Re: The Dawn Chorus
An hour passed. Asha sits in the corner, her mind racing. Finally, she raises the courage to lift the shroud. Taking care not to touch the body, she peels up a corner before hurridly dropping it again. It is Harper. And he's dead. Her inital reaction couldn't be spake, it was just a horrified 'Oh'. Harper had been her companion for these last weeks, and slowly it dawns on her that he's the only person who she really knows withing hundreds of miles.
A consul takes place round Astidu's desk, and Asha sits alone near the door, shoulders hunched, hands clasped. Her breathing is shallow with shock, and everytime something moves, it blurs slightly like oil over canvas. She sees a figure. She looks up.
"Hello Asha."
Asha looks up -- to behold Harper. Twice, she glances to the body laid out on the stretcher and back, before she realises a reply is expected. Tentatively, she replies:
"Umm... hello, Harper." She paused. Harper came and sat down next to her. "How are you, in yourself? I mean..."
"I'm dead, Asha. Did you mean apart from that?"
"No -- that's what I meant." Carefully, Asha lifted the shroud again. Um... yes. She turned back to Harper. "Look, at the risk of sounding silly -- you're dead, Harper. Shouldn't you, y'know, be somewhere?"
"Hey! Asha!" Astidu called across the room. Emerging from her reverie -- Asha wandered across, somehow glad to be out of Harper's presence. She strolled over and stood next to Jhans, before Astidu's desk. Glancing back, the bench was empty.
"Frenn here told me you knew this man."
"That's because I did."
"And that you're trying to 'Hunt angels.'"
"That is true." Astidu turned his back, but continued:
"Give me a reason for the watch to back this endavour."
...What?Astidu proves to be a mysterious man,Asha thought. What motives could he possibly have for backing my cause?
"One of the Samsara -- that's the 'angels' -- killed a man." Astidu clapped his hands, and turned round to face her.
"Right! So, this is an official watch investment, and so totally legal and supported. Corporal Frenn, you will be Miss Boden's guard and assist. Make it perfectly clear to any who oppose her that she is under our wing, alright? Good!"
-----
It is well past noon. Asha sits in the watchouse mess hall, sipping tea and watching the watch come and go. Wahaa! Who watches the watchmen? 'Tis me!
The muckle of the watch vary. The watchouse is a large place, hewn of limestone -- but not at all grand. The mess hall is, essentially, a crossroads of five immense wings of the building. One has been walled off and turned into what could be called a kitchen. It isn't, though. It's a place where vegetables, coffee beans, fruit, whole animal carcasses, seaweed, foreign delicacies and low-fat biscuits are left for the masses to help themselves.
These are, indeed, turbulent times. Without a leader, the city of Sondossa is being blindly led by this myriad of creatures. Blindly, and with no more ambitious aim then to wake up tomorrow with a body left to wake up with. As she watched, a Choras embassy is announced and fed, before being led up a spiral staircase. A guard sat down beside Asha.
"Asha Boden."
"Hello Who're you?"
"Nice to meet you,"
"A pleasure! I'm called Kiro."
Here, the man called Kiro paused. Asha, realising her mistake, bit her lip. Responding to speech that hasn't been said yet can sometimes pass, but she knew small but important parts of Kiro's brain were going 'Boooooooiooooioooiooing' and bouncing away across the floor.
Furrowing his brow, Kiro turned onto genocide of sausage. Asha walked away, looking for her bear guide.
She disliked that bear. Something about it made her feel really uneasy. It talked like a stupid thing, misunderstanding common phrases and asking what words meant. But every so often it would come out with something so sharp, that it sliced this illusion in two like a razorblade through candyfloss. For a moment, it would seem like an extremely clever thing twisting you round its finger, and then it would go back to stupid so convincingly that you barely noticed it at all.
Arms folded, Asha leant against a pillar in the foyer, and waited.