Deathseed: Chapters 33-34 (Patreon)

First up, please take a look at the above cover, which is for Wakespire. I think the previous cover is great, and I'm grateful to Robot Cat for their work, but after many missed deadlines they have now ignored me for the past four months. As much as I would have liked to redo the entire series in that style, it doesn't seem like it will be possible, so it's better for the series to have a consistent brand.

The past couple weeks I've been saying these were interim chapters; well, hopefully they feel justified now. I think it should be all payoff through the end of the book, starting with emotional breakthroughs in the near future and building to soulcrafting and plot stuff. Hope everyone enjoys. ^-^

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Chapter 33

To her surprise, Nauda found herself training with Nanjuma. Physically sparring, not lecturing on soulcrafting or discussing the community. When he had hired her in Myufuru years ago, she had been just a promising young soulcrafter and he'd been a Ruler. Now they were trading blows as equals.

It was essentially the opposite of her sparring against the Arbaians: instead of testing her armaments, Nauda left them on the sidelines and fought with her body alone. That meant she got battered, because Nanjuma was more skilled and had more concentrated enhancement chambers. It didn't mean that she had to surrender, so she kept fighting until she was exhausted.

Her death tower alone made her an above average combatant, it just couldn't compete with Nanjuma. Especially as he was now: Nauda had given him the gemwing and the eryo materials, only to watch him grow even stronger. At least that brought him closer to Authority.

When Nanjuma managed to grab her arms, Nauda dug in her heels and drew on her inertial strength. She didn't budge from her spot, but he bent her backwards until her body almost gave out.

"I have an idea." Abruptly Nanjuma released her and pulled back. "You're still holding this 'inertial' concept at a distance. The technique comes naturally to you, but not the soulcrafting."

"Already knew that." Nauda rubbed one of her bruises and willed her regeneration to get to work. "Arbaian materials are so... sterile."

"That's why I'm offering you this."

Nanjuma revealed something green and brown from his soulhome. After so long in the blue and purple environment of Slest, it took her a moment to recognize it as a seed. The exterior glowed a healthy brown and it extended roots in several directions. She immediately recognized the potency of its cantae, but it took her longer to figure out its nature.

"This is a rootedvessel. I grew one in my own soulhome to strengthen my defenses, very similar to your own chamber but based in the natural world. Why don't you try it?"

Her first instinct was to refuse the gift and she immediately realized how ridiculous that was. They'd been handing Nanjuma assistance for weeks now and he was just returning the favor. If anything, he might feel the need to give back so that they weren't giving him charity. She accepted the sublime material respectfully and pulled it into her soulhome.

Once inside, her spiritual feet took her directly to her death tower, as they always did those days. She practically flew up her metal ladders and had to stop herself on the second floor. There, she carefully placed the "rootedvessel" underneath the inertialstone. The two materials did work together. She judged the floating Arbaian stone was more powerful, and had a stronger link to the concept of inertia, but the Tatian seed felt so natural. Perhaps it could tie everything together for her.

Fitting both materials into the room would take some work, of course. Nauda went to retrieve some sublime dirt and water, then set about creating a place for the plant. It would take a little while to grow, but she could easily imagine the end result. With the inertialstone firmly anchored, it would be stronger. The only problem was the life in the rootedvessel... maybe she could kill it without losing the cantae after everything was linked?

Outside her soulhome, Nanjuma had also begun to soulcraft, continuing to build his ascension pyramid. Since they were done sparring for the time being, Nauda climbed up to her third floor to get back to work. Three out of four rooms had a central material, but there was so much work left to do.

The bone statue Theo had found was perfect for enhancing her stamina. Just like the bloodglass sculpture increased her offense in a highly particular way, the bones weren't simple endurance: they felt like they would keep her moving even if the flesh fell from her body. It occurred to her that many of her unique materials matched the generic materials on the floor below... maybe there was something there, but she couldn't figure it out.

For the time being she was more focused on rearranging the abstract statue until it felt right to her. She was fairly sure that the original was a representation of a termite, so she kept tweaking it until it looked more like a humanoid. Every change she made hurt just a little bit, as if her soulhome had to adapt, but she could feel her endurance increasing.

There was still a completely empty chamber, and they didn't seem likely to find any more materials. Nauda looked away from it and focused on what she could control.

After exhausting herself with sparring and soulcrafting, she needed the restoration of community. Unfortunately, both Fiyu and Theo were deeply enmeshed in their own soulcrafting and their schedules rarely lined up. Since she'd just spoken with Nanjuma, Nauda instead went looking for the two Tatians who had accidentally been pulled along with them.

They'd adapted to Slest surprisingly well. No doubt they'd be horrified by the wilderness, but in the beetle city they fit right in. When she'd gotten back from hunting, she'd found the two happily eating goo and helping with activities that required different sorts of manual dexterity. The connection between two such different worlds still made her chuckle... and sometimes think.

Before Nauda could find any of them, she saw Bluepetal's scarred shell coming over one of the mounds. No beetles were fast, and he was far older than most, so she swerved to intercept him. When he arrived, the elderly beetle extended one forelimb.

[I am afraid I must return these sublime materials to you. Dangerous.]

"Dangerous to the people planting them?" Nauda scooped up the deathseeds, which seemed to have stronger cantae than before. "I'm sorry about that. I was hoping that you would find some special use for them."

[We did harvest a few, but your theory was correct.] Bluepetal settled down and regarded her. [These seeds will continue gaining life until they explosively drain everything from a region.]

So much for the hope that she'd been wrong and they actually had more time. Nauda rolled the deathseeds around in her palm thoughtfully as she considered what else could be done. While she did so, she suddenly realized what Bluepetal had said. "Wait, gaining in life? Aren't they more... anti-life?"

[Or... seeds of death, one might say?] It was impossible to hear sarcasm in pheromones, but that had to be. Bluepetal shook his head slowly as he continued speaking. [Life contains death. All beings that live create death, whether they eat plants or animals or intelligent beings.]

"Plants don't. I don't think Arbaians do either." Nauda quickly raised her hands. "I'm not quibbling, I get your point. You're saying that the deathseeds are a type of life that drains other life?"

[One could say that is true of almost all life, but yes.]

"Does that matter? I mean... is it relevant? Seems like they can't be used except to harm other people, no matter how you theorize about them."

[I do not see any way they can be grown safely, but that does not mean they are irrelevant.] Bluepetal reached out and plucked one of the seeds from her hand. [These already contain considerable cantae. They could be crushed to release it and perhaps form a powerful ingredient. Or this stage could be taken into a soulhome to generate cantae, even if not as much as the original owners hoped.]

For just a moment, Nauda hoped that her solution had been handed to her. Could she place the deathseed into the empty chamber of her death tower? But no, what Bluepetal said tripped her up. Everything else in that tower was already dead, not life-draining. It might be powerful enough, but it was just wrong enough that she couldn't use it.

While she thought, Bluepetal remained beside her. She knew the old beetle well enough by now to suspect that he wanted something else, so she swept the deathseeds aside. "What is it?"

[I grow concerned that Queen Yeshir will dominate this city.]

"I thought you were too valuable for that. Aren't you already giving her an edge against her enemies?"

[If we become valuable enough, she may decide it would be better if her armies were in charge.] Bluepetal leaned closer to her and his pheromones became more insistent. [Right now we are just beetles to her. To be an essential part of this region, we require an identity.]

She wanted to tell him that they had plenty of it, but it would be wrong to dismiss his concerns. "We'll help if we can, but what do you need?"

[Someone must convince Queen Yeshir to give our city a name and official status. Obviously, it cannot be one of us. In secret we have been reverse engineering the termite recipe for war acid, and we could begin production.] Bluepetal sat down and she was almost certain he was pleased with himself. [Let us be the official source of war acid for Queen Yeshir and Gray-Blue-Gold colony. If we make ourselves indispensable, it will be harder for us to be treated as chattel.]

"I'll help you if I can, but she isn't going to respect me as a Ruler." Nauda knew Theo or Fiyu could be convinced, though, so she thought the idea had potential. "What do you want to be named? Or does the queen get to decide?"

[We would like our city to be named Acidmount.]

"That's a bit ominous... did everyone really agree on that?"

[Other popular names were Acidgoo and Pullerhive. I would strongly suggest that you go with Acidmount.]

Nauda grinned. What was one more objective? "Alright, we'll do what we can."

~ ~ ~

When Nauda told him about the leafpuller plan, he took some convincing. There was so much work to be doing and he didn't want to engage with the local royalty and risk getting involved with their politics. Plus Tythes had previously manipulated the local hives, which could mean a dozen different kinds of problems. But it seemed to matter to her, so he thought it through.

The city was in a strong position overall. It would take some work to fly the anti-weirkey materials to them, but if the beetles could work the stone, then they'd be better defended than most hives he'd seen. Maybe the economic factor would protect them, maybe not. In Theo's opinion they would have been better off with a large army of soldier ants and multiple Authorities.

"Are there any Ruler-tier beetles worth anything?" he asked. "One Authority of their own would make a big difference."

"Even Queen Yeshir only has a Ruler-tier royal guard," Nauda said. "I think making any new Authorities would be a direct challenge to her rule."

Just as well, since he wanted to conserve their heavenspears. Theo folded his arms as he began to accept it. "I assume you're talking to me because you want me to go make nice with Yeshir."

"Can you imagine Fiyu doing those negotiations?

"Fine, I'll consider it, but I'm not optimistic."

"This isn't simply about getting official recognition for the city." Nauda leaned in closer even though they couldn't be much safer in the nest. "It would also be in our best interest to gather information on what's happening in the royal hive. We could learn about issues that might affect the city ahead of time, or maybe even about Tythes."

"If I know anything about Slescan royalty," Theo said, "I won't have time for that."

"That's why I think it would be best to take Krikree with you." Nauda raised her hands defensively. "I know it's a risk, but you need a local. Authorities usually travel with royal guards, so she wouldn't attract too much attention. She can learn more while you talk."

"It works in theory, but are you sure Krikree is up for it?"

That objection finally brought Nauda to a halt. She turned and stared over the city for a while before speaking in a very different tone. "I was hoping you could help her. I could tell something was wrong, while we were hunting, but I don't think I can convince her. She needs something..." [more direct.]

[You can communicate in pheromones now?]

[Oh, shut up. I'm working on it.]

Theo realized with amusement that Nauda had a sort of accent when she tried to emit pheromones. He couldn't possibly have identified exactly what was different, yet the intuition was clear as day. If anyone was going to talk to Krikree, it did need to be him... not because of the pheromones, but because of whatever trust they'd built.

"I'll try to do everything," Theo said, "but I want your telescope."

She agreed quickly, perhaps too quickly, and then he was off. Since they'd returned, Krikree had been spending most of her time scouting with some subspecies of beetle that had more soulcrafters. He wasn't sure if she'd been avoiding him or if it was actually his fault, given his constant soulcrafting. When he flew down toward her little patrol, she immediately ran up to him.

[Theo-sister.] She stared up at him, antennae motionless. [Hunt?]

[No, soulcraft.] That didn't seem to excite her, but she hopped up onto his back so he could fly back to the safety of their private mound.

Come to think of it, if the beetle city wanted to be taken seriously, maybe they should build more rooms for humanoids. Theo wasn't sure if there was actually an economic angle or if it just would have been convenient for him. In any case, he tried to push aside all other thoughts and focus on the Slescan he'd been ignoring for too long.

"May I see your soulhome?" he asked gently.

[Krikree soulcraft.] That seemed to be her answer, so he reached out to take her hand and stepped inside.

When he'd first seen her soulhome, it had been a clump of half-domes built from the dried mud that many Slescan soulcrafters used. A reasonable enough design, but only up to Ruler. All the irregular domes didn't support one another well, so trying to build more on top would have led the entire building to collapse. He was relatively certain that was by design of Slescan royalty.

Before he left for Noven, Theo had left Krikree with blueprints for a radical redesign. It had her build a solid tower of spheres, each packed tightly against one another. In theory that would make far better use of her soulhome volume, and if the spheres were fused together, the result would be highly durable. The design had included methods for including reinforcing materials so that hopefully her ascension wouldn't be blocked.

From the outside, her soulhome was mostly what he'd imagined. Instead of interlocking spheres, she'd built three floors of them on top of one another. Twenty-seven in all forming a large cube, like an alternate version of his soulhome with bubbly walls. Inside, however, she had mostly just rearranged her sublime materials.

For a moment Theo felt a surge of irritation. He'd put in so much work on the blueprint and left her for a year, and this was all she'd done? He regretted that impulse an instant later.

It was easy for him to tell Krikree that she should tear everything down and start over, but he hadn't lived through what she had. The fact that she had actually dismantled the soulhome that had been drilled into her from birth and built a structure like nothing she'd seen before was extraordinary. When she appeared in her soulhome, skittering closer to him, he made sure to smile at her.

"Do you want to give me the tour?"

[Krikree soulcraft. Krikree is good soldier class.]

That definitely wasn't right. Whatever else was going on, Theo did want to investigate her soulhome while he had Nauda's telescope, so he walked in to take inventory.

At first he was a little discouraged. Even though Krikree had expanded her walls to the limits of her soul, she still built each chamber as a sphere with thick walls. That meant her total volume for cantae was only about average. Wherever multiple spheres met there was a large section of sublime mud that wasn't doing much for her.

The materials themselves were only average for her tier, the enhancements that a scout would normally possess. On the second level he began to see more variety. There was a chamber with a glowing red stone that was definitely from Fithe and he realized he had no idea where or when she'd gotten it. In one corner she had built a cozy nest, with a sheet of sublime cloth that had the Blacksilver logo on it.

On her third floor, there was a whole section filled with Arbaian materials, including a number of gemstones. He wasn't sure what she even intended with the design. For example, the center of one room had a hovering mud sphere with sublime gemstones stuck in it. Was it an imitation of an Arbaian central sphere? Something from Slest he'd never seen before? He had no idea.

Multiple rooms contained sublime metal and copies of her weapons. It appeared to be one weapon per room, which was highly inefficient, and there were still some empty chambers on her third floor. Theo kept his face as neutral as possible as he turned back to Krikree.

"Good work, Krikree. Your soulhome is stronger than before, and it has far more potential."

[Theo-sister help.]

"Yes, but you did a lot of this on your own, didn't you? It seems like you learned from the Arbaians."

[Navim-thinkrock.] Krikree's eyes continued to express nothing, but her antennae twitched.

"I have something for you." Theo left her soulhome and then reached for the demonic core. "A mindless ant using this was a real pain. You aren't built exactly for it, but I hope with your soulcrafting you can make something more of this. Take the material and-"

[Not!] Krikree leapt back from the core and began trembling.

"Is there something wrong with it? I don't think there are actually weaknesses to using demonic materials, but if you-"

[Not! Krikree good soldier, Krikree not steal!]

So it was as bad as Nauda had feared. Theo wasn't sure if it would be insulting to get down on her level, so he stayed where he was. He hefted the core in his hands and then held it out to her.

[This is mine,] he emitted. [I'm giving it to you. You're not stealing.]

[Strong material. For royal guard. Not soldier caste.] Krikree was vibrating even more violently now as she stared at the dark orb.

[You aren't part of your old hive anymore. You don't have to follow their rules. If you stay with us, you can visit many worlds, soulcraft with anything, ascend to Authority and beyond.]

[Not! Not!] It looked like she would shake herself apart but she wasn't fleeing. [No permission. Krikree good soldier caste. No permission. No steal. No fight. Good soldier.]

Theo took a deep breath as he stared at the terrified Slescan. He knew Krikree was too smart for her thinking to be so rigid. This was something deeper, more instinctual. Instead of scorning her reactions, he tried to look at them like the natural human response to insects or snakes. It could be overcome, but that required conscious effort.

Most likely the easiest way would be to give her an order. She was emitting continual pheromones about lacking permission, so he could grant her that permission. Announce that he was a prince now and that she had to use the sublime material.

That was wrong. After she'd come so far, that would be sending her right down her old path. The problem was that he had no idea what to do instead.

All of Theo's past experience was about soulcrafting, killing things, bending circumstances to his advantage. He had never paid enough attention to Slescans to notice all these issues, much less discovered any solutions. Facing Krikree's terror... all he had was compassion.

[Krikree disobey. Abandon hive. Not. Krikree good soldi-]

[Not!] Theo emitted the pheromone as forcefully as he could. In an instant, all of Krikree's pheromones vanished and she froze in place. He took a careful breath and continued more gently. [Krikree-what?]

[Scout. Soldier cast-]

[Not. Krikree-why?]

That seemed to befuddle her. Instead of shivering as she had before, Krikree cocked her head and stared at him, antennae wavering.

[Krikree-who?]

[Krikree-sister.] She emitted it so meekly that he could barely even perceive the pheromone.

[You get to decide that, don't you?] Theo reached down toward her head but didn't touch her. [You're one of us now. No queens matter except Nauda-queen and Fiyu-queen, and will they hurt you? If you want to live in Blacksilver-hive or Arbai-hive, you can. If you want to leave Slest right now, we can go.]

He pushed out the pheromones as strongly as he could and hoped he wasn't making the wrong decision. After a long pause, Krikree shuffled forward and pushed her head against his hand. [Theo-sister good.]

[Can you explain what happened before?]

"Not pheromones." Something of the spark had returned to her eyes as she looked up at him. "Other worlds, pheromones secret. Here, not. Words better."

"Because others might overhear? I'm scouting around us, but sure."

"Theo-sister say scout. Chkchkchk." Her chittering laugh was muted, but he thought it was authentic. Maybe he'd overdone it using her vocabulary, though he thought that it had made a difference in getting through to her earlier.

"Can you explain? You don't really believe we'd punish you, do you?"

Krikree paused for a time, then crawled up onto the bed beside him. She grabbed his arm with all four hands and pulled it back up to her head, so he rubbed around the base of her antennae. That rendered her emotions almost completely unreadable, yet he was sure that she was thoughtful.

"Other worlds, no voices." Krikree settled a little lower into her scouting crouch. "Slest, many voices. Hard to think."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Why confusing! Theo-sister like why. Navim-thinkrock like why. Krikree want soulcraft."

"If you say so, it's your call." Theo pulled out the demonic core again and smiled. "Shall we give this another try?"

This time Krikree grasped the sublime material and pulled it into her soul. He had anticipated that she might have some trouble, but it seemed like her willpower had increased during her travels. When he used the telescope to look inside her soul, she was already carrying it to the third floor.

She could definitely handle this part herself, but she looked back to him periodically. Theo did his best to smile at her while he examined her soulhome again. Instead of seeing the empty spaces, now he saw the opportunities. Most notably, the sections of mud in between the spheres. He'd also had wasted space in his columns before he drew the grizzleroot into his soulhome and it hadn't harmed him in the long term. The question was how best to make use of it.

Three by three by three... that blueprint meant that there were eight large vertices in the center of her soulhome. They ate up space, but they were also perfectly positioned, each touching eight chambers. He hadn't realized how elegant that symmetry seemed. Krikree's soulhome was built on simple, powerful cantae generation, nothing fancy, so perhaps it was best to maximize that.

"Let's soulcraft in here," Theo said as he reached up to tap one vertex. "Hollow out this and put in a new sublime material."

"Too small." Krikree was watching him closely and bouncing her antennae, though.

"For a whole room, yes, definitely. But what if you had a simple enhancement material that just needed to add some cantae to the rooms around it? You could pack in more materials and they'd-"

"Radiate all rooms!" Krikree crawled up the side of the nearest sphere and practically smashed her face into the wall. "Navim-thinkrock teach geometry. More space, more connections. Krikree try."

"But remember that most of these are going to be overlapping. This chamber will be touching four vertices, and the one above it all eight. Can you rearrange your enhancements so they all synergize?"

"Krikree scout." She began skittering around her soulhome, looking over all her materials. In the middle of chewing a piece of sublime meat, she suddenly looked up at him and waggled her antennae. "Soulcrafting fun."

"Yeah." Theo chuckled. "Soulcrafting fun."

Chapter 34

Fiyu had named her new material a ghostheart and she was already very fond of it. Not only because it was perfect for her soulcrafting, but because it was a gift from Friend Nauda. Even if it had not been meant as a gift for a potential lifemate, it was very kind.

As the days before the deathseed's activation decreased, Fiyu had no choice but to prioritize. She had decided that she would focus on the ghostheart and her incorporeality technique over her others, which meant that some rooms would be incomplete. Enhancement materials could be placed in many rooms, then her last technique room would remain empty. Her fire-based room had been intended to further improve her lightstorm and it would have to be soulcrafted later.

No... perhaps she should place something else in that space, similar to how Friend Theo relied on minor cantae boosts. Fiyu removed the ifritbraid from her storage and placed it into her empty light chamber. It was hardly final construction, but that way her Authority floor would be filled and her light bursts slightly more potent.

If she worked hard, Fiyu believed that she could finish building the walls of all her rooms, fill them with temporary materials, and complete her technique chamber. That would grant her more cantae storage, if not more generation. It would have to be enough for the battle in Nlukoko.

Now that she had sufficient materials, Fiyu let very few things distract her. She worried about making Friend Nauda sad, but fortunately her companions were soulcrafting just as intensely. They would be ready if they all worked together, she was sure of it.

Several days later, however, Fiyu allowed for one distraction: it was time for Ally Nanjuma to ascend.

They all gathered away from the city, where the ascension wouldn't disturb any of the beetles. Being in the Slescan wilderness had once been dangerous and now felt comfortable. Their group contained two Authorities, after all, and would soon include a third if all went well.

Ally Nanjuma wore only a simple brown tunic and pants, like most of the Farmguards. He had bathed and oiled his long hair and beard, but otherwise he looked like a villager. Fiyu was quite certain that was what he wanted. When they reached their location, he turned around to face them.

"Traditionally I'd give some sort of speech," he said. "But it's been so long since I've been through an ascension, I've forgotten what to say. Perhaps all there is to say is that I'm proud that I was once your teacher. I hope I can join you in saving one little corner of Tatian."

"Don't hope," Friend Theo said. "Be certain. You're more than capable of this."

"Let's not build up expectations too high now." Ally Nanjuma knelt down, placed his hands on his knees, and then entered his soulhome.

He walked through much more slowly than Friend Theo had, taking time to cherish every item he had soulcrafted. Nothing was out of place, and his soulhome truly was filled with an astonishing amount of polished secondary crafting. Fiyu had not been worried until Friend Theo spoke, but now her heart was filled with fear that Ally Nanjuma would fail and break his precious soulhome.

Eventually he made his way to the roof. After standing and basking in the sun, which seemed counterproductive, he began to make his way up the side of the pyramid. He began to slow almost immediately, and his legs trembled in a way Fiyu had never seen in real life.

Even watching from the outside, it seemed to take a great deal of time. Spiritual rain had utterly drenched Ally Nanjuma by the time he drew near the top and a wind picked up, tearing a few leaves away from the growing parts of his soulhome.

He was still several steps away when he fell to one knee. Fiyu gasped and placed a hand over her mouth.

Yet just when all seemed lost, Ally Nanjuma's pyramid began to glow. She realized that it had been formed not only of simple bricks, but of sublime materials deeply connected to his soul. Ally Nanjuma gripped them tightly and pushed himself back to his feet. He strode up the final steps and hurled his will against the sky.

Soon after, it was over. He laughed as he was swept up in the flood of new cantae and that laughter echoed into the real world, where Ally Nanjuma began to rise into the air.

"So this is how the Landguards feel?" He stared down at his hands as he flexed them slowly, the muscles in his arms rippling with new power. "I can see how you'd think you know everything."

"That was well done," Friend Theo said. "It was close for a moment, but there's no soulhome damage that I can see."

"Yes, well done!" Friend Nauda stepped in and lifted him up in a hug. Ally Nanjuma hugged back and used his aerial leverage to lift her above him even though he was off the ground. Both of them laughed wildly as they spun before they dropped back down.

Fiyu settled for patting Ally Nanjuma on the shoulder and murmuring a few complimentary words.

"I know you probably have designs for me," Ally Nanjuma said as he rolled his shoulders, "but I'm too old to throw myself right into a new floor. Do you know how long it's been since I've soulcrafted a brick? I almost miss it, but I don't look forward to how hard it's supposed to be now."

"I suggest at least one one room on your fourth floor." As he spoke, Friend Theo extended a hand over to Friend Nauda. "But if you really don't want to start, there's something else we need you to do. As a Authority you need to know how to use weirkeys, and we have an important assignment that will make sure you learn."

Friend Nauda handed over her Noveni weirkey and Fiyu frowned in puzzlement. She had not been told about whatever they discussed. Even though Friend Nauda would not ascend soon, it seemed rude to take her weirkey and give it to Ally Nanjuma. Because both her companions were so good at obscuring their emotions, Fiyu was left rather befuddled by the encounter.

"Alright, if you insist." Ally Nanjuma clenched the key in a fist. "What matters is that we're ready by the time we go back to Nlukoko. I want to make things right with my own hands."

Fiyu decided that Ally Nanjuma had more wisdom to offer her. She would let her allies worry about plans and schemes. As soon as the celebrations were over, Fiyu returned to her soulcrafting so that she could do her part.