I stood in front of new motifs. Ones that nearly covered the whole wall, at least ten feet high and thrice as wide. And by new I didn’t mean newly painted.

Maybe. It was hard to tell anymore. I’d seen so many walls of religious motifs of all types and styles that they all kind of just… blended together in my mind, now.

I should have brought Renn with me. She would have enjoyed looking at this, and I would have liked to hear her interpretation of it.

To me, the scene of heavenly light beaming down onto foreboding darkness implied some kind of forgiveness. Maybe a rapture or end of times thing. There was no gruesome display in the scene, but it was definitely more on the somber side.

I kind of liked how the artist had painted the way the beams of holy light pierced the veils of darkness below, though. It was done in a way that didn’t really destroy and disperse the darkness, but instead conform it. The light was not eliminating the darkness, but instead absorbing it. Changing it. Making it bright too.

Thus my own interpretation of forgiveness.

I wonder who had painted it? One of our own members? One of Light’s people…? It was not just a scene I didn’t recognize, but it was obviously newly made too. Probably only painted a few months ago, based off the colors. Such paints didn’t really settle for years, and it was usually a sign of differentiating a good painter and a true artist. One who was a master of the craft painted not just for the now, but for the future. I’d seen some that took the alterations of time into account so well, the scenes themselves changed over the years. As if becoming different paintings entirely, as the paint became thinner and the tones duller thanks to time.

The door opened, and I glanced at it. Less walked in, still wearing her loose robe. Her nightgown, not her proper attire.

“She’s about ready, Vim,” Less said after she got close enough. Unlike her loud sister, Less was more proper. She had not spoken until close enough to do so comfortably, without shouting. Landi would have shouted at me from the door.

“Thank you, Less,” I said.

Less nodded, and then yawned. “She understands. I think she knew you’d be in a hurry. Wish she would have told me though, now my sleeping schedule is going to be all weird for a while,” she complained.

I smiled at that. “A nice nap does sound nice,” I said.

“Right…?” Less agreed.

For a tiny moment I studied Landi’s sister. She looked… pretty good, actually. She still had that stripe of white in her hair, her birthmark, but looked as young and healthy as my memories remembered her as. Like her sister she was thick in the blood, like Renn, so it really shouldn’t have been too surprising. Yet it was, somehow. Probably because I had thought her dead.

“How’ve you been Less?” I asked.

“Busy, lately. Honestly I’m glad to back to the homeland, but a part of me longs for the quiet forests on the other side. Most of those here hadn’t cared much for the other lands, but there had been true peace there,” Less said honestly.

I nodded at that as I looked back to the motif before me. “I know what you mean,” I said.

“I bet you do, especially lately. Congratulations, by the way, on getting married. I had kind of hoped to meet her finally, why’d you not bring her?” Less asked… and I noticed she did so a little stiffly.

Was that because she was unsure of what to say, or ask, concerning Renn…? Or because she was searching for information? Or was it something more?

Though I might just be hearing her trying to not yawn. Being tired and all, since I had just woke her up.

“You’ll get to meet her. She’s at the guild right now, catching up with some of the members there,” I said.

“Ah… Merit, right? I heard they got close,” she said.

I nodded.

Less yawned again, and did so with an odd noise. I glanced at her, and found her trying to cover her mouth as she yawned and doing so rather haphazardly. I could see all her sharp teeth. It had hit her without warning, it seemed.

Looking away from the yawning badger, I glanced around the room. This was a smaller waiting room, with plain tables and chairs all over. Likely where they all had their meals, based off the smell of the place. It was clean, but I could smell the food that had been in here recently. Some kind of stew.

If all these tables and chairs were not just for show, then I had severely underestimated how many of them were here. There had to be enough seating area for well over a hundred people, with room to spare.

“This isn’t our new cathedral, by the way. That’s still being built,” Less said, noting my studying.

Although that was a little surprising… it shouldn’t have been. I had been told by Gerald they hadn’t even really started yet on the building, hadn’t I? “I see,” I said simply.

“We’re building it between the noble’s district and the business one,” Less said, likely just talking to talk. To fill the silence.

I nodded. That made sense. It was how Telmik had been built too. With the Cathedral in the center, and all the different zones built around it. So that it could be seen as the heart of commerce, politics, and the city itself. And…

I blinked a few times, as I realized where she was talking about.

“Wait… The hole?” I asked as I turned to look at her.

Less grinned and nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for making that, by the way. Made it super easy for the lower floors to be built, most of them are done already,” she said.

I sighed and shook my head. They were building on top of that giant hole which had been left behind by that flower-like creature! The audacity! “Be very careful with that… the whole area had been shifted, and then there’s the huge cavity and city beneath it all…” I said as I tried to think of the work needed to properly build the foundation for a giant cathedral on that hole, or anywhere near it.

You were talking a momentous task. One I wasn’t sure the people of this era, even ones guided by the Society and Light, could accomplish.

“Right… Light did mention something about the city underneath…” Less then said.

Great. “I should check it then. I can help set up the proper foundation, and…” I started to say, as my mind already began to lay out a plan for it. But I immediately caught myself, and flinched.

“We were hoping you’d help, Light had even planned to ask you…” Less started to speak, but then went quiet. She had noticed my flinch. “Uh… Vim?”

I glanced at her, and did my best to contain my thoughts and emotions. “I’m okay.”

“You sure…? You suddenly looked a little angry…” Less shifted, a little worriedly.

I noted the way she looked hesitant. The way her eyes were narrowed and how her shoulders were now a little stiff.

Less was now fully awake.

Although her response, her reaction to my anger, was not surprising… the way she was so startled by it was.

It calmed me a little, to realize that Less had not expected me to get angry at all. It was rather telling, actually. About a lot of things.

“Vim…?” Less asked again, sounding even more worried than before.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. I just realized something I should have earlier,” I said, already much calmer. I felt rather good now, actually.

Less had not been expecting me to get angry. And in fact, by the sounds and looks of it, had been expecting me and Renn to be here under friendly conditions. They had planned to ask me for help. To build their Cathedral.

We weren’t enemies.

At least, not in their eyes.

But… were we in mine?

I wanted to be. Yet did I? Really?

“You sure, Vim…? You were definitely upset just now. Are you angry at me…? Something I said? Did?” Less asked, still a little worried.

“I had been, but not at you. Honestly I’m not sure who to be mad at right now, or who to direct it towards,” I said.

Less groaned and her robe shifted a tad, reminding me she was likely naked beneath it. I tried not to glance away from her eyes as she worriedly smiled at me. “Just uh… remember I’m strong, but not that strong, okay?” she reminded me.

I smiled and nodded. “Yes. Like your sister. By the way I saw her recently, she’s doing fine,” I said.

Less’s expression softened a little. “I’ve… heard of what’s she’s doing. Built her own kingdom, down south,” Less said.

I nodded. “A nation of stone. She’s actually calmed down a little, you know?” I said.

Less gently smiled at that. “I doubt that, Vim… I’ve heard of what she’s going to try and do, and…” Less started to say, but went quiet as Light walked into the room.

The badger startled, turned and saw Light, and then hurriedly looked back at me and nodded.

“See you later Less,” I said as she bowed a bit more. I of course had heard what she had been about to say, but knew better than to let my mind dwell on it. Such knowledge was undoubtedly from a prophecy, so I wanted nothing to do with it.

“Mhm…!” Less only made a noise, nothing more, as she then hurried to step away. She bowed lightly to Light as they passed each other, and then Less hurriedly left the room. She shut the door behind her, and I noticed her lack of footsteps afterward.

She was standing guard at the door. To make sure no one came in.

Sighing softly, I studied Light as she approached. Unlike Less, this saint at least wore a more proper robe. One that didn’t let me know on mere glance if she was naked underneath it or not. It was though, reminiscent of those like Abel, rather demure and a little raggedy. It was something she’s likely owned and worn for years. But I didn’t linger on her robe, but instead looked to her eye. The only one she had, and how deeply it glowed.

She hadn’t put on an eye patch to cover her other scarred eye, but it was clear she’d just gotten ready. Likely hurriedly. Her hair even looked a tad wet, for some reason, maybe she had dunked her head in cold water to wake up better?

Her single eye glowed far stronger than Narli’s, the Chronicler’s, or even the human saint Renn had befriended. That Elaine.

This was a real saint. A powerful one. The type that should scare me, or at least would, if I had been a normal man.

Light smiled as she drew closer… then she slowed and paused a few feet away. “Are we being friendly enough that I can give you a hug, Vim?” she then asked in greeting.

Hesitating a moment… I felt a little stupid as I slowly nodded. “For your mother. Yes.”

Light’s smile melted, turning into one that made me feel like an ass. She looked as if about to cry as she stepped forward, and then gave me a hug.

I returned it, being gentle, and noticed that she felt… healthy, but cold. She was even trembling a little.

Was that from the emotions, or was she scared…?

Probably both. Since I knew she knew what I really wanted to do. Even if I wouldn’t do it. Not without reason.

Light took a very deep breath, one that seemed to calm her down a bit, and for a tiny moment… I waited.

For the pain. The feeling of organs exploding. The feeling of utter agony as divine power tore through flesh and bone.

But then a few heartbeats passed… and with another breath, not as deep this time, Light finally released me.

Grabbing her shoulders, I studied her a bit… and the glowing eye that was squinting at me.

“It’s been a long time…” she whispered as she stared up at me.

“Hm… what, a couple hundred years?” I asked.

Her shoulders felt like Renn’s. Tiny, trembling, but holding great emotion.

“At the very least, Vim.”

“I’d make a joke about how you’re even prettier or something, but like me you look exactly the same. So that joke is boring,” I said.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Light chuckled a bit as I released her shoulders. She took a single step back, as to glance me up and down again, and she nodded. “Right…! Though your clothes are different, you’re usually not dressed so nicely. Why is that? Did you dress up to come meet me?” she asked, sounding a little too happy about what should have been a slight joke.

“No… my new companion finds it strangely amusing to keep tabs on my attire. Or rather, I think she’s just picky about what I wear when it concerns her ability to hold and hug me. She hates to touch me when I wear the prickly stuff, so…” I said, explaining it a bit as I tugged a bit at my shirt.

Light’s eye grew a tad bit brighter, and clasped her hands as if in prayer. “How utterly lovely. I’m jealous.”

I frowned at that. “What’s that…? You telling me you haven’t found anyone in all this time?” I asked.

“Do you know what I was doing just now…?” she asked back.

My frown deepened. “Waking up…?”

“Taking a purity bath,” she said with smirk.

Oh.

“Really…?” I felt a little bad for her. So she wasn’t a saint in name and ability only. How interesting.

Light though smiled, rather proudly, as she nodded. “Really.”

“You’re kidding. Don’t give me the spiel that you saints need to be virgins for your powers to work, so what for?” I asked, rather interested in knowing her reason for it.

Light chuckled at me. “Are you… actually interested? Really?”

Shifting a bit, I felt ridiculous as I hesitated. “Maybe… I’m trying my best here, Light. I really am,” I said, honestly.

She smiled at me and nodded. “Then I shall do so too,” she decided.

Good.

At least, hopefully that was good.

She then turned a bit and gestured at one of the nearby tables. I nodded, and went to pull back a chair for her.

Feeling a little odd about it, I watched her sit down in the chair… and then pushed her into proper position as I then took a chair myself. Sitting across from her, I noted the feel of the table. It was one that was used readily. It had lots of little knicks and divots in it, from years of use.

“Well… it’s an odd place to start, but I’m okay with it,” Light then said as she crossed her arms on the table. She leaned forward a bit, suddenly looking more like a common town-girl than a pure saint. “I’ve not had a single inclination of a dream or prophecy about who my partner will be. To the point I’ve started to believe I simply will never have one,” she told me.

Tapping the table with a thumb, I frowned at her. “You know… sometimes the best partners are the ones you find on accident. Not from prophecies and destines,” I told her.

She grinned at me. “I had a feeling you’d say something like that. And I know. I’ve kept my eye out, you know? I really have. But no one’s really seemed… hm… You know, now that we’re talking about it, I’m not even sure what kind of person I even want,” Light said.

Wanting to groan, I lifted a hand to shush her. “If you want to have that kind of discussion, go have it with Renn. Not me,” I said. Really, what was with everyone lately? It was as if love was a sickness, spreading all around me.

“Can I?”

My hand clenched up, and I had to calm myself as I glanced at the woman sitting across from me.

Light smiled at me, in a way that reminded me of her mother. “It’s okay. I know you won’t let me meet her. For some time… but it’s okay. For now, at least,” she said.

I kept my hand clenched, and my mouth shut, as I studied the saint… who seemed to be talking rather seriously.

She glanced down at her hands, and began to twiddle her fingers. In a way that made her seem much younger than should be possible. “That had been terribly rude of me. I apologize, Vim. I’ll be honest I’ve been so looking forward to this moment, and I’m really nervous and…” Light began to ramble a little, and I once again relaxed a bit.

By my parents, it was going like this wasn’t it?

I had somewhat hoped it would have all gone differently. To have them sneer and taunt me. Or laugh and scheme. Or lie.

So I could do what I wanted to. What I thought I needed to.

Yet here I was… watching and listening to a saint that was obviously as pure and honest as I remembered her, speaking in a way that made me lower all walls I’d planed to put up before walking in here.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed softly at her… who then paused and nodded.

“Usually by now you’d warn me. About sticking my tongue where it doesn’t belong,” she said, a little happily.

“I’m in one of those moods.”

“Mood…?” she asked.

“The kind where I pity a woman blinded by things beyond her comprehension,” I said.

Light blinked… and then sit up a little straighter. “Oh my… I had known you’d have been… a little prickly, concerning her, but I had not thought it this dire! Should I be worried?”

“I don’t know yet,” I answered honestly.

“At least you’re still honest with me. Did you know there are many who think you’re some kind of diabolical schemer? Puppeteering us for hundreds of years? I’ve told them how silly the notion is, that you’re simply too honest for that, but I don’t think they believe me.”

“People think I’m doing such a thing…?” I asked. I wonder who? And why? About what?

“Some of us do, yes. Though whenever I ask them to specify, the whole why and how, they can’t actually lay out any proof or ideas of what you’re supposedly doing. I always have to remind them that you genuinely need no schemes at all. I don’t think most of them comprehend who and what you are, after all,” Light said lightly.

I sighed at her. “I had been hoping to kill you on sight. You’re making this difficult for me,” I said.

Light chuckled at me. “Please, Vim! If you did that you’d not sleep for at least a few months from the regret and shame! Don’t do that!” she said happily.

By my parents she was just like her mother. Insufferable.

Renn would like her, though.

“From where I sit, you’re the one scheming,” I said.

“Of course I am…? The gods designed me to do so,” she said simply.

“Then they designed you poorly,” I said.

Light giggled. “Still the same…! I’ve been wondering how much she’d change you, and I’m glad to a point to learn how she’s not done so in certain ways… but I’m also glad to see she has in fact done so in others,” she said as she studied me.

I wonder what she was speaking of…? I figured it was more, something more serious, than something as simple as the clothes I wore.

For a long moment… we just stared at each other. She blinked lightly, while smiling at me, and I knew that my hope for actual confrontation… was now just a former dream.

“Are we enemies?” I asked her, though I already knew the answer.

“Heavens no, Vim. I can’t tell you, since you’d just get angry at me, but I have a lot of proof that says why.”

Crossing my arms, I debated leaving. I no longer wanted to be here.

Light sighed a little, probably because she noticed my feelings. “Your wife is important, Vim.”

“Important enough to earn my wrath?” I asked. Didn’t she just say herself that I’d get angry if she said certain things?

“Actually? Yes. She is.”

“I find that hard to believe,” I said.

“Yet, it’s the truth.”

Glaring at the saint, who was speaking with utter confidence, I wondered how far I’d be able to take this before I broke. Either her or myself.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to not test it. “I plan to step down as protector.”

“Yes.”

I noted the way she had answered. “You knew.”

“At the risk of your anger… yes. I’ve known for a long time. In fact, mother knew too. Though, like usual, we got the time… a little…” Light lifted a hand to cusp it, as if to display something tiny. “…bit off,” she finished.

My eyes narrowed as I understood. “You mean I should have met Renn a long time ago, don’t you?” I asked.

She blinked. “I can answer that, if you’d really like me to.”

Shifting in my chair, I was surprised it didn’t even creak. I was doing well at keeping calm. A little too well.

“Almost makes me want to not step down, just to not play your games,” I said.

“Then don’t?” she said simply.

“Did you mother teach you nothing? I’ll burn this whole world down before I play at the whims of your misguided dreams,” I warned her.

“In which case that too might be what we expect to happen,” Light said with a small gesture at me. “Really, Vim. You claim I didn’t learn anything from my mother yet I would argue I learned from her a little too well, which you should know by now,” she said.

Right… Celine too had manipulated me, knowing full-well how to use my own rules and aversions to her advantage.

“Your body might be pure, but I’m having doubts of your soul,” I said.

Light blinked, a rather hard one, and her eye got dim. “Why, Vim… that was mean,” she said softly.

Yes. It had been.

But I had meant it.

Feeling like I should apologize, I shifted again and glanced away. “Why Renn…?” I asked.

“To answer that would be to reveal the prophecies. Which… as I said, I’m willing to do if you’re willing to actually sit and listen. But I don’t believe you to be ready for that yet,” she said.

“Will I be?”

She smiled at me, but didn’t answer.

Just great.

Taking a small breath I gestured at her. “What of the Society, Light? What are you doing to it? You destroyed Randle’s arm,” I said.

“An accident, Vim. He had grabbed me by my throat, at just the right angle… if I had not forced him to release me, I would have died. And no one else had been around to help me. He had not been in his right mind, he would have killed me had I not defended myself,” Light said softly.

She sounded actually remorseful of it. That kind of pissed me off.

“Why’d you banish him…? You took his arm. You could have given him time to calm down and understand, to listen and reason,” I said.

She softly sighed. “I hadn’t planned to, originally. But later that night I had a dream. A prophecy. One that forced the decision,” she answered. Like her mother, she told me all I needed to know but nothing more.

“I find it funny you people always have just the right dream at just the right time to suit your needs.”

Light smiled a little gently at that. “Some might see it that way, particularly you. I understand why you’d think so, at least.”

“Yet still you won’t admit it, will you,” I said.

“No. Because if that was true I’d have seen his attack before it happened. You always seem to neglect that,” she said.

I scoffed at her. “You sound like your mother.”

Light actually blushed. “Thank you,” she said abashedly.

Reaching up, I scratched at the back of my head as Light shifted and tried to contain her sudden emotions. She looked utterly gushing over what I had said, what she had interpreted as a compliment.

It hadn’t been, but I didn’t correct her on the misunderstanding.

“If you… wish to step down, for a while, Vim. Feel free to do so. Go ahead; spend time with Renn… as she goes through her motions. While you two are handling your own private affairs, we will be fine. Consider it a sabbatical, if you want. You’ve been the protector for almost five hundred years, Vim, never without a day off. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you finally taking a well earned, and deserved, break. Plus I could hardly think of a better reason than for your first child’s birth!” Light said with a happy grin, growing excited as she spoke.

Glaring at the saint who was being far too serious, and far too joyful… I tried my best to not panic.

She was being serious.

Genuine, even.

And not in some weird, sarcastic saint, way either.

Plus she had once again confirmed, rather bluntly, that Renn was supposed to be pregnant. Not just supposed to be, but she actually believed it to be a fact.

And that terrified me. Somehow more than the idea of her being a true enemy, an actual conspirator and fiend…

Remembering the whole reason I had suspected her, and the rest, I shook my head a little and gestured at her. “Lomi’s village. The fox village to the north. Did you destroy it?” I asked.

Light startled, and then hurriedly shook her head. “No! I arrived too late. I had a prophecy of its destruction; of it burning down, but had not reached land soon enough to warn anyone. To alert you, or the rest. All we could do was verify it, after it was done,” she said quickly.

Although I didn’t want to, I believed her.

“Did… did you think we did? That I did…? Vim…” Light actually sounded hurt, the heart-broken kind of hurt. Her glowing eye shimmered a bit, growing brighter and them dimming in rapid succession.

I had hurt her. Genuinely.

“I had to consider the possibility, Light. Your mother had done odd things before, too,” I said.

Light’s face contorted into shame as she nodded. “Yes… mother had indeed done… things that should not have been done. But the world back then had been different. A different time. We don’t need to resort to such things anymore, today. No more,” she said.

Keep telling yourself that.

“Really, Vim! Do you really think I’d come back just to do such things as that? I’m not stupid. You’d just kill me if I did such things, even if I was willing to do something as despicable as that! I have duties, Vim, responsibilities and things I must do… important things. I can’t afford to die, not now anyway,” Light said, speaking proudly.

Again she sounded like Celine.

I knew to others she spoke with utter confidence. Others heard pride, confidence and surety, but I heard hope. Pure hope. They wanted, hoped, their prophecies they saw were real. That they could either fulfill them, or stop them, depending on the type and results of them.

Although Celine’s death had caused chaos, and fractured the Society… I had honestly been a little relieved with her passing.

Because it had ended this. This terrible feeling of standing too close to a hot fire. As if I was about to make a terrible mistake.

I didn’t want to get involved in this. With her. These people. Any of this.

But I had to. For as long as I was involved in the Society, it was my duty… my responsibility, to protect them.

Even from themselves.

But…

This time it wasn’t just me they were forcing involvement with.

Now they were getting Renn wrapped up in it too.

That woman didn’t deserve such a life. She should just… stay by my side. Traveling around. Meeting her friends, and helping them occasionally. Having fun. Simple, but blissful, fun.

Tapping my foot, I felt… a little thin. As if tired. Which was too bad, since I had been feeling rather good these last few days.

“Vim…?” Light tilted her head at me, likely wondering why I hadn’t responded to her previous ramble about why she’d never have even considered burning down Lomi’s village.

“I need to go east for a bit,” I told her.

She frowned but nodded. “Yeah? To help someone who is sick. Though I don’t know who or where, I do know you’ll be back soon enough.”

Wonderful. At least she didn’t seem to know whom it was that I needed to help.

I knew Light didn’t lie. At least, not outright. Not knowingly, or willingly. It was why she, like her mother, sometimes spoke in odd riddles. It was their way of hiding the truth. They obfuscated, not lied.

“So no bloodshed?” I asked.

Light giggled. “I’d hope not! Please Vim, I’m really not stupid enough to make you an enemy. Even if it was needed,” she said lightly.

I sighed, but nodded. “Fine. I’ll leave tomorrow… but I’ll bring Renn over before we leave, so you can meet her,” I said as I stood from my chair.

Light perked up, nearly knocking over her chair as she did. “Really…!?”

I noted her utter shock, and how real it was.

She hadn’t expected to meet Renn. At all. At least, not here and now.

Which was why I was willing to let it happen.

I nodded. “Not long after sunrise. Don’t make me wait for you, even if you’re in the middle of one of your stupid baths,” I said.

She grinned and nodded. “I won’t! I promise! Thank you, Vim! Really!”

Light then giddily ran around the table, to once again wrap me in a hug.

This time it was a full on hug, without any trembling or slight anxiety. I sighed at her, returned her hug, and patted her back.

“It’s good to see you well, Light. Your mother would have been proud of you,” I said gently.

She sniffed and started to cry, which made me regret not killing her even more since it made my departure take longer than it should have.

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