The company was quiet now. The hallway lanterns had been put out, the shades and windows closed. Most hallways were dark enough that I knew most humans wouldn’t be able to traverse without knowing them by heart.

Such silence was common, when so late at night... but there was a strange feeling to the quiet air. Off in the distance I could still hear murmurs, whispers, and footsteps... Some I knew were legitimate, from one of the human workers who worked during the night shift, or one of the guards. A few were from members of the Society, like Brom who I had seen not too long ago as he patrolled. But sometimes I heard sounds that made me turn to see their source, only to find nothing there. Or to round a corner, expecting to see someone opening or closing a door... and not only was there no one doing such a thing, there was no door to be found either.

If Renn was walking with me she’d probably tell me it was ghosts or something. Although I’d not enjoy that conversation with her, a part of me somewhat longed to see her worried expression and her voice when on edge.

“Ghosts,” I scoffed at the idea.

Over a thousand years I’ve been walking this planet, and not once had I ever encountered such a thing.

If the souls of those slain could remain and linger, if anyone could encounter them... it’d be me. Even if I discounted the ones I’d slain with my own hands, I’ve known those who were powerful. Who were unique. Who were beyond the normal.

If even the gods couldn’t keep their souls here, why did anyone think the lesser souls could?

“Pointless,” I tried to dismiss the thoughts as I glanced out a window. I was on the second floor, near the bank area. I was just walking around, without purpose... waiting. As I had been for days.

Right as I approached a corner, I slowed a little as I heard the sound of high heels just beyond the corner. Footsteps that had not been in the hall before were there now. They sounded as if they were walking my way.

The click and clacks of the shoes reminded me of the one’s they made the banker girls wear. Like the ones Renn had been wearing lately.

If not for the lack of her scent, and the fact that the footsteps weren’t hers at all, I’d think it was her.

They were walking far too apart to be Renn’s. And the pace was wrong. Renn had a better rhythm to her steps, even when in a hurry...

Rounding the corner, I wasn’t too surprised to find the hallway empty... and for the footsteps to echo away, disappearing as if they hadn’t been there in the first place.

As I headed down the hallway, I wondered what to think of the sounds. If it was just the sound of voices, or maybe even the doors and stuff opening and closing, I’d just blame the wind. The wind sneaking into crevices and half-open windows... but footsteps?

Rounding a corner, I smiled at my thoughts.

“The answer, of course...” I slowed a little, until I found the reason for the sounds.

Pausing before one of the small vents, ones that weren’t really used anymore, I sighed as I understood the source of the sounds.

I was hearing the echoes of someone somewhere else in the building, maybe even in the Societies Housing. Yet when I was a hallway or two away from one of the vents, my hearing picked it up even stronger. Amplifying it, since my instincts and senses went into overdrive upon hearing them.

My astute senses were working against me.

A common issue, regrettably.

I wonder if Renn suffered the same? She did sometimes see or hear something that I noticed made her tilt her head in confusion, only for her a moment later to smile and return her focus to whatever she had been doing earlier.

She seemed to rely entirely on her cat ears, yet could hear from her human ones. Hearing from multiple sources was probably confusing. Probably why her human ones weren’t as good, she likely instinctively ignored them and made them worse over time by doing so.

“Why am I focusing on her so much?” I whispered at myself as I rounded another corner and headed for a stairwell.

I knew why, of course, but that didn’t mean I wanted to admit it.

Climbing the stairs to the third floor, I slowed as I reached the top of the stairwell... finding Tosh there.

He was standing right at the entrance of the stairwell, looking down at me as I approached.

The normally sullen man seemed odd, since he was smiling at me.

“Tosh, is all well?” I asked him as I paused a few steps from the top of the stairs. There was enough room to climb to the next floor, and stand next to him, but it’d be a close brush of the shoulders. And Tosh was... not someone I wanted to bother too deeply by bumping into, even if I did so carefully. The poor man was fragile. The kind of fragile that made me not want to startle him even to that degree.

“I’m lost, Vim.”

My eyes focused on the man, and the whisper he had barely spoken. His thin voice echoed down the stairwell and into my ears... sounding eerily similar to the ghostly whispers I had been pondering earlier.

“You’re not lost, Tosh. You’re here. With me. With friends,” I said to him gently.

My old friend shook his head, and his hair danced a little as he did so. He needed a haircut, but had needed that haircut for the last hundred years. Unlike Renn, most of our kind weren’t able to grow their hair quickly.

Shifting a little, I wondered what to say to him. I had known him for a long time, and even more so had known those like him more than I’d like to admit.

They were broken. Deep within. In ways that could not be understood, by anyone.

Broken to such a degree that they went dozens, in Tosh’s case, hundreds of years between speaking aloud.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Can I help you find your way?” I asked as his eyes focused onto my own. The held mine, telling me that Tosh was genuinely looking at me. For the first time in hundreds of years.

“You always do know the way,” he whispered with a nod.

I felt a small chill as I nodded and stepped up another step, towards him. I waited a moment until he blinked before stepping up the next step.

Approaching him carefully, I smiled gently at my old friend as I reached the top of the stairwell. Tosh stepped back a single step, a little haphazardly, and I took my place next to him.

The hallway we now stood in was empty. Dark. Cold. Yet... I cared not about the company or anything else at the moment. I would almost not even care to notice if Fly or her master broke in right now.

Tosh was asking for my help.

For the first time since he had retreated into himself, so long ago.

I could only imagine what had spurred his sudden willingness to speak to me. But I’d worry and think about that later. Right now I simply needed to be here. For him. For whatever he needed.

“Where did you get lost, Tosh?” I asked him.

Tosh blinked and frowned. “Somewhere hot...” he whispered.

Hot. The desert. The Monarch. With Merit.

Not too surprising, but it still was. After all that hadn’t made him go silent and hide within himself. It had been the events after that which had made him break.

“Well it’s cool and damp here,” I said.

He took a small breath, and his frown turned into realization. He blinked in a way that told me he understood. He knew what I meant.

“The sea,” he said as he smelled the air.

“The sea. Want to go see it?” I asked.

“Is it frozen?” he asked.

“We can freeze it if you wish,” I said.

A tiny smirk curled itself on his face. “Still dramatic, are you?”

I smiled back at my old friend and nodded. “I try to be, sometimes.”

Tosh shifted, and I reached out to grab the man on the shoulder. His thin shoulder was but a fragment of his former self, but it was still him. Still my friend. He flinched a little upon my grip, but didn’t shy away. Didn’t ignore me. His eyes didn’t go dull and instead focused on me.

“It’s nice to see you again, Tosh,” I said to him.

He frowned and nodded. “It’s... been awhile,” he agreed.

Yes. It has.

Tosh reached up with his hand and scratched his chin, and I could see the man scanning his memories. Looking for something.

“I’m... I...” his eyes narrowed, and I realized something hurt him. Something inside. Either a memory or the attempt to pull one to the surface had pained him.

“Take it slow, Tosh. Slow and easy, like how you used to polish those stones,” I reminded him of his old hobby.

“Ah... Hm...” Tosh nodded, as if he understood what I meant completely.

Did he though? I hoped he did. But...

“I feel short... did you grow taller?” Tosh then asked.

Chuckling at him, I stepped forward to wrap my arm around his shoulder. To guide him down the hall, towards the Societies Houses. To one of the kitchens.

“You shrunk, instead, I think!” I said.

“Shrunk...?” Tosh frowned as he glanced down at himself.

Could he tell he had become scrawny? Lifeless? Decrepit almost?

Probably not. Not yet. But he would.

Leading Tosh down the hallway, I guided him slowly. We walked carefully, and I held him as if we were both tired soldiers helping each other stand and walk after a long battle.

That’s probably how he felt, so it was only proper.

“I’m lost, still, I think,” he whispered.

“You are. But it’s okay. We’ll find our way, together,” I said.

“You’re never lost, Vim.”

I smiled and nodded, even though I didn’t agree at all.

Why did they all always think I always knew the way? That I always knew what to do or say?

It was so far from the truth it hurt.

But for him, right now... it was what I had to be. The hero. The protector. Vim, the immortal, the unyielding and unflinching.

Tosh needed the man who he grew up reading about. The one he heard stories and legends of. The man he feared, hated, and then revered.

“I met your wife,” Tosh whispered as we neared the Societies Door.

My feet almost stumbled, but I somehow kept myself steady... and Tosh in his lost mind didn’t notice my near stumble.

“Huh?”

He nodded. “The cat. She’s kind... where did you lose her this time?” he asked me.

Studying my friend who seemed to have mistaken some memories, and put new ones together with old ones... I wondered what to say.

“Renn?” I asked him. I couldn’t think of any other woman, a cat at least, that he could be thinking about. Wife? Really?

He nodded and smiled. “Yes. Her. The one who punched you,” he said.

Interesting.

“She’s around here somewhere,” I said.

“Ah... good. Don’t lose her, Vim. You don’t get lost, but we do. We do...” he whispered and blinked a few times.

I opened the door for him, and let him step into the Societies Housing. I shut the door behind me, and made sure to quickly take him by the shoulder again. I didn’t want him to fade back into his mind. Progress was progress, but sometimes one needed to... push a little.

If I let him delve back into his mind, it would be okay. No one would blame him, or me... but I wanted him free from that cage. Even if it meant I had to force his mind to stay awake, here and now, by stretching the truth a little.

“Would you like to meet her?” I asked him.

Tosh blinked, and his eyes became clearer as he glanced at me. “Renn...? You’d let me tease you so willingly?” he asked me.

For you? Yes. I would. “Sure? She’s probably looking for me anyway,” I said.

He scoffed and shook his head. “So confident... even with women.”

“Says you? I remember you trying to woe that dancer, Tosh. Stripping naked in front of the king and all those churchmen!” I smiled at the memory. It was a good one.

Tosh didn’t even need to ponder it for a moment. He remembered it instantly, and broke out into a hearty laugh.

As we walked closer to the stairwell, as to descend to the first floor, I knew that many had heard Tosh’s laugh. How could they not? It had been so guttural, so deep, so pure.

It had probably even awoken some of those sleeping.

But who cared?

It’s been over a hundred years since I had heard this man’s laughter. I’d dare anyone to complain at the sound of it.

“You’re right! She hated me!” Tosh laughed as he remembered.

“She did! Stabbed you, too!”

He nodded quickly as we reached the new stairwell, and began to descend it. Right as we stepped down, I heard a few doors open. Some nearby and others elsewhere.

Would them approaching to talk to Tosh help him or hurt him?

We’d probably find out soon.

Hopefully it’d not cause any issues, or make him retreat back into himself.

Tosh snickered as we descended the stairwell, and I smiled at my old friend.

Welcome back, Tosh.

Hopefully this time you’ll stay awhile.