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Waiting was never fun, and it took a while. Seriph eventually came back with a small tray, holding two cups of tea, a pot and a sugar bowl. No milk, apparently, but a slice of lemon in the tea itself. I had only seen tea with lemon once before, but at least it smelled great! We sat down opposite of each other at the candle. She placed the tray on the floor, gave me one of the cups and took two sugar for herself.

"I'm sorry, but you can't rush good tea."

I took a good look at her movements, she did use her eyes. So she wasn't blind. But how did she move that precisely in the dark. It was just... unbelievable.

"If you're as curious and intelligent as I think you are, you're probably wondering how I could see you in the dark, and why I look this young."

I nodded politely. It wasn't mind-reading, but a very educated guess. "Yes."

She blew on her tea for a while, seconds passing by, before she took a small sip and answered. "My body is... strange. I haven't changed since between my fifteenth and sixteenth. My body just stopped growing, but my mind didn't. As for the seeing in the dark... Well, I'm very, very sensitive."

I blinked. "How sensitive."

"Well, my sensitivity goes beyond my skin. I can feel pressures from a fair distance away. When you tense your muscles in preparation of a move, I feel it. Your backpack probably still contains the goggles, guessing by the weight it has on your shoulders. Of course here in an empty room, I can pretty much feel everything that happens here. My other senses are sharper than normal, but not ridiculously so. Still, I prefer silence."

This took me a moment to take in. "So, if I breathe in in preparation to speak, you feel that."

She nodded. "Yes, and of course the movement of your throat, the air flowing out. Even the vibrations of your speech touches my skin."

I looked at her bare feet and the wooden floor. "Is that why your clothes are minimal and you wear no shoes?"

She smiled. "Exactly. Walking on the ground with bare feet is so lovely, I can feel every grain, even things moving below the wood sometimes. Bugs or otherwise. I love to touch things. Usually with less aggression then just now though." She winked at me, lifting the atmosphere somewhat.

I blushed, unsure of what to say. Instead I just held the pleasantly warm cup of tea in my hands.

Seriph took another tip. "Now, can you tell me anything about yourself, or do I have to guess."

I wanted to trust her, wanted to tell her who I was but there were two things stopping me. For some odd reason it didn't feel right to tell her before I told Esmeralda. She would be back any day now and I knew she wanted to know at least as much as Seriph did. Then there was the matter of trust. What she told me was about her body, but it didn't tell me anything about who she was or why she had me, or others, going into companies.

Honesty was the best way. "I don't feel completely comfortable telling you yet."

She nodded with a gentle smile. It was so odd to see her talk so grown up, the words and sounds spoken didn't match up exactly. "I understand. Mind if I make a guess already?"

I smiled. "Alright."

She spend the next few moments drinking more of hear tea and thinking. She was so focused that I just stared at her in fascination. She didn't have enough answers to figure it out. At least that's what I hoped. Would I really dislike it if she did guess it easily? I didn't know.

"Chemical testing?"

Her voice jolted me back to attention. "Eh. No."

She nodded. "It would have been unlikely. Hmm... It's just so strange how well you could move in the dark. Most people wouldn't even be able to block more than one attack, let alone keep evading me." She looked at me with her piercing eyes. "But you're not like me. Your skin wouldn't be able to bear all that cloth otherwise.:

I looked at my own pants. It was a rough fabric and, possibly, way too rough for someone with a hyper-sensitive skin. Maybe that is why she was wearing only that simple dress with nothing underneath. Now why did I think that last bit. Was she really wearing nothing underneath it? Out of stupid curiosity, mentally cursing myself, I started to look at her hips, looking for a tell-tale sign of the edge of panties. Her dress was of a light enough material to click to her body there and I saw nothing.

I blushed, happy when she spoke another guess.

"Special training perhaps, but you would have had to be taught from birth, and you don't look that athletic."

Should I feel insulted. "Eh. No. No special training."

She took another careful look at me. "I'll leave the subject for now."

I just looked thankful while she finished the rest of her tea, sip by sip, just thinking in a more gentle manner and relaxing like a cat. Her hand and lips moved ever so slowly with every sip, so nice to look at. I caught myself looking at her neck, wondering what would happen if I drank her blood.

She put the cup of tea down, gently. "Would you mind doing more jobs for me? Because I could use your special skills and I really do want to have another few guesses."

Suddenly I understood why she had the voice, I felt so stupid for not thinking of it before. But if a guy was ordered around by a 'little girl' he wouldn't trust it. And of course changing the voice as she did to me tonight, would only rouse suspicion. A clear voice of an older and serious sounding woman, would be a much easier and longer lasting solution.

I softly mumbled to myself in conclusion. "So, that's why you have her voice."

Seriph giggled. "Ah, the has penny dropped I see. But, will you?" She did know how to use her childish voice to sound like a little girl asking for ice-cream.

It wasn't much of a question though. I still wanted to learn more and adventure more. It would even make things easier if I kind of knew who was asking. Perhaps I would find out more about this whole underworld of thievery while doing all of this. The only question for me was if I wanted to keep on working at Jack.

"Yes, I will. I'm just not sure if I want to keep working in the store..."

She giggled. "Oh, I will give you plenty more toys to play with soon enough."

It's a pity toys to read handwriting are still not good enough to do the job for me. Or perhaps that is a good thing. Now I'm reading this like no one else ever will.