Deathseed: Chapters 37-38 (Patreon)

I want to say that it's warmed my heart to see everyone's positive responses to the last two weeks of chapters. Things have been discouraging lately, so this was a much-needed bright spot. I've always wanted to write series where decisions and consequences keep weaving and layering, so it's very rewarding to reach that point and have readers along with me. If you have enjoyed the series this far, I hope you will enjoy the rest: there's a lot more in store, including some things you're all anticipating and some I suspect you're very much not.

Thank you all for reading. ^-^ This week's chapters move us forward and we are launching into things!

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Chapter 37

Fiyu had not realized how important clear communication was for lifemates. She would have expressed her belief in it, of course. Why shouldn't lifemates and other relatives speak clearly to one another in order to maintain their relationships? But she had underestimated how much she was relying on Ichili traditions to communicate instead of speaking.

Now that she and Friend Nauda were speaking together, everything was wondrous. They had agreed that they needed to focus on their soulcrafting to survive the upcoming battle, but that they could still spend time together. It seemed that Friend Nauda had been anxious, wondering how slowly their relationship would move, and Fiyu had been able to reassure her that they would keep moving closer once they were under less pressure.

Even though they needed to spend some time alone, they still worked together often. The tunnels underneath the city might have contained little useful, but Friend Nauda regularly made new attempts. Since she was so passionate about it, Fiyu had spoken with their contacts and borrowed Friend Theo's weirkey.

Now they walked through a mountain wreathed in flame. Many Rulers might have died in the flames and even Friend Nauda required full use of her soulhome to endure. Fiyu was able to resist the flames as an Authority, but it was much too hot.

"Looks like we have some more ants," Friend Nauda said. Of course Fiyu had been aware of them, but her companion was only making conversation. "How do they survive in here?"

"I believe they have been developed to resist flames." Fiyu picked up Friend Nauda with her cantae and levitated them both as the line of giant ants passed underneath. "They are otherwise weaker than the soldier ants you have seen."

"I was just wondering if we could get anything for Krikree."

"That is a good idea, but any useful material would not come from the ants. The trade-offs in modifying their biology are too severe. I have learned several interesting lessons from Bluepetal on this matter."

If they did find a sublime material for Associate Krikree, of course Fiyu would have been glad to take it. Their primary goal of all this risk, however, was actually herself.

Normally traveling around a world without guidance was dangerous, and it was a risk that her relative had warned her against many times. Fiyu hoped this case was an exception. They had combined the knowledge of Friend Theo with information from the royal hive and scouting from Associate Krikree. After tentative probing with the weirkey, they had discovered a kingdom of flame all the way across the continent. Many species of Slescans moved through the flames, smoke, and lava without apparent harm.

The most important aspect of the location was that it did not appear to be ruled by any specific queen, so there would be no soulcrafters of Authority or higher targeting them. That rendered it close to safe for explorations. As for their goal, it was the simple logic that a region with so many flames might have the sublime flame that Friend Nauda desired to find for her.

Her friend had been relaxed at first, but her body now stiffened. Fiyu frowned and turned to her. "Are you alright, Nauda?"

"It's nothing." Friend Nauda immediately hesitated, then gave a strange smile. "Except we're supposed to be talking, aren't we? I'm just wrapped up in thoughts about the battle. You don't mind if I share them?"

"I would like that very much, Nauda."

Friend Nauda seemed to consider for a time, then spoke in a softer voice. "You know, this place reminds me of the lower side of Tatian. I know you didn't like the upper side, but when I first arrived, it seemed like paradise to me. I couldn't believe everyone was so open and generous, then I slowly relaxed into it."

Though Friend Nauda's smile broadened, the tension in her back was growing again. Fiyu remained silent and anticipated the turn.

"I thought I could build a new life in Nlukoko... then I realized what Ariano was doing to it. His influence - it was like he was taking everything that was good about the upper side and making it like the world I knew. It's not like he had families murdered and kicked children in the street, you understand. His greed just slowly choked the city, made everyone suspicious of one another. I saw a child starving and it broke me. The upper side of Tatian has so much, far more than needed, no one should ever go hungry. Nlukoko may not be the greatest injustice in the Nine Worlds, but..."

"I understand." Fiyu nodded in grim agreement. One of the few understandable things about Tatians was how their family groups supported one another, so she fully understood how Friend Nauda would be horrified to see those bonds destroyed.

"But I was just a first tier soulcrafter back then. I hadn't even finished my first floor, so I didn't have a chance. I promised myself that I would eventually go back, free Nlukoko from his grip. Now that we're finally here... I don't know how to feel."

"Do you want to defeat him yourself?"

"I... no." Friend Nauda shook her head slowly. "Maybe if it was just him, but he has allies now and everything is getting worse. We need to stop him and the deathseed,that's what matters. If you get a chance to defeat him, take it, don't worry about me."

Fiyu nodded in understanding. Friend Nauda could be shockingly passionate about many subjects, but she was reasonable underneath the passion. This acceptance especially touched Fiyu: if they were to be lifemates, everything they did was for one another, so sharing obligations should not be a concern. 

They continued speaking to one another as they waited, and Fiyu noted happily that the tension in Friend Nauda's back had eased.

One the ants had passed, they returned to the ground. There was little risk of being seen within Fiyu's sphere of stealth, but she preferred to remain low to the ground in case any exceptional Slescans were traveling through the region.

Ahead of them, on a broad ledge on the side of the mountain, a tree survived in the plains. Friend Nauda clearly wanted to approach it and Fiyu was glad to accommodate her. It appeared to be made from a variety of flame-resistant materials, with the wood and leaves being somewhat notable.

"This is better than most of what we've found." Friend Nauda began chopping into the tree to take its sublime materials. "I'm still not sure if I should feel bad stealing from the fire ants. You don't think they need this tree?"

"If they could use it, they would likely have done so," Fiyu said. "I do not think the ants are very intelligent."

"I'm sure the soldier ants are more beasts than anything, but I don't want to assume too much. There might be a species that looks the same but has completely different minds." Once her chopping was done, Friend Nauda offered her up the core of the tree. "Could you burn this for your heart chamber?"

"That is unlikely, given how it has resisted all these flames."

"Okay, in retrospect that's obvious, I was just hoping it might work out..."

They continued to walk up the fiery mountain, searching for paths inward. Fiyu was happy simply to spend time with her companion, but she realized there was a slight discomfort. It was not right for Friend Nauda to focus so much on her soulcrafting at the expense of her own.

"Have you finished the chamber dedicated to the bone statue?" she asked.

"Oh, definitely." Friend Nauda smiled over at her. "Not looking like a termite anymore and I have lots of secondary materials there."

"You should not focus only on me. You must also think about your own ascension."

Friend Nauda frowned. "I still have a completely empty chamber and it's not likely I'll get lucky and stumble across something."

"There are still tasks you can complete. Have you been soulcrafting bricks like I suggested?" Fiyu waited for her companion to nod and then smiled. "This is good. But it is almost important to think of the future. Will you use a lightegg like Theo suggested? I still have three darkeggs, and I only require one, if you would prefer that variety."

"Would you like it if I used the darkegg?"

"It is your soulhome, Nauda. It would be strange if it stopped being sunny." Fiyu retrieved one of the darkeggs from her soulhome and handed it to Friend Nauda. "You must figure out what is best for you. Have you considered it carefully?"

"I probably need to work on my foundation." Friend Nauda sighed as she looked inward. "Given the damage, it's denser than average, so a basement would be difficult for me. Honestly, I was hoping that I'd find something similar to the lighteggs, but with three different aspects. To match the rest of my soulhome, I mean."

"That is a good idea, but you cannot find a perfect material in all cases."

"I know, I'm just hoping. I have to get this right instead of rushing to ascension."

As they climbed, they continued to talk about Friend Nauda's soulhome. She had begun making many of the small tweaks that were necessary for an excellent blueprint. While discussing the materials, Fiyu had noted that her bloodglass sculpture stood directly over her strength chamber and that there was a parallel. It had led Friend Nauda to move the new bone statue before rooting it in her room, so that it was above her stamina chamber. Hopefully she would find final materials so that each quarter of her death tower had a single consistent theme and the cantae could flow upward smoothly.

At last they found a cavern that didn't end immediately. Friend Nauda glanced at Fiyu to check, as she had ever since they had encountered a highly anxious acid-spewing insect. When Fiyu indicated there was nothing hostile inside, they stepped in. The heat only became worse, but at least there were no flames.

"You should start filling some of your empty chambers," Friend Nauda said. "Not permanently, just with something temporary to maximize cantae."

"I have already attempted to do so. Temporary materials are not natural for me, but I have completed work on the ifritbraid in my light chamber."

"Theo has been using those elemental gemstones and even urged me to try one. It won't work for a Ruler, but I thought it might be good for you. Focus entirely on soulcrafting your current chambers and just leave the rest for cantae and strengthening."

It was a reasonable suggestion and Fiyu resolved to take it eventually. For now, she continued to monitor their environment as closely as possible, since flames lacked density and could threaten them in unexpected ways.

At last they found their goal: significant concentrations of sublime flame. They burned without any fuel, emanating raw power in all directions. Fiyu examined them one at a time, rejecting most immediately. One spherical flame reminded her of the Blazekindler and might have a use for another soulcrafter. She considered a crystal that contained a living flame for longer, though as a lightstorm material instead of a heart chamber source.

"Fiyu... what about this?"

Her companion's voice drew her attention. Fiyu turned toward her presence, which she had been monitoring passively. Now that she used her eyes, Fiyu saw that Friend Nauda was investigating small cracks in a dark corner of the room, unlit by the main flames.

Then she felt it: a quiet flicker of flame. Friend Nauda gingerly lifted it in her hands, pulling it from the crevice. The flame was not large and unlike the others, it burned purple. Fiyu thought it was the color of Slest, and yet it felt appropriate. This was a subtle and powerful flame, not an inferno like the others they had found.

"Will it do?" Friend Nauda looked up at her with anxious hope, and this time Fiyu was quite certain she could read her companion.

"It will, Nauda. Thank you." She reached out to take the flame and allowed their hands to brush. "I will place it into my heart chamber soon, but perhaps we can do so from a more comfortable location?"

Friend Nauda laughed and that was her signal to use the weirkey. They would be able to soulcraft together and then keep moving throughout life together. That was enough for Fiyu to be happy... she just hoped that it was enough for them to survive the trials facing them.

~ ~ ~

The final preparations before the battle passed Theo in a muted storm. Despite everything there was to do, his soulcrafting was one of their top priorities. Either he had strong relationships or the others were merely putting up with him, but they let him keep working while they prepared.

After some brief uncertainty, the fundamentals of his new blueprint had guided his soulcrafting. The fleshnexus formed the linchpin of his Corporeal structure, then each room further away was less physical. One branch contained the mountainheart fragment first, increasing his durability, and then the rigidcelerity as a stony but less physical material. The other led from the lostflesh to the mental gem, embodying more abstract traits. In theory, after he ascended, there would be a third branch leading upward, with two rooms supporting it. Their roles had been decided in his blueprint, but without the capacity to fill them, they were irrelevant for now.

In theory his Ethereal structure would do the exact same thing from the top down, so he needed to build backwards. The ghostly prism from the Archive of Misery currently didn't offer him anything except some extra cantae. But it was abstract enough to lead into the rest of the structure, so it was a good starting point. He'd need to learn more about Ethereal Floor construction when he had more time.

Core design decisions quickly gave way to smaller choices. A lot of his supportive soulcrafting was already in place because the fleshnexus stretched in between rooms and bound them all together. In keeping with his plans for the whole sphere to move slower, he considered building connections to the other chambers as well.

Even the unnatural flesh wasn't enough for a whole chamber, though, so he spent the majority of his time building supportive housings. Finally, keeping every single lesser material he found paid off. He also got his Esoteric Chisel back and began carving the walls of each room to generally represent the central material.

Before Theo could finish the work, Nanjuma returned... and he had Bimanu with him. Theo breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't been thinking much about it due to his soulcrafting woes, but their entire plan could easily have fallen through if they hadn't been able to make a Tatian connection. Senka also skipped around behind them with an utterly vapid smile on her face.

"You did well, restoring Myufuru." Bimanu stepped forward and grasped his upper arms. "And you've raised my old friend to Landguard! Even as risky as my position is, I am honored to take you to the site of your battle."

"If you joined us you could do even more." Theo gestured from Nanjuma to the others. "With one more Authority, our victory would be certain. Surely if your actions restored Nlukoko, the Landguard would overlook them?"

"Anyone who takes part in the battle would be standing against the community." Bimanu pulled back and shook his head. "No, I cannot fight. I am taking a risk even by helping the two villagers you accidentally took with you. The most I can do for you is provide transport, and give you one day."

"One day from now?" Leaving so abruptly would definitely interfere with their plans.

"From the moment you disrupt the peace again, the Landguard will not interfere for at least one full day. I wish I could promise this, but there are variables. If you destroy the deathseed, more will wait. If too much of Nlukoko is damaged... you may have less than a day."

Theo had really been hoping that Bimanu would fight with them, but he wasn't counting on it. He glanced to Nanjuma, who came to stand beside him. The worst case scenario had been Bimanu taking Nanjuma off to join the Landguard immediately, which would have ruined their plans. He'd been betting that they wouldn't be that hard-headed.

"Destroying the deathseed will save Nlukoko," Bimanu went on, "but will not free it. Ideally, you could make all the foreign Authorities retreat within the day. If too many remain, the Landguard will pass judgment and I cannot promise what will happen."

"Oh, we're planning to beat them." Theo gave the man a Tatian smile. "Thank you for your assistance. But we don't want to arrive near Nlukoko: take us to the gate near Myufuru."

"If you insist. At this point I can only trust to your tactics."

While Bimanu stepped away, Nanjuma walked closer. He clapped Theo on the shoulder with one hand while returning the Slescan and Noveni weirkeys with the other. "I can't say I expected to wander the Nine Worlds at my age," he said, "but as they say, life is full of surprises."

"You'll be fighting with us?" Theo asked. "And you finished your new chamber?"

"Yes and yes, the 'secret weapon' is ready." Nanjuma winked at him and then went to go talk to Nauda.

That was another tool in their arsenal. Theo looked to Senka, who was turning cartwheels randomly. He moved to stand in her path, and to his surprise she bumped straight into him. "Silly Theo! Senka is Senkaing!"

"Come on, snap out of it."

"Leedle lee, leedle lah, leedle blah!"

She really did seem to be deep in the grip of her curse. For a moment Theo feared that she'd done nothing but babble to the Tatians instead of directing them. Then without warning her gaze shifted and he saw the cruel smile he knew.

"We found it and Krikree is in position," Senka said. "The Landguard fumpet doesn't understand. I'm conserving energy so I can give you a proper blast when the time comes."

"You kept the plan from him? Is that necessary?"

"He may be on our side, but I don't trust Tatian operational security further than I can puke. The bad news is that I couldn't get one of those communication flowers. Speaking of bad... blobble blee, blobble blah..."

Senka wandered off again, leaving Theo to reconsider strategy. In an ideal world, he'd have acquired one of the sublime flowers that the Landguard used to commune among their members. Without it, he had no way of contacting Krikree. It meant that he couldn't call on her at will, but after working with her recently, he could say that he trusted her judgment. They'd have at least one backup Ruler in position.

The arrival had disrupted his soulcrafting, so Theo looked around to see if there was anything else he could do. Nauda and Fiyu were packing up everything that had spread out during their time on Slest, clearly having fun talking to one another. They would have welcomed him, but there was also no need to talk to them: their alliance was rock solid.

Instead, he considered going to find Bluepetal. He'd never quite got the chance to talk to the old beetle at length and felt like they could have had a decent conversation. With everything else going on, it had always been lower on his priority list.

Was that skimming through worlds and abandoning them? As Theo looked over the city of Acidmount, he decided that it wasn't. The last of the anti-weirkey defenses were being put into place by industrious beetles and their city had been acknowledged as a critical part of the Gray-Blue-Gold colony. They were in a strong position for the future.

He could always come back and talk to Bluepetal later, if they survived.

Theo soulcrafted until it was finally time. Bimanu used his weirkey to take them over a generic Tatian farming village between Myufuru and the gate. After some more exhortations for them to save Nlukoko, he departed.

That left Theo with a more difficult decision. He wanted to go through the gate to talk to Navim, but he was beginning to feel like he'd run out of time. In the end he let Fiyu, Nauda, and Nanjuma go while he stayed behind in hiding and soulcrafted.

The two chambers in between his Corporeal section and the single Ethereal chamber needed to be filled with something, both for total strength and for the sake of balance. He'd always been planning to use Senka's gemstones and now he picked the exact elements: light and shadow. Those were too blunt for his final blueprint, but they'd do fine in the interim.

Even the old plinths he'd soulcrafted for temporary placement proved useful: they were perfect for locking the gemstones into his design without embedding them permanently.

With the work done and time running out, Theo made his first real attempt at cantae flow. It was just a circular pattern, not his final sphere, and it was weakened by the lack of a singularity on his upper levels. All according to his designs, just lacking its full potential meanwhile.

It worked. His cantae flowed in a slow but immensely powerful circle through all the sublime materials on his Authority floor.

Not a Corporeal Floor, not an Ethereal transformation, and only a fraction of his new design. It was still enough that he'd be a very different soulcrafter than he had been in the first battle in Nlukoko. Or so he hoped, because his strategy depended on it. Of course, these were just the basics, so he began soulcrafting more materials to support the rest.

He barely got started before the others returned. They really were running out of time.

Since the others had gone to allow him to keep soulcrafting, he drove the sleigh as they flashed over Tatian toward their battle. They told him that Navim and the others were all well. Navim had produced more elationmortar, which Nauda had been using to touch up final details on her floors. He'd also given them an anti-flame armament, a war scythe for Krikree, and a stone armament that could store cantae and then convert it into a shield. Barring more soulcrafters on their side, they couldn't be much better prepared.

Just in case the deathseed surprised everyone, Theo pushed the sleigh as hard as it could go. They didn't talk as much as usual, just waited.

Normally the first sign of Nlukoko was the light shining off one of the gilded buildings, or the curve of one of the floating spheres. This time, a tangled black tree rose on the horizon. It was even bigger than the one in Myufuru had been and he could feel it throbbing with malicious power.

"How long do we have?" he asked over his shoulder. "Do we need to rush the attack?"

"I can't be sure, but I hope we have a while longer." Nauda shielded her eyes and peered over the city. "If they were going to harvest it now, I think they'd have more workers nearby. But I can feel the deathseed in the branches, so we don't have much time left."

That wasn't the only thing that had changed. Three of the guard towers had doubled in height, shining with Deuxan metal and burning with sublime might. Powerful ballista-shaped armaments sat on top, carrying bolts made from dangerous materials. A Ruler, or even Archcrafters driven to exhaust themselves, could deal lethal damage with one of those.

Normally, Theo would have bet on Fiyu's stealth against anything the Armeau family could come up with. Given how much they'd prepared, he decided that they shouldn't take the risk. Instead they circled the city to look for any last second information that might change their battle plan.

Aside from the three towers, Theo noticed more fortifications but nothing that would alter a fight between Authorities. There were armed Farmguards on the street, of course, but Theo was confident that none of them would be relevant. Only the Rulers, especially grandfather Arceon, stood a chance of tipping the scales.

"There they are," Fiyu said. "I see three of them near the tree, and I can sense Ariano inside his palace. He does not appear to be incapacitated from the injury I gave him."

"Really?" Nauda heaved a sigh and dropped back in her seat. "I was hoping that they'd lose at least one."

They hadn't been so lucky: three Authorities stood guard near the deathseed tree. The Blazekindler stalked around it with regular glances, Amaeli sat back in apparent relaxation, and Esaire... Esaire was soulcrafting atop a nearby building. He wore a sword on each hip and there was no telling what else he had built for himself.

"Does this change our strategy?" Nauda asked.

"I think we have to give up on destroying the Deuxan gate." Theo glanced out toward it and then back to the tree. "We might not have enough time, so it's not worth the risk. Everything will probably be decided before they can possibly call reinforcements from Anguedan anyway."

"Unless they're waiting just on the other side."

"Even then, there might not be enough time. This has to end in one battle."

"What is our first strike?" Fiyu asked. She appeared to be focusing on the sphere around them, which shimmered with increasing silvery light. "They are on constant alert, so whatever surprise I can offer will only last for one time."

While they'd still been on Slest, there had been discussion of whether or not they should try to take out an Authority first, or destroy the deathseed as a precaution. He'd seen the argument for the latter, especially if it removed the Blazekindler's motivation. Now that the Authorities were defending the tree so closely, the choice had been made for them.

"I think we need to take out an opponent," Theo said. "The chances are too high that they'll manage to stop a strike on the tree and then we're outnumbered. If we can eliminate one of them fast, then we have an even fight."

Nauda shook her head. "I agree, but I don't like it. We target Ariano?"

"Ideally one of the others, but if they don't ever split up... yes, he's the best choice."

For a while they simply stared at the city grimly. The sun was beginning to set and he doubted that a night attack would offer them much advantage in this situation. Even if they could confuse the lesser soulcrafters by dousing all the city's torches, he presumed all the Authorities would have countermeasures.

As they flew down to a secure position, Theo glanced toward Nanjuma. The old man had been unusually quiet during their trip.

"Any advice for us?" Theo asked. "Anything we missed?"

"You seem to have thought this through, so I only have one thing to say: get a good night of sleep." Nanjuma clapped him on the shoulder and then lay back in his seat. "We're going to need it."

One more night. Theo entered his soulhome and worked until he was tired, but nothing he soulcrafted would matter in the coming battle. Only if he survived it.

-

Chapter 38

The night before the battle to retake Nlukoko, Nauda couldn't sleep. She wasn't even aware of it for a long time, just caught in the tension of her thoughts. Only when she saw the sun breaking the horizon, deceptively welcoming, did she realize how much time had passed.

This battle had to justify her entire life.

For years she'd been a child wishing she could soulcraft and yet knowing that her opponents stood far above her. She'd realized that it would take years of work to even dream of challenging any of the injustices she saw. And so she'd made compromises, wandered through many other worlds, took small jobs and continued to live her life. Sometimes she went a day without thinking about Nlukoko or Erusha and she felt guilty for it.

Every step along the way, she told herself that it was necessary. That it was acceptable to live for a little while and enjoy life with her friends, because it all took her close to the time when she could make a difference. When all the soulcrafting and the sacrifices would be worth it.

All for this. In the battle for Nlukoko, she'd see if she had been lying to herself.

The others were still sleeping, though not for long. Theo woke first and floated about a foot into the air to examine Nlukoko from their hiding place. Even though he was a newcomer to the Nine Worlds and had no connection to the city, she saw the tension in his face. This mattered to him and impacted what he believed about himself in an entirely different way.

Before anyone else awoke, in the silence of the morning, he stepped up beside her and handed her a heavenspear. Nauda took the shaft and it trembled.

"Do you want me to use it?"

"This is your battle," Theo said. "It should be your choice."

Nauda gripped the heavenspear tightly, but in the end she placed it within her soulhome. She didn't want to save just one city, she wanted to make a difference everywhere. Not just in the nations where she'd lived, but on Arbai and Slest and worlds she didn't even know. The justification of her life had to begin now, but it couldn't end here.

"Are we ready?" Fiyu floated up behind them and stared toward the city. "I fear that most of our foes are still observing the deathseed and only Ariano is alone."

"That's fine." Nauda clenched her hand around her staff until her knuckles went white. "The corruption all started with him and he needs to be brought down. Let's go."

Her friends nodded grimly. Nanjuma and Senka joined them not long after and they all rose into the air within Fiyu's sphere of stealth. For the first time, Nauda didn't dwell on the fact that she was one of the few non-Authorities in the group, just a support fighter like Senka. She noted it and then forgot about it. All that mattered was how the day ended.

They all held their breath as they entered the city, anticipating some unique defense that would detect them. When no one attacked, they flew closer to the grand palace. The domain of Ariano of the Golden Wings, who had made Nlukoko into his personal playground and exploited its citizens. Just a failed Authority, yet dangerous enough to have led to all this.

Ariano himself sat in his throne room, slouching back in his chair with a wealth of Tatian food in front of him. Some of it was rotting. Nauda had to restrain herself and let the others take the lead. She noticed that his severed wing had been restored, yet it was a dead gold instead of the former rich amber. As they crept closer, step by step, Nauda had plenty of time to see the idle scorn on his face.

Just as they'd planned, Fiyu set them on one side of the throne room, then leapt. Her stealth contracted around herself and in a moment she seemed to blink away. Ariano saw the rest of them and smashed his hands into his chairs as he stood up.

"Guards! Gu-" Fiyu's blade tore across his chest before he got out the second word.

He'd been wearing some kind of ivory armor under his stained robes, so the blow wasn't lethal. But Fiyu's cantae blade was so sharp that it still tore a bloody line and kept going, shredding one of his wings.

Ariano unleashed his cantae, beginning an explosion of arcs. Before it could get going, Theo struck him with a gravitational field and knocked him back onto his throne. Fiyu didn't let up, slicing again and nearly cutting his throat. The two of them fought aggressively, not giving Ariano any time to catch his breath.

Nauda wanted to jump in and strike the man she'd hated for so long, but she restrained herself. This wasn't about her revenge or her emotions. It didn't matter who killed him, only that he couldn't harm Nlukoko anymore.

Besides, she had an essential job: points of vitality were springing up behind her.

Soulcrafters were pouring into the throne room. Far more than should have been nearby, including Archcrafters and Rulers. Even though Ariano had been relaxing on his throne, he'd been prepared for an attack. No doubt the enemy Authorities would be coming soon.

This was her job: holding off everyone else to give her friends time to finish off Ariano. Nauda began by sweeping arcs of wards across the entrances and she was gratified to see many of the Farmguards smash into them. One of Ariano's pet Rulers managed to punch through, but Nanjuma grabbed the man and pushed him back.

Before everything devolved into chaos, Nauda tried to start with a little mercy. She thrust out her staff and bound the Farmguards who looked terrified and hesitant. With one sweeping movement, she threw them into one another and smashed the entire group through a wall, tossing them into the lake outside the palace. Maybe they were collaborators, maybe they were innocent. The community could decide that after the battle.

"You're back." Arceon ai Armeau strode down one of the palace corridors. He shattered the wards in his path with a contemptuous flick of one hand. "You think you deserve to stand here?"

"Yeah, I do." Nauda built another line of wards in front of her and adopted a defensive stance.

She hadn't been ready for Arceon before, but since then she'd been sparring against a peak Ruler in Nanjuma. When Arceon broke her wards with another silvery flick, Nauda leapt through the burning fragments of cantae and closed the distance in an instant.

Her binding caught his chest and she flattened him against the palace wall. Nauda tried to keep pushing and stab the tips of her staff into his chest, but Arceon reached out and grabbed the shaft. His chest was heaving, his nostrils flared, and his eyes widened as he looked up at her.

Nauda showed her teeth and kept pushing.

She might have been able to use her early advantage to win the battle early, if cantae hadn't impacted the palace at that moment - one of the enemy Authorities had arrived. The Blazekindler's arrival burned off the upper half of the palace and he began spewing flames. Nauda couldn't see the overall effects because she was buffeted from all sides and could barely keep her footing.

When she made it to secure ground, she'd been separated from Arceon. It looked as though Fiyu and Theo had stayed with Ariano, taking out one of his arms and another wing. They could do this, she just needed to keep the enemy at bay.

Across the throne room, Nanjuma had been blockading another hallway of reinforcements. He glanced at her and she realized that he was still shielded as a Ruler. It wasn't simply a glance in battle, he was looking for guidance because the others were fully occupied.

Nauda tried to feel all the vitality in the palace, warm fires floating around her, and made her decision instantly. It looked like they'd only sent one Authority, possibly fearing a diversion and an attack on the deathseed. So when she met Nanjuma's gaze again, she shook her head.

Instead of revealing himself, he threw a bolt of cantae to intercept the Blazekindler's next flame. Nauda wanted to join in holding him off, but at that moment Arceon burst out of the rubble.

"You think you can support them?" The old Deuxan sneered and gathered cantae around himself. "You should never have stood against the Armeau family."

Her only response was to grip her staff tighter and prepare for the real fight. Around her, she could sense that many of the lesser Farmguards had been tossed into the water, hopefully out of harm's way. Yet there were a surprising number of Archcrafters, all wearing Deuxan armor, spreading out around the throne room.

Something was changing, and Nauda had no idea what it was.

~ ~ ~

At first Theo had really believed they could do it. Ariano had been taken off guard and suppressed, so they quickly cut him down to size. His power was only overwhelming to weaker soulcrafters, not Authorities. With a little more time, they could have finished him off and evened the odds.

Even when the Blazekindler showed up, Theo thought that they could manage it. Nauda and Nanjuma were prepared to run interference and they only needed to buy a little more time. Then, without any grand explosion of power, Theo found himself bound by cantae rushing from all sides.

It felt like the air itself wanted to suffocate him and began clawing down his throat. That didn't make sense for the Blazekindler or anyone in the Armeau family, so Theo just fought back against it with raw cantae... and failed. He stumbled back and realized that Fiyu was suffering as well. There was some kind of sphere of power, half underground, that was closing on the two of them and Nauda.

Ariano staggered away, trailing blood, but Theo was no longer thinking about finishing him. Against the suffocating power, his highest priority was to survive and figure out the source.

To his shock, he realized that it was the Farmguard.

All around the palace, weaker soulcrafters he'd barely even noticed were raising silvery armaments and throwing their cantae into some kind of unified technique. They were moving into formations, with Ariano's Rulers at the head of blocks of Archcrafters. None of them had well-constructed soulhomes, but they'd been pushed up a tier or two. Without shielding walls, their naked soulhomes revealed gleaming new Deuxan sublime materials.

Theo tried to flatten them all with a gravitational field, only to find his technique to be suppressed. He attempted a torsion bolt and it didn't make it out of the dome pressing in on them. When he tried to tunnel a portal to the other side, space twisted back on him.

He saw Fiyu disappear as she moved to the side, only to be thrown back a moment later. The dome had managed to repel her so forcefully it knocked her to the ground. Even as Theo went to help her up, he saw that she'd tried to slash the barrier. Hexagonal plates of cantae glowed brightly where she'd struck, but she hadn't torn through.

"This was made specifically to stop us." Fiyu accepted his hand and made it to her feet shakily. "They were prepared."

"As soon as we break out, the formation will collapse," Theo said. But despite his encouragement, he wasn't so confident.

Nauda was the only other person trapped inside the dome with them, likely by design, and she was swinging her staff against the dome walls to little effect. Fiyu unleashed a lightstorm against one side, and it lit up a swath of hexagons, but they didn't fall to raw force. No half-decent trap would.

Fortunately they had Nanjuma outside the dome, which wouldn't have been designed to suppress him since Esaire didn't know anything about his techniques. But he was currently locked in battle with the Blazekindler, so he might not be able to break the formation. Senka was also lurking somewhere, but there was no sign of her.

He had to assume they needed to break out on their own. Theo raised his hands and began generating his singularity.

At first the air tried to suffocate it as well, as if specifically designed to counter his gravity. Two attempts spluttered, then the third lit up darkly between his hands. Theo grimaced and maintained the singularity as it began to absorb the cantae of the suppressive technique. The trap was good, just not good enough. Eventually the singularity would grow enough to consume the whole formation from within, if only-

Theo leapt away as a sapphire bolt tore through his technique.

"You think I'm going to let you do that?" Esaire floated above the throne room, generating more cantae in each hand. "You beat me by dedicating your entire soul to preparing for my blueprint. How does it feel to be on the other side?"

The fact that Esaire had devoted so many resources specifically to stop them was bad, but the bolt itself signaled something worse. When Esaire struck again, nearly hitting Fiyu and Nauda, it confirmed Theo's suspicions: the dome blocked everyone inside completely, but it allowed attacks in. 

When the next bolt seared out of the sky, Theo watched the suppressive technique carefully. The defensive hexagons didn't disappear to allow the sapphire bolt through, they simply didn't resist anything from that direction. Esaire and the others could attack them with impunity without suffering any retaliation.

"You just keep coming back!" Esaire floated closer to the dome and began summoning a larger number of bolts. "Not this time."

Before he could launch the array of cantae bolts, Nanjuma burst out of the palace. He didn't dramatically show off his new Authority status or any grand techniques, he just collided with Esaire in a flying headbutt. The Deuxan man had a split second to look shocked before he was sent flying away into the skies of Nlukoko, crashing through several tubes of water.

The Blazekindler hurled a line of fire, but it dissipated against Nanjuma's cantae aura. Even if he didn't have a full Authority floor, his masterfully crafted soulhome shone with his new cantae. For a moment, Theo thought that their hidden trump card would break the trap.

Then a silver bolt struck Nanjuma in the side, driving him to the ground. Theo turned and saw that it had fired from one of the armament towers - with the roof torn away, at least one tower had a clear line of sight. Nanjuma would be facing bolts from the tower, on top of Esaire and the Blazekindler. Even he would struggle just to stay alive against such odds.

He did have one card left to play, and Nanjuma played it well: two enormous hands of water burst from the lake around them.

One clenched around the Blazekindler, trying to suffocate his flame. The other punched Esaire in the face just as he started to return to the battle. Both Authorities retreated higher into the sky, getting as far away from the lake as possible.

Unfortunately, this was more of a bluff than a trump card. Theo had given Nanjuma the elemental water stone from Senka's cache specifically because of the lake beneath Nlukoko. Aquatic abilities next to a large body of water would look like a plan to turn the environment to their advantage, but all it could do was buy them some time.

The others still hadn't broken out of the dome. While Fiyu had one side glowing white hot, Theo tried to cast through it again and didn't stop. He saw several Archcrafters outside collapse as their cantae gave out, but not enough.

"Stop this!" Seeing that her efforts were useless, Nauda just walked to the edge of the dome and pressed her hands against it. "Why are you still fighting for Ariano? Look at what he's done to Nlukoko! Think about your community and do the right thing!"

Theo saw hesitation and doubt in the faces around them, and for a moment he almost believed that Nauda would save the day with the power of friendship. But there was too much fear in the crowd and the dome didn't falter. They had been beaten down by years of oppression and they could all feel the Authorities in the sky overhead. From their perspective, all they saw was another failed uprising and they wouldn't risk their families by joining it.

A silver blast of cantae rippled through the dome, almost clipping Fiyu. The armament tower was mostly firing outward, toward Nanjuma, but it could still target them. Theo grimaced and desperately tried to think of a solution.

And just when it seemed like it couldn't get worse, the Blazekindler appeared overhead.

He raised both hands and summoned a ring of flame just within the formation of Farmguards. It began advancing inward, threatening them from all sides and amplifying the suppressive force. Nauda retreated from the flames and activated Navim's shielding armament, but the most it could do was keep her alive in the middle of the assault. Theo cast everything he had, but it all fizzled out against the technique designed specifically to stop him.

"Senka Senka!"

He'd never been so glad to hear that obnoxious voice in his life.

In midair at the edge of the palace, Senka spun in a circle. Abruptly she snapped into focus and cantae began welling up within her. The Blazekindler went from mildly curious to shocked as the sphere of cantae grew in front of her and he strengthened his flames around him.

He should have used that time to dodge. When Senka launched her technique, it flew out faster than any Authority could move. It moved through his sphere of flames as if it didn't exist and the most the Blazekindler could do was shift to the side: it struck the side of his body and sent him tumbling into the lake without slowing down.

The sphere impacted outside the palace, and Theo briefly thought Senka had missed before he realized her target. When the technique exploded, its expanding sphere of destruction encompassed part of the circle of Farmguards around them and completely obliterated the armament tower.

Senka tumbled back into the water and disappeared into the lake.

The suppressive dome faltered and Theo attacked it. Before it could break, Arceon stepped in, pouring in all his cantae to make up for the fallen Farmguards. He grimaced with the exertion, but he managed to stand in for the fallen soulcrafters.

Nauda had been striking at the side and now collapsed to the ground, only Navim's cracking armament defending her. Fiyu stopping attempting to use her lightstorm and her head sank. Given how they'd just missed their best chance, he couldn't blame them.

It was technically a miracle that they had survived this long. Nanjuma had completely shifted the balance and Senka had maximized the effect from her single blast. But all Theo could see was their trump cards burning up as the battle slipped toward inevitable defeat.

-

Usually I don't go into too much detail on my plans and intentions, but I guess I will here. I'm pretty sure the start of this battle will infuriate certain portions of the progression fantasy fandom, but I feel like I've already lost many of them, so I might as well lean in to what makes TWC distinct.

One thing you commonly see is that protagonists always punch up against people in a higher tier, but nobody ever gets to punch up against them. As soon as someone is surpassed, even briefly, they get left behind permanently, because other characters are just benchmarks for the protagonist to surpass. I do understand how this increases the sense of pace, and this sort of thing is a reason people complain about TWC's pacing... hopefully some people will be on board for an alternative too.

I waited until this book because it relates to the main theme: Theo has been trying to pay more attention to other people and not consider them beneath his notice. Well, as is another theme in TWC, change doesn't always come easily. Theo may have planned for many aspects of the fight, but he's been disregarding the general army. That comes back to bite him now - this theme isn't quite over, but I'm sure you see how it all connects regardless of if you agree. 

Anyway, that's my reasoning. You can probably guess a lot of what's coming next, but I'm not trying to change tropes just for the heck of it. =P Regardless, it's all climax from here on!