The only guilt I felt as I flashed my Tessen and decapitated Lord Chon was the mess the sprouting blood made of the room. But considering how vile and disgusting it already was, the metallic scent of freshly spilled blood was actually a relief. It covered the scent of unwashed bodies, piss, shit, and vomit.

"Did he have any anti-venom?" I asked Gwen.

"He does," she assured me, "but if you hope to save the few people still alive in the next room, it is too late."

"Why?" I demanded, my anger stoked by her words.

"She's right, it is too late," I heard the woman in the room behind me agree with Gwen. "Lord Chon has drained too much of our vitality, there is no way to restore it and remove the poisons in time."

"A healing pill should work," Yvonne suggested.

"If they were cultivators," I agreed, "but pills contain too much Qi. It is why potion makers are in such demand."

"Then a potion?" Yvonne wondered.

"It might work, if I had the spirit herbs," I said.

"Does the town have a herbalist or potion maker?" I asked Gwen.

"We do, but the potions won't work either.

"Lord Chon fed them daily tonics, as well as potions. They are only discarded once the potions stop working," she informed me.

"Why would they stop working?" Yvonne asked.

"The impurities the potions contain, mostly," I explained. "Even cultivators have to be careful when honing their bodies with pills. If they aren't able to expel the impurities, the impurities that accumulate with each pill they take, they reach a level where the pills become toxic. Non-cultivators have to process those impurities using the body's natural filtration organs; liver, spleen, and kidneys. They don't have techniques or medical balms that will accelerate the process.

"If the toxins and impurities have built up to the extent that the efficacy of potions and tonics are lost, the only recourse is to wait for the body to purge and clear itself of the impurities over time."

"Time, they don't have," Gwen pointed out.

"Why would he dispose of them like this then?" Yvonne demanded, "what point is there to allow them to suffer?"

"One last indignity, and one last punishment," the dying woman remarked. "The reason we were selected to begin with was that Lord Chon saw us as traitors or expendable. His actions were used to send a message to the remaining townspeople of what waited for those that would defy him."

A lesson that failed, because none of the townspeople knew he was the one kidnapping and killing the people. The whispering we had heard, the conversations among the citizens, made it clear they were afraid but weren't sure what to be afraid of.

"Sister," Storm said through our bond. She was safely flying within the confines of the torc, always choosing the inner world over my soul ocean whenever circumstance allowed. The times that she would need to merge and replenish within my inner world would lessen now that we had both advanced Realms.

"Send the woman here," she suggested, "these plants create purified cores. Maybe they would be able to heal her." It wasn't a bad idea. Perhaps if she ate one of the seedpods, that might help too. It wouldn't hurt to try; she was going to die if I did nothing.

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"Bring the dead too," Storm continued. "Food for the plants and trees."

Another good idea, even if it was a bit macabre. They were already dead, and if I moved them into the torc, it would save people the horror of cleaning up. Small comfort to the living, not to try to untangle that pile of corpses or wade through the gasses and fluids that were seeping from bodies already decomposing.

Storm's increase in intelligence and maturity had her on the cusp between childhood and adolescence. But she had genetic memories to call on. Memories that made her ideas and suggestions give her a sense of precociousness. There were flashes of insight, even genius, that were directly attributed to her ability to access those memories.

"Everyone out," I ordered, deciding to risk Storm's suggestion. I refused to let anyone know about the torc or the hidden world that it protected, even the people I was trying to heal would be kept in the dark.

If this worked, they would be healed, but never realize how that healing had happened or where it had taken place.

"Yvonne, can you find out where the town stone is located? I'll meet up with you in a few moments."

"What are you going to do?" She asked worriedly.

"These are my people now," I explained. "If I can't save them, the least they deserve is the grace and dignity of a clean death. No one deserves to suffer like this."

I knew she would assume that I was going to deliver the coup de grâce and put the woman and whoever else might be clinging to life in that room of horrors out of their misery. Even though I thought she and I were becoming friends, the torc and the plant inside was not a secret I was willing to share. It was too soon in our friendship to take that risk.

She, Gwen, and the serving men and women that had been attending Lord Chon left. Most running to escape the room now that they had the chance. Gwen's exit was more dignified, an exit, not an escape. But Yvonne dragged her feet, giving me pitying glances before finally closing the door behind her.

I worked quickly, activating the torc and tossing Lord Chon and the rest of the dead inside without caring where they landed. The forest would return them to earth without burial, and the few living animals that were now confined to the torc would avoid them, the stench of decay and wrongness permeating their carcasses.

They were carrion now, and nothing I had collected to seed the torc would feed on them.

The young woman wasn't the only one still clinging to life. There was another girl, barely past her majority, that continued to fight. Each breath a wheezing gasp. I took the time to blindfold both women. I could have applied pressure to their carotid artery to knock them out, but as close to death as each woman was, I didn't think it wise. Plus, I had bolts of cloth to use for blindfolds.

I grabbed both women by their wrists and enveloped them with my Qi, transferring the three of us within the torc. I had only explored this world with my Dharmic body, but the discovery of the dead cultivator demonstrated that I could enter using my physical body. The torc allowed it, but not without some discomfort.

There was a strange stutter in reality, as the physical parts of me pressed against the walls that defined the boundaries of this miniature world. The process wasn't painful, more a sense of vertigo. My Qi remained linked to the torc, so I had the impression of being inside myself. I would need to follow that Qi bridge when I was ready to leave, or I would be trapped within the torc forever.

"What are your names?" I asked as Storm arrived from wherever she had been.

"Pol," she answered, "and she is Gara."

"Pol. I am going to load you on Storms back. I'll need to tie you and Gara on, so you don't fall for the short flight we need to travel," I explained matching actions to word and lashing them together on to Storm. I could probably have carried them, but I was too new to my powers to take the chance when I didn't need to.

The flight to the cave was easily accomplished, although Pol did slip into unconsciousness. Once we arrived, Storm hopped inside. The woman jostled on her back, but safe. The plant had grown slightly since we'd first discovered it. The Qi that Storm shed naturally, as well as a few fecal deposits she left, had had a noticeable impact on the plant's growth.

I placed the women directly on the densest cluster of growth. Selecting one of the ripest pods, I withdrew my mortar and pestle to create a mash. I included the core when I began grinding, thinking that the purity of the core may replace the Qi they had sacrificed without killing them as a pill would.

My efforts were met with some success. The effects were not miraculous; they weren't healed instantly. But there were small changes, enough to give me hope that the mash of plant and core was working.

I decided to name the plant Golden Lodoicea, for its unique coloring and its unique abilities. The power to filter Qi and impurities was profound. The changes to Alchemy would be seismic. I planned on experimenting, to see exactly what changes this ingredient would make in the pills I could produce.

The cores that the plant protected were unique, but it was the plant's ability to filter out impurities that would be a real gift to the world.