Deathseed: Chapters 27-28 (Patreon)

Some fun stuff this month, including more information on weirkey mechanics and the first steps of the next part of the plot. As I said before, this book is all about consequence and follow-up.

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Chapter 27

Despite all Fiyu's training, weirkey travel didn't come easily to her, not in the heat of the moment. She desperately wished that Friend Theo had been able to act.

But she had taken the first step, so she needed to finish the journey.

Using a weirkey always felt like trying to use a sublime material, only for the material to turn about and use her. It began with a bit of cantae flowing into the object, then she was caught up in the flow of a far greater power. A void of nonexistence opened and she would have smashed herself against it if not for the thin little key in her hand, parting the emptiness and offering a way forward.

If it was only that, and only herself, Fiyu was confident in her training. The problem was, just when she needed all her focus, it was drawn in multiple directions. She didn't even mean the yawning of worlds or the way reality folded on itself - she had learned to ignore those. The problem was that she needed to accomplish several things at once.

First, she needed to reach out and grasp the appropriate people around her. The world was folding up like a sheet of paper and she had to make sure that her companions were folded up with her. She thought that some experts like her relative might be able to reach out selectively, but the best she could do was imagine a sphere expanding around herself, drawing in everyone else. Even as she slipped into the void, Fiyu desperately reached back to grasp the others.

Ally Nanjuma had gathered them all together, so the task wasn't impossible. Her sphere had no choice but to encompass him as well and she only hoped that was not a terrible mistake. In order to expand far enough to reach Associate Krikree and their sleigh, Fiyu thought that she ended up pulling in a random Tatian as well. There was no time to think about any of that.

It was a small relief that, to her knowledge, it was impossible for weirkey travel to grab only part of someone and scatter their pieces across worlds.

As her relative had showed her, people or cantae-bearing objects held themselves together, so the power of the weirkey tried to envelop them entirely. The more likely problem was that she would overreach and touch parts of others. Fiyu was already nearing her limits solely with her companions, so dragging part of the Tatian feast could have been disastrous.

Once she had gathered everyone, which was a logical problem forced through her mind in a second, she needed to survive the jolt as the comprehensible world around them was replaced by emptiness. In her panic Fiyu very nearly let go of her companions. That could have sent them bouncing through chaos to arrive in a random world and the possibility sent a chill through her.

After that, the weirkey seemed to leap forward. Even though Fiyu could no longer feel her body, she was overwhelmed by the sensation that the weirkey was a flying animal that she could barely hang on to, gripping with one hand while her entire body flapped like a loose piece of cloth. It pushed ahead of them, sending the void streaming around her. Everything around her refused to conform to all her deepest senses, suggesting density and emptiness and formations she could not name.

Then suddenly Noven loomed in her senses. As if an entire world tried to pour itself into her mind at once. Fiyu desperately reached out for the city of Ugustial and her memories of Associate Isorales. If only she could guide them there... her will, already stretched by carrying so many, faltered.

Random images of mountains and clouds impacted her mind and it was all Fiyu could do to keep her companions from spiraling away.

Then, both an instant and an eternity later, they stood on Noven. Fiyu wavered on her feet and lowered her arm. Even though she'd only had it raised for a moment, her hand hurt. The weirkey itself wasn't even warm, resting like a perfectly ordinary key in her hand.

"Is everyone... okay?" Fiyu looked around at the group blearily. For one moment she feared that she had forgotten about Betrayer Senka, but she was gripping Friend Theo's leg.

"Everyone intact, plus two Tatians." Friend Theo rose from the barrel of sublime materials, which it seemed he'd pulled along with them, and faced her. "Excellent reaction time, Fiyu. I felt the Landguards' cantae preparing a strike even as we left."

She had been too hasty to notice the same thing. Fiyu finally gathered the presence of mind to look beyond the group, investigating the severed mountain they stood atop and the clouds around them. Sadly, none of it looked familiar. The mountains were made of a denser stone than the ranges near Ugustial and when she reached beneath the clouds she sensed tangled jungles. In her haste, she had taken them to the entirely wrong part of the world.

"I'm sorry, I..." Fiyu trailed off as she realized that this was not a terrible mistake. Because they had enough weirkeys, Friend Theo could navigate the void to bring them to the proper place. "I think that I need to rest."

Fiyu dropped to the ground right there to find a good spot. She thought that Friend Nauda brought her a pillow, but she was already drifting away...

~ ~ ~

Theo had about a dozen open questions, yet instead of discussing their problems as a team, they needed to keep the new Tatians from throwing themselves off a mountain or something. Living in Myufuru at least they weren't shocked by the idea of other worlds. Nauda was talking to them, calming them down and learning whatever their names were.

A small part of himself reminded him that he was trying to do better about that, but he was exhausted from all the smiling and Tatian clasping.

Fiyu had done admirably before going to sleep, and he didn't blame her given how hard she'd pushed herself in the fight. Theo himself was still running on adrenaline and was going to need healing as soon as they had the time. For now, he was much more worried about the Landguard's appearance. It seemed like there was only one person to ask.

"It's been a long time," he said to Nanjuma. It had been impossible to greet one another amid the press of Tatians, so he smiled at the older man now. "You look good."

"I feel old." Nanjuma rubbed his lower back absentmindedly. "I never thought I'd see the day when... well, when a lot of things would happen. These are strange times."

"We should be safe here, so we should exchange information. Is your absence going to cause any major problems?"

"I wasn't on the best terms with the Landguard anyway, after I tried to work against the Deuxans. Why, will it be difficult for you to return us?"

"We don't have a Tatian weirkey, but don't worry, we'll get you all home eventually." Theo sat back and considered their priorities. "So you already know about how the Landguard allowed the Deuxan occupation? I assume you know about Nlukoko?"

"I was there when it started going bad." Nanjuma folded his arms over his broad chest. "The Landguards aren't all against us, though. There are plenty who don't want the Deuxans here and factions on our side."

"But they'll make decisions as a community, so none of that would have stopped them from attacking us. Or am I wrong?"

Nanjuma said nothing, merely looked over the clouds. After a pause, Theo bent down beside the barrel and examined the sublime materials again.

"What do you know about these?" he asked Nanjuma. "I'm operating on the assumption that these are part of their reason for being there in the first place, but we're missing a lot of information."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't even know the name before Nauda learned they were called deathseeds." Nanjuma peered down at the barrel and frowned. "All of my information has been gathered from the other side: the villagers who have been forced into service to create them. Perhaps between Nauda and myself, we can determine more about its nature."

"We only caught glimpses. How did the process work?"

"I believe the Deuxans received these seeds from their fiery friend. They started by planting a great many, thousands upon thousands. In their base form, they grow nutritious but unpleasant root vegetables. A small number, perhaps one in a hundred, produce a more powerful seed that generates cantae. Those seeds produce weak sublime materials, and again a fraction produce more valuable results. I believe they culminate in the deathseed that Nauda destroyed."

Theo had run into a few sublime plants like that when he first came to the Nine Worlds. Back then, he had only heard about the end of the process: one of his rooms had been filled by a sublime fruit that allegedly required a thousand years of cultivation. He'd never given much thought to all the work that led up to that point, just seen the results.

"We can figure out the material details later," Theo said. "What do you know about the Deuxans?"

"At first I looked for some deeper motivation, some lever I could use to convince them, but I found nothing. I believe difficulties in their own world led them to come here, and greed for power led them to all the rest." Nanjuma shook his head. "Ariano was a shame, and the Deuxans were a blight, but when the deathseeds arrived, that was when it became truly terrible."

"Well, we dealt them a blow today, the question is whether we can manage to finish them. Do you think they'll take back Myufuru?"

"Unlikely, after their harvest was destroyed. Furthermore, I expect that the Landguard will not be eager to allow them to expand again, regardless of their internal squabbles."

Theo nodded as if that was good news, but he wasn't so sure. After their attack, Esaire and his allies wouldn't dare to split up again. All four would entrench themselves in Nlukoko, rendering a difficult problem even worse. He considered trying to attack immediately, before the Blazekindler could be healed, then realized given their own injuries that was impossible.

Krikree had been exploring around the edge of the mountain and chose that moment to venture down into the clouds. Theo started to go after her before remembering that he could track her mass. He might as well let her scout to get used to her new environment.

Meanwhile, Nauda had reassured the Tatians and returned. She lightly kicked the barrel as she approached. "I kind of want to smash these too, but I guess we might need them?"

"The price in suffering has already been paid," Nanjuma said, "and the plants themselves are innocent. The community offered them as a gift and I believe we should accept them as such."

"Yeah, but can we actually use them?" Nauda looked toward Theo and he had no choice but to shrug.

"They generate enough cantae to be in a soulhome," he said, "but I don't think these would be intense enough for mine or Fiyu's. Nanjuma said these are only part-way to their final form... we were hoping you might know what they are?"

"The Blazekindler called them deathseeds, which is the first I've heard of them. But I've seen similar plants, in the lower half of Tatian." Nauda chewed on her lower lip in silence for a time. "The problem is that they usually extract more power than they collect. They're not a crop anyone except a despot would want to harvest."

That should have made them irrelevant but Theo took a step back as he tried to consider the consequences. "What about the Tatians who gave them to us? They implied the Landguard wanted them... will the Landguards who showed up punish them?"

"I hope not." Nanjuma raised his shoulders in a shrug that was more of a weary shrug. "There is a degree of benign condescension there, and it could appear an accident if they did not overhear."

"Then forget them for now. The question is whether we can assault Nlukoko." Theo looked between the two Tatians grimly. "We're glad to have you on our side, Nanjuma, but I think we just proved that we can't take them on our own. Before we go back, we need to do some serious soulcrafting."

"Why not go ask Isorales? That would be one extra Authority, at minimum."

Theo had been anticipating that argument and immediately shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. Isorales was an ally, but how do you think he'll feel about us showing up on his doorstep and asking him to take over a city on a world he doesn't know?"

"I think I could convince him."

"Maybe you could, but his family wouldn't be happy about losing their new Authority so soon. Especially because, if we're honest, we can't guarantee that he would survive the battle. It would be putting a major strain on our relationship at the very beginning."

That argument finally get through to Nauda. After staring out over the clouds for a while, she nodded and answered quietly. "Then what do we do? Venture to a random world to find new sublime materials?"

"I'd prefer to search a region we know," Theo said. "There's always the risk of arriving in a hostile region, plus it's just inefficient to search randomly at our tier. Think about the difference between what we gained from months searching through different worlds and the time we spent with Navim."

"Yeah, but we've already been to Arbai and House Blacksilver isn't likely to have any more help than before... where else can we even go? It would be great if Fiyu could contact Guchiro, but I don't think she has very many other relatives who could help."

"And we don't have an Ichili weirkey anyway, so that would be difficult. The unfortunate truth is that we don't have very many resources available to us."

They lapsed into silence for only a few heartbeats before Nanjuma scoffed. "They may seem like few to you youngsters with your weirkeys jangling on your belts, but I'm impressed." The old man shook his head sharply. "I spent almost a year traveling, trying to gather allies to fight back against the invaders. All I have to show for it are two Rulers, some sublime materials, and a bunch of Farmguards too afraid to actually join the fight."

It was a worthwhile reminder, but Theo was mostly interested in one detail. "You have two allied Rulers? Any chance we can make contact and have them join us?"

"I think it would be better if we didn't," Nanjuma said. "They'll stay in Myufuru and help the community restore itself, which the Landguard will approve of. Even if we could find them again, it would be a risk to take them away under the Landguard's attention."

And most likely they wouldn't be a huge help in the battle. Technically Esaire's side still had seven Rulers under their control, but Arceon was the only one who worried Theo. He could probably flatten all of Ariano's sycophants with a single gravitational field.

Unfortunately, that left them in the same situation they had been after Nlukoko. Up two Rulers and a decent amount of strength, but still outnumbered against an army. Now that he knew the strength of Amaeli and the Blazekindler, he doubted that any quick kills would be possible. They had a real fight ahead of them and not many paths to it.

While they all calculated silently, Krikree emerged from the clouds and shook off water almost like a dog. As she began cleaning her antennae, she said "Wet! Bad!" while pointing at the clouds with a free hand.

"What do you think, Krikree?" he asked.

"Bright. Too many suns."

But her presence reminded him that they did have roots in one other world. Not the one he'd been thinking, but an option nonetheless. When Theo looked over at Nauda, he discovered that she was already looking at him. They exchanged a grim nod.

"Nanjuma..." Nauda turned to him with a smile. "Are you willing to come with us to a cruel and bloodthirsty world? Hopefully there we can gain enough strength to take back Nlukoko."

"How long would we be there?" Nanjuma asked.

"That's a good question. It will depend on how much things change on Tatian. Actually, perhaps we'd better talk about that..."

While the Tatians exchanged notes, Theo moved around to the rest. He made sure to greet the two villagers and gave them his best arm clasp to reduce their anxiety a little. They were going to hate Slest. As for Krikree, he wasn't sure what she would think. At first, visiting other worlds had been a terrifying experience filled with "Nots", but he wondered what returning would do to her.

"We might go back to Slest," he said as he crouched down beside her. Krikree cocked her head.

"Back?"

"Yeah. We need more strength if we're going to take Nlukoko, and that means soulcrafting."

"Krikree scout sublime materials." She didn't seem particularly troubled, but it was hard to tell if anything hid under the surface.

Their little group atop the mountain didn't seem like an army and Theo wondered how much they could do. Fiyu was currently sleeping, but would soon soulcraft intensely: if she had the right materials, she could finish her Authority tier and improve significantly. He could gain a similar amount of strength, if he could just finalize his design. They'd have Senka recovered as well, which would definitely take Esaire off guard.

Nauda... it was probably unrealistic to expect Nauda to ascend. At least she could finish her empty towers and provide support against Arceon. He also needed to spend soulcrafting time with Krikree to bring her to peak Ruler and gain an edge against the lower soulcrafters.

Most likely, the greatest potential boost would be if they could help Nanjuma ascend. He had been at Ruler for most of his life, with no intention of ascending further, but he seemed to have some new life in him. At worst, they still had two heavenspears. Given enough time, it might be possible for Nanjuma to ascend on his own, which would give them even more possibilities.

Theo was still looking over the group when Nauda turned back toward him. She and Nanjuma didn't look particularly happy, so Theo rose to accept the bad news. "What is it?"

"This is just an educated guess," Nauda said, "but the deathseeds may be worse than we thought. Based on how fast the tree in Myufuru developed, we could have a problem. Nanjuma was near Nlukoko while we were on Arbai and he says there's another large tree there. That one could be ripe soon... based on the growth the villagers have seen, it could be two months... probably sooner."

"So they harvest the strongest deathseed. Is that necessarily a bad thing? It might make one of them stronger, but it's also possible the Blazekindler wants to take it and leave. Without their harvest to protect, they might not be as motivated to fight for Nlukoko."

"It might go that way, but I think it's most likely to be a lot worse." Nauda picked up one of the seeds from the barrel and rolled it across her palm. "Other seeds like this leech life out the soil. The thing is... it gets worse with every step. If the process has one more stage... when the real deathseed ripens, it might drain the life from all Nlukoko."

Theo frowned. "How sure are you of that speculation?"

"I don't know if it will be that catastrophic, but I guarantee you it won't be good. If we can't do something before the deathseed ripens, there might not be much of Nlukoko left to save."

So they only had two months, maybe a month and a half to be safe. Theo grimaced and shifted all his plans for the new timeline. He glanced around the mountaintop and came to his conclusion. "Alright, someone wake up Fiyu. We need to get started."

As soon as they were prepared, Theo pulled out his Slescan weirkey. His fingers played over the chitin for a few seconds as he considered what they were about to do, then he stopped wasting time. He drew them all through the void, toward the familiar landscape where he'd once found Krikree and gotten involved in a Slescan war.

Soon they stood underneath the purple sun of Slest. Whatever sun on whatever world, each sunset brought them closer to their deadline.

-

Chapter 28

After jumping from one problem to another, part of Nauda had fully expected to arrive at the beetle city to find it devastated. Or reeling from some disease, or at least in desperate need of assistance. It was surreal to discover that the beetles were mostly trundling along their paths, making their goo, and going about their lives as if no time at all had passed.

If anything, it had developed in the opposite direction: the city was even larger than before.

She was glad for the sake of the leafpullers, but that made it hard to find her way around and especially to find Bluepetal or the other beetles she'd known before. At the moment she was just walking through the new streets with Fiyu, gaining her bearings and looking for potential opportunities to soulcraft while they were all on Slest. The city had a fair number of sublime materials, including new fortified hives, but most were suitable only for local Slescans.

"It occurs to me that I have seen no stores," Fiyu said. "Perhaps it would be different in the largest Slescan cities, which we have never visited. You know the beetles better, Nauda, do they have no commerce?"

"Inside a given hive or region, everything is communally governed." Nauda hadn't thought much about it, since it wasn't so dissimilar from Tatian community. Except... "The queen in charge of the whole region decides what gets traded between hives. That usually means everything works smoothly, but only for her benefit."

"Does that mean that to find Authority-tier materials, we must go to find a queen?"

"Maybe. I'd rather not, but that's our next step."

"Does this region have no queen? Can that be sustained?"

"Technically they're under the control of Queen Yeshir, but it seems like she's leaving them alone because they've been so productive." Or perhaps because she needed to expand in other directions, into her fallen rival queen's territory.

Despite her personal inclinations, one of Nauda's objectives while they were on Slest was to try to find Tythes. Obviously, he couldn't be trusted. But he was an Authority, and he possessed multiple artifacts from the Chasm of Lamentation. If he could be convinced to join them temporarily, that alone would probably give them even odds in the battle.

Then they'd have to pay the price later.

Nauda was just thinking that they were lapsing into uncomfortable silence and searching for a topic of conversation when Fiyu perked up. "Oh! Is that you?"

"Me? I don't see..." Nauda looked through the statues that lined the street.

"It is currently beyond that hive. If we circle it..."

They moved to the side and Nauda groaned as she spotted it immediately. Amid several statues of various beetles, there was a stone version of Nauda holding up a spear with a giant ant impaled on it. Not exactly the image she wanted to project in an ant-ruled world.

"They seem to appreciate you very much." Fiyu's smile was broader than it normally would have been and she clearly enjoyed the irony in her own way. "Only... does your face have a horn on it?"

"Yeah, they tend to give me a horn. At least this one got the face right. On some of them I have this squished, beetle-looking head."

"There are more? How many statues have the beetles made of you?"

While trying to shove down her embarrassment, Nauda cleared her throat. "No idea. I figured they would have forgotten about me by now, but... I guess we'll find out?"

"Nauda is beetle queen!" The exclamation made Nauda jump a foot into the air, while Fiyu merely turned around.

"Hello, Krikree."

Had Krikree been following them the entire time? Nauda had mostly gotten used to noting powerful life forces at a distance, but in the middle of a city her vitality sense was swamped and she tended to forget about it. Absolutely none of her normal senses had given her any hint that Krikree was following them, much less crouching right behind them.

"Do you think the beetles actually see me as a queen?" Nauda asked. Krikree didn't look directly at her and began cleaning off her antennae as she responded.

"Beetles need queen."

"Yes, but shouldn't they choose... I don't know, a queen who's actually a beetle?"

"Beetles not queens! Queens always different. Nauda also different. So think like queen."

Nauda frowned as she turned that over in her mind. "I guess the beetles can reproduce on their own, without any queens? What does the queen do for them?"

"Beetles not queens!" Krikree flinched back. "Beetles work. Labor for hive."

"Krikree, do you think beetles should have their own queens?"

"Not!" Krikree skittered backward around the side of a statue and didn't emerge again.

It wasn't just Nauda's imagination: Krikree had been different ever since they'd returned to Slest. At the beginning she'd been rapturous, staring up at the purple sun or eating random objects or just running around with her antennae vibrating. But something seemed to be changing within her as she stayed on her home world, and Nauda wasn't sure that she liked it.

"I do not think that we can help Krikree further," Fiyu said. "We should continue."

"Alright." Nauda turned back and guided Fiyu away from the embarrassing statue. "Why is Krikree following us, anyway?"

"I believe that Theo is with Nanjuma, so she may have grown bored."

If they had shed Krikree, maybe the two of them were really alone together. Nauda wished that she could invite Fiyu somewhere, just the two of them. Unfortunately, the beetle city's restaurant offerings were mainly nutritious goo. What Nauda really wanted was to invite Fiyu out to listen to beetle songs and sit together, but saying that aloud felt so uncomfortable, especially when they were all preparing to fight Ariano and Esaire's family.

Sometimes it felt like their relationship had regressed after they'd begun courting. They were always polite, but Nauda felt like she didn't know the rules anymore. Guchiro had been so adamant about her not harming his ward and the truth was that she was afraid she'd say the wrong thing and hurt Fiyu by accident. So often she let Fiyu lead, except Fiyu seemed content for things to continue as they were, in a strange sort of quasi-friendship.

"Nauda? Are you alright?"

She realized that she was clenching her hand around her staff and relaxed. "I'm fine. Let's go that way and see what the beetles have been mining, okay?"

~ ~ ~

Originally, Theo had planned to ask Nauda to lend her telescope technique in order to examine Nanjuma's soulhome. While discussing everything with the older Tatian, Theo had learned that he could actually invite people into his soul directly. So, with no more discussion or planning, Theo entered the soulhome of the first truly good soulcrafter he'd met when he'd returned.

"Welcome!" Nanjuma's voice echoed from all sides. "You won't be able to touch anything, but you can enter easily enough."

First, Theo identified the bit of soulcrafting that allowed his entrance: a hanging across the entrance that welcomed all visitors. Disgustingly Tatian, but effective.

It didn't take him long to get over that bias and appreciate the art that had gone into the soulhome. Nanjuma might have been only a Ruler, but he was an excellent Ruler. Not excellent in the sense of geniuses who reached the rank within a few years, or those who were most praised on their way to Authority. Instead it reflected the knowledge and discipline built up over decades of soulcrafting.

The floor had been made from warm stone and he marveled at the fact that there were visible lines worn through it, as if by thousands of steps. Soulhomes didn't generally have that sort of wear and tear, and he doubted that Nanjuma would artificially create something affected. His essence must have worn off on the home after so long.

As Theo wandered through the soulhome, he realized that he was basically retracing Nanjuma's life. The first floor was an ordinary Farmguard blueprint, but it had been modified for improved efficiency. Most of the rooms were blunt enhancement, polished to perfection.

He'd never seen a soulhome with so many secondary materials, from a dust pan in the corner to children's toys on a shelf. Each one offered only a tiny amount of cantae, but the sum total of all the minor advantages was impressive.

Clearly, Nanjuma's place in society had risen when he ascended to Archcrafter. The second floor had more exotic Tatian materials from multiple locations, and he'd begun soulcrafting chambers to strengthen his cantae bolts or resist attacks. Some of the enhancement chambers on the second floor seemed to have kept him in vibrant health all the way to the present day.

On the third floor, Theo began running into sublime materials that weren't familiar to him. One chamber appeared to be built entirely from the shell of what looked like an enormous walnut. Another contained shades made from vast silvery leaves. Nanjuma must have been taken to one of the great Tatian forests when he was young, probably for further training. He had taken to it excellently, yet for some reason he'd never joined the Landguard.

As he took a second circuit, Theo honestly began to wonder if he really had anything to offer Nanjuma. There were more details he hadn't noticed: elegantly painted lines on the walls weren't just decoration, each wall formed another portion of a tree. Viewed as a whole, one entire face of the soulhome had a unified tree, never visible from any given room and yet tying the entire structure together.

But it wasn't perfect. Nothing was.

Given a little more time, Theo began to notice the flaws. There was a glowing container of grain on the second floor that had clearly been made from a material that was weak for Nanjuma's tier. Even given an ascension, it lagged behind the rest. As a whole, there was a tendency toward nostalgia and never leaving anything behind. The modifications were all slight to avoid remodeling, the work of someone who didn't expect to ascend again and so wouldn't risk losing anything.

So, as he reached the roof, Theo finally understood what had kept Nanjuma a Ruler. How much he cherished his soulhome was his strength, but it also prevented him from risking any of it. Because the truth was, even with a perfect ascension, there would be a cost to all the pretty little details that had been soulcrafted.

"Well, boy?" Nanjuma appeared beside him abruptly. "Going to tell me I've been doing this all wrong?"

"No, you clearly know what you're doing." Theo gestured down the stairs. "I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone with such... clean soulcrafting. You didn't try for any fancy blueprints, you just got all the basics right and kept working on them."

"I may not have any flashy techniques, but anything a Ruler can do, I can do better." Nanjuma shook his head. "For all the good it's done me."

"You can elevate all that to the next tier. We have a special material called a heavenspear that will instantly raise your soulhome to Authority without damaging a single leaf. It won't strengthen your materials, so your future ascensions will be blocked, but that's one more than you were planning, right?"

"Come now, you don't think I can ascend on my own? I may be set in my ways, but I still have some life left in me!"

"You may be able to, but can you make the changes? Are you sure you wouldn't rather leave everything the way it is?"

Nanjuma froze, understanding his implication in an instant. "You're telling me I'm too attached to what I have?" He shook his head ruefully. "Maybe you're right. The idea of losing everything, of potentially turning this home within my soul into a wreck..."

"You need to pare down a few sublime materials, and I have a suggestion." Theo tried to pick up a paperweight lying on a desk and his fingers slipped through. "Turn a few of these items into bricks. Build your path upward with everything you've gained in the past. You aren't losing it, you're using your history to fuel your future."

"I think aphorisms are my domain, young man." Nanjuma began looking around the room with a sentimental gaze. "Perhaps you're right. Is that your only suggestion?"

"Not at all. For a start, you need to replace that sublime grain with something stronger. We can give you many suitable materials already at Ruler tier."

"Now see here, every single sublime material in my soul is Tatian and I'm not about to change that..."

Even though Nanjuma acted cantankerous while they discussed the details, he was truly open to remodeling. By the time Theo was finished, he felt much more confident in the old man. He'd been perfectly willing to use a heavenspear, but he'd hoped that using it as a threat could inspire Nanjuma to take the necessary steps himself.

Now that the design was settled, Theo couldn't help the elderly Tatian much. He'd build his pyramid toward the sky, which should be easily within the time limit, then hopefully ascend. That would be one more Authority on their side, and an unexpected one at that.

The waning amount of time to prepare for the battle weighed more heavily on Theo. He'd decided on elements of his new design, even fused them into his soulhome, and yet... when he thought about his second set of three floors, he didn't truly believe that everything was right. So many pieces scattered around his soulhome, so little actual progress.

Should he abandon his current plans and try to build his basement? Theo actually put some work into pushing into the foundation of his soul, and it gave way more than before, but he doubted it could happen in time. Even if he managed it, there would no doubt be new design problems to overcome. No, he needed to remain focused.

When he returned to their camp within the beetle city, he found Senka waiting for him with clear eyes.

"Still stewing over your blueprint?" she asked.

"And then some." Theo dropped down beside her. "But we've already discussed that enough that I'm sick of it."

"I wasn't going to suggest it. What I think you need to do is take inventory. Look at everything you have: not just the materials you've been planning to use forever, what about the others? What about everything from the Archive of Misery?"

Theo took a deep breath before acknowledging that she was right. Just thinking about that grueling experience caused painful echoes. He forced himself to enter his storage chamber and open the heavily locked chest to inspect everything that they'd found there.

Most of it was useless detritus: too unique to discard, not powerful enough to use. The head from a broken statue. A vial of sublime blood. Several tiles from some game lost to time. There were also a handful of potentially useful items, like a resin that echoed with sorrow, a calming blue paint, or several bronze-colored wires. They might find their way into his soulhome, but they obviously couldn't fill a chamber with their cantae.

By far the most powerful item he'd found was the inverted tree that grew downward under its own logic. The problem was still that it had nothing to do with gravity and felt wrong for his soulhome. Theo reminded himself to give it to Nauda after she ascended and went to look at the rest.

He did find a few items with potential. There was a yellow marble that seemed to drain all the moisture from the air around it, which in retrospect he wished he'd offered to Navim. A ghostly prism folded on itself and gave a sense of immense weariness - he actually liked the feel of it, the prism was just the exact opposite of his Corporeal workings. There was also a glass of light-draining water that he'd spent a long time debating whether it could be incorporated into his gravitational design.

Now that he'd was converting other materials to gravity, perhaps he should reconsider the water? The problem was that the cantae it offered just didn't feel that enforcing, and he didn't see how it would work with any of his techniques. Had he ever offered it to Fiyu? He couldn't be sure.

"I waited too long." Theo left his soulhome and rubbed his face. "I figured that I'd get some flash of inspiration and pull it all together. Now I have a third of a floor and I won't be ready for the battle."

"If it's any comfort," Senka said, "I don't remember many people in my era who tried to make aggressive new blueprints like this. They followed well-traveled paths until they passed Dominion, then maybe they began tinkering with designs."

"That's not any comfort."

"Well then, sporp you and sporp the soulhome you flew in on."

Despite everything, Theo gave her a bitter smile that felt right. "I was moping, not giving up. Do you think we can finish a brand new blueprint in one month?"

Senka matched his smile. "Guess we'll find out, won't we?"