I was at peace. The Pharmacist revealed the truth about the ancients to Arianna and she finally believed everything. We made her open up, discovered secrets that she kept even from herself and gained her allegiance through the power of the arachnid trust-pheromone wine. Nobody would take that away from me now. I felt better, basking in our victory. I laid back next to her, and closed my eyes, finally relaxing as the sun was beginning to set, painting the gothic-style room pink and purple.

The seventh scion of the Mannings, shifted next to me on her bed. It was large enough that neither of us touched each other and I was too lazy and tired to relocate or to kick her to the other bed at this point.

“Ash…” She suddenly spoke, her voice trembling.

“Trying to sleep now. Bug me for more awesome secrets tomorrow, k?” I muttered, nuzzling the pillow.

She grabbed my shoulder and shook me. “Ash! Wake up, gods damn it! You need to wake up, NOW!”

“Wha… what’s going on?” I blinked, lifting my heavy head from the far-too-damn-soft pillow.

“We need to move!”

“Mang, come on, I just got bloody comfortable, why?” I groaned.

“I can smell the future, Ash!” She hissed, her pupils still slightly dilated from the wine. “If we don’t do something.... we both die in the next two thousand heartbeats!”

“WHAT?!” I sat upright, instantly awake. “You can smell the fucking future?!”

Arianna nodded rapidly, shaking her red, curly flocks of hair. “Not very far, and not very clearly. I’m no expert at the art of precognition like my grandfather.”

I quickly thought about it, fighting off the tiredness and the looming migraine. Who could threaten this restaurant? Who could bypass the servitor’s magic in the building?

“The Inquisition?” I trembled.

“No,” Arianna shook her head. “They would try to arrest you first and then slowly and meticulously carve the truth out of you. They wouldn't just kill us both at the same time!”

“Clint…” I whispered.

“Qi-damned Surgeon Barbers,” the highborn growled. “His people must be coming after us! Clint Potatius didn’t give up. He really was going to murder me to get through to you!”

She leapt off the bed, rushed to the door, out into the hallway and stepped behind the cloak of Avidius who stood at attention and inhaled.

“Damn it! I’m still dead over here and so is Avidius! Qi-ssing hells! Those bastards are stronger than this idiot! I’m so Qi-ssing screwed!” She lamented.

I looked around the room, both of my minds catching every detail in it. I grabbed the artifact bell from the bedside table and rang it. In just a minute Sylver stood in the hallway in front of us.

“What’s wrong?” He inquired, looking at the panic-stricken, pale, freckled face of the ginger girl.

“Still dead! Gods!” Arianna wailed. “Do something else! Hurry! Get all of your strongest men up here!”

Sylver whistled loudly. In moments the hallway became crowded with high-cultivators.

“Qi-ss! Still dead! Nothing is changing!! What in the hells?!” Arianna cried, hyperventilating. “How many men does Clint have?!”

I looked at the enormous stained glass window in front of me. “I don’t think that it’s men we have to worry about. Clint has an ancient in his head. He’s just like me… and I know that there is a far easier way to end someone.”

“What… how?” Arianna shook. Avidius stood protectively over her, glancing left and right.

“If I really wanted someone dead, I wouldn't send any men at all,” I said solemnly. “I would simply strap a beast core set to detonate to a servitor hunter.”

“Freaking hells!” Arianna groaned, inhaling. “You’re right! I can smell it now! Hellfire is coming! We need to run, now!”

I thought about my life in the Hang gang. How Arianna inexplicably, randomly demanded the whole gang get up and relocate to another abandoned building. She could indeed smell the future and knew when other gangs or dangerous cultivators were about to attack us!

“If Clint has access to a very fast servitor we won’t be able to get away in time,” I shook my head.

“I can get away in time! Avidius can fly me…” Arianna whimpered.

“Oh, really?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “You would abandon your… friend? Leave them to explode, just like that?”

Arianna grabbed her chest, hissing. “Damn it all! We have to do something!” Her tune changed.

Think. Adapt. Evade. Hide.

My mind flashed through all of the memories of me escaping from servitor hounds and cultivators.

. . .

Four years ago, twelve-year-old Ash Sparks stole 30 silver coins from a noble’s purse.

The noble girl in question didn’t care about the money. No, she wanted to send a message. Nobles were not to be robbed by the likes of me. She had hired an experienced Hunter to track me down. It must have cost her a lot more than thirty silver, because the bastard was persistent.

He tracked me for days across the dead city. He wasn’t fast, no… simply put, he was meticulous. From afar I saw that the man had no eyes, he wielded a steel sword and had a little snail servitor ghost on his shoulder and walked with casual pace, slowly following me, sniffing the air.

After a day of running, I knew that my goose was cooked. Throwing things at him from above didn't work either, as he easily evaded all of my attacks. I knew that I was screwed. I left the bag of 30 silver behind, but the hunter simply picked up the purse and persisted in following my scent.

I was desperate, I was exhausted and hungry. I rushed through a decrepit restaurant district, throwing off all of my clothes one by one, until there was nothing but the tape left on me.

The snail-man still followed my Qi-scent. It was then that I spied a box of… what I now knew were called plastic straws. I picked up the box and ran towards the river. I grabbed a heavy concrete chunk with rebar in it and leapt into into the icy waters, fortifying my Qi against the cold water as Anathema had once taught me. I stayed beneath the water, breathing through the straw.

I saw through the current as the blind hunter came to the river and stopped. He turned around in circles. He wasn’t able to smell me and his snail didn't notice me! Yes! The current of the river was washing away my scent, disrupting my aura enough for him to permanently lose sight of me.

He stood there for an hour and then turned around and left. Any time he returned, I leapt into the river, throwing him off. After three more tries, he had left, not returning. He had given up. I had beaten him. Maybe the noble only paid him for three days worth of searching?

. . .

“Get undressed!” I barked at Arianna.

“W… what?” the noble blinked. She looked at the gathered crowd of muscular chefs, then back at me.

“All of you, chefs, evacuate everyone from the restaurant and the market street nearby!” I barked. “We’re about to be firebombed! Go now! Save as many people as you can! We have less than 1800 heartbeats!!!”

Sylver’s men rushed out of the hallway, following my order after he confirmed that I was to be obeyed at once.

“Sylver, unlock that window! Quickly!” I pointed at the ornate, rose window at the front of the room.

Chef Kenn didn’t ask stupid questions. He leapt to the window latch immediately, opening the stained glass frame with his master-key.

“Help evacuate the people! Then run down to the catacombs and stay there!” I ordered.

He nodded and departed.

“Undress!” I yelled at Arianna again, taking off my clothes.

“Why?” She whimpered.

“Do you trust me?!” I yelled.

She nodded.

“Then take off your clothes, before the beast-core bomb gets here!” I shouted. “NOW!”

My clothes were already off, with the exception of the electrical tape. I tied them all into a big bundle. I had no idea if the servitor hunter was targeting me or Arianna but it was better safe than sorry.

She obeyed. Avidius turned away, staring at the window, sweating profusely. Arianna finally disrobed. I tied her clothes to the bundle in my hands and handed it to Avidius.

“Use your servitor to fly these as high up as you can please,” I asked. Arianna’s bodyguard nodded. His squid-hawk flashed into existence and grabbed the clothes, vanishing in the window.

“Run down into the catacombs and hide! Don’t follow us!” I yelled to Avidius as I grabbed Arianna by her sweaty hand and pulled her down the spiral stairwell. “Follow! Quickly!”

“Where are we going?!” She cried, running after me.

“We’re going to take a bath!” I answered.

“What?!”

“You heard me,” I replied, panting.

I slapped the artifact key at the door of the private bath and it swung open for me. Five plastic straws were taped to my chest. I pulled out two of them, handing one to Arianna.

“Jump into the bath and breathe through this,” I instructed, grabbing a heavy, ornate wood and stone shelf, knocking off the robes and towels that were sitting on it and leapt into the bubbling water.

Arianna followed. I saw her blurry image in the water. I stuck the straw upwards and inhaled, pushing her fully under the water. She struggled to figure out the straw for a second and then joined me in silent breathing.

I placed the heavy shelf across us, so that we wouldn't accidentally float up to the surface. Her fingernails dug into my wrist. She was terrified. I grabbed her and held her still, so that she wouldn't stick her head out of the water too soon. I prayed that the bath had enough water circulation to disrupt our Qi-scent.

We stayed underwater for what seemed like an eternity, silently clinging to each other. Arianna glared at me. I held her down firmly, refusing to let her leave.

A distant boom resounded, heard even through the water of the bath, then another and then a third one. Christ! How many servitors and cores did Clint spend on trying to vaporise us?!

Arianna was shaking. I hugged her harder, not letting her come up. A fourth boom resounded and the entire cavern shook, water splashing above us. A couple of stalactites cracked, falling down. A small rock fell into the water, nearly hitting me in the head. Fuck! That last one must have hit the restaurant hard. Damnation! I hoped that Sylver and Avidius were alright.

Arianna choked, sputtering as some water went into her straw. I held her down, hoping that she would figure it out. She blew the water out of her straw, breathing once again.

Another boom, this one even closer. A large crack went across the wall and a massive stalactite fell. Arianna screamed underwater. It was too late to get away from the enormous rock heading straight for us. I tried to block it with the shelf, but knew that it was useless.

A ghostly parasail flashed into existence over the bath knocking the falling stalactite aside.

Oh, thank God!

I completely forgot that there was a defensive servitor lantern hanging in this bath, set to protect the people in it. I grabbed Arianna’s straw that was floating at the top of the bath and stuffed it back into my companion’s mouth. The servitor flickered away, its job done. We stayed underwater as the apple-shaped lights overhead flickered on and off ominously. The ley-lines of magic or whatever it was that lit up the metal tree must have been disrupted.

No more explosions occurred. I knew that we had to stay under. Clint was a persistent enemy. As long as my Dantian smelled the same, he would potentially target me.

I had no idea how many personal servitors Clint had at his disposal, but he must have memorised my Dantian exactly as it was. I imagined my nemesis standing atop a whale phantom above the city, sending servitor after servitor to where he smelled me last, scouting the ruins of the restaurant for my remains.

As soon as I came up for air, they would smell me and I would end up dead.

What could I possibly do now? How could I survive this?