5th of Searing
Recovering from attempting to copy what he remembered of Degare's eyes had taken days. Vivian had floated in and out, and he still thought he could see flecks of red floating across his vision every once in a while. The headache had lasted three days, and he'd been lucky Degare's private bathroom had been there. He'd had to crawl into the tub and sip water from the tap. Even keeping water down had been difficult the first two days. By the third he could sit up, though a persistent headache still emerged from the depths to drive hot needles behind his eyes.
When he finally emerged on the fourth day from the bedroom, he'd gotten a loud dressing down from the head of household about sneaking into Degare's room. Unsurpisingly, a rolled rug was stuffed under the doorjamb to prevent him from slipping inside again. That was fine; Vivian didn't intend to go into the man's room ever again.
He sat at the breakfast table nursing a cup of tea, nibbling at some zucchini bread the cook had given him. The man had taken pity on him, and added a little butter to the bread. Vivian made a note to give him a good lay later. He rubbed at his eyes and chewed the bread. It must have been good by the moist texture, but mageblight made it taste like gravel.
"Note to self; stealing faces isn't for the fainthearted." he mumbled, washing down the bread with his tea. He'd slept in and out of consciousness for almost three days just for attempting to copy eyes. Gods, he feared what would happen when he got enough experience to change himself into another man. He moaned pathetically and put his cheek on the table. The cool mahogany smelled faintly of lemon oil and was cool to the touch.
The sound that came from the door sounded like it wanted to cleave his skull in twain. He whimpered, covering his ears. The knocking sounded like the gods were ringing on his soul! Who the hell could it be? It was still morning. Ye gods, was it Degare? Would he know what he'd tried to do? He shrank in his chair, trying to curl up around his breakfast and teacup.
