A fine line of rising heat from four flowery ornate cups diffused the air between Lian’s group and the silent librarian; the water was close to boiling point, making the tea hot enough to make the cup impossible to handle. Except for Goidel, who barely felt the temperature, but even without his peculiar resistance, he wouldn’t have noticed it; his attention was fixated on the human in front of him, the gauntlet firbolg and his, now former, assistant. 

Goidel- “ I…”, his lips trembled under his bird-like mask, and his eyes darted from left to right; it was too out of the sudden, meeting her, and them, like this. “ I wasn’t aware of any scheduled meeting”, he now addressed Lian, leaving her to look at him with a bewildered stare. 

Lian- “ Yeah, that tends to happen when you no longer have an assistant to keep track of that.” The young woman’s sarcastic remark went right above his head though, as Goidel nodded in agreement and muttered “true” a couple of times.

No one knew what to say next.

Goidel- “ Well, in that case, if there’s nothing to discuss, I think-”, but just before he could stand up, ZInc leapt right on the cube the librarian was carrying, and pointed his small claws towards it. Goidel didn’t need a translator to understand the threat. 

Goidel- “ What are you doing Zinc?”, he cried out, jumping past the cube and almost hitting the wall. “I don’t understand what’s going on here, I-”, but before he could finish, Zinc threw himself and the cube in Lian’s lap, and they started running, not giving rational thoughts a chance to settle in.

A first in a while, and the only time he made such noise, Goidel let out an angry growl, which surprised her how quickly the meek and shy librarian could turn to a silent berserker; his jumps were longer and higher, but also slower; the librarian paid extra attention to not bump into someone or damage the library.

Goidel- “ I NEED THAT CUBE!”, he yelled out after losing sight of the fugitives.” GIVE IT BACK OR FETH WILL GET MAD AT ME!” 

…

At the Clover arena, Tommen was halfway through his work on a 3D perspective painting on a “normal, boring” two dimensional canvas, as Giol would say. It was the first time he pulled out this trick in public; and under a timer. And he started to feel the brunt of it. 

Artist Firbolg- “How you doin, boy?”, asked one of the bystanders when he noticed Tommen tapping his brush on his cheeks. A sign of him taking a mental break.

Tommen- “ Good…but also bad. I made way too many mistakes on the angle of the room. It’s way too deep now”, he added, taking a few steps backward.

Artist Firbolg- “ Eehh…I don’t see it, but it’s your vision. Besides, I don’t think you got nothing to worry about, the preacher’s tower ain’t that spectacular. Looks more like a fountain, if you ask me.”

The bearded young man turned around and got caught off-guard by the rudimentary design. The Preacher’s pillar had a basin stuck to the foundation, and various carved-in-holes for liquid to sprinkle out of. Except for the top, which Tommen interpreted differently, to him it looked more like a “chimney? Is this something that leads from one piece to another?”

Tommen- “ Interesting design if it's going in the direction I think it is.” His compliment was largely ignored by the previously boisterous clergyman; the firbolg toiled at every single detail, carving the pillar a design printed on a piece of scarf-long fax paper. Scribbles and notes detailed how the tower had to look, what angle it was supposed to point towards etc.

Tommen- “ Welp, it is what it is then. I should get back at my snail break of a work”, he sighted, staring blankly at the elongated room. “If Giol would be here, what would he say? Perfect interpretation or cussing me for my lack of realism?”

His muses stopped when the judge called out a time-out as the Preacher’s followers brought in two barrels to the tower. 

Judge- “ Stop right there, you aren’t allo-”, she tried to call out before a suckerpunch got her on the ground; the spectators stared at the unconscious judge in shock and took a step back.

The attacker then used their metal arms to rip open the lids on the barrels and the followers spilled the inside into the basin; black water poured, filling the bowl beyond the limit; the security guards tried to intervene, but a couple of black vines sprouted from the murky water, taking its first victims as a food source.

The Preacher- “ Excellent…like the librarian presented; this is a weapon worth investing in…”, he muttered, followed by a slow, rising manic laugh. After a few nervous laughs died off, the audience realized the danger they were in ; the ones whose panic spurred them to run first were the ones the liquid vines picked as aperitifs.

Tommen and the other artists had never thought that today, of all days, something like this would happen. But in hindsight, why not? If the black water needs bodies to feed on, why not a fairly popular competition with a large public crowd? And why not in the most prominent location in the Caer Sidi? 

Tommen- “ But do all of this?”, the young man managed to tremble under his breath, before the first eruption of a jet of water flew in a weird angle, towards a higher level of the colosseum and hit…another pillar? Which in turn shot towards another, and another until it circled around the entire colosseum. 

The Preacher couldn’t help enjoying his victory with a manic giggle, staring in awe at his creation. “And you fools allowed us to keep ‘maintenance’ to this gaudy place.”

The trail left by the jet quickly evaporated and condensed into a thin line of fine, translucent particles that quickly formed into a cloudy mass of fog. Everyone caught into it were quickly paralyzed on the spot by images known only to the dark corners of their mind. Unwilling prey, feeding the cloud to grow at size that covered only the Clover arena. A few moments later, a metallic buzzing from a swift cloud started to spread outside the confids and spread the white mist towards the entire city.

…

(40 minutes before the Clover fog)

For a moment, Lian and the others managed to find a moment of respite, long enough to speculate about the weird device they stole from Goidel; except for Mincha, who was having troubles breathing from the freight of now not just being fired, but also apparently despised by her role-model. 

The two tried to calm her down, Zinc more than Lian, who kept switching from trying to help the coral firbolg to analyzing the weird cube. “ Calm down, we’re gonna get to the bottom of this”, said the redhead while staring at the device.

Zinc- “ Yeah, like she said. Besides, remember, we’re here to help Goidel, right? To free him from Feth’s influence?” Mincha weeped and cleared her face; the sudden pain of losing another dear thing made her forget so much. 

MIncha-” Righ.right”, she replied, trying to garner some determination.

Soon after, the trio decided to not flee anymore, but to try and turn things around. One matter was still unclear though; was Goidel actually under some weird mind control? To which Lian raised her hand- “ I can check that.”

The librarian jumped around like a wild animal, asking around for information and help finding the fugitives; “We saw them!”, yelled out a security guard, pointing towards a closed off chamber. 

Inside Goidel found only Mincha and Zinc; no cube or Lian. “Trap? But I…the cube or else Feth will…” the librarian pondered nervously about the situation. 

Goidel- “...why, Mincha?”, he asked, trying to poise a calmer tone. He still felt disappointment, but at the same time, he still kept a sliver of hope for his former assistant. “ Damaging books, causing distress to your colleagues…those were understandable things. But this? This has gone way past-”

Mincha bowed and apologised. It was now or never to try and let everything out. “ Sir…I know that everyone respects you because you’re a Union member; but I respect you for more than that. Your curiosity about everything is…incredible. It's a passion that I also want. I’ve seen you decipher tomes and writings that not even Feth could manage; mostly because you toiled at them for days.”

Goidel was left speechless, feeling both uneasy and a bit proud that someone recognized his efforts. Still…”that’s…thank you, but that’s not wha-”

Mincha- “ Tell me then, why are you so eager to just believe what he says first hand? Or do you remember seeing me all I was accused of?”

A sharp, momentary pain crossed through Goidel’s head while trying to recall his memories; but something was wrong, now that Mincha was in front of him. 

A drop of blood fell from a few stories above; Lian's nose started to bleed the second she used her power- enough time though to confirm their suspicions- “ It’s in his head, around his brain!”, she yelled out hard enough to be heard by Mincha and the guards.

Goidel wanted to jump, but got surprised by a tackle from the coral firbolg and Zinc’s transformation into a head-gear. Up above, the three guards surrounded Lian, making sure she couldn’t flee. The third one then tried to grab her by the arm, but was surprised to find his own member partially sticking out of a book at the bottom of the room. The young woman used their own transportation method against them. 

Mincha grabbed the portal book with a sticking arm and threw it towards Goidel as a distraction. Lian then grabbed another book and ran with it towards another of the guards- this time, only his head stuck out, which was used as a surprised headbut downbellow. 

The weird tricks bought them only a few moments for Zinc and Mincha to grab the librarian from behind his head and…”what now?”

Neither of the two knew how to help the librarian - Zinc tried to transform in a suction model, but that didn’t work; shaking him also was useless - all the while the two had to hold on tight enough before Goidel could shake them off. 

Seeing the bull ride, Lian got a bit annoyed and yelled out to Mincha to -” can’t do the thing your sister did?” The coral felt a sting in her chest, being compared to Kira once more; only that this time it was appropriate. 

Mincha- “ I..I”, she anguished, feeling a deep, cold feeling trying to overtake her. For a brief, though, as Zinc chimed in like a spring, balmy breeze. 

Zinc- “ You can help him, I’ve got your back”; the words snapped the girl out of her stupor and she started to notice the tingling heat on her back. It pulsated in small intervals, sending almost unreachable signals to Mincha. 

She wanted to believe that Kira was also helping her out. 

A moment later, the coral firbolg could sense it - where the mass of mist was and a way to drag it all out; the coral branches on Mincha’s head attached to Goidel’s skull and it started to siphon the vapors out.

The librarian responded in a screech of pain, dropping on his knees then head first on the floor from, anguishing like a fish on dry land. The guards gave up on trying to capture Lian, turning to what they thought was a torture scene, but then the temperature dropped considerably. 

All the mist and fog that lingered in the library swirled and gathered above the room where the action was happening; the white and gray mass flew like a satin line, gently gathering into mass with two hands and a pair of emerald eyes.

The figure then chuckled, amused by the scene in front of him. “And I was wondering what kept you late, bumbling scribe”, Feth uttered with pity at his colleague. He turned toward Lian, and noticed the cube; he lunged forward, trying to retrieve it, and while the girl tried to use the book trick again, she found out it didn’t work like that.

Feth- “ Nice attempt, but the guards and books are linked. It only works for them” The Head librarian threw her without care on his shoulder, and gave the cube to one of the guards. “I left a book at the arena, warp there and handed it to the Preacher. “

The baffled sentry stared at the device, then at his boss, then at his brethren. “NOW!”

The fog monster descended to the ground floor, trying to comprehend what the two firbolg were doing to his puppet. “ Zinc and little miss useless, what’chu doing, what’chu doing?” he pondered, before making a simple deduction. “Ha, so you aren’t useless? You’ve got Kira’s ability? And Zinc…oh, of course, you protect her from getting herself infected.” A wide, uncomfortable smile plastered on his face as he put Lian, gently this time, down.

Feth- “ Tell me…and I’ll hurt them if you try your silly lies…did you realise that?”

Her teeth were chattering, while her arms felt as limp as wet bread. She only nodded, which in turn made Feth gasp with joy. 

Feth- “ Yes, I’ve had my doubts but that made my internal systems scrambled from certitude.” He then stopped and levitated towards her. His aura was one filled with malice, but in front of Lian, just contempt. “I’m taking you out of my territory”, before a pair of daggers flew right through Feth’s eyes. 

The librarian was down on his legs, still recovering from the pain of having the mist removed, but Goidel still had enough energy left to pose a comeback. Or a distraction at least. “Mincha, get her out of here”, as all he could ask of his former assistant.

The fog firbolg and Goidel shared a few moments of silence, each feeling a bit stung by the other’s actions. 

Feth- “ There’s no need for the sneak around, you two. I’m not that distracted, you know.”, he said, calmly, before spawning an arm from his back, which swiftly snatched Mincha and ZInc, slowly breaking the coral firbolg with its grip. “It’s a nice attempt, Goidel, but unfortunately, as always, you leave it half-done.”

Unsure of what to do, or what other solution there was, Lian rapidly went through all that transpired and something jumped. “WAIT”, she cried out. “I’ll leave...voluntarily. That’s what you want, right? Me out of the city?”

Feth- “Yes…but what’s the catch?”

The redhead pointed at his captives. “ Them. And him. Or else I’ll…I’ll bite my tongue off!”

Silence, even though the girl already stuck her tongue out and was pressing on it with her teeth. Then, once more, Feth laughed. He very much enjoyed this, feeling a sense of schadenfreude from the all display; but his mission still came first.

Feth- “ You know what? Why not?”He then threw the coral and gauntlet at Lian. “You can have them. But he remains”, he said, pointing at Goidel. “ I promise you this; I’ll not hurt him until the end of my mission. Believe it or not, he was among the only things in this world that didn't make me nauseous.”

Mincha pulled on Lian’s vest, begging to not believe him, but the redhead didn’t know what to do. Then, a large boom came from the direction of the arena.

Feth- “ Ah, it’s already started. Well, if you can’t decide, let me do it for you”, he said, before materializing a copy of himself that dragged Lian’s group outside the bounds of the city. A few moments later, a giant mist veiled the buildings in front of them and covered Caer Sidi in its shroud.

Mincha tugged once again. “Wha…what do we now?”

Lian- “ I…I don’t know.”