Preview Chapter #2

Not ready for full release schedule yet, sorry. Thanks to everyone who has supported the launch of Crimsoncrest with purchases, reads, or reviews.

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Chapter 2

Above the waves, it seemed as though everyone had frozen, but the pause was an illusion. Beyond the preparation of cantae by nervous soulcrafters and the subtle shifting of position, Theo could feel all those points of mass between the surface. Were they intending to attack, and if so, what was his best move? He was high above the surface and his singularity was still manifest, so he was safe enough, but if the depths Fithans attacked those from the Gold Wastes, should he step in?

There wasn't much time to analyze it, not facing a Stronghold with so many Authorities as backup. Surely they wouldn't attack, after Theo had won the battle for them and even asked Krikree to keep them alive, but the Fithans looked extremely tense.

"Move away from the deadgold," the Stronghold said. "If you're really here as an ally, we need a show of good faith."

"How about this?" Theo gestured toward the waves. "Do you know there are depths Fithans currently moving toward us?"

The way the Gold Wastes soulcrafters reacted with a mix of flinches and curses was answer enough. Theo heard some of them shouting about betrayal, while at least one yelled "They're stealing the rest!" As for the Stronghold, he braced himself, soulhome channeling cantae in preparation for some technique that Theo couldn't discern at a glance.

While everyone was distracted, Theo broke a fragment of the mass into his soulhome. Given the potential threat, there was no time to think about that.

His singularity was still hovering over the ocean and it would be a simple matter to move it down. Theo began to shift it into the path of the depths Fithans, operating on combat instincts... and then hesitated.

Tactically, that was unquestionably the best move, since he could annihilate most of the attackers before they realized the danger his singularity posed. Yet it was possible to be tactically correct and strategically wrong, and the fact was that he didn't know enough about the current battle. The man he had been when he returned to the Nine Worlds would have taken the most ruthless path and abandoned the consequences behind him, but Theo didn't want to be that man anymore.

As the Fithans broke from the water, unleashing attacks, Theo moved the singularity into the arc of their techniques, absorbing most of the cantae. But before the soulcrafters themselves could be sucked in, he closed his hands and the singularity vanished, leaving the battlefield chaotic with the left-over momentum as all the unnatural mass disappeared.

In the moment, there had been no time for further analysis. In the aftermath, Theo realized that he had made the right decision: the attacks hadn't been lethal, they had been designed to stun or knock away. Similarly, the Stronghold from the Gold Wastes hadn't been preparing a counterattack, just some sort of defensive wall. Both he and the depths Fithans seemed more focused on the dark gold mass that remained beside Theo.

Since the entire battle was apparently over the sublime stone, Theo reached down to the deeper mass and cast another gravitational field, pulling it upward along with many of the Fithans remaining in reserve. Creating a column where the ocean fell skyward produced chaos in the ocean waves, which broke up the remainder of the attack.

"You couldn't resist, could you?" The Stronghold folded his arms and glared down at the depths Fithans... irritated, not furious.

"Hey, the plan was already ruined." There were two fierce-looking Authorities, their horns so similar that they might have been brother and sister, who were leading the depths group. The brother looked around suspiciously while the sister spoke with a shrug. "You can't blame us for trying to get such an enormous mass."

"No, I guess not. But we didn't plan this either, it was really just a coincidence."

Both sides turned to look at Theo, who now understood that he might have gotten in the way of what was intended to be an ambush. He realized that while he didn't know what was going on, he was still the linchpin of the battle, so he could afford to be blunt.

"You're from the ocean cities between the Gold Wastes and Tymetron," Theo guessed as he turned to the Authority siblings. "And you're allied against the empire, I take it. This was an ambush?"

"It was never as planned as all that," the Stronghold from the Gold Wastes said. "There was a battle here, so we went out to scout, and the Tymetronese tried to take us down. Our allies from below were going to provide backup... though it looks like they planned to take all the sublime materials as payment."

"These materials?" Theo's reversed gravity had finally pulled up the larger mass, along with a few stunned Fithans, and he used more precise fields to lift it into the air. Since they were all still suspicious of him, Theo levitated both golden masses to a position above both factions.

[Not take sublime?] Krikree sent from a position just above the waves.

[We might be able to take them,] Theo sent back, [but we need allies more. That fine with you?]

[Recruit dust ants.]

Their pheromones took only fractions of a second to exchange, and meanwhile both sides seemed to have calmed down now that they believed Theo wasn't trying to steal their sublime materials. One of the dust Fithans revealed a broad chariot, which he used as a medical platform for those who had been injured in the attack. Meanwhile the depths Fithans gathered at the surface, easily maintaining position in the waves with a combination of swimming and cantae.

The Stronghold from above and the twins from below both flew to hover opposite Theo... between him and the mass of gold, he couldn't help but notice, but they didn't seem aggressive anymore. Since he had been acting ahead of his military intelligence for long enough, Theo simply folded his arms and waited for them to make the first move.

"We do owe you," the Stronghold eventually said. "We might have been able to win the battle, but Tymetron brought more soulcrafters than we expected, and there would have been heavy losses. This is a much better outcome."

"Unless you're planning to demand payment," the brother said. "What's your angle?"

"I'm from Norron." As he spoke, Theo took care to address both sides. Krikree floated up beside him and crouched in the air, cleaning off her antennae. "You might know that we had a major clash with Tymetron, and we're trying to prepare for the backlash."

"Really, from Norron?" the sister asked. "Since when do they have outsiders like you?"

"Norron might have changed more than you think, but I'm here on behalf of House Blacksilver."

He'd intended just to spread the House's name a little more, but to his surprise both sides nodded in recognition. "I guess I'd believe that about Blacksilver," the Stronghold said. "She's a Slescan, isn't she? Yet it seems like she ascended past the normal limit for her caste."

Krikree's antennae shot up. "You know Slest?"

"Aye, there's a gate to Slest back in my home city." The Stronghold chuckled and shook his head. "Sounds like the two of you would have an interesting story, but we really don't have time. We need to get the deadgold back to safe territory before Tymetron sends any more forces, and to do that, you need to be more forthcoming about your claim."

"Take it," Theo said with a nonchalance he didn't feel - giving up mysterious sublime materials ran against his instincts, as much as it was the strategically correct decision. "What we want is to exchange information and discuss a potential alliance."

"Then we'll split it fairly." The brother Authority muttered something to his sister about making sure they didn't get cheated, then flew to the mass of deadgold. Meanwhile the Stronghold barked a few orders to his own soulcrafters, and they sent a few to negotiate just how the sublime material would be split.

It sounded like the dust Fithans were going to argue that they had done more of the fighting, so they deserved a larger share, while the depths Fithans claimed that they would naturally have gotten more of it if outsiders hadn't intervened. They bickered a little, but the negotiations appeared to be largely friendly as far as Theo could tell.

So these two factions had an unusual sort of alliance: they were both aligned against Tymetron, but they might cheat or steal from one another, yet there would be no hard feelings about that. Compared to the open warfare between land and sea on most parts of Fithe, that was unusually peaceful. An empire like Tymetron distorted everything around it, or maybe it was Plutalgion himself who rallied the world against him.

"I guess it does make sense to talk with your factions." The Stronghold turned back to Theo as the negotiations got underway and gave a thin smile. "We used to think Norron was irrelevant, but then last year... we really bloodied Plutalgion's nose thanks to you."

"That's one of the things I wanted to talk about," Theo said. "We suspected as much, but we could use more exact military intelligence."

"It's unusual, actually." The Authority sister folded her arms and looked away, where Tymetron loomed over the horizon. "Usually someone like Plutalgion can strike and return before anyone's the wiser."

"It sounds like none of us have full information, so why don't we put the story together?"

Once the others nodded, Theo took the first step by explaining how Tymetron had intended to incite conflict, to soften up Norron while also stealing the Asplundatcrest. He was a little vague on the details of the escalation, since he wasn't sure what they would believe: the region around Tymetron had a higher average tier than Norron, but the aeon-class organizations that had gotten involved were higher yet. As he explained how the Tymetronese army got entangled in battle, escalating even to Plutalgion arriving, the Stronghold from the Gold Wastes picked up the story.

"However you did it," the man said, "you had Plutalgion distracted and everyone knew it. Giatrice... you know Giatrice, right?"

"Top soulcrafter in the Gold Wastes," Theo said briefly. "Beyond Dominion."

"Right, right. Well, she weirkeyed over to Tymetron and assaulted one of their fortresses, including slaying one of their Dominions. Tymetron may be powerful, but they can't afford to lose Dominions like that, so it was a serious blow."

"Exactly how many soulcrafters does Tymetron have at Dominion and above?"

The Stronghold regarded him with narrow eyes, then shook his head. "If you don't know, I guess that's key military intelligence I shouldn't hand over. Though truth be told, I'm not sure either. They like to pretend they have endless armies, so they keep their exact numbers unclear."

Theo made himself smile blandly. "Something to exchange in a future negotiation, then."

"Heh, maybe."

"Anyway, after that the story goes below." It was the female Authority picking up the story this time, explaining undersea politics with abstract waving motions. "Tymetron was off-balance, so we decided to launch a raid to steal back a lot of our prisoners of war. It seemed to work until we rescued them, but we didn't expect Plutalgion himself to come and try to crush us before we could retreat. Guess he had to throw his weight around, after losing one of his fortresses."

"Heh, so that's what it was about." The Stronghold chuckled as if he was finally putting something together. "That attack forced Giatrice to move before she was ready, but she must have decided that it was worth the risk, because she went to intercept. She and Plutalgion fought again over the ocean, letting your forces get away."

"Leading to this battle," the sister concluded. "We know we owe you for the chance, so we wouldn't have taken everything, but you can't blame us for wanting a cache of deadgold like this."

"Entirely understandable. Everybody's on edge, with Plutalgion this active."

They spoke as if the chain of logic was entirely obvious, leaving Theo as the only one who didn't full understand. Based on what they'd said, he surmised that the battle between aeon-class soulcrafters had somehow led to the deadgold mass at this location. He set aside the question of why that would happen, because after that the political calculus made sense. The depths and dust Fithans had a rough alliance, jostling against one another as they tried to stay ahead of the Tymetronese empire.

"You might get another chance," Theo told both sides. "I can't get into all the details, but it seems likely that Tymetron will be attacking us again. If we can arrange for you to hit back, that will help all of us. Even basic communication about attack timing could be crucial."

"Aye, not a bad thought." The Stronghold scratched at his beard as if considering. "Don't suppose you want to come back to the Gold Wastes now and talk it over?"

"I didn't plan to get involved here, so I'm a bit overextended. Why don't we arrange a meeting with both sides, and you can invite anyone else aligned against Tymetron? It would be nice to meet Giatrice and see if we can't coordinate."

Both the Fithans had been positive up to that point, but now Theo realized that he had overplayed his hand: even a Stronghold didn't simply discuss meeting with Giatrice. She was aeon-class in a region where only some understood that soulcrafting went beyond Dominion, so that was simply beyond the pale. It hadn't ruined his chances, by any means, but Theo saw that they thought he was reaching.

"We need to get diplomats involved," the sister said with a shrug. "I agree we should arrange something, but it won't be soulcrafters deciding the terms."

"Agreed. We'll arrange negotiations, then contact Norron." The Stronghold started to move away, but Theo extended a hand to interrupt him; if he was already ahead of himself, he might as well push for more information.

"What exactly is deadgold?" he asked.

"You were really telling the truth about not knowing?" The Stronghold turned back to look at him with an unreadable expression. "Then it's not my place to explain. Suffice it to say... if Tymetron is really sending their strongest soulcrafters to war, it's one of the only shields we have. Everybody is going to be fighting over it in the months to come."

There would be no more answers, and it seemed that was the end of negotiations. Theo hovered near the Fithans for a while longer, just in case Tymetron returned with a vengeance, but nothing disrupted the proceedings - in fact, the Fithans seemed almost jovial as they hacked apart the sublime material. In the end they split the deadgold about sixty-forty in favor of the Gold Wastes, then they separated with promises of future meetings.

Once he was alone, Theo quietly pressed his hands together. His singularity, which had been tunneled into the clouds overhead instead of dispersed, finally returned to his soulhome. He'd been putting forward a friendly face, but there was no sense being incautious.

In the silence, Krikree hovered up beside him, still crouched mid-air. "Make deal between ants and beetles?"

"Sounds like it," Theo agreed. "But it will take a while for those meetings to get arranged, so we need to use it well. It's finally time for those gifts."

"Go see Nauda-queen?"

"That's right. I don't know about this deadgold material, but this is one of the best things we can do to prepare for war."