The new painting was, again, extraordinary. The subjects were his wife and his daughter. His hand worked for four hours, and when the new painting was finished, he cut it into pieces and burned them.
This continued for the rest of the day and through the night, and then for the next nine days.
His body did not require sleep during the Taste; the Painter had built the Taste to suspend the body's normal operations except where its normal operations served the suffering.
Veyris's wife came to the studio on the second day to bring him food. He smiled at her and asked her to leave him to his work, while declining the food with warmth and assurance that he did not need it.
Amazed at the quality of his work, the confused wife walked away, thinking he must be snacking on his hidden stash of cookies that he was not aware that she knew about.
On the fourth day, she returned with their daughter, and Veyris smiled and sent them both away while he continued to paint and burn.
