Trouble Personified
Vess had been very specific about what she wanted when she found the rental listing away from the city. Ground floor access to outside. No neighbors. A kitchen that wasn't embarrassing. She had found all of it, plus an overgrown garden nobody had touched in at least one season and a valley view that stretched far enough to make the horizon feel generous. She had transferred the credits, filed the aliases; Lily had not argued. That alone told her more than either of them had said out loud since the shuttle lifted off Humbarine.
The property was pale stone and faded blue shutters, broad and low, with a wide covered terrace that caught the last of the evening light. Vess had supplies delivered ahead of their arrival real food, nothing that came in a foil packet, and a bottle of something she'd selected with actual consideration rather than just grabbing the nearest option. Vess slung a bag over her shoulder and stepped out of the shuttle, waiting for Lily to join her.
She dropped her bag by the door and made her way into the kitchen. Vess grabbed a pan and put it on to heat. Something simple. She hadn't asked what Lily wanted because she already had a reasonable idea, and asking felt like more ceremony than the moment needed. "The good news is the valley smells nothing like Humbarine. The bad news is I can only make about four things, and I'm already making one of them. The bottle on the counter is better than anything we had at the Celestine Meridian," she added, glancing up briefly with something that was almost a smirk. "I looked it up. Don't ask me to pronounce it. I figured we could use it."
It wasn't that the weight of Humbarine wasn't there. It was. She could still feel the edges of it the way you feel a bruise you haven't looked at yet, present, specific, waiting. The sound of Lily's scream in that corridor wasn't something that was going to leave her in a hurry. Neither was the feeling of throwing up those mental walls with shaking hands and no real confidence they would hold, kneeling on a floor while everything outside roared and pressed and made itself enormous, or the pain and fear she felt before she blacked out and woke up with the battle being over. Or the nightmare. For the moment, being away from Humabrine was enough. "Glasses are in the cupboard above you," Vess said, nodding toward it without turning fully. "Pour me one, would you?"
TAG:
Lily Rhodes