“The world is quiet here.”
Aetius had his first trip to Naercey today, and the entire city was abuzz. This had to go well. The fate of the entire Guard rested in his hands. He had to be content with whatever he saw. Robin cleaned the emergency apartments and went up the stairs to her second floor library. She wasn’t needed, and the natural, late afternoon light streaming in through the windows was too good to pass up. She sat on her couch and pulled a book from the piled of “currently being read” books on the coffee table. She sank back and let herself get lost in the fantasy.
“The world is quiet here,” a man’s voice said. Robin looked up. Aetius. She hadn’t met him yet, and didn’t think she would unless she visited Archeon. Robin stood up. “No, sit,” he said, so Robin sat back down. He wandered among her shelves as she tried to ignore him and keep reading. He picked up a book, finally, and sat down on the couch next to Robin. Out of all the other chairs in the room, he chose to sit next to her, a lowly Red. “I’m Aetius,” he said.
“I -” Robin stopped herself before she could say I know in a protective voice that was instinctual from her time with the Silvers another lifetime ago. “I’m Robin,” she said, and gave him a small smile, before turning back to her book. She heard him open his book, and they sat like that until dinner, quiet, bathed in a world of near-sunset light.