-=[Celes Rada]=-

Celes had bravely finished stitching up the cut on Ash's forehead. She wasn’t too queasy about it. She had witnessed a lot of people outright explode or get cut in half during Convergence. High-cultivators could recover from all sorts of damage that would kill a regular person - sometimes her job was to help them sew their torn-off arms or legs back into place. Thanks to the power of Qi-targeted healing some of them could slowly repair incredibly horrific injuries and get back into the fight another day.

The gash on her current patient was small, but it refused to stop bleeding. Black puss was constantly weeping from it as well, which was highly concerning. She had no idea what the alcohol was supposed to be for, but she took a sip of it for courage and poured a bit of it into the mouth of her patient and dabbed a bit on the cut in hopes that it would maybe somehow help. The stitched-up cut didn’t change at all, didn’t look like it was getting any better.

She cursed herself again for being an utter fool, for not tending to the girl sooner, for forgetting about the small cut in the excitement of what Ash had done.

The kitsune wiped the blood away with a wet cloth once again. Ash was breathing, but something was catastrophically wrong - the aura of the sleeping girl was turning gray. She wouldn't wake either, no matter how much Celes shook her, talked and pleaded.

Ash was dying! Her Qi wasn't repairing her body at all! With every passing heartbeat Ash was looking paler and more sickly.

While the geisha's full name “Celesteel Radiance is Eternal” was inspired by Celestial-god-blessed metal, Celes had no idea how to stop someone from slowly dying if they were cut with a celesteel blade. Such information was in possession of the people who used the aforementioned star metal - the wealthy and powerful nobility of the Gold city.

Celes fretted for a few seconds, not knowing how to help Ash further, until she thought about who had given Ash the cursed injury.

Arianna Manning, the seventh scion of the Magistrate’s family! Ofcourse! That girl had to know how to stop the Qi decay!

Celes rushed out of the room into the temple garden.

-=[Arianna Manning]=-

Arianna was sitting on the stone bench. She didn't head to the offered bed, didn't move from where Ash had left her. She was daunted by the impossible power wielded by her former minion. A pinkie had risen to bewildering dominance, while she - a daughter of the most noble house, was put down, shamed thoroughly and told what to do by the aforementioned orphan girl!

It wasn't even a good or sensible order. It was a ridiculous joke, a complete waste of Arianna's time. Why in the hells would a servitor need to know how to read or write? It should have inherited these skills from its owner once the two were merged!

Arianna mulled the information in her head. Of course! Ash didn't know how to read or write and was embarrassed to admit it. She was trying to learn this valuable skill from Arianna through her servitor!

"Ha ha ha ha, I see exactly what you're trying to do," Arianna laughed at the servitor. "I get it now! You are illiterate!"

The phantom tilted its head towards the ginger girl.

This new discovery had given Anathema a breath of fresh air. It was something she could hold over Sparks, perhaps somehow utilize to gain valuable information!

Arianna looked up with a victorious smile just as the kitsune geisha rushed out of the temple interior, her hands covered in blood.

The young scion had learned everything she could about Celes after she let the pair go at the market. Celes Rada was indeed a real geisha belonging to Enforcer Han Sempiter, that part wasn't a lie.

"What…?" Arianna asked as the geisha skidded to a stop in front of her bench.

"You have to tell me how to heal a celesteel blade cut!" The kitsune barked, disrespectfully.

Aha! Yet another advantage. The little idiot orphan had no idea how to stop the bleeding! Yes!

Arianna put on her Anathema face, smiling deviously. "And why should I tell YOU anything, geisha?"

"You…" Celes growled like an angry fox that was trying to protect its cubs. "This isn't a request! She's dying!"

"Oh is she now? The all-so-mighty, high-cultivator brought down by a little bite of my blade. What a twist."

Celes didn't delay, she grabbed Arianna by her dress, dragging her inside the temple. Arianna didn't resist. She wanted to see the defeated, desperate face of her enemy. Wanted to laugh at Ash, to humiliate her back and gloat endlessly. Vengeance was best served chilled.

Arianna smiled. She might have been bested in one battle, but the final victory was hers after all. She would find out everything now, pry the secret of inexplicable power out of Ash, learn the truth!

"Ha ha ha, how the mighty have fallen! A high-cultivator, the so-called chosen one, brought down by a mere…" Arianna started to boast upon being dragged into the room, right before she saw that Sparks was passed out.

What?

Arianna came closer, inhaled and smelled the hand of death closing around the girl on the bed. Ash wasn't a high-cultivator. She wasn't a cultivator at all. She is only as strong as two regular mortals - Arianna's nose told her.

"Tell me how to help her," the geisha shrilled. "Now!"

Arianna froze. On one hand she wanted to know what sort of power was propping Ash Sparks up… Yet, on the other - if Sparks died, then everything would return to normality. Whatever cursed wrongness Ash had dug up in the dead city would perish with her and that would be that. Arianna, the most noble scion, would no longer have to bow down to a station-less urchin!

"Nope. I'm leaving," Arianna said, making a decision and turning away from the dying girl.

"What?! You… have you no compassion in your heart at all?! She spared your life! How can you…" The geisha seethed. "You are worse than the monsters from the deep catacombs! You know how to help someone, yet you refuse?!"

Arianna shrugged. This wasn't her problem anymore.

"You aren't going anywhere!" the geisha commanded, her voice filled with sudden steel.

"And who's gonna stop me?" Arianna snapped back. “You?”

"The three of us will!" Celes Rada snarled. “Knipz!” A large ferret, framed by a fanciful mane materialized on her shoulder.

"Are you serious?! You can't command or threaten me, geisha! I'm above your station! I am a scion of the noble house of Manning!" Arianna charged.

"I will not have Ash die on me, you witless imbecile!" Celes yelled. "She's going to do more for the people of this city than the Manning family did in centuries!"

"You are not a bloody high-cultivator! You are mere property that's about to expire! My grandfather will crush you into the dirt sooner than you are turned into a servitor!" Arianna declared. "My bodyguard knows where I am! Sparks said it herself - if a single hair falls from my head, you’re toast! I’m leaving!”

Arianna ignored the angry glare of the geisha and turned towards the exit.

Mr. Murrz, or whatever it's stupid name was standing in the exit. Pathetic servitor! It wouldn't be able to stop her from leaving now that its master was near death. It must have been running on an external source. No matter.

"Out of the way, spirit!" Arianna commanded.

The phantom refused to budge. It stretched out across the doorway and its head silently unfolded like a flower, presenting all of its horrid teeth.

"What the hells?!" Arianna cautiously stepped back from the aberrant spirit. Was it still following the last order of its master or something? Damnation!

“Mr. Murr! Stop her from leaving!” The geisha barked from behind.

Long, many-knuckled fingers passed through the ginger girl and wrapped around Arianna's hair, pulling. She screamed, thrashing as Mr. Murrz lifted her into the air.

Arianna inhaled, trying to smell the cultivator that was commanding the spirit. There was nobody in the room except for the geisha and passed out Sparks.

This was impossible. How was it listening to Celes Rada?! You couldn't just ask a servitor to obey someone else. It didn’t work like that. If it was a lantern-type, then it should have been limited to a job plus the binding runes and commands had to be exact or the servitor did nothing at all. Ash couldn't just turn a personal servitor into a lantern type!

"Mr. Murr! Ash needs our help," Celes hissed darkly. "Show this insolent girl your power."

Arianna breathed in deeply once again. The geisha couldn't have possibly commanded this servitor. She didn’t smell like it's master! The damned, tall phantom didn’t smell like anyone!

An array of teeth flashed. Arianna fell face-first into the floor, her head feeling much lighter. She gasped, touching her hair. It wasn't there anymore. Her long, beautiful, perfect red braid was gone, chopped away. The servitor released what it was holding. Strands of red hair fluttered down and away, carried by the night wind.

"It's going to be one of your hands next," Celes intimidated.

"You are lying! You aren't controlling it! Who's wielding this spirit?! Reveal yourself in the name of Magistrate Traetorius Manning!" Arianna screamed.

"It's a free servitor, you little idiot! He is wielding himself," Celes uttered and it wasn't a lie.

Arianna Manning paled at these TRUE words.

A free servitor. What the Qi?! What the friggin Qi-ss?!

Silver, shimmering, ghost-fingers wrapped around Arianna's neck. Silver sparks danced within them, stinging her neck.

"Tell us how to cure her," Celes growled.

"There's a little silver bottle in a pouch on my chest," Arianna cried, shaking from fright. "Feed it to her! It'll stop the Kiss of Celesteel from devouring her Qi!"

Celes tore up Arianna's dress without regard, ripping the pouch from her neck.

She rushed to Ash and poured the tonic into her mouth and turned back to the phantom-held noble.

"How long does it take?!" The kitsune barked.

"I… err… five thousand heartbeats, at least. It has to neutralize the effect throughout her entire body," Arianna gulped as the servitor held her still.

"Then we wait," Celes sat on the bed beside Ash. "And if you deceived us…”

"I didn't! I'll be good, I swear!" Arianna shook her impromptu-trimmed hair. “Please let me go!”

The geisha folded her hands on her knee, her eyes piercing through Arianna. “You’re right about me expiring soon. It’ll certainly come to pass without Ash. But I swear it, I won’t expire alone. We can both make for pretty servitors, a geisha and a noble, if Ash doesn’t wake up from this.”

Arianna gulped.