Room 99, Frozen Prior to Ch. 30
Sep. 2nd, 2020 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
we_bring_hellThe room is spartan; sufficient to her needs. There is a single painting on the wall, painstakingly straight. It seems to be a mounted jigsaw puzzle of a tower at sunset. There is the faintest smell; some kind of organic ash, mixed with the oil of a mechanism. It's not unpleasant.
Her robe has somehow transitioned to the closet, and there's a skeleton on a stand in the corner; she recognizes the ribs. It grins at her familiarly. In the closet there are rows of long-sleeved shirts much like her usual habit, and some other shirts she frowns at. In a drawer there are trousers and spare niqabs and gloves and socks. Her journal is here on the desk.
This is all burying the lede: perpendicular to the white, crisp bed is a second one. There is also a set of free weights in one corner for some reason.
On the table by the bed is a device she only vaguely recognizes the function of, but it seems to be active. She presses the universal glyph for play. After listening to the strange yet familiar apocalyptic hymn, she lets the songs keep playing, but only the second one holds her interest.
She finds another CD in the drawer and puts it in; the first words send prickles up her spine; it's about running away and checking into a spartan room to hide from loss.
Half the words she hears mean nothing to her, but the other half pierce her through.
I write down good reasons to freeze to death
In my spiral ring notebook
But in the long tresses of your hair
I am a babbling brook
She plays it all the way through, and then again, and then again, and then again, and then she listens to the seventh song until she knows it word-perfect, even the words that are gibberish to her.
A new Milliways day finds Harrowhark at a table in the bar, studying her notes, black trousers and shirt and niqab. The key to room 99 is on the table before her, and she sings tunelessly under her breath, when that day is coming who can say, who can say. In Canaan House, time is frozen.
Her robe has somehow transitioned to the closet, and there's a skeleton on a stand in the corner; she recognizes the ribs. It grins at her familiarly. In the closet there are rows of long-sleeved shirts much like her usual habit, and some other shirts she frowns at. In a drawer there are trousers and spare niqabs and gloves and socks. Her journal is here on the desk.
This is all burying the lede: perpendicular to the white, crisp bed is a second one. There is also a set of free weights in one corner for some reason.
On the table by the bed is a device she only vaguely recognizes the function of, but it seems to be active. She presses the universal glyph for play. After listening to the strange yet familiar apocalyptic hymn, she lets the songs keep playing, but only the second one holds her interest.
She finds another CD in the drawer and puts it in; the first words send prickles up her spine; it's about running away and checking into a spartan room to hide from loss.
Half the words she hears mean nothing to her, but the other half pierce her through.
I write down good reasons to freeze to death
In my spiral ring notebook
But in the long tresses of your hair
I am a babbling brook
She plays it all the way through, and then again, and then again, and then again, and then she listens to the seventh song until she knows it word-perfect, even the words that are gibberish to her.
A new Milliways day finds Harrowhark at a table in the bar, studying her notes, black trousers and shirt and niqab. The key to room 99 is on the table before her, and she sings tunelessly under her breath, when that day is coming who can say, who can say. In Canaan House, time is frozen.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 04:37 am (UTC)She sounds younger and more informal than she ever has; almost giddy.
"It was astounding. I can't even begin to imagine how this might change what I know. Elemental thanergy. Magic beyond necromancy. Beyond..." She hesitates before saying it, but there is no Eighth House here. "Beyond God Himself."
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 04:46 am (UTC)"In my years of visiting this place, I have discovered that there is much to be learned from other worlds," she observes, decades of training keeping her composure in place despite the informality of her posture. "I am glad you are finding it so, as well."
Her tone is still wry, though, with more than a little bit of wonder in it.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 04:51 am (UTC)"If I show you how we do notation," she says tentatively, "could you diagram the portal weave for me?"
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 04:58 am (UTC)"I can attempt to do so, but I will insist that you do not try it alone, at least at first. That weave is extremely dangerous if one loses control; it has been known to burn out poorly prepared women in the past."
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 05:08 am (UTC)Harrow has never, ever attempted incredibly dangerous magic that was beyond her!
(Because technically, it has never been beyond her.)
"And I shall accept that delay. A quiet afternoon of thaumocryptology sounds ideal, in fact. I would like to hear more about your Source, if you would favor me."
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 05:19 am (UTC)"I shall be glad to tell you."
A beat of silence.
"Once we have both moved from the floor, and perhaps secured a cup of tea."
no subject
Date: 2020-09-06 05:24 am (UTC)