Preview Chapter + Links

I remain in a weird holding pattern because Amazon and Audible are making this release very stressful. I still don't have a convenient international link, but after the previous post's announcement I can give links to both stores:

https://www.audible.com/pd/Depthless-Hunger-Audiobook/B0FX64WVSR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXVCN78K

Going to continue posting preview chapters until I feel more steady, sorry. FYI for anyone who doesn't like reading in small chunks, the first "real" update from this book will include all these chapters at once.

Anyway, Audible chose November 4 (Tuesday) as the launch for Depthless Hunger, so next Saturday I might have something to report. I should probably make some posts on the day as well, so you'll be hearing from me sooner than usual.

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Chapter 3

"One brick at a time," Nauda told the group. "I'm not saying it will be easy, I'm not saying your soulhome will be the way it was before, but you can make one more brick. There will be other times to worry about your overall blueprint: what matters now is the next brick."

Just speaking simple words shouldn't have mattered, yet as Nauda looked over the group of soulcrafters, she saw the effects. They refused to give in to despair and instead focused on their soulcrafting, doing what they could to repair their soulhomes. Nauda moved among them, offering suggestions to those who really had obstacles to their work.

All of the fighting had led to increasing numbers of damaged soulhomes in unprepared soulcrafters, and House Blacksilver was growing from soulcrafters who felt they had nowhere else to turn. Even though Nauda could probably have given a military justification for focusing on herself, she felt a debt to House Blacksilver, so she helped out with the rehabilitation whenever she needed a break. She knew that to some of them, she was herself a symbol of recovery, which she would use to her advantage even if she wasn't entirely comfortable with it.

There were more Asplundats among the group than she would have expected, and a few from the Wavefront, both drawn in by Blacksilver's outreach efforts. The Wavefront simply had particularly rough conditions, but Nauda didn't like how many from the Asplundat Movement seemed unprepared. Sometimes their ideals seemed to work out... and other times it felt like they were throwing unprepared soulcrafters into the war as fodder.

At the end of the room, she spotted Grekig helping a young soulcrafter rebuild a collapsed shielding wall. The Blacksilver Authority was dressed as immaculately as always, robes drawn up even more grandly than she remembered, and really was good at teaching. When she passed, Grekig followed to meet her by the door, away from the students.

"Thank you again for your assistance," Grekig told her, smoothing down one of his mustaches. "So many of them need motivation more than instruction."

"Not a problem," Nauda answered. "Let me know whenever I can lend a hand."

They went silent, their history unspoken between them as the gap seemed to yawn wider. Technically they were both Authorities, but there was no comparison between their positions in Blacksilver: Grekig was barely beyond Ruler after a mangled ascension, whereas everyone knew that Nauda was on her way to becoming a power of the House.

"I... wanted to inquire about the sublime material you used to repair cracks," Grekig asked stiffly. That must have cost him, so Nauda made sure to smile casually, as if it was nothing.

"I was fortunate to find something called elationmortar," Nauda told him. "I don't have the base material anymore, but it was actually produced by one of our Arbaian allies... are you familiar with Navim? He's living in the Blacksilver facilities in the Arbaian quarter."

"This is... some manner of material that can repair such damage?"

"It was what I needed, anyway. You'll need to diagnose the exact sublime materials that you need, and you'd be better at that than I am."

"I see. Thank you."

That wasn't necessarily true, but Nauda figured she would leave the man his pride. She nodded respectfully as she passed on her way out, leaving the house of rehabilitation to find a less occupied Blacksilver facility. She didn't know if Grekig had a chance of actually repairing all the damage to his soulhome, but changing his defeatist attitude was the first step.

As the streets of Norro Yorthin whirled around her, Nauda drew energy from the surprisingly diverse crowds. It had grown wilder, so even though House Blacksilver was becoming an institution, it felt like there were more houses and factions than ever before. Last time she'd had dinner with Antha, there had been discussion of actually building another ring to the city, the problem was something to do with rebuilding the whirlwind defense overhead.

None of that particularly mattered to her, that day, because Nauda was ready to focus on herself. With Fiyu on her own journey and Theo bouncing around the Nine Worlds, she was mostly occupied with her own soulcrafting. When Nauda arrived at a Blacksilver soulcrafting complex, she was waved in without the need for identification and took an empty courtyard.

Once there, she sat down and slipped into her soulhome. Sometimes she was still surprised by the sight of it, her walls and central structure towering so high. Not only had she doubly-reinforced the roof of her Authority floor, she had fully built her pyramid to prepare for ascension.

That made her feel like a fraud, even though no one could see past her shielding wall anyway, because she wasn't actually ready. Her Authority floor was far more developed than it had been last year, but it was still lacking key materials. The lesson she'd taught to the other soulcrafters was useless for her, because there were no more bricks to soulcraft... Nauda forced herself to embrace the spirit of the rule and entered her soulhome anyway.

Her staff tower was the closest to complete: she'd soulcrafted all her temporary materials into proper supports. Two of the three chambers were filled with wardsilver and wardplate, she just needed a third central material to match them. Nauda checked over her work there, then stepped across her walkways to the core tower that represented her body.

The omphalos in the center was working perfectly, filling the chamber with raw potency that fueled her stomping technique, but the life and death chambers to either side remained unfilled. She had excellent materials, like the felinesolar and ghostworm fangs, but with such large chambers she needed more cantae. That was what was holding her back, and despite all her soulcrafting over the previous months, she still felt far from her goals.

Nauda sat down and began to work with the materials she had, filling out the chambers a little more. Just when she was starting to grow frustrated, she felt a familiar presence overhead. Nauda emerged from her soulhome in time to see Theo and Krikree drop into the courtyard. Theo approached her with a smile while Krikree skittered with manic energy in a zigzagging pattern behind him.

"How are things going in Norro Yorthin?" Theo asked.

"The soulcrafting is fine," Nauda said, "but I'm a bit lost in the crowd. You want to visit the State of Rest sometime?"

"I do, but I want to bring Fiyu with us."

"Wait, are you going to get her? Are you saying it's time?"

"Yes, I think it is." Theo sat down opposite her and pulled a dark piece of bone from his own soulhome. "I don't know if this will work for you, but this is the best I can do for now."

"This is amazing."

Nauda took the bones gently and ran her fingers over the glassy surface appreciatively. She had helped House Blacksilver slay a sublime beast that had been attacking their allies, and its bones had proved a powerful material, but their death energy was strangely incompatible with her body. Somehow Theo had reforged the bones into the shape of human hips, as well as given them a great deal of weight from his own powers.

"I can use this," Nauda said with a smile. "Just how long did this take you?"

"Ugh, too long." Theo folded his arms and frowned as if he hadn't just pulled off a miracle. "I still have a lot to learn when it comes to crafting materials. These were already 'death bones' so it's absurd that it took me so much time to make them compatible."

"No, this is remarkable. Thank you."

"Krikree too!" The Slescan suddenly stopped her skittering and rushed forward, shoving some sort of dull gemstone in her face. Nauda had to lean back and intercept it so that the stone wouldn't go directly into her mouth. "This wardstone! Authority-tier sublime material! Gift for Nauda-queen!"

"Wait, this is... perfect for my staff tower." Nauda stared over the dully glistening stone, then looked up at them with an uncomfortable smile. "This doesn't feel right. I'm just sitting here while you bring me materials for soulcrafting..."

"Nauda-queen is good queen. Feed lots. Make bigger." Having pronounced her unchangeable opinion, Krikree sat back and began cleaning her antennae. It seemed like all her energy had been dedicated to giving the gift, because she had calmed down now.

"You set aside your own soulcrafting to help Fiyu and me ascend," Theo said gently. "It's only right that we repay you for that now. Besides, we have even more reason to want you at Stronghold than before."

That sounded like it had a story behind it, especially since Theo had just been to the Gold Wastes to spy on Tymetron. She wanted to ask him all about it, but she also didn't want to slow him from going to get Fiyu. Even after a short time apart - at least by Ichili standards - Nauda missed her fiercely.

"I'll work on both of these materials," Nauda told them with a grateful smile. "What happens next for the two of you?"

"I've confirmed that the situation in the Gold Wastes is stable," Theo explained, "and they're providing a counterweight to Plutalgion. But Tymetron has a lot more soulcrafters than anyone else, so I'm confident that his armies will be undermining us elsewhere. The empire might have a lot of problems, but one thing it doesn't care about is the difference between dust and depths Fithans."

"Oh, you think he might have allies or vassals under the ocean?" Nauda's eyes widened as she considered it for the first time, since it was so easy to forget about the ocean civilizations in the middle of the continent. "Yeah, that could be a problem. What can we really do, though?"

"Krikree scouts Wavefront!" Krikree's antennae shot upright again. "Discuss with Theo-sister. Water Fithans hate land Fithans, but not hate Krikree. Can open negotiations. But wanted to give Nauda-queen gift first."

"That's right." Theo scratched around the base of Krikree's antennae without seeming to be aware of it. "Most are focused on soulcrafting, but political alliances could be more important than raw strength. That's one thing I disagree with House Blacksilver about: even if the entire continent is allied, we can't fight Tymetron. We need more Dominions, and especially aeon-class allies."

"Surely even you can't think we'll reach the aeon tiers in time for the war," Nauda said, "so does that mean we're seeking others? You think Emperor Dave or one of the big organizations will fight for us?"

"Hey, don't count us out. If we can keep the war at a low level for long enough..." Theo grinned with a flash of his old confidence, then shook his head. "I think the chance of any given aeon-class soulcrafter helping us is very low, so we need to try everything and play the odds. Right now, Plutalgion and his armies are limited, so now is the time to search and take risks. If they return for a full invasion, we won't have a chance."

They chatted about various potentials, as well as places across the Nine Worlds where they needed to return. Nauda was in particular looking forward to returning to Ugustial on Noven, even if she wasn't ready for the statue being crafted for her, yet restrained herself. It was too early for her to be planning such things, not at her current tier.

It seemed that Krikree was lingering because she insisted on seeing Nauda soulcraft the wardstone. Nauda began working on the exterior, carving away the rough to get to the powerful core in the middle, and that seemed to appease her. After Krikree said her farewells to "Theo-sister" she went off to find one of the new Blacksilver Authorities to ferry her to the Wavefront to begin scouting ahead of them.

Once again, Nauda reflected that there were distinctly different classes of Authority. Even though House Blacksilver now had numerous Authorities, Krikree was treated differently because she clearly wasn't some faction leader who had reached her peak.

That left just the two of them, and Theo's expression grew somber as he rose to his feet. They'd managed to make him relax for a brief time focused on soulcrafting, but now the burdens of all the politics and war that Nauda was ignoring settled back on him.

"There's too much," Theo told her quietly. "Too many fronts to the war, too many potential leads, too many threats. I need you with us."

"I'm coming," Nauda answered as firmly as she could. She got to her feet and clasped his arm, and was glad to feel the strength in his grip when he clasped back.

Then he shot into the sky, leaving the courtyard and vanishing soon after. He would be going to retrieve Fiyu, but Nauda refused to let herself be distracted by thoughts of that, not when she had so much work to do. Theo's statement hadn't been intended as a reprimand - she trusted him enough to believe that now - but it did remind her that she had essential soulcrafting to do.

For them to have a chance, Nauda needed to join her friends at Stronghold. They had dedicated time to finding materials for her and she needed to be worthy of those gifts, so she dedicated herself to soulcrafting the new materials.