Chapter 98: Chapter 98: A quiet day of rain foretells the froggy wetness to come

Hineni wanders down through the restaurant, a small watering can in his hands as he wanders past all of the many plants that adorn the windowsills and tables, watering them. It feels somewhat ironic to do, as just outside, rain is striking against the glass. It’s shortly before they’re opening for the day and he’s just helping to get everything ready now.

 

“What’s with the weather these days?” asks Hineni, shaking his head. “It feels like we get rain at least once a week.” He wanders over to the next plant, watering it.

 

“That’s because we are,” replies Rhine, sweeping the floors. “It’s been every fifth day so far.”

 

Hineni stops, turning his head. Obscura, who is holding a feather-duster and dusting the furniture, spins her head fully around to look at him. “It is no doing of mine,” she hoots, turning her head back to her work. “Beautiful Obscura does not care for rain-water,” says the owl-god. “It ruins my pristine feathers and makes flying unkind.”

 

“Huh…” says Hineni. “So is it just a coincidence?”

 

“No, probably not,” says Rhine. “Well, maybe. Sort of, half-way,” he continues sweeping. “The elves are great at nature magic. I bet there’s some effort to disrupt supply lines up here,” he explains. “Carts have trouble when everything is muddy.”

 

Hineni rubs his head. “Can they… can they do that?”

 

Rhine shrugs. “Sure. It’s like with the leylines that are going crazy,” explains the boy. “They can just channel their magic into them and they’ll carry them all the way to us.” He wipes his forehead. “By the time it gets here, it’s too loose to do anything really targeted. But filling up some rain clouds is manageable.” He looks towards Hineni. “Presumably about every five days.”

 

“Huh… damn…” says Hineni, thinking about it. “You learn something new every day.”

 

“That’s what they used to say in school too,” says Rhine. He stops sweeping, staring up towards the ceiling. “- Is it okay for me to not go to school?” he asks, looking at Hineni.

 

Hineni shrugs. “It’s probably fine. What good has school ever done anyone?” he asks, returning to watering his plants. “Bunch of wobbly-woo.”

 

“Uh…” A ball of crumpled up paper donks against Rhine’s head. “- Hey!” he snaps, turning to look at Sockel.

 

“See,” says the elf. “If you don’t go to school, you have to be the guy who waters plants,” says Sockel, returning to her scratchings in the ledger laid down before herself.

 

“But you didn’t go to school either, Sockel,” points out Rhine.

 

“Don’t need to. I’m smart as is,” replies the elf. She shakes her head. “Not everyone can be me though.”

 

“Do they even have schools in the south?” asks Hineni.

 

Sockel shakes her head. “Society is different down there,” she explains.

 

Hineni returns to his work. “Better or worse?”

 

“Eh. It’s different,” says Sockel. “I guess some people like it. Some people don’t,” she explains, dipping her pen into some ink. “I really like this kind of stuff,” she explains. “Books and numbers.” She looks up towards the ceiling. “But all of the human runaways I ever dealt with here all wanted to get away from it.”

 

“Grass is always greener on the other side,” says Hineni.

 

“I guess so,” replies Sockel. “Anyways, the point is that anything a school can teach you, you can also learn yourself, if it’s what you’re interested in.”

 

Rhine rubs his lip with the back of his thumb, thinking. “…But wouldn’t that mean you’d end up neglecting all of the important stuff that you think is boring?”

 

Sockel shrugs. “Don’t ask me. I didn’t go to school,” she replies.

 

Rhine looks towards Hineni. He shrugs.

 

He then looks towards Obscura. The owl-god hoots, signaling that she presumably did not go to school either.

 

“Wait… has anyone here gone to school except me?” asks Rhine. “What about Seltsam?”

 

The door to the library opens a crack. “N- no, I was never in public education either,” she says.

 

“I feel like that should have been obvious,” notes Sockel.

 

“- I would have really liked to, though!” says the librarian. “School sounds like a lot of fun!”

 

“I’m surrounded by nerds,” says Sockel, shaking her head.

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“Huh?!” asks Rhine. “You’re crunching numbers right now!” he says, pointing at her accusingly with the broom.

 

Sockel blows a strand of hair out of her face, wiping it to the side. “Yeah. But I can pull it off.” She thinks for a moment, before looking over her shoulder. “Wait. Selty, are you just listening in on what we say out here?”

 

“…I like to be a part of things too, you know?” asks the librarian.

 

“Aw…” Sockel rubs the back of her head. “Now I feel bad. Sorry.”

 

A loud buzzing can be heard from the other side of the door. Eilig. “As if you aren’t always listening to everything with those big, floppy ears of yours!” snaps the fairy, leaning around the door.

 

“We’re opening in a few minutes. Put on your clothes, Eilig,” says Sockel.

 

“I’ll die free unlike you, you soulless, corporate, number-crunching husk!” snaps the fairy.

 

Sockel’s inkwell freezes over, her pen stuck inside of it, just as she was about to dip it again.

 

She sighs. “You know how expensive this stuff is?”

 

“Your concept of money means nothing to me! Just like your clothes!” argues Eilig.

 

“Wait. Eilig, don’t you get paid?” asks Rhine.

 

“- I DAMN WELL BETTER!” yells the fairy back his way.

 

He tilts his head. “What do you even spend your money on? You can’t leave the house, can you?”

 

The handle of the broom freezes over.

 

“Mind your own business,” says Eilig. “It’s not your problem what I do with my money. How about you tell us what you spend your money on, huh?” she asks. “That’s right. I know.”

 

Rhine clears his throat and returns to sweeping, breaking off some of the ice from the broom.

 

“Let’s not fight before work everyone,” says Hineni. “Do whatever you all want with your money. But be sure to save some for a rainy day,” he says, looking at the rain pouring down outside.

 

“What are we going to do about the whole Avarice thing?” asks Rhine.

 

“Already working on it,” says Sockel. “We’re squeezing the numbers. The idea is we’ll keep putting money into the bank like always.”

 

“— This sounds like a terrible plan,” notes Rhine.

 

Sockel rolls her eyes. “But not all of it. Just most of it. We’ll keep some on the side, that way they won’t figure out that we know and we’ll still have some options open.”

 

“And then?” asks Rhine. “I mean… why? You know?” He breaks some more ice off of the broom. “What’s Avarice’s problem with the owl-god?”

 

Sockel shrugs. “Bankers like to be in control,” she says. “Everything is a commodity to them. Money. People. Houses. Gods.” She keeps writing. “It’s probably just something like that.”

 

Hineni empties his watering can, sparing a glance back towards Obscura. The two of them look at each other for a moment, before returning to their work.

 

Perhaps it is true that Avarice simply wants control for the sake of having control. It’s only good for his business if he holds the reins, after all. But just for the sake of things, they’re going to have to be careful about this situation. If the god really is only pretending to be on their side of things, then having him become aware of the fact that his game is over could be dangerous and would certainly be detrimental to them as well.

 

For now, the best thing is to play it safe, to keep their heads down low and create a separate collection of funds and assets of ‘safe’ money on the side.

 

Who knows when they’ll need it? The war is intensifying, if it’s even starting to reach home now and the frogs are still all but missing.

 

Things will probably intensify soon. For better or for worse.

 

The door opens and Kleidet steps inside, holding her arms out to let the water drip off of herself. It looks like it's time for the day to start.

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