Deadgold: Chapters 26-27

Thanks to everyone who supported the Bloodcrete audio release last week.

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Chapter 26

The plan had been to take Krikree to Slest, recruit some beetles, then jump back with plenty of time to spare. Somehow Nauda found herself waiting in Acidmount, biding her time soulcrafting while Bluepetal and others engaged in far more activity than she had expected.

At least they'd given her a decent room this time, a comfortable one with human-sized furniture and no windows facing toward beetle-like statues of her.

She had taken all the bricks she'd been soulcrafting and just committed: they were now fused together into the next floor of her staff tower, which was nearly complete. Since she was still figuring out the exact design of her fifth floor, with particularly tricky questions of inner organs, she decided to focus on her armaments, since there was such a clear path to strength for her.

And she actually had the floor filled as soon as the last brick was laid. Theo was so fixated on the fact that deadgold was a resource with limitations that he'd neglected the fact that it could still be a powerful temporary material. Nauda had been talking to Homez and Navim, and determined that it would need to be heavily integrated with the soulhome to resist Tymetronese gold, but that didn't mean it was useless. She thought that with it filling the top of her staff tower, she could exert some sort of influence, maybe even help people like Homez.

After that, she was definitely back to soulcrafting enough bricks for the body portion of her soulhome. Before Nauda could get that far, she was interrupted by a knock on the door. When she opened it, she discovered that Krikree was skittering around outside.

"Bluepetal-beetle ready!" she announced. "Get things, come outside!"

So apparently it was finally time. Nauda had left all her supplies in her soulhome in order to be ready to go at any time, so she just followed Krikree to meet up with Bluepetal. The scarred old beetle waited for her in the plaza outside, with a surprising number of people behind him. There were almost three dozen Slescans, ranging from acid beetles to antoids like Krikree to other species she'd never seen before.

"You want to bring this many people to Fithe?" Nauda asked. "I don't know that the tournament rewards will be worth it. And can all of them survive in other atmospheres?"

[We evaluated all the variables,] Bluepetal emitted, [and had many volunteers. Those who required modification have done the necessary soulcrafting. Surely there is no trouble?]

"Well, I might have to make more than one trip. This is a lot of people for me to manage with one weirkey."

Abruptly one of the antoid Slescans stepped toward her and, just as abruptly, dropped down to bow on one knee. "Queen Nauda," he said in a low voice. "I was told of your strength, but I fear I had not believed it until this moment. Please forgive my doubt and allow me to participate in your world's tournament."

[This is Ocellance,] Bluepetal explained without explaining much. [He hopes to participate.]

Nauda stared down at him in mild bafflement; she was always uncomfortable with being treated strangely on Slest and this humanoid variation was even worse. Ocellance was an Authority, with six limbs and antennae like Krikree, but otherwise little like her. Instead of a sleek green carapace, Ocellance had a bristly brown shell that gave him a burly appearance. He wore dark gray robes, leaving the only color a slash of red paint across his face.

"Do you all know what you're getting into?" Nauda wondered aloud. Ocellance gave no indication he even heard, and Bluepetal was being strangely circumspect.

When Nauda glanced back to Krikree, she declared, "Nauda-queen, take! Krikree and Bluepetal scout!"

Well, those affirmations were enough for her. Nauda did her best to greet the whole group with pheromones and introduced herself. Thankfully they weren't all as worshipful as Ocellance, though she had trouble reading some, and definitely couldn't keep up with all the names they spewed at her.

[Some of them need a little more time to prepare,] Bluepetal said once the formalities were done. [I thought you might enjoy visiting an old restaurant while you were here.]

She had no idea what he meant by that, but Bluepetal didn't do things without a reason and Krikree was just over her shoulder, her antennae practically vibrating out of their sockets. So Nauda smiled and went along with them as they ambled into the city, soon coming to a stone plate that was fashioned in the shape of a regional leaf. It lifted into the air on a stream of cantae, taking them over Acidmount.

Once they were in the air, Nauda turned to focus on Bluepetal. [What's going on?] she emitted. [Is everything alright?]

"Words!" Krikree announced sharply.

[Everything is just fine,] Bluepetal assured with heavy pheromones. [But you haven't seen the leafpuller hives in some time, have you? I thought you might enjoy their old fare, even if it is too modest for one of your status.]

"So you want me to do something," Nauda said, abandoning her spiritual pheromones. "Krikree, do I need to be ready?"

"Show beetles new Nauda-queen!" That was all Krikree said, and since the city of Acidmount had been built around a great many leafpuller hives, it wasn't long until they reached one.

From overhead, everything appeared perfect: the beetles were moving through their holes and tunnels, shifting about leaves and masses of nutrient goo. Even though it was apparently a pretense, Nauda did want to taste some of it again. When she stepped off after Bluepetal, at first they were entirely ignored, then a shift seemed to run through the hive.

[Symbiote?] one of the leafpullers emitted, the pheromone touched with questioning. It crawled toward her, simple face examining.

Nauda wasn't an expert on Slescans, but even across species and worlds, she could feel the emotion. These beetles were nervous and afraid, and they looked to her for support. That almost broke her heart, because it seemed so unearned: all she had done was save their hive from an ant army years ago. Yet now there were more of them, pouring out of the hive to surround her, emitting pheromones of pure uncertainty.

"Do I need to... say something?" Nauda whispered over to Krikree.

"Not speak pheromones," Krikree told her. "But mammals still emit scents. Just be self. Be true self."

That seemed opaque until Nauda put it together with what Krikree had said before. She reduced the obscuring effect of her shielding wall and let the beetles sense her real tier. Another tremble ran through them and the beetles pushed closer.

[Symbiote,] one emitted, more confidently this time.

[Symbiote,] Nauda agreed, and they all began to echo it.

As the leafpuller beetles clustered around her, Nauda still had no idea what was going on, but she felt as though she'd done the right thing. Or at least she hoped she had.

~

The trip to Deuxan had drained Theo of all desires except to get back to more soulcrafting. He still felt a lingering sense of obligation, but being able to do something for Navim, and then maintaining watch over the tournament, managed to slay that as well. While Nauda and Fiyu conducted their own business across the Nine Worlds, he could finally make some progress on his Stronghold floor.

Five completely finished rooms, one reserved, and two more powerful materials. Theo didn't think that he would achieve Dominion any time soon, but it felt closer than he had imagined.

Even if Dave hadn't been able to hand him any easy solutions, he'd given one thing of real value: the silvermind was an excellent addition to the ethereal side of his floor. Since it was a liquid, Theo was still considering exactly how to place it in the room, but he could easily soulcraft mental enhancements and carvings to prepare for it. That gave him plenty to do while he considered the remaining problems that he needed to solve on this floor.

The biggest absence, of course, was his planned second singularity, which led him to a dilemma. One of the most valuable sublime materials he held was the bloodruby from Laksloe, the problem was that he didn't know exactly where to place it. Its nature was so corporeal that it seemed like the obvious choice was to place it in the remaining corporeal chamber, but was that too obvious? Given how gravitationally-charged it was, that almost seemed like a waste of the material.

Thus he kept coming back to the idea of instead turning the bloodruby into his new singularity. The material itself was certainly powerful enough; he'd started his first singularity with a simple bogstone, after all. One of the main things that held him back was that it had so much corporeal essence; it might react with the surrounding chambers unless he spent a lot of mental energy forcing it all to connect.

Beyond that, however, there was a deeper problem that he wasn't sure about the optimal design for his second singularity. The practical results of his soulcrafting up to this point were simple: the singularity had been overpowered for the first three floors, less proportionally effective starting at Authority, and brought back to viability by the new chambers at Stronghold.

Except he didn't truly understand why.

Theo didn't believe that it was some trivial mental hangup, because for all the subjective elements, soulcrafting was ultimately practical. The other abilities he'd soulcrafted on his first three floors had risen along with him, still fully viable, yet the singularity seemed locked to those floors. Was it because of the spherical flow, somehow? Except he would have said the singularity itself was Stronghold-tier now, so maybe the problem was in deploying or expressing it?

Senka had told him that his design was like an additional Transcendent Monument, and that had been to his advantage up to this point, but apparently such aggressive designing brought new complications as well. Theo didn't want to rush a solution, which meant that he needed to deepen his understanding.

And, even though this issue was holding him back, Theo found himself smiling as he thought about it. There was always more to soulcrafting, no matter how far he went. If he was able to make contact with aeon-class organizations, he was going to have to resist burning his favors asking them questions.

Meanwhile, he just needed to fill his remaining chambers. Since ethereal materials seemed less common on Fithe, or at least the regions he'd visited, that suggested he might need to travel further. He briefly considered adding the deadgold, but couldn't come up with a design that he thought overcame its inherent limitation as an anti-Plutalgion material.

No, better to keep it for politics and trade. With luck, he would be able to trade it for something that would be a perfect fit for his soulhome. With a few more materials and a lot of polishing...

Well, it would make him the same tier as Raythe Darkblade. That thought was the first to puncture Theo's good mood, and his thoughts inevitably slid toward the other outsider. As the united tournament drew closer, Raythe was still mostly posturing and gathering followers, which he could do easily given his inflated tier.

The worst case scenario would be if Raythe opened up an attack on the tournament, because Tymetron could slay so many promising soulcrafters in one strike. Theo had warned the Deuxans about Raythe and urged them to be on guard whenever the other human got involved. He wasn't sure whether foreign Deuxan Courts would make the empire hesitate at all, if it came to an attack. Of course, it was always possible that Raythe himself might be the angle of attack, and he definitely wouldn't care...

If they had to fight, what would the outcome be? Theo had to believe that all the trouble he'd gone to would matter, compared to a lazy design inherited from Vistgil, but he had to admit that he didn't have empirical proof of that. People from Earth could well be weapons as well as dupes, and it was impossible to reach Dominion without gaining a high degree of raw power.

That was entirely hypothetical, of course, just a distraction for his ego. Actually fighting Raythe would be a mistake, he was fairly sure of that. Regardless of how directly Vistgil was involved, that would be a complication that he couldn't afford. Except he was already enmeshed in the whole Norron continent, so was it already too late?

Unless he could go the other direction, fighting Raythe and trying to seize the Artifact of Elghiera... and so Theo continued soulcrafting upward, even as his thoughts retraced his steps over and over.

~

Her companions were traveling to other worlds to recruit all manner of allies, but Fiyu was unable to do the same. She certainly had allies, but essentially all of them overlapped with those her companions knew, so there was little for her to do. That made her fear that she was unable to pull her weight, which forced her to push down a great many emotions.

Instead of returning to a past location, Fiyu followed the procedure that her elder relative had given her in order to contact him. It took her several days, traveling across worlds and soulcrafting along the way. She had nearly completed the chamber that contained the flickerflower, which would increase her cantae a little until she could shift to her true designs. In the meantime she also worked on expanding her basement, which was easier now that she had ascended with a darkegg, yet she still needed to work carefully, because the foundations needed to support five floors overhead.

Eventually she found her relative, but it was unfortunately not quite the reunion that she had hoped. Relative Guchiro was in the middle of a serious meeting with his allies, other elders whom Fiyu had never been properly introduced to. Associate Senka was even with them, which was a perplexing thought.

For reasons unknown to her, the entire group met in a shadowy valley of Noven, which was pleasantly dark but filled with brambles that seemed to seethe with malicious intent. After testing the threat of some of them, Fiyu had decided to remain in the cleared area, waiting for the others to finish as they consulted with one another in the depths.

When their bodies began to shift, Fiyu looked up from her soulcrafting, hopeful that her relative would come out to her. Instead Associate Senka, a distinctly disappointing replacement, hovered from out the brambles.

"They're almost done," Associate Senka said in a gravelly voice. "This group is the absolute worst, the most humorless bunch I've ever met. Get ready to take some of them back to Fithe."

"Exactly what were you doing with them?" Fiyu inquired. "Guchiro said that he wanted to consult with you regarding higher tiers, but I thought your memories were too distorted to offer concrete suggestions."

"Ugh, I don't want to sporping talk about it. Give Senka yummies!"

It appeared to be a true onslaught of her cursed state, so Fiyu pulled some useless sublime materials that had accumulated in her soulhome and handed them to Associate Senka, who dropped to the ground and began chewing on them. Fiyu was still uncertain what to make of this. It was definitely not caring for children, as she had once thought, but in this form Associate Senka truly was diminished. Perhaps it was more like caring for an elderly relative who was growing infirm, a thought that made Fiyu strangely somber.

Before too long, Relative Guchiro emerged and stopped beside her with a nod. "Apologies for being absent from Fithe so long," he said. "I needed to connect w some old contacts."

"Is there a chance that any of them will help us in the war?" Fiyu asked. She had not expected it, but still, she hoped...

"Most of them judge that the risk is too great, given the threat of Plutalgion. However, I did convince one to at least join us, an old peer who remained at Authority as I did. He is willing to at least visit Fithe."

Just gaining a single Authority did not seem like such a great achievement. Fiyu could only marvel at how much her standards had changed, which was a mark of how far she had soulcrafted, but that was little comfort against the threats they faced. As far as she had been able to determine, only a few members of her relative's group had ascended to Stronghold or Dominion, and they wanted to remain hidden until at least one of them could reach Ophaon.

They floated in silence for a time, awaiting the new ally, and Fiyu was distracted by Associate Senka babbling with her mouth full. This annoyed her at first, then made her realize that she should sate her curiosity in a different way.

"Were you able to obtain useful soulcrafting information from Senka?" Fiyu asked.

"More or less," Guchiro responded flatly. "She's more opaque than we'd like."

"I remember her saying something about needing to go backward in order to reach Ophaon."

"Yes, that was the puzzle we tried to unravel. As near as she can remember, and we can determine, going beyond Dominion properly requires an intermediate step that actually weakens the soulcrafter. A Dominion's soulhome is highly solidified, so it will generally break upon ascension. There are processes to make it more malleable, which allows an effective ascension, but has considerable risks in the meantime."

"I see." This information would not be useful to Fiyu immediately, but she was still pleased to learn it. "Will this help you ascend to Ophaon?"

"Perhaps one day, but I remain unprepared, and this backwards step might be the worst possible one to take during a war."

They lapsed into silence again, but this time they didn't need to wait long. Fiyu noted that many of the others had disappeared, either twisting the space around them into weirkeys or simply flying away. But there was one body floating toward them through the brambles, and based on its structure she determined it was a Noveni male. He was a muscular Authority wearing a simple robe and a blindfold, and most strikingly, he had four wings that appeared to be made from bone.

"This is your ward?" The Noveni emerged and nodded to her in the darkness, almost as if he had Ichili senses. "Guchiro has spoken a great deal about you and your potential."

"I fear I do not have the pleasure," Fiyu answered. She had learned complex responses like that during her time in Noven, and it seemed effective, because the man chuckled.

"My name is Aurelon Candorus." He swept a bow, made more dramatic by all his wings flattening behind him in the same motion. "And I hope that I can participate in this tournament of yours."

Fiyu's spine twitched upright. "You do?"

"That was his condition for assisting us," Relative Guchiro explained. "Aurelon believes that the Fithan tournament may provide the war-like materials he needs to complete his blueprint. Surely there is no trouble with a Noveni participating?"

"It is not a matter of words, just timing," Fiyu said as she fumbled in her robes for her weirkey. "They have been preparing for this tournament for a long time, and the day draws close. We must hurry or it will be too late to enter."

Soon the four of them left the valley of darkness and bloodthirsty brambles behind, but that only took them to Fithe and the united tournament, where the spikes were invisible and far more dangerous.

-

Chapter 27

The grand United Norron Tournament opened with great pomp and circumstance, including an ornamental dust storm the likes of which had never been seen before. Powers from across the Ruling Cities, Asplundat Movement, and Wavefront all gathered to inaugurate it. Countless contestants from across the Nine Worlds prepared to compete in four separate elimination brackets, while even non-soulcrafters flooded in to watch, or to make a profit on all the attendees. Everyone who was anyone made sure to make an appearance and demonstrate their importance.

Theo and his friends were half a continent away, sharing a drink at the State of Rest. The restaurant was almost quaint by the standards of all the places Theo had been, but he preferred the low lighting and simple cushioned chairs to most of the grand palaces he'd visited.

By unspoken agreement they didn't discuss business while they enjoyed their meal, they simply reminisced. Navim blended easily with the group, and to his surprise the State of Rest had added certain rocks to its menu that Arbaians could use for sustenance. Theo wasn't sure if that was explicitly because of them, though it was possible, as they were among the restaurant's most famous customers. Unfortunately Krikree was absent, needing to tend to the new Slescans, but that meant the conversation could drift through old subjects.

"I cannot say that I am particularly proud of my victories," Navim was in the middle of saying. "Simply pushing others out of the ring is hardly the tactic of an intelligent being."

"On the contrary, it did the job!" Nauda said with a laugh. "I wonder who would have won, if the Myufuru tournament had gotten to the end."

"A difficult counterfactual to estimate, to be sure. It may have depended on how much time the Farmguards allowed between matches, because as we have seen, the rates of soulcrafting diverged immensely."

"I think the three of us would have been victorious," Fiyu said with quiet conviction. "Even then, we were displaying increasing cooperation."

"Though we couldn't do it alone," Nauda pointed out. "You remember when one team almost beat us via manipulating the rules with technicalities? We would have lost if someone hadn't stood up to change the order... let's test your memory, Theo, do you remember his name anymore?"

"His name was Javes," Theo said with exaggerated dignity. "The Landguard transported him back to Fithe, but he isn't from the Norron continent, so he may not even be aware of the present war."

Nauda's eyebrows rose incrementally. "Well, I'm impressed! You go track him down and become best friends?"

"Hardly, but I forgot his name once even though he helped us. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again."

"Whatever became of the destroyed tree?" Navim asked. "Such a large aspect of the city to be destroyed, yet I could speculate that the catastrophic manner in which it was destroyed would intimidate any who wished to rebuild."

"Not for long," Nauda said. "Nanjuma and I stopped by Myufuru one time and they'd planed off the top to build on it. Incomprehensible spatial traps are one thing, but overcrowding is a more powerful force."

"Fascinating. I would rather like to see how they rebuilt, and whether they attempted to reconstruct any of the gondola systems dependent on the tree. There is an ongoing academic debate as to whether physical or historical patterns are more dominant, you see."

"Do you have an interest in architecture, Navim?" Fiyu asked.

Before he could answer, Senka sat up with an exaggerated yawn. With the four of them together, the urge to talk about the times when they met were overwhelming, but that left Senka out. After rubbing her bloodshot eyes, she scowled around the table.

"Myufuru this and fumpet that," Senka said, "I wasn't there for any of it, therefore it doesn't matter. Wouldn't you rather talk about when we met in Nlukoko? Like that time I babbled nonsense, or that other time I babbled nonsense."

"How about the time I dropped you into a lake?" Theo asked.

"I don't remember that, therefore it didn't happen."

Before she could complain any further, they were interrupted by the sound of one of the wooden doorways shifting. Usually the staff at the State of Rest did a good job of staying out of the way, so Theo glanced up in mild surprise. That reaction magnified when he saw Homez standing in the doorway, looking over the group.

"Sorry I'm late," he said in a faint voice. "I wasn't feeling well at first."

"I invited Homez to join us," Navim explained, "as a surprise. Glad to see you felt up to it."

"We ate all the food," Nauda said, "but we could order more if you want."

"No, I doubt my stomach is settled enough to take it." As Homez walked to the table, however, his body seemed strong, and he gladly took a seat around their table.

His arrival completely disrupted the previous conversation, though not in a bad way. Obviously the biggest news in Homez's life was his recovery, and fortunately he didn't seem unhappy to talk about it: Fiyu asked after his health, Nauda was doing her best to treat him normally, and Theo played to stereotype by asking about the soulcrafting of it all. Fortunately, Homez and Navim were glad to explain how they had drained out the Tymetronese gold and replaced it with a new mortar they had devised.

"Before you ask," Navim concluded, "I have tested the gold and it is not identical to deadgold. The exact difference between the materials remains a topic under investigation."

"I want to hear all about that," Theo said, "but Homez slipped in a critical detail there. You said that the Asplundat Movement wanted to replace the gold with bloodcrete? Does that mean they're soulcrafting it again?"

"I fear so." Homez placed his hands flat on the table and took a deep breath. "That was technically a secret of the Movement, and I am about to reveal another. Please don't misunderstand me, I still believe in the Movement's ideals. But in the present war, I do not think that secrecy will serve us."

"We understand," Fiyu said with a somber nod. "What did you wish to share?"

"Yes, the Asplundat Movement is mass-producing bloodcrete in preparation for the invasion. Perhaps more drastically, I and some others have been pressuring the councils to try to create a second Dominion who would be called the Sword of Asplundat."

"Can you do that?" Nauda asked. "I assume that if you could, you already would have."

"Indeed, that is the problem, and Strongholds who can reach Dominion are not found under every rock. But as the war intensifies, new sublime materials come into play. There is deadgold, which you already know well, plus materials that were previously unavailable to us because they were monopolized by the Ruling Cities, Wavefront, or even undersea cities. I cannot give you a timeline, but I think that creating a second Dominion is more probable than not."

Theo sat back and considered how that changed the calculus. It would make them a bit less outnumbered against Tymetron, which couldn't be discounted. On the other hand, he didn't have the luxury of short-term thinking anymore, so he had to speculate what would happen if Norron survived the war and the balance of power had shifted. Would the new alliances between factions survive without an overwhelming threat from afar?

As the others discussed the relative armies, Theo listened with half an ear, because they had a solid understanding of the situation and he had nothing to add. Eventually, however, the discussion turned in the direction that he knew it would.

"But there's another Dominion here now," Homez said eventually. "You told me about Raythe last year, but I never would have imagined he'd reappear like this."

"Bah, he's a blooky fumpet." Senka mimed spitting. "If you think you can count on him, you're sporped. It might be smarter to count him against you."

"You may believe that," Navim said mildly, "but the majority of the population does not. As I understand it, his popularity has increased, even more than his tier alone would suggest. I believe there may be an appetite for anyone who offers promises of an easy path to victory, no matter how dubious they may be."

"This is related to all your concerns, Theo." Fiyu shifted toward him, eyes practically boring through her mask. "From all you have seen, do you believe he is being used against us?"

"I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't." Theo sat forward and rubbed his eyes. "Right now, I think we can't afford to confront him. The Wavefront knows about him, and they officially let him be a judge at the tournament. Challenging him would just damage the alliance at the time it's most needed."

"But could leaving him alone lead to greater troubles later?" Navim asked.

"It could, but right now we don't know. I think the bottom line is that confronting him has unclear benefits, while there are a lot of things we can do that could change the war, or at minimum aren't as likely to blow up in our faces."

"I wanted to talk about that." Homez gave them a weary smile as he slowly looked around the table. "I'm going to go back to the Asplundat Movement, to advocate for us to take a smarter path when it comes to bloodcrete. After everything that happened to me, they can't just brush me aside."

"We should probably split up in general," Theo agreed. "For example, we still haven't called in our favor with the Orphic Cabal for the Blacksilvercrest, and if we keep waiting, we might not get a chance. But now that the tournament has started, keeping someone here is more important than ever."

"I'll stay." Nauda volunteered with surprising speed and shrugged when they looked at her. "Most of you know, but Bluepetal brought a lot of candidates from Slest and I still don't know why. Krikree and I will make sure there aren't any violent misunderstandings and I'll try to figure out what's going on."

"My own work is clearly set out before me." Navim shifted back from the table as if preparing to go. "There is a great deal of research to be done, regardless of whether such abstract knowledge has any impact on the war. I should return to it."

"I want to talk to about armaments, but we can arrange that later."

"What should I do?" Fiyu looked around the group with a slight frown. "My relative and his ally are here, and I have no more leads to investigate. Of course I will continue soulcrafting, but... it seems that goes without saying, so..."

Part of Theo still wanted to do everything himself, but he realized that was simply foolish in a situation like this. If he hadn't been stretched between so many obligations this far, he might have contacted the Orphic Cabal already, which could have had an impact on the war. He reached into his soulhome and rubbed the stem of the surreal flower that Dave had given him, though he didn't pull it out in the end.

"There's an aeon-class soulcrafter in Siata," Theo said slowly. "Dave gave me a way to contact him, but the process might not be simple. Would you be willing to pursue that while I talk to the Orphic Cabal?"

"Oh! Yes, of course." Fiyu nodded eagerly. "I need you to explain all known information to me, however, because I do not want to make any errors with such an important potential ally."

Truthfully, Theo didn't know very much, but he could tell her everything later. As they discussed splitting up, their bodies followed their minds, so the meal was breaking apart. Everyone made sure to embrace Homez before letting him go, and Theo arranged communication methods with Navim. Senka had behaved herself, but she was beginning to buzz with excitement at the possibility of getting more information about her cursed rivers.

On his way out, Theo looked back to their room at the State of Rest and wondered just how long it would be before they could eat there together again.