The news of Sovereign Ignis’s decree traveled faster than any flying ship or teleportation array. It rode the frantic, uncontainable currents of greed, ambition and desperate hope.

  To heal the dying daughter of a Demon Lord was a monumental task but the reward was completely unprecedented in the history of the realm. The victor would not just receive a mountain of supreme tier treasures or a high ranking position within the military.

  They would gain the alliance of the House of Flame and the Sovereign’s hand in marriage. They would instantly become royalty. They would be standing shoulder to shoulder with one of the apex powers of the world. Within three days, the world erupted into a state of frenzied activity. Not just outsiders were getting to work. Disciples of Ignis and those close to her tried to find solutions and recruited people as well.

  The gathering at the ruins had been massive but it paled in comparison to the tidal wave of demon kind and all the other races that now crashed against the borders of Ignis’s territory. The ruins had been a gamble. A sealed door with unknown tests and uncertain rewards. This, however, was a guaranteed prize to whoever held the right knowledge, treasure or luck.

  Ancient and reclusive alchemists who hadn't left their hidden mountain peaks in centuries suddenly descended from the clouds. Their robes smelled of rare medicinal herbs. Rogue physicians that were carrying glowing cauldrons and scrolls of forbidden techniques marched down the dark ironstone highways. Ambitious sect masters dragged along whatever miraculous treasures their ancestors had hoarded and flocked toward the volcano.

  The Eternal Crucible was normally a bastion of strict and quiet order, strained under the sheer weight of the influx. The district rings carved into the caldera were packed shoulder-to-shoulder. The inns were overflowing and the Ash Guards were forced to work double shifts just to keep the heavily armed and highly arrogant medical experts from killing one another in the streets over perceived slights.

  Deep within the Aegis of Flame and shielded from the bustling chaos of the city above, Demon Lord Malos was thoroughly enjoying the hospitality of his peer.

  Because he was a recognized Sovereign and because his foresight had been the catalyst for this entire grand event, Malos was permitted to stay within the inner palace as an honored guest. By extension, Li Yu, as his traveling companion, was granted the same privilege.

  "The atmosphere is simply electric!" Malos beamed. He was quickly pacing back and forth in their lavish guest quarters. He was holding a goblet of warmed spiritual wine and his crimson cloak was draped elegantly over a chair. "I haven't seen the realm this agitated in a long time! Everyone who has ever successfully bandaged a paper cut suddenly believes they hold the cure!"

  Li Yu sat near the window and was looking out over the inner courtyards where hundreds of hopeful healers were already being lined up for initial screening by the Inquisition.

  "It's a circus," Li Yu noted. "And from what Morok told us, most of them are going to be thoroughly disappointed. Ignis isn't just going to let anyone walk into her daughter's chambers with a random pill."

  "Of course not," Malos agreed as he was taking a sip of his wine. "Which is why we need a better vantage point, my friend. Sitting in the guest wing while the greatest medical minds of the era attempt the impossible is incredibly dull. We need to be in the room when it happens."

  Li Yu turned away from the window and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Malos, I am not a doctor. I know some healing arts but those are only on obvious wounds. I have zero desire to stand in the middle of a Sovereign's private chambers while a parade of desperate strangers practice experimental medicine on a weakened girl."

  "Ah, but Li Yu, you possess a unique, calming presence!" Malos declared loudly. His smile widening into something undeniably mischievous. "A stabilizing aura, if you will. And I have already spoken to Ignis regarding your particular talents."

  Li Yu felt a sudden sinking sensation in his chest. "What did you do?"

  "I simply suggested that the influx of chaotic energy from these healers would be incredibly stressful for young Asha," Malos explained smoothly. "I told the Sovereign that my companion, a human of worldly experience and a deeply grounded attitude would be the perfect, impartial friend to sit by her side. Someone to keep her company and ease her anxiety during the tedious hours of examination."

  "You volunteered me to be a babysitter?" Li Yu asked flatly.

  "I volunteered you to be a cornerstone of emotional support," Malos corrected. He gave Li Yu a highly exaggerated and conspiratorial wink. "You have a part to play, Li Yu. The girl needs a friend who won't bow and scrape every time she breathes. And, entirely by coincidence, your placement there will allow me to linger in the room as your chaperone. This will grant us a front row seat to the upcoming theatricals. It is a flawless execution of social positioning!"

  Li Yu let out a long and exhausted sigh. One he had given many times since traveling with Malos. Malos was lying about Li Yu having a "part to play” in his visions. The Demon Lord just wanted VIP access to the drama and using Li Yu as a comforting companion was the easiest way to bypass Ignis's strict security protocols without raising suspicion.

  "Fine," Li Yu relented. He knew there was no point in arguing once a Demon Lord had made up his mind. "But if one of these alchemists blows up the room, I am not staying to clean up."

  An hour later, Li Yu found himself being escorted by Chief Inquisitor Morok. Malos trailed behind them and was humming a cheerful tune.

  Morok stopped before the intricately carved wooden doors they had seen the day before.

  "The Sovereign is already inside with the first batch of candidates," Morok spoke but his scarred face looked even more severe than usual. "Do not speak out of turn, human."

  Morok pushed the doors open.

  The chamber was massive, yet it felt strangely claustrophobic. Heavy tapestries woven from fire silk covered the walls to trap the heat. In the center of the room sat a grand bed carved from the heartwood of a Sun Tree. Lying in the bed and propped up against a mountain of plush pillows was Asha.

  Li Yu had expected to see a miniature version of Ignis. Instead, he saw a tragic contrast to the Sovereign's explosive vitality. Asha looked to be in her late teens, though age for a demon of her lineage was difficult to judge. Her skin was incredibly pale. It entirely lacked the healthy and glowing flush typical of fire cultivators. Her hair, which should have been a vibrant, burning crimson, was a dull, lifeless gray. Like that of the cooled remnants of a dead campfire.

  Her eyes, however, held a quiet albeit exhausted intelligence. They were a muted, smoldering orange. They were watching the room with a mixture of apprehension and weary acceptance. Ignis stood beside the bed and was holding her daughter's frail hand. When Li Yu and Malos entered, Ignis gave a brief nod.

  "Lord Malos," Ignis greeted him. Her tone was formal but significantly warmer than their first encounter. "And the human wanderer. Malos tells me you possess a steady heart and a wealth of stories from the road. Asha has been confined to these halls for most of her life. She could use a distraction from the probing of physicians."

  Li Yu stepped forward. He offered a polite and respectful bow to the Sovereign. Li Yu then turned his attention to the girl in the bed. He offered her a warm and easy smile.

  "Hello, Asha," Li Yu said, his voice calm and grounded. "My name is Li Yu. I've been told I'm here to keep you company while the adults argue over herbs and healing techniques."

  Asha was surprised by the casual and entirely unterrified greeting. Everyone who entered this room either looked at her with overwhelming pity or absolute terror of her mother. Li Yu just looked at her like a normal person.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "Hello, Li Yu," Asha replied. Her voice was incredibly soft, raspy and lacking the deep resonance of her lineage. "Are you really a wanderer? Can you tell me some interesting stories?"

  "I am and I can." Li Yu nodded. He pulled up a sturdy chair and sat down near the head of the bed. He was comfortably out of the way of the medical staging area. "I've seen quite a bit of this realm. But I've traveled even more in my own world, far away from here. Let's make a deal. For every terrible tasting pill they try to make you swallow today, I'll tell you a story. Some from the road here, with Malo’s actions and some from my home."

  Malos chuckled from the corner of the room. "An excellent bargain! I am a man of many ridiculous actions, and I am eager to hear these tales of your homeland!"

  A faint smile touched Asha's pale lips. "I would like that."

  Ignis watched the interaction carefully. Seeing her daughter actually smile, however faintly, caused some of the tension in the Sovereign's shoulders to release. Malos had been right; the human was a grounding presence.

  "Bring in the first candidate," Ignis commanded Morok. Her tone shifted back to one of uncompromising authority.

  Morok opened the doors and the medical crusade began.

  The first person allowed into the sanctum was an ancient, wizened demon with bark like skin and a large cauldron strapped to his back. He was a renowned alchemist from the eastern peaks. The eastern peaks boasted a lineage of pill refining that stretched back millennia.

  He approached the bed and was bowing so low his nose nearly touched the hot stone floor.

  "Sovereign," the alchemist wheezed. "The malady of the young miss is clear. A core of ash is simply a fire that lacks the proper kindling to ignite. I have spent the last three days refining the 'Nine Suns Ignition Pill'. It is crafted from the core of a desert wyrm that bathed in the first light of dawn for ninety years. Such is its nature. It will force the ash to catch a spark!"

  Ignis looked at the golden pill the man produced from a jade box. "You are certain the violent energy will not shatter her meridians?"

  "The pill is coated in a soothing layer of spiritual honey and other rare herbs" the alchemist promised confidently. "It will burn hot but will be controlled."

  Ignis hesitated while looking down at Asha. The girl gave a small nod. She was used to being a test subject for hopeful cures. In a worse case situation her mother could burn away everything that entered her body with her flames. Such a need has happened a few times before in the past so there wasn’t too much worry there. Ignis took the pill and gently placed it in Asha's mouth.

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a sudden, violent flush of red color rushed into Asha's pale cheeks. The temperature of the room spiked as the intense fire Qi of the pill detonated within her system. But it was entirely the wrong reaction.

  Asha let out a sudden and pained gasp. She clutched her chest from the sudden pain. Her body began to tremble violently. She wasn't absorbing the fire; she was suffocating on it. A core of ash couldn't burn. It was the byproduct of a fire already spent. The massive influx of energy from the pill was hitting a dead end and backing up into her fragile meridians, threatening to burn her from the inside out.

  Ignis moved her hand onto Asha's chest. Ignis used her mastery over the Law of Flame to forcibly extract the burning pill's energy from her daughter's body. The golden fire was ripped out of Asha's pores and absorbed harmlessly into Ignis's own aura.

  Asha slumped back against the pillows and was gasping for breath. She now looked even paler and more exhausted than before. Li Yu immediately leaned forward and was pouring a cup of warm spiritual water from a nearby pitcher. He held it carefully to her lips. "Small sips," he murmured quietly. "Just breathe."

  Ignis slowly turned to face the ancient alchemist. The heat radiating from the Demon Lord was no longer the warmth of the room; it was the suffocating, apocalyptic heat of a dying star.

  "It... it should have ignited the core," the alchemist stammered as he was backing away in sheer terror. "The theory was sound! The kindling was perfect!"

  "She is not a campfire for you to throw logs onto, you decrepit fool," Ignis hissed at him. Her voice vibrated with lethal intent. "You diagnosed a symptom, not the root, and you nearly burned her alive with your ignorance."

  "Sovereign, please! Forgive my—"

  "Get him out of my sight," Ignis ordered Morok and did not even bother to look at the man anymore. The alchemist screamed and was begging for mercy as Morok grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the chambers. Where there was reward, there was also danger. Having no effect is one thing, harming the patient was another thing altogether.

  "Next," Ignis commanded coldly.

  The next candidate was a master of the esoteric needle arts. She was a tall, lithe demoness who claimed she could manually stimulate the deadened pathways of the ash core using needles forged from the fangs of a fire serpent.

  Ignis allowed her to proceed but warned her that any sign of distress from Asha would end the treatment immediately.

  The needle master worked for twenty minutes. She carefully inserted the glowing fangs into specific pressure points along Asha's arms and neck. She channeled her own Qi through the needles and was attempting to force the energy to circulate properly.

  Asha didn't cough up soot this time but her brow furrowed in deep pain. The needles weren't stimulating the core; they were causing damage. The diagnosis was wrong so the treatment was wrong. It was like trying to jumpstart a shattered crystal by stabbing it with a sword.

  "It hurts, it’s too much." Asha whispered as a single tear escaped her eye. That was all it took.

  Ignis didn't yell, she raised a hand. A burst of invisible heat struck the needle master directly in the chest. The woman didn't scream and didn't fly backward because there was no time for that. She was instantly and entirely vaporized into a cloud of white ash that drifted harmlessly to the dark stone floor.

  Ignis gently removed the needles from her daughter's arms.

  Malos watched the execution from his corner of the room. He was still sipping his wine without spilling a single drop. Li Yu remained seated by the bed. His face was perfectly neutral but internally he was rapidly calculating escape routes. That’s just how fast this situation was deteriorating.

  Ignis turned away from the bed and marched toward the open doors of the chamber. She looked out into the hallway. There were dozens of the most elite medical minds in the realm waiting in line.

  "Hear me," Ignis declared, her voice projecting down the heavily warded corridors so that every single hopeful candidate could hear her.

  "I did not issue this decree so that amateurs and charlatans could practice their failed theories on my daughter's flesh. If you step through these doors, you should already know that you are placing your life on the scales. If your technique causes her unnecessary pain, if your pills are fundamentally flawed or if I ascertain that you are merely guessing for the sake of a reward..."

  Ignis’s twin sun-like eyes flared and the dark ironstone walls of the hallway began to glow red hot from her sheer proximity.

  "...I will not simply reject you. I will end you. You will die for wasting my time and risking her life. If you are not absolutely, unshakeably confident in your mastery, turn around and leave my city now."

  The silence in the corridor was absolute.

  For a long moment, no one moved. The allure of the ultimate prize was too much. Marriage to a Demon Lord and an alliance with the House of Flame was too intoxicating. But the reality of the punishment had just been made violently clear. Ignis wasn't running a charity clinic; she was demanding perfection and the cost of failure without skill was instant death.

  Slowly, the line began to thin.

  A few of the lesser alchemists, who had brought rare but untested remedies, quietly gathered their robes and hurried back toward the surface. A rogue physician who had planned to use an aggressive blood letting technique turned completely pale and practically sprinted for the exit after considering it.

  In a matter of minutes, nearly half of the massive crowd of experts waiting outside the chamber voluntarily abandoned their pursuit of the prize. They chose their lives over their ambition.

  Ignis watched them leave with a look of supreme disgust. She turned back into the room and looked at the remaining candidates who had possessed the courage to stay in the line.

  "Good," Ignis said coldly while returning to her daughter's bedside. "The chaff has burned away. Bring in the next one."

  Li Yu leaned back in his fire rattan chair. He looked at Asha who was still trying to catch her breath from the failed pill and the painful needles.

  "Well," Li Yu whispered to the girl as he kept his voice low. "That was two terrible attempts. That means I owe you two stories."

  Asha turned her head to look at him and her dull orange eyes locking onto his. The fear and exhaustion in her gaze receded just a fraction and was replaced by curiosity.

  "Have I ever told you about the time my companion Malos tried to barter a painted river rock for an ancient inheritance?" Li Yu asked with a small smile playing on his lips.

  "No," Asha whispered back. "Did it work?"

  "Surprisingly, yes. But the array he threw it at was very confused," Li Yu chuckled softly. "And after that, I'll tell you a story from my own world. Some of the strange and amazing sights I have seen there and how it is different from here."

  Asha's eyes widened slightly and was entirely captivated by the bizarre imagery that Li Yu was beginning to paint. The oppressive heat of the room and the terror of the ongoing medical trials seemed to fade slightly. They were pushed back by the simple presence of a wanderer spinning tales of a different world. Li Yu began to mix in reality with some sprinkling of lies to make the tales a bit more fun.