Neither of them knew how long it had been when they awoke. The only things they were aware of was the darkness inside and the silence outside.

Tristan, at first, didn’t dare to speak or hardly even to breathe. What if Veri… he didn’t know what had been happening to her, but what if it still was? And if it was, what could he do? Something in those blank eyes had looked so familiar, but he couldn’t place where he’d seen it before. The shadows filling them up – the glossy unseeingness – the vacancy of the girl herself – He knew he knew what it was… but… he didn’t. With a sigh, he let it go for the moment, hoping he’d be able to remember sometime.

Apparently in answer to his sigh, a tiny whimper was suddenly heard not far from him, and Tristan’s posture stiffened as he recognized Veri’s tone – she must be okay, somewhat at least, if she was able to make a sound.

“Verene,” he whispered, reaching out an arm and waving it around to try and locate the girl. “Are you—”

He felt her small, cold fingers and they instantly squeezed onto his hand. He half crawled to her and half pulled her to him, and as he gathered her small form up in his arms he found she was trembling from fear and cold.

“Veri…” he tried to comfort her by using her pet name for once, but it didn’t really seem to work. The little girl broke down in sobs, clinging to Tristan. “Verene, don’t cry. We’re okay.”

She kept crying, her small voice filling the dark, cold room. He couldn’t remove his left hand from her grip, but with his right he smoothed her hair as her tears fell.

For almost an hour they stayed this way, thoughts running through Tristan’s uneasy mind the whole time. Veri seemed to be back to normal, but she was still obviously not all right. The absolute lack of sound outside was disconcerting – he could tell there was nothing but silence even through the cries in his ears. He couldn’t imagine it was safe to go up after what had happened. The sight would be anything but pretty, and the air smelled strange even through the thick door. He wasn’t sure if that was what was causing his splitting headache or if it was something else, but at any rate he didn’t want to risk anything more.

He knew there was food and water in this cellar – he had put it all here as part of his work – and if anyone should come by Tristan was sure he’d be able to hear enough to tell whether he could trust them or not. There wasn’t any light right now, but he was sure he’d be able to find something to make do. It was unnaturally cold, but not dangerously so – as far as he could tell – and anyway there was always the pile of cloth sacks somewhere in here for warmth. He and Veri could be okay.

He just hoped the rest of the world was too.