Zan appears to consider that question seriously, regarding the loaf of bread critically. “An old friend used to make the best bread I’ve ever had. My bread standards are high.”
An old friend. Imagine, a dragon having a friend who would bake him bread.
But five hundred years have passed.
His friend is dead.
Zan isn’t, though.
Abruptly I say, “I didn’t risk my life for bread. And I didn’t risk it all, unlike you. Why were you even coming here?”
“Are you even going to eat the food you’re so carefully not looking at?”
Damn it, he noticed.
I purse my lips, glaring at him mildly.
He gives me a vaguely annoyed look of challenge in return.
Zan isn’t a priest.
Even annoyed with me, he’s not withholding food.
Fuck it.
I reach for the cheese with one hand and the jam with the other.
Dairy and sugar: my two great food loves.
Nuts would probably be good for me and I don’t dislike them, but this is the first food I’m going to taste in centuries and maybe it’s okay for it to be sweet.
Zan passes me a piece of bread. I layer just an incredible amount of jam on it and then a mound of cheese and then some more jam on top.
His expression gradually shifts from annoyance to increasing bemusement to carefully bitten-back laughter.
My snack is now so tall it almost doesn’t fit in my mouth, but by the gods I will make it.
I open my mouth as wide as I can and shove it in.
Rich blackberry jam. Creamy cheese. I can’t tell if the bread is good, to be honest; it’s basically just a vessel for delivery of my sugar fat.
Bliss.
When I open my eyes, Zan’s expression is no longer amused, but keen.
Like he can see the shape of all I’ve hidden for so long.
I swallow and shove some more food in my mouth.
I wasn’t sure I would ever wake up, and now that I have, I’m not really sure how to feel about it or what to do.
But the mechanics of maintaining my body are long ingrained, so for now I’ll just chew.
So it’s Zan who next abruptly breaks the silence. “I was betrayed. A potential contact I was evaluating, so it’s not a huge shock, but the timing was unfortunate. I had to risk using them after a run-in with the Order, so I was already low in magic.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
