Brilliant sunlight awoke me. I groggily yawned and realized that for the first time in my life I didn’t dream about the city of the dead or its faceless denizens. The long dead and forgotten didn’t haunt my dreams, didn’t loom over me, call out to me or judge me. Instead I dreamt about Celes. I dreamt about how Alex and Arianna brought down the almighty High-Inquisitor with the Magistrate’s art of cutting away memories. How they had done the same thing to the rest of the old or stubborn Inquisitors, erasing their memories to wind them backwards to a time when they were just teenagers with dreams of wealth, power and hopes for a better future. How Arianna had bound all of them to herself throughout the night.

I blinked and swung my arms. “That butt!”

“Yarwngh?” Celes opened a golden eye as I accidentally smacked her.

“Whoops, sorry,” I apologized and immediately proceeded to nuzzle back into her.

“Morning Ashy,” she muttered. “Who did what now?”

“Arianna stayed awake all night to bind the Inquisitors to herself,” I muttered.

“I see.” Celes yawned.

“She’s bloody dedicated when it comes to binding people to her will,” I said. “I mean on one hand I understand the necessity to increase our numbers, but on the other hand… completely undoing who they were, erasing hundred of years of their life is almost akin to murder. At least they might ‘grow up’ to become better people without the cult’s dogma.”

“Is she stronger than us then?” The kitsune asked curiously.

“Technically, no.” I shrugged. “Yes, she has an Immortal bound to herself… but I can pull out his Dantian through her just as easily as she can. Her, you and I… we’re the Queens of this hive. As long as she’s alive all of the people connected to her are ours to wield too. That reminds me, I need to find another level seven hundred beast core so that I can tether the Pharmacist to your brain. All of this talking is effort.”

“Is talking to me that hard?” Celes laughed.

“No,” I rolled my eyes. “But we could mentally exchange secrets to each other.”

“What kind of secrets?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, I haven’t thought this far ahead, okay?” I stretched. “Do you have any secrets?”

“You already know my greatest secret.” She lowered her eyes.

“Hmm yes. How is the Tardigrada, by the way? Can you still heal yourself if you drink my blood?”

“Yes.” Celes nodded. “Most of the functionality is still there for healing myself, as long as I remain conscious. I won’t be able to restore my mind if I die though. So, let’s not try to fight another Immortal.”

“Gotcha. No more fighting Immortals.” I smiled, watching her as she sat up on the bed. Colorful rays of light passed through the stained glass castle window casting a variety of colors onto her body.

As she looked back at me I saw that there were tears in her eyes.

“Uhm?” I made a noise of confusion.

“I… just realized it. I’m free! The Inquisition is now under our control, right?!”

I nodded.

“Thank you, Ashy!” Celes furiously hugged me. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me!”

“Hey! I couldn't have done it without you.” I shook my head. “You fought the High-Inquisitor yourself. If it wasn't for you distracting and suspending him in time, I wouldn't be able to pull an archangel through him.”

“I don’t think you understand it, Ashy. I might be the first geisha in the Gold city to escape the cult!”

“We did it together, Celly,” I said. “If you never ran into me with that beast core none of this would have happened.”

She nodded, crying tears of joy.

“Besides, you became free the moment you got engaged to me,” I commented. “Even if the High-Administrator ignores the letter of amnesty - the hunters will never be able to find you by your Dantian. Geisha Rada no longer exists.”

Celes smiled.

“We’ll have to change your look to complete your freedom,” I commented.

“Hrm?” My kitsune fiancee glanced at me.

“Your black mane is way too recognizable. Let's make you into a red fox!” I grinned.

It took about an hour of Celes keeping her hair inside of Ludj’s hands to burn the pure black color out of it. I had grown up with permanently damaged hair thanks to a servitor holding me down, so I was quite painfully aware that servitors were able to burn melanin out of human hair. It took another hour to paint her silver hair red with the natural ingredients from the kitchen. It wasn’t perfect, but at a glance she looked like a completely different foxkin with a variety of brown, orange and dark red patterns in her hair. I also painted tattoos onto her face with the henna, to make her look like an exotic cultivator from some far away city instead of a geisha.

While the henna and the colors set in I mentally planned out my resources. I still had a ton of extremely weak beast cores. I sent all of the Guilders back to their Guilds with orders to prepare for my arrival. The families of the garrison men arrived at the Citadel. I left management of their residence up to the Captain. Arianna had tied all of them to herself as well with Dantian oaths.

By afternoon, Celes and I met a very tired looking Arianna in the armory cavern. She glanced at me and then at the redhead Celes and simply shook her head.

"I see someone's been busy all night and morning," I commented on the dark circles under her eyes.

She nodded tiredly.

"It's not a race, you know," I said.

"It is a race," she replied. "The Deathstorm Ward will fall soon and the Barony needs to be secured with as many dedicated people as possible."

"You should probably get some sleep,” I said.

Arianna shook her head.

"Well, Celes and I are going out into the city to…" I started to speak.

"I'm coming with you," Arianna declared.

"Why?"

"Don't want to miss out on anything you do," she said. "I don't know what you're planning, but I want to be in on it."

"Fine, I'll have Ludj carry you if you pass out." I sighed.

“I’m not going to pass out, Ash.” She scoffed. “I can keep pulling Dantians from my new thralls to reinforce the focus-hexagram.”

“Aight,” I shrugged. “Don’t overdo it.”

"What are we planning to do?" Celes asked as we boarded the Citadel’s flying whale.

"I'm planning to have a nice day out," I replied. "I'm tired of either of us almost dying. We’ll go visit a couple of Guilds, look around, maybe talk business. Have a relaxing time. Easy, peasy."

I downed another tonic provided by Alchemist Kane as I slumped down onto the leather seat. My ribs were still hurting like a bitch. Celes softly sang for me, keeping a hand on my chest as the whale took off from the mountain heading towards the city. The Alchemist's tonic plus her song dulled the pain quite nicely.

All three of us were wearing nice flowery robes, and sets of ruby jewelry. I didn't wear full-body-covering celesteel because I didn't want to stand out. Today we weren’t the conquering lords of the city - we were simply three girls out to enjoy the town.

Arianna squinted at me. She did not believe that I was simply going out on a relaxing trip. Undoubtedly, she suspected that I would explode and then forcefully subjugate half of the Gold city or something.

"Honestly, I’m not exploding anything today!” I told her.

“A hundred beast cores in your pockets and even more in her bag are telling me otherwise,” she commented, glancing at the red-haired kitsune.

“Those are my snack packs,” I joked.

“Snack packs?”

“You know, for snacking on… if I need the extra Qi on the go.” I wiggled my eyebrows at the highborn.

Celes started to snicker as Arianna’s intense gaze bore into me.

“That reminds me - both of you need to get used to your new names,” I said.

“New names?” Arianna’s brain was definitely sleep-addled today.

“From this point on we’re going full incognito. I’m Alexa Storm, a simple girl who dreams of being an Adventurer wizard,” I pointed out.

“Ah, right.” Arianne yawned. “What’s a wizard?”

“Argh, nobody here knows what a wizard is. Oh, I know… Adventurer scout,” I declared.

Arianna rolled her eyes.

I looked her over. “Your new name is… Kittia Cutodia or Kitty for short.”

“I see that you’re still using that dumb nickname. Do I not get to pick my own name?” She grumbled.

“No, because you’re a bad girl who’s hoarded all of the Inquisitors to herself,” I said with a wink. “Didn’t even leave a single squadron for poor, starving Ash.”

“You’re not starving anymore, Baroness. Also, what if I don’t like it?” She huffed, not even bothering to argue about devouring all of the Inquisition squadrons by her lonesome.

“Too bad. It’s already been arranged,” I noted.

“Arranged with whom?” She asked exasperatedly.

“You’ll see.” I winked.

“Well, I think it’s ‘cute’.” Celes smiled. “Ohh… what’s my new name?”

I looked her over and theatrically rubbed my chin. “Eternia Stellaris! Short is Terny.”

“See? She’s used parts of our song names to put these together,” Celes commented.

“Very creative,” Arianne deadpanned.

“Kitty, meet Terny! Feel free to come up with your own backstories.” I smiled.

Arianna sighed.

“Hi Kitty!” Celes giggled. “I’m Eternia Stellaris, a bard from the City of Eternal Flames!”

“I’m too tired for this bullshit right now,” Arianna rubbed her face with both of her hands.

“Have a nap?” I offered.

“I’ll pass,” she grumbled, suppressing a yawn.

I shrugged and drained another beast core to strengthen and expand the Pharmacist’s info-net. Keeping track of nearly two hundred people via their Dantians was hard and this number would only grow in the future.

“Kittia Cutodia,” Arianne quietly whispered to herself, memorising her new name. I could tell that she didn’t mind it that much by the smallest hint of a smirk on her face. She was definitely making a fuss over it just to show me that she wasn’t a pushover.

Our ghostly whale descended onto one of the many landing platforms above a massive, sprawling complex of rotund buildings topped with hundreds of colorful flags depicting various beasts.

“The Adventurers Guild?” Arianna nearly tripped on the stairwell as we descended.

“Yeppers,” I nodded. “We’re going to get our little team officiated!”

“Ah, Lady Storm, Cutodia and Stellaris!” Emerald Glimmer emerged from the stairwell and bowed. “I got your letter. Excellent timing! Your plates are waiting for you in the evaluation hall, follow me.”

I idly noted that this wasn’t the same Emerald that said the oath to me last night. This was a separate Emerald. Did she have a twin sister with the same name or could she really duplicate herself somehow?

“Plates? What?” Arianna inquired.

“I notified the Secretary this morning that we would drop by to join her Guild,” I grinned.

“I’m the first one in my field to change professions!” Celes declared merrily.

“I see,” the highborn sighed. “Both of you were in on this?”

“Yes.” the kitsune nodded. “I had Knipz mail the letter. Isn’t this exciting?”

Celes jiggered with all the excitement of a girl going to an amusement park. The big grin on my face outshone the frown Arianna wore. She would get with the program soon or we’d have to further educate her on how to have F-U-N!

The evaluation hall was an enormous circular castle-style room. About thirty Adventurers were milling around the room. I saw my portrait on the [jobs available] wall.

[What do the words beneath my poster say?] I grabbed Arianna’s arm nodding in the direction of the portrait.

[1000 Gold : Ash Sparks - dead.] She replied.

[Fantastic. Gaika was right, the price is going up. I’m already worth a thousand gold.]

[You best hope none of these idiots recognize you under all that makeup.]

[Would you relax? It’ll be fine. I got a scarf on.] I waved her worries away, pointing at a fluffy, yellow-orange scarf that covered the bottom half of my face. [Emerald works for us. One of them anyway. We’ll get this other one on board in no time at all, I’m certain.]

I scanned the crowd of Adventurers. They had various levels, servitors and misc deadly skills. The most dangerous man in the room was Tasman Hastiglia, a Level 92 Hunter and Level 81 Inquisitor.

I frowned a little, mentally sending his data to Arianna.

[There are a lot of Inquisitors out in the city,] she commented. [We only got the seven strike-squadrons. The Temple of Inquiry is big.]

“Place your hand down onto the evaluation orb,” Emerald said as she stepped behind the desk.

“I’m planning to get engaged tonight, is that going to be a problem?” I asked, placing my hand on the evaluation orb.

“Hrm,” The Guild Secretary glanced at me, twitching a little. “Normally, when someone gets engaged, they have to come to the hall to get their plate updated. I prepared premium artifact plates for you. They’re three hundred gold, each.”

I placed a small bag full of beast cores on her table. “Do you accept beast cores?”

“Thank you for your purchase.” The bag emptied faster than I could take several breaths. “The information on your premium plates will be updated automatically… no matter how many people you’ll get… um.. engaged to.”

“These aren’t tracked in any way, right?” I asked.

“Adventurers get lost in the catacombs pretty often,” the Secretary said. “The cheaper plates are constantly being tracked. However, these premium plates are generally used by free-range, deep-dive explorers. They are not tracked in any manner from our side. If you require assistance, you only need to push Qi into the central crystal broadcasting the words ‘HELP + GOLD AMOUNT’. The reward in gold and a job notice will go up on the board for your rescue, listing your last location. If you offer a good amount of gold it won’t take very long for a rescue team to be sent out.”

[Is she being honest?] I glanced at Arianna, grabbing her hand.

[Yep.] My fiancee nodded.

“These plates are recognized as identity documents by the other Guilds?” I observed as the Secretary laid three plates out for us. They already had the three names: Alexa Storm, Kittia Cutodia and Eternia Stellaris embossed on the front.

“Correct, my lady.” Emerald nodded. “The gemstone cores in these plates are clean. Simply claim them as your own and they will respond to you. Your star-rank and skills will be displayed on the plates in silver text upon activation.”

“What about my other… request?” I inquired as I picked up my shiny metal card, observing the tiny, polished beast core in its center.

[What did you ask for?] Arianna yawned as she picked up her plate.

[I wanted full access to the Adventurers Guild as High-Administrator, skeleton keys to every building, and Dantian oaths from all of the Guild’s employees if possible.]

[Sounds reasonable.] She mentally nodded.

“I’m this Guild’s sole employee and I can show you around if you’d like.” Emerald smiled. “Alas, I’m just a Secretary. Lord Agatius Kominsky is the one who owns the Adventurers Guild. You’ll have to meet with him, personally, if you wish to discuss… your other requests.”

“Arrange us a meeting, as soon as possible,” I said.

[She’s lying. Ash, she is lying about Lord Agatius!] Arianna practically yelled into my mind, squeezing my hand.

“I have already sent him a request for a meeting.” The Secretary nodded. “He does not leave the safety of his estate. You can dine with him… tonight.”

[Ash! Do we not have her oath?! She just lied again. She’s not supposed to lie to us! What’s happening?] Arianna’s panicked voice bounced around my head.

[No. I only had a single copy of her bound. It just fell apart! The Dantian’s… gone. It’s like she’s never existed to begin with.] I sent back, panicking.

[What?!] Arianna gasped.

I looked at Emerald Glimmer with my Qi-sight, consuming one of the orbs in my pocket to magnify the focus of my scan. Information fractals folded and unfolded, presenting something entirely unexpected to me.

[She’s not human, Ari!] I sent. [I made a mistake. The copy we bound last night with an oath was showing up as a human girl!]

I showed exactly what I was seeing to my fiancee.

[Emerald Glimmer] [Adventurers Guild Secretary LV 2]

[Webmesh simulacrum silkworm nest 396] - [Age - 2.12 years old]

[Concealment LV 86]

[Qi-ssing hells!] Arianna swore.

[Yeah, she underestimated my scanning art or she is not afraid to show me what she is! I’m not sure. This is a relatively new copy.] I sent back. [She was showing up as a human yesterday. Don’t make any sudden moves. This might be a trap.]

Forty seven Emerald Glimmers stepped out of the doors bearing steel arbalests. All of them were webmesh duplicates of various levels. A few of them read as ‘humans’ - my scanning power wasn’t strong enough to break through their concealment bullshit.

Celes tensed up, gold eyes jumping from one Secretary to another.

“God damn it! Can I not have one nice day?” I growled.