Just sleeping in a real bed did wonders for him, so Theo pulled himself awake refreshed. It wasn't simply the better environment, however, but the evening spent with his friends again. Nauda sprawled on one of the other beds, tangled in blankets as if she was too cold, while Fiyu had only sheets wrapped around her, mostly bundled around her head. He noted that though she'd taken off her boots and bracers, he saw no sign of her mask, which she might still be wearing under all the sheets.

Leaving them to sleep in, Theo pulled on his shoes, grabbed his Deuxan cloak, and headed from their room. All the inn's rooms were cramped, but the central chamber was surprisingly expansive. Not many had woken up, but they were eating at a communal table. An older man served some sort of porridge for anyone who asked, apparently part of the price.

"I'm glad she found you," the man said as he spooned up a bowl for Theo, "but you're still missing some, aren't you?"

"Yes, we hope they arrive soon." Theo worried about matching the cover story Nauda had told, but decided she would have given him more details if they mattered. "We'll be going out to look for the two we're missing. I hope that nothing happened to them on the way."

"Don't you worry, young man, I'm sure they're just delayed! There aren't so many demons to the south, not like last year, and there are Landguards around these days. You'll all be together soon enough."

Theo feigned relief and took the porridge, which he quickly decided was tolerable. He didn't want to endure the communal table, so he pulled a chair into one of the corners. It wasn't long before Fiyu and Nauda joined him, fully awake and equipped, soon sitting beside him with bowls of their own.

"This is the same porridge as the villages." Fiyu poked her spoon in it experimentally, as if she might uncover a better dish underneath. "I had hoped the city would be different."

"If we have time and money," Nauda said with a fond smile, "I'll treat you both to something better. You might expect them to have fish here, but you've never tasted fish like the ones at the bottom of the Nlukoko Lake. Uh... you do eat fish, Fiyu?"

"I eat fish."

"Well, you should see some of them here. There's this bizarrely flat one they call a platefish, and there's a restaurant where they serve everything else on it, then you eat the platefish at the end, soaked with the juices of everything else. I don't know if they'd suit your taste, but if you want to try..."

Fiyu smiled and bobbed her head. "I will eat this platefish."

"Then we have something to look forward to, but business first." Nauda took a bite as she thought for a moment, her eyes shifting to Theo seriously. Once she finished chewing, she seemed to have finished thinking as well. "I believe the Landguards have moved on, but there's no reason to delay. Theo, you head straight for the library and get your research done. I can investigate our options for transportation."

"Sounds reasonable." Theo reached into his cloak, feeling the money he'd stolen throughout his journey, and decided to slide it across the table toward her. "Take this. If we can't afford transportation, we should consider buying any sublime materials unique to this area. I trust you to choose well enough."

"This will help, thank you. Fiyu..."

When their attention turned toward her, she shook her head. "There are too many people in this city. Can I stay here?"

"Maybe not." Nauda glanced toward him, and Theo gave a slight nod, so she sighed. "We might not come back here, and there's always a chance something will go wrong. You can come with me and we'll regroup depending on circumstances..."

After deciding on a few meeting places, the plan was set and they headed in separate directions. Theo still had a few coins and some more money in his shoes, just in case he needed transportation or the library proved expensive. Overall, however, he thought it was better invested in sublime materials.

If Nauda thought that a vehicle was necessary to reach their next destination, he'd accept her judgment, but he wasn't interested in acquiring a bunch of possessions. Once he reached the Authority tier, he'd be able to move on his own faster than most vehicles. As a soulcrafter, the only things he'd really need to own outside of his soul were armaments.

This Fithan hub city sounded promising, though he wondered how much Nauda really knew about it. When several gates happened to be near one another, a city nearly always grew up between them. Such cities were one of the few places where large numbers of people from different worlds congregated together, and could provide nearly everything he needed to reach his former glory. It would be a much better start to investigating how he had been betrayed, as well.

But that was some distance away, and such cities were too dangerous for him now, so he would do everything he could to prepare in the meantime. Theo picked up his pace, weaving through the streets of Nlukoko, and went to find the library.

It took a little time for him to adjust to navigating the connected islands, rafts, and bridges in order to find the sphere he'd seen from overhead, but not much. During his time on Earth, Theo had more than once forced himself to go blind into a new location and find his way across. Earth might not be as exotic as the Nine Worlds, but it had challenges of his own.

As he walked, he found himself wondering about this platefish that Nauda was eager to show them. He hadn't tried it before, unless it had been one of many unnamed dishes at a Tatian feast. She seemed to think it was impressive, but he wasn't sure if it would compare to everything he'd tasted. Still, it might be good to eat with friends again.

At last he spotted an azure gleam from the library's outer sphere. Unlike most of the city, firmly positioned on land or platforms, the sphere floated unsupported, swaying with the waves. Now that he was close, he realized just how big it was, so that likely wouldn't be a problem.

Not many people were entering the library, and when he crossed the bridge to it, he found out why: there was a significant cost just to enter, much less to acquire membership. He could have barely afforded the latter, but decided that entering once would be sufficient. It wasn't as if he intended to spend a long time in Nlukoko.

Within, the library held a surreal beauty, the sunlight outside filtered to blue ripples that washed over all the shelves. When he glanced down the stairs by the entrance, he saw that it got darker as you went lower. Perhaps Fiyu should have come with him after all, though getting her to leave might have been the bigger problem.

Unfortunately, the library wasn't organized like a modern one from Earth, so he had no choice but to find one of the librarians. A middle-aged Deuxan woman sat behind one of the counters, scribbling something on a scroll, and forced a smile at him when he approached.

"May I help you?"

"Does the library have any information about Landguards?" he asked. Her expression immediately hardened in a way he never saw among Tatians, the sort of silvery false smile that was so common on Deuxan.

"We have a great deal, but the Lord of Nlukoko ordered all of it sealed within the Archcrafter section."

"Archcrafter section?"

"They didn't explain at the door? Your rank determines how much of the library you can access, and unless you have an extraordinary shielding wall, you're a first tier soulcrafter."

The librarian felt like an Archcrafter to him, but he barely glanced at her soulhome, more annoyed by the regulation. Locking away knowledge like that went deeply against the spirit of Tatian, but he shouldn't have been surprised. When she started to look at him skeptically, he shrugged as if it didn't matter and moved on. "Do you have any of the myths about Elghiera?"

"Those old stories? Some myth, some history... most of it dubious." She blinked at him over the edge of her book, then set it down and rose to her feet. "Take a seat in one of the chairs while I gather what we have."

While the librarian bustled away, Theo found a nook with a chair that appeared very comfortable, but didn't sit down. Instead, he examined the library as well as he could without being seen to do so. The staircase at the entrance curled around the sides of the sphere, but he realized now that it didn't go all the way to the top or bottom. Examining the internal joints made of the same sapphire glass, he realized that the highest and lowest levels were completely separated from the rest of the library.

From his position he couldn't determine the entrances, which meant they were likely on the opposite side of the sphere. Though with enough time and effort, he might have been able to sneak inside and get the information he wanted, he judged it to be an excessive risk. Besides, it might have been sealed by another soulcrafter, and he didn't have knowledge in undoing wards. Apparently Magnafor had known what he was doing, focusing on them.

Soon enough, the librarian returned with a number of books, so Theo sat down to read. He didn't expect to have all the answers delivered to him, but anything would be better than the ignorance of his first life. The shreds of information he had taken with him when he survived were his only edge against the overwhelming opponents who might yet be hunting him.

The first of the books was a collection of Tatian fairy tales, nearly useless. It described Elghiera as a plucky traveler having adventures across the Nine Worlds, except the writer clearly had little experience with them. One part had Mundhin eating rocks, which might be a misunderstanding, but it had silly ideas about Noven being a world floating in the clouds, and the sections on Aathal were laughable.

Next, however, he began delving into historical resources. He felt a slight twinge in his soul as he needed to concentrate on the new language, a much older form of a Tatian tongue. The languages he'd learned on Earth mapped well enough for him to be able to read the texts, but there were occasional words he struggled with.

From the historical texts, he got a sense that Elghiera was a figure who was likely real, but there was severe disagreement about his home world. Some even suggested that he was from a world beyond the Nine, though the author suggested those sources were disreputable.

What everyone agreed upon was that Elghiera had been a soulcrafter of extraordinary power, capable of facing down nations and forging new paths through the worlds. Tales like that were what made Theo believe that he couldn't have seen the heights of power. The strongest people he'd known were Dominion-tier soulcrafters, and they had considerable power, but they couldn't reshape the worlds.

All of that was similar to any mythological figure, but Theo was struck by a note included off-hand in one of the oldest books: apparently Elghiera had attempted to train proteges. Legend said that he could grant them unusual growth, but the author of the text discounted such rumors. There seemed to be no way to find the truth, as most agreed that Elghiera had entered a war against an unknown power and every trace of his work had been destroyed or lost to time.

He knew for certain that Vistgil had given both him and Magnafor strange artifacts when they arrived, and Magnafor had called them Artifacts of Elghiera. The ring itself had helped him a number of times, and Theo thought it enhanced his soulcrafting, but he wasn't completely sure beyond that. But if Vistgil had stopped to take the ring back from him, it must matter.

It was easy to theorize that Vistgil had somehow acquired these ancient artifacts, but why give them to arrivals from Earth? Though Theo suspected that it had been used to track him, there would have been easier ways to accomplish that.

Theo sat in silence for a time, trying to peel back unnecessary assumptions. Two people from Earth had been given artifacts, but that didn't establish enough of a pattern to be sure. He'd need to scour all the Nine for more information, less about the historical Elghiera and more about how the artifacts had been used since then. If Vistgil really had control of something so ancient and powerful, then his use of the artifacts must be serving some greater purpose.

Though he didn't expect much, Theo continued reading every page of the stack of books he'd been given, just in case they hid any critical details. Deep within the sphere and engrossed in his reading, he almost didn't hear when the screams started.