I grab Melik and drag him somewhere I’m confident no one can overhear, turning on him before he can have a chance to talk.

“All right, kid, three things. One: I know you’re not a Nawra. Two: if you plan to stay that way, you’re not going to tell anyone about my artifact. And three: how the fuck do you know I even have an artifact? I’ve been hiding it since before we got here!”

“Don’t call me ‘kid,’” he scowls. “You’re younger than I am!”

My eyelid twitches, but I refrain from any other reaction.

“Answer the question.”

“It’s my talent,” he says, scowling. “I can sorta feel where metal stuff is if it’s nearby.”

My eyebrows raise.

“Woah. Don’t look so grumpy. Metal detection is kind of an awesome power?”

He shrugs.

“Sure, if I want to be used to detect metal my whole life. Which I definitely don’t. So you’re not going to infect me, huh?”

“Not if you behave,” I promise. I’m not sure if telling him our plan is a good idea yet.

We stare at each other for a while. Melik has the same stocky build as his mother but with a lot more height to it. The kid— yes, I’m going to keep calling him that— is muscular and clearly well-fed, his skin heavily tanned from outdoor work. All of this irritates me to no end. Even after a few months of proper meals and constant workouts, I’m skinny as a rail. Plus, I have to wear a hooded cloak or my pale ass just gets sunburnt! And, of course, as a… what, probably a 15-year-old? He looks older than me. Unforgivable.

“...It’s kind of weird talking to a parasitic monster,” he comments after a while.

I snort.

“You get used to it. So are you going to play nice or not? I’m happy to leave you and your mom alone, it’s really not important to me.”

That empty face he wore at the meeting earlier returns. Penta also reattaches to my spine, having presumably finished her sulk session. It takes her no time at all to catch up on the conversation, though she lets me continue for now.

“I’ll play nice,” Melik says.

“Cool,” I confirm. “Then you work for me now. So, the other slimy folk don’t have any artifacts of their own, do they?”

“Your friend does. The, um, arrogant noble lady?”

“Yeah, that’s Penelope. I know she does. Anyone else?”

“Theodora has some metal on her. I don’t know what it’s enchanted to do, though.”

I nod, thinking about all that.

“All right, well… thanks, Melik. Remember, you can’t tell anyone I have an artifact. Not even your mom.”

I turn to walk away, but he calls out to me first.

“W-wait. Why are you covering for me?”

Hmm. Should I tell him? Penta nods my head imperceptibly.

Really? You think it’s a good idea?

Another nod. I chew on the thought. Yeah, he might actively work against me otherwise, thinking I’m on their side. That’s a bigger risk than the fact that he might be a bad actor. If he gets found out and slimed… well, I’ll just have to be there to make sure the slime dies before it can give away secrets.

“Because I’m not actually a Nawra,” I hiss quietly at him. “I’m here to wipe them out and free everybody.”

He stares at me in surprise for a moment, hope slowly dawning.

“Mom and I will help,” he insists.

“No. You absolutely can’t tell your mom.”

“Why not? She’s strong! If you have a plan, she can—”

“She’s one of them,” I tell him bluntly.

His face falls, but it looks more like despair than surprise.

“But—”

“Nawra copy their host’s memories,” I press on. “Trust me. Even if she’s acting exactly the same, that’s normal for them. You’re free because that slime ended up copying your mom’s love for you, and she can’t bear to replace you with someone else. Lucky you. But she is a Nawra right now and I need you not fucking around with my business if I’m going to free her. Got it?”

He nods, blank-faced.

“Okay, so here’s the deal: I can save pretty much everyone except Remus and that Theodora lady by myself. The artifact has a poison in it that can kill their slimes without killing them, but to use it…”

“...You want to save Seong first.” he finishes.

“Yeah, exactly,” I nod. “You know them, right? Like the real them? Can they keep pretending to be a slime while we set everything up, or are they just going to be a liability?”

“Seong is smart,” Melik promises. “Um… are you really serious though? This isn’t some… weird slime ruse?”

I snort with amusement.

“Not this time. You can come if you want, just don’t act suspicious.”

Hopefully, the ‘not acting suspicious’ bit would be upheld by both of my tagalongs. I head towards Seong’s place. No time like the present. I have the recommendation of a 15-year-old, which… okay, maybe a bit shaky, but in the absolute worst-case I can let Penta control Seong for a while. Besides, one way or another? I need that slime dead.

Remus intercepts us on our way to Seong’s house, which I expected. That’s where he had just left from, after all. He smiles as broadly as he can at Melik and I, waving as he approaches. Only half of his face can move thanks to his burn scar, but boy is that half looking happy.

“Hey, you two! Getting along, I see?”

“Yes, Uncle Remus,” Melik lies. “Vita is telling me about the city, and I’m telling her about the village.”

“Wait, is he your uncle?” I posit, changing the subject since I don’t actually know anything about the village and wouldn’t be able to bluff that if it came up. “I thought he was your grandad. Hold on, am I your aunt?”

Melik laughs, faking it better than I expected he would.

“No, that’s just what I’ve always called him! Since he and my mom used to be on the same team, he’s always been like family!”

“Now it’s just more official,” Remus agrees, clapping a hand on each of our shoulders. “You two let me know if you need anything, all right?”

Yup. Sure will, mister person I plan to murder. I smile back at him, Penta assisting subtly in crafting the fake expression. She’s way better at that when she tries, huh?

“You got it, pops!” I say aloud, saluting cheerfully.

He snorts with amusement, heading past us with that wholehearted half-grin still firmly on his face. I keep my inner eye on him as he goes, trying not to drool over that huge soul the slime has. It will be mine soon, either as a Revenant or as food. I can’t wait.

We continue on, and I spot Penelope chatting with the metamancer woman, Theodora, out of the corner of my eye. I nod at her and Penelope waves back, shooting me the kind of smile I’ve only seen her make when Penta was controlling her. I suppose I’ve never seen the real Penelope make a face like that before. Even now, it’s obvious to me that she’s faking it… but I doubt it would be to anyone who doesn’t know her.

Melik and I make it to Seong’s door and knock. They answer shortly afterwards, looking up at him before glancing down at me.

“...Hey, ya two. What can I help ya with?”

“Mind if we come inside?” I ask innocently.

“Ah suppose not,” the slime says with a shrug, stepping back to let us in. Melik walks in first, and I follow, closing the door afterwards. “Ah gotta admit, ah dunno how ta address ya, Vita. Mah host is a lot older than ya, but ya personally were split much before I was.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it!” I say cheerfully, walking closer and plunging three tendrils into their body.

They only have a split second to move before I wrap their soul in death and pull. They waste it, and I tear the fresh morsel of life out from the slimy body hidden in their neck. Gleefully, I caress my prize, storing it safely in my torso as I rub it like a beloved pet. I haven’t had a fresh, complete soul in so long! It’s a bit small for a good snack, though, and I promised Penta to see about making them Revenants anyway.

Seong, now the real Seong, instantly flashes their hand into a pocket, pulling out some kind of concoction and chugging it with one hand as they whip out a knife and hold it to my throat with the other.

“Let meh through,” they demand.

I recoil a bit at the knife, but try to keep my cool.

“I’m the one that saved you,” I say as calmly as I can. “I need your help to save the others.”

They glower, keeping the knife still. I am very careful not to let it so much as touch me, considering who’s holding it.

“How?” Seong asks.

“Lucky talent,” I answer. “I’m pretty much a Nawra’s worst nightmare.”

Penta wiggles, apparently considering that the understatement of a century. At least she’s not sassing me verbally when we have a poisoned knife to our throat.

Speaking of, Seong withdraws their blade a bit, storing it and giving me a considering stare. Despite the wrinkles around their eyes and partially greying hair, they hold themselves with a poise of a much younger person. Remus is absurdly powerful, and though it does little to hold him back it’s clear he feels the aches and pains that come with age. Seong’s movements have none of that unwanted stiffness, and I could almost believe they were closer to my age than Remus’s. The only part of them that seems like it’s affected by old wounds is their voice.

“Let’s say I believe you,” they hiss. “If what you say is true, what do you need me for?”

“Remus and Theodora,” I answer. “Those Nawra are too old and too strong. I can’t get through their magic resistance. So… I convinced Taline’s slime to make a feast for everyone. I was thinking you could help her add a few spices…?”

Seong snorts, what I could see of their face crinkling in amusement. The rest of their body is still tense as a coiled spring, though, as if each muscle was still reeling over the fact that it could tense at all.

“Can’t cook most of what I carry. Can brew a drink, but don’t have enough of the non-deadly-ta-humans stuff. Ah poison monsters, nah people.”

I feel outward with my senses, locating Penelope and Theodora. Penelope, on point as usual, seemed to have the other woman engrossed in conversation and facing the other way. I pull out the Everfull, showing it to Seong.

“Well, I need you to do both. This is full of Nawra poison. All you could ever need. If we pour from it, though, Theodora will notice.”

“Ah. Thas a conundrum. But ta get this in tha first place… yer backed bah Skyhope after all, eh?”

“Yep. And the others still think I’m one of them, which is how I plan to keep it. Anywhere safe I can pour this for you?”

“Thas tough. Dunno. Ah’m no mage.”

“Shit. Okay. I’ll… go talk to Penelope, then. She’s also clean.”

Seong nods. Melik, however, looks utterly flabbergasted.

“W-wait!” he protests. “That’s it? You just walked in and fixed them? No way. You were just with my mom, and you said—”

“We’ll get your mom when we get the others,” I say, cutting him off. “She’ll be fine another day.”

“She should be fine right now!”

“Melik, do not—”

“Oi,” Seong butts in, holding out a vial to me. “Drink this.”

A glance at it, then back up at them.

“No?”

“It’ll immunize ya from the slimy bastards fer a couple days. Last of tha stuff I have. Drink.”

I scowl. Couldn’t things ever be easy? Thankfully, I have a good excuse.

“I can protect myself from Nawra. Give it to Melik.”

Seong shrugs, handing the kid the poison. Melik gratefully drinks it, then tries very hard not to retch.

“So are you going to be okay, Seong?” I ask. “We’ll need you to keep pretending to be a slime in control of your own body.”

“Don’t worry about meh,” Seong hisses. “Tha damn slimes are gonna pay fer thinkin they can take mah village.”

“Uh, okay. Just… please don’t do anything crazy without telling me. We’re on a time limit, and if slimes try to run it’ll get messy.”

Seong tilts their head, giving me a considering glare.

“Fer someone even smaller than ah am, ya sure are bossy. Question fer ya. That thing controlling Remus talked a lot about yer plague mage biomancer friend. Why use poison at all if ya have someone like her?”

I glare back up at them.

“Her magic takes a while to get going,” I half-lie. “This is the better way. Just trust us, please? Don’t make me regret freeing you early.”

Seong snorts.

“Girl, yer way too young ta make a face like that.”

My tendrils twist and curl as I hold down a bout of anger. I’ve been hearing that way too many times today.

“I just saved your ass,” I shoot back. “Quit looking down on me and show some damn gratitude.”

Seong lets out a hissing chuckle, nodding.

“In mah defense, ah don’t get ta look down on many people. But yer point is taken. It just makes meh sad ta see, is all. Ya got an unlucky talent, and now yer forced ta kill people at yer age. It’s ah failure of the whole country, ta let shit like tha happen.”

“Well,” I grumble, “we can agree that Valka is a failure. That’s neither here nor there, though. Your slime is dead and we have the rest of them to kill next. I’ll go grab Penelope, and we’ll work something out.”

“Poor bastards,” Seong growls, voice low. “Ah wanna get mah hands around tha neck of whatever motherfucker made those things.”

Penta perks up, snapping into control.

“Made? You think Nawra are artificial?”

“Ah believe so. That or not from tha island originally. Or both, ah suppose. But tha way they work… it don’t make a lotta sense. They don’t need half their instincts if they’re possessing monsters and dogs. Ah’d bet mah ass they’re a fuckin bioweapon, made fer infiltrating human colonies.”

Penta swallows, her horror making my heart race.

“A sapient bioweapon…”

“Yup,” Seong hisses. “They’re too perfect at that fer it to be chance. Makes mah fuckin blood boil. They’re damn children, ya know? Scared, confused little bastard mine was. But we still gotta kill ‘em all.”

“D-do we?” Penta almost begged. “If they can be reasoned with, then—”

“Nah. Reproduce too fast. Even if ya have one or two reasonable ones, a single bad apple and they’ll fuck it for everyone. S’a mercy to end it, as disgusting as tha is. S’why I wanna gut the fucker that made ‘em. Doomed their own kids from the damn start.”

“Doomed from the start,” Penta repeats quietly. “Maybe so. In that case… I wouldn’t mind helping with the gutting, if you figure out who did it.”

Seong shrugs.

“Ah’ll let ya know, but ah doubt ah’ll run into ‘em just like that. S’a dream, nothin more. Now, we gotta save the others, ya?”

“Yeah,” Penta agrees, barely whispering. She gives control back to me, and I nod.

“I’ll be back,” I promise. “Seong, can you take care of Melik?”

“Wh- hey!” Melik protests. “I don’t need taken care of!”

I just keep looking at Seong.

“Please?” I ask flatly. They chuckle.

“Ya. Don’ worry Melik, I ain’t yer nanny. I got shit for you to help with. Follow meh.”

I head out as they move deeper into Seong’s house, thoughts racing.

“Their theory makes sense,” Penta whispers to me. “I hate it, but it makes a lot of sense. Nothing in our biology is wasted or redundant, and nothing is similar to any creature I’m familiar with. It almost seems as though we’re missing the bits that would allow us to survive independently. When you look at it that way, we’re almost certainly artificially created life.”

How the heck does someone create life?

“Well usually they have sex,” Penta answers, deadpanning.

Ha ha. I mean artificial life.

“Well I’m no expert, but I would suspect you need at least a biomancer for the body, and…”

An animancer, I finish. For the soul. Would that be necromancy or cognimancy?

“Taking something dead and making it alive? I can only assume, but… I would say that’s the logical conclusion of both disciplines, used in tandem. The mark of a true master of animancy.”

Well, that’s one way to get you a better body, I guess.

Penta blinks.

“You can’t be serious,” she murmurs, dumbfounded.

As usual, you know exactly how serious I am. It’s what you want, right? A body of your own? You know biomancy, I know animancy. Let’s figure it out!

For a moment, I feel tears start to well up in my eyes before Penta drops control of my body, shivering to herself in the base of my skull. I wipe away the bits of water before we head anywhere they might be noticed, smiling to myself. Slowly, as non-threateningly as possible, I reach soul-tendrils up around her, not making contact. I get why it freaks her out to be touched by them, what with our rocky start and all. But this is what you’re supposed to do when a friend cries, right? Be it in pain or joy.

Penta’s little soul-cilia slowly, haltingly, stretch my way as she moves them for the first time. I take that for the invitation it is, and wrap her up with mine.

Finally, for the first time, I hug my friend.