She isn't sure if she would have made it through the desert, if the storm hadn't hit. She still has some water left, in her rations. They haven't figured out what the energy rays here are, but scattering through the whirling sand they're as deadly to her as to anyone.
She coughs. She falls.
And here she is. She opens her eyes.
"Thanks... It's just... a very weird situation."
At the rate they are going, it will eventually be time to break for lunch well before they will be finished.
Nod. "I'm sorry." She doesn't know anything about time cycles here or his schedule, and will follow his lead.
"Sorry for what? If we have any fault at being here, I having a larger share of it."
Henry checks the mailbox slot. "Yeah, two plates with sandwich and fruit. ...At least there is that."
"Other kind of sorry.
It's not your fault at all." That's - interesting. She'll take a plate, then. Tries to watch him eat without it being obvious - it won't hurt her, to eat something that shouldn't be eaten but looks like it might be, or eat in a strange way for where they are, but it might be odd to him.
Henry eats, apparently being very mindful that there is someone else besides a cat watching him. He is also not sure... what to do? Should he be making small talk or something?
"So... err, is there anything you'd like to know?"
"I mean... I don't know, any idea why you were targeted? I didn't have a home before..."
"I'm sorry.
I - don't think the same thing happened to me as happened to you. Though, it looks like your captor knows about me too, and wants me here." She indicates the food.
Confusion. "You think someone else took you here, and she is just... keeping you in your behalf?"
"I'm not sure what she's doing. Maybe she was involved in bringing me here. But - I know about part of what happened to me, and it wouldn't have had to do with her. She didn't take me from where I was. But maybe she took me to here.
It's strange."
Well, now Henry thinks he poked at a sore spot. He eats the rest of his sandwich despondently.
She notices the emotion, if not the reason. "It's alright. I've - been in worse situations. I'll be alright. I'm glad if I can help you at all."
Henry nods. "Okay, do you want to take a longer break or go back to decluttering the staircase?"
The sun goes down and Henry turns on the lights. "Dinner is going to be a salad," Henry says after a long period of silence. "It's always the same things. Uh, I haven't gotten around to cleaning up the library, but you can take books from there just fine."
Lights are nice. And now she knows how to operate them. "I like salad.
Oh, what kinds of books are there?"
"Oh, all sorts. Philosophy, mathematics, physics - decades out of date - and so on. A lot of occult nonsense too."
"Yeah." Then realizing she might want an elaboration. "Books about alchemy and astrology? I had cleaned mostly of the stair's smaller detritus, but some were cheap crystals and amulets. I think the owner just believed that kind of stuff."
Nod. That's good to know. What's nonsense here, or at least known to be.
Is he heading back to get dinner?
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