Mystogann was a reprieve from the jam-packed nature of Mernilk, at least in the evening. Unlike the city moving so fast it devoured its own residents and spat them out once their purpose was fulfilled, Mystogann felt like an open field. The streets sat wide, buildings comfortably spaced apart. There was a distinct lack of merchants hawking their wares compared to both Junnhaven and Mernilk, their purpose taken by shops set deep within the lower levels of architecture.

  Clarisse hobbled along on tired knees, exhausted by their journey across unpaved paths and rolling hills right up until the old Atrii mines had fallen past the horizon. The redhead’s first instincts were to follow the guidance of her nose, catching a scant whiff of baked goods in the distance. She tugged on the sleeve of her noticeably not tired companion, beckoning the fox’s suppressed senses to extend themselves and find what allured her.

  “A cafe?” He asked, unwrapping the makings of a plan. “We need to find a place to spend the night anyway, so an inn might–” Nikolas began, but a soft frown from Clarisse was sufficient to tell him off. “Right… lead the way.”

  It wasn’t until her stomach had been sated by the warm crunch of layered bread that Clarisse saw fit to speak. “You should be considerate, Nik. I need food to survive even if you don’t.”

  “Sorry. I’ve gotten used to moving between cities faster, what with the lack of food and rest,” The homunculus excused himself, standing behind the redhead and massaging her shoulders absent-mindedly. “It’s rather useful, catches people off guard with how fast I can cover land.”

  “Faster than using a caravan or riding a horse?” Clarisse asked, leaning back into her chair to glance up at him. She appreciated the massage, feeling worn from lugging her bag all the while trying to keep pace with him on the way.

  “As long as I can stay out of sight,” Nikolas nodded with reserved confidence. “The veil of night is deceptively useful in that regard.”

  “It’ll be harder to do that if I’m with you…” Clarisse frowned again, ripping into the stuffed bread in her hands with a hint of anger. “I keep holding you back…”

  “Do you?” Nikolas asked rhetorically, slipping his thumbs under her bangs to ease the back of her neck. “I couldn’t imagine taking the time to appreciate the details without tagging along with you. You’re perfect for keeping appearances as well.”

  Clarisse raised an eyebrow while chewing on another bite, turning to sit sideways and face him properly.

  “It’s easy to forget about hunger or when sleep cycles hit when you’ve spent a while without either of them.” Nikolas whispered with a shrug. “You almost caught me on some lies because of them.”

  “You’re missing out,” Clarisse replied once the bite in her mouth finally went down. “You’re not really living if you’re not enjoying food or relaxing. Here–” She raised what was left of her stuffed bread to him.

  “Ah, thank you~” Nikolas mused, taking off the bottom part of his mask momentarily to accept the bite from her. “I suppose I am… this is good!” He spoke mid-bite in a muffled tone.

  “At least chew properly…” Clarisse muttered as she got up, stretching her arms and legs. “So, where are we meeting this friend of yours?”

  “Do you want to meet him tonight itself?” Nikolas sighed, glancing back along the way they had come. “I think I saw a good place on the way here…”

  “A cemetery?” Clarisse asked in disbelief, rubbing the sides of her arms and poofing her hair alight a glowering orange, just enough to keep herself warm from the cold breeze passing by. “Why does it have to be here?”

  “It’s just easier for him to notice if we stand around here,” Nikolas explained, crossing his arms as he stood by the quaint ossuary. “He keeps an eye on graveyards in general for his work…”

  “So, what should I expect? If he’s from down under…” Clarisse plopped herself onto a nearby bench, feeling a shiver run up her back as she paid attention to the rows upon rows of gravestones entrenched into the ground before them.

  “You’ll know when you see him,” Nikolas reassured her with a shrug. “He’s… unique. That, and… you won’t see him unless he wants you to.”

  “Then what’s the point of– nevermind.” Clarisse began, before deciding traversing Nik’s cryptic hints wasn’t worth any more of a headache than it had already been. With a sigh, she settled lower into the bench much like the way her bread puff had settled when she had first poked a hole into it.

  She didn’t have to remain deflated for very long, however, before something of interest happened. It was a strange phenomenon for the redhead, watching someone pop into existence out of the blue. A man with bone-white skin wearing a bright yellow jacket and grey trousers which resembled a raincoat than it did a proper outfit had spontaneously appeared behind Nikolas, and stood with the practiced uncomfortability of an overworked accountant. The strange designs on his attire seemed otherworldly, at least to what Clarisse was used to.

  “Dies Irae.” The strange man spoke, his words aimed at Nikolas, yet with a vile tone of disgust.

  “Pigritia,” Nikolas replied, glancing over his shoulder. The homunculus gradually turned around, keeping his arms crossed as he faced off with the opposing Atraxian. “Long time, no see.”

  Clarisse narrowed her eyes, unsure of how to take their meeting and the way they just stood there, staring each other down. She stayed on the bench until Pigritia finally moved, swiftly extending his arm in a swing that Nikolas met with his own, and together they produced a crisp clap.

  “Why am I not surprised to see you still kicking, Nik?”

  “Glad to see you haven’t turned to dust, you old fart.”

  “Not yet, not yet…” Pigritia chuckled, before turning to address the other person he had made himself visible to. “She’s with you? I hope so, otherwise I gotta drag her down with me.”

  “She’s with me, don’t worry,” Nikolas nodded, standing between them. “Clarisse, this is Pluto, better known as Pigritia. Pluto, Clarisse.”

  “Sin of Sloth, pleasure to make your acquaintance, Clarisse,” Pluto performed a courtesy bow before extending his arm towards her, which was when Clarisse finally realized why his skin seemed bone-white at first glance. It was in fact bone, as was the rest of him.

  Clarisse grasped the skeletal hand absent-mindedly, her gaze flitting uncomfortably between the unusual texture of Pluto’s hand and the way his eyes shifted between complete eyeballs and faintly glowing flames inset into his skull. “N-nice to meet you… Mr. Pluto…”

  “Nervous? Don’t sweat it, kid. Being around two Sins must be overwhelming, ey?” Pluto chuckled, before elbowing Nikolas in his ribs. “I never took you for someone who’d bag a girlfriend, Nik. Cheers!”

  “We’re not–” Nikolas subtly dismissed the tease, but his attention was on Clarisse. “Are you okay? I know he can be unsettling to look at…”

  “What do you mean, two Sins?” Clarisse asked, taking a step back from them. “Like, The Sins? You don’t mean them, right?”

  Pluto was the next to cast an uncertain glance at Nikolas. “Shoot, I thought you told her about that already. Sin of Wrath and all… sorry for jumping the gun.”

  “I didn’t think it was a big deal, but uhh…” Nikolas let out a sigh, watching Clarisse silently implode with her head in her hands. “It’s really not a big deal, c’mon…”

  Clarisse had resigned herself back into the bench, eyes wide open despite being mostly shielded by her palms. “Of course. Of course the only friend you have is another Sin, AND you’re the Sin of Wrath. Nothing can ever be normal about you, can it, Nik!?” she whispered aloud, her voice naturally taking on the most exasperated tone she could muster.

  “I didn’t tell you about it because I don’t really care about the whole Sin-title thing,” Nikolas sat by her and put his arm around her shoulder in consolation. “It’s just a glorified warning sign anyway… Pluto’s pretty chill, and you know how I am already.”

  “Yes… no… I just– Ughh…” Clarisse let out a groan before glancing at Nikolas. “I just wish things were… simpler? Just normal with you… It feels like you’ve been there and done that with everything already.”

  “If he ever took things normal, he’d be long gone, girl,” Pluto piped up, leaning back with his hands in his pockets. “One does not fight three separate Sins, kill one and put the other two out of commission for a good while, without earning a name in the process. We call him the Sin of Wrath because that is his failing, not his indulgence.”

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  “I do have a history…” Nikolas sighed, letting his ears flatten as he sank backwards into the bench. “I’m not asking you to accept it all at face value…but I didn’t always have a choice either.”

  “I get it? Or at least I think I do…” the redhead muttered, feeling bad about making him droop in that way. “It’s just… very unusual, and I sort of asked for this… I-I need a minute.”

  “Take your time. You’ve got plenty,” Pluto shrugged in a smug way that only made Clarisse’s shoulders drop in a sublime sense of horror. “I, on the other hand, should be heading out. Gotta keep up with the schedule, y’know?”

  “Before you go–” Nikolas sat upright with a jerk. “Have you heard anything about strange artifacts? Any leads for Tegor…”

  Pluto glanced around himself, tapping his foot rapidly as he raised a finger to his jaw. “Hmm… this is Mystogann, right? I was here last week… There should be a tournament happening pretty soon. I heard rumors that one of the prizes is some special magic artifact… could be worth investigating.”

  “Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out for anything like that,” Nikolas nodded before directing his attention at Clarisse’s thousand yard stare. “Could be a good way for you to train.”

  “Good luck. And try not to put too many people into the ground, ey? I might actually be able to cop a break if I can catch up with work, haha!” Pluto waved to them before spontaneously disappearing into a cloud of dust and being blown away by the wind.

  “You have a strange taste in people, Nik…” Clarisse groaned, hugging herself as she leaned back into the bench.

  “Hey, you’re among those people too.” Nikolas teased her, nudging her shoulder-to-shoulder.

  “What does Pluto do? He mentioned something about his work…”

  “Oh, he’s responsible for ferrying souls of the dead back down to Atraxia.”

  “You’re friends with death?”

  “He’s not– a lot of people confuse him for that,” Nikolas sighed, knowing just how annoyed Pluto would have been, had he remained to hear this. “He’s just the guide. Not responsible for the actual death of anything. More along the lines of middle management.”

  “So when he mentioned me taking my time…” Clarisse’s expression softened as she realized it hadn’t been a veiled threat. “He doesn’t actually handle that?”

  “No, he doesn’t. It’s why he’s so busy… he has to guide every soul despite never knowing when someone’s going to die. People bring them to graveyards anyway, so it makes it easier for him to just search there.”

  “The Sin of Sloth being so busy doesn’t sound right…”

  “It’s the same case as me… sloth is the weakness he’s constantly at odds with.”

  “... Interesting. I wasn’t expecting him to be a skeleton either. How did you two become friends?”

  “It’s not often he gets to see the same face twice in the overworld. It was intriguing though. He was the one to approach me out of the blue.”

  “Was it after whenever you fought those other Sins?”

  “Yes, but not until much later. Sera used to teach me the basics of our avatar abilities in one of her secret gardens, and he just started showing up to spectate one day. Back then I didn’t trust anyone, so I ignored him until he interrupted one of our lessons.”

  “Have you found anyone else you can trust down there?”

  “I’ve found that I can trust everyone, no matter which plane.” Nikolas replied confidently, which inspired abject confusion from Clarisse. “Trust everyone to be themselves, that is. None of them are inclined to help me, and I’m okay with keeping it that way.”

  Clarisse was left slack-jawed for a moment. “How do you live this way? Not even Sera or me?? You need more friends, Nik.”

  “It’s tough to just go around making friends when you consider what I am…” Nikolas sighed. “Of course, you know that the best.”

  “I guess I do…” Clarisse couldn’t shrug off her disappointed agreement with him, but she could offer reassurance, and a helping hand. “But we are friends, and I’ll stick by you as far as I can.”

  “Thanks. It’s not very often I meet a person like you, Clarisse,” Nikolas replied, his gaze softening along with what was surely a smile hidden behind the mask. “Rarer even for them to be so kind.”

  “You’re pretty unique yourself, Nik.” Clarisse giggled, getting up to lead the way out of the solemn stoneyard. “Let’s find a place for the night. We’ll have to explore the city tomorrow to find that tournament Pluto told us about.”

  A stiff gust blew through a seemingly endless series of fully-stocked shelves, each as vast as the populus of grains of sand on a beach and as intricately organized as one could possibly imagine. To even consider that each and every book in that labyrinthian structure which stretched in every direction like an ocean was hand-placed would be absurd, yet it was.

  A golden glow descended evenly onto the shelves from above, bestowing the atmosphere with shimmering snowflake-like particles that hung right above the ground before dissipating. If one ventured to search for a horizon past the allure of the shelves, a faint mirage of stairs could be seen in the distance, leading up to more chambers much like the one in question.

  In the middle of it all, however, lay an atrium. The only open space for as far as the eye could see, a sanctuary for curious readers. It was occupied at the moment by a lone librarian, sitting in front of an altar in a pose akin to meditation, carefully perusing each volume from the stacks floating around her to determine where it should be placed. The deep charcoal of her tailored doublet was complemented by the long indigo overcoat resting over it, completing the outfit with a white jabot shirt and a pleated skirt. A short crop of silver hair shaped in a wolf-cut contrasted the scholarly nature of the librarian, but her purpose remained steadfast.

  “Venus!” A skeletal figure finally emerged from the breeze that had permeated into the library, still clad in the same strange outfit more reminiscent of a world many centuries in the future from their own. “Where’s Mercury? I have urgent news to share!”

  The librarian raised her gaze from the pages she was consulting, her meditative trance interrupted by a familiar visitor. “Merc should be on the second floor, but she should still be asleep…” she spoke softly, without the least urgency in her tone. “What have you found?”

  “It’s about Lenue! Can you call Mercury down for just a minute? I need to ask her something.” Pluto heaved and clacked his teeth, finally taking the time to catch his breath.

  “If you are the one requesting, very well.” Venus closed her eyes for a moment, eyes darting across the underside of her eyelids. She snapped her fingers, and in a puff of smoke, another librarian appeared beside her, although immediately falling to the floor with a dull thud.

  The woman was dressed in a white dress-shirt under a brown coat and darker vest. A brown ribbon lay in place of the jabot under her collar, matching the way her bronze hair descended into blonde highlights. All that combined with the relaxed complexion that broke like falling glass as soon as she materialized seemed like a rather rude awakening. “What the– I was finally getting to the good part, Venus!”

  “Apologies, dear. I only interrupted your slumber because Pluto has important news to share.” Venus replied with an unfazed smile, gesturing to the more rugged of the pair.

  “Pluto? Oh…” there was a hint of distaste in Mercury’s voice as she beheld the oddly dressed skeleton. “Well, out with it. What could have happened that needed you to wake me?”

  “It’s about your problem child. I ran into her today — accidentally, mind you.” Pluto explained with hands dug deep into his pockets, pacing back and forth in front of his seniors uncomfortably. “She was with Nikolas.”

  “What!?” Mercury’s complexion took on an entirely new carapace as she approached with her hands on her hips, similar to a bird puffing its feathers to look bigger. “No, she’s not supposed to meet him until next year! And what’s your mangy, script-tearing dog doing to her? I swear to Mother if he hurts her again this cycle…”

  “Whoa, whoa! Ease up, Merc…” Pluto backed away, raising his arms to shield himself from his older sister’s rage. “That’s the part I wanted to talk to you about… they seem friendly. Is there anything in Clarisse’s book about this?”

  “Huh?” Mercury glanced at Venus for confirmation that she hadn’t misheard the skeleton. “How friendly? And where exactly did you see them?” She poked him in the chest to emphasize her displeasure further.

  “Mystogann. They were traveling together, and she likely knows about him being a hollow. I think Nikolas was vying to introduce us, so they’ve already crossed that bridge…”

  “Oh my De– she can do so much better…” Mercury lamented, crossing her arms and turning away. “Where’s that smartass whats-his-name again? The one who gave her the life she deserved a couple of cycles ago.”

  “Jameson? On his journey to the west, just like it is written in his book.” Venus smiled, the only one of the trio who seemed to be taking the news so far well. “Honestly, this isn’t as bad as you’re making it.”

  “Not as bad–” Mercury snapped around, eyes wide as saucers as she confronted Venus. “Do you remember how it ended last time? She was traumatized for so long just from seeing bones after they’d dealt with him, not to mention the collateral damage. Clarisse does not deserve that again!”

  “Pluto, how antagonistic would you say our dear Clarisse was to being with Nikolas?” Venus asked in a voice as clear and calm as still water, remaining firm in her idea.

  “Uhm… well, she had a hard time accepting him as the Sin of Wrath and me as Sloth, but that was a spur of the moment issue.” Pluto chose his words carefully to not enrage either of his siblings. “They were comfortable with each other. She was willing to put up with it rather than fight, and he was also trying to console her.”

  “See?” Venus’s slim smile grew into a smug grin as she placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “Maybe this is the one time they get together! Who knows, maybe Clarisse can influence him enough to change the cycle? I’m sure Mother will find it entertaining!”

  Mercury could only sigh and pout, returning an unwilling sigh of agreement. “I don’t like this one bit… She shouldn’t be anywhere near that bookless anomaly.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on them…” Pluto reassured her. “This is the most docile iteration of Nikolas we’ve had, so I suppose we should make the most of the cycle.”

  “Cheer up! This could be the start of something great!” Venus patted both the librarian and errand boy before sending them off on their way. The head librarian still had plenty of volumes to peruse, name and organize before the end of the day.

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