Daisy had many magical items some of which bore marks like the one on her arm. Others were organs and bits of flesh floating in jars. There were metal contraptions of ticking gears and coiling springs. Each spurred curiosity in her but she’d never had the chance to touch any. Daisy didn’t like others touching her things.

So to say she was curious about the red scribblings would be an understatement.

She raised her arms to better see the lines. she threw her focus at them. On how the drying blood felt as it changed from warm to cold. A dot of blood in the centre of her arm glowed faintly. The light pierced through the gloom.

The scent of flowers met her. Faint and sweet.

Then like a candle snuffed her interest departed and the light died. Two stared vacantly at the now dark spot.

“It works!” Two payed no mind to the quiet sequel beside her. She was too busy deciding if she should panic.

The blood had changed no longer was it a cooling liquid. It had thickened and congealed until it sat like a stain that had sunk into her skin.The change had not diminished its colour it was the same vibrant red.

She tried rubbing it with her fingers the effort was fruitless.

On the one hand, it was good. If idle curiosity was sufficient to power the array then she had good chances of contacting the noble’s aunt. The risk of accidentally scrubbing off had been removed.

However, there was something uniquely violating about having one’s emotions peeled away. It left her feeling a familiar unpleasant sort of hollow. The fact she couldn’t think of a way to remove it without rubbing her skin off didn’t help either.

Two took a deep breath and turned to more productive thoughts. “I’m going to do this outside the castle. I think it’s best if she doesn’t have to break a door down to get to… this” She waved her bloodied arm.

Deadra greeted her statement with a wave of reluctance but replied with a firm nod.

“Is, is there any advice you can give me.”

Deadra thought for a moment, her emotions oozed in a tumult. “Be polite? I’m sure she’ll listen to you but she’ll be worried. She can be a bit intense when shes worried.”

Though Two doubted it was the intent the advice served an important reminder that not all would be as naive or genial like the young noble. That was before her taint came into play.

Two lowered the sleeve. She paid a final nod to the feathered girl, gathered the remnants of their food, then left.

The bothers let her pass without comment. Though Dee radiated suspicion. Her prolonged stay in the cell was a likely cause. The fact he thought everyone was going to shank him or his brother was equally possible.

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She encountered no one on her way to the castle’s exit. She walked into the coming night without pause.

A faint breeze made the crisp night air a sharp contrast to the castle’s sedate confines. She maintained a casual pace and tried very hard to focus on anything but her arm.

She wasn’t sure if Deadra’s aunt was a cultivator but Deadra believed she would come in person, and that her arrival was the solution to all their problems. Two could imagine little else that would inspire such confidence.

Two would rather not find out what would happen if a cultivator of unknown power popped up inside Daisy’s territory.

Her steppes carried her to one of the slum’s many abandoned regions. An industrial region that had once served to make wood products for the cities residents and the nigh endless stream of visitor’s to the city’s temples and ither attractions. Once a rare jewel in the slum it had died when the governor’s laws put an end to the exploitation of the slum’s cheap land and cheaper people.

The law had was one of many each dredging up and removing possibilities. Until all those left were those the governor provided. The slum slowly emptied.

Tall warehouses and workshops loomed above Two, but most were in disarray. The night sky looked through gaps in wooden paneling. Buildings sloughed into piles of scrap and mulch, destroyed by on the rains and never rebuilt.

The buildings that stood firmly were few and all bore scars from the elements. It wasn’t a rare sight in the slum.

There was a reason all of Spes Nova was carved from stone. All save the slums. In time it would all be washed away. Only the old monoliths would remain.

Two shook of those thoughts and steeped into a reasonably intact building. She had no issue navigating the locked door. A hard shove was enough to snap the rusted lock.

The interior was dark. Thin empty windows by the ceiling were the only source of light. Glimmers from broken glass from aforementioned windows littered the floor. A few empty crates where strewn haphazardly across he warehouse’s far wall.

As good a place as any.

Two found a relatively clean crate and dragged it into the room’s centre to serve as her seat.

She took a deep breath. The air was heavy with must and its essence stained with loneliness. Two sighed and stared at the rafters above.

The building wasn’t a spirit and Likely wouldn’t live long enough to develop one. Still it had enough of a heart to feel loss, and she the misfortune to notice.

She muttered a quiet prayer. “Thank you for you shelter on this lonesome night. Groaning wood was her response. The scent of loneliness abated.

Two returned to her task. She pulled up her sleeve and examined the array. The intricate lines seemed to her like a mural now that she could see them in better light. A picture wrought of circular arcs and floral flourishes.

She needed to feed it. The emotion needed to be strong, it needed to be something casualty evoked. It needed to be something she could sustain.

Anger, frustration, fear spite. Options rose yet faltered after the first attempt to use them. Conjuring blips of light of light that faded soon after they were born. It was a humble magic but one she could not enjoy. As even that wonder was drained, becoming little more than a slightly brighter blip. Taking with it her smile.

She sighed and stared up at the ceding.

She was not a passionate person, she was determined but hers was a cool thing. Her convictions did not burn in the was the array demanded.

It responded to the visceral. A moment of frustration lit the spot, but it quickly vanished along with the emotion. Time was wasted away.

Wind wisted through the windows. A haunting moan. A simple thought struck Two, she decided to fall into rather than dredge up a feeling.

The wind moaned, wood creaked. Insects chirped in the middled distance. Far away the sea of life and passion that was the city proper sung into the night.

Here she was bundled up n an abandoned place. Siting in the dark.

It stirred anger, it drew sadness, it kindled desire but those were dragged away ro feed the array. Yet loneliness remained, a constant aching thrum in the pit of her chest that sustained the light.

Two stared. The light wasxed and waned with the flow of her heart. She almost wanted to laugh, but couldn’t even find the room to smile.

“I guess we have something in common.” She sighed. The building creaked.

Leandra sat in her carriage on route the Salons primary compound within in the city. The cabins interior were plush and embroidered with flowers of every kind. The warm light leaking through the curtained windows provided a glow.

Leandra paid it no mind. Her gaze was instead affixed to a particular section of the wall. Her bright smile was at odds with her cold stare.

“Deadra girl I don’t know how you’ve done it but I’m proud and I’m coming.”

Leandra had done her duty and forged a connection with the angels. The fact she’d convinced them to potentially aid in her niece’s rescue was of less importance. Even if she didn’t call on their aid the fact they offered it was a success. It meant they could offer gifts as thanks and foster a relationship with the angels.

Leandra didn’t foresee needing any help. Her smile turned sharp. She was looking forward to tearing these kidnappers apart herself. “Driver make haste!”