With one thought, all the shields converge towards the center of the panel. The metal dislodges with a wet pop, clattering uselessly to the ground as a flow of grease takes its place. It’s nowhere near enough to fill the space we’re in, but it’s definitely enough to get on my shoes if we stay here too long.

I kick away the panel and trail my eyes over the mess of wires and circuitry that’s haphazardly thrown together in the panel. The stuff’s so tightly wound that it looks like a ball of yarn that pulsates along to the sensations in the room. Almost like… muscle fibers.

The thing pulses hard, and the fiber-wires open wide to expel a chunk of something that shoots out just over my shoulder and lodges itself in the other wall. I blink in surprise and raise a hand to make sure I’ve still got my ear as the elemental finally goes up to the now open panel and studies it very closely.

“What the hell was that?” Ursula asks in my ear. “Oh, shit, was that a Class Coin? Is this the vault?”

I swivel around and jog over to the… thing that’s stuck in the wall. It’s a finger length spear of sharpened metal, grey and boring save for the etching of a five-legged, two-tongued snake wrapped around it.

“Definitely not a Class Coin, but probably a clue.” I grip the thing between two fingers and pull. Wet popping accompanies the metal spear, and a trickle of greasy oil spills out of the hole it leaves behind. “It’s not doing something weird like the tickets, either.”

The metal rolls easily through my fingers, and I instinctually flip it around like a pencil. It doesn’t explode on me, or turn into frost, which I really appreciate. Not a lot of things have been magically inert recently.

Ursula hums deep in her throat. “That’s what… two down, three to go? Or was it two to go?”

“Two to go.” March answers. “The skull and the goat are left. If there are two more hearts, I’d bet that’s where they’ll be.”

“Probably a safe bet. But if that’s true, then why the hell was the first one in the pump room?” Ursula asks. She leans down close to the layer of salt that separates us and pulls out her ticket. “Was that actually a heart, or… maybe some other vital organ? Could’ve been the krarig’s brain. But, uh, I’ve never heard of a brain with a dump truck in it.”

I chuckle to myself at that image. “That’d be one of the weirdest tumors in the history of everything. Hey, elemental, you almost done?”

The elemental doesn’t turn to look at me; it keeps messing with the panel on the wall as molten salt flows up its body and into the inner workings of the krarig. Stopping it crosses my mind more than once, especially since it could make things so much worse, but one look at the enraptured interest on Pearl’s face stops those thoughts dead in their tracks. She’s still got a much better awareness than mine, and if she’s happy to wait and see, then I guess I am too.

Eventually the elemental takes a step back, salt flowing up the wall to replace the panel with a see-through square of its own. “My apologies; I was concentrating. And as you can clearly see, I am now finished.”

“So the krarig won’t wake up for a little while longer?” I ask. It shakes its head. “Wait–that’s the entire reason we helped you here. What kind of shit are you trying to pull?”

“I am not pulling anything.” The elemental states. “I merely twisted the truth to attain your aid.”

“It better start telling the goddamn truth right now.” Ursula hisses through her teeth. “Tell it that. Or else I’m putting bullets through all of its cores.”

Didn’t need her to tell me that. “Tell me the untwisted truth right now. And if we find out it's another lie, we’re not giving you a second chance.”

The elemental’s light dims ever so slightly. “Earlier, I presented you with two clashing facts; one: destroying each of the krarig’s hearts would prevent it from waking. Two: when I gained control over one heart, it would not be able to wake. The first statement is the entire truth. The second statement is incomplete.”

I flip a coin into my hand and motion for her to go on. It. Her. Whatever–for some reason the thing lying to me makes it feel all the more human. However screwed up that actually is.

“Explain.”

The elemental’s head bobs ever so slightly. Almost like she just nodded at me. “Even if I gained control over all three hearts, it would not be enough to stop it from waking. What it would do is give me more time to figure out how not to die.” The elemental’s core pulses bright, and I can almost imagine that it just swallowed hard. “I have slowed its awakening for nearly two years from just encasing its hearts. They did not exist as you see them now, but when it truly began to wake, the transformation overtook everything. Including me.”

Hands trace down the elemental’s body in an almost… sensual motion. As if she was truly enjoying the feel of her own form. This… feels different. She’s still talking the same, but now she’s actually starting to emote and supplement her words with motions. Did salting the heart do this?

“So you’re just trying to stay alive.” I say without lowering my coin. “Which means we’re working towards different ends now. We’ve got a word for that, but the second I say it, there’s no going back. Really hope you don’t make me spit it out.”

“I am not your enemy.” The elemental says the moment the words finish leaving my mouth. “I only wish to live. There must be some compromise in which we both get what we are looking for.”

With a glance up at Ursula, I see her make a very exaggerated thumbs-down. My initial instinct is to agree with her–we’ve got a heart right here. Some well placed explosives and all our problems are gone. But if we leave the elemental alive and in charge of the hearts, the best we can hope for is a little delay before the krarig wakes up. And the potential of it getting possessed by a bunch of salt elementals, making it even more deadly.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Pearl and my awareness pull me the other way. Pure curiosity seems to drive Pearl’s decision, and honestly, I can’t blame her. The salt elementals are incredibly interesting–especially with their ability to completely take the apocalypse out of the apocalypse touched monsters.

My awareness latches onto the elemental like a clingy ex. Something about the elemental’s ability to talk through other elementals triggers my awareness like almost nothing else, and if I kill it here and now, I’ll never know why that is.

A frown tugs at my lips as both options war for purchase. Making a decision this huge isn’t easy, especially when there’s life on the line. I flex my fingers and take a deep breath, then push all of my awareness into the coin between my fingers. Fate coats it in a thin layer of magic, and I take a deep breath as I flick the coin into the air.

Heads we kill the heart. Tails we find another way.

Twist Fate.

Heads or Tails.

Best or Worst.

It’s never as clean as black or white.

Call it.

“Best for me.”

The world slows as the coin reaches its apex. Once everything completely stops it begins to glow and shift; one side dripping a thick, oily substance and the other sprouting a bouquet of salty spines. Each spine shudders in turn, then sprouts into a brilliantly gleaming flower of molten salt. It twists unnaturally, pushing the oily face to the bottom, and slams itself into the metal below as the world normalizes.

When I look down, the flowers remain. The elemental makes a strange noise from deep within her; a melodic ringing like the start of glass instruments harmonizing. Nothing joins her harmony. Somber notes seep into the sound, overtaking it piece by piece until there’s nothing left but the sadness. I reach down and pick up the coin. All the salt flowers crumble to dust the moment my fingers touch it.

Revealing that tails lies victorious. I glance at the elemental, who I swear is far more anxious than a second ago, then look up and offer Ursula a shrug. She sighs directly into my ear, but motions with her gun for me to go ahead. Feels good to be trusted.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day.” I tell the elemental as I pocket the coin. She… visibly relaxes? Or did I just imagine it? “Take us to the other hearts. We’ll prolong the inevitable for as long as we can, but once we’re done, we have to come up with a plan that doesn’t involve creating a super krarig and unleashing it for the preservation to deal with.”

The elemental grabs my arm and jumps. I squeeze my eyes shut as the sensations go strange once more, but this time… they’re nicer. Not really sure how, but they’re just a little softer. A little less invasive. Not enough time to get a good feel, though, since this little journey takes what feels like a tenth of the time the other one did. Leaving me standing right in front of Ursula with the elemental at my side.

Ursula tilts her head at the elemental. “You got a plan for this thing, or are we winging it?”

“Winging it.” I toss her an empty coin. “The elemental’s going to lead us to the other hearts before the preservation gets here. Depending on how that goes, we might be able to swing something.” With a sideward glance at the elemental, I feel that I’ve made the right choice. But not the easy choice. “Better get moving. Or soon we won’t be the only ones trying to destroy this place.”

----------------------------------------

The second heart lies beyond another one of the exits March pointed out to us. None of the other apocalypse-touched monsters bother us while the mermaid-like elemental leads us through the salt gardens. In fact, it seems like they’re all avoiding us like the plague. Except for a freezerphant that bellows at us angrily, spraying magical coolant from its trunk that adorns its tusks and body with spiky, icy armor. Even the ground around it starts to freeze and crack, exposing tiny rifts of molten salt that burble beneath the surface like miniature volcanoes.

At least it was bothering us until a massive thorn dropped from the ceiling, skewering it to the ground and killing it instantly. The elemental doesn’t even shoot it a glance as a bunch of cores rise up from the cracks in the floor to haplessly try and take over the now empty shell.

Not even fifteen minutes later, the elemental leads us directly to a wall. March’s map says there’s an exit here, and with a tap of the elemental’s fingers to the wall, it shatters into a million pieces. Revealing a bowl-like chasm beyond with massive crystalline formations that remind me of those decorative geodes you’d see in souvenir shop windows.

Except each of the spires is heavily decorated with vines, drooping flowers, and all other sorts of vegetation. Pride almost beams off the emotionless elemental as it beckons us to follow it in, but that’s probably just me humanizing it. Yeah. Definitely.

The elemental takes a step into thin air, and we follow it. Sounds of something rumble up from far below, but a thick mist of salty air conceals whatever’s down there. Said mist also screws with my awareness, so when Ursula nudges me for an explanation, all I have for her is an apologetic shrug.

“Don’t know why I expected anything else.” She sighs. “Architect, you getting the lay of this cavern? Any chance the coins we’re looking for are somewhere under all that salt mist?”

March starts talking, but sputters and chokes on whatever she was trying to drink at the same time. I roll my eyes as Ursula chuckles lightly, the elemental leading us further and further away as March collects herself.

“The equip–” March coughs wetly, then clears her throat. “It’s working okay, but the bottom’s coming in really slowly. No signs of any Class Coins yet.”

“Tell us when there is. Or when you’ve got a clear picture and there’s still nothing.” Ursula says as she jogs ahead to walk in front of the elemental. She spins on her heel, then continues walking backwards. “Might as well start making that plan now. So, salty miss, right now every outcome involves you dying. Got any suggestions?”

The elemental doesn’t say anything. But she does glow a little brighter. Which, I guess, means it’s my turn to talk.

“There’s a good chance this place is a mashup of some random salt mine and the oil rig. Maybe if we can find where the salt mine is, we can undo whatever combined them?”

A spark of molten light flickers in one of the elemental’s cores. I have absolutely no idea what the hell that’s supposed to mean.

“There is no possibility for that outcome.” The elemental states. “I would have memories of before this krarig if there was initially magic in the theorized quarry. Returning there would have the exact same outcome as destroying the krarig.”

I raise an eyebrow. “How can you be sure if you’ve never been there?”

“I don’t know. But I know.” The elemental says unhelpfully.

Ursula points a pair of finger guns at the elemental. “We call that ‘instinct’, salty.”

“Do not call me ‘salty’.”

I’m not sure how she does it, but Ursula manages to get into a low-stakes argument with an emotionless elemental. It’s just sentences being slung back and forth with petty little insults on Ursula’s side and denial on the elemental’s but it’s damn impressive anyway.

Something thick and gooey creeps into my awareness as the two of them bicker. I put my hand over my eyes and squint down into the mists, but all I can latch onto is a tiny flicker of that sensation about a mile away. It comes and goes like an extremely quickened tide from absolutely nothing to a twinge of something. By the time I’m even sure it’s something worth nothing, the elemental stops us not a dozen feet from it. Well, a dozen feet horizontally and a mile long vertical drop.

“We are right above the second heart. There is a rolling cover of grease that prevents our entry. I will give a signal when it is–now.”

She drops like a stone into the mists below.