Pleasantly the halls were quiet and near empty in the middle of the winter break. Those who stayed behind were generally too busy to be meandering about the corridors. Of course, Lenore was promptly proven wrong. Originating from an open doorway, a pale honey hand gripped her forearm and pulled. For the briefest moment a thought flickered that she could easily hold her ground against the pull. The fancy passed and soon as it came, she released her trolley and let herself be tugged into the room.
It was a young vulpine-faced galdori holding up a ripped blouse. On a normal day Lenore would have had a bone needle and small spindle of thread for these moments but she’d left them in the laundry while they were dyeing. Gently, and with a neutral smile, she took the blouse and folded it over a blue arm, “It will be returned and whole first thing in the morning.” She dodged her eyes down and bobbed a quick curtsy.
“It had best not be blue, Scrap.” The young student’s voice crystalline and clear.
“Understood.” She replied with her usual calm smile, placing the blouse over the side of her cart. Petty insults hardly touched her any more, certainly not one so uninspired. However she could admit her step was offbeat after having let a child pull her like a pup on a leash.
The acrid stench preceded up the hallway from the laundries. So strong was the odor it cut through the usual cloying floral fragrances used to rectify the unsightly smells from linens. Today’s dye had come from the shell of some sort of sea creature and each of the dying vats looked to be full of scarlet ink. Lenore pushed her cart into line with the others along the wall.
The term break emboldened the other passives, they socialized a little louder than they would have otherwise dared. It did no harm that the man overseeing the laundry was near deaf or the stench warded off nearby galdori’s desire to intervene unless absolutely required.
Hefting an armful of sun-faded draperies from her trolley, with perhaps a more dramatic huff than was entirely necessary. She turned to add her mountainous bundle to the vats only to have a slender young man come between her and the tub. It was entirely too late before Lenore noticed the Passive and into the inky red pool he tumbled with the draperies. Even before they hit the water she was quick to follow, shoulder deep in and pulling off the fabrics so the boy didn’t suffocate.
The thrashing caused a foamy scum to form and droplets of dye to splash out around the two. Several around them began backing away to avoid the splattering dye hitting their uniforms. Finally her fingers grasped his collar and forced his head above the surface.