"Vim!"

I put aside the little trinket I'd been trying to fix and stood from my seat in the living room. It only took me a few moments to reach Narli's room, where I found her sitting up on the edge of the bed and a worried Berri hovering over her.

Sighing softly at the troubled looking saint, and the ever growing worried mother of hers, I put a smile on my face and entered her room.

"See? Nothing to worry about," I said, doing my best to be calm.

Narli gave me a shy smile. The kind that told me something bad had happened. "Actually Vim… This might be worse than me not waking up on time," she said.

Glancing at Berri, who had went to grab a towel and glass of water from a nearby table, I wondered if I even wanted to know. I had to, in theory. This was the first prophecy she's had since her little incident… we had all been worrying she'd slip back into her strange coma again, but… Judging by the way they both looked concerned, and not just for Narli's health, maybe I should return to treating prophecies the way I normally did. But could I do so? What if it was related to her condition?

"Do I want to hear it?" I asked carefully.

"No. But… I fear what will happen if I don't tell you it," Narli said as she took the glass of water her mother offered. She quickly gulped the whole thing down, releasing a pent up sigh of relief after she finished.

Berri doted on her daughter, taking the empty cup from her and handing her the lightly damp towel in exchange. The young saint went to wipe her head and neck off with it, telling me that whatever she had seen… had likely deeply bothered her.

Prophecies didn't last long. Just a few hours ago we had all been having lunch, and then she had gone to take a nap. Odds are she had her prophecy not long before waking from that very nap. Yet I knew that even those few minutes of prophecies were enough to make one tired, and exhausted as if from great strain and effort. Though those ones usually were because the things they had seen had affected them mentally, either by seeing something terrifying or traumatizing.

I'd known more than a few saints who had broken, mentally, from the things they had seen.

It made me feel for the poor girl. She was not as young as she looked, of course, but she was still just a child. A girl who didn't know war or strife. Yet here she was, constantly going through things that would break even hardened warriors.

And now she needed to fear that each prophecy could be her last. Where she gets stuck in them, never waking. As if being sent into some perpetual prison of torment.

Damn the gods who cursed her so.

After she wiped herself off a bit, she gave her mother a thankful smile as Berri took the now sweaty towel.

"Well… tell me quickly then, before I run away like a little girl," I said.

Narli giggled at me, as did Berri though much softer, and she nodded.

She took a small breath, turned a bit as to face me directly… and then held my gaze.

I steeled myself, not so much in preparation for what she'd say… but to stop myself from accidentally breaking their home. Now that Narli had gone through another prophecy, and nothing had gone wrong, I was now able to leave without much worry. If I broke their house I'd be stuck here longer as I fixed it. I didn't want to do that.

"Renn meets someone who scares you. Enough so that you… kill so many of us, just because you see them together."

The floor creaked a bit as I shifted.

"Excuse me…?" I whispered as Berri went still as well.

So she hadn't heard the prophecy already. I had misread her worry. She had simply been stressed over her daughter's condition.

But no matter. I was now stressing enough for everyone.

Narli nodded. "I… don't know how else to explain it, Vim. A bunch of us are all together… more than I can even say. Hundreds, maybe? I only knew a few of them, but the me then was comfortable. Calm. I don't know where we were, or why we were all together, but I was near Renn. She and others were talking, and I was just listening out of interest… and then someone walks over. A young woman. She and Renn are obviously good friends, and even I feel calm near them," Narli explained, speaking slowly as she likely replayed the prophecy from memory.

Berri made a tiny noise as she looked at me, but I ignored her. I knew what she had noticed, because I had noticed it too.

Hundreds of us. Together.

The only logical answer to that was the upcoming vote.

Narli sighs as she lifts her hands, pointing to the other side of the room. Berri followed her point, but I didn't. "Then you enter the room. From one of the doors. People notice you before I do, or Renn does. I hear them whispering about you as you walk over to us. It's all… fine? You even say hello to me as you walk past me, to go to Renn," Narli said. My eyes narrowed as I watched the young saint then frown, as if suddenly her head hurt. "Then… you see them. The young woman. One moment I'm watching you say hello to Renn, teasing her about something, and then the next…"

My heart thumped a bit as I waited. Narli went quiet though, her eyes narrowing as she likely processed what she had seen. I didn't like the way she looked perplexed, and hurt. As if I'd done something utterly despicable.

"Then?" Berri asked as she stepped closer to her.

Narli blinked and nodded. "The next thing I know, I blink and I'm on the ground. There are screams… it's chaos. My head is ringing and the building is half destroyed, I can see the sun through the hazy smoke and ash. Even though I think we had been underground. There are bodies everywhere. Renn is screaming, and…" Narli then looked over at me. "And you're fighting that woman."

My heart slowed its thumping as I calmed down a bit.

That was it…?

"Wait… you said he had killed many of us. Here I thought you were going to say Vim would slaughter our own people," Berri said, breathing a sigh of relief herself.

"She's saying I attack this woman on sight, and by doing so get many of our people killed. She's not wrong," I said, processing what she's just told me.

Collateral damage.

Narli nodded. "It's horrible, Vim. I don't get very hurt, somehow… but so many others do. I don't know how I know, but I feel as if more than half of us die there. Many of them are women and children," Narli said, speaking with a dull voice… as if not really comprehending what she was saying.

Berri squeezed the towel that Narli had just wiped herself off with and glanced at me.

I took a small breath, and nodded. "What did this woman look like…? I assume you don't know her name, otherwise you'd have used it."

Narli frowns and shakes her head. "I've been trying to remember, Vim. That's what I've been trying to do this whole time. I'm not even sure if it was a young woman, I just… feel like it had been? I feel like I had heard her name, but…"

Great. That meant it could have been anyone. Light, one of her people, or someone I've never met before.

"I can't imagine Vim killing so many like that. He's able to kill people in the blink of an eye without harming anyone around them. I've seen it myself," Berri said, trying to reason the prophecy herself.

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"You said I had been fighting her. You saw it," I said, pointing out the likely reason.

Narli nodded. "Yes… I um… I'm not sure really how it went or goes, I was too focused on getting up and helping the people around me. Um…" Narli then sniffed, and shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it."

Berri stepped forward, immediately wrapping the young saint into a mother's embrace. Narli didn't hesitate to return the hug and bury her face into her mother's bosom.

Wonderful. That meant she had seen true carnage. A saint wasn't capable of just standing around while people died near them. Their divine powers tugged at them to help those people. Which was likely why she had not focused on me, or the one I had been fighting.

While Narli silently wept in Berri's arms, I bit back a few questions as I tried to consider my options.

There were of course doubts of this happening at the vote. Right now that was the only thing I could confidently say would gather so many of us at one location… but here in the future that would change. Light was bringing back well over a thousand people, so she claimed. That meant it might not be the vote at all, but something else. Something that happens sooner, or years from now after the vote. Decades or centuries from now, even.

That was one problem with a saint's prophecies. Narli, had she been more astute, might have been able to tell me a rough estimate in how long we had before this supposed disaster happened. For instance by telling if Renn had given birth yet or not, or her own condition at the time of the prophecy. But Narli might not have noticed any such details at the time, or cared to notice. Celine had been one of the best I'd known in being able to wring information from her dreams, and even she had overlooked such details often. And she had always been on the lookout for them.

"It's okay, dear. It's okay…" Berri whispered as she brushed her daughter's hair. I glanced at them, and wondered if it hurt or not. Narli was clinging rather tightly to her, and at the angle she was burying her face into Berri, her horn was likely stabbing her rather sharply.

Berri though of course didn't even show a hint of pain or discomfort. And never would. Not in this instance, in this way.

A lovely woman and an even lovelier mother.

Still…

So she saw me fighting someone. Someone capable of fighting back.

Just who could that be…?

"Vim…"

I blinked and looked back up. I had been staring down at the floor, at the rugs. They were a little too fluffy for my taste.

I found that Berri was lying Narli down. She had fallen back asleep.

Going to help, I helped her get Narli back into bed and under the covers. The girl curled up a little, falling deeper into sleep as she hugged a pillow. I noticed a few of them had little holes in them, and only a few were patched with sewing.

"My poor baby…" Berri whispered as she tucked her daughter in.

Stepping away, I left the room before I accidentally woke the girl. My mind whirled as I went back to the front room, to the chair I'd been sitting the last few hours.

I didn't sit back down; instead I just grabbed the back of the chair and… stood. In silence.

The reason I had killed so many is because the one I had attacked had been able to withstand it.

That was the only possible explanation.

Had to be a monarch, or rather someone who had absorbed a monarch's heart. Surely. But…

Why would Narli not remember what they looked like? Maybe because she had been focusing on other things? For a girl like Narli, who has only met a handful of people her whole life, seeing hundreds of people in one place was likely overwhelming. Too much information too quickly. Her senses had been overloaded.

Thus her being near Renn, I would reason. She had stayed near the one she felt most comfortable and safe with at the time.

Yet… she hadn't said if her mother or father had been there, had she…?

My eyes narrowed as I made sense of a few of the puzzle pieces, and didn't like how smoothly it had dawned on me.

"I must have died, Vim. Or Horn."

I nodded gently as Berri walked out of the hallway and over to me. She sniffed as she wiped a tear away.

Yes. That had been obvious, now that I looked at it from this angle. Narli wouldn't have looked so troubled, or had wept at her mother's embrace so readily otherwise.

It was why she had tried not to look at Berri while talking. She had just witnessed her mother's death, or both of her parent's. It was why she had hesitated, and why she had not focused on me and the one I had been fighting during the prophecy.

How could any daughter focus on the chaos around them when their parents were breathing their lasts, right at their feet?

"Possibly at the vote. Or something like it, not long after. I just… can't imagine me doing something so drastic at the mere sight of someone like that," I said as I tried to think of who, or what, could make me react so.

I've stood before many people that I've detested. And although I did indeed succumb to emotion, I just couldn't fathom it happening today like that. Not in that way.

Especially not with Renn standing right next to me. Or the one that made me so.

"Maybe someone did something terrible? Or she had misunderstood? Maybe it had been them who caused such chaos, and you just simply reacted," Berri reasoned.

"Either way a mistake. One I now will not make," I said. Now that I knew.

"Maybe you were right, Vim. Maybe we shouldn't move…" Berri whispered.

"Careful Berri. Trying to avoid prophecies like that usually results in something worse happening," I warned her.

"You do it all the time!"

"Because I can survive the consequences," I said simply.

Berri shifted a bit, and ground her teeth as she glanced away from me. "I don't mind dying, Vim. I'm not scared of death. But my daughter…"

I nodded. "Still too young, yes. Don't worry… I'll talk to her more about it. Alone. To see if she'll tell me more with you elsewhere," I said.

Berri groaned a bit. "I hate that. But you're right… I noticed she was trying not to say certain things."

"Let her keep it to herself, Berri. It's a burden she doesn't need to carry alone, but it's one she will anyway. That is the fate of those like her," I told her.

My friend's face scrunched up. "Now I'm going to cry more! Don't look at me," Berri said between soft heaves as she went to cover her face with the towel she still carried.

I looked away from her, and back to the floor.

"Just… who could it be?" I wondered.

Even if it was Light, Less or any of them. Martin. Landi. Lilly, even.

Not one of them was strong enough to make such chaos. To survive an attack from me that devastated the area around me in such a way.

It just wasn't possible.

Surely…

"Whoever it is, figure it out and kill them before they get a chance to meet anyone," Berri said between her little cries.

I nodded. Yes.

For a few moments I stood there, as Berri wiped her face and gathered herself. It felt… a little wrong to hear her cry so often lately. I had once promised myself to never let her cry in such a way again, and yet here I was. Letting it happen.

But what was I to do…?

"I'll… talk to her again when she wakes. And if she can't remember more, I'll go ask Light and the other saints. Maybe they'll know more too," I said gently. If it was an event as grand as this, where hundreds of members die… then there was a good chance at least Light would have had a prophecy about it too.

Berri sniffed. "You'd do that?"

I nodded. "Yes. I don't want to, Berri… but I will. For you," I said. For all of us.

"Mhm… thank you, Vim."

She reached over and patted my arm, rather gently, and then stepped away. She returned back down the hallway, likely as to check on her daughter once more. She'd be doing so for months, likely. I think she checked on Narli more than she did anything else anymore.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed it out slowly… and wished I too had someone to check on me.

I did, of course. She just wasn't here.

She wasn't where she was supposed to be. Or maybe I wasn't where I was supposed to be.

"Why do you keep getting involved in things beyond design, Renn…?" I whispered as I thought about what to do next.

I knew what I needed to do.

I just have been trying to avoid it. This whole time.

But fate was forcing my hand. Or at least, trying to.

Releasing the back of the chair, I sighed again at the sight of little indents. I had grabbed it too harshly.

At least it hadn't broken. In fact I'd not broken anything, even after hearing another prophecy. One that bothered me even more than her previous one.

The front door opened, and I stepped a few feet back as to watch Horn enter from it. He closed the door behind him, shivered a bit thanks to the cold rain falling outside, and went to take off his rain gear. "It's storming fierce!" he said happily, and loudly.

"Horn be quiet!" Berri shouted, just as loudly, from the hallway. I heard her hurrying down it, likely to tell him to stay quiet as to not wake Narli.

He flinched, dropping his hat as he did. It landed with a small splat sound, thanks to it being so soaked.

Where had he been? To get so wet?

Probably had something to do with the bucket he was carrying. Did I smell fish in it, or was that just wet narwhal, I wonder?

While the married couple bickered quickly, as Berri told him of what had just happened... I decided to leave in the morning.

It was time I escaped. Fate was already testing my patience, I didn't need to give it the opportunity to outright break it.

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