NaNoWriMo 2008: Day 9
-=The Keyholder and Sophie together, Part III Cont.=-
She did understand, sort of. Or rather, she was trying very hard to. Everything the man was telling her would have made sense if she knew a little bit more about what he was talking about. He had covered rather a lot of topics so far, but only touched on each of them briefly. Following what he was saying was like trying to watch the news on mute. You got pictures and headlines, which gave a general idea, but the complete information wasn't there. Sophie wondered to herself if maybe the man was leaving things out on purpose, of if he was just a particularly vague person by nature.
“But where do these keys come from?” she asked. This was something that had been bothering her since he had first begun explaining things. Just another part of why this whole thing didn't make complete sense. “And are these places you keep talking about are all in some alternate dimension or something? That's how they exist without anybody knowing about them, right?”
The man stared at her quietly. She could see him turning over the questions in his mind. She supposed explaining all of this to a total outsider must have been very trying for him, but she almost felt like he owed it to her, considering what he had done to the inside of her fridge. She waited.
Finally, he shrugged.
“I have no idea,” he said.
“What?” Sophie looked a little incredulous. Was he being serious?
“The keys. I have no idea where they come from.” The man looked totally unconcerned by the fact that he was clueless about something so apparently important to his lifestyle. “They've just always been there I suppose.”
“But,” Sophie leaned forward in her seat, her face twisting into a look of determination. “They can't have just come from nowhere. That's not how things happen. Everything starts somehow-”
“Well where do your keys come from?” The man interjected, a faint twinge of impatience lacing his quiet voice. To Sophie it felt like watching a storm seethe on the horizon of a still sea. She cringed and fumbled for words.
“Er...well, my keys..? I mean, keys from here are just made by people, so...”
“There's your answer then. Our keys must obviously be made by people as well.” and he left it at that.
Sophie tried to ignore the fact that the man was beginning to cut her off every time she spoke. More importantly than that, she was irritated with the idea that someone could simply pick and choose the history of how things happened, without actually knowing (or caring at all) about how it really was. This man was presumptuous, and had the air of someone who thought the world revolved around him. It wasn't an open sort of attitude, though. Just something she felt from him. Like he was whispering it to her.
She was beginning to decide that she didn't like her newly acquired company quite as much as she initially thought.
~~
-=Baroque and Islinne; Their Childhood, Part III=-
Once upon a time there were two children; one who laughed and and danced in the gardens, and one who simply looked on with a subtle hint of disinterest. Together they were the heirs to their House, and what they shared in common was that neither of them had any interest in such a future.
What interested them was a cellar, and all the doors they found within it. What interested them was the exploration of the world, their world, and the ignorance that anybody else's would matter.
Their family was rich. The children had been spoiled. They had never learned, nor indeed, needed to learn, to have any other sort of perspective on their lives.
What mattered to Islinne was her brother.
What mattered to Baroque were the doors, and all the things that were kept behind them.
~~
-=The House of Key=-
In the House of Key were held, once on every third day of the week, the Parties Dinner, hosted by the current lord and lady of the family. At the time of Baroque and Islinne's childhood, the current lord and lady of the House were their parents. Their father, head of the household and supporting pillar for the society they were a part of, had been, at least until Baroque's birth, the current inheritor of the House. He was Florian.
Their mother, true backbone for all real family affairs, and the supporting pillar for their father, was called Vignette.
The couple made a pristine, somewhat overbearing image of devotion, propriety, and etiquette.
They instilled this into their children, and the four of them together made up what their guests would call 'a perfect example of decent upbringing in the higher societies'. This was the pride of the House (at least one pride, anyhow).
The Parties Dinner always created the perfect opportunity to discreetly flaunt their children, and Florian and Vignette,-
[Continued on Day 10]
~~
Skip to:
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight
Day Nine - You are here
Day Ten
Day Eleven
Day Twelve
Day Thirteen
Day Fourteen
Day Fifteen
Day Seventeen
Day Ninteen
Day Twenty
Day Twenty-One
Day Twenty-Three
Day Twenty-Four
Day Twenty-Five
Day Twenty-Six
Day Twenty-Seven
NaNoWriMo 2009