Dawn had barely broken when Seraphina knocked on Thristle's door, her usual crisp morning routine disrupted by an uneasy feeling. When no answer came, she used the spare key from the innkeeper, only to find a clever arrangement of pillows tucked beneath the blankets. The window was still latched from inside, but Thristle's boots and pack were gone.
A crack appeared in Seraphina's usual composed expression as she turned and strode to her room. When she emerged moments later, she carried a long bundle wrapped in dark canvas. Her swift, practiced movements as she unwrapped an elegantly crafted rifle seemed strangely at odds with her maid's uniform.
The guards stood at their posts beside Vesper's pit, shoulders tense as they watched the slime's surface ripple like a pond in a storm. They exchanged glances, one reaching for the alarm flare at his belt. Before either could decide, Seraphina emerged from the inn. Her maid's uniform remained impeccable, but something in her bearing made both guards straighten to attention.
She looked different this morning – harder somehow, despite her maid's uniform. The guards watched as she approached Vesper's pit, withdrawing honey candies from her apron with practiced care.
"Here," she said softly, tossing them one by one. Vesper caught each treat, but its movements were distracted, agitated. Its usual playful demeanor was absent, replaced by churning patterns that darkened its normally peaceful blue surface to an ominous purple.
Seraphina studied these changes with knowing eyes. "You feel it, then," she murmured. The slime surged upward at her words, nearly spilling over the pit's edges. The guards stumbled back, hands shifting on their weapons, but Seraphina remained still. "She's gone," she continued voice barely above a whisper, "Thristle is missing."
The effect was immediate. Vesper's surface darkened to a stormy purple, ripples of agitation spreading across its form. It rose from the pit, ignoring the guards' startled exclamations, and stretched toward the treeline opposite the inn.
"I thought you might care," Seraphina murmured, slinging the rifle across her back. "Can you find her?"
Vesper's answer was a surge forward, covering several yards in a single bound before pausing. Its surface roiled with impatience as it waited for Seraphina to catch up, it shot forward again the moment she drew near.
"Send word to his lordship," Seraphina called back to the guards, already jogging to keep pace. "Our companion has gone wandering."
The pattern continued through the misty woods—Vesper would surge ahead, wait with visible agitation for Seraphina to catch up, and then bolt forward again. Its surface kept shifting between deep purple and angry red, swirling fast through its mass.
Seraphina's boots found purchase on the uneven ground with ease, though her breath was coming faster now. Her rifle bounced against her back as she moved. "She better have a good explanation for this," she muttered between breaths, watching Vesper pause again at the crest of a small hill, its form undulating with nervous energy. "Or I might just let you hug her to your… core’s content."
Then it was off again, surging through the undergrowth with single-minded determination, leaving Seraphina to hurry.
---
They heard the boars before they saw them – angry grunts and the sound of hooves churning earth. Vesper surged forward with renewed urgency, leaving Seraphina to sprint after it through the morning mist.
They broke into a small clearing to find Thristle backed against a fallen tree, surrounded by three massive boars. Her pack lay scattered nearby, spilling what looked suspiciously like fresh berries across the forest floor. The largest of the beasts, a scarred behemoth with yellowed tusks, pawed at the ground while its companions circled, cutting off any chance of escape.
"Nice piggies," Thristle whispered, her voice trembling as she clutched a broken branch like a shield. "Just... just passing through..."
The scarred boar answered with a guttural roar that seemed to shake the very air. It charged, hooves thundering against the earth. Thristle dove to the side with surprising agility, rolling through the scattered berries. The boar's tusks caught the fallen tree where she'd been standing moments before, sending splinters flying.
Her small victory was short-lived. The second boar immediately turned to rush her, forcing her to scramble backward on hands and knees. Her heel caught on a root, sending her sprawling. The beast bore down on her, its small eyes gleaming with murderous intent.
Before Seraphina could even raise her rifle, a blur of blue-purple shot across the clearing, and the charging boar ran straight into Vesper's eagerly waiting mass. The collision made a sound like a wet slap followed by a squeal of surprise.
The dissolution was horrifically fascinating to watch. The boar's forward momentum carried it halfway into Vesper's body before it realized it couldn't pull free. Its panicked squeals rose in pitch as its front half began to disappear, limb by limb, into the slime's now-opaque red mass. The beast's back legs kicked frantically at the air, but there was no escape. After a few seconds, nothing remained but a few bubbles rising through Vesper's suddenly satisfied-looking surface.
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The remaining boars froze, their tiny eyes fixed on where their companion had vanished. The scarred leader let out a sound somewhere between a whimper and a grunt. Then, as one, they turned and fled, crashing through the underbrush.
The clearing fell silent except for Thristle's ragged breathing and the soft sound of Vesper's mass shifting as it digested its unexpected meal. Her hands instinctively went to her belt. Seraphina's sharp eyes caught the protective gesture, noting the familiar belt she'd seen within Vesper's mass just days ago. Her expression remained carefully neutral.
"I, um... I was just gathering berries," Thristle blurted out, her voice higher than usual. "For breakfast. And some herbs. Healing herbs. Because they're... good to have?" The lie fell flat even as she spoke it, her eyes darting between Seraphina's cold expression and Vesper's reddish surface.
"Try again," Seraphina said softly, which was somehow worse than if she'd shouted.
Vesper's surface roiled with angry purple swirls, forming shapes that looked distinctly threatening.
"Fine!" Thristle burst out, her careful composure cracking. "I'll tell ye- tell you- oh, rotten oak..." She took a shuddering breath, giving up on controlling her speech. "I'm proper terrified, alright? There, are ye happy now?" The more upset she became, the more her accent emerged.
"I'm travelin' with a creature that can dissolve a boar-like it's nothin', and a 'maid' who carries that rifle like she were born with it and probably knows fifty proper ways to kill someone with just 'er apron strings!" Her hands shook as she gestured wildly.
Seraphina's eyebrow arched slightly at this assessment.
"I'm no stupid," Thristle continued, her voice shaking. "Whatever Lord Blackbriar's really sending us to do, it's not going to be pleasant. And I thought... maybe if I just..." She gestured vaguely at the scattered contents of her pack. "But then the boars came, and..."
Vesper's swirls of color shifted from angry red to purple.
"Well," Seraphina said after a moment, her voice notably warmer, "at least you're being honest now." She lowered her rifle, which Thristle hadn't even noticed her raising. "Though for the record, it's only twenty-seven ways with the apron strings."
Thristle let out a strangled laugh that was halfway to a sob.
"As for being scared," Seraphina continued, "that's actually quite sensible. But next time, perhaps share your concerns instead of running off alone? Vesper may be terrifying, but it seems rather attached to keeping you alive."
"And ye?" Thristle asked hesitantly, looking at Seraphina.
"Your survival ensures I maintain my position," Seraphina stated crisply, adjusting her already-perfect apron. Her fingers lingered perhaps a moment too long on the fabric. "So let's just say I'm invested in your continued survival as well," Seraphina continued with a slight smile. "Though if you ever pull something like this again, we might have to revisit that mining option."
Thristle opened her mouth to respond, but something in Seraphina's demeanor made the words die in her throat. The other woman's posture had shifted subtly. "However," Seraphina continued, each word precise as a knife's edge, "I believe you need a more... immediate lesson" She took one deliberate step backward, her smile no longer reaching her eyes. "Go ahead."
The slime launched itself at Thristle with terrifying speed. She barely had time to scream before the gelatinous mass engulfed her completely. The sensation was horrific - like being swallowed alive by something impossibly cold and wet. The slime pressed against every inch of her, seeping through her clothes, sliding across her skin with an alien persistence that made her want to crawl out of her own flesh.
"No, no, NO—" her panicked cry was cut off as Vesper's mass flowed over her face. For one terrifying moment, she couldn't breathe, couldn't see, could only feel the creature's gelid substance pulsing around her. Her thrashing only seemed to encourage it - each movement made the slime constrict and ripple in ways that sent waves of revulsion through her entire body.
When her head finally broke free, she gasped desperately for air, only to let out a strangled yelp as Vesper bounced her like a rag doll, its cold mass somehow simultaneously cleaning her. The sensation of slime flowing through her hair, behind her ears, under her collar - it was enough to make her stomach heave.
Seraphina watched the display with unconcealed amusement, making no move to intervene. "Consider this a reminder," she called out, "that running away from your problems rarely ends well. Especially when one of those problems can track you, and treat you like its favorite chewing toy."
When Vesper finally released her, Thristle collapsed onto the forest floor, shaking violently. Her hair stuck out in wild directions, dripping with residual slime that slowly retracted back into Vesper's main mass.
"I think—" she gagged slightly, "I think I'm going to be sick." She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop shivering. The memory of that cold, alien pressure still crawled across her skin. Vesper burbled happily, its surface now a cheerful sky blue, small iridescent patterns dancing across it like sunlight on water.
Thristle lay there, panting and glaring alternatively at her companions.
"That," she wheezed, "was completely unnecessary."
"A bit excessive perhaps," Seraphina mused, finally stepping forward to help her up, "but I doubt you'll be wandering off alone again anytime soon."
"I'll take the minin' job," Thristle whispered, accepting Seraphina's hand with shaking fingers. "Anythin's better than... that." She couldn't stop running her hands over her arms, as if trying to wipe away the memory of the slime's touch.
"No, you won't," Seraphina replied matter-of-factly, gathering Thristle's scattered belongings. "But you will learn to be more careful with your choices. Won't you?"
The slime's surface rippled in what was unmistakably amusement, and Thristle felt fresh nausea rise in her throat. "Yeah," she managed, unable to look at either of them. "Yes, I will."
"Good," Seraphina nodded. "Now, shall we return to the inn? I believe you could use a warm meal and a hot bath - though perhaps not in that order."
"B-but next time ye want to teach me a lesson," Thristle stammered, her cultivated accent crumbling under stress, "could ye maybe not use the slime that just dissolved a boar as yer teachin' aid?" She pressed her lips together, mortified at how quickly her accent slipped.
"No promises," Seraphina replied with a small smile, already gathering Thristle's scattered belongings. "Though I suspect Vesper enjoyed this method of discipline far too much to abandon it entirely."
The slime's surface rippled in what was unmistakably agreement, and Thristle groaned. "Wonderful."