The next morning, Theo was soulcrafting in the courtyard before the sun had risen. He'd hoped to have some time to analyze Nauda, but as she didn't arrive until exactly sunrise, all he accomplished was further breaking up his solarstone. Soon enough he would need to begin crafting bricks, hopefully aided by all of the classes instead of hindered.

Fiyu emerged on time and sat soulcrafting in the corner nearest him, and the others arrived not long after. Soon they were only missing Kuber, who wasn't on time in typical Tatian fashion, so the Fithan man who had made trouble the previous day was sent into the men's quarters to retrieve him. In the meantime, Theo learned that his name was Trathis, just in case he turned out to be a problem.

Actually, he was introduced to all of them - Nauda had them sit in a circle and give their names and origins - but Theo let most of the names run through his mind like water. Most likely none of them would interfere or assist with his goals in any way. Still, he paid attention as Nauda began what seemed to be a lesson.

"Nanjuma and the others will provide us with more knowledgeable instructors," she said, "but I hope that I can contribute some small insight to our soulcrafting. Perhaps not any great strength, but understanding. For that reason, I wanted to begin by touring one another's soulhomes."

"You can't enter a soulhome." Trathis didn't bother to hide a sneer. "Not unless you're a legendary king in some kind of children's story."

Nauda lowered her gaze in an apologetic bow. "This is true. I meant something slightly different, so thank you for your essential correction. Though I am certain that you have seen thousands of techniques superior to mine, please bear with it. Now, link hands and relax any cantae defenses."

Of course Tatian training was going to involve sitting in a circle and holding hands. Theo held his tongue, as he was curious just what Nauda intended, and extended his hands to either side. Kuber immediately grasped his wrist on his left, but his right hung in the air... Fiyu had been holding back from the circle. She reluctantly shifted closer and laid a finger on his hand as if it would bite her. That put her between him and Nauda... and then a rush of cantae sent him spiraling.

Not into his soulhome, but somewhere else. Theo pushed against it, and realized he could easily resist the effect, but instead allowed himself to be swept away. His soul and body remained motionless, it was as if his mind was being given a new vantage point.

He floated just above the ground of a soulhome, yet it felt insubstantial instead of deeply grounded in himself. When he tried to shift his weight, he saw that his feet didn't truly touch the ground - he was a blur of blue light as if he was soulcrafting. Around him, he saw the others as spirits, many of them spinning in confusion. Fiyu was a perfectly calm shadow, as if having her mind transported into another soulhome was less distressing than holding hands.

Nauda stood in front of them, the only person who remained fully concrete, so this was clearly her soulhome. The field surrounding the main structure was bright Tatian grass and the clouds overhead glowed as if an orange sun lay behind them. Her soulhome itself was impressively built, with sturdy stone walls covered in artfully growing vines.

Somewhat smaller than he had expected, given her status as a group leader. His gaze slid upward and he noted the pyramid structure under construction atop the building. It pressed into the clouds overhead, which pressed back, the occasional chip of paint flaking away. So she was attempting to push past her first floor to ascend to Archcrafter as quickly as possible.

"This is my soulhome, such as it is." Nauda smiled at all of them and swept a hand to encompass it. "Since you are not truly within my soul, you should be able to float simply by willing it. Please follow me as I show you my soulcrafting."

Though a few had trouble, Theo found that floating came naturally and he flowed after her. Nauda checked to make sure everyone was following, then opened her ornate wooden door. The first room was spare, but the air hummed with stored cantae.

"This first chamber is a humble room with no special purpose," Nauda explained as she continued onward. "But it is essential for your soulhome to have balance for stability. I have three chambers that serve an essential purpose, so creating a fourth gives me symmetry."

Perfectly logical, though he wondered how she intended to expand in the future. Unless she had some truly exotic sublime materials, her second floor couldn't be broader than her first, and having only four chambers per tier would be very limiting, no matter how stable it was.

"The most important room in my soulhome is this: my heart chamber." Nauda led them into the second room, which was dominated by a large tree - though it looked Tatian, it was a variety that he hadn't seen before. She didn't explain that, instead telling the others basics about how the tree generated cantae and she used the chamber to channel the majority of it.

Ignoring that, Theo looked into the next room. It was another spare chamber, but there was a large window to the outside... and a telescope of golden brass. His eyes widened and he had to resist drifting closer: it was a finely crafted object for a soulhome, and almost certainly the source of this technique to let people view other soulhomes directly.

"Why's your staff here?" Kuber's question broke through his own thoughts and Theo looked back as he realized that he'd missed a detail. There was an exact copy of Nauda's staff standing in the chamber beside the tree, easy to miss because the trunk had partially grown over it.

"This is the spiritual reflection of my weapon in reality." Nauda walked beside the tree and ran her finger along one of the forked prongs. "Anyone can pick up a weapon and use it, of course, and even make it powerful by forcing cantae into it. But by including my personal weapon here, it can naturally hold cantae and I can use it more effectively."

"If it's a soulcrafter weapon, doesn't it need its own chamber?"

"Ah... my staff is a weapon used by a soulcrafter, but it is not a 'soulcrafter weapon' if you mean an armament with great power of its own. It is only a tool. If I held a powerful armament, yes, it would require a dedicated chamber for its full use, but that is beyond my current needs."

Kuber floated back, apparently satisfied, but Trathis spoke up before Nauda could continue her tour. "What's that telescope thing?"

"That is the spiritual construct that allows all of you to tour my soulhome." Nauda smiled over all of them. "I am quite proud of it, so I hope-"

"But what's it made out of? I haven't seen sublime materials like that on Tatian, so did you get them from somewhere else?"

Nauda frowned slightly, though she still responded. "I have lived my entire life on Tatian and I do not believe those materials were taken from another world. They are simply less common, especially in this region. Now, if there are no other questions, perhaps we can move on?"

The soulhome around him began to fade and this time there was nothing he could do to resist the process. Theo couldn't help but take a final glance around, noting two critical omissions. First, he doubted that such an elaborate telescope existed solely for the sake of pleasant little tours - most likely it allowed her to examine the soulhomes of others far beyond what the unaided spirit could see.

Second: Nauda had a fourth chamber that she kept locked tight.

"Fiyu, would you be willing to show us your soulhome?" Nauda asked the question rhetorically, but Fiyu's spirit flinched in surprise. After a very long pause, she sighed and nodded, her finger back on the physical plane digging into his palm.

Several of the other students let out cries of surprise as darkness engulfed them, but it was just the environment of Ichil. They stood on dark rocky ground, shadows encroaching on all sides, the only light a soft blue glow from the clouds overhead. As others struggled to see, Theo let his vision adjust and then examined Fiyu's soulhome.

While Nauda's structure could have been a quaint home on Tatian, Fiyu's defied any ordinary blueprint. There were walls of black stone, yes, but one chamber appeared to be a solid chunk of ice, directly beside walls of lava that flowed thick and dark. Theo hadn't explored Ichil enough to know anything about that and suspected that Fiyu's mentor had given her sublime materials from far away.

"Well!" The spiritual blur of Nauda put her hands on her hips and regarded the structure with what looked like pleasant, if hazy, surprise. "I hoped that Fiyu would show us variety, but this is better than I expected. Fiyu? You must be here, this is your soul..."

"I am here." Fiyu poked her head from out of the door, almost entirely cast in shadow. "But I do not wish to give a tour."

"That's fine, it can still help everyone understand. The rest of you... note the environment around the building. The shadows and the sky are nothing, just reflecting Fiyu's world of origin, but note how firm the ground is. This is Fiyu's foundation, which renders it effective for some things and less so for others. For example... I imagine that you do not have a tree growing in your heart chamber, do you?"

Though Fiyu paused for a time, eventually she bobbed her head. "No. I acquired a type of sublime wood and a sublime spark in order to create a fire. Its burning generates the cantae I need."

"Wonderful!" Nauda looked like she wanted to pat Fiyu reassuringly, but held back and instead turned to the group. "You see? There are as many types of soulhome as there are people. Look here, where the ice and stone merge so beautifully..."

Theo ignored the lecture and analyzed the structure for himself. Overall, Fiyu's soulhome was more specialized, not merely storing cantae but using it with great efficiency for specific techniques. He couldn't figure out which chamber generated all those bolts of light from the outside, but suspected that her fire lay in the central chamber.

If he understood the structure correctly, she was actually planning her outer wall to be a circle, not a square. It looked blocky because several chambers were still in progress: the ice had further to grow, and there was an area on the opposite side that appeared to be canvas strapped over a gap. Clearly a temporary sublime material as she finished her first floor.

Seeing Fiyu's discomfort, Nauda didn't keep them there long. Instead her eyes turned toward Theo and he felt a penetrating focus on his soul. Though she hesitated, waiting for an invitation, he had a feeling that she could have taken a look even if he tried to refuse her. He wished that he had a shielding wall, but building one would be a huge waste of resources while he was still a first tier soulcrafter, if it was even possible.

Instead he eased his soul and allowed her to guide everyone else in. Immediately he felt firm and grounded, the air itself resonating with him. Of course, his soul was nothing compared to the previous two, and he ignored the snickers from a few of the others.

"Like many of you," Nauda said as soon as the spirits arrived, "Jake is beginning construction on his soulhome. Can you tell us about what you're doing here?"

"There's not too much to explain. I've found the sublime materials I want, but I'm still preparing them. The wood is mostly ready, but the stone needs shaping before I can soulcraft anything, and that's hard spiritual work."

"Jake has made a good point: the best sublime materials require a great deal of time to process them. There are tales of soulcrafters spending months hammering stone or metal in the proper shape, and it is said that masters spend years preparing their materials before they begin to build a new chamber."

"What's this thing?" Trathis kicked at the pile of rubble, though his spiritual form couldn't touch it. Theo was still trying to decide whether or not to ignore this insult when one of the other men in the class spoke up.

"It's obviously a temporary cantae structure, Trathis. Don't be an idiot. What I want to know is... what's this door? I've never seen anything like it."

Nauda stepped beside her, her hand nearly touching the edge. "This is a door between the soulhome and the outer world, allowing a person to remain aware of their surroundings. It is... not a technique I would suggest trying before you have more experience." Her gaze shifted toward him, a cool curiosity that he simply met with a flat stare.

Soon enough they moved on, still in the order of the choosing. Kuber's soulhome was mostly empty except for a wide block of stone that would serve as a foundation. Theo had seen that much before, but actually standing inside, he could see that there was a temporary structure of wood to store cantae as well as more rocks being broken apart to one side. Clearly, Kuber was working toward something, but he refused to give any more information.

The remaining members of their class were even less notable, mostly single rooms to store cantae, or in one case, a tent surrounding a tree. For all his boasting, Trathis had nothing but a single stone chamber and a wooden lean-to against it. Enough to make him much stronger than a person who couldn't use cantae, but nothing remarkable.

Everyone emerged back into the physical world and most pulled their hands back, since they'd grown clammy while they drifted in spiritual realities. Nauda began to explain more basic lessons in a friendly, affirming tone that made Theo sick. He ignored her and instead considered how he would rank the entire class: they were all first tier soulcrafters, but that didn't make them equal.

Fiyu and Nauda were clearly at the top, though not directly comparable. It seemed that Fiyu was attempting to fully polish her first tier, while Nauda was building upward to reach the second. Both were valid strategies, though Fiyu would be more versatile while Nauda would be more powerful. They would need to shift their focuses as they became Archcrafters and moved beyond, of course.

Kuber was currently one of the weakest members of their group in terms of raw cantae, but had done the most work. If he had a good plan for his soulhome, all the foundation he'd laid could pay off, though Theo was still unclear on what blueprint would start in such a strange fashion.

After him came one of the other women, then Trathis, then the others. Theo himself would appear to be last, but only because the work he'd put in earned him little power. If everything came together, he would rapidly become far more dangerous.

At last the basic lecture finished, so he started paying attention again. Nauda gave all of them an overly broad smile and patted the knees of everyone within reach except Fiyu. "I see that you are a wonderful group of soulcrafters with great things ahead of you. Those of you without a heart chamber, your first task should be to construct one. Please ask me if you need different sublime materials or specific instructions, and if I cannot help you, I will find someone who can."

"When are classes?" one of the others asked. Nauda shook her head.

"I chose this group in the hopes that we could skip the simplest of classes, and I believe we can. So there is nothing to attend until tomorrow - I suggest you focus on your soulcrafting, particularly the most work-intensive parts. Meanwhile, I would like to speak to each of you individually. Fiyu?"

"I..." Fiyu shrank back and pulled her hood lower. "I would like some time alone."

"Of course. Come to me when you feel more comfortable." That meant her gaze turned to Theo next, since she was apparently going in choice order every time. "Jake?"

"Sure, we can talk." He rose to his feet, almost stumbling as pain shot through his knees. One of his legs was partially asleep, too, a consequence of having spent so long sitting and focusing on the spiritual. There were soulhome constructions that could avoid such things, often accessories in entrance chambers, but those were luxuries he couldn't afford yet.

The others departed, Fiyu fleeing to her room and most discussing what they had seen. Theo moved to the side, trying not to limp, and Nauda followed him. They walked from the courtyard, which was beginning to fill with other soulcrafters, and down one of the grassy stairways to a small ledge with a decent view. Once there, Nauda stood beside him, leaning on her staff and not making eye contact.

"I would like to be helpful to you, Jake. I hope you understand that. But to have soulcrafted a door first is... a strange decision. I would never dream of accusing you of anything harmful to community, but you do inspire great curiosity in me. I can only hope that is a forgivable sin."

There was something just a little off about her tone and Theo couldn't help but look at her, yet he saw nothing but Tatian earnestness. He opted for technical truth: "Let's just say I'm following a blueprint in my head."

"And what is that small foundation you're building beside the door? Surely if you intended to construct your first chamber, you would build something larger."

"It's going to be a vestibule."

"Ah. That is... another advanced construction." Nauda's eyebrows rose and he wondered if she knew its structure. She and Fiyu had both soulcrafted doors, but neither had a vestibule. He didn't offer any information and eventually she continued. "If we are a family, I wish to be helpful to you, and I hope that you will help me. Do you intend to construct your central chambers soon?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. But I want to have the right materials first so that I don't repeat work unnecessarily, so I'm preparing everything else first."

"Though that is a reasonable choice, it is also a risky one, since you will be vulnerable to everyone who focuses on the short term. It is like the tale of the woman who stored up all her best food for a future drought and died without tasting any of it. Following a blueprint to become a perfect Ruler is wonderful in theory, but many of those with such aspirations die first."

His aspirations extended beyond the third tier, but Theo nodded in acceptance of her point. It was actually unusual for a Tatian to speak so directly of death, which made him think a little better of her. Maybe her excessive humility was partially defensive.

"So what can I do to help you, Jake? There will be no contests for at least a month, likely more, but I hope that you can reach your full potential, both in the far future and in time to assist the rest of us."

That was almost a reprimand, so he suppressed a smile and answered. "My blueprint is based on control of light - not light as a product of soulcrafting, but the light of the sun itself. Solarstone will form adequate walls, but I need a seed more potent than flamefruit. Perhaps better wood as well. I don't need legendary sublime materials, but I do need them to be suitable for the sun itself."

"An interesting plan." Nauda rolled her fingers along her staff thoughtfully, then nodded. "I will do what I can for you, then. Fiyu was quite insistent that you join our little family, so I hope that you will not disappoint her."

"What about you?" Theo reached out to brush Nauda's hand in a motion that would have been forward on most worlds, but was only friendly on Tatian. "What are your goals for all of this?"

Nauda hesitated just a moment, then gave him a bright smile. "You saw my soulhome, didn't you? I cannot become an Archcrafter in a month or even a year, but I hope to take steps forward. In the meantime, my only hope is to assist all of you so that we can move upward together. If we can win the central contests of this school, the sublime materials earned will allow me to ascend."

"That's a good plan." Theo smiled and remained where he was, looking over the city of Myufuru until Nauda left him.

Once she was gone, he glanced over his shoulder. He didn't think that he had a reason to mistrust her, and Nauda did seem dedicated to her task of leading the team. But at several times, both in her tour and in her goals, she had not been entirely honest.