Closing the heavy door behind me, I smiled at the smell of paper as I entered the library.

The smell made my tail twitch, but I actually liked it. It made me hope that the place we'd make up north, the orphanage, would have a library like this. Or at least an office with lots of books and scrolls too, so I could bask in such a smell often. It was strangely calming, somehow.

Stepping deeper into the library, I glanced around the rather dark place… and wondered why it was so. The roof had windows, the big type, and although the storm was still here it wasn't as bad as it had been earlier. Though… it did seem as if none of the lamps or lanterns were lit, which only allowed the darkness to settle even easier, I guess.

Sniffing gently, I smirked at the smell I was following. It was… almost impossible to detect, amidst the smell of books and the smell of Braid, the one who was usually always here, but his scent was there. Faint. Hidden away. Trying to not be noticed.

But I'd recognize it anywhere. Always would.

Rounding a large bookshelf, my smirk turned into a huge smile as I found the man who had yet to kiss me even though it's been about half a day since he'd returned.

Vim sat at a small wooden table, and had a book in his hand. Although he was sitting at the table, he was not using it. He had turned his chair away from the table, as to rest against it as he held the book up to read from it. It made him look as if he didn't even know what table was supposed to be used for… but honestly I found myself kind of liking the way his leg rested up on his knee, and the way he was leaning back a bit.

Vim always looked relaxed. Even when he wasn't supposed to be. But right now he looked… not really relaxed, but instead comfortable. Though it was odd to think such a thing, his appearance here and now made me think so. Vim was not relaxed. He was comfortable. Which was funny, because not only did those two things go together… Vim also was the very definition of such things, so it shouldn't be too shocking to see him so in the first place.

Seeing him sit like he was, as if he had absolutely zero worries made me feel comfortable myself. As if I was now safe and nothing bad would ever happen again.

Though maybe I was just entranced by him because I loved him, and it's been some time since I'd seen him…

"Where's Braid?" I asked as I stepped up to him.

"Elsewhere," he answered, not taking his eyes off the book he was reading.

I was a tad upset to see him not even glance at me. Sure it's been a handful of hours since he's returned, and we'd been together almost every moment since… but surely he hadn't had his fill of me already, had he? Usually he couldn't keep his eyes off me!

"Did you… scare her away? Or is it just time for the library to close and her to go to sleep?" I asked. It was nightfall, but it had only recently become so.

"Both."

My left ear twitched at his simple answer. More a statement than an answer, really.

Glancing at him, I glared for a moment at his eyes. They didn't even blink as he kept on reading… whatever it was that had his attention so.

Was that book really that important…? More than me? This was the first moment we were alone, wasn't it…? Shouldn't he at least glance at me, to check if I was well? Or if I was naked or not?

Hadn't he himself said he was going to properly greet me when we were alone? It had caused quite a stir back when he had said so. Enough to make me… well… expect something, I guess…

Maybe I shouldn't have.

I blinked at the weird feeling in my chest, and then realized I was being selfish. I pushed the feeling aside, and gently coughed and cleared my throat as I went to sit down across from him. I pulled a chair back a bit, and took a seat. "How was Narli, Vim?" I asked. This had been the first opportunity I had to ask, since I didn't want to bring her up in front of Light. Or anyone else, really, since although Merit and Lilly knew of her I didn't know to what extent they knew of Narli. Or what Vim was willing to speak of in front of them.

"She's alive… but I'm not sure if she's actually okay yet. Something is wrong with her, I don't know how to help her… or if she even can be helped, but she is at least alive for now," he said, still reading the book.

My hands clenched, grabbing my shorts. "That's not what I wanted to hear, Vim," I whispered.

He nodded. "It's not what I want to say, either. But it's the truth. She… got stuck in a prophecy. I'm not really sure how, or why, but it was bad. She had been stuck in the same prophecy for a little over two months. Unconscious the whole time. It nearly killed her," he said.

My eyes narrowed. "I didn't realize that was even a thing that could happen…!"

"It isn't. Wasn't. Until now," he said simply.

Oh no… "So…?"

"So she's awake now. Slowly healing and getting back to normal. I… as I said I don't know how to help her. I plan to talk to Light about it when I get a chance," he said.

I nodded at that. "She does know a lot," I said.

"Hm," he nodded too.

Still… that explained why it had taken him so many weeks to return, then. He had likely stayed there at the Keep for a while to ensure she'd be okay.

Sniffing gently, I shifted a little in my seat as I held back some tears. I now felt horrible.

Here I'd spent the last several hours laughing and smiling, having dinner with Vim and the rest without a worry… I should have asked of Narli's condition sooner. What kind of friend was I?

"Why the frown, Renn?"

Blinking as I looked up, I found Vim finally looking at me. I felt my heart twist a bit, hating myself even more as I tried to push aside my own thoughts for a moment.

I'd been wanting him to glance at me this whole time! And now that he had, he did so as I was about to cry!

"I'm just… I…" I hesitated, since I almost didn't want to say it. But I needed to. If anything for myself. I took a small breath, gulped, and then nodded. "I should have asked sooner. Instead of just laughing and eating without worry, as I just had," I told him.

"Hm… but you know not to mention Narli in front of others. That's not your fault," he said.

"Yes it is. I could have asked without actually mentioning her name, or what she is. I could have just asked if all went well, or something…" I said as my tail squirmed up and on my lap. I grabbed it, squeezing it as if to hurt myself. To punish myself for being so terrible.

"Hmph." Vim huffed at me as he shut the book, rather loudly, and then tossed it onto the table. I glared at it as it bounced, nearly falling off the table thanks to how rashly he had tossed it down.

"Careful," I warned him.

"I think not. It disgusts me," he said.

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Disgusts him…? I reached out to grab the book, and was glad Vim didn't stop me as I did so. I picked it up, found it had nothing on its cover or back and so opened it to a random page.

I didn't recognize the language. "What is it about?" I asked.

"Saints."

Oh… "You're looking for something that relates to Narli's condition," I whispered as I understood.

He nodded as I put the book back down onto the table, gently and with care.

Smiling gently at him, I wondered if he even realized how dedicated he was. He had arrived, gotten new clothes and freshened up… had dinner with us, and spent an hour or so talking to everyone and then had left the house. He had said he had gone to say hello to Plumb, and then had come straight here so Lilly had said.

She had not joined him, but had simply watched him from afar. I wasn't sure if Lilly did it on purpose or not, but she seemed to often stare and study Vim from a distance. I liked to do so too, but I usually couldn't do so for long. I always wanted to run over and talk to him when I did.

Vim had gone straight here once he had a chance… to start searching for a way to help Narli.

He really was a good man. Beyond what we deserved. Beyond what the Society deserved, at least.

"Do you think the answer is here?" I asked as I glanced around us. We were surrounded by shelves of books.

"No. If the answer does exist, it's with someone like Light… or maybe within Celine's writings. These are all basic, and half of them are lies anyway," he said.

Lies? Yet he had tried anyway, all the same. "And your clothes Vim? You said you stopped in Lumen on your way here… had you gone through the town looking half naked like that?" I asked. I'd not believe the guards in that city would have let him be had he entered the city in that condition. They had become… very on guard ever since they had founded their new city-state. Not that Vim cared or would be affected by such things when he was focused.

"No. That uh…" Vim paused a moment, and then he started to stand. I was about to stand too, to join him wherever he wanted to go, but he instead just moved his chair. He re-situated it so he could sit properly and face me, and not at an angle. I sat up a bit straighter as I realized Vim had just decided to have a serious conversation.

I glanced around real quick, trying to listen and smell to make sure we were alone, but knew it was not needed. Vim would not have brought up Narli otherwise.

"I encountered a god, Renn."

Quickly looking back at Vim, I hesitated as I opened my mouth to speak. "Huh…?" was all I was able to get out.

He nodded. "I found the monarch's corpse. The one you killed. Your battle. I had been studying it, making sure it was dead and whatnot, and its creator had showed up. A god named Stance," he said.

My tail spasmed as I quickly tried to comprehend the conversation we were now having. I wasn't sure what to think, so simply just… nodded. "Okay…" I said.

Vim sighed as he leaned forward, resting an elbow on the table. "I was… shocked? To the point I was stunned. I mean… I'd been expecting a god to pop up, ever since your friend's prophecy. But well, not like that, that's for sure. And definitely not one I knew, of all people!" he said with a small shake of his head.

I gulped as I slowly nodded, and remained quiet as he continued.

"He spoke of some kind of curse. That he had failed in some spell he had tried to cast, a long time ago. And thus had been asleep all this time. A part of me didn't believe it, but the rest of me did. He had been acting odd and… I'd encountered other monarchs on the way back here. A crab and a lizard. Like the one you guys faced, they were all weak. Small. Stupid. He had not been able to summon his full power, as if in a weakened state," he explained.

Weakened…!? That monarch had been weak?

Vim gestured at me. "I'm glad he didn't notice you, at least. Or Light. I had planned to get information out of him, so I was going to play along but… well… After a moment he got all weird, and then I think he remembered who I was. So he turned to attack me, to flee from me… and so I killed him."

The room suddenly got very cold. "You killed a god," I said, and I felt as if I hadn't been the one to speak. As if my voice had sounded distant.

He nodded. "I had to. He was making monarchs. Ones attacking people. The lizard I ran into had eaten a whole family, or well, almost a whole family," he said.

"Wait…" I lifted a hand, and blinked a few times as I tried to make sense of what he was saying.

This was more shocking than hearing of Narli's fate! Or the way he had acted so odd when I first saw him! I had been planning to jump on him, as if a child, to tease him… but he had acted so weird, and then had looked at my butt all oddly and then he had even admitted he was too embarrassed to hug or kiss me in front of everyone…!

"Hm… Sorry. Probably should have explained that better, but yeah," Vim said gently.

"You should have warned me! Don't act as if it's something so simple and normal!" I said, my tail squirming like mad. It kept hitting the nearby chair's legs, and was doing so hard enough to make the chair jolt upon impact. It didn't hurt, but I knew it would if I kept letting it do so. I reached over to push the chair back a bit, out of my tail's reach.

"You okay?" he asked.

"My tail was hitting it," I told him as I looked back at him. "You said his name was Stance?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Odd name for a god…" I said. I couldn't remember any of the gods I knew having such a name. Most of them had names of elements, or were related to something momentous. Like the god of fate, or blood or death.

"This is a real god, not your fake ones," he said with a smirk.

"Vim…" I groaned. I was in no mood for his little jokes!

His smirk softened, and then he nodded. "Sorry. Yes. Stance. A kind of thin man, about my height, with red and blue hair. He was a flamboyant man, thus why his creations were always colorful and weird," he said.

"Like a red cat…" I whispered.

He nodded. "That was actually rather tame for him, honestly… further proof of his abilities failing him, I suppose," he said with a shrug.

"Why… why were they failing him? A curse? What's a curse?" I asked. I'd heard of such things before, but had no idea what they actually were.

"Who knows? I'm glad they were though… otherwise it would have not been as easy to kill him, that's for sure, or you all slaying his creation," he said.

My jaw clenched as I studied Vim who sighed and rested a bit more against the table. He suddenly looked tired.

"Are… are you okay, Vim?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"You fought a god… right? Are you hurt?" I asked.

"Oh. I'm fine. Like I said he had been weakened for some reason, and I had caught him slightly off guard. I'm perfectly fine."

That was good to hear… but also concerning. So this god, this Stance, had been severely weakened and Vim had caught him unawares… yet the battle had still destroyed his clothes to such an extent?

"Are we in danger, Vim?" I asked.

He didn't answer right away. He held my gaze for a moment, and then lightly shrugged as he shook his head. "I don't know Renn. We could be lucky and… Stance could have been a simple fluke. A lone god left behind by an era forgotten. Or he could be an odd indicator of what is to come. I can't answer. Right now I'm… assuming the worst, just because I need to. Because I can," he said.

"What does the worst entail?" I asked softly.

Vim didn't say anything. He simply stared at me.

Which told me all I needed to know.

"What do we do then, Vim…?" I asked.

"For now? We deal with our own. To face that which even the world cannot handle, we first have to have a foundation we can trust. Before cleaning the streets outside one must first have a clean home within," he said with a nod.

"A… clean home?" I asked. Was he saying we were going to go make a home? And make sure it was clean?

He nodded. "It's time I properly addressed the Society. Or well… my position in it. And I think it's time you and I have a real conversation… about many things," he said.

My tense body suddenly relaxed. My shoulders slumped, and my eyes once again threatened to fill with tears. "Really…?" I asked, almost unable to believe it.

He nodded. "I'm sorry, Renn. For not being better. I'll… try to be better. Again. From now on."

Sniffing I nodded. "Okay. Me too."

"You've been fine Renn. You have nothing to try to better about," he said with a soft smile.

I shook my head. "You have no idea how badly I've been doing…! I've been neglecting people, and so stretched thin, Vim! I've only spent a little time with those like Lamp and Roslyn, and although I helped Reatti with something I feel like I did it poorly… And every day I feel like I'm meeting new people who need help, or I need to better understand… Not to say the least of Lilly and Merit! I owe them so much, and…" I began to ramble as I gestured at him and myself, as my heart cracked open and I felt like just… rambling about all the things I'd done, and thought about, and wanted to talk and ask about…

"One piece at a time, Renn. Together," he said.

Sniffing again, I nodded. "Okay. Yes. Please."

He smirked at me, in a way that made me want to blush. "Can I kiss you now? Merit's coming, and as much as I'd like to solidify to her I'm no longer single, I know how much you don't want me to break…" Vim started to say, but I hushed him as I stood up and clambered over the table, knocking the book off as I did. I didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence, or let Merit's fragile heart get hurt by seeing what happened next.

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