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“The trial has started, you know,” a voice says from behind Anna as she stares into a box glowing with a harsh white static. It balances precariously atop the steel bars of a cot. She used to wonder about the strange things she’d see in the trials. At first it was rather jarring, the new sounds a bit overwhelming, but they’ve all faded to the background.
Today though, Anna had spawned in right below this box. Her eyes became trained on it — not like how a predator narrows in on a prey, more mesmerized.
She hears Meg walk up beside her and Anna finally acknowledges her with a soft hum.
“Kids these days are addicted to TVs,” Meg says, shaking her head, her tone indicating sarcasm — which Anna had become familiar with — but the joke is lost on her.
Looking down at her partner, Anna quirks her eyebrows. “What does that mean?”
“Just a stupid thing old people say,” she responds with a shrug. “From my time.”
At that, Anna goes silent. She’s normally quiet but she knows Meg can sense her shift in demeanor.
“What’s up?”
An interesting phrase. Another one Anna has needed to get used to after hearing it from Meg so many times. What is up is the deteriorating gray ceiling.
“You know your time. I do not know mine.”
They stand quietly together for a moment, both still watching the TV, as Meg called it.
“I’ve got an idea,” Meg says after a while and takes Anna’s hand, dragging her through the maze of rooms toward the center of the building. They enter the room with a desk and tall shelves of books.
“We can start here.”
“You want to read the books?”
“We can narrow it down. Maybe find something on Russian history,” Meg says. “Honestly, it’s going to take a long time. We might not even find the answers here, but I think we can do it. Eventually.”
Anna takes in the towers of books around them, dark in the dim, flickering lights. It will take ages to look through all of these. And there are many more places with books in the Entity’s Realm, if the answer is not here. But Meg stands confidently, hands on hips and a determined smile on her lips that Anna loves.
It will take time, but time is all they have. And time spent with her little fox is all she could ask for.