“You don’t have any ideas, right? Apart from the obvious?” Faust asked, with an odd note of nervousness in his voice.

“…”

“Anything magical isn’t going to work, because of her thing. And all that leaves is Ki stuff, but I’ve got nothing, so you’ve got nothing. You’re not going to get a demon involved when there’s a simpler solution available. And we don’t know how long we have until Owl comes here to check she’s still in the box,” Faust quickly explained, as he used his invisible hand to straighten out his bathrobe-like clothing.

Sylver just watched the man for a while, as Faust loosened his belt, and tied it into a much more presentable-looking knot.

“Faust… I want you to be honest with me. Are you doing this just to help me? Or is this something you genuinely want? Think it over. Because I’m going to believe whatever you say to me,” Sylver said, as he placed his hands on Faust’s shoulders, and waited for the cultivator to make eye contact with him.

Faust kept his head down while he fiddled around with his slightly stained collar.

“I mean, I won’t lie and say this is ideal. We’ve only known each other for less than an hour… But when it’s right, it’s right. She’s unkillable, completely devoid of fear, I can bring her to any fight I want, and don’t need to worry about a stray sword decapitating her, she’s calm, knows what she wants, and… I don’t know. This feels right to me Syl. Follow your heart, dive in headfirst, and all that” Faust said.

Or rather quoted since that was the advice Sylver had so wisely given him at the start of their journey.

“In that case, I want to hear you say that you’re doing this because you want to. Because I’ve lost very close friends over things like this Faust. If you’re not 100% certain you’re going to be happy with this woman, tell me right now. I’ll figure out an alternative, you don’t have to do this,” Sylver said.

About a half-minute passed before Faust lifted his head and made eye contact with Sylver.

“I’m sure Syl. She’s invincible, fearless, and bossy in a good way. Also, she fell through the roof. How can I not marry her?” Faust asked with a nervous smile on his face.

“She didn’t fall through the roof?” Sylver said after a moment.

“She did. Broke through even,” Faust said.

“When?”

“You pulled her box through the hatch on the roof and broke it in the process. Hence, my wife came to me by falling through the roof,” Faust doubled down, as Sylver tightened his grip on Faust’s shoulders.

“Alright. Fine. Last chance to change your mind,” Sylver offered, as Faust just nodded his head at him.

“I’m sure Syl. I mean, this is what I came here for… Shit… We can’t get a priest to marry us, can we?” Faust asked as Sylver thought it over.

“Do you know where Tuli is?” Sylver asked as Faust nodded.

“Northwest of Arda in the Sinis Sea,” Faust said.

“Alright…” Sylver said, as he reached into his robe, and pulled out an empty page, and the ring Sophia had given him.

After a few seconds, ink floated onto the page and drew out a map, with several markers. “You’ll meet one of the Cats at some point anyway, but if you don’t, stop here, and show them this,” Sylver said, as he handed Faust the page, and placed Sophia’s ring on top of it.

“Right, they won’t be able to track us if we’re inside Tuli. Smart,” Faust realized, as Sylver rummaged through his pockets, and placed a small bone into Faust’s palm.

“That’s about 500 gold coins, don’t enter towns if you can. I’ll give you Will too, so you can keep moving while you rest,” Sylver explained, as he placed another bone into Faust’s booklet, and placed the demon tracking orb onto it as well.

“Wait, are we leaving now?” Faust asked with a dumbfounded look, as Sylver placed another bone onto the pile.

“No. You’re going to very quickly tell 1 person you’re leaving, and that they’re in charge while you’re gone. Except they’re going to pretend you’re underground meditating or something, come up with an excuse why you can’t be bothered. The longer I can keep up the ruse that she’s still here, the better,” Sylver explained, as he organized some spare clothing, bedrolls, food, toiletries, and a handful of armor and weapons, just in case.

“What are you going to do for money? The ingredients are barely worth-”

“I’ll figure something out, don’t worry about me. Maybe leave some recipes that even an idiot could follow. I know some of the kids helped you out with your brewing. Worst case scenario, I’ll sell the recipes. Or I might kidnap some alchemists, and force them to make potions for me, the important thing is that you and Anastasia are as far away from here as possible,” Sylver explained, as he placed 3 more bones onto the pile, and finally summoned a bag into his hand, and shoved the page, bones, and sphere into the bag.

“What if you need us to come back?” Faust asked, as Sylver turned him around, and started tightening the straps around his shoulders.

“Chrys will contact you through a bird or something. After about a day of travel, break the bones. Take what you need, and leave the rest,” Sylver said.

“Can you call Michael over?” Faust asked.

“Which one is Michael?”

“He’s got 3 lines on his belt,” Faust said, with a gesture at his own belt, which had 5 lines.

It took the shades 11 seconds to find “Michael.” Another 5 to tell the boy Faust wanted to speak to him. And then the mask-wearing boy appeared next to Sylver.

“I’m leaving, Syl is in charge until I return. If anyone asks, I’m underground revitalizing my ether linking meridians. Give me a 10-gram red jade,” Faust said, as Michael nodded along, and took out a shiny red stone out of his sleeve.

Sylver gave Faust an empty booklet, and after a flash of light, Sylver saw that the whole thing was filled with odd-looking diagrams, and symbols that he saw were alchemical recipes. Faust handed Michael the now dull-looking piece of jade and handed the booklet to Sylver.

“That is all,” Faust said, as Michael nodded, and disappeared. “Talk to Xalibur if you need help with anything. He’s more knowledgeable than he appears. What else…” Faust wondered as he and Sylver walked over to Anastasia’s door. “I wish we had more time,” Faust whined, as Sylver opened the door.

Anastasia was dressed in Sylver’s puffy robe and was holding one of his masks in her hand.

“If he swears upon his name to marry you, can you get started on the… baby-making,” Sylver said, as he couldn’t think of a less vulgar way to end his sentence.

“Sure. But he has to swear first,” Anastasia said.

Sylver got to watch as Faust took a deep breath and breathed out every drop of uncertainty he may have had. He stood up straight, squared his shoulders, sucked in his stomach, and spoke in a clear and level voice.

“I swear on my name to marry you,” Faust said.

Sylver felt something roll down his cheek, and as he reached up to touch his face, realized he was crying.

Anastasia gave Sylver a look, and Faust turned to look at him a moment later, and his face twisted into utter bewilderment.

Sylver wiped his sleeve across his face.

“Sorry, I always cry at these things. Come here,” Sylver said, as he gestured at the one-armed cultivator, and pulled the man into a tight hug. “Be careful and stay safe,” Sylver said with a lump in his throat.

“I will. We’ll come back once... well, you know,” Faust said awkwardly, as he patted Sylver on the back.

“I’ll hold down the fort until then… Could you give us a minute?” Sylver asked Faust.

Faust was understandably reluctant to leave his fiancé, but he trusted that Sylver had good reason for asking him to leave.

Anastasia stood where she stood, and looked at the “cold-blooded psychopath,” as Katia had described him, and answered the question she assumed Sylver hadn’t quite figured out how to phrase.

“He has kind eyes. And if you’re even half the man Novva of Pere said you were, then Faust must be someone really special. Are you going to try to threaten me?” Anastasia asked as Sylver shook his head.

“Please don’t hurt him,” Sylver said in a calm, albeit still teary-eyed voice.

“I won’t,” Anastasia answered quietly. Just like with the crying, Sylver had once again caught her off guard.

Sylver took the mask she had been holding in her hand, and stored it away, as he replaced it with one of his older masks, that he had used when his body still looked like Ciege’s. It was smaller and would fit her face better.

“We’ll have a proper celebration once everything is over. And for what it’s worth… I’m sorry you’re in this situation,” Sylver said, as Anastasia shrugged her shoulders.

“Everything that happens, happens for a reason. And it’s not all bad. Consider what the alternative is,” Anastasia said.

“It was very nice meeting you,” Ria said, as she slipped out of the back of Sylver’s robe and materialized into a humanoid shape. She and Anastasia shook hands, while Sylver once again brushed the tears out of his eyes.

***

2 days had passed since Faust and Anastasia had left.

Sylver watched the first sun begin to rise, while he scratched the underside of Mora’s head. She still needed some time to rest, but she at least started walking around now.

The people down below scurried around like ants, the groundskeepers met up and discussed who would clean where, the maids picked up the laundry and moved it to the washing room, and the cooks started making their way through the herd garden, as the martial artists stretched and then left to hunt.

Overall, the sect was running itself.

Sylver spent most of his time experimenting with mushrooms, drinking tea, and talking to Chrys, who kept him up to date regarding Faust’s and Anastasia’s condition.

The phrase “going at it like rabbits,” came up more times than it had any right to, but it was an accurate description of their nighttime activities. And daytime activities too, when it was easier to have Will fly them than it was to run on the ground.

Chrys didn’t get into the specifics of how things worked with Anastasia’s invulnerability, but apparently, there was enough wiggle room for Faust to do what he needed to do.

Sylver hadn’t heard from Owl, the Bucklers, and sadly the 11 mountain peaks, remained standing without any issues.

The fake box was buried deep underground. Sylver had filled it up with rocks to mimic the weight the original decoy box had before it had been swapped for the box Anastasia was in.

He assumed that the decoy he had been given had contained a corpse, going by the weight distribution, but Sylver was worried using a local corpse would make it too obvious.

As Mora lifted her head from Sylver’s lap, and on wobbly feet moved towards her corner of the roof, Sylver saw a man wearing a symbol on his clothes that wasn’t a white skull.

Xalibur had taken the time to explain to Sylver how exactly the symbol language worked in this place. After a moment’s pause to puzzle out the meaning of the symbol on the man’s torso, Sylver gave up and asked Ria.

“He’s a messenger. From the Blue Rat sect,” Ria said.

Sylver had decided not to ask the group of healers whether they knew about Anastasia, because it no longer mattered, and because one of Owl’s men might be watching them.

Sylver turned into fog as he flew down the wall and materialized a few steps away from the messenger. Sylver took the envelope, and Michael showed up a moment later and paid the man for his service.

Sylver opened the envelope, and as he started to walk up the wall to return to the roof, read through it.

“Huh…” Sylver said to himself, as he folded up the letter, and hid it inside his robe.

“Good news, or bad news?” Ria asked as Sylver materialized inside his workshop, via a small hole he had made in the wall.

“Good for us, bad for them. The Night Fever like curse has infected more people than anyone realized. Just about every major sect is affected,” Sylver said, as he got to his backpack, and began to rummage through it.

“So, we’re going to cure it?” Ria asked as Sylver found the folded piece of wax paper he had been looking for.

“No, we’re going to go see the witches that live in the swamp. Or, more accurately, we’re going to join Tarragon’s expedition to find the source of the disease, which his group figured out came from the swamp,” Sylver explained, while he tried not to smile too hard.

“And we’re going to ask them to cure it?” Ria asked, although she already knew that Sylver’s answer wasn’t going to be a simple yes.

“No. We’re going to ask them to help us infect the emperor. Maybe something a bit deadlier. Or something only a [Swamp Lord] could cure,” Sylver explained, as he didn’t bother removing the paper, and simply swallowed it along with the powder inside.