Lia observed Gil work in his room. The mage was in a flurry, circling around and rummaging through books and journals. She had been watching the mage for some time. One part out of curiosity and another part out of boredom. While Gil was exploring the depths of the dungeon, he bumped into a certain dead knight. His mage curiosity took over and Lia watched him kidnap Tal. That was after he overcame his heart attack.

While Tal stood calmly in the center of Gil’s shoddy, makeshift room, the mage whizzed about. He bombarded the zombie with questions, “Do you remember your past life,” and “Is mana limited to sustaining your life or can you repurpose it for healing your wounds,” and “You won’t eat my brain, right?” To all of these, and the numerous other questions Gil spewed out, Tal answered with the same, uniform groan. It was strange to see this lanky mage examine each aspect of a standing corpse in detail, but neither party seemed bothered by it one bit. In fact, it looked like the two were getting along very well – and the basic grunts and groans didn’t deter Gil from continuously talking.

The fact was Gil didn’t know Lia was there. She was watching from the shadows, and she intended to keep it that way. Her current job was to go out and gather intel about who was targeting the land, but Hector never gave her a sort of deadline or immediate order to go out. For now, she decided to just sit back and watch. Maybe make a plan for her job if she felt like it.

She had her fill of watching the mage and zombie play around and slipped out of the room. To her surprise, she saw Hector hurriedly striding through. He was last working on the first floor, so she didn’t expect to see him down on the third. Hector looked both ways, failing to notice Lia, and disappeared around a corner.

Lia licked her lips with curiosity. Without hesitation, she followed him down the hallway. Hector was in a plain dirt room hidden from sight. He stood with three skeletons. She furrowed her brow. Lia was unaware of the existence of these. He said something and she couldn’t hear it: she was too far away and the skeletons were clanging.

In the shadows, she inched closer. Hector spoke again, mumbling to himself. Only the word ‘Tal’ could she make out. The boy whipped out a notebook and said clear as day “…Maybe it’s because the base body was that of an elf. They have naturally leaner structure after all.”

Her heart dropped. Those skeletons, were they elves? More importantly, that would mean he had to have used the bodies from her village. Nothing about this sat right with her, but she swallowed her pride and stayed in the shadows. Another time she would have to confront Hector about it. This was neither the time nor the place.

Hector gave an order, “Around the corner on the north side of this floor is a passageway I partially formed into the wall. I want you all to continue the path, digging following north.” The skeletons began to move at this and Lia slipped out before they noticed her.

Lia continued to move along the shadows. She would go back to one of the upper floors before coming out of hiding. However, she didn’t get a chance.

Come out, snake.

She came out of the shadows shrugging with her hands, “For what do I owe the pleasure?” Lia looked down and her grin pursed into a frown. “Slime.”

Elf.

“I have a name, you know.”

Slime ignored her, Why are you lurking in the shadows? Are you plotting? Scheming?

“How rude,” she snorted. “I live here too now, don’t I? Are you really going to accuse me of scheming for simply walking around?”

A friend doesn’t lurk in the shadows. Master is trusting. Master is generous. Master is caring. Slime expanded itself into a towering blob of metal. I am not master. Think twice before acting.

“You don’t need to worry about me.” Her voice was frigid like a glacier. “I don’t intend to cause trouble. And I’ll have you know I’m not the defenseless little girl you think I am.”

The metal slime but a spine chilling grinding noise, I never thought you were. Our conversation is done. Slime slinked into the darkness.

Lia threw one last jab at it, “Also, you ask what type of friend lurks in the shadow. I will ask what type of friend continues to hide secrets?”

Slime stopped and replied, Remember, a sin you too are guilty of.

“Remember, a sin we all are guilty of,” she retorted back.

The slime said nothing more and slid into the dark of the dungeon.