Deathseed: Chapters 21-22 (Patreon)

After my chipper yearly post, I have become so very tired. -_- Future Deathseed chapters are not at risk, but please be patient if I lag after that. Anyway, this chapter includes developments on multiple fronts and highlights a sublime material suggested by a patron!

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Chapter 21

Somewhere along the way, Theo realized that it had been ages since he'd been through the Tatian gate from this side. He'd run back through in order to fight Magnafor, but after that, he'd only returned via weirkey. It felt strange to be flying above the desolate Arbaian landscape, looking for a glimpse of a verdant world on the other side.

He hadn't thought about Magnafor in a long time. Another person from Earth, a veteran of multiple trips to the Nine Worlds, eliminated in an instant by one of Vistgil's passive traps. Whatever else Theo did, he couldn't forget about that ultimate threat.

But there was no point trying to fight Vistgil when there were so many other obstacles still in his path. Theo wrestled aside unnecessary thoughts and focused on their current task.

At the moment he flew with Fiyu and Krikree. They'd left the sleigh at the school so that Fiyu could maintain a tighter and stronger sphere of stealth around them. She flew on her own while Krikree was perched on his shoulders. Either of them could have carried Krikree in their cantae, but she preferred to sit there.

"Gate!" Krikree suddenly chirped out the word while thrusting out a finger. She had no volume control, but her cry was absorbed within Fiyu's sphere.

"There appear to be Arbaians on guard," Fiyu said as she extended her senses. "Do we speak to them?"

"No, we maintain stealth." Theo's gravity didn't tell him as much, but ascending to Authority had reinforced general enhancement chambers such as his Nine Worlds Feast, so even his eyesight had significantly improved. "We have to assume that, whoever they are, they're communicating with Tatians on the other side who might be compromised."

When he'd first ventured through the gate, it had been an arc of stone abandoned in the desert because both worlds viewed the other side as useless. Now it seemed as though the Arbaians had built a small fortress on their end.

Notably, he'd heard about the guards from scholars at the school, but none of them worked there or even considered going if the school collapsed. That suggested that the guard post was funded by Ruby Ericho. Most likely it was a bit of a hardship posting, so hopefully the guards would not be particularly alert.

"Will this make it more difficult to trade?" Fiyu asked. "I had hoped that Navim's school would be able to support itself with Tatian materials."

"It certainly looked like they can't monopolize the gate." Theo continued to observe it as they approached, in particular the glimpses of a greener world through the arc. "But Arbai doesn't need sublime wood or food, so the raw materials must not be too valuable."

There was more potential there, but at Authority flying speeds, they were about to arrive. Krikree leaned from his shoulders to peer at Fiyu. "Fiyu-queen scout?"

"Yes, my stealth is fully intact." Fiyu bobbed her head at both of them. "Unless there are other preparations, we can proceed."

They moved cautiously, but it was unnecessary: Fiyu's stealth was now far beyond most of the defenses they encountered. No Arbaians troubled them as they passed through the gate, then they flew out into Tatian. Even within the sphere, the air was immediately less dry and more welcoming.

It seemed the Tatians had built up the other side: the nearest village had been moved further away and they'd built a series of walls around the Arbaian gate, patrolled by Farmguards. None of them noticed or were any real opposition as Theo simply flew upwards to get a better look at the landscape.

"Myufuru is that way." Fiyu inclined her head over the rolling hills and farms. "Shall we go?"

"I want to get a bit more perspective," Theo said, "but yes."

Soon enough he saw what he'd feared: there was a Deuxan Ruler lurking not far from the gate. Not with an entire armed force, but the local Farmguards deferred to the man. There were no signs of direct Deuxan control or heavy fortification, which was small comfort. Clearly their reach extended this far and Esaire had at least given thought to the potential that someone might come through this gate.

As they flew toward the city of Myufuru, they spotted a few other ominous signs. No slave farms, but there were some large, more industrialized fields like he'd seen. It occurred to him that the change might actually have been instigated by the Landguard, if they were really so worried about harvests. At least the Tatian villagers working these seemed to be singing their songs and cooperating in normal communities.

The Landguard itself was nowhere to be seen. Theo looked up multiple times, wondering if another petrified floating city was hiding within the warm sunlight.

"I wonder if the Deuxans are inspecting this harvest as well," Fiyu said. "It does seem like the patrols are looking for something..."

"It's hard to be sure." Theo shrugged and kept looking forward. "I'd rather beat Esaire's family and just get the answer from him."

"Talkscout?" Krikree peered around his shoulder and waved a hand below. "Beetles know things."

"They do, but they might also inform on us to the Deuxans. Especially if Esaire subverted their sense of community and they think we're the threat. No, I think we should stay hidden."

Because they could fly much faster than Nanjuma's acorn, it didn't take them long to reach Myufuru. When Theo had first returned, the city had been wondrous, shaded by the enormous tree. Now only the stump remained, sundered by Vistgil's trap.

He realized that there was actually something new built atop the broken stump: a silvery building with a decidedly Deuxan aesthetic. Worse, he didn't see any remaining paths up to that point, which suggested... yes, soon enough he felt an Authority.

The woman who looked like one of Esaire's relatives stood at one edge of the stump, staring down over the city. She made no effort to hide her rank, so no doubt many soulcrafters in the city were anxious about the Authority-tier cantae burning above them. At least she wasn't supported by a full army, but if one Authority was present, Esaire and others might be lurking.

Even she wasn't capable of piercing Fiyu's stealth, however, so they had plenty of time to analyze Myufuru. What drew Theo's eye first was the Myufuru Landguard Village: even with the sign taken down, he recognized it. So many of his first soulcrafting decisions, from sublime materials to his new black hole blueprints, had been made there. Now it appeared to have been entirely reworked, even the orchards uprooted and replaced.

Those new trees drew his attention next. The warm fruit-bearing orchard had been replaced with dark scraggly trees with branches that clawed the sky. Clearly not from the rest of the city, but...

Theo gestured to get the others' attention. "Look at those trees. Do you think they're from Deuxan?"

"Not!" Krikree declared. She'd never been to Deuxan, so he wasn't sure where her confidence was coming from.

"They do feel distinctly different." Fiyu frowned and extended her senses. "Most Deuxan plants have a dense outer layer more similar to metal, but these lack it. Most likely they are Tatian trees."

"That's not..." Theo was about to contradict her when he realized that, in completely ignoring the colors, Fiyu might have made an important observation. "You're right, the structure is similar. But these feel more violent... did they plant seeds from the lower half of Tatian?"

"Our enemies do have the ally Nauda called a Blazekindler. We do not yet know the reasons for their alliance."

It was easy to come up with a lot of potential reasons. Presumably these were dark Tatian trees, planted in the light half of the world. Maybe the Blazekindler had allied with them in order to grow sublime plants, or equally likely the plants could be his payment to Esaire's family for some other benefit. All they knew were the sublime materials involved, not the relationships governing them.

Now that Theo thought about it, they'd been too distracted by the slavery to investigate the fields around Nlukoko fully. Armies aside, those fields could be the reason for all this. One of the only reasons a powerful force would invade Tatian would be to take advantage of their agricultural wealth.

"I believe that the Authority is here to pick up sublime materials." Fiyu had gone still, focusing all her attention on her Ichili senses. "There is a consistent pattern moving from the fields upward, as well as defensive constructs protecting something of value."

"They're not carrying all the food to them, are they?" Theo asked.

"Not like in Nlukoko. I have not been able to identify the exact materials."

"That might not matter for now." Deciding that he'd seen enough, Theo pulled Krikree off his shoulders and hovered her so that they formed a triangle. "We need to figure out our next move. Obviously, before we do anything, we locate the sublime water and other resources for Navim. But after that... do we leave them here and focus on Nlukoko?"

Fiyu's head wavered from side to side. "It is true that their army is spread out, while they give attention to Myufuru. But if we defeat the forces in Nlukoko, how will the Landguard respond to those remaining, stranded on Tatian?"

"You're right, we shouldn't count on them working with us."

"Target queen!" Krikree stared down toward the Deuxan building, even though Esaire's relative had gone back inside. "Weaken!"

"The question is how the Landguard would react to that." Theo sighed as he stared upward yet again. "Maybe we could strike quickly enough to be gone before they retaliated. That's something we should discuss with everyone else, particularly Nauda. For now, let's hunt for materials."

"Hunt!"

Still cloaked by Fiyu, they easily made their way through Myufuru. It might not have been a grand city, but it gathered people from villages across a large part of Tatian, so it had plenty of reasonably strong sublime materials. In particular, they found certain varieties of sublime water necessary to create special mortar. Since no one was close to able to spot them, Theo grabbed some other useful materials as well.

Back when he'd returned, he'd callously stolen from the Tatian farms, and here he was, doing the same thing. Hopefully this time his rationale was actually better.

After waffling over the risks for a time, Theo stepped into his soulhome and poured several sacks of craftgems. Enough to be a windfall for an early soulcrafter, more than the value of the materials he took, but not a fortune. He left the sacks in the place of the taken materials and noted that Fiyu observed with a smile - neither of them said anything and they continued into the city, Theo still contending with his own doubts.

Part of Theo had been hoping to find Nanjuma, but the old Ruler was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like the Deuxans had pushed out almost all of the stronger soulcrafters, actually. Even if they hadn't enslaved the city, they definitely controlled it. Nauda would be furious and want them to save Myufuru as well, whatever it took.

Once they had acquired all the information and materials they dared, their group flew back toward the gate. Back at the school they had debated scouting Nlukoko as well, but the distance between the cities would have wasted too much time. Besides, they needed to decide their next step first.

The trip back was even faster, now that they knew the landscape. Their journey took long enough that they did eat some food along the way, with Krikree eagerly pulling meat out of her soulhome to offer. Theo did his best to consume the energy from within the Arbaian crystals before eventually giving up and eating normal food.

When they returned to the school, it seemed that Nauda and Navim were busy. Theo settled for helping distribute all the resources they'd gathered, since Krikree insisted that some would be useful to the school. The only one that was really powerful enough to interest him personally was the strange mortar.

While in the middle of the process, he realized that Eliyai was staring at him. Since he was in no mood for games, Theo turned directly toward the ruby Mundhin. "Do you need something?"

"I wanted to speak with you," she said quietly. "In private?"

"Fine." Theo gestured at Fiyu, who quickly created a sphere around the three of them. Eliyai flinched briefly, then took a moment to overcome her curiosity with the technique before speaking again.

"I wish to apologize to you. When you arrived, I was certain that you intended to loot our school for sublime materials and leave our scholarship to waste away. I still cannot say we agree on everything. But I believe it is not in our best interest to be working against one another."

"But do you still want to move to Ruby Ericho?" Theo asked. When Eliyai inclined her gem sphere, he shrugged. "Then we'll have to disagree politely. Is there anything we can do to convince you to support Navim instead?"

"There is a new potential opportunity. Currently, trade routes from the far east curve northward around the mountainous plateaus in order to reach Ruby Ericho." Eliyai raised one shield-like limb in that direction. "Clearly you possess immense power, but would you be able to carve a way through?"

"So that they take a more direct route, past the school?" Theo stared out toward the horizon, considering. He'd need to ask Navim in case there was some subtle trap, but it seemed like it might help the school establish itself either way.

"Why has this not been done in the past?" Fiyu asked.

Eliyai moved her outer limbs in a very good approximation of a human shrug. "The work would require a great deal of cantae, perhaps many Authorities, for a relatively small benefit. You will see that the stones there are durable, but of limited value for crafting."

"We may be able to assist. It will depend on how far the rocky region extends."

"I am not asking you to do this as charity." Eliyai reached into her soulhome and revealed several smooth spheres of stone that glowed with cantae. "I cannot use these parts of the sublime legacy and had intended to sell them in the city. I thought that, perhaps, they would be an appropriate payment for such an endeavor."

Theo glanced at Fiyu, who didn't give a clear response, and then back to Eliyai with a smile. "We can certainly begin negotiations."

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Chapter 22

While Friend Theo investigated the possibility of carving a new path through the mountains, Fiyu realized that the best thing she could do to assist was to focus on herself. She had always known the steps necessary to become a stronger Authority, but now she could take them comfortably, knowing that doing so would help Friend Nauda.

She had finally completed her work on two rooms of her fourth floor: the first strengthened her darkness technique and the second was an enhancement chamber that increased her stamina. Normally, she would have begun crafting her second pair of rooms, either of light stone or ice.

That plan had changed, with the possibility of this fascinating new mortar.

Though she would continue to craft bricks, she now worked on fewer at once, only enough to finish her central heart chamber. Instead, she returned to her first three floors and began working on the plans her relative had left for her Immortality Conduit. She had set them aside, in part because they were less immediately helpful and in part because she didn't want to follow one of his last directions for her. Now, however, she set about making the preparations.

Her triple staircases spiraling through her soulhome, which had seemed so unnecessarily bulky to Friend Theo, now showed their true purpose. She carefully carved a circular tunnel out of the center of each staircase, creating a perfectly spiraling channel throughout her first three floors. Spiritual techniques could let her reach through the stone to do the work, but she still needed mathematics and absolute concentration to keep the curve steady so that everything would be aligned. That was why she could only work on her preparations gradually.

Once she had finished making the tunnels, she possessed a secondary sublime material to coat the interior surface. It would prepare the channel to handle immense amounts of power and the coating would only be strengthened if she ascended. Thus she had the framework for her Immortality Conduit prepared.

That was where her relative's guidance left her. She needed to unite the three tunnels at some point and complete her Immortality Conduit, which was still a major project. Relative Guchiro had united his Conduit on his Authority floor, but after learning about all Five Transcendent Monuments, Fiyu intended to unite the tunnels within her basement for increased flexibility.

As she understood it, the Conduit would sustain her body in perpetuity. It was the culmination of her blueprint that flowed into and from her Corporeal Floor: the channels intersected with everything and would fuse their benefits into her. Not only would her body be enhanced, it would retain that youthful vigor forever. All of her techniques would require less cantae and flow from her more naturally.

Or so she hoped. Relative Guchiro was the only relative she knew with a perfect Conduit.

With her Immortality Conduit requiring no more space, Fiyu had great freedom in the design of her fourth floor. She hoped to combine three enhancement chambers and three technique improvements to truly forge herself into a soulcrafter who could help all her companions.

"Fiyu? We could use your help again."

The call from Friend Nauda made Fiyu immediately perk up. She couldn't stop a work as delicate as carving channels on a whim, but she completed her current arc and then rose to join the others.

In one of the caverns beneath the School of Emerald Indulgence, they were crafting a sublime mortar within a large stone pit. Ally Navim placed the ancient stone, sublime water, and other ingredients into the hole according to exact proportions from his books. Friend Nauda stood at the side, using her staff to stir the contents. Earlier the stone had flowed like water, but now her muscles strained to turn it further.

"We need... some cantae..." Friend Nauda grimaced and returned to stirring.

"Specifically, Authority-tier cantae." Ally Navim sat at the edge of the pit, examining the combined substance through his magnifying lenses. "Of course, we could have crafted a mortar for Rulers, but I presumed you would want to stretch the material to its limits."

Fiyu nodded her understanding and began extending cantae into the pit. It was a marvel to feel the thick material suck up whatever she gave: instead of resisting cantae like defensive materials, this seemed to use it for growth. Friend Nauda redoubled her efforts to stir it faster and something began to quicken, growing in the depths...

Golden light poured from the center of the pit. Fiyu smiled happily and Friend Nauda sighed in relief.

"Excellent." Ally Navim began to flip through his book with his smaller limbs. "Continue stirring, but there is no longer any risk of mangling the instructions. This is... yes, we have succeeded in creating elationmortar. That was our ideal end product from the materials."

"What does that mean?" Fiyu asked, since Friend Nauda was occupied.

"Unlike many sublime materials that are named after their fundamental nature, elationmortar received a name from soulcrafters. What is unique about it is that it takes on the attributes of materials around it. While you could use it as ordinary mortar, its primary use is to repair flaws or cracks. Instead of filling a centerpiece or wall with another material, which would always be a structural weakness, elationmortar can restore it to its full strength."

"And they were so happy..." Friend Nauda had to pause for a breath. "That they called it elationmortar?"

"Yes, it was said to be the greatest relief of Authorities with a flawed ascension." Ally Navim referred to his book again, then began adding precise quantities of stone and water. "However, that is not its only potential use. For example, Fiyu uses three different materials for the walls of her soulhome. Using elationmortar to fuse them will lead to a stronger design."

That was a happy solution to a problem Fiyu had been considering. Her staircases and Conduit locked all of her first three floors together, but she had been wondering if she would need to build new staircases on her new floors. Using the elationmortar, she might be able to unify her new floors while leaving more space for enhancing sublime materials.

Less selfishly, the elationmortar could also be very helpful for Friend Nauda. Despite all her work rebuilding her soulhome, there were a few cracks in some of her materials. If the elationmortar did everything promised, she could fully restore those before the ascension reinforced her blueprint.

Fiyu continued to pour cantae into the mix as instructed. Even though Ally Navim was adding new material, the amount of mortar in the pit appeared to be decreasing. What remained glowed brighter and more consistently golden, so she presumed that its strength was being compressed. The large pit might produce only a small amount of mortar in the end, so she was glad they had not used all of their component materials.

"This batch of elationmortar will be an excellent start," Ally Navim said. "Elationmortar was considered the highest goal, but you should consider other derivative mortars as well."

"Would any of them be superior?" Fiyu asked.

"Not for the purposes described, but there are other goals. For example, fusionmortar allegedly binds materials more firmly to your soulhome, even if remodeled. The texts say this was commonly used to prepare for Immortality Conduits... the mortar could ensure there were no flaws... that true immortality was gained, instead of..."

As Ally Navim trailed off, Fiyu abruptly realized that she heard sorrow in his deep voice. She had at first heard only his usual thoughtfulness, but now she understood his heaviness. One of the most precious relatives in his own life had lived for many years only to eventually pass away, no doubt because of a flawed Immortality Conduit.

To her shock, she heard a shaky breath from Ally Navim's spiritual voice. He always sounded so calm, she had presumed that Arbaians never accidentally revealed emotion in their tone. If he had been humanoid, she thought that he might be shuddering. Instead he sat, unnaturally still except for the pained breaths.

"Nauda..." Fiyu was helpless to offer comfort, so she waved urgently for her friend to do something. Friend Nauda dropped her staff and sat down beside Ally Navim. She simply leaned against his rocky side and laid a hand against it.

"Have you had a chance to mourn him?" Friend Nauda asked. "You have been working so hard to save your school..."

"There was a funeral. I thought I had understood grief." Ally Navim's voice trembled again. "It is the grinding absence that I cannot overcome."

Friend Nauda glanced at Fiyu and gave her a small gesture to approach. Even though Fiyu felt helpless to do anything, she sat down on Ally Navim's other side. She had always been more comfortable with him than with humanoids, so she patted his body and hoped that it could offer some small comfort.

"Many scholars have said that intellect fails when it comes to grief. So I was not surprised. But what has troubled me is realizing that emotion fails as well. I have returned to the poets and found their words nothing but ash. No release of emotion is enough... nor can anything... bring him back..."

Fiyu felt completely useless leaning against Ally Navim's body. It wasn't his true self, any more than her clothes were part of her. She thought that his deepest essence was his mind, but she had nothing to offer him there. Throughout her life Fiyu had been guarded carefully by relatives and she had never known true grief. Her sorrows seemed petty compared to the tragic loss of a relative.

"Sometimes there is no solution," Friend Nauda said. "Sometimes all we can do is persist, and wait for time to carry us through."

"Time heals all wounds." Ally Navim released another heavy sigh. "It is a phrase that has come into existence all across the Nine Worlds."

"I don't know about healing, but it's all we have."

They sat alone in silence for a time before Ally Navim suddenly roused himself. He made no reference to what they had done, yet Fiyu thought that she heard gratitude when he spoke again.

"The mixture is no longer delicate, but we should not leave it alone for too long. I want the elationmortar to be perfectly mixed, so that it can be useful to the two of you."

Clearly Ally Navim required space for his own thoughts and emotions. This, Fiyu understood perfectly. She gave him space and joined Friend Nauda in mixing the remainder of the elationmortar.

By the time they were done, a small quantity of dense liquid glowed brightly enough to light up the entire pit. Ally Navim gave them brief instructions for how to properly extract it and then retreated, claiming that he needed to prepare the next batch. Neither of them said anything until he had departed.

Within the pit, they sat on opposite sides of the finished elationmortar. A great triumph, yet Fiyu felt no elation. She looked across at Friend Nauda, tried to imagine losing her, and her heart immediately broke.

"Do you... think there is anything more we can do for Navim?" she asked.

"I don't know." Friend Nauda rubbed her eyes roughly. "He needs to come to grips with it in his own way, whatever that means. All we can do is listen and watch."

"And continue to help him, of course."

"Yes, of course." Friend Nauda cupped the elationmortar in her hands and held it forth. "Here, you take the first batch?"

"Me?" Fiyu pulled back in surprise. "Don't you want to fix cracks in your soulhome?"

"I can do that with a later batch, any time before I ascend. This could help you right now, so that you can keep soulcrafting as an Authority. If we're going to save Nlukoko, your strength might matter more than mine, so I want to support you."

At once Fiyu recognized that Friend Nauda had her own emotional turmoils. Recognized, and yet could do nothing to assist.

When Fiyu reached forward, she made sure to wrap Friend Nauda's hands in her own. The other woman seemed surprised for a moment, then beamed at her. Fiyu smiled back while she accepted the elationmortar, then drew it into her soulhome.

For now, she would leave her companions alone with their emotions. If soulcrafting was what she could do to help them, Fiyu would soulcraft.