S a l e t é I I

XVII - Veines - Six

Chief had indeed been the one to join them next, accompanied by Captain, the warm welcome that Cassia had fully expected coming with him as he acknowledged the three visiting girls. That acknowledgement came with a question. 

"Why didn't you all come right in?"

"Because we have to do things properly, apparently." Monet replied, and though she didn't look in the direction of the young man who'd served to guard the door, Cassia sensed a hint of sass somewhere in her comment. 

It was ironic, considering her desire to do things by the book when it came to her own matters. Even so, a little dig at any seriousness from time to time wasn't something that Cassia would shun. 

This time, as the girls followed Chief further into the building - Sleeves and Sweets tagging along - Captain didn't accompany them, instead returning to his position by the door. The ground floor awaited them, shrouded in the quiet, natural darkness that Cassia had slowly been acclimatising to, the hulking machinery of the factory's past as silent and still as it had been on her first visit. New candles had probably been and gone in the time that they'd been absent, and that day there were less of them than there had been on that initial trip, perhaps because they were being rationed. Lighting the entire building wasn't an essential task, at the end of the day, but the effect that a couple of little candles could have in making the place less gloomy was quite surprising.

The area where they'd had their meeting during the previous visit was still illuminated well, remaining a focal point, much like the space around their trusty fire drum back at their warehouse. A few chairs and stools were present in a somewhat disorderly line-up, as if a gathering had taken place there not long ago, and Cassia could easily imagine Chief getting the other children together - however many of them there really were - as he talked to them, taught them things, or even just entertained them.

Chief himself appeared nothing short of delighted to see the three guests, as if their arrival had brought a highly appreciated spark to his day. Whilst such a reaction was both pleasant and reassuring, it also perplexed Cassia in some ways. 

How could the people of Lower Merveille stay so cheerful, all things considered? How did they retain the ability to find as much joy in things as they did, considering the difficulties they obviously had to contend with? Maybe those difficulties were precisely why more positive occasions allowed them to be so upbeat, or...

She was looking at things as an outsider again, wasn't she? Lower Merveille might have been baffling and there underdeveloped in her eyes, but this was all normal to them.

Either way, she found it impressive that someone like Chief, or Uliana, or anyone else on their groups could stay optimistic when they had a plethora of reasons not to.

"So, what is it that I can do for you today?" Chief asked as they arrived in that central area, gesturing for his guests to sit before he took a seat of his own. Cassia was happy to be with them all in that small zone, finding it more comfortable than she'd expected, though a large part of such a feeling was no doubt down to the demeanours of those present.

"We're just on a quick run. There's a few things in here you could probably use, and Zisel is looking for more work to do." Monet explained, handing over her backpack, which prompted her companions to set about handing over theirs. Chief accepted the older girl's as the other two took theirs off, using his left hand to do so.

Cassia tried not to stare out of a fear of coming across as rude or intrusive, but the two missing fingers on the boy's right hand were hard not to look at. Given that the two he'd lost were directly next to his thumb, using what remained must have been especially awkward.