"Am I really that short?" Lomi asked, worried.
The painting we were studying was beautiful. Lughes had painted it, and done so with an oddly gentle theme. He had somehow painted me, Lomi, Crane and himself all sitting with each other before a fireplace. The only one not sitting in a relaxed chair was Lomi. In the painting she was clinging lightly to a chair's armrest, smiling and talking to me.
He had simply painted a mere moment. Where we were happily talking in the middle of the night.
Such a scene was beautiful. It was such a happy moment, even if some parts were imagined. We had a fireplace, but no chairs like that. No rugs those colors...
"You're not that short. Plus you're still growing," Amber said.
Glancing at her, I wondered if she found it insulting that she had not been included in the painting. Especially since she hadn't been the artist. There had been no reason for Lughes not to include her.
Amber though had a kind smile, and didn't seem bothered by it at all.
Honestly it made me wonder if that meant Lughes really didn't acknowledge her. Or rather, humans in general.
Maybe he wasn't as kind of a man as I had thought.
"Still! I look so tiny!" Lomi groaned, pointing at the painting before us.
"I think you look cute. Look, he even gave you a pretty dress," I said.
"It is pretty..." she admitted.
Lomi seemed to like clothes. Every so often she'd grab and study something we were wearing. Crane yesterday had worn a light dress, and she had spent some time studying the seams and frills on the sleeves.
"Renn."
I turned to the door and found Crane looking at me. "Would you join me? I think tonight we shall have some fish," she said.
"Oh? To go buy them? Of course," I said.
"Hm. How about you Lomi, would you like to help?" Crane asked the young child.
"I do! Let me go tell Vim!" Lomi rushed out the room, and I laughed lightly at her. She sometimes acted as if he was her father.
Crane smiled and headed down the hallway to follow her, as if to go with her to Vim to let him know just what was going on.
"Then I'll go get ready," Amber said, going to leave as well.
"Going to come shopping with us?" I asked, excited. Walking with everyone would be enjoyable.
"No. I need to go start the painting for the young lady of the Primdoll family," she said.
"Oh... I see," I said. She had gone the other day with Lughes to meet the family, and get the deposit amongst other things, but I hadn't realized she would start so soon.
"Will it take long?" I asked. Glancing to the painting still resting on the easel, I wondered if it would be anything like that. It had only taken Lughes two days to paint it, and to me it looked as professional as any other in this building.
"Probably a week or so, mostly since the young girl won't be able to sit still for long. A few hours at a time at best, probably," Amber said with a sigh.
"I see. Anything I can do to help?" I asked.
"If you leave before I get back, leave me a note at least," she said with a smile.
Amber left the room, leaving me alone.
Hurrying out after her, I watched her small frame as she walked down the hall. "Leave a note?" I asked.
"If you leave with Lomi. Of course," she said as if it was as obvious as the sunrise.
Watching her go, I hesitated.
Leave with Lomi?
For a long moment I stood there by the door, unsure of what to say or do.
Yes. I could, couldn't I?
It was obvious. Vim guided those like myself to places they could be safe. Places they could call home.
That meant if I wanted to, I could leave with them. Join them, until I found somewhere else. Somewhere I'd...
Glancing to the painting, standing in the center of the room, I found it looked a little silly.
The room was small. Smaller than my bedroom. There was a window, but it was firmly draped by a thin sheet. It was tied down at the edges, so that it'd not shift.
A single carpet sat on the floor. A blue felt, that was marked by countless little droplets of old paint.
And nothing else. No chairs. No shelves. No tables.
Just an easel, and a painting.
A painting of a scene that just a few months ago would have been enough to make me cry.
Yet now, already, seemed...
Walking away from the room, I left the door open. Heading for the stairwell, I wondered what the right choice was.
This place was wonderful. Beyond reason.
It'd be... sad, for Lomi to leave, but I understood the reason. Lughes and Crane neither seemed too interested in raising a child. Amber, although didn't seem to mind Lomi, was obviously a human. Lomi needed someone like us. Our kind didn't age as quickly as humans and...
Pausing in the hallway, I wondered if I was willing to do it. I had somewhat guided children before. Although they had both been a little older when I had found them, fleeing those flames.
My memories played out in my head as I tried to remember how well it had gone. One had died of disease, but that had been... A simple tragedy. Something uncontrollable.
The other had grown up fine. They had married, built a home, and even had children themselves.
But was I able to claim credit for any of that? Although I had felt somewhat like a mother to them, most of the journey and time spent with them felt more like one with siblings. I could remember many nights arguing with them. Scolding them. Yet the next day having to be taught something myself, since I had not yet known a lot of the human's culture.
And... even if I found I didn't wish to stay here, did I not simply need to wait for Vim to return in a few years?
Then I could have him escort me to the next place.
If anything doing that every so often might be enjoyable all in itself. Spending a decade here, a decade there...
I couldn't help but smile at the idea. How wonderful it was to imagine it.
"Renn?"
I turned to find Amber. She was giving me an odd look, as if worried for me.
"Sorry. Just got lost in thought," I said.
Seemed I had stopped right before the stairwell. Which put me in her way, as she tried to walk downward, from her own room. She had a large sack hanging from her shoulder, as if she was about to go on a trip.
"Hm. Your kind does that occasionally. Just try not to do it in front of the stairs, would you? I know you're all stronger than us, but even you guys can get hurt," she said, stepping past me as she rounded the stairwell.
I smiled at her as she passed, and realized that I liked how blunt she was. Although she sounded annoyed, and looked it, I could tell now that she was being genuine in her concern. She was actually worried for me.
"Will you be long?" I asked her.
"Sometimes I stay the night at their homes, if they allow or want it. They're a lower noble so... it could go either way. They usually aren't as wealthy as they act, yet at the same time want me to so their neighbors don't see me coming and going for a week," she said, pausing a couple steps down from me.
"Coming and going?" I asked.
"Their neighbors. They'll realize I wasn't given permission to stay there while doing the painting, implying they weren't able to properly accommodate me. It'd be seen as a sign of being too poor or simply not very good hosts. It's just how they are," she said, and then after explaining continued down the stairs.
"Hm..." I headed down the stairs after her, but stopped on my floor while she continued down. After a few steps I realized she was most likely not conveying just how serious the matter was. Humans were so odd sometimes.
"To be judged by how you treated those below you," I whispered, and wondered if that was actually a good thing.
Although it was sourced from their desire to be seen as proper nobles, not because they were genuinely good people. So maybe it was both good and bad.
Rounding a corner, I went still as I bumped into a wall.
Or rather, a man who was as steady and firm as one.
"Sorry Vim," I said, stepping back a step since he wouldn't.
"Hm... Who, or what, are you hunting?" he asked me.
"Hunting?" I asked back, wondering what he meant. I wasn't hunting for anything. I was heading to my room to get my hat and jacket, so I could go with Lomi and Crane to the fish market. Yet was that hunting? I already knew where they were, after all.
"Your face said you were on the prowl," he said gently.
For a moment I wondered if he was judging me again, but instead I saw the way his eyes held my own. They weren't as... firm, as usual. Was he simply making light talk?
"I was pondering what Amber had just told me," I told him.
"And that was?"
"How the nobles are judged by how they treat her. By their fellow nobles," I said.
"Ah. The hubris of the powerful. Careful, there's little to truly understand there," he said.
He stepped forward, and I had to quickly step aside for him. He nodded as he left, as if telling me that our conversation was done and it had even been a pleasant one.
Watching him go, I sighed and wondered why he was...
Was he odd?
A part of me thought he was.
Yet at the same time...
Shaking my head, I hurried to my room to get my hat and jacket. I needed to stop getting side-tracked, or they'd leave without me. Crane was very punctual after all.
Reaching my door, I paused and glanced farther down the hallway. This hallway led to another, smaller one, which I had assumed had only a small storage room at the end. Another bedroom was across the hall from me, before the hallway turned to the storage, but it was empty. Vim had chosen a room on the first floor. The small one meant for human guests, or rather customers who traveled long distances to purchase the paintings.
Had he swapped rooms? Or...?
Opening my door, I glanced around to see if anything was different. Obviously nothing was... and it was silly to think there would be. It wasn't like I had anything in here anyway. My hat lay on the bed. My jacket hung on the doorknob on the dresser.
There was nothing else in here. Other than the blanket, and pillow... and the little book I had borrowed from Crane.
Maybe he had done something in the storage room.
I didn't smell anything odd in here. It smelled like me, actually. I didn't even smell the weird dust I had smelled when I first moved in. If he had entered my room, I couldn't tell by sight or smell.
"Let's go Renn!" A young Lomi called up to me, and I grumbled as I went to hurrying again.
Stop being so easily distracted!
Even if things were so vibrant, I had to focus.
Otherwise these wonderful moments would begin to blur together, and become easily forgotten.
And such a thing was an insult not just to this happiness, but those who brought it to me.