Deadgold: Chapters 16-17

Welcome to 2026! You know what's not particularly great? Patreon has been consistently failing to send notifications when I receive comments for a few weeks now. I rely on those to catch comments, particularly ones on older posts. So if it seems like I'm ignoring you... I'm probably not. =/

Anyway, we have some ramping up chapters this week, getting into the next big thing. More reflections on later chapters, most likely. The new year is starting slowly, but other things are starting to get into gear.

-

Chapter 16

Theo wanted to go directly up to Krikree and ask her what was wrong, but the presence of Dhan and so many completely unknown Fithans made him pause.

[What is this?] he asked via pheromones. [Some sort of hostage situation?]

[Not! Water ants new friends.] Krikree skittered uncomfortably on the side of the chariot, but he trusted that her pheromones were accurate. She seemed to be looking to Dhan, who stalked toward Theo. Even with his face covered by his mask, his irritation was obvious in his posture.

"Krikree contacted Blacksilver in the middle of a mess," he explained. "I know it isn't her fault, and this could turn out to be critical, but I don't have time for another problem. I'm hoping you can handle it."

"Leave it to me," Theo said automatically. Maybe he just related to Dhan having too much on his plate at once, maybe he just wanted to get to the source of the issue. Whatever the case, his words seemed to reassure Dhan enough that he departed, leaving Theo with Krikree and her new "friends".

She didn't seem injured or in any way hindered, and in fact the Fithans looked in worse shape: one of them had a splinted arm and another had a newly-scabbed cut across his face that might have come from Krikree's claws. All Theo could judge was that they were from an undersea city, as he wasn't familiar enough with their ethnicities and cultures to pinpoint further. Well, best to just talk to them.

"I'm sorry if there's been some sort of trouble," Theo said as he approached the group. "Can you explain exactly what's going on? If House Blacksilver has been-"

"We have no problem with your House," a younger woman said as she stepped out of the chariot. "No, you Blacksilver types are the only ones who have ever listened to us. The problem is the Asplundat Movement planning an invasion."

Theo wanted to groan and forced himself to smile. "I'm afraid I haven't heard about that, and I'm still unclear on how Krikree is involved. Why don't you start from the beginning?"

"Krikree scouts Wavefront!" she declared. "Tournament boring, finished scouting. But water ants cause trouble, make complaints. Krikree scouts water, discovers fight with Asplundat beetles. Gets involved, much violence, bring to Theo-sister."

"I see." That choppy explanation actually got Theo a lot closer to understanding the overall situation, compared to all the polite words and implications, but it did suggest another problem. "Sorry if Krikree hurt any of you."

"What? No, she's fine." The young woman patted Krikree's back and the Slescan didn't skitter away. "Krikree is the one person we like out of all this: not biased like the dirt Fithans, but she's tough, too. We were the ones who attacked her, but she was willing to listen when no one else would."

[Scout water ants,] Krikree sent to him helpfully. [Fight first, now friends.]

"So are you her sister?" one of the other depths Fithans asked. "We were, uh, expecting something different. Another Slescan, or at least a woma-"

"Yes, I'm her sister." Theo waved away the irrelevant details and cut off the group before it could keep giving him the story in a fragmentary fashion. "You said that the Asplundat Movement is planning an invasion of the oceans, and that sounds like an urgent problem. Pick one of you and explain, carefully."

The depths Fithans spoke amongst themselves, but thankfully it didn't take them very long to put forward the young woman who had piped up earlier. She shifted to the front of the group and spoke in a more organized fashion.

"First, you should know that Tymetron embedded troops in one of our neighboring cities called Laksloe," she explained. "It's a critical part of our ocean, but there's not much we can do. Tymetron sometimes forces cities to cooperate, but they only use them as leverage for fights on the land. This hurts one city, but if anyone tries to stop them, they retaliate and sometimes even destroy cities, so it's easier to allow the occupation."

Theo nodded as he started to understand. "Incentivizing you to let them use oceanic cities to prosecute their wars on land. Continue."

"Like I said, they put a lot of troops in Laksloe as part of their war on your continent. We suffered it, hoping most of the population would survive. But for some reason the Asplundat Movement is going to attack Laksloe, barely even trying to negotiate with nearby cities. Tymetron has a Dominion there - they can't possibly take Laksloe quickly. Countless people will die and the city itself might end up destroyed."

"We tried to talk to the Wavefront," one of the others spoke up, "because at least we know them as enemies. But they wouldn't listen, and that was when we ran into Krikree."

"I haven't heard anything about this, but I can guess what's happening," Theo said. "Tymetron has been launching attacks from the oceans for a while, so the Asplundat Movement just thinks this is the source."

"Obviously," the young woman said with some frustration. "But what can we do about it?"

"I'll talk to the leaders of the Movement," Theo told them. "You aren't happy that Tymetron is holding Laksloe either, right? The Asplundat Movement isn't used to working with you, but maybe we can coordinate a strike that can take the city back without as much loss of life. Do you think your leaders would be willing to cooperate?"

They stared at him in disbelief and Theo wondered briefly what the problem was, whether he was missing some element of depths Fithan culture. Then he recognized the incredulity in their eyes: he looked like an Authority to them and he was casually talking about the leaders of major nations.

"You can... just speak to the leaders of the Asplundat Movement?" the young woman asked.

"Sister important!" Krikree leapt off the chariot to perch on Theo's shoulders. "Solve problem!"

Theo hoped that he could live up to Krikree's trust in him, because this sounded like a mess that was just going to get worse. They had gotten a lucky break when Krikree encountered the depths Fithan attempt to make peace, but there were a lot of powers involved. Talking to world leaders was a very different thing from being able to convince them to take a more reasonable path through this quagmire.

One thing was clear: he was going to miss the early parts of the tournament.

~

Exactly one thing had been easy for Nauda: dropping Nanjuma off at the united tournament. Even after time apart, their interactions were always smooth, and he adjusted to Fithan society well enough. She could simply wish him well, give him a Tatian embrace that didn't require any second thoughts, and feel confident she had done something good.

Everything after that had been much worse.

When she returned to Norro Yorthin, House Blacksilver was in chaos, and it was difficult even to figure out what was going on. Actually, that wasn't really true: the majority of the functions of the House continued smoothly, and many had no idea that anything was amiss. But all the higher tier members were spread thin desperately trying to react to something that not all of them fully understood.

She eventually managed to meet up with Theo, who was trying to be everywhere at once, and he gave her a proper explanation. Now her job was to do whatever she could to help Blacksilver while also remaining in the city to catch Fiyu when she returned. This was the problem with leaping between worlds: sometimes they actually needed to be in a specific location. If she had spent a day relaxing in Tatian, the disaster might have missed her entirely. In a perverse way the chaos helped her understand why aeon-class soulcrafters needed to stay in their territories.

Nauda was in the middle of moving emergency food supplies, not even understanding why, when she felt Fiyu return. She'd been invisible before that moment, but there was a rippling effect to when she left her stealth that Nauda had only been able to discern after years together. As soon as she could set down the boxes she was carrying, Nauda went to greet her.

"Oh, Nauda." Fiyu was apparently thinking the same thing and smiled nervously when they met. "I left Janne at the tournament, but there is troublesome news-"

"Sorry, but I have urgent news too," Nauda said. "There's some kind of crisis brewing that could turn into a war. Yes, a second war. Do you know where Guchiro is?"

"I... fear that he went to speak to his allies. I do not currently know his exact location."

"Then we'll have to do this without him. Come this way, Theo wants to talk to us."

Along the way, Nauda asked Fiyu about her news and grimaced as she learned that Raythe was back. Even if she didn't worry about him as much as Theo did, the other outsider was just an unpleasant person in general. His involvement with the united tournament couldn't be a good thing, and might be an even bigger problem than the current chaos in the long term.

"There you are." Theo dropped out of the sky without warning, barely nodding to them. "Can you help me talk to Citizen Dominion? If we can't convince him, all of this will fall through."

"Theo, wait." Nauda gripped his sleeve as he was pulling out a weirkey. "Fiyu has news you'll want to hear."

Impatient was he was, Theo slowed down to listen, then began to massage his forehead as he understood what Fiyu was saying. Once she was done, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and finally nodded.

"Alright." When Theo opened his eyes to speak to them again, they were clear. "That's important, and we might have to act, but first we need to talk to Citizen Dominion. If he can't be convinced to hold off a premature attack, this will turn ugly."

With that, they headed across Fithe to the meeting with no time to prepare. Even though she was in no danger and hadn't exerted herself, Nauda's heart was beating rapidly, as if it could sense that the war was about to touch her directly. When they arrived over the mountain that had once held the Asplundatcrest, that didn't help her calm at all.

There was no sublime material there now, and no battle, nothing but peaceful crestflowers on the hills around. Aside from a few remote villages, the only lives she sensed were some Asplundat soulcrafters atop the mountain. By far the most powerful life force was Citizen Dominion, who turned away from the others to face them as they arrived.

"So you did find all three," Citizen Dominion said curtly. "We'll be glad to have you in the attack, but we can't afford to keep delaying."

"We can't afford to attack before we have overwhelming force," Theo countered. "The refugees from Laksloe are convinced that Tymetron will destroy the city if they're pressed. Unless we can defeat all their forces there, including a Dominion, without giving them a chance, the results will be disastrous."

"Your logic is sound, but we cannot afford to wait for you to convince every single faction."

"Why exactly are you in such a rush?" Nauda asked. "I've never known the Asplundat Movement to be unreasonable, so something must be motivating you."

"That is..." Citizen Dominion stopped for a moment, and she thought she saw a weary man behind the mask of the power. He stepped closer to them and stopped speaking in declarations. "There's more to it than that. Some time ago, Homez agreed to go on an undercover mission to find out where Tymetron was using as a base. He was captured by them, and tortured, but he was barely able to send us a message of their location. Even if sympathy doesn't move you, we need to move quickly to rescue him and find out everything else he learned."

"Oh..." Nauda hadn't seen Homez in some time and it hurt to think that he had been suffering alone in some Tymetronese prison.

Theo wasn't as touched, and his eyes narrowed sharply. "How did he send the message? Could this all be a trap?"

"He sent the message through an indirect method," Citizen Dominion said confidently, "and Tymetron acted upon it. But yes, there's a chance that he could be compromised. That's all the more reason we need to act now, before they can prepare."

"Just give us a little more time. I want to save Homez as much as you do, but Tymetron could well kill him in retaliation for our attacks."

That wasn't the tack that Nauda had expected, and she heard some actual emotion in Theo's voice when he spoke about Homez. The strange thing was that she wasn't sure if he was feigning that emotion, and she didn't care: she knew that Theo truly did want to save Homez, and if he was faking anything, it was because he thought it would get them to that point faster.

"How long do we need to wait?" Citizen Dominion asked, less stridently this time. "It made sense for your close allies to join us, and we'd be glad to have the Ichili Dominion with us too."

"I fear my relative is not currently on Fithe," Fiyu said in a quiet voice. "Trying to locate him could well run into the problem of waiting that you speak of."

"That's a shame, but who else? Who would be willing to join an attack like this on short notice?"

"Let me talk to Melitta and the Wavefront." Theo stepped up to Citizen Dominion, calmer than before, eminently reasonable. "They're supposed to govern conflicts with the oceans, and Laksloe is a close neighbor."

For a long time Citizen Dominion said nothing. Nauda realized that though he might seem weak to the more war-like Fithans, his mild mannered nature was actually well-suited to his position as head of the Movement. Just like Tatians, he could be more dangerous underneath the smile than anyone expected.

"One day," the man said eventually. "We need a little more time to call back more weirkeys, anyway. But there are forces within the Movement as well... we cannot wait any longer than that."

-

Chapter 17

Going to lean on Citizen Dominion was one thing: Theo had a lot of ties to his nation and had fought directly alongside him in the battle against Tymetron. Bouncing across the continent to confront Melitta, who he'd barely met, while under a time limit... that was something else entirely.

With only a single day, he was afraid that bureaucracy might run out the clock, but apparently handing over a sublime material as powerful as deadgold counted for something, because when Theo arrived at the agreed-upon location, he wasn't locked out. There were some soldiers across the dusty beach, braced just in case he brought an attack, but as soon as they confirmed he was alone, they backed away. Theo only had to wait around a minute before the Wavefront's Dominion appeared in the sky and descended to him.

Melitta looked much the same as she had before, but her ponytail was a little messier and there was blood splashed across her armor. It didn't look like hers.

"We don't truly know one another," she said in lieu of greeting, "so I don't know how likely you are to waste my time. What is this about?"

"The Asplundat Movement discovered a hidden Tymetronese base off your coast," Theo stated simply. "They were going to start a war with the oceans before I managed to get them to work together, but I don't know if they have the firepower to do this alone."

Her eyes narrowed as he spoke, then she simply asked, "Where?"

"I'll tell you, but I want a commitment that you'll at minimum let the attack happen. This will be a delicate operation."

"War with the oceans is my business, and anything that interferes with their coordination could make that business much harder. I want our relations to remain stable more than anyone else." Melitta folded her arms and glared at him. "Where?"

"The city of Laksloe."

"Hnh. I should have gotten word if Tymetron put troops there, but undersea cities will lock themselves off at times. That... is rather inconvenient. They've probably been hitting us from Laksloe as well."

"Then do we have a basic agreement?" Theo asked. "It sounds like Tymetron has a Dominion there, and this is a critical position for them. If we want to take it effectively, without Laksloe being destroyed in the process, we need a larger strike force than we've assembled before. My team is in, and Citizen Dominion is going, but..."

"I'm thinking." Melitta turned away and stared out into the ocean. Theo gave her a few seconds to think and, as the silence stretched, realized that she might be on the fence. In that case... he had no idea if this would sweeten the pot, poison the stew, or mangle a different metaphor, but he needed to warn her.

"There's something unrelated you should know: there's an outsider trying to sneak into the tournament with a group of depths Fithans."

"Oh? Why should I care?"

"It sounds like he's using some artifact to lower his apparent tier, but it isn't just that." Theo paused, reconsidering yet again how much to say. If he tried to spin a story of Vistgil controlling outsiders, he would sound like a madman, but he needed Melitta to believe in the threat. "This is the same outsider who appeared in the Asplundat Movement and triggered the fighting. He was previously driven out of the Ruling Cities after incidents of violence and theft. I can't guarantee that he'll bring trouble to the Wavefront, but if my opinion means anything, take him seriously."

Melitta glanced back over her shoulder, expression completely neutral. "And why are you telling me this? What do you gain?"

"You know I thought the united tournament was a risk. This is exactly the sort of unpredictable variable that could turn that risk into a disaster. I can't tell you what you should do about it, but I thought you should know."

"Don't worry, I believe you." Melitta abruptly relaxed and turned back to him. "You're talking about the one calling himself Raythe Darkblade, right? Don't worry, we already know about him."

"You were pretending not to know?"

"He does have some sort of artifact to hide his tier, but his opsec is terrible and he couldn't resist bragging. His entire plan seems to have been idiocy: he thought he could enter the Authority tier and win as a Dominion. As if we wouldn't notice, as if we would be impressed that he'd bully people weaker than him." Melitta cast Theo a strange glance. "Do you know what's... wrong with him?"

Theo sighed, not really in relief. "That doesn't surprise me, but I don't know him. What did you do? If a Dominion like him throws a tantrum..."

"My subordinates said he seemed very touchy, but they made him happy by saying he could serve as one of the judges for the tournament. So the situation is handled as far as as I'm concerned, unless you think he's really that much of a problem. Could he be working undercover for Tymetron?"

That was a difficult question, circling back to Theo's central problem. He didn't think that Raythe could possibly be working with the enemy empire, but talking about him being used as an agent of chaos by Vistgil would just sound conspiratorial. The truth was, unfortunately, that he had no evidence except all his biases from past experience.

"I don't think he's undercover, and having another Dominion there might ward off Tymetron," Theo said begrudgingly. "But still, be careful. I wouldn't put it past him to try to steal all of the rewards for the tournament at the end."

Melitta blinked, truly surprised for the first time. "Why would he do that? Aside from the deadgold, all the sublime materials are explicitly for Authority tier or lower, so what could he gain?"

"Just... don't assume he'll be entirely rational. If he's not after the deadgold, he might be convinced that there's some other treasure in the rewards - he was trying to enter the contest undercover, right? I can't predict what he'll do, but if you predict he'll behave like a spoiled child who assumes everything will work out in his favor, you'll probably guess most of his movements."

That got a truly strange look from Melitta, but she didn't dismiss him entirely. So far, based on his impression of her, Theo thought that she had the right kind of skepticism if anyone here could deal with Raythe. At minimum he could put off that problem a little longer until he resolved the problem in Laksloe.

Most likely the leader of the Wavefront was thinking along similar lines, because she seemed to put the tournament out of her mind. Her eyes grew hard as she looked Theo over, then nodded, more to herself than to him.

"The others are right, we need to cooperate against Tymetron," she said. "I'll join the fight to retake Laksloe, and with two of us, we should be able to take out the enemy position fast enough not to upset the depths Fithans. Crintak will hate being left out."

"Excellent," Theo said. "Unfortunately, we're low on time, so let me introduce you to the prep area..."

He couldn't simply weirkey the most powerful soulcrafter in the nation across the world, but it didn't take long to get Melitta to the Asplundat Movement. Once there, she began talking with Citizen Dominion, adding her expertise in undersea warfare to the mix. That alone made Theo feel much better about the attack, though he still wished that he could be more involved with the planning.

Then again, he might not have much time to do anything else. As the day waned and they approached the night of the attack, it was the most he could do to pull together Nauda, Fiyu, and Krikree. Meeting Dave, along with so many other goals, would have to wait.

There was one more component to the plan that he wanted to push for: sending in a stealth group to try to scout Tymetron's position first. Advance intelligence suggested that Tymetron didn't know about their planned counterattack, but his largest concern was that they would instantly use their methods to sabotage the city, sacrificing their own position to take out as many of the enemy as possible. Dominions would likely survive, and the empire might not care about anything else if it hurt their foes enough.

For once things were easier than Theo had feared, because it seemed that Fiyu had brought up the concern in his absence. Given how well-known her stealth abilities were in the Asplundat Movement, the plan had been approved, so she would be going through first. Information from the depths Fithans suggested that the enemy was watching weirkey travel closely, so she would need to go in with an extremely small team.

With a sudden hour he hadn't expected, Theo lay down in a quiet corner of the Asplundat base and tried to get some sleep. Despite how hard he'd been pushing himself, his body refused to rest. He found himself thinking, despite all the other concerns that should have been on his mind, about Raythe Darkblade.

Of course the other human... except it felt wrong to call people from Earth "human" when everyone from the Nine was just as human. After discarding "Earthling" and other words as obviously wrong, Theo pushed the matter aside.

The other human from Earth was a concern, portending more manipulation from Vistgil, but if Theo was honest with himself, he knew that his emotions were pettier than that. He hated the fact that Raythe had already reached Dominion, passing him despite arriving later. The fact that he probably had an Artifact of Elghiera and advantages from Vistgil didn't matter, it still stung Theo in a way that he would have hoped he'd left behind.

Comparison might be the thief of joy, but death also stole it pretty well. As much as Theo loved soulcrafting, he couldn't afford to just do it for the pleasure of the work. If Raythe or other opponents were stronger than him, it didn't matter what unfair advantages they had, they could still be a threat.

Just when Theo thought he would never get to sleep, he was woken up by Krikree landing on his chest. [Theo-sister! Time!] She gripped his collar with all four hands as if to pull him up herself, but he groaned and pushed her back as he sat up.

"We let you sleep as long as possible," Nauda said apologetically from the other side, "but the attack is about to begin. We wanted to go even earlier, but there's some sort of coordination issue having to do with when the underwater city might start suspecting."

He wiped his eyes and looked over, noting a group of Nauda, Fiyu, and a number of depths Fithans. Only a couple were soulcrafters, both Authorities, but perhaps they needed inside information or locals to blend in. Given how thin he'd been stretched, Theo accepted that this part of the plan wasn't up to him and that he'd have to trust his allies.

"So you're going in first, right?" he asked as he stood and faced the group. "I hope you'll be able to evade detection and find how Tymetron could sabotage the city."

"I am certain that they will not detect my stealth," Fiyu told him. "Finding the exact location will be more difficult, unfortunately."

"We don't have access to the occupied parts of the city," one of the depths Fithans put in.

"If they have their Dominion guarding it, however... I hope that I will be able to disable them, because that would put us in a difficult position."

"Best intelligence suggests their strongest will be elsewhere," Theo said, "keeping the local soulcrafters under control. But if not, the main vanguard should get their attention. If things go badly... take as many people as you can and get out of there."

They all nodded at that: his allies somberly, the Fithans more nervously, as they were talking about the potential destruction of their entire city. Theo didn't like that risk looming over the plan, but Tymetron was extremely prepared for infiltrations, so the local experts had agreed that they couldn't rely on that. Only arriving in force and decisively defeating the enemy army gave them a shot at taking Laksloe back intact.

Going over the plan again could only reassure them so much, though, and it seemed like they were almost out of time. Theo said farewells to the group and watched them go, up until the point where Fiyu wrapped them all in her stealth bubble. After that, they would have weirkeyed their way to Laksloe, but he had no way of detecting that.

He moved to the main force, trying to build up his focus for the battle. Citizen Dominion and Melitta were both preparing at the head of the group, and they nodded to him as he arrived. In a strange way, he was being treated as part of the vanguard. Theo had a high enough view of himself that this shouldn't have surprised him, but somehow it did. Strange to be actually appreciated... he just hoped that he was worth as much as they thought he was.

Time passed excruciatingly, the wait unbearable after so long rushing. Theo settled himself by returning to soulcrafting, considering his soulhome once more. He wouldn't be able to use his singularity or he'd risk the city, so he'd prepared a number of different strategies. Maybe one last chance to fight using his temporary brute techniques.

Then it was time. Everyone began rising to their feet, checking with one another and preparing to gather around those using weirkeys. The two Dominions nodded to him one last time before they split up, since each of them needed to take as many as possible.

Theo extended his reach around his squadron, though they wouldn't be under his command on the other side. As soon as the signal was given, he pulled them all away from Fithe, then arced back to the undersea city.

Part of him expected to arrive amid utter chaos, but instead he emerged in a plaza. There was a large empty space for new arrivals, and around the edges he saw plenty of stalls and wagons, filled with everyday goods for the inhabitants of the city. He was surprised how much space there was overhead, though it ended in a great dome of glass. Only dark waters stretched on the other side, but the exterior of the dome was covered in bioluminescent seaweed that gave the ceiling a surprisingly festive appearance.

For a moment it was just another peaceful day in the depths, then the local inhabitants noticed that there was a large group of dust Fithans invading. They'd hidden all the depths Fithans in their attack group, because that panic had actually been part of the plan: Tymetron might assume that this was an unrelated invasion, delaying them for precious seconds.

There was one thing they knew for certain: Tymetron had taken over an interior fortress within this dome, a heavy cluster of walls that looked like they had been carved from seashells. All of the Fithans lifted into the air, on chariots or their own cantae, and began to charge toward the position.

High in the air, the shouts growing distant, Theo contemplated worst case scenarios. Tymetron could trigger their sabotage, breaking the city's dome. This could all be a trap, despite the precautions, and they had just invaded a peaceful city. Plutalgion himself might step out of the grand fortress doors and take up his sword.

When an enemy Dominion emerged, Theo was almost relieved: a Tymetronese man burst from the top of the fortress, a bright gold sigil across his chest. He plunged his hand into that sigil and pulled forth a golden blade that glowed so brightly that it briefly overwhelmed all other lights.

That show of force might have intimidated others... but the enemy commander was struck a moment later by Melitta and Citizen Dominion, who drove him toward the edge of the dome, separating him from the rest of his army, just as had been their plan.

More Tymetronese soulcrafters were pouring out of the fortress now, pulling weapons or summoning abilities. Theo hit all of them with his broadest gravitational field: some of them had defenses, or could compensate, but a significant number were dropped upward, pinned helplessly against the upper dome of the city.

With fewer enemies remaining, the joint Fithan army easily carried the initial clash. Theo stopped looking at the main battle and instead searched for gold: he spotted more Tymetronese soldiers atop a tower, pouring cantae into some sort of siege device. They seemed to be winching it down... were they really going to fire directly into the city? Whatever sublime material they used as ammunition, it looked like it would explode nastily.

As soon as they hurled the stone, it entered one of Theo's portals. The second portal was behind them, so the stone crashed into the siege device and obliterated the top of the tower. Laksloe lost a bit of infrastructure, but the priority had been protecting the rest of the city.

Then Theo saw someone else in the chaos of the fight and all thoughts of strategy fell away. Jazin was beside the fortress, gathering together a group of lesser soulcrafters into a formation that was targeting the fight between Dominions. As if he felt Theo's gaze, he turned, then smiled as he saw him.