As they traveled through Deuxan, Theo reflected on a new reason to acquire a vehicle of some kind: they couldn't soulcraft while walking. There was a great deal of work to do, especially given the environments they might face once they reached civilization, but they needed to spend some of their time scouting. Fortunately, they uncovered the basics with little wasted time.

The gate to Tatian sat in a relative backwater, with only a secondary road leading to it. If they avoided that road, they could still determine the rough layout of the land, in particular larger roads leading to a nearby city. Part of the region was completely restricted in farms with defended hedge walls, filled with gleaming steel thorns, so they stuck to the hinterlands as they made their way forward.

Deuxan itself hadn't changed, at least in its fundamental nature. The grass shimmered like bronze, but there were a few silvery trees that were comfortingly familiar, even if they weren't the same species as those he knew. Given the temperature, he suspected they were much further from the poles than the continent he'd explored with Brigana, presuming that Deuxan followed similar physical laws overall.

Fiyu nervously asked him about what nights were like and he could only say that it varied throughout the year. As it grew darker, the moon rose from the horizon, a vast white disk that shed strangely pale light. Though it was still easily light enough to see, Fiyu seemed to find this light much less troubling, and she was glad to hear that during some parts of the year, the moon was below the horizon, leading to much darker nights.

They made camp beside a small lake without a fire, but weren't about to sleep just yet. Nauda revealed that she carried more supplies than she needed, so they were fine for food, at least for a while. As they ate, it was time to discuss their next step.

"I've seen your soulcrafting progress," Theo said, "but we're going to need to make more. Unless we're in a part of Deuxan where I have allies or stored supplies, we'll need to prove ourselves quickly."

"My goal is to ascend to Archcrafter, and I think I have what I need." Nauda had been snapping tree branches and drawing them into her soulhome since she sat down, though she struggled to overcome their flexibility. "Once there, I have sublime materials ready, so the rest can go to the two of you."

"We have a present for you!" Fiyu smiled and pulled an unusual stone from her pack, which sat strangely in her hands. Theo took it and began to experiment with its properties, but it wasn't time to shift to full design just yet.

"Thank you, I do need new materials to finish my blueprint. I'm nowhere near ready to ascend to Archcrafter, and we need ranks to have standing here. Fiyu, are you close?"

"Oh... no, my relative said it is important to be completely satisfied with each tier before you move on. He said that he would give me materials for ascension when I was ready, and I still have soulcrafting to do."

Nauda frowned with her hands still on one branch and leaned forward. "You don't need to show us your entire soulhome, but would you be willing to tell us more about your capacities?"

"I suppose there is no harm in that. I am a bit proud of my progress, so it would be nice to show someone." Fiyu reached out and delicately touched Nauda's knee with one finger, so Nauda reached over to Theo to draw them all into her observation technique.

"Senka too! Senka wants to see things!"

"No." Theo pushed her back, then put a reversed gravitational field underneath her. Tempting as it was to send her into the air, he didn't want to hurt the obnoxious little brat, so instead he added and removed other fields to cancel out her momentum... while she was floating significantly far from them.

Though Senka babbled something about flying, it was easier to ignore her now, especially once Nauda used her technique to draw their spirits into Fiyu's soulhome.

As before, his spirit emerged into a dark Ichili expanse, but he cast his attention immediately to the soulhome at the center. Gone were the canvas walls and all other signs of ongoing construction, instead leaving a large circular tower. There were still some rough edges, and he suspected her blueprint involved polishing the exterior, but he was more concerned with the building materials.

Now that the construction materials were cleared away, it was obvious that her tower was divided into three different sections: one of pitch black stone, one of ice, and one of hardened magma. Though roughly divided into thirds, each section seemed to lean into the next. Ordinarily he'd consider that sloppy construction or design, but since it was Fiyu, he presumed that it must be intentional.

"It seems like you're drawing off three different themes," Nauda said as she completed a circuit. "I'm not sure I understand how they connect, but since they seem to merge together well enough, I suppose that lets you use a huge variety of sublime materials."

"Yes." Fiyu bobbed her head happily and moved to the side, running her fingers over the exterior. "I am glad to finally have the last walls complete, though they still need more work. And I fear there is far more soulcrafting to do inside."

"Four sections." Theo spoke up more abruptly than he intended, as his examination of the entrance led him to a discovery. Though the room itself was obscured by shadows, he realized that the frame and part of the wall around the door was actually a dark metallic substance that didn't match any of the others.

"This is a special sublime material given to me by my relative." Fiyu ran her fingers over the door frame almost affectionately. "It is rare, but it allows me to use cantae from different sources more easily. However, it requires an entrance chamber of its own... similar to your vestibule, Theo."

"So how many chambers?"

"Other than the entrance and the hearth in the center... six, two for each section. That allows a balanced duality for each material. For example... the magma can produce terrible light to harm my foes, but also gentle heat to warm myself. I have not been able to soulcraft the gentle heat part yet."

It was clearly a well-designed blueprint, especially given how it required a rare material as the linchpin. The result was a very even balance of techniques: the hail of bolts at range, the dark blade up close, and he presumed her sensory awareness. He could have used a sensory technique himself, but casting his effort in too many directions would be a fatal mistake.

"You seem like you have a clear plan." Nauda smiled warmly, though he thought there was a hint of wistfulness behind it. "Do you have all the sublime materials you need, then?"

"I fear not." Fiyu sighed and leaned against the door. "I lack materials for some of the other chambers, and my relative was to give me more potent sources of cantae once my soulhome was sound enough to endure them. But do not fear: I still have others to adapt, and I have a great deal of work to do on the exterior."

"Actually, it motivates me to get to work. Let's see how much we can do before we reach the city, shall we?"

With that, Nauda released her technique, returning them to the camp to begin work. Compared to the two of them, Theo was again dissatisfied with his soulhome. They had years of preparation on him, of course, and he'd soulcrafted more rapidly than anyone could expect, but that wouldn't matter at all if they faced a lethal threat.

Theo entered his soulhome and began pacing through the outer rooms around his core, considering. He was tough enough not to have a standard cantae bolt tear through his body now, so he needed an offensive skill. The problem was that his gravitational torsion skill simply wasn't coming together, and few good techniques could be developed by simply trying really hard or gathering a bunch of cantae.

Back in reality, he examined the stone again before squeezing it until it appeared in his soulhome. There, he was surprised by how intensely it pressed against all the other materials - it might be nearly Archcrafter tier, just unusually difficult to use.

Though gravity was fundamentally the opposite of a sublime material that pushed things away, he'd found that dualities often worked well in soulcrafting. Perhaps he could create a technique that functioned as some sort of reverse mass? It wasn't scientific - at least, anti-gravitons had been only theoretical when he'd last been on Earth - but conceptually it might fit into his soulhome. So far his experiments at creating gravity had proved weak, but if he combined them with a technique that did the reverse...

Walking to his third corner chamber, Theo set the repelling stone in the center. To his surprise, it stabilized surprisingly well, pressing against every wall and keeping itself in the center. Since it tended to float a bit with his movements, he fashioned rings of hearthtree wood and fixed them to the floor and ceiling. With the stone pressing against the edges of the rings as well as the walls, it stayed in the center fairly well.

That was a good start, but could he actually turn it into a technique? As the night wore on, Theo dedicated himself to different experiments, attempting to hang or orbit various objects around the central force. It didn't result in any breakthroughs, but he thought he was making progress.

While the others went to sleep, he lay down and continued soulcrafting. In his previous life, he had been able to sleep physically while soulcrafting internally... it wasn't as good as real sleep, and dangerous to do for long, but it was an excellent option when he desperately needed soulcrafting time.

Unfortunately, his new soul hadn't quite developed the stamina to manage it, so he struggled with drifting off. He pressed on as hard as he could, aiming to recondition his soul, and drifted next to unconsciousness throughout the night. It didn't feel exactly like sleep, but the night slipped away from him faster than it should and somehow as the sun rose, he was partially rested with a partially developed technique chamber. Good enough for a first try.

When he rubbed sleep out of his eyes, he took a moment to admire the lake beside them. As the darkness lifted, the surface shone like liquid mercury, waves moving across it sluggishly. He took a while simply to admire the sight, welcoming in its alienness.

"Is that water?" Nauda asked. She sat upright leaning on her staff, having apparently taken the last watch. "It doesn't look safe to drink."

"I don't think it's really water, but it's what they have here." Theo walked closer to the lake and trailed a finger through the heavy liquid, then pulled it back to test a few drops. "It should be safe. We may look and feel essentially the same, but I think our bodies shift slightly when we pass between worlds, adapting us to the new environment just like our languages adapt."

"An older soulcrafter I once knew told me something similar: that without a shift between worlds, travelers would die of far more diseases." Nauda appeared to be admiring the lake as well, but her gaze soon shifted to him. "The same must have applied to you, if there really are no soulhomes in your world. And you're younger this time too. I wonder if there are laws of these transitions that we could uncover."

"I don't know." Theo found himself grinning and rose. "I really have no idea."

And that was the beauty of it: nine worlds filled with mysteries for him to uncover. Theo raised his arms to either side to absorb the Deuxan sun and took his deepest breath in years.