“Thanks for your time,” says Hineni, perhaps somewhat sarcastically as he shuts the door behind the leaving guardsmen, who are taking Beni with them as a key witness to this attack. Sockel leaves too, going along with them.

Given that Obscura is a god, her word was essentially taken as truth by the guardsmen without any real questions. And, to be fair, it was the truth. But still, maybe it’s not the best judicial system in the world. Apparently, their fight had made quite a bit of noise, which doesn’t surprise Hineni, given the broken glass and all of the screaming.

- That’s ignoring the four people who he disintegrated.

The man rubs his forehead, turning his back to the door and leaning against it. He has the urge to slide down along it and to just sit there for a moment and to just let everything run through his head once. Just for a few minutes, just to breathe.

But there’s no time to be that person right now.

Hineni pushes himself off of the door, heading back to the others. So many things need tending to. Rhine needs medical attention and then a whack on the head and then more medical attention, his favorite window is broken and letting out the little heat present in the house, there is glass and swamp-mud from the boots of the frogs everywhere, there are smears of blood from Rhine’s mother and from the other frogs that need to be washed away, he needs to talk to Obscura about what just happened and how they’re going to proceed, the forge is ruined, they’re out of money, the whole house reeks of frogs.

The list goes on and on and on. There’s no time to rest. There’s work to do and Hineni is the only one here whose responsibility it is to do these things and who’s still in fighting shape.

Two sharp, taloned hands wrap themselves around himself from behind and Hineni does find a second to stop after all, as he presses his palm down on top of them, holding their warmth against his own stomach. Well, maybe he’s not the only one. “I missed you,” he says, looking over his shoulder.

A head presses itself against his back as she rubs her cheek across it. “Who~”

Hineni nods, looking at the mountain of work ahead of himself. Those damn frogs. They nearly took everything from him. He squeezes her hands. He’s not going to forgive them for this. This was too far, too much.

Frogs…

The word hisses in his mind as he stares around the room, assessing everything, with wide, paranoid eyes.

He’s really starting to dislike them, honestly.

“Rhine’s in bed,” says Hineni, looking around the damp forge. Obscura is sitting on his shoulder, having flown in through the upper window. “Did you know?” he asks her.

“Rivers have frogs. FROGS!” she hoots. “When they stole my Hineni, the river boy was here, looking, searching,” Obscura says. “Obscura saw with her beautiful eyes.”

Hineni looks inside the smelter. It’s flooded. “…Looking?” he asks. “For what?”

“For weaknesses, for bad wood in Obscura’s nest!” she hoots. “Bad wood for bad frogs!”

The man rubs his forehead, thinking. Given Obscura’s literal obscuring effect over him and his, uh… their, house, they seem to be oddly hard to find in an undefinable way. All of the people who always hound him in the adventurer’s guild never seem to find their door. But the servants of powerful gods, they have little trouble doing so. That would explain why the boy was so high up in the rafters though, after he returned from his kidnapping. It’s not an easy spot to get to by accident. He was looking for something.

“But then the wet-boy helped her Hineni!” she croons. “So generous Obscura forgave and was eased,” she explains. “She felt bad for the frog-boy, yes? Made soup, yes?”

“Frog soup,” notes Hineni.

She clicks with her beak, spinning her head in a circle. “Unforgivable. The eating of the frogs is unforgivable,” she hoots. “Obscura has marked him.”

Hineni blinks, lifting his gaze. The soup…? He had assumed that was just her being quirky and also because they didn’t actually have any chicken. He had assumed that she was apologizing for bullying the boy and causing him to fall into the cold river by cooking him a hot meal. He had thought that it was a nurturing, warm act on her part.

But it wasn’t. It was a tactical move. If word got out that Rhine ate literal frogs, he’d be outcast amongst the frog cult. He’d have to stay with them here for protection. He’s a spy sent here to spy on them and she was in the process of turning him around and making him a double-agent for them.

He turns his head to look at Obscura, not sure if he should be impressed or terrified. That’s godly insight, he supposes.

“Obscura suspected after she left to find the Beni. Wise Obscura, observant Obscura!” She sways around on his shoulder, lifting a wing. “Hineni likes majestic Obscura, yes? Big yes?”

“Sure,” replies Hineni, half-lost in his confusing thoughts.

“Who~!” she protests, lightly nibbling his cheek with her sharp beak

Hineni flinches, rubbing the sore spot. “Sorry. Big, yes.” She hoots, satisfied. The man looks around at the wet ground as he connects as many dots as he can. He had told the boy when they were making the daggers what would happen if his forge got ruined. So he was sent here to actively look for weaknesses in Obscura’s magic, weakness in his home, in him.

Wait… did Rhine take the frog-books out of the library too? To destroy their information?

“How did you notice?” asks Hineni, still not entirely sure how he missed it himself.

She puffs out her chest. “Sharp eyes, yes?” asks Obscura. “RHINE!” she hoots very loudly, just next to his ear. “The river wizard!” she exclaims, as if copying what Rhine always does. “It has nineteen, yes?”

Hineni blinks, turning his gaze to look at the yellow eyes in front of him. “Uh… letters?” he guesses. ”I mean, sure?”

She nods. “Three! It goes into nineteen six and one-third times! Yes?”

“Uh…”

“Six! ‘F’ is six!” she screeches, flapping her wings. “In alphabet! ‘F’ for FROGS!”

Hineni nods. It's true. Rhine's name has nineteen letters and three does go into nineteen six and one-third times. ‘F’ is the sixth letter of the alphabet, after all. It’s too perfect to be a coincidence. Surely this has to be true. He blinks. “Wait. What about the one-third?” he asks. “It’s six and one-third?”

Obscura shakes her head, spinning it far too far each time as she does a nearly full turn with each movement. “Only one-third because the river boy is small, yes? Young! Little frog! Only one-third frog!”

Hineni hits his fist into his open palm. “Of course. It all makes sense,” he nods. It’s so obvious.

“Who~!”

“Wait,” says Hineni again. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

“MYSTERIOUS ARE THE WAYS OF MIGHTY OBSCURA!” screeches the owl, spreading both of her wings as she sways with her body, her head staying perfectly in place.

Hineni shrugs, looking back over the disaster. It’s good enough for him.

*Thook*

*Thook*

*Thook*

They need wood.

Obscura is back at home, drying out the forge as best as she can with her wind magic, but they need wood. Hineni’s going to have to keep the fire running for as long as he can and it'll have to be as hot as he can manage to sustain it.

Most of the forge is made out of stone, in order to keep the rest of the building safe from any spreading flames in the event of an accident. But that doesn’t mean that the foundation beneath the heavy tower won’t get weak from flooding. That doesn’t mean that moisture won’t creep and wick into the walls.

Most of the building is heated through the forge by design. In a functional adventurer’s guild of the size of his home, the forge would have been running day and night in order to service repairs, item orders and such things. The heat generated by it can move through some shafts to the rest of the house by closing the high windows of the forge. He hasn’t made use of this system yet, but it’s about time.

Something cold touches Hineni’s face. It’s a gentle touch, like the hand of a dead spirit with love for him, softly stroking his cheek. Surprised, the man blinks, looking up towards the sky through the canopy of the dark forest.

- It’s starting to snow.

With renewed vigor and anxiety, Hineni grabs his steel-axe and returns to his work.

*Thook*

*Thook*

*Thook*

Hineni stands in the doorway, staring at Rhine’s chest moving the blanket covering him as he rests. On one hand, Rhine is literally an enemy agent, sent to spy on them and sabotage them wherever he could. On the other hand, he’s just a boy who was deathly terrified of his mother. It’s not hard to see why, really.

Sure, he had tricked them and ruined two of his rooms and now the forge too, a total of three rooms, but, on the other hand, he had tried to get Hineni to escape shortly before the attack commenced, perhaps having had last doubts. He tried to cut Hineni’s bonds in secret during the fight.

- Does it even out?

Hineni shakes his head. Those karmic scales aren’t his to balance. But, in his heart of hearts, it does. The boy came through in the end. He even bit Beni, which, looking back on it, was a pretty bold move that he paid for. Plus, he just likes Rhine. Maybe that is clouding his judgement too?

The man sighs, not sure what to do. Even in his three-life, people are still a hard thing to really grasp. They’re all so... odd.

As the breath leaves his lungs and a new one comes to fill it, so does a smell. Hineni lifts his gaze towards the bed that the boy is resting in and closes the door again. It smells like owl. That’s good enough for him. Hineni closes the door and then eyes the broom that has been leaned against the wall. That being said, the boy is going to have a lot of sweeping in his future.

For some reason, the broom doubles itself in his vision. The world wobbles.

[You are severely sleep deprived] Healing rate negated Soul regeneration negated Max HP reduced -80% All stats reduced -80%

“Oh.” The man blinks, realizing how little sleep he’s gotten these last few days. Zero. He’s gotten just about zero sleep. But it was all so much. Lifting his gaze, he sees the door to their bedroom at the end of the corridor open as if by itself, as if the gust of wind pushing past him were coaxing him towards it, luring him into the belly of the beast.

The man shuffles forward like a zombie, obliging to the wind’s desire for him as he loses both his boots and his clothes on the way to the door to their room, falling down onto the mattress face-first and laying there as something feathery and soft clicks and hisses around the room, closing the door and dimming the lantern light before joining him.

After that, a day passes and then so does the night which belongs to it.

Rhine sweeps.

“I’m sorry,” says Rhine, not looking up from the floor that he has swept meticulously clean. “Are you going to eat me now?”

“Not until you’re fatter,” jokes Hineni from the side of the room. Rhine tenses up. “That was a joke.”

“Sorry…” says Rhine.

“You’re done in this room, Rhine,” says Hineni, looking around at the floor that has been swept more than once. “Go sweep the hallway to the forge next.”

“Yes, sir,” says Rhine, staring at the floor.

“Don’t call me that,” says Hineni, watching as the boy trods off. He turns his head to Obscura, who Rhine was talking to. She sits up on the rafters, her legs dangling down. “You could have told him that you’re not going to eat him.”

“Who~” She tilts her head as if pondering. “Shouldn’t Obscura rule with fear?” she hoots. “Or should she dote on her little worshipers with kindness, like she does for her Hineni?”

Hineni shrugs, gesturing around himself. “That was pretty impressive what you did the other day,” he says, his hand ruffling through his sooty, black hair. “First time I’ve ever seen you do anything goddy.” By the time his eyes rise back up to the rafters, she’s gone. “But be nice, okay?” he asks, looking at the strand of blue hair that vanishes down the corridor.

Hineni lowers his gaze again, staring at the smear of blood that has been wiped away and dried and even swept over. But it still remains there, having tarnished the brand new wood.

Fear isn’t the way to go. It starts with ‘F’. It’s what frogs use. He knows this because it’s obvious and that means that Obscura does as well.

Hineni is currently upstairs in the library, rummaging around the shelves, just digging through them randomly. He browses through the many rows of tomes and novels, trying to find the books on 'frogs' that Rhine had hidden. He doesn’t think that the boy stole them, having rather just hidden them somewhere. But he doesn’t want to confront him now either. The boy is already on edge, understandably, and he just wants to give it all a few days to unravel. He hasn't learned much about people yet, but one thing he has noticed is that they all just need a little time too, just like he himself did.

“Hey, you in here?” calls a voice from downstairs. Sockel.

Hineni leans over the railing. “Up here,” he says.

“Sorry. I came in without knocking,” says the elf, pointing over her shoulder towards the front door. He shakes his head, honestly, he hadn’t even thought about it.

He continues to rummage through the shelves. His fingers land on a book that he had seen once before, but didn’t look at, one about the gods of the south.

- [Book] - "The gods of the South"

- Quality -

Normal

- Composition - 564 pages

- Quality Effects -

None

A detailed literary exploration of the old and odd gods of the southern regions of the world, written for humans, by humans. 'Written by Lore Chronicler Salamandro' Weight: 0.49kg Value: 39 Obols

What they hadn’t yet talked about was Beni’s outburst. Sure. He was hysterical and had tried to murder Hineni, and sure, he was a frog. But what do the frogs want? Who are they? Why are they after Obscura?

“Hey, Sockel?” asks Hineni, taking the book from the shelf. “Are you from the south?”

He listens to her light footsteps come up the staircase. “When we were kids. But that was a while ago,” says Sockel. “You mean because of Beni?”

“I mean because of Beni,” affirms Hineni, opening the book and flipping through the pages for anything related to an owl-god. “What’s with him?”

“They’re holding onto him for now,” says Sockel. “He got a nice cell. But attacking a god is a big deal.”

“Sockel,” says Hineni. “What was he talking about? Why would Beni be a frog?”

She shrugs. “Beni’s always been a weirdo, but he was never a bad guy. I swear. I never knew he was into this kind of stuff,” she says. “Do you think they did something to him?”

Hineni shrugs, shaking his head. “What stories was he talking about?” asks the man, flipping through the pages of the book. Sockel doesn’t reply. He turns his gaze back towards her, she’s leaning over the railing, looking around at the library from above. “The south isn’t doing great these days,” she explains. “You have to understand that things are weird in the forest cities.”

Hineni nods. There have been rumors of a war-effort for a while. A succession. But those have only been whispers in the shadows.

She shakes her head. “People tell their kids dumb things. Don’t worry about it.”

“This seems exactly like the kind of thing I should be worrying about,” says Hineni, looking back at the book and flipping another page. She’s being pretty accepting about all of this, really.

“Listen, you have a problem,” says Sockel, looking over her shoulder towards him.

Hineni sighs. There’s truth to what she just said. He doesn’t have time for books right now. “I wish I only had one,” replies Hineni, closing the book. Having only one problem would be a real luxury. Having three problems would be great, but he has far more than that, unfortunately.

“No, I mean, without Beni, the guild can’t buy your stuff.”

Hineni nods. He had assumed as much. “Is there going to be a replacement?” asks Hineni. “Are you going to take over?”

She shakes her head. “No. It’s not me…” she says, rubbing her arm. “I’ve been fired for leaving my post during a shift.”

“By who? By Beni?” asks Hineni. “He’s in a cell.”

She shakes her head. “By the new management.”

“New management?” asks Hineni. This is troublesome indeed. Without Beni and without Sockel, his trade-deal is dead in the water. That was his sole source of clean income.

“Frogs…” says the elf, muttering oddly beneath her breath.

There’s a loud thudding as Hineni sets the book back into the shelf. This isn’t acceptable. The frogs were already in the guild, but now they’re running it too? He needs the guild. He was relying on them.

That last thought makes Hineni pause.

‘He was relying on them’.

The man narrows his eyes, only realizing the true deviousness of the frog's trap now. “Sockel,” says Hineni, walking past the elf. “You want to work here? With us? You can run the books full time. I need someone for the front counter.”

Her ears twitch and she turns to look at him. “You paying in cash?”

“We’re paying in frogs, field-mice and occasionally soup.”

She frowns, sighing. “…Is any of it at least hot?”

“No,” replies Hineni, getting straight to the point. “I need to get more wood first,” explains the man. “We’re just about out again already.”

She shakes her head. “You really know how to win a girl over.”

The man shrugs. “It’s worked out well enough to get me engaged,” he says, grabbing his hat from the railing he had hung it up on and putting it back onto his head. “Sockel. We’re making our own adventurer's guild. I’m taking things into my own hands,” says Hineni. “Are you in?”

She looks around the old library for a moment, before turning back his way and nodding.

“I’m in,” she affirms.

- [ SYSTEM OF FAITH ] - [CULT {2}] 'of the Owl-God' Ranking: (Mysterious) Members: {4}

[CULT {2}] : All members of the cult receive the Owl God's passive blessing, for as long as they are a part of it.

+3% to all STATS (Rounded)

+3% to all SPELL-DMG

+3% to all HEAL