Despite the impending deadline, Fiyu found herself often pleased with her work. As she carried bricks from her central workstations to her barrier wall, she often did so with a skip in her step. Actually quite immoderate, if it hadn't been within her soul. There might be threats in the future, but she believed that she would be as prepared as she could be.

Her barrier wall now extended all the way around her soulhome, and she had been able to spend significant time polishing it. The enemy Ruler who had been able to pierce her stealth before would now have a more difficult time, or so she hoped. Originally she had been planning to add a ridge to the top of the wall, but Friend Nauda pushing to ascend and succeeding had led Fiyu to change her priorities. She would not waste time on a capping ridge that would need to be removed later, not when she had more productive if more unorthodox soulcrafting to complete.

If she had kept to her original design, she would have already completed the wall, but instead she built a much larger gatehouse just opposite her soulhome's door. Friend Theo had assisted her with the initial blueprint and then she had modified it to be a better match. At times she felt that others believed she simply followed her relative's instructions like an obedient child, but she had been taught the principles of soulcrafting. Relative Guchiro would be proud of her.

The gatehouse was actually formed of two towers three times the thickness of the rest of her wall, straining the limits of her soul at the edges while also pushing higher. Though the section in between them was also heavily reinforced, the towers were the essential part: she had carved each one to the same shape as her Soulsilver Bracers.

Fiyu carefully lifted the bricks in one arm as she made her way up her ladder to the top of the bridge between the towers. It was the only section that still required fundamental work, and she hoped to finish soon. Of course, the towers needed considerably more polish and carving, both in general and because she intended to carve the same intricate patterns as covered her bracers.

The carving had been a somewhat new experience for her, as her spiritual skills had focused more on polishing and glass-blowing. Friend Theo had been very helpful in offering suggestions, though he was not able to assist directly until that day because Friend Nauda had required assistance.

When she needed a moment to relax her spirit, Fiyu receded from her soulhome to confirm that Friend Theo still sat beside her. She had been fully aware of his presence, of course, it was simply good to confirm. Even in the midst of soulcrafting, his hazy body managed to glance at her, but she only smiled at him and returned.

Currently, the door in the center of the gatehouse was a weakness, preventing the barrier wall from attaining its true potential. The ideal door would have been another arch of the extremely rare sublime material that her relative had given her, but Fiyu was unable to find more of that. Instead she was working on carving a door from Aathali wood, which would at least allow for smooth control of cantae.

As she set herself to the simple work of laying the final bricks, Fiyu allowed her mind to wander to Friend Theo's work. She had been assisting him with the fine-tuning of his sensory chamber. He had built upon an extremely appropriate sublime material and designed the rest of his chamber around it. Truly, Friend Theo was doing quite well, already as competent as Ichili children. The powerful cantae flow of his blueprint gave him immense range and potential, it was just a matter of his mind and soul adjusting to the new sense as he fine-tuned the chamber.

Usually they spent long periods soulcrafting quietly, interspersed by brief conversation. Before the next of them, they were interrupted by a new presence appearing. Fiyu brought all her cantae to bear, even though she recognized one of the Blacksilver Authorities.

"Let's not waste time." Associate Karchibol frowned down at them. "If you want that Ichil trip of yours, it has to be now. Dhan and Janne need the weirkey nearly as much as I do."

Though Fiyu was glad that her request had been answered, she would have preferred one of the other Authorities. Associate Janne had fought alongside her, and Associate Dhan was at least a familiar face. Neither meant they could be fully trusted, but they were preferable to the man who acted like an elder relative when he was still nearly a stranger.

"You're going deep into Ichil?" Friend Theo asked. "Depending on the location, I might want to go along."

Associate Karchibol waved a hand. "It makes no difference to me, so long as you don't waste time. We need to go now."

"I'll require a short time to assemble resources and-"

"Not good enough. I'll do what Blacksilver has agreed upon, but I still don't like taking Archcrafters to their deaths in the Chasm."

The tension in Friend Theo's neck made it obvious that he was irritated, no doubt that a "mere Authority" was insulting him. Fiyu hastened to speak before she would need to interrupt them. "Excuse me, but I have a solution." She reached into her cloak and revealed her prepared sack. "I have exchanged some of my money for craftgems, as well as universally useful Ichili materials. I have a sufficient quantity for my ally as well, so we may depart now."

Anger breaking, Karchibol turned toward her with a frown. "You're just carrying that with you?"

"It is important to be prepared." This was really no more than basic precautions, though those seemed less common on Fithe. In any case, Karchibol was appeased and gestured for them to move close for the transfer. The black Ichili weirkey already glinted in his hand.

When they both came to stand beside him, Karchibol reached to grip them both. Fiyu suffered his touch, but reached back to grip Friend Theo's coat. Her sense of touch had been twisting lately, the presence of allies both comforting and discomforting... and then all other thoughts were washed away as the terrible light between worlds consumed them.

It faded to reveal a blessed darkness, not absolute but still comforting. When she turned toward the only source of light, she soon found the walls of Bleaklight City. She was taller than she had been when Relative Guchiro first took her there, but it appeared exactly the same to her purest senses: the thick outer wall, the intricate spiraling plazas arching overhead, the tangled streets in the heart. Unlike some cities, both walls and streets were lit with gas lanterns. They had been shockingly bright when she first saw them and she now realized they were likely dim and unstable to others.

"They don't know much about other worlds here," Associate Karchibol said, "so you'll have to get him in. I have my own business to take care of elsewhere. You have until the dust has passed through, then return here. Do not keep me waiting."

His ambiguous statement was explained when he thrust an object toward her, though Friend Theo intercepted it for her sake. It appeared to be a glass sphere filled with a storm, and as Associate Karchibol rose into the sky and vanished, Fiyu examined what he had left behind.

Clever glasswork divided the sphere into two halves, one of which contained a miniature dust storm and the other nearly empty except for a few grains. Though Friend Theo puzzled over it a moment, presumably with his sense of gravity, Fiyu understood immediately. The empty half of the sphere was a vacuum, and there was a slight flaw in the glass between them, so the dust would slowly be drawn from one side to the other until the pressure equalized.

"It looks like this will run for several hours," Friend Theo said, "but that's an estimate. I'm not sure whether or not we can afford to split up, or whether we can afford not to."

"We should begin." Fiyu began walking toward the gates and spoke quietly as they approached. "This place is called Bleaklight City, and I know it from my childhood. I wish that I could have shown you and Nauda everything, but I fear our associate will not grant us enough time."

"Are the gates going to be a problem?"

"No, a city of this size is accustomed to strangers. We will be permitted entrance."

Though they were, the guards examined Theo with their senses for much longer than Fiyu had anticipated. After her journey through so many shocking worlds and living in Norro Yorthin, her shock at other worlds had dulled. A great many Ichili were only dimly aware that other worlds existed and might never have met an outsider. Only the fact that the locals were accustomed to mistrusting many other Ichili allowed for them to be eventually permitted inside.

Both were given pins that bound to their clothes and emitted an unpleasantly intense light. They could not be easily removed and would prevent them from hiding in the shadows, likely to discourage antisocial behavior. Each pin also contained anti-cantae properties, and even a month ago the light would have pierced through her stealth technique. Fiyu was somewhat confident she could now overcome it, though she hoped that she would not be required to test this.

Inside, they stood on the wide central street of Bleaklight City. When she had arrived as a child, it had seemed an impossibly vast space crowded with people, as dangerous as any other landscape. Now, she understood that the city was nowhere near the size of a place like Norro Yorthin, even considering the volume of its many floors, and the population density - though more reasonable - was quite low.

More than that, she felt a deep sense of melancholy that she had returned to it like this. What she wanted was to guide Friend Theo and Friend Nauda through the city carefully, showing them its delights and rediscovering its strengths. Yet now one of her friends was missing and there was no time to explore, no time even to stand and reflect as she was.

"Do you have a plan?" Friend Theo asked. He tapped at the glass sphere and frowned. "At the rate the mass is changing, I would guess a little over two hours. I'm not sure how dangerous this city is or how much we need to do."

"Though not as safe as a true community, for someone like yourself who will not offend Ichili, you may travel freely." Fiyu examined the sphere and set her own sense of time. "I am afraid that we must likely split up, but you have not told me what you needed to do here."

"I wanted to buy some equipment that will prepare us for the Chasm. Not proper armaments, but the sort of thing you don't find on many other worlds. What about you?"

"I have decided to purchase some additional sublime materials for my Corporeal Floor. Though I am not prepared to begin full soulcrafting there, I have... recognized that I am fragile compared to you and Nauda. Acquiring some of the materials should help reinforce my body and soul."

"That sounds like a wise decision. Assuming you're counting time internally, let's try to accomplish everything we can in an hour, then meet back here to check."

"There is a spark fountain in the central square. That would be an easier location to meet."

Friend Theo accepted her expertise quite reasonably and then departed. Then, quite abruptly, Fiyu was alone in a sense she had not been in some time. Despite her melancholy at her rushed visit to the city, Fiyu found herself smiling as she set about her work.

Though she had told Friend Theo the truth, she had omitted other errands. First she traveled to the nearest Biolumin Relay, hosted within the city. Unfortunately, there was no message from Relative Guchiro waiting for her, or indeed any messages at all. After confirming that the message she had left was still unread, Fiyu headed out to seek other relatives.

The branch of relatives in Bleaklight City was not close, but she had memorized their locations in the case of emergencies. If she had been separated from her guiding relative by a less shocking method than falling into another world, she would have made her way to them and been incorporated into their social network. When she arrived, however, she discovered that many of her contacts had departed, and the messages they left for relatives did not offer any particular wisdom.

But neither of those had been truly necessary, because Fiyu had other resources now and could support herself. She might still be vulnerable in an unknown region like the Greater Dark, but she had been taught the environment of Bleaklight City thoroughly. Having completed filial duties, she set about conducting her soulcrafting business.

First she made her way to the deep markets, blissfully free from gas lanterns, and adapted to the minor changes since her last visit. They contained many valuable sublime materials, though during her previous visit she had not been competent enough to do anything but rely on Relative Guchiro and learn from his teachings.

She might not be confident in her ability to construct her Corporeal Floor, but her relative had thoroughly taught her both theory and practical steps. Her second floor needed to represent her body in the deepest sense, so it could only be filled with sublime materials from Ichil.

Her most valuable find was cloudspider silk, a dark material that almost perfectly matched her hair. Though voidspider silk was more commonly used as a construction material, cloudspiders produced a more powerful sublime material. She also purchased a number of bloodembers to represent her body heat and astralcorpuscles for her flesh.

Regrettably, she was unable to purchase any of the truly rare materials that would represent her heart, lungs, or other essential organs. Not only could she not locate any, the other purchases had exhausted almost everything she had saved. These might be her last purchases before the Chasm, even presuming that Friend Theo paid her back for the funds she had loaned him.

Still, she thought it was reasonable to hope that the new materials would assist her. Instead of merely storing cantae, her second floor chambers would begin to resonate along with her body. That might make her more resistant to techniques such as the one that Enemy Homez had used to disable her. She might also be able to refine them to some degree, such as braiding the cloudspider silk in the same fashion as her own hair. Even if Relative Guchiro required changes later, that work would do no harm.

All her shopping exhausted her allotted time, so Fiyu returned to the chosen place. The spark fountain was not currently functioning because it was an hour of sleep, and she was disappointed, wondering if the fountain would have seemed so shocking after all her otherworldly experiences. Friend Theo sat nearby, carrying a large sack over his shoulder.

"Did you find everything you sought?" she asked. Friend Theo grumbled something about having to carry around everything, but it was his pleased grumbling.

"Look at this: silencemoss makes the perfect earplugs, so we can use it to protect ourselves from the sounds in the Chasm. I also got these animabladders... can you check them for me to be sure that the merchant didn't cheat me?"

Though Fiyu dutifully checked over the animabladders, she believed that Friend Theo had negotiated a good deal. The core of each was the bladder of a creature that could easily float through poisonous environments, but these had been modified with a metal pipe that fit into the mouth. She knew that some Ichili used these to store air and breathe in dangerous environments, and presumed that Friend Theo had spent some time with them in his previous life.

"I believe that these are sound," she concluded, "but I do not know if they can filter the necessary threats. Are there poisonous gases in the Chasm of Lamentations?"

"I'm not sure they're really gases, but there are regions where breathing becomes lethal. These should cover all three of us, though I want to modify the straps. Oh, and I have these two masks: I assumed yours will protect you entirely, so they're just for Nauda and me."

Seeing all of Friend Theo's preparations eased Fiyu's mind more than she had expected. She knew that he was knowledgeable, but also that he could be impetuous by reasonable standards. But these preparations would not have shamed an Ichili, and it seemed clear that he truly knew the dangers that they were about to face and had carefully planned their journey.

She corrected herself: Friend Theo knew the environmental dangers. None of them could fully predict the threats from rival Houses, the Asplundat Movement, and other enemies.

"We made good time, and I didn't need to spend as much money as I expected." Theo handed her the money sack with a smile, and oddly Fiyu almost decided to brush his hand when taking it. Troubling. "Since we still have time until Karchibol returns, is there anything else you think we should do? Anything you've been missing from Bleaklight City?"

"Oh... that is a kind offer, but..." Fiyu found her answers within her hesitation and smiled. "I would prefer to enjoy it alongside you and Nauda. We can explore the city when we return with our own weirkeys."

"That sounds like a good plan to me. Finding more sublime materials, then?"

"Your offer is kind, but I have already located every one of the materials that my relative mentioned. Others will require more effort and journeying."

"What about alternative materials?" Friend Theo must have sensed her dismay at the idea, because he immediately raised his hands. "Hear me out. I'm not asking you to soulcraft your Corporeal Floor with replacements. But if we find materials that are deeply appropriate to your blueprint, they can reinforce your body in the short term. Even if your relative says they're not appropriate for your Corporeal Floor, you could use them elsewhere, right?"

It was a surprisingly prudent plan, so Fiyu smiled back at Friend Theo before catching his sleeve to draw him into the city. "Yes, let us begin."