Topaz was asleep when Ruby came home, since she hadn't done much sleeping the night before, but the downstairs door shut forcefully enough that it roused her a little. By the time her twin threw open the door to their shared room, Topaz was rubbing the sleep from one eye and just starting to sit up. She ached a little, as she always did the day after a full moon, but this wasn't one of the worse nights. She'd put the bruise balm on before she'd gone to sleep that morning, just after dawn. She could probably do with one more application and then go back to sleep, if Ruby didn't need anything too important.

Except apparently Ruby did have something important to say — or else she was confused. Topaz hoped for the latter. "Who?" she asked as she propped herself up on her hands in the bed. "You mean someone from the newspaper?"

---