Still, silent and aghast, Mincha’s nerves were slowly being chipped at by the endless chatter of the person opposite to her. Her plans to finish her sweet roll cake and stealth away were shattered when, somehow, Lian decided now it was time to ask her about a volume from the library. One thing left to another, with an ongoing help from a drink, leading to the coral sister facing a tipsy Lian. She politely listened to her complaints about the rude customers from her food stand, while agonizingly counting the minutes, nodding in agreement and slowly sinking into her bench…until the topic somehow arrived at siblings. 

Lian- “ Last time, in the library, when we ‘spoke’ about sisters, I remember being a bit rude and angry…not at you, but I think about the topic. “

Mincha- “ Yes…you were…but so was I”, she murmured civilly in a thin voice, “ but I guess after meeting Kira you saw where I stood from-”

Lian- “ No. I mean, yes, she wa- is a piece, but truth be told, I think I did relate with her…a bit. If my memories serve right. Just-”

A bit tired, the coral let out a sigh- “ Here we go again.” She then dropped her cake on the table. “ If you’ll excuse me, I can’t. I need some…bye.”

Embolden, probably by the drinks, Lian couldn’t let the conversation end without a last word -     “That? That right there is my problem. You always ending up running away.”

MIncha, biting the corner of her lower lip, whispered under her breath- “ Round 2, same as before.” Louder, then- “Why not? Your type will always consider them above, just because the lottery of birth let you out first. What else? Because trying to argue constantly is tiring. Because Kira was tiring. Ok?...I just want…I don’t know what, but not this. Not you, Finley, Kira or that jerk Feth.” She clenched her fist and almost left the party until Lian replied something unsurprising back.

Lian- “ Spunk!”, she spurted out, trying to ignore what the little coral’s rant was actually about.     “Listen, truth be told…I’m still remembering her, my sister, piece by minuscule piece. Guess I’m projecting a bit-”

Mincha- “ A lot.”

Lian- “ A LOT - in your relationship.” The two sat for a minute in silence, heads tilted towards the table. Until she remembered something to clear some of the tension. “ You said something about Feth. What did he do?”

Happy to change the subject to anything else, Mincha started to also shamelessly complain about her boss. “ He’s been very rude…to everyone in the library lately. And it's very cold now because he keeps leaving trails of mist, just around?; even creepier that I can sometimes feel it on my hands, face, near my ears. And I think it’s even starting to…enter people?” She felt ants crawling all over her spine, hands and legs, disgustingly trailing over her bark skin.

Lian- “ Wait, wait, ew nooo! Gross. That’s…ew. Did you see it happening?”

Mincha- “ No, but I can feel it. Don’t tell Brigit, but I think it happened to her as well. Same as the Union members. Feth has been really weird lately.” Lian then used her sight to check on something. No white thread was linking Brigit to the sky, but something was floating inside of her head.

Something clicked with the redhead, who’s widened eyes scared the little coral and thrice after she slammed her hands on the table.” Do you, by any chance, need to focus to figure out if it’s…you know.” A small nod was that Lian needed to demand Mincha’s services.

Their first target was Arim, a man busy even on a feast, who escaped from Maci's insistent requests to teach her abilities now, only to get cornered by Kildarian complaints to the Union and local administration. To rescue him from more headache came, once again, Zinc, who starred with disappointment at Mincha for spending time with Lian. 

Zinc- “ Ugh, hope she hasn’t corrupted you or something”.

Lian- “ Ah, c’mon, we’re just spending some girls time-”

Mincha- “ Save me, please.”, whispered with fright the small girl.

Lian- ” Andddd…uhh… I wanted Mincha here to sniff out Arim for any mist…particles?”

Zinc, now more creeped out than suspicious, let the coral sister explain the situation in a more sober manner, and his reaction surprised both of them. 

Zinc- “ I’m in. And Arim is clean, I shielded him from that stuff for a while now.” The girl’s silent pause confused the small firbolg; “ What? C’mon, let’s move already!”

…

A few checks later, going from person to person, Lian made a list of what she considered “inflicted parties.” Brigit, the mask trio, Tommen and Giol had small amounts of the Feth’s mist inside of them. Mincha, confused, turned to Lian, who was wracking her brains over if it meant something or not. “ Listen”, the coral said, tugging at her shirt. “ We should tell them…it’s important, right?”

The refusal, this time, came from a source neither expected; Zinc pinched the coral and demanded Lian to translate his elongated and furious rant. 

Lian- “ Ok…so Zinc says that we can’t”, and a moment of déjà vu creeped on her “ because we don’t have evidence.” Lian rolled her eyes in frustration, as she knew this rollercoaster ride from previous experience. “ But listen: Ogda and I tried to gather something to help us expose Feth.”

ZInc- “ Expos…how do you know he was up to no good?”

Lian- “ I…we…alright, but this stays between us for now?” After she was done going through her observations and theories, Zinc went silent and Mincha sighted, in relief perhaps? The coral reminiscent about her sister and until now, a sense of guilt wrecked her, in part, because she was instinctively blaming Feth for what happened to Kira. Unjustly, she thought, as the man seemingly supported and took care of her older sibling. Now she had an excuse to focus her blame and a plan.

Mincha- “ Can you both…listen to my idea?”

…

The morning after, Lian took an early breakfast, left Ogda half asleep in his barrel and ran out to meet his new investigation team: Her, Mincha and Zinc. 

Lian- “ Well, gang, you ready?” Zinc nodded for both his temp partner and himself. Mincha, even though was the one who proposed the course of action, was shivering worse than if she was afflicted with a cold. 

In front of them rose the cathedral-looking library, lifted above the other buildings by white marble and protected from the elements by rows of blue tinted rooftops. Instead of using one of the four main entries, Mincha proposed using the employees' doors. “ We’re closer to his room that way.”

A guard with a paper umbrella on his head barely listened to Mincha’s cover story and just allowed her to bring whomever she wanted. “ Not my job”, he added, still half-asleep. 

Lian- “ Well…that went swimmingly”, she added, speaking too soon, as the moment they set foot on the thin carpet, they found all the librarians frantically moving books from bottom rows to a higher position.

The air was musky from the wet papers that couldn’t be saved. A thick, dark blue fog moved limply around the entire building, hiding the floor underneath it. Lian tried to use her sight to pierce through the veil, but then everything was covered by threads of colored lights. A confused librarian saw and immediately approached them, all six eyes focused on Mincha; his cheeks expanded and deflated like a frog, working through a rotation of thoughts.

Librarian- “ I remember now! Wooo, weee!”, his weird noises made the trio take a step backward.” You were banned! What are you doing here?”

Shocked and appalled, Mincha turned white and could only squeeze back. Zinc flared up his portfolio of swears, but only Lian could understand them, so it was to her to resolve the confusion. “ She’s Goidel’s assistant, there must be a misunderstanding.”

Librarian- “ No, two viewer, both the Head Librarian and department star Goidel agreed on it. This latest screw-up”, he then pointed at the mist, “ sealed the deal.”

Mincha, with the pink coming back to her bark, looked at her former colleague. Then at the mist. Then back at him. “... How? When did I do all of this?”

Librarian- “ Don’t know, but sir Feth said that you were in charge of starting the venting system three days ago and forgot to do it.”

Mincha- “What? I, I…I was never tasked with that. Ever.”

Librarian- “ That’s what I thought as well, but I remember seeing you entering the control room a week ago. Whatever the case, I suggest you leave. Without security.”

Zinc- “ He remembers?”, questioned the little firbolg, who seemed to know more than he let on. After thinking for a second, he pinched Lian for her attention; irritated, she leaned closer. 

Mincha- “ No, there’s a mistake, you have to-” she never got to finish her plea, as a moment later Lian picked her up and the three were sprinting through the foggy hallways.

Lian- “ We are doing Zinc’s stupid plan! Now, quickly, guide us through this maze!”

A pack of security firbolgs with spring-like legs and sticky ink starting to spawn from different books, using them like portals to get ahead and box the intruders in a room. Zinc then attached himself to Mincha’s arm and morphed to fit like a glove. 

Zinc- “ Now imagine something that could get us out of here! You can do it, Mincha!”

While the pressure was weighing on the girl, the coral sister's thoughts took to Kira- and then Zinc extended like a vine to the third floor, dragging the three of them out of the trap. He quickly lost steam, saying that he couldn't do that for a second time. “ Not with the current sync level.”

Lian, with Mincha and Zinc in tow, sprinted just as the coral passenger suggested; left, right, duck!; on the way there, a pattern on a book caught her eye and, a moment later, she tossed it towards the first floor, along with the guards that tried to spawn from it. 

Zinc- “Lucky eye powers”, he quipped.

Lian- “ Nah, raw tallan- natural endowment; I can find you a book if you want the definitions”, she grinned, intentionally trying to irritate Zinc. 

….

After a few more minutes of running and sneaking beneath tables and behind vases, the tree arrived in front of a green ornate door, with a small glass window at the top. “He’s in”, confirmed Lian, who then stopped them from entering. “Before we do this, Zinc, is there anything you want to tell us?”

His poker face was so bad that even Mincha had to second guess him. 

Zinc-  “ Stop cursing me with those frowns, red witch. And I wasn’t keeping it because I don’t trust (well, besides you redhead), but mostly because I'm not sure. It’s just a hunch, but I think Feth can do more, a lot more, than he lets on.”

Lian- “ His mist, right? What do you think? I kinda grasped the situation, but is he using it to control others? Or something similar?”

Zinc- “ No? Yes? So, when I first felt it nearing Arim, the mist managed to change something. Add something. A detail in a memory; I always thought he just misremembered it, but what if…”

Lian- “ I see…in that case, we should-”, but the door already opened, with Goidel standing on the other side, carrying a glass box with a cube inside of it. 

Goidel- “ Oh. Human girl? Zinc?”, the last name took a while for him to mutter, saying it with a disappointed tone “ Mincha?”