S a l e t é I I

XV - Côtes - Cinq

"Cassia wishes to try and contact her family via a letter." Monet told Chief, getting straight to the point in a slightly quieter voice than usual, considering that the large interior would have carried anything louder much too easily.

"I get you. If you can't reach them, have them try and reach you, yeah?" He asked as he looked back to Cassia. His tone remained calm, even through that more thoughtful demeanour.

"Mmh, hopefully." Cassia replied, her timidity remaining in the same way.

"To do that, she will require an envelope and a stamp. Given that this place would have once had executive roles, we were hoping that we could find them here." Monet continued, folding her arms as she started to settle.

"There's gotta be a decent chance that one of the old offices up on the second floor could have things like that. You're more than welcome to have a poke about." Chief told Cassia. She didn't have to try when mustering up a smile in return, her look of gratitude satisfying him nicely.

"I shouldn't think you'd need a stamp though, there's folks down here who'd run things up top themselves. Yeah, it'd take a while, but they'd get it done." He added, Cassia feeling a brief spike of enthusiasm that lasted only until Monet spoke again.

"Cassia is from quite a... Shall we say, formal background. I doubt that any of the couriers from down here would be able to enter the grounds of any of her family's haunts. That leaves the official offices, and Sabre offices will not accept a letter without a proper stamp. You know what they're like."

Ah, yes. That was certainly an irritating point.

Cassia hadn't seen anyone anywhere near as scruffy as the folks down here back in the hill district. She'd considered sending the letter to somewhere where it could be passed on, such as school, or Esmund's workplace, only she now doubted that they would be able to get into - or even just the letter into - either place.

What even was the school's address...? Or the address of Esmund's lab building...? She couldn't remember. Had she even seen the address for his workplace before? The only address she could recall perfectly was home's.

"Just get your letter together first, we can worry about the rest later. If you find anything you can use, you can have it." Chief reiterated, Cassia's gratitude returning in full. She was quick to show him her backpack in spite of what he'd said.

"I have things I can give you for anything I find, like - "

"Don't be daft love. We're hardly going to miss an envelope."

She was about to ask him if he was sure, only she decided that there wasn't much point, his expression suggesting that he was set on the matter. Instead, her smile simply came back to her, a sight he appeared to approve of.

Any feelings of warmth she could feel between the group members was nurtured by the candle light, however delicate it may have been.

"We've also brought you the clothes that Zisel has repaired." Monet announced next, gesturing for Uliana to present her backpack, the girl lifting it up with both hands and a grin.

"Oh, brilliant. We've got the good stuff set aside upstairs for you, hold on."

He rose to his feet for a moment, after which he looked up at what could be seen of the higher floors that wrapped around the open centre of the room. After a slight pause - and after taking into account the playful voices coming from above - he called out, his words easily carried by an ensuing echo.

"Sleeves!"

"Yeah?"

A fairly young female voice had called back, belonging to one of those that who had been playing up until now.