The rest of their morning moved quickly after Clarisse woke up, neither of the pair delving deeper into the incident. The redhead was flustered enough by it to seek shelter in the warmth of a shower and the rogue decided not to pry in favor of getting out and about faster.

  After a quick breakfast of breaded omelettes at Mr. Shirev’s that Clarisse wolfed down but Nikolas picked up as takeout, they found themselves at Junnhaven’s public library - not quite a sprawling establishment but simply another featureless building squished between a pair of larger structures - one of many merchant trade-houses and the post office.

  The library consisted of a desk near the entrance where the warden sat, leading into a large central atrium with multiple tables surrounded by a maze of shelves, with smaller tables found at regular intervals for those who preferred the relative privacy. As they entered, the librarian greeted them with a light cough - it was unusual to see anyone this early at the establishment for the relatively old man, much less a pair of adventurers.

  Clarisse returned the librarian’s greeting with a wave, quickly walking over to the desk, but was chastised for the sound her boots made against the wooden tiling upon doing so by the warden.

  “Shh,” The librarian placed a finger at his lips, warning her to walk carefully. “Do you know what you’re looking for, or can I help you with picking out a book?” he whispered to Clarisse, before glancing at Nikolas.

  “Do you have anything on mana– ” Clarisse asked, before pausing when Nikolas tapped her arm. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, asking for his suggestion.

  “We’re researching many topics today,” Nikolas whispered to the librarian, diverting attention away from the initial topic of interest. “Unusual mana phenomena, fire magic… Do you have any records from the war? A bestiary would be great too, thanks.” He rattled off a set of topics he wanted to tackle with Clarisse.

  “Narrowing your focus to one topic per person at a time will help your research be fruitful,” The librarian advised them, getting up and crossing over into the main atrium and beckoning them to follow him. He proceeded to navigate the maze with ease, gesturing for them to pick up certain books as they passed by. “Come tell me once you’re done with these.”

  Equipped with about a dozen titles between them, the pair found a quiet corner table to sit down at. The librarian had directed them towards the simpler topics of fire magic and bestiaries first. “Do you want to start with that one?” Nikolas asked Clarisse as he watched her hold up the thick, hard-bound of Beasts of Ignisvell, Fourth Edition in front of her.

  “Y-yeah…” Clarisse studied the cover before laying it down and taking her diary out from her backpack. “I’ll take some notes too. It’ll come in handy later for sure. What are you reading first?” she asked her kitsune counterpart.

  Nikolas raised a small copy of Through the Ember and Incendiary for her to read the title, sitting down opposite to her. “It’ll help me understand your arcana type better, and hopefully we can get you some new training methods,” He took out a miniscule notebook and pencil from under his cloak to take notes in it. “Let’s begin. We have a lot to get through today.”

  Their pace was focused as the hours droned into the afternoon, only occasionally disturbed by the ambient noises of someone walking by, or the librarian patrolling the shelves to replace books into their rightful locations.

  Over the first half of the day Clarisse had developed at least a pair of pages for every species she encountered in the set of bestiaries she had been provided, filling them with sketches and adding notations to identify their abilities and weaknesses at a quick glance. It was when she got up to fetch another book she had eyed during their first pass-through that she found an opportunity to sneak away from Nikolas, trying to find the librarian in a discreet enough corner.

  “Aniera?” The scholar confirmed, narrowing his eyes at the girl’s strange request. “Yes, we have records from there, but not many unique ones.”

  “That’s okay,” Clarisse nodded eagerly with a whisper. “I’d like to take a look anyway. Anything from the time of the war would be perfect.”

  Arriving at the foreign records section, Clarisse anxiously waited as the librarian sifted through the full shelf to pick out exactly two books for her. She accepted them graciously, finding a cozy corner stool to check them out.

  A wave of confidence washed over her when she found illustrations and paintings of Aniera in the first book, An Icy Dream, which showed her a familiar landscape from the first lifelike dream she had experienced since meeting Nikolas. The snow-capped peaks and chilly atmosphere had led her this far, but now she was searching for something far more specific – a name, Angen Xzephroz. She had recognized it vaguely the first time, but its significance eluded her still.

  The more she searched, the closer it felt like she got without actually reaching a conclusion. The architecture of the cities, the weather, and even the species she had been able to make out, it was all there, but nothing specifically mentioning the deceased name. Moving to the second book, Priest and Prisoner, gave her a different perspective.

  It was the account of an Ignian scholar, one who had traveled to Aniera a year before the war started to learn more about their religion. There were crude illustrations here and there, but nothing substantial, until she landed on a double-page spread of a painting with multiple individuals standing side by side. There it was – in bold text, the words she had been searching for.

  Angen Xzephroz, advisor to the crown.

  Clarisse immediately looked down to cross-reference the name to a face, and was hit by mixed emotions. A familiar set of mismatched eyes stared back at her through the image, the exact hues that Nikolas possessed. Curiously enough, Angen didn't look the part of a royal advisor. She would have easily pinned him down as the monarch himself, decked out in a lavish outfit and sporting a well-trimmed, pointy beard with full grey hair all through. He stood taller than anyone else in the illustration, built like a brick wall with one hand casually resting across the actual king's shoulder, holding a cigar loosely between fingers laden with a variety of expensive rings. He seemed... so at ease and confident with himself, contrasting Nik's constant vigil and piercing gaze. Then, she remembered reading about him in newspapers right after the war had started – something about a diplomatic gala turning into the war because of his death.

  Clarisse had many questions, but not much time if she had been keeping track correctly. She made a mental note to sketch Angen later, and got up from her hiding spot. Returning the book back to its original shelf, she sneaked back to where Nikolas was sitting, ending her escapade.

  Nikolas’s reading was much more casual than his companion’s, barely any notes were taken besides a list of other mages mentioned in the book for later reference. Eventually his sight rose from the pages of the softbound guide to check on Clarisse as she returned.

  “Sorry, I had to go to the bathroom.” Clarisse whispered, flashing an anxious smile before taking a seat and devoting all her attention to the bestiary she had left open from before. Her hands sketched and took notes rapidly, trying to make up for lost time.

  “A lot of these guides are pretty loose… you don’t have to remember everything they say to a T.” Nikolas commented, leaning back in his chair as he skimmed over the reputation of another legendary fire mage. Seeing Clarisse continue to sketch, he leaned ahead to peek at what she was drawing with such haphazard speed.

  “Yeah, but there’s just so much about these… monsters,” Clarisse fumed with upturned eyebrows, continuing her sketch before noticing his peering eyes and covering the pages up with her arm. “Don’t worry – it’s just for my own convenience. I already got what I could about everything else… salamanders, sprites, banshees, tunnellers, goblins, the whole lot. They even had humans as a species in one of them…” she chuckled, rolling her eyes at the idea that her kind deserved to be treated the same as the rest of the monsters mentioned in the bestiaries.

  “What species is it about?” Nikolas prodded further, placing his book down after committing the page number to memory. “I’ve faced many of them before, so I might be able to shine light on redundancies.”

  “Hollows,” Clarisse promptly replied with a tangible distaste in her mouth at the word. They were the first species which had come to mind when he had decided to take a peek, causing her to dig a hole for herself. “My mom always told me stories about them but I never thought they’d be as big of a problem as the books describe them as.”

  “Ah…” Nikolas seemed taken aback at first, but quickly followed up with a wave of his hand to try to dispel her worries. “Don’t worry too much about them. People like to tell horrific stories because they’re quite persistent, but that’s about it. Realistically, you’ll never encounter them outside of labyrinthian dungeons.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to be caught off guard by something creepy like that,” Clarisse raised an eyebrow before flipping through the numerous pages of notes she had taken, pretending it was all on hollow variants of every species. “They recommend always having a cleric in the party, or wearing silver armor or carrying a bottled miracle at all times just in case. Silver powder works too, as does concentrated garlic powder as an irritant…” she went on, reading from the bestiary while sliding her finger over the diary. “There are subspecies-specific weaknesses too, so we could stock up on some popular ones-”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “You really don’t need any of those…” Nikolas reiterated with a sigh, before sliding his notebook towards her. “Recognize any of these names?” he asked, attempting to shift the topic.

  Clarisse was quite eager to focus on something else after her escapade and the thinly veiled lies to make up for it. Although the list of names she saw before her was mostly unfamiliar, there was one name she recognized. “Just one, Barunga Garvs. He was one of the generals of Ignisvell during the war. We kept hearing drafts being released in his name when it began.” she clarified, returning the notebook back to him. It was strange how that was a memory she was able to easily recollect after everything that had happened, but Angen had evaded her for so long.

  “Hmm… Well, he was apparently a fire mage himself,” Nikolas shrugged, pocketing the tiny notebook. “If we ever manage to figure out an audience with him, that should do you plenty of good. In the meantime, I do have many ideas on how we can continue our training.”

  “That’s great!” Clarisse smiled, her voice peaking for just a moment in her excitement before she returned to speaking in whispers from fear of attracting the ire of the librarian, wherever he was within the maze of shelves at that moment. “Sorry. That’s good though, thanks. There’s also something else I wanted to check out…”

  Watching her get up, Nikolas followed suit and accompanied Clarisse on her search. “What’s up?” He asked, wondering what was on her mind.

  “Gemstones…” Clarisse mentioned, pausing at the alphabetic section of the library associated with what she was looking for. “I asked Ms. Ciela about the gem Mr. Kaara used in your fight together while you were patching yourself up, and she told me it was a gemstone used to hold energy.”

  “Oh, those are pretty common among high ranked adventurers now that I think about it,” Nikolas recognized what she was referring to, squatting down to search for anything on the topic. “I actually know a lot about them but we can look for a book if you want.”

  Yet again, Clarisse was surprised that Nikolas was merely a bronze rank, before remembering that he had purposefully did badly enough on the placement exam to be put there. “If you’re familiar then we don’t have to find anything- I’ve had enough reading for one day…”

  “Right… let’s grab a couple of books to rent out first. We can talk about it when we’re out of here.” Nikolas suggested, hinting at their actual objective for visiting the library.

  “Oh, yeah! Let’s do that.” Clarisse nodded in agreement, peeking out of the shelves towards the main atrium where the librarian was passing by. “Can you grab our bags? I’ll go ask him for things on unusual mana phenomena.” She suggested a plan.

  “Pick up whatever seems interesting to you.” Nikolas replied with a thumbs up, quickly slinking away back towards the isolated table they had been sitting at.

  Clarisse initially began walking towards the atrium, but then looked back to notice how his steps made no sound as he glided across the library floor compared to her boots which made her make a conscious effort to step softly. “Hmm…” she whispered under her breath, before resuming towards her inquiry with the librarian.

  “It’s nice they let us borrow them for a whole month.” Nikolas mentioned once they were both outside the establishment, looking down at two books held in the redhead’s arms.

  “The nation-wide library network is so cool for that.” Clarisse beamed, proudly holding the titles she had selected. “The best part is that even if we decide to return it to a different city’s library, they’ll eventually get it back here!”

  “Yeah, that’s the only kind of arrangement that could work in Ignisvell…” Nikolas nodded, before looking up at the overhead sun’s bright silhouette bearing down on them since they had left the safety of the library. “Where do you want to go next? I’ll tell you about the gemstones as we walk.”

  “I’m feeling pretty hungry… wanna head to the guild for lunch?” Clarisse asked, walking down the street alongside him.

  “The guild… maybe not there for food.” Nikolas shook his head awkwardly, suspecting his victory over Kaara was still far too fresh for anyone to leave him alone about it. “We’ll be hounded by the rookies again like last time… how about a tavern? We already have food…” he suggested.

  “We do?” Clarisse shot back, confused by what he meant.

  “Breaded omelettes,” Nikolas reminded her of the breakfast packaged in his name. “I don’t have much of an appetite, so you can have mine if you want.”

  “You can’t just go hungry like that!” Clarisse protested, giving him a nudge with her elbow. “Sera is going to blame me if you fall sick, and I’d feel bad if I took your meal. You should eat it before it goes bad.”

  “Relax, this is normal for me,” Nikolas shrugged, trying to play it off as his usual eating habits. “I’ll be fine even if I don’t eat, but you’re right. Let’s finish it for lunch at least.”

  “Very few species can manage to eat as little as I’ve seen you eat, Nik…” Clarisse teased him in an unamused tone with a pout. “I didn’t see anything about kitsune in that bestiary but I’m sure they must need food like normal people if they look close enough to humans.”

  “Fine, fine, I’ll eat. But let’s go to a tavern anyway.” Nikolas conceded, looking up at the street signs to remind himself where the closest tavern was from where they were standing.

  “You were about to tell me about gemstones, right?” Clarisse brought up once they made another turn, eager to know more about them. “Kaara’s stone looked like it gave him a massive boost after you winded him the first time.”

  “Gemstones can be separated into 2 categories,” Nikolas began, hand gestures keeping his explanation animated despite his focus being on where they were going. “Powersinks and conduits. Powersinks are exactly what they sound like – you store mana in them over a long period of time and then tap into them whenever you need to.”

  Clarisse quietly listened, nodding along with his explanation but otherwise keeping her eyes on what was in front of her.

  “Kaara’a gemstone was a powersink, though… I think he must have used it within the last few weeks for it to contain as little as it did during the fight.” Nikolas elaborated. “The other type are conduits, gems which can’t innately store mana in them but passively help their user channel arcana into stronger spells.”

  “Both types sound really helpful. Do you think they could be helpful for me?” Clarisse asked, simply thinking aloud to him.

  “Absolutely,” Nikolas replied without the least hint of hesitation. “I wouldn’t recommend relying on gems to be your main power output method but both kinds are helpful for mages, as long as you’re able to find the right kind of material.”

  “Material?” Clarisse asked again, voicing her confusion. “Do different gems behave differently depending on their material?”

  “Sort of,” Nikolas shrugged, shaking his hand in a so-so motion to elucidate his point. “Gemstones are rarely tuned to a person’s specific arcana but if we consider just fire arcana in general… labradorite or carnelian as material should do? They might be others that I don’t know of…” It sounded like they were approaching the soft limits of his knowledge on the subject quickly.

  “Where do you think we can get some for us?” Clarisse prodded the topic further, imagining what it would be like to wield multiple gemstones. “Between the both of us we could invest a ton of mana into them and then have so much fire to use whenever we needed!”

  “That… we would have to get lucky.” Nikolas admitted, glancing towards her with flattened ears and an apologetic sigh at breaking her illusions of grandeur. “You can find ordinary gemstones in just about any mine, but the ones capable of storing and conducting specific mana are only found in the eastern mountain ranges… they don’t get imported to Ignisvell often and when they do, they’re quickly bought out.”

  “Oh… that’s a bummer,” Clarisse’s tone plateaued as she realized her fantasy wouldn’t be so easy to achieve. “Well, we should keep an eye out for them just in case.”

  “We should,” Nikolas agreed, looking up to confirm the door belonged to the right establishment before pausing by it and holding the door for her to enter. “Gemstones are a rarity among beginners or even smaller parties because of their cost, but they’re well worth it.”

  Clarisse spoke a quick thanks before entering, quickly making a beeline for the nearest empty table she could find which could seat both of them. “Someday we’ll earn enough to afford things like those!”

  “Someday…” Nikolas nodded, though it seemed he was lost in thought for a moment. Eventually, he snapped back to reality, realizing that Clarisse had asked him something.

  “Nik?” The redhead asked again, causing her companion’s ears to perk up this time. “Sorry, I wanted to ask you something unrelated. Back when we were signing up as a party, I noticed Rika didn’t put any last name for you…?”

  “. . .” There was yet another blank from Nikolas for a few seconds before he answered. “I… don’t have a family name, it’s as simple as that. I was raised an orphan.”

  Clarisse seemed more relieved than shocked at the admission, content that his actual parents didn’t sell him off like he meant nothing to them, or at least that was her assumption from the dreams she was having. “Sorry, I just thought it was another secretive thing… Do you know what happened to your parents or… why?” She felt like a douchebag simply for asking, but her curiosity burned greater than any sense of shame when it came to learning about Nikolas. If the dreams she was seeing were all true, there was going to be a lot more to feel sorry for.

  Nikolas shook his head, but couldn’t meet her gaze with his as he answered. “I suppose they didn’t want me. Someone ended up finding me, though. I learnt a lot of my rogue skills that way. Being a street urchin counts for a lot more than just show.”

  “The- The people who found you, you’d call them family then, right?” Clarisse asked, hoping to find a positive resolution at the end of the tunnel which was the obscure dream she had.

  “I think family means very different things to both of us, Clarisse.” Nikolas replied, any semblance of emotion empty from his voice. “I don’t have family the way you might. To be blunt, most of the people I grew up with are dead. And no, you’re not being rude by asking about it… but these are kind of the answers you’ll get.” Despite the blank surface of the mask staring at her, his eyes visibly held bitter acceptance for her to take in.

  Clarisse’s heart sank, and it reflected in her expression. “I didn’t mean to… ” she sank into the cushion of the booth’s sofa with every passing moment, letting out an exhale as she prepared herself to ask the big question on her mind. Looking up into his mismatched eyes staring right into her soul, she could barely voice her thoughts into words audible enough for herself to hear. Closing her eyes, she quickly blurted out the question. It was but a whisper that suddenly escaped her lips, but even that was enough to be caught by the adventurer’s astute ears in an instant.

  “So… who was Sherly to you?”

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