I sat there, in the baren room Gunther used as an office. The room, lit by a small slit of a window to the side and a lamp held by a fixture to the other side, unlit at the still early hour, was bright enough to read each other or the paper on the desk. It had just been the two of us talking, but at the mention of who I was inheriting from, she drew still.

I could see her breath slow down in the line of her neck as her heart mirrored her lungs. I could see her eyes focus in on me in the casual manner, she held her self-crumbled. She leaned herself closer to me.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard that right,” she said, looking at me.

“I said, how much do you know about [Lore Masters] because that’s who I’m inheriting from. A [Lore Master].”

She continued looking at me before asking, “Surely, it's not what I’m thinking it is? It’s not-”

“It is a Library full of books. Way too many for me to haul out on my own. What else did you think I could be inheriting? A multi-ton pile of quill pens?”

Gunther stopped and started thinking. She looked a little hunted then. She looked like the news was the sign of a coming cataclysm, and I was about to ride out will a Darktide behind me. Her eyes stopped tracking me, focusing into the distance as she began to think.

Shit, I think I’m losing her… What can I say to reassure her? Why is she so freaked out by a library, I bet New Moarn has at least one or two. There's got to be a [Lore Master] here, or at least somewhere in the valley… Right?

I had no idea, I hadn’t checked. So, I tried my hand at blind reassurance, “Listen, I don’t know why your so freaked out right now, but it’s perfectly safe. There are no traps or anything, I’ve been there before, it's just a normal library that belonged to a [Lore Master].”

That knocked Gunther out of her funk, her eyes snapped to me and took a second to take me in. I could practically see the bits of her head spinning back up like a water wheel after a dry spell, spurred by words that had gone in one ear and almost out the other. I could see her eyes properly focus back to the here and now. And with a bit of focus, a tiny amount of mana moving…

A skill? Maybe a passive skill, damn, I should have paid closer attention. I need to get used to paying attention to it as much as possible.

She waved in the negative, “No, no. Nothing wrong with that. I doubt a [Lore Master] would trap a library, that’s practically blasphemy.” She shivered at the idea, “Imagine a trap going off and lighting a library on fire. No, it was not a bad thing, I was just thinking, I wish it were mine, is all. Even if I didn’t want to keep it for what was inside, the coin I could get by selling it to another [Lore Master] would be… I can’t place it with a skill… By the Elderwood, I only get that from priceless stuff.”

I looked at her in disbelief, “You would sell it? A supposedly priceless collection? It’s thousands of years old! The building was literally one of the first structures built in the valley by Humans. It is that old. The fact that you were thinking about its sales price is the reason you wouldn’t get one.”

Gunther listened to that and rolled her eyes flippantly. She waved it off like a bad smell.

“The reason I’m not inheriting a small collection of irreplaceable knowledge is because I’ve never known anyone with one. Do you honestly believe I couldn’t persuade someone to pass one off to me? And of course, I would sell it, I’m a [Caravan Master], I can’t pay to haul a library everywhere I go, and I have no permanent residence, no place to call my own.”

I waved her off, which seemed to get under her skin for a moment, but she didn’t speak up, “So it won’t be a problem then? You’re not going to wig out again?”

“No, no. I’m not going to ‘wig out.’ You’re hard to understand sometimes, you know that? And that’s for me, with all my charisma and skills.”

“But you can. It’s not my fault everyone is speaking some kind of gods-awful dialect of my language. Good, the last thing I want is for you to back out halfway because of some kind of superstition about libraries or something.”

She tapped the desk, presumably to draw us back to the conversation at hand or maybe as a long-developed tick or tell. “None of that, let's stay on topic, how much are we moving? How big is the library, or how many books? If you remember the library, then how much is there to move? I need to know.”

I thought about the room, about what I remembered of the shelves, and how much room I expected to fill in Anna’s house. “About a house’s worth? A small house, maybe? The Library is a bit bigger than Anna’s main room, and you presumably remember last night?”

She whistled lightly at that, “That’s a fine-sized library… Are they stacks, or are they on shelves? I’m trying to imagine how many books we are talking about.”

“Shelves,” I told her, “The books are separated in a way, I just forget how, organized, you know? So the crates, or whatever will need to be organized, or names recorded.”

She nodded, “Well, that will at least take fewer carts… You can pack more books in a stack after all.”

To be fair to the library, it was quite a lot of books regardless of the fact that there were shelves. It was more books than I have ever seen in one place, which wasn't saying much, but that was whatever.

Gunther started writing something down, and I decided to tell her stuff so she could record it.

“We’re going to need to bring a winch, the library is at the bottom of a vertical shaft, and people can’t just walk in and out carrying boxes or whatever.”

She nodded, scribbled something down, and then returned to scribbling something out. I waited for her to carry on the conversation, but when she didn’t, I decided to do it.

“Are you thinking about the logistics? About carts and people and stuff?” I asked her.

She nodded, only saying a simple “Yes” before continuing.

Well, I suppose if we’re going to lapse into silence, I might as well think about it and figure out what the numbers might look like. Its hard to figure out what the number of wagons we might need is, but figuring out the number of people we might need?

I thought about it, slowly but surely pacing it out in my head.

“You would know better about the carts, but I know the place, we can split the difference, I wouldn’t want to tax your little head,” I lightly mocked, trying to get an expected answer out of her.

I did not get an expected answer, I just got confused, “Where is it?”

“Up on the bluff a few hours north and a bit east, hard to spot. There’s a lot of tall grass. I can find it again, but it’s a bit of a hike,” I told her.

She hissed in annoyance then.

I couldn’t get a read on her, the moment I had said [Lore Master] she had started acting off. But I couldn’t figure out why, she was in and out of how I expected her to act.

She said she wished it was her’s, but I somehow doubt that’s it. I still doubt she wants to actually have the books… Maybe she just wants to read them?

Damn, my charisma. Damn it. I wish I could read her.

I put a pin in it for now and instead started to picture how many people we might need while paying attention to her.

I imagined the room, the hallway and the distance from the doors to the shaft. Then there were three people at the winch, one loading, one winching them up, one unloading, and probably the same number of people moving the books to the wagons.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Maybe… Eight people down in the cave to bring the books down, er, out at a good pace. And the same number on the surface. With three moving the books up… So, something like nineteen total. Might want some guards too.”

She looked at me then, back to [Merchant] Gunther. “Hold on,” she said warningly, one finger raised, “Is this dangerous? For my crew I mean? Because you were already talking about it being safe, Guards are extra.”

I shook my head, “Not very unsafe, no. But there are always Animals or Beasts, I know there are some undead nearby in a crypt next to the library, but they’re locked down there, best I can tell. If they weren’t, there’s no way they would still be down there. It's mostly animals I’m worried about…”

No… wait… I’m wrong. Anna can deal with any Animals or Beasts, at least while she’s up top. So it’s just anything else that might jump us… or I guess maybe a disgruntled member of Anna’s new court… I suppose she would probably want to see the library, too, which means she would be down below for a bit… Darn it… Oh well, a little more money for safety can’t be too much more. What was the saying? In for a penny, in for a pound?

“Never mind,” I told her, “I just remembered that most wildlife won’t be a problem. I’m fairly sure Anna just met all of the nearby animals and beasts and could probably get any others to stop… Still, for the sake of safety, I’m willing to pay for a few guards. Probably eight total would be fine, six up top, two down below to make sure no one gets jumped by an angry squirrel or something.”

She looked at me probingly, but I was being upfront with her, so she just squinted at me for a bit.

Did I say something wrong? I can’t think of anything wrong… Oh well, she’ll stop in a bit.

She didn’t. But she did keep talking after a dozen awkward seconds or so, “Eight carts is what I’m thinking. Each could probably hold two shelves, without the wood, probably more like three if we keep them organized, and we don’t want to overload carts if they go up and down an incline, is that agreeable?”

“Sure,” I told her while shrugging. I couldn’t tell how much a cart was but with eight gold a week, I could probably cover it.

Now for the big part… Skipseo, this better not be too much money… I swear if you make me carry them by hand when I meet you again I’ll throttle you.

“What will it cost? Nineteen workers, eight guards, and eight carts I mean. The whole package?”

She started humming, noting things down on her page. She was starting to slip more and more back into how I expected her to act. Finding her rhythm so to speak.

“Hmm… Ten gold.”

My heart dropped out of my chest at the sum.

A part of me wanted to swear at the idea of spending that much money, on top of the money I paid today. Instead of swearing, I squeaked, “Ten?”

She nodded. As if that was a totally normal sum. I couldn’t tell if she was ripping me off or giving me a decent deal.

I could try to argue it down, surely… But how? What could I give to cover such an enormous cost? Is she looking to get something out of me… Is that why she's been acting so off? Does she want something? Or am I seeing things where there’s nothing?

What’s the best way I can go about this…

I had no idea, not even all my wisdom could dig me out of this. I had no cards, so instead, I walked into the possible bait.

I sighed, “Could I lower that cost somehow? What can I offer to bring that down?”

She looked at me and just snickered, “How? I don’t know. Sell me on something. What were you expecting, the price to be low? You’re basically hiring out a caravan for a day to do a bunch of work and carry precious cargo. If you want to cut the price down, then you need to offer something because I’m not doing it for free.”

I blinked at her in total incomprehension.

I had expected that to be a trap of some kind, for her to go, ‘I want some books,’ or at least knowing what she would want out of it. But she had played me straight.

For at least the third time during this conversation, I cursed that I didn’t know what to say.

Think Saphine, use what little brain you have rumbling around inside your head and think. Let's see… What can I do normally? I can technically do magic, though I’m not all that good at it, I have a connection with Anna… But I’m not going to ask her to get involved in this. That rules out magic… I can do physical labour, but I doubt she needs that, and I don’t have a fighting class for all that I have been learning how to fight, so I can't go doing any of that for her…

Could I lower what were asking for? Maybe go down to six or seven carts? Or down to 15 workers and six guards?... No, I don’t think I can. She thinks it would take eight carts, then I have to trust she’s not screwing me, and lowering the number of people would do very little to lower the total cost unless I totally gutted it, and then I would be there hauling books, but with carts, I would have to drive on my own.

So I can’t work for it with magic, and I can't work with my muscles, and I can't cut costs… And there’s no way I can offer her some of the library, Skip would kill me for that…

I was looking at Gunther, squinting a little as my mind rambled around to come up with a plant, Gunther staring at me like she was playing with her food, smiling with her pointy teeth, when my eye slipped to her desk.

“I don’t know what I can offer.” I told her, “What about what you’re doing? Could I help with that? You and your [Receptionist] both seem kind of busy with work. Maybe I can lighten the load?”

It was a gamble. I could always pay it, but then I would have to go to the merchant's guild and take out money. The place freaked me out a little, and so did the idea that I could carry that much money on me at once.

Gunther looked at me like I was slow and asked, “Are you any good at math? Because we're both doing mostly math at the moment.”

I stopped for a moment. And then, gut-turning inside out, I thought about it.

I can’t let math stop me. There’s no way in any of the hells I won’t try and get a lower price. If math is what I need to do, I won’t let math stop me.

“Pass it here, let me see it. I can do some math, but just the basic stuff.”

She raised her eyebrows and snorted but passed the sheet over to me.

“Basic math? Let me guess, you can add? Maybe even subtract? Do you need your fingers for the big numbers?” she mocked.

I ignored her and looked at the numbers. There were a lot of them in a series of long lines and bunches, scrawled around the page with no rhyme or reason. There was a table with a series of numbers and another number, there were those weird strings of numbers that were letters. Scrawled math was all around the page as she worked through the answers, disorderly scribbles of words with seemingly no connection and lines abounded.

I felt the urge to throw it into a fireplace overcome me like I was fourteen again. I made sure to tighten down on that instinct; burning it would get me nowhere, and instead, I got to actually parsing what I could make out.

It’s… Almost all simple math? Just multiplication? Why the hell is she mocking me over basic math? I could do this in my sleep. Skip was trying to slam graphing into my head, but even this is just a straight line, and that’s from what I remember from years ago… Even if it's gross and I hate doing it, this is child’s play.

“Is this it? No curves, no weird math… Just basic multiplication? A few fractions? Why do you need an abacus for this? I can do this easily.”

Some would say that a look could tell you a thousand things. I couldn’t read someone that well. I could pick up a few things here and there or tell if someone I knew well enough was feeling one way or another. I could even pick up on some things in ways humans couldn’t, like smell, or sometimes even with my sharper hearing, even though I tamped those down as well as I could.

But when I looked at Gunther, the only thing I could take from it was a look of extreme bewilderment. The kind you got when you were talking with someone and they just brought something totally out of left field.

Only the expression she was giving me was more than that. She was looking at me more like I had grown a second head.

And then, in a change that rivalled how fast Strause could change his face, her face changed to a very sharp, very focused look.

“If you can do this work, and I don’t know that you can, I will pay you fifty silver an hour for your work,”

Fifty silver an hour? What the hell kind of overpay is that? No, wait, if she’s that desperate, I should ask for more… let's see… I have two days to cover some costs… But only for a few hours each day…

“I’ll pass,” I told her while I ran some numbers in my head as best as I could, “fifty is too low if it were eighty, maybe, but I can always-”

“Seventy silver an hour for your work,” she countered.

“Seventy-five, and I work for four hours each day, today and tomorrow,” I said with an air of finality.

The look on her face was like she had bitten into a lemon, but when she opened her mouth, it wasn’t followed by denial, but with a very bitter “[Deal]” and an outstretched arm.

I shook her hand and smiled, showing off an ungodly amount of teeth. Because at the end of the day, we were both predatory in one way or another, and this time, I was the one who got the last laugh. And she knew it.

It was a thrill and one that I had never gotten before for the incredibly simple reason that I had never gotten one over on anyone, not once, in my entire life.

And for the first time in my life, half of my instincts were a simple fox, felt wholly sated.

“So… Can you get my order in? I want them for the outing if they can be ready by then. I can start right away, all I need is what I’m doing and a piece of paper or a slate to write on,” I told her.

She mumbled in agreement and found a piece of clear paper while handing me a slate, briefly explaining what I was supposed to do and giving me what I was to perform calculations on. I started while she wrote a form for me and my goods. Before quickly running it out to someone to get the process going.

And that’s how I spent the early afternoon torturing myself at Gunther's desk, doing math on a slate and handing over the answers to Gunther, who was also doing math and filling in her own answers.

I had no idea what she was doing or what the numbers meant, but they obviously meant something.

The things I would do to make sure Skipseo didn’t haunt me were endless. But hey, at least I only had to pay four gold coins, more than I had ever spent on anything, instead of two and a half times that to move his library in a day.

And you know what?

Maybe it was because I got one over on her or because I had just made the first step to keeping a promise. Maybe it was just because I found it easier to sit still for a bit, or maybe, just maybe, it was because I finally had a real-life reason to use math. But whatever reason or combination of them it might have been, it was the least torturous four hours of math I had ever lived through.