After a moment of silence, Xaviera Evans swept a glance at Mia Reiser with a compassionate yet amused look, wondering if the young girl would explode in rage if she knew that her sense of taste was lost and everything she drank tasted as plain as water.
Xaviera picked up the cup, drank all the echinacea water in one gulp, then flipped the cup upside down to indicate to Mia that she had finished drinking. All the while, her expression remained unchanged.
Her calmness stupefied Mia, who after a long pause hastily picked up Xaviera's cup to examine it, and then checked the floor to confirm that Xaviera had indeed drunk the water. In complete astonishment, she asked, "You drank it all. Don't you feel anything?"