The kitchen in their apartment was one of the rgest rooms in the space. In the centre sat a stone box with a patterned brick top. There were runes etched into the brick and two empty pots sat on it. It was quite broad, almost three feet wide, and square in shape. Phaedra pced her basket on a table with several other baskets containing fruits and vegetables. Some Isran recognized and some she did not.

  The table was longer than it was wide, clearly to properly utilise the shape of the room. Phaedra pulled out two wooden boards, two knives, several bowls and a pot.

  There was running water in the kitchen, simir to the way there was running water in the bathroom. The tap design was a bit primitive. A small pump sat close to the ground with a bucket under it.

  “What are we making?” Isran asked curiously as Phaedra pulled out ingredients and opened a book.

  She smiled as she answered. “Meat pies and some vegetable soup for Elysi.”

  Isran nodded and picked up a knife. “Just tell me what to do chef.”

  With a small giggle, Phaedra pced several vegetables in front of Isran and separate bowls.

  She got started on the soup first. Onions… well that was the only thing Isran recognized. She did add a few spices, pinches mostly, and several unique looking vegetables.

  One had spikes and was bright red, she cut off each spike before adding them to the medium sized pot. Another was green and glowed faintly, she cut that one and poured out a pale yellow juice.

  Isran had cut two vegetables into fine pieces herself. One, shaped like a tomato but orange and the other resembled okra, but they were too long and were filled with a red sticky paste.

  “Where did you learn to cook?” Isran asked as she watched Phaedra tap a rune on the side of the stone structure twice. Several runes on the brick lit up blue next to her and she pced the pot on top, covering it before answering.

  “My mom… that was the only thing she ever did actually.”

  Isran could tell it was a sensitive topic, but just as she was figuring out a way to brush it off Phaedra continued.

  “I guess it was the only thing that made her happy.”

  Isran quietly cut up her vegetables as she listened.

  “My…father wasn’t the best husband. And my mother wasn’t his first wife… she was his st when I was born…”

  “Was that hard?”

  Phaedra shrugged, not meeting Isran’s eyes. “My oldest brother was studying in Evelnncarth, married with a child. The others that lived with us didn’t speak to us so I can’t say it was horrible…” Phaedra began to smile. “She would wake up and brush my hair, then we’d spend the rest of the day in one of the kitchens, away from the work staff. My father liked her cooking, it was the only thing he would eat.”

  Isran watched as Phaedra prepped the meat she was going to be using in the pie. Washing it, cutting and seasoning.

  “But when she got sick… she wasn’t cooking as much. She always looked so… dead inside.”

  Isran blinked at Phaedra’s cold tone at her st sentence.

  The blue haired woman huffed a bit and shrugged before dumping the meat into a pot and putting it on the rune covered stove.

  “Do you remember your parents?”

  Isran tried to and she did, but not enough. “They were supportive… I think. I was an only child…” She stopped herself from saying ‘I think’ again.

  “I remember always having some new interest and them never saying no… but that’s pretty much it.”

  “They sound nice.”

  Isran hesitated. “They do.”

  They got to prepping the dough for the pie.

  “I wanted to be a butterfly when she died. I would sing about flying high to Evelncarth from morning to night, my throat was sore and my eyes stung from holding in tears but I wouldn’t stop.”

  She gnced up and Isran and ughed nervously. “I’m sorry, I’m ruining the mood.”

  Isran shook her head and brushed a stray tear away. “You aren’t, I’m happy to learn more about you.”

  Phaedra huffed with a small smile. “What else do you want to know?”

  Isran thought about it a bit. “What do you enjoy doing?”

  “Research and cataloguing,” Phaedra said without missing a beat. “There is a strange routine I can fall into when doing that, that nothing else ever brings me. I was giving a reted css… but if I’m being honest I didn’t skip it because the healer css was better.”

  Isran watched as she covered the dough and walked up to the vegetable soup pot, pouring more food items in it.

  “My father is a merchant…and people with cataloguing csses aren’t rare, it's one of the most common mundane csses there is…” She stirred the soup a few times before beckoning Isran closer. “But his specific css (1) is a cataloguing css… is it bad if I don’t want to share anything in my power with him?”

  Isran didn’t know too much of their retionship, but she was understanding it. It seemed… not the best.

  “Whatever you do is your choice… whatever you own belongs to you. It’s not bad to feel that way… at least I don’t think it's bad.”

  Phaedra motioned for Isran to crouch, brought the dle to Isran mouth and fed her the hot soup. Isran liked it… it was a unique taste for sure, but it reminded her of tomato soup, though less thick. There was even a faint meat taste, which might have been from one of the many spices Phaedra had added, or even the vegetables.

  “It’s good.” She hummed, gently grabbing the healer’s hand and tipping the dle further up to drink more of the soup.

  “Just good?” Phaedra teased, a soft smile on her face.

  Isran ughed a bit. “Really good.”

  They didn’t speak about much else as they made the meat pie. Phaedra pounded the meat in a wooden pot and mixed in spices before rolling out the dough and putting the meat in.

  When it came to making the pie, after brushing the outside with egg wash made from an egg rger than a chicken egg, she pced it over the brick stove and after tapping a few runes the pie, on a metal tray sank down into the stone and was covered shortly after. An interesting oven.

  “So you aren’t sure if you should participate in the games?”

  Isran shrugged, “I… I just feel like so much can go wrong…”

  “Like?”

  “I—I don’t know. I embarrass myself. Or I embarrass Morgana. I’m not the best fighter by a stretch.”

  Phaedra shook her head. “You are a very good fighter. It may not seem that way to you, because your level may not be that high, or you still feel a bit awkward with your weapon. But you’re a really good fighter Isran. You learn fast and think before you swing… sure years of experience is much better but your willingness to improve is what makes you a good fighter. What makes you promising. You should participate… plus I have always wanted to see the games. It would be cooler if I could watch you my first time.”

  Isran blushed and cleared her throat, turning her head away from Phaedra. “Thanks…I—I appreciate that.”

  I'm not the best artist but I drew Isran and Red st night