Maria climbed the stairs slowly, placing every step with care for her dulled sense of balance. She nodded wordlessly to Lily, turning to look down the dimly lit hallway. The door of her room for the night stood out, one of the few on the corridor. Forcing the door open, Trinan stepped into the room and immediately set to work darkening it, paying no mind to Lindwell's personal accommodations. It was what she figured a regal bedroom would look like, but she wasn't interested in standing around passing judgment on the man's taste in decoration. She folded her vest, laying it on the floor, and fell onto the top of the bed. Softness smothered her senses, and Maria laid there for a while, content. Her mind ran one more checklist, habit's final action of the day. She already needed clothes, that continued to sit at the top of her list. The entire situation was idiotic, and her own assessment gave her pause. Her miniscule reputation was held aloft primarily by her reputation for personal, some would argue reckless, action as an officer and even she was perturbed by the singular lack of forethought in this entire operation, on her part and others.
Prep day? A preparatory hour would have been sufficient, but was withheld still. Grumbling face down into the bed, and dreading the coming morning, Trinan succumbed to comfort and lapsed into sleep.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 2
The brick came back down, her fingers cracked in unison as the ruined digits crumpled and splayed under the impact. Her screams were locked behind a ruined jaw, only a gurgle, forced to spectate silently as it struck one last time. Maria's eyes fluttered open, she was sitting beside Ethan's bed. The soldier held her legs close, apparently she had fallen asleep resting her chin on her knees after the first few rounds. Sighing in exasperation and exertion, she pushed her way to her feet, and looked around the morning lit room. It was definitely not her own, and slowly her mind began to recollect and piece the world together. It was time to get to work, hopefully Lindwell had no objections with her dedication to hygiene. It never struck her as a strange habit for a soldier to have, just because her and her scouts were content to live like dogs in the field didn't mean they had to at home, but it had been said enough. Again, she twisted the door open and made her way out into the hallway and wasted no time in heading for the front room.
Over Lieda, the first hints of sunlight had crept over the horizon. It was early morning, but the city's streets remained busy. The snow had settled in to stay, but as if in apology the morning sky remained a perfectly empty stage. Mild coldness hung in the air, a turn down from the harsh, windy chill of the day before. Even if the weather was forgiving, the people were not. After only one exposure, the citizens of Lieda had learned their lesson, and everywhere winter clothing was the norm for those who could find it. The quietness of such a peaceful looking morning was completely foregone in the city. Shouts and cries muffled by distance reverberated throughout the streets, and the din of thousands of conversations made sure that a drone hung over the town no matter where one went. The disturbance before the House of Affairs had dissipated into obscurity, even the subsequent quarantine established by investigating gendarmes had disappeared into the evening. Within the capitol, the affairs of the day were merely beginning as politicians and the occasional marshal found their way to work, but the capital never truly stopped moving forward.
