Haven

Three

Sanctus found himself doused by a wave of OCD-ness as they grew close enough to the area to make out the dark shapes of the buildings. They were each of a decent size, big enough to house a family of four or five comfortably. The yards were of regular size and fenced off with the typical tall slat fences. The houses themselves were all more or less the same. They were colored with either creme or grey siding. Just like the majority of houses in the city.

None of this was what made Sanctus disapprove. Instead, it was the facts that the houses were spaced unevenly. It was by hardly anything, a foot here, a yard or two there, but it was still off. For some reason, this was making him edgy. 

Alonya noticed his mood changed and reached over to prod his shoulder. "What?"

He gave a shake of his head. "They're spaced wrong." He grumbled.

A light laugh filled the air at that. Alonya's features brightened as she laughed, her eyes dancing with the bright light of amusement. Sanctus failed to see what was so funny about his reply.

However, her laughter was infectious, and Sanctus soon found a smile of his own cracking out on his lips. Her laughter was beautiful in that way. No matter what mood one was in, Alonya's laugh could do wonders at cheering a person up. 

When she had finally calmed enough to speak properly, she did so. "Of course you would notice such a thing." She giggled. 

Sanctus lifted his shoulders in an offhanded shrug. "It's just annoying," He grunted. 

She continued to giggle as they made their way slowly down the street. The merry sound died off eventually as her attention switched to other things. "These houses all look fine... Why on earth would anyone just leave them to rot?" She questioned curiously. 

Sanctus considered this for a moment. Her words rang with reason. To tell the truth, he wasn't quite sure he knew the answer to her question. "Maybe there just wasn't enough need for them? The population didn't come remotely close to reaching the peak it was expected to this year..." He reasoned. "Whatever the cause, it must have been a huge money sink for the developers."

They walked on in silence now, both of them going back over his answer and picking it apart in the manner that had been drilled into their heads over and over again by their many tutors over the years.

In this city, at their social standings, they had to know how to make sense of anything people chose to say. Pick it apart, find all of the sense and possible half truths in the words. They had to be able to see though them, to read whatever hidden meanings were behind the words.

In addition they needed to know how to think up replies to them that would both reflect their own views and oppose the others without doing so in an open, obvious way.

They had become so used to doing it that it was like a second nature to them, something that never went to rest.

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." She murmured after a long moment. 

They came to the end of the street. Here, the recently developed houses merged into a large plot of un-housed land. The grass was greener here, and manicured to perfection.; no longer than a couple of inches at the tallest, and kept carefully away from the cobbled stone walk that wound it's way slowly up to a nicely kept fence. 

Behind that fence, there was a large group of tall, wide spreading manchurian walnut trees.

Rumor had it that the place beyond the fence and the trees belonged to an elderly couple that were as old as the land itself. From what Sanctus had heard, they were a nice pair of people with decent sums of money to their names, they just preferred to keep to themselves.