by Frank Morin
Connor was actually excited to give it a try but could not waste such an opportunity. “To make this work I’m going to need some bacon. And a tub of winter’s heart.”
79
The Power of Thinking Food
No one actually believed Connor needed more food before beginning the hunt for the ramverk, but it was mid-afternoon, and Hamish reminded them that they needed sustenance to properly enjoy dinner in a few hours. Shona protested, but was overruled by Rory and Ivor, so she finally relented and ordered platters of food from the kitchens.
Merkland was still too battered to be cooking many desserts, so Ivor ordered a couple cases of smashpacked sweetbreads. No one in Merkland had started making Winter’s Heart, and Hamish promised to rectify that by asking Jean to send a flight with one of his spare research kitchens.
“Research kitchens?” Ilse asked with a laugh. “How did you justify that?”
“And how are you still able to fit into your battle suit?” Wolfram added with a grin.
Hamish tried to look properly offended as he exclaimed, “Hey, without my research, we wouldn’t have delivered so many smashpacked meals to Merkland.”
“He has a point,” Shona offered.
Rory added with a smile, “Although in reviewing the lists, I couldn’t help but notice that you sent twice as many sweetbreads and desserts as you did main courses.”
“Of course. Fighting troops need energy and hope. Desserts and sweetbreads deliver both.”
Smiling, Kilian said, “While we await refreshments, are there any other points we need to discuss from our latest intelligence report?”
Ivor shook his head, and Rory said, “Wasn’t that enough?”
“More than enough,” Connor agreed.
He spent a few minutes discussing with Kilian and Evander where they’d felt the red and greed energies strongest, but none of them could pinpoint where they might have sensed a convergence of power.
Verena circled the table to join Anika. She asked something, and Anika grinned very girlishly and produced several small pieces of white cloth. Verena gushed over them, and Ilse rose to join them. Shona scooted her chair closer, and even Mistress Four rose to join the women. Connor frowned at Kilian, nodding to the knot of women who began chatting excitedly in hushed tones.
“Samples of bridal veil cloth,” Kilian explained.
Evander surprised Connor by adding, “Autumn breezes warn of the journey of seasons, but no day contains enough light to witness the bride’s work complete.”
Connor frowned, but Hamish chuckled. “I think I get that one.” At Connor’s surprised look he shrugged. “Jean’s in touch with Anika daily to talk about the wedding. Her dress is long finished, but there’s only weeks before the wedding, and there’s still so many details, it’s good Rory’s got access to an entire army to help get it all done.”
Wedding planning seemed to affect even the most warrior-minded women in ways that Connor didn’t understand. Seeing Verena so excited about Anika’s wedding, made him happy, but also a bit nervous. She glanced up to meet his gaze, and lifted one eyebrow for a second before returning to her conversation. That look communicated volumes.
She definitely wanted to have ‘the talk’ soon. He felt powerful, conflicting emotions about that. He wanted to wed Verena more than anything, but would that expose her to even more danger from Queen Dreokt or her agents?
Besides, the thought of planning a wedding was overwhelming. He had not ascended through nearly enough thresholds to figure out that incomprehensible jumble of tradition and social norms.
Luckily the food arrived before she could return to his side and start that conversation. The Merkland cooks might not have winter’s heart, but they had a lot of bacon. They even managed to include a couple trays of huge cookies. The main dishes were simple, but well seasoned. One platter held long strips of thin-cut beef, marinated in a delicious spicy honey sauce. Another dish included pork cutlets baked in thick gravy. They’d been slow-cooked to perfection, so tender each bite seemed to melt in Connor’s mouth.
A venison roast came next, but Connor almost didn’t get any of it. By the time it passed Shona and the generals, then Hamish, it was already half gone. Ilse took a huge serving, and the Mhortair dug in with so much gusto, Connor barely snatched one thick slice. It had been roasted on a spit and basted with gravy and a subtle mixture of spices that made the taste seem to erupt through his mouth, even though he wasn’t tapping quartzite to his tongue.
He managed to grab the cookie tray while the others were distracted by a platter full of small, roasted hens. After munching down seven still-warm cookies, he began wishing for some chilled milk to go with them. That’s when he noted Mistress Four staring at him and Hamish with open-mouthed awe. Hamish was happily consuming half a loaf of bread, while grasping a roasted hen in his other hand.
Connor was feeling full and discreetly tapped his newfound glutton crafting talent. He wasn’t sure when he’d have to fleshcraft again, but he didn’t doubt he would need to, and he needed to store up extra energy. He applied glutton crafting to Hamish’s stomach too.
Hamish grinned and saluted with the half-eaten hen. “That is the best affinity I’ve ever heard of.”
“Don’t overdo it. I’ve got work to do and can’t save your stomach again,” Connor told him.
Hamish sighed, looking disappointed. He stared longingly at the last huge piece of Althing chocolate cake sitting alone and unclaimed on a nearby platter.
Verena didn’t miss the exchange. She leaned close to Connor and asked, “What are you not telling me?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“If you tell me now, can I finish off that piece of cake Hamish is making moon eyes over?”
“Give me a kiss and I’ll eat that cake for you.”
“No, I want it.”
“How about a kiss for a cake,” he replied. They’d both get something they wanted then.
She did not look like she entirely believed him and made sure to slide the large piece of cake a little farther out of his reach before kissing him lightly on the lips. Through that contact, he reached through to her stomach and converted her food into energy.
She sat back, eyes wide in wonder, glancing down at herself. He could feel the energy coursing through her and grinned at her surprise. “Like Hamish always says, sometimes you have to eat yourself to the point of no return in order to learn something new.”
Verena saluted Hamish with her fork, then plunged it into the soft cake. He watched in pitiful silence as she closed her eyes, chewing slowly, and didn’t even offer to share a bite with Connor.
“That was the only fresh cake,” Hamish said.
“You’ve got an entire crate full of smashpacked desserts,” Ilse said with a laugh.
Hamish grinned. “Yes we do.”
He stood and went to the crate of smashpacked desserts and selected six of them.
“How is such feasting possible?” Commander Six asked.
Aifric grinned and said, “Don’t ever accept a food challenge from those two.”
“Don’t stuff yourself into a stupor, Connor,” Kilian warned.
Hamish chuckled. “I think that’s actually impossible for Connor now.”
Connor wasn’t about to share the glutton crafting secret with the rest of them. There wasn’t enough food left for them all to try it. Besides, he had work to do. So he said, “I’m going to see if I can find the convergence point.”
“Where are you going to go?” Verena asked as she licked the last of the chocolate from her fork, somehow making the very unladylike move seem dignified.
Connor tapped the side of his head. “Nowhere physically, but hopefully pretty far using my elemental senses.”
“Good luck,” she said, kissing him again. Her lips tasted like chocolate.
Smiling, he closed his eyes and tapped his tertiary affinities. As the connections became strong, he appeared within the gray, formless expanse of his own mindscape
. Surprisingly Earth appeared first, rising from the insubstantial mist of the floor with as much epic grandeur as Evander could ever muster.
“Are you sure you and Evander aren’t related?”
Earth grinned. “Evander is a talented child and although I cannot walk openly with him as I do with you, he has grasped many truths with remarkable clarity.”
“Then how do you know he’s not ready to see more of you?”
“Sometimes wisdom lies in silence.”
Connor could understand that, but still felt convinced they could find a way around the elemental hesitation. Evander and Kilian both knew so much more than he did. Surely they wouldn’t do something stupid with more knowledge.
“Do you know why I reached out to you now?” he asked.
Earth nodded, again confirming that somehow the elementals seemed to understand his thoughts as clearly as if they were tapping chert. Maybe it was because he was inviting them into his mind. He was not sure how to prevent them from doing so, and didn’t want to risk offending them by asking about it. He needed their help too much to risk it.
Water appeared next to Earth then, materializing in an instant. She wore a beautiful gown of midnight blue, with a subtle pattern of waves flowing across its fabric. Her long hair had turned a deep green and hung in an unrestrained sheet down her back. Her expression looked stern, her eyes gray, like the sea before a storm.
Fire appeared on the other side of Earth, wearing black trousers and a linen shirt that looked charred. Tiny flames flickered all over his torso, and his eyes were pools of white heat. Air settled down from above, her gown a soft blue, like late afternoon sky if seen through a sheen of wispy clouds.
Connor started to smile in greeting, but Water said sternly, “You return seeking boons of knowledge, yet you spurned our latest counsel immediately after promising to temper your tongue.”
“We have given much that has been treated with contempt,” Fire added, little blue flames leaking out his mouth before evaporating with tiny hisses.
Not the reception Connor had hoped for. He’d worried they would be upset that he’d shared information about them with Kilian and the others, but how could he not have? He felt a stirring of frustration and said, “I’m trying, but I don’t understand the reasons why you placed those restrictions on me, and my friends needed to know.”
“I told you his mind would leak,” Fire said to Water.
She made a shushing gesture, her intimidating gaze holding Connor’s. “Understanding comes through study and experience, and by trust.”
“I’m trying to study. I trust you, and I hope you trust me,” Connor replied.
“You have not demonstrated reasons for our trust,” Fire said, still frowning.
“And you haven’t entrusted me with what you need from me,” Connor retorted. He probably shouldn’t push, but he lacked time for subtlety.
“Why should we share this our dire need with one who will not hold our confidence?” Water demanded.
Connor felt so frustrated that they were placing those restrictions on him, but he was not in a bargaining position of strength. They claimed they wanted his help, but he desperately needed theirs.
So he took a deep breath and said as humbly as he could, “I am very sorry I broke your confidence. I promise not to share with anyone, not even Verena or Kilian, anything else you teach me until you give me leave to do so. Please, I need your help, and I need to understand how I can help you in return.”
Earth slid slowly around Connor, his legs not moving, his thick arms folded over his enormous chest. He was dressed in a long, leather jacket, much like Evander often wore. “Insanity for humans is repeating an action again, but expecting different results. Insanity for us is giving without receiving.”
That he chose to speak in a convoluted way that reminded Connor so much of Evander offered Connor a flicker of hope. “Please give me another chance.”
“A chance with a test,” Fire said, crimson and orange flames billowing around his face, casting his eyes into deep shadow. The effect was both mesmerizing and intimidating.
“Very well,” Water said with a nod. “You are a child who must grow quickly for your own survival and for ours. We can guide you, but you must allow us to do so.”
“How is your survival at stake?” Connor asked. He couldn’t imagine anything actually harming the elementals. They were forces of nature, weren’t they?
“Survival is more than existence,” Air said, her long tresses beginning to billow around her head from an invisible wind. Beautiful silvery streaks began sliding through her hair, as if slender clouds were passing through it.
“I don’t understand,” Connor admitted. He felt lost, and that frustrated him. He’d finally ascended, finally established a bridge to communicate with these incredible beings, but he felt like he was missing entire layers to the conversation that were vital for him to grasp.
Water said, “We are prisoner, Connor, held fast with shackles that lock us between the sylfaen and your world. Human attempts to access the sylfaen prompted our awakening, but humans have failed us every time we attempted to walk among them, and thus we languish in eternal prison, unable to accomplish the potential of our existence.”
For a moment, Connor wasn’t sure what to say. He wanted to ask about that awakening process, but didn’t want to distract them. The elements were so amazing, so powerful, he struggled to imagine them imprisoned. What could do that to them?
“How can Petralists access your power, then? And what can I do to help?” he asked.
“We are not powerless, but we are restrained from walking freely,” Water said, as if that made perfect sense. “We can share drops of our power with humans, but none have grasped our true forms. Not even you can yet see all that we are.”
“I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet you,” he said truthfully.
She smiled, looking so beautiful, so regal, he was filled with pride to be considered their friend. She said, “If you allow us to prepare you, we can show you how to help free us.”
That was still far too vague, and some of his earlier unease returned, but he squashed it. He couldn’t further damage the frail trust he was building with them. So he said, “I am eager to learn more. Will you help me find the ramverk and the convergence of sylfaen?”
She dashed his hopes by shaking her head. The other elements moved behind her, watching him with pleasant but unrelenting expressions. “We shared part of our secret with you, but can do no more until you prove yourself by protecting it from all others.”
“I promise I will, but I need help.”
“The road without mountains is soon despised for its ease,” Earth said.
That wasn’t helpful. “How can I find it when not even Kilian knows what it is?”
“You have the tools before you, and the resources for success,” Water said with an encouraging smile that somehow eased some of his frustration, even though it was a pretty useless answer.
“Good luck. Don’t waste too much time. You don’t have that much left,” Fire said, saluting then fading from his mindscape. The others followed, leaving Connor alone.
When he opened his eyes, he found Verena leaning close, one hand on his, expression concerned. “What’s wrong? Why are you frowning?”
The rest of the company was still gathered close, watching intently. Connor hated giving them bad news, but sighed and said, “I spoke with the elementals, but they either can’t or won’t show me the ramverk. We’re on our own.”
“That’s not very helpful,” Hamish said, popping a pair of smashpacked cubes into his mouth. One was black, and Connor recognized it as a full Althing chocolate cake. The other was a mottled mixture of tans, browns, and yellows, a newly developed meal made from smashpacking thin-crusted breads, with layers of cheeses and meats between. That one was best when heated for a moment in one of Hamish’s tiny stoves before eating.
“What exactly did they say?” Kilian asked.
Connor hesitat
ed. He couldn’t share the intriguing revelation that the elements considered themselves somehow prisoners. He bet Kilian and Evander could help him decipher that one, but sensed that if he shared it the elementals would refuse to teach him more.
So he only said, “They told me that I already have the resources to find the ramverk.”
“What resources?” Verena asked.
“We already finished eating,” Hamish agreed.
“I know, but there’s got to be a way,” Connor insisted.
“We know the ramverk is out there, that those convergence points exist,” General Wolfram pointed out.
“We just need to figure out how to sense them,” Kilian said.
Connor nodded, deep in thought. “I can sense the red and green frequencies when I focus on them, but I’ve never actually tried extending my senses along the currents to try figuring out where they came from. I’m not sure I can reach that far or that I’d recognize a convergence point.”
“Maybe we need to think about it differently,” Verena suggested.
Hamish saluted her with another dessert cube. “Right! Sort of like when you’re a kid, you believe the propaganda that desserts can only be eaten after dinner. Eventually you realize desserts are always out there, and you don’t have to limit yourself just because it’s the normal approach to food.”
Verena laughed. “You’re the only one who can explain the deepest arcane mysteries through dessert.”
Hamish shrugged. “Like that really smart guy says in that book Jean told me about a few weeks ago, All truth can be kneaded into one giant sweetbread.”
“That is not what she quoted,” Verena protested with a laugh. Connor smiled. He appreciated Hamish’s ability to misremember things so remarkably.
Evander said through a smile, “A child is never satisfied until it succeeds in walking on its own, but it is a rare yearling colt that approaches its first rider as an opportunity to reach freedom.”
Connor glanced at Verena, who looked as confused as he felt, then at Kilian, who simply shrugged. Connor had started thinking he was mastering the trick to interpreting Evander’s Sentry speak, but he wasn’t sure what the big man was going for.
