For a moment, Zoey stayed there, staring at the blank void where Ephy’s dream orb had been floating.

Annoyance reared up. Again, their meeting had been cut off with Ephy gleefully shoving her through worlds and encouraging her to ‘get to it’. Zoey had plenty more questions she’d have liked to ask her enigmatic, morally dubious sponsor, but now she wouldn’t get that opportunity.

Not until she ‘communed the more traditional way’, whatever that meant—a question Ephy had deliberately dodged. Her access to Ephy through the dreamworld had been a one-time thing.

But, Zoey admitted after thinking her situation through, Ephy had more of a reason for the quick dismissal, this time. She was on a time limit, apparently. She’d been given a vague, mysterious warning, and been told that the ‘clock was ticking’.

She didn’t feel any serious worry, because Ephy didn’t mean Rosalie, Delta, Maddy, or Sabina. She had specifically said ‘an old acquaintance’ of Zoey’s, and Zoey got the impression she’d chosen her words carefully, since she ‘had to be circumspect’. So Zoey had everything she needed. She just had to decipher it.

An old acquaintance. Someone sleeping. But who rarely slept, too. That was an odd tidbit to specify. Also intentional, Zoey suspected. But Zoey wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Floating there, far above the sea of orbs that made up the mortal realm, Zoey considered.

Who were her ‘old acquaintances’? She didn’t think Ephy meant from Earth, because not only were Zoey’s memories still fuzzy—if glacially coming more and more into focus—but because she couldn’t possibly see how it would relate. Still, she didn’t discard the idea entirely, she simply set it aside.

Others, then. It wasn’t a long list. She could count the number of people she considered acquaintances on both hands. People she’d interacted with in more than a completely superficial way, yet she didn’t consider a friend. Honestly, maybe it’d fit on a single hand.

Who did it leave? She’d spoken with both of the guides who had led her to Treyhull in a slightly more than superficial manner, considering the long, many-hour trip. The second one less than the first; the golem-woman hadn’t been talkative. Then there was the dressing room girl, Callie. Fe, too, though she bordered on friend. Who else?

Not-Zoey?

The idea popped into her mind abruptly, being someone Zoey had definitely interacted with in a thorough matter, but someone she didn’t consider a friend, exactly.

Obviously, the other option followed shortly.

Mel.

An old acquaintance. Besides Rosalie, Mel was the first sapient being she’d talked to. And Zoey didn’t consider her a friend; acquaintance fit better. And rarely slept? That stranger tidbit suddenly made sense, applied to the slimegirl. Not that Zoey knew how boss monsters worked, but it would make sense if Mel slept less than humans, if at all.

She needed Zoey’s help?

That alarmed her, despite Zoey not particularly considering her a friend. She didn’t wish harm on Mel, certainly. Her existence as a boss monster, a person who’d probably killed adventurers before, did present some ethical oddities to sort through, but Zoey didn’t want her hurt.

Plus, Ephy wanted Zoey to go save her for the sake of whatever was wrong with the world. Zoey would have gone and helped regardless, but that doubly sealed the deal.

Assuming she’d gotten it right. The pieces did fit, though, and the list of potential options wasn’t long.

How would she help, though? Ephy wanted her to visit Mel in the dream world? That was why she’d shoved Zoey out and spurred her on. Mel wouldn’t be sleeping for long, so they had a short time window for this to work.

Frowning, Zoey sorted through the various strands attached to her, representing relationships. She descended back into the mortal sea of orbs while doing so.

She couldn’t tell which string belonged to who. The thickness gave hints, indicating the strength of the relationship, but the more important factor was the string’s ‘activity’. With the person on the other end of the string sleeping, the strand went gray and dull.

But all of them were dull. Being the middle of the day, Zoey taking a nap after magic lessons, none of her few acquaintances and friends were also asleep.

So, did that mean she didn’t have a strand attaching to Mel? Or was it hidden in the same way as Ephy’s? Ephy’s, despite its prismatic and otherworldly origin, had been difficult to identify. It hadn’t been a physical shuffling of the relationship strands, done with her hands—she didn’t have those, right now, simply a floating consciousness that moved in the direction she ferried it—but rather an odder, mental action. Existing in this place in general was surreal, hard to describe.

Zoey did so again, sorting through the links that bound her to other people. As a boss monster, surely it would look different from everyone else’s, like Ephy’s had.

Slowly, Zoey’s inspection yielded fruit.

Two strands appeared: one dull blue, pointing straight down, in the same way Ephy’s had up, and the other, also pointing down, but gray and inactive. Mel, and Not-Zoey? Sleeping and not sleeping?

Since Zoey was on a time crunch, she didn’t celebrate her victory. She seized the string and swam downward, following her pathway to the slimegirl she had so long ago—though really, only a week—lost her second type of virginity to.

It would be nice to see Mel again. She’d been pleasant, and, though exhausting, satisfying her to complete the first shard was one of the memories Zoey looked more fondly on since coming to this world. Though, by the sounds of it, Zoey was on a rescue mission. She didn’t think she’d be getting to have too much fun with Mel.

Then again, considering the strange nature of Ephy’s patronage, and how Zoey had needed to solve problems in the past, maybe rescuing Mel would involve some sticky business.

Slowly, Mel’s dreamorb came into view.

She could make out a few details inside the dream, as Zoey could with other active orbs. The curvy green goo-girl ran through familiar stone hallways encrusted with vines. She shot looks over her shoulder, eyes wide with fear. Running from something? But this was a dream, right? This wasn’t the danger Ephy had mentioned?

For a moment, Zoey’s self preservation tried to reason with her. Without a single idea of what this situation was, the dangers involved, she really ought to think carefully about what she should do.

But those thoughts didn’t make much headway. Zoey saw a running, terrified Mel, and immediately dove into the dreamorb to help.

***

Like twice before, first with Kali then with Ephy, Zoey appeared, suddenly and fully-formed, into another person’s mind.

Ahead of her, Mel stumbled, then, considering her speed, tripped, shortly collapsing into a pile of gooey limbs. She turned, scooting back on her butt, looking at Zoey with wide eyes.

Zoey, for her part, spun in a circle, appraising her surroundings. Empty stone hallways met her—nothing threatening. She eyed the corners, tense and ready to fight, but nothing appeared. Mel panted behind her, breathing labored from her run.

Once she was sure nothing was actually coming for them, she turned to Mel.

Kali had known instantly that Zoey was real, and that she’d been in a dream—a strange quirk of however the dream-world, or Zoey’s presence in it, worked. Would Mel know she was dreaming, now, too? And that Zoey was real?

Mel’s panic did seem to be fading by the second, slowly being replaced by incredulity. She gawked up at Zoey, green lips parted in shock.

“Zoey?!”

“Uh,” Zoey said. “Hi, Mel?”

Mel scrambled to her feet. She peeked over Zoey’s shoulder, which caused Zoey to, with some alarm, do the same, but again, she saw nothing.

“Huh,” Mel said. “I was just dreaming.” She shivered in an exaggerated way. It made her green-goo body jiggle. Though she had the curves of a human, her body didn’t react like it was made of skin. She … bounced a lot.

Mel studied Zoey, then beamed and rushed forward.

Five-foot something of goo-girl impacted Zoey, and Zoey, startled, caught the girl who had hurled herself forward. The momentum made Zoey take a few steps back to steady herself. Mel’s sticky skin pressed into her, dampening her clothes—which Zoey realized she’d spawned in with, unlike with Ephy.

“It’s so nice to see you!” Mel gushed. “You’re real! I can tell. That’s so weird. How are you here?”

Mel’s joy at seeing her was flattering, and, less importantly, the press of her gooey curves were highly distracting. But Zoey had come here on a mission, and so, rather than returning the niceties, she addressed it.

“Are you safe?” Zoey asked. “What happened? What were you running from?”

“Safe?” Mel pulled back, still supported in the air by Zoey’s arms, and blinked up at her. A grave expression crossed her face, as if she’d just been reminded. She let herself be put down, holding Zoey’s eyes with a sudden bout of seriousness. “No. Not at all. Someone’s eating me, and not in the fun way.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I have no idea what it is,” Mel said, “but it’s dangerous. Like nothing I’ve ever seen, and I can’t do anything to stop it.”

Well. That confirmed Mel was the person Ephy want Zoey to go see. She doubted it was a coincidence.

“Back up,” Zoey said. She glanced over her shoulder one more time. “What is ‘it’? And is it here?”

“Here?” Mel said. “This is my dream.” She poked Zoey on the arm. “Don’t be silly, silly.”

Zoey didn’t think enemies invading dreams would be the weirdest thing she’d heard of in this world, seeing how she could, but she didn’t point that out. Mel seemed confident whatever she’d be running from had been a dream, and Zoey took that at face value.

“But an explanation,” Zoey prompted. “Start from the beginning.”

Mel nodded, her dark green slime-hair bouncing. “Okay. But first,” she said seriously, “you need to get those pants off. Like, right now.”