Chapter 91: Chapter 91: The croaking of frogs fills our ears. Will they lead you astray?

“Boy, do you think this is some kind of game?” asks Hineni, leaning over the table.

 

Rhine leans in back towards him, narrowing his eyes. “It’s over for you, old man.” He looks down at the game-board, pushing his piece forward to corner Hineni’s.

 

Hineni narrows his eyes, grabbing the dice and rolling them.

 

They clatter across the board, coming to a noisy stop between the two of them. Rhine lets out a distraught cry. Hineni smugly picks his piece up and pushes Rhine’s back again, before moving away.

 

“Nice try.”

 

Obscura hoots, next to him. “The currents of rivers often turn wild,” says the owl-god, picking up the dice. “But sneaky elves remain ever the same.” She moves her piece after Sockel’s.

 

“Hey!” says Rhine, noticing that Sockel had secretly been moving her figure towards the goal by herself, while Rhine was fighting the two of them off alone. The two of them had been in a sort of pact to work together. But it seems that now that the goal is near, this pact has been dissolved.

 

“Nothing personal,” says Sockel, grabbing the other dice to roll against Obscura, who has chased her into a fight. “It’s just business.”

 

“Wow,” says Rhine. “I can’t believe I trusted you, Sockel.”

 

“Rookie mistake,” says the elf, rolling her dice.

 

“— Excuse me?” asks a voice from the side. Hineni turns his head to look at an adventurer. “Sorry. We locked ourselves out of our room…” says the woman, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.

 

Hineni blinks, looking at Sockel. “Do we have a spare key?”

 

“Sure,” says Sockel. “But did you lose the other one or something?” she asks.

 

“…Actually,” says the woman.

 

Her companion lifts a finger. “It’s still in the door. On the other side.”

 

Sockel’s ears twitch. “How did you manage to do that?”

 

“…On accident?” replies the woman, laughing meekly. She pokes her fingers together. “- There isn’t a fee for this, is there…?”

 

“We’ll have to take the lock off and build it back in,” says Sockel, shrugging. She looks towards Hineni.

 

Hineni gets up. “I’ll handle it,” he says. He hands Obscura his dice. “You cover for me, okay?”

 

Obscura nods. “Obscura will devour the elf and the river-boy,” says the owl-god.

 

“Just beat them in the game,” says Hineni. “If you eat them, we’ll need to find new employees.”

 

“Who~”

 

He walks towards the stairs with the adventurers, who look at each other, somewhat awkwardly.

 

“Don’t worry,” says Hineni. “Just a joke. She doesn’t actually eat people,” he says.

 

Gotta watch the marketing.

 

---

 

Hineni wanders out at night by himself, heading towards the big-now-small forest on the outskirts of the city.

 

He knows that things are weird these days with the frogs, but there’s some things that he’s been hoping to amicably discuss.

 

The man enters into the forest, staring up at a familiar tree where he had met someone important. The once barren branches, destitute in the house of winter, now thrive and full and flush with greenery.

 

He grabs the brim of his wizard’s hat, adjusting it down lower as he wanders his way out, towards the pond in the middle of the witching hour.

 

Soft rays of gentle moonlight drift down through the canopy, dancing atop the waters of the full pond. Fat fireflies float, hovering suspended between the moonglow and the still water. The ones who fly too high, illuminate the space with a heart-warm shine.

 

The ones who fly too low get eaten by frogs.

 

Such is life.

 

Hineni looks around the area.

 

Sitting on the log is the frog-priestess, Anura.

 

Hearing his approach, she turns her head to look at him and then simply turns back towards the water.

 

“I don’t want to talk to you,” says the frog-priestess.

 

Hineni looks at her and then nods, understanding. He turns towards the water, simply watching it in silence for a time.

 

It’s only fair for her to be mad at him. She had made a real, serious effort to extend a friendly hand his way several times and he, in turn, had gone through great effort to ruin her life for having done so.

 

“Sorry,” says Hineni. “I didn’t know it was your home.” He looks back towards the water.

 

“The sad part is that you probably believe that,” replies Anura. Frogs croak in the water, singing a moon-song.

 

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Hineni crosses his arms, leaning back against a tree. During the eviction of the other adventurer’s guild, Avarice’s lackeys had collected several rooms worth of private possessions and packed them into moving boxes to return them to their owners. One of these, an entire room’s worth, was hers.

 

He supposes that, if he had really stopped to think about it, that he would have known it was obvious that the other guild wasn’t just a business. Like their own, it was a place that people lived. Even back then, back before all of this had started and he was just a single bachelor, going to that guild to pick random orders from their quest board, even then, Anura had been there. He recalls seeing her several times. The truth is that he had gotten so caught up in this owl-frog game, that he hadn’t really stopped to think about what it meant.

 

“She says you were nice to her,” croaks Anura, likely referring to the big-frog. “It is not my place to say that she is mistaken in her judgement.” She says no more, but the implication is obvious. Anura holds her hand out to the water, letting a frog climb up onto it. It’s fully grown and it sits on her palm, quietly croaking as it stares out over the world from its new vantage point.

 

The frog catches a firefly from above, one from the group that had been safe before, because of their height.

 

Hineni nods, knowing that she’s right. He really has gotten a bit harsher these last few weeks. But with all of the mounting threats and the cut-throated nature of the business, what other choice is there?

 

“— I wanted to ask about Rhine’s mom,” says Hineni.

 

“It is not for me to discuss,” replies Anura.

 

“I know,” says Hineni. “I don’t want to gossip. I just want to know something. If the frog-god is so great, then why is she one of her upper lackeys?”

 

“It is not for me to discuss,” repeats Anura, looking at the frog in her hand.

 

“Please,” says Hineni. “Rhine’s a good kid. Have you ever seen the way she treated him? So why?” he asks. “She beat her son to the point of trauma. You people tried to kidnap me three times and somehow, I still feel like I’m being the bad guy here?” he asks. “You frogs don’t make any sense.”

 

Anura sets the frog down, letting it hop away. It vanishes into the water.

 

“The elf. Sockel. She’s a violent killer, you know?”

 

“I know. And?” asks Hineni.

 

“The owl is a demon, you know?” asks the frog-priestess.

 

Hineni shrugs, holding his hands out to his sides. “That’s a load of bad drama.”

 

“You’ve murdered people. Burnt them alive.”

 

Hineni nods. “Sure did, what’s your point?”

 

Anura tilts her head, staring at him in confusion for a time. Her throat moves as she breathes, almost pushing in and out like that of a frog’s. Her damp, black hair catches the moonlight. Its wetness hinting that she had been swimming in the pond with the frogs before. “You don’t even see it anymore, do you?” she asks, shaking her head. “After everything I just listed, how is one flawed woman the worst thing here?”

 

Hineni doesn’t really have a response for that.

 

She’s not wrong.

 

It’s just that… well, of course he’s killed people. That’s sort of his whole story to begin with. As for Sockel, of course she has dirty hands. She’s a trained killer, after all. It’s her job. As for the whole demon thing, it might just be a bit overblown, as far as he can tell. Cultural differences.

 

“Weaponsmith Hineni, chosen of the owl-god,” says Anura. “You’re a fool and I don’t quite understand why anyone likes you.”

 

“I agree on both counts,” replies Hineni, shrugging.

 

“Do you have the habit of threes?” she asks.

 

“Sure do,” says Hineni. “We were playing a game today and I got annoyed every time my dice was on any other number.”

 

“— Do you find yourself picking up any other tendencies of the owl?” she asks.

 

Hineni nods. “Sure. Honestly, all of us are rubbing off on each other,” he says.

 

“But not as much as she does on you, yes?” asks Anura.

 

Hineni nods.

 

It’s true. Of course they’re all rubbing off on each other. They live together. They work together. They eat and play and thrive together. It’s only normal. But there’s certainly a magical influence that Obscura plays over all of them that is impossible to deny. The rule of threes is the most noticeable of these. Just the other day, Eilig slammed her house door for no reason, other than to have it be done three times.

 

“Then why, Weaponsmith Hineni, would you not see that this applies to her murderous, demonic instincts as well?” asks the frog-priestess, rising to her feet. “The owl is a demon and that is rubbing off on you and on everyone you claim to care about.” She looks over her shoulder. “— Think about that, when you lay in your full home and real bed tonight.”

 

Anura stares at him for a time and then wanders off into the dark forest, leaving him standing there by himself, barring some frogs and some fireflies.

 

He lowers his gaze down towards the water, thinking.

 

It is true. He has become more… callous and indifferent to the problems of the world lately. Just the talk about the war yesterday in the bath is proof enough of that.

 

Sockel has become more cut-throat and rude, her old ways being amplified far over her kind, somewhat sleepy and also oddly energetic at the same time demeanor.

 

Rhine has become far more challenging against him. He had just assumed the boy was growing into confidence and that this was from that.

 

Eilig, a creature born of a separate magical energy, has been becoming ill from the overloading magical influence around the house.

 

— And all of these things coincide with the rise of the owl-god’s power.

 

A frog stands there down on the ground, looking up his way. Its neck expands in and out as it breathes.

 

*Ribbit*

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