To the LIBRARY!

  With the coming of day, the town of Sandy Cove was reborn as a brand new place. The sounds of the sea were swallowed by the hustle and bustle of busy townsfolk herded along by knee-high sandstone barriers lining the walkways. The early-day sun breathed life into everyone through its golden glow, carrying forth a similar tropical energy into their actions, as they went about their daily routines.

  Artyom and Neitra casually walked past a group of kids running around with a leather ball, playing a game of catch. The colorfully paved streets were crowded with people holding baskets filled with groceries, performers serenading passersby with soulful tunes, and determined vendors hawking their wares. That wasn’t to mention the myriad of tourists sharing the same space.

  “Nice to see you sticking up for yourself back there,” said Artyom, through the din of the streets.

  “Yeah, it felt nice,” she replied. Despite her raised voice, it sounded peaceful. “I guess I just needed the confidence to do so. It doesn’t hurt to have someone else standing up for me, either.”

  The warm glow coming from her infectious smile shone brighter than the yellow-tinted sun, bathing Artyom in a feeling of joy that made his own lips curl upwards. The entire world around them was just as cheerful. Artyom looked around and saw several food stalls in the small market they were walking through conducting business. One of the stall owners was talking to a broad shouldered man with dark brown skin riddled with pockmarks from prolonged salt exposure, most likely a fisherman. The stall owner pulled out a piece of paper, which the fisherman signed, before being given a handful of coins.

  “Huh, I didn’t know contracts were common around here,” thought Artyom out loud. Many fairytale Worlds didn’t bother with them for small-scale businesses, saving them for keeping track of more complicated responsibilities.

  “Oh, it’s probably an employment contract,” replied Neitra. “Shopkeepers with a high enough level can create them, and whoever signs their name on it becomes their employee.”

  “Huh, neat. But what if an employee wants to quit? Or if there’s a disagreement on the pay? Seems like something that a general contract won’t work well for. And what’s the point of the contract anyway?”

  “Well, they can be filled in with whatever details you want, and they’re magically binding until the firing or quitting clause is met. My mom used them when hiring assistants for her bakery, and always included a few lines that would let them quit if they wanted to, like everyone else does. It was mostly to keep them from forgetting everything they needed to do, since it could force you to remember.”

  Artyom perked up at her explanation. Leave it to the denizens of a fairytale World to treat a potentially horrific tool of oppression as a glorified to-do list.

  “Can they only be used by the shopkeepers who create them?” asked Artyom.

  “No, most of them sell blank versions to other shopkeepers who can’t make any themselves.”

  Artyom immediately broke from the conversation and made a beeline towards the merchant he spotted. Neitra stopped in place and looked at him with bewilderment before realizing what he was up to and breaking into a run to catch up.

  “Excuse me,” began Artyom. “Do you have any blank magical employee contracts I could buy?”

  “Sure, I have a few,” replied the stall owner. “One gold each.”

  Artyom’s eyes widened as he heard the price. It was steep, just like everything else he needed so far. He considered it a moment before reaching into his bag and pulling out 3 gold coins and handing them over. The shopkeep took the money and handed over three blank contracts, which contained a generic statement of employment, with blank fields for the employer to fill out their own identity, a space for the employee to sign, and a large gap in the middle for filling out the details of the contract.

  “Hey, what do you need a contract for?” asked Neitra with a heavy breath, having finally caught up to Artyom.

  “Oh, I plan to open up a restaurant that sells comically large pretzels once we’ve vanquished the Dark Lord, and I’ll need to hire assistants,” he replied, with an entirely serious tone of voice.

  “Oh, uh… ok. I guess I’ll probably continue to be a rogue and help out wherever I can.”

  Artyom looked at her for a solid few seconds before returning his gaze back at the street and starting towards the library again.

  “You know that was sarcasm, right?” he asked.

  “Oh! Sorry about that. I was being honest, though.” Neitra looked down apologetically, before facing Artyom again.

  “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Your own goals sound good, by the way. Truth be told, I’ll probably be doing the same thing, more or less.” Finding another “chosen one” and pulling them out of hell, probably.

  Neitra’s face began to soften, and she nodded with a content smile.

  The two were silent for the rest of the trip, Artyom enjoying the sights and sounds, while Neitra was busy focusing on something else on her mind. Eventually, they arrived at a large building painted white with a hanging sign featuring the carving of an open book. They opened its doors and entered without a word, a cool, dry air and smell of paper hitting them as they passed the library’s threshold. They instinctively took a deep breath, the noise alerting a lady sitting behind a counter to their presence.

  “Oh, welcome to the library!” exclaimed the lady, who was looking at them attentively. She had light skin and a head of partially gray hair, despite looking quite young. She wore a uniform made up of an ink blue suit and pencil skirt that gave off an air of authority while her kindly face and soft, brown eyes tempered it with a feeling of familiar friendliness.

  “I’m Bea, I help people find the books they’re looking for! If you want to know where anything is, please let me know!” said the librarian with an overwhelming amount of cheer in her voice, as if she was looking forward to giving this speech for a long time.

  “Uh,” she continued, hesitation leaking into her voice. “But if you’re just looking for the bathroom, it’s right over there,” she said, pointing towards a pair of doors at the other end of the room.

  “We’re actually here to read some books, Miss Bea,” replied Neitra.

  “Oh! In that case, welcome to the library!” said Bea with clasped hands, the cheer returning to her voice. “And you can just call me Bea.”

  Artyom looked around the large room, featuring many rows of shelves stacked to the brim with books bound in a full rainbow of bindings. The area by the entrance they were standing in featured a sectioned off counter for the librarian and several tables and chairs. Despite the large, amenable serenity offered by the library, the place was entirely deserted. There were only the three of them in the entire building, as far as Artyom could tell.

  “Hey Bea, where is everyone?” asked Artyom. “For such a nice place, it seems like we’re the only ones here.”

  “Well, most of the people who visit the town come here for the beaches, rather than for the books. I mean, there are a few visitors occasionally, but they usually only stop by to use the bathroom.” Bea’s face began to fall again, before she picked it back up. “But you two are the library’s first patrons in a while, so if you need anything, I’ll gladly help you out!”

  “Great! In that case, do you have any books about the Goddess and her prophecy?” asked Neitra. “We’re travelling with the Great Hero and we need to figure out where we need to go next.”

  Artyom looked at Neitra with a concerned expression, surprised at how freely she was willing to disclose information about their quest. But he shrugged after a moment, excusing it as a result of fairytale World innocence. She was still a member of this World, after all.

  “Oh wow, the Great Hero!” replied Bea, who was ready to start jumping up and down in excitement at the info. “You’ll want to check out the reference section, it’s on the right-most shelves. Check the numbers in the 500’s for what you need!”

  The duo thanked Bea before heading over to the section in question. After arriving and perusing the books present, Artyom couldn’t help but notice how similar the numbering system used by the library was to the Dewey Decimal System, but put the thought aside as the numbers didn’t really match up. It was probably a case of convergent evolution between them.

  The reference section was stacked with books of all sizes, most of them large enough to take up the length of an entire desk and half of its width when opened. They all looked quite worn, but completely free of dust. A set of glowing glyphs carved into the shelves could attest to that, appearing to be a preservation enchantment applied to its displayed contents.

  “Here’s something!” said Neitra, as she reached for a pristine book whose cover was ivory-white with gray splatters. Titled “Prophecy of The Goddess,” it didn’t even have any crease marks on its bindings, let alone the wear and tear present on everything else.

  “So, are you coming?” asked Neitra, upon noticing that Artyom wasn’t following her back to the tables.

  “Hold on, some of these books look pretty interesting. I think I might take a look at some of these, so you go on ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  She nodded in response and headed to the tables at the front, while Artyom continued to browse the reference section. What caught his eye in particular were the books titled, “History of the Goddess”, “Kingdom’s Bestiary: Threats in Nature”, and finally an incredibly worn leviathan of a book whose title had mostly faded, but could be barely made out as “Introspections on the Divines.” That was ‘Divines’ in plural. If there were other regional deities beyond the Goddess everyone here seemed to worship, knowing about them or even bringing them to his side to run interference could help out TOAL considerably when it came time to trick-or-treat.

  Artyom grabbed all three books and made his way to the table Neitra was sitting at. She was so thoroughly engrossed in her own reading that she didn’t so much as flinch when Artyom slammed his gargantuan reference books onto the table. He took his own seat facing Neitra and opened up the first of his books, History of the Goddess. It was a timetable of various events featuring the intervention of the Goddess herself, the earliest one dating back to about 600 years ago to the founding of her organized religion and various blessings such as improvements to the World’s System and cleanup of the worse monsters that stalked the wilds. Beyond that, most of the events were pretty boring and detailed nothing of the Goddess’ motivations or powers beyond generic expressions of her supposed benevolence.

  What Artyom did find interesting in the book was the inclusion of the identities of several of the Goddess’ servants. One of which in particular sounded just like the foreman back at Crystal Kobold Crossing.

  “A large, foreboding master of soil and rock,” began Artyom, reading from an entry about a particular act of divine intervention after a landslide destroyed some city about 120 years ago. “Resembling a cross between a large bipedal lizard with serpentine qualities, the Landform Master has been delivered unto the Kingdom by the Goddess to assist in rebuilding towns after terrible natural disasters. A leader in its own right, the Landform Master is a natural leader who can command those in the Goddess’ name to do Her bidding.”

  “What an interesting coincidence,” thought Artyom to himself, a wide smirk on his face. “What else can I find here?”

  There were several other descriptions of divine servants that caught his interest, which he began to read.

  “Some kind of winged serpent, an avatar of the wrath of the Goddess herself, hunts down her greatest adversaries. Then there’s something called the Fatewatcher, described as a humanoid chimera with features from eagles, goats, and snakes. Something about them being the witnesses to great events and guardians?” The rest of the descriptions were mostly prose, and did little to elucidate on their actual natures or combat prowess. But from what Artyom knew of the “Landform Master,” they were probably assholes as well. He silently hoped that he wouldn’t have to run into any of them before he could finish his mission.

  “Hey Neitra, anything about where we need to take the key yet?” asked Artyom, growing tired with his own book.

  “Nothing about the key just yet, but take a look at this,” said Neitra, turning the book towards Artyom.

  He set his own book down, just about finished skimming through it, and leaned over to look at what Neitra was showing him. At the top of the right page was a large illustration featuring the silhouettes of four ladies, roughly resembling the girls that were accompanying Tommy to the beach right that moment. The section was even titled “The Four Companions of the Hero.”

  “Huh, would you look at that?” asked Artyom, matter-of-factly. “They look pretty familiar.”

  “It’s the others,” replied Neitra. “But it only says ‘four companions’, not six. And there’s no mention of us. Maybe we’re mentioned later on?”

  The two went back to their books, Neitra turning the page on her’s and Artyom picking up the bestiary. Most of the entries were quite mundane, especially the ones for basic animals also present on Earth, such as bears and wolves. The fantasy creatures depicted were just as boring, with the most interesting of them being Dire Beavers, giant beavers that had enough bite force to gnaw through solid bone. Then came the chapter on Kobolds. The book described them as tribal creatures who elected the strongest amongst them to rule. They were apparently also incredibly fearful of outsiders, and never interacted with other species, let alone take orders from them. Perhaps they were forcefully co-opted by the Goddess as cheap labor and cannon fodder?

  He put down the book and put it aside, before lugging the third and final tome in front of him and opening it up. It threw up a large gust of air as he opened it up and began reading its contents.

  “Hey Neitra, what do you know of the other gods?” asked Artyom, before really diving in.

  “Hmm?” responded Neitra, startled by the interruption. “Other gods? There’s just the Goddess, Artyom. Everyone knows that.”

  “Oh, uh… ” he reacted. “Even in other Kingdoms? What about the Tecca?”

  “They also worship the Goddess, everyone has since… always, really.” Neitra looked concerned at Artyom's questioning.

  “Sorry, I’ve just never spent much time at church, so I never learned much about all of that. This weird book said something about multiple divines, so I wanted to ask.”

  “Well, that sure does sound weird,” she replied. “You should let the librarian know so she can do something about it.”

  “Yeah sure, I’ll let her know soon,” he said, both of them turning back to their own books.

  Artyom quickly began turning the pages of the massive volume in front of him, carefully poring over the contents on each age-stained sheet. Despite the worn cover, the words inside were perfectly legible, and with each flip of the page, Artyom’s face grew ever increasingly grim.

  “Section One, Nature Deities. Entries on Pachamama, and Aranyani,” Artyom read to himself. “Important rituals include… celebrating the harvest… earliest known date about… 1200 years ago.”

  He took a deep breath, flipped the page, and continued further. “Alright, Section Two, God of Rulers; Inti. Revered deity of kings and emperors, especially those of the Vijarian Kingdom.”

  “Hey, Neitra?” asked Artyom, hesitantly. “Stupid question, but do you know what this Kingodm is called? I swear, I’ve never heard anyone ever mention it, and I’m starting to believe that it actually doesn’t have a name! Hehe.”

  Neitra didn’t look up from her book as she carefully turned the page. “It’s the Vijarian Kingdom,” she replied tersely, her brows furrowed and attention on the text in front of her.

  Artyom’s heart sank. “Say, does the name Inti ring a bell to you? Maybe Aranyani or Pachamama?”

  “Nope, never heard of them. Are they friends of yours or have something to do with Tommy?”

  “No, I just about read them in this book and was wondering how much common knowledge I apparently don’t know.”

  Neitra nodded in response and got back to her work, her own face as serious as his. Artyom slowly turned to the next page, hoping to find something about the Goddess to put the rest of the book into perspective. Instead, he found only more mentions of various Mesoamerican and Hindu deities as he quickly flipped through page after page. In the last section, he encountered the entry for the final deity detailed in the text.

  “Section Nine, God of the Dead; Yama,” he read slowly. “Ruler of the land of the dead, where all souls go when they die before their true fate is decided upon.”

  Most of the section was the same as the others, but it contained an entry not present for any of the other gods and goddesses. “His mighty staff, the Yamastra, is imbued with His great power. A chosen mortal wielder would be able to command the force of death itself through the Yamastra, summoning great power to consign any living being to His realm.”

  Below the text was a depiction of the staff in question, drawn in black ink that showcased a long, wooden rod with intricate designs carved all over its surface and featuring a solemn looking face at the top. Below the image was even more text.

  “While Yama isn’t normally worshipped by most, He is honored at the few temples built in his honor, the most famous of which is that in ‘Heart’s Point’ on the Eastern end of the Vijaran Kingdom. The greatest of his worshippers, those that embodied his ideals, or great sages who could solve His great riddles would be blessed with possession of the Yamastra.”

  With that, Artyom had made it through the entire book. He shut the back cover and took a deep breath as the gust of air from the motion blew past his face. At the same time, Neitra slammed down her own book, looking up at Artyom with misty eyes.

  “Woah, what’s wrong?” asked Artyom, pushing his own concerns back for the time being. “Did you find where we need to take the key?”

  “I did, but I found something else as well,” she replied, turning the book back to an earlier chapter and showing it to him. “It says here that the hero is only destined to have four companions, and that others are either useless or will be nothing but harmful to his quest. It’s talking about us, Artyom! We’re a burden to Tommy!”

  Artyom looked carefully at the text, making sure Neitra was interpreting it correctly. After confirming that she in fact was, Artyom looked up and began to chuckle. It started off as a low gurgle that quickly transformed into a clamorous howling. Somehow, Bea didn’t react to the cacophony, despite that level of noise deserving nasty stares from everyone around him if he were back on Earth. She was probably just happy to have some patrons, and didn’t want to risk losing them so soon. Neitra, on the other hand, was one of those patrons staring daggers back at him.

  “You know, destiny is a funny thing,” began Artyom, calming down from his laughter. “It never seems to stay the same.”

  “What are you talking about? This is the prophecy of the Goddess, this is the destiny that She’s foretold!” exclaimed Neitra through her scowl, trying to keep tears from falling down her face.

  “I’m going to be honest,” he responded while leaning towards Neitra. “The goddess isn’t babysitting us,” he said in a whisper.

  Neitra’s only response was a bewildered stare. She swallowed hard before squeezing out some hoarse words. “She’s the Goddess, everyone knows she looks after us, what do you mean?!”

  “I mean, if she was, we wouldn’t need a prophesized chosen one like Tommy to save the day. She’d just smite the Dark Lord in an instant and then it’s business for the Kingdom as usual.”

  Neitra’s expression only grew more severe, as she continued to fail and grasp the point Artyom was trying to make. He took a deep breath and continued.

  “When everything is done for us, we grow weak. Imagine if your mom just handed you a cookie whenever you wanted one. Would you have become a rogue?”

  Neitra shook her head.

  “Exactly. And like that, if the goddess killed the Dark Lord for us, would the Kingdom or its people grow strong enough to fight off other threats in the future? Would we grow and become any better?”

  After a moment of thought, she shook her head again. “But what does this have to do with the prophecy?”

  “The prophecy says in very exact terms who kills the Dark Lord and how they go about it. If the goddess were babying us, then it would play out exactly as it was written. Tommy could completely ignore his duty more than he already is, or rush headlong into danger buck naked without any fear, since the prophecy will always come true and thus ensure his safety and the eventual defeat of the Dark Lord by his hands, no matter what.”

  Neitra’s expression began to soften as the gears turned in her head and she was processing everything Artyom was saying.

  “The point is, the only way the prophecy could stay the exact same, word-for-word as-written, was if we were being babied, and we certainly are not. Tommy wears armor and fights alongside others, and between all of the partying, sleeping in, and everything else he does with his harem behind closed doors, he still goes on quests to do everything he needs to kill the Dark Lord. He’s being careful and taking the prophecy as a guide instead of a perfect prediction of the future.”

  Neitra nodded slowly, still looking apprehensive. “But the prophecy specifically says that we’re only going to be a burden to him.”

  “And that’s how I know. The prophecy is already wrong!”

  “What, how?” asked Neitra, her fear turning into confusion.

  “Here we are sitting at the library while Tommy’s living it up at the beach! You said you found where we need to take the key in the book, right? Well you just saved Tommy at least a day on his quest, and that means one less day of the Dark Lord running around killing innocents!”

  Neitra’s eyes began to widen as her jaw fell agape. She blinked several times and closed her mouth, finally processing what Artyom was trying to tell her.

  “The prophecy is wrong, it already is. And it has to be wrong because otherwise the Goddess isn’t letting us become strong ourselves!”

  “Yeah, mostly like that.” Artyom looked down, only the slightest trace of guilt in his eyes. He’d adapted that sermon from one of the more religious members of TOAL, combined with his own personal views on things like destiny. Did he really believe it himself? It didn’t matter. Besides, he knew that this particular prophecy was bunk anyway, but it wouldn’t do to start sharing that information with others yet.

  “Hey, Artyom?” asked Neitra, pausing for a second. “Were you blessed by the Goddess with the gift of knowledge like Tommy?”

  “I’m not sure about that, actually. Why do you ask that?”

  “Well, you really seem like the thinking type, saying and doing all of these smart things,” she replied. “Like just now, you were just staring down at the table and asking questions for a while before I asked you about the prophecy.”

  “What do you mean? I was reading this book,” he replied, motioning towards the book of deities.

  Neitra looked over to where Artyom was pointing and looked back at his face in confusion. “What book?”

  “This one,” he said, lifting it up and gently waving it in front of her, blowing a light billow of air in her face.

  “I don’t see it,” she replied, not even flinching at the literary behemoth so close to her face or the air buffeting her eyes.

  He set the book down with a thud, which Neitra didn’t even react to either. Artyom looked at her completely stupefied and then sighed. Will this mystery ever end? He could be at the beach instead of dealing with this shit.