Cynn Numair's office was cold and grey; the lamps and fireplace were not lit, and the daylight falling in from the balcony door and diffusing through the drapes was wan and silvery. Outside everything was likewise a flat, foggy grey, and the land was just a bruise color blurring into the sky. The office seemed entirely unoccupied, except that Cynn Numair sat silently at the desk, writing. Sraddi perched at her place next to the desk, also totally silent, head directed at the doors of the office.

It was a long while before the double doors slid open. The person that entered the room was also Cynn Numair, but this one was wearing a very simple outfit composed of a long olive skirt, clunky tan boots, and a deep red overcoat with bone buttons. The hood, concealing his dark, wavy hair, was the only thing not entirely mundane about the outfit--small golden magical symbols winked from its edge.

This Numair strode across the room, set down an unmarked canvas bag on the desk with a thump, and announced, < I am late. >

The Numair at the desk--this one wearing a proper Aetherian collared shirt and a deep ochre-orange embroidered sash pinned with a small mirror-bright copper brooch--barely seemed startled by this. He merely stopped writing and sat up a bit.

Sraddi leaned over. < Welcome back, > she said, in a voice like someone talking through a brass pipe over a great distance. The Numair in the overcoat began pulling things out of the bag: a pair of over-ear headphones, an instruction booklet, a book on terrestrial radio.

< Thank you, Sraddi, > he said, all businesslike. < I do not know how anyone relies on buses in Enodia. They seem to possess their own sense of entropy. What have we got? > he added, and plucked the paper that the other Numair had been writing on up. The other Numair seemed unruffled by this, merely moved his hand out of the way.

Numair regarded the paper for a moment, free hand busy unbuttoning his coat. He then waved the paper at Sraddi.

< You see this, > he said musingly, < it almost looks like letters this time. >

< You are due at the Assembly, > Sraddi answered mildly.