S a l e t é I I

XII - Oreilles - Quinze

How long had it been? Was it night yet? Had the sun set?

The sun... Now there was a nice thought. Natural warmth... The sky above...

The view from the garden, the sky, the stars, the moon, Merveille below, Adeline at her side... Cassia missed so many things.

There was a delicate - a delicate - sort of balance to be found amongst such thoughts and memories. If she didn't take the time to dwell upon them from time to time, she was afraid that she would somehow lose them, an irrational yet entirely real kind of anxiety surrounding such a possibility. If she spent too much time dwelling upon them, she would only end up miserable, even more homesick than she already was, and then she wouldn't have been very useful at all, and yet...

It was her purpose. She had to get back to it all - to her garden, to that view, to her sister - and if she kept those memories in mind, then she would aspire to them all the more.

Her sister... The pining she felt for Adeline hadn't even begun to diminish. All she could do was press on, using that nervous energy along the way, making sure not to choke on it as she went.

She was sat by the fire again, occasionally - and carefully - throwing odd bits and pieces into the drum that contained it in order to sustain it; Klavdiya had given her an assortment of wooden junk earlier, enabling her to keep the flames up.

What did everyone do all day, when they weren't busy? How did they pass the time? Because it seemed to just be dragging on and on, almost as if the warehouse was some kind of purgatory.

That and being left alone with her thoughts was risky.

She'd gone to see Zisel again for a while, the girl more than happy to have her company, that warmth as welcoming as it was kind. Uliana would occasionally appear for a while before disappearing again, and Cassia had no idea what she was up to.

She'd spotted Taya a few times, still off in her own little world, the younger girl paying attention to her a few times as well - usually so that she could give her a wide berth. Cassia didn't mind, as she still viewed such behaviour as a manifestation of a distrust in strangers.

Monet was absent, simply because she was still up in her room, but what could she have been doing up there? Did she have some kind of work that would keep her occupied too? There had been a lot of tools up there, and Cassia did hear sounds coming from above that suggested she was using them now and again.

Cassia tried not to think about things too much, but one thing that she'd noticed was that she felt a little... Less sharp? It wasn't a prominent feeling, but it was something she'd started to pick up on nonetheless. She felt that little bit heavier, even if it didn't stop her from getting up and about at all, though she couldn't decide whether or not such a feeling arose from all of the things she'd learned already that day getting on top of her, or from the fact that she'd been drinking less Honey than usual.

What was worse? Physical strain, or mental strain?

The sound of a door closing roused her from her latest haze, and she soon heard chatter as the girls who'd emerged began to descend the stairs, heading in her direction. Klavdiya was with Uliana, the former girl clearly appreciating the help that she was getting as they made their way down, and Uliana seemed to be carrying something - a small box of sorts.

"Ask Monet."

"No, she always says no. I'm not wasting my time."

"Ask her!"

"No! You ask her if you want to. You know she'll say no."

They were clearly bickering about something, and whilst Cassia didn't know what was going on, she was fond of the sounds of their voices as they did away with the near silence that had been present only moments earlier.