“STOP! DON’T LOOK AT ME!” howls Seltsam, throwing down rows of books from the shelves and then crawling underneath them.

Hineni stands there, very much looking at her legs, flailing out of the side of the small mountain of tomes.

“- Nooo~!” screams the woman.

“Hot damn, are you murdering her over here or something?” asks Sockel, looking around the corner.

Hineni, who is just standing there and certainly not murdering her, shrugs. “No.”

She frowns. “Oh. Huh. Lame,” replies Sockel, her ears drooping.

“Murder?” asks Rhine from above, looking at Sockel. “I thought you two were friends, Sockel?” he asks. “Why would we murder Seltsam?”

She looks up, pointing at him. “Being afraid to murder your friends is what will get you killed one day, twerp. Remember that,” she instructs. “Never be afraid to murder the people closest to you. They're your biggest weakness.”

“Will do!” replies Rhine, giving her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Hineni notes that this is a mess that he’ll have to sort out some other time. “Wait. Does that include us too, Sockel?” he asks.

Sockel stares at Rhine for a moment, before turning away and shaking her head. “Good kid,” mutters the elf, ignoring his question and looking back at the mess of a jumble that is stuck between them all, beneath a giant pile of books. “The game’s over, Selty,” she says, walking towards the trembling pile of books. “We know that Eilig and Kleidet are in here. Where are they?!”

“P-p-please don’t look at me!” cries Seltsam, her voice cracking.

“Don’t make me come in there and get you,” warns Sockel, audibly cracking her neck. “As a friend, I’ll give you five seconds to crawl out on your own.”

“N- no!” says Seltsam. “You can’t! Really! Don’t come in here!” she says. The books shuffle around, as something crawls beneath them. “I’m s-sorry!”

“’Sorry’ never cuts it, Selty,” says Sockel. “Everyone says they’re sorry before they get the knife,” she notes, walking towards the books. “But do they ever really mean it?” Sockel squats down on her heels, her arms resting on her knees. “I don’t think so, personally.”

“It was an accident! I swear! DON’T LOOK!” cries a voice from beneath the books.

Sockel reaches down, grabbing one.

“Sockel,” says Hineni. She looks his way, as he shakes his head ‘no’. She drops the book back onto the pile. “Seltsam. Where are they?” he asks.

“…They’re… they’re upstairs,” says Seltsam. “Behind the ‘s’-section.”

Hineni looks up towards Rhine who nods and runs to the shelf.

“You killed them, Selty?” asks Sockel. “That’s fucked,” she says, whistling. “I didn’t know you were the type.” She sighs, shaking her head. “Eilig was starting to grow on me too,” she says, before tsking. “Shame.”

“Uh, guys?” calls a voice from above. Something heavy scratches against the floors as it's pushed over the ground. “I think I uh, I think I found them,” says Rhine.

Hineni and Sockel look up towards the rafters, where next to Rhine, stands a very detailed stone statue of a dark-elf, holding a fairy. Hineni feels his heart skip a beat as he sees Eilig and he catches himself twitching his hand, his fingers getting ready to click.

“…The hell?” mutters Sockel.

Obscura hoots, fluttering down onto the statues as a small owl. “Intriguing! Mysterious, magical librarian!” says the god, twisting her head around.

“It was an accident!” cries Seltsam’s voice from beneath the shaking books. “I- I was just talking to Eilig and Kleidet came in from the kitchen to ask for a book,” explains the librarian. “She- she saw me and got petrified!” she exclaims. “I’m sorry!”

“Why the…” Sockel narrows her eyes. “- Selty. You can’t be that ugly. Get out of there.”

“No!” shouts Seltsam.

“Wait,” says Rhine. “Doesn’t Eilig hang out with you all the time?”

“Eilig has magical blood, she isn’t affected by looking at me. But Kleidet is and she was touching Eilig!”

Hineni sighs, rubbing his forehead as he pieces everything together.

“The rules of monsters are peculiar, yes?” asks Obscura. “Strange fates have brought strange people to strange Obscura.”

“I’M NOT STRANGE!” yells Seltsam, clearly having been struck by that remark.

Rhine looks over the railing. “Wait. Seltsam. Are you a gorgon?” he asks.

“N- no!” she shouts. “I’m a librarian and a person!”

Rhine nods, pointing at the stack of books. “She’s a gorgon, guys.”

“I’m not!”

Hineni lifts an eyebrow. “A gorgon?”

Sockel tsks again, getting back up and leaning against a shelf. “They’re a monster from the north-east,” she says. “Pretty rare these days.” She sighs. “They turn people to stone if you look at them.”

“S-s-top calling me a m-monster!” protests Seltsam, her voice cracking apart until she starts loudly crying beneath the pile of books. “I'm- I'm a person!"

Hineni lifts a hand. “Let’s all take a moment to breathe,” he instructs, waiting for the room to quiet. Apart from the work-related crying, it mostly is. “Seltsam. I don’t give a frog’s ass what you are,” he says. Something hoots. “You do good work. But why didn’t you tell us about Kleidet and Eilig? Can they be cured?” he asks.

It’s quiet for a time as Seltsam tries to compose herself.

“- I’ve… I’ve been reading stuff for days now and trying to feed them in the meantime,” she says. “I don’t know. But I can’t find anything about it,” explains Seltsam. “I- I wanted to fix it before you found out,” she says. “It’s really nice here and- and-”

She devolves into crying again. Which, while understandable, isn’t really productive workplace behavior.

Something hoots from above. Obscura is standing on Kleidet’s petrified head, holding out a wing. “Who~” hoots the owl-god. “Unwise book-tender,” she says. “She seeks the wisdom of paper, made of trees,” says Obscura. “Yet sage Obscura lives on trees, does that not make her the wisest of all?” she asks, hooting proudly and puffing out her chest.

Rhine looks towards the ceiling, rubbing the back of his lip as he tries to follow her words. “Wait, does that even make any sen -”

“SILENCE!” hoots the owl-god, flapping her wings at him from above. “Tarnished river-boy!”

“’Tarnished’?” asks Rhine, lifting an eyebrow.

“His pure waters have been stained with ash!” remarks Obscura. “He is lost to the mind-maze of the Hineni-man for all of his forever-days!”

Rhine blinks, smiling. He leans over the edge. “Did you hear that?!” he asks excitedly. “She says I’m like you!” he exclaims, pointing at Obscura, who is reaching down and trying to snip at his pointing finger with her beak in annoyance. But she doesn’t quite manage to reach him by the time he lowers his arm again.

Hineni nods, proud of this at least. But it doesn’t help the situation.

“BEHOLD!” says Obscura, somewhat more annoyed than before, taking a prideful pose atop the statue once more. “The power of true divinity!”

A magical aura forms around her, the air quivering as if it were suspending a great heat within itself. It runs over the statues of Kleidet and Eilig, down to the floor, as she flaps her wings.

— Rhine sneezes, breathing in a mouthful of owl-dust.

(Obscura) uses: [Major Status Purge]

The statues shift, shaking, the aura encapsulating them entirely like a clinging film of slime, as if one were climbing out of swampy water. The layer of stone breaks off, crumbling to the floor and an instant later, the two of them, Kleidet and Eilig, stand there.

“- Telling you! Back off!” snaps Eilig, finishing a several day’s old sentence.

Kleidet wobbles on her feet, slowly blinking and looking around the room in a daze.

Eilig looks around, staring down at her body, peeling free of stone. “Oh! Great!” she snaps. “You big, floppy-eared dummy!” she says, buzzing her wings to get the flaking stone off of them.

Hineni sighs in relief, seeing that she’s alright. Kleidet too. He takes in a deep breath and exhales, calming himself back down. It seems that everything is fine after all.

— Barring the continued ugly crying.

“Seltsam. You’re going to ruin the books,” he says.

She cries louder.

Maybe that was insensitive?

People are complicated.

Hineni, Sockel, Kleidet and Eilig are sitting at a booth in the restaurant.

“So, does this count as paid hours?” asks Kleidet. “I was at work, after all.”

Hineni lifts an eyebrow. “Seems fair to me,” he says. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks, looking at the dark-elf. Sockel slides a coin-purse her way.

“Yeah. I’m really fine,” replies Kleidet, taking it. “I really have to go see my brother though. I bet he’s worried.”

Hineni nods. “Sorry, Kleid,” he says. “Take as long off as you need. We’ll manage until you get back.”

“I’m really sorry!” cries Seltsam’s voice from behind the receptionist’s desk.

Kleidet shakes her head, scooting out of the booth. “I’m really okay. Don’t worry,” she says, holding her hands behind her back and stretching. “Just a bit stiff, honestly…”

“H- Here’s the book you wanted!” says Seltsam. A book slides over the counter, slid there from below. It's an arts and crafts guide to handmade presents.

Kleidet nods, taking it and hobbling towards the door. “Sockel,” says Hineni quietly, nodding his head at her.

Sockel rolls her eyes and gets up, walking over to her. “Come on, Kleidy,” she says, wrapping an arm around her. “I’ll walk you home.”

The two of them leave.

Hineni sighs, looking at Eilig. She looks his way.

“What?!” she snaps. “You gonna cry? Baby.”

Hineni shakes his head. “No. I’m just glad you’re alright, Eilig.”

“Get a grip,” she replies, rising up into the air.

He gets up. “I’m making breakfast tomorrow, if you want to join me. Probably something sweet.”

She sighs. “As if I’d want to get up for that,” says Eilig. “But I guess I have to, so you don’t ruin the food, like you did my life.” She flies off towards the counter, landing on it and looking over the edge down at the person hiding beneath it. “Come on,” she says to Seltsam. “Let’s go look for cookbooks together.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah,” says Eilig. “These people aren’t good enough for us. Let’s go.”

“O- okay!” says Seltsam. Somehow the door opens to the library and then the two of them vanish to the other side.

A gigantic owl sits in the doorway to their bedroom, blocking it off.

Hineni stands there, ready to sleep. He tilts his head, looking at her.

“Didn’t know you had that kind of magic,” he notes, referencing the status spell she used in the library this morning.

She nods. “Obscura’s precious Hi~ ne~ ni~ has toiled for many hard days to grant her power,” she affirms. “Now, many, many hands hold Obscura’s sharp talons. Her power grows like a very big tree!” she hisses greedily.

Hineni leans to the side, trying to find a way past her.

“What is this?” he asks. “Come on. Let’s go to bed,” he says, trying to squeeze an arm through between her fluffy body and the door-frame.

“Who~” hoots Obscura. “If the Hineni-man wishes to pass, he must solve Obscura’s deadly riddles!”

“Riddles?” asks Hineni.

“What is the most beautiful creature in the world?” she asks.

Hineni raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure that this is a riddle?”

She puffs out her chest, blocking him.

“Okay. You,” replies Hineni.

“Who~!” she hoots. “Wise Hineni! He has learned much! Next! Who is the most powerful creature in the world?”

“I’ll get you a book on riddles from the library tomorrow, okay?”

She clicks her beak in annoyance, leaning down towards him.

He rolls his eyes, willing to play along. At least for one more. “You. Obviously.”

“Who~! Very good! Hineni is unwise, but yet he knows many truths!” she hoots, pleased. “Who is-“

A door opens down the hallway. “- Excuse me?” asks a tired man, rubbing his face. The faces of his annoyed party-members, all sharing the one small room, peak out with him. “Can you keep it down please?” he asks. “Trying to sleep here.”

Hineni lifts a hand. “Sorry. Good night folks.”

They close the door and he looks back at Obscura, who continues to click her beak in annoyance, but now looking down the hallway.

“Come on,” says Hineni, pushing her inside. “You can tell me that last one in bed,” he says, pressing against her fluff and moving her inside of the room, closing the door behind them.