S a l e t é I I

XXI - Estomac - Six

"What, so you're saying we should go and work for him? How would that even work?"

Uliana sounded far from convinced already as the trail of thought went on, her scepticism rife as she tilted her head to one side, eyes narrowed.

"Are we supposed to just walk up and instantly get hired? What would we even be doing?"

"I still think it's strange that he would hire children..." Zisel muttered, the girl somewhat perturbed herself, even if her reaction was on the quieter side.

"Yeah. What are kids gonna do over there? I don't know anything about factories, big or small." Uliana replied.

"He probably wouldn't make them do anything with machinery. I dunno, there must be smaller jobs." Klavdiya suggested, but her companion was quick to address her.

"Like what?"

"I just said I don't know, but there's got to be something. People wouldn't let their kids do dangerous jobs, would they?" Klavdiya replied, somewhat annoyed. 

Cassia didn't know what to think, but Klavdiya had a point. Would parents or family members want to work with Brisbois and his people if it wasn't safe? Would they have approved if the work wasn't actually suitable for younger residents? Was there even any reason to think that the work might have been rough? Lower Merveille might not have been the most affluent place with the widest range of things to do, but its residents were a hardy bunch - they had to be - and so she was sure that they would have called out this new operation, whatever it entailed, if it was unjust in any kind of way.

"Would they care if Jouets were the ones doing the risky jobs though? I doubt it. I bet a bunch of them wouldn't even want to work with us." Uliana said, not shifting from her disdain, her statements only confusing Cassia further. 

Monet was still listening, her attention unbroken, her silence intact, and she was beginning to wish that the teenager would intervene for the sake of clarity.

"Who cares what they think? You told us that he said it himself, everyone was welcome, didn't you? Jouets included." Klavdiya pointed out, though even this didn't seem to do much to get Uliana to budge.

"Why wouldn't people want to work with us? I don't get it, most people are nice." Cassia asked, getting involved now before things spiralled on, and Uliana was swift to fill her in.

"Because we're Jouets."

"But why? We're like everyone else stuck down here."

"Not to some people, we're not."

Zisel looked as if she wanted to speak up, the irritation that had been present in Uliana's tone - as well as Klavdiya's - causing her to fall short of doing so. Those shards of frustration were starting to seep into the conversation itself, and Cassia felt some of her quieter friend's apprehension as well.

She changed her approach.

"Do we even know what it is they do there? When you went a few days ago, you said they weren't actually working yet." She said, keeping her own voice calm.

"They were still getting set up. A bunch of guys were taking loads of stuff in and out of the buildings over there, there were a couple of trucks, it looked pretty busy."

"But was it actually open?"

"I don't think so. The people there who weren't with the boss man were just looking around, kinda like they were on a tour, or something."

"So there's still things we have to find out. A lot of things."

Uliana couldn't refute that, and she'd been soothed to a degree over the course of the questions she'd been answering. Monet was looking Cassia's way now, although the younger girl was again left unable to determine what she might have been thinking, even if she really could feel those eyes upon her as easily as she could feel the warmth of the flames that continued to dance and sway a short distance away.