New week, new chapters. Thanks to everyone who checked out Depthless Hunger 2 in ebook or audiobook. Releases suck. The bright side is that with the serialization complete my schedule is increasingly clear, which will open up new creative space once I'm not so tired.
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Chapter 38
Nauda's fist connected with the jaw of the Tymetronese soulcrafter with a satisfying crunch, sending him flying through the Fithan hills. She didn't even need to shake out her hand, armored as it was in her new golden gauntlet.
Her next target was the enemy Stronghold who was raining down golden teardrops over the battlefield, each of which could infiltrate a soulhome. Since the conflict had escalated in the Ruling Cities to the west, Tymetron had been using techniques like that more frequently, which had massively increased casualties. Individual drops couldn't bind a person, but they penetrated the soulhome and inhibited cantae flow until they were cleaned out. Hence why the Stronghold causing the golden storm was the largest threat on the battlefield...
For anyone but Nauda.
She swept closer, holding her gauntlet in front of her face and letting it shield her. Before she could reach the enemy, a Tymetronese Authority intercepted her, hurling massive javelins of cantae. Somehow she dodged the first, but the second hit her side and drove her to the ground.
There her legs punched into the rock as she stopped her plummet. Nauda grimaced and glanced at the wound on her side before she straightened up - just another minor injury acquired over days of battle. The target was still the Stronghold, so she pretended to ignore the Authority and rushed to get between the golden storm and the city.
As soon as he arrived, Nauda channeled cantae through her entire staff tower, producing a powerful effect that emerged from her gauntlet. The teardrops began to melt against the aura she projected, allowing the soulcrafters to regroup.
Of course the Authority was planning to hurl another javelin, but as she stood firm in front of the city walls, Nauda shifted her other foot. When the next javelin arrived, it impacted the line of wards she'd set there and both simply exploded.
Immediately Nauda burst into action, using her full strength as a Stronghold. She could do more than simply melt the incoming storm, she began casting long lines of wards all across the city. The javelin-thrower didn't merely have a barrier between them, there were dozens of them from all kinds of angles, preventing any clear shot.
That distraction was enough to allow a local Authority to fly out, tackling the javelin user and smashing her into a hill. Nauda felt a moment of triumph as she saw the battle turn... then a golden spear struck her with overwhelming force.
Even her gauntlet couldn't melt an attack that intense, and the spear continued to push toward her, burning inches from her face. It took all her strength to hold it back, but she managed to stomp the ground, releasing a wave of nullification that wiped away the spear.
The Stronghold, floating in the sky overhead, didn't look upset. "You're slowing down!" the soulcrafter called. "How long can you defend your cities while your allies play games in the tournament?"
"Shut up and fight," Nauda responded, using her deadgold gauntlet to gesture for further attacks.
"But you already see the power of our master's gift. Someone like you could go far in Tym-"
Then a cantae blade tore through the soulcrafter's chest. Finally, Nauda had held out long enough.
In one second Fiyu was removing her blade in a vicious arc, finishing off her opponent, and in the next second she was looking to Nauda in alarm. Even though they'd agreed to use this strategy, she still fretted so much when Nauda took injuries. That contrast made her heart ache with love and she didn't know what to do with those feelings.
For the next hour, at least, their job was clear. With the gold-wielder down, the rest of the battle was clean-up, and Nauda could relax for that part.
Going out to fight on the front lines of the war was the most relaxing part of Nauda's schedule. There, everything was simple: the Tymetronese enemy was threatening those she cared about and she could stop them with her bare hands. All the different factions worked together, almost as if the politics surrounding the tournament were just a dream.
It was taking a toll on her, however, as she couldn't always keep up with healing the injuries. Fiyu was getting more ragged as well, as they had been fending off Tymetron in the west for some time. After this they were supposed to be able to return to the tournament grounds, having represented House Blacksilver and turned back the tide more than anyone could have asked of them.
When the two of them came together afterward, Nauda was flush with victory and moved toward Fiyu impulsively. She had to force herself to stop: Fiyu was smiling at her, but didn't look prepared.
"Good work, Nauda. I think we can go home after this."
"Can I kiss you?" Nauda asked.
"Oh! I... yes." Fiyu blushed and leaned forward, closing her eyes. Nauda pressed her lips to the other woman's, and even though it was swifter than she would have wanted, it was still sweet.
The uneasiness crept in as they returned to help repair the city and heal the defenders. As far as Nauda was concerned, the two of them were engaged, so it should have been easier than this. She should have been able to see what Fiyu wanted by the way they looked at one another, not stiffly asking every time. Yet this was the only method that had worked for the two of them.
Moving in the aftermath, even as they were celebrated by the local Fithans, was also uncomfortable. Shouldn't it have been the most natural thing in the world to put her arm around the other woman's waist? Nauda knew that would trouble Fiyu, however, so she had to hold back and act like they were nothing but allies.
Things were about to get worse as well, because the accumulated injuries meant that they were being sent back to the tournament. Technically she should have been grateful, because she needed time to heal and soulcraft. And after arranging the deal with the Demonstalkers, Nauda was extremely aware that negotiating alliances could mean more than a dozen battles. It was still throwing herself back into a morass of ugly politics and troubling emotions.
"Umm... Nauda?" Fiyu hovered nearby, both literally and figuratively. "I have a suggestion, perhaps?"
"You can just say it," Nauda answered, with as encouraging a smile as she could manage.
"Instead of returning to the tournament grounds, would you like to meet with Navim instead? I am sure he would like to speak with you, especially since you used the new gauntlet."
"Yeah, I'd like that." And she would, she just didn't like what would come after.
~
Navim's workshop in Norro Yorthin had become another familiar environment for Fiyu, another place where it was permissible to relax. The mechanisms around the tables, and the objects upon them, changed every time she visited, but she had come to understand the order of the place, so variations no longer triggered any alarm in her.
"This worked great," Friend Nauda was saying as she pulled off the gauntlet. "Melts those storms out of the air."
"Were you able to combine it with your nullification?" Ally Navim asked. "I have made prototypes for others, but I fear that deadgold alone has limited efficacy."
"It's sort of both. I feel like we could modify it either way... right now this is leaning on my soulhome, but we could also change a few things to make it more effective against Tymetronese techniques."
"At a cost to general efficacy, however. A difficult thing to weigh, in these troubled times."
Fiyu happily listened to Friend Nauda and Ally Navim speak, relaxing within this community she had accepted. If she could have an Arbaian as a companion, and adjust to so many new environments, it seemed certain that she would soon adjust to having Friend Nauda as a lifemate. Except that Fiyu was all too aware that what was soon to her might be painfully long for her dear companion.
Currently all of Friend Nauda's muscles were tense, and it wasn't simply her recovery from the battle, so Fiyu decided not to make decisions for her. Once Friend Nauda had finished her discussion of armaments, Fiyu moved to speak to Ally Navim on her own.
"How goes your research?" she asked. "If your work was enough to satisfy the Caretaker, I would think it might be done, but you still seem to be studying deadgold."
"I study the material for its own sake," Ally Navim answered, "and I question whether my research would have satisfied the Caretaker if it were otherwise."
"I see. Do you think that, even if we win the war, the material could still be useful to people?"
"That remains unclear. Deadgold would certainly lose its value, without an enemy to use it against. The original... it is a strange material, not one I would say I fully understand despite all my work. But even if we cannot find another use for it, I think there is value in a detailed record of how it operated."
While they spoke, Friend Nauda settled on a bench at one side of the shop, indicating that she wanted to stay, which pleased Fiyu. She finished her conversation, patted Ally Navim's limb, and then went to join her companion. They sat rather close on the bench and smiled at one another, but otherwise silently began their soulcrafting.
If there had not been a war underway, Fiyu would have finished soulcrafting her entire Ethereal Floor before attempting to use any of it. As the difficulty of the battles reminded her, however, she was no longer a child who had the luxury of working while elder relatives protected her. Indeed, she was now the elder protecting many others.
So she had shifted her strategy, soulcrafting rooms that could be of use before she eventually converted them all into an Ethereal Floor. She had perfected the sublime sealant from the seaweed and was content that it could completely seal rooms. For now, she left openings so that the cantae could circulate normally instead of concentrating.
Into these rooms Fiyu placed the flickerflower, the modified explosive stone, an orphicstone given by Friend Theo, and all the other most powerful materials she possessed. This was not her ideal blueprint as a Stronghold, but it made her meaningfully stronger than she had been when she first ascended. It was the most she could do while she was still digging out her basement.
Finishing a major section of her work, Fiyu emerged from her soulhome and spent a while just examining Friend Nauda, drinking in her every detail. The other woman noticed, of course, smiling through her soulcrafting. That alone would have been perfect, but after only a minute or two Friend Nauda finished her work and joined her, and it was clear that she had misunderstood Fiyu's intent.
"Want to take a break?" Friend Nauda asked, very gingerly touching her waist.
"Okay, Nauda." Fiyu took a deep breath and allowed herself to lean into the other woman, briefly kissing her neck and then relaxing.
In the process, she felt Friend Nauda's muscles clench as she felt the uncertainties of their relationship. What she didn't understand, and what Fiyu could never fully explain, was that nothing about these experiences was bad. On the contrary, it was all too wonderful. The other woman felt so warm and comforting, Fiyu knew peace in a way she never felt otherwise.
But feeling that for long, much less thinking about going any further... that was too much for her to handle. Fiyu pulled back to let some of the heat escape her body and noticed that Friend Nauda seemed disappointed again.
"Do you know about any relationships between Ichili and other species?" Friend Nauda asked.
All at once, Fiyu's warmth was gone and panic descended on her. Yet again, she had underestimated the unhappiness of her companion, thinking that it was only mild frustration. If she was asking a question like that, then her thoughts had moved in terrible directions...
"I... I cannot say that I do." Fiyu made up for her lack by reaching out to grab the other woman's hands and squeezing them. "But we can find our path together, right? Isn't this what we agreed?"
"It isn't simply you," Friend Nauda said slowly. "No matter what I do, I feel like I'm pressuring you, and that's wrong. Yes, in the obvious sense, and I'm sure you understand that. But... that's something you should never do, on Tatian. As much as I feel for you, it's starting to feel wrong."
"Oh..." Fiyu knew she should speak, but all her insides seemed to be hollowed out.
"Would things change after we became lifemates? I don't see how it could just switch for you, I... please don't tell me that Ichili are only intimate to produce children, or every second year when the moon is full, or-"
"Of course not! Intimacy is essential for relationships, I just need time to adjust..."
"Is it possible that, no matter how hard people work, some combinations are simply incompatible? If someone fell in love with a Siatan or Arbaian, for example, their bodies and emotions are simply too different..."
The horror of it cut deeper, because this was a strange knife: Friend Nauda was actually acting very much like an Ichili. When relationships or pre-relationships broke off, in certain tragic situations, they ended with calm conversations instead of explosive arguments. For all of their difficulties, Fiyu had never considered that it could be like this, yet what could she do? They both knew what they wanted and their limitations, and if it brought them here...
"It's happened before," Ally Navim said from across the room.
Both women turned to him, startled. Ally Navim's new central sphere swiveled to meet their gazes, one at a time.
"You cannot conduct such a conversation a few paces away in my workshop and expect to be ignored," he said wryly.
"But what were you saying?" Friend Nauda asked. "You implied a relationship between an Arbaian and another species? Is it even possible for a combination like that to be intimate?"
"In an abstract sense, I object to your euphemistic use of the word 'intimacy', since I believe that intellectual intimacy is also essential." Ally Navim drew in his smaller limbs as he turned away from his work to face them. "However, I recognize that is... not a helpful argument for the two of you."
"I thought that Arbaians did not reproduce by the common methods," Fiyu said. Though the horror still lurked within her, it was being edged out by a curiosity that held a hint of hope.
"We do not, and we completely lack the impulses of other species. Some of us, however, experience emotions that would be called romantic on other worlds, and this often results in committed relationships. And, as I implied earlier, there have been occasions when those relationships developed with other species."
Friend Nauda shifted forward, equally interested. "And those worked out? Despite all the differences?"
"When a partner desires something, it is a natural impulse to want to grant it. So yes, there are long term relationships on record that appear to be satisfactory. There are extremely detailed monographs written about the mechanisms." Ally Navim stood still for a moment before continuing, "The last sentence was a joke. The rest of what I said was not."
While Friend Nauda groaned, Fiyu actually giggled. At the release of tension, at the strange mental image, at the absurdity of the whole experience. The two of them were women grown and should not have needed Ally Navim to help them, yet perhaps the perspective of someone who completely lacked such messy desires was exactly what they needed after all.
"Fiyu..." Friend Nauda turned back to her and hesitated reaching for her hand, so Fiyu gladly laced her fingers with the other woman. "I guess it's silly of us to be so fatalistic, if relationships with Arbaians can work out."
"I agree." Fiyu nodded with perhaps too much eagerness, but her companion wouldn't shame her for it. "I believe everything can be wonderful between us, just... in the future."
"Then I'll wait, just like I said."
This time it wasn't Fiyu pulling away: they both understood that those emotions were tender and uncertain for the moment. Instead they went to join Ally Navim, thanking him for his insight and asking if they could help him in any way. He insisted that he had everything he required, but Fiyu was certain that Ally Navim was secretly pleased to have their company.
When they finally departed to return to the tournament, the tension between them had withdrawn, at least for now. Fiyu should have been purely happy, but she found herself thinking that this extremely slow path together couldn't last forever. Eventually something would happen to push her emotions, to set off a chain reaction that would shift their relationship into a new phase forever.
That would have been comforting, if she had been certain about which direction it would go.
-
Chapter 39
At last the three of them were together again, without any need to run errands, interact with higher powers, or fight Tymetron. Theo was grateful for it, and he suspected that Fiyu agreed, because she had urged them all into a bubble of her stealth. They weren't doing anything particularly secret, she just seemed to feel more comfortable with them secured there, even within the Blacksilver complex.
"So are you ready to admit you were wrong about the tournament being a mistake?" Nauda asked playfully. "Tymetron is running out of time to attack."
"Hey, there's still plenty of time," he shot back. "It's been going on... two months? With such absurdly large brackets, they still have a long way to go."
"But each round has half as many people injured, so the tournament will be less and less vulnerable."
"But the matches will get closer and be between the most powerful contestants."
Theo and Nauda weren't even remotely serious about the argument, they were just going around on the familiar topic for the fun of it. So much of the war was depressing reports about Tymetron slowly increasing pressure, grinding down the continent without risking their own position... it felt nice to have a topic where the stakes weren't so high. If that made him like the average Fithan enjoying the big tournament, so be it.
"Guchiro says that Tymetron seems to be preparing for something," Fiyu told them. "That is not military intelligence, merely his intuition, but I worry."
Nauda groaned. "No serious war conversation, not now. I just got out of a long meeting with Dhan."
"Oh... then... do you think we could go back to the State of Rest? I would enjoy it, and perhaps we could pick up Navim as well?"
"I'd like to see him too," Theo said, "but we should probably avoid unnecessary weirkey travel for now. We all have plenty of soulcrafting we can do, and given the materials available, it can make a real difference."
As the conversation continued, Theo's mind slid yet again into his soulhome. The problem had in a way become worse: now he had the voidiamond, bloodruby, and soulsapphire all competing to be his new singularity. He had finished soulcrafting every single detail except a few final touches, so if he decided on his optimum design, he could get a new singularity in minutes, but he was stuck evaluating a labyrinth of highly asymmetrical advantages and disadvantages.
Before their conversation could really settle in, they detected someone rushing toward their part of the complex. Each noticed in their own way, Fiyu first, but hopefully it didn't have anything to do with them. When the point of mass began moving around near their courtyard, Theo realized that it might not be so easy.
"That seems to be Jothan," Fiyu said, "and I think he wants to speak with us."
"Haven't seen much of him since he went undercover with Raythe," Nauda said. "We'd probably better find out what he wants."
They left the bubble of stealth and not long after Jothan found them, running in and catching his breath. As soon as he pushed upright, the look in his eyes convinced Theo that the guard had something meaningful. He might be only a Ruler-tier soulcrafter, but he was a reliable ally from Norro Yorthin.
"Raythe is torturing prisoners," Jothan told them. "At first it was just part of the battle, but I decided I had to say something. Every time his group captures any Tymetronese, he's torturing them."
"Can Tymetron do anything worse to us?" Nauda asked. "They've already tortured prisoners, we know that from Homez."
"I just thought you should know. This is how he's making all that deadgold, and he's trying to build up his sect..." Jothan trailed off, catching his breath.
"Thank you for telling us." Fiyu spoke first to Jothan, then turned to them. "But is it not better to ignore him? What he is doing may be unethical, but we likely cannot change his mind. Better to avoid becoming involved."
While Nauda shrugged, Theo was frowning as the question sank home. It was easy to hate Raythe Darkblade for being a tool of Vistgil, arrogant and foolish and childish... but it was the childishness that gave Theo pause. He tried to remind himself that Raythe was likely very young, and probably had an unhappy life on Earth before coming to the Nine Worlds.
"It's worse this time." Jothan had recovered and now straightened to report. "I don't know what changed, but when the torture started, the Wavefront contestants got really upset. They hadn't started fighting when I left them, but..."
Theo sat upright as he realized that the situation might have changed. If Raythe was following the general pattern that Theo suspected, then the other human from Earth would probably be taking actions with little thought for secondary consequences. There were several possibilities, none of them good.
"I'm going to step in." Theo spoke as he stood up and began searching the area. "I know I said to stay away from Raythe, but my paranoia might be leading us to err in the opposite direction."
"Are you certain?" Fiyu asked. "Do you want us to join you?"
"Follow me in stealth and only act if necessary. He might get angry and do something impetuous, but don't strike first. We have to play this carefully."
It all sounded good, as if they had the situation under control, and Jothan seemed very impressed as he watched them depart. But as Theo flew across the tournament grounds, he felt like he didn't even grasp the fundamental conflict. He still didn't know why Vistgil invited humans to the Nine Worlds, unless it was just to create more demons, or what he might be doing with Raythe.
A dark possibility Theo sometimes considered was that Vistgil knew all about him and did nothing because Theo was somehow playing into his plans. It was entirely possible that by avoiding Raythe, he was letting Vistgil's plan develop unchecked.
Then the power of two Dominions flared from the eastern side of the tournament grounds. Theo grimaced and flew faster, trying to figure out exactly who was involved before he blundered in. One of them was clearly Melitta and he guessed that the other was Raythe; they weren't fighting, but they were only a single step away from it.
"Are you mad?" Melitta shouted, her voice amplified by cantae. "This is a duke of Conaster!"
"Conaster, Shmonaster," Raythe responded with a sneer. "He's a soldier of Tymetron!"
The Dominions faced off in a field outside the building where the Darkblade Sect had formed, and each had a large group of soulcrafters supporting them. Soon Theo spotted the source of the conflict: someone lay on the ground between the two sides, alive despite a dark sword of cantae driven through their chest.
As he got closer, Theo understood their argument and realized it was worse than he thought: the impaled man was a depths Fithan. Based on what Melitta said, he must have been someone important, and for some reason Raythe had attacked and tortured him.
"Look, he has the same gold as all the others!" Raythe thrust a strange sort of armament at the man, who screamed as slavegold bubbled out of his wounds.
Many of those in the crowds winced at the gruesome process, even many of Raythe's followers. Melitta was too hardened to care, but her eyes narrowed sharply. Theo could guess what she was thinking: Tymetron must have abducted and sealed a leader from an ocean city, then sent him out to be captured and tortured by Raythe. With so much mistrust between dust and depths Fithans, the exact details of why someone had been tortured in public wouldn't matter so much.
"Stop," Melitta said flatly. "Now."
"Or what?" Raythe sneered.
In response, she drew her gauntlets from her soulhome: not as a threat, her fingers were actually curling to strike. Raythe looked completely oblivious, either not noticing or not believing that she could truly threaten him. Regardless of how the battle went, having two of the Dominions in the alliance fighting one another in public would be disastrous.
That was the moment when Theo arrived, landing between both sides. Melitta barely glanced at him, having already noticed him when he arrived, and Raythe glared.
"Butt out!" he shouted, then did a double-take. "Wait, it's you again? Come on, this continent isn't big enough for both of us!"
"There's something coming," Theo said as he casually walked between two opposing Dominions as if he was strolling down the street. He got up close to Raythe, who looked about ready to attack him, and spoke into his ear. "I saw Vistgil the other day."
"Wait, really?" Raythe goggled at him. "What did he say?"
That proved several things at once: Raythe knew who Vistgil was, hadn't seen him recently, and was interested. Theo took a step back and shook his head. "It's not safe to discuss here, not around everyone."
"You know what? I don't care about this." Raythe waved his hand and the glowing blade impaling the Fithan man swept out, flashing through the air to return to Raythe's sheath. Unfortunately it tore its way out of the body on a path that left little chance for the man to survive, even with others rushing in to check on him.
Raythe grabbed the front of Theo's coat and pulled him away: not as fast as Theo expected, but still with more speed than practically anyone else on the field. In a split second they were outside the perimeter, apparently isolated from the crowds. Theo couldn't feel Fiyu or Nauda, but he had to assume that they were still following.
"What's this about Vistgil?" Raythe demanded. "Did he tell you about the next quest?"
"He didn't give any quest," Theo answered, "I only spotted him."
"Idiot! That's useless!"
Theo saw Raythe began to move and braced himself to defend, but he hadn't been prepared for a simple slap. Raythe's hand struck across his cheek with the speed of a Dominion, jerking Theo's head to the side. He was more surprised than hurt, because it seemed like such a petty move.
For a moment, Theo indulged in a vision of striking back, of humiliating Raythe and taking everything he had. But as soon as the idea came into his mind, it melted away. That was something that Raythe would have wanted, not him. Looking at the anger of this child, Theo couldn't feel any of his own.
"Is everyone else from Earth an idiot?" Raythe threw up his hands. "You should have chased him or something! I've been wanting to ask what I'm supposed to do about all this Tymetron nonsense for ages. Why has he been gone so much, anyway?"
"So he hasn't explained to you either?" Theo asked.
"Not a thing. This wasn't the deal, there weren't supposed to be seventh level enemies around here. Before now, the best strategy was always obvious, but I can't beat that guy. It's not fair!"
Seeing Raythe rant petulantly, Theo briefly wondered if he was entirely deceived. Was it possible that Raythe honestly believed that he was inside some kind of game, or that the Nine Worlds were an illusion? Theo rejected the idea, because he didn't think anyone could experience this much and still think it wasn't reality. No, more likely Vistgil had sold him a story about a very specific type of experience.
As irritated as he was, Theo reminded himself that he was supposed to be better than that; scorning another person didn't gain him anything. This conversation had been frustrating, but it had already given him several pieces of information, so he needed to press that angle.
"How are you pulling deadgold out of Tymetronese soulcrafters?" Theo asked.
"It's inside them," Raythe said simply, then struck his forehead. "I mean, duh. If you kill them, the soulhome goes away, but you can keep them alive and torture it out. We've been making so much of the stuff, after I taught these idiots how to do it."
"That's the reason you've been torturing them?"
"I mean, part of it. But the other thing is that I've been getting all kinds of information about Tymetron from them. It sounds like a pretty bad empire, with slavery and all sorts of things. But if someone could kill the top dog and take over, it could turn around."
"Huh." Theo examined Raythe, wondering if he'd misjudged just a little. "You're trying to defeat Plutalgion so you can stop slavery in Tymetron?"
"Well, if slavery is their culture, it's not going to just change overnight. But I could be a lot better master. Honestly, if I can take over Tymetron that would be pretty sweet."
Theo sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Regardless of that, you already said you know how strong Plutalgion is. Do you have an idea for beating him, other than appealing to Vistgil? If we work together, w-"
"Nah." Raythe looked down his nose at Theo and then sneered. "I remember you: when we met, you were stronger than me, but now you've fallen way behind. What have you been doing, wandering around going this slow? I don't want to work with an idiot as weak as you."
"Look, you've made faster progress, but-"
"And all this white knight whining about torture? That's pathetic. It gets results, and it's gotten me twice as many units of deadgold as anyone else. If you don't have the balls to do what needs to be done, just get out of the way."
"This was a mistake." Theo shook his head and started to move away, then he saw a new light in Raythe's eyes.
"Wait, maybe that's why you're here." Raythe suddenly drew his sword, which burned with dark fire. "You have one of Vistgil's artifacts, right? Imagine how much stronger I'd be with two of them!"
Before Theo could argue, Raythe attacked, hurling his sword. His raw speed was faster than Theo's, but Raythe's soulhome wasn't very efficient, and the flow of cantae that pushed the sword forward was slow by his standards. Even as the sword began to move toward him, Theo had already generated a portal in the way.
He had yet to generate the linked portal, however, and with his mental chambers Theo had enough time to consider. His first instinct was to place it directly beside Raythe so that he'd be impaled on his own weapon. But even if Raythe had no defenses against his own techniques... for a moment, Theo remembered how immature he'd been on his first visit to the Nine Worlds. Whether it was a tactical error or moral weakness or simply an impulse decision, he placed the second portal in the air.
The dark sword flashed out, entered the portal, and was redirected directly into the ground between them. Raythe stared at it in shock, then stamped his foot.
"No fair! You have an OP ability too? What's the point if there's more than one?"
"You shouldn't trust Vistgil," Theo told him. "I know you don't respect me, but listen for once in your life: you're being played."
"Shut up!" Raythe rushed up to the sword and drew it out of the ground in a swath of darkness... and then began looking around in shock.
Theo realized that the cool aura of Fiyu's technique had swept over him and saw her with Nauda, urging him to retreat. They floated into the air as Raythe began taking blind swings, burning huge swaths of the field. It was good that Fithe had so little vegetation otherwise he easily could have started a wildfire.
"Do we kill him?" Nauda asked. "I mean, I want to, but he has a huge group of followers just over there."
"Does he have the artifact you wanted?" Fiyu asked. She didn't say it, but she seemed open to the idea of murder as a solution. Theo felt a little better about his previous emotions, but still shook his head.
"Fighting him would be a risk," Theo said as they stared down at Raythe. "He's a Dominion and he probably has a lot of cheap armaments, so it could start a civil war on our side. Plus he implied he had an Artifact of Elghiera, and though I haven't seen it, he must have it somewhere. But most importantly... I still don't know what Vistgil is trying to do here."
"Having him running around seems bad enough," Nauda said, but it wouldn't take much to convince her.
Down below, Raythe had given up on his blind attacks, and after some curse-filled shouting about cowardice, he flew back to his followers. It seemed like Melitta had departed with the dead Fithan in the meantime, so the immediate crisis was averted. Theo didn't feel as though he'd accomplished anything, but he realized that he'd learned more than he thought.
"I don't think that Raythe had any real understanding about the different types of sublime gold," he told the others. "The living seals are fundamentally different from deadgold, but he's just shoving it into everyone."
"You think they could be controlled?" Fiyu asked in alarm.
"If they could, I assume Tymetron would already have used that against us. But if his followers all have undifferentiated gold in their soulhomes, wouldn't it be possible for Tymetron to sneak a spy into the tournament?"
Nauda winced at the thought and Fiyu nodded her head somberly.
"I don't think we can afford to ignore that angle," Theo told them. "Let's stay out of sight and avoid another fight. But we talk to Jothan and Blacksilver and everyone else who has a comprehensive understanding of what Raythe's sect has been doing. I think all those locations need a thorough investigation."
~
As confident as Theo had been then, the investigation didn't reveal anything over several days, and there were moments when Theo wondered if he was mistaken. Raythe had taken over a variety of buildings, or had his followers build some new ones, and they didn't contain much of note.
Then they discovered the demonic artifact.
It had been buried underneath one of the new buildings, placed as the foundation was laid. Theo had felt the unusual mass, and Fiyu had made judicious use of her stealth technique to let Nauda tear it out of the ground. Now it lay between the three of them: a glass cylinder with metal caps, containing a mass of pulsating flesh that was demonic, not eldritch.
"That's almost like the one from the Dustwind Plateaus," Nauda said grimly. "Definitely from Tymetron. Looks like the theory about having a spy in Raythe's sect is right. Not surprising, since he only seems to care about his followers as numbers."
"But what do they accomplish by hiding it here?" Fiyu asked. "Is the plan to... have it generate demons? That seems like it would not be sufficient to take down the tournament, not with so many soulcrafters present."
"I agree," Theo said, "but there are probably others. Raythe has been moving around recklessly for so long, they'd have countless opportunities. If they planted half a dozen, there could be demons swarming this place. Maybe not enough to win a battle on their own, but that might be the edge Tymetron needs in order to attack the tournament."
"If that turns out to have been the goal all along, I take it all back." Nauda tried to smirk as she spoke, but the reality of the artifact in between them made it hard to joke.
"This is just the first step." Theo shot a torsion bolt through the device, disabling it permanently. "We keep looking and we destroy them all, then we can start looking for the spy."
But they didn't get a chance. After they had found a second demon-summoning artifact, at the beginning of the next round of the tournament, Tymetron attacked.