“Apologies for the interruption of your rest. A Reaper wishes to talk to you, ladies.” Sylver’s voice resounded from a cleverly-disguised voice-transmitting pipe that was pointed my way from the wall. “Says his name is Niels and he has a letter from the Magistrate to Arianna Manning?”

“Yeah, let him in,” I replied.

The heavy wooden door opened and Avidius slid inside.

“What is it, Copperpenny?” Arianna inquired.

Avidius handed her a small yellow box with the Magistrate's seal on it. Arianna tapped it with her ring and the box unlocked itself for her. She quickly scanned the contents of the letter and threw it into the fire that was roaring in the enormous fireplace behind us.

“So? What does your granddaddy think?” I curiously inquired.

“I’m in trouble for not letting him know about my plans,” Arianna spoke with a deep sigh. “But on the other hand he is praising my brilliance.”

“Excellent. We don’t have to blow up the Magistrate’s office,” I smiled.

“How would you even…” Arianna looked my way.

I tapped the beast core in my pocket.

“I see.” She nodded darkly. I wondered if she was aware how dangerously explosive beast cores were. Surely if a hungry orphan figured out how to blow up rocks, so did her teacher.

Avidius glanced at Arianna's new haircut with a small frown. “What happened to your hair?”

“She walked into a Gardener spirit,” I replied before Arianna even opened her mouth.

“She walked… into a Gardener spirit?” Copperpenny inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah. I was asleep at the time,” I added. “Had nothing to do with it. It was entirely your own fault, right Arianna?”

The redhead glared daggers at me and nodded at her bodyguard.

“I see,” Avidius squinted at us, not quite believing my explanation.

“You may go now. Stay behind the door, I’ll be fine.” Arianna waved Avidius away before he asked any more embarrassing questions.

“Are you ready for lunch? All you can eat sushi buffet is ready,” Sylver’s voice echoed from the copper pipe.

“Bring it in,” I replied. Chief Sylver obviously didn’t use the word “sushi” but my brain had approximated it to sushi since it basically meant various-finely-sliced-fish-meats.

. . .

This was the best meal I had ever had in both of my lifetimes - the table was practically bursting with endless varieties of fish wrapped in a variety of colorful dry weeds with the addition of rice, fruits and vegetables. Gold rice was a big staple in the Gold city - the mountainous terrain of the shell of Lord Boundless and servitor labour allowed for the maintenance of many rice fields upon the jaggery ridges.

“Did you know that gold rice was created by the ancients?” I asked Arianna.

She shook her head.

“It was made with genetic engineering to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A,” I said.

“Genetic engineering? Biosynthesize? Beta-carotene? Vitamin A?” Arianna looked at me. “Explain.”

“The ancients didn’t have Qi, they couldn't heal or repair their bodies like us,” I began. “Vitamin A is an essential component the human body needs. Its deficiency in food caused blindness. A thousand years ago people figured out how to put Vitamin A into rice. This rice -'' I pointed at one of the rice balls. “- Is the product of an eight-year-long project by plant cultivator Ingo Potrykus, aided by hundreds-year-old institutions of ETH Zurich and University of Freiburg.”

“Damn,” she whistled. “So what you’re saying is… ancient humans were a lot more fragile than us?”

“Indeed, even the strongest ancient in the world would not be able to compete with the healing factor or the absurd strength of a cultivator.”

Arianna smirked, with a look of superiority.

“Don’t look so smug,” I told her. “You might be healthier and stronger than the average ancient thanks to cultivation... However, even the average sixteen-year-old schoolgirl who lived a thousand year ago knew more information about the natural laws of the universe than the smartest Alchemist in the Gold city. Commoner teenagers knew mathematics better than the wisest Merchant. A lot of ancient nations and cities had ninety-nine percent literacy.”

“Ninety… nine percent literacy?!” Arianna gaped. “But… how?!”

“They were doing the same thing you were Arianna - uplifting children through focused education regardless of social class or wealth, except on a planet-wide scale.”

“My gods,” the highborn gasped. “I was right.”

“Yes, you were right Arianna.” I nodded. “This is why I’m trusting you with this information. This is why I didn’t kill you when I had the chance. In a way I’m incredibly thankful to you for your education, even though you were rather heartless and cruel at times. Without you I would probably be dead now, not sitting in this fancy chair that’s too big for my ass about to demand things from twelve of the most powerful people in this city.”

Arianna’s face darkened. She didn’t like that she wasn’t in charge.

“We have six days,” I said. “Six days to reorganize the city, to learn as much as possible and to bridge as many connections as possible between us and the Guilds. To bind us and them together for one cause so tightly that they would not be able to separate afterwards. The ancients knew that real power wasn’t brute strength - it's all about knowledge, contracts and the ability to wield both together. It’s all about unbreakable connections and laying a foundation for the future in which everyone benefits.”

The ginger highborn nodded.

“This concerns you too, Sylver.” I spoke at the pipe. “I know that you’re listening. I know that you’re young and ambitious, just like us. When this is over, if we all manage to survive the Stormweavers, the Chefs Guild will likely replace the Barbers in its position of power.”

“Yes... my lady,” Sylver answered from the pipe after a bit of a pause.

. . .

Twelve Guild Heads sat around Arianna and me, looking at us from across the gilded, polished dark wood table.

“So, Vox Populi,” Jovius Macaria began, staring me down with his pale-gray eyes. “How can we aid your goal of protecting our fair city?”

“I need all of your overseers and employees to know who I am,” I said. “This goes for all of your businesses - I will be personally visiting your warehouses.”

“Whatever for, my dear archangel-touched girl?” The head of the merchants inquired.

“The arcane power in my head needs to know what resources to operate with,” I explained. “We’ve been relying on high-cultivators to protect us for all of these years and what have we got? Countless businesses and homes burned down, thousands dead. We won’t succeed if we do the same thing over and over, Jovius. I am not an omnipotent high-cultivator. I am a thinker, a planner. I need to know as much as possible to formulate a multi-tier defence and offence strategy.”

“How do I know you won’t sell the information you’ve gained say… to the Thieves Guild? You’re after all, their member, are you not?” The Head of the merchants pressed.

“I hereby renounce my Thieves Guild membership,” I said. “The Magistrate will pay my debt to Lady Lillian.”

Lady Lillian sputtered from her side of the table at this news. She didn’t expect for me to actually pay off my debt.

“Yes,” Arianna sighed, the emerald ring shimmering on her finger. “I’ll take care of it. As the acting emissary of the Magistrates’ Office I’m here to monitor our Vox Populi and make sure that Lady Sparks acts only in the best interests of our city and does not give advantage to one of you.”

“You… you were my gang leader… and you’ve turned out to be the Magistrate’s granddaughter.” Lillian hissed.

“Just a side job for fun,” Arianna explained calmly, ignoring the old woman’s fury. “Surely the Hand gang didn’t hurt your esteemed business? What complaints do you have?”

Lady Lillian gritted her teeth.

“Thirty seven orphans,” I noted. “The Magistrates’ office will be buying out all of their memberships, so that there is no conflict of interest. We want a group discount rate.”

“You dare ask for a discount?” Lady Lillian barked.

“Do NOT forget your place, Violet,” I spoke coldly, the dark echoes of death dancing in my eyes. “You are in the presence of the Archangel-touched! Do you really want to question the will of our Lord? Do you really want to argue over the cost of a few, weak orphans when our entire city is about to burn?”

Eyes of the other Guild Heads bore a hole in her face.

“Fine, fine. A group discount.” Lady Lillian backtracked.

“Thank you,” I noted.

“Now, getting back to what I require - me and my field Captain Sylver,” I nodded at Sylver Kenn who was standing at my side now. “We will need Qi-signed papers from all of you that will allow us to coordinate the defence effort. Name us whatever you want - temporary Administrators or whatever.”

“What exactly do you plan to do?” Jovius inquired. “Can you give me an example?”

“The arcane soul within my mind gives me knowledge of many things and their interactions,” I said. “Knowledge completely unknown to the cultivators. I can make deadly tools with mundane things - weapons that do not require the use of Qi.”

The room fell completely silent at that. I had their attention now.

“I see you do understand what this means, ladies and gentlemen,” I said darkly. “Even a sixteen-year-old-girl with barely any Qi will be able to use one of these weapons to take down a cultivator. I personally killed an Efficacious Rat-King with one.”

“An Efficacious Rat-King?! You killed a one-hundred-star beast?” The Adventurers Guild secretary muttered.

I nodded.

The eyes of Jovius lit up. Unlike the others he instantly understood the hidden meaning behind my words and what dangerous potential it held for the future. The mundane mortals could use the same weapons to overthrow the rule of the cultivators. One by one, the other Guild Heads arrived at the same inescapable conclusion.

“I don’t understand… Explain. Are you going to make stronger bows? Some kind of potent projectile-thrower like that thing you’ve used at the lake?” The Adventurers Guild secretary asked. “Such a strategy has been tried before by us. The Stormweavers simply deflect arrows or rocks by manipulating superheated air currents.”

“None of that,” I shook my head. “As I understand it, the Stormweavers own the sky. We must confuse them, make them land and when they do - destroy them so utterly that they can never return to hurt us."

The Guilders nodded at that. They had all lost someone or something to the Stormweaver knights. They were all thirsty for revenge. I upped the ante.

“I’m going to need volunteers who are completely dedicated to the war effort against the sky-knights. Everyone else can hide underground so as to not get in the way.”

"We can indeed coordinate our partners and employees to contribute to this weapon construction and defence," Lady Lillian said. "But I know that it won't be enough. Everyone hates everyone too much - there is constant discord even between us thirteen."

“You are right - it won’t be enough to make weapons,” I said. “I will need complete, utter cooperation of the entire city for this to work. Every citizen of the Gold city must act as a finger of a single servitor in six days!" I declared resolutely.

“How can we possibly achieve such total coordination of the Gold city in mere six days?” Jovius inquired. “This is an impossible task. The people of our city are passionate, but they are unfortunately unwieldy and individualistic, especially ones who attained higher-cultivation status.”

"A mercantile contract," I said. "Surely you know how they work, being the glorious leader of the merchants?"

Jovius nodded. I saw the gears slowly shifting in his brain, his expression changing.

"We are going to design and implement the biggest mercantile contract anyone's ever created!" I declared. "One that lasts exactly seven days. One war-pact signed by every man, woman and child. Everyone who doesn't want to lose their family will be made part of this city-wide pact - one designed to share Qi."

The Guild heads stared at me, looking utterly stupefied.

“You know of a creature called the Efficacious Rat-King from the deep catacombs, yes?” I addressed the gathered men and women. “Mere dumb sewer rats that combine their Qi to become stronger together. One entity. One purpose. We’re smarter than some rats. I say we draft up a Qi contract to be shared between all citizens of the Gold city. Combine the Qi of the entire city, weaponise it for one pivotal moment - this way even the weak and old can contribute their meager strength to those who are standing at the front.”

"Holy Qi-ss," Arianna muttered, her eyes wide. She understood the scope of my rational optimization idea, knowing exactly how Qi that was taken from Celes and me tugged at her heart whenever she fought against it and resisted the power of friendship.

"You absolute nutter…" She exhaled. "This just might bloody work."