This was very intriguing to Qixia. Not just this concept of tastes and flavors, but food itself. She drank water, yes, and did eat what nature did provide. She had never had anything that had been made by human, or humanoid, hands before. Qixia had observed this behavior but of course had never partaken in it. That would have meant interacting with them and that... well, she just hadn't been so bold and it had never been necessary nor invited.

What also piqued her interest was Mulciber said he had no functional mouth. It made Qixia look much more closely at her newfound friend. "Does no mouth mean you have no need for sustenance?" That wasn't entirely foreign to her. Spirits had no need of food. Even she never felt truly hungry, but she was certainly no spirit. Since Mulciber was made up of many souls, perhaps he was more akin to a spirit than she.

No help needed... Qixia was unaccustomed to being catered to. She was unaccustomed to a lot of things that came along with keeping company with another, particularly anything or anyone of a more humanoid persuasion. This was a good exercise in playing at being human she supposed.

She watched and observed Mulciber keenly as he went about building fire and heating water. It did take some time for the water in the kettle to bubble and roll, steam coiling as it rose and vanished into the cool air. Qixia nodded as Mulciber explained more about tea. About adding other plants for flavor, sugar to sweeten.

"Is flavor important?" She asked him.

Easy to make but difficult to master... That was an interesting thing to Qixia. Did that mean that perhaps it could be made wrong? Or that it could be made easily, but that with skill it could be most delicious? What really piqued her interest was that it involved leaves. "Oh, so it is a plant?!"

Feeling a bit better as Mulciber hurried away, Qixia stretched and checked her energy level. She had replenished enough for a shift. Before her friend had returned, she took back on her human morph. Her legs crossed over the other and she sat patiently on the floor waiting for his return.

Upon his return, Mulciber mentioned fire. "Do you need help?"

"Tea..." Qixia thought hard. It sounded familiar, as if she had heard it spoken of before. The answer was very simple, but she wished to recall if she held any familiarity to it.

"I've never eaten of human food." She told Mulciber. "So, no, I have not had tea. I have heard it in passing, though." She would try some human things tonight. Her new experiences continued to grow! "Is it hard to make? Is it something many like? What is tea?"

If a Qilin could blush, Qixia was certainly doing that just then. What a glowing way to compliment someone! It felt like one of the highest of regards one could bestow upon another. It was similar to how it felt when he had thanked her for her help earlier back down in the basement.

"Oh." She gasped. "Oh my." She fidgeted where she stood. "That's so very nice. The nicest thing!" Qixia gave a nod to Mulciber, "Yes, I think I would like to be called a friend!" And with another nod she told him, "And I shall call you friend as well, Mulciber."

It was getting on into the evening and Qixia had no intentions to travel through the night. Her energy was still low and it would be good for her to rest. "I'll not depart until dawn. Maybe we could spend the night, as friends." It struck her to be a very good idea. Having a companion was much preferred to being alone. The Qilin found it very pleasant and she was sure that they could find a way to fill the quiet times with questions and conversation. Should they indeed part ways in the morning, they would have even more memorable moments shared between them to bide the time until they might next meet again.

Friend? She wasn't sure she knew what that meant exactly. The Qilin turned back to look at Mulciber curiously. It seemed to her that if he used the word, he would know the meaning of it.

"What is a friend?" Qixia asked. "Is it a special title? Is it a kind of job?" The way Mulciber said it, with a sort of warmth in his tone, made it sound like something nice. She asked the most important question last, "Is it good?"

The walk out of the basement and through the castle, all the way back through those big doors lightened her spirit. Qixia took a great deep breath of the fresh air and looked visibly refreshed. Her eyes a bit brighter, the shine in her scales more vibrant. Feeling the breeze on her cheeks and through her hair enlivened her and filled her with energy far faster than being indoors ever could.

"Thank you, this is much better." She told Mulciber, although she did not shift from her true form. Qixia did consider his question some. There was never a definitive answer to where she would go next. Her eyes lifted up to the darkening sky, long hairs shifting over her forehead, clinging to her horns or dangling over her ears. "I do not know. I follow my feet where they take me and do what I can whenever I get to where they lead me." With her head still inclined, indeed she needed to in order to look at Mulciber for he was a good deal taller than she regardless of what form she took lest she levitate herself level with him... She was especially today with her destination. "Today my feet took me to you and I did good. I learned so much, too, so much more than I had in a long while. More than that, I made my first acquaintance!" She looked back to the sky. "It was a good day."

The Qilin gave a series of nods. She very much agreed that regarding that individual, their karma was grossly unbalanced. There was a great misjustice in the world so long as she went waltzing about with her evil. Qixia said at length, "That would be a good purpose."

Her tail lazily swept behind her and she asked, "We can go back up now, yes? I miss the sky." The basement no longer felt so foul but she still felt some discomfort being within the earth in such a manner. This was no natural cave, after all, and the air did not flow so freely as it did in the rest of the castle above.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, taking a step back in her surprise. Mulciber bowing to her in a show of gratitude was truly unexpected. Had she been human, her cheeks would have flushed a brilliant pink. "I mean, it's what I'm here for." She shyly replied. "It makes me happy, too, to know I did good."

Her stomach felt all bubbly and it was so difficult to stay still. It was as if she were being tickled all over! Qixia had never experienced such a sensation. If she interacted more with those she helped, might she feel this way again? It might well be worth the effort.

"What will you do now, Mulciber?" Qixia asked him. She was liable to just keep on what she'd always done: following no path at all, going wherever which way her feet stepped. There was nearly almost something to do no matter the direction she went in. Like today! "Will you try to seek out this witch? Or will you look to find new purpose?"

"You think I helped?" Qixia asked excitedly.

Normally she didn't interact with those she purified or those to whom she delivered good karma, good luck. She had yet to know what it might be like to be praised and appreciated. Mulciber was the first to even express what it felt like to they who might benefit from her actions.

"The evil is gone." She looked back into the room briefly. "Karma is balanced here, and if it weren't, the scales are tipped towards the good." That was a vast improvement if she might say so! Qixia looked back at her companion, "And you're here still!"

Mulciber looked no different. He wasn't behaving any differently either. What change he felt was something all for himself and to his benefit. Perhaps he could now feel more at ease to leave the castle behind and live his life anew. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

She followed him and planted herself between Mulciber and the room. Her fire was very seldom used before today. For some, that might cause hesitation, but not for Qixia. She felt herself capable purely in the core of her being. Ah, yes, being... her form shifted back to her true morph. Even in the dim light afforded by that which Mulciber had led them by, her hair shimmered and glistened like polished metal.

A warmth billowed up from within her and without sound or movement, a spark erupted before her. Qixia opened her mouth and blew that spark into a flame. It flickered and grew and then roared into a massive inferno. She continued to blow into it and it licked at the ceiling and reached into the corners. There were tendrils that spun and swirled as it engulfed the entirety and yet, for a room full of fire, there was hardly any heat. None that Qixia could feel, at least, but so long as those who were near were good they were not like to feel even the barest of warmth.

Had it been long enough? No, not yet. She blew a little harder. Something was still in there, lingering, holding on... it was giving way. The Qilin seemed to be bearing down in those final moments. It would succumb, just... a... little... more...!

Qixia gave a gasp. The fire began to recede away and the room was left looking a little hazy, the stones were darkened but dry, no longer glistening with red or holding insignias. Qixia was panting from the effort and yet she was satisfied with the outcome, so much so that her feet planted on the floor. She hadn't shifted back to her human morph, it would take her time to recover and she knew that it would be better if she stayed as she truly was to do so. Even so, she turned and looked up at Mulciber with her big, brown, doe-like eyes and told him, "All done!"

She nodded in agreement. Instinct was much preferable as the reasoning rather than so vile a soul being part of the bevy that made up Mulciber's being. Qixia looked around the room once more as he went silent and she took a turn about it. She was checking for any spaces that might exist, any little exits that she ought to be mindful of.

"You still would like me to purify the room, yes?" She asked, looking back at Mulciber. He appeared a bit lost in his thoughts, but surely he had heard her. "Are you ready? If you but cross the threshold, that should do to keep you from harm."

She had figured that if she kept herself in the center, the flames could be controlled to only go so far. Or better yet, she could stand in the entryway and drive the flames into the room as far as they could go before blowing back upon itself. She wanted the flames to roil and seethe like a raging river so that no space could be spared. The heat had to permeate into the stone and what little pores they might have, into the mortar which was much more likely to absorb. Qixia wanted to thoroughly erase the evil that was done here. Maybe then life might return more readily than before and the eerie chill would dissipate.

It was rather quite interesting to Qixia.

Whatever the spell was, it was surely one of ill intent. This witch, if she followed Mulciber correctly, had essentially sought out this place and laid groundwork. Her target was many and given Mulciber was so long lived, it was suspect that her intent was to prolong her own life. Or maybe it was to give her added strength by absorbing the multitude of souls. Or perhaps there was some other reason that could not be gleaned from memory or an earring.

Lost in her thoughts, questions circling about her head, Qixia looked back at her companion. "That is instinct." She told him matter-of-factly. "When you know something is true, but not why, that is instinct." She knew that very well herself.

How interesting! Qixia didn't care for the foreboding of the room or the malevolence that was contained in the sigil and yet the process piqued her interest. So this witch, as he called her, had been in the magic circle... "So she was in the circle and had begun the spell...?" Was that right? "...and then you pushed her out and came in?"

Did that have anything to do with how Mulciber came to be as he was?

"The rest of the castle?" She asked, a little confused about how her fire purifying one room might relate to the rest of the castle. "I... did you want me to purify the whole castle, too?" Nothing had felt strange or evil except down here in the basement, and especially this room. There was no need for her to go to that extent. That would be quite A LOT of fire. Could she even do that? She never tried to before because she had never any need to. "I was just going to burn the room."

Mulciber was giving the room one last look over as she puzzled over further if there was any need to purify the castle itself, all it's many rooms and halls and spaces. It seemed that he had found something. "What's that?" Qixia asked when he lifted up the little metal piece. That was a piece of jewelry, wasn't it? She didn't think that it was his.

Qixia gave Mulciber a smile and a nod, "Of course!"

If it had felt bad from the outside, it was far worse on the inside. That everything still appeared to be fresh presented a very dark and morbid aura to the room. The qilin did not recoil nor make to flee, but she did keep herself well away from the walls, floor, and ceiling.

"I do not know these sigils." Which went to say that they came from some culture she did not know or was so old that they may be lost to time. Or were secret. Records might hold their meaning and use, but Qixia had never seen such things. She couldn't even read. For all she had seen and observed over the past couple of hundred years she lived, her eyes had not seen these. Not anywhere. She peered at her companions and asked, "Mulciber, you have not seen these before? Nor any of the souls within?"

No, she didn't expect that ordinary cleansing methods would meet the task. Qixia even began to wonder if these sigils were still performing some manner of task, albeit it may be waning over time. What craft could concoct a spell that would last for eternity? Her instincts did say that only fire could cleanse this place. A fire so hot and holy that it may even singe her own hairs. Her fire had never met such a task before.

"I can do it." She said, a small warble in her voice as if there was some uncertainty as to the effectiveness. "It would have to be the greatest fire I have ever employed." She turned in place. "The whole room needs to be purged and even then there may be a shadow that remains. These sigils are older than I..." Qixia turned to Mulciber, "You should go outside to be safe. I'll not want you to come to any harm. You are good and my fire would be warm and pleasant, but if any soul within contained malcontent it may not be unscathed. I do not know what that may do to you."

The air was foul to the qilin. Her nose wrinkled and she grimaced deeply. Whatever was beyond the dark crevice, it did not bode well. Her instincts told her to burn the place of the ill will that was there. She had to keep that at bay for what if in the burning something, some clues that Mulciber sought, were destroyed?

"It is tainted now, but it need not be tainted forever." Qixia replied firmly. Besides, it was easy for her to avoid the worst of it. "So long as I touch nothing, I will be fine." She had come this far and she would not fail to support Mulciber in this endeavor, "I said you would not be alone. I will remain with you."

" That's good, yes?" Qixia asked when Mulciber said that the one who had done this was not part of his consortium of spirits. Surely that was a relief. He didn't seem to much like the thought that he carried the offending spirit with him. Now that was no longer a concern.

Finding her could be problematic, but it would give him purpose. A purpose far greater than simply keeping watch over an empty castle that was going derelict as each year passed. Qixia thought that this was all good progress, but did Mulciber think likewise?

A hidden chamber, he had said. "Hidden and secret? Or lost and forgotten?" She mused aloud in a whisper. This was centuries ago now, who was she to know how much older the place was. Would Mulciber know? If it had been found by someone from outside, it must have some meaningful existence to someone or at sometime it had been meaningful. "It would be odd for a guest to be down here." She didn't ask, but there was a hint of a question to her statement as if she were not so confident in it.

It was indeed as Mulciber had said. If poor footing was the primary hazard, it was of little concern to Qixia. She could plant her feet back on the ground if she wished, and elsewhere she may have, but not here. There was something about this basement that she did not like and prefer not to put her feet to.

She gave a shake of her head. "I have no fear of animals." If one was there, she was sure they would sooner flee than approach. No, she wrinkled her nose, it was in the air.

"Basement?" She had not heard that word before.

When they got to the door and the steps that descended down into a dark chasm, Qixia shivered a little. It wasn't just dark. There was something like damp and mold down there, but not the good kind, not like dew and moss in the forests or streams and watercress in meadows. The Qilin hesitated to continue on when faced with what lay ahead.

Her lips pursed together and she took a deep breath. Mulciber told her to stay close and that brought back to mind that she had told him he would not be alone in this. Qixia would not abandon him purely due to her discomfort and the foreboding feeling of this basement, as he called it. And if there was real darkness down there, she could purify it with her own fire and fill the space with her own kind of light. So she declared with a nod, "I'll be brave!"

And she reached out and took hold of his shoulder, for no closer could she be than touching, and with Mulciber they went into the depths of the castle.