do i not bleed too;
Past-set, right after the Ravenous Hunt, continuing from the events of The Worst is Yet to Come. Basileios, in disguise, helps the wounded Lasair to the place he's been staying at, and they reflect on their respective downward paths.
Bas: 39 gold total
Lasair: 36 gold total
Lasair
He had his back to her when she looked at the pauper's scrapings he put next to her, and how could she not sneer at it? Lifting up a corner of it with the barest edges of her claws and spying, horror upon horrors, a speck of mold underneath a slice. Or perhaps it was a poppyseed, but she tore it off anyway, uninterested in looking at it any longer than she had to.
She'd been a ruler of a noble house and now ruled an underground kingdom of men. She had roast duck in wine glaze for an apperatif, not....bread.
But that hunger drove her hand, and she found herself taking a bite as she leveled a glare at her host who selfishly hoarded the hard liquor to himself. It tasted like ash and glue mixed together, and she could liken the seeds to gravel if she really wanted to push it. And then the piece was gone, and the next, and the water cup downed so quickly that a trail of it ran down her throat.
She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, feeling her hunger roar to life, insatiable. She felt like she had an abyss for a stomach, and though the food had helped settle her nerves, it just made her want more.
Lasair eyed the bottle that he raised to his lips, and gods, she wanted it wanted it wanted it, and had to force her attention away to something else, lest she risk whatever dignity she had left. "You never answered my question in the woods," She murmured, settling back into the couch with a wince. "Do you make this a habit, this...good samaritan act? Don't tell me you're one of those...nngh, bleeding hearts for every damned stray you come across."
She glanced at the bottles strewn across the room, the state of disarray that felt horribly familiar. "I can't say it suits you."