So— he hadn’t seen her since the festival. Unusual given the fact that before that, Silas had spent much of his time wandering into the tea shop where she worked. Lately, however, he actively made the choice to go inside the doors of their competition and hadn’t fully pinned down exactly why. Maybe it was because it all felt too different, they had seen each other outside of a work setting and could no longer call Ophelia just an acquaintance. His mind drifting towards the curiosity of how she might be doing and if she had, at all, noticed his absence. Not exactly a thought that he wanted to be caught in, but their little game of chess was intriguing and Silas couldn’t ignore the allure of the rootless ground. That’s why he found himself inside again, sitting at an antique table that was probably older than he was now and nursing a lukewarm tea. “How are you settling in?” he asked, filling the air with something other than the lingering silence between them.