{-Llewel-}

“I can look her up, if you want,” Zetai offered once they’d found a quieter place to relax. “The Internet exists for a reason; if there’s any information about Casrane out there, then I’ll be able to find it.”

Reynneak nodded. “If they mentioned anything about her during the game’s development, it doesn’t matter how much they tried to erase it. Someone’s going to still have that information. And trust me, if anyone can find the weirdest and most obscure things by looking it up, it’s Zetai.”

Llewel gave them both a thankful nod. “No matter what it is, I want to hear what you find as soon as you find it.”

Zetai smirked. “That’s a promise.”

Myr glanced at the room. “So, what are we going to do? We’ve still got a bit of time before you have to leave, right? It looks like things are still going to be slow if we try the event now—a bunch of people must’ve been waiting for it.”

“Are there any quests still in Anthalas City that we haven’t completed yet?” Zetai asked, looking at Reynneak.

He shook his head. “The ones that are left will all bring us back out of it. There’s nothing that stays here that shows up on the map.” He paused, bringing his attention to the twins. “But if there’s nothing else to do, there’s something I wanted to ask you. Where did you get the matching necklaces from?”

“It’s one of those things that we don’t know,” Llewel replied. “We’ve always had them.”

“We tried asking Fininri about it. He said he didn’t know any more than we did about it… Duuzlo didn’t give us a straight answer the single time we brought it up to him, either.” Myr shrugged. “I guess that means I should be upset that they didn’t tell us, since they knew about it? But, really, I’m willing to believe that they were trying to protect us. Maybe learning where these pendants came from would put us in more danger than we already are.”

Reynneak asked the next question cautiously, his expression making it clear that he would accept no for an answer. “Can I see one of them?”

Myr carefully took hers off and handed it to him.

A menu popped up to greet the new holder.

[Broken Pendant (Accessory)

A pendant that was broken in half. If the two people who possess a half are close, then their ATK and MAG is increased; if they are far away, then their ATK and MAG is decreased. Only two exist in the whole game.

Uses: N/A]

“Is that why you’ve mostly been able to keep up with us?” Zetai wondered aloud. “If you’ve had this boost the whole time, then it’s no wonder you’re able to hold your own against stronger enemies. I don’t feel so bad that you beat me knowing that you had this with you.”

Reynneak largely ignored her, observing the pendant for a while before returning it to Myr. “Have you ever tried putting it together?”

“It doesn’t do anything.” Llewel chose to stop the train of thought before it could go too far. “All it does is make it look like it’s the whole thing until the pieces are taken away again.”

“If you were part of the game during development, then you probably would’ve had some special gear,” Zetai remarked. “Whatever happened, they probably didn’t think of taking it off of you.”

“I think I’ve seen something like this before,” Reynneak mumbled.

“It’s two pieces of a rock, of course you’re going to say that,” Zetai pointed out. “There’s literally tons of them all over the place.”

Llewel, though, found a promising lead in his comment. “You’ve seen it?”

Reynneak nodded. “It had an illustration in one of the books in the library. I don’t really remember what it was talking about, though. If we can go back, I can find it again. Maybe it could help you figure out what you were supposed to be.”

Myr must’ve loved the idea, jumping up in her seat only to be hit with a realization. “Do you think Isralla’s going to let us back in after last time? She was pretty willing to get rid of us, does that mean she’ll try to keep us from coming in again?”

Zetai shook her head, motioning to Reynneak. “With the two of us here, she can’t deny us. We completed a quest that gave us access to the library. That means that, no matter what, she’s got to let us get in again. If she lets us in, then she’s going to have to make an exception for the two of you, too.”

That seemed to decide it. They had the advantage of the day coming to a close which meant fewer people were wandering around; it may have taken her a moment to remember which direction the library was in but, once she did, they stayed on the right track.

“So,” she said to break the silence between them, “I thought of something lately and I realized I could ask the two of you. I know the developers don’t usually close the whole co-op for maintenance at once, but what do you do when they need to do that?”

“I enjoy the peace and quiet without anyone to bother me,” was Llewel’s simple response.

“Some of the other NPCs disappear, too,” Myr added thoughtfully. “Whoever they thought had a bug that they tried to fix. Fininri was almost always missing during those—he’s always been giving out free items to players. They’ve never been able to get rid of it, though, and he said something last time we really got to talk about how they were just going to give up trying.”

“Cahacu mentioned bugs like that too,” Reynneak remarked. “Are all of them related to stuff they can do because of their free will?”

Llewel shrugged. “I guess most of them probably end up being that, but not all of them. Ruzlue wasn’t able to drop the items he stole from Fininri for a while. He always said he didn’t mean to do it—it gave players a reason to beat him up for longer—but I never cared for the guy anyway.”

“We’ve never had any, since we weren’t tied to the code in the same way they were,” Myr said. “There’s no way for something to not work like it’s supposed to if it doesn’t really have a function to begin with.”

“If we have any, it’s the fact that we’re here at all,” Llewel muttered.

They reached the library to see Isralla standing outside. She was talking to a player, a bittersweet smile as she recalled some memory coded into her. When she saw them, she waved goodbye to the player to welcome her new guests.

She didn’t say a word to them at first, ushering them all inside before saying, “Welcome to the Saint’s Library. Please, stay as long as you’d like and look around to see if anything interests you. We’ve got plenty of books for all kinds of knowledge-seekers.” She paused. “What brings you here today? You know, since you’ve last come, we’ve improved our selection. We now have a combat strategy section for recommendations of items and weapons that best suit each class. We’re looking for player feedback regarding it, in fact, and are accepting more ideas along with ways to improve what we currently have available.”

“We’re just looking for the book we had earlier about Emmyth,” Reynneak explained.

“You’re not planning on bringing up any more… sensitive matters, are you?” Isralla asked cautiously. “I don’t mean to be rude but there’s some things I’m not comfortable sharing. Or, rather, not comfortable with the consequences of sharing…”

“All we’re here for is the book,” Llewel assured her. “We’ll probably leave as soon as we figure out what we need.”

Isralla gave them a warm smile. “Well, then, let me know if you need anything! I’m going to be right over there helping that other group of players. I would advise trying to solve a problem yourself before asking me to assist you, though. It seems the others are going to be quite the handful…” It was clear how she suppressed a sigh before leaving towards the other group.

Llewel found himself rather thankful for not needing to interact with them like most others did. He couldn’t imagine being around the players all day with no way of getting out of it. Well… mostly, anyway; there were a few that he was getting accustomed to being around.

Reynneak led the way back to the place they’d been before. He pulled out the book he’d seen earlier about Emmyth’s achievements and skimmed through all of the pages. Zetai peered over his shoulder to see what he was reading, though the twins stood in front of him.

He must’ve gotten on the right page, given Zetai’s excited, “What does it say?”

“You can read too, you know,” he grumbled. Reynneak did, though, read through it and announce to all of them what it said. “It was the pendant that Emmyth wore. It broke into two pieces and was lost right after he disappeared.”