Senna's voice carried a hint of nervousness.
Not a ripple stirred in the hollow eyes of the woman in gray at Senna's earnest plea.
She merely floated there quietly, like a wisp of smoke that could not be grasped. Her silence itself was an invisible wall, keeping Senna shut out.
"Help?"
Only after a long while did she speak again. There was no emotion in her voice, yet it was like a cold pebble dropped into Senna's heart, sending rings of unease across its surface.
"Why should I help you?" She floated before Senna and tilted her head. Her waterfall-like silver-gray hair slid down with the motion, one strand brushing Senna's cheek. The icy touch made Senna shudder.
Senna suppressed the urge to back down and raised her head to meet her gaze. "Tell me your name."
"My name?"
The woman seemed to find the question amusing. She drifted down before a gray wall, studying the indistinct black-and-white photographs upon it.
Senna took half a step forward and gathered her courage. "Please, I need your power."
"Longing to be remembered? What a fragile wish. Memories are the most unreliable things. Like these photographs, one day they will yellow and fade, eventually becoming dust no one cares about." The woman did not turn around, nor did she respond to Senna. She merely murmured to herself as a pale, slender finger gently brushed over a blurry black-and-white photograph on the wall.
The instant her fingertip touched it, the photograph became like a weathered sand sculpture, silently crumbling into ash that drifted through the air.
As the ash scattered from her fingertips, she tilted her head slightly. "Are you afraid? Afraid others will forget you? Afraid of disappearing? Do you think such a selfish wish deserves my acknowledgment?"
Every word was like a