Vivien and the Scoria

Chapter 8: A Lesson in Patience

AN: I was in the mood to re-write a chapter, so this happened. Please ignore any irregularities you may find, I was kinda tipsy whilst writing this and couldn't be bothered to go over the previous chapters to make sure that everything flowed. For those who didn't catch onto this in the previous chapter, Viv's 'bindings' are the Merasan equivalent to a bra. I couldn't be bothered to come up with a better name, so it's sticking with that at this point. 

Please enjoy this new chapter!

-amphimere

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1st night hour

Vivien's house

Mount Api

4th Year of Lord Tante's rule

The young man from Twister's shop sat down gingerly on one of the three chairs around the table near the washbasin, his eyes carefully averted from the pile of bloodstained, dirty clothes in the corner. He could not seem to bring himself to look me in the eye either, after our earlier confrontation at the front door. The wraith remained seated quietly upon my bed, a prominent figure in the room, and yet, unnoticed by the young man. Not that I was complaining at this point - the less weird questions he asked, the better.

I had pulled on Annabelle's dress from my trunk, and now sat uncomfortably on one of the other chairs by the table, doing my best to ignore the chair currently in the middle of the room, which I had been sitting on when interrogating the wraith. Gods, he must have thought that I was a complete weirdo. Neither of us said a word as many minutes passed, the sounds of revelry growing and fading in volume as parties of people walked up and down the street outside.

Finally, he broke the silence that was expanding in awkwardness. "My name's Blaze. Uh, you're Vivien right?" I gave him a deadpan glare, then rolled my eyes in exasperation. Was he for real?

"It would have been fucking awkward for you if I wasn't Vivien, wouldn't it?" I replied sarcastically. He chuckled, looked down, and rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand nervously. His feet, enclosed in smart leather boots, began tapping out a rhythm as he stared down at them rather than meet my eyes. The silence continued after that, but didn't last long.

"Umm. You were Will's best friend - uh, sister, I guess - right?" I nodded as I couldn't be bothered to give such a stupid question an articulate answer. Will was known all across Merasa, and thus, his family was as well. I had been his family for almost as long as I could remember, and everyone knew me in relation to Will because of that. Some people may have known me more because of my tendency to get in trouble with the Lords and Ladies of the mountains more than as Will's sister, but the point still stands.

"Of course, right, that was a stupid question. Uh...I - uh - I guess...I knew Will too. He was a good friend." Blaze blurted out, cheeks flushing once more with embarrassment. This made me sit forward on my chair. When I had seen him in Twister's apothecary, I had not thought for a moment that he might have a connection to Will. He had just seemed like a traveller to the region, going to do business with Twister for whatever reason, and had gotten roped into whatever plan Rowan and Rael had concocted.

"How did you know Will?" I asked, shifting so that I was sitting on the edge of my chair, ready to threaten him with my daggers for information if he didn't tell me quickly. He made note of this, I could tell, as his eyes moved sharply between my hands and the daggers in their sheath buckled around my waist. His legs tensed, ready to move out of the way if I came at him, but I was confident enough that I could get to him before he got out the door.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you! Just please, don't stick me with your daggers." I crossed my arms, and began tapping my foot, waiting. He seemed to be able to tell that I was waiting for him to speak, so he began, rather quickly, I might add.