Endburn: Chapters 21-22 (Patreon)

Chapter 21

After he made one appearance on the battlefield, Fiyu convinced Relative Guchiro to retreat to a nearby cavern. He had made significant progress repairing his soulhome, but there were still serious gaps. Most shockingly, she had realized that his senses were remarkably fuzzy - apparently he had been focusing on repairing combat abilities first, which left him nearly as oblivious as a child.

So she needed to look out for him, even as she struggled to keep up herself. Her senses had expanded greatly, but the battlefield was large and there were so many anomalies. The situation had grown even worse since they came to this location on the western coast, as if something was interfering.

Was it possible that Tymetron had Ichili within their army? She didn't want to believe that, because the empire had been uniformly Fithan as far as she could see. But Tymetron controlled a vast space, which surely had gates... they could well have soldiers who had fought Ichili in the past and learned countermeasures. Another thing she needed to protect her relative from.

There was only one positive shadow: House Blacksilver had a position here, so she had been able to see Associate Janne and many others. She could trust them to keep things organized and focus on her relative. If it came to violence, however, she was afraid that she would need to protect them, and she already had too much to protect.

Just as she floated back to the wasteland, she saw a Dominion waiting for her.

It wasn't a Tymetronese soulcrafter she'd seen before: he was a thin man in a demonhide tunic with two blades crossed over his shoulders that looked as if they had been made from the claws of some great beast. Instead of looking at her, he sniffed first, then smirked at her scent.

"You're afraid," he said as he drew his blades. "I knew something was off about you, but I couldn't figure out what. At first I thought you were setting a trap, but you're hiding something, aren't you?"

Fiyu didn't answer, desperately considering her options. Stealth was counterproductive here, because if she made her opponent search for her, he might find her relative instead. Yet she didn't think she could win this fight, not against an opponent who knew more about her than she did about him.

Spinning gold nearly cut through her and Fiyu only barely dodged the whirling scythe. If not for all her training with Lifemate Nauda, she most likely would have been cut apart. But that was no comfort at all as the scythe spun back through the air to the palm of another Dominion.

Tymetron had sent two of them. Even if they didn't know for certain that Guchiro was weakened, they intended to eliminate him.

Before they could attack her from both sides, Fiyu shot into the air. They followed her, but she knew they were faster and so she could buy terribly little time. If they threatened her, Relative Guchiro would try to fight them, and that would be a disaster. Even if he had recovered enough to fight one Dominion, fighting two would only reveal everything they had been trying to keep secret. Yet they couldn't abandon this position, not when it was so important to House Blacksilver.

"You can't escape!" The scythe spun at her again, and this time it was followed by stabbing claws. Fiyu barely evaded them and tumbled across the sky, a ragged gash cut down her cloak.

They looked confident, and that was her only chance. Fiyu stabilized herself and raised her arms in their direction. Before they could split up to attack again, she unleashed a storm of light that encompassed them both.

Of course they pushed through it, relying on their superior strength to resist. She drew her hands closer together, intensifying the lightstorm, but they would never be tricked - they were veterans who could see the progression of her technique. Her only hope was to blow so far past their expectations that they would never see it coming.

So Fiyu put everything into one blast. She emptied her entire Ethereal Floor of the enriched cantae she had been protecting for so long, but even that wasn't enough. Every iota of cantae flooded out of her as she copied the technique from Associate Senka, stretching her soulhome to its limits.

Her power erupted in a crimson slash that cut the sky, but Fiyu didn't see the result. As her soulhome ached, she felt herself begin to fall and then her vision faded.

~

The first time Theo saw one of Tymetron's aeon-class soulcrafters participate in the war was surprisingly casual, nothing like he had anticipated. He was guiding a strike force through the wasteland, trying to determine the enemy position, when he spotted the Demonweaver far into the distance.

She still looked like an old woman in rags, though she rode on a chariot pulled by numerous chained demons this time. There was no sign she was looking for them, and if she noticed at all, she gave no sign. But in the time they intersected, Theo observed something ominous. A titan strode through the wasteland and the Demonweaver swept upon it, shackling the demon and drawing it into some kind of device.

With so many soulcrafters on the battlefield, there should have been more demons than usual. He had been assuming that the lower tier soulcrafters had been keeping them under control, since that was one of the best ways they could help in a battle of this scale.

Instead, the Demonweaver might have been collecting them. That was perhaps the worst possible answer to the question of why she hadn't been seen on the battlefield more often.

Yet there was nothing he could do except relay the information to the others. He would have to be careful, because the news would only depress most of the people who understood it. Tymetron wasn't just pushing them to the brink, they were preparing for an even more devastating blow. One that would be extremely difficult to predict, if it involved the strange alchemy of demon control.

Nothing else went wrong before the strike force finished their patrol, so Theo got back to the Norronese army with time to spare. Technically this was a break, a less challenging position to recover from his last Dominion confrontation. Nowhere was really safe, given the changing battlefield, but he intended to enjoy it.

"Well, sporp," Senka said when he told her. "That's going to bite us in the fumpet."

"Do you have any suggestions?" he asked as he settled down in their room.

"Go back in time and search different paths in the Bloodfire Pit. I'm still furious we had such bad luck. If we'd gotten to the river, this war would have gone entirely differently, believe me."

Theo relaxed into his soulhome while listening to her familiar cursing and rambling. He couldn't afford to waste a second of soulcrafting time, though he forced himself to slow down. Previously he had fallen into such a mindless routine of soulcrafting bricks that he hadn't realized that he had made more than enough to finish a chamber. That sort of mistake could get him killed, so it was good to take inventory again.

It had been three months since he ascended to Dominion, almost to the day. In that time, he had only created enough bricks to finish... not quite two chambers. His first had been the central room, of course, since it could tie into his singularities. Currently he placed his triuneflower within it, even though he would be using it as an Ethereal material later. That boost had definitely carried him through some battles.

The difficulty was choosing where to build next. He had enough bricks for three walls, which was enough for a second chamber only if he built against the finished room. That was probably the most logical choice, since he could build into the Ethereal section of his floor and move the triuneflower.

Until he had more sublime materials, however, the advantage would be minimal. He wanted to at least preserve the possibility that he should build in a corner, for example if he found a physically-oriented material and needed to place it in his final Corporeal chamber. Given the intense stresses on his soulcrafting time, he couldn't afford to commit to the wrong path.

Finding materials at all could be a challenge, though. Whenever he consulted with the administrators, sublime materials seemed even thinner on the ground, despite everything he'd brought from the Bloodfire Pit. New Authorities were being minted and even some old Authorities were managing to force their way to Stronghold via desperate measures.

That had been going on for quite some time and it was only enough to keep them in the fight. Even if they won, Norron was going to be exhausted of sublime materials for years to come. One generation had received a substantial boost and the next would grow up in a drought, which would no doubt have strange social consequences.

There was one material freely available: the Asplundat Movement was still distributing bloodcrete. Since his present position was with an Asplundat army, Theo had gotten a chunk of it to examine. Unfortunately, he didn't think he could derive any benefit from bloodcrete. The material wasn't strong enough for a Dominion chamber and the techniques it used, drawing off life force, had severe limitations. Even if he spent time developing a way to make it less caustic to the soul, it wouldn't be a good choice.

Just when he was getting thoroughly wrapped up in his own thoughts, someone opened the door. Theo expected yet another disaster that would demand his presence, but instead he saw Homez, who was walking with a strange expression on his face.

"Huh, you have some too." Homez stared at the chunk of bloodcrete dully. "Could that actually be useful to you? A Dominion charged with bloodcrete would be terrifying."

"It isn't strong enough," Theo responded. "But what do you mean 'too'?"

"I'm not strong enough like this." Homez wearily reached into his soulhome and pulled out a chunk of bloodcrete, though his was carefully wrapped in sublime cloth. "It isn't required of anyone. I'm surprised it hasn't been worse, actually. But that might be the only way I can fight for the Movement..."

"Are you joking? Don't throw your future as a soulcrafter away."

"There won't be any future for soulcrafters if I don't-"

"Nu-uh!" Senka hopped up, snatching the bloodcrete out of his hands and shoving it into her mouth. "Ugh, tastes blooky."

Homez and Theo both stared at her, then Homez let out a strange chuckle. "Well, I guess that decision is out of my hands."

"I should have talked to you earlier," Theo said as he got to his feet. "Listen, I might be able to help you. You've been at Authority for a few years, your soulhome has to be highly polished, right?"

"It's mostly done, but don't underestimate the gap between tiers..."

"Don't underestimate yourself." Theo put an arm around the other man's shoulders and then flicked one of the cantcoins into his hand. "The Ruling Cities gave me these as a reward - they're supposed to help with ascensions. They won't do all the work for you, but if you were willing to try bloodcrete, at least try this first."

"You'd really give this to me?" Homez asked in wonder.

"Give it? I'm going to force you to try it, if you keep shirking."

"No, no, I'll make an attempt." Homez closed his hand around the coin and held it tight. "Thank you. I might-"

Whatever he had been about to say, they were interrupted by the door bursting open again. This time it was a Blacksilver messenger, and judging from their expression, this wasn't going to be another little reunion. Yet as they spoke, it wasn't the sort of emergency Theo had expected, either.

"Guchiro and Fiyu are missing," the woman told them. "They disappeared from a position in the west. There were no bodies, but there were clear signs of a battle..."

Theo groaned and abandoned the idea of returning to his soulcrafting. There was no chance he was going to rest for a long time.

~

It was shameful that Guchiro hadn't realized what was happening until it was too late. His senses were damaged and, he realized in retrospect, clouded by a subtle technique poisoning Ichili perceptions. When Ward Fiyu had unleashed such an unprecedented outpouring of cantae, he had been too far away to help.

If it had been him alone, she would have plummeted to the ground, potentially even been killed by the surviving Dominions. Guchiro had burst from his hiding place, too late to help, only seeing two severely burned Dominions. Thinking that Ward Fiyu was dead, he had erupted on them and they had fled before his wrath instead of testing him.

In his rage he had nearly pursued them across Fithe, which likely would have meant going to his death. Only the thought that he needed to search for Ward Fiyu kept him in place.

Fortunately, they had not been alone, even though he had been disregarding all their allies. A group of Rulers from House Blacksilver had been running interference in the sleigh that his ward and her companions previously used and they had flown to catch Ward Fiyu as she fell.

Now all of them gathered at a hidden location, Guchiro holding Fiyu's unconscious body tightly. There had been discussion of what they should do next and he refused to participate in it. Arguments about whether his disappearance would embolden Tymetron, or whether they should try to set up a trap... what did any of it matter compared to what Ward Fiyu had done to herself?

At long last she stirred and, though her eyes remained closed, he felt her senses curl around him. When she recognized him she smiled. "Guchiro..."

"How could you do that?" he demanded. Guchiro had never permitted his emotions for his wards to become wrath, but his control failed him now. "You were so close to Dominion, and now you've set yourself back by months. You triggered the change too early, we don't know if repair wil-"

"For you." Ward Fiyu reached up to touch the side of his face gently. "Dominion wouldn't be worth anything if I didn't have you."

Once again, Guchiro was flooded with shame. His ward, so young and full of innocent life, believing in her new lifemate and her companions and this foolish place. He had been willing to risk his life for the sake of her war, but it had been a concession to what mattered to her.

It wasn't just her war any longer.

-

Chapter 22

There had been a time when Citizen Dominion had dreamed of elevating a second champion for the Asplundat Movement. He had invested a great deal of time, over the years, training up promising soulcrafters and even instituting programs to support those below Authority. His dream had always been a point where they were no longer so threatened by the Ruling Cities and they could begin making decisions based on integrity instead of necessity.

Now that the dream was real, in the middle of this nightmare, it was nothing like he'd imagined. They hadn't continued their slow and reasonable processes, they had pushed as hard as they could, no matter the cost. Even that might not be enough, against Tymetron.

He remembered the Sword of Asplundat's real name, even though he wasn't supposed to. Remembered what she had been like as a young woman. Feisha took her new role seriously and viewed herself as a servant of the Movement, but it was her vision of the Movement, not one she would ever share with anyone else. She was a sword, not a citizen, and he wondered what she would cut without a great enemy.

A few, those in the factions Citizen Dominion had officially left behind, whispered about her connections to other powers. Said that the Movement had sold out to some outside force. As far as Citizen Dominion knew, and he knew a great deal, none of that was true.

The same rumors had always come up about bloodcrete, wanting to place responsibility on some exterior villain instead of admitting that they had invented it themselves. For the first time there was no debate over the bloodcrete, not even from the Ruling Cities, because it seemed necessary. They had finally stopped the Tymetronese drive into their territory, so Citizen Dominion had stubbornly insisted on sending reinforcements to the Cities and the Wavefront while they took the brunt of it.

He did all of this even though he didn't really believe they could win, didn't see a path through this morass. This was what he had been elevated to do, that was all there was to it.

Could things have been different if the conflict over the Asplundatcrest had gone differently? It was a common topic of discussion in higher circles as so many fled from the grim present to an imaginary past where they had made different decisions. Perhaps there would have been a way to build up another power that would leave them more stable now.

Citizen Dominion didn't believe that they could ever have claimed the Asplundatcrest for themselves, not now that he'd seen the sheer power of soulcrafters beyond Dominion. He didn't believe in a lot of things anymore.

~

Reksun was gone.

No one was harassing Crintak about the loss, and in fact it rarely came up. When people did bring up his performance as top soulcrafter in the Ruling Cities, it was usually to say how well he was doing. Afterward, if there was an afterward, his position would be secured for life.

But he never let himself forget. Reksun had been a city of tens of thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands when the surrounding regions were considered. Not the most significant of the Ruling Cities, not a place that swung inter-city politics, not a critical part of trade, but it had been home for many. He remembered visiting there during his campaigning and having an Aathali salad at a charming little restaurant overlooking the mountains.

And now it was gone.

As grim as their retreat had been, Crintak knew that things could have been so much worse. The fact that they could evacuate so many, their losses against Dominions without deaths, even the hospitals overcome with injuries... these were all victories. Real defeat would taste much worse.

It would taste like Reksun, now a smoldering crater. Crintak didn't see how it could be any different, given the odds against them. Maybe he could have made different decisions, but one city or another would have fallen through the cracks.

While the Underqueen had been guarding against Plutalgion, the Goldreaper had struck in a direction no one had expected, without even a Dominion to try to oppose him. Crintak had learned about it with enough time to do something, in a technical sense, but in reality it was much too late. They didn't have forces in the region and everyone was overtaxed, so defending Reksun would require burning through desperately limited resources. Even making an attempt would have been a tactical loss, so he had let the strike hit and reinforced all other fronts.

Now the dead of Reksun would haunt him until his dying day.

Sitting in his great hall, half-listening to the politicians around him, Crintak couldn't escape the inevitability of it. They simply didn't have enough people, particularly with the Ichili vanishing and spreading them even thinner. So long as the Asplundat Movement kept pulling more than their weight, with their bloodcrete and their new Dominion, he could maintain the juggling act.

It wouldn't take much for it to fall apart. The Asplundat Movement could draw back to more selfish objectives at any moment and Crintak was surprised it hadn't happened already. Melitta should have been dead, if not for another miracle from the outsider - the last miracle, allegedly. Eventually their coordination would fall apart and they couldn't maintain their defenses any longer.

And then there would be another Reksun.

~

All of Melitta's political education had been based around two balances: the cities of the depths in the sea and the Dominions on the land. Now, as the war reached its inevitable heights, she had no choice but to learn a new balance.

There had been a time in her life when the idea of soulcrafters beyond Dominion had been a murky legend, somewhere in between rumor and myth. Now she knew the hated term "aeon-class" - a whole realm of people far above her. They hadn't been relevant to her life because until recently Norron hadn't been relevant to them... it simply wasn't worth their time.

The simple math would suggest that they should have been crushed utterly, because Tymetron had three aeon-class soulcrafters and Norron had only the Underqueen, a borrowed ally. Their salvation, a very thin rope holding them above an abyss, was the fact that empires always made enemies. Every time Tymetron tried to tear out an enemy root and stem, they showed other powers who they were, and those powers would take any chance to strike them.

Could Melitta possibly open up an opportunity for them to attack? Based on the shape of the war so far, in the beginning Tymetron had been more limited and now they felt free to send out their aeons on a regular basis. Military intelligence confirmed that the strongest soulcrafter in the Gold Wastes had been killed, which was another ally down.

A year ago, trying to negotiate with the Underqueen had seemed like a mad gambit, trading away future benefits for an unnecessary contingency. Now it was obviously barely enough. Yet Melitta didn't see what other options were available to her, and even the outsider was coming up dry.

Yet if things continued like this, the result seemed inevitable. Even if they somehow destroyed the entire rest of the Tymetronese army, if the aeons decided to inflict maximum suffering instead of trying to win the war, Norron would be devastated. Plutalgion alone might be vulnerable, eventually swarmed by old enemies, but before he went down he could drag the entire continent down with him.

As Melitta turned the problem over in her mind yet again, she realized that perhaps she did have alternatives after all. Not sane alternatives, certainly, but this had become an insane war. Perhaps if she looked a little further afield...