"What cock did you lose a fight with?"
Libi looks up from the book she's been reading, her gray eyes like a deer caught by a spooky sound in the middle of the night.
"Bitch, is that how you start a conversation now?"
The gnome smirks, standing by the table in the library. She plops her own massive tome next to Libi and hops onto it. With a snap of her fingers, she commands the book to flutter its pages to a particular point. "I do what I want, and apparently, so do you," she says, pointing to the handkerchief tied around Libi's neck. "Though what you do seems to be a bit more fun."
"Ah, this…" Libi says, stroking her throat, the throbbing of pain still fresh in her mind. "Nah, don't worry about it." 
"Hidden marks, a hoarse voice. Seems like Libi's been laid. It must have been something else, indeed. So, you gonna tell me of your conquest of cock?"
"No, I'm going to study."
Gimmegee tilts the book Libi reads up, examining the cover. "Ugh, oceanic history? Snore. Can you figure something that's at least somewhat magically enthralling instead of something so bare-bones and booooring?"
Before Libi herself can respond, another voice joins in on the table. "And here I thought you would enjoy history as purported by some burly sailors, Gimmegee."
The woman beside them has grassy green hair, her earthy smile giving Libi a fresh gulp of air in this grilling set of questions.
"That's rich, coming from you," says Gimmege. "Don't you have some posies to pluck, Melia?"
"Now, now, no need to be so snippy. We all have our diversions from our studies. I'm curious about the sudden interest in everything beyond the shore."
"Oh yes," says Gimmegee, resting her cheek in her hand, "Do tell me why you're reading up on fish and water."
Libi sighs and closes the book, placing her palm on the cover. "I'm looking into the disappearances and the tales of mermaids."
Gimmegee snorts. "Mermaids? Prissy little opera divas, thin as a rail and drag sailors to their doom? That's nothing. Mermen, now, those are something else." She says. "Oh, I'd lay on the beach just to have one of them wash ashore on top of me."
"Well, of course you would," says Melia, adjusting her glasses. "And you'd try to say it was for scientific research."
Gimmegee shoots a glare at Melia. "No, I wouldn't be so uncouth as to mix business with pleasure."
"Didn't you get dicked down by a werewolf in the tournament?"
"That was a tournament of Pleasure, not business!"
Libi frowns. "There weren't any merfolk in that tournament, were there?"
"Who the hell knows?" Gimmegee says, shrugging. "The headmistress is still trying to figure out how to unlock everyone's memories. For all we know, I didn't get fucked by a hunky husky boy and it was just an illusion."
Melia smirks, "No matter how much you wish it were true."
"Oh, by the gods, let me remember his name," the gnome whines, wrapping her arms around her waist.
"Hey, Libi, you're blushing."
Libi shakes her head, turning to Melia. "Hm?"
"You thinking about something you saw now?"
"No," says Libi. "Something I didn't see. It could be nothing," she says, pushing herself up from the table, "Or it could be everything. I'll need to look more into it. Thanks, girls."
—
Old Saltsea sits in his little corner at the cafe, drinking coffee, when Libi approaches him and sits across from him again.
"What do you want, little lady?" growls the old cat, his whiskers twitching.
"There's more to your story, isn't there?"
Old Saltsea sighs, scratching behind his ear with a rough and quick fury. "Gaah… them fish folk are a dangerous lot. That's all you need to know."
"I don't think that's the case," Libi says. "You know where we live, Old Saltsea. You know how important our home is."
The cat's tail twitches, and he stands up, a growl in his voice. "I have no idea what you're talking about, lass!"
She holds her hand out to him. "You've been hiding something from me, no… from yourself, right? Can I take that burden, at least for now?"
"You can… do that?" He asks, his eyes softening slightly.
"It's worth a try. Plus, wouldn't you like to hold a young woman's hand?" she asks, a soft smile on her face.
The old man sighs and reaches out for her, his paw shaking with age, but he grabs his wrist with his other hand and lunges for it, grasping onto Libi.
The connection is instantaneous, and the girl gasps, flying back on her seat with a loud and desperate gasp.
Her eyes roll back, and her body shakes, but it only lasts momentarily. A long enough moment for the people at the cafe to turn and watch her with a mix of worry, pity, disgust, and confusion.
She excuses herself, taking herself from the situation and into the alleyway.
Years of bottled-up emotions. Decades of deceiving himself, all of it hit her at once, and as she stumbles out of the dinner and into its alleyway, the aura she gives off catches the attention of a little creature sitting on the rooftop, watching her with a scrutinizing gaze.