Penned Sea Hearts

Ramos didn’t like being here. The town hall had always seemed intimidating to him, towering over K’arhan on its rocky hill, surrounded by corals, though unlike most of the other outskirts of their town, there was not a single seaweed to be seen, everything prim and proper.

And that hadn’t changed with the new Mayor, if anything the place gleaming more, numerous crystals making its stone walls look luminescent. And yet the tall, wide, pillared building seemed even more uninviting than ever. Ramos supposed that was mostly due to him, though.

He didn’t want to be here begging for money. But he had no choice. What funds the library had received from Kai’s visit were gone, quickly running out with practically no funding coming in from the town. It was two months later, and they were at a point where he wouldn’t be able to afford to feed himself soon, let alone the upkeep of his library.

His supervisor had even mentioned that maybe he should look for an alternative source of income, but he couldn’t do that. Disregarding that he wasn’t very good at much aside from being a librarian, he couldn’t go looking for a new job. It felt like giving up on the library. And that just broke his heart.

So instead, he was going to do something awful—ask the Mayor to reconsider in person. He wished his supervisor had gone instead of him. She was better at this sort of thing, and she was certainly more charming than him, but she’d already said there was no point in trying. And some part of Ramos agreed.

And yet he was desperate enough to try anyway.

His ears drooped as he swam up to the large, stone door, with carvings of fish in them. He tried his best to ignore the way the guards floating by it were staring down at him. Especially the one with the red tail. She was glaring at him in a way that made him worry he might not be allowed to go inside, even though anyone could come in and petition the mayor during a few specific hours every day.

But the guards did open the door without a word for him, which Ramos quickly used to disappear inside, swimming through the corridor and turning right, knowing exactly which way to go to get to the mayor’s office. He’d been here a few times before, and under much more pleasant circumstances.

Well, pleasant in hindsight because he couldn’t say he’d enjoyed the last mayor’s insistence on PR stunts. But at least he’d usually gotten money and books out of those. He couldn’t believe he’d missed the former mayor.

Ramos kept his head down as he reached the door to the office, taking a sweeping glance at the paintings hanging from the walls of this corridor, portraits of all the mayors there had ever been in K’arhan. He wondered if any of them had tried to kill the library that was as old as the town itself before.

The gills on his neck lifting as he took a very deep breath, he knocked on the door, only to be met with an aggravated sigh from behind it.

“Come in,” the new mayor said in the most irritated voice Ramos had ever heard. But that was fine. He was used to people reacting that way to him, so at least it wasn’t throwing him off his balance.

He pushed the door open, gliding inside the office and shutting it closed again. He wasn’t sure if the mayor was put off by having her door open, but he wasn’t going to try to make things worse for him.

“Ah, the rude librarian,” Mayor Sa’trin said in amusement, her blue tail thrown over her desk, her hands behind her head. It made Ramos flinch almost. Was that what the people were calling him now? He supposed he deserved it, but he also felt justified. No one could work with the general public for a decade and be patient anymore.

“At least I’m not trying to kill my local library,” he snarked, freezing when he realized that he really shouldn’t have said that. But the mayor just laughed, apparently greatly amused by his response.

“I appreciate your self-centeredness. But this isn’t about you,” she said, pulling her tail under her desk and sitting up straight, the layers of her ruffle top moving with the waves she was causing. “We need to repair buildings, properly reinforce roads. That last earthquake made a mess of the street sands on the east side. And keeping the streets lit isn’t free, either.”

“So your solution is to let the library shut down?!” Ramos cried out in shock, gaping at her. What kind of logic was that? He wasn’t a politician, and even he knew that couldn’t be a rational way to balance a budget.

“I’m just giving the people what they want. And that is not reading. How many people come to you on average per day?”

Ramos sputtered. “I am not running a business! A library is important on the basis of existing. It’s a resource.”

“A resource that costs thousands a month and makes nothing back,” the mayor replied, making Ramos bulge out his eyes more.

“It’s not supposed to make its money back. It’s a service. What am I supposed to do? Quadruple the late returns penalty?”

The mayor snorted, apparently enjoying Ramos’ descent into madness. Damn her. “I cannot express how little this problem of yours matters to me. Books are fairly affordable. If someone truly wants to read them, they can buy their own. And we will save a lot of money.” She raised an eyebrow. “I suggest you go look for a new job instead of wasting my time. Perhaps choose something useful this time.”

Something useful. The last words Ramos’ parents had said to him echoed through his head as he bared his teeth at the mayor. “Useful?! What does a politician know about that? You offer the people of this town a service, the same as me. You don’t make money, you take it. Except you can and do actively ruin lives!”

The mayor sighed dramatically, snapping her fingers. That gesture had been so unexpected that for a second Ramos’ rage came to an end, replaced with confusion that was immediately explained away when a large man burst in, grabbing him by the shoulder.

Ramos cried out in shock as he was flung back and dragged out of the office. Ramos made a half-hearted attempt at putting up resistance, trying to shake the man off, but he was so much stronger than him that Ramos quickly gave up.

“I’ll do everything I can to sure you don’t get another term!” he yelled at the mayor as he was forced to turn the corner, the mayor’s office disappearing from view. But despite all of his fury, he felt tears start to prick at his eyes as he was thrown out of the building, flailing his tail around to get away as quickly as possible.

But once he was far away enough that he knew the guards at the front of the town hall couldn’t see him anymore, he stopped, just floating there, high above the town, staring down at it. And his damned library, its red, coral roof lit up with the crystals attached to it. Even from here, he could see the few shingles that were missing, and while that wasn’t that big of a problem, it really summed up the situation. It wasn’t a big problem until it grew into it.

Ramos swallowed down the lump in his throat. He wouldn’t cry. Not out here. Though the idea of letting the sea carry him off wherever it wanted did seem very appealing right now.

He shook his head, gritting his teeth again. No, he wasn’t going to give the mayor the satisfaction of defeating him so easily. He wouldn’t give up just yet. He just needed to talk to someone to get these thoughts out of his head so he could focus.

But who could he talk to? Of the people he talked to and knew, no one really liked him, and he didn’t like them. His supervisor would listen, but that woman was impossible to find unless she wanted to be found. Besides, he had already told her everything and her stance was clear.

He supposed he could just go to his apartment and talk to himself, but that wasn’t going to help much, and he might also start worrying he really was losing his mind. Which left only one person—Aranys, or Ara, as she preferred to be called. The cheerful blacksmith seemed to tolerate him, and he tolerated her, which was about as good as he could hope for. Though he wasn’t sure if he could bother her with this. Usually, he only came by with business.

But what choice did he have? Ara seemed very practical, even if Ramos sometimes couldn’t help but doubt her methods. Maybe she could help him, though he felt a little guilty for having nothing to offer her in return.

But he had no other options now that the mayor had kicked him out, likely permanently. Not that he wanted to ever go back to the town hall when this mayor was in charge.

Even though the desire to just lay down on his back and mope was incredibly strong, he didn’t want to do it in public, and if he had to move, he might as well go find the smithy.

And so with a heavy sigh, Ramos turned his head away from the library, farther west, quickly finding the rainbow-colored building at the edge of town.

Ara had told him once that the reason she had set up her forge there was because it was closer to the western volcanos and therefore had good access to the volcanic steam pipes, while also being closer to the lava rivers running beneath the town. But given the fact that those pipes were all around K’arhan, Ramos was quite certain the plot value was just lower than if the smithy was closer to the center.

He tried to swim over to the smithy as fast as possible, but he just didn’t have the energy for it, so he more or else trudged on, his tail flapping up and down listlessly as he swam high above town, not feeling like running into anyone down there.

It took a while to get from the town hall to the smithy, but neither the exercise, nor the passage of time helped him feel better. In fact, he just felt worse once he reached the colorful building and dove down to it, hovering in front of the door for a moment, staring up at the metal sign hanging from the roof proudly displaying the name Hammer Clamor.

He didn’t want to bother Ara. She was probably busy, anyway. Ramos looked through the window into the well-lit room, not seeing her inside as he craned his neck to scan the whole smithy. Oh, maybe she wasn’t even here, or she was in the back where her living quarters were, resting. That wasn’t that out of the usual either. Maybe—

“Well, well, my favorite customer!”

He flinched, turning around only to see the tall, broad-shouldered merlady in question. Ara was holding a basket full of what seemed to be blacksmith-related things he didn’t understand, so full her face was barely visible over the pile, but Ramos still caught a glimpse of the familiar, wild red hair and golden ears.

“Oh. Hello, Ara.”

“I’ll be right with you,” she said, smiling, in as good a mood as always. “Just need to put my shopping away.”

For a split second, Ramos wondered if he should open her door for her, given that her hands were full, but apparently, there was no need because in the next moment, Ara was pushing at the door handle with her tail, pushing it open with her shoulder and bursting in.

Ramos blinked at the water churned up by her fast, strong movements, wondering where she was getting this kind of energy. He glided inside, carefully shutting the door, feeling like an intruder.

After all, he wasn’t bringing her any business. Even though he could think of a dozen things he’d like her to make for the library, there was just no way he could pay for them, so he would just be taking up her time. But he had no choice, so he tried to ignore the voice in his head telling him to leave.

He watched her dash from one corner of the room to the next as she organized her shopping, pouring things into boxes, while he somewhat awkwardly stayed by the door, not wanting to sit down at the metal table in the corner without permission.

He did like being in the space of her workshop, though. The room was small, almost half of it being taken up by the round, lidded forge. He hadn’t really thought about how much magic and engineering went into melting metal until he’d met Ara, but it was quite impressive. Even more so considering her very reasonable prices.

“So, what can I do for you today?” Ara asked as she put the now empty basket away, swimming to a chair and waving him over with a grin. Ramos grimaced, joining her, settling himself down opposite her. He didn’t know how to even approach the subject.

“Oh no, what’s wrong?” she asked, looking quite alarmed. Was it that obvious he was seconds away from bursting into tears?

“Everything,” he moaned, keeping his eyes trained on the table. There was a beautiful crystal on it, changing from one color to the next, but he could barely see it, too lost in his worries. “The library is going to close.”

“What?!” she exclaimed in shock. “Why?”

Right, Ramos had forgotten this wasn’t public knowledge. Primarily because he hadn’t told anyone. “The mayor is taking away our funding.”

“Wait, start from the beginning. How did this happen?” Ara asked, still sounding alarmed, and Ramos felt strangely validated. It was nice for someone to be as shocked by this as he had been when he’d heard it first.

“There is nothing else to say. The mayor decided the library is a pointless expense. And now it’s going to shut down.”

Actually saying it out loud was so horribly demotivating. This wasn’t making him feel any better. Maybe this had been a mistake.

“No, it isn’t,” Ara said immediately, slamming her fist into the open palm of her other hand. That made Ramos look up at her again, frowning. He hadn’t expected her to feel so strongly about this. “We’ll ask around town, huh? I’m sure people will be more than willing to donate.”

Ramos nodded, though his shoulders just sank lower. “Maybe that would help for a month. Maybe two. But I can’t ask people to singlehandedly keep the library open, certainly not long-term.”

“That’s what they’ve been doing this whole time with taxes,” Ara argued, but Ramos shook his head.

“Yes, and I’d be asking them to give more than even that since the mayor plans on giving over none of it.”

Ara nodded, putting a finger to her lips as she frowned pensively. Ramos said nothing, waiting for her to tell him that there was no solution here. He certainly couldn’t think of any.

“Well, you said that those book signings that happen a few times a year here always bring money,” she finally said, her voice hopeful again. How she managed to feel that way was beyond him. “Why don’t just ask a few authors to show up? Surely they will care about the library.”

Ramos opened his mouth to immediately reject the idea, but then he paused, thinking it through. It wasn’t a bad idea, though it was a long shot. Most of the authors who might bring a crowd with them were too successful to come to a town like this. The Floods were a bit of a forgotten region, and there wasn’t much here to do except look at the volcanos—the thought of which was terrifying to him—so it was beneath them.

“Oh, make sure to invite that Phish Seaman fella.” She giggled a little, shaking her head. “He seems nice.”

Ramos gave her a blank look, and, oh gods, he was going to have to do that, wasn’t he? He would have to beg Kai to come support the library because, for some incomprehensible reason, Kai seemed to like visiting backwater towns, and was, therefore, the most likely person to actually show up, even though he’d been here only recently and would therefore bring less tourism with him. It would still be more than worth it.

Oh, the gods must have hated him.

“Will do,” he said flatly, trying to compile a mental list of writers to write to. He couldn’t afford to waste too much money on ink, kelp paper, or postage, so he couldn’t just send out a hundred of these.

“Hey, it’s gonna be fine,” Ara said, patting his shoulder. Ramos almost flinched at that, not used to people touching him, but it was very comforting. The only drawback was that it made him want to start bawling more, but he’d leave that for later when he was alone. “This is going to work out. It will hold you and the library over for a while, and meanwhile, we figure out how to get alternative funding. Okay?”

Ramos smiled at her, despite his eyes once again stinging. She cared so much, showed such kindness, even to someone she barely knew. “Okay. Yes. Thank you. I’ll go write the letters.”

With a flick of his tail, he was by the door, suddenly filled with energy now that there was a plan to follow. And he was afraid that if he didn’t use that energy immediately, he would never manage this. “Thank you so much. I’ll never forget this.”

Swinging the door open he immediately rushed away, swimming as fast as he could back to the library. He didn’t have much to write with at his apartment on account of him spending most of his time elsewhere.

When he barged in the library was empty, but even if it hadn’t been, he wouldn’t be paying any attention to potential visitors, only able to focus on his mad dash to gather his coral pen, some water-resistant ink, and a piece of paper, and quickly writing the first thing he could think of. And then writing it again, and again, until he had seventeen letters ready.

He had the addresses of only seven authors from previous signing-related correspondence, but he could mail the rest of the letters to their publishers directly. He knew those addresses far too well.

He gave himself a second to grimace before grabbing a stack of envelopes and writing down the addresses, pausing only when he reached Kai’s.

If the man did come, Ramos would make sure to apologize for being so short with him the first time. It hadn’t been fair, no matter what Ramos thought of his work.

Putting everything together, Ramos grabbed the stack of filled envelopes, grabbed the coin pouch he kept in his desk for emergencies, and hurried out of the door again, swimming right for the post office.

This had to work. It just had to.