Archcrafter (The Weirkey Chronicles Book 3)

by Sarah Lin

  "Oh, but it's entertainment!" Tythes grinned at her, then gestured grandly to everyone watching. "This is more fun than any other dinner you've had, right? Why not let them continue?"

  "Tythes." The old woman's tone snapped out. "The House of Coin would like this matter to be resolved quietly."

  Though Theo thought the old woman wasn't even a Ruler, she was the first person to make Tythes actually back down. Clearly, she spoke with the voice of the House of Coin, carrying a Stronghold and all their economic influence behind it. Employees of the restaurant surrounded them and politely but firmly guided everyone into one of the back rooms.

  There was little he could do now, but Theo still cast a glance to the others. He was glad to see that not only Nauda and Fiyu followed, but one of the Blacksilver negotiators joined them as well. Soon all sides stood in an ornately furnished room, and the old woman hobbled her way in a back door some time later, frowning at all of them.

  "I would like this matter resolved promptly." Her cane jabbed out at Arceon, who had been joined by several hooded soulcrafters. "Deuxans. You have attacked a customer and disrupted our business with loud accusations. Explain yourselves."

  "It is just as I said," Arceon began smoothly. "This man is a thief and a liar wh-"

  "He is a member of House Blacksilver." The negotiator interrupted sharply, stepping in front of the group. "You chose not to pursue him through the appropriate authorities, I believe because you lack any evidence. Furthermore, I question if you even have standing to make a criminal accusation, with no House behind you."

  "On the contrary, we are here as guests of the House of Burning Leaves. Feel free to contact them."

  That set the Blacksilver negotiator back a step, but the old woman from the House of Coin joined in. "But your hosts didn't pursue a formal case either. This is growing tedious. Present evidence or we will have you thrown out."

  For a moment Arceon hesitated, and his gaze briefly stabbed toward Theo with pure hostility, but then he seemed to make a decision and smiled. "It is true, we cannot press our claim in your courts. But we have a personal vendetta to resolve, and I understand that Fithe has long been accepting of private duels. Esaire, stand forth!"

  One of the hooded figures stepped up beside him, pulling back his hood to reveal the Deuxan noble. Esaire looked much the same as before, though he had a scar across his face and neck from the sublime beast attack. Other than that, he seemed to have healed perfectly, and his soulhome brimmed with power.

  "This man killed one of my oldest friends." Esaire swept a hand toward Theo, and the fact that the gesture was clearly planned didn't take anything away from the venom in his words. "I demand justice."

  "Ooh, a duel for vengeance!" Tythes sprang forward, eyes alight. "This is so much more interesting than all the pointless allegations. House Crimson would happily get behind such a duel, since it would be a much more enjoyable resolution to this conflict than more talking."

  Everyone else was quiet, while Esaire simply continued glaring at Theo. Whatever schemes his grandfather was up to, the young man clearly did hate Theo. He wasn't sure what the best position to take was, but knew that a duel that moment would go poorly. As the silence stretched on, Theo stepped forward to finally speak in his defense.

  "I have done nothing but defend myself. Furthermore, I believe you will find that the Armeau family has no proof that I-"

  "Don't care!" Tythes clapped his hands together with each word. "Duel! Duel! Duel!"

  "There is precedent." The old woman tapped her cane on the floor a few times, then nodded to herself. "Both of you seem to have misapprehensions about Fithan justice. Your affairs are your own, and the details are immaterial - the House of Coin certainly does not care. But we cannot have personal vendettas spilling blood in the streets."

  "Why not? Violence everywhere! Slaughter for the slightest insult!"

  The House of Coin representative continued as if Tythes hadn't spoken. "The two offended parties will settle their vendettas in a single formal duel, then the matter will be closed, by the authority of our House and the city."

  Esaire glanced at his grandfather and the two exchanged a look that might as well have been a smirk. Arceon nodded in acceptance. "Thank you for your wise decision. We wish to duel the offender, of course. If we defeat him, we can take him back to our world for justice?"

  "Yes, so long as the duel is fair."

  "But of course. The offender Bartolo and my grandson Esaire are both Archcrafters, so a duel between them would be entirely reasonable, would it not?"

  "Just after you attacked him?" the Blacksilver negotiator objected. "You've clearly planned this vendetta, so such a duel would be anything but fair."

  "What about a duel in a month's time?" Arceon smiled as if seeking to cooperate, his eyes glittering. "That would give both sides time to prepare. Surely no one can object to that."

  Obviously they could, since Theo could already guess their ploy: Esaire had clearly been soulcrafting lately, and Theo had a strong suspicion he was building toward his upper limit. In a month he could ascend to Ruler, but the duel would still be considered fair by the rather loose standards of Fithe. After all, if Theo didn't want to be outmatched, he should have ascended as well.

  "One year." Theo spoke into the silence before anyone else could take control of the conversation. "If you want a fair duel, give us each an entire year to prepare, then I'll fight you."

  That led to a chorus of objections from all sides: Tythes thought that was too boring, Arceon objected that he would flee, and negotiators on both sides brought forth new arguments. But in the end it was decided by the House of Coin representative, who had clearly grown weary of the argument.

  "Six months." She pointed her cane at both sides. "This trouble you've brought us has been very disruptive, and you're lucky that we don't begin any vendettas of our own. Until that time, neither side will make any violent attempts or any efforts to escape. Then when the time has elapsed, you can conduct your duel and the matters will be resolved, once and for all."

  Though some objected, Tythes threw his weight behind her, and the two Houses combined couldn't be refused. Esaire and the others were clearly unhappy, but they understood that they had little control and were forced to agree. The Blacksilver representative gave Theo an apologetic glance, but in the end agreed as well.

  So, with no more discussion than that, Theo would be dueling with his life on the line in six months.

  Chapter 12

  Despite the disruption, the House Blacksilver representatives did finish their discussion with their counterparts at House Crimson. The entire time, Theo stood in place, trying not to anticipate a knife in his back. Fortunately, it seemed that the Armeau family really was limited by the powers of the city and they had no choice but to leave the restaurant.

  As soon as they had finished their official duties and the negotiators began to separate, Fiyu turned to him with a somber frown on her face. "This is not fair. Matters of truth cannot be decided by duels. Will this truly occur?"

  "I'm afraid so," Theo said. He'd been holding back his tension, but now ran his hands through his hair and found it sweaty. "Most places on Fithe don't really care about concepts like justice, they just think violence should be controlled. So unless our House will stick its neck out for me, the only real option is to start planning for a duel."

  "That was my question." Nauda glanced after the retreating Deuxans, then toward him. "Do you think you have a chance of beating him? He's been an Archcrafter a lot longer than you have, and his family will throw their resources into him."

  "It doesn't look good, but we have six months." Theo might have said more, but at that moment the groups finally broke apart.

  Despite all the disruptions, the representatives on both sides appeared pleased by the economic terms they'd negotiated. Tythes had finished off several bottles of wine and fallen asleep, but now scrambled back to his feet. As he followed his allies out, he abruptly swung back as if h
e'd just remembered them.

  "I'll be seeing you in six months! Maybe sooner!" With that, he gave a cartoonishly large wink at Nauda and then marched out the door.

  Their group remained a little longer, gathering themselves, and then departed the restaurant. A floating palanquin waited for them, and the lead negotiator gestured for Theo to follow him instead of going with the other soulcrafters. Nauda and Fiyu joined him without getting permission and the negotiator looked too tired to object. Once they began floating back to the House complex, he spoke in a weary voice.

  "Do I have your word as a member of House Blacksilver that you aren't responsible for any great crimes against the Deuxans?"

  Theo nodded immediately. "Absolutely. I fought only in self-defense, but this is a personal vendetta."

  "We recognize that you weren't at fault, and negotiations did finish despite the disruptions, so none of this will impact your earned merits." The negotiator looked back to Theo wearily and shook his head. "However, you are a newly joined member of the House, so we won't provide any special aid, either. We'll support your legal rights to the duel, but if you lose..."

  "I understand. Give me the opportunity to work and I'll handle this myself."

  "That's what we like to hear. Only one last thing: is your name really Bartolo? We don't care what name you used, but it would be good to have for our records."

  "I..." Theo pretended to hesitate, then sighed. "Yes, that's my name, but I would prefer to be called Peanen."

  "Fine. Now, let me think about what all this means."

  With the negotiator turning to his own affairs, Fiyu and Nauda clearly wanted to speak with him, but there was no privacy in the palanquin. For that matter, they'd need to be more cautious about names in the future, as well.

  Overall, he thought that was the least of his concerns. Though he'd disliked the idea of his false identities getting linked, it might actually work in his favor. Now, if anyone investigated him, the secret they would discover was just another false identity. Those were extremely common between worlds, so hopefully anyone working for Vistgil or other forces would ignore him.

  Then again, perhaps not. No matter how much Theo thought over the details of the confrontation, he couldn't come up with any answers related to Brigana. Though Esaire might actually want revenge, his grandfather had clearly gone to so much trouble solely to investigate the name. He didn't understand how just mentioning the ai Teraeves family could lead to such an extreme reaction, but the old man had been deadly serious.

  In the century Theo had been gone, something must have happened to Brigana's family, and the only thing he knew was that asking questions about it was dangerous.

  ~ ~ ~

  When they finally returned to the House Blacksilver complex, they remained silent. Some of the other soulcrafters were now entirely too curious about Theo, but Nauda deflected their attention. Since it was still daylight, they all marched into the male quarters to discuss strategy. Only after Theo locked the door behind them did Nauda finally speak.

  "Do you attract problems, or do you enjoy having them bearing down on you? First the Chasm of Lamentations, now a duel in half a year..."

  "Six months," Fiyu said. "There are thirteen months here."

  "Close enough. That's not much time before your life is on the line."

  Theo took a deep breath, trying to find the excitement that he would once have felt. The truth was, the duel merely annoyed him now, another obstacle getting in the way of his true goals. Its only redeeming value was that the steps he needed to take to win the duel included many of the steps he'd planned to take anyway, just perhaps in a slightly different order.

  "There's something I'm missing about this." Theo turned to the others and explained the conversation, including some details about Brigana, though those seemed immaterial to the vendetta. When he finished, all he could do was shrug. "Duels aren't to the death here, but if Esaire wins and they take me back, I'm as good as dead. I'd like to find out why they came after me, but I don't see a path to those answers."

  "Could you ask after the duel, assuming you win?" Nauda asked. "The terms seem more favorable to them, considering that you get nothing if you win, but at least you'd be in a position of strength."

  "That could be, but it would take place after the duel. The odds are definitely stacked against me, so everything that occurs after then has become second priority... well, not acquiring Chasm Invitations. But those won't do me any good if I'm dead."

  Fiyu sighed and sank down onto the bed. "So you are also concerned about the duel. It seemed nearly impossible to me, but I was not sure if you had a special plan from your previous existence."

  "The central problem is that Esaire is starting with a huge lead: he's a fully polished Archcrafter and his family will definitely help him ascend." Theo leaned back against the wall and began ticking off the concerns. "I can probably work harder than Esaire, but twice as hard? He'll be soulcrafting every available hour, so not possible. I might be able to find better sublime materials, with a bit of luck, but I'm up against the resources of his entire family and possibly a Fithan House. My blueprint is superior to his, but it's not going to be ten times better than a design refined over generations. So simply surpassing him in six months is a fantasy."

  "That sounds hopeless." Nauda watched him silently, her mind clearly churning over the same problem. "Yet you seem to believe there's a chance. He's obviously going to ascend to Ruler, so... perhaps you have a trick to get there too, and you'll only focus on a certain set of rooms you need?"

  "I'm not going to try for Ruler at all. Rushing through ascensions is a sure way to create a weak soulhome."

  As expected, that got an immediate negative reaction, but not as much as it might have been. Theo felt like in his past life, everyone would have shouted that it was crazy. This time, Fiyu merely tilted her head curiously and Nauda frowned as she considered it, so he continued speaking.

  "Focusing on 'catching up' is a failing strategy, playing directly into his strengths. What I need to do is find a way to neutralize those strengths, then have an advantage that can take him down despite the gap between us."

  Nauda started tapping her fingers along her staff in a swift rhythm, beginning to nod. "His cantae will be more intense than yours, so he'll win every head to head confrontation. But something like your gravitational torsion would still hurt him, if you have a way past his defenses."

  "It is good to have hope," Fiyu said quietly, "but I think there is a bigger problem. Esaire is already very fast, and he will become faster. He will attempt to kill you before you can begin any strategies."

  "Speed is a problem," Theo agreed, "and one I haven't entirely solved yet. At minimum, my blueprint has space for a speed-focused room on my second floor. I may need to take further steps, but it will be a question of what sublime materials we can find."

  "This is a good plan, Theo. We will assist you in earning good materials."

  "What's your advantage?" Nauda leaned forward, regarding him with narrow eyes. "I thought of your torsion technique at first, but Esaire saw it before, and you're not dumb enough to just try a stronger version. You have something else in mind, don't you?"

  At first Theo hesitated to reveal one of his blueprint's secrets, but he realized that was a foolish vestige of his time on Earth. These two were his allies, and telling them would only help the group. Since their rooms in House Blacksilver were highly secure, he could reveal the secret there. Theo still sat down and lowered his voice.

  "The four techniques on my first floor were not chosen randomly, they're all components of something greater. I intend to open channels from them to the second floor, where they'll all mix into a single technique. This is earlier than I intended, but it's possible to finish in six months, if enough other factors line up properly."

  "Multi-floor designs are advanced stuff, but I assume you know what you're doing." Nauda shook off the tension and finally shifted back, giving him a wry smile. "I know this o
ne isn't actually your fault, but you really do get yourself into messes. We'll help you if we can, but we can't afford to put aside our own soulcrafting."

  "I can't afford it either: we should assume that Esaire's family might break the terms of the deal. Not overtly, since they need to obey the Fithan authorities, but we need to be alert. For that, all of us need to be fighting fit."

  "There is another matter." Fiyu looked first to him, then toward Nauda. "They knew the travel name that Theo used when he joined House Blacksilver. Is that a sign of a betrayer in our midst? Or is that data public knowledge?"

  "I doubt it's public," Nauda said, "but I think the easiest explanation is that they paid for it. Information like that must leak out, since it's not particularly important."

  "I hope that you are right. Our House did try to help, so I would prefer to trust them."

  As the three of them continued chatting about every angle of the situation, Theo let himself relax just a little. Not because he had time to waste, but because he needed to be at his best for what was to come. Given the amount of time, his objective was a marathon instead of a sprint, so he needed to pace himself perfectly.

  He had a feeling that this time, there would be no grand coincidence to sweep in and save him.

  Chapter 13

  For two weeks, Theo didn't leave the House Blacksilver complex except in the company of others for assignments. In part out of caution in case Esaire's family intended to strike immediately, and in part because this was an essential period for focused soulcrafting.

  In that time, he'd finished the outer walls of his second floor as well as a wooden roof, and he was proud of his work. The exterior was excellent, all glowing with the intrinsic light of eclipsebasalt... the interior was still rough, but polishing that would be the work of months, and non-essential for his current goals. What mattered was that he now had nine new chambers to work with - actually eight - and he could begin filling them with sublime materials.