Gerhart found himself conflicted as he walked the streets with Cirice. On the one hand, he loved every moment he had with her, but on the other there were books involved. For the longest time he had been able to put off really confronting it, but the hunt for the Night King Troll with Astrid made it clear he needed to do something.

Without the help of the half-dwarf he would not have known about half of its weakness and probably would've ended up paste on the wall. He was slowly starting to learn instinct isn't enough at the level of problems people ask him to help with. The ranger knew he was a good fighter, he knew he could scrabble together a plan out of most situations, but how much better could he be if he could actually read dossiers?

Normally, he might just ignore it and soldier on, but with Cirice's love for books and her love for him not being dead it sort of left him with no choice. He gently took her hand was they walked through Eclipse City towards the library.

"I can't promise I won't complain you know~" He grins over to the moon elf.

“I can’t promise I’ll be the best teacher. You’re welcome to complain all you like.” Cirice chuckles, threading their fingers together. “Common is my second language after all. But I hate that you’ve gone so long without the joy of reading… Your father writes but he never taught you to read? I can’t imagine.”

There’s no pity in her voice, just incredulity. It’s hard for Cirice, coming from such a contrasting background from Gerhart, to really understand some aspects of his childhood, but she’s determined to support him and help him in any way she can. She will make sure that he has all the power and knowledge he could ever need so he’s safe and sound always. And learning new things together is one of the joys of a relationship, right?

“Don’t worry, I’ve heard there is a truly wonderful bookshop near here that caters to all kinds of things and people. We’ll get a really cute book about something you like and we’ll have fun reading it together! I’m honored to bring two of my greatest loves together!” She’s beaming with joy and glee at the entire plan, snuggling in her wagon with her beloved as she helps him learn. A cozy little date that is totally danger-free, the adventurers deserved it surely.

"I don't think he ever really thought about it...for the longest time he said he never wanted kids. We were just some orphans he found. He read to us all the time, did puppet shows, I just don't think he knew about any of the stuff like that about raisin' kids, ya know?"

He shrugs, he was more than willing to give Arkmir the benefit of the doubt. Sure, in hindsight he should've taught the kids to read, but at that point he was just a traveling carnival not a daycare. At least that's what he would tell them when the kids begged him for things. He provided clothes and food, sure, but not without complaining.

Gerhart holds open the door to the bookstore, The Book Wyrm, and then follows in behind Cirice. He looks idly around the shelves, not really knowing what he is supposed to be looking for. For now, he was happy to let Cirice lead, it meant he got to smile and watch her happily dance from shelf to shelf.

Some of the stories he idly pulls off to look at are the same ones he was read as a kid, even a few of Arkmir's own stories appear.

“Never wanted kids and yet he got a gaggle of them.” Cirice chuckles, “It sounds like he’s a good dad regardless of his failings.”

Her eyes are wide and sparkling as they enter the store. A sharp intake of breath fills her lungs with the smell of old books, paper and ink. She looks at Gerhart with unbridled joy before flitting between the shelves. It doesn’t take long for her arms to be laden with books, so much so that eventually she ends up using telekinesis to hold her growing pile. This is going to be expensive, luckily adventuring pays well.

“Gerhart, Gerhart look! I’ve found several of Arkmir’s books! I’m going to get them all!” She comes over and shows him her finds. “Here are some really nice fairytales and old tales from adventurers! What kinds of things would you like to read?”

Her enthusiasm is boundless and contrasted heavily by the thin, frail man at the counter. He looks like he’s barely hanging onto life, worn and hunched and only giving them the barest of glances.

Cirice starts taking each book out of her stack and reading the titles to Gerhart to see what he might enjoy or recognize, if possible she’d like to get a few he already knows so he can more easily put the image and sound together.

“You know… Good students deserve rewards. If you work hard, I’ll reward you however you like!”

---

1 telekinesis

Every so often as they reach for a book, the clerk flinches slightly. It's something Gerhart catches out of the corner of his eye, but they are being a little loud maybe he's just the anxious type. Hard to see, ya know? Some people are just odd.

"However I like huh?" He grins letting the implication hang in the air, of course it was only a tease. There was no need to say it outloud, that would be ungentlemanly and Gerhart was a proper young boy.

The ranger pulls out a few more books to look around, raising an eyebrow as one starts to shift. On the other side of the bookshelf, Cirice would hear some clattering and rumbling. It sounded kind of like something tapping against metal. Before she could come to investigate, Gerhart would come around the corner with a book trying to eat through his gauntlet.

"Is this normal?" He waggles his arm but the thing seems determined to hold on. "It's not getting through, but boy is it trying to.

"AHH I KNEW IT, I KNEW THE DEMON WAS STILL HERE SOMETHING HAS OVERTAKEN MY BOOKS!" It seems the sales clerk had a reason for his fidgeting nature.

Circe winks at him and goes back to pursuing the shelves until the sound catches her attention. She looks over to Gerhart being noshed on by a book with teeth. Her brow furrows and she comes over to inspect it curiously.

“No I don’t think so… I’ve heard of cursed books though so maybe…” The clerk’s shriek cuts her off. A demon? In the books? What? She starts to grab the book on Gerhart’s arm and pull it off when the floating stack of books she’d had following close behind her suddenly comes to viscous life and tumbles down on top of the both of them!

Hundreds of small teeth gnash and gnaw at the pair, trying to over power them and have an easy meal, but they were not expecting a pair of adventurers as their prey.

As they struggle under the small avalanche of books, Cirice calls out to Gerhart. “This is certainly not normal! Not at all! I've never seen any books so hungry!”

Blinking out from under the pile to give herself some distance, she retreats away towards another shelf, trying to figure out what she can do to harm the monstrous books without hurting Gerhart¹. She casts quicken on him, thinking that will help him easily escape the paper and teeth prison². And then the bookshelf behind her begins to tremble and shakes more of the books come to life!

“Goddess, are they all evil?” She asks in despair, summoning Crestfallen into her hand. "I don't want to harm the books, but they certainly want to harm us!"

---

1 Blink
2 Quicken

Gerhart doesn't seem too worried about the books, the small teeth are not big enough to get through his armor. Most of the books are just peeled off and tossed aside, but as he does they start to reform into a much bigger entity.

"I'm starting to think these ones might not be an actual book." The little ones likely had their fun biting hands of people not covered in armor, but the bigger one looks like a much more potent threat.

Gerhart drew his swords as well, not really sure about what to do. He didn't want to ruin this place, that would probably upset Cirice.....but fights sorta get messy sometimes.

"All right, you weird little guy, gonna leave or do we have to-" Gerhart challenges the mimic[1] but he's cut off as it lashes out with a weird sticky protuberence. The psuedopod sticks firmly to his gauntlet and attempts pulling him in. "OK Fine, hard way I guess."

The ranger swings with his free hand to cut himself loose, the mimic screeching in anger. With a slightly disgusted look he tries to shake off the piece sticking to him, but it still holds tight even when detattched.

"I'd stay back Rice, this thing is....I don't know what it is but it is gross.

---

1. Challenging Mark

“Ew! You can say that again!” Cirice says as she slices through a few more books that try to tumble down on top of her. “What is this thing??”

As her sword cuts through what appears to be paper and leather, the illusion melts away, leaving only gooey viscus material behind, some sort of… guts?

Cirice is trying to stay as far from the main creature as possible, but the smaller ones bite at her boots and throw themselves into her hair, the worst part being that as she tried to pull them off they clung fast. She nearly pulled out some of her own hair trying to wrest one from one of her braids.

“Ugh they’re so sticky!” She cries, even her bracelets are firmly cemented to her wrists by the lashing tongues of the pests.

“Enough!” Her voice rings out more loudly and more commanding, deeper than normal and almost dualistic, and the wriggling mounds of teeth become still, as if listening. “Let go of me.¹”

As if they were just raindrops sliding from a duck’s back, the ooze-like monstrosities fall to the floor, freeing her from the sticky prison. They lay still, almost like a puddle of goo and teeth before scuttling forward towards the larger creature and filling out its form further. The monster grows larger in size, knocking any still standing shelves aside. The shop is an absolute disaster.

The thin old shopkeeper peeks out from below the counter and shouts “SEE? SEE? I TOLD YOU! A DEMON! A DEMON IN MY BOOKS!"

---

1 Profane Command (fiend lvl 3)

Gerhart would have to bring up the weird sounding voice at a later time but that was certainly something. Not something he was expecting, but something. Focus!



The ranger has to shout in his own head to pull his focus back as the thing goes for a hand. He manages to wedge his blade in its mouth enough to prevent it from clamping down completely, but it is still stuck to him.



"Fine, Didn't really wanna do this indoors but." He inhales and out shoots lightning from his mouth as his cuirass crackles with the energy. The searing heat causes a sickeningly wet squelch from the creature as it releases from his arm and takes of to try and hide again.



"WAIT NO! Dang it...." Before he can chase after the mimic runs around a book case and seemingly disappears. It is impossible to tell where it is as Gerhart jogs around the aisle to try and find it.



"Just look for a book with burn marks I guess?" This really was not helping towards getting him into reading. Obviously this isn't how all book stores are but if you get attacked in the first book store you go in to that's enough reason to give a man pause.

Blinking Cirice just looks at Gerhart dumbfounded for a moment. “D-Did you just breathe lightning?? I didn’t know you could do that! That’s so cool!”

The seriousness of the situation is not lost on her, but she can’t help but be in awe of her beloved hero.

Books. Monster. Focus. She reminds herself, shaking the infatuated daze out of her head as the mimic makes its escape. Their date had taken quite the unexpected turn, but she hoped that this wouldn’t spoil their plans. Though the way things are going there might not be much bookshop left when they’re done. Perhaps they’ll find a nice book in the rubble…


“Burned book? But if it can make itself look like anything then don’t you think it can hide any scorching?” She hates what she’s about to say as it hurts her deeply. “We-we might have to find it by attacking wildly and seeing if it defends itself. If we cause a large enough area of damage it’ll get caught in it and try to fight back. I hope.”

“Kill the damned thing!” The shopkeeper screeches, “Don’t let it go, its been holding me hostage in my own damn store! Burn the books if you have to, just get rid of it!”

Tears collect in the corners of Cirice’s eyes, this is a nightmare, an absolute affront to her very nature. Making them harm books was the most despicable thing this monster could have done and in order to rid the pest even more damage was needed. She holds her hands out before her, the runes on her arms glowing beneath her gloves. The fine layer of dust that makes itself at home in all places that enshrine books begins to stir¹. Pages begin to flutter and be ripped from their bindings as the dust begins to swirl around her like a small maelstrom.

“Get out here, monster! Face us for your crimes against the written word and this city!”

---

---

1 Dancing Sand

"Hold on....I think we can avoid too much extra damage." Gerhart slows his steps and his breathing. His ears seem to gently shift towards new sounds[1] and he sniffs the air once or twice. The mimic creature didn't seem to bleed like they did, but the wound left something behind that he could track.[2]

He follows the stinging, chemical scent of the shapeshifter. The location can't exactly be pinpointed, but he can narrow down just how many books he needs to cut through. Cirice's maelstrom of sand helps by making it nervous, shifting away ever so slightly. The mimic hopes it can hide in a corner just long enough for the adventurers to give up hope.

Patience....wait...they'll leave any moment now, "THERE!" Gerhart calls out and quickly smacks the pommel of his sword against the spine of a book.[3] The mimic wiggles and wobbles as it starts to fall.

Gerhart flicks the book in a slow arc towards Cirice and her sand, "Finish it off Rice!" He grins across the way happy to watch her work. She had a lot more precise seeming attacks or at least Gerhart believed she did. If anything, he'd just counted on her to have something better than cutting a bookshelf in half to get one book.

---

1. Increased Senses
2. Blood Scent
3. Head Strike

The mimic book sails through the air as if in slow-motion. The creature gets swept up in the swirl of dust and debris and starts to try to expand and make itself larger. Its covers spread open like wings as goey half-formed pages try to spill out of it.

But it doesn’t get the chance to do much.

Cirice Lunestre, the curator of Charon’s foremost traveling library, reader, writer, and lover of books, takes the cue of her beloved Gerhart as he send the offender her way. Massive, sinisterly sharp claws of pure darkness easily three times the size of her hands form from her fingertips, fueled by the ire this creature has inspired¹. The whites of her eyes have gone pitch-black with swirling shadow, her lavender pupils burning with fury. With a savage swipe her claws cut clean through the creature, slicing squishy flesh, hard thick leather bindings and simulated pages into tiny pieces. In a moment the vile offender is nothing but a confetti of vicera on the floor. The sand stops swirling and the darkness recedes from Cirice as she takes a deliberate step forward and slams the heel of her boot into the single intact eye, smashing it to jelly with a satisfying squish. She straightens and brushes some of the carnage off her sleeves and skirt before taking a deep, centering breath and looking at Gerhart with a tired smile.

"Well… this wasn’t like any trip to a bookstore I have ever had before… Please don’t let this taint the experience for you.” There’s a little anxiety in her voice, “We can still get some books too, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted. Not that killing the monster was a waste…”

She balls up her fists at her sides in passion, “No. That aberration defiled books. Books are our silent ancestors! They house all the collected knowledge of all that Charon has come to know. They’re sacred!”

She takes a deep breath to quash her fury. The old shopkeeper takes this moment to spring up at shout at them.

“Is it dead?? Tell me you killed the demon! You can have as many fucking books as you want. I’m selling this damned place. Its cursed, CURSED!”

Cirice’s eyes alight with the most glittering excitement Gerhart has ever seen. “As many as I want?” She whispers in disbelief. She’s bouncing with excitement. “This is the best reward ever!”

---

1 Death Swipe beefed up by Abyssal Infusion 

Some might find it weird to so enjoy watching a romantic partner commit acts of violence against shapeshifting book monsters, but life as an adventurer is weird. Even among adventurers, some might find the dark claws and shift in appearance odd as well. It might raise some red flags, but Gerhart is a special kind of weird. It's just cool seeing the people you like show off what they can do, ya know?



He gives a soft chuckles as he sheathes his sword and crosses the store again to rejoin Cirice. Gerhart cups her face in his hands and leans down to kiss the top of her head. "I may be a little more cautious next time I grab a book, but I think I can still manage to try and learn."



He gives her a grin as the shop keeper starts to go off, it wasn't an unreasonable explosion. Part of the ranger wanted to assure him things were fine and that he didn't need to sell, but given the nature of mimics it was really hard to say there weren't any left. They could all just be scared of the two and waiting for them to leave.



"Better make this worthwhile then~ We can take as much as I can carry and if any of them try to bite us we can just throw it in the fire place~"