When our dinner was done, Sylver took us into the depths of his restaurant, showing off the kitchens, storage areas and various rooms of interest. He had offered us the exclusive, high-lord room for the night, boasting that it had the best possible protection. A huge servitor lantern was embedded into one of the walls, constantly reinforcing and securing the room against any sort of a phantom attack from the outside. A hallway out of the room connected with a spiral stairwell that led directly into the catacombs beneath the restaurant.

Sylver took us down the aforementioned stairwell and showed off the private, underground bath, intended for the high-lords staying overnight. This bathroom was a natural hot spring cavern filled with stalagmites and stalactites. The cavern was lit up by a metalwork tree that had large, apple-shaped lamps hanging off its steel-twine branches. A small servitor lantern provided maintenance and protection for the bath.

A variety of beautiful, elaborate statues and patterns were carved right into the rocky formations, extruding from the yellow walls of the vast shell of Lord Boundless. I immediately demanded the key to the bath from Sylver and he handed it to me without saying a word. Being famous was awesome!

I carried the nearly empty Arachnia-Loxx wine bottle with me and asked Sylver to fetch me another one. The trust-building pheromone was an excellent tool for shattering the shell of my ginger princess. It wasn’t the type of wine that got her drunk, instead it made her trust me a little more with each sip.

Holding the bottle close to my chest, I felt like a little pheromone-spider myself, one that was slowly gaining the trust of her victim. Except my purpose wasn’t to eat Arianna, it was to connect her to myself with the power of friendship.

The more personal information she let out of her mouth, the better my chances of survival were. I was a lowborn, but through Arianna at my side I could maybe find a way to reach the highborns. I knew that the scion of the Manning family was incredibly resourceful. She could figure out a way to break the mercantile pact, but the chains of secrets shared tonight would hopefully bind us from this point forevermore.

Avidius followed us wherever we went like a dark, barely noticeable shadow. I was relatively sure that as a bodyguard he had some kind of invisibility-related power. My focus simply slid off him whenever I tried to pay attention to the fact that he was there. It explained why I never noticed him before. Arianna had let Sylver know that he was her personal bodyguard and was to be trusted. We left him standing guard outside of our fancy high-lord room and retired for the night. Sylver gave us a bell-shaped artifact and told us to simply ring it to summon him or one of his servants if we needed anything.

I slumped down into the absurdly ostentatious bed, drowning in the silky sheets.

“Oh yeah, this is... the life!” I yawned, stretching. “Definitely the nicest bed I’ve been on. Probably going to get the bestest sleep tonight!”

Arianna huffed at me as she sat next to me on the bed. She didn’t share my appreciation for fancy beds. Her bed in the Manning estate was probably way fancier than this.

“Are you going to tell me your secret now?” She finally asked after a few minutes of silence as I nuzzled the far too comfortable pillows.

“Ah, right. Well… I can’t read or write,” I replied with another yawn.

“That’s not a secret worth anything, Sparks! I know that one already,” she growled. “You told me that Ludj…”

“Ludj isn’t me, Arianna. He can’t read or write either. Both of us require you to teach us. Also, the Pharmacist can’t read or write in Aeiiznunmmnkk. The ancient languages I know - English, Latin, Chinese and Russian have zero relation to the current alphabet.” I sighed.

“Guess you’re not all knowing.” Arianna scowled.

“Gosh, I never said I was all-knowing. I’m simply more educated in the natural sciences than you,” I replied.

“Right.... your whole science thing.” The ginger girl squinted at me. “You still didn’t really explain HOW you managed to befriend… servitor Murr.”

“Here.” I cracked open and handed Arianna the new bottle of Loxx wine. “This is for you and I’ll finish this one.” I wiggled the mostly empty bottle.

“To friendship.” I clinked my bottle with hers.

She clinked back, and took a big sip. I pretend to sip as well.

“Think about everything you know - the tenants of Lord Boundless, what the high-cultivators have taught you about our god, the stories about the archangels…” I began.

“Uh-huh?” She nodded.

“Now throw all of that out of the metaphorical window, because almost everything you’ve been taught is wrong.”

“What? Everything? Really?”

“Okay, keep some stuff. The skill-based things that you taught me - manipulation of Qi: using it to see auras, to survive being on fire, or staying warm underwater or falling from a building. That stuff works pretty well. Basically, everything you can confirm yourself is legitimate. Everything that has no evidence - especially the ‘cult-established knowledge’ about servitors, archangels and Lord Boundless is false.”

“Is it, really?” Arianna raised an eyebrow. "How are you so sure of this?"

“You were there when I talked to an archangel,” I pointed out. “Did you already forget?”

The highborn shuddered and took another swig of the wine. “Gods, don’t remind me. That was the most terrifying moment of my entire life. I thought for sure that it would rip out your soul.”

“Case in point.” I tapped my bottle with my fingernail. “I talked to a seraphim and survived.”

“Wh-what did it say?” Arianna whispered.

“Nothing.” The one glass of wine I had pushed the honest answer out of my mouth. I was a lightweight.

“Nothing?!” She gasped.

“Absolutely nothing.” I spread my arms open. “The archangels don’t care about us. They simply observe. I think that they're just incredibly arcane... servitors.”

“That can’t be true!” Arianna barked. “Grandfather told me that the archangels judge us for our sins!”

“Don’t be a scaredy-cat, Kittyanne,” I mused. “This is normal. You’re simply a victim of cultural bias.”

“Cultural-what-now?”

“Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging things by standards inherent to one's own culture. It occurs when people raised in a specific place make assumptions about conventions such as language, notation, proof and evidence.”

“Uh-huh.” She tilted her head.

“It’s a problem that the ancients studied through the lens of social sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology.”

“This is a lot of gibberish words.” Arianna sighed. “I understood only the first half of that.”

“Plainly put - consuming the memories of a thousand-year-old human freed me from the mental prison of my cultural bias. The imaginary bars over my eyes have been lifted. I used to be terrified of the Voices too, you know. But, not anymore. Now I know that they couldn't care less about the sins of humanity. The longer I’ve spent thinking over everything I know, the less certain I am about things. Hells, I used to be afraid of talking to you!"

The ginger girl in the bed across mine frowned.

“I want to learn the truth about everything, Arianna. Do you trust me?”

She squinted back at me. “I… feel like I should for some reason, but then again…”

“Then again what?” I asked.

Her mood suddenly darkened. “You took everything from me. Everything I’ve worked on for seven years. You did it through lies, blackmail and a one-sided oath. You are held up in power by absolutely nothing. You are a nobody. The Temple of Inquiry will soon find out that you stole the seven cores. The Inquisition will execute you and I won’t be able to protect you. My heart will stop when they whip you to death in the public square.”

I frowned, not sure what to say.

“No amount of ancient knowledge, no amount of support from the city populace or the Guilds will save you from the wrath of the cult’s Immortals. Neither you nor your ghost know the true vastness of the compound’s power!” Arianna hammered into me. “I’ve made a terrible mistake and I can’t think my way out of it. I’m stuck with you and your ancient ghost, trapped, unable to escape, unable to hurt you. Do you even understand how Qi-ssing screwed we are?”

“I’m aware of…” I stammered.

“No. You don’t know shit, you little ignoramus! These walls won’t protect us from the Immortals!” Arianna howled at my face. “Do tell me - How are you going to stop the Temple of Inquiry when they come for you?”

“I don’t know,” I uttered. “I’ll think of something.”

Arianna’s eye started to twitch. “You can’t think your way out of this! Qi-ssing gods-damned street urchin! If the archangel didn’t speak to you, then you are a false messiah! Do you know what the Inquisitors do to false messiahs? They will skin you alive, peel the flesh from your bones just to make you confess your sins, Sparks!”

“How much time do you think we have?” I asked nervously.

“I’m not the Qi-ssing High-Inquisitor, Sparks!” Arianna hissed. “You speak of ancient wealth, but where is it all? Do you really think you’ll be able to survive long enough to dig it all up or buy things with it? Will you be able to assemble this city-destroying weapon of yours in just a few days?”

“No,” I said.

“Can your ‘natural sciences’ protect you from being pulverized by Immortals that can move faster than you can even blink?”

“No,” I snapped back. “Science takes time, damn it! I just need more time to figure things out!”

“You don’t have time!” The highborn spat. “Do you really think that geisha Rada can delay the Inquisition or the High-Administrator? Who will protect you from his wrath?”

“I don’t know.” My mood darkened.

“Ohhh, maybe the archangels will come to your aid, chosen one?” Arianna hissed, animosity burning in her emerald eyes.

“No,” I muttered and closed my eyes, trying not to cry. She was right. The scales weren’t tipped in my favour. Without Celes by my side it was increasingly difficult to stay positive.

“You will not be able to hoodwink the Temple of Inquiry!” Arianna snarled. “What you’ve just told me stands against every word, every tenant written in the Book of Chorus. For a thousand years the Inquisition has been executing anyone who questions their truth with ruthless, increasing efficiency. You’re already a dead girl walking. It’s only a matter of time before they catch up to you.”

I sniffed.

“The Guilders know this - that's why we didn't reach any sort of consensus today with them. That's why they will never agree to our terms or go through with your idea of a city-wide pact. They won't admit it outright, but they're terrified of the Temple of Inquiry. I can’t protect you from the Inquisition, Ash. I’m not an Immortal,” she said, her voice trembling with a current of Qi. One of her hands closed around my wrist. “Break the pact. Let me live.”

I looked at her through tear-streaked eyes. I felt myself falling into despair, drowning in hopeless darkness.

The Pharmacist took full control.

“No.”

“No?” The highborn asked.

“No.” I wiped tears out of my eyes and stared at her. “I refuse.”