“Did… did we have to burn it?” I asked, staring at the smoke in the sky.

“No,” Vim said.

The two of us sat on a bench, not too far from the central market. A small patch of trees were behind us, with several benches all around them. We were somewhat alone. There were people out and about, but most were busy. We were the only ones resting and talking nearby.

We couldn’t see the fire, being so far away… but the black smoke told me it was still burning.

“What if the fire spreads?” I asked. I hadn’t met most the neighbors, since most of the buildings around the Sleepy Artist had been businesses and not homes… but the few I had met had seemed like genuinely good people.

“The Lord of this city pays for fires. If it spreads, they will protect those who it endangers and will rebuild for them,” Vim said.

He was reading from the little black book that he had found in Lughes’ room. The fact that he had known its location told me it was something important.

Sitting next to Vim on the bench, I shifted a little to try and make out what was written on the page he read from. He didn’t move it, nor try to hide it, but the book was tiny… the words written even tinier.

“What now?” I asked him.

“I’m debating our next move,” he said simply.

Reaching up to wipe my face, I hoped I didn’t look too bad. I wasn’t bothered that I probably looked like I had just sobbed my soul out, but Vim had said some soot had gotten onto my face. I had wiped my face off already, but he hadn’t told me if I had cleaned it all off yet.

“Where would they go? Crane and Lughes? If they escaped. Do we… does the Society have somewhere for people to go? During moments like these?” I asked.

“We do. The nearest here would be the Owl’s Nest,” he said.

“Really? Even though that big creature guards it?” I asked.

Vim finally took his eyes off the little book, and I sat up straighter as he studied me. “You met it?” he asked.

“Ran from it, actually.”

He blinked… and then frowned. “Really.”

“Lilly said the only reason I survived was because it had smelled you. That your scent had still lingered in the field, since you had laid in it all day,” I said.

His eyebrow rose, and… surprisingly he seemed to completely understand. If anything it seemed to make it far more believable to him.

“There’s a small cabin to the northeast of the Owl’s Nest. Outside that beast’s territory, yet safe. They’ll go there,” he then said as he went back to his book.

“Then… should we go there? To check if they’re there already?” I asked.

“No. It could take months for them to get there depending on how injured or spooked they are. They might also go elsewhere, like Lughes who might return to his mountains,” Vim said.

“Ah…” I did my best to not let my eyes return to a blurry mess as I understood now why he wasn’t in that big of a hurry.

Odds were I’d never see any of them again, even if they lived.

Taking a small breath, I was proud of myself for not letting tears well up again.

“Before we leave I need to find out who was responsible,” Vim said.

“Is it my fault…?” I asked. My eyes became blurry anyway.

“We don’t know yet, Renn. Please stop crying, people are around us,” he said gently.

“But it could be!” I said, a little louder than I should have.

Vim sighed. “It could be. But until we know for sure you’re not allowed to blame yourself,” he said.

“Easy to say,” I said, and lowered my head. Someone was approaching our area, a young woman.

Vim grunted as he sat back, closing the little black book in his hand.

“Mister! Did you hear? A fire at the painter’s house!” the young woman told us as she passed.

“I’ve heard. Is the fire under control yet?” Vim asked.

I kept my head down, since I knew my face was probably wrought with enough emotion that she’d find it odd if she saw.

“It is! The building’s just smoldering!” she seemed a little too excited about that fact.

“Excitement,” Vim commented as the young girl hurried away.

“Mhm,” I nodded. That hadn’t been malice… but simple excitement over something unique happening.

It made me hate her, yet I knew I shouldn’t.

“Let’s go Renn,” Vim said, standing up from the bench.

“Where?” I asked wearily. I felt exhausted. And my eyes hurt.

Vim stared at me as I slowly got up off the bench. Did I still have gunk on my face? Or was he just staring at my tear-stains?

“You mentioned a noble family. Primsdol?” he asked.

“Primdoll. Amber had been hired to paint their young daughter… the surgeons, the doctors at the church… They mentioned that that family is known for their cruelty. Amber wasn’t the first one to get… cut up, like that,” I said.

A part of me wanted to get angry. Furious. To go and find that family right now.

Yet the rest of me felt beaten and broken. Defeated.

They were all gone.

They had been there for years. Decades. Living peacefully, without worry. Hundreds of our kind have come and gone, getting their pictures painted... Then I show up and it all burns down.

“I should have killed them when I had the chance,” I said. Although my anger was directed at them, the truth was I was angry at myself.

“Possibly. I’ll allow you to blame yourself for that, if you’d like,” Vim said, and stepped away.

Looking at him, I gulped the truth down and hurried to follow him. That tone he had just used told me he had the same thoughts as me.

“Are we going to find them?” I asked him as we headed for a nearby street. One of the smaller ones, not used by carts.

“No.”

“Why not?” I asked. Wasn’t that the next viable step?

“Because the warning label on the front door had been from the Lord’s Office. The noble who owns Ruvindale,” he said.

“Oh. Is that our real enemy?” I asked.

“No. It means that the nobles took action as a whole,” Vim said lowly as we approached the road, and the many buildings lining it.

I was about to ask another question, but took note of his lower volume. He didn’t want others to hear us talking about this.

“Then what now?” I asked him, hoping my question would be alright to ask.

“First we need a new inn. Let’s go to the one in the center near the statue,” he said.

“Harbor inn?” I asked.

“Yes. I uh… broke that door, remember?” he asked, sounding a little odd.

“Ah. You did,” I nodded. He had broken the door lock at the other inn, the one near the gate.

“Probably won’t let us back in anytime soon. So come on,” he nodded his head.

Choosing to keep my questions at bay since we entered the center market, a place with a lot of people, I stayed quiet as Vim went ahead and got us another room.

“One penk,” An older woman charged us for a two-bedded room.

“You don’t negotiate?” I asked Vim as we climbed the stairs to the room.

“For what? A few renk?” he asked.

“It adds up, doesn’t it?” I asked him. He seemed to never negotiate… and I could think of an easy half dozen times he could have, just recently.

“Sure does,” Vim said as he opened the door to our room.

Hurrying in behind him, I rounded him since he had entered slowly.

“Hm,” he made a noise telling me he found me odd as I hurriedly found the painting.

“Same one,” I said, finding the same beach scene that I remembered.

“Same what?” he asked.

Pointing to the scene, I compared it to the one in my memories.

“When I stayed here last time, it was these paintings that made me search out the Sleepy Artist. They… reminded me of a beach I had seen before. This one’s a little different, the beach is more white than the other one,” I said, comparing the two.

“I see,” Vim didn’t sound too amused.

Smiling at the painting, tears welled up as I realized this was probably one of the few paintings left and…

“Oh jeez, really?” Vim asked, most likely seeing the tears slide down my face.

“Amber painted these,” I said.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Vim sighed and walked over to me. I ignored him, until he grabbed my bag off my shoulder.

Glaring at him, I watched him put the little black book he had been reading into it. Once he did, he tossed it to the bed.

“Let’s go,” he said with a nod.

“Mhm…” I followed him out of the room.

Wiping my face with my sleeve, I followed Vim out of the Harbor Inn and to a small alley.

While I followed him, I realized he was actually letting me accompany him.

Honestly I had expected him to leave me behind at the inn…

“Thanks Vim,” I said.

“For?” he asked, glancing back at me as we crossed a street.

“Letting me help,” I said.

His eyes narrowed at me as he looked ahead, and I realized we were heading to the center of the city. To where the larger buildings, and the church was. “You’ve not helped yet. But you will,” he said.

“Anyway I can,” I agreed.

Once we entered another alley, in-between two houses, Vim came to a stop.

Slowly coming to a stop behind him, I hesitated a little.

Was he going to tell me I wasn’t allowed to help now?

“What do you know of nobles?” he asked me, turning a little to look at me.

“Nothing. Just that they’re powerful, although I’m not entirely sure how that is,” I said honestly.

“This Primdoll family…”

“A lower noble family, I heard,” I said quickly.

He nodded, and frowned. “Can I trust you?” he asked me.

Blinking, I felt my tail coil beneath my pants. Hopefully no one was watching us, since someone might have noticed that.

“I like to think you can,” I said softly.

“Can you control yourself, if I put you in front of the ones who might be our enemies?” he asked me.

Hesitating, I tried to comprehend what he had just asked me.

“Control?” I asked, worried.

“If you stood before the one who took Amber’s life, and possibly the others, could you contain your anger?” Vim asked me.

I shivered.

Could I?

“Don’t lie to me. This is important,” he added.

I nodded. “I can tell,” I said.

“Well?” he asked.

Looking at his stern look, I wondered if this meant he actually knew who and where they were already. And…

“For how long…?” I asked him softly.

He blinked, and frowned. “Until I said otherwise,” he said, as if it was obvious.

“I… I honestly don’t know,” I said.

“That won’t work for me. I need a real answer,” he said.

Opening my mouth to give one, I found myself unable to give it.

He sighed and nodded. “Okay. Trial run, then,” he said.

“Trial…?” I asked, unsure of what he meant.

“You get one chance,” Vim said as he turned to return to walking.

My stomach tightened for the first time in a short while. “One chance…”

“I need to find out what happened to the paintings. Before I find out where they are, we can’t kill anyone. Even if they’re the ones who did the deed,” Vim said as he walked.

Following him, I groaned as I realized what he meant.

Of course.

The paintings were of us. Not all of them, of course… but… more than enough.

Even I…

“Our paintings,” I moaned, realizing how horrible this actually was.

Vim nodded. “Our paintings.”

Closing my eyes as I followed Vim down another alley, one a little smaller than the rest, I tried to imagine how horrible this situation was.

Those paintings of course didn’t tell anyone where those locations were… nor the names of those painted… but it verified something. It was proof.

Proof of our existence.

“What have I done?” I asked myself as the levity of the situation crushed my heart.

“No time for that. We need the paintings,” Vim said coldly.

“Okay. Yes. I promise. I can… I won’t kill anyone, until we know,” I said.

I could agree with that. I could understand that.

“Good. I’ll hold you to that promise. More than your life hangs on that vow,” he said.

I nodded, understanding perfectly.

If I failed. If I didn’t follow his guidance… far more than the Sleepy Artist, or myself, were in danger.

Lomi had been painted too. And she lived nearby. Close enough that…

I shook the thoughts out of my head.

“First we’ll go to the church,” Vim said.

Yes we were heading that way. Although I had never traveled these back alleys before, I knew not far from here was the main road… the same one I had carried Amber through, when I had taken her to the hospital.

“Why the church first?” I asked.

“To check the dead,” he said.

About to ask why he’d ask that, I groaned at the obvious answer.

That cemetery. The one that doctor had offered to bury Amber in… but…

“Would they bury us? Like they do their own?” I asked.

“No. But they’d know about it. They'll have records. Information,” he said.

“I see…”

Following Vim onto a main road, I recognized the fancy stone. We were nearing the noble’s district.

While following him, I wondered… how often he did this.

He spoke not just with confidence, but surety.

He’s done this before. He’s been through these motions, and they had provided him results.

It was a sad thought. How often has he done this? How many times more?

To not only have a preset plan, but to have it be so precise and…

“Don’t talk much inside, if you can help it,” Vim said to me as we neared the church. The main building wasn’t in sight yet, but the giant towers and steeples were close. Close enough that their shadows blocked most of the sun.

“That will be easy enough,” I said.

Vim glanced at me, but I didn’t need to explain why.

After all, I couldn’t screw this up if I just kept quiet.

What better way to keep my promise than to simply not give my anger a voice?

Though…

Rounding a large building, I slowly looked up at the massive building.

It was huge. How was it so big?

How did humans accomplish it?

Feeling small compared to it, I wondered if the church was our real enemy. The true one.

If it was… how would we face this?

It was… momentous.

“Here we go,” Vim said softly.

Nodding as I followed him into the church, I did everything I could to keep the anxious feeling from filling my stomach.

By the time we entered, and I heard an odd echo… I realized there was nothing that could keep my worry from overflowing.

Hymns reverberated throughout the massive building, and I was thankful for the hat on my head. It made the loud sounds almost bearable.

Surprisingly… although for some reason it sounded loud inside, as if there were thousands of people singing… there weren’t many people inside. A few people were walking around, a few were deeper inside… some were sitting at the pews just to the north and…

“Greetings son, welcome,” an old woman approached, dressed in a familiar black and white dress.

The sight hurt to see. It made me flinch.

Nory had worn such a dress when I had first met her.

“I greet you, shepherd of the lambs,” Vim spoke calmly, and bowed his head slightly in greeting.

The nun revealed a calm smile. One that told me she was genuinely happy to be greeted so.

Hurriedly bowing my head alongside Vim, I made sure not to bow too lowly… just in case my hat fell free.

“How may I help you children?” she asked.

It was… a little upsetting to hear the authentic concern and willingness in her voice.

This woman really was a believer in her faith. A true devotee.

Someone I would probably find myself liking if given the chance.

“We’ve come to ask for knowledge,” Vim said.

I noticed Vim raised his head, so I slowly stood back up as well.

The older nun smiled gently at me as she nodded, telling Vim to continue.

“We recently moved here from Yeltch, you see… and my wife had gotten a job offer from a house of painters,” Vim gestured at me as he spoke.

Going still, I was lucky that the nun had focused on Vim as he spoke. Hopefully she hadn’t noticed my ears and tail twitch at his words.

“House of painters… the one that just caught aflame?” the nun asked, worried.

“Ah, yes. We were not harmed, mother,” Vim said, sounding apologetic that he failed to mention it.

“Bless the ruler. Come, sit and tell me what I can do for you,” the nun pointed behind her. To a…

Going still, I stared wide-eyed for a moment at the countless rows of pews.

Doing my best to count them as we were guided to the nearest seat, I felt…

How to describe it?

There were more chairs than probably the entire population in Ruvindale, and then some.

Why were there so many…?

Sitting next to Vim who sat next to the nun, I tried to keep myself calm as I watched the woman take Vim’s hand… holding it gently, as if he was a small child.

“We returned home, you see. Once she had been hired. To gather a few things and say goodbye to our families. I’ll be working the docks, as I’m sure you’d expect,” Vim said, rubbing the back of his head as he spoke… as if he really was just a young boy like she was treating him to be.

“I see. You wish to know what had happened,” the nun said with a nod.

“Yes mother,” Vim nodded quickly, glad she had said it herself.

“I’ll go get Father Berry. He will know more. Would you two like to offer prayer while I fetch him?” she asked as she stood.

“We would! Yes. We shall be there, mother,” Vim stood alongside her, nodding quickly.

She happily smiled and nodded, glad to hear it.

I nodded to her, with as kind a smile I could muster. She smiled at me and then turned and walked away. Slowly, not in much of a hurry.

“Come on,” Vim whispered, his hand suddenly coming to rest on my lower back. He guided me along the pew we had just sat at and to an opening in the sea of seats.

“Prayer?” I whispered.

“Do you know how?” he asked as we slowly walked towards the end of the pews.

“I do.”

“Play along,” he said.

I nodded.

At the end of the huge room, in front of the countless pews, was a small stage. With a podium. No one stood on the stage, but there were a few people scattered nearby it. Several of them, even those dressed like nuns and priests, were kneeling… bowing in front of a large statue.

The statue was obviously some kind of angel. The motif was of a serene woman. Her face was calm, with closed eyes… but she had two sets of arms and wings of feathers behind her. If Nory had been here she probably would have burst into tears at the sight.

It was pretty. The white marble was lit up, thanks the setting sun’s rays entering through the colored glass that made up the roof.

Vim’s hand left my lower back, and I suddenly felt cold. Doing my best to ignore the odd sensation, I watched as he approached the statue first. Like the others, he didn’t step up onto the lifted stage that the statue stood upon… maybe it was considered rude or sacrilegious. Maybe only the leaders of the religion could stand there.

Stepping away from the little path we had walked down, Vim stepped up to the edge of the stage and slowly knelt down. Going to his knees, he clasped his hands and bowed his head.

Mimicking Vim, I knelt down onto my knees next to him.

Once I lowered my head, I realized I could somewhat make out what the others were praying about… even though most whispered their words under their breath.

Most were genuinely praying. A few even begged, with all their soul.

I tried to block out their prayers, but it was hard to do. Their voices carried in this giant cathedral, somehow, and my ears obviously didn’t help me.

“Funny isn’t it?” Vim quietly whispered. Almost low enough I hadn’t heard him.

“Hm?” I tried to be just as quiet. Did he hear me?

“Looks like one of us,” he said.

Opening my eyes, I glanced at him. He still kneeled there, with his eyes closed.

“It does,” I agreed.

He had a point. Extra arms. Wings.

Why was she holy, yet we weren’t?

Returning to silence… I realized there was no point to pretend.

Closing my eyes tightly, I squeezed my hands together and went to praying.

“Please keep them safe,” I begged.

“Please save them. Please keep us all safe…” I pleaded.

I begged and pleaded… to the man next to me.

At least he could hear me.

At least he was capable of performing miracles.

At least he answered.