You're so cold
but you feel alive
Rushes swished over wooden boards in calm, steady strokes. Her movements with the broom are almost graceful, as though it's a dance and not a huge, tedious chore to clear away all that had broken. The white hair hung loose over thin shoulders, and in the tattered white dress and the black shawl, she was a ghost floating through the room, nearly glowing in the dim light. When he spoke to her the first time, she paused and looked up, considering him as if wanting to speak up... but again thinks better of it, and resumes the work.
The second time he addressed her, this time by name, the girl did not stop or even look up. He told her to go, to bugger off and leave him alone no doubt, even if he didn't use any of those words, even if the tone was neither rough nor a whisper. It was just... empty.
"I don't have anywhere else to go," she simply said, and righted a chair up against a table so she could clean beneath it. It was true, for the most part. While it would not be impossible to get board somewhere else - to beg her loremaster for a cot in the guild or someone else for a mattress on the floor - it was not something easily done tonight. Those who were not already asleep would be heading to bed soon, and she would not impose on them.
"Let me help you." A simple request, not quite a question. Perhaps she would leave if he insisted on it, but then again... perhaps not.
The second time he addressed her, this time by name, the girl did not stop or even look up. He told her to go, to bugger off and leave him alone no doubt, even if he didn't use any of those words, even if the tone was neither rough nor a whisper. It was just... empty.
"I don't have anywhere else to go," she simply said, and righted a chair up against a table so she could clean beneath it. It was true, for the most part. While it would not be impossible to get board somewhere else - to beg her loremaster for a cot in the guild or someone else for a mattress on the floor - it was not something easily done tonight. Those who were not already asleep would be heading to bed soon, and she would not impose on them.
"Let me help you." A simple request, not quite a question. Perhaps she would leave if he insisted on it, but then again... perhaps not.
lay your hands on me
one last time
MAEA
