"Umm, Theo? How many of the trees are supposed to be walking?"

"Three or four?" Theo looked up from his work and promptly winced at the roiling wave of roots. "Nauda, move! Retreat to our position and form a new barrier!"

Thankfully, after so long working together, Nauda didn't hesitate and leapt backward. Seconds later, the trees rumbled closer, their roots tearing from the earth before plunging back down. The spiderous advance closed on them primarily from the east, where Nauda's wards flickered for a few seconds longer before beginning to buckle.

In that time, Nauda landed on the giant flower beside him, hand reaching out to accept the fresh petal he was already handing her. They both dropped low to the flower's center and spread the enormous petals above them, the pollen falling over their bodies and masking their scent. Though Theo held his soulhome ready to cast a reverse gravity field at a moment's notice, the trees ground to a halt at Nauda's former position, then began to thrust their roots back into the ground.

"That trader..." Nauda panted for breath and pulled her petal tighter around her shoulders. "He lied to us... about these trees..."

"Aathali often cut corners when it comes to other worlds." Theo got up slowly, watching the tree roots in case any of them decided to go tentacle again, but the pollen seemed to have done its job. "We still have a few fresh petals. Let's try to push in to the center."

"Fine." Nauda dropped off the side of the giant flower, grumbling under her breath.

Theo took a deep breath and refocused before returning to his work, because the flower could draw even worse to their position. His memories of Aathal had served him well, even on an entirely different continent, but this time he was taking risks to harvest sublime materials without Khaluu to save him if he made a mistake.

Though the flower he stood on was the size of most trees, it was dwarfed by the titans of Aathal rising around them. Plants proportional to humans were just parasites in Aathal, ordinary patches of flowers growing around the sides of the larger stems like moss. They tended to flourish in clearings such as this, though few clearings were so dangerous.

Overhead, the guillotine tree hung ominously, not roused even by the new wall of trees that had rushed Nauda. He'd been surprised to hear they grew in the region, only to learn that "guillotine tree" was actually a broad category that included many different species. The blade seeds that hung overhead glistened darkly, but he'd tested them under less tense circumstances and they worked similarly enough that he judged the risk was worth it.

"Is everything alright, Theo?" Fiyu's stealth shielding flickered with a silver light, enough for him to catch a glimpse of her and hear the whisper. "We are mostly surrounded now."

"There's nothing here that can threaten us in the air, so we still have time." He smiled at her, then knelt down to his own work. "We spent enough getting here, we need to find sublime materials enough to make up for it."

She nodded and returned to her task, accustomed to working under such conditions. Though he could no longer see her, he saw some of the delicate blue flowers by the base of the guillotine tree disappear into her aura. Her stealth technique was only growing more powerful, making her the only one who could harvest the flowers without triggering the tree's defensive mechanisms.

Theo had his own role to play, so he got back to work. His tap had been knocked out of place in the rumbling, but he retrieved it and pushed the pointed vine back into the giant flower, deep enough to reach the stem below. When he felt the vine pierce through, he generated a very narrow gravitational field that made the sap within run upward, through the hollow vine and into one of his pots.

The giant flowers themselves were harmless, but if they sensed they were under attack, they released chemicals that triggered other plants they had symbiotic relationships with. Unlike hunting lone animals, harvesting sublime materials in Aathal was all about understanding the complex web of interactions. Though the flowers would react negatively to tampering, they hadn't evolved to deal with reversed gravity, letting him safely drain sap that would otherwise have required a Ruler or Authority to harvest. A Ruler could have used specialized skills to suppress the flower, while an Authority could simply have flattened any retaliation.

Aside from knowledge of Aathal, reversing gravity had been his primary role in their work. Fiyu's stealth had proved consistently valuable after she soulcrafted additions specific to plant-based senses. Nauda had been critical for digging out certain roots, but here mainly supported them by keeping back encroaching trees. Theo still wasn't entirely sure what drew them, though he suspected that their footsteps were brushing against some unknown defensive mechanism.

Nothing further went wrong until Theo had filled all the jugs he had available. He carefully strapped them into the floating mass of the other sublime materials, which had grown considerably during their journey. They were definitely going back to Norro Yorthin richer soulcrafters than they'd left, at least temporarily until they invested all their new wealth into their soulhomes.

"Are you about done?" Nauda asked. She swept the butt of her staff carefully along the barrier lines she'd drawn, but he saw how white her knuckles were. "More of them are moving around again..."

It still looked like ordinary numbers to Theo, but she was right to be worried that the trees might be shifting toward another surge. Since the vast majority of plants on Aathal were stationary, the walking trees tended to trigger cascades of responses against pests. In this case, them.

"I have harvested sufficient flowers." Fiyu again appeared from within her shell of stealth cantae, just long enough to speak and gesture to them. Theo made his way closer, and as soon as Fiyu's technique enveloped him, he passed into a sphere that cast the world outside in bluish light.

Nauda followed slower, still repeatedly checking on her wards, but smiled at them as she entered. "It looks like we have everything we need. Can we get out of here before the trees stampede again?"

"Perhaps that would be safer, but..." Fiyu frowned at the roots she had been harvesting. "I feel that there is a potent source of cantae below. Might it be useful to us?"

"Could be." Theo had to strain to locate anything, since his senses still couldn't equal Fiyu's. "I know other species of guillotine trees often shelter other plants beneath their roots, ones that would otherwise be eaten by sublime beasts. It would be valuable, but likely also the last thing we could harvest here."

"Well, we can't stay much longer." Nauda glanced back over her shoulder at her wards again, or perhaps just at the shifting roots. "Until I find a better material for my warding skills, they aren't going to keep out any of the crawling trees. They won't buy us much time."

"They also won't get too close to the guillotine tree, which will be the bigger threat. Hmm... I have an idea that should work. Nauda, get one of those squirrel carcasses. Fiyu, try to pinpoint the exact location. This could be tight, but we can distract them."

As they hastened to prepare, Theo waited and wondered if that was truly the wisest decision. Maybe it had more to do with the fact that he only had four months until all of them would be venturing into the Chasm of Lamentations, or his growing worries about his progress. It had seemed so much easier during his first visit in the Nine Worlds, and though the soulhome he was building had far greater potential than his original, he couldn't help but be disappointed.

Nauda returned with the giant squirrel draping her shoulder, wrapped in another one of the petals. They weren't valuable as sublime materials, and their group would have left it alone if it hadn't attacked them, but now it would serve a better purpose. When Fiyu knelt down on a root and nodded, Theo took a deep breath and spoke one more time.

"When you throw the carcass, the guillotine tree will shed some leaves and then begin harvesting. Both of those will make it more reluctant to spend resources on anything else, but once we start cutting deeper, all bets are off. I'll stay back to get us out of here, so keep an open line of retreat in case it goes bad."

They nodded and said nothing, perhaps recognizing that any more planning would be simply delaying. Theo gestured for Nauda to begin, since most of the pressure was on her, and she waited only several heartbeats with her eyes closed before she took a deep breath and then hurled the carcass.

It struck the side of the tree with a wet thunk... hard enough to tear off some of the bark. They had a single instant to feel the vibrations before the guillotine tree sent several of its razor sharp seeds plummeting. The blades blanketed the area where the body had struck, gouging deep into everything but the tree's own bark. Even though it had bounced away, the carcass was still chopped into several pieces.

After that, the roots began to twist, seeking the chemical signals from the body. The others were still watching in morbid fascination, so Theo quickly gestured for them to begin work. Still, he couldn't help but look back and see the thinner roots emerging to enter the carcass. Those didn't draw nutrients from the soil, only from animals attempting to harvest the guillotine tree.

As Fiyu began to work her way down, trying not to damage the bark, Nauda used her staff to lift objects from the clearing and throw them against other parts of the tree. Though it was the apex plant in the region and could shrug off most cantae, the guillotine tree hadn't evolved to counter an intelligent distraction.

Still, Fiyu needed to push aside roots and earth to dig deeper, and her actions disturbed the tree as well. She worked with single-minded focus, while Theo found himself watching the shifting roots around her nervously. Worse, the trees on the perimeter of the clearing were beginning to move again...

"Theo, I can't..." Fiyu frowned down at a floor of gnarled roots beneath her, blocking the path to the intense cantae. They might work their way around, but...

"Cut through, carefully. We'll need to rely on speed in the end."

"Very well." Fiyu redoubled her bubble of stealth and then lit up a blade of cantae around her hand. She gingerly cut between two roots, only somewhat burning the bark. When she struggled to lift them away from the others, Theo provided a reversed gravity field to help move them and clear detritus.

Though they were damaging the tree near its core, they were doing much less damage than Nauda, and hopefully not drawing too much attention. Some of the nearby roots shifted more aggressively, but there didn't appear to be any retaliation. Bit by bit, they worked their way through the layer of roots to the sublime material below...

The shift happened completely without warning, the guillotine tree's chemical "brain" flipping from passive to aggressive. Multiple spiky roots reared up, attempting to skewer Fiyu, but they were chopped apart by her blade the next instant. Eyes wide, she turned to him, and he quickly gestured down.

"Stealth is useless, move!" He stepped back out of the stealth technique to yell to Nauda. "We're making a break for it! Get ready!"

No longer easing her way down, Fiyu took a broad swing that sliced through many of the roots. The bark might be able to resist ordinary cantae bolts, but her concentrated edge barely encountered resistance. Though the tree didn't react in any obvious way, it silently began releasing the guillotine seeds over their heads.

Theo had been waiting with a reversed gravity field to make them fall upward, but to his shock a field of cantae rolled over him, trying to suppress his technique. He quickly added several more fields, but he was fighting against the tree and the seeds had already built up momentum falling toward them. If he hadn't developed his speed so much to fight Esaire, he would already have been chopped apart, but instead he had just enough awareness to watch as the seeds fell closer.

Unlike a shield, his field couldn't be overwhelmed by the number of seeds, but he realized that he wasn't going to be able to slow the fastest seeds down enough. Fortunately, Nauda leapt beside them, using her binding technique with both hands. She halted the nearest seeds in midair and threw them upward, smashing into the other seeds.

Just when he thought they had those under control, Fiyu gave a soft cry. She had been resolutely hacking her way deeper, ignoring the rest, but now the larger roots, ones he hadn't thought could possibly move, were grinding closer to try to crush her.

With only an instant to decide, Theo pulled back one of his fields from the seeds and instead cast it directly into the severed root ends. He couldn't pierce the bark, but the ends Fiyu had cut resisted him less, and he exerted so much gravity that they struggled to move.

As soon as she recovered, Fiyu began cutting downward. So close... but the guillotine tree thought that it was fighting for its life and retaliated.

For a moment, Theo stared at everything. Walking trees were surging into the clearing, trampling over Nauda's wards. She had set up several layers, but each one only lasted a few seconds before splintering. More guillotine seeds plummeted, some of them actually bearing cantae, trying to pierce through his own. Nauda strained to catch them before they could arrive.

Theo's soulhome was consuming cantae at full speed, but he was taken to his limit: he could just barely maintain the guillotine seeds at neutral gravity while also keeping the roots at bay. Despite Nauda's best efforts, more and more seeds were collecting overhead, ready to cleave their bodies.

The last ward fell. Tree roots thundered inward. A guillotine seed broke through his field and chopped down just beside him.

"I have it!" Fiyu pulled her hand from the earth, a green glow burning through her fingers. Nauda leapt back to join them and Theo immediately retracted all his gravitational fields to a single column.

With all his power focused, he could overcome the tree's resistance and sent them all falling upward. The guillotine seeds fell above them, but there were more hanging... Theo pulled back just enough for a lateral field that pushed them to the side, away from the tree's lethal boughs.

When they finally sailed far above the clearing, they all breathed a sigh of relief, even though they were falling directly into the sky. Theo did his best to balance out their momentum, though his control still left them bobbing around. The others didn't seem to care, Nauda letting all her muscles loosen while Fiyu just smiled and cradled the seed in both hands.

"That was too close." Nauda struggled to turn around, but had no way to generate momentum in midair. "You got it, Fiyu?"

"Yes." She held up the seed demonstratively. "I am unsure as to its use, but it is an extremely potent sublime material."

"Was it worth it, Theo?"

He peered at the small green seed, examining its cantae. "I believe so, though we'll need to learn more. Plants like this build up cantae over a long period, then use it to grow explosively. Once they're grown, they aren't useful as sublime materials, but before then, they're very potent. We caught this one at almost exactly the right time, I think."

"Flying is fun, but let's get back to the log."

"Actually, I was thinking that we should pick up all of the guillotine seeds. They've already been shed, so I don't think the tree will retaliate, and they must be worth something."

Nauda groaned. "Normally I'd tell you not to get too ambitious, but if it means fewer of those trees in the future..."

Beneath them, the clearing appeared a chaotic mess, but plant life was always messy: it would soon return to the illusory peace from before. Some of the walking trees still crawled around the base of the larger trunk, but many were already moving away. Most of the flowers had been trampled, which would have been a problem if he didn't have all the sap floating beside them.

Theo concentrated on creating a weak gravitational field that would lift the fallen seeds without disturbing anything else. Though he'd stretched himself to the limit, his soulhome was efficient enough that he still had plenty of cantae to manage the different fields. Nauda helped out by pulling the rising seeds together and Fiyu bundled them along with their other supplies.

Once they had gathered as many as seemed feasible, Theo created another lateral field to nudge them to the side, and let normal gravity take hold of them a little. They arced gently over the less lethal forest until they spotted the giant log that had been their starting point. It loomed over most of the other trees, ornamented by a few mushrooms and mosses, but not a threat compared to any part of the forest. Their contacts had left them there and would soon return.

When they landed, Nauda immediately dropped to a seated position, reveling in the normal gravity. Theo carefully lowered their floating bundles, and he had to admit that it was relaxing not to be maintaining that field anymore, even if it had been a minor one. Meanwhile, Fiyu smiled at him over the seed's glow.

"This was a highly successful harvesting trip, was it not?" she asked.

"Perfectly executed, I'd say." Theo couldn't help but grin at the other two. "No serious injuries, and we've gathered more than they expected. Now we just need to wait for th-"

"Did you bring Senka yummies?" As if to puncture his enthusiasm, at that moment the little imp popped up from their supplies. Her hair was tousled from sleeping within them, and he supposed that he should just be glad that she hadn't eaten everything in their absence.

"None of this is edible, Senka," Nauda said gently. Senka promptly stamped her foot childishly.

"No! Senka wants to eat! Senka will go find yummies..." With that declaration, she promptly hurled herself off the log into the lethal woods below.

Theo cursed and cast a gravitational field that sent her bobbing back up, already giggling and almost smirking at him.

"Why are you being a mean fumpet? Senka just wants yummies..."

"Disturbing the plants here could easily kill you," Theo said flatly, as he used gravity to redirect her far from him. She clapped her hands to her cheeks.

"Whaaat? Senka didn't know that!"

So she claimed, despite the fact that it had all been laboriously explained to her as soon as they'd discovered she had stowed away with them. So far she had yet to get them all killed or offend anyone they needed to work with, but it was only a matter of insufferable time. Theo deposited her next to Fiyu, who promptly began her childcare duties by brushing her hair, which Senka tolerated.

Part of Theo looked forward to leaving her behind when they went to the Chasm of Lamentations, and another part of him feared that she would follow anyway, no matter what he tried.

But for the time being, there was more important work to do, since they were waiting on their ride. Nauda had already begun sorting, so he sat down beside her to help out. Most of the sublime materials would be fully processed back at the Aathali city, but they could still clean and bundle everything while they took inventory.

All told, he'd filled twenty jugs with sap, which would sell for a considerable amount. Those, along with the flowers for Fiyu, had been their primary justification for taking this risky journey. The blades from the guillotine tree had been unplanned, but on other continents they'd been a useful building material, so he thought they'd still have some value. While he was considering how best to scope out the price, Nauda cupped the burning seed in her hands and stared over at him.

"Only one of these. Do you know of any use for it?"

"We'll need to investigate," Theo said, "but I think you can take it. Either as a material for your soulhome or the profits."

"Really?" The way Nauda looked up at him, she actually seemed surprised, so he tried to soften his smile in response.

"Of course. It should help square our debts, after you helped me so much in preparation for the duel against Esaire."

Nauda tossed her head to dismiss the matter. "Oh, you've done enough. I'll consider us even as soon as you return those materials you're still hoarding."

"I intend to, just as soon as my skill improves enough to extract them without damage." He did feel guilty about that, because it mostly had to do with priorities. From his previous experience in the Nine Worlds, he knew exactly how to remove sublime materials from his soulhome, but as an Archcrafter the task required spiritual conditioning. They were running out of time, so he needed to either invest the time or pay someone to do the job. "I'll focus on it as soon as we get back to Norro Yorthin."

"I hope it won't be long. I never thought I'd look forward to the dust, but I've had enough trees for a long time."

"Theo, didn't you say one of your companions was from this world?" Fiyu had miraculously gotten Senka to go back to sleep and set her down before approaching. "It seems as though he served as a relative to you, to teach you so much about this environment."

"Yeah, he taught me a lot." For so many years on Earth, the memories had been painful or bittersweet, but here on Aathal, he could almost imagine his old friend and mentor sitting beside them. "His name was Khaluu... when I met him I was just an Archcrafter, and I couldn't even imagine Authority. Having him as an ally made my life a lot easier, but I think we were truly friends in the end. We all broke through to Stronghold together."

Before they'd all died. The tragedy that had taken all of his former allies no longer tore apart all other thought, but the ragged edges still made him wince. He didn't need pain now, he needed a way to reach Vistgil and take revenge. And... he needed to make sure that the same thing didn't happen to his new friends.

Nauda listened with the patient smile he'd come to recognize, until he paused. "You've always referred to him as male. Do they really have male and female Aathali?"

"I just say that because some of them use the same language."

"Or at least, that's what you hear through soul translation."

Theo gave her a look, since there seemed to be something else behind her phrasing, but given that she didn't want to elaborate, he continued. "As far as I understand it, Aathali are far more complex in that regard. Some species have male and female pollen types, though it's difficult to tell the difference. Others can produce offspring individually, and I've heard about others that have sixteen or more different sexes."

"And your companion Khaluu... he was one of the first?" Fiyu asked.

"That's right. But when trying to soulcraft himself, he made a sort of mistake. It has to do with Aathali soulcrafting and I'm not entirely sure I understand it, but the result was that he gained power, but permanently damaged his body. He wasn't able to produce any offspring, and for his people tending younger shoots was essential. When I met him, he was desperate to soulcraft a solution, but I think he came to treat the rest of us as his children."

They continued speaking and Theo found himself swirling into a strange mix of affection and hatred. He'd spent so long imagining how he could kill Vistgil, he'd never really imagined forming new friendships in the Nine Worlds. Allies had factored into his plans in a nebulous sense, all the more abstract for their intriguing origins, but never truly been people.

If he had fought alone, as he'd originally planned, would he have advanced more quickly? Theo felt as though the person he had been when he first returned would be disappointed in him, and he hadn't yet decided how he felt about that person. Both of those still lived within him, among a mass of imagined selves he'd never realized were so contradictory until he actually returned.

It was much easier to think about soulcrafting. If they'd had more time, it would have been worthwhile to travel all the way to the continent he'd known, where many more materials had been available to them. He certainly needed to find a living material prior to ascending to Authority. But they had no weirkeys, and with the deadline looming, that path simply wasn't a good use of their resources.

"You're all still whole." A voice interrupted his ruminations, and Theo glanced up to see Krijesh ascending the side of the log. She was an ordinary enough Aathali with a birch look, like many of the locals. There had been a few soulcrafters along with their expedition, but she was the only Ruler, and the only one who intended to harvest sublime materials. "I thought the guillotine trees might get the better of you."

"We went in prepared," Nauda said. "You're not going to take our sublime materials, are you?"

"Perish the thought, saplings. I just thought I might rest with you while we wait for our vessel to return. What makes you so suspicious?"

"Having seen your trees, Aathal doesn't seem as welcoming as I first thought."

"Oh, but it's nothing like Fithe." Krijesh's boughs shook with the local equivalent of a chuckle. "Especially these days, everyone rushing into this Chasm. Quite a fearsome event, it sounds. Far too momentous for my taste."

Theo had fully intended to let Nauda handle the conversation, but now whirled to the Aathali. "You know about the Chasm? Do Fithans come here to prepare every ten years?"

"Ten years? Is it ten? I'd heard about it from time to time, but nothing like this... I can see your questions, sapling, but calm your rustling. All I know is that this time, all your Houses have been rushing in. I want no part in Fithan wars, so I've made sure not to pay attention."

She did seem quite determined to stay uninvolved, so Theo didn't pursue the matter. But the last thing he had expected was for an Aathali soulcrafter to mention the Chasm of Lamentations. If Krijesh was old enough to have seen multiple ventures in the Chasm, and if this year was different...

Perhaps she was right to stay uninvolved, but Theo knew it was far too late for them. As soon as they returned to Norro Yorthin, he needed to ask some questions.