Standing alone, I waited patiently for Vim to emerge from the store.

I was standing under a large terrace, which had several chairs and tables. None of them were being used, and I stood alone... but that was not just because of the rain. I was leaning up against the wall near the shops window, which gave the real reason for the shop's lack of customers.

The store was closed. It was dark inside, and based off what I could see from the window it was empty inside. It didn’t have furniture or anything in it, as far as I could tell.

Vim had left me here so he could go find an umbrella. I had told him that it really wasn’t that big of a deal, but he had been a little firm about it. He probably believed if we walked calmly under the rain as we would normally, we’d be seen as odd. And being seen as out of place or strange was the one thing Vim wouldn’t allow.

Still...

“Wish I could have looked too,” I whispered.

He had gone into a shop a few buildings down, across the street. It had a colorful patio, but nothing to protect from the falling rain. And although it wasn’t that far, the rain was now falling hard enough that even if I had ran there I would have gotten soaked.

I sighed and reached up to make sure the headdress was still situated. Rapti had helped me put it on, so I needed to make sure it didn’t come undone or fall off... since I wasn’t entirely sure how she had accomplished it. Even though it was wrapped firmly around my head, covering my ears and most of my hair, there was still a little room at the top for my ears. In fact, they felt more comfortable in this than my own hat.

Maybe she could teach me before we left, so I could do this for myself from now on.

As I messed with a flock of hair that had slid out from the cloth, I saw Vim finally exit the shop.

I stood up straighter and stepped away from the wall I had been leaning on, and watched him glance up and down the road. Not to find me, because he had already looked at me... but instead to simply look around.

Smiling as he walked towards me, I quickly lost my smile as I watched him carry an umbrella back to me... with it unopened...

After a few moments he reached me, stepping under the terrace and out of the rain.

“Vim...” I groaned.

“What? It’s fine,” he hefted the umbrella. It was a brown one. Did he think I was complaining about the colour or shape?

“You should have opened it. You looked silly walking here with it all closed up,” I said.

Vim paused as he went to opening the umbrella, and then he sighed. “Right...” he admitted it and nodded.

As he popped the umbrella open, I wondered how this man was so observant sometimes yet also so...

“Let’s go,” he nodded as he hefted the umbrella, to cover us both.

“Sure,” I agreed, especially since I was tired of staring at the same street. It was far too empty and most of the buildings here all looked the same.

Stepping out into the rain alongside Vim, I noticed the way he held the umbrella at a small angle. So that the water poured behind us, more so near him than anywhere near me.

“How much was this?” I asked while reaching out to touch the umbrella’s canopy. Thanks to Vim holding it, I had to stretch a little but he lowered it a tad to let me feel it.

It felt like leather.

“Twenty Renk. A little steep, they took advantage of the moment,” Vim said.

“Oh. And let me guess, you didn’t haggle,” I said as I ran my fingers along the leather. It felt weird... it was thick, yet thin enough that I could feel the rain falling on it.

“That was after I bargained,” Vim said.

Frowning at him, I now really wished I could have gone in with him.

He never haggled in front of me...

“Where to now?” I asked.

After leaving the church Vim and I had been able to walk for a small distance without being subject to the rain. Nevi as a city was... a little more packed than I was used to. The buildings were closer and the streets narrower. It made it easy to go from one place to another while staying under canopies or covers.

But was also the reason why when there were people out and about, it felt far too crowded and busy. Like yesterday.

“The port is that way,” Vim gestured to the left.

“I would like to see that,” I agreed.

Walking with Vim, I couldn’t help but glance around as we walked by stores and houses. Unlike Ruvindale, which seemed to have somewhat segregated their shops and housing, this place didn’t... in fact...

Most seemed to live above their stores here. Based off the way all the buildings were two or three stories tall.

“How old is this city?” I asked Vim.

“It’s an older port. Been around for about a hundred years or so. But it used to be just a small fishing village. It wasn’t until they found that they could farm oysters in the bay nearby, after that this place became like this.”

“Hm... why do some villages have churches and others don’t?” I asked.

“Because there are still plenty of pagans. And the smaller the town, the harder it is to convert,” Vim said.

“I’d think the less people the easier it would be,” I said as we rounded a corner. This new road was a little wider, and off in the distance... down a small hill, were people.

They looked busy... and sure enough, right beyond them was the sea.

It looked upset, based off the waves crashing.

“The less people result in a more hard-headed stance and belief system. In a town of thousands, you’ll get people to swap beliefs simply out of spite of the ones they dislike,” Vim said with a sigh.

Was he tired of this conversation, or did he dislike the method he was speaking of?

“What do you believe in Vim?” I asked him.

The umbrella shifted a little, but not enough to get me or him wet. Instead it tilted just a tad, causing the runoff to go from behind us, to the right of me.

I stepped closer to Vim, even though the water wasn’t near me I didn’t want the splashing to soak my shoes. They weren’t mine after all, they were Rapti’s.

She only had a few pairs. I’d hate to be the cause of their ruin.

“Sorry,” Vim quickly corrected the umbrella.

“Don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I know it’s... personal,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

“It’s not personal. No one should be ashamed of what they believe in. I don’t believe in any of the faiths of the humans,” Vim said without any hesitation.

Faiths of the humans...

Glancing at the man I was walking shoulder and shoulder with, I wondered if he realized how brazen of a statement he had just made.

“So you do believe in something,” I said gently.

“Do you?” he asked.

I suddenly slowed a little, which caused Vim to have to as well. He shifted the umbrella closer to me, to make sure I didn’t get wet. By doing so however, I noticed the rain hit his shoulder a little.

“I’d like to,” I said honestly.

“Then do so? I’m sure I’ve made it rather clear my stance on such things,” he said with a frown.

“Yet I can tell you really don’t like it, do you?”

Vim’s eyes softened a little, and he glanced behind me. I heard something, maybe footsteps, but they were far away. I didn’t look away from his eyes however.

“Rather I don’t like the idea of leaving fate into another’s hands. I... find faith valuable. I like how Rapti and others can get so... strong, thanks to it. Yet I don’t like how they simply give up because of it sometimes. The moment they believe that their gods or lords or whatever decided their fate, is the moment they give in. And that is what I don’t like,” he explained.

“You’d enforce your belief in free will even onto a god?” I asked him.

“Why can’t I?” he asked.

I shrugged, since I wasn’t sure myself.

Our pace returned to normal and he once again readjusted the umbrella.

“Can I try holding it?” I asked as I reached for the handle.

Vim allowed me to slide my hand to where his had been. He held it steady for a few moments, alongside me, and then released it.

Surprisingly it was lighter than I had expected.

“Hm...” I hefted it for a moment, and wondered why I had seen others act as if they were heavy.

“You’re stronger than a normal woman, Renn,” Vim said plainly, as if able to tell what I was thinking.

“This morning I had seen a younger girl struggle with one of these. It had even been a smaller one... It might have been because of the wind though,” I said as I remembered the scene. Rapti and I had watched it together.

“I’m sure,” he said.

Glancing at him, I kept an eye on his shoulder. The one opposite of me. Yes... I needed to hold it carefully. He was just nearly sticking out into the rain, and the water falling from the canopy.

“If you wish to know if I believe in the gods, then yes. I do. But that does not mean I follow their doctrine,” Vim then said, continuing our conversation from earlier.

“Oh... isn’t that sacrilegious though?” I asked. Most of the rules I had heard, if they were rules at all, was that you believed in only them. Not another.

“To some, I suppose.”

“Which is why you don’t like them. Because you believe anyone should be allowed to believe whatever they want,” I said, understanding.

“That’s a good summary,” he nodded.

Nearing the end of the road, I began to make out more and more of the docks. There weren’t any ships docked anywhere near here... but off in the distance, a ways away...

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“Those are bigger than the ones in Ruvindale,” I whispered as I came to a stop.

Vim didn’t complain as he too stopped walking, letting me take in the sights.

The docks followed the city, and even began to round a little. It seemed Nevi had a small inlet. I quickly lost track of the ships and sails in the distance, and was a little surprised to see that most of them weren’t docked at all. Most floated inside the inlet port, or off in the distance on the horizon.

One, a larger boat with four rows of sails, looked to be raising and lowering with such movement that...

“Won’t they sink?” I worried.

“The boats? Hardly. It could happen, and does, but I doubt it. This isn’t that rough,” Vim said as he examined the port with me.

Looked rough enough to me.

People walked by, and I studied the familiar skin-tone. They were as dark as Amber had been.

None of them seemed to care about the rain, and were hurrying elsewhere... as if set on some task.

“Merchants from the south,” Vim said.

“What do they sell here?” I asked.

“Could be anything. Half the time they aren’t even selling goods from their homelands but our own.”

I frowned at that, but it made sense. If they sold stuff from home they’d have to go back and get it all the time.

Thinking of Amber made my heart hurt so I focused on attention elsewhere. On the dock nearby. “Can we go there?” I asked.

“No. You’ll get soaked,” Vim said as we watched a wave crash up into it. It didn’t splash the whole dock, but it surely did get it wet.

“Hmm...” I wanted to complain, but new better than to.

He was right. I only wanted to stand there to feel the ocean spray.

“I used to run naked along the sea,” I said.

That had been a long time ago. In fact it had been before I had spent any time with humans...

“Please don’t...” he groaned.

Smiling at him, I nodded. Yes. That would cause problems here. Especially here.

“One of the humans I knew... a long time ago, in fact she was the first one I had actually got to know... was a witch,” I said.

Vim glanced at me, in a way that told me he was now interested in our conversation.

I nodded, to enforce my seriousness of it. “She taught me a lot.”

“A witch,” he said.

“She was nice. Saved me. I had been...” I hesitated, and knew I couldn’t go into too much detail. Rather I didn’t want to. “Hurt. She helped me heal, and then taught me how to read,” I added.

Vim gestured in front of us, and I nodded. Returning to walking, I studied the people in the distance. Although it was still raining, and it did seem to be picking up... there were still a lot of people on the dock. Working on the boats. On the dock themselves, or the warehouses near them.

“Most witches I knew hunted our kind,” Vim said softly.

Glancing at him, I gulped.

Yes. That was why I had to be careful.

“Yes. I know,” I said.

Vim nodded, but didn’t seem to want to ask further. Or maybe he was simply being kind.

“I killed her,” I whispered.

“You said she had been kind,” Vim whispered back. Maybe he thought I was worried the humans around us would hear our conversation... but I knew they wouldn’t. Not only were none close by, the ocean was loud and the rain was picking up.

“She had been,” I admitted.

“Hm...” Vim reached out, and at first I thought he was going to take the umbrella from me... instead, he grabbed a part of the headdress, near the top.

My ears twitched as he tugged on it a little, bringing it back down... Seemed I had let it slip a little during our conversation. Most likely because of my ears.

“Thanks,” I said.

Vim nodded and instead of pulling his hand back, he put it onto the small of my back.

I stood up a little straighter because of it, and wondered if he was doing so to remind me not to stand out too much.

“That would explain your personality a little. You like humans, yet don’t. Are comfortable around them, yet don’t seem to care much about them,” he said.

While we walked, I tried to focus on the nearby waves crashing against the docks. They were neat and something I hadn’t seen in years... but for some reason, my eyes wanted to wander to the man next to me instead.

Focus Renn!

“I’m tired of humans,” I said softly.

“Tired?” he asked.

“Of burying them,” I admitted.

Vim frowned but nodded. “That I understand.”

“It’s a stupid reason, isn’t it?” I asked him.

“No. Not really. Least I don’t think so,” he said.

Squeezing the umbrella’s handle, I felt silly.

It had only been a couple days since I had just opened my heart to him... yet here again I was doing it once more.

“Sorry,” I said to him.

“For always making me feel bad? Sure, you’re forgiven,” he said.

“I make you feel bad?” I asked, worried. Is that why he had put his hand on my back?

“Well... no. Not really,” he said.

“Hmph,” I looked away from him as we neared a large hustling section of the dock.

Nearly three dozen people, not just burly men but women as well, were sorting fish. There was a huge table lined up, seemingly situated on top of barrels, and the group was split on both sides. One side was pouring fish onto the table, from buckets they were scooping from larger barrels nearby, and the people on other side were handling the fish one by one. The small ones they put into one barrel, while bigger ones were put elsewhere. Anything that wasn’t a fish was being thrown to the end of the table, where a pair of younger boys stood waiting.

“Sorting?” I asked.

“Someone has to,” Vim said.

While walking past, I studied the group. None of them even glanced at Vim and I, and all seemed to focus intently on their tasks. The roaring of the waves, and the rain, seemed to be ignored as much as we were.

“Are fish expensive?” I asked.

“Want fish for dinner?”

Glancing at him, I wondered why he wasn’t smirking... that wasn’t a joke, he was being serious.

“Not really... just wanted to know,” I said.

“Some are. Depends on the season, I guess,” Vim answered.

Walking closer to the boats, I slowly realized how big they actually were.

“Vim...” I slowly came to a stop as I stared up at one of the nearby ships.

“Hm?” he paused, more than patient with me.

I pointed at it, and while doing so accidentally moved the umbrella. Vim closed an eye and tilted his head as he was smacked in the face with the canopy.

“Sorry,” I quickly fixed the umbrella’s positioning, but Vim seemed to not even be fazed as he pointed to the boat.

“What’s wrong? Recognize it?” he asked, focusing on what had bothered me originally.

“Recognize? No... I hadn’t realized they could be built so big,” I said, still worried over the umbrella.

Vim glanced at the boat, and the many near it, and shrugged. He seemed to have completely forgotten I had almost just stabbed him in the eye. “It is big, but there’s a lot bigger. In theory a boat can be built as big as one wants... if you can find the material, and have the know-how,” he said.

“As big as one wants?” I asked.

He nodded. “No matter how big, it’ll float... as long as it is built properly,” he said.

Vim let me stand still for a moment, to study the large boat. It had three sets of sails, and I tried to imagine where the trees the masts were made of had come from... they looked far too big to be real.

“The tree. At Lilly’s place. Is it as big as that?” I asked.

“No. That tree is bigger,” he said confidently.

Really...

That had been hard to verify, since that tree had been covered in not just a forest, but its huge branches and leaves were likewise blocking it from sight. And by the time I had left the forest, it was impossible to make it out from a distance.

After a moment, I turned to let Vim know I was done examining it.

He pushed a little on my back to lead me down a road, away from the docks and boats.

“That way is just warehouses,” he said.

“Not going to check them?” I asked.

“I’ve seen enough,” he said.

Glancing behind us, I wondered what he had been looking for. “Was it the number of boats? Or...”

Wait he had wondered if I had recognized that boat...

“Were you looking for boats you recognized?” I asked, wondering if that was why he had asked such a thing.

He glanced at me, and I knew I had gotten it right. “Kind of. I was checking the flags, the people here, and what was being loaded and unloaded,” he explained.

“Oh... fish mostly, it seemed,” I said.

“Mostly,” he agreed.

“You saw something else?” I asked.

He nodded but didn’t specify. “The port seems fine. And although it’s hard to really tell, thanks to the storm... the city seems fine as well. Nothing odd is happening in the markets, nothing odd in the church and Rapti hasn’t noticed anything too strange either. The mercenaries are odd, but not enough to worry about. They come and go.”

I tried to process his words, and thought of all the things he’s been looking at today.

The dock. The market yesterday... I had noticed we had kind of rounded the city, instead of cutting straight to Rapti’s house. I hadn’t said anything though since I had thought maybe he had wanted to check to see if we were being followed, like last time in Ruvindale.

“Is that why we went to the church this morning?” I asked.

“That and to spend time with Rapti,” he said.

I nodded. That made a lot of sense.

“What?” he asked, noticing my nodding.

“You are... Crane had said you were very structured. I was just thinking you had done similar things in Ruvindale. Did you do it in Bordu before I had arrived too?” I asked. We hadn’t gone through Bordu after leaving Twin Hills. We had circled it.

“I had,” he admitted with a huff.

Oh? Did he not like the fact that I was calling him organized? Or rather someone who seemed to have a routine down and always followed that set procedure. “You seem to have... a pattern? You get somewhere, make sure our members are safe, and if they are you examine their home. The city,” I explained.

“Hm,” he made a noise but didn’t nod or seem to agree.

“You realize that you do, right?” I asked, worried a little.

“I do. Yes. I know. I don’t half-ass it though you know?” he said, defending himself.

“Didn’t say you were...”

He blinked and I wondered if he was... he was! He was embarrassed.

“What?” he asked and I knew it was because I had a smile on my face.

“You’re embarrassed,” I said.

He looked away, and I saw his jaw clench.

“Why does it embarrass you?” I asked as we passed a deep puddle.

Vim shrugged, and pointed down a new road. This one was smaller, but not small enough to be an alleyway.

“Rather than embarrass... it makes me wonder what to do with you,” he said.

“Do with me? I didn’t mean anything bad by it...” I said, worrying that maybe I had said something unintended.

“I don’t mean that... I mean...” He went quiet as he thought of how to phrase it to me, “I don’t usually let people watch or know what I do. I don’t like it.”

Watch what he does.

Pondering that, I remembered the face he had made last night. In the living room, last night after meeting Rapti.

Rapti had mentioned someone. An Oplar. Someone who had visited her before us.

Vim had looked uncomfortable as she mentioned that... and at first I had thought it was simply because of who they were talking about. This Oplar. Maybe she was someone he didn’t care for.

Instead though...

“You don’t like people knowing stuff about you?” I asked, quickly understanding what had actually bothered him last night. And what was also bothering him now.

In fact now that I thought of it, there were many instances of such an expression on his face.

He sighed, and his hand left my back.

Slightly worried, I hesitated as he reached out and grabbed the umbrella from me. Although I allowed him to take it, I regretted it... and not just because I had enjoyed holding it.

He lifted the umbrella a little, and suddenly we were...

Well, not any farther apart. We still walked shoulder-to-shoulder. Still bumped into one another occasionally, thanks to me, but...

But now we were farther apart. If at least in his mind.

Gulping a dry mouth, I watched Vim’s face as he studied the city we walked amongst. “Everyone has a right to know everything about me,” Vim then said.

His tone told me he had been serious... but that face...

He spoke the truth... yet didn’t like it. At all.

“Hm...” I decided to let it be. For now. At least.

After all that expression on his face told me enough.

And although I wanted to learn about him, and his life... as to try to help him.... as to try and join him on this path...

It would only be going against everything I wanted to disturb him so.

What was the point in making him hurt?

I wanted to help him. I wanted to help them all.

“Think Rapti is back yet?” I asked softly, hoping to change the conversation. I didn’t want him to go quiet the rest of the night just because I had asked something I shouldn’t of.

“No. The church bell hasn’t rung yet,” he said calmly.

Glancing at him, I was glad to see he looked normal now. Maybe he had somewhat forgiven me, or at least overlooked my trespassing of his emotions.

Walking quietly for a moment, I reached up to make sure my headdress hadn’t moved. It hadn’t, but it gave me something to focus on.

“Just watch me, Renn. Give it time,” Vim said as the rain began to fall even harder.

I nodded.

Time.

I had time.

We had plenty of that.

Hopefully, at least.