Coincidentally, Mortician was also the person I wanted to talk about. I nodded and tapped the side of my helmet, causing a flickering part of my visor to correct itself. That was another thing I needed to see Okeria about.

“You two already know I was with Mortician wherever I was, but there’s been a slight complication. They need twenty-two different types of slyk oil if we want to make them a fully realized core.” I explained. “I know I told you that we needed oil, but that’s why. And if we can’t get them a full twenty-two, their core won’t have a function of its own.”

Okeria and Jun shared a look, then kept that look going strong until Jun relented with a sigh. “We figured it was something like that, but we also figured that none of the core-less slyk would do anything for Mortician. We did take samples just in case, but as you can see, there’s not a real good way to separate what we found.”

Jun opened her interface and called forth four vials of oil that she handed to me. “Put them in your inventory and you’ll see what I mean. Oh, and for reference, we took each of those samples from different core-less slyk.”

I accepted the vials and did as Jun had instructed. Instead of four separate vials of slyk oil, I had four samples of something simply called ‘slyk oil’. “Huh. That makes things a little simpler. Or it would, if all the core-bearing slyk’s oils worked. We killed a lot of carvurch wherever I was, and Mortician’s budding core wouldn’t accept it. And it also wouldn’t accept any oils that were ‘too old’ or ‘unearned’.”

“Well, that’s a huge relief for Okeria. Isn’t it?” She asked, punctuating her question with a nod towards Okeria. Who said absolutely nothing in return. “Okeria? What are… oh gods, you didn’t send Seb the oils, did you?”

“I didn’t have time ta.” Okeria said with a shrug. A guilty-ass shrug.

I nodded to myself in understanding. “So that’s why there was only one oil in the package you sent me. What the f… hell, Okeria?”

Okeria shrugged once again. “It’s not like I didn’t want ta. I just never got the chance ta.” Okeria justified, looking around to see both Jun and myself not buying his bullshit in the slightest. “Neither of ya are buying it? Fine; I tried ta keep ‘em for myself. At first. Then I noticed something about ‘em, and I used it as justification not ta send ‘em up ta ya. Here; see what I mean.”

“You know you could’ve put that in a message.” Jun said flatly as Okeria set down a table and three vials. “You were supposed to send those to Seb a day ago. What if they did work for Mortician? How are we supposed to get them their oil now?”

I picked up one of the vials and took a good look at it. It was obvious what the difference was at a single glance. “I’ll send whatever we find to Mortician the same way you sent the stuff to me. As long as we’re connected somehow, it’ll find its way there. But not these. These are completely dead.”

“Completely dead? Was the oil alive to begin with?” Jun asked, plucking a vial to examine for herself. “I can’t see any electricity in it, but does that mean it's dead? The loneswarm oil Okeria actually sent you looked mostly like this.”

“Mostly, but not quite.” Okeria cut in. He picked up the final vial and shook it vigorously. Absolutely nothing happened. “Ya shake the dead oil, and nothing happens. But ya shake live oil, and this–” Okeria flicked his wrist, and another vial of oil appeared in his hand. He shook the new vial just as hard as he had the other. Sparks shot through it, like a lightning storm confined in glass. “Is what happens. Whatever we keep in our inventories doesn’t decay, but that doesn't mean it’s immune while I kept it in my workshop. Even if I wanted ta keep this stuff for myself, I wouldn’t be able to make anything out of it. No gear, no profit, nothing.”

Okeria held up a hand to stop Jun’s rebuttal before it came. “Before ya say it, I know that don’t mean I shouldn’t’ve sent a message. And a vial of the dead oil with it. I’m tryin’ ta do better here, but I’m still having trouble fighting with what I’ve always been. I know it don’t excuse me, but it’s the truth. I’m sorry.”

“Right, right. Of course.” Jun said with just a hint of bitterness in her voice. “Well, when what you’ve always been ends up screwing us over, I’ll be there personally to send you to the abyss. Or Keratily will do it if both Seb and I end up dying.”

“I think there’s someone a teeny bit scarier than Keratily who’d come after me if Seb ended up passing on.” Okeria said, then shuddered. “Well, on ta other thoughts; how’s Mortician doing? Did the oil end up superseding the slyk shards for what we’ve gotta do, or do we gotta find both now?”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I shook my head. “No, it looks like there were supposed to be three things we needed to find to build Mortician, but nature already did one of them for us; their memories. The slyk pieces will give them a body, and the oils will give them a core. And they seem to be doing fairly well, all things considered.”

I tried to snap my fingers, but that was difficult to do with a suit of armor on. “Oh, I also met a city-sized slyk that asked me to kill its creator. So there’s that too.”

Another combined Jun and Okeria stare followed that statement. Jun sighed and sat down on nothing, but a couch materialized under her before she could hit the floor. “So now we have to kill a slyk god. You know, that’s more than a tiny escalation from the scavenger hunt we’ve been on until this point.”

“Hey, creator don’t mean god. It could be something as simple as a machine in the nexus we gotta find and shut down.” Okeria suggested. “And if it is a god, well, then I hope that city-sized slyk ya talked ta is willing ta offer its assistance. Because we barely took down an overgrown signaleech.”

“Because you’re not a fighter, I get it.” Jun sighed in exasperation. She jabbed her thumb at Okeria and looked straight at me. “This guy waited until we were swarmed with slyk to tell me that his guns are the only thing he has that’s combat related. And then he ran out of those melting bullets to load them with. I had to protect him for three hours on my own before Keratily took up guard duty.”

“Not having any combat functions doesn’t make you bad at fighting.” I pointed out, gesturing at Jun and myself for emphasis. “We don’t really have any of them ourselves.”

“But we’re still trying to fight. Skies above, Seb, Okeria’s a politician! A politician, a researcher, and a smith. I’m surprised he managed to hold off the signaleech for as long as he did.” Jun said quickly, but I didn’t get a sense of disrespect from her tiny tirade. “He’ll support us to the best of his abilities, but if he’d told me what ‘the best of his abilities’ was just a little sooner, it would’ve saved me a ton of wasted energy.”

“I’m not arguing here.” Okeria chuckled. “I’m much more suited ta a supportive role than an active combat one. Ya already know I’ve got recon on lockdown, and my guns can shoot just as straight from over a hill as they can from point blank range. I’ve got quite a few other tricks up my sleeve, but I’d like ta keep them under locks until we really need ‘em. Except this one.”

Okeria tapped himself on the chest, and a palm-sized star came away with his hand. He flipped it over in his fingers to show Jun and I its underside, which was the same silver and blue as the rest of his gear. Each point of the star had suckers like an octopus’, along with a swirling blue dot in the center. He handed the star to Jun, then repeated the motion and handed another to me.

“Those’re trinkets I created with my core function, just like the drones and guns ya see me using. Put those anywhere on your armor and make sure they’re flat against ya.” Okeria directed us. “They’ll give ya a little boost ta your stats, but they’ll also let ya see everything invisible I’ve got. And they don’t use your battery; they’ll pull from mine for as long as they’re active.”

I eyed Okeria suspiciously, then turned to see how Jun felt about all this. She held the star at an arm’s length, and tried to touch it with just the smallest amount of her hand that she could. I tried to analyze Okeria’s trinket, but it didn’t even register that I’d been holding anything. It was definitely part of Okeria’s function, but was I really about to put it on me?

Eh. Jun would kill him if he killed me. And for some reason, that was a comforting thought. I chuckled to myself and pressed the star over where my heart used to be, feeling the slightest shock go through my chest as it connected. I stared down at the watermelon green star on my chest, and just as I was about to complain that it wasn’t very covert, it shimmered and disappeared. For all of two seconds before it came back.

“Jun, can you see the star anymore?”

She shook her head. “Can you?”

“Yep, I can.” I confirmed. “Looks like Okeria didn’t lie to us about this one specific thing. And if I take a look at my stats… yup, they’ve all been boosted by five. Not a bad bonus for something so minimal.”

Jun nodded and followed what I’d done exactly, pressing the star to her chest and humming to herself when it disappeared. Then she nodded when it reappeared. “Interesting. Well, if you’re not going to fight with us, Okeria, we’ll have to get a whole lot stronger before we try fighting Endra. Any ideas on how we’re supposed to do that?”

“Juniper, I think the two of ya are doing just that right now.” Okeria said. “Now, if the two of ya don’t mind, I’ve got some tinkering I wanna get done before we get ta the nexus. Go ta your room and do whatever ya don’t want little old me ta hear.”

“Don’t put it like that. I’m not going to assault Seb or anything like that.” Jun sighed. “I just don’t want to be around you or Keratily for a few days.”

“Hey, that feeling’s more than mutual.” Okeria laughed. “Well, see ya when we get ta the nexus. Juniper. Sebastian. Scary thing that sees everything Sebastian sees.”

//OKERIA.

“Hey. Don’t acknowledge him.”