“My child, how are you feeling?” said a deep and moist voice.

Tenacia opened her sleepy eyes.

“I’m fine, I guess? ACCCK!” she replied, then she gave a shout of as she viewed a huge veiny eye staring right at her, then she tried to get up. She couldn’t though as she was covered in a mound of pink slimes that were slithering over her.

“Be at peace please! You are almost healed” the voice said.

“You ain’t eating me, you pus-filled-“ Tenacia began, punching away one of the slimes.

“Have no fear, I am not your enemy!”

Tenacia looked at the eye again, it was suspended in a mass of slime and beneath this eye a was a large eerie smile.

“Hoho! I understand your apprehension” the giant slime guffawed, seeing Tenacia’s face of revulsion and indignation, “But again, I am not your enemy! My name is Batokl, I am the god of slime and poison”

“And that is supposed to comfort me?” Tenacia angrily asked, starting to struggle again.

“Yes indeed! I use my toxins for benign purposes. You know where medicine comes from right? Often it is the very poisons itself used to make a cure!” he said sagely,” Indeed, I can conjure healing slime from my very essence. Though, and I don’t mean to brag, I can do much more!”

A piece of Batokl’s slimey mass jutted out and formed an arm complete with a hand which snapped a gooey finger. It was the wettest snap Tenacia had ever heard.

The slimes around Tenacia’s arms and legs slithered off. Tenacia quickly got up and cracked her knuckles readying to fight Batokl… Then she realized something as she did this.

“My arm! Its better!” she exclaimed. Indeed, her arm that was once shattered was now almost as good as new, she shook it and stretched it in amazement.

“Hoho! Yes, my lovely little healing slimes do their job well!” Batokl laughed, petting the pink slimes that had been around Tenacia.

Tenacia’s apprehension faded to wonder as she looked around the cave she was in now, it was almost perfectly lit by a gathering of blue slimes on the cavern’s roof. These slimes glowed brightly and gave the cave a mysterious though oddly comforting glow. In the nearby outcroppings of the cave were more slimes of numerous colors, some rested in pools of water and others were hunting bizarre fly-like beasts the size of pigs that flew throughout the cavern.

Tenacia’s wonder was cut short by horror, “Where is Twist?!” she asked Batokl.

“Ahh the noctav! He is over there” Batokl pointed to a nearby hollow where a bunch of red slimes were gathered around a familiar bat-like figure who lied on the ground.

Tenacia dashed as quick as she could and knelt down to examine him closer. To her relief, he was no longer old, but he was unconscious.

“Is he okay?!” Tenacia asked the slimes hoping for an answer. The slimes gave no response.

“Have no fear my child, your friend is perfectly fine!” Batokl said as he slithered down to join Tenacia like a huge jelly boa constrictor, “But he was in sorry, sorry shape! He had suffered tremendous spell corruption, if my slimes hadn’t absorbed the excess magic in him, he would have turned to dust!

Batokl looked at Twist in deep concern “I’m sorry to say pieces of him had already fallen off. These red slimes can regrow flesh, though he will need a few days to properly recover.”

Tenacia held her heart and sighed in relief.

“Thank you Chaelum … And thank you Batokl” she said, turning to the deity with newfound respect “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”

“No need! I do what I want without wanting pay” Batokl said, his eerie smile returning “The Underworld is a dangerous place and those who travel through it need all they help they can get. Now come with me my girl, there are still wounds on you that need healed and your arm still needs a bit more knitting”

Tenacia nodded and after giving Twist one last look walked with Batokl.

She walked by a nearby stalagmite where Delphine was fully absorbed by a brown slime that was attached to the wall.

“Oh hi Delphine, how are you?” Tenacia asked.

Delphine tried to say something rude, but she could not be heard past the slime.

In one of the rooms of the Behemoth was Karogoz's personal quarters. In it was a large plush chair, a chest filled with books and scrolls, and a distinct lack of bed. Right now Karogoz sat in his chair, a thick book in hand that he read closely from. The title of the book was written in sharp letters, a language that was forgotten in most corners of the world, only dragons and the most steadfast (i.e. obsessive) wizards knew it.

The ancient undead he was, Karogoz knew it and used it to read from his personal collection of grimoires and archives. Right now, he was reading of time magic.

There was a knock at his door.

"Enter" Karogoz said impassively.

The door opened, and Zelos walked in.

"Doing your research I see, good work High Priest" he said approvingly.

"You didn't come in here to give me random praise Zelos" Karogoz growled, looking at him with his glowing red eyes, "What is it?"

"We are almost to the city"

Karogoz closed his book.

"Very well then, I'll get the phylactery ready, you get the deadworks ready to make the circle. Any signs of the noctav of Dorcha?"

"None yet, but I am sure we'll be meeting with them soon, Master Ahrimus made sure they would want to meet with us again. Likely to ask more questions. Speaking of questions, would you like me to question them regarding our own runaway noctav?"

"No, I doubt they know anything. Just make sure they stay. We need some additional help, the half-dwarf took out some of the servants we needed for the ritual"

Zelos nodded, "Understood. I had forgotten, we are short of manpower now aren't we?"

"Indeed, our undead servants are handy, but they cannot be a total substitute for true blood and flesh" Karogoz said, with a sneering expression.

Tenacia was back to perfect health in just a day, all she waited for now was for Twist to recover. She was going to eat some of the rations that they had, but Batokl insisted that she save those and partake of his food. Tenacia was worried the food would be slimes… And she would correct, Batokl revealed to Tenacia what he called “food slimes” who were slimes that he bred purely for eating, not unlike chickens and pigs. For the next few days this is all Tenacia ate; breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all she ate were slimes,

She was worried they would taste disgusting, but to her relief they weren’t disgusting at all, in fact they were delicious and even came in various flavors! There were bright red slimes which tasted like fresh apples, darker red slimes with white streaks that tasted like bacon, white slimes that tasted of buttered bread, and a dark brown slime that tasted of chocolate. The textures were also no problem, they were soft and refreshingly cold. The only real problem with eating a slime was that they stayed alive. No matter how much she chewed the slimes into little pieces, Tenacia would feel the slimes move inside of her through the rest of the day. It wasn’t too pleasant. Batokl ensured her the slimes would do no damage to her, Tenacia believed him but nevertheless she was never going to look at jelly or pudding the same way again.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Twist still lied down, the slimes continuing to help heal him. His traveling clothes had been removed, leaving behind his undershirt and a pair of shorts. Tenacia marveled at his big wings, then turned to where the slimes had deposited his clothes. She took Twist’s hat and patted its top firmly, then was almost knocked over as the hat spat out everything inside of it. Tenacia dropped the hat and looked through Twist’s things.

When Tenacia was super stressed, she liked to organize things. She took a piece of parchment that Twist had in his hat and found the pen he had written with, then she wrote down everything that was in Twist’s hat. Within was:

A thick and heavy book bound with deep blue leather. It was titled “Spells” and beneath the title was a twelve-pointed star

Four packs of rations

Three feet of rope

Nine colored balls, seven for each color of the rainbow, as well as a pink and white one.

Three golden hoops

The black runestone with a golden spiral rune

A sleeping bag

The black kettle Twist had brought out earlier, with three bars to keep it over a flame

Some of the food they stole from Delphine

Two spare sets of Twist’s clothes

A small blue quill

And some assorted books, the same Tenacia had seen before

After writing everything down, she carefully put everything back into Twist’s hat. She then sat down next to Twist and waited for him to heal.

Hours later, Twist woke up and noticed that at least half of his body was covered in quivering slimes.

“Fascinating! I have not seen slimes like these!” Twist marveled, though soon found himself coughing ferociously.

Tenacia, who had dozed off, woke up.

“Twist! Are you okay?!” she asked worriedly, quickly going to his side.

Twist could only hack in response. After a few more big coughs a dark red slime was thrown out of his mouth. It then slithered away into a nearby hole.

“Tasted like… Strawberries” Twist remarked, smacking his lips.

Tenacia sighed in relief, Twist turned to her and smiled widely.

“Hello Tenacia! Could you please explain the situation here?”

“Yeah, we are in the den of this god named Batokl” She explained “A big ball of goop saved us from the eurynomos and has healed both of us”

“A god of slime? Amazing! May I speak to him?”

“He left not long ago, she said something about getting food for his kids”

“Ahh makes sense… So where did the eurynomos come from?”

“They were at the bottom of that place with the teetering stone roads”

“Huh, how do I not remember that?”

“You couldn’t really think straight, being an old man and all”

“Oh right… I used up all my vis” Twist said, his smile vanishing.

“What the Gehenna was that?” Tenacia asked “What spell turns you into a fossil like that?”

“Spell corruption, this has been explained to you before” Delphine interjected, being dropped off by the brown slime from earlier.

“Ahh hello Delphine!” Twist greeted.

“Hey Twist” Delphine grunted, then she turned to Tenacia “When you try to cast magic without vis, or try to cast a spell beyond your ability, you risk the spell itself attacking you. This is spell corruption”

“So let me get this straight” Tenacia said, crossing her arms “Twist cast the reversal spell, it ate up all his energy, his vis, and because of that the spell attacked him?”

Twist nodded “When you have no vis, you use your own life force to cast the spell” he explained “Normally not a good idea, but I didn’t want to risk you falling to your death.”

Tenacia gave a small smile in response, then thought some more “Wait, Twist reversed time. Shouldn’t this spell corruption have made him into a baby?”

“Time magic is quite strange… Think of it like a slingshot” Twist said “Reversing you pulled the slingshot back, then when I stopped the spell, it launched my body forward through time. If that makes any sense”

“I guess?” Tenacia murmured, still trying to wrap her head around it.

Twist chuckled “Heh I am not really thinking straight I must say, my mind is… Foggy”

“You get your rest then Twist, I’ll check on ya later” Tenacia said.

Twist nodded, thanked Tenacia, then closed his eyes to sleep

“Twist of the House of Fate”

Twist woke up in his dream house again, and the dark presence lurked beyond the door.

Twist quickly stood to attention and glared “How do you know my name? I never told it to you”

“I took a peek inside of your mind”

Twist paused, he looked at the front door closely. Bits of it were covered in what looked like tar.

"My mind?" Twist thought again, then it occurred to him.

"This house is my mind isn't it? It is taking the form of my home since I have such a deep connection to it, and some of the books on the shelf are literally my memories!"

"Astute indeed" the darkness replied.

Twist glared at the darkness, "So that's it, you wanted into my mind. Since I was fully unconscious, my natural defenses were down, and you could sneak in!"

Twist rushed to the book shelf, as he had feared some of them were covered in the black slime.

"You read my memories!" Twist angrily thought, “Reading minds is quite the violation of someone’s personal space you know!”

“I wish to know more about you”

"And why is that?"

“I wish to help and you. You AND your friend Tenacia”

"You read quite a few of my memories didn't you?" Twist thought, turning back to the bookcase. He began to go through the books, eventually finding the row that were his memories. One book had the black slime on it, Twist opened it and reviewed the memories inside: it showed him waking up in the morning, his antics with Delphine and her house, and the chaos in the Valley of Towers. He closed the book to look at the one next to it which also had slime on it slime, which had his memories from when he entered the Gray Vale to the narrow escape from the knights. The next book had memories before he met Tenacia, and it was untouched, as were the books beyond it.

"Okay good, it looks that thing only read my most recent memories" Twist sighed in relief, he turned once again to glare at the golden-eyed darkness.

"Leave my mind alone, I frankly don't see any reason to trust you"

"Do you not need all the help you can get?" the darkness replied.

"Yes, but the help from a strange dark being is something I can do without!"

"Come Twist, I am not your enemy. I can give you guidance, I can help you save Hubert. You want to help Tenacia don't you? She cannot do it on her own"

"I know, I don't need you to tell me that! The Underworld is a horrible place and she isn't familiar with it, I know I need to help her, and I can do it without you! Just stay out of my mind and.. Ackkk! AAGGGH!"

Twist felt something cover his mouth, he couldn’t breathe…

Twist opened his eyes to a large white slime on his face.

“Get outta here!” Tenacia snapped at the slime.

The slime bounced away as the half-dwarf leaned toward Twist.

“Crazy thing… It leaped onto your face and wouldn’t get off” she explained.

“Thank you Tenacia I am fine” Twist assured her, coughing a bit.

He instinctively tried to stand up, and he did so as the slime leaped off of him.

“Oh hey, more than fine! It seems I am fully healed” Twist laughed, stretching his arms, legs, and wings gleefully. Then groaned and fell to his knees, he wasn’t fully healed yet.

“You troublesome time twister! Don’t push yourself” Delphine growled.

“Why Delphine! Have you been next to me this entire time?” Twist asked with a wide smile despite the pain.

“Yes, because Bubble Butt wouldn’t move me” Delphine snapped back.

Tenacia smiled wryly at Delphine, then helped Twist back up.

“Twist, there is something I want to ask you”

“Yes Tenacia?” Twist said, turning to her with a smile.

“I think it is about time you told us about what you are doing”

Twist’s smile vanished and he looked away shyly.

“Ahh why?” he said with fake joviality “We won’t be together much longer you know, once we save your brother we’ll just go our separate ways right? Better that way of course! I’ve already been too much trouble for you”

“I’ve seen the kind of person you are and consider you a friend” Tenacia explained severly, crossing her arms.

Twist looked at her in surprise. She gave him a long and serious look.

“I admit I still have suspicions about you, but you have earned my trust” she said, “You risked your life to save me, so as far as I am concerned you are a friend. Plus you already know my problems, I want to know yours so I can help you with them”

The two looked at each other for a long time. Twist finally nodded.

“You are right, It is time I told you” Twist said, sitting down next to Tenacia “Alright… My people are in danger, from my family to folk I have never met. An entire city… My home city, Minvaco, it is…”

Twist paused.

“Go on” Tenacia said patiently.

“This will sound strange, but it is frozen in time”

Tenacia looked at Twist in surprise.

“The ENTIRE city?”

“Yep”

“How did this happen?”

Twist thought for a few moments.

“I am not sure I want to share this yet… I need time to think it over”

Tenacia frowned, but did not press.

“Fair, just let me know when you do want to talk, okay?”

“I will”

Klamka leaned down and looked at the ground, Lionel behind her. The Underworld rain shower had forced them off track, they had just barely escaped being flooded in a cavern they had rested in. Klamka was now working hard to find the magical trail that was coming from Twist.

“Got a good scent there?” Lionel queried.

“Not yet, but I think we are closer” Klamka said decisively “I can at least vaguely sense the noctav’s magic, enough to pinpoint”

“That sounds good, we plenty behind”

Klamka nodded in agreement and two made their way down another tunnel. Within the side of the tunnel was a huge hole that led into a much rougher and fresher tunnel.

“Dang, think they dug this?” Lionel asked.

“There is no way they could have dug a tunnel this big and still be ahead” Klamka answered “They could have only used magic, and that isn’t a possibility; the half-dwarf can’t use magic and the noctav does not know earth magic.” Klamka replied.

“What of the oracle? We saw they clearly were in her house and she wasn’t there”

“Hmm that is true, let me examine this…”

Klamka took off one of her gauntlets and felt the tunnel, then looked at it closely.

“I sense no magic asted, plus this does not look like earth magic; tunnels made with earth magic are much smoother. This looks like a tunnel dug by a huge beast”

“Hmm I wonder if our runaways encountered it?”

“Would not surprise me, let’s see what is ahead”

The two entered the tunnel, Klamka paused and listened closely around her. In the far distance was an unusual sound, like stone hitting stone repeatedly in a distinct rhythm.

“You hear it too?” Lionel asked.

“Yes, the distinct sound of footsteps following us. I think something has been stalking us for a while now” she replied.

“Most likely one the Underworld’s terrible denizens” Lionel observed “Let’s move on, but keep your sword at the ready”

Klamka nodded as the two want down the tunnel warily.