Five months.

Theo had taken an unexpected step forward, since Nauda had helped him find the trenchgem, but it had thrown off all his calculations. He still needed four more sublime materials and he now had limited money to acquire them, even considering his future budget. Though he'd thrown himself into soulcrafting one of his corner chambers on the second floor, he knew that he needed to find more alternate methods.

He'd already done some preliminary investigations, yet hadn't come up with any miraculous means. If events had gone like before, he was sure that something would have fallen into his lap, leaving him unsure if he had just been absurdly lucky in his first life, or if the Artifact of Elghiera had something to do with it. Though he wanted to research more about that, he didn't think there was time with only five months until a duel with his life on the line.

There were some interesting potential opportunities in Norro Yorthin, but the most promising was something involving the granitebile. With the right idea, he could instantly earn himself an unknown amount. Unfortunately, banging his head against the problem accomplished nothing, and while soulcrafting and stewing over it, he often considered that there might be no solution.

It was only when Nauda and Fiyu dragged him away from his soulcrafting that it finally came to him. He'd set the matter aside, relaxing with them, and it had struck his mind like a bolt of lightning: a Siatan petalfilter.

"Nauda, thank you." Theo stood up in the middle of his meal, already considering everything he'd needed to do. "Forcing me to stop overworking was exactly what I needed. There's something I need to try, immediately."

"We definitely invited you as an optimization thing." Nauda gave a rueful smile, then just waved a hand. "Alright, go. If you say it's that important, I trust it is."

Fiyu bobbed her head in agreement. "Good luck, Theo."

He rushed from the restaurant, tearing into the last of his sublime food as he tried to think through the details. It had been when he was struggling to ascend to Authority, back when Eratius was still a bitter rival. The Noveni warrior had been taken down by some of the strange demons that lived in the Siatan darkness, and it had required a team of Siatan healers to restore him.

Most of their work had been straightforward enough soulcrafting, even if it required significant power. But aside from restoring flesh and repairing soulhome damage, there had been a poison that had stymied the healers. They'd discovered that it was actually a sublime material injected into his body, continually renewing the spiritual poison. What the Siatans had done was repurpose something they called a petalfilter, which fundamentally altered the nature of liquids somehow. They'd converted the physical poison into a beneficial material, thus removing the source.

It had been a minor detail on a tense day, forgotten almost as soon as he'd heard it. As a matter of fact, he wasn't sure if he'd ever given it a moment's thought while he was on Earth, since his mind tended toward the grandest moments in his memories. Yet now those mundane details had filtered back to him...

When he arrived at the Blacksilver complex, he rushed directly to the main office. If Antha hadn't been there, he would have needed to search her out, but for once the world worked along with him. He rushed up to the desk, restraining his enthusiasm at the last second so he didn't appear unhinged.

"I believe I have discovered a method that could improve House Blacksilver's profits. Could I have a vial of granitebile to test, please?"

"Really?" She regarded him skeptically, then shrugged. "I'll let you have it for two merits, but I can't let you take it far. You could kill someone with that."

"Believe me, it's not profit via assassinations. I shouldn't need long, just a few materials."

He waited impatiently while Antha lugged out the heavy box used for initiation trials, then eventually handed him a vial. Undiluted granitebile might have been better, but the concentration wouldn't change the fundamental laws of soulcrafting. What he needed to understand was its exact properties, because he recalled there being many more than one type of petalfilter.

Theo dripped a little granitebile on the back of his hand and his cantae immediately surged to try to resist it. It was poisonous on contact as well as ingested, which was a good sign. He tested another drop on the floor, but it wasn't acidic enough to eat through the finish. Another positive indicator.

One experiment at a time, Theo felt out the sublime poison's exact characteristics, then went to interrogate Antha for more details about the mines. His specific information was a century out of date, but the fundamental natures involved shouldn't have changed. When he was completely confident that his theory was correct, and mostly confident he could make the arrangement work, he returned the half-empty vial.

"There's a sublime plant in the world of Siata that could convert all your granitebile into useful materials." He had more of a speech prepared, but Antha immediately frowned and he saw that she understood both the challenge and the potential profits.

"We have no connection to Siata. I don't even know of any cities with a gate to that world, and though our elite soulcrafters may have acquired a weirkey for it, we do not meddle in other worlds lightly."

"You wouldn't need to meddle. The plant we need isn't some hidden secret, it's a mundane aspect of their world. Please, contact one of the Blacksilver Authorities. With a simple trip to Siata, you could revolutionize the House's mining operations."

She regarded him skeptically, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. House Blacksilver didn't worship Authorities like some did, instead adopting a mutually respectful structure, but the time of Authority-tier soulcrafters was far too valuable for them to be simply summoned on a whim. Once again, he found Archcrafter to be a strange borderland: insignificant to some and yet not so easily ignored.

"Think about this from my perspective," Theo said carefully. "In just a few months, I'll be fighting a duel that might as well be to the death. There's no way for this to be a scheme to enrich me, and I can't afford to waste time on dead ends. Would I risk my standing with my only allies if I wasn't confident?"

Her fingers tapped along her desk, but he saw her thoughts shifting before she nodded. "Alright, I'll let you try this. If it fails, your use of an Authority's time will come directly out of your merit budget, and I think you know how you'd fare with that."

"The consequences won't be relevant. This will work."

Frustratingly, they wouldn't act on his decision immediately, forcing him to wait. He tried to soulcraft to pass time, carving perfect walls for another of his chambers, but his focus struggled. This would be the first time that he actually summoned an Authority to work together, instead of running from them. That was a step up in the world, and certainly in Norro Yorthin. The Stronghold who led the entire House was never even seen, one of the main powers of the city, so the Authorities were the highest powers for normal people.

There had been a time when he'd held the same rank, and he knew that time would come again. Hopefully just a little sooner than expected, if this scheme worked out as he hoped.

The waiting ended without warning: an Authority simply stepped into his room. Theo hastily left his soulhome, though he noted that the powerful soulcrafter seemed to have examined his work thoughtfully. Though that man was a standard middle-aged Fithan, he wore an Arbaian cloak and an Ichili mask. Theo wasn't entirely familiar with the Blacksilver Authorities, but he thought this man must be Dhan, one of the most experienced of the group. Before Theo could make his case, the Authority raised a single finger.

"Before I decide if I should spend my time on this hunt of yours, you must answer a question: why do you have a hole through the center of your soulhome?"

"It will serve as a heart column." Theo wasn't intimidated by Authorities, yet realized that acting too confident would only get in his way. He needed to strike the perfect balance of respect and explanation. "Once I complete the second floor, I'll raise the power you saw to the second floor, then begin circulating cantae in three dimensions."

"And your flow would only strengthen once you built a Ruler floor." Dhan regarded him somberly, no hint as to his thoughts. "That might power three floors adequately, and you could raise or lower it, but you cannot believe that strategy would continue to be viable. I presume you are arrogant enough to want to reach Authority one day... what then?"

Normally Theo didn't want to reveal such details about his blueprint, but he knew he was being tested and couldn't risk a false answer. "The first three floors will form a sphere of moving power. If I do ascend to Authority, I will develop a second core... to power a second three floors."

"So your design requires ascending all the way to Dominion in order to be balanced?" Dhan abruptly chuckled and shook his head. "You can't be faulted for lack of ambition, at least. Normally, I would say that such a complex spherical flow would be too complex to work, but I suppose it's technically possible, and exceptionally efficient if accomplished."

"You can decide whatever you like about my blueprint being madness. But my idea to filter granitebile is something you'll be able to test within a day, so you can see for yourself if I'm a fool."

"I was going to reject your request, as our House has only a single Siatan weirkey, reserved for highly unusual circumstances. But if you can tell me exactly what kind of plant I need to retrieve, I will journey there and... as you said, see for myself."

"I wouldn't go with you?" Theo tried to make the question sound surprised instead of indignant. He'd been counting on being able to guide things himself, and had plans for acquiring some valuable Siatan resources in the process. Judging from the Authority's somber look, that was not to be.

"You'd only slow me down. Tell me of this sublime plant, if you are truly attempting to assist the House instead of only yourself."

It wasn't ideal, but Theo was prepared for such a test. He'd already revealed that he had unusual knowledge of Siata, so he might as well embrace it. "What you need to do is go to a continent with acidic storms, then find a Sapphire Column with an ultraviolet shell. Around the edge of the community, they'll have a number of plants they call a petalfilter. They're common, but you'll need a high quality plant, not one the community uses to filter mud. Tell them that you need to filter a sublime poison emanating from rock mined by human hands and they can direct you to the correct species."

Though the Authority's eyebrows rose as Theo continued explaining, in the end Dhan made no comment at all. After staring for one more second, he pulled something small from within his sleeve, a brief flash of citrine. The weirkey caught hold of him and he was gone in a blink.

For a time Theo switched between soulcrafting and pacing, wondering how long it would take him to return. He wasn't concerned that his concept was wrong, since he'd done thorough experiments, but his plan could still fail due to simple human variables. Dhan might have misunderstood his explanation, or might not be able to navigate Siata well, or might simply give up instead of searching as long as it would take to locate the proper Siatan community.

Eventually, Theo accepted that the matter was not likely to be resolved that night. Staying up later would only fatigue him, and he could learn the results as easily when he woke up, so he forced himself to go to bed. Soon enough, his fortune would change sharply, one way or another.