23 - The Amazing Cook (Patreon)

Patricia Wayland was exhausted to the extreme despite getting her full three hours of sleep every other day. She had been strained even before losing her brother to the strange curse that came with his deviated Talent that Everin explained to her and that she confirmed with a Knowledge Tablet and Identification Orb from the family vault. It was one of the oldest items her family had passed down through the generations and was one of the first ones ever created.

She really needed to get a new set for herself, however. The newer models were smaller, lighter, and gave better readouts while also being able to store much more data. It also wouldn’t be a priceless artifact that she was terrified of breaking somehow every time she used it.

Hopefully, with air transport opening up potential new trading partners, they could get more of that scarce item imported to the area. 

Silver linings to every tragedy, she thought bitterly.

“Auntie Pati go home now?” a tiny red-headed toddler asked, looking up at her over the desk she had commandeered in one of the offices of the alien ship.

She gave a tired smile to the latest and oddest addition to her seemingly ever-expanding family, “Soon. Just finishing writing my thoughts down. I’m still not sure what to make of the knowledge that the Soul Reapers made a point to Cage Corrupted monsters in an effort to prevent the spread. Why use the Corrupted Seeds, if they didn’t want Corruption spreading?”

“Can’t move or harvest Reality Seeds without corrupting,” the toddler answered knowingly, “Don’t know how to cleanse those yet.”

That wasn’t exactly good news for her to hear, but she finished writing and set her pen down to focus on the toddler and ask, “How are you doing, Presley?”

“Good. Want to see Mama again,” the child responded with a grin.

The noble priestess chuckled, “She’ll be checking in tomorrow, remember?”

“Always remember.”

Patricia nodded, knowing the statement wasn’t an exaggeration. Despite having the mannerisms of a toddler, the vessel had been growing quickly over the last week, looking more like a three-year-old rather than two, and anything they learned was always recalled perfectly.

“I might not be back for a few days as I need to sleep for a long time,” she informed the child, “I’m certain you’ll cooperate with Lord Teras while I’m gone, though, right?”

“Auntie Pati going to ascend,” Presley stated with a knowing nod.

She gave them a curious look and asked, “How do you know that?”

“Aura record,” the toddler answered, “Can sense name, Caste, aura’s abilities, and titles.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Auntie Pati is at Sapphire 9.99. Long sleep means ascending, yes?”

“That’s right…” she said, her mind spinning ideas of how to best use this new source of information, and she asked, “Presley, can you get me a copy of all the aura records you have?”

The toddler nodded but frowned and said, “Yes, but not sure of the best method to transfer the data.”

“What’s wrong with printing it out on paper like you’ve done for everything else?”

“Not enough paper.”

She paused, raising a brow as she clarified, “How many records do you have?”

“Over eleven trillion.”

Patricia’s jaw dropped open in surprise.

She had heard the rumors that the Soul Reapers conquered worlds but the fact that they had not only come across but took the time to record that many auras was mind-boggling.

“How about just the people from this area?” she asked in an effort to narrow down the list to something more relevant to her.

Presley nodded happily and ran over to a wall that started spitting out paper with clean letters lasered into the sheets. No ink was required and she loved it. So much more convenient than handwriting with a quill.

The toddler brought over the first page excitedly and explained, “Most important people first.”

She smiled as, unsurprisingly, Phoenix was listed at the top. The next few weren’t too surprising either except for her place at tenth, “How am I after Everin?!”

“Uncle Everin brings candy,” the child said with a wide grin.

“That sneaky bas–” she cut herself off as she looked down at the vessel that could apparently be bribed, “If you promise not to share any information about Phoenix and her party –or any of her family and friends– with anyone else outside of that group, then I’ll bring you a whole cake when I get back, okay?”

“Chocolate?” big blue eyes pleaded.

“Of course,” she replied, “How else am I going to beat those foxes as best aunt?”

“Yaaay!” Presley squealed, running back to grab more paper.

Patricia shook her head in amusement before focusing back on actually reading the contents of the list in her hand rather than skimming the names and paused when she got to the sixth name on the list: Uriel Karislian.

“What in the abyss?” she said to herself as she zeroed in on the only thing she hadn’t been aware of or could have possibly guessed at, “What kind of insane title is this?”

Padma Wayland was excited about ascending to Sapphire despite the horror that had been her eventual cousin’s. Dazien’s species was something she didn’t think she would ever envy again, no matter how much it might help get her crush’s attention.

Thinking of her crush… she grinned widely as Uriel entered the ritual room behind Phoenix and Dazien. The tall, dark, and handsome man, who seemed quietly intimidating at first but she knew to be a shy ball of fluff under all that mystery, had definitely made her realize she had a type.

The young runeforged thought she was going to die of both happiness and dread when she learned he would be living in her home with the rest of her cousin’s party. She would need to be extra considerate of her appearance when going around the house, not wanting her breakfast bedhead to make her seem like a slob.

Right now, she felt confident in her simple clothing of the Sliksilk they preferred to wear for ascending and her freshly done braids in large rows across her scalp and down her back with elegant blue beads on the end for extra flair that matched her markings and eyes.

Padma practically skipped over to the party and said happily, “You made it! I wasn’t sure you could make the time.”

“We can make time for family,” Phoenix replied with a grin, “I’m just glad we decided to check in every day just to see if there was news for us before going on our monster hunts.”

“Your portal makes that much easier,” Dazien agreed before asking her, “Speaking of portals, how are things working out with Camrin Ruwena?”

“That’s officially Camrin Wayland now,” Padma corrected, “He’s been helping Mom with getting to and from that alien tree every other day, but Cousin Pavel agreed to take him in along with two of the younger ones that showed some promise. Cousin Pansy agreed to take the rest.”

“I don’t think I’ve met them yet,” the Wayfarer said in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about that. They’re our grandparents’ generation and aren’t here often. Even during the blood moon, they’ve mostly been working. Pansy is an animal handler dealing with a bunch of angry avals that are currently hating being cramped together for so long and Pavel actually works as an alchemist. Both are usually at the Cultivator’s Citadel with Mom and have been super overworked lately.”

“Feels like that’s everyone right now,” Dazien said with a sigh as they all made their way across the room to find a place to sit.

Padma tugged on Uriel’s sleeve to get his attention while also getting the added bonus of contact as she gathered her courage and asked, “I wanted to ask if you could, um, make that awesome aplet tart again once I wake up? I really enjoyed it and, um, would love it if you could maybe teach me to make it?”

She fought to keep her tone light and even and her warm brown skin from flushing in embarrassment as she watched his response carefully. Uriel seemed surprised, and as he glanced towards Dazien, she caught the amused expression on the Defender’s face. 

Had she assumed wrong about the gemite being okay with sharing? She had read a brief excerpt saying all gemites had open relationships and never got serious or settled down with anyone… though… it also said that all felions were naked savages and the sirens ate their young, so maybe she couldn’t believe everything she read in some random book…

“Unless you two are busy,” she added quickly, gesturing between the two men, “I know you like spending most of your time together, and I wouldn’t want to come between you.”

Dazien chuckled, “I’m not going to tell Uriel who he can… teach to cook or not.”

“He taught me to cook,” Phoenix interjected with a grin, “He’s amazing at it.”

Padma wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that and breathed a small sigh of relief as Dazien hooked an arm around the redhead’s neck and said, “Come along, sweet flower, let’s go have a chat about what an innuendo is.”

She felt the blush creep past her control as she looked back towards the cinderen, who was smiling after the other two in a way that made her heart ache. It was obvious how much he cared about the charismatic man and she wondered if she even had a chance at catching his interest as well.

“So… with that innuendo ruined… are you interested?” she asked hopefully.

Uriel’s smile dimmed slightly but didn’t disappear as he said, “I’d love to teach you the recipe, but I’m not really sure what–”

“Padma!” her mother’s voice rang out across the room, and she turned to see the woman staring at her from the doorway.

“Oh, um,” she glanced back to Uriel and said, “I gotta go talk to her, but we can chat more later when you teach me that recipe.”

He smiled and nodded, then moved to follow after his party members. With his polite words, Padma wondered if she had read the man wrong earlier. It looked like she had been right about Dazien being in an open relationship with him, but maybe Uriel only leaned towards guys or gemites? She wanted to find out exactly what he was interested in.

Padma made her way over to Patricia and asked, “You ready to ascend with me, Mom? Pretty sweet timing to do this together.”

“What were you talking to him about?” The priestess asked, her eyes never leaving the Cataclysm Mage.

“Uriel?” she asked as though clarifying, but she said it an octave too high which made it obvious she was stalling for time, “Um, I was just asking him to teach me to cook that aplet tart once I wake up…”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed at her, “You hate cooking.”

“I don’t hate it,” she countered, refusing to make eye contact. She was terrible at bluffing this woman and swore the priestess had some kind of mind-reading power.

“You swore that you would marry a cook someday just so you would never have to,” Patricia said flatly, arms crossing in silent disapproval.

She gave a little sigh at the reminder as she glanced back at Uriel and said wistfully, “He is an amazing cook too, isn’t he?”

“Stay away from him, Padma,” her mom said sharply which caught her by surprise. Her mom rarely gave her an order like that at her age. She was old enough to marry already at twenty and while her family might prefer an advantageous political match, they wouldn’t force her into anything.

“I don’t understand. Dazien is going to be my cousin, and you don’t tell him to stay away.”

“Dazien is not my son, and I have yet to speak with him on the state of the adoption,” Patricia retorted, then seemed to force herself to relax as she clarified, “I’m sorry I can’t explain more at the moment, but I only have partial information, and you know how I feel about that.”

“Half the pieces means the puzzle can’t be solved, and any move could be the wrong one,” she quoted the often said phrase, usually when she tried to give half-answers in order to get her way without being caught in a lie.

“Exactly,” her mom replied with a tired smile, “Now let’s ascend and get some much-needed rest… where did those paw prints come from?”

Padma glanced to the floor where her mom was looking and saw tiny red prints making their way from the door toward Uriel. She rolled her eyes at the sight of the black cat wearing a silky blue ribbon around her neck in his lap and groaned, “Bliss. I told her she was welcome to come since she’s been hanging out with everyone so much lately. Especially Fen. Should have known she’d go straight for the amazing cook.”

“Please tell me that’s not blood,” Patricia interjected, “I warned her that the next time she tracked that in or brought us a carcass, she’d only be allowed on the roof.”

She bent down and touched a paw print, surprised but relieved by the texture, and smiled as she sniffed to verify, “Ruebean jam. Looks like someone was spoiled in the kitchen again.”

“If she ate the whole pie again, I swear I’m going to murder that cat.”

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