Chapter 10 Time's up with a side of confession.

"DIE FOUL BEAS-*urgh*!"

That was all that yet another pony mercenary, or maybe a hunter, managed to say while rushing towards the guardian of the pass, before having their insides impaled, by now surprisingly long talons, followed by having them pulled outside. He barely managed to look up from them to the being looking down at him, before succumbing to the injury. Potentially first by blacking out from the shock and then claimed by death.

"Fourth professional killer coming after me. And it is not even past a full week. A new record." Hena commented to herself as her power-up transformation ended, and proceeded to look over the poor sod that had come to make an attempt on her life. Typical travel-armour made out of mix of metal and sturdy cloth, some fancy looking knives, overly complex looking axe more fitting for a show-case rather than actual battle, even with potential enchantments on it, if the mild glow on it was any indication. And finally in the hunters bag found among some rations, a wanted poster adorned with a rough illustration of her. Most likely done based on semi-vague description of her.

"And another poster too. No payer name given, but that bounty sure seems to be big enough to make ponies walk to their deaths." she muttered while watching over the posters details. Nothing out of the ordinary things. Just her overall location, looks and now a five digit bounty. It used to be in four digit when the first ones started coming a month ago.
Due it having been around a week or so after meeting the royal alicorns, Hena had a potential idea of who might have put such a high prize on her head, mostly suspecting the pink maned one, who seemed to have issues with any presumed 'monsters' while also having access to resources in order to offer a bounty of this level.

"I can only guess the pink maned brat must be held back by the Queen since these are not soldiers. I wonder how long will it take for her to try and bankrupt the nation to just have me dead or otherwise gone?" Hena mused while levitating the hunters weapons with her still below average psionics to her treasure pile, which had visibly grown with several more sets of varied weapons and pieces of armor. Some much more expensive than others.
"If this keeps up, that rooms is going to get a bit full. And this one was rude to attack just after I had eaten. Gonna have to toss it to the side-chasm too." she continued while dragging psionically the fresh corpse to the start of the extra-narrow side-path, still behind some bushes, leaving a red trail to be cleaned later.
As she tossed the mangled corpse to the chasm, a strong gust of wind from its depths seemed to catch it, before letting it fall to the unseen bottom. She sometimes thought if the chasm below the side-path was alive in some way, just waiting someone to try and get past her that way. She had not personally seen anyone use it, so there was no idea how many bodies lie at the bottom.

With the corpse now disposed, the sphinx sauntered to the nearby stone wall with two smaller scratch marks on it and put her paw on it. With a focused expression, followed by a light glow from the wall, the marks began to mend themselves like someone had turned stone wall into modeling clay and started to smoothen it out, practically erasing the wall of any sign of there ever been any damage done to it. This also seemed to happen to the red trail left behind earlier body dragging, with stone moving to cover or swallow the mess.
"Aand that's the 'no-hunters-countdown' reset done, and before evening too. Maybe the next one would pick the riddle. Though that feels unlikely with this trend of many more hunters coming here lately... The things some will do for some coin." Hena muttered, while returning to her altar-stone spot to wait something to happen, starting to pass time with some grooming to get the blood off her fur, very much behaving like a huge cat.

As she carried on with getting herself clean, Hena's thought's began to wander towards Hermes, and thinking when that parchment smelling fluffball would come visit next time? Certainly there would be a need for more notes and copies of manuscripts of old in Wissen? Maybe she should pay them a short visit and maybe actually go and see what the Guardians of Knowledge had built there.
But that would leave the artifacts vulnerable, which means that such a visit would go against her given duty. These thoughts then began cause different pulls in her mind. One for staying and keeping up with her duty of guarding the artifacts and the location, and the other for going to see Hermes at his place of work. And finally a third pull for wishing for the said griffin coming to just visit her outside of working in the library.

The final one brought with it a pleasant feeling of warmth, along with some confusion. Sure Hena thought of that fluffball as a good person. Also smart, hardworking and not that bad looking either, latter thought was most likely aided a little bit by her changed physiology. She also found his eyes and well kept wings rather alluring.
After thinking a couple of literal minutes about Hermes, she finally came to a conclusion, standing up while spreading her wings in a determined manner, even taking her glasses off for a moment, with a growing warmth in her hearth.

"It is decided then. Next time he comes to visit, I shall ask if we could possibly take our friendship a little further. I just hope he is not afraid of the thought of potential intima-"

*tick-tock...*

Hena's rather pleasant thoughts were interrupted the mysterious ticking noise, that had been tickling her mental ear for a while, not really understanding what it meant. Only this time, instead of being only a teeny tiny attempt of an annoyance, it was followed by an absolutely searing Granddaddy of all headaches, bringing with it a mental image of her first riddle-kill. A torn up zebra if she remembered correctly in her state of agonizing pain. She just barely managed to power through it while grinding her teeth, before another image flashed by with another wave of pain, and a flooding of far too many emotions.
And as more mental images of her past victims flashed by at increasing speed, maybe few starting to repeat themselves, the pain began to spread all over her body. One second she felt like white-hot needles stinging her on one spot, and several spots on the next, followed by the feeling of absolutely freezing water being poured on her, among plenty of other kinds of painful stimulants to follow.
All the while more waves of pain were coursing through her mind and body, all she could do was just scream in agony, while falling off the altar stone, almost twisting her wings, and to instinctually try and claw the pain out of her head. By the time tears began to flow, the once quiet ticking noise had now turned from tiny annoyance into a feeling of someone trying to hammer her skull open. With no sign of stopping...

"Please... I'm begging... Make it stop..."

*TICK-TOCK...*

"Well... I was not expecting this kind of assignment for today. Maybe aiding in some decoding or taking copies of copies into archives, but a request and delivery for miss Hena... Not that I would mind..."

Hermes had plenty on his minds, as he kept walking up the path to meet Hena on a semi-official and also other perhaps a bit more personal matter, with some specific items in his bag, along with some basic rations. It had taken him around a week to go over about his thoughts about that beautiful creature, which led him to finally try to take a drastic step, at least in his mind, in their friendship. And then he was given a little task by his higher-ups, luckily also with the sphinx, so maybe he could get both errands done on one trip. Perhaps done in a single evening too. He just hoped thing were going well for her recently.

Those hopeful thoughts got rudely crushed as his ears caught something in the wind. An agony filled screaming which was coming ahead, which clearly belonged to the guardian of the pass. And it made hair in the back Hermes's neck stand up in panic and fear. Not for himself, but rather for Hena. Even though she was clearly a powerful entity, she still could get hurt, even by her own account.
Thus now driven by serious urgency, Hermes took flight and pushed forward in a hurry to reach the center of the pass to hopefully to try and stop whatever was happening there. Even at the cost of his own life if needed...

Finally arriving to the lair of the sphinx, wings aching, Hermes was left lightly stunned upon seeing the situation Hena was in. The sphinx was writhing and squirming in the middle of the path, seemingly trying, emphasis on trying, to claw her own head open, while whimpering something to no-one in particular. Almost like begging and pleading for something.

"Please, please... Just end IIIIT!..." Hena hoarsely begged through her tears, before her plead got twisted into a loud scream, making her throat even more sore.
After seeing his friend in such state, all Hermes had in his mind was to somehow to help her... Somehow... But first he simply started to carefully to try and get closer to her, even discarding his bag aside.

"Miss Hena! What's going on here?" Hermes managed to call out, drawing the badly bloodshots gaze of the sphinx to him.

"He-... Hermes? WhaAAAAAAAAGH!!!!" Hena whimpered out, before once again starting scream mid-sentence, while writhing in some unseen pain onto her side. Still confused, Hermes kept approaching her slowly, not wanting to risk causing some kind of curse to blow up on both of them by accident.
"N-no! Stay b-back! I... I d-don't... Wan't to... Hurt..."

Despite clearly begging him to stay back, or potentially to even run away, Hermes managed steel himself and kept approaching the sphinx. After ignoring maybe five or more pleads of him leaving, the griffin was now almost at a swiping distance.
"I can't just leave you in such state... And I would fully trust you with my very life..." griffin said, before taking a leap of faith... And put his arms gently on Hena's shoulders and managed to actually pull her into a heartfelt hug, despite her being larger of the two.

This made Hena fall still and almost completely silent. She had not expected her fluffball to pull such a move at situation like this. Even time felt to have slowed down in her point of view... Along with the tormenting vision of her past victims and agonizing pain fading away, soon almost ceasing completely, leaving behind physical soreness and some lingering phantom pain. Almost as if Hermes had some kind of soothing effect on her, while making pain inducing visions to go away.

"Did... Did something happen just now? You stopped shaking."

Hena initially stayed silent to griffins question, before getting the feeling back on her limbs, which enabled her move both her foreleg and wing of the same side and enclose her fluffball into a hug of her own. This in turn made Hermes go stiff, with his eyebrows jumping high in surprise.
"I... I think... I'm going to be just fine... Can you help me get back inside? I'll tell you more there... Maybe everything... Do... Do you perhaps have some water on you?" sphinx managed to finally say in a calm, yet still a bit hoarse voice.
"Of course, miss Hena." griffin said to the sphinx, while moving into better position help her walk back inside her lair. Luckily the doors had been left ajar the entire evening, only closing behind them.

As the evening went on, Hena told Hermes nearly everything. Starting from the fact that she was once... Something else from a different world entirely, who accepted a somewhat of a dubious job offering and got transferred into this realm of existence in her current form. Followed by the instinctual need to ask riddles from any passersby... And then just eating them alive when the unlucky or just less-intelligent ones answer wrong or try to kill her, while feeling absolutely no regret or any other moral dilemma of doing it. Until today that is, seemingly bringing with it ALL of the regret and several other mental stress's, potentially amplified.
Needless to say, Hermes was both amazed and baffled of all the things Hena had told him, while keeping her company on her pillow nest-bed, due to her somewhat embarrassed sounding request, which he had complied since she seemed to be in a desperate need company.

"Wow... That is... Quite a tale. And you barely remember your previous life?"

"That is correct. And more I try to knowingly remember, the more said memories seem to fade a bit more. I guess I just started to ignore them, shoving what remains in some crevice of my mind for safekeeping... So that is my story. Now then Hermes... What brought you to my lair today? Did you need to cross-reference for something or another batch of scrolls to translate?" sphinx inquired.

"Well about that... The High council of The Guardians of Knowledge back at Wissen came to a conclusion that it would be more effective if more members would be able to visit your library instead of heaping it all on me, under very specific terms of course. They know it would be too easy for some of our members to end up abusing the vast knowledge withing..."

"I see... And what would their terms for the access be?"

"Purely for fact checking and finding solutions or answers for specific issues parts research or other work our order has going on. Which would be after, and only after, all the other venues and methods we have access to have been absolutely exhausted with no true solution found. Of course any visitor would need to follow any terms you set up in turn." Hermes explained.

"That so?... I might have to somehow figure if my superiors are fine with-" Hena started, but was interrupted by a small scroll popping into existence in front of her nose. In there was a short message.

"Yes, but it must be with a 'wicked-like' terms. Just hold your paw-hand-thingy up towards to the library's doorway and set some specific-like terms."

"Well they are okay with it. This should only take a moment." she continued as the scroll faded out of existence, much to Hermes's confusion, and proceeded to hold her foreleg towards the library's doorway, in which appeared some swirling mist.
"Alongside with me and those with my direct permission, those who honestly are genuine and loyal, full members of the order known as the Guardians of Knowledge, may enter and search for the knowledge they need for a specific task they are sent find and nothing else. Should they ever be distracted and break away from their search of that specific knowledge or decide to betray the order, they shall forfeit their chance to leave the Library forever more, or until their order disbands or is destroyed or otherwise erased from this realm..."

After saying her words, the swirling mist withing the doorway spun a bit faster, until it spat out a scroll right at Hermes's beak. Curious of its content, he carefully skimmed through it, finding it containing the rules sphinx had just set upon for their orders permission to enter the library. The scroll itself also felt like it was enchanted with something exponentially powerful... Maybe to make the rules on it supernaturally binding and to keep itself intact?
"Quite harsh of a penalty there... But I think I can understand why. To keep the content safe and to your...'Superiors' happy?"

"Indeed. Was there anything else they wanted?"

"Well they gave me this to give you, should this task be successful." he said as he put the scroll in his bag and dug around its pockets to reveal a compact medallion on a long enough necklace chain, with the orders emblem carved on a small gemstone embedded on it; a sword and a long scroll crossed over a round shield.
"They thought it would polite to offer you a purely nominal honorary membership of our order. Mostly a sign of friendship and occasional co-operation, with no requirements or hooks of any kind, so it won't disrupt your own duties. It does allow you to ask for small favors from our order if needed though."

"That so? Well it would impolite to say no." Hena said as she accepted the medallion by allowing Hermes to fit it around her mane covered neck. After some careful moment of moving it around a little, the medallion fit quite well, chain mostly hidden under the mane.
"Do tell them that I am thankful for this small honor... Now was there perhaps other reason for you'r visit today?" she inquired, sounding a little bit uncertain about something.

"Uuuhh... Weeell... I was thinking... That maybeee... We could... Perhaaaaps... Takeourfriendshipatinybitfurther... If its okay with you that is?" griffin managed to mumble out, while getting some nice levels of adorable redness on his face, while desperately avoiding eye-contact with the sphinx. Hena was quite surprised to hear Hermes's mumbled suggestion, but grew more interested with a gentle smile. And decided to give her answer to her shyly blushing, parchment smelling fluffball.
Hena's answer came in the form of slowly opening her wing and gently setting it on Hermes's back, which made his feathers and fur to 'poof-up', and carefully trying to pull him closer. His body had gone a bit stiff in surprise, but did not resist as he was pulled into leaning against Hena's side.

"Does this answer your mumbled question, my little fluffball?" she said with a head tilt, while reaching to pet the still fluffily poofed-up griffin. The gentle petting motion helped to smoothen up the poofiness, while also causing Hermes to shake a little and to let out a sound, that was like a mix of cat purring and pigeon cooing. Obviously he was enjoying himself.
"Y-y-y-ye-eeEess, it does..." Hermes answered back while leaning into Henas forelegs gentle ministrations.'

For the next several long sets of minutes, the newly minted couple just kept silently just enjoying each others company and closeness, even Hermes finally daring to pet Hena under her chin and nape of her neck, making her purr a little bit in turn.
"While it is still in my mind, there is another thing I wished to give you..." blushing griffin mentioned and went to dig around his bag again, finally pulling out another necklace. This one was more intricate in appearance, resembling a stylized eye of sort, with a fine looking gem in a center of artistically curved metal linking it to the chain.
"I read once that griffons of old used to give a self-made necklace to someone they intent court. And I always ended up thinking about you... So I gathered enough funds to have it made and enchanted."

"How sweet of you... It has an enchantment on it? What kind may I ask?"

"Something called a 'lover's link'; one speaks the name of their lover to their piece, which enables them to hear and speak to the owner of the other piece, who hears them only if they are wearing theirs. Apparently the enchantment requires an... Intimate relationship between users to work. Otherwise they are just jewelry." Hermes explained while pulling out another necklace, which also looked like a stylized eye. If one for Hena was the right-eye, Hermes's would be the left-eye. It would certainly enable them to communicate with significant ease.
With a wordless permission given, shared via loving eye-contact, both of them were soon wearing linked necklaces. Hena even gave Hermes a thankful kiss on his forehead, making him to start blushing again. The exchange was followed by some gentle cuddling, the couple just enjoying each others warmth.

"It's... It's starting to get late. I... I should probably return to Wissen and give report of the task." Hermes finally said, with some heavy reluctance in his voice. As he was about to leave, he felt sphinx gently, yet firmly, gripping his lower back, making him to turn to look back at her. Hena looked almost frightened of something.
"Please... Don't go... At least... Stay the night here... With me... I... I'm afraid the vision might return...Please..."

-

-

-

"Okay..."

Next day, Noon...

"Five coins he got himself killed this time."

"Oh yeah? Ten he's just stuck in that giant library for a longer while."

"What about you Mark? Any bets from you?"

"Hmmm... I'd say fifty for him returning with the council's task done, while getting to the second base with the sphinx."

"Wow... Hope you got that much on ya."

"Well we both lost anyway, 'cause there he comes."

The three town guards, two griffins and a unicorn, went to greet the approaching griffin, who looked to be quite happy about something.

"Hey, Hermes! Nice to see ya coming back alive and all. So how was the task? Some of the Council were starting to get worried."

"Here. It has Lady Hena's terms for visitations of our members." Hermes said semi absent-mindedly, while giving them the scroll, before just walking past them. He did not notice two of the guard paying Mark. All of them knew enough about things to recognize a male who had felt the loving touch of a female, yet not going 'all-the-way'. As Hermes kept walking away, they took a peek at the scrolls content, due it not being sealed.

"Wow... That is some potent magic on it."

"Yeah, even I can feel it in my feathers... Wanna try shooting at it?"

"Give a hundred and I do it in front of the Council."

"Deal."

And so they took the term scroll to the council, and ended up breaking a part of a wall and few cabinets. Hermes received a couple of day offs for his efforts. Some of his friends saw him sketching some absolutely beautiful pictures of the sphinx, who was now a bit healthier in mind, having slept very well, which enabled her keep up her duty, with much more peaceful visitors to come.
The term scroll remained unharmed.

Author's Note

Aaaand chapter done. And on (Finnish)Independence day too. Hopefully it was/is a good read for y'all. Also thinking about giving a potential 'love-scene' a chance in the future chapter. Or just playing it safe and going with the classic 'fade-to-black'... Any thought's about it?