You could look at your suggestion box.
I have one of those?
Yes, let me look through them. A moment later Rami continued. Wow, people really hate you. Well, not you, but the library.
That’s not good.
The biggest complaints are the lower library is closed with no one to help them and there are no new books. Teachers and parents are upset about the impact on schoolwork.
Of course there is a dungeon school.
Lots of them, actually.
Ruwen finished his shower, dried off, and put on the black pyramid garb he’d gotten from Fluffy on his first day here. The snug fitting clothes made him feel like a Shade. He walked over to Whiskers and scratched the cat’s head, getting a quiet purr. Picking up Rami, he placed her behind his right ear.
A note had replaced the clothes and gear Ruwen had placed inside the bin. The paper listed an itemized invoice of repair costs. Evidently the sixty-eight Black Pyramid Tokens he’d earned while here wouldn’t cover the costs, and the remainder would be deducted from his librarian salary. They were even recharging his Watcher’s Ring of Travel.
Ruwen whistled and looked over at Whiskers. “You are an expensive kitty. Adding ninety-five charges is costing me over three thousand tokens. Are you worth that?”
Whiskers glanced at Ruwen and then returned to his nap, as if the answer to that question was obvious. Ruwen looked at the invoice again.
I have a salary? Ruwen asked.
Rami pushed her head out from under his hair to see the invoice. You get a twenty percent Custodial discount on all services, too. Not too shabby.
This invoice makes it look like I earn a thousand Black Pyramid Tokens a day?
That thousand includes money to run the libraries.
Okay, that makes a little more sense. What’s a normal salary here?
Mom takes care of most things. But vacations or fancier food or a nicer house cost extra. Anything over twenty-five tokens a day is good money here.
Ruwen put the invoice back and left his room. He studied the library around him and thought about the much larger library he still needed to visit in the lower levels.
I cleaned some robes for Fluffy that I think belonged to the last Ink Lord. That death looked messy, but why didn’t he just come back to work here after he revived?
Our previous Ink Lord hoarded his money to spend it on rare books for himself. At an Ink Lord Conclave, one of his crazy peers poisoned some of them. The cost for the cure was of course rare books. He wouldn’t give up any of his books, but the poison had infected his backup. So after he died, he revived and died again. Over and over until he had spent all the money he’d hoarded over the centuries and his god’s priests stopped reviving him. He lost everything over his books and died rather than hand them over to another Ink Lord. They are all insane.
Wow. Sounds a bit obsessed.
Yeah. Nobody liked him here, and he was a terrible librarian. I’m not sure how he got the job.
Did he have help?
Not much. Like I said, he liked to save his salary.
Well, Ruwen hoped that would be the first of many differences between him and the dead Ink Lord. After another moment of thought, he spoke into the air. “I would like to speak with anyone who worked for the previous librarian.”
A portal immediately appeared near the library entrance. A black spider stepped through the portal, its body four feet across. Ruwen forced himself to relax. Spiders were a close second to centipedes on the list of things he hated.
A chameleon exited from the top of the portal, climbing the wall, and then walking on the ceiling toward Ruwen. He took deep breaths to control the anxiety flooding his thoughts. Two Clapping Brawlers came through the portal and strode toward Ruwen. In moments, the four creatures stood in front of him.
“That was faster than I expected,” Ruwen said.
The spider dipped her front four legs in something resembling a bow. “Greetings Ink Warden, I am Qwyn. I once worked as the Senior Librarian.” Qwyn used one of her legs to point at the lizard. “This is Ipper our Senior Fetcher, and the Clappers are Thumbs and Knuckles, our Shelvers.”
Ruwen bowed to them all. “Thank you for coming. My name is Ruwen and I’m happy to meet you.”
“When we heard a new Custodian had been named, we were all excited, but in the last eight months our optimism has waned.”
Ruwen realized his two-month excursion into the Spirit Realm had been eight months here. “I’m terribly sorry about that. I was trapped and only escaped yesterday. I’m hoping you can help me make up for lost time.”
“We would be delighted,” Qwyn said.
Thumbs and Knuckles snapped their fingers and clapped their hands, and Ipper rotated rapidly through eight different colors.
“I have two immediate priorities,” Ruwen said. “To raise satisfaction by thirty percent and to shelve sixty percent of the books here and in the lower library.”
“If you would rehire us, we would be happy to get started,” Qwyn said.
Rami do you know what they were paid before?
Give me a second. A moment later Rami responded. Qwyn made fifteen tokens a day, Ipper ten, and the Clappers eight.
And you said twenty-five was a good wage, right?
Yes.
For the past eight months, even though he wasn’t here, Ruwen had earned a thousand tokens a day. His library account had over two hundred thousand Black Pyramid tokens. Eventually, he’d want to save a little of his salary to repair his gear periodically, but right now, he didn’t need any of it.
“Like I said, I want to make up for lost time. Each of you, for showing patience, and a willingness to work in the library again, will have your salary increased by five times.”
Ipper fell off the ceiling, and Ruwen jumped forward and caught him. The lizard didn’t weigh that much, and Ruwen’s Gold body barely moved from the impact. Thumbs and Knuckles stood completely still, each of
