Dear valued customer,

Fifteen thousand Obols have been added to your account balance after the sale of one magical item, as discussed.

Your current balance: 63246 Obols

The auction of the further four delivered objects is in progress. I will keep you updated.

Avarice.

Hineni nods to himself, looking at the note. “We’re on track, Sockel,” he says. “Get the paperwork ready for us to buy the other guild.”

“Already on it,” says Sockel, sitting down at the dinner table. “But the frogs are onto us. They’re trying to take the mainstream route to stop us.”

“Murder?” asks Rhine, setting the table.

“Worse,” replies Sockel, narrowing her eyes. “Bureaucracy. They’re digging up an old antitrust law from the books. They’re saying that if we buy them out, there won’t be any competition left in the market,” she explains. “They’re going to try to stop us through the system.”

“Huh…” says Rhine. “That’s… okay? I guess?” he says. “I mean, wouldn’t it be worse if we had some bloody, deranged street-fight instead?” He looks up towards the ceiling. “Honestly, this sounds very civilized, all things considered.”

Sockel leans back, her elbow hanging over the back of the bench as she points at him with a listless finger. “That attitude right there is why you just aren’t going to make it.”

Rhine blinks, looking around the room. “Huh? 'Make it'?” he asks. “Make what? Where? What are you talking about, Sockel?”

She rolls her eyes. “I really have to take you to a shady, back-alley bar sometime,” she says, sighing.

“Really?!” asks Rhine.

“Sockel, stop trying to corrupt Rhine,” says Hineni. “And if you’re going to give a minor hard liquor, do it at home, like a sensible adult.”

“Wait, seriously?!” asks Rhine, excitedly. “I’m allowed to drink?”

Hineni lifts an eyebrow. “You’re your own man, Rhine,” says Hineni. “You need to be able to make your own poor decisions without anyone’s permission,” he says.

“Good parenting,” says Sockel. She nods to Rhine. “Stick with auntie Sockel. You’re going to turn out okay.”

Rhine nods. “By the way, where’s the owl-god?” he asks.

“She went out,” replies Hineni. “It’s just us for dinner,” he says, lifting a hand.

“Is she hunting a deer?” asks Sockel. “I really, really don’t want to eat rabbit anymore.”

Something shuffles behind the wall, separating the booths. “D- did you know that you can actually die if you just eat r-rabbit?” asks a voice from the booth behind them. “Crazy, right?” asks Seltsam. “Your body needs fat and rabbit is so lean that…” her voice trails off, becoming quieter.

The three of them stare towards the wall, separating the booths.

“- Nevermind…” says Seltsam. “That was weird, right? Sorry.”

“Rabbit facts are a change of pace as far as I’m concerned,” says Sockel. “I’m just sick of eating them.”

“Good news,” says Hineni. “Today’s dinner isn’t rabbit. It’s leftover bread and soup.”

Sockel sighs, looking at the pot.

“Should I bother asking what kind of soup it is?” she asks.

Hineni stares for a moment, considering his options. “…Chicken,” lies the man. “It’s chicken soup.”

“Oh. Huh,” says Sockel, pleasantly surprised. “Wait… chicken or ‘chicken’?” she asks suspiciously.

“Yes,” replies Hineni, sitting down.

“What’s wrong with chicken, Sockel?” asks Rhine. “Don’t you like it?” he asks, grabbing the ladle and filling a bowl. Hineni and Sockel exchange a look. Hineni shakes his head. Sockel nods.

“It’s fine, I guess,” she says, sighing again. “Better than rabbit.”

Rhine leans around, holding the bowl out to behind the booth, without looking.

“Thank you,” says Seltsam.

Hineni does consider that this might be his chance to finally ‘catch’ the girl and to see what she looks like. She’s sitting in the booth by herself and there’s nowhere to escape if he just jumps up right now and takes a peek.

Rhine fills another bowl up and sets it down in front of him.

But that would be a very frog-like thing to do.

Hineni stares down at his soup.

Watching his noodles float around the ‘chicken’, he can’t help but think about tadpoles and minnows, which doesn’t really help his appetite.

This is what he gets for listening to that frog by the pond.

“Anything?” asks Hineni.

Obscura shakes her head. “Obscura peeped with her many eyes, but she saw no shadow of the woman who waits.”

He nods. “Thanks for trying,” says Hineni. “I’ll get Sockel and the thieves’ guild involved,” he says, rubbing his chin as he thinks.

Kleidet is still missing, not having shown up for work again today.

It could be that she’s just sick, but he would at least expect her to check in and let them know if that were the case. Maybe it’s just unfounded paranoia. But Hineni doesn’t want to just sit by while one of his people is missing.

What if this is something the frogs are up to? What if they found out she had sold them out?

Hineni looks around the room.

He hasn’t seen Eilig either, since that night upstairs.

“Have you seen Eilig?” asks Hineni. Obscura shakes her head. “Eilig is scared of you,” he says. “Why?”

Obscura hoots softly. “Many fear Obscura’s sharp grip,” she says, showing him her hands. “Hi~ ne~ ni~ knows this well.”

Hineni shakes his head. “Eilig was afraid that you’d hurt her if she told me the truth about you,” he says, looking at her. “Why?”

Obscura tilts her head, floating into the air. “Does her Hineni think that nurturing Obscura would hurt her nest-friends?” she asks, puffing out her chest. “Insulting!” she hoots. “Cruel Hineni!”

Hineni sighs, lifting a hand. He supposes it does sound like he was accusing her of something. “No, sorry,” he apologizes. “But she was scared for a reason,'' he says, looking around the house.

“The fairy knows deeply the life of Hineni’s mother,” explains Obscura. “And for the life of Hineni’s mother, Obscura’s kin was a big-scary shadow,” hoots the owl. “She knows the memories of the dead.”

Hineni looks at her and nods.

He supposes the situation is rather awkward, when you really think about it.

His mother had essentially ran away from her home, living in a far-off place where she knew nobody, in order to keep him safe from the very being he ended up engaged to of his own free will and a bit of happenstance.

— Life sure is funny.

He supposes that for Eilig, a close friend of his mother, who knows this whole story, this is certainly a delicate situation. In essence, he’s not only killed his mother. But he made her largest, most life-changing decision fully null and void too.

Hineni sighs.

It’s all very complicated.

Hineni stands in the forge. The order of pikes is well on its way to being finished, if only just within the deadline. But it looks like they’re going to make it.

He looks over towards Rhine, who is busy at work smelting the metals down into sterling-silver. He’s able to do this by himself now. Rhine’s arms are covered in bruises and scuffs. It seems that Sockel has been teaching him how to fight.

Hineni had figured the boy would be sensitive around violence, but he seems to be in good spirits, if not even excited.

Perhaps the context matters?

He returns his focus to his work.

“You can take tomorrow off, Rhine,” says Hineni. “You need a day to rest too.”

“It’s okay. We need to get started with the axes next,” says Rhine, looking over to the note, pinned on the wall.

Hineni shrugs. He had assumed that Rhine would give that answer. He really seems to value his work here. “How’s the dungeon going?” asks Hineni.

“Great!” says Rhine, wiping his forehead. “I tried out my new staff on floor eight and it poisoned everything there at once!” he beams. “I felt super strong.”

Hineni nods, thinking for a moment. “Why floor eight? What about floors one to seven?” he asks, looking over his shoulder.

“Oh. Sockel made me kill the monsters there with my hands,” says Rhine, looking down at his palms. Hineni lifts an eyebrow, wanting to question this. But then he decides against it. He’s likely just being over-protective. Sockel knows what she’s doing. “It was rough.”

“Keep up the good work,” says Hineni. “Just make sure to rest now and then too.”

“I will,” says Rhine.

Although Hineni isn’t sure how true that is, really.

Dear valued customer,

Fifteen thousand Obols have been added to your account balance after the sale of one magical item, as discussed.

Your current balance: 78246 Obols

The auction of the further three delivered objects is in progress. I will keep you updated.

Avarice.

Hineni hands Sockel back the slip of paper.

It looks like another skull has been sold.

“I got some contractors interested in building the vault,” she says. “What do you have in mind, exactly?”

Hineni shakes his head. “This is your field. I’ll leave the details and planning up to you, Sockel,” says Hineni. “Just make sure it's secure and well hidden. That’s all I want.”

“’Secret bookshelf wall’ hidden or ‘blood-ritual sacrifice to open the door’ hidden?” asks Sockel.

“Follow your heart,” says Hineni, lifting an eyebrow.

“Will do,” says Sockel. “I’ll get everything started then.”

He nods. “Any news on Kleidet or Eilig?”

Sockel shakes her head. “Nothing yet. Eilig can’t leave the house. So we just need a wizard from the academy to tell us if she’s still in here,” she says. “I’ll get one. As for Kleidet, I stretched some feelers out. Just gotta wait and see.”

Hineni sighs. “I’d be lost without you, Sockel,” says the man, looking around the restaurant. It’s fairly busy today and Obscura is running around, hooting up a storm as she tries to get to everybody in a timely manner.

“Yeah,” replies the elf, her ears twitching. She points at him. “That’s going to come back to haunt you one day, by the way.”

“I’m sure,” replies Hineni. “But until then, keep your feet off the desk until after work-hours are over,” he says, looking down at her boots.

Sockel rolls her eyes, pulling her legs down from the counter. “Hard ass.”

“Somebody has to keep you people in check,” says Hineni, walking off to get back to work.

It is late at night.

Obscura lets out a long, tired hoot, falling into bed very gracelessly.

Hineni stands by the door to their bedroom, looking at her. Her taloned feet lay off of the bed and her face is pressed into the bedding. She’s just kind of laying there, letting out a long, unending hoot. He can’t help but notice how unusually pitiful it sounds.

“Good work today,” says Hineni. “You were really hustling.”

“Obscura has underestimated the endurance of the waiting-elf,” says the owl-god. “She has legs of metal, like Hineni.”

Hineni looks down at his fleshy legs and shrugs. He pulls a chair over from the corner of the room, sitting down on it. He grabs one of her feet and starts rubbing it. “That’s because you’re always flying. Most of us have to walk all the time,” he explains. She hoots. With Kleidet missing, the owl-god had to take over waiting tables.

Obscura turns her head over, not bothering to move any other part of her body. “She will massage him next, yes?” she asks.

Hineni blinks, his eyes wandering over her razor sharp talons as he looks back down. “That’s okay. Thanks,” he says. “I’m good.”

“Who~”

“Who~” he agrees, turning his head to look out of the bedroom window.

It’s quiet for a time.

The two of them look back at each other.

“Who~” they say at the same time. So it only counts as once.