Despite her best intentions, Nauda realized that she had been underestimating Arbai. She had thought that harvesting sublime materials there couldn't be anything except endless quarrying in the sun, but with every day that passed, she learned that there was far more to it.

There were gradations that she couldn't see, of course, which she'd somewhat anticipated. The local Mundhin lived in stone and they understood it with far more subtlety than others could, similarly to how they might conceivably view Tatian as "a bunch of plants". Since assisting them required learning at least basic differentiation, she was able to imagine how diverse the rocky plains appeared to them.

But what surprised her was the diversity found even by her foreign eyes. She traveled with Navim and the others through caverns of rainbow crystals, fields of sand that flowed like water, valleys that refracted the sun into stunning palettes of color. Soon she'd learned that Arbai contained more than just philosophers, including long traditions of art, some of which wasn't impenetrable to her.

That day, she worked within what she could only describe as a cloud of stone. Thousands of rocks floated together in a tumbling mass that somehow maintained its cohesion as it traveled over the Arbaian plains. She had asked for an explanation, but soul translation had failed her: the answers had included numerous words like "attractionforce" and "weightforce" that she could only understand superficially.

One thing was clear: the stone clouds only occasionally traveled through the region, so they needed to be harvested when the opportunity presented itself. Since she was smaller than all but specialized Mundhin, Nauda was sent directly into the cloud to retrieve rare materials. Each time she leapt up onto a piece of floating rock, it sagged under her weight, but she hadn't quite figured out why some floated back up and others went tumbling into the storm. Gradually she figured out how to navigate her way through the chaos, locating her targets.

One particularly swift-moving stone caught her attention and Nauda thrust her staff in its direction, only for it to tear through her binding. She lunged after it, redirecting off another floating rock, and grabbed it with both hands. On her tumbling way down, she banged against a few of the other rocks, but eventually regained her balance. That was one more acquired.

As she made her way out of the rock cloud, Nauda noticed another one of the irregular dark stones, which supposedly contained ore that the Arbaians needed. This one didn't resist her staff at all, so she pulled it along with her until she emerged into the exterior shell of floating sand.

"This way, Tatian." One of the Mundhin gestured toward her larger stone, so she slid it through the air toward them. They no longer called her outsider, but most of the miners had nicknamed the three of them by their worlds, or a lie in Theo's case.

Speaking of the other two, Nauda looked to find them. Theo was considered the most useful of their group thanks to his gravity, which allowed him to significantly alter the cloud, so he was working with the higher tier soulcrafters. Fiyu had helped a little measuring the density of the rock storms, but now stood near the edge with a few other guards. It seemed that they had killed a few demons in the meantime, though there had yet to be any problems like Navim had intimated.

"There you are." Navim turned from his rocky table to her, his voice slightly pleased if she understood Arbaian emotions. "Have you been successful?"

"You tell me." Nauda dropped the rock onto an empty space and Navim took it carefully. Rough as his limbs appeared, they peeled away the stone in subtle layers.

"This will be useful, but there is something more." Navim extracted a bright blue gemstone from within the heart of the rock. "A potent notemerald, though less useful for our purposes. Perhaps this sublime material could be part of your compensation."

Nauda frowned. "I'm not sure I understood that word. Aren't emeralds green?"

"Hmm... you say 'emerald' but I am not sure that is quite correct. Our materials are notemeralds, with superficialities both similar and different. Your soul may consider them most similar to emeralds."

Though her mind did several flips as it adjusted to his meaning, Nauda thought it was clear enough. More importantly... "I think I saw another gemstone glinting in the cloud, very similar to this one, but it was red. Could it be another emerald?"

"These storms usually contain a wide variety. They were not on our list, but I think it would be in your best interest to locate them. It is said that a complete set can be quite valuable for armaments."

"Good, then I'll try to find it again." As she turned away, Nauda patted Navim on one rocky limb. She still wasn't entirely comfortable navigating the Arbaian concept of touch: reaching toward a central sphere was clearly inappropriate, while touching an outer limb didn't convey a Tatian sense of affection. A world traveler like Navim, at least, understood her meaning, but she wished that she had a stronger understanding.

Back inside the rock storm, Nauda attempted to track down the crimson gem she'd seen earlier. It was nearly impossible in such a mass of shifting stones, but she did locate another small dark rock, and to her surprise stumbled across a yellow emerald within a much larger stone. Prying it out without causing damage took a little work, then she tucked it into her pocket.

Since such a firm foothold was rare within the cloud, Nauda straightened and looked around. She saw a few Arbaians also harvesting lower in the storm... and some sort of trouble within the sandy region. It seemed that the demons that purportedly followed such storms had finally arrived.

It shouldn't have been any problem at all, given the size of their group. Fiyu's storms of light could easily tear through first tier demons, while the Arbaians had Archcrafters and a few Rulers with spiky limbs built for combat to deal with the more powerful demons. They should have been exterminated quickly, yet as Nauda made her way from foothold to foothold, she was surprised that the numbers seemed to be increasing, perhaps in response to such a large gathering of soulcrafters.

When she reached the edge of the battlefield, she hesitated before the melee. The shapes were slightly unfamiliar, but she could easily see that the small blocky demons were the first stage, attempting to sacrifice themselves to become the larger four-limbed demons. Vaguely like the local Mundhin, though much thicker and lacking a gem-covered core. Just striking them would be useless, and there were so many soulcrafters moving around her it was difficult to know when to act.

"This is good practice." Theo appeared from nowhere, barely glancing at her as he flattened part of the battlefield with one of his fields. "When we enter the Chasm, we'll be fighting alongside lots of soulcrafters just as powerful as us, and some stronger. Get used to the competition."

Annoyed by his lecture, and doubly annoyed that it was necessary, Nauda did her best. The demons resisted her bindings to some degree, but they seemed to be incredibly stupid, blundering directly into her wards. Nauda tried to set those up at the edges, stopping the demons from scattering further and sacrificing themselves.

The numbers declined rapidly, yet something wasn't quite right... she frequently saw second stage demons emerge, yet didn't see many die. As the battle turned against the demons, they rushed into circles and sacrificed themselves, growing into something larger, and yet...

When she looked backward, Nauda saw what she'd feared: multiple second stage demons had gathered inside the cloud, disguised among the other rocks. "They're sacrificing!" She managed to scream over the storm and pulled a large chunk of rock to show the location, and the Arbaians quickly reacted to her, but it was too late.

Six of the second stage demons dissolved into sand... and something much larger began to emerge from the center of them. For an instant, the third stage demon consisted of inchoate mass, but the rocks held them back for too long and it fully emerged into their world.

A titan. As soon as they saw it, the Arbaians began to retreat.

The demon stood over five times her full height and carried an enormous pillar of crystal in one hand. She had seen only a few in her life, and those had been formed of flesh instead of stone, but the similarity was undeniable. Tatian titans had flat eyeless faces, and while this one was largely humanoid, instead of a face there was only a rocky crater.

Several Arbaians launched ranged attacks, but stone and cantae splintered off the demon as it took its first step forward. That was the worst thing about titans: aside from their raw size and strength, they had cantae resistance that made them truly dangerous. As far as Nauda knew, it wasn't practically possible for Ruler-tier soulcrafters to defeat one.

Theo gave it a shot, dropping an entire column of the rock cloud onto the titan's head. Though it stumbled slightly under the assault, it appeared unharmed, and that enormous club finally began to move... as slow as it seemed, when it built up speed, the club tore through the cloud with terrifying force.

Nauda dodged aside from the rocks sent flying, but several of the Arbaians were struck and fell. The titan took an earth-shaking step and brought its club around again, this time sweeping lower. If it struck anyone, it might swat them like insects... and some of the Arbaians had yet to move.

She sprinted directly toward the titan, grabbing one of the fallen Arbaians. Her strength could heft his mass up onto one shoulder, but leaping away required straining her soulhome. The crystalline club howled just behind her, creating eddies through the air

Once she got to a safe distance, Nauda stared back grimly. She could rescue one or two of her allies, but what could they possibly do against a titan? Fiyu and Theo remained at a distance as well, retreating along with the others. Just when she began to despair, she felt an Authority's cantae burn from overhead, a surge that could only be Uvvah Ulim.

The head of the school plunged out of the sun, but didn't strike the titan directly. When the enormous Arbaian halted in midair, a shadow seemed to follow the path he would have taken. It swept through the stones and struck the titan in the shoulder, breaking off most of one arm. The club tumbled to the ground... but the titan reached down with its remaining limb and grasped it again.

Uvvah Ulim continued to float overhead, his limbs rotating in a spherical formation, but the further shadows he released deflected off the club. Each chipped away more of the demon's body, but his advantage wasn't as overwhelming as Nauda would have hoped.

Without warning, it moved faster than it ever had before, hurling its club like a spear. The crystalline bar streaked toward Uvvah Ulim, and even though he contracted and slid to the side, it still glanced off one of his rocky surfaces, sending gravel scattering through the air.

A moment later, Theo struck, sending more rocks raining down on the titan. This time the Ruler-tier Arbaians struck with him, creating a hail of bolts that battered the titan a step backward. It turned its cratered face toward them... and then Uvvah Ulim struck.

This time, the raw force blew through the center of the titan, leaving the remnants to crash to the ground. Nauda let out a cheer, but she was basically the only one. Despite the victory, all the Arbaians only straightened and raised limbs in the direction of their teacher. Clearly a gesture of respect, but Nauda wasn't sure what to make of it. Without speaking, Uvvah Ulim began to float back toward the School, much slower than before, his limbs floating loosely.

It seemed that harvesting would resume, but Nauda remained, slightly frustrated at herself. What Theo had said was true: she needed to adjust to this sort of combat. More than that, she needed strength, and not just an ascension.

She now held two of these strange emeralds, which did burn with a very durable power. Nauda shook herself and returned to the cloud of rocks, determined to find the rest.