Teddybear

"As you wish," he said. His focus was very much still on the experiment before him.

Kivvien glanced up from his work to observe him, then returned his attention to the sample in front of him. "Do focus on your work, please. These chemicals require care ...

"One of your many faults."

How are everyone's posts coming along?

"It should hardly matter to you."

"I have connections through to the queen herself. There's hardly a person of status whom I cannot reach for reasons of import."

Kivvien shook his head. "What does it matter?"

"No one important. Just another scholar who studied under my master." Ezeren would kill him if he'd heard him say that.

"Yes. I worked with him and my mentor in the beginning, but then my mentor was needed for other matters, so the majority of the work was done by him ...

"The work was not all mine," he said absently.

"Trial and error."

"Primarily through testing the reactivity of a demon's body parts to different chemicals."

"I was simply given the objective to find the cure, and I reached it."

Kivvien missed his lab partner. He found himself leaving his notes to the side with the pen on the left, ready for his partner to pick up and add his ...

Kivvien worked silently.