Penned Sea Hearts

With Rami sleeping his stress off and the letter to his publisher written, Kai wasn’t sure what to do now. He supposed he could just go around town, looking it over closely, see what he’d missed the last time he’d been here, given that he hadn’t stayed that long. But he couldn’t exactly enjoy the sights when he was constantly worried about Ramos in the back of his head.

Something just didn’t add up to Kai here. Why was no one helping Ramos? Why did his friends and that partner of his let him get like this? It just made no sense. Kai didn’t really have close friends, partly due to the whole fame thing, but even his agent got concerned when he handed something particularly illegible.

So what was this?

He’d always thought that a small town like this would band together to help an institution like the library, too, though he wouldn’t be shocked if Rami was stubborn enough not to tell anyone about his money worries.

That didn’t make not saying anything about it smart, right, or correct, though. In fact, that had to be the dumbest thing Rami could be doing. Surely the locals cared about the state of the library.

Oh, he should do that—go around and inform people that they should donate. And ideally also vote the mayor out of office because, gods, what a bad choice. They were corrupt for sure, but Kai would leave that kind of snooping for later. For now, he’d go visit Ramos’ neighbors, starting with the ones owning a business because just knocking on people’s doors seemed like a bad way to make a first impression.

Perfect plan.

Kai looked around the street he was currently making his way down, glaring up momentarily at the town hall on the hill above K’arhan. But when he looked down back at the town itself, he saw a building with a sign hanging above the door. Surely, that was some kind of business.

As he made his way to it, he could see the words written on the sign: Edran’s Enchants. Great, perfect. Surely, this Edran person and Rami had to interact sometimes. Books needed a lot of enchanting from what Kai had seen, and he was sure that was true doubly for a library.

The way Ramos acted toward his books, how protective he was, it really made Kai wonder how he handled giving them out in general. Could anyone ever borrow Bookie?

Kai snorted at the mental image of Rami cussing someone out over daring to ask if they could. Then again, magic books tended to decide for themselves who was worthy of the arcane knowledge within them. In practice, that usually meant knowing how to pet them, but Kai didn’t know much magic. It was too complicated for him.

He studied the little shop before pushing the door open, noting the many enchanted scrolls, books, and knickknacks filling the display windows at the front. His attention was immediately drawn to a black pen with gold detailing, which he immediately swam over to as he entered, reading the description, only to be severely disappointed. All it managed was not running out of ink as long as the enchant held on.

He already had pens like that. And one that wrote down what he said, which sounded more practical than it actually was. Sometimes he tended to think out loud and it turned into a mess real quick.

But the pen was pretty….

“Can I help you?” came a serious though pleasant voice from behind him, making Kai turn around. By the counter floated a middle-aged merman, presumably the titular Edran, with a red tail, and graying long, black hair tied back into a ponytail.

“Sure!” Kai grabbed the pen, moving toward the shop owner to buy it. He could treat himself, even if he didn’t need another pen. Just like he never needed another notebook, and yet he always bought one.

Food and stationery—such were his weaknesses. But at least he was supporting local business. It would be rude to barge in here and ask questions without buying something, surely.

“I’d like this pen, please,” he said with a grin. “How much is it?”

“Forty tridents,” the man replied with a small, pleased smile.

“Forty?” Kai exclaimed, shaking his head as he dug around his satchel for the coins. “Feels like I’m back home all of a sudden.”

He handed the money over, putting it on the counter, while the shopkeeper put the pen in a nice, equally black box, and closed it with a lid that had a bow on top. Dammit, another one of Kai’s weaknesses was nice-looking packaging.

“Oh, if you don’t mind me asking,” said Kai as he was handed the packaged pen, putting it in his satchel. “Did you know the library is running out of money?”

Edran paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow. So, clearly, the answer was no. “What? Did that brat actually manage to bankrupt the library?”

“Brat?” Kai repeated, frowning. What in Ot’harma’s seventh flipper was going on?

“Oh, that horrible librarian, An’lon,” Edran said, rolling his eyes as he leaned against the counter. “I once wanted to borrow a book on enchanting weapons, and he yelled at me for upsetting the thing! It’s not my fault he doesn’t discipline them.”

Kai gritted his teeth, suddenly filled with righteous anger, his tail swishing. “Rami? Horrible?! Maybe you should learn how to handle magic books better before you go blaming other people!”

Edran stared at him with his eyes bulging out, too shocked to react before Kai was throwing the pen back at him, making the box fly at him and bump into his chest, from where it floated onto the counter.

“Give me my money back! Immediately.”

That made the man get through his surprise, glaring at Kai instead. “Don’t tell me you like that little—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Kai cut him off, glaring. “Money. Now.”

The shopkeeper scoffed, counting out forty coins and sliding them over the counter to Kai, who scooped them up and threw them in his satchel, not even bothering to look for his coin pouch. He didn’t want to give Edran the chance to change his mind.

“Congratulations, you are the first one in this town to be barred from my shop. Because of An’lon, of all people.”

Kai didn’t doubt that this was meant to be a jab, but he couldn’t help but grin. It was very funny. “That’s fine. I’d rather not get anything enchanted than to give someone that hates Ramos money.”

And with that, he was swimming away and out of the shop. That had been unpleasant. And very upsetting. Kai made a mental note that the local enchanter was weird. He would make sure to be rude to him if he ever ran into him again, which in such a small town was inevitable.

Now, where to next?

Kai set off in a random direction, choosing to this time ask random people he came across what they thought of the library possibly closing. Most of them were shocked, many expressing their concern and vowing to donate now that they knew, which was great. The problem was that almost all of them also added a comment about how they would do it despite the rude librarian.

What was wrong with this town? Was everyone insane? He was starting to understand why Rami hadn’t told anyone about his money troubles.

But surely there had to be someone who wasn’t stupid and liked Rami. And the answer was obvious—Rami’s girlfriend, or boyfriend, or whatever. But how could he find them? He couldn’t just ask random people on the street if they knew who Ramos was dating—that would be strange.

Though he supposed he could be more general, and hopefully find something out that way. And so after asking the next person he met, a merlady in her thirties, about the state of the library, and her predictably saying something bad about Rami, Kai asked a follow-up question, trying not to show how much these incorrect opinions bothered him.

“What do you know about Ramos?”

The woman shrugged, frowning a little at him, as if trying to figure out why he was asking. “Not much. Just that he has a short fuse. Why? Are you a reporter, or something?”

Now it was Kai’s turn to shrug. “Sure.”

The woman frowned harder. “Uh-huh. Well, I do know that the only person who doesn’t hate his guts is the blacksmith. Go ask her.”

Oh! Finally, a normal person. A coral reef among this dark sea of ignorance and bad takes. “Great! Thanks! That helps a lot.”

“Hey, wait a minute,” she said as he was already swimming away. “Aren’t you that author guy?”

But he didn’t stop to reply, moving up over the town in hopes of spotting a smithy. How hard could it be? A building like that had to look very distinct, surely. And it turned out it did, except not at all like he’d thought.

Who would have thought to paint a smithy in rainbow colors? It was brilliant! First, the good taste to recognize Rami was very befriendable, and now this? He liked this merlady already.

He made his way to the blacksmith shop, taking a moment to snort at pun name of it. So much better than Edran’s Enchants. Ugh.

As he entered, a little bell above the door ringing, he couldn’t help but gawk at how muscled the blacksmith was. He hadn’t really been expecting that. She looked like she could break every bone in his body if she wanted to. Incredible.

“Oh, hi! A new face,” she said cheerfully, immediately swimming to him from her anvil in the corner, leaving behind whatever she had been hammering. She was at least one head taller than him.

“Semi-new. I visited a few months ago,” Kai winked, making the merlady gape, her eyes widening.

“Oh, I thought you looked familiar, Mr. Phish Seaman.” She put a hand over her mouth as she laughed, clearly trying to stifle it. Once she managed to stop, she offered her hand. “I’m Ara.”

Kai completed the handshake, grinning. “Kai. Heard you were a friend of Rami’s.”

Her face immediately fell as she let go of his hand. “Oh. Yeah.” But then her expression brightened again immediately. “Oh! That’s why you’re here. You decided to help. Oh, thank the gods.”

Kai grimaced, once again reminded that he should have written back instead of showing up unannounced.

“I was getting so worried about him. Is he better now that he knows you’re here?”

Kai shrugged. “I convinced him to eat something and go to sleep. So hopefully.”

Ara stared at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment. “Really. How did you manage that? He never listens to anything I say concerning self-care.”

Kai shrugged. He wanted to make a joke about just being that charming, but while he was aware of his skills in that regard, he was fairly certain Rami had just been too tired to put up much of a fight. He’d been sleeping at his job, after all.

“I don’t know. I’m just glad I did.”

Ara nodded, sighing, her golden ears drooping a bit. “It’s nice that you care so much.”

Kai scowled, those words reminding him of why he’d come here in the first place. “What is up with this town? Why does everyone hate Rami?”

Ara grimaced a little. “Well, he’s a bit of an acquired taste. And a lot of people don’t want to bother sticking around to acquire it.”

“Acquired taste?” Never in his life had Kai disagreed with anything this much. He was, honest to the gods, offended by this notion. “He’s adorably grumpy. Who doesn’t like that? Is there something in the water around here?”

Ara snorted, grinning at him as she tilted her head. “Are you having a crush, Mr. Seaman?”

Kai rolled his eyes, pointing a finger at her. “Hey now, I can like people as friends. Also, Ramos already has someone. As his friend, you should know.”

Ara raised her eyebrows. “As his friend, I know he’s single. Did he say he isn’t?”

Kai immediately wanted to say that yes, Rami had said that, but then he paused, remembering the conversation they’d had. Ramos had never actually said it, had he? He’d just said nothing when Kai assumed he had a partner. Huh.

“I guess not.” He supposed it made sense, then, that the presumed partner wasn’t trying to keep Rami calm and functioning, because they didn’t exist. But it made Kai scowl, immediately putting him in the mood to go on a rant. “Everyone in this town is blind. Which is ironic because Rami is the one wearing glasses.”

Ara sighed, moving to the table on the left and sitting down, waving him over. He joined her, frowning, wondering what she wanted to say. He would expect the if you hurt him I’ll kill you speech, but the blacksmith’s solemn expression didn’t suggest that.

“Look, before you get too carried away, I need to point out that Rami isn’t into the whole….” Ara waved her hand as if looking for the right thing to say. “Having sex thing.”

Kai’s frown intensified. “All right. So?”

Ara raised an eyebrow. “Is that not your whole author brand?”

Kai chuckled, leaning back against his chair. “Just because I write about it—” He started laughing, unable not to. He’d thought she was going to tell him something bad. “Look, I’m not sure if he even likes me being near him, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’m probably not going to stay that long, either.”

Though now that he knew Rami was single, maybe he would try to ask him out once he was mentally doing better again, and the library wasn’t on the verge of closing. No harm in asking.

“Right, okay,” Ara said, her eyebrow still raised, as if confused by this reaction. Had she thought he’d care that much? Did she think he would be that shallow? Hm. Kai never really considered what strangers thought of him, it seemed he did care when it came to Ara, if only because of her connection with Rami.

“Well, if you do really like Ramos so much, I hope you stick around for a while. He could use more friends,” Ara said, her voice wistful. And while her gaze wasn’t exactly begging him, she did look a bit hopeful.

Kai always did like to do what the people wanted. Especially when the people included cute, cranky librarians.

“Will do. I’ll hang around as long as he’ll have me.”