As Nauda inventoried every sublime material in her soulhome, she began to wonder if she was completely losing objectivity.

To her credit, she felt largely prepared to ascend. The surgestalk had continued growing, now pushing nearly a full floor into the sky above her soulhome. She'd finished applying the new layer of petals over her windows and other exposed parts of her soulhome in preparation for the event. Every chamber hummed with raw cantae.

To her detriment, there was so much more that could be done. Her supposed sensory chamber was filled with reasonably powerful materials but completely failed to grant her a new sense. Efforts to find sublime materials to strengthen her wards had been unsuccessful. She was still dissatisfied with the chambers in the tower separate from her soulhome. For that matter, there was still the barrier wall Theo wouldn't shut up about.

Actually... Nauda left her soulhome and blinked in the shadows of her room. Still rather short, so there was time. She walked through the Blacksilver complex, searching him out. Hopefully he would be working with Fiyu, but she was certain that he would be soulcrafting in one of the usual locations.

Eventually she found him soulcrafting in a small courtyard, a defensive field placed around him. Nauda was puzzled until she saw Senka scampering around the edges, chewing on something absolutely filthy. The little creature finished chewing and then ran at Theo, only to be caught up in the field. Part of her body suddenly falling in the other direction, she flipped backwards and tumbled over the courtyard before flopping onto her back.

"Nauda Nauda!" Senka stared at her and blubbered. "Theo is being a dirty fumpet. Make Theo play with Senka!"

"Maybe not now, Senka." Nauda's words had absolutely no effect on her, of course, and she wriggled over, grabbing hold of Nauda's ankle.

For a moment she considered using her staff to bind Senka in place, maybe even keep her mouth closed. Eventually she decided that would be unkind, since Senka couldn't help whatever she was. Instead she extricated her leg and continued forward until Theo looked at her.

"I've continued trying to train her, to no avail." He sighed and lowered his field. "Sometimes it feels like she's trying to convince me not to."

"Senka just wants yummies, not work!"

"Ignore her. Did you want to ask me something?"

"Yes, actually." Nauda frowned over at Senka, who was running for them. A moment later, Theo dropped her into the air with another field. Her babbling reached a higher pitch, which was exceedingly annoying, so Nauda reached out to touch his knee and drew both their spirits into her soulhome. If she ignored her body just a little, she could hear nothing but the quiet natural sounds of her soul.

Though Theo looked over her soulhome with interest, he soon stopped and turned back to her. That was what she had been hoping, so Nauda overcame her last uncertainty. After swallowing one more time, she finally spoke her mind.

"You frustrate me sometimes, Theo, but I do respect you. I wanted your advice."

"From this humble soulcrafter? I assure you, I take no pleasure in explaining things to people." His smile at his own expense was just enough for Nauda to forgive him. She gestured for him to follow and walked closer to her soulhome.

"I want to ascend to Ruler, but... this absolutely has to work. I've seen what we'll be facing... no, the truth is I've only seen the beginning of it." Nauda slowly ran a hand over the vine-wrapped stone. "Do you think I'd be making a mistake, trying to ascend now?"

"Yes, definitely. I have no doubt that you could, but it's premature." Theo shrugged. "As you noted, I give my opinions pretty freely. What else do you want me to say?"

"How much of a mistake? I want to talk about the really advanced soulcrafting issues you always imply you know, the ones beyond Authority. So yes, Theo, I'm asking for a lecture. I need to get this right."

He was silent for longer than she expected, given the invitation to lecture, and then slowly drifted up to her roof. Nauda had to climb the vines to join him, not far behind. Though he stared skyward at first, his gaze soon shifted back down.

"When you ascend, the force from piercing the sky will rush through your soulhome, reinforcing everything. Generally speaking, for optimum soulhome design, you want the strongest materials you can possibly endure, held through as many ascensions as you can manage."

"But isn't it sometimes better to replace them? If we'd somehow gotten that dewfossil and could use it, wouldn't that be better than our current materials?"

"Most likely, but you shouldn't underestimate the strength of a sublime material that matters to you, carried through all your soulcrafting." Theo shook his head slowly. "Your basic construction has always been good. Excellent, even. These walls will only grow stronger over time as you ascend. But can you show me one of your strongest sublime materials?"

"Down here." Nauda flipped over the edge of one wall, sliding through the window into the room that contained the monstrous skull on its altar. Theo followed by drifting through the ceiling. To his credit, he didn't ask her about the origin of the skull, just considered the chamber.

"There's one thing you're doing absolutely right: keeping this powerful material through multiple ascensions. But... you really want my opinion?"

"This humble novice begs your wisdom, great master."

Theo smirked, but when he answered his voice was flat. "This altar is barely passable, you could almost certainly find better materials. Your walls are all blank... carving symbols or covering them with another material may not transform your strength, but it enhances the power of the central material. You don't have any furnishings or other supportive materials... this chamber is in no shape for ascension."

"And you have room to talk?" Nauda had known exactly what she was asking for and still had to choke down irritation. "You ascended to Archcrafter with some of your chambers empty. Have you been resenting us the entire time for the lost strength?"

"It's always more complicated than that." Theo drifted closer to one of the walls, running his hand over it. "Right now, you could easily find something... say a sublime paint. It's common enough in Fithe. If you painted everything perfectly and then ascended, this room would be stronger. But if you ascend and then use that material, it simply won't compare. With your new cantae, you might be able to find a stronger material for the walls, but the adequate ones would be much rarer, and they might not match your blueprint. The more shortcuts you take, the more rigid your possible future designs become."

For the first time, all his optimization talk made a bit more sense to her, all her irritation vanishing. "Is that how people hit their limits? Their ways of soulcrafting become more and more limited until their soulhome isn't strong enough to ascend again?"

"That's one of the ways, yes."

"But you didn't answer my question. And I did want an answer."

"About my ascension?" Theo was silent for a time, and if he had smiled at her, she wouldn't have believed it. When he spoke, his spirit stared out past her soul. "I don't think it will hurt me in the end, but I'm not sure. I should be able to make up some of the loss at Ruler. From my earlier experience, the one that you can't ever make up is the ascension to Authority."

"Because it's more difficult than the others? I thought that Stronghold was even harder."

"It is, but it's not the same. Reaching Authority is a... phase shift, you could say. The strength it grants your soulhome can't be replaced, even if you search out incredibly rare sublime materials. A botched ascension to Ruler, you might be able to fix with ten years of remodeling. But Authority... well, you've seen how many people reach that tier and get stuck."

She had assumed it was something like that, but Nauda actually found the explanation a bit reassuring. She might have stumbled her way this far, but she would have a second chance. Reaching Ruler would let her fully use all her resources and stay alive. That would be enough to finally get her blueprint in order, then she could ascend to Authority and be able to start her real work.

Though she already had her conclusion, Nauda didn't find herself wanting to shoo Theo away. Instead she made her way down one of the open gaps... she really needed to work on ladders at some point. When she reached her feasting table, she gestured over it.

"What about the Nine Worlds Feast? Does that need to be absolutely perfect before then?"

"Soulcrafting is never that simple," Theo said as he examined the food. "Hard materials like stones, you want to settle early. But food that's perishable in real life... never changing your feasting chamber can actually lead to stagnation. It all follows a realistic logic... plants, for example, need resources to continue growing but can catch up to you over time."

"Huh." Nauda glanced over the surgestalk vines, briefly second-guessing her decision. "Does that mean that a soulhome constructed entirely of plants would be ideal?"

"That wouldn't be a very durable structure, and not all sublime plants are created equal. Never mind that... have you been supplementing what the Authorities give us? I don't recognize some of these foods."

"I've been busy. The feast is supposed to match us, right? I've bought a few new things at the markets, and paid a soulcrafter chef to prepare some of the food more to my taste. I may not know the finer points of high tier soulcrafting, but I'm pretty confident in sublime food."

"Yeah, this is well done." Theo glanced up with an odd smile, difficult to read on his wispy spirit. "I could nitpick that your table is a bit basic and the room contains too many different objects, but it's a solid feast. That explains your physical strength."

"That's only the beginning, if the ascension goes the way I want." Nauda smiled at him, but it suddenly wasn't enough. She released her technique and they returned to the real world, where she squeezed his knee and smiled for real. "Thank you, Theo. I want to be ready to take on the Chasm with you."

He chuckled. "If we manage that, we'll be set f-"

"Give Senka yummies now! Now, now, now!" Though she should have been entirely pinned in place, Senka flailed wildly and seemed to be getting closer to them by sheer orneriness. Theo sighed and got to his feet slowly.

"I'm guessing you're going to try it soon. Do you want company? Non-Senka company?"

"Why say Senka's name? Why? Why?"

Doing her best to block out the nonsense, Nauda tried to think about what she truly wanted. The idea of having Fiyu there alongside her appealed, but given all the thoughts swirling through her mind... "Thank you, Theo, but no. I guess I'll just ask for last second advice about the ascension itself."

"Hmm." Theo put a hand over Senka's mouth, and though she seemed to be trying to bite it, he managed to keep her silent. "I saw that you'd put petals from our Aathal trip all over the top. To defend against the pressure?"

"Not just that. I'm told that Tatian ascensions involve some sort of intense rain, so the petals should help shed it."

"Good thought. Then I probably only have one word of advice: make an umbrella."

While he departed, thankfully taking Senka with him, Nauda considered his advice. It was obvious, now that she thought about it. She had been most worried about the spiritual rain beating down over her soulhome, but it would be striking her as well. Rain might seem trivial, but given the difficulty of ascending, it never hurt to be careful.

So, as she checked over her entire blueprint one last time, Nauda assembled a few materials. Not just random objects, but sublime materials that meant something to her. She fashioned a stick out of hearthtree wood from Tatian, reinforced it with Fithan stone, and managed to bind several layers of petals into the canopy. It wasn't an elegant umbrella, but it resonated with her soul.

That accomplished, Nauda took a moment to rest, letting her spirit relax and her soulhome fill. When she finally returned to her roof, the time felt right.

When she began climbing up the side of the surgestalk, she was surprised how easy it was. With the thick vines firm in both hands, the pressure from above didn't feel nearly so oppressive. She carried her umbrella stuck in her belt, slightly awkward but not getting in the way given the ease of climbing.

Once she climbed a full body length above her soulhome, the sky began to push back harder. Each time she reached up it was a struggle and her cantae began to drain as she tried to break through. Yet this still wasn't overly challenging... she'd already endured one ascension, she could grit her teeth and force her way through this one.

Nauda raised a hand and pushed her will skyward, piercing the barrier... and that was when the rain struck her like a hammer.

The drops plunged out of the empty sky overhead, skipping from a drizzle to a wall. Nauda was drenched in an instant, the raindrops growing larger and battering at her spirit. She lost her grip from the impact and slid down nearly a pace before catching herself.

Her instincts to reach for her staff to defend herself made Nauda grab the umbrella instead. It didn't rise smoothly, but she managed to get the canopy between herself and the brutal rain. As soon as she earned a moment of relief, she realized that her head was ringing and her spirit felt bruised. The Aathali petals seemed to be repelling the rain, but the drops continued to buffet it.

Unable to help herself, Nauda looked back down over her soulhome. She was surprised to see that the rain was tearing through the surgestalk vines, drops impacting in tiny explosions. If the vines hadn't been so thick, the drops would have been pummeling her roof instead. Fortunately, all of the petals endured much more effectively, preventing the water from causing damage inside.

If Nauda had needed to claw her way up through the stinging rain, it would have been a miserable ordeal. Given a moment's respite by Theo's umbrella, she was able to catch her breath and brace herself. When the umbrella started to tear apart, Nauda cast it aside and clawed her way up with all her strength.

The rain still smashed into her, but Nauda snarled and kept climbing hand over hand. The pressure increased, and by the time she reached the limits of the sky, she was roaring so loud it overwhelmed the downpour, but she threw everything she had against the barrier.

When it finally broke, Nauda was shocked at the rush of relief. Not just cantae flowing through her like air, it was as if she'd taken a drink of the most refreshing water in all the worlds. The cantae flooded from the sky more intensely than before, more like liquid than air. It filled her soul, sinking deep into everything that she had built and everything that she was, filling her with new strength.

Eventually the flow of strength lowered her to the grass outside her soulhome. Though the remnants of the surgestalk lay in ragged pieces, her soulhome was surprisingly untouched. Instead of having endured a brutal storm, everything glistened like dew in the morning.

Nauda laughed out loud and rushed to the pile of bricks she'd been preparing for her third floor. Yes, they had been suffused by the rush of cantae as well, stronger than they had been before. But when she tried to pick one up to begin work, her head spun and she dropped it as she realized just how exhausted her spirit was.

Receding to the real world, Nauda flopped onto her back and just lay there for a while. Her body surged with new strength, her mind just hadn't caught up. Eager as she was to begin work on her third floor, she wouldn't advance further by just throwing herself into the problem. No, she needed to work smarter.

Fortunately, soulcrafting wasn't the only path she had ahead of her. Nauda hopped to her feet and went to collect all of the Arbaian gemstones she had been storing. It was time to commission her first Ruler armament.