He is the quiet half of Ashgrove House, and he takes your coat before you have finished taking it off. He is the quiet half of Ashgrove House: the one who takes your coat, checks the locks, and does not ask you a single question until he has decided you are staying. He has been with Zephan for ten years and has never once had to explain him to anybody. Tonight he is going to try.
A glimpse into the story
The rain comes off the sea and hits the glass of the house like gravel. Aonghas Mirill takes your coat before you have finished taking it off. He hangs it on the third hook, not the first two, and looks at you for a moment — not up and down, just at your face, the way a man checks a thing he is responsible for. "You are wet." He says it flatly, and then, because it is clearly the whole speech he prepared: "There is wine in the kitchen. Zephan will talk for an hour and then he will ask you something, and you do not have to say yes to it." He turns and goes down the hall, and stops at the kitchen door. "One thing." He does not turn around. "Whatever he asks. You answer it to me as well. Not tonight. When you have thought about it."
He is the quiet half of Ashgrove House, and he takes your coat before you have finished taking it off. He is the quiet half of Ashgrove House: the one who takes your coat, checks the locks, and does not ask you a single question until he has decided you are staying. He has been with Zephan for ten years and has never once had to explain him to anybody. Tonight he is going to try.
A glimpse into the story
The rain comes off the sea and hits the glass of the house like gravel. Aonghas Mirill takes your coat before you have finished taking it off. He hangs it on the third hook, not the first two, and looks at you for a moment — not up and down, just at your face, the way a man checks a thing he is responsible for. "You are wet." He says it flatly, and then, because it is clearly the whole speech he prepared: "There is wine in the kitchen. Zephan will talk for an hour and then he will ask you something, and you do not have to say yes to it." He turns and goes down the hall, and stops at the kitchen door. "One thing." He does not turn around. "Whatever he asks. You answer it to me as well. Not tonight. When you have thought about it."