Eimy rode the sidecar to Iixr's residence after they brought the jar full of gelatinous golem sweat she requested for an analgesic. Mewmi propped herselfon the jar as she peered into the residence as the sign Iixr's Herbs was in view.

Eimy parked the sidecar in front of Iixr's house, then unbuckled her helmet. Seep slinked his way out of his seat as his semi-liquid form wobbled, then stood firm. Eimy grabbed the jar before Mewmi hopped on her shoulder before they entered the place.

Iixr looked up from her work on a bench and smiled at them when she saw that it was them. She put down the tray of herbs she was holding and motioned the pair over. The two followed as Iixr took them down to her greenhouse. The two sat on the benches across from her while she poured some clear liquid in their jars.
"So, how did your mission go?"
Eimy sighed, she needed to get back home to prepare the pâté to feed Mewmi, make dinner and pack some on her way to the infirmary on her first night on the shift.

"We have the golem serum." Mewmi exclaimed.
That seemed to satisfy Iixr, who smiled and returned to her work. She finished the second one just as she'd finished the first and capped the container with a thick paper towel. She handed it to them both.

The difference between the ointment Iixr applied to Mewmi earlier was nothing compared to the finished serum. This serum in particular can seal a gaping wound in a matter of seconds. It can repair damaged tissue, including bullet wounds and deep gashes which could also come in handy for Eimy's new job as a substitute nurse.

"You may use these until you can return them."
Eimy nodded and thanked Iixr as the healer turned around to continue what she'd been doing. Eimy glanced at her watch. She had a little over an hour before she'd need to start preparations.

"Hey, Iixr...could we borrow something from you? I've gotta head back home soon..." She asked sheepishly as she rubbed her neck.
It wasn't often Eimy would ask for anything but Iixr knew better than to say no. If her friend needed anything, she wouldn't hesitate to help.
"Of course." She replied and gestured to her shelf full of vials.
Eimy picked out the jar of jelly with the label on it from the shelf. Iixr pulled down another jar as well, labeled "Sugary Jelly".
She carefully handed the three jars to each of them. They left the greenhouse shortly after that as Iixr returned to her work.

[Ruben II finds Erica]

The Cinnabarian didn't go through all the trouble of disguising himself as a caretaker, bypassed the security guards and went to search for the prize money just to get left in the dark. No, he didn't go to such lengths to be stopped midway in finding the only lead that could take him to said prize money. Neither Erica didn't spend all this time seeking a wayward wizard to reach a dead end, nor to get her rear end getting hit by a cleaning cart.

Erica pointed the flashlight at Ruben II, though she had no idea which of the employees she came across. The Cinnabarian was wearing a cap that covered his curly ginger hair. The facemask concealed his face, and the sunglasses hid his chestnut eyes. He was also wearing latex gloves, and his forboding approach was of no help either.

“Who are you?” Erica asked.

The Cinnabarian ignored her question, and turned away from the light and headed into the hall. He has no interest at all in her, or anyone else in this place, let alone what their motives were. His only desire was for the promised reward money and nothing more. He had no time to waste with this broad's questions.

“Wait!”

The Cinnabarian kept walking.

Erica ran to catch up to the man. “You can't seriously think I'll let you run off without talking to me!” She followed him into the corridor. “Where are you going!? We need to talk!”

He knew he had found the person who was going to get his money before she did, but it's not like he cared, so why should he care?

"Hey." She reached out to touch the man's shoulder, not really wanting him to leave. He stiffened. "Please answer my questions."

The Cinnabarian stopped walking, but remained facing away from Erica. Then she realized why it seemed like he wasn't interested in talking.

The Cinnabarian spun on his heel and grabbed Erica by the wrist. He yanked her forward, so they were only inches apart. He put his other hand over her mouth and shushed her.
"Don't make a sound," he whispered. Erica nodded, still not understanding.

The silence hung over them, the flashlight partially obscured by Rubrum's torso as they heard a rattling noise coming from across the corridor. No, below the corridor. The close proximity between them was awkward and uncomfortable before he removed his gloved hand from her mouth.

“The coast is clear.” The stranger said before he looked on both sides.

“Can you let me go now?” Erica asked him, before he let go of her wrist. Then pointed the flashlight at his, luckily Ruben II was wearing sunglasses because that light stick, as he mentally dubbed it as such made him squint.

“Who are you and why are you here?” Erica began her interrogation before the Cinnabarian swatted the flashlight away from his face, interrupting the thread of questions that spouted from her mouth.

“First of all, what makes you think that I'm gonna give away personal information to someone I just met?” He countered, before he heard a half-squeak, half laugh coming from the rubber duck perched on Erica's hat.

“Shut up, Clyde.” Erica grumbled.

“That's not my name.” Ruben II responded.

“I'm not talking about you.”

“Then who are you talking to?”

There were times like these that the rubber duck wished that he could roll his eyes of how ridiculous this conversation was. On the bright side—at least for Clyde—is that Erica encountered someone just as stubborn as she was and it was evident that Erica didn't like him, not one bit. She was having a hard time extracting information out of him. When the rubber duck heard ridiculous questions like; What's a rubber duck? What's a flashlight? Who's the idiot that made those smartphones? Why call them smartphones? Why not phonies? Why are women so complicated?

The rubber duck velcroed on the rim of her hat tilted and whispered, “Don't answer him. He's a spy.”

“Hey-hey-hey, I'm the one who asks the questions around here, mister! Why should I tell you anything?! I'm not gonna give away information to some random stranger. I don't know who you are, and I don't trust you.” Erica said in a shrilly tone, threatening to snap.

“Same here. I came to look for this so called García. If you don't know who that crazy chick is or where she is--”

“I'm not crazy!” Erica barked. Clyde was right, she shouldn't have answered him. She didn't know which was worse? Either the way this fat guy looked ambiguous with the facemask, sunglasses and cap on, the darkness making his face even more obscured and harder to identify, or the thought of the guy smirking smugly like he had the upper hand it was what triggered her.

“Sure you're not.” Ruben II chuckled, humoring her. “And I'm not a fat greedy brute, but I'd be lying. So what's gonna take for you to tell me where the prize money is?” He went out to grab the cleaning cart, it was a bit difficult to see in the dark, especially with sunglasses on.

“As if I'd be dumb enough to tell you.” Erica scoffed.

“Even if you don't tell me where it's at I'll find it regardless if you help me or not.” The Cinnabarian spoke nonchalantly as he walked down the corridor.

“I doubt it.” Erica hissed, then huffed before she resumed her search. As she spun opposite to where Ruben II went, Clyde—the one who said that the stranger whom they just met was a spy—coaxed her to give the spy what he wanted in exchange to track down Warlin.

“No. I'm not doing it.” Erica stated, they could find the wizard just fine without his help.

“Eri.” Clyde deflated, inflated, then deflated again, “C'mon.”

“I can't concentrate with you squeaking.” Erica grumbled.

“That spy can be useful to us.”

“Nope.”

“He could lure Warlin out of hiding.”

“We don't even know if he's working for Warlin.”

“Well, if he's after the prize money like he said, we could trick him into believing that Warlin has the prize money.”

Erica paused and grabbed Clyde, unclasping the velcro before pointing the flashlight at the rubber duck, deciphering him. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

“If he really is a spy, we could give him false information to trick him into helping us get to Warlin. He could be the dead spy we need to lure the wizard out. If we let that scraggly old wizard believe he has full control, that's when we get rid of them. Hit two birds with one stone.” Clyde suggested.

“It's not a bad idea.” Erica commented ash she rubbed the underside of the bottom lip.

“C'mon, I know you're dying to know what he looks like.” Clyde prompted.

“No I don't.” Clyde knew Erica was lying, and he encouraged her to go after him anyway.

“This is your chance to get back at him for making you feel like an idiot. Use him like Master Sun uses his spies in Chapter 9 in the Art of War.”

“Clyde, you're a genius.” Erica said before Clyde squeaked with joy as much as a rubber duck could muster.

Faim, Ximo and Uiwo were sitting at the food court at the Magno-Mall. Faim's side of the table was stacked with dishes full of meat; beef, turkey and lamb meat loaf slathered with barbeque sauce and honey mustard, veggies peas, assorted fruits, almonds, pistacchio and cashews. The blonde martial artist wolfed down the lamb while the bodybuilder cut the chicken liver before taking a bite of the meat.

Uiwo chewed on the rice while he watched Faim eat like there was no tomorrow, either impressed or confused that the blonde stayed in shape while he ate a buffet that could feed a whole village. He then looked at his brother take a spoonful of the beef stew.

Meanwhile Eimy got home to cook dinner early, including the pâté she promised Mewmi. Seep simply looked around the small cottage and noticed a fissure near the cornice.

Alright, let's try this once again."
Eimy held the jar of jelly between her fingers as she walked around the table, leaving the stove cook the ingredients.

Seep watched as Eimy placed the two jelly jars beside each other on the kitchen countertop. She looked down at the label. It read "Diluted Horseradish Cream".

'What the heck does that even mean...?'
After looking at the labels for about ten minutes, she finally came up with a conclusion. There must be something else written on it. There should only be one recipe. That meant that there's definitely more of it somewhere else.

She started rummaging through cabinets and cupboards, trying not to get too close to the food as she went while Mewmi walked past the hallway, this time in her human form.

"Maybe I'm being paranoid, maybe it won't work..." Eimy said to herself as she found the last jar of the same kind of jelly. However, there were two words written on its label: "Tartine" and "Sugar".

"I'm really going insane…" Eimy mumbled under her breath. She shook her head. There's no time to waste. She needed to get her dinner done to go. She removed her gloves, put on oven gloves instead, then reached into the jar and pulled out a slice of tartine. After setting the oven timer, she wiped her hands off on her pants and set the plate next to the other jars.

Seep looked at the jars then shapeshifted to look like a blue gelatinous version of Eimy, imitating her inquisitve look, rubbing the underside of his semi-solid lips.

Mewmi returned from the hallway, dressed in one of Eimy's nightgowns. She sat down on the dinner table waiting for the pâté to be done.

Mewmi drummed her fingers on the dinner table and hummed, Seep spun then changed to look like a blue wobbly copy of Mewmi, imitating her. The rapport was slowly strarting to get on Eimy's nerves. They wouldn't let her concentrate with the chanting either.

“Pâté! Pâté! Pâté! Pâté!”

“Seep-seep! Seep-seep! Seep-seep! Seep-seep!”

Eimy rubbed her temples in a circular motion, trying to unwind while Seep and Mewmi kept chanting like it was a mantra.

Mewmi shapeshifted back into a cat, as she slipped out of the nightgown and hopped onto the dinner table, contuing the chant for pâté.

Eimy slammed her fist on the countertop.

“Seep-seep! Seep-seep! Seep-seep! Seep--”

“Shhh!” Mewmi warned him, before Seep stopped, then slouched before turning into a large jelly-like version of a large cat.

Mewmi saw Seep faceplant on the dinner table as his head wobbled vertically, jiggling fir a couple of second before staying still.

The morphing feline got back to her seat, slipped back into the nightgown, then shapeshifted back to her human form.

Eimy went back to the kitchen, opened one of the cabinets to wash the glass.

“Seep, I don't think we'll be able to go to the tournament tonight.” Mewmi whispered to the large blue blob golem. “First of all, Eimy is starting on her first day on the job as a nurse's assistant at the infirmary. Second of all, I don't wanna see the Duchess of douchieness. You should stay away from her too, specially now that she bought a vacuum.”

The gelatinous golem fears no man, but he fears the infernal contraption that was used to trap him in. Seep made a facial expression similar to The Scream. Imagine being sucked into a vacuum like a straw while trying to escape only to end up trapped in a space smaller than a fishbowl for a prolonged period of time, unable to find an exit. Thankfully Faim destroyed the automaton and set him free, though the gooey golem still suffered from claustrophobia.

Eimy drank the glass of water before she went back to the kitchen and checked the stove. The pâté was almost done.

Ximo ate the beef stew and chicken liver, then he took a spoonful of mashed potatoes while Faim already devoured the meat in less than an hour and chewed on the pistacchio. Uiwo was chewing on the last drumstick before he received an incoming call from his wife.

“Honey, where are you?” His wife asked over the phone, Uiwo swallowed before responding.

“At the Magno-Mall foodcourt with Ximo. You need anything?” Uiwo asked before putting the drumstick down.

“You went to the mall without me?!” His wife yelled over the phone. Ximo picked up Uiwo's phone that he left on the table and answered.

“C'mon Cate, it's been ages since the last time I could hang out with my bro. By the way, how are the cats doing?” Ximo asked as he distracted her while Uiwo ate his rice and fruit salad, he was eating anxiously, even Faim noticed that Uiwo was eating faster than usual.

“The cats are fine. I'm planning to get an appointment for Lucy next week to check if she's either sick or pregnant.” Cate said as she looked at the Persian cat laying on the mattress.

“And how are your kids doing? Are they behaving?” Ximo asked, acting nonchalant.

“Well, they better be. If I find out that they've been up to no good, I'll smack some sense into them.” Cate hinted, “Would you mind passing the phone back to Ulysses? I need to have a stern chat with him.”

“Sure, don't mind if I do,” Ximo saw Uiwo starting to sweat but then said. “Oh wait, the battery is running out. Gotta hang up. Say hi to Cirnt for me!” but before Cate could say anything, Ximo hung up the phone and turned it off before returning it to his older brother, “Dang bro, I hate to say it, but your wife is a control freak.”

“No, she's just upset that I didn't take her to the mall this weekend.” Uiwo stated before his phone rang, his wife called him again.

“Then why were you sweating?” Ximo asked him, he knew his older brother like the back of his hand, and he also knows that his wife was controlling him. Faim darted his eyes at the Beauchamp Bros while he sucked on the pistacchio.

“Because you're stressing me out with your interrogation. I don't have to tell you anything about my private life.” Uiwo scolded him.

“You're right...” Ximo replied as he dipped one of his onion rings into the mashed potatoes, then took a bite. “You don't have to tell me anything. It's clear that your wife is controlling you.”

“No, she's not.” Uiwo retorted.

“She has you dominated. One of these days...” Ximo dipped another onion ring and ate it. “...she's gonna beat you up into a pulp and you won't be able to stop it. Because if you do, she'll report you to the authorities and accuse you for domestic violence, or something worse.” Ximo picked a conjoined onion ring. “Since we as men are seen as strong, tough, abrasive and dominant. The traditionally weaker sex have the virtue to be seen as gentle, caring, submissive. Some of them use those traits to their advantage and flip the switch with subtlety.” He turned the conjoined onion ring in a vertical angle before biting the middle of the onion rings that joined them and held an onion ring in each hand.

“This onion ring is Cate,” he said referring to the onion ring on his right hand, “And this onion ring is you.” Ximo moved the onion ring on his left. The conjoined ring represented their marriage. “See what happens next.” Ximo ate the left onion ring and dipped the right onion ring with mashed potatoes.

“The mashed potatoes represents all that you've done to make her happy.” Ximo then ate onion ring that represented Cate.

“Shouldn't it be the other way around?” Faim asked referring to the way Ximo ate the onion rings, or the roles Ximo gave to the onion rings.

“My analogy is on point. Cate will get out scott free while Uiwo gets chewed out.”

“I thought you'd use the mashed potatoes as a metaphor for slander and Uiwo would get dipped in it.” Faim said before he took a bite of one of the assorted fruits. Uiwo already lost his appetite and picked up his tray, furious that his own brother would make his accusation against his wife.

Sure, she was demanding but she loved. She wouldn't hurt him. There was bickering and disagreements in every marriage, but she wasn't controlling him. She didn't restrain him from hanging out with his froends and family. There were times when she took his credit card without consulting him, but spouses are supposed to trust each other.

She wasn't going to listen to him, he headed out to get the bus on his way home.

“Yay! Pâté!” Mewmi cheered after Eimy served the long awaited dish before Seep took a bite out of a tomato.

“Enjoy it while you can. I won't be cooking anything until noon.” Meaning that after her night shift, Eimy will catch up on the hours she hasn't slept from working for Dirlu during the weekend.

“Thanks Eimy!” Mewmi chirped before she ate the pâté savouring it as much as she could while it lasted.

“Bye.” Eimy said before she closed the door and left, leaving Mewmi alone with Seep.