Vim was humming.

Within halls of stone, his deep hum echoed onto itself. Somehow forming a whole new melody. One that didn’t clash with its original form, but instead molded into it. Adapted it.

Perfected it.

As if his humming wasn’t the tune itself, but the instrument to give birth to the real song he wished to sing.

It was a little haunting, to be honest. Because it told me that he was doing it on purpose. Which meant he had spent so long in such locations where sounds acted weirdly that he could accomplish such a thing with ease.

Although lovely, it also reminded me that Vim was terribly ancient. And for some reason that simple truth bothered me in ways I couldn’t understand.

I carried a small lantern. It was honestly not bright enough to illuminate the hallway we were in now. Even for my eyes.

I followed not far behind Vim, but every so often I had to pick up my pace. Ever since a little bit ago we had begun passing statues that made me pause. To both study and stare in awe. Vim although paused as well as to allow me look at them, seemed to also not do so or even want to when he did occasionally.

I’d wonder if he didn’t notice when I stopped sometimes, but I knew he did. He was acutely aware of me, and what I did at all times, so it was not that he didn’t notice when I slowed or paused… but rather that he didn’t wish to let me study certain statues too deeply.

There didn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason to which statue he’d let me study and which ones he wouldn’t, but I figured he had his reasons.

Rounding a large corner, a new statue came into view. They were brighter than most things down here, being made of a strange stone Vim had called alabaster. It gleamed in the candlelight in ways that made them almost seem to come alive.

Lifting the lantern as we neared the statue, I frowned at the strange box-like structure.

Was it just a box…? It was a giant cube, or something. It had plenty of little designs upon it, maybe words or symbols, but I couldn’t see the outright meaning of the sculpture.

“It is a piece of salt.”

Frowning, I looked away from the odd cube to look at Vim… who had not only paused with me this time, but had stopped humming too.

“Huh…?” I wasn’t sure if I had heard him right.

Salt?

“That is what salt looks like. Or rather what it would look like, if you could see it up close,” he said with a point to the statue.

Looking back at the cube, I shifted a little and wondered if he was teasing me.

“Salt,” I stated.

“Mhm.”

Really…?

I tried to envision the many times I’d held salt. I had to admit that… yes, sometimes it did seem like salt formed tiny little shapes. Little cubes especially… but…

“Are you teasing me?” I asked.

“Not at all.”

“Okay… why did you make a statute out of salt?” I asked.

“I hadn’t. Eyes had. Hands’s father. He found it fascinating. Several of these statues were made by those like him. Eccentrics,” he said.

Frowning deeply, I wondered what to think of this.

I’d only seen a handful of other statues so far… and none had been as odd as this. It was why I had not been able to understand why Vim allowed me to study some and not others. Most had been animals, or people. This was the most outlandish one by far. None of the others had been weird enough for him to have any reason to keep me from studying them too closely.

“I’m very confused,” I told him honestly.

Vim chuckled at me. His noises echoed a little, sounding a little different than his earlier humming yet the same somehow. “I’m sure,” he said.

Lowering the lantern, since the block of salt wasn’t detailed enough to be too interesting, I turned and stepped over to him. I illuminated him a little better, and his silly smirk.

He was enjoying this.

“Are there a lot of statues down here?” I asked.

“There are three halls. We just entered the first,” he said with a gesture behind us.

“Long halls,” I noted. We’d been walking for many minutes.

“These catacombs cover most of Telmik. They had been made before the wars, right as they begun. Their original purpose had been to eventually house and keep safe the whole of the Society… I’m not sure if it’s a good thing we had never needed them, or not,” Vim said.

“Now the Society could fit in just a few of these hallways,” I noted.

“Hm…” Vim nodded a little sadly, and I realized I had just hurt him.

“Sorry,” I apologized.

“For speaking the truth? Please.”

I nodded, but dedicated his sad smile to heart and memory. My words had indeed hurt him. Although truth, as he said, and the fact I had not said them out of spite or malice… it still made me feel horrible all the same.

Everyone else in this world, even the Society, hurt him all the time. Sometimes intentionally.

I didn’t want to be counted amongst that group. Not anymore.

I wanted to make him happy. Not sad.

Vim turned, with a light gesture to me, and I followed him away from the giant cube of stone.

We walked for a bit more until another statue came into view.

This one was of a person, but a tiny one. Rather two tiny ones.

Two small kids stood side by side, holding hands. They both had their arms out, as if waving at something… and looked oddly human. I didn’t notice any outward non-human traits upon either of them.

“Left and Right,” Vim said with a point to them.

“Why would anyone name children such? How pitiful,” I asked. “Or is it a representation not a likeness?”

Vim chuckled. “It’s because they had been inseparable, and always stood that way. He on the left, she on the right. They weren’t siblings. In fact the two hadn’t even been able to understand each other for a long time, speaking different languages and all,” Vim said.

Raising the lantern I stepped closer to the statue. Although obviously children, they had been carved to be a little bigger than what was likely their life-size representation. They were about as tall as me.

“Who where they?” I asked softly as I studied the detail on their clothes. Whoever had carved this one had done a fine job. I could almost make out loose strands of thread on their clothing, as if the statues were wearing real clothes and wasn’t stone at all.

“Celine had found them on islands along the west coast. Guarding a monarch. I met them afterward, having been sent to slay the monarch. They had not wanted to let me do so,” Vim said.

I shifted and glanced at him. “Did you really?” I asked.

“Kill them? No. But I had beaten them. They may have looked like children Renn, but they hadn’t been. They had been older than you. I subdued them, killed their monarch master, and then brought them back here. They spent a few decades here with Celine and the rest and then eventually died in their sleep one night. I never found out why,” he said.

Feeling a little sad, I lifted the lantern higher to get a better look at their faces. It looked like the girl had freckles. How had they shaped stone to represent that? It didn’t seem like any of these statues had paint or anything upon them.

“Who carved this?” I asked.

“I don’t know. There’s usually a mark or name somewhere on the statute, you can find it if you want. Later,” Vim said.

I huffed at him and stepped back, before I decided to actually search for it. I had noted his tone; he had not wanted us to waste time on it.

He strangely seemed to be in a hurry. Even if seemingly in a good mood, and walking leisurely with me.

“Why is it some of our kind grow up quickly and others don’t?” I asked as we left the statue of Left and Right behind.

“Not sure. The longer lived amongst us usually do spend more time as children, but usually not much longer than a human would. Then of course you have those like Merit, or Sharp, who are just… tinier than usual,” Vim said.

“Were all of Merit’s people like her?” I asked.

“Yes. Even their elders had been small, looking like kids.”

Huh… “Am I small to you?” I asked.

“You’re scrawny, yes. But your height and frame is rather normal I think. As I’ve mentioned before you look like a young woman who just entered her adulthood,” I said.

“Some would say that’s young looking,” I noted.

“Some would.”

“How long had you been a kid then, Vim? You’re so ancient I bet it had been a long time,” I said.

Vim chuckled at me and tilted his head. It looked odd in the darkness and shadows of these halls. “Not as long as you think… though let me think…” Vim slowed as he talked, and I smiled and waited for his answer. Then he returned to his normal pace, upon remembering. “I’d spent longer as a child than normal, especially for a human, but I definitely wasn’t small for long. I was about this size not long before I first declared war, and that hadn’t been long after my parent’s deaths. Don’t ask me how long that had taken. I don’t remember or care to,” he said finally.

Interesting.

“So you partook in those wars from a young age, then? Considering?” I asked.

“I had,” Vim answered simply.

I of course noticed his abrupt answer, and decided it was time to change topics.

Before I could though the next statue came into view. This one was something I recognized.

Stepping up to a series of books stacked upon each other, I marveled at the details. Some of the books were propped open, as if in the middle of being read, and I could actually see the words and pictures upon the pages… as if…

Drawing closer, I reached out carefully… and with as much gentleness as I could muster, I touched one of the pages.

And found pure stone.

“How did someone make this?” I asked softly. It was as thin as a hair. Yet felt as solid as any stone brick around us. How was it so thin, yet had words etched into it?

“A lot of time and carefulness.”

“Who made this one?” I asked as I stopped touching the page, in case I broke it on accident.

“Eyes and Hands did it together.”

A father and son effort… amazing.

Stepping around the statue, I studied the books. Some were as tiny as real ones, others were comically big. There were several pillar-like stacks of them, but there were also free floating ones that were made to almost look as if they were falling from the stacks up above, out of sight. Their pages were flapping in the wind, or at least looked like they were.

“So uh… what’s the main story? Or point?” I asked. It seemed each statue had some greater meaning to it, but this one seemed odd. If it was to try and represent knowledge, why make it seem so cluttered and messy, what with the falling books and stuff?

“Their minds.”

Frowning, I turned to look at Vim. “Their minds?”

He nodded. “This was their attempt to display what their minds looked like. Or felt like.”

Looking back at the statue, I took a deep breath and sighed. “No wonder he fidgets so much,” I said.

Vim chuckled at me.

“What would mine look like, then?” I wondered as I stepped over to Vim.

“I could actually represent it perfectly, but if I did I’d then have to explain something to you that would subsequently break it,” Vim said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked with a smile.

“A joke. Come, the next one is important.”

Oh…? I hurried to follow him, and even went to walking next to him as we headed deeper into the darkness.

The hallways down here were a little cold, but not enough to bother me. In fact I was a little surprised at how… dry it was down here. I had expected it to be a little damp, like the Keep or those sewers in Lumen had been.

“Is there one here for you? Your mind?” I asked lightly.

“No. I barely let my own self into my mind why would I let others see it too?” he said.

Giggling at him I nodded. “That’s true!”

How fun…! There was a lot to worry about right now, but at the moment I was just… happy. Enjoying life.

Plus I kind of knew what he was about to show me. He had mentioned it off-handedly once. Back when we had spoken of his parents. At the Crypt.

He had mentioned there was something down here that could be used to show me them. And with these statues, it was rather clear what that something was going to be.

Enjoying the moment, I happily kept pace with Vim… until he began to slow.

Off in the distance, at the end of the hallway… was another statue. One half hidden by a brick pillar. It looked a little smaller than most of the others.

“Vim?” I asked gently what was wrong as I slowed alongside him.

“Hm…” he nodded but didn’t clarify… as we then stepped in front of the statue, and came to a stop.

Ah. I see.

Lifting the lantern, I took a small breath and sighed at the sight of who was undoubtedly Vim’s mother.

Unlike all the other statues, this one had not been crafted to be fantastical or larger than life. The woman stood on a very small pedestal yet wasn’t much taller than me all the same.

“You lied Vim,” I whispered as I stared at the woman.

“Hm?”

“She’s beautiful,” I said as I stepped closer, lifting the lantern.

He scoffed at me, but I paid him no mind.

Vim’s mother was a tad shorter than me. She was dressed in very odd clothes, crafted somehow to look like silk yet was firm and straight. She had a tiny smile on her face, as if being mischievous, and had one hand on her hip and another holding up a scale.

I gulped at the obvious implication of the thing she held, and her stance. It was unmistakable the way she was smirking and had her whole body tilted at just the right angle… as if about to sway to a beat.

She was judging something. Someone. Maybe Vim himself.

Though that interpretation might be getting influenced by the scales she held up. They looked real enough to start swaying, but were likewise carved from stone too. I’d wonder why he hadn’t just used real scales, to save the effort, but this was Vim we were talking about. He was odd that way.

Oddly the scales were righted evenly. And nothing was upon them, even though the detail of the carved stone was undoubtedly fine enough for there to have been so.

In fact…

“Is she unfinished?” I asked. It looked like her hair had been tidied up, to have bows or something put onto the locks, yet there wasn’t.

“Oh…? You noticed? I think you’re the first to do so,” he said, surprised.

I nodded as I glanced down her body. Her strange clothes were… outlandish. Why’d they look so weird? She had buttons on them, in strange places, and it looked like her pants were oddly loose, yet had pockets all over them. They parted and opened near her feet, as if becoming a dress, and she wore light sandals.

As far as I could tell, like Vim, she looked perfectly and utterly human.

“You have her smirk,” I said as I looked back up at her face.

“Hmph.”

Smiling happily, I wondered what to say… and how to say it.

“She’s beautiful Vim,” I said first.

“Hm.”

“And smirking like she’s judging you. Did you do this on purpose or was she always looking at you like that?” I asked.

“Isn’t it weird? It had begun to take that shape before I even realized it. Originally I planned to craft her in a serene pose, sitting down. When I think of her it’s that which I see, not this. I see her sitting at a table, smiling gently as she got lost in thought,” Vim said.

Huh…

“What was her name?” I asked.

“I only knew her by mother, Renn,” Vim said gently.

Ah…

I shifted a little and glanced at him. He had sounded sad, but he had a smile on his face. He was good at smiling even while hurt.

He nodded at me after a moment. “Mother and father. That’s what I knew them as. When they spoke of each other in front of me, they even used such terms themselves. I genuinely do not know their names,” he said.

I gulped at him. “Were they… like those who didn’t believe in such things?” I asked. Like the Clothed Woman, maybe.

He frowned and shook his head. “No. I just never got to learn them. Don’t cry Renn, it’s not that sad,” he said softly, noticing full well I was about to.

“But…!” I felt a little silly as my face scrunched up and I looked back at the wonderfully crafted statue.

She really was beautiful. Her smirk alone made her adorable…

Taking a deep breath, which came in and left a little wobbly, I felt horrible.

He had entered war not long after his parents died. He didn’t know their names. He had grown up fast, he thought.

The pieces were coming together, and quickly.

His parents had died early. While he had been young. Even for him.

“Father isn’t here. I never crafted him,” Vim then said.

“Why not?” I asked with a sniff.

“Not sure. Honestly you’re lucky I made this one. No one’s ever realized who it is, but it’s still out of character for me. I wonder what had made me so melancholic as to shape it?” Vim crossed his arms as he pondered his own past, and I huffed at him.

“No one else knows who she is?” I asked.

“No. As far as I am aware. Not sure how they’d figure it out, either.”

Hm… I wonder why he had made it then. He did seem to cherish and honor his parents, but this was indeed out of character for him. Even that nameless, unmarked, gravestone at the Crypt had been hidden away and not spoken of to anyone.

Anyone but me.

“So she’s not finished… what were you going to add? Or will, Vim?” I asked as I returned my attention to her.

“She always had stuff in her hair. Flowers and such. Plus I planned to add to her clothes, the scales, and other stuff. Never got around to it,” he said.

I see. I had thought so.

Stepping around the podium a little, I leaned forward between the nearby wall and the statue. To see the rear of it.

“Really Renn?” Vim asked lightly as I studied her backside.

“What? I wanted to see how detailed you made her,” I said.

He sighed at me as I stopped checking. He had indeed made her very lifelike, but not a hair of her was out of place or improper.

She was done so well she could have been placed up top, in the Cathedral or the surrounding churches and no one would have found her out of place. Though her clothes were a tad odd…

“Is that the kind of clothes people worn back then?” I asked.

“No. Not at all.”

Oh…? Creative design then, maybe? Or…?

Studying the clothing a little closer, I wondered how one even put such a thing on. It almost looked like she would have had to tie each and every button up as to fasten it. There were dozens, all over the place. Surely that was more of a pain than it needed to be?

Maybe the buttons weren’t buttons, and I was just misunderstanding what I was seeing… or maybe they were buttons, but not purposeful. Maybe they were just attachments, like designs or patterns. Basically just add-ons to make the clothes more interesting and unique, and not for purpose.

I kind of wanted to try and make a shirt like it, just to see what it felt like to wear it.

“Well…? Is she what you expected?” Vim then asked.

“No. Not at all,” I answered honestly.

Vim hummed. “What had you expected?”

“I had expected someone pretty. Since you’re weird, you’d have not realized how pretty your mother was. That had been something obvious. But… honestly? I had expected someone not human at all. Or at least with traits, or something. Or maybe more imposing…? Bigger?” I said as I tried to explain what I had envisioned in the back of my mind.

I didn’t want to say aloud that I had expected a monarch, or even a god.

Although a tiny bit odd, she looked completely normal. She would have been able to mingle in any human village without a concern… other than the odd clothes he had given her in this form, at least.

“Bigger,” Vim chuckled at me.

I frowned at him. “I don’t mean her chest,” I said, knowing exactly what his chuckling was about.

“I figured.”

Sighing at him, I lifted the lantern again to see her face a little better. The small shadows that casted upon her face and head thanks to the lantern didn’t bother her appearance much. If anything the shadows somehow made her seem more alive. More than just stone.

She had a tiny nose, I guess. Though it didn’t make her ugly or anything. Her teeth were perfect looking, what few could be seen from behind her smirk, and her eyes looked steady and firm. Even though they had an obvious joy within them, they still felt steely and pure. But I wasn’t sure if that was artistic design or the fact her eyes were made of literal stone.

“Honestly Vim… she had been beautiful. I wish I had gotten to speak to her,” I told him my honest thoughts about her.

“Hm. I’m partly glad you didn’t. Who knows what terrible things you would have concocted between you two… and then who knows what she would have imposed upon me afterward…” Vim spoke softly, but then shivered. Actually shivered, as if suddenly cold. “The mere thought of her snapping her fingers and making me a bumbling idiot who beckons to your every word…!” he laughed at himself at the idea.

Hesitating a moment, both because of his strange actions and words… I realized that although joking… he had been serious.

Snapping her fingers. Which would in turn make him a bumbling idiot, that beckoned to my every word…

I was sure many a son joked that their mothers had such power over them. But Vim’s little joke just now had not been mere jest.

Studying the man who had said something terrifying, I found myself lightly smiling at him as he smiled at me. He had obviously not realized what he had just said.

Although my own mind was whirling from his words, I turned and did my best to keep my smile true and pure… as I made doubly sure he didn’t realize, or at least I tried to.

“I’m surprised you even had the time to make this. Or is it a quick process? I’d think it’d take a long time to carve stone so finely,” I said, asking a question that had been on my mind for awhile. It was a good excuse to change topics ever so slightly.

“Hm. It didn’t take me too long I don’t think. Plus it’s not like I did it all at once. I worked on it in small intervals. Imagine piece by piece over years, basically.”

I nodded. That made sense.

Plus he had sounded natural as he spoke. Vim hadn’t realized he had just said something ridiculous a few moments ago.

Thank goodness.

“Think you could teach me how to do this too? Is it hard?” I asked.

“I bet you’d be better at it than me, by a long shot. Sure. One day,” Vim agreed.

I nodded again, glad to hear it.

Glancing at the scales she held, I decided to go ahead and risk it.

“Why the scales Vim?” I asked.

“My mother had been a very literal person. My father had spoken in riddles. Bad ones. Maybe to counterbalance him, she was always a black and white type of person. She judged, weighed and spoke in ways that made you feel like she saw everything and knew everything even if she shouldn’t have been able to,” he said.

Since I wasn’t looking at him I was able to smile fully without him noticing. I felt the silly grin on my face as I studied his mother’s statue.

“So the scales…?” I asked gently, hoping he’d continue talking about her. I liked how calm and happy he sounded. Vim always sounded calm, even when he wasn’t, but there was just something about the current tone of his voice that made me feel warm inside. It sounded lovely.

“She was always focused on right and wrong. She used to teach me by making me debate against her, sometimes playing devil’s advocate. On purpose. It had back then been annoying, but today I’m thankful for it. I believe it was what helped me understand people better. Putting myself in their shoes and whatnot,” he explained.

“Devil’s advocate…?” I asked as I turned to look at him finally.

Vim hummed as he nodded. “Basically I was forced to argue against my own beliefs. To play a part, in an effort to broaden my own perspectives and understandings of the world. I sometimes play it with you when we talk, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,” he said.

I had. “So you do that sometimes to teach me?” I asked, finding that strangely amusing. How cute.

“Well… more that I just enjoy hearing your perspectives, and how you come to them,” he tried to defend himself.

I smirked at him and nodded. “I enjoy it too.”

He frowned at me, but said nothing as he shrugged.

Looking back at the statue, I wondered what to ask next. He seemed willing to fully answer certain things right now. He was in a good mood. Open. Loving. Yet he had also made me change topics and ask other questions earlier, so…

“Let’s go Renn. I don’t mind a little dawdling but spending all night down here would just get us in trouble,” Vim then said before I could think of something else to ask.

I frowned at him and shook my head. “I want to study her more,” I said. We still had so much to talk about! What were her favorite foods? What had his father been like? He had mentioned riddles, but bad ones, what were those? What kinds? Would he share a few with me?

“I know. So it’s up to you. Her or the bath,” he offered me a choice.

“Bath…?” I turned to frown at him. What’d he mean?

He nodded. “That had been the original purpose of coming down here. There are special baths down here, similar in style to the ones at Lumen. I figured I’d bathe with you as an apology for being the kind of man to make you burn a letter as precious as Celine’s,” he said.

Oh… Oh!

“Why didn’t you say so?” I asked excitedly as I stepped away from his mother’s statue.

He smirked at me in the lantern’s light. “I just did.”

Well… “Yes you had,” I admitted.

He nodded at me and then glanced at the statue. “You’ll be able to see her again anyway. You can also come down here by yourself if you’d like, later on. I bet you’d be fine, hard to think you’d get lost with your memory and all,” he said.

“That is a little true… I guess…” I mumbled. Honestly although I wasn’t scared much of the dark, I wasn’t sure yet if I wanted to come to places such as these by myself or not yet.

“Hm…? What’s wrong?” Vim noticed my discomfort, and I sighed at him.

“Reminds me a little of a well. If it was a little more damp I’d likely hate it down here,” I told him the truth.

Vim chuckled, and before I could comprehend what he was doing he had reached over and wrapped an arm around me. He pulled me closer to him, and the lantern clanked as it swayed harshly thanks to the sudden movement.

Going a little still, I couldn’t believe it. He’s hugged me, and touched me before, but never so obviously or in such a way!

I enjoyed every moment of it as we turned and started walking again, heading ever deeper into the catacombs. “Did you grab me to distract me from your mother, and the other statues, or because you actually wanted to?” I asked him.

“A little of both,” he answered honestly.

I sighed at him, but grinned wildly all the same.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep