Tilli supposed Key hadn't technically told them she was going to bed, but she had implied it, so Tilli was surprised to return to their room to find it empty. But with Key gone, Tilli was free to work on her artwork. Tilli wasn't sure why it bothered her to do art in front of Key. She had made that beautiful fox, after all. But she'd always been used to keeping her passion a secret. Not sure what, exactly, she wanted to draw, Tilli took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and let it go. Then she put charcoal to paper and let it guide her as she slipped into her thoughts.
She started with several straight lines breaking off at a corner and smiled as she recognized the wing of Mat's airplane as it had landed in front of her feet. She was working on the wrinkles in the nose when a knock at the door interrupted her. She shut her sketchbook and placed the nearest book on top of it. As Tilli stood up, she realized how stiff she was. She glanced at the clock on the wall. She'd been working for almost an hour. Tilli stretched her arms as she walked to the door, trying to work the kinks out of her shoulders.
When the door swung open, Mat was on the other side. Though he wore his prosthetic leg, he leaned on his crutch and panted slightly, as if he was out of breath from climbing the stairs, but when he spoke there was something more in his voice than a journey up two flights of stairs. "Is Key sleeping?"
"Uh... she's... not here."
Mat took in a sharp breath. After a stunned silence, he said, "Did she... did she say where she was going?"
"She hasn't... been here since I got back from dinner." Tilli felt a twinge of guilt from admitting this to Mat, as if she were betraying Key's secret.
Mat's eyes darted back and forth, as if he thought his sister might be standing right in front of him, invisible."She... didn't... okay.""Is it anything I can help you with?"
Now Mat glanced up and down the hallway. "I... she has something that's mine."
"Maybe we can find it?" Tilli hoped Key wouldn't mind her brother rifling through her things.
"I can... thank you..." Mat breathed as Tilli stepped aside to let him into the room. He breathed even heavier now, as if walking into the room took more energy than climbing the stairs had.
"What is..." She half expected him to start tearing the room apart, frantically looking for the missing object, but he just stood there, helpless.
"It's... a thermos," Mat struggled to get the words out. "It heats water. For making..." Mat's breath caught in his throat. "Where would she put it," he muttered in Zhohu, "Maybe she left it in her bag..."
"No." Tilli had not forgotten how much tea Key had brought with her."It's in a dresser." She opened the second drawer. Sure enough, there were several boxes of tea and the thermos.
A wash of relief swept over Mat's face as he grabbed the thermos. His hands shook slightly as he tried to open it and his breathing grew ragged again.
"Here." Tilli gently pried the thermos from his grip. She opened it and went to fill it from the drinking fountain down the hall. She heard a small gasp from Mat as she left, but she ignored him for the moment. When she came back in, he stood over her desk. Wind rushed in her ears and she almost dropped the thermos. "What... what are you looking at?" she tried to remain calm.
Mat jumped and turned. "Sorry." He spoke more calmly now. "I noticed you had a copy of Marcus Pfieffer's journal." This was apparently the book she had put on her drawing pad.
"Yeah. We're reading it for survey of Imk literature. Ida's too. We're comparing them."
"I always wanted to read them, but... I mean, they went so many places. I wanted to know all about it." Mat scanned the other books that stood on the back of her desk. Tilli scanned them too and found her battered copy of Ida Pfieffer's travel journal. Her teacher had distributed copies, but she'd brought her own on the hunch they'd be required reading. She held the book out of Mat, which he accepted with shaking hands. He flipped through it for a moment and then drew in a sharp gasp. Tilli remembered the thermos and handed it to him. "Um... do you want to borrow the book?"
Mat shook his head and placed the book on the desk. "I don't... you need it. For class." Tilli didn't mention that she had already read both journals several times. She also didn't ask Mat whether he knew Imk. Instead, she took some tea from Key's drawer and dropped it into the open thermos. Mat turned a metal plate on the bottom, which bore a familiar symbol for temperature magic.
"Um... do you need anything else?"
Mat shook his head. Then he left the room, and putting his hand through the top of his crutch, closed the door behind him.
