All was quiet in the waffle hut for the first time in living memory.
Strix was busying herself with a few spell scrolls she'd found, Diath with the map he'd drawn of their location. Evelyn had her holy book in front of her, though it was obvious her attention was divided as she kept glancing up at their resident bard with a hopeful expression on her face. For his part, Paultin didn't seem to have noticed the paladin's distraction. His own attention on the sheet of paper he was fiddling with, quietly humming to himself every once in a while.
Even Simon and the pets were quiet as the adventurers studied their various skills.
It was a rare moment when the waffle crew could find a moment of peace, and it was always interrupted.
Today was no different.
"I DON'T KNOW MAGIC ANYMORE!"
The cry was accompanied by magic scrolls flying through the air and crashing on the ground, on the table, and on Diath's head as well as a loud thunk as Strix's head collided with the table as her friends stared.
"Of course you do," Evelyn said gently patting Strix on the head, her own book laying forgotten. "You're great at magic. Isn't that right, Diath?"
She looked up at the treasure hunter as he peeled the scroll off his face.
"Naturally," he said in a calming tone placing the scroll gently beside her. "I've never met a better magic user. Think of all the dire situations you've gotten us out of. Remember those two demons at the gate to the Amber Temple? We'd all have died if it wasn't for you."
She just whined into the table.
"I always love it when you explode everything. That's so much fun. And how you keep us from getting hurt from it. That's really hard magic, I can't do that." Evelyn continued patting her head.
Strix cried out in frustration, throwing a scroll at Evelyn.
"What's wrong? Are you stuck on something? I don't know magic like you do, but maybe we can help." Diath put his map aside and knelt down next to her unrolling a random scroll. His eyes went wide and his mouth hung as he tried to read it but he said nothing.
Strix barely peeked up. "I don't need help. I know magic, I can do it myself."
"Now that's no way to be, we're happy to help, and by the grace of Lathandar-"
"So what are you stuck on?" Diath interrupted, he peeked at Paultin, who out of the three of them was most likely to actually know how to help since he and Strix shared several spells between them, but Paultin was staring at his own work with determination on his face. He was going to ignore them to the very end.
Strix began to explain her problem, pulling several scrolls out from under the messy pile and throwing ones she was finished with.
Evelyn and Diath just stared at her as she ranted, her voice steadily getting louder and louder as her frustration mounted.
"-and there's not enough butterflies to make the dust so the water can't eat them!" She finished, her voice escalating to a scream before punctuated by her head once again slamming onto the table and the silence following it.
"Water can't what?" Evelyn asked looking at one of the scrolls as though it would reveal to her the secrets of inborn magic.
"Eat them! Eat the butterflies! But only after the clouds drown the fish!"
"Right..." Diath put his scroll down, his face regretful at his own uselessness in this situation.
"Can't you just use caterpillar cocoons instead? There's butterfly bits inside them," Paultin said, not peeking up from his music.
"Paultin, if you're not going help-"
"That's it!" Strix yelled, pulling a random scroll closer to her and writing furiously now.
Paultin gave Diath a smirk, his eyebrow raised. "You were saying?"
"Never mind," Diath pouted and returned to where he'd been sitting.
"Good job, Paultin. I should have known you understood all that. You're so smart." Evelyn beamed at him, but he didn't even glance at her.
"Nope," he replied.
"Sorry?"
"I have no idea what she was talking about. I just guessed."
Diath stared at him. "You guessed."
"Yep."
Diath opened his mouth, with several thousand things to say, but simply closed it again before shaking his head and returning to his map.
"Are you writing a new song? Can I hear it? I love hearing you play, I bet it'll be just wonderful-" Evelyn continued, the peaceful silence of before now shattered forever.