"Asha?" Ignis whispered to herself. The lethal heat immediately retracted into her body. She hurried forward and stopped just at the edge of Muddy's aura. She looked from her daughter to the docile beast and then to Li Yu. "What... what did you do, human?"

  "I just offered her a ride, Sovereign," Li Yu replied calmly while keeping his hands visible and unthreatening. "Muddy's nature is very stable. It seems his aura is having a great effect on her condition."

  Ignis reached out and carefully placed a hand on Asha's arm. The Sovereign's eyes widened. She could feel the internal state of her daughter's body. The ash core was still there, still failing, but the violent and painful friction that was slowly killing the girl had been suppressed. It wasn't a cure but it was a miraculous reprieve.

  Malos stood near the entrance of the courtyard and was watching the scene unfold with a quiet smile on his face. He didn't say a word.

  Internally, however, the Sovereign of Foresight was greatly amused.

  ‘Fascinating,’ Malos thought to himself. ‘The boy is a walking anomaly. A blind spot in the tapestry of fate. Li Yu is treating her simply by existing near her.’

  "She is... she is not in pain," Ignis murmured. A desperate hope warring with confusion in her eyes. She looked at Li Yu and her entire demeanor shifted from that of an absolute ruler to a desperate mother. "This beast... it is somehow making her better."

  "He doesn't mind staying out," Li Yu offered easily.

  Ignis let out a shaky breath and was slowly stepping back to allow her daughter to enjoy the moment. But the Sovereign's duties were far from over.

  "The trials must continue," Ignis said as her voice hardening once more. She looked toward the palace doors. "The line of healers is still long, though we have vetted them more thoroughly today. Bring the beast, Li Yu. Let Asha ride it into the chambers. It will keep her strong during the examinations."

  Li Yu nodded and had Muddy shrink down and began to slowly lead the buffalo out of the courtyard. Asha sat proudly on his back and the newfound strength was allowing her to hold her head high.

  When they returned to the heavily warded medical sanctum deep beneath the Aegis of Flame, the atmosphere was thick with tension. The executions of the previous day had successfully terrified the opportunists into fleeing. This left only the most desperate, confident or deeply delusional practitioners.

  With Asha sitting comfortably atop Muddy in the center of the room Ignis signaled for the trials to resume. The first to enter was a cultivator draped in heavy robes woven from deep earth roots. He was a master of the esoteric botanical arts.

  "Sovereign," the man bowed while producing a glowing, jade colored paste. "The ash core is stagnant. My 'Verdant Earth Poultice' is designed to be applied over the heart meridian. It uses condensed life force to slowly filter the ash out of her system. This will allow the fire to breathe without violent ignition."

  Ignis narrowed her eyes. "Proceed. Slowly."

  The herbalist stepped forward and carefully applied the glowing paste to Asha's chest. For the first few minutes, nothing happened. But as the paste seeped into her skin, the conflicting elements began to war.

  Asha let out a sharp gasp and her brow furrowing in deep discomfort. The paste wasn't filtering the ash; it was trying to grow roots into her deadened meridians. This was causing a suffocating and invasive pressure.

  Ignis didn't hesitate. She stepped forward and ignited her hand. She gently hovering it over the poultice. With absolute precision, she burned the jade paste away into nothingness without singeing a single thread of Asha's clothing.

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  "It is invasive and incorrect. Get out," Ignis snarled while pointing at the door.

  The man went pale and abandoned his remaining herbs in his haste to sprint out of the chamber. He was grateful to leave with his life. The next few hours saw a parade of similarly creative, yet ultimately useless, techniques.

  A master of array formations tried to use floating magnetic lodestones to physically drag the stagnant Qi through her body but it only caused Asha intense nausea. Ignis shattered the stones with a glance and threw the man out. Another physician attempted to use the refined blood of a high tier fire salamander as a topical soak but the ambient heat was too harsh.

  Each failure darkened Ignis's mood from how good it was at the start. This was bringing the apocalyptic Sovereign closer to the surface. Then came the final candidate of the day.

  He was a flamboyant demon wearing loud, clashing silks that looked entirely out of place in the grim, militaristic capital. He carried no cauldron, no herbs and no medical tools. He strutted into the room with an air of absolute and unearned confidence.

  "Fear not, Sovereign!" The man declared loudly while striking a dramatic pose. "I am a master of the Ancestral Soul Alignment! The girl's core is merely out of phase with the cosmic flow of the realm! I shall realign her spirit!"

  Ignis stared at him and her patience hanging by a microscopic thread. "Explain your method."

  "It requires no invasive tools! No pills! No arrays!" The man boasted. He pulled a small bag from his robes and began to sprinkle ordinary and mundane looking colored sand in a wide circle around Muddy and Asha. "I simply perform the Dance of the Celestial Tides. Guiding the cosmic karmic energies through kinetic motion to wash away the ash!"

  Li Yu watched in complete disbelief as the man began to literally dance around the room. He waved his arms wildly and was hopping from one foot to the other. He was also chanting absolute gibberish.

  Li Yu didn't even need his senses to tell what was happening. The man wasn't channeling a single drop of Qi. There was no medical theory, no esoteric art and no profound resonance. He was a complete charlatan.

  A con artist who had likely bet his life that the Sovereign wouldn't execute him if his method didn't technically touch the girl or cause any physical pain. He was hoping for a miracle, or at the very least, a hefty participation reward for a harmless ritual.

  Asha looked down from Muddy's back and her brow furrowed in utter confusion. "Mother... what is he doing?"

  Ignis stood perfectly still. She watched the man hop and twirl. Then he tossed handfuls of colored sand onto the dark ironstone floor of her most secure sanctum while her daughter was dying. It was the ultimate insult to her intelligence and a grotesque waste of their time.

  The Sovereign of Flame simply blinked.

  A pulse of unfathomably intense heat expanded from her body. The charlatan froze mid twirl. He didn't have time to scream. The overwhelming temperature simply unmade him. In a fraction of a second, the flamboyant dancer was reduced to a cloud of fine, gray ash that slowly drifted down to mingle with his colored sand.

  "Do not insult me," Ignis declared to the empty doorway as her voice was cold enough to freeze magma. "The trials are concluded for today."

  Li Yu let out a slow breath and was shaking his head. The sheer audacity of the charlatan was almost impressive but entirely suicidal.

  Up on Muddy's back, the adrenaline and stress of the day finally caught up to Asha. The stabilization provided by the water buffalo's aura helped but it couldn't erase the underlying exhaustion of her condition. She swayed slightly and her eyelids drooped heavily.

  "I'm... I'm so tired, Li Yu," Asha whispered to him while leaning forward and resting her cheek against the thick and coarse fur behind Muddy's back.

  "You can rest now," Li Yu said softly back to her. He stepped in close to ensure she didn't fall.

  "Can he stay?" She asked as her voice started slurring with sleep. "I want to ride him again tomorrow."

  "He'll stay as long as you need him," Li Yu promised.

  Within seconds, Asha fell into a deep and peaceful sleep atop the beast. Her chest rose and fell in a steady and unbroken rhythm. There was no coughing, no wheezing and no pain.

  Ignis stood at the foot of the bed and was staring at her sleeping daughter. For the first time in Asha's entire life, the Sovereign of Flame saw her child resting without the shadow of impending agony hovering over her face. She was just tired from a long day. A noticeable and undeniable improvement to her condition had been achieved.

  And as Ignis slowly shifted her gaze from her daughter to the human wanderer standing quietly beside the beast, Li Yu realized that he wasn't going to be allowed to leave the capital anytime soon.