Okeria’s warning came all too soon, and without any kind of pre-warning warning. He didn’t bother explaining what had happened to cause the teleportation, simply stating ‘I’m taking ya back now’. I knew the time limit wasn’t up yet, so it had to be something else. Either Jun was in trouble, or everything was going swimmingly. Or a combination of both, I suppose.

Yeah, that was probably right. I knocked my head against the back of the room, feeling completely useless while I left everything to Jun. It was a weird feeling, trusting someone to do something completely but still feeling like I should be doing more. My interface blinked into reality as I summoned it, but this place was being a real pain in the ass ever since I took the last slyk splinters out of it. Jun’s stats were a strange jumble of numbers, Okeria’s were alarmingly low, and Mortician’s were at one-hundred percent.

I sat up a little straighter at the onset of usable data. Mortician was actually registering now, which had to mean they were real. We’d done it.

“You know, I expected a little more fanfare.” I said to myself, swiping through my interface to find any newly gained bonuses that might’ve come along with their existence. Nothing seemed to have changed until a gleaming gold notification overtook my entire interface.

“Existential alteration detected. If you accept ‘Black Gold’ from Mortician, you will solidify your race as a Slykened hybrid of Human and Celaura.” I read aloud, but unlike all the other notifications I’d gotten, this one didn’t feel like a warning. “By doing so, your biology will be irreparably altered, and the changes initialized in this hazard will become permanent. If you do not accept ‘Black Gold’, your biological changes will be undone the moment you leave the nexus. For further information on the biological alteration, speak to Mortician Slyk. Who would ever so much appreciate being renamed to Mortician Slyk Persephonia, if you get the chance.”

I smiled and shook my head once I’d read the rather short message. That last line felt a little tacked on, but at least I knew who’d tacked it on. Mortican was alive and well for the very first time, and I had a decision to make. I could go back to being a boring-ass regular human just by leaving the–

I snorted at the thought of going back to ‘normal’. Yeah, right. I accepted Mortican’s gift without even thinking, since my biological change was really what let me become closer to Jun. I wondered what the physical changes would be, but that was curiosity, not trepidation. The golden popup burst into brilliant dust that caught the dim light of my temporary prison, fluttering about like the first snowfall on a moonlit night. They twirled and shimmered in the still air around me, slowly losing all colour until they were a luminous white that matched one of the colours of my armor.

For something called ‘Black Gold’, it wasn’t very black or gold. I gently drew my hand through the particles, feeling their warm stickiness even through the thick layer of my armor. They all glowed just a little bit brighter, then spiraled together to form a stream that flowed into my interface. It swiped itself through its subscreens until it settled on my stats, where they cemented themselves directly underneath my health percentage. Which had raised to seventy percent over the course of these last few weeks.

They glowed molten hot for the briefest of moments, then dulled away to something that looked like dried clay that protruded from the intangible screen of my interface. I frowned and swiped my finger across the intrusive lump, and the excess fell away like dead skin to expose a stat I definitely hadn’t had before.

Blood-Oil Quality: Middling, 37%. Hold to see qualities and percentage values.

I did exactly that.

From lowest to highest, the qualities are: Worthless, Minimal, Lesser, Lower, Average, Middling, Above-Average, Greater, High, Supreme, Mythic, Titanic, Deific, and ???. An example of a Worthless quality oil is a non-massed chipspeck. An example of a Titanic quality oil is stingprey heart oil. The percentage next to a quality is how close it is to the next tier, after which a cleansing is needed to increase said quality. Percentages are not always out of one hundred.

“Percent… that literally translates to ‘out of one hundred’.” I muttered, swiping away my interface with one hand as I finally felt Okeria’s teleportation taking hold of me. I must’ve sunk pretty damn far into the oil if there was a few minute long gap between his message and the teleportation itself. “Well, that’s something for future Seb to deal with. It’s good to know I won’t be stuck with ‘middling’ quality stuff forever, at least.”

Without any fanfare, I found myself staring at Okeria and Keratily in the middle of a fight. Or rather, at the end of a fight. Pink semi-transparent crystals covered the man’s hands and legs, locking him to the ground as a few of his drones tried to defend him. From Keratily. Who was so bone-chillingly quiet that it was unnerving.

“Ah, Juniper and Sebastian. Glad ya could join us. I’d give ya a welcome myself, but as ya can see, I’m a little tied up at the moment.” Okeria said weakly, straining against his restraints for emphasis. “Can ya tell miss angry here that I didn’t kill ya, or force ya ta do anything ya didn’t want ta?”

Keratily barely turned to acknowledge Jun and I before looking back at Okeria. “It doesn’t matter if you forced her to do anything. You were complicit in Sebastian’s efforts to take my flesh and blood away from me. I trusted you, Okeria.”

“Ha!” Okeria grunted out a humorless laugh. “Ya trusted me about as much as Persephonia trusted ya. Go tell her corpse how well that ended up.”

“That’s a completely different case. I barely knew what Endra was going to do, and I certainly didn’t know she would use Persephonia.” Keratily said tersely, but she shifted slightly. Okeria was getting under her skin.

Wait. She… she knew what was going to happen to Nia? She knew Endra was going to attack? And she did… nothing to stop it. She went to see Jun instead of trying to save Nia’s life, knowing that so many more people would suffer if Endra got what she was looking for.

“You fucking knew.” I stated, my voice as cold as ice and as hard as steel. Keratily swiveled to look at me, panic blatantly written in her motions. “You were there because Nia called you for help. And you let her fucking die. That’s why her inheritance went to me. Because you failed her in her time of need. After you helped her so fucking much. Why?”

“Because one of my own needed me.” Keratily said harshly. “When I aided Persephonia, none of my own were in danger. Juniper needed me. She still needs me. I will make sure she’s safe, ready, and strong enough for what is to come.”

I clenched my fists at my side, rage bubbling up in my throat. It wanted to exit as violence. But I knew we couldn’t take Keratily. Fighting relatively mindless slyk was one thing, but someone with decades of experience and the power to back them up was a completely different beast. I looked over to Jun to see how she was taking it, but something was up. She seemed exhausted. Exhausted and… done. Not angry, not disturbed, but done.

She caught my gaze, even though I couldn’t see her eyes, and nodded. She leaned against me for support, which seemed to get the greatest reaction from Keratily out of everything so far, and sighed.

“I’m not one of yours anymore. So go drown yourself in your self-righteous savior complex.” Jun said simply and without anger.

Keratily staggered back before freezing. “You… Juniper, what are you talking about? I know you haven’t taken the Perek name. Okeria was very clear about that. And other species cannot graft us, as I’ve proven time and time again. No; you’re lying to me. I will save you. Even if you don’t want me to.”

“Oh, she definitely does not want you to save her! We’ve seen what she wants. It is certainly not you.”

I turned to look over my shoulder at the voice I definitely recognized, only to see Mortician huddled behind Jun and I. Well, armor that looked almost exactly like I expected Mortician’s armor to look like, and their voice was coming out of it.

“Excuse me? What is that?” Keratily asked. “A bipedal, talking slyk. Get away from it, Juniper. I will deal with it.”

“Keratily…” Jun sighed with a shake of her head. “I’m not your flesh and blood any more. Even if I was, I wouldn’t just let you scrape away my memories for ‘my own good’. I’m done with the Keratilys. When I met you, I thought you were different from everyone else. I guess I should’ve known better. Skies above, Okeria’s a better person than you are.”

“Wow, ya must be complete scum then, Keratily.” Okeria laughed.

“Quiet.” Keraitly stated, encasing Okeria’s head in a pink crystal with a snap of her fingers. I could swear I saw the smallest trail of pink dust leaving her armor, but it could’ve been my imagination. “No matter what you think, Juniper, you are a Keratily. My name made you what you are today. And I will repent for my mistakes.”

“Is that really repenting?” Mortician whispered. “We thought repenting meant that you were making amends for the mistakes you’ve made or wrongs you’ve committed.”

“Her mind’s all twisted, so her sense of justice is pretty damn twisted too.” I whispered back, but it didn’t matter how loud I’d spoken. Keratily was completely focused on Jun. “So how powerful are you? Do you think you could take Keratily on your own?”

“...No?” Mortician squeaked worriedly. “We are about as strong as you were when you landed in the floodforest. Maybe a little bit stronger thanks to our unique genetic makeup, but nowhere near your or Juniper’s levels.”

Hm. Well, there was that hope down the drain. I reached back and patted Mortician on the head. “No worries there. Jun and I’ll find a way to get us out of this.”

{Don’t leave old Okeria out of this!} Okeria said in my ear, and a collective flinch between Jun and Mortician told me they’d heard it too. {I called in a favor while we were running, and I’ve been broadcasting this conversation ta him since it started. He’s beyond pissed, so we just gotta survive a minute or two until he gets here. Then we gotta make a break for it ta the hazard exit. Only ten minutes away at top speed. Wanna make a guess who I’m calling?}

{Inopsy.} Jun replied immediately. That was going to be my guess, too, but she had faster fingers than I did. {There was something between him and Nia, wasn’t there?}

{Good guess, and yeah. I’m not sure the extent of it, but Seb’s inheritance probably has all the details.} Okeria responded. {Oh, and good ta meet ya, Mortician. I’d shake your hand, but I’m a little tied up at the moment.}

{It is good to meet you too, Okeria! When you are not in danger of being killed by Juniper’s progenitor, we would love to get to know you better!

-Mortician.}

I stood my ground, listening as Keratily and Jun argued about shit that I didn’t fully understand. A lot of it was about Jun’s life back on Sotrien, much of which Keratily countered with anecdotes about how life was on the all-world. It was aggravating to listen to, since Keratily was so far up her own ass that it didn’t even feel like she was listening to Jun. It went on for a good four or so minutes, until the argument shattered with the sound of falling skies.

{Well, that’d be him.} Okeria said as he strained to look up at the meteor storm that was upon us. {Good thing Keratily’s so obsessed with Jun that she didn’t look too hard into Mortician appearing, right?}

That was the understatement of the century. I protectively held out an arm to make sure Mortician was behind me, and was met with Jun doing the exact same thing. We backed away slowly as the flaming rocks grew ever closer, the heat from even this far away already causing warnings to go off from within my armor. Keratily summoned pillars of her pink crystal, each of which brimmed with energy that flowed like a river’s rapids.

“KERATILY!” Inopsy’s voice boomed from above, filled with so much hatred and malice that it made me flinch away. “YOU LYING ABYSS-DWELLER! CHOSEN OF NARISSA! DIE LIKE THE INSECT YOU ARE!”