophy. As Navim turned back toward the city, he realized that his doubts had slipped away. He may have stumbled across remarkable allies, but they moved forward on complimentary paths, not a single forced march. That was acceptable, and Navim suspected that even his master would agree.

-

Chapter 20

When the School of Emerald Indulgence left the city of Ruby Ericho, it traveled in one more vehicle than when it had arrived. Theo didn't know all the scholars intimately - or at all - but he couldn't help but track mass with his senses. By his judgment, they'd shed a few who had been pessimistic or only interested in profit, so they must have gained some potential recruits.

Judged in terms of helping Navim, he thought the trip was a great success. Navim's reputation was ascendant and Eliyai's declining. Their school would live for long enough to solve its remaining problems.

Judged by his personal goals, Theo was equally pleased. As soon as they were underway he entered his soulhome and got back to work.

After loaning out the Esoteric Chisel to Navim and various other scholars, Theo finally had it back. He'd attempted to use Senka's tools from beyond Dominion, but no matter how much discipline he applied, they caused too much pain to his spiritual body for fine work. His old chisel felt comfortable in his hands and he set about carving the floor and walls of his central chamber.

Before imploding the heliospike, Theo had done an unusual amount of work. Instead of clearing out his Authority floor entirely, he'd spent a long time building door frames around his central chamber to convert all the gravitational energy. When the heliospike had gone supernova, it had fused that construction permanently into his soulhome.

Which meant he was locked into this ambitious new design, before he had all the details figured out.

That bothered Theo's desire to be entirely methodical, but he wasn't too worried. All his tests with sending cantae from his heart column to the fleshnexus had been successful. The heart column could already do the conversion on his Authority floor, and the effect would become extraordinarily powerful once he reached Stronghold or built a second singularity. Though that was another problem he had yet to resolve.

None of that would matter if he didn't soulcraft the strength to survive the upcoming battles. Theo gripped his chisel and kept working on the radiating lines from his central chamber.

His next major decision would be how to fill his surrounding chambers with the sublime materials he had available. He was quite confident in his decision to put the fleshnexus in one corner and just needed to decide which materials to integrate with it. Well, he'd decide that after he'd figured out exactly how the whole sphere would be balanced.

Between one carving and the next, Theo glanced upward. He could see the sky of his soul in the vents he'd carved in the ceiling, because he'd decided to build those into the design before imploding the heliospike. That would save him time and strengthen his design when it came time for his Stronghold floor.

In the meantime, cantae was leaking out through the vents. He'd need to build temporary coverings for those at some point before his rematch with Esaire, but that could be done whenever. His highest priority was permanent soulcrafting.

Eventually he reached the limits of his willpower and had to stop carving. Theo emerged on the sleigh and, after confirming that nothing was exploding, poked Senka with his foot.

"Wake up, lazybones."

"Never!" Senka grabbed his boot and bit into it. Theo ignored her and lifted his leg to deposit her on the bench near him.

"I've committed to the new design. The fleshnexus is locked into place now, the question is just if I let it grow to fill three rooms or five."

"No, it's more complicated than that." She spread out her fingers awkwardly to try to represent the ninety degree angles of the nexus. "You've somehow bent the fleshnexus to your will, but it still wants to be symmetrical, or at least proportionate. For example, the traditional design for a warrior would be to put it in the center and have it grow one room in all six directions."

So far Theo hadn't noticed any problems with the nexus, but since it was so close to his limits as an Authority, he worried about nuances he couldn't see. "It seems to understand that it's in a corner and it's not causing any trouble."

"Yeah, because your soulhome is a boring cube. But are you sure it isn't growing in other directions? At all?"

"No, you're right, it wants to grow toward the ceiling."

"Because it's a complex multi-floor material. As I see it, you have several options." Senka gave up trying to demonstrate with her hands and just waved them. "Sporp it, use your brain. You could have the fleshnexus grow one chamber in three different directions, including into your Stronghold floor. This would form a very strong unit."

"Like a four-room Corporeal Floor, but spread out over two tiers?" Theo rubbed his chin as he considered it. "I think I like the idea of one corner being solidly Corporeal, but it'd be rough to balance the cantae. What are my other options?"

"Like I said, the fleshnexus usually expands into six rooms. So you might keep extending those lines in all directions: that would mean you'd have a Corporeal column all the way up into your Dominion tier."

"Wouldn't that mean that five of my rooms as an Authority would be physical? The gravity conversion wouldn't function perfectly until later, so that would tilt me toward the physical."

Senka shrugged. "Only temporarily. Just unga-bunga your way through opponents for a while, then balance out later. If you're really committed to this insane design, I think it's a viable path."

"How long do you think I can still change my mind or remodel?"

"Even with a design as abstract like yours, you should decide exactly how many Corporeal rooms you're going to have before you place too many sublime materials. You need to have those balanced or you'll wreck your body."

Another problem he'd need to consider, but excellent blueprints didn't get handed to him by others or come about in a single moment of inspiration. Theo liked the idea of expanding the fleshnexus upward, he just wasn't sure how far to go. Extending lines in three directions was appealing in one way, like steel beams reinforcing one half of his second cube. But what would reinforce the other side, and how would it all contain the spherical flow he wanted?

Those questions would have to wait for later, because Nauda landed on the sleigh. With all the vehicles flying in formation, she seemed quite confident leaping from one to another. She still spent a significant portion of time soulcrafting, but she'd taken it on herself to analyze the politics of the school.

"Fiyu?" Nauda glanced toward the Ichili woman, who nodded and covered them all in a sphere of stealth.

"I am sorry I cannot suppress only sound," Fiyu said. "We will disappear for the others and it will be clear we are meeting in secret. Unfortunately, the sphere unifies many protective effects and I cannot yet separate them."

"I think everyone already knows we're working together, so don't worry about it." Nauda sat down and looked between them. "I wanted to talk about our next plan. We've been in Arbai for quite a while now, so we should see about setting up Navim's school for good."

"What are the other scholars saying?" Theo asked.

"As near as I can tell, they've almost entirely joined the two major factions. Navim's allies want to find a way to rebuild the school, and even Eliyai is talking about founding their own sect in the city instead of joining another one."

"We sabotage her!" Senka wasn't always included in their stealth discussions, but she had been close enough to Theo this time. She raised a doll-like fist and grinned. "Crush Navim's rival and everyone will flock to him. Problem solved."

Nauda sighed. "Navim might be respected, but he isn't strong enough on his own to lead the school. As soon as we leave, everyone else will know he's lost significant support."

"Then get him to Authority and dominate everyone else!"

Fiyu shook her head. "I do not think that Navim wishes to rush forward..."

"They're right." Theo straightened up as he realized that the decision was clear enough. "Senka, our goal isn't absolute victory, it's a stable and productive school. We don't want Eliyai dead, we want her to admit Navim is right and work with him."

She rolled her eyes and flopped onto her back, cursing to herself.

Meanwhile, Nauda was smiling at him and Fiyu bobbed her head in agreement. "I can continue searching for demons," she said. "I hope that I can make the school safe."

"I don't want to put off investigating the Tatian gate any longer." Nauda stared southward, as if she could see it even though they were still far away. "We need to learn just how many Deuxans are on the other side and find some way for the school to make an alliance."

"Plus Navim needs materials for this Authority-tier mortar," Theo pointed out. "I think that's clear enough, isn't it? Soulcraft for now, then once we get back to the school we pursue all these angles."

It was a good enough plan, so they separated from Fiyu's sphere to get to work. Theo had plenty of soulcrafting to do, but as he returned to his soulhome, he found himself thinking about their political objectives instead. Even though he'd lectured Senka, he'd honestly been thinking the same way she was until the issue had been clarified for him.

His first priority really was helping Navim: he wanted to leave Arbai with something stable, not a mess left in his wake. After that, his second priority was to gain strength for the battle in Nlukoko. Fortunately, those two goals worked together very well. With the mortar and other potential sublime materials, building up the school was their best path for soulcrafting.

So it wasn't much of a decision at all. Theo preferred not to think about how altruistic he might be in the future when his priorities didn't line up so nicely.

~ ~ ~

Stone claws rushed at Nauda, one after another. She deflected one with her staff, blocked another with her forearm, and just took the last to her stomach. None of those were enough to stop her, and she spun in a circle, driving back all the Arbaian guards.

With a bit of space, she was able to set up her defenses again. When she swept her staff over the floor, she drew power from the amulet around her neck and produced a line of wards. It was gratifying to see the Archcrafter guards pummeling it, their blows failing to penetrate the wall of cantae. She spent so much time trying to fight people above her tier, it was a relief to be reminded that her wards weren't made out of soggy leaves.

The Ruler, one of the strongest guards in the school, got around her defenses and struck at her from behind. Nauda pretended not to notice and let the blow connect, trusting in her notemeralds. Her belt lit up with the force, but it absorbed his blow. She turned and caught him with her staff, binding him in the air.

The Arbaian soulcrafters were good, coordinating with what she could only think of as scholarly precision, but it wasn't enough. Nauda swept the bound Ruler overhead and smashed him through the group, sending them all skidding across the room into one of the walls.

"Good fight!" Nauda rolled her shoulders and went over to help them up. Arbaians didn't exactly need a hand up in the same way, but it was the spirit of the thing. "That was a nice hit, Khajido. Would have disabled me if I didn't have an unfair defensive advantage."

"You were conscious of your advantage and used it intentionally," the guard said. "You did not blunder your way to victory."

After getting to know the guards a little, Nauda thought that Khajido was complimenting her. She'd made sure to learn their names and she'd been able to help two of the warrior Arbaians ascend to Archrafter. Maybe not an overwhelming advance, but she figured the school could use all the help it could get.

She stayed with them a while longer to make clear there were no hard feelings, or maybe no hard thoughts. For the most part, it was all easy enough. Her only struggle had been convincing them all that Fiyu didn't want to be engaged in conversation and she was afraid she'd just given them the impression that Fiyu hated everyone.

If she was honest with herself, however, Nauda was antsy to leave the guards and go speak to Navim. As soon as she saw the chance, she headed back across the room.

Throughout the sparring match, she'd been focused almost entirely on her armaments. After so long using them in one place or another, across two different blueprints, she needed to lock them into place mentally. Only three armaments, unified in her staff tower, each capable of being used in combination or separately. She was starting to feel like her design might actually come together.

"Well done," Navim said, almost as a perfunctory introduction. "Would you like to discuss potential tweaks to your armament chambers?"

"Yes, please." Nauda sat down at the edge of the sparring chamber across from him.

"I believe the internal connection to your warding necklace is still imperfect, and I have a suggestion for secondary materials..."

With each day, Navim's suggestions were growing more minuscule, and eventually they'd just be shuffling sublime materials around. Nauda hoped that, once she finished the most recent round, her work on her entire staff tower would be complete. Not designed, not mostly there, actually complete.

If only the others were around to see. When Theo left to help the school with the gate, he'd taken Fiyu along with him. The decision was unquestionably right, given the need for stealth, but that didn't stop Nauda from missing the Ichili woman. Plus, there was always the chance that something could happen to them, and there'd be nothing she could do...

Then again, too often she couldn't help anyway. She resolved to focus on her soulcrafting.

"You seem tense," Navim observed. "Thinking of the others?"

"It isn't just that." Nauda ran her hands through her hair and forced it back into place. "We've been here for a month. Since we discovered what happened to Nlukoko... it's been more like a month and a half. I'm enjoying working with you, but I feel guilty for not doing more."

"You feel guilty for not rushing to attack an army before you're ready."

"Of course the delay sounds justified if you put it that way, but there's always a justification." Nauda sighed and then made herself smile at Navim. "I know it's not rational. But let's not talk about that, let's focus on soulcrafting. What else can I do?"

"I fear that I have given all my suggestions." Navim paused for a time, gemstones impossible to read, then spoke in a more thoughtful voice. "What are the limitations in your other soulcrafting?"

"Materials, mostly. Still not sure about my life tower's final details. For my death tower, I'm completely missing an enhancement chamber on my second floor, then I need two exceptional materials for my third. Plus I need to remake those ladders, once I find some sublime wood. I suppose I could try to work on secondary materials for empty rooms, but how do I know what I need before I find the central artifacts?"

"Do your ladders need to be made of wood?"

Nauda blinked at him. "I suppose not, it's just how things work on Tatian. But I don't want to create ladders out of stone, or build handholds into the wall or anything. They need to tie together the three floors."

"What about this?" Navim withdrew something from his soulhome and Nauda inspected it.

The sublime material appeared to be a dark metal that barely reflected light around it. Though it didn't generate much cantae, she liked the density of it. Definitely a material that could endure a lot of intense cantae, maybe even help guide it from floor to floor.

"It is somewhat morbid," Navim said, "but these are the bones of a sublime beast that has a metallic skeleton. Given sufficient craft, you might fashion them into ladders."

"This... could work. What do you want for them?"

"Consider them a gift, as I had purchased multiple for my own armament purposes. They may not be equal to your ambitions, but they might be sufficient for a secondary material."

"Hey, don't talk like that, we're both Rulers." Nauda rapped Navim on the shoulder before she thought about it, then just hoped that her intent came through. "This could work, if you help me shape the metal. Hopefully we can build on the stoneshaping you taught me before? It feels heavy, maybe we need to create some sort of foundation to lock the tops and bottoms."

"Actually, I thought you might consider an alternate design. The shaft between your floors is narrow, is it not?" Navim barely waited for confirmation, because his memory for blueprints was excellent. "Perhaps you could fuse the ladders directly into the walls and streamline your upwards cantae flow even more."

"That's a great idea. We should get started... well, soon."

"But not immediately?"

"I guess I'm just feeling like I'm doing this all out of order." Nauda sighed and gestured with her staff. "Traditionally you're supposed to decide on your main materials, then soulcraft secondary pieces, then work on all the finishings. It feels wrong to be doing all this detail work when there are still empty chambers, you know?"

"It might not be the orderly path we set out for ourselves, but life is rarely so straightforward." Navim stared at her for a while as if unsure what to say. "Recall that I was in a similar situation: my final Archcrafter chamber was lacking a material until you arrived. The fact that I had not delayed in all my other soulcrafting meant that it was easy to continue once I received what I needed."

"You're right, Navim, you're right. Let's get to work."