@consequntial & gertrude. ‘ is your world so empty? just friend or foe? ’
there are many things gertrude has learned over her years : the archives, after all, are not kind to their archivists, and her lessons have been painful and plenty. trust will get you killed. friends can so easily become foe — a glance away and a glance back and a person can be entirely changed. this is the world she lives in. she has existed in this state since she was twenty-three, fresh-eyed and newly graduated and oh-so-naive, degree framed and hung on the archives’ walls as a point of pride, and she will be there until she dies an old and exhausted woman.
‘ it’s hardly emptiness. ’ there are few in this world who would call gertrude robinson a friend. fewer she would return the sentiment to. now that she thinks of it, adelard may be the only one — agnes, too, perhaps. jurgen would certainly see her as one, but he’s always been a fool, with his books and his sacrifices. she shakes her head : there is nothing safe in friendship, and allies, after all, are far more important than companions. ‘ but yes, i find that people, largely, can be separated into those categories. perhaps not friends, but the general concept suffices. ’
she is more than capable of putting on an act : woefully innocent woman, softened with middle-age. she is not acting now. not bothering to. ‘ if you examine your own world, i’m sure you’ll find it largely the same. ’