I grinned happily at my room.

Or well, what would be my room in a few days.

It was at the end of the first floor’s east hallway, near the back exit door. It wasn’t that big honestly, in fact once a bed was put in it there would likely only be room for a few small chests or a dresser and not much else. Maybe a small desk and chair in the corner, too, but definitely nothing more than that. There was also a small window, though right now only had wooden shutters on both sides and no glass panes. Supposedly those kinds of things would be added later.

Vim had said the reason he’d chosen this one for us was for security reasons. He felt better with either he or I being the first door facing and near the exit. The front doors of the building, the dormitory as Vim called it, were ones reinforced by metal and locks. Plus they were just down the hallway from my room as well, with a storeroom and then the kitchens between us.

Across from my room was another storeroom, and to the right of it was the second stairwell. The first was located at the other end of the building, in the other hallway on the other side. Likewise on the first floor, there was another room on that side. Or well, three more rooms. Instead of storerooms. Randle had the one that mirrored my own on that side, Krass the old lady who found it difficult to climb stairs had the room across from him, and then a third that for now was to remain empty. It was to be the room we’d let our visitors stay, such as if Sap or Oplar were to return.

There were two more floors above us, though the third was half the size as the first two. Up there were plenty more rooms, some of them even twice as spacious as my own. It was actually a rather large building, reminding me of some of the homes at the Weaver’s Hut, though of course it was… plain. There was still no furniture in it, at all, so it was kind of empty and cold feeling.

But I knew that would change soon. People were already shuttling goods from their tents to here, and Vim and the rest were building beds and other things as well. In a few days this would be where we all lived, not the tents, and… to a certain point I was kind of disappointed.

I had grown to enjoy the tent encampment. Snores and all.

“Smells good at least!” Celine said as she stepped over and peeked her head into my room.

Grinning at her, I nodded. “Right?” I said. It smelled of freshly cut wood and… whatever they had put all over the floors and walls. Some kind of oil. It gave the wood a nice shine but also made it smell nice, at least for now.

Celine turned and noticed someone down the hall and ran off. I heard her say something to Angie, who grumbled at her, and I chuckled as I stepped out of my room and glanced down the hallway.

Angie was heading upstairs, and Celine was in tow. The two were carrying baskets, which told me that Celine had grabbed one from Angie as to help her. I hadn’t realized when it happened, but it seemed the two had become friends.

Which was a good thing… but…

Walking down the hallway, I slowed as I neared the room next to the kitchens. Or at least, what would be the kitchens. We still didn’t have anything in it, other than a few brick ovens.

Inside the room that only had a single table… sat a little girl. Young Liora was frowning as she read a book that Randle had given her. It wasn’t their bible, but it did seem to be some kind of religious text… I’d taken a peak at it earlier; the page I’d seen had been about some holy law that dealt with a royal’s fealty.

The young saint was fully engrossed in the book, not even noticing me as I stepped into the room… and I wondered if I should worry for her or not.

She got along with everyone here, as far as I could tell… but she definitely hadn’t gotten close to Angie or Celine as well as I would have liked her to. And I couldn’t even say it was because of Angie being her typical self, or Celine being unsure of herself either… I had noticed on many occasions both of them try to talk and hang out with Liora but the young saint never seemed too invested in doing so herself.

Almost as if… she didn’t want to be their friends. Which was so strange to me, since the young saint was so friendly and talkative with me and everyone else.

I’d not asked yet, but I had a terrible worry that the reason Liora was being slightly distant to Angie and Celine… was for a specific reason. One not associated with just being a child, or something.

Hopefully it had nothing to do with a prophecy…

“Liora,” I said her name gently as I patted her back. She looked up from the book and frowned at me.

“Yeah?” she asked. I noticed she placed a finger on the middle of a page, to keep track of where she’d just stopped.

“Not going to pick a room?” I asked. As far as I was aware she’d not done so yet.

The young saint frowned and then shook her head. “I’ll just pick one after everyone else.”

I see… maybe it wasn’t that she wasn’t happy; rather she just valued different things. Some people were like that. Look at Vim, for crying out loud. That man wouldn’t even choose a room if not for his desire to share one with me.

“Is it interesting?” I asked with a gesture to the book.

Liora hummed as she looked back at it. “Not really,” she said honestly.

“Oh…?” Yet she had been so focused earlier on reading it!

“But I need to read this one before I can read the next. So Randle says,” she said.

Ah… “Like to read do you? I do too, I just get distracted a lot,” I said.

She smiled at that and nodded. “I’m looking for something, but yes I do like to read.”

“Looking for something…?” I asked. In… religious texts? Stuff that Randle had brought from Telmik…?

“Yeah… it’s… well…” Liora was about to answer, but frowned and went quiet… and I realized why as Vim walked into the room.

I turned to glare at him. “Liora was about to tell me something important,” I said to him.

He raised an eyebrow at me, then smiled. “I see. I’ll leave you be then. After you hear it though, would you like to join me?” he asked.

“Join…? Did you put a bed in our room already?” I asked.

“Gah!” A loud, annoyed voice, yelled at me as Angie walked past the room and to the exit. Celine quickly followed after her, giggling as she did.

“Sorry Angie,” I apologized. I surprisingly hadn’t noticed she was there. I had been too focused on Vim, I guess… or maybe Vim had simply made this place too well, not a single board squeaked when walked upon. Not a one.

Vim sighed at me. “To town. I need to go speak to this… Hobbler?” he said with a frown.

Hobbler…? Just who was he…? Oh. “Haggo. The city commissioner person,” I said, correcting him. Randle had called him a seneschal, but Rivonne had told me that title was outdated nowadays and most just used commissioner or mayor.

He frowned and nodded. “Yeah, him.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“How you get names mixed up so badly, I’ll never understand… yes I’ll join you. Please wait for me,” I said.

He nodded and then with a small smile and wave to Liora he stepped back out of the room and headed for the exit. I heard him and Angie and Celine get to talking as I turned back to the young saint and smiled at her smile.

“Can you believe that? Hobbler. And he probably just got told the proper name a few moments ago by someone else,” I said. Randle, likely.

Liora smiled and nodded. “He does seem bad with names. He got my mother’s name wrong the other day, but I know he doesn’t mean any ill will by it,” she said.

Oh…? I’ll need to remind Vim then for her. Liora might not mind, but I did. “Just correct him when he makes such a mistake. He’ll fix it,” I said.

Liora shrugged, telling me she honestly didn’t mind much… and then she pointed again at the book. “I’m looking for a name,” she said.

“A… name?” In old religious books?

“Of a certain god. One that I need to know about,” she said, her voice going softer as she did.

I frowned at that. “And… you kept that from Vim because you know he doesn’t like talking about religion…?” I asked her.

She frowned back and shook he head. “Because it’s from a prophecy. He hates those.”

Oh gosh…

I glanced around, letting my ears flutter and move and relying on them more than my eyes. I heard people walking and talking upstairs… but no one seemed to be in any of the rooms nearby or down the hallway. Once I confirmed that, I leaned forward a bit as to whisper better with her. “What do you mean?” I asked softly.

Liora’s glowing eyes blinked at me. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it… but I can’t remember the name. But I know it’s one that I find in one of these books, so I’ve been looking for it,” she said.

“From a prophecy,” I furthered her to continue.

“Yeah… it doesn’t happen soon, I don’t think… but I’ve learned now that such things aren’t always right. I thought it’d happen when I was older, almost old enough to see you eye to eye… but maybe not anymore,” she said, speaking so low some of her words actually meshed together in a slight slur. She wasn’t used to whispering so lowly it seemed, but I understood her well enough so it was fine.

She had likely come to such a conclusion thanks to recent events. She’d told me about the prophecy she had foreseen of us encountering knights on the way here. She was… rather upset that I had not been with her at the time. She didn’t like how it had come to pass with such a glaring flaw, and I agreed with her. It meant that once again fate had other plans for me, and I had failed to fulfill them. I had been meant to be with Vim when he encountered Liora… not half a country away.

“Why do you need to remember the name of a god…?” I asked, fearing the answer.

“Because they show up. Vim calls her mother, but he and Sap got all weird about it and now I’m doubting that I’m remembering it right… so I figured I’d verify it by finding her name and…” Liora’s whispering got better, to the point she didn’t even slur or roll her words anymore, but I lost focus.

Feeling suddenly very light headed, I groaned and closed my eyes.

She foresaw Vim’s mother!? Showing up!?

That was… that…!

“Um…”

I opened my eyes and found a worried Liora. Her glowing eyes were fluttering, like a candle would in the wind, and I quickly controlled my own unease. “I’m okay… I uh… so you told Vim this? Already?” I asked. Sap too…? Maybe she had brought it up as they came here together.

She nodded, rather stiffly. “I think I shouldn’t have, should I not have…? It’s why I wanted to find out more, and…”

I reached over and gently patted the young girl on the back. “It’s okay. I’m glad you did, even if Vim isn’t. He’s… touchy about such stuff. You uh… you mind telling me it in detail?” I asked as I went ahead and sat on the bench next to her, but did so facing away from her. I faced the nearby doorway, the one that led to the empty kitchen, instead of the table.

Liora leaned closer and nodded. “I was with you… though not in this building. We were in a home of some kind, talking about some kind of lizard and a broken bed. Then someone knocked on the door, the place got really warm… oh, right, it was snowing too. There was snow stacked even above the windows,” she said, speaking quickly as she did.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I nodded and waited for her to continue.

“Then the door opened really loudly…! And Vim hurries into the room, and gets all weird and calls her mother… and then she sighs and says he screwed up, then I wake up after a bright light blinds me. I’ve had the prophecy twice now, though the first time I had it was with Vim and Sap while I was on Horseshoe,” Liora said.

Horseshoe…? “I uh… I’m a tad confused…” I said honestly.

She sighed at me. “Vim and Sap were too. That’s why I’m trying to figure it out… I think I heard her name, her real name, but I can’t remember it. I think Vim said it after he said mother, but I can’t really remember it right. I asked Randle to tell me the names of the gods and he gave me these books, he says they’re stories written by other saints. Ones that speak of them all, all the gods we know,” she said.

Gosh…! “I uh… I see…” I felt a little sweaty all of a sudden. Just what the heck was happening! First Vim returns, claiming the gods showed back up again and now wanted to kill me as to get him to do something… and now this? What did this mean…?

Was his mother still alive…? Surely not, right…? I mean… we’ve not honestly talked too much about it, but he’s made it very clear that he believes they’re dead, right? He even had that gravestone for them back at the Crypt!

But maybe that was all sentimental. Maybe they were alive, and he simply saw them as dead. Viewed them as dead, because of the implications or…

“Renn…?” Liora said my name with a sad, worried voice… and I realized I was being ungrateful. I’d just ignored her because I was so shocked.

“I’m… okay. Thank you, Liora for telling me… is that all of that prophecy?” I asked.

She nodded quickly.

“Have you… had more? Like that?”

“You mean about us…? Yes. A few. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about them, but most aren’t that serious so…” she said with a shrug.

Not that serious…? I think she needed to re-assess how she viewed certain things… Vim’s mother showing up was stupidly serious in my opinion.

“Did… did you tell Randle the reason you wanted to know about all the gods and their names?” I asked carefully. I heard someone coming down the stairs near my room, so I knew in half a moment we’d not be able to talk privately.

“Yes… he asked, and I was hoping he’d just know her name for me. He didn’t.”

Of course he didn’t. Great. Now I needed to go talk to Randle…

Wait…

Vim had once said he didn’t know their names. That he had only known his parents as mother and father.

Had he… lied to me? Liora just said he said her name, or at least she thinks he did, but…

“Why do you want to know her name so badly?” I asked as my head began to swirl.

She frowned at me and shrugged. “I’m not sure… I just feel like it’s very important.”

Yes… it very well might be… “I uh… I’ll help. You search for it. Later,” I said.

“Oh…? Okay!” Liora brightened up at that, not just with a smile but her eyes too. They glowed a tad stronger as she grinned.

I nodded and very gently bumped the girl with an elbow. “Thanks for telling me… um… please don’t tell anyone else, okay? Not until we talk more?” I asked.

“Sure…? No problem.”

“Thanks… I’ll be back in a bit, Vim will leave without me if I don’t go now,” I said.

“Ah. He wouldn’t ever do that. He’d wait until the world froze over for you,” Liora said with such certainty that I paused mid-step.

“Hm…?” Why would she phrase it like that…?

She nodded and gave me a very warm smile. One that… honestly didn’t fit her young age. “I’m jealous. I know you know how precious it is, but I don’t think anyone else does. He’s so loyal it’s almost sickening, like really strong honey!” she said.

I smiled at that and nodded. “Yes… I know, right? By the way now I want honey, thanks for that,” I said.

She giggled as I stepped out of the room, and as I did I had to pause as Nessa walked by. “Oops, pardon me Renn,” she said as she hurried past and hurried to the exit. She like the rest had been shuttling her stuff to her new room.

Following her out of the dormitory, I found Vim not too far away. He was over near one of the work tables.

I hurried over to him, and with every step I took towards him a thousand new questions filled my head. I groaned inwardly as he turned to smile at me, in the same sweet way that Liora had just hinted at, and I felt like squeezing his head as hard as I could. “Vim,” I said as I approached.

“Hm?”

“We uh… need to talk,” I said.

His smile softened a little, and he glanced at the house. “Uh… please don’t tell me she had another prophecy, or something,” he said. It was rather obvious why he’d come to such a conclusion, since I knew he likely could see my stress and concern on my face.

“In a way,” I said.

He inhaled deeply, and held it in for a moment as we held our gazes… and then breathed it out and nodded. “Okay.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“Yeah… I got a feeling what it’s about, so… yeah.”

“Don’t look so excited,” I said softly, hoping to ease the seriousness of the moment.

“Says you?” he teased back.

I grinned as he and I stepped away, to both head into SilverCreek… and to talk privately.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep