[ alhaitham sleeps. he does not wake. the morning passes; breaksfast is brought on heaping platters, flatbread clotted with sarsheer and fragrant dusk bird eggs boiled and seasoned with herbs. lunch is a whole leg of lamb, tender meat carved apart by fork alone, basted in butter and arranged in on a bed of roasted miniature vissudha potatoes from the south. by dinner, the exasperated and somewhat terrified household staff peer in before serving, their eyes flitting from the sole awake occupant in the room and the still-laying lump on the bed. dinner is fish head curry from the rivers of the vissudha itself, paired with fresh limes and coconut milk imported from the ashavan realm's immense trade-network. the coconut shells have been kept in case their lord would like to observe them. their flesh has been turned into dessert: fragrant coconut jelly topped with roasted sesame. they say this with the utmost deference, doing their best not to look in kaveh's direction - it had been, after all, a lokapalan delicacy.
the lump on the bed does not respond. the slaves bring in the food, looking worse for wear. the dinner rug is spread. the food is left, and plated, and then left alone.
alhaitham continues to sleep.
it is half-way through dinner that the young woman with her swaying skirts return. she bows at the lump on the bed, and then, without a word, passes kaveh a note. written in beautiful cursive, the note reads thus: 10 strikes of the clock, western laundry. the path will be clear. 11 strikes of the clock; you must return.
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Date: 2023-04-18 08:02 pm (UTC)the lump on the bed does not respond. the slaves bring in the food, looking worse for wear. the dinner rug is spread. the food is left, and plated, and then left alone.
alhaitham continues to sleep.
it is half-way through dinner that the young woman with her swaying skirts return. she bows at the lump on the bed, and then, without a word, passes kaveh a note. written in beautiful cursive, the note reads thus: 10 strikes of the clock, western laundry. the path will be clear. 11 strikes of the clock; you must return.
the meeting with elham is set. ]