I backed away from the Magistrate’s open hand.

“What’s wrong, Ancient? You don’t want to shake my hand? You don’t want to work with me?” Traetorius smiled serenely. “I’ll help you build that lab of yours…”

“He’s lying,” Arianna whispered.

“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” I said.

The Magistrate glared at his granddaughter.

“What’s that Thread Breaker thing on your hand, grandaddums?” I asked, backing away. “I’m assuming it breaks threads of some sort… Ari, can you tell me what his right hand smells like?”

“Aria! Come to me, now.” The Magistrate ordered.

“No,” the ginger girl whispered. “Your hand smells of... destruction, grandfather. I will not let you harm her!”

“Damn it, idiot girl. I’m doing this because I don’t want to lose you!” Lord Manning snapped. “Our family tethered on the precipice of disaster and almost lost the Magisterium all because Calypso Manning sought to empower herself with forbidden knowledge! The hidden hands of the cult will end you as they ended my mother!”

“We cannot cower just because we have enemies, grandfather! You’ve taught me to be strong! What was the point of throwing me into burning buildings or rushing rivers if you didn’t want me to have a backbone?!” Arianna growled. “Have you become so pathetic in your old age that…”

“Think, Aria, think!” Traetorius shouted. “We cannot possibly oppose the Immortals! They cannot be killed, cannot be stopped! Look, I’ll leave your little... friend alive, I’m not a monster. I’ll just snip that ancient off her. She’ll be fine. You can even keep her as your concubine, if you so desire.."

“Hey, I refuse to be snipped,” I shot back. “You keep that thread-snipper away from me... or else.”

“Or else what, ancient?” The Magistrate laughed, no longer saying my title with a respectful tone. “You are locked in here with me. You have nowhere to run to!"

I grabbed the empty gun holster on my leg. There was no gun there, no more beast cores. I was entirely defenceless and all out of wishes.

“Maybe our house can’t oppose the cult alone, but she has the people behind her!” Arianna shouted.

“What can mortals do to high-cultivators? I can smell the future, idiot girl. The Guilds will fail to unite. The bravest of mortals will die in the Convergence and the rest will bow down as they always have.” Lord Manning shook his silver-haired head. “If I don’t erase this ancient from existence now, you will die and the Manning family will be cast down, cut off from high society! One of the other highborn families will take the Magisterium.”

“I… urgh…” Arianna blinked tears out of her eyes. She didn’t know what else to say, didn’t know how far into the future her grandfather’s clairvoyance went.

“Why are you acting like this, Aria? Do you secretly enjoy being bound by mercantile pacts? I can smell its threads wound tightly around your heart. Does it not hurt you?” Traetorius pressed. “I can snip it off, free you from this ancient.”

I looked at Arianna and then looked at the monstrous thread-snipper in the Magistrate’s hand. The Pharmacist’s mind had decades of training in drugs-production and staring at fractal mathematics. Thanks to the ancient ghost’s experience in pattern recognition I was becoming quite adept at recognizing Dantian-imprint injuries, connecting things together. There were scars all over my fiancee's head. Memory-erasing gashes left by the Magistrate’s weapon.

“You… you’ve been snipping away your granddaughter’s memories with your Thread Breaker!” I accused.

“What… what?! Is that true, grandfather? You’ve been erasing MY memories?!” Arianna wailed, aghast at my revelation.

“It was for your own good, Aria! I’ve been trying to keep you away from the path Calypso had foolishly taken. You’re too much like her - too stubborn, too curious and clever. If I didn’t erase... some things, you would already be dead a hundred times over!”

“You… you monster! How could you!” Arianna cried. The tears were back now, but they were those of passionate hatred, reflecting the brilliant flashes of emerald-colored animosity in her eyes.

“I’m going to deal with this ancient...” Lord Manning declared. “...and then, I’ll erase your memory of this. This is the only way you will survive to see tomorrow.”

He moved faster than I could blink. His hand was touching my forehead, the Thread Breaker construct sinking into my brain.

Snip, snip, snip.

“No!” Arianna screamed, her hand pointed at us. The emerald ring on her finger flashed, blasting her grandfather away from me before he completed his grim work.

“You… you dare use our family ring against me?” The Magistrate growled, rising from the ground.

“I do!” Arianna yelled. “I would rather die than keep cowering! The future isn’t set in stone, it can be changed!”

“You are just like her,” The Magistrate sighed. “Not merely in looks, but also in this foolish love for the ancients.”

He was resisting the disruptor field far better than Clint. Even if he was no longer moving at high speed, he still leapt towards me with an outstretched hand. I kicked him away and evaded, jumping over the bubbling bath-water.

“Magistrate Calypso... Why are there no portraits of her in our estate?!” Arianna cried. “Why can’t I remember what she looked like? You bastard! I can’t believe you’ve done this to me!”

“Calypso is a name from my legends,” I narrated as I continued to evade his deadly, outstretched hand. “A nymph who promised hero Odysseus immortality, from Homer's Odyssey tale.”

He finally overpowered the effect of Arianna’s ring and grabbed at my robe, slamming me against the rocks.

“It is also a star in the night sky, invisible to base human sight. Calypso is a moon of planet Saturn, discovered in 1980 via a ground-based observatory by…”

The Thread Breaker sunk into my face. I sort of understood how it worked thanks to my pattern observing powers. It caught whatever I was thinking about, snipping that first. I focused on the relatively useless knowledge of Calypso, recalled it with all of my mental fortitude, shoved it to the forefront of my mind like a shield against the Thread Breaker.

“Calypso’s high albedo is the result of the sandblasting of particles from Saturn's E-ring, a faint ring composed of small, water-ice drops generated by Enceladus' south polar geysers,” I narrated, visualising the irregularly shaped Saturnian moon.

“Do you think this will help you live longer, ancient?” The Magistrate hissed.

Snip, snip, snip.

I could no longer recall Calypso’s craters.

“Nope, but this will,” I smiled as a large stalactite that had broken off priorly and nearly pierced us in the bath now flew through the air, wielded by Arianna like a baseball bat. The rock-hard, heavy, yellow cone slammed into the side of the Magistrate’s head and he let go of me with a whimper, falling over onto his side and rolling into the bath.

“Ash? Ash, did he get you?!” Arianna grabbed me, dropping the stalactite. “Is the Pharmacist still in there?!”

“Uhmmm… yeah. He mostly got my memories of… Saturn's moon. Did you just murder… the Magistrate for me?” I looked at the figure floating in the bath.

Arianna sniffed the air. “He’ll live.”

I grabbed at the Magistrate’s hand and pulled the large emerald ring off his finger.

“Errr…” She blinked. “Did you just rob my grandfather?”

“Old thievery habits die hard.” I shrugged, sliding the ring onto my thumb. “I’m a Sparks-Manning, I get to wear this emerald ring by right of conquest. I am the Magistrate now,” I joked, showing off my new thumb-ring to her.

“That is not how any of this works, Ash.” Arianna shook her head.

The Magistrate sturred in the water. The old bastard was tough. The way Arianna swung that heavy stalactite at his head like a professional baseball player was quite impressive. An ordinary non-cultivator would be dead for sure from that sort of a devastating impact.

“Run?” I asked her.

“Run.” She nodded.

Arianna slammed into the metal door with her shoulder and it groaned open. Avidius was standing guard at the cleared stairwell. He stared at us.

“Avidius! Stop them!” Lord Manning groan-yelled from behind us, flapping in the bath.

“Not today buddy,” I slipped under the Reaper’s outstretched arms.

Arianna was less evasive and far more confrontational. She swung her foot and kicked Avidius in the groin. He folded up with a whimper.

“Copperpenny! Use your servitor to catch them, you useless imbecile!” The Magistrate’s voice followed us as we rushed up the stairwell.

“I’m sorry, Lord Magistrate! I don’t have a servitor anymore… it was killed by the explosions during last night's attack...” Avidius whined.

Ah. Servitors can be perma-killed by a beast core explosion. Good to know.

Arianna and I emerged onto the open air of a smoking ruin that was once the Whale’s Song restaurant. Morning sunlight pierced through the acrid smoke. Ashes and sparks flew to the sky as builder servitors cleared the rubble all around us. A few walls remained standing. Most of the nearby marketplace tents were blown away and all of the nearest buildings were melted and torched and missing their beautiful stained-glass windows.

“Ah! Lady Sparks! It is good to see that you’re unharmed!” Magnolia Milliard, the Guilder in charge of the Builders waved at me. He was standing in the street, near the doorway. Other builders were there as well, controlling the construction servitors all around the devastated restaurant and surrounding area.

“Magnolia! Just the man I require,” I ran towards him.

“How may I be of assistance to you fine ladies?” Magnolia bowed.

“I... kinda pissed off the Magistrate. Can you use your builder servitors to keep him off me? He’s trying to touch me... inappropriately,” I whispered. “Also… Clint might be around here. I’m like 90% sure he blew up Sylver’s restaurant. Keep an eye out for an angry, old man with the celesteel sword, k?”

Magnolia’s face darkened. “Of course, my lady.”

He turned to his men and signalled them in hand gestures and orders. “Wall up! Prompto!”

“Ancieeeent!!!!” The Magistrate bellowed, emerging from the stairwell ruin.

“Magistraaaaaate!!!” I yelled back at him with the same tone, pointing a finger at him. Taunting people was fun.

The enormous, many armed builder servitors moved as one. They formed a wall of ghostly bodies, legs and arms between me and Traetorius.

The Magistrate sniffed. His green eyes settled on Magnolia’s face. “Builder!” He barked.

“Yes, Lord Magistrate?” Magnolia raised an eyebrow.

“In the name of the Magisterium I demand you to hand me my granddaughter and her… friend,” Lord Traetorius commanded.

“This is a construction zone, I’m afraid I can’t let you pass this way, my Lord.” Magnolia grinned. “It’s not safe. The floor there might give out at any moment.”

“You… you.” Lord Manning sputtered. The lime-tinted, sweaty, tired face of Avidius emerged from the stairwell.

“Name’s Ash Sparks-Manning, granddaddums!” I taunted him further.

The Magistrate lifted his hand, pointing it at the wall of servitors. Nothing happened. He looked in confusion at his middle finger that was currently missing his Qi-disruptor ring.

I gave a thumbs up gesture at him. His eyes settled upon the emerald ring sitting on my thumb. “Thanks for the ring, granddad! Love you loads!” I sent him a kiss. “Glad you approve of our relationship!”

“Relationship? Sparks-Manning?” The Head of the Builders looked at Arianna and I, Qi dancing in his eyes. “Ohhhhh… you are officially engaged. How wonderful! My sincerest congratulations, Lady Sparks and Lady Manning!” He bellowed. The other gathered builders began to clap, offering their congratulations as well. A few people milling about the devastated market street also started to yell various congratulatory words our way.

The Magistrate sniffed the smoky air. The future was changing right in front of his… nose. I had gotten away from him before he could erase my memories. The word of my engagement to Arianna Manning couldn't be stopped now. The rumour mill would spread it far and wide across the Gold city.

“Game set and match,” I whispered in the direction of the aghast-looking Magistrate Manning and confused Avidius Copperpenny.

“Ash! Oh, Ashy!” A very familiar voice yelled from the back. The focused field of serenity hit me before she did. I turned just in time to have Celes wrap me in an-all encompassing hug. She clung to me, crying her eyes out. “Knipz couldn't find your scent! I’ve been searching for you throughout the night!” She sniffed. “I thought you were dead, gone!”

I stood in her embrace, feeling stunned.

Whoopsie. I didn’t just hide myself from Clint. I hid myself from Celes as well.

“I fell asleep on a bench nearby and then I heard you yelling out your name like you always do. I thought I was dreaming, but here you are…” Celes babbled. “...alive and…”

She sniffed me, her golden eyes glittering with Qi. “...what.”

“What?” I grinned back at her.

“Congratulations to Lady Sparks and Lady Manning! What a fine day for a fine coupling!” Construction workers whistled, clapping even louder.

“WHAT?” Celes looked at Arianna.

My princess-fiancee gave Celes a shrug of non-commitment.

“What the Qi-ss?!” Celes barked, her eyes as wide as two golden teacups. “Are you two… HOW? WHAT?! WHAT?!!”

Her cat-like, diamond-shaped irises jumped from me to Arianna and back. Her brain was clearly refusing to believe what she was seeing and hearing, refusing to acknowledge it.

“W-a-t,” She uttered, staring into my eyes. I could see the metaphorical steam hissing from her big, foxy ears. I had broken Celes with this one, unexpected move.

“Don’t think so hard about it or you’ll blow a gasket,” I commented.

“But,” Celes mewled.

“Just shut up and hug me,” I said. “Hugs are nice. I like hugs.”

The kitsune turned her head towards Arianna and hissed a tiny “whatttt?” in her direction. One of her fluffy ears tickled my face.

“He he he. Fox-ears,” I giggled, wholeheartedly melting into the hug.