Chương 50: Chapter 49: Pesto Apologies

In the wake of my outburst (and the slap) I was pretty embarrassed, and Cook decided to deal with the situation by... not dealing with it. I was upset, and didn't want to talk to him or look him in the face, so that suited me just fine. He gave me simple instructions and left me alone to work and avoided looking at me at all if he could help it. Notably, he didn't raise his voice to anyone - even when they messed up something or didn't do exactly as instructed.

He simply spoke calmly and pointed out the error as his patience and restraint creaked. As the work of a busy kitchen rolled on, I was on sauce - since I knew queenslace and sage for this, it was my job and that of another of the chefs who would be my teacher. Once again, I was struck that Cook wanted little to do with me at this point - he happily foisted me off on another of his staff. HE ISNT SMUG NOW No, he is not! Food for thought I guess. FOOD? I WANT FOOD! That's what we're working on!

I laughed inwardly, and smiled a little to myself. The cook working beside me had been a homely middle aged woman in life, and she glanced at me, sharing the smile as she worked alongside me. With patient instructions, she showed me how to use the mortar and pestle to crush nuts, adding the occasional splot of the cooking oil we had access to as she went.

"As you crush the nuts like this, use little circular motions - also it was nice to see that fat bastard get a bit of what he's owed." she said, and I blinked at the fluid, jarringly sudden segway into an entirely separate topic as she demonstrated. I copied her motions, and it felt natural to me as we worked. At first I used too much oil, and she dumped a small fistful of nuts more carefully chosen than I had done into the mixture to crush up to compensate.

Then, I used too little, and she gave me a little more oil.

"I... probably shouldn't have lost it like that, but - How's this look, chef?" I said, proffering a bowl of the crushed nuts. She looked at it, and nodded her approval.

"It's perfect, miss, just like that. Maybe you did go a bit far, and..." she bit down on words she'd wanted to say. I could almost see her reach the conclusion that it 'wasn't her place to say something', and she continued"but he also shouldn't have been snotty like that to Our Lady. He should have remembered that he saw you bite a monster literally in half." She said as we crushed and worked in companionable quiet.

"He calls people names and gets in their face - discipline is one thing but - that's a bad nut, toss it - abuse is inexcusable." she said, and gave me a significant look, as if trying to convey a message to me without outright saying it. I blinked at her, uncomprehending, and she held up a nut to me to try.

"Try this one, see what you think." She said, and I looked at the nut. It was a curved one, kind of shaped like a kidney bean, but it was sort of lumpy and darker. I munched it from her fingers and as I bit down, bitter taste flooded my mouth and I gagged almost immediately. She nodded, and held up a piece of fabric to spit into. I did.

"That's what a bad one looks like." she said.

"We can't put those in this sauce. We can use 'em, just not for this." Then, she produced another nut, carefully chosen, and offered it to me.

"Now try this one - notice the difference in the look, miss." she said, and I took in the nut. It was the same shape... but it had a pale, almost pinkish coloration to it. I blinked at the pretty little thing and bit into it, and... Wow! It was semi-sweet and just about the most delicious nut I'd ever had. There were quite a few of these in our bowls, but among them... were lots of the bitter ones, too.

I looked at the bowl of mix I'd made already with some dismay - I hadn't really been looking at the nuts themselves, just the quantity and I'd... definitely put some of those bitter ones in. I looked back to her and she nodded with some pity, taking the bowl gently from my fingers to empty it in a trash receptacle.

"Not your fault. I forgot you're a Riftwalker. Gobnuts are like that - you can tell usually when they're shucked and cleaned off." she explained"So you're the Lady's consort, huh?" she asked, and gave me a wise look as we started sorting nuts. I blushed, and affirmed that I was. She grunted, and didn't quite react the same way other people did. She frowned a little, as if she had something on her mind, but again, visibly did not speak on the subject. Was she worried I was a woman being Gelidia's consort?

It seemed unlikely - nobody much had minded except for Gelidia's handmaiden, and presumably, her parents. The cook didn't seem the type. As we worked, I paused to sniff the Gobnuts on instinct and after sampling a couple more, I realized I could actually tell good from bad by scent alone. To my Wolf-Ren they were a different color, and sounded different in my synesthetic perceptions. Now that I knew what to look for it was much easier, and I began simply picking out the rare bad ones to set into the 'bad nut bowl'.

"Not that one - it's bad." the cook said as I put a small collection of nuts into the bowl and I shook my head at her. I held it up to her mouth and said"This one smells good to me. Try it - yes, I'm her consort, why do you ask?"

and as the woman took the nut from my fingers with her ghostly lips, becoming solid around the morsel, I could see her skeleton crunch it a bit for a moment before her flesh blushed a rusty red-brown color, her blunt features taking on healthy tones, even as her pale, ghostly eyes didn't change a wit. She grunted as she munched, nodding in approval, and pushed her bowl towards me.

"Okay, you've got a good nose. You sort, I crush. It's not my place, but..." she said, and I blinked, tilting my head at her, doglike, an invitation to continue. She hesitated a moment more, then went on"I wouldn't have slapped you." She said.

"She won't raise a hand to Cook, but she'll lay one on you? That's not right." she said, and I blinked as something clicked in my head. Being stopped, I had been ashamed of myself, but the slap... that was wrong. She was right. Seeing her words land, the woman reached out and took my shoulder in a sisterly hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"My name's Rose." she said"Well, Rosacia, but I always thought that sounded like a skin disease." she joked.

"I'm pleased to meet you. It feels weird calling you Hound - is there a name you'd like instead?" I was unsure what to say for a moment or two as I recollected myself and cleared my throat to reply"I'm Emily. Rosacia's a pretty name - but I guess I can see how you got there with that." With Rose manifested fully like this, I could almost forget that she wasn't alive. She wasn't beautiful, but she had a confidence and a strength to her, and that was always attractive.

I hadn't known I was into women until literally last week - I'd only ever been with a man named Alex until then. Her big strong hands worked carefully, and her deep alto voice was pleasant as she continued talking with me and working. I couldn't help but appreciate her a bit, and her gentle concern for me.

"When you say it's not your place... what do you mean?" I asked, and she glanced at me as we worked. It took her a few moments to reply as she almost visibly chose her words carefully.

"Well... it's not my relationship, and... You, and Gelidia, you're Nobs." She said.

"Err, nobles. Maybe you weren't when you came here, don't know, but you are now - like a Knight the World tells me, even if She calls you Hound." she said, and sighed.

"I'm not. I'm a commoner - skilled, sure, useful, for sure, but it's not my place to speak ill of the Lady or her family, to judge their character, but... if it were someone I was taking to bed that raised their hand like that, we'd be having a pretty serious conversation." she said. I took that sisterly advice in, and it felt like she was on the money there. Alex never hit me - even when he was really, really upset with me.

He just walked off to cool down and returned to speak calmly and tell me why he was angry with me. And here Rose was, sticking her neck out for me to give me this insight, even knowing it could get her in trouble? Was the world really like that for her? My egalitarian American ass hated that she was actually in that position, and grateful to the older woman for what she'd given me.

"You're right. I'll talk to her about it." I said, voice soft.

"Thank you for that, Rose." and the cook smiled with compassionate eyes. Soon, we had a few bowls of crushed nuts with the oil mixed in, and it smelled alright, but once we took them to the stove and started... what, frying them? Toasting them? She just said 'heating them up to bring out the flavors'. I enjoyed the lovely warm smell began to spread into the kitchen to join the potatoes that were going. I'd never made Pesto before, but the nuts didn't stay on the heat long at all.

Then, taking the nuts from the heat, we took the refilled bowls of slightly-browned oily nuts and set them aside. Rose selected a pair of knives for us, and she started cutting up handfuls of greens. I thought I knew how to use the knife she'd given me, but I was apparently wrong. I gripped the knife along the spine of it, and put a finger along the blade. It felt like I had more control with it - it was how I'd used the crude knife I'd made before, and it'd worked fine.

To chop the sage and mint and queenslace leaves, I simply used my fingers to feed the leaves under the blade, using primarily the tip of the knife to chop the veggies, moving it up and down with my wrist. She scowled at me, and grabbed my wrist after only a few chops, gently wresting the knife from me.

"No, not like that." She chided me, and said"Hold out your hand like this, holding out her palm as if to shake my hand." Obediently, nonplussed, I did so. She pressed the handle of the knife into my hand, and guided my fingers - index and middle finger on one side, thumb on the other side of the blade.

"Keep your finger tucked in or you'll get a blister and it'll tire you out more." She explained and I made the grip a couple of times. My Cookery skill told me she was right - it felt right. Then, she moved behind me and gripped me by the hips in a businesslike way. She re-positioned me firmly, pushing me so my hips were lined up with the cutting board straight on. Then, she pulled my shoulders back so I was standing straight.

"Don't hunch. Elbows in." I practiced that a little as well, rolling my shoulders as I got comfortable with the position, and nodded. She returned the nod, and still behind me, grasped my wrists and said This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Don't bend your wrist as much. You're not flapping the knife up and down. Go in" she pushed my hand forward"Down" and pushed the blade down until it made contact with the cutting board,"And back. In, down, and back." She said and took my other hand, the one not holding a knife. I paid attention as with her own hand, she crooked my fingers in a kind of claw, curling the digits inward as she nodded at me. I mimicked the motion on my own a couple times as well, and again, Cookery told me it was right.

With this kind of paw, she guided some of the leaves under the blade as she guided me to chop like she'd shown me. The motions again felt... alien to me, but they were right and I knew it. My Cookery skill could not help but approve, and I got a tingle in my head as I realized the right of what she was saying! Rose nodded her own approval, and went back to her side of the table, doing the same as I did. It was... a bit like locomotion, moving the knife like that.

It lent itself to a kind of rhythmic oscillation, and as I fed stuff under the blade, the smell of the herbs we had to work with filled the air. Soon enough it was all rough-chopped, and we started adding nuts over top of this mixture, chopping it over again and, under her instruction, dragging the flat of the blade through the mixture firmly, pressing and bringing the knife down as we dragged it through, mixing things nicely.

"Just wish we had some garlic, honestly. That would make this... so much better." She said, and I perked up a little! I went over towards the soup cook and got a couple ramps for us, and brought the stinky veggies over towards Rose! She looked at them, and blinked, then recoiled as her nose caught up with her eyes! To be fair, they were wicked pungent and strange smelling, but... my nose was telling me what I figured to be true anyhow.

"I think these would work. Don't need much, but they'll really bring it out for this I think!" I said cheerily, and she accepted one from me. She grunted, and used a cheese grater to grate some of the thing atop her pile after shucking the skin. I did the same, and we mixed that in too using the method she'd showed me. Once it was in, she smiled a little and nodded, and we scraped the mixes into two big bowls of the stuff.

"So the oil is the medium - the heart of the sauce." Rose explained.

"The biggest thing is that we don't have too much, but not too little. There's a sweet spot." and she showed me, taking a small sample of our sauce and putting some of the dark green oil in bit by bit, whisking it carefully as she went, adding a splash of oil now and again until it was thick and looked creamy! It smelled really good - and once she added the Queenslace seeds from earlier she sampled it.

She blinked as she mlemmed the mixture a bit around in her mouth, testing it and carefully considering the flavor, then held out the spoonful to me with a bit more on it. I took it, and a lot of flavor hit me in the mouth all at once. It tasted... a little minty, but pungent, semi-sweet, and vibrantly green. It was... it was unlike what I'd expected it to be.

The nuts, the queenslace, the mint, the ramps it became one single thing that tingled a little in my mouth as I swallowed, and we exchanged a look that said it all. It was good already! I helped her to make the sauce like she'd shown me, a bowl at a time, and it took us quite a while to get it all right. Then she brought over the Parmesan cheese, and the Wolf in me begged for a taste, for a sample of the delicious smelling off-white hunk of stuff.

"Use about as much cheese as we did nuts. Cut off a wedge like this, and remove the rind" She demonstrated"Then grate it carefully, just so." And she showed me how to do it without removing my fingertips. She did it much more quickly than I dared at first, but I quickly got a handle on how to do it without, again, losing skin. At my wolf's insistence I sampled a bit of the aged Parmesan, taking a small chunk for myself and... wow. That was strong.

My wolf immediately stopped desiring any more of the cheese and in my head as Rose chuckled. We grated, mixed, and... made a kind of green sauce that, when she judged it done and I sampled it was just about the best thing I'd ever tasted. And really, it wasn't all that hard to make! The nuts and cheese were the only part I couldn't do on my own. I was pretty sure I could make an oil or use something other than the vegetable oil - could I use fat?.

These techniques, this recipe, it would elevate my meals to another level entirely. Mint-Basil Pesto, quality: Exceptional, crafted by Rosacia Pankko Rose nodded and we brought the bowls of our sauce over towards the cluster of other cooks working on the rest of the dinner for tonight's gathering. It didn't even mention me in the item's description, but... I figured that Rose had higher ranked cookery skills than I did.

It made sense enough that I didn't bother to question it as Cook sampled what we'd made by taking a small spoonful and manifesting around it, just as Rose had done. He didn't even seem to realize he had - he just did so, filling out with color from his red cheeks to his ears. He savored it a moment, and nodded in simple approval.

"That's about right. Got a bit of kick to it, too. Hm." He mused.

"It's passable - barely." Jeeze, okay. Cook then produced sets of pillowy oblong little dumplings that smelled of spices and potato in another bowl"Best we could do with what we had, honestly, but the sauce will go a long way." He said. I saw that not only was there the Gnocchis made already, but there were several loaves of bread cooling, and a pot was on low heat on the nearby stove.

Cook began to plate the meal - gnocchis were scooped into one bowl, and what didn't look like enough of the Pesto was drizzled over them. He placed a sprig of mint daintily atop the contents, and into a second bowl, he ladled some of the rusty colored orange contents of the warm pot into it, and last, he selected a bread knife from the rack to slice a piece of the baguettes they'd crafted. He set up the bowls on a plate just so, one slice, then two of the bread positioned beside them.

I could have painted how it looked, and right then and there I wanted to get some of that into my mouth! It smelled so good it had to almost be illegal - I'd never smelled something this good before in my life. My own cookery efforts so far were, by comparison, just living as nicely as I could by vaguely heating things up and browning bits of meat. This was fine art. And unlike the culinary mastery of my world, the portions were considerable.

This was food for people who fought, who trained, who gripped life with both hands, not just some haughty rich guys who sat on their bums all day in the lap of luxury - at least, that was how I saw it. I figured if you did otherwise, you'd be approximately spherical in a couple of months! My tummy gave a growl that sounded more like industrial machinery and it actually interrupted Cook's ongoing instructions as he delivered it to the pair of cooks and myself.

Every one of them blinked at me, then at my tummy, and Rose chuckled. I hadn't been paying attention - I'd simply been staring at the food! I felt... incredibly hungry. I'd eaten not long ago, hadn't I? It felt like ages ago! Cook grunted with an irritable roll of his eyes and paused in his speech to spoon some gnocchi and some pesto into a bowl, cut off a piece of bread, and shove them into my hands as Rosie, on cue with almost military precision, pressed a spoon into the bowl he gave me.

Warm, tender pillows of potatoey dough, hearty green sauce, delicious cheese and oil and - it was probably the best thing I'd eaten in this world yet. Warmth filled my tummy as the hearty food clubbed it down, and my wolf made a noise in my throat that very-much conveyed how I felt, that all this had absolutely been worth it.

"Hound?" a voice came, and I looked up to find Mrs. Birchwood. The woman looked... well, stern wasn't quite the right word, but it would do. Her brow was furrowed, and she looked on me with something like concern. I nodded to her.

"My Lady requests your presence. Master Cook, is she-" she asked, and Cook waved at Abbey irritably.

"Fine, fine, fine! Take her. We should be fine now." and, dismissed, I tipped my bowl of food back, getting the last of the morsels into my mouth before moving to follow Mrs. Birchwood. As I went, I scooped up my shawl-cloak and carried it with me as I went in my arms. There were notifications waiting for my attention, but I ignored them. Once the door clicked shut behind me, Mrs. Birchwood looked me up and down, and did... something that made me tingle, my clothes giving a shimmer.

Just like that, all the flour and oil and nut crumbs and stains just... vanished. She looked me over again, and adjusted some of the buttons and clasps on my clothing before looking up and down the hall.

"... Are you well, miss Emily?" she asked, and I realized I was still a little upset. I was much calmer now, but it had been a long, long day. I wanted little more than to go to bed and sleep for a week, and the Night was pushing at me, my abated curse tingling in the back of my mind. Wolf wasn't pushing, that was a benefit, but I could feel how wound up I was.

"I'll do. What's going on?" I asked, and Abbey sighed.

"I heard you had a bit of a spat with my Lady." she said, and I wouldn't have described it like that. I still wasn't totally convinced that Gelidia hadn't been right somewhere as she yelled at me, but without even thinking about it I touched my cheek. It hadn't hurt a lot, but the fact of it had hurt a great deal more, I realized. Abbey frowned at me, and nodded, as if she'd read me like a book.

"That's... what I'd heard. This way, miss." she said, and led me down the halls. By now, I was becoming a bit familiar with the Keep. It wasn't as big as it seemed - the high ceilings made it seem so, and a lot of the halls were identical, but it really wasn't hard to navigate. She led me to a hallway that seemed familiar - the Chambers, I figured - and to Gelidia's door. She knocked, and my Lady's voice came from within.

"Come." I could see Gelidia inside, sitting on the edge of her bed facing the door with my Wolf-Ren. She looked... well, terrible wasn't the right word, she was lovely, but she looked like she had something weighing her down. Her shoulders pulled back as she sat up straight, composed herself as her image faded again, save for her little adjustments and movements making soft noises that gave me little pulses of perception of her. Abbey opened the door, and didn't move to follow me in.

I stepped inside, and the door shut behind me, leaving me... alone, with the woman I loved. I didn't feel a need to go to her, so I just stood in the doorway. She looked at me, and I looked at her in the quiet as my Wolf-Ren let me see, clear as day, as Abbey put her back to the door and stood obstinately in position, ensuring nobody would disturb us. I barely paid her any attention - mine was on Gelidia.

"... I should have disciplined Cook a long time ago." Gelidia began.

"Or... perhaps my parents should have, as he is in their employ, but... matters were left alone, as he was..." she frowned. I could see tears on her cheeks. Shame. I saw shame.

"... My parents thought him too valuable to fuss over his little personality quirks. But looking back, we've lost a number of cooks over the years because of him and his..." she hesitated, glancing at my face.

"... Oh, Emily... I'm sorry." she said.

"Please don't stand over there like that, like a struck puppy..." she said, and... my hard feelings cracked a bit. I moved quietly into the room, and before she could say anything, knelt and looked up at her. I was starting to cry too, I realized, and she looked at me with shame and compassion.

"You... unrolled your feelings to me, and not five minutes later, after defending me, after doing something that shouldn't have been your responsibility to begin with... I struck you." she said, her control keeping her voice from becoming too thick to understand.

"... it was wrong. Nobody should treat you like that, especially not..." she looked down.

"... Especially not me." she said, and the pain in me cracked some more. I reached out and gently took her chin. She obediently lifted her eyes to mine, and as we gazed into each other, she said"... It will never happen again, my beloved Hound." she whispered, and I forgave her in my heart. I believed her. I nuzzled in, and kissed her cheeks, taking her tears away, and then took her lips with mine, pressed against her as she held me.

She made a soft noise of relief and gratitude, and melted against me as fires roared back to life inside me, not-long dampened. The world turned, and nothing mattered in the whole of it as I slid onto her bed atop her, then, rolling, beside her as we kissed and held each other tight until we felt better.

She cried, I cried, and we tried to push as much of our bodies as we possibly could against each other, tangled limbs grasping, gentle hands clasping, lips touching and brushing and parting in the dark, her cool, sweet body pressed tight to mine as we cuddled and kissed. Apology accepted!