Rainhorn (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 2)

by Sarah Lin

  "Nothing, Grandfather." Esaire lowered his head, not in humility but to take the accusation head on. "I let my ego control me when I should have withdrawn and scorned the foreigners."

  "Then this was an expensive lesson." His grandfather regarded him with a strange smile. "This was over a Fithan child who inconvenienced you, wasn't it? I thought better of you, Esaire. Petty insults are meaningless, and chasing after pride has ruined many a family. What could possibly be so interesting about a random foreigner to be worth such a vendetta?"

  "It was a mistake, Grandfather."

  "No, this is not the time for humility." One stack of Silver Crowns struck the table hard as his grandfather leaned in. "What thoughts led you to this mistake will determine your punishment."

  Suddenly realizing that he had been playing the wrong game, Esaire rapidly shifted his plans. He knew that his grandfather would scorn his thinking regardless, but if he could justify himself, he might come through without a loss of position. "It was several things, Grandfather. They had stolen a valuable sleigh and I only sought to recover it."

  "It was fairly stolen during the hunt, but taking it back would have been worth a lesser cost. But why give them your time in the first place?"

  "Their group was unusual, and unusually effective." Esaire swallowed, seeking a tactic that would convince his grandfather. "They acquired various sublime materials and seemed like candidates to assist us in the Great Rainhorn Hunt."

  "Recruiting vassals is the least irrational part of your thinking, but I fail to see how they were so interesting."

  "Well... the group was a Fithan, an Ichili, and a Tatian. All three were remarkable soulcrafters, even compared to our family. The leader had somehow soulcrafted skills that nearly made me believe he was an Archcrafter, though his techniques proved to have serious weaknesses."

  "Trivialities. There are talented soulcrafters everywhere, and you should not be so impressed by visitors from other worlds. You'll soon learn that such places are irrelevant to the courts, and beyond the courts there is nothing of meaning." His grandfather snorted and started to turn away. "Do we need to find better rivals for you in the city, then?"

  "It wasn't just that! He seemed strangely driven, I just thought..." Esaire realized that this was a foregone conclusion and his grandfather only wanted to put him in his place. He nearly went quiet and accepted his punishment, but decided to make one more attempt even if it was futile. "The Fithan didn't just seek profit or strength, he was investigating strange subjects with information brokers and in archives. Odd families that don't exist, ai Teraeves or some other minor name, so I-"

  A stack of Silver Crowns clattered over the table and Esaire stared far more than it deserved: he'd never seen his grandfather display the slightest clumsiness before. There was no trace of any emotion on the old man's face, but he spoke oddly neutrally. "What was that family name?"

  "I... I'm not completely sure, Grandfather, but it sounded like 'Teraeves'. I attempted to research if they were a major family in another court, but came up with nothing concrete, so I assumed it was just another outdated piece of information. There were many odd anachronisms..."

  Esaire trailed off as he realized that his grandfather wasn't truly listening. The old man stared out at nothing, deep in thought, and when his gaze drifted back down to the pavilion, something had changed.

  "Grandfather Arceon?"

  "No one has heard that name in a very long time, and that is exactly how it should have remained. All the resources you wasted on your childish squabbles might be justified after all." Esaire's grandfather rose to his feet and almost immediately snapped down at him. "Well, boy? Don't stand there gawking. We need to arrange a journey to Fithe."

  X X X

  The third book of the series, Archcrafter, is currently finished and planned to be released soon! The fourth book, Chasmfall, is currently being posted and will take a little longer to complete. If you've enjoyed this series so far, please leave a review!

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  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to all my alpha and beta readers for their feedback.

  Thanks to Cultivation Novels, Western Cultivation, and GameLit Society for the community.

  Appendix: Soulhome Architecture 101

  (This appendix was originally posted on my subreddit, with character expressions and soulhome diagrams. These don't play well with many ebook formats, so they can't be included here, but I'm including the raw script due to reader requests. Here's the link to the full version:

  https://old.reddit.com/r/TheBrightestShadow/comments/k6vxt8/soulhome_architecture_101_with_theo_nauda_and_fiyu/)

  Soulhome Architecture 101

  with Theo, Nauda, and Fiyu

  Nauda smiling: Hello everyone!

  Theo smiling: We're going to be explaining the art of soulcrafting from The Weirkey Chronicles.

  Fiyu neutral: Are we self-aware now? Is this another meta-fictional story?

  Theo neutral: This isn't canon; just go with it.

  F smiling: That is better, but I do not understand why we are represented by heads.

  T frowning: They're chibis, and I, for one, am personally insulted to be portrayed this way.

  N grinning: It isn't canon; just go with it.

  F neutral: Before we look at some soulhome designs, we will introduce the basics...

  Basics

  N smiling: The first part won't surprise you. Cantae is a form of energy that living beings can only use if they open up a space inside their soul, called a soulhome.

  T neutral: You can use it to make yourself a little stronger, or shoot it as a bolt, but these things are child's play compared to building within your soulhome.

  F neutral: Such people are called soulcrafters.

  T frowning: You can't use just anything: only materials with spiritual properties - called sublime materials - can be pulled into your soul and used in construction.

  N smiling: But inside, soulhomes follow simple logic. Bigger rooms can store more cantae. Physically sturdy rooms make you spiritually sturdy. Fancy rooms with valuable sublime materials crafted into patterns are more powerful than just throwing a magic rock inside your soul.

  F neutral: Not everything is architecture. Usually you begin by creating a "heart chamber" that has sublime materials to generate cantae, which flows through the other rooms.

  T neutral: The process rapidly gets more complicated, but we'll focus on the basics today.

  F smiling: Let us look at some simple blueprints. I think that will make it easy to understand.

  [Unplanned Farmguard Soulhome]

  N neutral: We'll start with a humble village soulcrafter. They probably built one room at a time without too much planning.

  T neutral: It's actually not terrible... squares are balanced shapes, and the internal doors will allow for strong cantae flow.

  F question: Why do they have so many doors to the outside, though? Won't cantae leak out?

  N smiling: That isn't obvious to everyone, Fiyu. They may have opened more to make soulcrafting easier.r />
  T frowning: It's an inefficiency, but that's trivial compared to the fact that their design is lopsided. Feast rooms generate cantae, just not as much as heart chambers, so it should have been switched with the technique chamber.

  N neutral: They were clearly doing the best they could with what they had.

  F smiling: I don't think it's so bad. They have some cantae, a chamber to strengthen themselves, and room for a technique.

  T neutral: I rate it 30/100. Thoroughly mediocre.

  [Terrible Soulhome]

  N disgust: Just... just what is this mess?

  T disgust: This is what I meant when I said the previous one wasn't terrible.

  N 06: I cannot imagine anyone in the Nine Worlds soulcrafting so haphazardly.

  T neutral: They might have been from an outside world, just treating it like a game.

  F neutral: ...I think I understand. They started with a plan to the west, then changed their blueprint as they kept building.

  T smiling: Yeah, I think you're right. They began with a heart chamber, but after they built their first technique, they found some really valuable sublime material and built the circular chamber to take advantage of it.

  N neutral: Young soulcrafters, take heed: valuable materials are better held for the proper time instead of thrown in at random.

  F sad: Unfortunately, the cantae flow between the chambers doesn't make much sense. I think they would need to remodel to make this work.

  N 09 minus the question mark: Looks like they just kept tacking on new techniques and a strength chamber as they needed them.

  F smiling: The northern technique chamber is not so bad. It might be an upgraded technique, merging the flow from the heart and technique chambers. They are trying.

  T disgust: 5/100, irredeemable garbage.

  [Generic Farmguard Soulhome]

  F 02: Oh! These were the blueprints they gave out at Myufuru!

  N smiling: Yes, this is a common soulhome design for Farmguards. Note the extra large heart chamber evenly distributing cantae to every chamber.

  F neutral: But this would be a soulcrafter at the peak of the first tier. Most of them have only finished some of the chambers and are thus weaker.

  T neutral: The thing about common designs is that many generations have looked over them, so they're usually not bad, definitely better than the average hotshot with a random plan.

  N neutral: I'm guessing you have some criticisms, oh wise one?

  T frowning: Lining up the enhancing rooms and the technique rooms looks good on paper, but it's better to intersperse them. Strengthening rooms generate some cantae too, and that should flow into appropriate techniques.

  N neutral: That's true. There's also no internal cantae flow within the soulhome, so the heart chamber has to keep up with every other room. But that's why it's larger than average.

  F question: I am wondering... why is there an extra door to the west? There are already three technique doors.

  T neutral: They probably built that room first and never closed up the door. If they did that... 50/100, serviceable.

  F smiling: But they might reverse their blueprint on the second floor and send cantae upwards. That would improve efficiency.

  N smiling: Archcrafter design techniques are too much for now, Fiyu. Let's move on to a more unique design....

  [Generic Healer Soulhome]

  T smiling: Good, we get to see a circular design. Circles are architecturally strong, so they can make soulhomes much more durable.

  N 07: In my opinion, if someone can damage your soulhome, you've already lost.

  F question: I have not seen a healer's blueprint before. Why are there so many chambers to generate cantae?

  N neutral: Healing is complicated and extremely resource-intensive, so they need multiple sources.

  T neutral: Yeah, you actually see designs similar to this everywhere in the Nine Worlds. It's a reliable blueprint.

  F neutral: Hmm... I think they mix together different sources of cantae for different purposes? One pair for closing wounds, another for curing illnesses?

  N 04: That's right, and each door is built as a sub-chamber so they can apply the cantae via specialized techniques!

  T smiling: Healers are limited before they soulcraft multiple floors, but this is a solid 80 for a start.

  Spoilers Ahead

  F neutral: What is a spoiler?

  T frowning: The next image contains minor details about how we soulcraft in the first book.

  N smiling: You can skip the next part if you absolutely want to avoid all spoilers.

  [Theo's Soulhome]

  T smiling: My soulhome is a work in progress, but you can see the basic design.

  N neutral: That vestibule to modulate cantae is seriously advanced stuff. Too technical to get into now, I think.

  T neutral: Doesn't make a huge difference at early tiers, anyway.

  F smiling: I like how the design is very orderly. All of the rooms are balanced and the connections are symmetrical.

  N smiling: This is a good time to point out the subjective element. This would be a bad design for someone like a healer who wants fluid concepts, but it's effective because Theo wants many distinctly themed rooms.

  F neutral: It is similar for me: I am better able to use light as a weapon because it is dangerous on my home world.

  N neutral: It's worth saying that the sheer number of doors would be a weakness, if the heart chamber wasn't designed to set the cantae orbiting.

  F neutral: That is true. It also loses some cantae space to the thick walls and pillars, but I believe our companion did this to support future tiers.

  T smiling: You thought I was going to give myself a 100/100? No, the true strength of my design will barely be hinted before Archcrafter tier.

  N 10: Your false humility is useless, when you've soulcrafted all this in just a matter of months.

  F smiling: Can we see your soulhome next, Nauda?

  [Nauda's Soulhome]

  N neutral: I'm afraid my soulhome is rather modest, and my plans have been altered as I experienced a few difficulties in life.

  F smiling: I like your heart chamber! Are the proportions based on the golden ratio?

  N 04: Oh, good eye. Yes, I have powerful sublime materials in my heart chamber, so distributing their cantae effectively is important.

  T neutral: The construction is solid, and you know I respect the craft on that telescope. But you're making poor use of the size of your soul, and it might not be easy to expand.

  N neutral: I know, I know, you think I should build a tower.

  T smiling: Separated soulhomes are rare, but there are legitimate reasons to design them that way.

  F neutral: All of your chambers are mergers of cantae-generation, techniques, and strengthening. It is not how I was taught, but it is a consistent design.

  N smiling: It's a more common model on Tatian than the previous Farmguard blueprint, honestly.

  T neutral: Of course, the obvious thing Nauda has over either of us is that partially-constructed pyramid. When built high enough, it will make her an Archcrafter and unlock an entire second floor.

  N neutral: I think ascension is probably beyond the scope of this introduction.

  T neutral: Considering just the first floor... reasonably effective design, but with flaws. I'd say 65/100.

  T neutral: Reasonably effective design, but with flaws. I'd say 65/100.

  N 07: I'm humbled by your magnanimity, oh esteemable sage.

  F smiling: I think that you are a 100, Nauda.

  [Fiyu's Soulhome]

  F 03: Umm... normally strangers shouldn't see this, but if this is non-canon, they can't tell anyone, right?

  N smiling: I think you're safe, Fiyu.

  T neutral: What's interesting about Fiyu's design is that it uses three different building materials, which would normally clash, but fuses them into several planned synergies.

  F smiling: Yes. My relative said this blueprint was ver
y difficult, but that it would be best for me.

  N neutral: Which of the three materials is that entrance?

  F neutral: ...

  T neutral: Even though this breaks some standard rules, like having the walls and pillars not line up perfectly with the materials, in this case it's clearly done for a reason. You have to know when to break beginner rules.

  N 04: I'm glad to see the window we helped you add to your sensory chamber!

  F smiling: Yes, it is very helpful in these hellishly bright worlds.

  T neutral: This is also a completely circular design, which makes good use of soul space and is highly durable.

  N smiling: Honestly, the purity of the design doesn't do you justice, Fiyu. You have some powerful techniques in there.

  F smiling: ...

  T smiling: I'd say this is 90+, and only that because I don't know how well the blueprint flows into higher floors to justify the curve. It's clearly a design that's been refined over generations.

  Conclusion

  N 05: There you have it! A basic introduction to soulcrafting.

  F neutral: Please follow precautions and obey your elder relatives when working on your soulhome.

  T smiling: These principles would serve you well on every floor, but they're just scratching the surface of soulcrafting's complexity.

  F smiling: But I think that is for future books.

  N smiling: We'll see you in The Weirkey Chronicles!

  (Again, if you'd like to see this conversation with full images, you can find it here: https://old.reddit.com/r/TheBrightestShadow/comments/k6vxt8/soulhome_architecture_101_with_theo_nauda_and_fiyu/)