Without warning, the door opened and light from the hall flooded the room. Aurelie winced, biting back a complaint. For a moment she felt blind, only able to make out the vague outline of Matron at the doorway. Then her vision cleared, and she felt no less confused for it--the woman had a strange expression on her face that Aurelie could not read. Her roommates did not stir, or if they did Aurelie couldn’t tell.
“Get up, girl--you have a visitor. Don’t keep them waiting!” Matron’s voice did not do anything to help her understanding of the expression, and her words were more puzzling still. A visitor? They didn’t have “visitors”. She was well certain it was neither of the Maddens, not at this hour or context. Something in Matron’s demeanor gave her additional pause. The woman seemed--angry, or raw perhaps. Or it was just her imagination. Aurelie couldn’t be sure.
The red-haired young woman nodded and made some noise of understanding. She did as she was bid and swung her feet to the floor, shuddering at the shock of cold even at this time of year. The door remained open and Matron fixed firmly in it. Not even willing to leave to give her privacy to get dressed, she supposed. The passive suppressed a sigh. After dressing in her blue uniform and splashing her face with tepid water, she straightened and turned expectantly to Matron. Wordlessly, the woman moved from the door and Aurelie followed.
They wandered down the hallways in silence for what felt like a millennia, though surely it couldn’t have been very long at all. The campus was large, but not as large as it felt and certainly not when taking servant corridors and back ways. Aurelie mostly watched Matron as they walked, her posture demure and her steps soft. The woman herself never even glanced in her direction.
Eventually, they arrived at the door of a small meeting room normally reserved for faculty meetings with visitors or suchlike activities. Aurelie glanced at Matron, puzzled. Who could possibly be visiting her here? Matron said nothing to Aurelie, fine-boned face closed and stony. She rapped boney knuckles against the door in a pattern that struck Aurelie as oddly deferential. The guest was important then--galdori? Aurelie frowned, puzzled.
“Miss--I brought her, as you asked.” There was silence from the other side of the door and Matron frowned, knowing she wouldn’t be seen. “...I’ll send her in then, shall I?” To Aurelie, she merely arched a brow as if to ask why she was not already inside the room.
Aurelie moved to open the door with one glance back to Matron, who was already turning to leave. Her duty done, Aurelie supposed. She still did not know what to make of the raw set of the older woman’s shoulders. It nagged at her, not knowing. Had she done something wrong?
She called out a hesitant greeting as she pushed open the door, unsure what to expect--and promptly forgot all thoughts of Matron, and of hesitance, and of anything but a name and a face she never thought to see again in all of her days.
“Lilliana!” Aurelie cried out, and then promptly burst into tears.