Chapter 5: The Joy of Cooking

Angela’s Bookstore was easy enough to spot. Having followed Joss’s directions, Mitty found herself staring at the claustrophobic closet rather impressed that so many books could be fit in so small a space and there still be room to move around. The books near the entrance were stacked past her head, and formed an even narrower entrance than the door itself, so someone bigger like Dantes would not be able to get in without knocking something over.

Entering, she was hit with the musty smell of old paper, though surprisingly well maintained as there was no sign of damage on most of the books. She noticed idly that there were white markings on the floor, similar to the ones she found in the bread cupboard, but covered in a thin sheen of dust. She wondered if there was meaning to them. She padded along, taking note of a few titles as she searched for someone. ‘101 Recipes using Dirt’, ‘How to summon a sweetroll’ and the ‘Mornn-Lupan Sex and Cookbook and How to Raise Wolves’. The last one in particular caught her eye, as two of the three things promised in the title were things she could use. Well, she was pretty sure dogs were close enough to wolves that similar concepts might apply. Could be useful. She filed it away for later consideration.

Coming upon a counter behind which a young lady with loosely curled, fire red hair sat, reading a book with rapt interest, Mitty coughed to get her attention.

“Ahem, yes, welcome, welcome, we don’t sell spellbooks here,” she said with a flick of annoyance, thinly disguised. Her voice was slightly strained as if she didn’t often use it, but her eyes shone with an unusual wisdom as she glanced up from her book.

Taken off guard slightly, she responded. “I’m umm actually looking for a book that can teach me to cook if you have that sort of thing here.”

“Ah. A real customer then. Apologies for making assumptions. Every time a mage comes in it’s always spellbook this, fireball that blah blah blah. Hmm a cookbook you say? What sort of food you looking to make? What’s your price range? Can you digest dirt?”

“Why do you think I’m a mage? I don’t think I’m one.”

“Well a mage’s apprentice then? Your old master died before he could teach you more than a basic fire-starting spell? Tragic. I heard a young man like that passed through here long ago. Never learned what became of him. It’s the robes, dear. Only someone with magical talent can imprint clothes like that. Put the tailors out of business if anyone could wear imprinted clothes. Personally, I don’t much care for them myself, but I can see the allure. The mana drain can be tiring.” She rattled on. “Of course, the ambient mana is pretty high around here, so the drain isn’t much, but since the runes here dry up the store, I don’t think I could sustain them all day while tending the shop.” Certainly, she was fond of talking, or perhaps starved of company.

“Runes? What do they do?” After listening to the lady mention the ambient mana though, she did notice that the secondary smell was noticeably absent in here, though a bit was leaking in through a breeze from the door. That nothing-smell must be the mana she was talking about.

“Ah, just the normal preservation runes I’m afraid. I would have liked dust-proof runes as well, but I can’t fit them in without a bigger gathering array, but you need a special permit for them, so I have to dust them myself. Mind you, the dust doesn’t harm the books, but it does turn away customers. Now, let’s get your cookbook, shall we?”

“Umm, I actually don’t know how to cook, so maybe something to help learn? Also, I, uh, don’t have any money…” Mitty trailed off, slightly embarrassed. She’d originally just planned on stealing a book, but the lady was interesting, and somewhat nice, and Joss had asked her not to, so she didn’t have many options.

“Books are expensive you know? Hmm. Tell you what. If you dust off the books, I’ll give you a scrap of parchment and you can copy down some recipes. I’ll even show you how to make something,” she added with a wink.

They sealed the deal with a smile and a handshake, and Mitty got to business. It seemed her plan of not doing any work at all would have to be put off for a bit, but the lady was fun to talk to. Mitty started dusting while the lady bustled about gathering some books.

“Say, Angela? What were you reading earlier? You seemed quite into it.” Then realising she had forgotten the human ritual of exchanging names, she added, “I’m Mitty by the way. Thanks for helping me out.”

“Oh, my name isn’t Angela, dear, but nice to meet you, Mitty. I’m afraid I can’t tell you my true name, but most around here call me Delphina or Delphi.” A glint of interest passed Liza’s eyes as she glanced back at Mitty, dragging over the stool so she could dust the top of a stack of books.

“Why can’t you tell me your real name? Also, why’s the sign say Angela’s bookstore if you’re Delphi?”

“Wow, your master really didn’t teach you much. You need someone’s full name for a few spells like scrying and that one sneeze compulsion spell. That’s a mean one. Also, it’s called Angela’s bookstore because I thought it would be funny.” Delphi grinned playfully, but her eyes told Mitty there was something she wasn’t saying. “Now just finish up with the records of grain harvests in the southern kingdoms section, and we can call it a day.”

That perked Mitty’s ears up. She hadn’t expected to finish before sun down, but she needed that recipe book. “Are you sure? There’s still quite a bit left…”

“Bah, I can tell you have somewhere to be. You can come back tomorrow if you like, and finish up. I’ll try to make it worth your time. I hate dusting when I have a good book on the go. Now finish up, and follow me back to the kitchen.” Delphi closed her book, and retreated to the back of the store with a couple of thin leather-bound books. Leaving the duster resting against the counter, Mitty followed her, glancing at the book Delphi had been reading. It didn’t look very interesting.

The kitchen was in surprisingly neat contrast to the store front with a spotless granite counter lining one wall, and nothing aside from an empty dish rack and sink adorning it.

“The most important thing when cooking, is keeping the kitchen clean. You don’t want to be looking for the egg wash when your oil’s boiling. It’s best if you lay out everything you need, then put them away as you use them. That’s how I do it at least. Now, what sort of food are you looking to make for your sweetheart?”

“He is NOT my sweetheart. We’re just sticking together for now,” Mitty responded, taken off guard. She should have explained it better, now Delphi will get the wrong idea. Too late.

“Mhmm. Sure, sure. Let’s just start with something easy. Here, I got a few flanks of steak in the cold box, let’s just use that.” In a short flurry, everything was arranged on the countertop.

“You’ll be making everything dear, I’ll just tell you what to do. Steak tastes pretty good without much seasoning, so we’ll keep things basic. Around here, you can get spices for a fraction of what they would be elsewhere, but they can be tricky to get right, so we’ll stick to salt and pepper.”

“First, put that pan on high. Just this knob right here to control the heat.” Some runes previously camouflaged by the granite countertop lit up orange as she turned a knob on the side of the counter.

“Next, season the steak. Just slap a good dollop of salt and pepper and really rub it in. Oh, that’s a bit too much pepper, whatever, should still be fine.” They waited until the pan heated up and she could feel the heat on her hands from a good distance.

“Dash in the olive oil just to coat the bottom, and lay the steaks down gently. Ouch! Put them in away from you, not towards you!” Mitty had accidentally splashed the oil by flopping a steak down in the middle of the pan.

“Now, wait a minute, then flip them over with these.” Mitty was handed a pair of tongs. The sizzling meat was starting to smell very good, but it was something else that she was feeling. “They’ll burn if you cook them too long on one side, flip them over.” Mitty was snapped out of her reverie, and hastily complied.

“Now, apparently, you’re supposed to ‘render the fat’ off the sides, so just prop the steaks up on their sides for a few moments. Yeah like that. I don’t actually know what it means, but my friend told me to do it, and it makes it taste better so I just do it when there’s fat on my steaks.”

“Ok, now crush this garlic against the counter and just slap it into the pan. Hmm, yeah crush another one, good idea. Sure why not three? That’s probably enough though. Don’t forget to flip every minute. If we had any thyme, adding it now would be good, but I forgot to get some when I was at the market. Flip it, FLIP it. Now, add in the butter. Good.” Mitty’s head was spinning, but she could feel a smile creeping onto her face. This was quite fun actually. Chaotic, yes, but this was more fun than she’d had in a long time, and it was satisfying knowing she was making it all come together.

“Now take this spoon and just kinda scoop the butter over the steaks as they cook. Oh, I forgot to say, cook them until they feel like the soft part under your thumb,” Delphi added, poking the pad across from her palm to demonstrate, “just use your finger to test the steak. Hey you’re good at this.”

Mitty focused, blocking out all distractions as she basted the steak as she’d been shown, the rhythm and smell intoxicating. Moving the pan away from the rune when she judged the feel was right, she went to turn off the heat.

“Hey, looks good. Use those tongs to scrape the garlic on the steak. It rubs off some nice flavours. Now, take the steak out to let it rest for a bit, and we can work on making something alongside it. We’ll keep it quick and simple so we don’t overwhelm you.” Mitty was already thoroughly overwhelmed, but didn’t want to say so. She was glad she didn’t grab the wrong thing under pressure and put in a pile of salt instead of the butter.

“Put that pot of water on the heat, high as you like, and dump those potatoes in when it starts boiling. You can peel them, but you don’t have to, so we’ll skip that, just chop them in quarters for now. Oh yeah, don’t forget to salt the water. I heard you can use ocean water too, but I wouldn’t use the harbour water if I were you.”

While they waited for the pot to boil, they made small talk.

“So what’s ‘Tusk Love’ about? That’s what you were reading earlier, right?”

Delphi’s face reddened a bit as she looked to the side. “No, it’s not… I’m just reading it for a friend, yeah. She just wanted writing tips. I’m not interested in it or anything,” she stuttered, face reddening even more, almost enough to match her hair.

Smelling weakness, Mitty pushed on. “Ohoh, you’re not interested in your friends writing? How heartless,” she said with a truly catlike grin.

Delphi fidgeted a bit, before casting her eyes to the pot which was bubbling vigorously by now. Her eyes widened and she adopted an urgent tone.

“Quick, throw the potatoes in!”

Mitty, startled, complied in a panic, worried she’d messed something up, but knew she’d been had when she saw Delphi struggling, and failing, not to laugh.

“Aw, you’re too easy, Mitts. Come back in a hundred years and try to tease me then,” Delphi said smugly. Mitty was still recovering, and forgot to object to the new nickname.

Delphi claimed one of the three steaks as her own. “I’ll leave you two so you can have a nice dinner with your friend.” She said ‘friend’ with a wink, and a tone that suggested something, but Mitty was fully exhausted at that point, and didn’t bother. The rush she felt earlier had left her, though she still felt a little bubbly.

They went over different ways of eating steak. Apparently, you could put cheese on it and eat it in a sandwich, predictably called a steak and cheese sandwich. She intended to try this one out some time in the future.

“Say, Mitts, you must be very skilled at alchemy. Your movements were all very precise and smooth. Well except that bit with the oil.”

“Never tried it in my life. If it’s anything like cooking though, I certainly want to try it.”

“Here, we should start warming the milk. Just get that small pan over there and pour in the milk on low and add the butter. Yeah, it’s almost the same, really. I mean, some alchemists might get mad at me for saying so, but they’re the same concepts. There’s just more tools used in alchemy, that’s all. I mean, everything they make is basically a salad.”

Mitty felt that she was expected to know what alchemy was, so she didn’t ask much further. Instead she asked about the salad.

“Salad is a foul construct sent by the gods to punish people for their sins. Well, almost that bad. It’s just a bunch of leaves mixed together, with bacon if you’re smart.”

“Sounds bad,” Mitty replied, and it really did sound bad.

“Ok, now that it’s been about 15 minutes, drain the pot and put the potatoes in the bowl over there. Now mix together the potatoes and the milk and butter you have warming in that pan with a fork and we can finish up.”

Swaying with exhaustion, Mitty whisked together the potatoes and butter and milk determined to finish everything by herself. With everything together, Delphi guided her back to a chair where she was gently but firmly told to sit.

“Stay there, Mitts. I’ll fetch some parchment so you can write the recipe down, and you can do that while I clean up.”

Happy to be off her feet for the first time since morning, Mitty did her best to write down the ingredients as she remembered them using the writing stick Delphi had given her. It took her a few tries, but she figured out a decent grip on the quill and jotted everything down. Delphi came back with a wicker basket and expertly packed everything away after setting aside a portion of potatoes for herself.

“Alright, now you can go as soon as you finish cleaning the kitchen,” she said with an impish grin that slid off her face when she saw Mitty teetering over to the bowls and pans in the sink.

“No, no, I was just messing with you. You can go home now if you promise to bring back my dishes and basket tomorrow,” the young shopkeeper assured her, ushering her out of the kitchen.

They walked back through to the entrance of the shop to say their goodbyes. By now, the sun had fully set, and the moon cast a long shadow onto the street outside.

“Thanks, Delphi, I’ll come back with your stuff tomorrow.”

“Alright Mitts, I hope your date goes well. It was fun having someone to talk to. Do you want me to walk you home? You look dead tired.” She glomped Mitty in a big hug then looked at her with concern.

Unaccustomed to being touched, but too tired to fight it, and also not really hating it, she shook her head.

“No, I’ll be… fine, I’m just a short walk away” Mitty said tiredly, walking out onto the street. She looked back at Delphi, eyes shining green in the moonlight, and promptly passed out.

***

“Oh dear,” she says to herself. “I certainly wasn’t expecting the voyager to be a cat.”

Delphi lifts the basket that had fallen to the ground beside the exhausted cat, now sleeping soundly on the street, but after a moment’s consideration, puts the basket down, places the now very light and small Mitty on the basket, and picks both up in one hand.

“We ought to get you home I suppose. Don’t want to miss your date,” she says softly, chuckling to herself.

Her eyes glow silver briefly before reverting to their regular brown as she breaths out a spell. “[Tracking]”.

Now with a destination, the oracle soundlessly sets off down the deserted, moonlit street with a sleeping cat and basket in one hand, the warm glow from the windows of houses illuminating her path.