He could count on two hands the number of times in his life he'd vacuumed anything, and the vast majority of those times had been here in the Hotel, in Keeliai, over the last week or so. Thankfully there seemed to be very little to it. Unfortunately the task was so monotonous that it was easy to get lost in thought while he did it, between the simple pushing motion of the vacuum and the droning noise.

He'd joked before that he didn't care for introspection. It had been true then, but it had never been more true than it was now. Too many things to think about and none of them pleasant. Cleaning was meant to be a distraction--or so he assumed, judging by his own guess at Shudder's motives--not an invitation to brooding. Easier said than done.

Ravel flinched at the sound of his own name, jerking slightly as though he'd been struck. It took him a long moment of blinking to clear his vision and deep breaths to steady himself before he turned to look at Raine--

--and then immediately looked away, turning his attention back to the vacuum.

"Miss Sage."