It happened that Qing Liao was in his workshop in the Textiles Pavilion, slowly beating a deer hide into the proper flexibility needed to form a pair of walking boots, when Artemay came to collect him. She did not burst inside, even a grand elder was reasonably respectful when treading upon ground belonging to one of the other sisters, but she did move through the pavilion with forcible and unyielding strides. The brilliant beacon of her qi not only made her presence clear to all, but it also encouraged everyone else to swiftly remove themselves from her path. No one, not even the other elders, wished to entangle their existence in unwanted and dangerous complications.

Thankfully, there was no one else in the small leatherworking shop when she arrived, and no one observed the frightful scare that passed across Liao's face as he turned to stand before the grand elder. He bowed to Artemay hurriedly and did his best to fortify his expression to something resembling evenness in the presence of the woman who had thrown him into the sky.

He had barely managed to assemble some measure of equilibrium when the blue-faced immortal shattered it. "You need to come with me," Artemay declared forcefully. All twinges of coy teasing were banished from her demeanor. "There is a crisis, and its resolution requires your particular capabilities."

Though these words drove a spike of pure terror into Liao's chest, no possibility of refusal existed. The very idea of defying the grand elder never even entered his mind. Instead, he gritted his teeth, put down his tools, and grabbed his bow and daggers from where he'd hung them on a wall rack.

"Do I need my armor?" He questioned cautiously. Those protective garments were hanging on a display stand at home, like most members of the sect, he wore ordinary white robes and an apron during regular workdays. Artemay herself was similarly attired in her typical daywear, a skintight flowing dress coated in images of swirling cosmic flames, but her stride portrayed a distinctly militant aspect.

A single shake of her head, blue hair shifting beneath the deep hood, conveyed her reply. No explanation was provided. Instead, unreasonable haste accompanied her every motion. She led them out of the pavilion and across the sect grounds as fast as their legs could carry them without breaking into a run or walking into a wall, a pace that would have outdone most sprinting mortals.

Once clear of the clutter of buildings and up on the Starwall, the grand elder grabbed Liao by the shoulder. "Take a deep breath," her concern was evident. She'd bothered to provide a warning this time.

Liao complied. Artemay did not throw him this time, she lifted and carried him instead. They jumped down into the Killing Fields from the top of the Starwall, falling dozens of meters while landing light as a feather. She did not pause there. With a casual demonstration of the incredible strength her cultivation provided, she picked up the much larger initiate with one arm, lifted him above her head, and started to run.

No flying allowed in the Killing Fields, no giant leaps either, but the hurdling ramble Artemay adopted surged many times faster than a horse at full gallop. She crossed the full expanse of the defended space in moments, swift enough to kick up a cloud of dust when she skidded to a stop in front of the shining shattered mirror-shaped barrier that marked the gateway to the Ruined Wastes.

By the time they arrived, Liao was gasping for air. The presence of two additional grand elders, sensed before sight through the immensity of their qi, no longer came as a surprise under such circumstances. He recognized the now familiar icy blue of Itinay easily, but the green and verdant flood of power that came from Neay was new. He'd only ever previously seen her from afar.

Without ceremony, Artemay dropped him to the ground before the gateway. The space there was cleared, burned clear rather than grazed, for animals naturally avoided the gateway. The grand elder moved swiftly to the side of her youngest sister. As she left him behind, she shoved a silk bag into his hands, one that clattered with the sound of pills of varied size striking against each other.

"Much is lost, in haste," Liao looked over to see Grand Elder Neay standing beside him. "Courtesy is the least of it." Her voice reminded him, ever so slightly, of Sayaana. There was a joint verdant vibration, wind through the trees, but while the remnant soul's words invoked the spirit of the grand and wild woods, those that emerged from Neay's throat belonged to a carefully managed garden, controlled down to the birds and bees. There was a sense of comfort and security attached to that impression, but also an undercurrent of threat.

A farmer does not hesitate to eliminate weeds.

"We are taking a rather drastic action," Neay noted. Resignation flowed from every portion of her green-white existence. "Using unseemly means." She reached out a slender hand, fingers the black-brown shade of tilled earth, and rummaged through the bag of pills. Two little spheres, both dark red and smelling strongly of iron, dropped from between those narrow digits into his palm. "Swallow these," she ordered. "You will need them for what is to come."

Confusion reigned in Liao. In the absence of understanding the natural deference induced by the sublime presence of the grand elder induced compliance. He swallowed. The pills tasted of blood and metal as they were squeezed down his throat, a mix of iron, salt, and clinging viscous thickness.

Even as he took in the medicines, the blue-skinned pair of grand elders were already in motion. Artemay, totally uncaring as to any observation, stripped completely naked. Her blue skin stood bare beneath the sunlight, blemish-free and perfect. Liao wanted to look away, but what followed glued his attention to the immortal.

Wielding a razor fractured out of wickedly sharp obsidian, Itinay bent over her elder sister's head. Using a series of swift, sure motions she cut free the long strands of midnight blue hair and then followed up by scraping the scalp bare until only shiny skin remained. The sundered strands did not so much as touch the ground. Itinay burned every last hair away beneath a wash of fiery qi channeled through the black volcanic glass edge.

Liao watched this process slack jawed. "It's worse than you think," Sayaana spoke through his skull and penetrated the shock. "Hair is a part of the immortal body the same as skin and bone. It hurts, like severing every finger and toe at once."

Stolen novel; please report.

Artemay, her face perpetually inexplicably amused, gave no sign of any discomfort.

Itinay did not pause after stripping away the scalp. She had carried out with her a large and heavy bag formed of silk and covered in sigils marking out a preservation ritual. Opening it, she pulled free thick rolls of a form of treated leather Liao had never seen before. It was pale gray in color and possessed a strange, sharply edged texture, as if it were coated in tiny crystals. That pebbly consistency belonged to nothing he'd ever seen, not in life or catalogs.

"Sharkskin," Neay answered the unspoken question. Even as she spoke, Itinay had already begun working. Wielding needle and scissors, the mistress of the textiles pavilion formed tube-like wraps out of the strange leather and bound them tightly about Artemay's body. So closer were they fastened that it appeared as if she'd acquired a second skin, one thicker than any human tissue. "They are like fish, in some sense, but also not. They are ocean creatures and may grow quite large. Their hide repels water and forms a sturdy grip, it was often used in weapon hilts. What you see before you is all that the sect retains."

Irreplaceable materials. A grand elder shorn of her hair. These elements, gathered together, spoke of deeds of terrible import. Liao stood and watched as Itinay assembled the strange new garment, the master's hands sewed together seals using lotus silk thread, barriers water would never penetrate. Boots, gloves, and a hood were added to the ensemble, fitting inside the base covering with all seams sewn tightly shut. In the end, only a small oval of the face remained uncovered, the nose and eyes alone.

There would be no way of taking this garment off, it would need to be cut away with knives. Liao suspected that, inside, it was brutally hot, though that would mean little to the immortal body of a grand elder. He doubted it would be pleasant to move within either.

As Itinay moved to the final stages after no more than half an hour of relentless effort, Neay stepped in front of Liao. She hefted a large needle of hollow bone and a clear glass flask taken from some hidden case. "Blood carries qi," she explained. "Even after extraction from within the flesh, it retains that essence for a time. Knowing this, I believe you can discern what we are about to undertake."

Liao could. He did not like the images it summoned through his eyes. The devilish grin that Artemay launched in his direction made putting the pieces together quite easy, if miserable. Turning away from that frightful delight, he swallowed and carefully extended his arm.

"Watch closely," Neay instructed as she placed the bone needle against his skin, just above the elbow. "You may need to do this yourself, if the qi fades as time passes. The pills you swallowed will rapidly restore your blood. Use more if necessary. When this is finished, you will need to gorge yourself on food for days."

Such practical instructions supplied a useful, helpful distraction. He had no desire to watch as he was bled like a pig prior to slaughter. It never occurred to him to protest.

If Artemay could sacrifice her hair, he could offer up a little blood.

Neay shoved the needle in. Her touch was remarkably soft. There was no pain, only a strange cold sensation and a sudden feeling of disconnection. It lasted less than a minute. Blood rolled down through the needle and into the flask. Then, with a single swift tug, the green-skinned immortal pulled the bone free.

A burst of soft, mint-scented energy pushed into his arm thereafter, Neay's qi utilized to instantly seal up the injury. Liao looked at his arm and saw nothing more than a dark bruise. The skin had already grown back and closed over.

Weakness, however, remained. The absence of even a modest amount of blood, for the flask was substantial, left him slightly dizzy.

Taking the filled receptacle in hand, the grand elder motioned for Liao to follow.

They walked over to Artemay. Fully encased in sharkskin, only her pupil-less eyes, lost within the blue of her face, revealed her deep-seated cunning. "You are being ill-used," she murmured, lips hidden beneath the gray material.

It was almost an apology. The words left the initiate stunned.

Neay put her bone needle to the tiny gap along her sister's cheek and wedged it there. Carefully, holding the flask up and allowing the thick crimson liquid to drip down through the aperture, she kept the process perfectly steady. Watching, Liao could feel as Neay used her qi to push the blood forward and Artemay in turn cycled it about against her skin, forming a perilously thin layer between the blue and gray surfaces that covered every scrap of her frame.

Slowly, the impression of her qi was covered up, encompassed by a layer of essence that mirrored Liao's own.

"That's very twisted," Sayaana whispered inside his skull. "A copy of your nature sculpted out of gore."

"What, precisely, is unfolding?" It felt childish, impertinent, to ask such a simple question, but from his position trapped within the whirlwind of incredible events, Liao could only beg for answers.

"We're going to kill a demonic cultivator," Artemay answered brightly. "Or rather, I'm going to kill him. You're going to facilitate hiding me. It's just a bit of a bloody mess, nothing too troublesome."

"A somewhat inappropriate summary," Neay's interjection carried the weight of exasperation repeated and stretched across thousands of years. "But not inaccurate. This death will preserve Mother's Gift by eliminating a grave threat."

Liao heard Neay's words, but he was not paying them close attention. Instead, his eyes were glued to the shining, fractured, space-shattering aperture that represented the egress from Mother's Gift. The realization that he would, for the first time in his life, pass through that gateway and glimpse the rest of the world all but overwhelming his mind. All hesitation, all consideration of the cost, vanished from his thoughts.

The outside beckoned. It summoned him. A little blood was nothing. If anything, the possibilities unlocked by the sharkskin costume, a bizarre outfit whispering of countless new opportunities, only redoubled his hunger to see the greater world.

Neay placed needle, flask, and pills together and strapped the silken pouch to Liao's waist by tight chords. Itinay, in a final move, wrapped a harness about her impromptu sharkskin creation, one clearly intended to allow Artemay to carry Liao's body, far larger in volume than the grand elder's, through the sky unimpeded.

"Ready?" Artemay asked as all the pieces were assembled and they were strapped together. She sounded grim and focused but somehow retained a layer of amusement.

"No." Any other answer would have been a lie, and therefore pointless to offer to these women.

"Fair," Artemay agreed. Perhaps she found such honesty refreshing. "But we're going anyway." She turned back to him, flexing her neck frightfully. The empty blue eyes drew his gaze inexorably. "This only works if I'm completely covered. Will you finish it?"

Without speaking, Liao drew out his dagger and pricked the back of his left hand until blood flowed slowly. With careful motions, he took that trickle in across his fingertips and painted the remaining exposed surface of Artemay's face in red dibble. Cheeks, nose, lips, and even her eyelids had to be coated. Nothing could be left undone. When he finished, he was glad he was strapped behind her. He lacked the strength to look upon the red visage he'd fashioned.

Neay sealed this wound in turn and Itinay buckled them together tight. Without any further sign or warning, Artemay carried them through the gateway and into the Ruined Wastes.

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