There was a library in the Black Market as well. Nikola knew that it probably had more forbidden tomes.
But he was beginning to step into his role as a goblin leader. He couldn't just go to the shady part of Mirstone and demand the respect of those who walked in the light.
Arch, Brog and Flog were by his side. The Holy Shopping Bag was already full to the brim with meat.
Arch was even eating a nice piece of beef jerky.
All was well until Nikola opened the door of the library. Only to see cobwebs being brushed to the side by this action.
"I don't like this," Nikola said, for he didn't think that someone had been visiting the building recently. The shelves were still stacked to the brim with books, but there was no one at the receptionist's desk.
"Ghosts," Arch said, taking out their last bone carving. "Tricksters. We'll handle it!"
Nikola took a step back. He could see a dark creature surrounded by mist on the other end of the library.
"Ok, you," Arch began, as he waved the bone carving around. "You have horded knowledge long enough! Care to tell me why you even did it?"
The ghost let out a moan. Nikola could see its sharp fangs from the doorway.
"And don't you even think about eating us!" Brog continued, who took out some lavender and began to wave it around. "We are not humans, we are goblins! You can't do us any harm! That is written in the supernatural beings' treaty of 681!"
"Yes, you are right," the ghost finally said. "But you don't know the whole story!"
Nikola decided that he needed to hear this. He stepped through the door and closed it behind himself with a click.
Sitting on the dusty floor, he wondered just what exactly could have possibly happened in a library for there to be a ghost haunting it.
"I used to be a librarian here!" The ghost began as it sat by the goblins. The green-skinned creatures were still holding up the carved bone. The black miasma that surrounded the ghost turned white.
It let out a sigh.
"But people kept on sneaking in to get books for free. You know how those rune crafters are. Always trying to get a free meal."
Nikola scratched himself on the head. Was he going to be lumped up with such people?
"And then, one Dark Lord came in here one day. I told him that the last book on how to make a phylactery was checked out. He only needed to wait another day so that the person who took it could return it. And did you know what he did?"
"He killed you?" Arch asked who would have done the same if he had been asked to wait for a book.
"No! He turned me into a goblin. I was chased out of Mirstone because no one believed me that I used to be a human. Then I was caught by a goblin tribe that believed I was a human and ended up as stew."
Nikola hadn't expected that. He guessed that if he got turned into stew, he would also refuse to move on.
"I gave them all indigestion. Lich mana does that to a stomach," the ghost continued, his black miasma gaining on in color. "But that doesn't change the fact that I am still dead. I just don't want to move on. Do you know in which level of hell I will end up in after giving an entire tribe worth of goblins the runny joy? They were floating in the latrines!"
Nikola figured that if he had to guess, then he'd say the very first level. After all, it wasn't the librarian's fault he had ended up as stew.
The goblins were to blame as well.
"Look. The longer you stay here, the longer the town stays without a library. How long do you think it will be before the Black Market librarian comes in here and takes all your books?" Nikola asked.
More than a little hopeful that he would be able to get a library card and the books he needed.
After all, a ghost could be put to work. He was sure that it still knew all the codes and procedures.
Death didn't mean the end of bureaucracy.
"I know. But the thing is, the Lich keeps coming back and taking books. As long as he keeps doing that, my spirit can't pass on!"
That sounded like a quest to Nikola's ears. He nodded, trying to think up a way to diverge from this situation.
"We will do the meat delivery to our tribe," Arch said as he patted the ghost through the hand. "And then we will come back in here to set up a trap for the Lich!"
"Arch!" Flog protested, who didn't like his chances against a necromancer. "We'll need an entire bag full of carved bones for that! The tribesmen will have to eat up all the meat to get to the bones! And what if they are too lazy to do anything but sleep after they stuff themselves so?"
Arch just shrugged.
"I didn't say it will happen in a day," the goblin countered. "The ghost is not going anywhere."
"And it is a good idea," Nikola pipped in, who was reading through Arch's logical cues. "If the word gets out that we have gotten rid of a Lich, then we are going to become famous!"
"Or dead," Brog said, ever the realist.
"No Lich can stop a goblin on a mission!" Arch roared as he patted himself on the chest. "And even if the entire tribe has to eat for days without stopping, we will get rid of the Lich!"
Nikola nodded, his heart filling up with warmth.
"Because you see the value in the librarian's plight? Because the goodness of your hearts won't allow for anything but?"
Nikola had hopes.
Hopes that the goblins were going to change. Hopes that the goblins were going to become upstanding citizens.
"No! Because he thought that it was an insult to turn a human into a goblin! Well, I felt insulted because of that! Being a goblin is no punishment! It is a gift from nature!"
Nikola sighed.
He just had to take what he was given.