Kelix crouched in front of the dark blue slime and tried to figure out how to speak to something that had no face.

  He focused on the creature panel again, on the single word in its skill list, and then on the slime itself. He did not have a command interface. Not yet. Or perhaps he did and did not know how to summon it, which felt like the theme of his life lately.

  Decisively, he held his palm out toward the slime, half like a signal and half like an offering. "Heal," he said, and gestured toward himself. "Me."

  The slime wobbled, and nothing happened.

  Kelix felt his irritation twitch, the urge to repeat himself louder like volume would make the system respect him. Did he need to speak slime?

  He brought up the slime's system interface to find any instructions when the slime shivered and bounced forward.

  A soft blue glow seeped from its surface, thin and misty like vapor. It drifted forward and wrapped around Kelix's forearm first, then crawled up toward his chest in slow streams. The pleasant sensation was not heat and not cold. It was pressure releasing. A dull ache loosening its grip. Like air filling bruised lungs.

  Kelix inhaled and realized his breathing had been shallow for who knew how long, as the glow sank into his skin.

  For a moment, he felt lighter. To properly describe his newfound condition, he did not feel stronger or magically renewed. Just less like he was held together by sheer stubbornness.

  His vision flickered and the interface appeared again before he could stop it.

  EX = [39%]

  Kelix blinked in astonishment at the miracle. It had been twenty-nine after Endigo struck him. Now it was thirty-nine.

  Ten percent recovered.

  He let out a breath, relief tried to rise, quick and greedy. Then he forced himself to look at the slime.

  He pulled up its panel.

  Creature: {Dark Blue Slime}

  EX = [90%] AP = [100%] MP = [80%]

  Kelix's relief stopped in his throat. Its MP had dropped by twenty. That made sense. Healing cost mana. Yet its EX had dropped too. From one hundred to ninety.

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  Kelix stared hard at the numbers until they stopped looking like text and started looking like a problem.

  "So it costs you?"

  The slime wobbled once, smaller than before, as if it was tired.

  Kelix couldn't help frowning. He did not like the trade. It made him uneasy to acknowledge he did not like that healing was not free. He did not like that everything in this world seemed to run on the same cruel arithmetic.

  He turned toward Endigo for answers. The skull-headed creature stood a few steps away, cloak still, head angled slightly as if it had been watching the numbers without needing to see the screen.

  Kelix kept his voice steady. "Would resting help my condition?"

  Endigo did not answer immediately.

  Kelix yawned. It surprised him. The tiredness had been building quietly in the background, masked by adrenaline and anger. Now that he had stopped moving, it surged forward like it had been waiting.

  He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and looked up. The sky was still bright.

  The bubble-clouds drifted slowly, clear and endless. No shift in light. No hint of sunset. It looked like the day had been frozen in place.

  Kelix frowned. "How long is a day here?"

  Endigo's voice came calm and flat. "The moon will arrive in five days and will stay for five days."

  Kelix stared at him, trying hard not to gape. Five days of daylight. Five days of moon. He tried to fit that into anything familiar and failed. His brain refused to accept that his body was already yawning on what might be the first day of a ten day cycle. He exhaled slowly. "Okay. I guess that makes sense here."

  It was not okay, but he needed something to say that did not sound like panic.

  He looked around the gelatin grassland. There were crystal-like trees in the distance and pale rock outcroppings nearby. A shallow ridge rose not far off, enough to break line of sight. He needed shelter, even if shelter was just not being seen from every direction.

  With ever-increasing exhaustion and desire for a modicum of shelter, he sighed and began gathering what he could.

  His quest in search for materials bestowed him a few pale branches that had fallen from the crystal trees, tough and light. Sheets of broad, waxy leaves that looked like they belonged to some coral plant. He found a small hollow between two rocks and decided it was good enough.

  He arranged the branches into a crude frame and draped the leaves over it. The structure looked pathetic. It also looked like it might keep a breeze off him, which was more than he had five minutes ago.

  He sat with his back to the rock and let his shoulders slump. His eyes drifted to the slime.

  It stood nearby, wobbling faintly, glossy surface reflecting the bubble-sky. It had attacked him earlier. Now it had healed him. It felt wrong to trust it. However, it felt wrong to not trust it, too, since it was registered and standing there like a paramedic waiting for instructions.

  Kelix looked to Endigo. "I am going to rest. Keep watch." Endigo did not move, but the slight tilt of its skull made Kelix think it understood. Kelix hesitated, then added, warier, "You too," to the slime.

  The slime wobbled, then settled, as if bracing itself.

  Kelix leaned his head back against the rock. His eyelids felt heavy. His muscles ached in that deep, exhausted way that came after too many shocks and too few answers.

  He took one last look at the bright, unchanging sky and the drifting bubbles that replaced clouds.

  Then he closed his eyes, trusting two monsters he barely understood to guard what was left of his Existence while the daylight stretched on for days.

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