The Vampire & Her Witch

”It’s a bit overwhelming, isn’t it, Engineer Isabell?” Erkembalt said conversationally when he saw the witch sitting next to him struggling to decide where to begin with Ashlynn and Georg’s rendition of High Fen City’s ’street food.’

For Isabell, it wasn’t that she was averse to abandoning her knife and fork to eat like a commoner. While that might have brought about a moment of hesitation for Loman Lothian, Isabell herself had lived the life of a commoner even when she served as an engineer in the Emerald Court.

The foldable flatbread might be different from the filled meat pies or fishcakes that she was accustomed to, but she was hardly opposed to eating with her hands when the situation called for it. Rather, she found herself confronted with far too many choices, and even though the courses so far had been small, she didn’t want to gorge herself here and miss out on something later, so she felt like she needed to pick the meats and sauces that she would enjoy the most and save the rest for another occasion.

Liam Dunn seemed to have taken the brute force approach to resolving the dilemma. He was methodically sampling everything before committing to anything, but the young nobleman was half her age, and he spent at least an hour every day training with the sword or otherwise physically engaged... His stomach was likely as bottomless as her own children’s, and he could afford to be indiscriminate in his choices.

”It would be easier if I knew what things were,” Isabell confessed as she dipped the tine of her fork into the dark red sauce she’d seen Ashlynn use to sample a bit of the dish. Despite being a sauce composed mostly of red peppers and garlic, the flavor was mild, with a slight heat that accompanied the mellow flavor of roasted garlic, and an undertone of vinegary acidity.

”When in doubt, always get the nooftish,” Erkembalt advised sagely as he pointed at the thin strips of unidentifiable grilled meat. ”It’s just pounded meat, onions, peppers, and spices, shaped into a log and roasted on a spit. In the markets, they cut slices off for you while the spit is still turning.”

”Every stall in the markets is different,” Aspakos agreed as he plucked a slice of the ’nooftish’ off the serving platter, dipping it in a bright green sauce that smelled strongly of tarragon and dill. The sorcerer tipped his head back, opening his broken beak wide before dropping the sauced strip of meat directly into his mouth, barely bothering to chew before swallowing the tender morsel.

”Everyone has their own recipe for nooftish,” the feathered sorcerer said as his taloned hand hovered over the platter of strips, as he sought out a piece with a bit more char on the edges. ”And even the same shop may not be able to make it exactly the same each time. So when you have an opportunity to try it, it’s the only opportunity you’ll ever have.”

”Nonsense,” Erkembalt huffed. ”You’re just bitter about Elder Talsi refusing to write down any of his recipes before he died. You’ve been searching for someone who knows his secret ever since.”

”That too,” Aspakos admitted with a shrug. ”Two things can be true at the same time, my old friend,” the sorcerer said. ”They often are.”

”I think I’m learning the colors,” Liam said in an effort to be more helpful than the bickering old men. ”Aside from the bright green sauce, which feels like it’s mostly herbs and some kind of cream, anything that’s dark green is spicy enough to leave you gulping the chilled ale,” he said, pointing to something that looked like the white meat of chicken rolled in dark green spices and grilled until the edges were slightly charred black.

”The red ones have a sweetness to them,” Liam continued, pointing to thin strips of what might have been the loin of a boar or pig that had turned bright red when they were grilled. ”The orange ones are earthier,” he continued, ”but I have no idea what meat that is.”

”Goat,” Virve supplied helpfully as she started heaping some of the strangely colored meat onto a piece of flat-bread before slathering it with a dark purple sauce with the consistency of honey. ”Don’t ask me what Georg did to make goat this tender, but it’s not as tough as you’d think.”

”Don’t think about it too hard, Isabell,” Virve suggested after taking a large bite. ”Taste the sauces. If you like them, look for a meat that’s roughly that color, and you’ll have a good idea what it will taste like. If you want one taste to be intense, double up, dark green sauce on green meat. Otherwise, pair them up to be different.”

”If there’s something you like, just ask Georg, I’m sure he’ll make you another batch to have it again. Even the nooftish stuff,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the soft-bellied cook. ”I’m sure he wrote his recipe down,” she said with a wide grin.

”I have notes,” Georg acknowledged with a nod. ”But this is my first time making most of these dishes. I’ve been learning from the cooks who came across the mountains with Lady Nyrielle’s army, and I had to make substitutions for some of the ingredients.”

”The purple sauce that Virve is eating is supposed to be made with the thickened juice of a fruit that grows on the far side of the Thousand Spires,” Georg explained. ”But it’s already expensive in High Fen City, and importing anything beyond pre-pressed juice across the mountains would be far too expensive. I used red beet juice instead, and a bit of honey to make it sweeter, but I’m told it’s lacking the floral notes of the proper dish.”

”Thousand Spires?” Isabell asked as she finally decided to brave the dark green chicken paired with the thick, purple sauce for a combination that would be both sweet and very spicy. ”How far away is it?”

”Twice the distance from here to the eastern sea,” Virve said, frowning slightly as she pondered her next combination of meats and sauces. ”It’s where the current Eldritch Emperor lives, but it’s too far away for Lady Nyrielle to visit more than once every few decades. Commander Bassinger went when he was young, but Lennart and I have never been there.”

”I didn’t realize that the, um, the Eldritch had an Emperor,” Liam said as he dabbed sweat from his brow, instantly regretting his decision to challenge himself by pairing the dark green sauce with the green meat. ”So, is Lady Nyrielle required to send a tithe to the Emperor? Does he send soldiers here to protect her lands?”

”It isn’t like that,” Erkembalt said, shaking his head at the notion of a powerful True Vampire like Nyrielle being required to send any kind of tithe to a distant ruler. ”It’s just a title that people with more strength than sense fight over. There hasn’t been an Emperor who tried unifying the continent since before your people ever landed on the eastern shores.”

”I see,” Liam said, even though he didn’t really understand at all. The world that Virve and Erkembalt spoke of sounded so large, so vast and varied that it was hard to wrap his mind around.

Beyond the mountains, a city where warriors fought in an arena large enough to hold everyone who attended the Royal tournament. Then, far beyond that, an emperor who ruled over... what? What exactly were the ’Thousand Spires?’

Liam didn’t know.... But deep within him, a curiosity was beginning to grow to see at least a portion of that larger world. One thing was abundantly clear, however. The Eldritch put a great deal of stock in a man’s strength, and at the moment, Liam didn’t possess nearly enough of it.

But both Lady Ashlynn and Captain Virve had promised to help him with that. So, no matter how uncomfortable the learning process might be, he was willing to try. He just had to convince his father to accept Lady Ashlynn’s offer so that he would have enough time to wander while he was still a young man. Otherwise, much like Lady Nyrielle, he feared his opportunities to travel would be few and far between, and unlike her, he didn’t have an eternity to wait for the right opportunity to present itself....