That's right, I have crawled out from under my two obsessively clingy cats, just long enough to go somewhere with wifi and post this.
Trying to type with a kitten sitting on your arm, while adorable, is really hard. but I couldn't move her… she only has about 20 minutes every week that she gets sleepy enough to sit quietly and not try to rip my arms to shreds. Whenever she gets this way, she really does just flop down on whatever part of my body is closest.
Small talk. Small talk is bad. I cannot do the small talks. If it isn't about cats or about food, I am unsure how to speak of it. So, if the small talk within this chapter seems awkward and forced… that's because it is.
The day had been a disaster. The rice flour had, mistakenly, not been included in their usual order that morning, one worker hadn't shown up at all, and another, after having dropped three whole gallons of soaking beans onto the floor, had left, nearly in tears, within an hour of coming in. With so much extra work, it was to be expected that Nasira would be leaving a couple hours late, stomach grumbling from having no time to even scarf down a few bites of her own lunch due to the mad rush to finish on time. The panic that days like this aroused in other people was absurd, it only serves to cause more problems, but she knew the rush just went their heads
The boss in particular was nearly going out of his mind trying to make everything happen at a pace physically impossible. Shouting was not an unusual occurrence, but the generally good-natured yells across the large, noisy room, simply to relay some joke or other, had quickly become impatient cries of outrage. Everyone knew not to take the bosses shouts personally on a day like this, but the insults could wound a person, nonetheless.
Between the shouting, the hunger, and the overwork, Nasira wanted nothing more than to sit and stare at a wall for a few hours with a bowl of something crunchy to munch on. Walking out of the kitchen and starting her walk out of the castle she passed several servants chatting happily in groups, and cheerful novices looking to impress their friends with tales of their most recent assignments.
'How can people be so happy all the time? Don't they have any idea the misery people go through just to feed them?'
Nothing was going to slow her down. She had a dress to buy, dinner to make, and an awkward apology to finish by the end of the day. 'Further distractions are not allow-' Just as Nasira turned the next corner, she saw a most fearsome sight. Something so horrendous, so vile, she immediately scurried back to where she had just been. The mentor was headed this way.
'What now? What do I do? Did he see me? I don't think he did… He was looking down at some scroll. He's coming this way! Hide!'
Crouching behind one end of a conveniently located cabinet was her only option. There were few doors in this hall, but she knew none of them were available to her. She couldn't bring herself to look as he passed, she kept her front facing the cabinet, head down, staring intensely at the floor. Had she been able to hear his footsteps it would have been much easier to gauge his location and determine when she could leave. Such an ability would have also made his inquiry to her much less of a surprise.
"Just what… are you doing?" Truth be told, Altair had been watching her for several moments before he could bring himself to ask, hoping to understand her reasoning. He had caught a glimpse of her rushing back around the corner when she had seen him. She was clearly hiding from him, but for what purpose? All he could assume is that she was terribly shy and didn't know how to approach people.
Of course, she would be unable to hide, he was some sort of demigod after all. How could she have expected him not to have noticed? Turning around, but still not looking up she fumbled for a reason "I… uhh…" 'Just what kind of excuse is going to get me out of this? I'm sitting on the floor like a fool! The floor! Yes!' "I dropped something. I am… I'm simply looking for it"
'it could have been better, but it sounded… believable enough… right?'
Dropped something? He could have, and nearly had, laughed at the pitiful excuse. But this could be a chance to interact with her, maybe if he played along for a little while he would have a chance to speak with her. Besides, Malik would have his head if he passed up this opportunity. "I'll help you look for it, what did you drop?"
Absolutely not, there was no way. Was he on to her ruse? Did he have some ulterior motive for being unnecessarily helpful toward strangers? Or was he legitimately just trying to be of assistance to others? "no, no, I… I won't… I couldn't ask you to do that, I'll find it on my own." Gesturing almost wildly with her hands, she only hoped he didn't see her panic.
Altair had expected the refusal, after all, this was just a sham. Regardless, it brought a minuscule smile to his lips. Terrible as he may be for thinking this way, her distress was… amusing. Crouching down to her level, hoping to ease the tension in her face, he pressed on. "I insist. I have some time before I'm needed elsewhere."
"Really, I don't want to inconvenience you. I'm sure you have much more important things to… do…" Merely the look in his eyes was enough to make her lose the will to argue. She wished she hadn't looked up at him. Clearly, he would not be backing down. If she waited a little while, perhaps he would just give up and leave. "Alright, it was… my… my necklace. The chain must have broken." Nasira knew full well, her necklace was still in its rightful place, around her neck, hidden under her dress. Wearing jewelry was prohibited in the kitchen, but she liked having it on, the weight around her neck was comforting.
Good, she had agreed without any more trouble. Though it wasn't like he would have given her the chance to refuse. Standing, he made to help her up, but as she saw his hand moving, she grabbed the edge of the cabinet above her and rushed to pull herself up. "where might you have dropped it?"
"um…" 'better not to involve anyone else in this. As long as we don't enter the kitchen no one should question us' "Somewhere in the back hallways, between the servant's entrance and the kitchen door. It wouldn't be anywhere in the kitchen though. I'd have seen it while I was cleaning up." Nasira couldn't look in his eyes, she was afraid he knew it was a fraud. But if he knew why not just call her out? No, had he known he would have said so from the start.
Ten minutes into the search and he seemed just as determined as before. The two had been meandering their way through the halls, eyes glued to the ground. In total silence. Nasira was too afraid to speak, wondering why he hadn't gotten frustrated and left yet, and Altair was busy trying to look like he was searching. Of course, he wasn't looking, nothing was lost. Instead, he spent this time examining the girl next to him.
Unremarkable, that was the most suitable word that came to mind. She was perfectly average. With small, slightly slanted brown eyes, longer, light brown hair tied back in a braid, rather thin facial features, and a lean build that showed clear signs of years of manual labor. Even after a full day of work she still looked quite well kept. Her hair remained mostly contained within the braid, only a few strands had broken free, and her dress remained smooth and mostly unstained from the work. Though he could see a few very faded splotches of grease that had likely just been impossible to wash out.
Her nervous behavior was the only thing about her that looked particularly out of place. The fingers of her left hand shook as they toyed with the end of her braid, her eyes flitting about as she pretended to search. What could he do to make her feel more at ease? Maybe if he broke the silence. But what to say…? Well, his goal was to get to know her, he supposed he should start with the basics. "We've not been properly introduced. You are?" There was no need to give his own name, anyone living in Masyaf already knew him.
Visibly jolting at the introduction, she paled. 'what could possibly make him want to know who I am? Unless… he wants to be able to find me in order to destroy everything I hold dear… no, no. that… that's ridiculous. Stop being so paranoid.' Registering that her silence looked a tad suspicious, she quickly blurted out her reply "N-Nasira. My name is Nasira."
Seems she wouldn't be reciprocating his attempt to converse, if the continued silence was anything to go by. Guess he needed to be more proactive. "How long have you worked in the castle? I can't recall when I started seeing you, so it must have been a few years at least."
Why was he… engaging in small talk with her? Surely these things weren't interesting to him, and she doubted he had any reason to ask. "six years." She would answer him, but it would be as short and as vague as possible.
Again, nothing extra. She might not have much to say. Asking such basic questions, it was probably difficult to come up with a long response. He could try asking something else. Safe topics… well, they were supposedly looking for a necklace, might as well ask about that. He wondered for a moment if she even had one, or if it had just been the first thing to come to mind. "This necklace must be important, if you're willing to spend so much time searching for it."
Important? Not at all, she had merely seen it one day, while walking through the market a couple years ago and, thinking it was pretty, decided she could afford to splurge on herself just a little. But she wouldn't be telling him that, not after all this. "it was… given to me by someone very special to me" her face started to flush a little, so she lowered her head, trying to hide it. Lying wasn't something she was used to. Though, she told herself to ease her conscience, this wasn't completely a lie, she was very special to herself after all.
There, she was lowering her guard. But someone special? Altair needed more information. While this necklace could be just as fake as the need to look for it, she may also be telling the truth about at least this. Should she already be taken by another man, he wouldn't want to get in the way of that. Look at this as a covert mission, he needed to be subtle, gather the knowledge, without being found out. Nasira didn't seem the type to welcome terribly forward questions. "Oh? You treasure it this much? Could you mean a romantic kind of special?"
Making a point of searching in a corner, behind one of the many plants that the servants liked to keep in the corridors, they claimed it helped people destress, he avoided her eyes. Altair didn't want to seem too invested in her answer, but how many ways could you ask if someone was already involved without being too obvious?
Answering was mostly by habit, Nasira was used to people asking about her relationship with Kaaf. So, busy bending down, pretending to investigate a crack in the floor, she denied the implication without much thought. "No, I don't have any attachments like that. Though one of my friends is always giving people the wrong impression… never mind, you probably don't care to hear about that" she had just remembered who she was talking to, she couldn't afford to tell him too much. What if he really did have some ulterior motives for asking? No, better to leave things vague.
Was this her personality, or did she not want to talk to him specifically? She had been so close to expanding on something without his prompting. At least he would be getting some conversational practice from all of this. Holding in his sighs was taking more effort with every verbal exchange.
The pair had almost made it to the kitchen, and she still had no intention of telling him the truth. Just how much longer would she need to pretend? Would he back down if she gave him another out? "you know, you really don't need to help me any longer. I'm sure you have something better to do than wonder the halls like this. Besides, someone else might have already picked it up."
"Trying to get rid of me? Sorry, I'm not one to give up." Such a natural smile, small as it might have been. Astounding. Nasira was not aware that this… creature… was capable of smiling. She had assumed that after killing as many people as he had it would be impossible show any positive emotion outwardly. There she went again, with her ridiculous delusions. 'Of course he can smile, he's still human… he is human… isn't he?' a question she had asked herself so many times, but was no closer to answering.
'that isn't important right now! How am I supposed to get him to give up?' Miserable situation in mind, she continued her 'search', as they made it to the kitchen and turned around to go back and search again. She could only keep this up for so long… he was no fool, eventually he would put the pieces together and call her out on this fraud. Nasira needed a solution, fast.