Lower Tadfield Safehouse

Atlan was sprawled on his bed, reading, when the knock sounded.

"Come in!" he called, without bothering to change his lounging, comfortable position.

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Well, that was unexpected. Rose opened the door and stood in the doorway with her cleaning supplies.

"Good day, Mr. von Arcon. I saw the sign on your door. Would you like me to clean the room right now or would you prefer I do so later when you're not here?"

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"Don't bother," Atlan said, already glancing back to his book. "Just go ahead and don't mind me."

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Well, if Mr. von Arcon didn't feel bothered by her rummaging around in his room while he was reading, she would do her best to ignore his presence. Rose decided to start with the dusting of all surfaces and the cleaning of the window. The room wasn't all that dirty, so some vacuuming and then a thorough cleaning of the bathroom should be all that's needed.

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Atlan continued looking into his book, but he glanced at the girl from time to time as she was working.

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Rose spontaneously decided on some windowcleaning as well when she noticed a few spots in the glass. As she never knew how much cleaning a room needed she always took supplies for almost everything with her so that wouldn't be a problem. Being less than average height - compared to human females - she needed to use a small stepladder to reach the upper part of the window. As the ladder had only two steps it was small and light enough to be tied to the rest of her supplies and carried around.

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Atlan watched her work over the rim of his book. She was a thorough one, that much was sure.

"So, is this the kind of work you choose to do, or have you fallen on hard times and are waiting for a prince to rescue you from misery?" he asked idly after a while.

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Rose visible bristled and just barely held in a growl that wanted to break from her throat.

"I'm in no misery and I most certainly don't need anyone to rescue me!" Apart from the times I actually needed help...

"I work for a living here, and when I've saved enough for the flight I'll return to my family."

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"And that would be where?" Atlan asked.

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"I'm from Canada. Where are you from? 'von Arkon' doesn't sound like an english name."

Rose still continued cleaning the room but glanced over her shoulder to Mr. von Arkon once in a while.

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"Skandinavia," Atlan said vaguely. It wasn't true, of course, but his fair complexion and white-blonde hair put him there most easily. "You've come quite far."

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Rose shrugged, but didn't stop working.

"I was visiting relatives and decided to travel for a bit. What takes you to Britain?"

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Atlan sat up on his bed, putting the book aside to look at the girl.

"This place," he admitted openly. "I has some unusual features in climate as well as population development. I'm researching social and ecological factors and how they interact."

There absolutely was no need to tell this girl about his true agenda after all, and this story would explain why he was asking questions of people.

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"Oh. Well... that sounds rather dry and boring to me, truth be told. Have you found out anything interesting already?"

Rose hoped Mr. von Arcon wouldn't feel offended by her opinion.

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Atlan smiled at her good-naturedly. He hadn't expected the cleaning girl to understand that kind of thing. Hopefully, if she thought his work was utterly boring, she would leave him alone about it, but still be willing to answer a question now and then if she felt it was important work that she merely did not understand.

"I'm still gathering information," he said. "I need a good basis for my results, after all. It's going to be some work."

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"What kind of information do you need to gather for your research? And how do you get it?"

Just because his work didn't sound all that interesting for her didn't mean she couldn't be polite and show a bit of interest.

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"I conduct some measurements in the area," Atlan explained. "And I look at old records and recent records, and I talk to people who have lived in the area to find out when and in context of which events things changed, if at all. And how far the anomaly goes out."

He pointed to a thick folder that was lying on his desk. "That's what I have so far."

His notes were all in code, so even if she had gone to snoop she would not have been able to read any of them.

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Rose took a look at the folder.

"That looks like quite a bit of information you already gathered. I hope it's helpful for your research."

She thought about his words for a moment and realized that she still didn't really understand what exactly he was looking for.

"What type of anomalies in climate and population development are you looking for? Or rather, what is considered an anomaly?"

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"An anomaly is everything that is different from what would normally be expected to happen," Atlan explained patiently. "In this case, patterns are too even. The population has remained near constant for decades. The weather has not shown any unusual peaks in at least the same time. All winters are cold, with a good amount of snow. All summers are hot and dry, with the occasional heat storm. There has not been a rainy summer or a winter too warm for anything but slush in a long time, when everywhere else, it has."

He emphasized the last with a gesture.

"That, my dear, I call an anomaly."

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Well, that sounded somewhat interesting. Weather was important to her people as well, seeing as they had a farm and lots of sheep...

"What are possible reasons for such an anomaly? Can it happen anywhere?"

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While Atlan doubted that the girl would understand the finer details, he gladly answered her questions.

"Anomalies can happen anywhere, yes. A lot more research will be needed to determine possible reasons."

He paused, thinking of a possible reason for her to ask such a question. "Have you observed something... out of the ordinary? Anything you would like to tell me about?"

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Rose shook her head in answer to the question.

"No, I haven't. But if I do, I'll tell you about it."

She swept her gaze over the room, to see if she'd forgotten to clean anywhere but it didn't look like it.

"I'm done in here, Mr. von Arcon, I'll just put the sign back on the inside handle. Do you need anything else?"

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"No, thank you," he said politely, waiting for her to leave now that she had finished cleaning. He did not expect her to actually find any anomalies - after all, she was just the cleaning girls - , but if she did it couldn't hurt if she reported them.

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