-=[Ash Sparks]=-

For the past twenty minutes, Arianna simply stared at me in blank amazement, eyes open wide. The shock of what I had done to the Guilds and was still doing had completely robbed her of the ability to speak. I, on the other hand, was starting to feel nervous with all the silent gawking directed at me. I started to fill in the awkward silence with narration, hoping to dislodge my fiancée from her state of mental guffaw.

“Blitzkrieg, meaning 'Lightning War', was an ancient, uniquely effective method of offensive warfare,” I narrated to my muted companion. “A highly industrialized nation called Germany invented it during the Second World War. It was responsible for many military successes in the early years of their goal for world domination. The three key ingredients for any successful Blitzkrieg are: speed of movement, speed of decision-making, and an overconfident enemy.”

“Did they... conquer the world?” Arianna quivered.

“No. Their methods of rule were too vile and monstrous, too brutal. They attacked too many nations, overstretching their resources. The real power that conquered and united the world was the internet.”

“Inter-what-now?” She toyed with a locket of red hair, staring into my eyes, her mouth slightly open.

“The internet… was a global system of interconnected… servitors. Using it, anyone could instantly contact anyone that wanted to be contacted or find an answer to nearly any question.”

“Any question... and answer? Really?”

“Well, often there were too many wrong answers or not enough answers if the topic of inquiry was incredibly obscure,” I replied. “Sometimes it took me hours just to find the right answer to a specific problem, but when I did… It felt pretty awesome.”

“Damn.” Arianna continued to gawk at me, occasionally glancing behind me at the rapidly moving servitor dummies that were cleaning and assembling a large tent on the edge of the armoury cavern where the dummy-fighting ring used to be.

“Imagine the biggest library you can,” I said. “...and then multiply it one hundred billion times or whatever is the biggest number you know. That’s how much information was on the Internet, accessible to anyone anywhere for a small, easily affordable monthly fee.”

“I… I can’t believe it… but you’re telling the truth.” Arianna inhaled, biting her lip. “It all sounds… too impossible, too absurd... too incredible to be real.”

“There was even a website… a servitor… that could theoretically generate every book in the universe that has been written or would ever be written.”

“What?! How?!” Arianna blinked.

“Humanity had long dreamed of a library containing every possible combination of letters – containing every book that could ever be written. A programmer… err.. a servitor designer created one and called it “The Babel Library.” It was made with some clever math and generated an insanely large amount of books.”

“Sounds too good to be true,” she muttered.

“It was. The problem was that 99.9999 percent of the books it randomly generated were absolute gibberish, incomprehensible noise. The possibility of nonsense outweighed the possibility of rationality.” I smiled. “Regardless of how useless it was, it was an interesting thought experiment.”

“Hrm.” Arianna curiously glanced behind me once again. “What are you doing with those dummies?”

“Building a situation-room!” I declared merrily, glancing back at the rapidly moving dummies and garrison men that were bringing various boxes and chests from the catacombs, which the dummies continuously emptied out and sorted.

“Huh?” The ginger girl tilted her head in confusion.

“I’m turning this section of the cavern into an intelligence management center,” I explained. “The Situation Room is generally equipped with planning, mapping and communications equipment for the leader to maintain total command and control of their forces.”

“Soo… an office of the Magisterium? My grandfather has an office in the top tower. Why aren't we managing things from there? Why did you choose this specific place from the entire castle to make into your office?” Arianna inquired.

“Firstly, it’s a nice and big space - plenty of room to add equipment and tools.” I waved my arm at the cavern.

“Okay, but…” Arianna tried to think of legitimate reasons why her grandfather was using the tower.

“Secondly, thanks to my recent Qi and Dantian growth… the Pharmacist can now control all of these dummies.” I pointed at the fighting-dummies. “They are bound to this section of this cavern and cannot be relocated. I am lacking manpower and I like having a hundred extra hands.

“We’re deep underground.” She finally arrived at her argument. “It’s harder to send letters and impossible to smell the future of the city from here.”

“Exactly,” I nodded.

“Uhhh…” Arianna fidgeted her chainmail, pondering my words. "We are safer from beast core bombs here."

“Yes. It’s safe down here,” I said. “Our enemies will have to pass through a hundred wards to get to us. Sylver and his men are now occupying the Magistrate’s old office, handling the incoming and outgoing mail.”

“And my grandfather is?”

“In the field hospital, working on healing Celes,” I pointed at a tent on the far edge of the cavern. “Once he’s done with her, he’ll move on to removing the celesteel curse out of the disobedient Guilders. We don’t have enough Celesteel Kiss healing tonic for everyone.”

“Heh,” Arianna smirked. “You’ve turned the Magistrate into a field medic!”

“He’s had thirty years of it, and he pretty much ‘magistrated’ the Magisterium into poverty.” I sighed.

Glendaria was right - the treasury beneath the armoury was practically empty. I only found a few stacks of gold there and immediately gave it all to Sylver for ‘relocation expenses’. Most of the letters currently being sent out from the castle were going to the families of the garrison soldiers and invitations to various trusted Guilders.

“I really don’t understand it.” Arianna gritted her teeth. “I thought that we had vast wealth… how can someone who can see the future screw everything up so badly?”

I lifted my hand, showing the future-sight disruption bracelet to her. “Nearly all the garrison soldiers, servants and Guilders were wearing these. We have no idea how many more of these are out there in the city. Traetorius was never allowed to see the full picture. For thirty-three years since the death of Magistrate Calypso, your grandfather had been led around by his nose by the true rulers of this city - the Guilds, the Boundless cult and the Hidden Hand.”

“Those bastards…” Arianna growled, clenching her fists. “I’ll make them all pay. Why, if I’d ever manage to become Magistrate I’d probably be the poorest one in centuries! I can’t believe that I looked up to my grandfather. I sacrificed everything, trained my Hyperosmia since I was four… I wanted to be… just like him!”

Her face turned red and askew with rage. I had successfully supplanted, refocused Arianna’s full anathema onto the Magistrate. It left no room in her to hate on little Ash.

Brilliant, rage-filled, emerald eyes refocused on me. Okay maybe some...

Celestial-armoured hands reached out and grabbed my shoulders.

“Ash… promise me,” she hissed with fierce determination. “Promise me that you’ll make them all suffer! Promise me that you’ll drink their Dantians dry!”

I nodded.

“Thank you,” Arianna suddenly deflated, her grip on my shoulders loosening. Her eyes sparkled. “Thank you for everything… I… I… I’m…”

I reached out and hugged the girl that made me who I was, my past-nemesis and my current fiancée.

“I...” she whispered, her voice barely perceptible.

“You taught me everything. When I was ten, you showed me how to climb the ropes! You told me to go into the dead city to find the secrets of the ancients,” I whispered back. “You uplifted me, lavished me with praises! You called me “my little hero”! You told me that I was your ‘best seeker’! You took care of me when nobody else would... and then one day… you’ve changed.”

Arianna gulped. I was sure of it now, I was telling her things she couldn't remember. Things that have been clipped away by her grandfather’s power. I pressed on with my honesty-filled words.

“Your grandfather must have erased your memory that night. I came to you with an old book I found, excitedly showed it to you and you… hit me and set the book on fire. You called me an idiot! You told me that the dead city is cursed and the stuff down there was to be left alone. I thought that this was just a game. I thought that what I had found wasn’t good enough. I refused to listen to the ‘new you’. I went back… again and again. I brought you more ancient artifacts and you kept on destroying them and hitting me! I just wanted you to… care for me again!” I cried. “I just wanted you to bloody love me again!”

My inescapable, wieldy truth smashed into Arianna like a one thousand ton hammer. She shattered then, broke down completely.

She shuddered.

“I’m… sorry Ash!” She uttered shakily. The dam broke, tears now freely running from her eyes. “I’m so sorry! I forgot… I forgot you! I forgot why… forgot that I personally sent you into the dead city!”

For the first time in six years Arianna apologized... acted nice to me. I had nearly forgotten it myself, didn’t consider to think of the day when our friendly mentorship inexplicably turned into malevolent hatred six years ago.

“Please forgive me,” she whimpered. “I’m… such an idiot.”

“Hug me, back, idiot,” I ordered and she obeyed.

She finally hugged me. It felt amazing, even if we were both wearing armour.

I did it. I finally freaking did it! I won back my first teacher, older sister and first real friend, clawed her back from this shitty, monstrous universe.

All I had to do was bring down the Magisterium! How ironic.

“Call me your hero,” I said with a soft smile. “Just like you used to.”

“M-my hero,” Arianna mewled.

I giggled. Victory really was mine and I was drowning in its accolades. Universe: 0 Ash: 1.

A weak field of serenity reached out to me from the back, softly probing the edges of my consciousness.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Celes muttered with a gravelly voice, akin to paper rubbing on paper

Arianna instantly let go of me, her face turning red. I wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. My kitsune was back! I spun to face her. Celes didn’t look too amazing. She had the appearance of a ossified body that’s been dead for a while, akin to a walking, slouched zombie held up by invisible strings.

“Celly!” I yelled excitedly.

Dark, pure black, sunken eyes looked at me and Arianna.

“You’ve changed…” She rasped, not sounding quite human.

“For the better, I hope!” I wiggled my eyebrows.

“You’re starting to smell… dangerous,” she said. “Like a very dangerous creature of the deep… one that controls others.”

“Ouchies. Big burn there.” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m a Queen bee now. So what?”

“Will you enslave me too?” the Tardigrada asked. “Bind me to your will?”

“Erm,” Arianna grabbed at her celesteel sword. “Be careful, Ash… I can smell that it's fully awake now. It smells dangerous… hungry.”

I slumped a little at her words. “Are you still in there, Celly… or is it all Tardigrada now? You still remember me, right?”

The black-eyed kitsune nodded. “I remember enough. I am the dreamer that dreams of Celes Rada.”

“You don’t sound very Celes-y,” I sighed nervously, pulling back my sleeve. “Eat some of my blood, you'll feel better.”

The kitsune eyed my exposed wrist. “I am hungry… but if I eat, I shall sleep again. Before I return to my slumber, I wish to speak with your dreamer. One ancient to another. Tardigrada to Pharmacist.”

I snapped my finger and a silver shimmer formed over my body, the Pharmacists’ ghost intersecting over me. “Yes?”

“The old human named Clint,” the Tardigrada spoke. “He said that your kind had blackened the land, consumed forests without remorse, befouled the air and poisoned the oceans. Is this true?”

“It is.” I nodded. “Our civilization was not without sin.”

“You are dangerous, then,” she concluded.

“I am.” I shrugged. “I do not deny that. So are you.”

“Wrong.” The fourteen-thousand years old creature shook her head. “I don’t seek to change the world, Pharmacist. I exist, I dream, I follow the path predetermined to me by my current host.”

“There is no path. Predestination is bullshit,” I asserted.

“Just because you cannot see your path it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist,” the Tardigrada rasped.

“What is the path? Is it the path of least resistance?” I inquired, starting to get irate. “The path of making the most powerful Immortal Enforcer think that you’re his friend? Was Celes ever my friend? Was Celes real? Who is Celes Rada?”

“Celes Rada is a dream I wove from a fox and the remains of a six year old human girl,” the Tardigrada replied, answering my questions in reverse. “She is as real as you are. She is your… friend. She bound Han Sempiter to herself using my power of deception to survive longer. The path is wherever the dream leads. All dreams end and then I wake up to weave something new from available… materials.”

“Listen up, Nameless Dreamer,” I said. “I’m not going to let the dream of Celes Rada end. I'm not going to let her go.”

“Oh, really?” The Dreamer made a noise akin to a dying bird, which I presumed was laughter.

“Really,” I asserted.

“You told the Guilders that you do not hunger for power, yet you keep binding others to your will. I saw the injured in the tent, heard their complaints. You attacked them, cut off their appendages and forced them into obedience.”

“Jesus Christ! Stop judging, me, okay? I just want people to leave me alone so I can have a nice, peaceful life with my friends. So that I can explore, study and help people slowly and carefully! But, no… Clint wants to murder me. The entire freaking cult wants to murder me. The Stormweavers want to murder me! I didn’t start this war, but I will finish it! No matter what it takes!” I yelled. “Go the fuck back to sleep! I want my Celes! I’m not going to enslave her or you, okay? I’ll make her my fiancée, equal to me in power!” I barked. “Just like Arianna here!”

“Hey what?” Arianna rumbled, pointing her sword at the kitsune zombie. “Surely, you can’t be serious? You’re going to share all of the power we’ve gained… with this… thing?”