Drip-Fed

“What a thoroughly unpleasant man!” Aclysia declared, bursting in through the door of their home. It appeared for a moment that she would slam it closed behind her as well. She thought better of it and calmly closed it. “His lack of faith is- is anything the matter?” The metal fairy noticed that her companions were strangely dejected.

Apexus was poking the fire he had restarted not too long ago with a long stick and Reysha was lying on her back, throwing a ball of rags into the air over and over again. She was clothed and missing her steady grin. On its own, that would have been odd. Combined with the lack of interest her darling showed in her plight, the metal fairy was certain something was wrong.

“The big man got found out,” Reysha revealed, before Apexus could formulate anything better.

“What? How? By whom?” Aclysia opened the door again, just a bit, and looked outside.

“Nobody is there,” Apexus assured her. “Nobody is there.” When he repeated it, Aclysia slowly closed the door and stepped back, allowing Apexus to grab her arm and pull her towards him. “I’m sorry I can’t comfort you right now.”

“My plight can wait, darling,” Aclysia said, nuzzling against him. “What happened?”

Apexus told the entire story. He wasn’t proud of how it began, with him losing control, but neither of his lovers chided him for it. They knew that the humanoid slime aimed to overcome this without them haggling or encouraging him. Instead, they listened intently as the story turned to Maltos and the talk in the forest.

“Wasn’t aware non-Priests could see Sparks like that,” Reysha said at the end of it. She had gotten the rough version before, as Apexus didn’t want to retell the entire thing.

“Monks are one of the Classes that can be better attuned to the divine than most others,” Aclysia responded. “However, this is not the issue at hand. Darling, do you suppose this Maltos can be trusted?”

“I cannot trust him,” Apexus said in a defeated tone. “I can’t even judge if I should.”

“Well, let’s just look at the stuff he did,” Reysha said. “He clearly could have caught and killed you at any moment. He also could have warned his fellow teachers whenever he wanted. He could have even followed you here if he wanted to. Instead, he showed his face and told ya what he was about… like, I don’t know if he’s trustworthy but he has absolutely no reason to do any of that unless he’s truthful.”

“He could be planning to hear our story to make sure we have no further accomplices,” Aclysia suggested.

“Dunno, feels like a stretch. Why do all of the teaching stuff in that case?”

“To get my trust?” Apexus asked.

“Clearly didn’t work, so he should’ve pivoted like halfway through.” Reysha shrugged. “Not to say this whole thing doesn’t reek to the Omniverse’s crown, it definitely does, but I would say we take the gamble. It was the goal to find someone we can trust anyway, right? This is as golden an opportunity as we can get.”

“I… agree,” Aclysia said, hesitatingly, after she had thought about it for a minute. “I would have preferred to delay this until we found someone we trusted on our terms, but now that we are faced with the decision to tell or to run while we can, I suggest we do the former.” She didn’t feel truly comfortable with the decision. The alternative was worse. “If we relocate again, it means more people on the path of the Deathhound. The risk we take in informing someone about our circumstances cannot be diminished much further.”

“And it will not be worth the blood on our feet,” Apexus mumbled. The mood was too heavy for either of his partners to chuckle at the transformation of the phrase. “Alright… let’s do it.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

“Do I have to?” Reysha asked, staring at the clean stone floor of the temple. She could practically feel the cold emitting from it. Feeling the autumn night directly on her soles was not something she wanted to go through.

“It would be proper,” Apexus responded. He and Aclysia had already taken their shoes off and placed them on the almost entirely empty shelf. Only the pair in the grandmaster’s slot still stood there. Everyone else had left.

“Urgh, fine,” Reysha said and quickly took off her shoes. She walked on her toes, while she followed Apexus to one of the side buildings. “Wouldn’t the big guy sit in the big temple?” she asked.

“He isn’t that kind of big guy,” Apexus responded, aiming for one of the smaller houses on the temple grounds. Specifically, he went for the one Maltos had sat closest to when the slime had visited earlier that day. Technically, the day prior, as it was past midnight.

Apexus knocked on the door and he heard rustling behind it. A bedframe creaked, cloth whispered, two feet hit the ground and the old man slid the door to the side. “What a peculiar hour you chose to make your decision,” Maltos yawned, while gesturing for them to enter. “Had you not knocked, I would have assumed you were trying to attack me.”

“That would have been foolish,” the slime responded.

“Men do many foolish things, particularly the angry and threatened,” Maltos hummed. “Tea?”

“No, thank you,” Apexus answered. Aclysia and Reysha answered similarly, while all three of them sat down at a low table. It was only about half a metre off the ground, which fit with the lack of chairs. Only a couple of dense cushions marked how one should sit by it. Interestingly, a blanket was attached to the rim of the table, hiding what was underneath it. Too curious, the slime raised it up and peeked underneath. Warm air wafted his way, created by a crystal pillar that sat under the centre of the tabletop.

“Oh, this shit is great!” Reysha declared, immediately moving as much of her lower body under the table as she could without losing sight of Maltos.

“Language, please,” the old Monk softly chided her. “You are in a house of balance. We choose our words carefully here.”

Reysha wanted to return a snide remark, but something about the calm behaviour with which Maltos put a kettle on a stovetop had her hold back. Instinctively she knew that, no matter what she did, she wouldn’t get a rise out of this man. At the same time, he had the air of a proper authority figure. “Alright,” she responded, her tone still sharper than necessary.

“It is called a kotatsu,” Maltos revealed to her. “A heated table. It is one of the few luxuries I allow myself. It and tea.”

The kettle on the magically heated stove started to whistle. While Maltos carefully placed tea leaves in a metal mesh that he then placed over the top of a second kettle, the trio looked around the room. It was true that it was decorated incredibly sparingly. The bed was barely wider than the average person and only slightly longer as well. In terms of furniture, there was only a nightstand, a wardrobe and a closet with kitchen utensils and containers for tea and dried fruit. Then there was the small kitchen. A magical stove and a magical fireplace, both marks of wealth but humble in their application. The kotatsu was the same and the final piece of furniture around. The white walls were empty, the window devoid of a curtain, and the sliding door without lock.

Maltos returned to the table with the kettle, setting it down on a wooden plate to protect the tabletop itself from any marks. A cup was quickly placed next to it. Finally, the old Monk sat down opposite the three. “It is good that you came with the rest of your party,” he said with a wise smile, “a shared tale must be shared in unison. I assume correctly that you’re willing to confide in me?”

“I still do not trust you,” Apexus confessed, “but we talked about it and… it is the most reasonable path of action.”

“Hm, I’d have preferred if you willingly came to me, unburdened by what must be done,” Maltos responded. “It seems your tale does not allow it. Granted, that you have an angel and someone afflicted with Noir with you means it must be quite a thrilling one.”

Aclysia was less surprised about her own nature being evident than she was about Maltos knowing about Noir. “You know about Reysha’s affliction?”

“I have never seen it in person,” Maltos explained, while pouring himself the first cup of tea. The chamomile smell made Apexus a bit drowsy. “I did spend quite a while researching the different curses known to the scholars of the Omniverse. At the time I searched for a way to cure vampirism. My tale does not matter, however.” He blew steam off the top of the cup. “If you would oblige me, may I ask what exactly you are, Apexus?”

“I do not know,” the humanoid slime answered truthfully. “I came to be two, three or four years ago. I… dripped from a cave ceiling, I think. By the time I hit the bottom of the lake, my consciousness had formed. I was a slime back then. An Adventurer’s Pass made for me called me an Omniverse Slime Chimera.”

Maltos’ forehead wrinkled, while he took a sip of his tea. All three of the trio stared at the old Monk in anticipation. They were simultaneously ready to flee and eager to see if he had ever encountered something like Apexus. “An Omniverse Slime Chimera… I have never heard of anything like this,” he answered truthfully. “You say you just started existing? You have no recollection of a god forming you? No particular draw to worship any one in particular?” Apexus shook his head, causing the old Monk’s wrinkles to become even deeper. “Are you of demonic origin then?”

“He began on the Leaf of Ctania, a Leaf of my father Hashahin,” Aclysia spoke up. “When I encountered him, there was no trace of demon in him. It was upon him devouring a Skinwalker that a trace of it marked his being.”

“I absorb and replicate parts of beings I eat,” Apexus explained a missing detail. “Although I can only permanently acquire one Growth after I defeat a true challenge.”

Maltos placed the cup down carefully. “You began as a featureless slime then, correct?” he asked, his voice harder than before. After Apexus nodded, the old Monk immediately asked, “How can you stand before me as a humanoid, then?”

“I killed a man,” Apexus confessed, shoulders and head slumping. “I couldn’t stop myself.”

Admonishingly, Maltos stared over the table. Thoughts rattled through his head. “Tell me how it came to that,” he demanded, not wanting to make any further judgement until he had heard the entire story.

Apexus retold all that he thought was of relevance. How he exited the cave and stumbled upon the metal pool that shaped into Aclysia upon offering it mana. How he was found by two adventurers, whom he escaped. How he acquired his wings and then found Gizmo in an attempt to heal Aclysia.

Maltos understood long before they hit the betrayal that it was that other old man, serving as Apexus’ teacher for so long, who was the origin of the trust issues. Regardless he listened patiently while the tale continued. When the name Apotho finally fell, he took an audible breath. That was as strong an involuntary reaction as could be gotten out of that man.

“You know of him?” Aclysia wanted to know, immediately picking up on that small detail.

“Not many tales make it across the Omniverse. The fall of a party as strong as his was, however, travels in the circles of the upper echelons of adventurers,” Maltos responded and looked down into his tea. “Much of it was before my time even. Have you ever heard of the superstition that it is bad luck for a man and two women to sit alone at a table?”

“I’ve heard way too much of that superstition,” Reysha said.

“It’s origin, so legend has it, comes from a Warlock who travelled with an angel and a Warrior. For many years, they would aid each other. Generations passed, while they went up the ranks and became heroes across many Leaves. The Divine Fruit which mighty deeds stimulate to grow prolonged their lives. One day, during a splendid feast to their honour, the Warlock betrayed them. The two women at his table were poisoned and sacrificed after hundreds of years of mutual aid.” Maltos shook his head and then took a sip. “The survivors of the incident reported it to the Adventurer’s Guild. It shook the leadership and those active during those years to the core. Apotho was hunted by everyone, too dangerous to be left to his own devices. Eventually, he turned himself in, only asking that he wouldn’t be killed. By the time I rose to prominence, the story was talked about only by a few. Nowadays only the superstition remains.”

The room was silent at that revelation. Obviously, they all had known that Apotho was important, but that his influence had reached far enough to create a legend across many Leaves, spread far apart, was telling. “Why did he turn himself in?” Apexus asked.

Maltos shrugged, “Guilt, as far as I have been told. Something must have happened to him that split his personality. It appears the malevolence was only dormant, not gone.” He knocked on the table. “We shouldn’t get too lost on a sealed threat, while I still need to know why you killed a man.”

The trio exchanged glances and continued in chronological order. The completion of Aclysia and the wish that she stay with her awakener, over to the Hunter ‘killing’ Apexus, the tricks Apotho played on them and the slime’s ‘revival’.

“You killed an innocent man,” Maltos observed calmly.

“Yes,” Apexus had nothing to say but the admission of guilt.

Maltos didn’t ride further on the point, only nodded. There was no need to punish the creature before him. Already, Apexus knew what he had done was wrong. That he had done it instinctively to survive didn’t ease the burden of his guilt. Punishment for it, however, had to be appropriate to the crime committed and the old Monk would find something another time. Death was certainly above what the slime deserved. “Continue your story.”

They reached the part where Apotho fled the confinement, courtesy of Reysha’s actions. Here, too, Maltos withheld himself from passing judgement. To him, it seemed that the tiger girl was already doing whatever she could to atone for what she had unleashed. The rest of the story only reinforced that impression. When they finally reached the Long Way and the Deathhound, Maltos understood the reason for their secrecy – beyond Apexus’ inhuman nature.

Maltos poured himself a third cup of tea by this point. “You are wise to be careful about who to trust on this,” he told them. “An easy way to avoid the demon would be to kill you three. His tracking would end, I would guess at least, and no problems will come here. I won’t do that. I don’t exchange lives.”

The trio sighed in relief. Reysha was the first to ask, “So you will help us?”

“Insofar I can,” Maltos responded, causing further stress to evaporate. “Even in my prime, a Deathhound would have been a challenge I would not have faced alone. I will need to organize with the other teachers and have the route you took evacuated in a few months. As far as I understand their Art, they do not necessarily follow the shortest route, which will delay it… perhaps someone can foretell its arrival… I will need to investigate this… covertly. Until I have spoken to all of the leaders, the public will not hear of this.” He looked at the trio. “You will have the opportunity to grow stronger and partake in defeating what you have brought here.”

“We are aware of our duty,” Aclysia nodded strongly.

“Good. Apexus,” Maltos addressed the slime directly. The tall humanoid stared back. Even if he was relieved to have gotten the assurance for help, his memories still prevented him from fully trusting the man. “I will train you personally.”

“…Alright,” Apexus agreed. He wasn’t thrilled at the prospect, but it was the prudent choice. He needed to either validate this distrust or overcome it. Either way, control had to be learned.

And so they departed for the night.