"Do you really intend to leave today? Won't you end up traveling in the dark?"

He hoped not. Maybe he should have paid for a second night at the inn, but then, he would delay his arrival at the school. He wasn't quite sure when exactly he needed to be there and he wasn't certain either of how long it would take him to go there so the better thing to do would be to get there as fast as possible. He didn't want to waste a second night here if at all possible. If only the inn's bed had not been so comfortable he would still have a lot of time left.

"I do not mind stopping just after the wall. If I stay here another night, I will end up losing another half a day to the bed. I have to move if I want to get there."

"But are you sure you will have enough time to even get to the gate?"

"Maybe if I only buy books? I do not really need a new pair of boots, what I have now should last me until at least the next town."

"Then, let's go to my bookstore, it's this way."

"You have your own bookstore?"

"Yes, I do."

Maybe she had talked about it before but he couldn't remember. He felt like she had not but she should have, this was so much simpler this way.

"You must know all kinds of books then, that is really useful. Your grandmother told me she would make me a list of useful books but I forgot about it so now I have no clue what I am looking for."

With all that had happened, he had forgotten to ask for the list before leaving the merchant guild.

"She left the list in the shop but even without it, I should be able to find you something useful anyway." She said with confidence.

The last time she said something like that, she almost got herself squashed by the weight of a hammer. At this moment, he felt truly relieved the list had not been lost.

While she lead him to her place, Emp decided to ask her more about her debt.

"What happens when someone doesn't pay back their debt?"

He walked up to her side to better listen to her answer as they progressed through the busy streets.

"When someone doesn't pay, the one he owes money to has the right to take whatever he wants from them up to a maximum value of what is owed. But, most of the time, when someone doesn't pay, it's because they can't even with that. In those cases, when everything is taken from them including house, clothes and food and the amount is still too low, they are forced to become debt slaves to pay the rest."

Emp knew about slaves but didn't think there were more than one kind.

"Are they different from a normal slave?"

"They should but often aren't. You see, they are supposed to stay slaves only until they worked enough to pay back what they owe but more often than not, they never get out of it."

"Why?" Was that not odd?

"It's because slaves don't really have any rights and because there cannot be an exact value to the work they do. If their new master just say that their work is worth almost nothing, there isn't anything the slave can do about it. The master can just say that they cost more to feed than what they bring back and then the slave gets stuck there forever."

"But, is that not unfair?" Emp had a hard time believing people would let that kind of things happen.

"Of course it's unfair, that is why it's common sense to not borrow money from someone else and why it is so stupid to just give out money freely. No one want to be indebted because they are scarred of what could happen to them. Usually the family help out as much as they can so it doesn't happen and when it does, they do all they can to pay the remainder to get their relative out of slavery. The town lord doesn't really care about that as long as the slaves stay alive."

So, if he understood everything correctly, if he gave money to someone out of kindness, they would then be afraid he would ask it back latter. But that didn't explain everything, should there not be some form of contract to prove that he had indeed lent money to someone?

Could they not just pretend it never happened? Emp guessed that the iron bracelet was made for that specific purpose but then, people had no reason to be afraid of a gift if the bracelet didn't come with it.

"Why would people be afraid to be given money, isn't it much better than to have to borrow it?"

"Idiot! It's not because they're afraid, it's because it's plain stupid to give out money while you could have them borrow it instead. If you try to give them money just like that, most will think it's some kind of scam or that you are giving counterfeit money. No one wants to get in trouble because they accepted a poisoned gift from a stranger."

Emp felt that everything was over-complicated in this town. Or was it that it was the same everywhere?

"Would it not be easier for everyone if they just helped each other out?"

"When their life are in danger, they do help each other but once the danger is gone, they all revert back to their greedy selves. Everything you give is something you won't have later when you need it and then who will be idiotic enough to give you that same thing? The answer is no one."

This whole thing seemed quite depressing and the subject seemed to be quite displeasing to Galana so he stopped his questions there. At that point, they had left the main roads a while ago and had crossed many smaller streets. Galana stopped in the middle of one of them, barely large enough to let two carts pa.s.s by each other. They had arrived at her bookstore.

The construction was similar to those around it but looked like it had not been maintained for a while. It looked darker than its neighbors somehow. The sign hanging above the door, barely visible through the grime, presented a book and a sword with the name written bellow them.

"What is the name of the store, and why is it covered in dirt?"

"It's Whisryba's bookstore and ruin seekers. I wanted to wash it but I can't reach and I don't have any ladder."

It was indeed really high, even standing on a chair, she wouldn't be able to reach it. How did it get this dirty in the first place?

"Do you want to climb on my shoulders to do it?" He asked in an effort to help.

"Absolutely not!"

She reached a hand into her dress to get the key hanging from her neck and unlocked the thick wooden door. She pushed it open with a long squeal from the hinges and made her way inside.

Galana advanced in the darkness of the windowless room and reached for a candle standing on a nearby table. She picked up a match and scratched it on the rough desk to light it and the candle.

With it, she walked around lighting the many others as Emp stepped inside as well to take a look. The first thing he noticed was how tidy it all looked. Contrasting with the outside look of the house, it's inside had not a speck of dust to be seen. Everything was neatly and orderly placed and everything from floor to ceiling was clean, but, the air had a strong smell of parchment.

In the center of the room, there were two large desks each accompanied by a chair were people could sit down to look at one of the books. On each desk, there were two standing candle helping the reader to see what they were looking at but they were not the only ones. There were more in the corners of the room, between the shelves and standing on top of poles placed around the room making the room quite bright despite the lack of windows. On one of the desks was a pile of papers and ink, ready to be used.

Then, of course, there were the shelves and the book they contained, they were the most important parts of a bookstore. There were many of those shelves, standing in rows around the room and all along the walls but, there weren't that many books in them. Only a few rows were full and some entire bookshelves were left empty, standing in the open, as clean as the rest. Despite the fact the whole place was perfectly and carefully maintained, it's lack of content gave the eerie feeling the place was decaying, not unlike what he felt in front of the lake.

"I like how clean this is but, is it not a bit, empty?" He said, hesitating on the word to use at the end.

"It is." She answered calmly. "I've had to sell many but I'm having a hard time filling them back up. Many of the books here belonged to my parents, I didn't want to sell them but I ran out of choices."

She had said belonged, as in no longer. Were her parents just gone? Or maybe dead? Chinui disliked to talk about his brother too, if her parents were dead, that would explain why she did not want to talk about them. Since he did not want to upset her again, he let the subject die and let her do her work.

Once all the candles had been lit, she placed the first one back on the desk and picked up a note written on a parchment , probably the one left by her grandmother.

"So" Galana said while eyeing the note. "She said to give you a Bilingual dictionary but I sold mine long ago so I will have to skip that one. Don't worry, I think I can find something to replace it somehow. The rest should be fine."

She went around the half filled bookshelves and collected four large books that she placed on the desk in front of him.

"This one is a regional monster encyclopedia, this one is a history book of the Steelwood empire, this one is a collection of folk tales in your language and the last one is the same book but in the southern common language."

The t.i.tle of the third book read: Woes and heroes of our woods. Emp wondered what kind of stories it contained.

"Here is what you are going to do." Told Him Galana. "You will read the last two side by side, since they are the same, the words should more or less match even if they aren't in the same language. By comparing each sentences, you should be able to find the meaning of most words."

That was a clever way to do it.

"I understand, that should be fine. But, would it not be easier if it was all in the same book?"

"That is what the dictionary was for. It's a book that goes through each words one by one with their equivalent in the other language. I used it a lot to learn the n.o.ble tongue. It is one of the most useful tools you could have and I wish I still had one myself. I once heard there is also a book comparing the letters of every languages, It must not be useful at all but it must be impressive to look at. Truly a magnificent work of art."

Both of those book seemed impressive seeing how Galana praised them. With a book like the dictionary, he could have just asked it for whatever words he wanted... Could he not do the same with the book of answers? He had not thought about it before this moment but he could have just asked the book to tell him the words he needed.

"I also have an interesting book I would like to show you. It was Sage that gave it to me."

"What kind of book?"

Before he answered, he got the book out of his bag and put it down on the desk beside the other four. Its old cover outs.h.i.+ning the others by a dozen times.

"This is the book of answers. I can ask it anything and it always give me the answer. For example: What is the worth of the four books I plan to buy?"

Emp opened the book at a random page and the answer was written clearly. ''The combined worth of the four books is of five gold crowns and thirty four silver scepters.''

"Five gold coins and thirty four silver coins, is this correct?"

She nodded with a face between wonder and disappointment and Emp Gave her six gold coins.

"I do not have enough silver ones so I will pay with crowns, you can keep what is left."

She stared sadly while he put back the five books into his bag and she pocketed the money he gave her. He thought she would have been impressed with the book but instead it saddened her. Or maybe it was because it pained her to part from her own books, if they belonged to her parents, she probably felt sad to watch someone take them away.

"If you want, I could send them back to you once I am done with them."

"Even if you really did, I wouldn't have the money to buy them back at that point."

"Who is talking about selling? I can just send them back as gifts can I not?"

"Did we not talk about gifts many times before? You should not give things to peoples you don't know."

"But I know you more than anyone aside from Chinui now. Can I not just say we are friends?"

The only things that made it difficult to understand her was that she refused to tell him anything about her parents or her hate of n.o.bles. Emp wasn't certain of the appropriate description of what a friend was but if Galana wasn't a friend he wasn't sure what else she could be. A helpful stranger perhaps? It did not feel right for him to call one of the few people he knew by name as a stranger. Maybe he should call Bernard the mage a friend as well, after all, he was indeed friendly no?

"You really are an idiot." She said in a sigh. "Get out now so I can douse the candles and close the shop."

He did as he was asked, but resolved to send her back the books anyway. Once she had them, she wouldn't be able to refuse them, if she did, she would have to pay to send them back all the way to Bêtéclair. Emp did not believe she would do such a thing.

Galana extinguished the flames, closed back the door, locked it again and took the path towards the north gate with Emp.

***

Long ago, a young man was traveling wherever he pleased. With large sums of money, he organized b.a.l.l.s and feasts wherever he went.

Over the years, he met a countless amount of people, some lovely and others vile. He found that whoever they were, be they guardsmen, n.o.blemen or slave, they had all one thing in common. They all lied. Either they lied to him, to others or to themselves, they all twisted the truth to their own convenience.

Small or big, white, sweet or fueled by greed, a lie was still a lie and all of them were fine. He often lied as well to improve his own life and garner the flattery of those he met. But, as fate would have it, he one day came across a G.o.d named Truth. Since no one was there with them, no one knows for sure how it happened but, when the man came out of the trial chamber, he had been cursed.

From now on, the G.o.d had said, all the things you say will become the truth, henceforth, not a false word will ever escape your mouth.

At first, the man, like everyone else, thought it was a boon instead and used his newfound power with great efficiency. He went back to town and easily became it's ruler with two sentences. This castle is mine. I am the king now.

Like the G.o.d had declared, what he said became truth and the crown was placed on his head.

Records of his time as king are hazy at best. In all likelihood, the many changes appearing overnight in his kingdom prevented anyone from writing things down clearly. After all, what was true one day might have been false the following.

With so many changes, some were bound to reach us and through the ages, some of his declarations remained clear.

At first, with is power, the lord of truth brought great things to himself and others.

Be a.s.sured, he would say to a man, your wife never cheated on you, and so it was.

When a woman was pleasing to his eyes, he could just tell her, I'm sure you love me, and so she did.

When he ate something, he could just declare after the very first bite that it tasted even better than usual and flavor would invade his mouth.

When they came to tell him about the lack of lumber, he answered by saying it was impossible to not have enough wood since forests covered every bit of land from the eastern border of his kingdom all the way to the mountains far beyond the westernmost border. Anything he said had the power to change the world and from endless plains, his whole kingdom and those neighboring him became the most forested of all lands.

My lord, a man would plead, the citizens are starving, the fields are full of trees. The king would answer, how could they be starving with all this food? The harvest has been great this year, we have plenty of reserve. And indeed there was.

But, how could the anger of a G.o.d be so easily dodged? However you see it, a curse is indeed a curse and no amount of careful thinking would let him escape it. Every word coming out of him had the potential to break him or the world. Having led a life made of feasts and b.a.l.l.s up until now, he had a sharp mind and a swift tongue, he loved to jest. Whenever he would say a word without thinking, something catastrophic would happen.

How many poor souls angered him by accident and left the castle turned into a crude animal or a sentient sack of excrement by his careless insults? Any pa.s.sing comment he made could turn something ordinary into a farce or worse, a monstrosity.

One man farted in his hall, the king said he was disgusting and so he became. His new appearance was in fact so revolting that the king could not help but say more, ugh now you're even more disgusting than a monster, and so it was.

He quickly had to give up on any jokes and jests he wanted to say since every time he made one, he regretted it deeply. Of course, the time he slept with his friends mother was terrible but after a group of fairies kidnapped nearly a thousand kids and a grain mouse ripped apart almost all the guards in his castle, he had enough and sealed himself with a few words, I will never jest again.

This was not the only things he came to have trouble with, for example, he could not say that he loved the cake his personal chef made because he feared he would romance the cake. He could not profess his love to any of his wives or kids either since even though he felt it was really the truth, he didn't dare find out what would happen to his own mind if he said it aloud.

He also had to be careful to never exaggerate anything after the time he declared he wouldn't go hunting in the forest near the northern hills because it was always windy enough to fell trees.

As time pa.s.sed, more and more came to ask for his favor or manipulate him into saying insane things. The worst offenders in this were his own marquess and an envoy from a neighboring kingdom. One had him turn an entire nation to sand and the other made him grow a giant forest of thorns to protect his northern border.

One time he was eating with the marquess, he asked him about his eastern neighbor. The marquess harboring dreams of conquest, told him not to worry since all there was east of their border was sand and dust. Since there was only sand and dust all the way up to the sea, asked the king. Would they not come invade his lands for their resources? From then on, only dust and sand was to be found in the east because of how he had framed his question, but it did not stop there.

They would never attack my lord, said the marquess, they are a peaceful nation content with their lot. I see, answered the king, for such a peaceful nation to exist, they must be a land of scholars and artists, they are surely respected by all that know of them. Hence, the marquess thirst of conquest was stopped by the respect he held for his neighbors now blessed with artists and scholars but cursed to live in an empty land.

Similar things happened not only with the envoy for his forest of thorns but time and again. The king eventually found out, he was reminded that all those he knew lied, all the time, for any reason. Why must they all be lying to me? What are they making me say? He started to distrust those around him, and distanced himself from them all. The same was also happening in reverse, fearing a catastrophe would happen to them if they were ever to be the target of the king's words, they came to fear him.

One day, looking at the strange gaze harbored by everyone in his court, he was reminded of all the horrors he had caused to his people. They must all hate me for what I did, I'm sure. He told his councilor. Realising his mistake just as the words left his mouth, he said all that crossed his mind in an attempt to reverse what he had done but the truth stayed the truth however much he tried to lie to himself. Once said, a truth cannot be taken back.

Crowds came all at once and no one stopped them, the guards were on their side. He did not have to say it aloud to know the truth, they wanted to kill him.

Cornered, he screamed at them, you can't kill me, and thus it was the truth, they were unable to kill him. But, they still needed to get rid of this walking calamity, the one who caused the death of innocent children, the one who covered the fields in dark woods, the one who could kill them all with a single misplaced word.

They decided to seal his lips, with thick white tread and a needle they seized him. In his panic, the last thing he said was, if you do that, our kingdom will fall to ruin! They did anyway, fueled by a divine hatred, they sowed his lips together, tied him up in chains and shackles and left him in a stone sealed mausoleum.

Like he had said, the kingdom fell to ruin and was swallowed by the trees and it's beasts. its inhabitants left and new kingdoms later came to be. Of what happened to his descendants, nothing is certain and his name has been forgotten but two truths remain.

Truth holds power and angering it or any other G.o.ds will leave you with a fate worse than death.

-- Words of truth, Woes and heroes of our woods.