Shutting the door behind me, a bit too strongly but not so hard that anything broke, I breathed in a bit as I stepped through the small hallway and into the room.

Casper was still in the center of the room. Tied up and sealed just as I’d left her. And Renn…

I glanced to my right at my wife who stood up a bit straighter upon my looking at her. She had her tail in her hands, gripping it so tightly that it was clear how stressed out she was. My spear was in her arms, resting against her collar and shoulder. It shifted a little as she turned as to look at me as I entered the room. She gave me a worried, slightly confused, look… but said nothing.

Holding her gaze for a long moment… I found it within me to speak up and reassure her. And did so with a much kinder tone than I had just used on the people outside of this room. “All is well, Renn. The bindings on her are unbreakable. They will start to flicker wildly once they’re at risk of failing or becoming undone. So we’ll have a good warning before it happens,” I told her.

Renn’s worried eyes narrowed a bit at me. “That’s not what I’m stressing over, Vim,” she said.

Right… “That too will be okay. It’s okay. I promise.”

“You keep saying that…” Renn whispered, a bit sadly, as she glanced over to the center of the room at Casper.

I heard Casper shift ever so little, only able to move a hair while under those bindings, but I didn’t glance at her. I instead kept my gaze on my wife… who noticeably gripped her tail tighter, as if wringing it as one would a wet towel. She didn’t just look stressed and worried… she looked scared, even. And I knew her fears were not thanks to the woman tied up in the center of the room.

One could not blame her for such emotions. I knew how this all probably looked, and seemed, to an outsider’s perspective… and even more so to hers.

She had known Renka. I wasn’t entirely sure how long she’s been interacting with her, but it has been at least a few months.

Renn. Consorting with a god. And one of the most powerful ones at that.

My neck cracked as I turned to look at Casper… and watched her again shift ever so slightly. She tried to sit up, her eyes going wide at my looking at her… and it was clear she had just panicked but hadn’t been able to act upon it. The bindings on her body, and around her mouth, kept her not just still but silent. She couldn’t even release a groan or a whine. The only reason she was even able to see was because I’d already removed the binding covering her eyes. I had wanted to make sure it really was her.

It was. And by removing the blindfold I had also confirmed the bindings were exactly as I remembered them.

I myself knew those bindings well. They didn’t work as well on me as they did others, but even for me they were an annoyance. It took effort on my part to break those binds, a lot of it.

“Vim…” Renn whispered my name, but I could hear in her voice her real statement.

She was warning me. And I knew without asking, or looking at her, to what she was trying to remind me of and make me heed carefully.

I calmed myself a little and nodded… and took in a deep breath as to ensure it.

Yes. I had a right to be furious… but right now was not a moment of anger. I’d not get any answers with fury.

Though if any answers I’d be getting here and now were of any value was still up to debate…

“Is everyone okay, Vim…?” Renn then asked.

Shifting ever so softly, as if I too was bound by those divine ropes, I nodded. “They’re… worried, but fine. Luckily only a few members caught wind of us coming down here, though it won’t be long until everyone here knows of it. I have the Chronicler’s word that she’ll keep everyone at bay and leave us be,” I said. She had made me vow to tell her what was going on, truly going on, in exchange afterward… but I had a plan on how I’d avoid doing such a thing later.

Renka had ended her illusion right after leaving after our confrontation… and had done so while Renn and I, and a tied up Casper, had been directly in the center of the main entrance of the hallowed halls. The main place of worship for one of the grandest and largest cities left on this planet.

Odds are there would be a lot of strange rumors to deal with after so many people witnessed me pick up Casper and walk away with her on my shoulder, but at the very least my and Casper’s weirdness had made sure that Renn had not been very noticed if at all.

I’ll need to let her know later that she had done well… Renn could have screamed or freaked out after Renka’s disappearance, and any such outburst would have been justified. The fact she had kept her cool well enough to not draw attention to herself was praiseworthy indeed… even if it was simply because she was too stunned to do aught else.

“What’d you tell everyone?” she asked.

“That this is a personal matter,” I said.

Renn sighed, rather boldly, but I didn’t find my words lacking. It was the truth.

This was a personal matter. It had nothing to do with the Society.

At least… as far as I was aware.

“All the same please keep an eye on the door. If it opens please let me know right away,” I said as I stepped towards Casper.

“Should I leave…?”

I paused and glanced at my wife who now had a different kind of worried expression. One much… sadder than the one before.

“No. Maybe by letting you stay and listen, and watch, you can finally get answers that I’m incapable of giving you,” I told her. And meant it as I turned back to face Casper.

She sat on her knees in the center of the room. A room that, like the many just like it all on this sub-floor beneath the Cathedral, was a resting place. A tomb. This room had no coffin, or any dead resting here, and as such was empty. It was just a medium sized room without anything in it, though there was a pattern in the center of the room’s floor where a coffin would be laid to rest… but thanks to that it was the perfect place to have this conversation. We were deep underground, in a very well built stone and metal room that was almost airtight. I had left the door open for a short time to ensure it aired out a bit before sending Renn in, and I knew we’d be long done before the air quality got so bad that it would endanger or impact her health. Though most of that confidence came from the fact she was not just a thick-blooded non-human but also one with a heart.

She likely didn’t even notice the bad air quality in this room, even though many others would.

As I approached Casper I heard Renn’s grip on her tail tighten some more. I worried a little for her poor tail, since she was squeezing it so hard.

“Let’s get this over with before my wife’s lovely tail goes bald, shall we?” I said as I stepped to Casper.

Casper glared up at me, but not in a defiant way. Instead I saw fear. Terror. Yet the kind that accompanied hatred more than acceptance or despair.

The glowing ropes tightly wound around her body and thighs made the air a bit warm around her. The mana infused into them was thick, and I knew once I grabbed one they’d burn flesh. Just as they had properties to keep the one they bound from freeing themselves, they too had traits that kept them from being manipulated by outside forces. It was one of the reasons I had made sure to warn Renn from touching them, or Casper herself, though it seemed my warning had been unneeded.

Renn was still standing near the small hallway that led to this room’s exit. And she was even making a tiny whine of a noise as she watched me kneel down next to the bound woman. Odds are my wife had no plans at all to move, unless absolutely necessary.

Up close, even through loose flocks of hair and very narrowed eyes… I could see Casper’s irises. They were thin, almost see-through looking things. They were small yet I felt I could see things within them, as if seeing through very tiny windows. I wasn’t sure if that was a trait she’s always had or something new. I couldn’t really remember her very well. While dealing with the Chronicler and the rest I had been trying to remember all I knew of her, but I was coming up short. It was almost a miracle that I had even remembered her name.

Though there was one thing I remembered about her… rather clearly.

Reaching out, I grabbed the glowing cloth around her mouth and tugged it. Her whole head leaned forward as it resisted my pull for a moment, but after a few moments of burning my skin and resisting it finally snapped. A small tearing sound filled the stone room, echoing a bit as I removed the binding and freed her mouth.

Holding onto the glowing binding, even though it kept burning my hand to the point it made sizzling noises, I nodded as Casper took in a deep breath… and then popped her jaw as she stretched it.

“Hello, Vim.”

I heard Renn shiver at Casper’s voice, and I knew it wasn’t just because of how it sounded. Casper’s raspy, almost hollow sounding voice didn’t echo at all in this room even though it sounded like it should do so. “Casper. Quite a predicament you got yourself in,” I said, greeting her back.

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“An understatement.”

“Hmph.” I scoffed at that… and then glanced down at the cloth in my hand. The glowing rope was no more. It was now a black cloth of torn fibers and strings… looking more like a worn down rag than anything else. I tossed it aside. Since it no longer had any mana in it the thing was useless. “Do I need to actually ask…?” I asked Casper as the rag landed a few feet away near the wall.

“No… I know what you want to know,” she said.

“Then?”

Casper blinked, just once, and then she turned her head a bit. She tried to lean a little, as to try and look past and around me at the one warily standing behind me… but her body wouldn’t cooperate. As if she was numb from the neck down, her body barely budged even as she tried stretched her head and neck. “Any chance I can plead your mercy to stay his hand, lovely wife?” Casper asked after a moment of fruitlessly trying to get Renn’s attention.

I heard Renn stand up a bit straighter, but I didn’t glance back at her as she stepped a bit closer. She didn’t get too close, but she did step around me a bit as to likely be able to look Casper in the eye.

“Careful…” I warned.

Renn went still as Casper glared at me. “What can I say Vim…? Even if I tell you the truth, you’re still just going to end me,” Casper said, her tone a bit snippy.

“My warning had not been for you,” I said simply.

She blinked again as Renn made a noise, which I ignored. “Considering she might be my only chance to survive this, you hardly need to worry that I’d try to harm her, Vim. Not that I could even if I wanted to,” Casper said with a small nod to the ropes around her.

“My warning had also not been one heeding physical harm, Casper,” I said simply.

The god’s eyes narrowed a little. “I see.”

“I don’t.”

It was my turn to blink as I frowned and glanced back behind me, while keeping an eye on Casper… and I found Renn had gotten a bit closer. She was still several steps away, but had now crossed more than half the distance between us originally. She now held the spear, gripping it as she had just been her tail. Worriedly.

“I’ll not allow her to harm you, Renn,” I said, clarifying what I meant.

“She obviously understood, and knows, that Vim… she meant she doesn’t understand why she should be on guard for any other reason around me. Have you not told her anything of us?” Casper asked.

“He’s only… said a few things…” Renn answered before I could, and did so in a way that made it sound as if I was some kind of lying husband who kept many secrets. She even glanced at me with a tiny bit of unsureness as she spoke, as if afraid to say such a thing. Which made me feel like an ass.

I had plenty of secrets, but I liked to think I wasn’t so bad as to be a liar. But in a way I was, wasn’t I? I may not have outright lied about the gods, or the threat of them… but I had omitted and talked around them enough that I may as well have.

Especially since I’d known this would happen eventually. Even if I had ignored it, and did my best to not admit it or confront it… this had been an inevitability. In truth I should have realized it even long before Stance or Havoc showed up too, I should have figured this would happen the moment I got into a serious relationship with someone. After all it was their best chance to hurt me, really hurt me, and of course they’d take it.

If anything it was a miracle it had taken this long…

“Casper can read minds if you lock eyes with her,” I told Renn as I held Casper’s gaze.

She blinked and frowned at me. “Not while sealed, Vim. You should know that,” she said.

“I’ve always been the type to err on the side of caution.”

“Like some saints,” Renn said softly, as if everything made sense to her.

Casper raised an eyebrow and I could read her thoughts rather clearly on her face, almost as if I had the same ability she did.

“Comparing the two would be like comparing me to a typical knight in strength,” I said simply.

“Understatement. Again,” Casper said.

It was, but it was something Renn would understand.

“So…?” I asked Casper, ready to get back on topic.

Casper continued to glare at me as she moved in a way that told me she had just tried to shrug but hadn’t been able to. “Where to even begin…?” she asked, maybe herself more than me.

“Why not start with what you think is most important,” I said.

“That just leads me right back to her…” Casper said with a tiny glance over my shoulder at Renn.

Not what I wanted to hear, but it was what I had expected. “Why though?” Renn asked for me.

Casper blinked, and then frowned as she slowly glanced at me… and when I didn’t say anything she realized I was okay with her answering the question. So she took in a small breath as to do so. “It’s uh… hard to know where to start…”

Renn stepped a bit closer and I took note of how close she got. I made sure to keep an eye on her as she got within a few steps of us, but luckily at least she was keen enough to keep me between her and the tied up god. Though if she did so knowing how dangerous she was, or just out of basic instinct I couldn’t tell.

Actually…

“By the way she’s a god, or at least what you’d know one as,” I said to Renn with a glance, having realized I hadn’t actually said so yet.

Casper scoffed as Renn gave me a weird look. “Yes, Vim. I kind of figured that out already.”

Oh? That was laced with sarcasm. It sounded cute coming from her, it wasn’t often she acted so. “Was just saying…” I mumbled as I looked back at Casper.

The bound god gave me a look too, but one of annoyed amusement instead. “You haven’t changed a bit,” Casper said.

Also not what I wanted to hear right now. “Just get started already,” I said, a bit annoyed now myself.

“And start where? What you obviously want to hear is stuff that will just piss you off and get me killed faster, not really good incentives you know…” Casper said.

“Why did Renka give you to us like this?” Renn then asked, before I could say anything.

I blinked as Casper shifted her head little. “That’s where you want to start…?” she mumbled quietly but then sighed and nodded. “I’m the one who first knew of your existence. As he said, I’m capable of hearing thoughts. True thoughts, and in full. So I… have been working alongside Renka all this time keeping tabs on Vim all these years. Since none of us could get close, or actually see him with any of our abilities. And… well, I was the one to first find out about you. Or well, the prophetic dreams of you at least,” Casper explained.

Renn shifted, and I went ahead and expanded a bit on what Casper was saying since I knew Renn needed such information to really understand what she was saying. “Gods are able to view people and places from great distances away. But those abilities do not work on me or around me, so they use them on those I am near or associating with. Akin to how a saint’s prophecy doesn’t ever focus directly on me but I can be noticed in those focused on others if I interact with them. Casper’s ability of reading minds works through those methods too, as long as she can look those people in the eye. She likely read the minds of those that Renka or others watched on from afar and that’s how they first learned of you,” I explained.

“From… how long ago?” Renn asked.

I blinked at the odd question as Casper frowned. “Uh… if I wasn’t tied up I could give you an exact date, but maybe two and a half centuries ago or so?” Casper said.

Renn must not have liked that answer for her grip on the spear tightened, harshly.

“If it was that long ago why doesn’t everyone know of her then?” I asked, pointing out a flaw in this supposed situation. One I’d been wondering about for a while.

Casper smirked. “Renka’s plan. She’s the only one able to hide from you, Vim. So she’s the only one brave enough to do anything near or concerning you. Without her no one else would dare come close. She made me agree to keep her a secret,” Casper said.

So it was true…

I believed it… because even though I had felt Renka earlier, thus how I had tracked and found them in that illusion a little bit ago, it had been sudden. Renka had appeared out of nowhere… at least, from what I had felt. Which was impossible, even for them. Even when a god transported or teleported using their abilities, it was a gradual arrival. One that took many seconds to accomplish, and it could be felt rather clearly. It was why they could never just sneak up behind me, their abilities didn’t allow it.

Yet Renka had seemingly appeared from thin air, at least based off my senses.

Which meant she had been there this whole time, and had simply stopped… doing whatever she did to hide herself from me.

“How…” I was about to ask about such a thing, but Renn interrupted me as she stepped closer.

“Why is my arrival causing such problems…?” Renn asked, rather quickly.

Casper frowned at me in a way that told me she noticed I had been interrupted, but she went ahead and looked up past my shoulder to look at Renn. In the eyes. “Vim, obviously? Or well… your relationship, I guess?”

“But…” Renn didn’t seem to find that answer one that made sense, but it did to me. Perfect sense.

The question now wasn’t why they had become active; it was what did they want now that they were.

“We’ve never put any stock into the prophecies you people get. Especially with how many we’d lost once you found a way to exploit them, Vim. And in truth, we had figured the ones about her had been the same thing. Ones that you would negate or avoid on purpose. You should have seen Renka’s face when she summoned me a few years ago, back when she had first seen her in person for the first time…” Casper smirked as she spoke, as she remembered a memory that to her had been funny.

“When’d you first meet Renka, Renn?” I asked as I studied Casper’s face. She looked… forlorn now, though had a small smile on her face.

“Huh…? Um… I think a few months ago, when I came back here with Lellip and the rest. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before then,” Renn answered.

Casper frowned at that. “That might be the first time Renka’s shown herself to her, but we’ve known of her for a while now. Like I said, she summoned me to help her a few years ago when she first joined your little society thing. Renka had wanted me to read her mind to verify some stuff for her,” Casper said.

“You speak as if you hadn’t been involved in watching over me all this time,” I noted.

“Because I haven’t been?” she said with a shrug. “I help when she needs it, but that’s only every so often. Like I said Renka is the only one who even dares come near you, Vim.”

“How… how many of you are there…?” Renn asked a question that I wanted to know the answer to, as well.

“That I know of? Forty-four. Or well… Forty-three, I’m included in that first number,” Casper said.

I nearly fell back at the shock of such a number, but kept my cool. Barely.

So many…!

“Don’t look so shocked, Vim…” Casper said with a sour tone.

“Is that… a lot?” Renn asked.

“To him? Obviously. But no. It’s a pitiful number,” Casper said.

“Havoc had said…” I started to speak, but my mind was still wheeling from the new information and I hesitated.

“Havoc…? That idiot got himself killed for no reason, Vim. Half of us didn’t even acknowledge him, he was a liability… though I guess I am one too, now…” Casper said.

Yes. She was.

But… for who?

And did I want to even find out?

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