A waft of sweetness pulled me by the nostrils, dragging me out of bed. I neatly made the bed after my use and headed down the creaky stairs where the smell intensified. Through the railing I could see the hot steam radiating from the kitchen where a soft humming reached my ears. What a delight this is, haven't felt at home since we started this trip.
The soft floor molded to my every step, it felt like walking on a mattress. Separating the living room from the kitchen was a small western style saloon door. It was my first time seeing one but I've read so much about them, mainly from travelling merchant's selling monthly papers.
(''Whatchu cooking Blossom?'')
The doors swung behind me after I entered, for some reason they didn't seem to creak as much as I thought they would.
(''Oh good morning Abby! How did you sleep?'')
Yawn~
(''Yeah and it was all thanks to that bed. I've lived with a town chief and the bed was nowhere near this level of softness. What is it made of?'')
(''It was a gift from Lord Ireul so I don't know.'')
(''You are a lot closer to a god then I thought.'')
She giggled as she shook the frying pan over the open flame. (''Jealous?'')
(''No I just wondered how.'')
(''I do favours for him and he returns the kindness.'')
That sounds like a dream partnership with a god, he must be a truly wondrous and fair god. Sadly I'm stuck with the jealous and lustful Lucet.
(''When you come back I'll introduce you two, how about that?'')
(''If you are this kind then I might just have to choose you over all of the other girls. Haha'')
(''Pfft. As if you stood a chance with me, you wouldn't be able to handle it.'')
(''Handle what? You are fla-'')
A knife flew past my head, drawing a small sliver of blood to flow out. Scary.
(''Now you can either help me by setting the table, or you can starve.'')
Yeesh. I grabbed the syrup on the counter aswell as the bowl of fruit. The doors put up little resistant against my body as they swung closed behind me. I am seriously digging those doors, maybe the chief will get those installed too.
(''Take a seat Abby. You are in for the best food of your life.'')
(''You mean better than what we had last night? Not possible.'')
(''You are about to eat your words kid.'')
She placed the porcelain plate onto the table along with a knife and fork. I took my seat and waited for her to be ready. The hanging chandelier illuminated the room pretty well, now I could make out everything I failed to spot last night.
(''Let's eat Abby.'')
(''Oh right. Thank you for the meal!'')
Now that I looked at plate there was something I didn't recognised. Sure there was the bacon which was still sizzling and popping. But there was a huge circular disc with incomplete holes in it.
(''Have you never seen those before? They are called waffles, try it with some syrup and berries. You won't regret it.'')
Fine. I clutched the knife in my right and the fork in my left. The knife sliced through it like melted butter and the fork sank through it along with some berries.
…
…
Oh. My. God.
(''This is so good! What isthis stuff??'')
(''I told you. They are waffles. The recipe was a gift from Ireul from his travel to Bitum. Actually I heard he is heading there again soon so maybe he will bring back many more recipes. Hehe'')
I couldn't stop myself from shoveling the soft waffles in my mouth. The berries added the sweetness that it needed and it all worked like a harmony.
I almost feel bad eating all of this by myself and not sharing it with Zeraf, but ah well, really is a pity. Moment of silence is over. Back to eating.
(''Should I go get some juice too?'')
I excitedly nodded my head which just caused her to giggle more. But I don't care, this breakfast was too good.
(''Here.'')
(''Why is it orange?'')
(''What do you mean? It's orange juice.'')
(''Oranges?!! You mean the orange oranges? Like the ones that only grow on the Eastern Continent??'')
(''The one and only.'')
I stared at the glass of fire orange liquid before me, this is a rare chance to try something new! It slithered down my throat with it rich flavour invading every nook and cranny.
(''Woahh. The food critics weren't lying when they wrote those articles about using oranges to food. If the juice tastes this good then I can't even dream about how tasty the food must be.'')
(''You are adorable Abby. But it's not that amazing, Lord Ireul said that they were part of the same fruit family as lemons so you could just use that as a substitute.'')
They are a lot closer if they idly chat about plant families and the such. Connections are important…its best not to get on Blossom's bad side.
I quickly inhaled the rest of the food and washed my plate before grabbing a seat on the couch.
Hey Void, come out.
(''What is it boy? And don't order me around like that, I'm not a slave.'')
Alright. Alright, I'm sorry. I wanted to ask you something. Have you gone through everything she talked about last night? I need your opinion on this matter.
(''Yeah I did boy. Honestly speaking, you've allied yourself with a terrifying person, but I'm proud of you nonetheless. In life, allies are the most important tools at your disposal.'')
People are not tools though. Right?
(''Oh you young and naive boy. When you are weak people are friends and allies. But once you grow strong, they are nothing but tools that you use and dispose once they accomplish the goal you assigned for them.'')
I don't like your philosophy. But there is no point arguing, so just answer my question from before. I am keen to hear what your wisened mind has to say on the topic.
(''Well it does make sense but to believe that there is an outer deity feels a little surreal. But…it has some credibility.'')
What do you mean?
(''Do you know where voidlings come from?'')
Don't they just crawl out of crevices in the dungeons?
(''You really think things just pop into existence? Well you are wrong anyway. We voidlings come out through wormholes from the demonic realm of L'Doth.'')
I guess that would imply that there are dieties there, but surely they can't be considered outer dieties since we have people like Lucet and Israh. Wait, do you think that we also have an outer deity or two? Shouldn't they be stopping the invaders?
(''You are asking a lot of questions that I don't know the answers to. But I have formed another hypothesis from the information we have. I believe that…there is one more realm aside from the ones we talked about.'')
Hold on now. That is too much to process at once. But why do you think so?
(''Think about the nature of magical affinities in this world. Creation. Destruction. Light. Darkness. Death. So that means Life must be out there somewhere, just not in this realm. I also think the death magical affinity originated from L'Doth. Time is an outlier though. Why do we have time but not space?'')
I see your point, but if that was the case then why did Death make it to our realm?
(''I think it links in to some plan of that deity that Blossom was talking about. The way things are positioned right now leads me to believe that him invading our realm is only the beginning of that despicable plan.'')
Just thinking about it gives me the shivers. If you are right then we are in for a lot more trouble we original thought. I really hoped it was just that girl we had to kill, because I can tell you that fighting a diety sounds too difficult.
(''Don't be such a scaredy cat boy, I have on more thing I need to tell you.'')
What is it? I hope its not more bad news about this whole situation or else I will crawl back into that comfy bed.
(''Boy. This world has become too soft, and I don't agree with Israh and her philosophy of breaking down everything and stripping citizens of their safety. But I think that there aren't enough warriors to fight against the war that is to come.'')
…
(''Not even the gods will sufice in the coming battle, they have also grown weak. Israh is the only one who had been preparing but who knows which side she will take.'')
…
(''My point is this Abaddon. The world needs a hero, someone to carry the world out of the despair that is soon to come. They need someone strong and brave, so take that position and bring victory to the lands you were born in!'')