Victor seemed to not notice when Abia took the coal from his hands. Instead his fingers continued to move as if he could clearly see writing appearing. It took him a moment before he processed that the pages were still blank even though he had sworn he just wrote.  He looked at the old man across from him that only he could see and exclaimed, “You fool! Stop hindering this revelation. I know you want to keep control of me, but you’re my slave now...” A small spark in the fire the had remained hidden in the ashes suddenly glowed. Victor seized a scrap of kindling from the floor as the spark leapt to it and quickly burnt it to a hard and dark tip before disappearing in a whisp of smoke. “...and don’t forget it.”<br/><br/>The stick, hard and black, now served it’s purpose as Victor continued to scribble away not realizing Abia had taken the coal in the first place.  Noticing now how near Abia stood to him, Victor paused and looked up at her. He saw the black smudge on her cheek and felt compelled as he took the cloth she had been wiping the tables with, folded it to expose the clean side, and then gently wiped the smudge from her cheek. “I’m sorry Abia, were you speaking to me?”