“And sometimes, independent of someone’s being attractive to me, there’s just that… spark. Or the absence of the spark. I consider you a friend, but I don’t want you sexually or romantically.”
Perian nodded. “Oh, yes, exactly that. You know, in reverse, for me towards you. You’re attractive, but we don’t spark.”
They smiled, nodding. Then their expression suddenly turned puzzled. “Did I want to smell Brannal last night?”
Laughing again, Perian explained their determination to see if they could smell Brannal in the bed, confounded by the fact that they couldn’t remember what he smelled like.
They rolled their eyes.
“Wow. Remind me not to drink so much in the near future.”
“I think you were surrounded by people who were a lot bigger and taller than you.”
They eyed him. “You’re not that much bigger than I am.”
“But I clearly hold my alcohol better,” he observed with the superiority of not being hungover this morning.
They made a face but didn’t argue the point.
“Why don’t you use the water closet first, and I’ll go see if there’s any tea yet. You look like you could use it.”
They nodded and managed to carefully crawl out of bed as Perian headed into the sitting room and saw that the ever-efficient staff had indeed delivered breakfast. It was only for one, but portions were always generous, and Perian was sure he and Nisal would manage. There were two teacups with the tray, and Perian wasn’t sure if that meant they were way more aware of what he was doing than he wanted, or if they simply always provided two just in case someone came for a visit… or maybe in case you wanted to drink two cups of tea at once?
Perian tried to remember if there had been two cups yesterday, but he had scarcely been paying attention.
A few minutes later, Nisal emerged, looking rather damp around the edges. They appeared a little more alert, and less as though they were in pain, which was good.
Perian immediately poured them that cup of tea. “How do you take it?”
“Right now? Black like my heart.”
Perian laughed and held it out. “Black it is.”
They held it cupped in their hands, inhaled, and then sighed out with a more content look on their face. After a moment, they took their first sip.
“Better?”
They slid into the chair across from him, humming a sound of agreement that didn’t require removing their mouth from the rim of the cup.
Perian smirked and drank his own tea. (This one had milk in it because his heart wasn’t doing so badly this morning compared to Nisal’s.)
He managed to nudge them into eating by putting food on their plate when he served himself. The whole, “Oh, it’s only a little bit, why don’t you have just a mouthful or two, see how that goes down,” worked just fine to soon get them consuming their whole breakfast. And Perian, who had been having trouble eating since Brannal left, found that it was much easier to eat when he had company.
He still missed Brannal, but this was nice.
Finally, though, breakfast was over, and Nisal looked like they could function again.
“Fire and water,” they exclaimed, “I’m supposed to be with the Queen this morning! I’dbetter go.”
They rushed out. Perian finished his tea, went and got cleaned up, and then went to find out if he was capable of defending himself with a knife. Or at least, you know, holding one without cutting himself.
It went… better than Perian thought it would, but that was possibly just because he’d thought it was going to be terrible. His concentration was a little bit better today, and the time spent with his friends last night and this morning had reminded him that he really wasn’t alone.
Onadal was not about to let Perian do any actual fighting with people yet, for which he was very thankful. But there were twelve of them who were complete novices—although the ones actually training to be Warriors were training more than Perian was and thus advancing faster (or maybe they just had the aptitude). They started with safety and then worked on hand and footwork and got the feel for the blade in their hands.
Onadal actually told Perian he wasn’t quite as terrible as he had expected, which made Perian laugh and thank him. Given how much of a novice he was, he was totally willing to accept that as a compliment. Yes, he was still training with a dull blade, which he was very grateful for.
His hecklers were making snide comments and showing off, but Perian wasn’t expecting to match the actual Warriors with years of training. If they honestly didn’t have anything better to do, then Perian pitied their attention spans and the genuine enjoyment that they were going to get out of life. You didn’t really rise up any taller because you tried to stand on other people, but they had clearly not learned that lesson yet.
