"Oh!" Ophelia cried upon spotting Ananias in the distance and immediately dropping whatever it was that she was doing in order to converse with him. "Ananias! Ananias! Pray tell, how goes your mission to obtain the sacred treasures necessary for the great Ophelia Dusk to better attune herself with the celestial bodies that regularly bestow to her their heavenly power?"

Ananias sighed. "You know, it's not as grand as you make it sound when you consider the fact that I'M the one who's looking for all of these things for you."

Ophelia scowled and pouted at him in response. "Okay, fine! We'll just get right to the point then!" She then began hopping in place in impatient excitement. "Did you find the things on my list? Huh? Did you, did you, did you?"

Ananias nodded. "Yeah."

Ophelia let out a gasp of surprise. "Really?!" She squealed in delight. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" She then embraced him as she continued to giddily hop around. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise I'll make it up to you! I swear it! Chosen one's word of honor!"

"Yeah," Ananias dryly said, "first of all, that's a lie, and we both know it."

"Hey!" Ophelia whined, letting go of him in order to give him an angry pout.

"And two," Ananias continued, completely unfazed by her reaction, "before you start thanking me and owing me and whatnot, you're going to have to see this first." He then held up a piece of parchment for Ophelia to observe.

Ophelia curiously looked between the parchment and Ananias before slowly taking the parchment from out of Ananias' hands and shook preparing to look at its contents. "A piece of parchment? What for?"

"That 'piece of parchment'," Ananias explained, "is the estimated costs for all of the things that you wanted."

Ophelia's eyes widened in horror upon laying eyes on the one part of the parchment that truly mattered, the estimated total price at the end of it. "Oh gods!" she cried. "There must be some mistake! There's no way the objects that I requested could cost so much!"

"They technically don't," Ananias admitted, "but the required materials needed to get them and the cost of sending all of them back to you, well, that kind of raises the number of gold needed by quite a lot."

Ophelia looked up from the parchment and gaped at him in utter shock and disbelief. "What?!" she shrieked. "Required materials?! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well," Ananias calmly and dully explained, "for starters, those ancient scales that you need? Apparently they still haven't been officially found yet, despite the fact that everyone sorta kinds already knows where it is. It's going to cost a lot to buy the supplies needed to search for it, you know? And that's not even getting into the fact that, since my aunts, cousins, and nieces will be going out of their way to get it for you, they're going to want you to cover whatever possible injuries they might gain along the way. And then there's the possible mining equipment, the food, the hiring of the services of locals, and the fact that the scales themselves are actually a pretty big deal and are worth their own fair share of gold kind of factors into all of it too."

At this point, Ophelia was beginning to tremble upon realizing just how serious her situation had become. "Oh... gods."

"And then there's that little priestess statue that you wanted," Ananias droned on. "Apparently my family doesn't sell it, but they do know a guy who does, and chances are that they are going to need a lot of money to buy it off of him... and then after that, they're probably going to be asking a lot of gold from you to buy it off of them."

"I... I just..."

"And then there's that 'star stone' thing you wanted," Ananias monotonously continued on. "It's apparently pretty rare, even when people know where to dig one up, so you're probably being asked to pay for some hired help to help mine the area until they find one, and again, that also includes all expenses like equipment, food, supplies, etc."

Ophelia gulped nervously before quietly and apprehensively asking, "And the incense needed to perform the ceremony?"

"Oh, yeah," Ananias nodded, before simply shrugging his shoulders, shaking his head, and answering, "no, that's just my aunt asking for a hefty price on it, that's all."

"Oh... gods," Ophelia said, looking squeamishly back at the parchment and shaking her head in dismay at it. "The gold being asked for in this... it's more gold than I'll ever earn in my entire lifetime!"

"Well, I mean, you could try to, I don't know, save up your gold instead of burning through it all the time," Ananias honestly said.

"But even then, I won't be able to perform the ceremony until I'm old and wrinkly!" Ophelia whined. She looked towards Ananias pleadingly. "Oh, please Uncle Ananias! Tell me that you can offer me some kind of reduction! Any kind at all!"

Ananias looked at her regretfully and shook his head. "No offense, but I'm pretty sure that no 'reduction' of mine is going to make this any less affordable. Sorry."

Ophelia racked her brain in an attempt to make the expenses even somewhat manageable. "Couldn't I just, I don't know, write up an IOU or something?"

Ananias winced upon hearing this. "You probably shouldn't. IOU's aren't exactly fun, especially when we're talking about my family. With my family, that IOU... yeah, that IOU is just going to last forever until someone in your family finally pays it off."

"T-That's actually somewhat horrifying."

"I've seen grown men and women cry over it," Ananias muttered. He then sighed. "But... if I was the one who wrote it up, then maybe it would be... slightly more manageable."

Ophelia let out a gasp of surprise. "Pray tell, doth my ears deceive me? Are you actually insinuating that you will... you will..."

Ananias sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck and answered, "Yeah. If this ritual or ceremony or whatever really is that important to you, then... I guess I can write something up."

"Really?!"

"Well, better me than you, right? And my family likes me well enough, so why not? A debt shouldn't be too hard to pay with a couple of family members with deep pockets helping to pay some of it off for me."

"But still," Ophelia said, looking quite uneasy about the whole thing, "are you sure you really want to do this? I mean, it might sour some of your relationships within the family, right?"

Ananias simply shrugged. "Yeah, but, contrary to popular belief, relationships can be mended, and besides, I remember what it was like to want things, so if you're happy, then in a way, I'm kind of happy too."

"..."

"Well, see ya. I've got myself a major IOU to write up."

As Ananias left, Ophelia looked back down at the parchment in her hands and back at the great, big number at the bottom of it before giving said number a solemn and determined frown. "No, not this time! I'm tired of just asking! This time, I WILL make things right! Or my name isn't Ophelia Dusk!"