Eventually everyone had gathered themselves and the few minor injuries had been healed. Several local villages offered wagons and the Farmguards formed them into a caravan. The youngest and oldest rode, but the others walked. Local farmers frequently called greetings, and many spoke to one another, but Theo simply followed and continued gathering his thoughts.

When he'd first come to the Nine, he'd been obsessed with becoming a soulcrafter, but now, he knew better. The transition was relatively easy, but meaningless. Without any soulhome at all, the new potential had nowhere to go, so it was the only ascension with no immediate impact, nothing but an invitation.

So more important than becoming a soulcrafter was finding the sublime materials that could properly build his soulhome. He could use anything from Tatian for the walls and chambers, but he needed something special to establish his essential core. The rest could be changed later, but the foundation and core chamber were essential. His lack of experience before had limited him on the higher tiers, so he'd put thought into avoiding the same problems.

Once he had a proper foundation and materials, he could easily step into his soul and build several chambers. Simple rooms to increase his strength, durability, and speed, just enough to make him less vulnerable. That would be enough to find better materials and truly soulcraft himself.

This time, he intended his central chamber to be focused on his defense. If he soulcrafted enough defenses, he would be able to survive in combat against opponents at a tier higher than him instead of burning alive in their auras. In his previous life, he'd been mostly focused on speed, but that hadn't done much good against superior opponents. It was too easy to craft speed chambers and he had been too vulnerable to a surprise attack.

Theo wandered along with the main caravan, thinking through the exact design of his soulhome. He'd had a lot of time to consider what Brigana had recommended, and though he'd polished and developed the idea, the core of her blueprint remained. This time, he would become a soulcrafter of the Dominion tier and beyond.

Thinking of Brigana eroded his plans with familiar pain. Though he wanted to believe that she had somehow survived, he knew that it was essentially hopeless. She had sacrificed herself for him and he owed it to her to make that sacrifice worth it.

But there were too many questions. In all the years he'd thought about his experiences, the only thing he was sure of anymore was that he had been lied to, then betrayed. He was familiar with many aspects of the Nine, but he needed to throw away what he knew about Vistgil and the demons. Something deeper was afoot and he'd only been a pawn in someone else's game. That fact would burn in his mind until he finally had his revenge.

Since the caravan moved so slowly, Theo was able to advance ahead and investigate the surrounding landscape. It was mostly the same endless farms and dirt roads, but he spotted a copse of trees with leaves that flickered like flames. Just what he needed. As soon as he could sneak away, Theo ducked into the nearest field and rushed along it toward the trees.

No one was really watching him, and the villagers would no doubt have given him whatever he asked for. Not that it would have changed what he was going to do. He didn't know how long he had, so he needed to obtain sublime materials by any means necessary.

Reaching the copse unseen, Theo began to search through the fiery leaves. He saw a few unripe pieces of fruit, but those would never do. Eventually he found what he needed in the upper boughs of one of the central trees. The leaves brushed against him, uncomfortably warm, and he retrieved several of the burning spheres.

Flamefruit were one of the best sublime materials available on Tatian, for young soulcrafters. Theo stared down at the fruit in his hands, marveling at the light burning from within and the tongues of flame licking over the peel. Yet despite their exotic appearance, he felt nothing from them except slightly warm fruit. For a moment he doubted himself, even though he knew that it was only that he lacked a soulcrafter's senses. These were what he needed.

Each fruit, when consumed by a soulcrafter, would enter a soulhome and serve as a strengthening material. He couldn't build a soulhome out of them, but they would be helpful for generating cantae. Though Theo only needed a few, he took as many as he could carry, since they might be traded to other soulcrafters. Soon he'd stripped the trees bare of all the ripe flamefruit.

He worried that someone would catch him in the act, the old Farmguard or one of the other travelers, but Theo managed to return to the caravan without anyone noticing him. Unable to find a proper pack, he dumped the flamefruit into an empty bag he found on one of the wagons. That was something else he would need to acquire, but it was a trivial detail compared to proper sublime materials.

Just as Theo was beginning to feel satisfied with himself, he saw a soft glow from one of the wagons ahead. One of the Farmguards sat in the center of a wagon, sliding into his own spirit as he began to soulcraft. Soon only a distorted shadow of himself remained, glowing a warm orange.

And that was all Theo could see. Most soulcrafters would only practice their craft in private to avoid anyone else examining them too closely. If Theo had been able to see, he would have looked past the blurry remnant and into the private world that was the man's soul. There he would have been able to see the core of the man's power in concrete form, built from sublime materials over many years.

Instead, he saw only the spiritual haze. That was to be expected, but Theo found himself unexpectedly bitter. There was so much he needed to recover, but just recovery would not be nearly enough...

As soon as the vast sun began to set, the Farmguards lit fires and began the evening meal. Though Theo had remembered that journeys tended to go slowly in Tatian, he'd forgotten how much of it was due to the relaxed pace of life. Of course, for them, they were hurrying to their destination, but that didn't mean traveling in the dark or skipping a meal.

Since staying with the group was still his best chance of moving forward, Theo simply retreated from the fires as they grew warm and boisterous. Away from the others, he could enjoy a slightly cool breeze. It rustled through the crops, sending their dark forms into a quiet dance.

He realized that it was only the end of his first day back in the Nine Worlds. Not a shocking start, but his first trip had been the explosive one. This time, he needed to survive in the long term. That would require far more strategy.

When he spotted a figure standing beside one of the fields, he knew that it must be Fiyu. He hadn't intended it, but it was unsurprising that she would have sought the darkness away from the fires. More notably, she had finally unwrapped her head and instead wore the blindfold that he'd made for her. Her slender face turned toward him and she smiled.

"Hello, Jake. It is less blinding now, but I hope that it will become dark soon."

"It won't get much darker than this." He stepped up beside her and stared skyward. "As the sun fades, the stars and moons come out, and they're very bright here."

"Oh. That is disappointing." Her dismay could not have been clearer on her face, even without being able to see her eyes, and Theo wondered if she'd ever had a need to hide her emotions. "Can you truly help me soulcraft a chamber to reduce this light?"

"You'll need to help me, and we'll need the proper materials, but yes."

"I hope that we can do so." Fiyu's head shifted away from him, one ear cocked toward the bonfire and the celebration around it. "They seem to be very happy."

"Yeah, that's how Tatian is."

"Are they a cult?"

Theo coughed in surprise, quickly swallowing his reaction. After clearing his throat, he shook his head out of habit before answering. "No, you will find that these things are normal here. The worlds are different in more than a few colors."

"So it seems." Fiyu's head drooped and she began to play with a strand of midnight black hair. "I hope that my relative comes for me soon, but I fear that this strange world is too far."

"Why not prepare for him meanwhile? He's training you as a soulcrafter, right?"

"That is correct."

"Then impress him with how much you've grown in another world." Theo reached into his sack and pulled out one of the flamefruit, offering it to her. "Take a look at this. It's a local sublime material given to young soulcrafters, but I think that for you it will be more challenging. Please, take it."

"A gift?" Fiyu reached out, delicately retrieving the flamefruit while staying as far from skin contact as possible. She frowned as she ran her fingers over the surface. "How strange. I am not sure if I will be able to use it in my soulhome."

Fiyu didn't hesitate, however, raising the flamefruit to her lips and tearing a piece from the side. It was sensible not to leave sublime materials unused where they could be easily stolen, so he approved. She rapidly consumed the fruit including the core and the stem, every bit of its power passing into her soul. Theo realized that he remembered many details about the strengths and weaknesses of flamefruit, but nothing about their taste.

"You are a kind traveler, Jake." Fiyu turned to regard him with a slight smile. "I hope that we can speak in the future. But for now, I am very weary from all the people."

"Yeah, I get that." Theo saw that she didn't understand, but didn't care. He just waved farewell and turned away. "You have fun soulcrafting."

Though he moved away, he did look over his shoulder. There was no glow or anything else to announce the transition, Fiyu's body simply faded into wisps of shadow. Her technique transitioning to her soulhome was flawless, so her mentor had trained her well. She might be on par with some of the Farmguards in terms of strength, but there was no question that she was destined for more.

If there was such a thing as destiny at all. Theo doubted it, all the more so after forty years on Earth. As he found a place to sleep among the wagons, he hoped that those miserable years had finally come to an end.