After Hours at the Arcatina IX: What Remains Unsaid

After Hours at the Arcatina — entry IX. Dawn, language, and everything these two precise women still refuse to say plainly.

Almost dawn. Last candle out. Two women who had been talking long enough to lose the subject.

That was how the best ones worked.

「少すこ しは眠ねむ るべきよ。」 — You should sleep.

「皮肉ひにく は控ひか えたほうがいい。似合にあ わない。」 — Try irony less. It doesn’t suit you.

「皮肉ひにく ではないわ。」 — That was not irony.

「それなら、なおさら説得力せっとくりょく がない。」 — Then even less convincing.

Silence — familiar enough now to count as company.

“You left Reyneese three notes this week,” Hiyori said.

「訂正ていせい よ。」 — Corrections.

“One included reading recommendations.”

「訂正ていせい は野心的やしんてき なこともある。」 — A correction can be ambitious.

“One included phrasing for a line she never asked about.”

「思わぬところで役やく に立た てた。」 — Then she benefited unexpectedly.

“And one only said: This version stands.”

That made Shiya glance over.

「そうね。」 — Yes.

「最高さいこう の賞賛しょうさん ね。」 — High praise.

「正確せいかく な評価ひょうか よ。」 — Accurate praise.

“She kept that page,” Hiyori said.

Of course she had. Reyneese kept useful things. More irritatingly, she could tell the difference between severity and dismissal without demanding the severe person translate herself into comfort first.

「気き づいているのね。」 — You notice.

Trap, observation, or kindness — from Hiyori, always all three.

「人ひと は消き えやすい。生い きていても。」 — People disappear too easily. Even when they are alive.

Hiyori’s gaze held the room without moving.

「言い わないことにも、形かたち はある。」 — Even what remains unsaid has a shape.

「ええ。だからこそ、崩くず れないように持も っている。」 — Yes. That is why we carry it carefully, so it does not collapse.

One bird committed to morning outside.

Two women did not.