"Ohhh... oh, my poor dear," the woman said, tucking a grey hair back into a bun and reaching out to touch the face of a young girl whose sleep she'd inadvertently interrupted. The woman had seen a strange shape in the porch of a closed business and gone to check if someone needed medical attention.

The girl rolled over and snapped to attention in an instant, hands up in a Ka Te defence stance. The old woman jumped back but didn't run away, concern in her eyes.

The girl on the makeshift sleeping mat sighed, apologizing to the woman.

"I'm sorry, grandmother," she said. Relians called women much older than themselves "grandmother", and there in the outskirts of the Relian capital itself, most of the population was Relian.

"My dear," the older woman said once again, catching her breath as the young girl looked up at her with bright silver eyes.

(Is she an Initiate runaway? No, I don't think so... what is that burn on her wrist? It doesn't matter.)

"Do... you need a place to stay for a bit?" the older woman asked. "My granddaughter just left to stay in the dorms at the University of Relia, so it's lonely around the house. People call me Mima," she said, reaching out a hand.

"I'm..." The silver-eyed girl hesitated, uncertain. "You can call me Six for now."

"All right," Mima responded, pulling her up from the ground. "Let's get a real meal into you."

---