Hineni wobbles the new ladder, checking if it's sturdy.

“I don’t know about this,” says Rhine.

“It’s fine,” replies Hineni. “Made it myself, after all.”

Rhine nods. “Sure, but you’re… you know, not a carpenter.”

Hineni shrugs. “If I had made it out of metal, would that be better?”

The boy thinks for a moment, looking up towards the open windows of the forge tower. “I mean… I guess, actually, yeah.”

Hineni rolls his eyes. “I spent a whole lifetime becoming a carpenter, boy,” explains the man. “I think I know how to make a ladder.”

“That wasn’t real,” replies Rhine, tilting his head.

Hineni dusts his hands, satisfied that the new ladder is stable and sturdy. “It was,” he replies. “Just because something is bad, doesn’t mean we can just pretend it didn’t happen,” explains Hineni.

Rhine nods.

“…So… you’re climbing up it first, right?”

Hineni sighs and places a foot onto the lowest rung of the new ladder. “You’re starting to sound like Sockel,” says Hineni. “I think you’re spending too much time with her,” says Hineni climbing up the ladder. “It’s giving you elf-brain.”

“What’s wrong with elves?” asks Rhine.

Hineni stands there on the ladder for a moment, thinking. Nothing. There isn’t actually anything wrong with elves. So why does he keep saying stuff like that? Because he learned it from his father? Hineni looks back down towards Rhine and shrugs. “You’re right,” says Hineni. “There isn’t. But don’t lose your sense of adventure, Rhine,” says Hineni, climbing up the ladder.

“We’re still talking about climbing up a ladder here, right?”

“It’s a metaphor, boy,” replies Hineni, climbing up towards the open window. He looks down below himself, pleased. The ladder hasn’t wobbled once and he certainly hasn’t fallen off of it. Even if it is made out of wood, it’ll fulfill its purpose just fine and Sockel will get off his ass about health and safety issues.

“…Huh…” Rhine stares at him and then shrugs, dropping the issue. “I killed the boss on floor ten of the dungeon by myself, by the way!”

Hineni looks down towards him, making his way back down the ladder. “Did you now?” he asks. “Good job,” praises Hineni. He’s never fought a boss-monster before and so he certainly has no idea what that’s supposed to be like. It’s just a monster, but bigger, right? But it’s certainly something to be proud of. Rhine being able to fight is only a good thing in this world that they live in.

He supposes that he’ll have to stay on the ball too.

“I guess that means I’m stronger than you now, right?” asks Rhine.

Hineni slides down the ladder, his boots thudding against the stones of the floor. “Boy. I can lift you over my head and shake you out like an old sock.”

“Not for long!” says Rhine. He points to his head, which is higher than it used to be and then flexes an arm, which is certainly wider than it used to be. “I’m coming for you.”

Hineni nods. “I’ll be ready,” he replies, feeling oddly proud of Rhine. He nods his head to the furnace. “Come on, let’s light her up for the day.”

Rhine nods, running over to the pile of charcoal to get the furnace fueled up.

If what Anura, the frog-priestess, had suggested to him yesterday is true, that Obscura’s nature as a demon is rubbing off on them all as well, then there is certainly an aspect of this noticeable in Rhine’s behavior. He’s become far more dominant and assertive. But then again, he’s also just been growing as a man. He’s in that season of life where Hineni would have been surprised if exactly this didn’t start happening soon anyway. So it’s hard to say what’s true, exactly.

He shrugs and gets to work, feeling excited to make today's batch of weapons for the war-effort.

It is later in the day.

Hineni pops his head down in the ice-cellar, looking down into it. “Eilig?” he calls. “Can I come down?”

“Well, well, well,” says a sharp voice from the darkness below. “Look who finally learned his place,” snaps the fairy. “Why, yes. You may enter MY cellar.”

Hineni raises an eyebrow and comes down the ladder. “I just wanted to check in if you’re feeling better.”

“I feel like shit,” barks the fairy. “But honestly, with my life, it would be a surprise if I felt like anything else.”

“Sorry,” says Hineni. “Did the insulation help any?” he asks, looking around the cellar. The contractors who had padded the new vault with a magic absorbing insulation had also worked here around the ice-cellar. Hineni even paid a very tidy sum of money to a very amused worker for the extra effort of padding the thin walls of the doll-house with the material too.

“A bit,” says the fairy. “I told you that your stupid girlfriend was going to kill me,” says Eilig. “But nobody ever listens to me.”

“Sorry,” repeats Hineni. “I thought you were just being dramatic,” he explains. “Anyways, she isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my fiancée, Eilig.”

“At least you aren’t fighting the ‘stupid’ part.”

Hineni tilts his head. “I didn’t say that either. I’m just here because I’m worried about you,” says Hineni. Her wings buzz, striking against the walls of her house. “Is there anything else you need?” asks Hineni.

She crosses her arms.

“Candy.”

“…Candy?” asks Hineni, looking at her. “I’m pretty sure you don’t need any candy, Eilig.”

“— Are you here to help me or not?” she asks. “Candy.”

He rubs the back of his head. “Okay. If you want something, I’ll grab it for you. But I was thinking about something more substantial.”

She points at him. “Whatever I, your older sister, wants is by default substantial and don’t you forget it,” she snaps. “Get me some candy, boy.”

“You and Sockel should be glad that I’m a patient person,” says Hineni, leaning down towards the doll-house. She bops him on his nose. “— Very glad.”

“Please. I could’ve killed you in the crib and I can do it now too,” she warns.

“Didn’t seem like that when you were getting licked,” notes Hineni.

She sighs. “I often have regrets about letting you live.”

“I bet,” replies Hineni, leaning back upright. “I’ll get you some candy, Eilig,” he says. “But only if you work with me to find some real things that can help more against the whole magical overload thing.”

She waves him off. “Sure. Whatever. As if I could even get to die in peace.”

“Damn right you can’t,” says Hineni, turning to climb back up the ladder. She doesn’t close the door to her house until he gets to the top and leaves.

“How are we looking?” asks Hineni.

Sockel looks up his way. “Pretty good,” she replies. “I think I’m going to retire early at this rate.”

“Fat chance,” says Hineni. “I’m going to need you here for a while longer.”

“Hmm…” Sockel leans back, thinking. “A big ask, considering I already have access to the bank account.”

“Please,” replies Hineni. “Where exactly could you run to that’s better than here?” he asks.

She places her hands behind her head, looking up towards him. “I wouldn’t run. I’d buy a carriage and a driver, obviously.”

“Seems awfully conspicuous for you,” says Hineni.

“You’re right,” replies Sockel. “A cart and a driver then.”

“Maybe lose the driver?”

She rolls her eyes. “Do you not understand the point of retirement?”

“No, honestly,” says Hineni. “Why would I want to be an old man who sits around with no work?” asks the man. “I want to work now and I’m going to want to work then.”

“Say that again in thirty years when your back is blown out.”

Hineni shrugs. “I’ll down-size from making axes to making daggers. It’ll be fine,” says Hineni. He lifts a little bag up, having just come back from outside. “Besides. Do you know how expensive it is to feed you people?”

“Yes, actually,” replies Sockel, her ears twitching as she nudges a ledger on the desk with her knee. “Per day, each of us eats an average of seventeen Obols worth of food these days,” explains Sockel. "It used to be five, but we're living the good life now."

“Huh… that’s pretty good, actually,” says Hineni. He looks down at the bag of candy in his hands. He had paid a full thirty for just this one.

— And he got a few of them.

He tosses it to Sockel. “Here. Take this as a bribe,” says Hineni. “So that you won’t retire yet.”

She looks inside, pulling out a candy frog. “You really know the way to a lady’s heart.”

“You know it,” says Hineni, holding out another bag into the air. An owl swoops in from above, tearing it out of his grasp with razor sharp talons. A pleased hooting comes from above, up in the darkness between the rafters and the ceiling.

Hineni pats the third bag, nested inside of his coat, to deliver it down in the ice-cellar.

His terrible secret is that he actually has a bag for everybody in the house stowed away, which adds up to far more than three. But they don’t need to know that.

Not everything has to be about number-magic.