Dinner was even better than lunch. I decided to live at this restaurant forever, expenses be damned. It’s not like I was paying for anything anyway - Arianna was the one covering the bills. I had no money to my name and the overpriced beast core in my pocket didn’t count - I was saving that one for an emergency.

I swallowed another tantalizing squid-slice, sipping my wine. Neither the squid nor the wine were anything like I had expected them to. Firstly, they were beyond delicious, and secondly, both were filled with absurd amounts of Qi which made my reload rate skyrocket.

I suddenly understood why this stuff was the best and most expensive - the food and wine came from the deep levels of Lord Boundless. They were extra irradiated with Qi. These delicacies were probably extremely hard to obtain, but they were totally worth it in terms of flavor and magical sustenance.

The Qi-rich food and drink made my Dantian tingle in all sorts of unexpected places. Even without the radiance of Celes I was approaching the absolute state of happiness and bliss - my body loved, craved this food and rejoiced at getting all the Qi out of it. Truly this was nothing like the vegetables or fruits that I stole from the market, or even the compound food ordered by Celes!

“Yeesh, how much Qi is in this friggin wine?” I asked nobody in particular, pushing Qi into my eyes. The wine in my glass flashed with brilliant, blinding, pink and purple radiance. Damn.

[Arachnia-Loxx Wine LV 402]

Okay?

That didn’t tell me anything other than it was VERY potent. I squinted harder at the wine, folding and unfolding the information fractals.

[Primary weapon - Pheromone of: Trust / Happiness]

Uhhh. Thanks, magic sight. If I was understanding what the System was telling me, this wine was making the people who drank it more trusting and happy. Well, well, well. Did Sylver give us this wine so that we could be more honest with each other? Or was he listening in on our conversation via the food ordering pipe trying to learn my secrets?

I did indeed feel very happy. It was time to confirm my other hypothesis.

“Arianna,” I spoke as I looked at the ginger girl who was well into her fourth glass of wine. “What’s your biggest secret?”

“Uhhh…” the princess stilled for just a moment. Then she stuffed a big orange into the order pipe and slid her chair closer to mine. “Why do you want to know?”

“Secrets are good for bonding between friends.” I grinned, leaning towards her. “Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.”

“Hrmmm,” She pursed her lips. “I don’t know if this is a fair trade. I’m a scion and you’re a mere…”

“I’m a thousand-year-old soul, girl!” I squinted at her. “If you call me a mere-street-rat in front of this fine, incredibly overpriced food I’ll be VERY irate with you. In fact, I’m offering two secrets for the price of one over here! You should be excited about the prospect of getting the better deal from us!” I jabbed her in the side with my finger.

“So… Erk!” Arianna twitched, interrupted by the poke.

“Wait… are you ticklish? Don’t tell me that’s your greatest secret!” I jabbed her in the side again.

“Eeeek!” She yelped. “Would you stop that?!”

“I’m the greatest deducer in this land of cultivation-Oz,” I declared jovially, poking her again.

The result was spectacular. She nearly spilled her wine. I had found her greatest weakness! My fingers turned into a predator’s claws aimed at her sides.

“Nooooo! Eeek! Ahah ah aha ha ha! Okay, okay, you win! Please don’t bloody tickle me!” She begged. She actually managed to spill her glass of wine on the front of her dress this time.

“Aha! I knew it. Bow before my deduction prowess.” I grinned, releasing her. This? I was afraid of this adorable, easily defeated kitten my entire life? I nearly slapped myself for being such a tit right then and there.

Arianna huffed at me. She looked way too damn cute.

“One secret please,” I entreated. “Lest I unleash my full arcane powers... of tickling.”

The princess sighed dramatically. “Fine, only if you stop this childish foolishness.”

I nodded. I knew that I wasn’t going to stop. The Pharmacist’s childhood had fallen through the cracks of being dead for ten centuries and Ash had no childhood or teenhood for that matter, thanks to the Stormweavers and a certain bossy jerk that was huffing in front of me.

She leaned towards my ear. “Here's my secret - the things I’ve done to you, my father and my high-cultivator teachers did to me. It hurt. Some of it really hurt… I’m…. I…”

I looked at her. There was almost a hint of tears in her eyes, the apology almost came out of her.

“...I became stronger, tougher because of it. I became unbreakable,” she resumed, her voice growing cold and noble. “I hurt you because I wanted you to be as tough and as strong as I. I wanted my gang to be tenacious, united, cooperating as one, to be able to face all sorts of high-cultivators in the future. You’ve ruined seven years of my work, Sparks. You’ve embarrassed me in front of everyone! I really hate you for this.”

I blinked, digesting her thoughts. She was honest, brutally, painfully so.

“Happy?” She whispered.

“No! I’m not happy, you asshole,” I replied. “Your family’s teaching methods are shit and so are yours. This brutal, marine-style, abusive training is meant for grown adults at best, not starved, scrawny nine-year-old girls!"

My whisper rose another octave. "I don’t know who taught you that you can replace love with pain, but it doesn’t work. People don’t work like you think they do.”

“Is that so?” she hissed the question. “Even with your thousand-year-old knowledge, you don’t know the secrets of my world. What was done to me… what I did to you. It was for a purpose.”

“A purpose that perpetuates pain and abuse needlessly,” I shot back. “Some people… crack under the pressure, shatter without support.”

“Then maybe that’s their fault.” She leaned away, her arms wrapped around her chest. “If they can’t handle the pressure, they were weak and meant to fall anyway. Only the strong can endure and rise. Clearly, you’re strong, Ash... even if ridiculous and filled with misaligned ideologies of that ancient servitor in your head!”

I shook my head and pointed at the side of my forehead, at the silver, crystalline cracks in my skull where my hair didn’t grow. “The Pharmacist is filling in the parts of the brain damage I sustained because you wouldn't help me when I needed you most. I used to fear and despise you, but now I see you for what you are - just a kitten that’s been hurt and is hiding her pain behind a facade of bullshit highborn stoicism.”

I hit the nail on its head. Arianna squinted at me, trembling ever so slightly.

“For someone with ancient wisdom, you come across as a prattling idiot. You know nothing, Sparks.” She looked away from me vehemently, her arms falling to her sides, visibly shaking.

I looked at her arms with my Qi filled eyes and I saw scars. Hundreds of them, layered over each other, covered up with healing again and again.

Damnation!

She really was just like me, except she had access to the best Surgeon Barbers of the gold city. I wore my scars on the outside but hers were hidden beneath a veneer of false, perfect skin grown by some talented Barber-healer, perhaps Clint himself.

“Shit, oh… shit... I’m sorry.” I looked at her arms and neck. I had never paid attention, never looked at her skin that close-up directly for that long. Also, I wasn’t as good at scanning people just a week ago.

[Primary weapon upgrade - Scanning elevated to - LV 9] The System notified me somewhere in the back of my mind.

“What… huh?” Arianna asked, not understanding, her anger simmering slightly.

“I can see your scars with... my new art. What’s this one?” I pointed at a particularly grimy, slit-shaped flickering gash on the aura of her palm. Thanks to the growth of my ‘scanning’ ability I could now see aura in far, far greater detail. More patterns had revealed themselves than could possibly fit into the space. It was like I was observing an entire planet worth of detail within her Dantian.

“Oh.” Arianna’s eyelashes fluttered and her words came out slowly, as if in a daze, like someone slipping away from bad memories. “...that’s the Kiss of Celesteel. Father said I needed to endure it as long as possible. He stabbed me right through the hand with the knife he gifted me. I didn’t last that long.”

“Is that why you delayed giving me the healing tonic?” I asked. “Or did you really want me to die? ”

“I… uhh,” Arianna tried to stall but the potent lips-opening, trust-wine worked its magic. “I… wanted to... I know that the Kiss takes a day to kill a person. I planned to come back to the temple in the morning.”

“You twat,” I muttered.

“I am, what’s it to you,” she admitted. At least she realised that what she did was wrong.

“Are you going to kill me again if given the opportunity?” I demanded.

“I didn’t kill you, Ash! I wasn’t going to kill you!” She shook her ginger hair. “You’re one of my fingers! I’d never cut off one of my fingers. I just wanted to teach you a lesson, make you obey me! You never listen to me! You constantly lie to me, avoid responsibilities, run away and hide in the cursed city!”

“I won’t lie to you anymore,” I said. “I won’t run away from responsibilities.”

Arianna inhaled and blinked, not believing her nose. “Really? You mean it?”

“Really. I mean it. Sniff harder if you want. Remember what I said at the Bell lake cavern to Violet Lillian? Old Ash is dead. She died the moment I inhaled the Pharmacist’s ghost. Long live the new, honest, responsible Ash!” I made a British-Queen joke and realised that Arianna wouldn't get it. Oh well.

“Oh.” Arianna rubbed the back of her head.

“Are you going to apologize or something?” I raised an eyebrow. “Surprise! One of your fingers cut itself off and is now a hideous unrecognizable zombie, returned to haunt you!”

“You’re not unrecognizable damn it. You’re still Ash Sparks, still full of the same stupid humour,” Arianna insisted.

“Do I have to tickle that apology out of you?” I threatened.

“I… I don’t know how to apologize, damn it!” Arianna growled. “It’s been beaten out of me! Nobles aren’t taught to apologize to lowborn…"

“Zip! Zip it!” I growled back. “I’m an ancient Nigerian prince with 94 billion gold bars buried in the dead city for all you know!”

“Are you?” The real, non-spam email princess inquired.

“No,” I confessed. “But my arcane knowledge is worth far more wealth than you can even begin to imagine. I know where the banks are buried in the city. I could find a lot of gold if I had the time..."

Arianna's eyes lit up with greed.

"Gold isn't even that important," I added with a somber pause. "I know how to build a weapon that doesn’t require Qi that could vaporize the entire Gold city in a single heartbeat.”

As I spoke these words to her, I pictured the Beirut explosion. I recalled how a large amount of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries and leaving an estimated one third of a million people homeless.

I knew the necessary chemistry. Nitric acid is made by reaction of nitrogen dioxide with water. Ammonium chloride occurs naturally in volcanic regions, forming on volcanic rocks near fume-releasing vents. I visualized in my mind's eye as ten thousand servitors under my command tirelessly worked together to make a mountain of Qi-irradiated Ammonium Nitrate. How the said mountain could be ignited all at once with a pile of beast cores set to detonate with the fire-spiral pattern.

“WHAT?!” Arianna inhaled and gasped, eyes filled with fear. Theory confirmed - she could read the intent, maybe even see the dangerous ideas embedded in my words. Her high-level Hyperosmia was quite impressive.

“Chill out, I’m not a murder-hobo,” I addressed her worries. “Nor do I have the materials, tools or the man... um, ghostpower to do such a thing right now.”

“That only makes it marginally better,” the highborn folded.

“Repeat after me,” I commanded. “I’m sorry I was a cruel idiot. I’ll try to be less wrong.”

“Uhh…” Arianna paused.

I showed her ‘the claws of tickling’.

“I’m… sorry… I was a cruel idiot. I’ll try to be less wrong,” she flinched and whispered at a barely perceptible level.

“There you go!” I declared. “Was that so hard? Don’t you feel better now? Friends?”

I offered her my hand. She slowly reached out and put her hand into mine. My visible, silver scars connected with her invisible ones.

“We are sisters in pain,” I spoke. “Sisters in suffering that the world had inflicted upon us in a cycle of violence. It’s time to break that cycle, time to become better people, time to make the world a better place. Are you with me?”

Arianna nodded. She didn’t look too reassured that what I was offering her was the answer.

“I’ll be your finger,” I said. “The little finger that wags the hand.”

“What?”

“Like a tail that wags the dog,” I tried to clarify. “Get it?”

“Uhhh….” She tried to decipher my arcane metaphors.

“Look. I’m going to help you and I’m going to protect you. With me at your side, your family won’t be able to hurt you anymore,” I declared resolutely.

“...how?” Her question was barely audible.

“I’m the Voice of the people, the chosen one, remember? I’m only going to get stronger with each day. I will obliterate them like I have with Administrator Han or win them over like I have with you,” I reassured her.

Arianna didn’t look convinced, but she made the tiniest nod in my direction.