The Shattered Librarian

Another day another dollar. Teiho’s situation seemed to not get any better the more time he spent in Crocus. It was almost as if he wasn’t trying to get out of this city or something. Regardless he had his mind set on what he wanted to do today. Today was the last day of his vacation and he had planned on using it to gather supplies before his next excursion out into the wilderness. Of course said excursion wouldn’t be easy. Apparently some mythical house had popped up in the boonies of fuckallitstan and the people who interacted with it could only vaguely remember it even being there, but of course it was there right? Well color him intrigued. A house like that was bound to be hiding some nice goodies within and Teiho wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. Of course that meant he had to restock on his necessary dungeon creeping items. A few potions here, some gauze there and he was good. So what if he didn’t have his companion anymore. It wasn’t like she was carrying him, he was carrying her!

“Fuck that ho man...”, he muttered to himself as he turned the corner and smashed into another person. Apparently he hadn’t been going too fast because the guy didn’t bust his ass on the pavement, but then again neither had he. Turning his head to regard the boy/man/thing, he nodded and sighed. Sometimes you don’t miss particular faces, luckily for him Cecilia didn’t require him to interact with people on a daily basis otherwise he’d have killed just about everyone there but her. Not out of malice mind you, but annoyance. In any way he needed to get a drink now that he had run into one of his fellow ‘fairies’.

“What are you doing out here Jerry? He asked his guild mate. He knew the name irritated the boy, for some reason the others in the guild called him that, and it was honestly easier than remembering his actual name. So he went with it just for obvious use reasons. Of course he acknowledge the disdain but ignored it, why pay attention to things that don’t matter? People get irritated over the dumbest of things anyway in his own honest opinion.

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The Shattered Librarian

Touchy... it looks like his guildmate really didn’t like the name, didn’t matter to him. Stroking baby egos never left any satisfied honestly. Turning his head away from the boy he focused on their surroundings, merely motioning for the boy to follow him. He was honestly tired of having static conversations, for some reason everyone he met in this damn town felt the need to stand around having conversations as if that were natural or like they didn’t have shit to do. Well maybe they didn’t, but he did damnit. Anyway returning to the conversation, he listened as the boy gave some fuck all reason for being far away from the guildhouse. Like he gave a shit honestly, he wasn’t wondering why the boy was out in Crocus, he was wondering why he was here. In his presence.

“Wouldn’t know, never there” he replied simply enough as they would pass by a few stands on there way to wherever Teiho was going. He didn’t care for Jeremiah’s destination, probably somewhere stupid anyway. The boy then asked him why he was out in Crocus and he honestly paused. Why was he still here? He already knew about that crazy ass house out in the middle of bubbafuck no where. So why stay here for god's sake? Meh he’d figure it out later. “Taking in the sights and being a degenerate. Cecilia said don’t break anymore ancient tombs so I’m doing just that.” He didn’t give anymore information on his marching orders. He didn’t have to report to anyone except for the little fairy that took him in, and she sure as hell wasn’t here at the moment to tell him to do some dumbass thing or another.

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The Shattered Librarian

His intended destination was a local pub that for some reason was vaguely popular. Since it was in fact his last day he intended to go information hunting, and no better way to get information than from drunk travelers like himself who thankfully couldn’t handle their alcohol like he could. Hearing his guildmate state that he was down to do some damage the young male couldn’t help but grin at that. “I don’t know Jerry. From what I keep hearing from Margaret and the other Tavern hoes is that you’re a horrible drunk. Where we’re going you can’t be a light weight.” Goading him he might be, but it was serious. These weren’t pushovers, and this was Crocus. Which meant no magic. Absolutely none, well unless you didn’t mind the Rune Knights sniffin in your business, then you couldn’t blow shit up all you wanted. But honestly Teiho didn’t trust the Rune Knights as much as he couldn’t trust some dumb fucks like Phantom Lord, so to him what was the difference.

A flash of light briefly covered his body as a simple steel gray blade equipped itself to his belt loop. He wasn’t going to go bar smashing without a weapon. Not with these crazy drunk fucks. That’s how he got his last scar across his back. Looking over to ensure Jeremiah was still with him, he nodded before stopping outside the Dry Pop. It was a medium sized pub, but definitely visited often by undesirables and travelers alike. He’d get a few nuggets here, if anything it would be some fool who ran from some crazy thing out in the boonies and wanted to spread the knowledge simply because he felt no one would believe him. Those were honestly the best and easiest ones to crack open. Walking through the door, he nodded to the barkeep who immediately began preparing one of his usuals as he scanned the crowd for a good target to pick on. “Time to crack some skulls Jerry mah boy...”

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The Humble Librarian

He chuckled at his fellow Fairies worry. He didn’t know if it was the boys first time doing this kind of work or not. He knew Cecilia didn’t approve of his methods of gathering information but he was of the opinion that all methods were allowable when you needed to get something. Did that make him chaotic good in a sense? Sure. If that’s how you want to spin the story. But he knew that sometimes soft and polite didn’t loosen tongues. Sometimes you had to break a jaw or two to get people truly talking. And so he strutted up to the bar to collect his drink. It a simple mixture, he didn’t care for mixing drinks. Just a shot of Gin sufficed most times. Downing it in one go, he scanned the crowd looking for someone who was a bit of a traveler. Travelers always had more knowledge than they knew what to do with. It never failed really. Sometimes when you traveled the world you just saw too much. And that made you a target for people like Teiho.

The world called them knowledge sharks. They never produced the knowledge, only consumed it. This made them dangerous in a way. It made them unpredictable. For people who found or created knowledge, there was always some sort of way you could tell what they were going to do with the knowledge now that they had it. Whether it was hoarding it or unleash it on the world, you could always tell. But Knowledge Sharks? Ho boy. Those folk could do just about anything with it. And it was never the same knowledge they seek. Sometimes they might be looking for a book, other times a person, but usually, it was some sort of artifact. Something that was so out of place that you just couldn’t miss it. And god forbid you to be the person that saw it.

As he glanced over the crowd he spotted one. The man tried to keep to himself, secluding himself in a booth of darkness. His traveler's cloak was obviously well worn with patches flat out missing in some areas. But it was these actions that singled him out the most as Teiho approached swiftly. Downing his drink in one gulp, he cleared his throat to get the Traveler's attention before slamming the cup down on the table lip down over the Traveler's outstretched hand cutting deep into his skin and keeping him from getting up and walking away. Sitting down across the table from the man he’d smile and put up a facade of interest. “How’s it going, Traveler? I haven’t seen you from around these parts before. You must be either new or going places. Which is it?” He’d begin grilling the man right away while the pain was fresh to keep him from composing himself, inadvertently teaching Jeremiah more about himself than he cared to show during his more infrequent visits back to the Guild Hall.

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The Humble Librarian

The gentlemen across the table from Teiho grit his teeth in pain as the young boy grilled him for information. Apparently the traveler was just as hardy as the rest of them because even with a glass cup cutting through his hand he didn’t flinch as he stared down the shorted boy. Smiling at this, Teiho twisted the offending object, slicing right through tendons and nerves getting a sharp intake of breath and a harsh yell that let him know he hit a tough spot. Leaning in, he asked the man again, “How’s it going Traveler? I haven’t seen you before, what have you got for me in that head of yours that I can use to get what I want. And don’t bullshit me, you folk always have something I want.”

Due to the man’s choice of seclusion they hadn’t yet drawn attention and since Jerry had decided to accidentally block the view of the table with his body, no one could see what was going on. Hearing his fellow partners request, he ignored it for the moment. Symbol or no symbol it didn’t matter to him and his. He wanted information and this bloke had it. A symbol being on his cloak wouldn’t all of a sudden make him have or not have information that was useful for him. Of course, he would still interrogate the man afterwards for whatever Jerry needed, but right now he had a bloke that was trying to hog the goods, and that wasn’t good for business. He watched the man grit his teeth to hold on to his words causing the young man to relent on the pain for just a moment, even going as far as to lift his hand off the cup. This confused the man for a moment just as Teiho smashed his hand down on the cup shattering it, and sending shards of glass cutting deep into the man’s hand.

This time he got an audible shout of pain as he gripped down on the now severely injured limb, sending the shards even further into the man’s skin. He leaned in to whisper in the man’s ear as his own gloved hands kept him from being cut up by the glass. “See, I don’t like unnecessary violence, but when someone who knows more than they should, doesn’t explain why or how they know more than they should. I get a little... antsy. Now you tell me what I want to know, or this whole arm will be missing its rightful owner.” The man’s face drained of color at that. Traveling with a severe injury like a missing limb was a death wish in this world. Not because you were particularly helpless but because you couldn’t get work. And those without work starved. The man finally relented and began to talk about the house he was thinking about earlier. Apparently the folks who had originally discovered its existence hadn’t gone inside, but others had to see what was in it and why it had appeared randomly in the middle of the woods. That’s where the stories of those who went in never came out came from. Frowning at this, he knew the man was holding back more information. All that he had said was stuff that was already well known. Looking towards Jerry he finally sighed and looked the man in the eye, “What’s on your cloak mister?”

The man froze again. Eyebrow raised, he turned towards Jeremiah and frowned. This was either good or bad. People never froze during an interrogation unless the interrogator hit gold, or the person was going to do something really stupid. The man turned towards the boy and looked him dead in the face, “You’re finally looking for us, huh Kid?” It was the first time he even addressed Jeremiah so it caught Teiho off guard, but the way he said it made it worse. This whole situation had just gone so far left that he didn’t know how his fellow Fairy was going to react, but he knew this wasn’t going to be an easy exit. The man’s shouting earlier had started to gain a minor bit of attention, and any kind of attention wasn’t good attention. “What’s going on Jerry?” He asked simply as his other hand went towards his blade handle, a few faces in the bar becoming far more unrecognizable now that he was paying attention to them.

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The Humble Librarian

There were few things that caught Teiho off guard. He was just that kind of weary individual who had seen too much and done too much to get caught off guard by some silly shit such as chance. So when figures started to arise after noticing what was going on, he was quick to react to it. Jerry’s reaction to the man’s identity ignored, he didn’t even bother considering the man a potential information source anymore. No, that plan was fucked now. Operation getting the fuck out was the objective.

Catching a shard of the shattered glass cup in between two fingers and flinging it dead on into the man's neck in one fluid motion, he quickly pushed himself out of the cramped booth and into the open where he could unsheathe his blade and quickly parry an attack on him meant for his left shoulder. Blade gripped in his right hand, he clasped his left just beneath it for a bit more stability before backing up to Jeremiah to avoid getting surrounded. What a cluster of fuck this turned into. The man they had been questioning quickly began to choke on the blood and spit flooding his throat as his companions prepared to kill the two offending Fairies for what Teiho had done and the information they had uncovered.


“Alright Jerry, time to prove you’re worth the salt and pixie dust Cecilia wastes on you kids because I’m not dying in a pub that smells like piss and bad beer. Pull up your trousers and let’s go.” With that, he quickly deflected a blade meant for him to the side before delivering a short quick jab to the man’s chin sending him flying into some tables. These fucking guys weren’t playing any games it seemed.

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