Better Get To Bed
You eventually sneak up into the Room you share with Nolle, doing your best to remember and avoid stepping where the Stairs creak. Your pre-Bed routine is not too loud, you are prelly sure, and you are proud of how successfully you navigate the Room in the Dark. but Nolle seems to have been awake or to have woken up anyway. Once you’re in Bed, he whispers, “It’s okay, Anise Vanda. You don’t have to try to be so quiet.”
Anise, uncertain: “Oh, thank you…” A few beats. “There’s an Akkade in the Basement. You could take a look tomorrow.”
Nolle: “I will.”
Anise, after several more beats: “There are Catalogues down there, too. Did you have a lot of them? At home?”
Nolle: “Catalogues?” As if he’s not familiar with the term. Could it be that he didn’t have any at all?
Anise: “The books that come out each year? Announcing and describing all the greatest Cræfts to have been created in the City. As chosen by the Office of the Vicegerent. I thought anyone who pursued a Cræft must collect them.”
Nolle: “Mmm, I think I have seen one before. But I didn’t look at it much.”
It occurs to you, just now, that Nolle has been answering Questions all day, and is probably quite tired of it all. You stop asking and go to sleep.