“It could be,” Alfric said, shrugging. “But you said that it was information gathering, and I don’t know what that has to do with a leyline. Besides, that stone is older than the church by probably a thousand years, if not more.”
“What stone?” asked Hannah.
“There’s a stone in the backyard,” said Mizuki. “I’ll show it to you tomorrow.”
“We’re leaving tomorrow morning,” said Alfric.
“Dessert?” asked the woman who ran the Fig and Gristle.
“Poached pear for me,” said Alfric.
“Same,” said Isra.
“The pie’s a crumble?” asked Hannah. The woman nodded. “Then that, I s’pose.”
“Ooh, a crumble for me too,” said Mizuki. “And ales for everyone, but double for me, two glasses right next to each other.” She pointed out a spot on the table where the two glasses should sit.
The woman frowned. “Not sure I want a drunk sorc in my tavern.”
“Three isn’t enough to get me drunk,” said Mizuki, tipping her empty mug back to look into it.
The woman nodded, collected their plates and mugs, and left.
“We’re walking at least twelve miles tomorrow,” Alfric said. “Even a mild hangover is going to be torture.” He looked to Hannah. “Can you do anything about that?”
Hannah laughed. “Not in our domain, I’m afraid. You’d need Kesbin, and we’ve got no cleric of Kesbin, as I believe I said when I was makin’ introductions.”
“I will be completely fine,” said Mizuki. “Besides, we’re celebrating, right? I felt like we didn’t have a proper celebration after the first dungeon.”
“So we’d celebrate before and after?” asked Hannah.
“Seems reasonable to me,” Mizuki said with a shrug.
Isra was feeling what she probably thought were the effects of the ale, a kind of warmth and, yes, looseness that pervaded her body. Everything felt more fluid somehow, as though she had better control of her body or was living more in the moment. It was a nice feeling, and she had a better understanding of why people imbibed this poison. Her eyes kept going back to Verity and this music they were all here to enjoy, though the others seemed content to talk over it.
The desserts arrived not too long after that, and there was a general silence as they ate. Between the chicken and the pear, it was more than Isra normally had in one sitting, but it was too good for her to stop, especially with the music backing it. There were complex flavors to the poached pear, spices and herbs, honey and butter, and Isra wondered whether she could learn to make such a thing if she put her mind to it.
“Could you teach me how to cook?” Isra asked Mizuki. The question came out without her willing it, and in hindsight, that seemed to be the work of the glass and a half of ale.
“Oh,” said Mizuki. “Um, of course! But I don’t have any idea how to teach someone to cook, I just kind of… do it, I guess.”
“So it’s not teachable?” asked Isra, thinking that perhaps it was like
sorcery, where you had to be born into it, at least a little bit. This
didn’t
“No, it is,” said Mizuki. “But—we’ll try, I just don’t know how I’m going to start. I don’t remember how my parents taught me. And my whole life, I’ve never taught anyone anything, so.”
“So I will learn to cook, and you will learn to teach,” said Isra, nodding.
“Yes!” laughed Mizuki. “Great. And we’ll burn things along the way.”
“We will?” asked Isra.
“Oh, sure,” smiled Mizuki. “You can’t learn to do anything without breaking things, or burning things, or cutting things that weren’t meant to be cut.”
“A very common outlook, for a sorc,” said Hannah. She set her spoon down, having eaten the last bit of her pie. “This was a good idea, and I’m glad we got to hear Verity play without the threat of monsters.”
“She’s said that after a set she’s usually done with people,” said Alfric. “So I’d be cautious about pushing her to engage too much when she’s finished, which probably won’t be for another quarter bell or so.”
“Are we sticking around?” asked Mizuki, looking at her one empty mug and one full one. “Because if we’re not, I’m going to have to down this one in a hurry.”
“Best not to get sick before a day of travel,” said Alfric, who had nonetheless finished his ale.
“I was thinkin’ that we’d wait for her to be done and accompany her home,” said Hannah.
Alfric nodded. “Then a game, to pass the time?”
“You play games?” asked Mizuki, giving him a suspicious look. “Seems inefficient.”
“I play games very efficiently,” said Alfric, giving her a smile. He rapped his knuckles against the table. “Seems flat, which means we can set up for ring-knock.”
“Never played,” said Mizuki. “It’s with rings?”
Alfric nodded. “We won’t play for keeps though. You set up rings, on their end, then take turns rolling toward the other person’s rings, trying to knock them down.”
“Not sure the table is flat enough for that,” said Hannah, wiggling the edge.
“Well, we’ll try,” said Alfric. “Not for keeps.”
