Soulhome (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 1)

by Sarah Lin

  "I see. I am not familiar with these 'learningplaces' but I believe that my relative would want me to take advantage of the opportunity. I hope that we can study together, Jake."

  "Yeah, me too. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

  Fiyu bobbed her head and then closed the door in his face. Only a little taken aback, Theo turned away and headed toward the mine. The sun might be close to setting, but the city was still awash in an orange glow as lanterns and bonfires were lit. It occurred to him that they must have a method to avoid widespread destructive fires, but he wasn't sure what it was.

  In any case, he didn't intend to rest just yet. Sneaking into the mine might prove an unnecessary risk, but that didn't leave him without options. Theo instead searched for a Farmguard or someone else who could give him permission. He didn't expect to run into Nanjuma, but since the old man seemed to be calmly sitting on a bench and eating nuts, it might be a good time.

  "Welcome back, young man." Nanjuma beamed at him and offered the bag. "Want a little treat?"

  "No, thank you. But I was wondering if you could help me acquire some sublime materials to work on before school begins."

  "Oh, but it will only be a few days until everyone has arrived! Why don't you enjoy yourself in the city first?"

  "That's kind of you, but I'm in a bit of a hurry."

  "Ah, youth. I remember when all of that still stretched before me..." Nanjuma gave him a foolish smile, yet his eyes bored directly into his soulhome. "As I said, we have plenty of sublime materials, but you will need to convince me that you can make good use of them."

  Deciding that simple words would be useless, Theo stepped into his soulhome, then leaned through the door enough to speak. "I may not have soulcrafted myself for long, but I know many of the arts. I would like to begin the long, hard work of processing stone."

  "Ah, you do know a few tricks! How does a young man who has barely awakened as a soulcrafter know such things?"

  "Are you going to make me answer before giving me anything?" Theo asked, stepping back out of his soulhome. Nanjuma regarded him seriously, then his eyes twinkled.

  "Enjoy your secrets, then! You're right about the amount of work that stone takes, and I don't think you can hurt yourself just preparing it. What did you have in mind? We have plenty of our awakened stone, but perhaps something from the soil of a hearthtree?"

  "Does the mine produce any solarstone?"

  Nanjuma rose to his feet slowly and popped another few nuts in his mouth, looking down at him thoughtfully. "It does, but I think you're underestimating just how hard solarstone is. You won't be able to put a crack in it, much less form it into bricks suitable for a soulhome."

  "You might be right, but I want to try." Theo hefted the spirit hammer he'd bought and gave what he hoped was a disarming smile. "Why don't you give me one stone? If you're right, all I'll do is waste my time and hurt my hands a bit."

  "Hmm." Then Nanjuma was simply gone.

  He appeared a second later, and this time Theo was just able to spot a blur. The old man now held a large chunk of bright rock instead of his bag of nuts. Though he smiled cheerfully and thrust it forward, the implicit threat was clear: someone who could go to the mine and back in a heartbeat could just as easily kill a person.

  "Thank you." Theo accepted the chunk of rock, not looking at it directly - though it wasn't blinding, it was unpleasantly bright. Deciding that this was also a test of sorts, he gripped it in both hands and focused his full attention on it.

  For several terrible seconds his hands hurt and he was afraid he'd be proved wrong, but finally the stone crumbled away into his soulhome. Nanjuma regarded him with a cheerful grin. "Well done, young man! If you really manage to do anything with that bit of rock, perhaps I can find a little more for you. I hope you'll make this school fun for all of us."

  "I'll do my best," Theo answered, though he wasn't sure exactly what that meant. Not wanting to push his luck, he returned to his room and then drew the spirit hammer with him into his soulhome.

  Within, the chunk of solarstone was a large boulder. It would be a great deal of work, but he could slowly break it into pieces, then shape those into bricks of stone. His foundation still needed work, but building the walls of his first tier from solarstone was as good a start as he could ask for. Now that he had a proper material, it was time to get to work.

  His first swing deflected off to the side, his spiritual hands stinging. Several more attempts failed to leave a scratch as well, though he was slowly remembering the old art. Gradually he managed to draw the weak stream of cantae into his spirit, strengthening himself as a soulcrafter until he could bring his full force against the boulder in a single stroke.

  A tiny crack appeared in the top of the boulder... the first of many. Theo smiled and pulled the hammer back.

  Chapter 9

  By the time all the students had arrived, Theo had made less progress than he'd hoped. He'd shattered the first solarstone boulder into brick-sized lumps, but they'd proved remarkably resistant to proper shaping with his chisel. Breaking apart the first had been enough to convince Nanjuma to give him a second boulder, since he'd pretended that he hadn't tried to work them further.

  The problem was that the heart of soulcrafting was vague and slippery. Raw power using cantae didn't necessarily translate to being able to work inside your soulhome, and though physical fitness and dexterity mattered a little, they weren't sufficient. The core work was fundamentally an act of willpower, and even though he remembered how to do each task, his years on Earth had weakened his capacity.

  Still, it was better than nothing. Theo stacked his lumps into a circular chamber and stuck hearthtree boards over the top to make a primitive room. It might look laughable, but it was a nice little trick that let him store cantae quickly. If there was another fight before he could properly create his soulhome, he wouldn't be defenseless.

  Though the arrival of the last groups was celebrated with a feast, both Theo and Fiyu skipped it. He'd seen relatively little of her, but knew that they'd meet again for the first class with all the students. The day after the feast, Nanjuma called out for everyone to gather in the main courtyard. Fiyu urged him to take a position by the edge and placed him between her and everyone else.

  "Welcome, welcome!" Nanjuma boomed as if he was greeting everyone, but they were still getting organized. That didn't seem to matter and he went on booming in a hospitable fashion.

  While they assembled, Theo looked through the group. There were perhaps a hundred people standing in the center of the square, mostly from worlds closely linked to Tatian. He spotted Navim, Fiyu, Magnafor, and a few others he was used to seeing. Famaj was nowhere to be found until his eyes moved on to the Farmguards standing at the edges.

  They wore more elaborate robes, as if they were to be teachers, but almost all of them were first tier soulcrafters. Most had well-developed soulhomes, yes, just not what he'd expected from instructors. There were three Archcrafters, plus Nanjuma. Famaj and perhaps a young woman with a forked staff were near ascending. Among the others, only a few stood out for an unusual weapon or garment, implying they had come from some distance away. Everyone on Tatian had light hair, but a few had a strawberry blond color he hadn't seen before.

  "At last, everyone is organized and in place!" Nanjuma leapt from the instructors' group to the top of the nearby building, not as a show of force, but simply because he couldn't contain himself. "We hope you have enjoyed our hospitality, but I hope you will relish our joyful work even more! Unless you choose to leave, all of you will be here for a full year from this date."

  So they'd planned a year of studying? Last time, it had taken Theo about a year to become an Archcrafter, but he was certain he could do better this time. If the contest for the Archcrafter sublime materials took place at the end, it would be too late for him to really need it. For the moment, he put his plans on hold and continued listening.

  "Now, I know that some of you are suspicious of our generosit
y, so let me tell you exactly how this will benefit all of us. Landguard specialists have confirmed that the waters between worlds are at peace again, and there have been no more surprise guests. However, the small cracks that opened will mean that demon attacks will increase over this broad area, to levels that we have not seen in years.

  "Thus we can help each other! In addition to stopping some of the attacks, you will be trained by some of our promising young soulcrafters. Teaching is an excellent way to learn, so together we will increase the capacity of this entire region, even if most of you find your way back to your own worlds."

  Though Theo had more or less suspected that was the case, it was good to confirm, and also explained why the line of instructors was relatively weak. If they really had a surplus of sublime materials, it was a viable strategy. Not every situation could be a win-win, but Tatian was good at finding them.

  "Now, you are coming to us with hugely varying levels of understanding, so I must ask for your patience!" Nanjuma waved down toward the teachers and one ducked into the nearest building. "This first class will surprise some and bore others, but it will allow us to place you in the appropriate group. To ease the pain a little bit, we'll be distributing sublime materials and blueprints!"

  The teacher returned followed by several villagers, each bearing a set of sublime materials. Enough to get started, and not a trivial gift, but nothing likely to change anyone's life. No, despite what was said about easing the pain, this was fundamentally a test.

  Everyone seemed to be given exactly the same set of materials, so Theo waited his turn. The basket included low grade stone and hearthtree wood, but more importantly a set of seeds and sublime materials to help them grow. He'd lacked the latter because he assumed they'd be given eventually, so he eagerly took each and sent them to his soulhome.

  That left only the blueprint, which he regarded dubiously. It laid out a fairly simple single floor soulhome for a Farmguard - competent, but nothing special. Though using a blueprint was obviously better than just soulcrafting haphazardly, Theo thought they could actually be detrimental: use of them didn't teach any of the critical principles of the art. They could produce strong soulcrafters, just soulcrafters who didn't fully understand why their soulhomes were built as they were.

  "All of you are familiar with sublime materials, but do you actually know what they are?" The new voice came from an old woman, so short she barely came up to Nanjuma's chest. Instead of using cantae to strengthen her voice, she simply asked the question softly and waited for everyone's attention to turn to her. "Well? Does anyone want to venture a guess?"

  "They're objects touched by the gods," one of the Fithans answered, drawing immediate ire from several others. But the old woman calmly spoke over the chaos.

  "Perhaps. Others say they are echoes of the first song of creation, or normal materials enriched by the waters of chaos that flow between the Nine Worlds. I asked if anyone knew, in part because I certainly do not. I take a more practical approach." She reached into her sleeve and revealed a flamefruit in one wizened hand. "For our purposes, sublime materials are anything that resonates with cantae."

  There was a long pause before Nanjuma eventually jumped in to ask the next question himself. "And what is cantae, grandmother?"

  "The power that undergirds all worlds. Some say that it exists within all life, but this is false. Cantae is a power of reality itself, completely absent in most plants and animals, while greatly concentrated in even dead stone. It is one constant that exists in the same form across all worlds."

  Though Theo was beginning to let his attention wander, since this lecture was remedial for him, her final words distracted him. Because they weren't quite true: cantae didn't exist on Earth. As far as he could tell, nearly none of the phenomena in the Nine Worlds did. That was a mystery he didn't think he'd easily crack, not when he had so many higher priorities in the form of Vistgil and his demons.

  "As you will soon find, sublime materials resonate with cantae in different ways. For those of you capable of using it, the most notable fact - common to all sublime materials - is that they can be absorbed into your soulhome. Now, I hope that most of you are already familiar with them, but for those who are not..."

  Theo let the words slip into the back of his mind, barely paying attention as he shifted into his soulhome. He might as well get some work done, though not just work: if any of the instructors were watching, they would be judging his capabilities. Being completely comfortable absorbing sublime materials and soulcrafting might put him ahead of some, but he needed something more impressive than his pile of rocks.

  So he sat down and began to set up the boundaries of a vestibule. It wasn't a common type of chamber to find in soulhomes, and in his past life he hadn't even heard about them until he'd become an Archcrafter himself. The small room could store cantae, but more importantly it was excellent for transferring it. Building one would let him absorb it more rapidly, use it with less loss due to inefficiency, and even release it more forcefully.

  Of course, at the moment his door and vestibule led to absolutely nothing except an empty clearing. It was certainly an irrational way of going about things, so he could only hope anyone worthy of being his instructor would understand. No matter what he did with a central plant, foundation, or walls, the vestibule would be a helpful addition, so it was an excellent use of his time while he waited.

  "But not all sublime materials contain cantae within themselves, nor do they resist it. Certain classes are known primarily for generating cantae, and it is to those that we now turn." The words broke through his own thoughts and Theo found himself paying attention again as they moved to the flamefruit seeds.

  Most of the lesson was straightforward, but he used it as an opportunity to reflect. Useful soulhome chambers generally required three kinds of sublime materials: one to generate cantae, one to protect and store it, and one to make it more effective.

  The flamefruit would in theory grow into a tree that generated plenty of cantae and solarstone was an excellent material for building the walls. But to be an effective soulcrafter, he needed more than that. Using the hearthtree wood for other features would strengthen him a bit, but not substantially. He needed a truly rare sublime material to form the heart of his main chamber. His plan was to acquire an exceptionally hard stone or wood and place it as a centerpiece. Using it, the cantae he stored could make his body more durable than steel.

  "You may find all of this a bit confusing," the old woman continued, "but within your soulhome, everything will be clearer. Soulcrafting doesn't operate by distant spiritual truths... the rules are deeply intuitive. Will thin boards with holes make good walls? Of course not! In just the same way, in your soulhome, walls that appear weak to you will leak cantae. Everything operates according to your deepest rational intuitions."

  Though that was a good lesson for beginners, Theo had found that was only true up to a point, because intuition wasn't always a good guide to real life. Not to mention, some worlds didn't operate by rules that seemed normal to him. Some of the most valuable sublime materials he'd ever seen had been from Siata, where plants naturally floated in the air and grew without sunlight. His plans would require him to cross the Nine, which meant learning the "obvious" rules of many worlds.

  Nothing in the lecture helped him with his problem. Theo stopped working on the vestibule walls and instead walked to the center, examining where he'd planted the flamefruit seed. Far from having sprouted, it seemed to be dead. Just to be sure, he planted a brand new seed and gave it water and fertilizer. He had a feeling that it was going to die as well.

  That had something to do with the fundamental foundation of the soul, which was being skipped in the introductory lecture... and had caused him trouble in his past life. Not everyone was equally suited to every sublime material for reasons that weren't entirely clear. That was the main reason he was avoiding soulcrafting his core chambers: he needed something perfectly compatible.

  But the f
lamefruits were just a temporary measure, not an important part of the blueprint that he'd designed together with Brigana. He could try different plants on Tatian until he found one that felt right. Whatever it was, it would need to be compatible with the solarstone base and walls, providing a rock solid foundation for his soulhome in the future.

  As the lecture drew to a close, Theo returned from his soulhome. Around him, he saw that some were struggling to absorb the sublime materials, or their soulcrafting auras were wavering weakly. Hopefully he'd proved that he had mastery of those basic techniques, which would prevent him from getting placed into the lowest groups that would repeat fundamentals and no doubt end up pushed toward Farmguard blueprints. Beyond the basics, however, there was no point showing off - he needed to look alert and potentially useful to the instructors. Many others already had soulcrafted first floors, after all.

  "Now, since you have all been such good listeners, we will move on to choosing new families!" Nanjuma rubbed the old woman on the back as he stepped up beside her. "We know you are all far from home, even those of you from Tatian, and we did not want you to be alone in a formal school. For that reason, you will all be placed in small family units that can support one another in more than soulcrafting."

  Theo managed not to roll his eyes: Tatians might phrase it that way, but there was no getting around the fact that they were choosing teams. The instructors moved onto the stairs and looked over the group of students carefully. As Nanjuma explained how they would be chosen, Theo realized that it was going to be like schoolyard games: picking teams one at a time. It struck him as oddly competitive for Tatian, but at least he wouldn't be matched based on their assumptions about personality.

  The first instructor was an older man who chose Navim without any hesitation. That made sense, as the Mundhin held both decent strength and very useful abilities. As Navim moved forward to stand beside his instructor, Theo looked to the others, wondering as to their strategies. If they had information about their previous fight, then Fiyu would no doubt be picked soon. Theo himself wasn't sure how long it would take and sat in irritation, hoping his progress wouldn't be inhibited by childish politics.