Though the others appeared to find it restful to sit atop the log, Fiyu had no choice but to remain alert. All around her, the forest crawled with organisms unknown to her that could potentially be lethal. Natural swaying and intentional movement blurred, endless tiny creatures oozed between plants, everywhere strange densities betrayed motionless life.

Her companions might trust their reflexes and cantae to defend them, but she was more concerned about contact poisons. Friend Theo had some knowledge of Aathal and had acquired more, but it was not nearly equal to what she would consider safe for traveling.

In her experience on Fithe, Fiyu had come to believe that people in other worlds simply had extremely high tolerances for risk. They viewed her as unnecessarily cautious, but she disagreed: Fithans experienced shocking rates of accidents and lost tragic percentages of their populations, unlike carefully protected Ichili children. She could accept that the frequent mistakes were less lethal than they would have been on her home world, but she would never be comfortable with them.

This long journey had been her first visit to Aathal, and she had found it largely more reasonable than Fithe or Tatian. The native Aathali controlled their environments extremely well, carefully cultivating villages without a plant out of place. Saplings were extremely well-protected, and many could even spend their entire lives inside controlled environments, instead of venturing into the unknown forests, much less dangerous clearings like the one controlled by the guillotine tree. They even lacked any customs of unnecessary touching, which she found quite agreeable.

Acquaintance Krijesh appeared more wide-traveled than most locals, sitting and chatting with the others. Fiyu's senses ran over the Aathali again, since they might soon return and she would not get another chance. Though Friend Nauda had said the native inhabitants looked like trees, that observation seemed untrue to Fiyu.

Each Aathali had a solid trunk, but their inner tissues didn't compare to the relatively uncomplicated density of actual trees. Some had thick layers of bark, though Acquaintance Krijesh herself was wrapped only in thin cantae-reactive bark. All Aathali she'd seen had a dense skull-like organ in their center mass, leading to a face that looked surprisingly human, but their number of limbs differed. A few walked on trunk-like legs, while many others crawled on roots or even hovered within pots. They appeared to arrange their boughs overhead quite carefully, growing them into shapes that were both functional and likely aesthetic. Fiyu, at least, appreciated their beautiful complexity.

When Friend Theo had first proposed a long journey into Aathal, Fiyu had been reluctant. She had already seen three new worlds in under a year, so she was moving entirely too fast. However, having completed the journey with many new sublime materials and no losses, she was grateful to have pushed herself.

Since it appeared that their vessel would take some time to arrive, Fiyu retreated into her soulhome. It now rose two full levels, though the second remained largely empty. She was grateful for her new cantae, but Relative Guchiro had given her highly specific plans for the second story. Building and polishing the walls and ceiling was simple enough, which left the much more difficult task of filling those rooms.

Since the duel, Fiyu had not made any attempt to soulcraft those chambers beyond supportive carving. She knew that Friend Theo disapproved, believing that she was delaying again. He had never verbalized as much, but Friend Theo could communicate a great deal with the tension in his muscles.

Though Fiyu knew that she would be weaker without a full second floor, she had sent her message to Relative Guchiro by Biolumin Relay. She had no doubt that he would eventually locate her, and then they would be able to work together to follow the blueprint perfectly. Besides, her delay wasn't slowing her soulcrafting overall, not like before.

Within her soulhome, Fiyu bent down and began chiseling another brick for her shielding wall. It arched around half of her soulhome now, and she believed that she could complete it before they needed to journey to the Chasm. She would have worked to circle at least the first floor, but required more foundation stones.

Though the gate to Ichil had not led her home, it did provide an accessible source of appropriate sublime stone. Fiyu had easily been able to use her merits to purchase more of the appropriate types, leaving the construction of her wall down to her soul's tenacity, not resource limitations.

Once the shielding wall was complete, Fiyu would be much more comfortable. Though Friend Theo stressed the defensive capabilities, what she most desired was privacy. At the moment, it was far too easy for other soulcrafters to peer into her soul, even without skills like Friend Nauda's. Her fully polished wall would both keep them out and strengthen her stealth technique.

But facing this Chasm of Lamentations... Friend Theo promised them that he knew it well, but Fiyu remained deeply concerned about the threats it might contain.

What else could she do to prepare herself? Aside from filling her second floor with potent materials, she could think of few options that would not set her back, certainly none that would grant her new abilities. Eventually Friend Theo would return the mistsphere she had given him, she was certain that he would, but otherwise she had few sublime materials to work with.

Outside her soulhome, the Soulsilver Bracers remained her most valuable asset. They were certainly helpful, but they would never reach their full potential until she incorporated them into her soulhome. The trouble was that her entire second story was required for a Corporeal Floor, and her relative's blueprint placed armament chambers on the Ruler-tier floor.

Though Friend Nauda had urged her to reach toward Ruler as well, that was simply too aggressive for Fiyu, not with her second floor still unfilled. She had stopped building upward as soon as she finished her roof, instead dedicating all her time to the more immediately important shielding wall.

Unfortunately, the journey into Aathal was likely to mostly earn her funds to purchase more Ichili resources, because the local sublime materials were largely inappropriate. Too many of them relished the light, or even generated it, and would be inappropriate for her soulhome. Perhaps she would acquire some wood, since Aathal specialized in it, but otherwise she had found little.

Still working in her soul, Fiyu extended a physical arm to pick up one of the guillotine seeds. It was certainly sharp, and might have been appropriate for her blade chamber, but it was weak as a sublime material. The tree had already spent its strength in the real world, leaving less for soulcrafting. Essentially the exact opposite of the seed, which held great potential, though that was most appropriate for Friend Nauda's soulhome.

By the time their wait ended, Fiyu had crafted many additional bricks and come to no true conclusions. She left her soulhome in time to properly examine the vessel as it descended toward them. Acquaintance Krijesh called out happily, and Fiyu felt Friend Theo and Friend Nauda stretch upward to look at it.

Visually the seedship resembled a golden tuft of circular seeds, buoyed by the wind. Fiyu thought that it was far more beautiful in her senses, numerous feathery branches of the plant around a more durable interior. The florets all reflected both light and cantae, resisting like a flexible reed. When the soulcrafter controlling the vehicle created drafts of cantae, the seedship floated on them gently, but Fiyu believed that even many cantae attacks would only blow the seedship about. Fortunately, since Aathal was a blessedly more peaceful world than Fithe, that theory had never been tested.

"No losses in a guillotine clearing!" One of the other Aathali emerged from between several of the tufts. He was a similar species to Acquaintance Krijesh, though his upper boughs were far bushier. "Well, we're not over capacity, so come on up."

The seedship approached them in a circular drifting pattern instead of the smooth movements of an Ichili vessel, but Fiyu found the maneuver elegant. Instead of attempting to control their environment, the seedship's exterior was exquisitely attuned to all the changes around it, simply floating along with them as served its purpose.

Eventually it came to hover not far above the fallen log and their group ascended on a vine rope. Fiyu double-checked that Child Senka had not been left behind or caused any trouble, then took hold of the rope herself and climbed to the seedship. Her strength might not have been equal to the guillotine tree, but many simple tasks were easier as an Archcrafter.

Fiyu didn't enjoy feeling the tufts brush against her, but a section of the bottom had been specially grown to create an opening, so she was soon able to take her place. Though the exterior of the seedship appeared natural, the interior was constructed from light woods and certain petals that were highly durable for their thickness.

Once the entire group had entered the seedship and it had drifted above the trees, Fiyu was finally able to relax. There appeared to be few aerial predators in this part of Aathal, and it was a relief to feel nothing but air in all directions around them.

Not only that, but their journey took them back to the city. Norro Yorthin might be fearsome in many ways, but after so long traveling, Fiyu was happy for anything familiar.

~ ~ ~

Though Nauda's experience of Aathal had been skewed to unusual communities, she thought that she had gained a sense for it. Not enough to truly be a member of their society, of course, but enough that she wouldn't try to sell a mud Fithan water, as the saying went. Her bargaining skills combined with Theo's knowledge were generally enough to avoid being robbed.

Not that the markets were truly vicious. From what she had experience of Aathali society, it operated on a policy of welcoming at a distance. Strangers who passed through were treated quite warmly, but attempts to penetrate deeper were met with an iron fist... or perhaps iron branch. Relationships were occasionally deeply intertwined and far more often polite alliances. It made for an easy world to travel and conduct business in.

Of course, that only applied to the sections of Aathal that Nauda had seen. She was more aware than most of just how vast a world could be. So many Tatian villagers traveled their world to the horizon and presumed that they knew everything, and she didn't want to fall into the same trap.

"I suppose you'll be wanting this in that Fithan money?" The merchant counting out the sublime materials was an Aathali woman with bright blue leaves, roughly as wide as she was tall. Nauda had been focused on local currency, mostly fossilized seeds, and now needed to change her focus.

"That Fithan money? I suppose you're used to Norro Yorthin, living here?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter. They all seem to use the same currency, though I don't know how they standardized. That's why they're Fithan Discs." The merchant's boughs shuffled in a motion that Nauda suspected meant uncertainty, though her own left her uncomfortable as to the social cue. "That is, the ones who live on land. I don't know if the ones who live in water use the same money. None of them have ever come here. Do you know?"

"I'm afraid I don't have much experience with them either." Nauda wasn't sure about the polite way to refuse the growing pile of Discs, so she only shook her head. "But I'd actually prefer to be paid in craftgems... presuming you offer those."

"Certainly, certainly. I'll even give you a cheap rate on the discount. Doing some serious soulcrafting, are we?"

"Something like that." Nauda gave her a smile, hoping that the emotion was clear enough. The Aathali did have faces, and their expressions seemed natural instead of artifice, but Nauda was never entirely certain that they were truly comparable.

In any case, the Aathali merchant gave her a huge sack of craftgems that Nauda calculated was really a very reasonable deal. Again, that politeness with strangers. No doubt a few valued local allies could get an even better rate, and Nauda could never reach that status, but there was no attempt to cheat her.

Though she'd use some of the craftgems as currency, she intended more for their original purpose. Among other uses, they could be crystallized into substrates within a soulhome that could bind nearly anything. She'd built altars to house her most powerful sublime materials, only to increasingly feel as though they weren't sufficiently anchored in her soulhome. If she wanted to solidify her blueprint, she needed unifiers, and a lot of them.

With the last of their goods sold, Nauda said farewell to the merchant and headed back to the gate. It wasn't easy to get through, so they'd need to wait for their passes to be approved. The communities of Aathal recognized how hungry Norro Yorthin was and they knew where to draw the boundary line. She could respect that.

When Nauda drew near the buildings around the gate, she found Fiyu waiting on one of the human-sized benches. She looked oddly picturesque there, a dark flower seated atop the branches with life flourishing all around her. Nauda wanted to linger and just watch her for a while, but there was no sneaking around Fiyu, who noticed her and looked in her direction.

"Hello, Nauda. From your reduced burden, I take it that you have completed your business?"

"All the guillotine seeds are sold." Nauda hesitated by the bench, then decided to set down the bag of craftgems in the middle and sit on the other side. "Except for those you kept back, of course."

"I do not believe they are likely to be useful, but I thought it was worth the experiment." Fiyu patted the bag absent-mindedly. "Where are Theo and the child?"

"Senka, I have no idea. Theo should be buying a few more materials with the money from the early sales."

"And do you have nothing you want to purchase?"

"No, I don't think this place really suits me." Nauda paused and glanced over at the other woman. "Are you sure that you don't want to look for anything? These local plants might not fit your soulhome, but they have quite a bit of diversity from other lands."

"Oh... I thought that I would sit and appreciate Aathal a little longer."

"I don't blame you, but we could enjoy a walk. Theo thought that this store would have sublime materials that would fit his grim blueprint, so maybe some of them would be dark enough for you?"

Fiyu tilted her head and examined Nauda in a way that made her desperately wish she had a better idea what the other woman was thinking. But eventually Fiyu smiled and rose to her feet. "I would not mind walking with you, Nauda. I suppose we are much more likely to find appropriate wood here than on Fithe."

So they got back up and headed into the city to find Theo, though Nauda took a longer route to enjoy the environment. She'd thought of the paths as being lined with trees at first, but now she realized how inadequate that concept was: every tree had been carefully cultivated for a myriad of purposes.

A store that sold wood might blend into such a living city, but it was surprisingly easy to spot: a great trunk of petrified wood leaned over the street, carved into arboreal patterns as if countless trees had fused together and then frozen. There was no exterior sign that Nauda could read, which had been an ongoing mystery: soul translation hadn't helped her find any writing in Aathal. Theo said that they used some sort of liquid-based signifier, but she wasn't sure the translation had worked for him, either.

She could hear the dour man himself arguing with the merchant, but didn't hurry to find him. Instead she enjoyed looking over everything on display. The store itself was made of wood, of course, but the wood that it sold was all held in cases that looked like glass but rippled like water. Miniature trees, flowers that grew upside-down, bark formed from living fire...

An ornately carved stump served as a table, and a small amount of sublime wood sat on the surface along with the money. It looked extremely dark, casting shadows in all directions despite the soft natural light. That was essentially what she had expected Theo to purchase.

"What about this?" Theo glanced at them over his shoulder and immediately turned back to the merchant. "You meet my price, but we'll also make several other purchases at fair market value."

"Only if you let me clear out some old stock." The Aathali merchant rapped a branchy hand on the stump. He had at least seven, but this one had seven opposing fingers that easily spun coins between them.

Ignoring the merchant, Theo turned to them and spoke in a lower voice. "Good timing. I think there's something there that you could use, Fiyu."

"Are you certain?" She frowned at the bright shop around her. "These plants are all so..."

"Look at this." Theo guided them both to a display case that held a small tree with black leaves radiating a dark energy. "It's called a darkburn bonsai and they only grow in starlight, letting them ignore the sun. Most importantly, if you set it alight in your soulhome, it will continually burn and produce a great deal of cantae."

"For a heart chamber? It seems appropriate and powerful, but I fear it would not fit on my second floor."

"How can it not? No, never mind that now. These are easily portable, so could you set it up temporarily and then move it to a different floor later?"

Fiyu brightened, if such a word could be used for her. "It might be appropriate for my Ruler tier. And meanwhile, it would help my second floor be more than simply cantae storage. Thank you for finding this for me."

"Hey, it's helping me strike a better deal. There's not much of a market for these things here." Theo turned away and finished his negotiations. In the end he purchased the darkburn bonsai and a large number of the dark planks. That left a considerable amount of money, by her count, so he must be planning other purchases once they returned to Norro Yorthin.

Afterward they left the shop with Fiyu bearing a smile and the bonsai in both hands. On the walk back, Theo barely seemed to notice the environment, instead toying with something in his pack. Eventually he handed Nauda the glowing seed.

"You might as well take this into your soulhome now, so that it isn't stolen. Fiyu and I agreed we don't have a good use for it, and I think it's by far best suited to you anyway."

"You're sure?" Nauda had half expected him to throw it into that awful black hole in his soulhome just for the power, but accepted it. The seed tingled in her hand, levitating a hair off her palm from the sheer cantae surging from it.

"I did some investigation and found out that it's called a surgestalk seed. Within a soulhome, it can quickly grow into dense material. Not so useful for generating cantae, but excellent for binding chambers together. I thought you could plant it between your main building and the tower, to help tie them together."

Of course he already had a plan for it. Yet as Nauda clenched the seed in her fist, she found herself considering a different use entirely: if the plant could grow so quickly, she could use it to help ascend to Ruler. She'd already fortified her roof and begun a pyramid foundation, but if she could convert it to a bed for the surgestalk, that might be even more effective.

"Thank you, Theo." Nauda had to focus hard to absorb it into her soul, but once there, it began pulsing with potential. "I'll begin work as soon as we get back."

"We should. There are only four months until we need to leave for the Chasm of Lamentations, and we-"

"Really? We aren't even back to Norro Yorthin and you're already thinking about the contest again?"

Theo frowned and was about to reply, but Fiyu spoke up first. "Perhaps it is premature to speak of such things? We all have materials to purchase, and House Blacksilver will reward us for our work. Once we have assembled all our sublime materials, then we can draft a full plan."

It was such a sensible suggestion that even Theo couldn't object, so they managed a relatively friendly conversation on the way back. Senka was waiting for them when they returned, drooling all over the bench. She mumbled sleepily and refused to rise, so Nauda ended up carrying her as they went through security and then finally returned to Norro Yorthin.

Nauda missed the life around her as soon as they stepped through, but when she stared up toward the huge cyclone above the city, she did find herself smiling. In a sense, this city was more of a home to her than Nlukoko or Myufuru had been, and certainly more than home itself.

As soon as they checked in with House Blacksilver and delivered the supplies that had been the excuse for the entire trip, they separated. Theo obviously had his purchases to make, while Fiyu seemed eager for some time in her secured room. Nauda dropped off Senka and instead headed to the Blacksilver office, wanting a different kind of connection.

Antha wasn't exactly a good friend, but the woman who ran House Blacksilver's distribution wing had been a pleasant acquaintance. Nauda did her best to be understanding of the woman's position, and they could commiserate over Theo's aggressive approach to resource acquisition.

"You're back." Antha gave her a surprisingly broad smile, even rising from her desk to greet her. "I thought that you could handle yourselves, but since some know that you have Chasm Invitations... well, the closer it comes to the competition, the more likely it is that you would be... targeted."

"Does that happen often?" Nauda asked. She didn't want to spend yet more time thinking about the Chasm, but couldn't ignore a statement like that.

"Usually any violence is kept under control, especially since Aathal will react so strongly. But all three of you might want to be more cautious over the coming months, because you never know who might be desperate. Some of the smaller Houses think that getting a Chasm Invitation might be their best chance to settle debts or rise in the city."

"We'll do our best to be cautious. We've earned some more merits for this, so may I take a look at the merit book?"

"Actually..." Antha frowned and placed a hand on the book that Nauda had been asking about. "This is out of date, and a new one hasn't yet been created. Merit prices have changed."

Though she told herself it meant nothing, Nauda didn't truly believe it. "They always do. Is something different about this?"

"There have been some huge economic shifts. Not just in Norro Yorthin, or even the Ruling City alliance, but across the continent. From Maustin to Saan Fraskin to here." Antha gave her a weak smile. "Perhaps you'd better sit down and I can explain this over some tea."