Though often she preferred her solitude to company,
Ralene almost wanted the intrusion of this stranger to keep her thoughts from spinning out of control. The Initiate could not recall a time when she had been out of commission for such an extended period. It made her feel weak. Made her feel inept. Made her feel like a failure ... and those were three things Ral thought she'd overcome several years ago after she began to find her stride among the class.
But there wasn't anything to be done, that's what she told herself. She'd lost too much blood from the stab wound and hadn't known she was poisoned until much later, when she hadn't the wherewithall to detoxify herself and maintain enough energy to keep marching after the target.
She'd been
dying.
At least now that she was in recovery, it hadn't been a total loss.
And the boys would have the mission handled. They were all three capable Initiates and
Edric wouldn't let them get off target. He'd drive them until they reclaimed the Ambassador. The failure on her part was all her's to own. She'd take whatever punishment the Proctor's doled out and pay whatever penance needed paying. Whatever they could throw at her wouldn't be any worse than anything she'd already been through.
Food arrived and not soon enough. Ralene sat up, unfocused eyes only open just enough to catch the shadow of color that represented her savior moving across the room. At first when he set the tray down and took his seat, she just remained sitting there, feeling awkward about everything. Never had she been served food in such a way, or looked after like this either.
It was fucking
weird.
But she was starving. So her hands moved forward tentatively so as not to knocked anything over and found their way to a spoon and a bowl. Ral wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting, and maybe her sense of taste was a bit skewed due to her hunger, but the first spoonful was ...painfully good. Blinking, she slowly began to eat in earnest, taking her time to acclimate her stomach to food and to savor the flavor.
After she was about halfway through the bowl, she paused to reassess and also to itch at a curiosity.
"Your speech..." she remarked, trying to figure out how to put it without coming across as a total ass when bluntness had always been her M.O.,
"what's with the hissing?"
Yeah, not her best moment.