Late Night, 19th Roalis, 2719
Woven Delights, the Painted Ladies
Ava yawned, covering her mouth with her hand, feeling the faint prickle of moisture at the edges of her eyes. It was a lovely, warm summer night; Roalis’s heat was creeping steadily in, but it was not yet so hot as to be unpleasant, though the breeze that trickled through her open window carried with it the promise of hotter days to come.
The small cat sitting in her lap let out an insistent rumble, and Ava lowered her hand back to his back, stroking sleek gray fur. She eased the small light on her desk closer to the book before her, her careful set up meant to shield anyone on the street from seeing she was still awake at such a late hour, and focused her eyes once more on the neatly printed words before her.
Therefore, a living conversationalist constrained by time in his endeavors to disable his opponent would do well to recall the lessons of Stasborros on the conduction of electrochemical stimuli through the central nervous system. The implications are trivial.
Ava yawned again, closing her eyes for a long moment. She sat back in her chair, and stroked the cat once more. He rubbed at her hand with his head, tail lashing against her leg, and his claws prickled softly against the soft fabric of her robe, and let out another insistent little mutter, a rumbling sound deep in his throat.
“Yes,” Ava said, sleepily. “I think it is time for bed.”
She shut the book and blew out the light, and shifted. The cat did not take the hint, and so with a little giggle, Ava scooped him up and deposited him on the bed. She yawned one last time, and began to untie her robe, just as a voice drifted in through the window.
Ava did not hesitate; by now, she was no stranger to sudden visits in the middle of the night. She made her way to the window, disabling the little contraption which kept it open for the cat but, thankfully, not for anyone else, and peered out, glancing down at the street below, and the pools of light that limned the cobblestone streets. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise at the sight of Aodh Elzo, looking limp and more than a little bedraggled, clutching a cigarette as if his very life depended on it.
Ava did not speak, did not call back to him, but she gestured towards the alleyway at the side of Woven Delights, urging him there. The jolt of adrenaline was more than enough to banish her sleepiness.
Ava pulled her head back in the window, and settled the mechanism back into place. She did not change from her pale green cotton robe and the nightgown beneath, but she did settle her feet into slippers, draw the robe a bit together closed, and make her way downstairs. From the soft whispery thud of little feet behind her, she had not succeeded in keeping the cat upstairs, but – Ava did not worry about it, already thinking ahead.
Ava drew back one of the many curtains that covered the walls of her small back room, and unlocked the small door that led out into the alley at the side of the house. From the inside, uncovered, it looked merely like a door; from the outside, in the alley, it was all but invisible. She gestured Aodh inside, eyebrows lifting slightly at the sight of him.
Ava’s black hair was braided down her back, a few strands free against her face; unlike the last times Aodh had seen her, she wore no make-up, her face washed free of it in preparation for sleep. Her green cotton robe was soft-looking, comfortable, and between it and the nightgown beneath there was little in the way of exposed skin, but it did not have the structure of her usual dresses. Her small, bare feet peeked out from beneath the hem of the robe, but she held herself with all her usual dignity, as if she were greeting him at the store outside, rather than in the dark of night.
Ava smiled at Aodh, welcoming and yet almost professional, serious. “Good evening, Mr. Elzo. Perhaps I might be of some assistance?” She let her voice trail softly up at the end. She disappeared behind another curtain, and after the soft click of some secret mechanism, re-emerged carrying a heavy leather bag, settling it down on the table between her couches.