Studying the way Renn and Merit were holding each other, I wondered what it was like to be so tiny. Renn hadn’t crouched or kneeled down upon wrapping her arms around Merit, and instead had lifted her. Merit was basically clinging to Renn, her arms wrapped around her neck, as if she was a child. A typical Merit would have shouted angrily, and resorted to shocking if not promptly released, had anyone else grabbed her in such a way. Even Nasba would have only been given a few moments of such physical contact.

The two hadn’t said anything since embracing, other than their names, but oddly it seemed neither was crying. Or at least not doing so too strongly. Though something told me the tears would come later, once they got their fill of each other. At least, in Renn’s case.

I was kind of jealous, really. Renn and I did hug, and show affection and all that, but there was something… special in the way she was holding Merit. Maybe it was because of how small she was? Like a mother desperately clinging to a child she’s not seen in years? Did it look as good to be held like that as it looked? I bet it did. It was made even better by the way Merit seemed to be trying so desperately to return the same level of emotion in her hug too.

Seriously. Why were they still holding each other like this? Would they do this all night long? What about me?

My eyes narrowed as I realized I was simply being possessive again.

Still…

Sighing softly, I decided to just let the two be. Knowing them they’d be at this for hours. Even once they finally stopped hugging and being emotional they’d just go on to exchange all the stuff they wanted to share. Plus it was their moment. Theirs to share, cherish, and keep to themselves.

I’d just be in the way.

Turning away, I went to the end of the hallway. Renn and I had been heading for the room she had used last time she was here, and Merit had rounded a corner and ended that plan. I carried most of our bags, having taken them from Renn before we even entered the building, because I had expected her to encounter those like Merit and rush forward to hug them.

Though, maybe because we had arrived so late, Merit was the only one we had ran into so far. We entered the building from the banking area, right before they had went to shut and lock the doors, and came straight to the Society’s housing area as to drop off our stuff before doing anything else. Along the way we hadn’t seen anyone else, other than Merit, so far but I didn’t smell or hear anything to make me worry about it.

The company was large, the building many floors. It wasn’t too surprising we had been able to come this far in before running into anyone else.

My biggest concern, since the company seemed relatively fine… was that I didn’t sense any saint here.

If Light was here, she was either deep under the building, or not currently in the building. I neither sensed her or smelled her.

I found the room Renn had stayed in last time not too different than I remembered. It looked like the bed had different blankets and sheets, but it was empty and unused so I went ahead and deposited the stuff I carried in it. I knew Renn still had a few things, but she could do so later once she and Merit were done.

Leaving the room, I went back down the hallway and found them still standing in the center of it. Merit was no longer being held up by Renn though; her feet were back on the ground. They were still firmly locked in a deep hug, squeezing each other hard enough to make noises as they did, to the point that neither even recognized me as I neared.

I walked past them, with only Renn’s ear fluttering lightly in acknowledgement as I did so.

Shaking my head at them, I left the Society’s housing area and returned to the Animalia Guild proper. I headed for Gerald’s office, to let him know we were here. Before I could though, I ran into Wynn.

“Vim!” the man who no longer had horns happily smiled at the sight of me, which oddly made me feel a little relieved. That smile was not one of desperation or relief, but just gentle happiness at seeing a friend.

Seemed nothing too awry was going on here at least, based off that smile.

“Wynn. How’ve you been?” I asked as he and I approached. We paused in the middle of the fancier hallway, the one with the rug that led to the main offices.

“Busy! Like you wouldn’t believe!” he said happily, not sounding upset over it at all.

“I bet.”

He grinned and gestured down, I followed his point and found him pointing at his pants. “See these? Like them?” he asked.

Shifting a little, I tried to comprehend what he was trying to say… or even point out. “Um… the pants? Or the shoes?” I asked. Neither looked odd, or different than anything the people in this city and region wore all the time.

“The pants! I made them myself! I took up thatching!” Wynn said, rather proudly.

Thatching…? “Thatching is a part of roofing. I’m assuming you mean tailoring…?” I asked.

“Oh! Right, yes. That one,” he said happily, not seemingly really caring what the proper term for it was.

I smiled back and nodded all the same. “They look good. I’d ask for a pair myself, but since I travel so much all my clothes just get torn and ripped so quickly that I’d hate to insult you in such a way,” I said.

Wynn immediately brightened up. “Oh please Vim! I’d happily make you a pair! Though I’ll need to measure you… the others can make them fit snug with just a glance, but I’m not able to do that yet,” he said.

Others…? “Some kind of community thing?” I asked.

“Hm? Oh, no. The human workers have all recently started making groups, for hobbies and part-time jobs. I joined one of them, they make clothes,” he said.

I frowned at that. “Groups…?”

He nodded. “Brandy’s idea. Started a few months ago. The workers absolutely love them, last I heard eighty-percent of them all have joined at least one,” he said.

Huh… “That’s neat,” I said, honestly a little surprised and genuinely impressed.

“I thought it was stupid, but look at me now…!” Wynn said with a laugh.

I smirked at that and nodded. “Nothing wrong with having fun, plus you’re learning a new skill while you’re at it? Nothing wrong with that at all,” I said.

“That’s what I’m telling myself, at least! Anyway, when we got a moment I’ll measure you! I assume you’re heading to Gerald to let him know you’re here, right?” he asked as he started to step away.

“Yeah. I’ll probably be here for a time, so we’ll figure it out,” I said as I too stepped away.

“Got it! Later Vim!” Wynn and I separated, and I noted the man hadn’t asked if Renn was here too.

But was that intentional or just something normal for that man…? He was a type of deer; they were all a little… aloof. Plus he had been distracted in telling me of his recent hobby.

Rounding a corner, I found Gerald’s office door open and he sitting at his desk. He was reading what looked like the daily report, and jumped a little at the sight of me as I stepped into the room.

“Vim!”

He stood quickly, putting the report down as he reached across the table to shake my hand.

Greeting Gerald, I was not too surprised to find him looking the same… and so too his office. His desk had a stack of reports and folders on one corner, but that was normal. And the rest of the office looked relatively the same too.

“Gerald. How’ve you been?” I asked as our hands separated.

“Rather well, actually!” he said happily, and I noted again the tone.

Was everyone here just happy-go-lucky or something? Or maybe they simply didn’t care for the drama?

“I was told you’d show up soon! I uh… don’t know if you know yet, but Light is alive. She’s in town, though not here,” Gerald said, his happy tone finally showing a hint of worry.

“She is. Are she and the rest of them staying elsewhere then? Not here?” I asked.

“They’re building a new cathedral, or something. They show up often, for one reason or another, but seem to be keeping to themselves. As far as I can tell, Light and the rest don’t want anything to do with the guild, so…” Gerald shrugged as he gently gestured to one of the nearby chairs.

I debating closing the door, since I’d left it open, but chose not to as I sat down. I’d just listen to make sure no one got near enough to hear anything too special, if we did speak of such things.

“Don’t want nothing to do with you, do they?” I asked lightly, keeping my true thoughts inside.

Gerald smirked lightly at me as he too sat back down. “Funny, isn’t it? I’ve been waiting for them to come ask for funds or something, but so far they haven’t even asked for anything. Makes me nervous,” he said.

Hm… “Not like the church really needs money in the first place,” I said.

“Yet they inevitably will ask for more than we can give, I just know it,” Gerald said.

Shrugging lightly, I glanced at my knee and noticed a slight tear in my pants. Nothing too surprising, since we’d been traveling and had just passed over a mountain during a blizzard, but it made me wonder if I should actually take Wynn up on his offer.

“So… uh, Vim,” Gerald then cleared his throat and I glanced at him. I kept a smile from creeping onto my face, as I nodded and waited for him to continue. Was he finally going to ask about Renn? “There’s a vote. Concerning you,” he said.

The smile that had been growing inside me died a little. “Yes. It’s to be held next winter… in Telmik,” I said.

“Not worried about it?” he asked, speaking a little slowly.

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“To be honest, no. Because no matter the outcome, I plan to officially step down as protector.”

Gerald sat up a little straighter. “What…? Step down?”

I nodded. “Yes. I don’t plan to leave the Society proper, unless it’s asked of me during the vote or something. But I do plan to step down from my current role. I’ll do so at the vote, and depending on how the vote goes and the responses will dictate how I step down,” I said.

“How you step down…?” Gerald whispered.

“Well, do I just… stop abruptly? Or should I slowly step away, over years? Stuff like that,” I said. Honestly I’d not put too much thought into it yet, mostly because I didn’t want Renn getting upset with me over it… at least, no more than she already were.

Gerald groaned as he reached up and rubbed his temple. “Vim…”

I nodded. “That’s been pretty much everyone’s reaction so far,” I said.

“Because it’s ridiculous! The vote isn’t even that serious!” Gerald said, a little loudly.

I frowned and nodded. “I’ve come to realize that, after speaking with the Chronicler, but I have my reasons.”

“Let me guess, Rennalee? Vim, I’m happy that you’ve found a companion and whatnot, but that isn’t fair to the rest of us…” Gerald said lowly.

“She’s not the reason,” I told a small lie. “In fact she shares your sentiment. She’s rather furious at my decision and vocal about it too,” I said.

“Is she here?” he asked.

I nodded. “Unless you want her gone?”

“No? She’s not banished from Lumen, Vim. Another vote was held, her banishment has been rescinded,” he said with a sigh.

“Why?” I asked. I was a little surprised to hear so, but at the same time not. Brandy had hinted at something similar before, when I had ran into her on the roads between the Bell Church and the northern port cities with Fly.

“Isn’t it obvious, Vim? She’s your wife. We can’t banish the wife of the protector…” he then went quiet, and frowned at me. “You really plan to step down?” he asked, losing his train of thought.

A little disturbed they had chosen to change their opinion on Renn, solely because she was my wife and not because they had realized they’d been wrong in the first place, I tried not to let it bother me too much. Since all it’d do is make me angry at them. “Yes. Unless something drastic happens, yes.”

“Yet… you’ll stay a member?”

“Of course? Unless the Society votes to banish and exile me,” I said.

“Then… why not move here? You and Renn?” Gerald then asked.

Oddly shocked at the offer, I did my best to not let it show on my face. “Well… I suppose that’s an idea. I’ll bring it up with Renn. Right now we’ve got a growing list of things we need to handle, for other members, after I step down,” I said.

“Such as?”

I gestured lightly at the ceiling. “Randle has gone and gotten himself banished from both Telmik and his church. He and a few others involved in the orphanages he’s ran all this time want to set up another one up north. For the children. And those at the smithy might be potentially losing their home too, so they might need help migrating. I’ve promised to help them do so,” I said.

“Losing their home?” Gerald asked, frowning as he did.

Ah. He must have heard about Randle’s actions, and the subsequent results from them, already. Likely from the source. He’d have focused on him instead had he not.

I nodded. “The forest they live in is diseased. Possibly dying. To the point that they might need to move elsewhere. We’ll know more in the next year or two,” I explained.

Gerald hummed a bit as he leaned back in his chair. “That’s not good… would they like to come here? I’d happily welcome Nebl and his family. Or rather their skills,” he said, honestly.

“I’ll let them know. You can write them a letter if you’d like and I’ll drop it off on my way back that way. Unless something drastic happens I plan to head back that way after spending some time here and… well,” I shrugged lightly.

“Dealing with Light. Yes. I figured. I’m actually a little surprised you’ve not rushed off to do so already… or are you planning to do so after this conversation here?” he asked carefully.

I shrugged. “That’s the plan. We’ll see. I might wait until morning, it’s getting late,” I said.

“Late. Yes. Just a few hours after sundown. Quite late, too late for the protector… for you, to do anything. Surely.”

I ignored his obvious attempt at sarcasm and tried to change the topic a bit. “Before we get too off track… anything I need to be aware of? Any issues lately? How is everyone?” I asked.

“Vim you were just here a few months ago,” he said with a soft smile, as if he genuinely thought I had forgotten.

“Yeah…? That’s a long time, a lot can happen during it,” I said.

He sighed but nodded. “We’re all fine. No one’s had any complaints. We’re all too busy really to have such problems. If we do have a problem, it’s simply the nobles. They’re becoming… a tad too greedy. But that’s humans for you. And nothing we can’t handle and circumvent. Brandy is here, though I don’t know what she’s currently focused on at the moment. Kevin is scheduled to be here within the next week with a large shipment of precious metals. The guild itself is fine too, as are all the human members. Which by the way your wife will likely want to spend some time with while here. Several have had children, or have passed away. Typical for humans, but I know how Renn is about them, so make sure she checks on those she favors,” he said.

Glad to hear a real report for once, I nodded. “How’s the boy? The pirate? Or pirates, I guess, since now you have multiple,” I said, as I thought of the female ones we’d sent here during our trip down south last time.

“Fine? He’s taken over his own ship. The others have taken over the port authority, opting to stay on land instead of sailing. A few have joined the fleet, either under your human pirate or Kevin, but most are here living with us. Either in the guild itself or in their own homes a few blocks away,” he said.

Good. Very good. “You said the nobles are getting greedy?” I asked.

Gerald sighed as he nodded. “Yes. Thraxton is surprisingly the least of my worries lately, which is saying something. They’re all just simply making too much money, Vim. To the point I worry, as do many others, that it will cause issues later. One of them, the noble who owns the limestone mine, recently imposed a new fee… a type of tax or levy, on any who use his rocks. It was approved since he supplied all the stones for the repair of Lumen after the event, and this is his way of paying for it all. Yet it’s likely made his family more money in these last few months than they’ve made in decades,” Gerald said.

“So he’s become obscenely wealthy and imposed a new tax. Let the humans get angry at him and depose him, why is that an issue for us?” I asked.

“Because we paid for those stones. They hadn’t been free. Thraxton is upset because some of the funds had been his as well. Basically they humans in charge are all fighting over it, about who should share in the wealth… and also now they all want to impose similar new taxes themselves, basically being envious and seeing how well his is doing,” Gerald said.

I rolled my eyes. “Typical human drama. Just stay out of it, that’s my advice,” I said.

“Precisely why we deal with it and you don’t. I do wonder how you used to do handle it back in the day, especially since you actually did. Or did you just use force, Vim?” Gerald asked, smiling a little as he did.

I scoffed at him.

He chuckled, and although I had no desire to hear any more of his and the guild’s… issues, at the same time I was glad to know they were so petty and simple.

If that was all they were really having issues with, then Lumen would be fine. And is fine. At least for now.

Eventually this little city-state would likely fail. Or get attacked or annexed by a neighboring nation, and be unable to properly defend itself. But until it did… such issues would be all they’d have to deal with. And such things were, although headaches, not impossible for those like Gerald and Brandy. If anything they were both fully capable of handling such economic issues.

What he was likely not saying was they had already formulated a plan, and maybe even are acting it out as we speak, to either deal with or circumvent the issue he spoke about. In fact it’d not surprise me if they were involved in the whole thing from the get-go, just as they had been involved with the little scheme from before… what had it been about…?

The mines. Something to do with the mines nearby. Maybe it was something they were involved with then, if this limestone company was involved too in this one.

No matter.

“Other than that Vim, I have no requests for you. Others might though. I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re here, and to come to you with their issues. Though knowing your wife it won’t be long until they all know you’re here, even before I can tell them,” he said.

“Hm… What’s the general census on Light? Several of your members are… a little antagonistic with the church, aren’t they?” I asked.

Gerald shrugged. “A few are, yes… but they’ve not made a big deal of it. No fuss, yet at least. But that’s mostly thanks to Light and the rest not really interfering with us. they come to visit, and whatnot, but as I said they don’t even want any real help with their little cathedral yet. So we’ve not needed to deal with such drama, though I do expect it to come. It always does,” he said.

“I wonder how Brandy’s taking it,” I said lightly.

“Honestly I think she’s trying to ignore it. She was upset at first, rather deeply, that they weren’t letting her be involved… but now she seems to not care. I think she simply accepted the fact they don’t want her involved, or she’s just waiting for them to need her help and get involved that way.”

Right. So people were bothered. Gerald just, like always, didn’t see the full picture. He had too many things on his plate, on his desk, to notice the little things anymore.

Guess I’ll just have to spend time with everyone. To find out if all was well or not myself.

What a headache. But, visiting this place always gave me one. So that was no surprise.

And he wanted me to live here? Full-time?

Feh.

Hopefully Renn wouldn’t like the idea. I’d rather live up north in that quasi-church orphanage than here.

Maybe.

Standing, I nodded as I decided all was fine here. At least, from first glance. “I’ll take a look around then. As I said, I’ll likely be here awhile… though I do plan on speaking with Light in the morning. So…” I shrugged lightly, not wanting to really say it aloud.

“Hm… I’d say I would see you later at the feast, but we’re all really busy. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to hold a proper one so abruptly. Maybe tomorrow or the next day,” he said as he frowned.

“That’s fine,” I said as I went to leave.

I honestly wasn’t in the mood for their silly little feasts. Even if they meant well and it was actually a good thing they’d do such little gestures every time I visited.

Right now I’d likely be bad company. Since I knew not far from here was a foe I must confront.

Though if she was a physical foe, or an emotional one, I still wasn’t sure yet.

“Oh, Vim!”

Pausing at the door, I turned to look at Gerald. He had lifted a letter.

Stepping back into the office, I took the letter he offered. “Sorry. Completely forgot,” he apologized as I turned it over and studied the little wax seal upon it.

Berri’s.

“When’d you get this?” I asked. As far as I was aware Oplar hadn’t been back that way since we’d been there. She’d been going around Telmik, and was now heading south. She had been too busy to go that far out again since the vote had been called. And no humans went there, so it couldn’t have been them who had gotten it.

“About a month ago. Kevin gave it to me. I guess he got it at home, from a member. Whose is it? I don’t recognize the seal,” Gerald asked.

Glancing at the dove, I wondered why he looked so interested. “You don’t know?” I asked, a little surprised to hear so. He was older than he looked, and had been in his position for some time. Surely he knew of Berri’s crest?

Gerald though frowned and shook his head. “Nope? Kevin hadn’t either, actually. Guess he never met the one who gave it to him before, someone with a horn?” Gerald asked with a point to his forehead.

Huh… has it really been that long since Berri had been involved with the Society…? It’s been a hundred and odd years, sure, but…

Shrugging lightly, I simply gestured lightly with the letter. “It’s fine. They’re isolated members who live to the far east. They must need something from me,” I said gently.

“Hm. Hopefully it’s not too dire, as I said I got it a month ago… and Kevin had gotten it at his home, so who knows how long it’s been waiting for you!” Gerald said worriedly.

Right…

I went to opening it as I stepped away. “Later,” I said goodbye, not wanting to linger so he could ask of its contents.

“Sure,” Gerald answered a little meekly, likely having noticed my abrupt and forceful end of the conversation.

Stepping out of Gerald’s office, I found myself slightly worrying as I pulled a single piece of paper out of the letter. I relaxed a little upon seeing Berri’s unique handwriting, written in a language I’d not seen in some time. For a moment it all looked like a jumbled mess… until I remembered this language was read from bottom up, not top down.

Walking down the hall, I slowed a little as I read my friend’s message.

Narli was sick. The type of sick they didn’t understand.

Sighing softly, I folded up her simple request of urgent help and put it away.

As always, chaos never arrived alone. It had many friends.

Heading for the houses, as to find Renn, I decided to go and confront Light tonight. Since I might have to leave at first light for a different reason.

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