While the fight was over, the destruction remained and the apologies only went so far with the residents. They found Falcher a couple of minutes north of the city, hobbling his way towards them. With a few stronger heals from Gelmen, he was able to walk normally again.
   
Taka took the grey furred Tasaki with him to the archives and tied him up in a chair there playing guard dog until he awoke. When he finally did, Taka let him have it. "Welcome to the land of the living."
   
The grey tasaki grunted and groaned, slowly coming to the realization he was tied up. "Wha-? Where am I?"
   
"Don't recognize the place, huh? Well congrats. You trashed the whole city like this. First, you raid MY library, then you go and destroy the city. You're lucky I'm not handing you over to the mob."
   
"City?" he was still very out of it. His head swayed from side to side and he was seeing octuplets of everything. "My head hurts."
   
"I'm going to make you hurt all over if you don't come to your senses." Taka spoke angrily. "What did you steal from my library?"
   
"Steal? I don't steal."
   
"You tore every book off the shelf looking for something very specific, what was it?" Taka placed a heavy foot on the tasaki's thigh and brought his face close to show him his anger.
   
"Specific?" memories flooded the tasaki's mind. He was searching for something. Something very specific. Words came to mind, passing with each frame of the memory. "Incantation? Magic."
   
"Magic? What kind of magic?"
   
"Control?" His words sounded fuzzy, partially slurred in his current state. He was second guessing his answers.
   
"Control type magic, that'll put me in the ballpark of stuff. I need specifics."
   
"Corpses, they were glowing purple." He said weakly. "I remember, something."
   
"Corpses? You talking necromancy?" Taka was suddenly curious. He pulled up a chair and sat down in front of him. "Tell me everything."
   
"I... my head hurts."
   
"It'll wear off in a few hours. What's this about corpses?"
   
"I don't... I don't remember..." The grey fox was squeezing his eyes shut. "Sickness? Coughs? Second. More?"
   
Taka sighed and stood up, pacing once again. The fox was speaking gibberish at this point. Whatever the impact did to him, it had screwed up his mind. "Control magic and corpses. Sounds like advanced necromancy. I do know that it was a small section. Which row was it down?"
   
Taka looked up towards the ceiling where he had signs suspended by small chains and hooks. Each of the signs had a section of literature written on it. He went down the far side aisle and stopped at the three shelves dedicated to necromancy and its study. All of the books were on the floor but mostly in one spot. He shuffled through them and started restoring them onto the shelf. Fortunately, his OCD came in handy. During the sorting of that specific section, he quickly discovered how many and which books had specifically vanished.
   
He then wrote down the names of the books that were missing, referencing a catalogue book he had stuffed in a desk near the entrance. "I knew I should've burned those books. I wonder what else went missing. Perhaps something out of the summoning or conjuring sections?" he thought to himself out loud. "Necromancy books are one thing to take but you can never summon too many creatures at once. With any luck this guy was a dabbler in everything." Unfortunately, the conjuration and summoning sections were very large, spanning across several hundred books and one wall.
   
There were a few knocks on the library door. "Place is in shambles! We're not open!" Taka yelled.
   
The door slid open and in came Michy. The orange fox looked around and saw Taka coming towards him. "You weren't wrong."
   
Taka looked up. "Oh, I thought. Ah, nevermind. I got some good news."
   
"I only came here to make sure you were alright." Michy said.
   
"I'm fine. Your party's fight with the colossus didn't hurt me."
   
"That's good." Michy ran up to Taka, slipping on a pile of mismatched books and tackled him. "I missed you, brother."
   
Taka wrapped his arms around him. "It's only been a year."
   
"A very long year."
   
"Alright, alright. I get, it's lonely up north, but can you get off me, I got a book that's folding my spine."
   
Michy rolled off and stood up, pulling Taka to his feet. "Bad pun."
   
"It was an accident. You going to stay and help me sort this or are you heading back out?"
   
"I'm gonna be heading back out. They still need me to track."
   
"Give this to your party leader." Taka handed him a piece of parchment with scribbles on it. "It's all the necromancy books that've gone missing from this library. There's likely some others but those books specifically, I want them burned."
   
"Burned? I thought you hated that."
   
"I do but I was a fool to think such knowledge could be safe in an archive, even a magically enchanted one like this. That knowledge should not be allowed to stay here on this world, not if we want to live peacefully."
   
"I understand. I'll let them know. What's the good news you had?"
   
"That was the good news. The bad news is that the tasaki you went werewolf to yank out of the giant is so screwed up in the head, I probably won't be able to get much out of him."
   
"At least there won't be anymore stone giants."
   
"That's a plus. So where are you guys going next?"
   
"I don't know. We haven't gotten that far yet. Or they haven't told me."
   
"Be safe, Michigellan."
   
"It's just Michy."
   
"Just because Father is dead doesn't mean I'm calling you that."
   
"You already did."
   
Taka sighed. "At least get married once this is over."
   
"That's your thing, not mine, besides, there's no tasaki or fummau around that wants a tracker as mate." Michy turned and started towards the exit. "But I'll give it some thought."
   
For the most part, the destruction to the town was limited to the section closest to the attack and impact. Two thirds of the city was unscathed and only a quarter of it was irreparable. Two hours following the collapse of the giant, the garrison, who were previously busy with evacuations, had finalized a damage report which they reluctantly showed to the adventuring group. Tilamo took a long look at the list of names. "I didn't think we had that big of a target on our backs."
   
Mirvelle patted his shoulder. "None of us knew and there was no way for us to. No one blames you for this."
   
"This may be a videogame but seeing almost a hundred names is very much haunting."
   
She folded his hands together, hiding the names from his eyes. "There's going to be more wherever we go. Storm would have us forget this list."
   
"Your right-"
   
"But we're not. Acknowledge and then avoid repetition. That's what I was taught growing up. Any more lives lost will be at our hands on purpose."
   
Tilamo nodded and stuffed the paper into his inventory. "I'll go check on Taka then and see if our prisoner has awaken."
   
"I'll get the others rounded up." Mirvelle said.
   
Conveniently, Michy had stepped outside into the open. Tilamo waved to him and walked over. "What's the word?"
   
Michy handed Tilamo the list. "These are the books that have gone missing so far. Taka wants them destroyed."
   
Tilamo glossed over the paper, taking count. "There's nine? Hopefully it's all the same guy who took them."
   
"Taka also told me that the Tasaki we pulled has gone crazy."
   
"That's no good." Tilamo paused for a moment and scratched his chin. "Oswald mentioned there was a fort near here, right?"
   
"There's one from the first Dominion further east. It's nothing more than a pile of ruins from what I know of it." Michy told him.
   
"Perfect place to check for lost books, lead the way."
   
An hour away from the city's walls was a collection of ruined cobble walls and shoddily built towers that had partially collapsed. However, there was something odd there ahead of them. The group hid inside a patch of tall grass and peered out between the gaps in the blades. "Michy, did you know this was here?"
   
"When I last saw this place, nearly two years ago, these flags weren't there. What's got me more worried is the corpses of gnolls," Michy said. "They look don't look fresh."
   
Falcher, himself being a gnoll had is interest peaked. "More gnolls?"
   
"Don't change loyalty now, Falcher," Tilamo warned. "Chances are these are not the good ones."
   
"No one said I was changing sides but I do have poor vision so, those corpses look like fur blobs more than anything else," he explained.
   
"Michy, do you see any movement?"
   
"Nope. whoever did this probably left."
   
"I'll take your word. Let's go." Tilamo stood up and lead the group closer to the ruins.
   
Little did they know, there was a surprise waiting around the corner.
   
"Attack!" screamed a gruff male voice. A collection of very short humans came rushing out from behind the walls with their weapons drawn and formed a sloppy combat formation in front of them.
   
"Oh shit!" Tilamo hastily unsheathed his sword.
   
Falcher took up a fencing stance with his rapiers drawn. Michy nocked an arrow into his bow and growled.
   
"Uh, guys." Mirvelle stood behind the group facing the other direction. "There's more."
   
They were surrounded and outnumbered five to one.
   
Tilamo quickly scanned the area. "Mirvelle, I need you to ready your tier ten shockwave. We'll use it's stun time make a break for the city."
   
Mirvelle pressed her palms together, "tell me when."
   
From on top of the wall, there was a slow slapping noise, not from hand to hand but the contact of hand to thigh. A figure stood on top, dressed in a torn black and blue cape and a roman helmet with a ruffled red plume. The rest of his armor was a mix of everything, both in style and material. The figure waved its right arm, showing off its bronze coloring and whimsical geared setup in the bright sunlight rays. The figure hopped down and the image sharpened in the shaded portion beneath the wall's shadow. The helmet came off and hit the dirt revealing a familiar face and recognizable ginger hair.
   
"Tang?!" Falcher called out.