Chapter 54: Chapter 54: There are many things to worry about, but should we really be worrying about them? No.

“And?” asks Hineni, sitting there somewhat nervously.

 

Sockel looks up his way, lifting her eyes from the sheet of paper for a moment, before turning her gaze back down towards it.

 

“It could be worse,” replies Sockel. Hineni exhales. That sounds like relieving news. Sockel flips over the sheet of paper, looking at the other side of it. “But it could also be better.” Hineni winces. She lifts it up, holding the log of daily sales up to the light. “We’re in the green, but honestly we’re not really as far up as I thought we’d be.”

 

Hineni crosses his arms, leaning against the side of the front-counter. “Explain.”

 

“Well…” Sockel tilts her head. “We had a strong rush at the start,” she says. “But because we were running low prices to attract people, we were barely breaking even on the food.”

 

“But we got a lot of repairs?” asks Hineni. “Rhine and I can barely keep up.”

 

Sockel nods, sliding the paper down into a ledger and then pulling out a different sheet. “Yeah,” she says. “But we have to calculate our income tax rates, our deductions for Avarice, materials for the forge, wood for heating, your protection deal with the thieves’ guild, the property dues…” She shakes her head. “Now that the building is being used more, there’s more wear and tear, so we’re paying more for maintenance than we were when it was just us.” The elf leans back, her ears twitching. “Plus we paid a fortune for that custom sign,” she says, pointing over her shoulder, towards the new quest board that the first quests have been pinned up on. She lifts her finger in front of herself. “Add to that the debt for Avarice’s cart that you and the owl-god broke, plus the bill for the food of our first day open and -”

 

“Okay. Sockel. I get it,” says Hineni, interrupting the elf as she seems to be ready to go on and on about their, apparently very abundant, expenditures.

 

“- And our wages,” finishes Sockel, not letting herself be stopped, but maybe shortening her rant to make a point.

 

Hineni sighs, rubbing his forehead.

 

“Give it to me straight, Sockel. What are the numbers?”

 

“We have about four-thousand on the account.” Hineni winces. That’s a very bad number. “But we’re getting down to our emergency fund, if we touch that,” explains the elf. She kicks her feet, crossing her legs. A group of people walk inside, yawning and waving as they head past, up to their rooms.

 

“We’re making about four to six-hundred Obols a day at the moment,” says Sockel. “But we keep getting hit with surprise costs,” she explains. “We need to stabilize our expenses, or we’re going to be running a big risk.”

 

Hineni frowns. “You think?” he asks. Four thousand, while an unfortunate number, is still a fortune for this neighborhood.

 

“I think,” nods Sockel. She lowers her voice, looking around and waiting for the group to leave and go upstairs, before turning back his way. “The frogs haven’t messed with us much yet,” she says. “They’ve been playing with their gloves on.”

 

Hineni raises an eyebrow. “They broke in and tried to kill us, Sockel,” replies Hineni. “How is that ‘gloves on’?”

 

“They sent four small groups and only two of them made it inside,” says Sockel. “Look around, dummy,” she says. Hineni lifts an eyebrow at her unusual snarkiness, but obliges, in the interest of hearing what she has to say. “What do you see?”

 

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“…A house?” guesses Hineni.

 

The elf stares at him, as if he were missing something obvious. “Exactly. It’s still here, it’s still standing.” She lifts her arms, shrugging. “On the day when we opened, they basically just said some mean words and looked sad. You don’t think that the frogs don’t have some wobbly-woo dark-magic casters who could turn this place inside-out in a minute flat?” she asks. “They were ten steps away from the owl-god. Hell, they were already inside of the house. But they went quiet and low-profile.”

 

“We’re protected from them now,” replies Hineni. “The owl-god and Eilig put up some magical protections.”

 

“Yeah, after the fact,” replies Sockel. “You’re missing my point,” she says, twitching with her foot. “They didn’t just forget to blast the whole house away, while the owl-god wasn’t here,” says the elf. “- Or try to assassinate her while she was outside. They went and are still going easy on purpose.”

 

Hineni thinks for a moment and then nods. That makes sense, he supposes. The frogs really could have just destroyed their structure and killed him, at the very least. They could have tried to assassinate Obscura, when she revealed herself to the public, but they didn’t. “They wanted me for some kind of ritual,” explains Hineni, remembering when they kidnapped him.

 

“- And that’s why we need money,” says Sockel. He looks her way. “They’re not going to stop. They only tried to kidnap you twice.”

 

“Third time’s the charm,” jokes Hineni.

 

“You’re laughing now,” replies the elf. “But you won’t be when we have to rebuild after the inevitable house-fire.”

 

Hineni exhales. He had just wanted to know what their numbers looked like. This is a lot heavier than what he came here to hear. But he does have little choice except to agree with Sockel.

 

The frogs aren’t done yet and whatever their aims and motivations are, surely things will only escalate from here on out.

 

---

 

It is the afternoon of the next day.

 

“Get back here!” calls Sockel, sounding very annoyed.

 

“You can’t make me!” shouts Eilig. “Get lost! Get frozen and die!”

 

Rhine, who was sitting on the staircase with Hineni, looks up towards the fairy. “It’s not that bad,” he says. “We all wear clothes.”

 

“You’re all idiots!” snaps the fairy at Rhine. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to be!” It turns back towards Sockel, who is running up the staircase in pursuit of her, holding a small dress in her hands.

 

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