Without hesitation, Sláine unsheathed the small knife from its holster on her leg, sliced a flower off her arm, and presented it to Red on her upward facing palm.

“Uh,” said Red, staring at her from what Sláine noted was a quite sizable distance. “What?”

While she’d hoped her silent offer would naturally convey her feelings, it was probably too much to expect the gesture to properly translate across such great cultural borders. “I extend to you my most heartfelt apology,” Sláine began, her enunciation exactingly formal. “I was being extremely disrespectful. With this, I offer my penance.”

“…What?” Red repeated, even more confused than before. Damn. Maybe she’d need to see if she could find a book on human etiquette.

“This token proves my sincerity.”

“Uh, thanks? I mean, that’s not really what I - you’re not pissed off at me?”

“No? Should I be?” Sláine questioned, and Red crossed her arms as she considered her.

“I’m not usually one to complain when things are easier than I expected, but I kinda just screwed you over there. Most people would say ‘fuck you’ or ask if I’d really have let them die or some shit. What,” Red spat. ”Are you just that confident in yourself?”

In Sláine’s experience, this was not how apologies were supposed to go. While frustrating, it would be in poor form to get irritated, so she simply pressed on in her attempt to salvage things. “If I’d gotten killed, I would have deserved it for my carelessness. There are numerous ways I could have avoided being in the situation I was in, including my primary offense: an impolite disregard of you. You could have attacked me and I’d still be in the wrong, so I don’t see any harm in your actions. Besides, you were teaching me a lesson, weren’t you? As my mentor, you’re perfectly within your rights to instruct me however you see fit so long as it effectively imparts knowledge upon me.”

And the lesson had certainly been learned. Just because Red was crass, abrasive, and rude didn’t mean that she wasn’t taking her job seriously.

“That’s a pretty vicious mindset there, bunny! I’m impressed. Uh, can I just go ahead and say how much I’d appreciate you not pulling that kind of stunt on me? I’ll own being a cowardly hypocrite if it means not having to worry about whatever you might consider to be a friendly pointer.”

“You said it yourself - you’re far more fragile than I. That wouldn’t be fair of me.”

“Seriously? What, are you not upset because you’re just that confident nothing here can hurt you?” Shoulders stiff and fingers digging into her arms, Red’s tone slit into the air.

Stubbornly, Sláine kept the flower extended towards her. “No. The greatest pride of my people is our ability to survive the impossible. The flowers we bear from our scars are living proof of our individual accomplishments - the things we have managed to endure. They are our stories. Our heroics. Our sacrifices, the injuries we’ve taken in place of each other and the pain we’ve suffered on behalf of our clans. This flower…”

She looked down at the delicate purple petals cupped in her palm. “Is an honor. And I give it to you because I lost some of that honor today. My lack of consideration for you, both in your strengths and your limitations, made you feel like you could not safely work with me. My opinions on having companions or who those companions are does not matter, because ultimately, we are still fighting together. I freely admit that I do not understand you, and it’s fine if you do not understand me…”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Sláine dipped her head into a bow, doing Red the courtesy of keeping her gaze directed to the floor. To avert one’s gaze was to show submission. “But I hope that I’ve at least conveyed my sincerity.”

There was silence for a time before Red picked her way over, the leather of her glove brushing against Sláine’s skin as she curled her fingers around the flower. With a careful touch, she inspected it, and Sláine finally looked up as Red prodded the central cone of the blossom. There was something different about her posture; a slackening of her shoulders, a smoothing of the rigidity into something contemplative. Even though Sláine couldn’t see her expression, she could tell the glower had tapered off into something else, though in the quiet of that moment, she couldn’t guess what it was.

“Yeah, I don’t really get it, but… thanks. I guess,” Red mumbled, and the small flower vanished into a cube of light.

For once, Sláine smiled in actual pleasure, but emotional moments weren’t something she liked lingering on for overly long. Straightening, she changed the topic. “Interesting. Yora mentioned something about being able to access ‘inventories’ - was that what you just did?”

“Yeah. Really starting from square one with you, huh? Well, I guess I can give you a demo - “

An abrupt pause. Red had repeated a gesture Sláine had seen her do before, where she slid her hand in a line in front of her and stared at something beyond her vision, but this time, she took issue with whatever was there.

“Hey uh, were you going to mention feeling like crap at any point?”

“Eh?”

“You need treatment!”

At her surprised expression, Red groaned and waved her hand. Another cube of light appeared, but this time, it materialized into a small vial of aquamarine liquid. Uncorking it, she grabbed onto Sláine’s arm, pouring it onto the bits of her that still remained red, raw flesh. A prickle enveloped her skin, the sticky, syrupy substance tingling as it sunk into the wound. Her first instinct was to scratch at it, but Red batted her hand away.

She certainly was a forceful person, wasn’t she?

“Drink the rest of this,” Red instructed, holding it out between her thumb and forefinger, and Sláine detected the unsaid ‘idiot’ implied by her tone.

Still, she obeyed, mouth curling at the unpleasantly bitter taste, though it shifted into surprise at the immediacy of its effect. It soaked in quickly, and after it had dissipated - and the rest settled in her stomach - her natural recovery abilities began functioning normally.

“Interesting,” she repeated. “That does feel better.”

“You know, normal people wait until after they’ve taken care of the poison coursin’ through their veins before they have casual chit-chat. Could you really not tell, or were you just putting on a brave face?”

A shrug. “It said as much when I looked at my information, but it didn’t seem to be killing me, so I thought it might just get better on its own.”

“I mean - I guess you probably would have, but waiting for that is a pain in the ass. You figured out how to check your stats, huh?”

Sláine nodded, demonstrating by touching the markings on her shoulder.

[ LEVEL 5 ]

[ BERSERKER ]

[ HP 764/1060 ]

[ MP 49/50 ]

[ AP 372/480 ]

[ STATUS: NONE ]

Unlike before, her health values ticked steadily upwards. Sensible enough. “So what you gave me was a cure?”

“Yeah. A pretty basic antidote. It won’t work on everything that you could get hit with, but for here it’ll suffice.”

In the same way she’d done with the other objects, Red conjured three more like it - another blue, and two that shone a sparkling, ruby red. “You ever get the hang of inspection?”

Sláine stared at them in her hand. If the blue was a medicine to cure poisons, what was the red one? Something that promoted recovery? “I did not, no. Will it be any easier now that my level is higher? In, ah - [ System Use ]?”

“Actually, you’re right on the mark there.” Red beckoned Sláine to follow her, and she walked past her to the edge of the pile of corpses, crossing her arms and looking down at them. “So, now that we’ve - heh, sorry, you’ve - taken care of pretty much every immediate threat to our safety, let’s see if we can actually teach you a thing or two about all the fun shortcuts you came here to learn in the first place.”

>> Pay attention