The wooden railing was cold beneath Kura’s palm. It curved into the mold of her hand and brushed beneath her palm smooth like sand. She held it loosely and focused on the soft pat of her feet as she climbed the stairs. The sound was a gentle tapping like an impatient fingertip on a paper stack and so it was swalloed by the cries and protests of the people below. The tavern held brewing arguments and bubbling voices that threatened to spill beyond the doors. Above the bar, the inn’s rooms housed fervid whispers and whimpering cries that swelled and shrank in volume. Confronted with either gloom or anger, both being too loud, too taxing, Kura chose to venture upwards to the quieter floor.
She was not alone. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, she found the back of a stranger. The floor opened up to an airy lounge with bookshelves lining the walls and padded seats, chairs it seemed you could sink into, meeting in the middle and there the other person was. Someone else had settled into the room before her and Kura paused, fingertips just barely ghosting the edge of the railing. It was here she was to decide who she was. With no memory of others, she could not say if she was good or bad, quiet or loud. It bothered her, this not knowing, and she felt anything she would do would betray who she had been. She did not know the right answer so she would guess.
Though improper, this stranger would be her first test. Kura decided this as she patted the sides of her cheeks lightly and eased her lips into a smile. “I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be here.” She called, leaning a bit to her side as if peering at him from behind a door. “I hope you don’t mind if I join you. I wanted to put some distance between myself and everything below.”