Reidier

22: Mella

The wind is a rabid dog that snaps and bites at her exposed face. Mella raises her fist and knocks again. 

She is fairly certain that if she has to knock even one more time, her knuckles are going to start bleeding. 

Bird stands beside her, and somewhere else on the estate Evi is waiting with her shotgun for the slightest sounds of trouble. But she is confident. She only needs Fi to enter. Fi will take her to the library, and she'd grab her book, and they'd leave. Simple. 

Who are you kidding? Things are never that simple. 

Just as she raises her hand to knock again - goodbye, the skin on my knuckles- the door swings open. And the girl standing there has to be one of the most pathetic people she had ever met. 

Stringy, dirty blonde hair is plastered to a face covered in grease and cook fire ash. Watery, pale green eyes, - just like the Surgeon, but she doesn't let herself elaborate on that- and a tiny mouth. But most of all is her posture- she is so hunched over so much that Mella bet that if she had to stand up straight, she would gain a least a stride of height. 

Sometimes, when she grows bored, Mella divides the people she meets into mice and hunters. This girl is definitely a mouse. 

"Hello? I'm... I'm..." 

"Are you Fi?" Mella asks, blunt and to the point, and it seems to terrify her. 

"N-n-no..." 

She slams the door in Mella's face. To add to her annoyance, the bolt slides shut, the unbearably loud scraping noises painful to listen to.

Bird rolls his eyes. "You scared her." 

Mella mislikes the accusatory tone in his voice. 

She sighs. Now to find an alternative entrance and work out everything by herself. 

Then footsteps. 

And swearing. 

The door is reopened by a considerably less timid serving girl. Her features are similar- but she doesn't have the eyes. Instead she has dark eyes, and she is taller, as well- but maybe it is just because she's not slouching. 

"You asked for me?" she says, not snarling, but not exactly welcoming either. 

So this is Fi. 

She tilts her head, scrutinising the strangers. Mella raises an eyebrow. Careful. Certainly more wary that a regular serving girl. 

Again she suspects. Ghilb is leading them into a trap... but she is reasonably sure that she can escape. Especially with Bird by her side and Evi looking out for them. 

It's her only lead and she isn't going to give it up for anything. There is still a chance that this is real, even though all her logic protests against it. They won't help you, her reason argues. They're after their own ends. But her instincts tell her to chase after the clue.  

Fi continues staring at them. Bird finally clears his throat. 

"It's cold out," he says, blunt. "Are you letting us in or not?" 

Fi begrudgingly steps aside and lets them enter. 

"My friend told me about you," she mutters, "But he didn't say anything about companions." 

Mella silently thanks Claryss for her brilliant suggestion- send someone in to monitor her. And the next part, which is tracking down this Lorvenice- that can send her far, far away from Reidier, and if she has the book with her... well, it isn't hard to disappear.