Vim wasn’t back yet.

Walking behind Brom, I found my eyes once again glaring at the spear resting on his shoulder. It was angled upward, and he held it in his right hand comfortably. It was a little… annoying to see that he not only looked so familiar with a spear, but even made it look like it suited him.

He had a huge smile on his face too, still basking in the ether of his joy.

Watching Vim hand it to him had been… enjoyable… I had to admit that. Brom had smiled so greatly, it was as if he was a little boy receiving his first gift from his father.

Plus…

Brom’s thumb tapped the spear, giving it a slight ding. He seemed to enjoy that sound. And didn’t seem bothered doing it… but it should have. His thumb was black and blue.

I really had hurt him.

Biting the inside of my cheek, I hoped that spear was enough of an apology.

“Ah, Brom!” he and I turned around to see who had shouted his name. Sofia hurried over, her heels made odd sounds on the stone floor as she approached.

“Sofia,” I smiled at her as she nodded at me and then gave Brom a weird look.

“The heck is that?” she asked him.

“Hm? Oh, nothing special…” Brom blushed a little as he answered, which made me forget most of my upset feelings about it.

“Sure it isn’t… Gerald wants you. What are you doing Renn? I thought you were going to the embassy?” Sofia asked.

“Been and back again. The embassy is sending someone tomorrow to check the girls out, then they’ll start taking them in over the next few days,” I told her.

“Ah… good. They don’t stink, but they’re noisy,” Sofia said with a sigh.

“They don’t stink to you?” Brom asked, sounding actually surprised.

“Not really? But unlike you I deal with humans up close, and I don’t stab them,” Sofia said with a huff.

“I don’t stab them…” Brom grumbled as he rolled the spear in his palm a little, making it spin.

Sofia huffed at him then looked at me. “Want to have lunch Renn?” she asked.

“She has to stick with me until Vim gets back,” Brom said.

I nodded. “I do.”

She raised an eyebrow at me, and then looked at Brom. I could tell by her expression she wanted to hear the full story.

Brom noticed and only shrugged.

Which wasn’t because he wouldn’t talk about it in front of me… but because he himself didn’t know the reason. Vim had not mentioned it, only that he wasn’t supposed to let me out of his sight until Vim got back.

“Well… fine. Later then,” Sofia nodded.

“Sure,” I agreed.

“Good. Merit wants to have dinner anyway,” she said.

“Dinner it is,” I agreed again.

Sofia smiled and nodded, and hurried back down the hall.

“Then let’s go see Gerald,” Brom said.

“Do you have to… handle humans often, Brom?” I asked as I followed him.

“Sometimes. A few dozen times a year, I think,” he said lightly.

Jeez… Maybe Sofia had a point.

Following him to Gerald’s office, we found his door open and him waiting inside. He was standing next to his desk, staring down at some kind of…

Stepping around Brom to go up to the desk, I frowned at the small green plant.

It had spikes. “What is it?” I asked.

“A cactus. They’re common in deserts, but not so much here,” Gerald said.

Leaning towards it, I stared at the little golden… spikes looking things upon it. Somewhat similar to the thorns on all the bushes in the northern forests I was from. The main body of the plant looked hard, and the spikes sharp. “They’re almost like needles,” I said.

“They are basically. They’re the spines, technically their leaves. It was a gift,” Gerald explained.

“From?” Brom asked. He had remained at the door, resting up against the door’s frame as if to make sure no one would enter behind him.

“Well… that’s the issue. It was given to me by a southern merchant. One that just left. I summoned you Brom, just in case,” Gerald said.

“Oh?” Brom stepped out of the office, to glance up and down the hallway. He must not have seen anything.

“Why would you need Brom because of a gift?” I asked.

“The southerners give cactuses as gifts to those they’re declaring war to,” Gerald said simply.

“You’re kidding me…” I suddenly found it much more interesting.

“Not at all. We had to turn down his offer of contract for the ship Vim brought back. He wasn’t too happy about it,” Gerald said as he went to sit down.

Before he did, he glanced at me and then Brom. “Why does he have your spear?” Gerald asked.

“That’s not mine,” I said.

“It’s mine! Vim made it for me!” Brom said with a smile. He stepped back into the office, to show it off.

Gerald groaned as he slowly sat down, shaking his head.

“I know right? I lost the bet, so he won,” I said with a sigh.

“It was fair!” Brom said quickly, as if worried I’d slander him.

“It was…” I admitted.

Gerald looked at me, and I noticed the pure… uneasiness in his expression. I smiled apologetically to him… at least, I tried to.

“Well I’d like you to go make sure the southern merchant has left the premises Brom. Technically we’re not actually at war, it is more of an economic one… but I want you to make sure he doesn’t do anything foolish as he leaves,” Gerald said.

“Ah… Come on then Renn,” Brom nodded.

“Hm? Why must she go with you?” Gerald asked.

“Vim wants me to keep her in my sight until he gets back,” Brom said without any hesitation.

Gerald groaned, and then slid the cactus forward. “Take it Renn. My gift to you, take it and go,” he said.

“Declaring war on me?” I laughed as I went to pick it up. The small fist sized thing was in a pot, made out of… clay? Tapping it with a fingernail told me it was some kind of hardened earth, not metal.

“Declare war on you? Doing so would be the same as declaring war on Vim, and not even a Monarch is that stupid,” Gerald complained.

As I picked up the pokey item I hesitated a moment. Gerald sounded far too serious.

“Well… thank you for this, all the same. Do I plant it?” I asked.

“You can. It doesn’t need as much water as normal plants. Ask Merit, she’s our local gardener,” Gerald said as I went to follow Brom out. We should really go check on that merchant.

“Merit,” I nodded as Brom and I left the office.

“When’s Vim coming back by the way?” Gerald asked.

“Who knows?” Brom shrugged without a care.

“Oh… Jeez,” Gerald went quiet as we left his office behind, heading for the lobby.

“Why’d he sound so… worried about that?” I asked Brom.

“Feels bad for you probably,” Brom said.

For me? “Why?”

“Well… who knows how long I’ll have to watch you? He probably just worries you’ll get annoyed over it,” Brom said with a shrug.

Annoyed over it… “Are you saying that you’d… watch me, even if Vim was gone for a long time?” I asked.

He nodded. “Obviously?”

Oh. Wow. “So… what if he’s gone for a year or so?” I asked.

“Then he’s gone? Don’t worry, I’ll earn this spear I promise,” Brom nodded, confident.

“Great,” I mumbled. Brom was a likable sort, but having to spend every waking moment with him for such a long time would probably annoy me indeed.

Following Brom to the main lobby, I chose to stay on the second floor balcony while Brom went downstairs to talk to his sister Reatti. Leaning over the railing, to look down onto the main lobby, I listened in as he asked her about the southern merchant, and if he had left peacefully or not. She was sitting at the center desk, to guide those who came to do business with the guild. She was basically the first person any newcomer to our company met.

It had been… odd to learn she had such an important job, but Vim had mentioned she was the better warrior between her brother and herself. Which somehow made her position much more believable.

She wasn’t just there to keep an eye on everyone, but to be another layer of defense for the Society.

“The man who stunk of sand left some time ago. The only thing he did wrong was not take you with him back to the desert,” Reatti told him.

“Careful, sis,” Brom smirked as he tapped the butt of his spear against the stone floor.

Reatti went still in her seat, and I noticed that Brom actually went still too. The two stared at one another for a moment, and then Brom finally coughed and looked away. “Well… keep an eye out for the desert merchant. He gifted Gerald a cactus,” he said.

“Oh? Maybe he’ll give it to me so I can shove it somewhere,” Reatti said.

“Want it Reatti?” I asked.

Most the room didn’t hear me, but Brom and Reatti had. They both turned to look at me, and then Reatti smirked at me. “Oh!” she giggled as I held out the cactus, to show her I had it.

Brom shook his head as he stepped away from the counter, to head back upstairs to me. “As prickly as your personality,” he mumbled.

“Better to be poked than prodded!” Reatti countered.

“And you wonder why no one’ll ever prod you!” Brom shouted back as he climbed back up the stairs.

The rest of the room glanced at them as Reatti stood from her seat, nearly growling at him… but she coughed and sat back down as Brom returned upstairs.

“That one was a little sharp,” I told him.

“She needs to hear it sometimes,” Brom said confidently.

Did she?

Following Brom back down the hallway, towards Gerald’s office, I wondered if Brom and his sister had ever gone to blows. Sometimes their teasing didn’t seem that bad, but then other times one of them seemed to get genuinely upset.

“Have you two ever gotten into fights with each other?” I asked.

“Me and Reatti…? Just three times,” he said.

“Oh?” Three times? And they were nearly as old as I was? “That’s not bad,” I said.

“Hm… not sure about that. Last time Vim had to… well…” Brom went quiet, and I realized I had probably stepped into conversational territory he wasn’t comfortable traveling with me in.

“Did you win at least?” I asked him.

Brom’s spear spun a little on his shoulder as his shoulders fidgeted up and down… as if he had wanted to shrug, but had failed to do so properly.

Vim had mentioned she was the better warrior. Which seemed… rather strange to me.

Reatti was short. Smaller than me, even. Though I suppose that didn’t mean anything for us. After all was I not stronger than most grown men too?

Passing Gerald’s office, I noticed he was busy writing something. He didn’t even realize we had walked by.

“Where we going now?” I asked.

“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to drop you off at the houses. So that I can make the rounds, though I guess you could join me if you’d like,” Brom said.

“Oh? You’d actually take your eyes off me?” I asked.

“Well… you should be more than safe in the houses. No human can get into those doors. Plus Merit is in there too,” Brom said.

Merit again. This wasn’t the first time someone had mentioned her in such a way.

I know I had just thought that it was… wrong to assume someone’s abilities by their appearance, but Merit looked like a genuine child. She didn’t look much older than Lomi had.

Yet based off Brom’s tone, he’d trust Merit to protect me without fault.

Studying the man I was following, I stared at his… lack of ear. The scar was rigid, and looked like it hadn’t been burnt off but rather torn off… and violently at that.

While heading for the society house doors, I wondered what Vim had found out. Had it been someone from the embassy? Someone else? He had seemed… concerned. Not too terribly concerned, but concerned all the same.

I knew after all that if it had been something very drastic and serious, he would have acted immediately. Without asking me for my input. Which he honestly hadn’t really taken into account too much, to be honest. I had been okay with him finding out, as long as he made sure it wasn’t someone from the embassy first… but I knew he probably would have done such a thing anyway no matter what I had told him to do.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Do you know anything about this uh… ship and pirate, that Vim brought into the society?” I asked Brom, changing my mind’s focus. I knew there was no point wondering or worrying until Vim got back.

“Just that the ship was payment for whatever Vim did. But part of the deal was to give command of the ship to the son. He’s actually been tasked with sailing another ship, to prove himself. Especially since the warship was damaged, and is being repaired,” Brom said.

“Huh…” seems like there was a lot more to the story than anyone had told me.

Although a good thing that Lamp and her people would be back with their own kind soon, it was also regrettable. It meant I didn’t have the time to learn their language and find out from the source themselves what had happened.

I had kind of tried to ask, but it was difficult when I could only ask yes or no questions.

“Lawrence would know most of it, if not Brandy or Gerald,” Brom said as we rounded a corner and the metal door came into sight.

“Right,” I nodded. I’d need to ask them later. Brandy wouldn’t really work… she seemed willing to answer stuff, but was always busy. She’d answer a few things then have to run off or change topics, because she was always doing something important.

Lawrence would work. Gerald seemed to keep secrets. Plus…

Lawrence and Vim were friends. Seemed their relationship was something similar to the one Vim had with Nebl. So I needed to spend some time with him, or rather more time. I had only worked in his office twice so far.

Honestly ever since the eastern girls showed up I’d been… lacking in the whole working department. I wonder if anyone in the society was bothered with that? Or maybe they didn’t mind at all? After all it’s only been a week or so… and to most of our kind that seemed inconsequential.

Even to me, honestly… it had only been lately, since finding the society, that I’d come to start actually noticing the passing of days again.

“Don’t leave without me, Renn. If you really need to leave for some reason ask someone to come get me,” Brom said as he opened the door for me.

I nodded as I entered. “Sure. If someone from the embassy comes, please let me know,” I asked.

“Sure,” he nodded as he shut the door behind me.

Once alone, I frowned and wondered why this was okay. I mean… he had a point that no human could come in here. The door was simply too heavy for them. Yet at the same time…

He had been so serious about keeping an eye on me all this time, yet had so willingly and calmly looked away from me. Either he trusted me, so as I’d not wander out without his permission or Vim’s orders weren’t taken as seriously as I had thought they would be.

Heading down the hall, I knew I should probably head down to the first floor where the kitchens and open rooms were at. To see if anyone was there. Sofia had invited me to dinner, so I’d eventually have to head down there to join her and possibly anyone else in cooking.

Brom had said Merit was here too… maybe I should ask her to spar with me later. It’d let me find out if everyone was being serious, or if it was some kind of running joke amongst them all.

She was a guard, though… so maybe it wasn’t a joke at all.

Heading for my room, I decided to change clothes. I had worn a dress to go to the embassy, and honestly it was a little uncomfortable. The seams were prickly.

Glancing down at the… cactus, in my hands, I wondered if it’d be okay on my windowsill in my room for a few days.

Another reason to find Merit.

First though, a different outfit.

Reaching my room, I paused a moment and glanced at the door across from my own.

It was open.

“Vim?” I asked if he was there as he went to pushing his door open.

The room inside was dark, and cold. As if it hadn’t been entered in ages, it felt… empty. Too empty. More empty than it actually looked.

There was no one inside, but…

My eyes narrowed as I smelled something odd. A scent that didn’t belong in Vim’s room.

Looking down the hall, I wondered who it had been. Vim and I had just been here, a few hours ago. We had come here to get his spear, to give it to Brom. And this smell hadn’t been in his room then.

I stepped into Vim’s room and took a deep breath. It didn’t take long for me to recognize the scent.

Herra.

Shifting on my feet, I looked around and wondered what she had been doing. And why had she left the door open? If Vim had been in the room with her, he would have closed the door behind him upon leaving.

He always closed the door to his room when he left it. He never locked it, but he always closed it.

“Really…” I mumbled as I looked at the weapons littering his bed. His sword, some smaller knives, and the bow and quiver were all laid against each other.

Hm… I’d think that maybe Herra had come in here to check the weapons out, but they all seemed… unbothered. I had actually been the one to lay them out on his bed like this. When we had come here to get the spear for Brom, Vim had carelessly let them all clank onto of each other as he unfastened the leather pouch which had held them all. I hadn’t liked it, and sorted them carefully while he rambled on about how I needed to stay near Brom or Brandy until he got back.

Not only did the weapons not look bothered… neither did anything else. His bed was as crisp and clean as ever, implying he still had yet to sleep in it, and the rest of the room didn’t have anything to bother either. Just a small chest near the wall, which I knew had extra pillows and blankets in it. I knew they’d also be untouched, at least by Vim.

Right before leaving his room, I hesitated.

The room smelled.

It smelled of the society. It was clean, but I could smell… age. Wear. The stones here were old. Some were nearly a hundred years old, and you could see and smell it in certain places. The smells weren’t horrible, but they were obvious. Then of course there was the smell of mold and rotted wood occasionally… most rooms were safe from those stenches, but some of these un-lived in ones stunk of it. Vim’s room had stunk when we first moved in, but yet eventually stopped doing so. And not because Vim had cleaned it up or anything.

Vim didn’t just not have a scent… he eliminated the scents around him. That bed in his room, although he had not slept in it yet, he had sat on it and near it enough now that I could no longer smell the old cotton within the mattress. His weird lack of smell had overpowered and diluted the other smells.

Just like the weapons he carried. Before we had started this trip here, at the smithy, those weapons had smelled of metal. Metal and polish.

Yet now I couldn’t smell them even if I was right in front of them. And that was because he had carried them for days.

Grabbing the handle to his bedroom door, I took another few breaths of his room.

Yes. It smelled now. I not only smelled Herra, I could now once again smell some of the room itself. Some of the wood from the bed’s frame. The stone, and the mold from the old wooden beams in the ceiling.

Scents that I shouldn’t be able to smell, thanks to Vim.

Had Herra somehow… bothered, whatever Vim did to the smells around him? How did that even work?

If it was just someone coming in and bothering stuff, why didn’t I do that then? I touched and clung to Vim all the time, so why didn’t his clothes smell?

And that couldn’t work either, could it. Back at the Cathedral, we had slept in the same bed for several days. Enough time that the bed had begun to smell like me, and not anything else. Yet my own smell lingered, even when he had slept in the bed the entire time.

“Or am I simply able to smell myself because it was my own smell?” I asked myself.

“What the heck are you talking about?”

I jumped, nearly dropping my cactus as I turned to find no one… then looked down, and found the white hair on the small girl.

“Hi Merit,” I greeted her.

“Hi yourself. What are you doing?” she asked as she stepped up to me, to peer into the room. She frowned at the sight of it. “Ah, Vim’s room is it? Is he here?” she asked as she looked for him.

“No.”

“Then what are you doing? Please don’t tell me you’re like the others who try to pounce on him. That’s so weird,” Merit complained.

“It is weird,” I agreed.

“Oh? You agree? You also think he’s ugly?” Merit asked, excitedly.

“Well… Vim is a little plain looking,” I admitted.

“He is! Why don’t they see it?” Merit asked as I stepped out into the hallway. I left Vim’s door open for a moment, and then pointed into it.

“It was open when I got back. I was going to close it, but then I smelled…” I stopped talking, and realized I probably shouldn’t say it. Not only was it personal, but I could be horribly misunderstanding something.

“Smelled…?” Merit stepped towards the door, and then stuck her head into it. I watched as she took a few small breaths, and then sighed. “Herra…”

Merit shook her head as she grabbed the door’s handle and shut it firmly, and then she actually wiped her hand on her shirt as if she had just touched something nasty.

“I had heard she tried stuff like that… but people were serious, weren’t they?” I asked.

“Very. Her, Magda and Reatti all try. One time all three of them tried to sneak in at the same time. They broke out into a huge fight, Vim actually jumped out of the window and ran away that time,” Merit said.

“Vim would do that,” I nodded.

“Can’t blame him. Those three must be broken in the head to even want him, so of course he’d run away from them,” she nodded too, firmly.

I smiled at her, and then remembered I wanted to ask her about the thing I held. Lowering it a little, but not so much that she’d be offended, I showed her my new cactus.

“Do you know what this is?” I asked her.

“A succulent,” she said.

“Huh? I thought it was a cactus…” I frowned at the thing. Brom and Gerald, and even Reatti had seemed to think so too.

“It is. Where’d you get it? They’re rare here,” she said. She reached out and poked it, a little roughly too. The tiny little needle spikes made noises as they bounced off her finger.

“Gerald gave it to me. He got it from some kind of southern merchant… he said it was his way of declaring war,” I said.

“Ah… yes. You gift a cactus to imply that you must prepare for a long drought. In merchant terms it’d be the same as saying start saving your coins, for you’ll not get anymore for a long time,” Merit said.

“Seems… silly. It’s kind of pretty. Too pretty to mean something bad,” I said.

“This one will flower too… though maybe not for a long time. You can either put it in a proper pot, or plant it upstairs on the roof in the garden. I’ll get you what you need later,” Merit nodded, pleased with the idea.

“That’d be wonderful,” I said.

Merit smiled up at me, and I smiled back at her.

Then her face scrunched up, and then she sneezed. I blinked as I watched her rub her nose, and groaned.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I’m allergic to flowers,” she complained.

“You… you are?” I pulled the cactus away from her.

“Yes. Not sure why, but they make me sneeze a lot,” she sniffed, yet didn’t sound too upset over it.

“Yet… you work in the garden?” I asked. At least Gerald had said so.

“Yep, I do. When I’m not being a guard,” she said.

“But you’re allergic to them…?” I worriedly asked.

“I am. I sneeze like crazy on the roof too,” she said.

“I… I see…” I wasn’t really sure what to think of that. She was allergic to them, to the point of sneezing that badly… yet still enjoyed them?

So odd.

Merit sneezed again, and I noticed this time it had sounded kind of cute.

“Least it sounds cute when you do it,” I said.

“Does it?” she asked with a tilt of her head.

I nodded.

“That sucks,” she complained.

“Not really…” I said softly.

Merit took a deep breath, sniffing the entire time. “I’ve never heard Vim sneeze before,” Merit said.

“Oh? Hm…” I quickly thought about it. “Me either,” I said.

“See? What kind of thing doesn’t sneeze? I’m telling you he’s not real,” she said.

“He’s…” I hesitated again. “Not real?” I asked after a moment to gather my thoughts.

“Definitely… anyway, I came up here to get you so you can help me cook. We have a dinner date,” she said.

“Yes. We do. I was going to change first,” I said with a point to my room.

“Is that your room?” she asked as she stepped around me to my door.

Without even asking, Merit opened the door to my bedroom.

I didn’t stop her as she peered into it, and wouldn’t have stopped her even if she had stepped into it too. Yet she didn’t, she simply looked in.

“Hm… I’m surprised,” she said.

“Of?” I asked as I peered into the room above her. It was easy to do since she was so small.

“I kind of figured I’d smell Vim in here, but lo’ and behold I don’t. You two must not be as close as some of them think,” Merit said.

My ears twitched under my hat, and some of the hairs in them getting caught on the pins reminded me I needed to take it off. It was growing itchy. “Uh… you can smell Vim?” I asked, choosing to focus on that and not the other important thing she had said.

“No. Of course not. But you can smell him if you pay attention to what you can and can’t smell,” she said.

Stepping around her to go into my room, I paused for a tiny moment as I entered my room and put the… cactus succulent thing onto my windowsill. “Can and can’t smell,” I said as I thought about it.

“Think about it. He has no scent, and erases other ones. If you pay attention you can use that to… well… smell him, in a way,” she said as if it was obvious.

Right. It was. Actually, it really was.

I nodded as I slowly undid the pins in my hat. “You’re very right,” I said.

“Of course I am. Vim stinks. Also, is that an easel?” she asked with a point at the thing standing in the center of the room.

“It is,” I said. I was glad that I had moved the painting aside. A blank canvas was lying on my bed, about to be placed onto it. I had this morning woken up a little earlier than I had planned and was going to start my next painting… but Brandy had knocked on my door before I could actually get at it.

The painting of the village and the cross that Vim wanted from me was sitting up against the wall opposing the desk. It was at an angle that Merit couldn’t see it, especially so thanks to her height.

“You like to paint?” she asked.

“I do, sometimes,” I said. Honestly I didn’t really enjoy the art itself… but I had a few things I wanted to paint. A few memories, that I really wanted to see with my own eyes and not just my heart.

“Any good at it?” Merit asked as I tossed my hat aside and went to my dresser, to dig out some of the looser guild clothes that were a little too casual to wear in front of humans.

“Not really sure…” I said honestly.

“If you are I’d like you to paint me something,” she said.

“Oh? Sure?”

Getting undressed, I ignored the odd silence from Merit until it became… a little too odd. Turning to look at her, I found her staring at me as I slowly slid some trousers on.

Tilting my head at her, I wondered what was wrong.

“Merit?” I said her name gently.

“How old are you Renn?” she asked softly.

“Almost two hundred years old, I think. I could be off, though,” I said.

Merit took a very deep breath, and then sighed. “I see…”

“Uh…”

I noticed the way she looked away, not at herself though… but at the floor.

Glancing down at my own body, I wondered what she was actually focused on. It couldn’t be my breasts, since they weren’t that big honestly. It was why I had been so bothered to learn that Vim had found larger ones more attractive. And my butt wasn’t much better, either… especially since my tail kind of made it look funny… and…

“I wasn’t jealous of your body Renn, but rather your boldness.”

Turning to look at the young looking girl, I found her smiling gently at me. She looked like a child, but had the smile of an old woman.

“Boldness…” I whispered.

She nodded. “You had no shame just now. Though that might be because you don’t really think about me much, or maybe because you see me as a friend. But… I’d not strip before you. At least, not without feeling horribly ashamed as I did so,” she said with a very honest tone.

“Ah… well… I hadn’t stripped nude, Merit,” I said. I lifted the little undergarment a little, to show it off.

“I know. Yet still. Could you have done that in front of Vim?” she asked me.

I nodded. Could I? I have. Several times.

Merit groaned and shook her head, but not in a way that told me she was upset or bothered with me… rather she seemed bothered with herself.

“Do you… want to be able to strip in front of people?” I asked her.

“Huh? No… I just… well…” Merit shifted, and then she turned to glance down the hallway. After a moment she stepped into my room, and although didn’t close the door all the way behind her she did nearly shut it. “I’m a knifefish, Renn,” she then said with a whisper.

“A…” I frowned and shook my head. What was that?

“A glass knifefish,” she said with a nod.

Slowly nodding, I wondered what it was. A fish, supposedly… but glass? Knife? Was that why she was so little? And why her hair was white?

“I uh… I’m kind of…” she shifted and then sighed. Then she pointed at her chest. “My uh… skin, is a little transparent. It makes me look weird,” she said.

“Transparent?” I tried to see what she meant, but I couldn’t. Merit looked… normal? Other than her white hair, and the obvious fact she looked like a child.

“My chest and stomach and stuff. You can kind of see some… organs and bones and stuff. It looks weird,” she said as she looked away.

“Huh…” I frowned as I tried to imagine it. Bones and organs? Really…

“Also when I get embarrassed I get all… staticky, like so,” she reached up, and ruffled her hair. As she did, I heard little pops and saw small flashes of blue and white.

“I noticed that before. Like a spark, when Vim tapped you on the head,” I said.

“Well, yeah. He’s embarrassing,” she mumbled.

Smiling softly at her, I resisted the urge to go over to her and try to mimic what Vim had done. She’d probably not appreciate it.

“Tell you what, after our dinner why don’t you take a bath with me? My bath is big enough,” I offered.

Merit’s eyes focused on me, and then narrowed at me. “Didn’t you hear me? I get embarrassed when I…” she stopped talking as I continued to smile patiently at her.

A long few moments passed, and then she sighed and nodded. “Okay. Sure. But don’t tell Sofia,” she said.

“Really? Cool. And I promise… though surely you’re not embarrassed with her? You’ve known her forever,” I said.

“You must not really understand what it means to be embarrassed,” she mumbled.

“I do. Vim makes my face burn so hot sometimes I want to run back to the snowy mountains,” I said as I went to putting on the rest of my clothes.

“That’s not… Well… Hm…” Merit seemed to give up as I giggled and finished with my dressing.

“Well?” I asked her as I showed off my outfit.

“You look like someone Brom would try to flirt with,” she said.

“You’re kidding…” I suddenly lost interest in the outfit.

“Hm. He likes to pretend to be into pretty town girls. It’s a front, he actually likes real old women,” she said.

“Real old women…?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little better about the stuff I was wearing.

“Old. He’s gross too. Come on, Sofia will be off soon, and she’ll complain if she finds me in your room,” Merit said as she turned to leave.

“Why would she do that?” I asked as I went to follow her.

“I’m supposed to keep an eye on you… but I usually never go into anyone else’s room. Sofia’s been trying to get me into her room for years. She’d be upset,” Merit said.

Ah… that was why she came to find me. The main reason, at least. Wonder who had told her that she needed to keep an eye on me.

“You could just go into her room, Merit,” I said as we left my own. I closed the door behind me, and we headed for the stairs.

“No I can’t Renn. Her rooms full of plants and trees, I’d be slobbering snot for a month,” she complained.

Smiling at her reason, I happily joined Merit as we went to cook dinner.

Vim wasn’t back yet, so I might as well enjoy the moment while I could… since he might return with bad news.