Teddybear

"Good," he said awkwardly after a short pause.

"Are you warm enough?" Kivvien asked.

He would forgive him. Eventually. They were nowhere near a town, so they'd have to continue through the night or stop for a hard night in the cold.

It was a cold day. Kivvien pulled his hood tighter around his head and glanced back at Hieronymus in his nest of blankets.

(A few days later then, let's just say they're just a week or two's journey from the edge, and Kivvien got the virus working earlier but doesn't know if it'll ...

(maybe a few days/weeks later once Kivvien has perfected the virus and they're in an inn at the edge of the habitable world, about to go into the darklands, or ...

(yup! Where to?)

"Maybe?"

"Coffee and game nights," she repeated.

Kivvien steered the cart in silence.

"I don't punish my eyes for mis-seeing, nor do I know anyone who does."

"And what do you learn from a beating? There is no benefit to violence in response to honest mistakes, ever. It only risks your health and the health of your ...

"You deserved none of it."

"Because that wretched man doesn't have the right to abuse anything with the ability to feel pain. If you don't want to stay with me so be it, but I ...

Kivvien led the way quickly out to the cart, helping Hieronymus up into a nook where he could still see without being seen, casting notice-me-nots in his paranoia all the ...