S a l e t é I I

XI - Yeux - Neuf

Cassie didn't say or do much during the time that Uliana was with her. Whilst she'd been sure to pay attention, her thoughts continued to intrude, one or two occasionally slipping into the forefront of her mind as she listened. Or rather, they seeped in, uninvited, unnerving, inky and thrashing, desperate for attention that she really, really did not want to give them.

She couldn't ignore them though, could she? Her current situation would never change, not as long as she continued to block everything out, and she knew that, but...

"Cassia?"

"Hmm?"

Cassie looked up, becoming aware of how she'd been rather distant for a while, more so than she had been since the other girl had sat down.

"Are you okay? You were sort of spacing out..."

"I'm fine, I..."

Uliana didn't look at all convinced by her statement. Cassie wasn't surprised - it had been miserably flimsy.

The light of the fire... The dim nature of the warehouse... The sounds of activity in the distance, small yet noticeable... It was as if she'd ended up stuck in some sort of... Well, not a nightmare, she wasn't terrified, but it wasn't a dream either. It was like some kind of limbo.

She was afraid, though her immediate safety kept her from full blown horror, even if she remained hollow and uncomfortable, her worries almost entirely unchained.

"Have you ever been down here before? To Lower Merveille, I mean?" Uliana asked, her voice remaining gentle.

"No. I didn't even know that there was a Lower Merveille, I just thought..."

"That's okay. Monet says that a lot of people from the city don't know about it. To be honest, I didn't think you'd been here before, seeing as... You know." Uliana replied, seemingly getting at Cassie's attire.

What even was Lower Merveille? Merveille, but lower?

You couldn't have high rises underground. It sounded as if it might have been some sort of sub-district, pushed to one side - or rather, below - to serve whatever purpose it was made for whilst being out of everyone else's way. Such an assumption gave it a rather grim feeling, in her head, although the assumption itself may very well have stemmed from the grim nature of what she'd actually seen so far.

Was everywhere like this...? How could people not know about an entire district?

"There's a tunnel that leads up to the rest of the city. It's really big, and it's always busy. Other than that, there's the trains."

"A tunnel?"

"Yeah, you know, for cars and things. There's no way in or out on foot."

"But... Where exactly are we...? What even is this place?"

"Lower Merveille, you mean?"

Cassie nodded, eager for some sort of clarification, anything.

"It's an old industrial place. There used to be a bunch of sites down here where people would make stuff, or put stuff away. Most of it was moved or shut down ages ago though, but then these other people came along and started using the buildings themselves, kind of like we are with this place."

"So, people just... Moved in? To the empty places?"

"Yeah. At least, I think so. Monet told me about it, you're better off asking her the questions. She's the smart one, not me."

"Monet seems to know a lot of things..."

"Mhm, she's been here longer than any of us, after all."