A small group of friends sat around a table, reviewing new rules for a game. At the next table, a blindfolded wolf addressed the small audience gathered in front of her:
"Well, I know you're distracted, but does anyone mind if I start another story?"
Audience Member #1, a little girl with crimson eyes, jumped up and down with glee. "STORYTIME!" she proclaimed.
"Go for it," agreed Audience Member #2, a willowy woman with long hair and thick glasses. She made herself cozy, wrapping herself in a furry, cream-colored blanket. "I'm ready!"
"Arrgh," grumbled one of the gamers at the next table: a white-haired woman in a red jumpsuit. "I hate this card."
"I like that one. What's wrong with it?" asked a stony-featured man with a glowing crystal eye. "Apart from being really good."
"The templating is horrid," sighed the woman.
"There's worse," replied the man with the glowing eye, gesturing at a different card. "Just look at this one."
"That doesn't justify it," Audience Member #1 interrupted, "but we need to have story time! Your discussion will need to work!"
"It's working already," the woman said, examining the card. "What does that text actually mean?"
"We're discussing things!" the man agreed. To the woman, he added, "It seems straightforward."
"I meant wait!" Audience Member #1 corrected. "Your discussion will need to wait!"
"Please, folks, keep going," the wolf cut in over the girl's cries. "I'm just going to do my thing over here on the side. You're at the next table. It's no trouble."
The girl folded her arms and pouted.
The gamers nodded and continued their discussion. "But if it's forced to happen, does the effect override, or does it prevent it from happening in the first place? Does it prevent from extension?"
And so they went. The wolf began her story.
A tiny child lay in its crib, looking up at the stars painted on its ceiling. It cooed softly.
Suddenly, the lights went out.
The girl gasped, and Audience Member #2 curled up in her blankets with frightened eyes.
A faint clacking came from the hall, and the child's eyes widened fearfully. It sobbed softly, then started to cry. A long, fearsome talon slid between the crib bars and rested atop its lips, and the creature froze in fear.
Crimson eyes rose above the side of the crib, glowing in the dark room. A mask of horror twisted the air beneath it: countless needle-like teeth reflected slivers of dim light as the monster opened its mouth.
"Hussshhhh," the monster whispered. "Ssstory time. Heketch hasss a ssstory for you."
The baby seemed less afraid now, and it was starting to suck on the side of his talon.
"Oh my goodness," cried the willowy woman with thick glasses.
"That sounds dangerous," remarked the gamer in the red jumpsuit.
Audience Member #1 wore a very confused expression.
"Yes, folks," the wolf said, "we are now in a frame tale in a frame tale. I'm so very sorry."
Regicide Heketch sighed dejectedly and held up a storybook. "Once upon a time, there was a good little monsster, who wassn't like all the other monssterss. He liked the light, not the dark, and he wanted to be friendss with everyone he sssaw."
Heketch turned the page with the claw that was not occupying the child's toothless mouth.
The little girl clapped her hands in glee, but remained in her seat.
Audience Member #2 made the cutest, strangest sound of excitement, like a delighted meow.
"He ran away from home to find new friendss, and he met many sstrange people along the way. He sstarted to learn that jusst because he looked like a monsster, he didn't have to be one."
The assassin glanced down. Nope, still awake. He sighed and turned the page again.
"One day, he met a sstrange persson who wassn't like anyone he'd ever ssseen before. Their ssoul was full of light insstead of fear and hate, and it made them sstrong. The good little monsster was amasssed... amased... Ssurprisssed," he managed to hiss. "The ssoul of light ssaw that the monsster wass not a bad monsster at all, and sso the two became fassst friendss."
Cursing everything in the whole of the wretched Prime World, Heketch turned the page and continued.
"The monsster thought the light needed to be everywhere, even hisss home, sso he led the ssoul of light back to the darknessss where he had been born, where... wait..."
The little red-eyed girl held her breath and leaned forward.
Her willowy neighbor leaned forward as well, covering her mouth and whispering, "No, Heketch, no!"
Heketch removed the claw from the creature's mouth to quickly flip through the rest of the book. The child began to cry, so he handed it a knife to suck on instead.
"...No, no, no," Heketch growled. "Thiss iss ssso ssstupid. Thiss issn't right at all. Who writess thiss sstuff?"
He tossed the book aside and looked back at the child, leaning over the crib and smiling wide. The child's mouth froze, and its eyes grew wide.
"Back in the darknessss, the bad little monssterss ssaw what the good little monsster wasss doing," Heketch continued. "They ssaw the ssoul of light, and they hated it, and they hated him with all their hate. Sso they tied the ssoul of light to the good little monsster, and they burned them alive! But before they died, they tore off little partss of them until there weren't any left, sso their ssscreamss of agony would fill the hallsss of the underworld, like joyouss ssymphoniess of fear made manifesst in the endss of the ssoul of light and the good little monsster that jussst didn't get it right."
The child started crying loudly.
Heketch cursed viciously. "Sstoriess don't work, either! What makess thesse thingss sstay ssilent?!"
Audience Member #1 and Audience Member #2 sat in silence and rapt attention.
"You guys are the best!" the wolf praised. "Thanks for being such an engaged audience. I think we'd better skip ahead now."
"I know who wrote that book," squeaked the willowy woman.
"Help," called two of the gamers to a small, featureless child who was passing by. "We're confused. How does this card work?" The child sighed and meandered their way to instruct them in the game's finer points.
The wolf cleared her throat. "Let's move to... let's see... Ah! The chambers of the Overlord."
"Ooooooh," whispered Audience Member #2.
Overlord Cairngort Rexan reclined in an uncomfortable-looking chair with a small stack of essays. After a quick glance around to make sure no-one was watching, he smiled and said to himself, "Now to assay these essays. Hah! I never get tired of that."
A bloodstained children's book clattered to the ground in front of him, making him jump.
"I don't like puns!" he exclaimed immediately, then caught the familiar scent of unwashed Heketch. "Oh, it's just you, Heketch."
"Yeah, ssorry, kid'ss dead," the Rasp declared flatly.
The wolf paused momentarily, looking sheepish. "Uh... Content warning! Sorry, audience!"
"Well, it does make them silent," muttered Audience Member #1.
Audience Member #2 nudged the little girl and uttered back, "A horrible thing to say."
"Wait, what?!" Rexan put his head in his hands. "Not again... I specifically told you not to kill anyone while you were there!"
"I didn't mean to kill them all! I jussst really sssuck at baby-sssitting!"
"I—wait, you killed them all? The whole family?!"
"Really. Sssuck," Heketch repeated pointedly.
"I'm sorry," the little girl whispered back. "Sometimes the truth is horrible."
The willowy woman slowly nodded her head, her lids drooping as she replied: "Sometimes."
"Gods, Heketch," Rexan sighed, collapsing back into his chair and letting the essays slide carelessly to the ground. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you. It was just like this with the carpenter, the messenger, the juggler..."
"I ssort of liked that lassst one," Heketch admitted. "Lotss of blood in it."
"But that's not the point! Nothing seems to be working. I've got to find a job for you. You're too useful and too dangerous to have sitting around doing nothing."
"Oh, I don't know," Heketch muttered loudly, his tone thick with sarcasm. "Maybe you could have me kill sssomeone. That'ss a thing I do, in cassse you forgot."
Rexan sighed again. "No," he said firmly. "Gesselheim follows me to the last bone. I have no need to make further examples of my own people. And as for the other nations, I don't want to cut off the head of every nation in the world. I believe we are close to a peaceful resolution; to send you for such action now would only incite a needless war."
"What about Willat?" the Rasp suggested. "Nobody'd misss it."
Rexan thought for a moment. "Yes, screw Willat; you're not wrong. But I don't want Vilnar on my back. I'm not sure I want him on my side, but I definitely don't want him opposite. Rasps can integrate into society. My spies in Argent have made very positive reports. I'm sure I can find something for you to do that will make a better impression than murder."
"Lassst impressssion iss alwayss the besst," Heketch replied.
Rexan shook his head. "Maybe I can use you as a diplomat to... No, I like them too much. Perhaps if you were used to explore the ruins of... No, I'm sure I'd lose half the adventuring population that went in after you. If only there was someone you couldn't just kill when things went south! I think it'd really challenge you to grow."
Heketch grimaced. "I don't need to grow. Heketch iss complete."
"Perhaps, but I will find a way to force you to grow beyond what even you believe possible. I am nothing if not a leader. I just need someone you can't..." Then, the Overlord's eyes happened to fall on a small, decorated envelope on his bedside table.
The red-eyed girl leaned forward again.
"Kill, yesss, I know. You really get my needss and wantsss," Heketch continued in the most bored-sounding monotone he could possibly muster.
When his master didn't respond, Heketch eyed him carefully, and he noticed something that could unsettle even a Rasp: Rexan was smiling.
"I have another assignment for you, Heketch," Rexan said, and there was mirth in his tone. "It's another baby-sitting assignment. This one's for an old friend. He remained loyal for all the lost years, and I wish to show him favor by sending my most trusted servant."
"It went sso well lassst time, why not?" Heketch remarked, gesturing at the bloodstained children's book. "And you know I'm not flattered. I can't feel flattery, sso don't lay it on quite ssso thick, bosss."
Ignoring his remarks, Rexan simply picked up the envelope and handed it to Heketch. It took the Rasp several moments to get the thing open without damaging its contents, but when he finally managed a look at it, he gave Rexan a quizzical look in response. "A play?"
"At Galston House," Rexan confirmed. "The Trilives estate, practically speaking, since the bulk of their property went to waste not long after I did."
Audience Member #1 screamed in triumph, pumping her arm in the air.
To everyone's surprise, Audience Member #2 let out an ungodly fangirl screech as well, drawing stares.
Noticing that everyone's attention was on her, she curled back up in her blankets, blushing meekly.
"Um, yay," she corrected quietly.
"It won't go any better," Heketch warned.
"We'll see," said Rexan, still smiling. "Now go. Stop for nothing, same as before."
The Rasp vanished into the shadows without complaint, as always.
A few moments later, Rexan chuckled to himself. "Heh. 'Ghost op for nothing.'"
"That's all for now, sorry! I'll continue later on." The wolf thanked them for being a wonderful audience, then departed.
The red-eyed girl clapped and squealed with delight, and the willowy woman expressed her own excitement, as well. The latter started to speculate excitedly, but she was interrupted by the gamers at the next table.
"Sorry, but would you mind settling down? The story's over, and it's hard enough maintaining concentration without you girls giggling in the background."
She apologized for disrupting their concentration, then quieted and left alongside the red-eyed girl (continuing her speculation as quietly as she could on the way out).