Where was Renn when I needed her?

“Sounds gross,” Liora said as she helped Kaley set the table for dinner.

Kaley smuggled laughed. “It can be sometimes, to be honest,” she said.

As I went to filling everyone’s bowls with stew from the pot, I wondered what I was going to do with the girl. Not only was she young, what with her birthday being tomorrow when she’ll turn twelve, she was also a saint. A human one.

“Okay, Rapti’s coming, find a new conversation,” I said as I distributed lunch. I placed the three bowls of stew onto the table and went to grab the other platters of food, such as some bread and fruit.

Kaley giggled as she finished helping set the table. Young Liora paused as she looked up at me, with her glowing eyes. “Can we talk about it later…? Mother never spoke with me about it, she didn’t like such things,” Liora asked, sounding a tad too innocent for the topic she was interested in. But I was not surprised. It was not hard to guess as to why her mother had not spoken of romance and its accompanied parts of life, what with her personal issues with it. Liora herself was a victim of such a thing, though if the saint knew that or not I didn’t know.

“We can! I’ll tell you all about it later!” Kaley said happily.

I nodded slowly as I heard Rapti’s footsteps. She was done praying and was coming to join us. “Of course, Liora. Just be mindful of your company. Many are like your mother,” I said gently.

The young saint nodded quickly, understanding my meaning as Rapti entered the room. “Yes please. It is dutiful for one to teach such things, but I’d rather much not have to hear it,” she said simply.

Kaley hummed at that. “Dutiful. Doesn’t it bug you that you’re so similar to Vim just from a different perspective?” she asked as she went to sit down at the table.

“What’d you mean by that?” Liora asked as she too went to join Kaley and Rapti as they all sat down.

“She means my belief that such things should be taught. Vim too believes in sharing knowledge, even the kind that he doesn’t agree with. She’s basically teasing me, saying we’re alike even though we shouldn’t be,” Rapti explained.

“You’re a nun, aren’t you Rapti?” Liora asked.

“I’m a sister of the church, yes. Not officially a nun, I can’t join such an order,” Rapti answered smoothly.

Liora’s young face scrunched up in a way that told me she wanted to ask a dozen more questions, but I interfered as I placed a cup of milk down in front of the girl. “Eat. Before it gets cold,” I said.

She perked up and nodded as she hurriedly went to eat.

“Not going to join us, Vim?” Kaley asked as Rapti bowed her head and clasped her hands, as to offer a small prayer for the food.

“I plan to go see Karma.”

“Karma?” Liora asked while covering her mouth with a hand, she still had food in her mouth and was chewing as she spoke. It seemed that even though she’s not interacted much in public or with anyone beyond her mother and a few servants she had a lot of manners. Not too surprising, since technically she was a noble. They were big on rules and such customs.

“A fellow member. He’s useless though,” Kaley said as she took another bite, not as caring for proper etiquette.

Liora glanced at Rapti who finally finished praying. “Kaley judges a man’s usefulness in only one way, and it is improper. And a fatal flaw of her soul. But we love her anyway,” Rapti said.

“Please! What use do they have other than to warm a bed? If we could have children without them, we’d not want or need them would we?” Kaley asked.

Liora’s glowing eyes went wide as she slowly nodded, though I could tell it wasn’t because she agreed with Kaley. She was just shocked someone would say something so drastic with such a serious tone and looked like she wasn’t sure what else to do but agree.

“So she says, yet she’d not survive without them herself. So if such a world without men ever arrived she’d only be devastated,” Rapti said.

Kaley snickered. “In such a world I’d buy and sell men like toys!”

Liora’s face squirmed as she tried to decide if she should smile and laugh or frown in confusion. I decided to sigh and shake my head at them. “I’ll have you know there have been plenty of societies like that. They never last long,” I said.

“Oh?” Kaley perked up at that.

I nodded. “The all female one’s usually last longer, but not by much.”

“How would they last at all, Vim? Without children?” Rapti asked.

“Most still had children, by kidnapping men or using them like objects and not people as Kaley mentioned. But there was a nation of peoples who were able to give birth without men. They were non-humans like us, frogs capable of self-replicating. It was weird; they were all the same people basically. There were tens of thousands of them, if not hundreds, yet only a couple dozen different appearances and stuff. Was like a fever dream,” I said as I remembered that weird place.

“What happened to them?” Liora asked, and I realized all three of them were now fully focused on me. They were even neglecting their food.

“Well… like all things they eventually died off,” I said, not wanting to go into detail.

Why’d I bring them up? They had been another one of my mistakes back then… I’d killed the monarch they had all served and in doing so had destroyed their birthing pools. Thus dooming them to extinction.

“Self replicating…? You mean like making another of yourself, don’t you?” Kaley asked.

“Yes. Like I said, they all looked the same… they were different people, yet not. It had been weird,” I said.

“Now that would be boring! What’s the point if I can’t taste all the different flavors? I’d get bored,” Kaley said.

“Kaley!” Rapti groaned and sighed as she shook her head.

Liora smiled happily as she glanced between the two, enjoying herself as Kaley giggled and Rapti huffed. Ever since bringing her here the girl’s seemed very happy. I had worried slightly over taking her from her home and mother, since she was so young, but it seemed not only had the saint foreseen it happen… she had been looking forward to it.

I had spent an afternoon with her, and her mother, just talking and getting to know her. Back at her family’s mansion. I’d of course avoided talking about any of the prophecies she had, but a few hints of them had been brought up in general conversation. She has had many prophecies concerning her time in the Society, even ones far in her future where she is older and even has children. Also, to her the idea of joining the Society was not something scary or worrisome… but instead something great and amazing. To her it was something momentous, something important.

Yet I had still worried. It was a good thing Kaley and Rapti were here, and also willing to associate with a human saint. Their upbeat, and in Rapti’s case grounded, personalities made this transition easy. For Liora and myself.

But how long would her joy last, I wonder…? The girl was still just that, a young girl. Saint or no. And…

“Vim!”

I blinked and turned back to the table. I’d gone to clean up the remnants of the mess I’d made cooking lunch while getting lost in my thoughts. “Hm?”

Kaley gestured at the young girl with her head, and Liora sat up a bit straighter as I focused on her. “Um… Where’s your wife?” she asked.

What…? Why were they talking about Renn all of a sudden? They’d just been laughing and joking around, hadn’t they? Had I drifted into my thoughts for that long? “Renn is up north. Setting up a new abbey and orphanage,” I answered.

Liora hummed at that as she frowned, which told me she had expected a different answer.

A… prophecy, maybe…?

I sighed and gestured lightly at the girl. “I was trying to avoid this… but obviously I need to say it. There’s a small rule I’d like you to obey, Liora, at least concerning me,” I said.

She perked up again and nodded expectantly as she waited for me to continue. Before I could though, Rapti interjected. “Was wondering how long it’d take for this conversation to happen,” she said.

“Right?” Kaley snickered.

Ignoring them, I went ahead and continued. “I’d like to ask you not to bring up your dreams, your prophecies, around me. Unless you foresee something that is very concerning, such as the death of someone, I kindly ask you to not speak of such things around me. It’s fine if you wish to talk to others about them, if they’re willing to hear them, but please don’t do so around me,” I said.

Liora frowned at me as she took a few moments to consider my request, and then she tilted her head. “Why?”

“Because of my own rules. I’ve made vows that stop me from freely knowing of the future in any shape or form. Basically, I do not want to know what will or can happen. To me it is…” I took a small moment to consider what to use as reference, and realized the obvious answer. I gestured gently at Rapti. “Like how some people don’t wish to speak of certain topics, such as your mother and romance. Prophecies are to me what intimacy is to her,” I explained.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The young saint seemed to understand that very well, and instantly, for she nodded with a serious frown. “Okay…! So… just don’t speak of them. Unless it’s a matter of life or death,” she said, understanding.

“Please.”

“If you foresee something concerning, but not so drastic that you think Vim should know, just tell one of us,” Rapti told her.

Liora slowly nodded at Rapti’s words and then glanced back at me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” she said.

Oh? She looked sad all of a sudden. As if I’d just scolded her or something. “Of course you didn’t, I hadn’t told you. You’re not at fault, Liora. Your dreams are a part of you. My inability to conform to your standard is no fault of yours but my own. It is I who should apologize. As my wife, Renn, would say I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”

Kaley chuckled at that. “She does say that.”

“Right…” Liora mumbled as she glanced down to her bowl, which was still too full. They’d been yapping so much she wasn’t focused on eating.

“As long as you can overlook his oddness, Vim’s a good man,” Rapti said gently.

“Um…!” Liora looked up at me, and now had a worried expression. One that made Rapti and Kaley pause in their eating. I waited, as did the others, for Liora to say whatever was on her mind… but she didn’t. Instead she glanced at the two sitting with her, frowned worriedly, and then looked back at me. “Um… Vim…” she said softly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Uh… um…” she shifted in her seat, and I wondered where the confident girl had just gone. She suddenly looked her age.

“Gotta poop?” Kaley asked.

Liora jolted as if she’d just been flicked, and then smirked and laughed at Kaley. “No! I uh… well…” she glanced back at me, now with a slightly red face thanks to Kaley’s comment, and then ever so softly shrugged. “Can we talk? Alone?” she asked softly.

Oh boy.

Rapti obviously realized the girl’s meaning, and quickly stood. “Come on Kaley,” Rapti said.

“Wha…? I’m eating!” Kaley complained but joined the peacock. Kaley though took her bowl of stew with her as she left the kitchen.

Liora glanced at them, her tiny hands clenched tightly in worry. “Um…!” she seemed distressed, likely because she just realized she made them leave.

Stepping forward, I kept a sigh from escaping as I went ahead and pulled back the chair that Rapti had been in. I didn’t sit in it, but instead knelt down a bit as to kneel next to Liora. She glanced at me with an odd look as she gestured at the door and the hallway it led to. We could hear Rapti and Kaley talking as they went to the front of the house, one of the front living rooms. “I didn’t mean to make them leave,” she said softly.

“They understand, Liora. I assume you wish to speak of a dream?” I asked.

She nodded slowly.

Great.

“And… it’s one you couldn’t mention in front of them?” I asked another question, since the obvious answer to it concerned me.

Liora’s eyebrows nearly met as she frowned. “No… but it’s… Well…”

Gently reaching out, I patted the young girl on the knee. “Go ahead. I promise to only break a few mountains.”

She blinked at that, and then smiled. “What?”

“Just something I do sometimes,” I said with a shrug, glad to see her a tad more relaxed. Such jokes worked usually, but only until people realized they weren’t jokes at all.

Liora nodded a little unsurely, and then glanced again at the door. We could still hear the two talking, but their voices were distant. Distant enough that though they would likely hear Liora’s words, they’d not be able to hear them well enough to understand them. Though to Liora, a human, she likely didn’t realize that even from the other side of the house that those like Rapti and Kaley could still hear very well.

“Go ahead. That way they can come back and finish their meals,” I said gently.

“Right…” Liora mumbled, then looked back at me. “You’re going to kill people,” she then said.

“Who?”

She frowned some more. “Not going to ask why?”

“Why?”

She then smiled. “You’re an odd man, Vim.”

So they say. “Ready for the where and when?” I asked with a smirk.

Liora giggled at that for a moment then nodded. “We’re going to be on a road. I… don’t know where. Heading north. A group of knights will attack us and you kill them,” she said, speaking softly but confidently.

Staring into the young girl’s glowing eyes, I wondered how much death she has seen to be able to speak about it as calmly as she was. Although saints typically matured quickly, growing thick skin and putting walls around their hearts out of necessity… Liora was still rather young. And even though a saint, I couldn’t imagine she’s foreseen too many prophecies such as this to have already numbed her to the violence. Saints typically only foresaw their own fates, and those of people they knew or met. Or would meet. And this girl has lived a rather sheltered life…

“Well… such a thing does happen. Are they people you know? Do you get hurt?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No… but I thought it’d happen soon, but… she’s not here.”

“She?”

“Rennalee. Your wife. The one with ears,” she said as she lifted her hands and placed them upward, palms out, on the top of her head. Where Renn’s ears were on hers.

“I see… thus you asking me where she is,” I said gently.

She nodded.

“Well… As I’m sure you must know by now, sometimes your dreams are wrong. Or off in certain ways. Either it will happen before we meet Renn, or after. Either way, I promise to handle it properly. I’ll not let you get hurt,” I said.

“I’m not worried about me.”

Hm…? “Then who?” Renn maybe…? I couldn’t imagine I’d let her get hurt, or that she’d let herself get hurt. Even if we were attacked by a group of knights they’d still just be humans. Though to a young human girl like Liora, even a little bit of blood might be a big deal.

Liora pointed at me.

Me…? Oh. I must get injured in the scuffle. Maybe I get stabbed or shot with an arrow or something. “I see. Thank you for the warning. Does anything else concerning happen then?” I asked. I wasn’t going to explain to her that I’d be fine. Most people, especially children, didn’t understand what I meant when I explained it. Not until they saw it themselves.

Liora frowned and shook her head. “No… aren’t you worried?”

“Nope. It’s my job to handle such situations. I do it all the time. Thank you for telling me, though,” I said.

“You don’t look thankful,” she said softly.

“Well, to be honest… I’m a tad bothered. As I said, I don’t like hearing prophecies. Even ones like that. It bothers me… have you ever felt your hair stand on edge? Get a chill for no reason? Say… in the dark, when you’re alone? As if something scary is about to happen?” I asked.

“Yeah…!” Liora nodded quickly.

“That’s how they make me feel.”

“You’re scared of them…?” she asked.

Well, I brought that on myself. “Basically, yes.”

“Huh…” Liora nodded softly at me, as if she could understand such a thing. Maybe she could.

“Still, thank you for telling me. So, since you’ve already said so and proved it… you meet Renn do you?” I asked as I stood.

“Yeah… she’ll be my friend,” she said with a happy tone as I stepped over to the door and leaned out into the hallway.

“Come on back you two,” I said, beckoning them.

“Kay!” Kaley shouted, but neither sounded like they were in a hurry to do so. They were chatting about something. Had I heard Karma’s name…? Maybe they were planning on going with me to see him.

Turning back to the saint, I gestured for her to finish eating. “Finish before it gets cold, Liora.”

“Kay…” she mimicked Kaley with her answer, one that had been said in a way that told me she’d never said it before. Again a hint of her upbringing. She actually spoke very well, especially for a young human.

A testament to her mother’s efforts, really. It is highly unlikely that this girl had received a proper education, since her mother had hid her away. So that meant her education had come from her mother, or maybe at best a trusted servant or two. To have protected Liora all this time, while giving her such an upbringing, and all the while running one of the largest merchant guilds in town was… rather amazing. Quite a feat in today’s age…

“Vim, may I join you?” Kaley asked as she and Rapti re-entered.

“To see Karma and the rest? Yes.”

“Thanks. I’ll go get ready,” she said as she put her, by the sounds of it now empty, bowl onto the table and hurried back out of the kitchen.

“Thought she didn’t like this Karma,” Liora said as Rapti returned to sitting next to her.

“She’s got something to do, is all. Why haven’t you eaten any of this yet? It’s good you know,” Rapti said as she went to pull one of the platters of fruit up to the girl, likely to make sure she ate some.

Nodding softly I turned to leave, or at least to ready to. I’d wait for Kaley, of course, though I too was a little unsure of what she intended to do. She had told me the other day she had planned to just… hang out here, and not really go hunting for men. Maybe she had already given that up? I had expected her to have done so, but I hadn’t thought it’d have happened this fast. A single day, really?

“Mother liked these too…” Liora said as I left the kitchen. She and Rapti went to talking about the foods they liked, which it turned out Liora really liked fish. I smirked as I heard Kaley snicker down the hallway in her room… having likely heard the young girl.

They had likely heard Liora tell me of her prophecy. The one concerning the knights attacking us. But I wasn’t concerned over it, and I knew they too wouldn’t be. And in time, so too would Liora find that same confidence.

Such threats were not a threat. Not to me at least.

Honestly I was rather relieved. I had been slightly expecting something to have been brought up by the young saint. Since she had foreseen me breaking the ship, and Renn, I had been… worried, to say the least. For her prophecy, at least the one that had concerned her enough to bring it up to me, to have been that simple was rather… relieving.

“This good enough, Vim?”

I turned to find Kaley. She now wore a simple set of clothes, the kind you’d find any young human woman wearing in such a port town. One that made her look kind of poor, but normal. The colors bland, the quality mediocre at best. And it covered her properly. “Yes. I’m sorry you have to be uncomfortable just to walk around,” I said as I went to put my own shoes on.

“Eh, it’s fine,” she said lightly as I finished putting my shoes on.

“We’ll be going now,” I said a little loudly to the two still in the kitchen. I heard Rapti say okay, and then Kaley and I left Rapti’s home.

Shutting the door behind me, I glanced around a bit as we headed for the road. I made sure no one was around or watching the house, and was glad to not see anything amiss. I had brought Liora here in the early morning, when it was very dark and quiet, but one could never be sure.

“She’s a cute girl, Vim. Very saint-like though. Are they really all like that?” Kaley asked me quietly as we headed down the road, heading for the inner city.

“Stoic? Yes. They have to be, usually. They see terrible things even while young, as she is, so grow calluses as to survive,” I said.

“Sad. But if that’s what it takes, I guess,” Kaley said.

I nodded.

We walked for a bit until Kaley gestured down another road. “Want me to shop while you talk to Karma? Or can we do it afterward?” she asked.

Shop…? Oh. “For the girl,” I said, understanding.

“Yeah…? She only brought a small bag with her, Vim. barely enough to travel with,” Kaley said, sounding a little annoyed that I’d not noticed.

I had, but I had planned to deal with it later. “I’ll join you if you wish, after, unless you’d like to avoid Karma and the rest,” I offered.

“Hm… I’ll keep you company. I’d like to see who else is here, anyway,” Kaley decided after a moment’s thought.

“Thought you were taking a sabbatical,” I said as we headed for the inn where Karma and the rest were staying.

Kaley giggled at me. “I am! But just in case I change my mind, I want to know of all my options!”

Of course.

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