As another month dwindled, Theo was for once allowed to soulcraft in peace. He still went on assignment with the others and tried to push more value out of his ventures in Aathal or with granitebile, but that was maintenance. What would help him survive the duel were the new chambers he'd worked on.

Surprisingly, he hadn't been able to find out information about the wormhole sublime material he'd purchased in Ichil. Whatever it was, his instincts told him how valuable it was, so he put in the work first.

The most obvious option, the one he would have taken when he was a young man, would be to place the wormhole chamber above a ranged attack. Having a cantae bolt that could skip over space to strike instantly was no joke, and the potential for it still inspired him, but he forcefully set that aside for his Ruler floor if ever. Instead, he thought about the blueprint from the other angle and placed the wormhole above his very first chamber.

When he'd begun carving the walls for his gravitational fields, he'd used one of the most obvious symbols of gravity he knew: the fabric of space and time being warped by an object. Wormholes, even if theoretical, were just a logical extension of that. Instead of strengthening his gravitational fields, which were already adequate, he had the cantae from the room flow upward into the wormhole chamber.

That reinforcement wasn't enough to create a wormhole on its own - he'd tested - but he knew it was a close thing. When both chambers flowed together into his central core, they might be able to transport something small... something like a singularity. He couldn't test that process until he actually had a completely balanced second floor, but the flow between the two was quite strong.

So far, he hadn't made any decisions that weakened his blueprint in the long term, but his soulhome was turning out strange. The cantae generated by his second floor overflowed into the unfinished first, and whenever he tried to use a spherical flow, it swirled around itself strangely. His speed chambers on the second had more raw power than the enhancement rooms below, which could be easily corrected, but he didn't think he could waste time on a little more strength when his opponent was so dangerous.

Still, the lack of rooms enhancing him directly did bother him. Without them, he was as vulnerable as Fiyu, and a sword blow to the wrong place could kill him instantly. Yet trying to go up against a Ruler's cantae would be foolish in any case, so he remained focused on his plan.

With the wormhole done, it was time to move on to another material. Fortunately, he'd been distracted from spending merits recently, so they'd piled up in his account. The trip to Ichil alone had been worth 175 on top of what he would have expected to earn that month. All told, he'd just barely scraped over a full thousand merits. Enough for the Chasm Invitation... but he'd probably have to choose against it.

Theo stepped out of his room, noting absentmindedly that he'd apparently soulcrafted through the entire night. He'd need to get proper sleep later, especially in the last days before the duel, but for now pushing himself was harmless. Even after he obtained everything he needed, he'd have to make it all cohere and refine the technique.

When he stepped into the materials office, Antha looked up at him without expression. "The usual, Peanen?"

"Not quite. I'm going to actually purchase something today."

"Well, wonders never cease." Antha pushed the books of merit rewards over to him and he reflexively ran over them again.

Of course, with a thousand merits to spend, there was absolutely no point even looking at something like the Esoteric Chisel. Instead he focused on the sublime materials, particularly the less expensive ones that he might soon need to purchase more of. This was a challenging technique, after all, and it might require more than just raw materials and carving.

Soon enough, he found his other usual entries:

Voidgum 48 merits

Twilitwood 83 merits

Soulshadow Stone 300 merits

Dark Lantern 420 merits

Bleakburden 790 merits

Chasm Invitation 1500 merits

Just as he was starting to regret that he would have to leave the Chasm Invitation for later, his eyes flashed back to it in surprise. After so long, he'd barely actually looked at the number, but it had increased. Not only that, but by fifty percent. Theo slammed the book down on the table in front of Antha.

"Why is the Chasm Invitation more expensive now?"

"Because there's only one left." Antha patiently pushed the book away from her work. "Another member of House Blacksilver purchased the first, therefore we require a greater commitment for the last."

"Who?"

"You should know better than to ask that. All such information is private."

Recognizing that he was taking his anger out on the wrong person, Theo stepped away from her table, fuming. Despite all his efforts, he'd fallen into the basic trap of assuming his targets would stay in place. He'd been so focused on the ways that Esaire would improve that he'd started considering all of his other conditions as fixed values.

After taking a deep breath, he told himself that it didn't matter. He needed a sublime material most anyway, or the Invitations would be irrelevant. For now, taking focus away from the duel was weakness.

"I'll take the bleakburden," Theo said. Antha blinked in surprise, but nodded.

"If you want to spend all your merits that way, you can. I'll have someone retrieve it from the protected stores."

According to the description, bleakburden was an exceptional sublime material: not in its rarity, but in its strength. Most materials were useful only in soulcrafting or in the physical world, but bleakburden had powerful effects in both. It was an absurdly dense stone that held far more weight than it should, and would have been a critical component of many defenses if it didn't react so poorly with other materials. He wanted it because it was a perfect representation of mass.

When Antha returned with the bleakburden in a special case, she required a special cart to carry it. Theo was able to pick it up with cantae reinforcing his body, but it was difficult. Opening the case, he stared down at the dark rock. Unlike many sublime stones, it was a rounded disc instead of a sphere, but what mattered was that the cantae was every bit as intense as expected.

Theo reached down to squeeze the stone... and it refused to enter his soulhome. He blinked, actually looking for interference before considering the more likely explanation that he'd just failed. Yet it shouldn't be his willpower or his abilities, since he'd been easily absorbing sublime materials ever since he'd returned to the Nine Worlds.

He knew the real reason: his heart wasn't in it. With his advanced experience, he could draw many materials into his soulhome without really putting in effort like most soulcrafters. But not this, not a stone that was nearly breaking his present limits.

Instead of trying to force it, Theo hefted the case and headed back to his room. Truthfully, part of him didn't like being so focused on the duel. It was his life on the line, but it was also a small vendetta, unimportant in the vast scheme of things. While it consumed him, he couldn't focus on reaching the Chasm of Lamentations, much less on taking revenge on Vistgil or resolving any deeper problems.

On his way back, he passed Fiyu, who smiled widely at first, then more nervously when she saw his scowl. "Theo? Is something wrong, or is that just your face?"

"It's nothing important." He could have brushed it off, but after risking their lives together, Theo decided to push on. "Someone else took the cheapest Chasm Invitation, so now our job is a lot harder. Six months will pass without us getting a single one..."

"Oh. Oh, that is..." Fiyu reached inside her robes and then revealed a plate of pure white crystal, cut into a precise rectangle. "I acquired it with my merits. I was waiting to tell you when you needed to be cheered up, but now it seems I have troubled you."

"Fiyu, that's amazing." He stepped forward, probably too far into her personal space despite all they'd shared, but resisted grabbing it from her. Smiling again, Fiyu extended the plate for him to examine more carefully.

The Chasm Invitation was made out of a strange white marble that didn't contain any particularly powerful cantae, yet it did resonate strangely. He recognized it from his visit to the Chasm of Lamentations, since the entire place was made out of the stuff. More importantly than the material, it was inscribed with two elaborate sigils representing Norro Yorthin and House Blacksilver.

"So that's one." Theo handed it back to her with a smile. "This one is yours, but you can count on Nauda and me finding a way to earn one too. Then all three of us can go together."

"I hope that we can." Fiyu smiled even more broadly and tucked the Invitation away. "But first you must be concerned for your life."

"After today, I'm going to be a lot closer." Theo swept past her to his room, dark mood banished by such a small thing. They might not be able to join him in the duel, but he did have allies beside him.

When he opened the bleakburden case again, this time he had no trouble cracking the stone and drawing it into his soulhome. Time to get to work.