The wind was becoming an issue.

Or well, it was about to become one.

I was not far from the wagons, and the people settling down for dinner amongst them. We were about half way up the mountainside, about half a day at our pace to the large bridge that would lead us to Lumen. I had been hoping to get there, and across it too, before nightfall… but sadly there had been a few small hiccups that had prevented that goal.

Two broken wheels and an ankle. One proceeded the other, while I had fixed the second broken wheel on one of the wagons one of the children had jumped off another wagon, playfully, and had slipped and landed wrong. The kid was fine thanks to quick treatment, especially since Chancy had used her power, but it had taken more time than needed to handle thanks to the group using the incident as an excuse to have lunch. Where before we would have just kept traveling, having people eat only already prepared foods, they had instead gone all out… much as they are doing now.

I was a few hundred paces away from the wagons. I’d stepped aside for a moment after helping them settle and unpack some stuff, and had retreated just to have a moment alone. There were three separate little camps, though they were all close enough that they really couldn’t be separated in such a way. Three campfires. Three small groups loudly talking and readying their meals… and by all counts had no worries.

Really, they didn’t. The windstorm was picking up, and seemed to be growing worse by the hour, but it wasn’t as if strong winds were enough to actually threaten any of their lives.

I though knew the kind of annoying day I was soon going to have thanks to the wind, however…

“Why the long face?”

Narrowing my eyes… I slowly turned to glare at the new source of most of my troubles, who was quickly becoming an annoying constant. Freckles included.

“You may as well just stop hiding at all, at this point,” I said to Renka.

She scoffed at me. “And take all the fun out of it? No chance. Plus… you now have annoyances,” she said as she turned to look at the wagons clustered together nearby.

I nodded as I studied the freckled god, and wondered what she thought of humans and their variants. I… honestly didn’t remember much about her, especially now that I had proof or assumed proof at least, of most of my memories concerning her being wrong. It had been her sister, not her, who I had dealt with all those years ago. Yet I was unsure of where those memories began or ended… since I did remember Renka visiting my parents a few times, before the incident.

Though she may not be speaking of the people at all, in general, but instead the Chancellor. The saint.

Chancy would not be able to outright sense Renka… no more than any other being would without divinity, but they’d feel something off about her. It’d be like how they are around me, they’d notice just… a subtle difference, that something is off… and once more and more time passed, that something just became ever more obvious.

Gods were the source of their powers, and unlike myself, they could be prophesized. And… because the gods were so rich with mana, so pure in divinity, saints did not take long at all to begin having said prophecies about those they encountered. It was why they had been so heavily experimented on in the beginning, and also why the gods had so readily abandoned them not too long after.

They were a double-bladed sword in their perspective. They produced far too many more negatives than positives… at least from the standpoint of a god, and even more so from one facing me on the battlefield.

My eyes found Renn, without my intending to search her out, and I watched her help pour water into a very large pot. One that was being heated over a newly made fire. It seemed tonight’s dinner was going to be some kind of stew.

She looked happy. Genuinely happy. She was working with those wearing robes, many of whom I had no names to give on memory alone, and looked… well…

As if she belonged there.

Which, of course, she did. Renn did belong amongst the Society. She had long earned that right and the privilege. But… it was also comforting to see all the same.

Renn was a predator. One who was so thick in the blood it made people, even those used to such individuals, on edge. And many of whom she was around at this very moment were those who struggled to be near those like her. Yet none of them seemed too bothered. It was very pleasant to know my wife wasn’t just able to overcome the deep instinctual discomforts her people had, but also that I had a small part in helping her do so.

Her lack of smell was likely a very big factor in the easing of people’s fear of her. And I could claim that as something I did, at least…

“Does she never tire of talking to them?”

I blinked and glanced away from my wife’s happy smile and over at the freckle-adorned frown. Renka looked… upset, she even had crossed her arms and everything.

“So the reason you’re appearing before me so much is because you can’t do so in front of her,” I said. That made a lot of sense, actually. I should have realized it before.

Renka likely came to check up on us a few times a day, and when she did she’d sometimes appeared before one of us, or both of us, to talk. Well… lately Renn wasn’t really in a position to allow her to do so. Not unless she wanted to severely abuse her illusions, and likely cause problems, or just outright show herself to the rest of the world. Neither of which she seemed to be willing to do.

“I get that her entire purpose for everything is… her friends and family. I can understand that. But half the time she’s not even doing anything important, or dealing with anything too serious. Half the time she’s just having dumb conversations or eating food,” Renka complained.

“Those dumb conversations, and the food, are her source of joy,” I said. Usually I’d add a threat, as to let her know if she ever risked those stupid little conversations or moments of happiness I’d destroy her… but I knew Renka already knew better. Gods did not need my threats, they knew them by heart… though I did sometimes give them anyway.

“It’s actually a little weird how much she ignores you in favor for them. Don’t cats usually just like one person?” Renka asked.

“She does sometimes abandon them to seek me out… but thanks to some certain individuals she’s lately had the fear of losing everything, and as such is doing her best to enjoy all she can for as long as she can, while she can,” I said.

“I like how you included yourself in that statement,” she said with a small chuckle.

I had. But I didn’t like how readily she had realized that.

“So? What do you want now?” I asked, realizing I was getting to the end of my patience with her.

“Hmph. If not even talking about her, the one you love, can get you to relax what can I possibly use as an ice-breaker then?” Renka asked, sounding just as fed up with me as I did her.

“Maybe if you weren’t threatening her existence and all it stood for that would work, try that,” I said back.

Renka glanced at me and she did so in a way that told me my words had actually bothered her for once. Which was good, I think. Maybe.

Did… did I really want to test her? To push her? A part of me did, since it was the natural thing for me to do… but…

“Why do you now look like you regret saying that?” she then asked.

“Because I might. So…? What do you want, Renka? I know you just got done teasing me about how she ignores me, but here in a short moment she’ll call me over to have dinner with her,” I said with a small gesture towards the wagons.

“Will she…? Why? She hadn’t last night, or during any of the other meals,” Renka asked with a frown as she glanced back at Renn.

My eye twitched, and not because I had just been caught in a lie. Instead it was because I didn’t want to reveal to her how I had known… because I didn’t want her, not just a god but a master of illusions, to know how I could tell.

If I told her that I’d been able to deduce that Renn would call for me, if not during dinner but shortly after, because I’d noticed the annoyance in her tail and how it twitched… she’d likely be able to use it against me. Not only would Renka then be able to better understand Renn’s mind, and nature, by her tail alone… she’d also be able to possibly use such fine movements and mannerisms against me in an illusion.

There was of course a chance that I was misunderstanding what I was seeing… but I doubted it. Lately when Renn got annoyed over those around her, for one reason or another, she’d been coming to me. Either to vent her frustrations, ask me questions as to sort her own thoughts, or just to… give her time alone with me and away from the sources of her discomfort.

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I of course had no idea what was bothering her, since she had a huge smile on her face and seemed to be enjoying herself… but I knew it could be something silly. Someone might have made a comment she had not liked, for example about one of her many friends, or it could just be the simple fact she felt I’d been ignoring her lately.

Either way I knew it’d be soon. Renn would, probably in the next few hours, seek me out. Either just to come over and talk, or to outright spend a lot of time with me as to avoid being bothered by others.

Yet I couldn’t just outright lie and say that Renn had told me so. Renka had just herself basically admitted she’d been watching us the whole time. Odds are she really has been observing us this whole time, every moment and minute… like me she didn’t need to sleep, after all. So I couldn’t fib my way out of this, yet…

“A husband’s intuition?” I decided to say.

Renka scoffed at me. “Hearing you say that is so weird,” she said with an odd smirk.

Was it…? “Did you ever marry?” I asked.

The freckled god shifted… and as she did I heard again proof she was really here.

The dirt beneath her feet had crunched and made noise. Small, little noises, but noise nonetheless.

Either she was putting a lot of effort into pretending to be standing nearby… or…

“That’s… a question I would have expected from her, not you,” Renka then said.

“She has been rubbing off on me,” I said… and realized my question indeed had been out of place.

Did I actually care…? Or was I just trying to learn more about my would-be enemy? To know my foe as I would myself, as my father would say?

“Hmph.” She huffed at me, shook her head, and then sighed. “No. I’ve never married here,” she finally said.

Oh…? So she had been married before? “That devoted or are you going to blame me for killing off all your potential suitors?” I asked.

Although I had said that partly in jest, and the rest on purpose to see if I could get a rise out of her, I wasn’t too surprised when she gave me a weird smile. “Others have said that too,” she said.

Feeling oddly proud of that, I nodded. “Good to know,” I said.

“But no. Unlike you I’m a woman of my word,” she said, and then glanced over at Renn once more. “My honor is more important than fleshly desires,” she finished simply.

Fleshly desires, huh? “I’ll not argue my honor or ability to keep my word, having lied and schemed aplenty against you idiots, but I will take offense to the claim I’m not faithful… I’ve never cheated on Renn,” I said, and was a little surprised at how bothered I was she’d even insinuate such a thing.

It was one thing for someone to doubt my loyalty to her, but for it to be a god of all people? The nerve!

“Excuse me…?” Renka’s face became… odd as she gave me a weird look. For a tiny moment I doubted she was actually here, as she glared at me.

“I’ve not cheated on Renn,” I said again, a tad firmer this time.

“Oh please…” Renka then uncrossed her arms, and with a swipe of her hand through the air I went still as she did something.

The back muscles of my legs twitched as I readied myself to rush forward. To grab her, or at least attempt to, but before I could actually do anything she summoned forth an…

Out of the corner of my eye I saw color. Lights. And… then I heard it. Seagulls. A different kind of wind. One that was warmer. Gentler. Then I smelled the sea.

Shifting a little I turned my head and relaxed a little as I watched myself lift the redheaded woman out of the water. We were waist deep in the ocean, on a beach of colored sand in the middle of a perfect day. The imagery was from the viewpoint of someone watching from up above, maybe even… a mile or so in the sky, which made sense.

“Just how long have you been watching me…?” I groaned as I watched myself kiss the woman. The sea smelled good.

“And then there was her,” Renka then swiped her hand and the illusion shifted. It blurred into a mess of colors and swirled, almost violently, and then within half a moment settled back down. Again the illusion showed me and another, from a viewpoint from above, though was… a tad odd.

I was in a room. With a woman I actually could place a name to, but only thanks to the fact she had shared the name with Celine. Though I could remember her name thanks to that, I wasn’t sure why I could remember the location of the scene before me. It was a small room in a large library, one that we had used in secret on many occasions. On the wind I could faintly smell old books and wood. The kind of smell only a huge library had.

“Well… at least that time makes sense, since it had been after I returned from my little sabbatical,” I said simply… and before I even finished speaking she had changed the illusion again. Sighing as this time I was shown with not just one woman, but two, I felt like killing her for a different reason than ever before. “Okay, enough,” I said with a groan.

“Why…? We have so many more to look at!” Renka said, a little too happily, but didn’t follow through her with her tone… she instead snapped her fingers and the illusion popped like a bubble and disappeared.

Reaching up and rubbing my eyes, I wasn’t sure if I should feel shame or pure annoyance.

She wasn’t wrong… but at the same time she was. All of those women, all of my romantic ventures, had happened long before I’d met Renn… but…

In the eyes of someone like her, it was all the same. Even if it happened decades, if not centuries, before. Because to her, like many of the gods if not all of them, time was not as… black and white as it was to those like myself or Renn.

“The mere fact you could completely ruin my day anytime you wish is upsetting,” I said as I rubbed my eyes.

Renka chuckled at me. “She’s smart enough to know all of those instances were from long before she met you,” she said.

“She is, but she’s also the type to get angry over it all the same. And then after that anger passes, she’ll use it to tease me. Forever,” I said.

“Then I’ll be sure to put them to good use, when the time comes,” Renka chuckled… and before I could say or do anything she disappeared… fading into mist right next to me.

About to growl at her, I realized why she had retreated so readily. Renn was heading my way.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to forget everything I’d just seen… and heard, and smelled. I could still smell that beach. The books. Which made it difficult.

“Hey Renn,” I said in greeting as she got close enough to do so, and I thankfully didn’t have to force a smile. She looked cute right now, she had no hat on and her tail was out since we were deep in the forest on a path no one else traveled, but even more importantly her hair was a mess thanks to the wind.

Her ears fluttered, but not because of the wind, as she glanced around. “Wasn’t Renka here too?”

Oh…? “A few moments ago, yes,” I said.

“Huh… I saw her earlier with you but couldn’t get away without making it awkward. Why’d she leave already?”

Why indeed. “Is dinner done?” I asked. Renka had allowed Renn to see her with me… I wonder if then she had hoped for Renn to come over, originally? Or did her little trick, her way of keeping herself unseen and unnoticed, only work in a certain way…? Or was it just as simple as something like she had set her spell to not work on me or Renn…? But then why did I feel like she was sometimes talking to Renn and yet I couldn’t see or sense her when she was?

My wife gave me a look, the one she gave me when she didn’t like how forcefully I had changed the topic of our conversation. “Were you threatening her again?” she asked.

Only a little. “If anything I’d been the one on the receiving end this time,” I said.

Renn smirked, in a way that told me she found my comment very palatable, and then she stepped a little closer. “Can I ask a favor, Vim?” she then asked.

“Hm?” I nodded. She knew she didn’t have to ask, yet seemed to like doing so all the same.

“Tonight. Can we sleep together?”

I frowned for a moment. “Depends on what you mean…”

She paused a moment, and as she did the wind picked up a little and blew some hair into her face. She huffed at it, and then went to brushing her hair out of her face. “I mean I don’t want to sleep with Fressi or anyone else tonight. I love them, but they all have feathers and stuff and it makes me hungry,” she said.

Oh. She was just looking for refuge, and I was the easiest way to get it. “Hm… so in return for your hunger, I must endure mine. Sure, deal,” I said.

“Your…?” Renn gave me a look as she tried to make sense of my meaning, but before she could I reached over and grabbed a good flock of her hair.

“I know you’ve been trying to seduce me, but it’s getting a little crazy Renn,” I said.

She stood up a little bit straighter. “Is it so bad that even you want to cut it? Really?”

No. But I couldn’t deny that it’d keep her safer if she cut it. Lumen was a city where people took a little more care and spent a little more attention to their appearances. Last thing any of us needed was for Renn to draw attention to herself again. She’d only recently gotten her banishment undone, after all.

“Can gods,” Renn was about to ask a specific kind of question, but I shut her up by using the bundle of hair I held. I brushed her face and nose with her own hair, causing her to wince and laugh at me, interrupting her.

“Don’t even ask that. Yes they can, and no I won’t allow it. If no one here is willing to help you cut your hair, I’ll do so for you. Or you can wait until Lumen, I’m sure one of your friends there would be willing to help,” I said.

“Hm… it has been some time since you’ve cut my hair for me, hasn’t it?” she asked.

It has been.

I released her hair, and I noted the way her eyes softened as I did. She had not wanted me to stop touching her just yet, it seemed. “We’ll, we can…” I was about to offer to do so tonight, after dinner, but before I could her name was shouted our way. She turned, and we both watched the young duckling Fressi wave us over.

Seemed dinner was ready. “I’d almost think I stole her affection or something,” Renn said as she waved at the duckling, to let her know she heard and understood.

“Ducks are like that. They get all… hyper-focused. Merit should have told you all about it, considering Nasba,” I said.

“Oh I know, it’s just… she’s not infatuated with me as she had been you. I think she just… well, I’m not sure how to explain it. She’s been asking a lot lately about what we do, like not just what we do up north but in general. I at first thought maybe she was just interested, or maybe wanted to do what we do for a living, but instead I now think she plans to ask to help us. To join us, or something,” Renn said.

Please no. “Yes, ducks get like that. Nasba had followed Merit dutifully, only separating once she started having children and Merit’s kingdom fell. Though her fascination might only be because of the lack of anything else capable of holding it. Once she gets to her family, the Weaver’s Hut, she’ll instead focus on them and not us,” I said.

Renn sighed at me. “Sounds like pure hope speaking to me,” she said.

Maybe. “Don’t nourish the idea, then. It’s one thing to invite her up north, Renn, but our lives are too hectic and dangerous for her to accompany us around all the time. There’s a reason I usually don’t allow stragglers,” I said.

“Right… oh well. Come on, dinner’s ready. And if you eat with me it’ll make it easy for me to do what I want,” she said as she stepped back towards the wagons.

“Do what again?” I asked, teasing her a little as I stepped forward to join her.

“You know full well!”

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