While cleaning the bottom of a stairwell, she saw him.
Not by the way things sound. He didn't create any.
It was the shadow that betrayed him—long and cautious, falling over the stone just before nightfall and extending into the hall as though hesitant to enter.
01911 kept their eyes fixed on the ground. She had learned not to. She took a breath, however. Only one. Then she resumed washing.
The shadow remained still.
Following that: gentle steps. Deliberate, slow. Not menacing.
He was sitting on the rail above her when she eventually took the chance to look up.
Perhaps a couple years older. Thin, light, and motionless. His hair was silver—not gray or white—but the immaculate luster of moonlight on metal. His ears were a little pointed. Not elfishly sharp. Less noticeable. And his eyes...
She wasn't sure.
They didn't shine. They shimmered.
He didn't speak.
She didn't, either.
He crouched down like a cat with too many ideas and observed her for a moment. After that, he gave me a head tilt. "You clean as if you're worried of leaving a trace," he said.
01911 gave a little shrug.
He didn't make fun of her.
She whispered, "Just... habit, not fear."
He blinked as a result of that.
"Nobody does that here," he stated.
"I don't belong here."
"I know."
He fell to the ground silently. Too close. Harmless. merely curious.
"You don't talk to the others."
"They don't talk to me."
"They don't need to." You're noisy, even when you're silent.
The forehead of 01911 wrinkled.
He knelt down next to her bucket. put a finger into the filthy water. It froze, as hard as crystal, with only one flick.
She gave him a hard look.
"Don't worry, I won't let the overseer know you've fallen behind," he said with a little smile.
"I haven't."
"That's what I mean."
She blinked.
Once more, he gave her that tilted-animal gaze. Then, with a whisper of steps, he stood and turned to leave.
However, at the end of the corridor, he stopped.
"My name is Thalen," he stated without turning around.
Nothing was said in 01911.
He waited. "You can keep your number if you like," he said after looking behind him. I don't think it's a good name, though.
He then disappeared around the corner.
The frozen bucket sat next to her as she sat there for a long time.
She had the sensation of being unseen for the first time since she arrived. Perhaps, though, she was noticed.