How adorable.

Vim looked annoyed, but had a soft smile on his face as he nodded in defeat as Fressi and her mother both continued to point out all the flaws in his clothing. Not just in their shape and color, but their form and patchwork too. They supposedly really didn’t like the way his pants weren’t hemmed properly, being uneven or something.

“Like they have any room to talk,” Renka said with a small laugh.

I smiled and nodded. The ducks’ robes were indeed a little… silly looking. They had huge dragging tails of feathers, and as such needed to cover and hide them, but I wasn’t entirely sure if really long and thick robes were the best way to do it. It made them look silly.

“You wear normal stuff, though, Renka…” I though pointed out as I glanced at her.

“Huh…? You say that as if I’m wearing something stupid too,” she seemed offended as she glanced down at her clothes in worry.

I quickly shook my head. “You look good! I just meant… well… you’re a god, so I uh…” I panicked, since I knew with a snap of her fingers she could change clothes… and I didn’t want her to do so. Though not because I’d be jealous over her being capable of doing such a thing.

Renka was to my left. She was walking beside me, we were many dozens of feet behind the others, and had been since even before Fressi had ran ahead to get a snack from her mother. Though it wasn’t until Fressi had left that I had been willing to risk talking to her, even if Fressi seemingly couldn’t see or hear anything Renka said or did.

And surprisingly no one else could either… but…

Glancing at Vim as Renka hummed in worry, while still studying her clothes, I noted the way he glanced around again. He looked not just ahead of us, off into the distance, but also everywhere else. He looked at a farm far off to our left. A hill with many trees on it to our right, and what I think was a river a bit ahead of the hill as well. It was hard to make out from here, but I did smell the river and have been smelling it for some time so I figured it was time for it to show up.

Vim always looked around while we traveled… or well, all the time in general. He was always on guard, in his own ways, and was especially so when we were with other members… but right now it did seem he was a little more on edge than usual.

Originally I had thought he had been acting more alert than usual while we left Telmik was because of the obvious reason.

He was waiting for a god to show up. Or Renka. He had been expecting, even if he hadn’t told me or admitted it, that the moment we left Telmik something would happen… but as time went on and nothing did, I now realized what was the actual reason for his raised guard.

“Are you sure he can’t sense you Renka?” I asked carefully. Vim looked on edge… and the obvious reason was the god walking beside me.

“Huh…? Yes, Renn. Trust me, if he had any idea at all I was walking next to you right now he’d have done something… or well, would have at least made it clear he knew,” Renka said, and then she pointed at herself. “You mean you expect me to wear something… godly, don’t you?” she asked, going back to the original topic.

Well… “Maybe not godly but… different? I guess?” I admitted. I had wanted to ask why he, or anyone else, couldn’t hear me talk when I spoke to her but I figured it was the same answer as to why he couldn’t see or hear her. Though how Renka made it so some things I said were heard and how others weren’t was beyond me.

“Hmph. If anyone is actually wearing something weird, it’s you. You look like a soldier, marching off to war,” she said.

“Vim says it makes me look like,” I started to explain why I wore what I did, and why Vim liked it, but Renka cut me off with a wave.

“I know, a mercenary. Yes. It does work, I admit… but it’s so weird. I get that’s his taste and all, but really,” she said with a huff.

Taste…? “He likes it when I wear this you mean?” I asked. He did seem to think I looked good in it, plus he did like it when I looked a little… wild, as he called it.

“Well… no. I mean, yes. He does, probably. But he’d undoubtedly like you in anything you wore, or didn’t. So I can’t outright say that,” she said.

Didn’t…? “He tries to not look at me when I’m naked,” I told her.

She chuckled at that. “I know, I saw.”

Oh… right… “You know… we might need to talk about that,” I said stiffly.

“I don’t peep on you anymore. Don’t worry. I only did in the beginning to confirm your relationship,” Renka said smoothly, as if she had been ready for my confrontation over it.

“Um… can I ask what you mean by that?” I asked.

Renka, with all her tiny little freckles, frowned at me. “In the beginning I had not believed you were actually the one. You arrived too plainly, and nothing dramatic happened… so I had doubted your relationship. It didn’t take long for me to realize it was real though,” she said simply.

Plainly…? “What uh… what do you mean by dramatic?” I asked.

She shrugged at me. “Basically I always figured Vim would fall in love with someone after something dramatic happened. Think like… a world changing event, or something. I always figured he’d latch onto someone who either did something outrageously crazy, such as trying to end the world or something, or ended up saving it or something. But I guess love doesn’t work that way after all,” she said.

Oh. She figured that Vim would have fallen for someone who, like him, was unique and special. Someone more like Celine maybe. “Like Celine,” I said.

She nodded, confirming my assumption. “Yes. It’s why we actually helped make sure he joined and stuff, we had thought Celine would be the one instead. I’m glad she wasn’t though, she was a whiny thing,” Renka said.

Whiny…? “I’ve been told she was very humble and wise,” I said.

Renka laughed. Loudly. Although I already knew, since she had done so already before, that Vim wouldn’t hear her do so… I still partly panicked and glanced at him. He didn’t even glance back at us as Renka chuckled, while he told Fressi and Tressi about the fox that Nasba had married.

I was super interested in that conversation, and as such was trying to listen it to it… but I knew I also needed to focus on Renka. So I forced myself to look back at the shorter than expected god and the way she giggled happily. She looked really cute when she smiled that way, and laughed… it was somehow concerning to see such simple adorableness on her, since she was in fact a god. A real one.

Were gods supposed to be cute? Sure some were said to be beautiful beyond belief… but cute? It made me uncomfortable for some reason…

“In their perspective, she was probably like that. Yes. But with Vim, and in private with those she didn’t put on an act around, she was basically an emotional child. Maybe not a brat, but definitely one who complained more than she was worth,” Renka said.

Huh… “You… watched her a lot?” I asked.

She nodded. “Like I said, we had figured she had been the one.”

The one. That Vim fell in love with…

It was important… but why? She’s not outright said so yet, nor has Vim, but…

My tail squirmed beneath my pants and I sighed at it. I wish I could make illusions too, like she did… if I could I’d not need to… ah!

“Can you hide our traits, Renka?” I asked with a point at the ducks and their long tails.

“Hm…?”

“With your illusions? Could you hide them? So that we don’t need to?” I asked further.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Oh. Yes. I can. No, I won’t. If I did Vim would notice.”

“I thought he can’t notice your illusions,” I said.

She nodded. “He can’t, but he’s an observant sort. He knows how they work, instinctively. Thanks to his mother. He won’t notice the illusions themselves, even if I modified them so he still saw your traits even though no one else did, but he’d notice it when the others don’t.”

When other’s don’t… “He’d notice that no one else noticed,” I said, understanding.

“Yeah. Which means the only way to do it safely is for them to still hide their traits, which defeats the purpose.”

Right… “So we need to get Vim to somehow become comfortable with your presence and illusions…” I said, and wondered how such an impossible thing could ever happen.

“I’ve already started that process, for the record. I doubt it will work, at all, but I’ll try. Or am trying, I suppose I should say,” Renka said.

“Huh?”

She nodded and gestured at those in front of us. “I had a private conversation with him a few days ago. It was a short one, but he had sat and spoke with me… even though I could tell he had been waiting for a chance to kill me the whole time he had actually listened to what I had to say.”

What…? “He never said anything!” I said, a little offended to find out about it.

“And you haven’t told him of our little conversations either, Renn. Are you really going to be upset with it?”

I grimaced and looked away, sighing. “Right…” I mumbled.

This was not the first time Renka had shown herself to me and talked to me… though it was only the second time so far, I had indeed not told Vim about the other time at all.

Though… “If you had a conversation with him like this,” I said with a gesture at us. “Then why hide? Why not let him know you’re talking to me right now?” I asked.

“Because he’s in stand-by mode. The only reason he hasn’t, or didn’t, attack and try to kill me on sight earlier is because he genuinely worries for your safety. But, if I let him know I’m trying to influence you he’ll abandon that worry in a heartbeat. Basically he’s not ready yet to contain his wrath. Right now he keeps it at bay within reason, since he assumes you’ll die or get hurt otherwise… but the moment he thinks your death is no longer a justifiable hesitation he won’t stay still. He’ll attack and keep doing so until it’s over, no matter what is said or done,” she said.

My heart hurt a little, since she was basically saying that although Vim loved me… and thus kept his anger in check because of it… that love only went so far. And even she knew it.

“Influence me?” I asked.

She smirked at me. “I’m trying to win you over. He knows it already, so there’s no point trying to hide it.”

Win me over…? “You want something from me,” I said with a nod.

“Rather I want something from him. And I won’t get it unless I first get your approval,” she said.

“What is it?” I asked blatantly.

“As I’ve said, I can’t say yet,” she answered smoothly, telling me that I’d not be able to get her to just say it. It made sense, I guess… she was a god… something many thousands of years old, and stuff. Me tricking her into just telling me something was likely not ever going to happen…

“Sisters.”

I glanced ahead and watched an older man bow his head to Fressi and Tressi. He sat on the front of the wagon, and seemed to say a small prayer as he and the wagon rolled past us. I was seemingly ignored outright as Fressi and Tressi both played their parts, and likewise bowed their heads alongside the man.

Slowing to a stop, I watched as the wagon kept on rolling past… even as the man offered a prayer. No words were said by the ducks, but no one seemed to mind as the man then nodded in thanks and turned back ahead and was handed back the reins by the man who sat beside him.

I hummed softly as the men on the wagon rolled past Renka and I… and I noticed that they likely didn’t even see us. I was used to random people either staring at me, or outright ignoring me, thanks to my appearance as a mercenary… but these men hadn’t even glanced my way.

Renka’s doing, probably.

Once the wagon passed the ducks stopped bowing and returned to walking and talking to Vim… as if nothing had happened.

“Are you one of their gods, Renka?” I asked as I glanced back at the wagon.

“No. The source of the faith of the blind is a combination of Vim’s actions and Cassandra’s,” Renka said.

Cassandra…? “Vim’s?” I asked, focusing on his name first.

She nodded with a frown. “Vim once tried to use religion against us. It backfired on him, spectacularly, and so now most of the faiths in the world are sourced from him. Even if he refuses to admit it. Though for the faith here, I’d lay more credit at Cassandra’s feet than not. I’d say it’s all her, but don’t discount Vim’s influence either.”

“So… she’s one of the godly saints?” I asked. The Church of Songs had a few gods, and they called them godly saints.

Renka gave me a nod and a shrug. “I suppose?”

Great. She didn’t seem to really care… but at least she was answering my questions, I guess… even if halfheartedly.

Wonder if she was saying that the religion was influenced by the things Vim and this Cassandra did and said throughout the years… or if Cassandra was the actual, definitive, god? Vim’s said they were called gods, but not actual gods, but… I was still having a hard time separating the meaning of the word.

After all, Renka was able to do… well… anything, right? She could wave a hand and make the world around her different. Summon forth tea and items, which I presumed were real… and so much more. If that wasn’t a god, what was?

“I’d say not to think too deeply about it, but the reality is you don’t have a choice do you?” Renka then said.

I took in a deep breath and nodded as I held it in for a moment.

“Hm… and you can’t really outright ask Vim, either. Even if he was willing to be upfront and honest, his hatred for us is so strong it’ll twist certain perspectives…” Renka said, pondering my predicament.

“He’s… normally good about telling me if something influences his opinion in that way, as to let me come to my own conclusions,” I said, defending him.

“I’ve no doubt. Vim’s many things, but a hypocrite when it comes to his hate he’s not,” she said.

To his hate he’s not…? I wasn’t sure if I should like the fact that she had so plainly said what Vim himself had said before, or at least a form of it. He hadn’t used those words exactly, but he’s said similar things.

At least I knew for a fact that Vim wouldn’t like it.

As I thought of him, or about him, I noticed he glanced back at me again. I gave him a gentle smile, since I felt silly at being looked at while talking about him, and gave him a gentle wave as well.

He studied me for a small moment and then looked back ahead.

“Does he… see me waving at him?” I asked.

“Hm? Yes. I’m not hiding you from him, Renn… just your words. He doesn’t hear you talking, unless you speak directly towards him, but he sees everything else.”

Speak directly towards him…? “How uh… how does an illusion do that? Isn’t an illusion just stuff one sees?” I asked.

“Weak ones, yes. But mine are special.”

Right… I noted she didn’t really go into detail about it. I wonder if that was on purpose, or if she just really didn’t wish to talk about it. “By the way… uh… about Tor…”

Renka glanced at me, and I felt my tail go stiff beneath my pant leg as I wondered if I should have just… not brought it up. But she then smiled at me. “I’m not upset he killed my familiar, if that’s what you’re about to say. Though I do feel a little bad… I could have kept the thing alive, but I’d been distracted at the time. In fact when he killed it I was in the middle of talking to the others, so had to really focus so they didn’t notice my alert!” Renka said with a small laugh.

Gosh… she spoke of Tor as if he wasn’t a living creature but instead a tool…

“Do you… have a lot of them? Or have you made a lot of them?” I asked carefully.

“I’ve made a few over the years, but no. Right now I only have three out there, still alive. Two are dormant, though. We actually don’t make any anymore if we can get away with it, since Vim tracks them down and if we’re not careful can be used to trace us,” she said.

Dormant…? Wonder if that meant they were sleeping, like how Vim said his turtle friend was sleeping beneath the ocean. “I see…” was all I said.

“Most don’t use them anyway. For one reason or another. Your husband has made them very… dangerous for us. Not worth the risk, basically. Even if they can be useful, they’re not useful enough to chance his ire,” she explained.

That… made sense I guess… “And how about,” I was about to ask another question, since it seemed I was being given a good opportunity to do so, but we were interrupted.

“Renn look!”

I turned and watched Fressi hurry over to me. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Renka step back… and disappear. Completely. Even from my view. This time she didn’t even pop into mist, she just simply stopped existing. I tried not to startle at her sudden disappearance, and was thankful for Fressi’s childlike boisterous personality as she held up some kind of rock for me to see.

“Oh…? It looks like a turtle,” I said. The rock was shaped just right. It had the same egg-like roundness a turtle’s shell had, a part to make the head, and had four little extrusions in just the right places to make it look like their little flippers, though I couldn’t tell if it was a natural rock or something someone long ago had made. Had she found it on the side of the road? I had not been paying attention, having been wrapped up in the conversation with Renka.

“Doesn’t it!” she said happily as she lowered the rock as to study it further. She looked as if she had just found a real treasure, which made me smile and feel… happy myself. As if I too had just found a treasure.

I nodded as I increased my pace, as to rejoin my little group… now that Renka had seemingly decided to leave. Or, at least, stop talking to me. Somehow I doubted she had actually left. “In fact it looks so much like the real thing that I’m now hungry,” I said, teasing the girl lightly.

“Turtles are gross though!” Fressi said with a laugh, and in a way that told me she had indeed eaten them before.

“Are they…?” I asked, giving her an invitation to tell me all about it as we picked up our pace and went to join Vim and her mother.

I had lots of questions. Countless concerns… but for now… for now…

I’d enjoy this simple trip, as much as I could… since there was a chance it might end up being my last.

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