Anise: “Oh, it is late, isn’t it. I am sorry to have kept you up, oh except you insisted that I haven’t kept you up, didn’t you, well but anyway everyone is already asleep and we should, I should, do the, be the same. Asleep. Do I… have a Room?”

Nolle, gently: “There is one Room left, and so I suppose we’ll be sharing it.”

Nolle shows you up the creaky Stairs, creaks you pay attention to so that next time you need to come to bed late you can avoid them, to a landing with four Doors. Two closed; two a little open. One of them is a Water Closet and you use it. The Dust in this house has been making a dull background racket since you came in, and it is just starting to bother you now. You give it a Look. Like a real settle down now dust kinda look. Dust is the only entity you’ve ever felt confident enough to give that sort of Look to. Most of it quiets down. The motes were probably just excited to see someone they could talk to, but they’ll have to wait.

The Room you will share with Nolle is conveniently bisected by a rich vermilion Curtain. Its fabric has some écru detailing on the top and bottom that you’ll have to examine more closely some time when you are not utterly exhausted which it just occured to you that you are urgh let’s bedtime already.

You are vaguely aware of the sound of Nolle rustling around on the other side of the Curtain as you remove yourself from your own Dress, still reassuringly precious to you even after having met the Lacedæmonian, hang it on the Armoire, and get in the Bed. You are also vaguely aware of how strange it is that all this was set up for you by Someone, but that you do not know who it was.

Go Next Day