That plan didn’t hold water, however. “Um, excuse me?” Myrin stifled a chuckle, either at her own childishness, or at the idea of slashing her two dads together. “I think you’re forgetting something.”

“Oh, uh, right.” Kaldalis reached back into his inventory. “I do have one more thing.”

“I was talking about this,” Myrin said, holding up the metal cylinder that the boss had dropped. She eyed Kaldalis curiously. “If you’ve got other presents, though, I won’t interrupt.”

Kaldalis produced the red leather ribbon and handed it off to Haldir.

“Uh, shouldn’t Myrin take this?” he asked as he examined it. “It’s attack speed.”

“Myrin already has an attack speed charm that you graciously gave up for her,” Kaldalis said as he met Myrin’s scowl with a glare of his own. “You should come out of this with something to show for your work.”

Haldir looked between Kaldalis and Myrin, and shook his head. “Alright, fine. If you insist.”

“I wouldn’t want anyone to feel guilty about taking all of the loot this whole time,” Kaldalis said slowly. “I appreciate you accepting this so that nobody ends up becoming ‘the greedy one’ for the rest of our time together.”

“Alright fine,” Myrin said at last with a harumph. “But I’m taking one of these.” She pulled two charms out of the cylinder, holding them up.

Like the Chiraptor charm he’d gotten from his last boss fight, these two charms were made from silvery-grey shell like the armored carapace of the giant bug they’d just fought - he tried to remember it was called but came up blank - with some additional adornment. One of them was a disc with a band of metal around the edge, and the other was a triangular shape, dotted with little button-like wooden studs.

“Well, what do they do?” Balrim asked.

“Nothing great,” Myrin grimaced. She held up the disc first: “this one is hit points, so I guess it’s for the tank. The other is water affinity, which I guess is for nobody in particular right now.”

“You take the hit point charm,” Kaldalis said. “After seeing the mechanics of these later bosses, I think it’d be better if we spread the survivability around.”

“Alright, fine with me.” Myrin equipped the charm and then took a moment to drag it around her character model until she found a place where she liked the little chitin disc. “Who wants the water affinity, then?”

“How many level three charms do you have?” Kaldalis asked Balrim. “I’ve only got one left.”

“Shit,” Balrim said. “I’ve still got three.”

“To the healer, then!” Kaldalis declared. “Base stats are base stats.”

“Thanks,” Balrim said with a nod as he accepted the little studded triangle.

“Now then,” Kaldalis said, pointing dramatically. “Let’s all go to the library!”

The quartet crossed the courtyard and Kaldalis threw open the doors again, with the same dramatic flourish. He was satisfied by the stunned silence from his friends by the unbelievable contents of the building.

“Why is-” Myrin said.

“What is-” Balrim began.

“How is-” Haldir stammered.

“I don’t have any answers,” Kaldalis said, holding up a hand to stop their questions. “But yes. To make sure we’re all on the same page, this library is almost entirely intact. But unless any of you can read this strange writing, I can’t even begin to guess at what happened here that didn’t happen to the rest of the city.”

Haldir moved quickly to the nearest shelf, and tentatively touched the wood, testing it with his hands. “This is unreal. Like a dream.”

“What do we do with this?” Myrin asked, stepping up beside him and poking at the bundles of scroll cases.

“Take one,” Kaldalis said. “Picking one up gave me a quest to give it to the researchers back at camp.”

Haldir picked up one of the cases with visible reverence, holding it like it was made of glass, despite Kaldalis knowing that it would clearly feel in fine and sturdy condition. In contrast, Myrin, right beside him, grabbed one with one hand and tossed it up to flip it into her other hand with total disregard for its age.

“So what’s this all say?” Myrin asked, poking the labelling on the shelf. “Some nerd shit?”

“I don’t know,” Kaldalis said. “There’s not, like, a rosetta stone in here. But there is something else interesting.”

“Is this related to your magic trick?” Balrim asked, crossing his arms and fixing Kaldalis with a glare. “Because you still haven’t explained that.”

“It is,” he said, heading towards the stairs at the back of the room. “And if I’m right, you’ll be able to do it, too.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Myrin said, “but I’d like you to choose your words better. Turn down the ominous rating by about twenty percent.”

“I walked the Paths Between Paths,” Kaldalis said gravely, “and there paused a moment, among the deepest void, surrounded by spectacles beyond comprehension.” He raised his hand slowly, pointing at Myrin as he tilted his head back to look down his nose at her. “And these paths shall you walk as well.”

“What the fuck.”

“Instructions unclear. Maxed out the ominous rating and broke off the knob.” Kaldalis beckoned as he climbed the stairs. “Come on, the explanation I got wasn’t any better, so it might be easier if we’re all on the same page.”

He guided them through the study room, and though Haldir wanted to linger on the scattered notes on the tables, Balrim was bringing up the rear and herded the vathon along to keep up with Kaldalis.

“Oh yeah, don’t mind the skeleton,” he remarked before opening the door to the little shrine room full of tablets.

“Again with the ominous-whaaaaaa-” Myrin trailed off as she saw what was in the room.

“So these ones I could read. And when I did, I learned a new ability.”

Myrin seemed deaf to his words, already stepping into the room to look at the tablets. Balrim had a thoughtful expression, but the hunger of any gamer with power teased before them was in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Haldir looked somewhere between entranced and mortified.

“What kind of ability?” Haldir asked. “What kind of power? Where does it come from?”

“Honestly?” Kaldalis shrugged. “Fuck if I know. But now that I have it, I can already see how it’ll be useful. If we can get the timing right, then when we face down the Infernal Horde, we can handle that bullshit roar attack that was destroying everyone.”

“But it’s not, like… Physical?” Haldir asked. “Alchemical? Sensible?”

“No, not at all,” Kaldalis admitted. “I’m anxious about it, too, but… It works. I did it. I feel like with more practice I could control it a little better, but it didn’t hurt me.”

“Maybe not in hit points, or aplomb,” Haldir warned, “but what if there are other consequences?” He gestured around himself, and then down at the skeleton. “These people had such powers, and you can clearly see that something happened to them. What if this is the inevitable consequence of using it? By accepting their power, we doom ourselves to their legacy?”

“No fucking way!” Myrin said, having finished the final tablet. After a brief pause, she vanished.

“Holy shit!” Balrim yelled.

A literal second later, Myrin reappeared, eyes wide. There was a long moment where Kaldalis wasn’t sure if she was awed or traumatized by what she’d seen.

“Fuck!” she blurted loudly, “that was rad as hell!” She whirled on Kaldalis. “What can we do with it? What else is in there? What were those big blurry things?”

“I honestly would love to be able to tell you the answers to all those questions,” Kaldalis said. “But you now know exactly as much as I do, so I can’t help.”

“Balrim, Balrim, Balrim!” Myrin grabbed the Talsar by the arm and dragged him to the tablets. “You gotta see this shit.”

“I guess you win,” Haldir said, crossing his arms as Balrim started reading the tablets. “Hunger for power beats caution.”

“I share your concerns,” Kaldalis said, patting the other vathon on the shoulder. “I truly do. Perhaps doubly so now that Myrin is so incredibly on-board without question…”