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February 4 - February 8, 2024
leant
Was she attractive? How can one tell? From the gaze of a man?
She bowed and snapped her heels, as the servants did to announce their presence, but Berenilde barely glanced at her, continuing her game as though nothing had changed. Ophelia knew how furniture must feel.
“Are you coming back?” he said, gruffly. “Why?” She couldn’t stop herself from being on the defensive. In the mirror, she saw Thorn’s reflection frowning hard enough to distort his scar. “Thanks to your ability to travel through mirrors, you could keep me informed of the situation at Clairdelune. And,” he added more quietly, taking a sudden interest in his shoes, “I think I’m starting to get used to you.” He had said this last sentence in the neutral tone of an accountant, but Ophelia started to shake. Her head was spinning. Her vision was blurred. He didn’t have the right.
In the mirror, Thorn’s jaws had tightened. He, who never attached any importance to the opinion of others, seemed humiliated. “I had predicted that you wouldn’t last the winter, and you’ve proved me wrong. You deem me incapable of one day offering you a decent life; would you permit me, in turn, to prove myself?”
On Anima, baptisms, marriages and funerals were all celebrated very simply, at the Familistery. The people over here certainly had a sense of decorum.
Forgetting the dead was like killing them a second time.
She studied Mime from head to toe with a sneering curiosity, then beckoned him over to whisper something in his ear: “You look so insignificant, it almost makes you special. Do you, too, have a few little things to hide, sonny? Deal done.”
“Might he be a bit stupid, your family spirit?”
She suddenly recalled that day when her sister had given her some advice, in the hair salon, a few hours before Thorn’s arrival. What was it she’d said, again? “Charm is the strongest weapon given to women, you must use it without scruples.” As the lift began to ascend again, the mechanical issue having been resolved, Ophelia promised herself never to follow her sister’s advice. Scruples were very important.
