Coradine, who was leaning against the doorway with her arms folded, had a slight frown on her face as she watched them. “You’re trying too hard,” She told him softly. “Every meal you make for her is better than the last. She’s a child, you’re making promises that you might not be able to keep. Food, comfort, security. None of that will matter if Tavian or Macron drag you off.”

  Draden swallowed and turned to meet her gaze. “I have a lot to make up for. I haven’t been a very good father to her. For a long time, I was lost in my own pain, ignoring her, and just doing the absolute bare minimum. If I can make her happy, even for a moment, with the food I cook, then I’m going to do it. Besides, what do you suggest I do? Hand myself over and pray neither of them decides to take Leah as part of the bargain, or that they’ll honorably protect her? I’m not a fool, Coradine.”

  Coradine’s jaw flexed, but she didn’t immediately answer. Instead, she crossed the kitchen and touched the dagger still lying on the counter. Her fingers traced its hilt with a frown. “Messages like this don’t stop. Not from men like him. Ignore one, another comes. Each message was sharper and more forceful than the last.”

  Leah looked between them; strawberry juice smeared across her lips. “Daddy’s not going anywhere. Right?”

  Her words carried the innocent certainty of a child who believed her parent to be an unmovable force. Draden swallowed hard, forcing calm into his voice. “Right. Daddy’s not going anywhere.”

  Shortly after breakfast was finished, they departed for the city, needing to bring Leah to school.

  Coradine had made a valiant attempt to eat the crepes, but the powdered sugar contained far too much energy for her to safely eat. So, while Leah had happily eaten her teacher’s portion, Draden had quickly made the woman some regular pancakes.

  Draden had noticed that the qi from the crepes had been high enough to drill away some of the injury done to his prime meridian. It was slightly less than the almond balls. However, that was just from one ingredient. If he combined powdered sugar with vanilla… and maybe even chocolate on occasion. He really wasn’t a fan of chocolate, but he could eat it.

  If he combined the three items, would he have the ultimate snack item? Or at least, until he discovered another high qi ingredient.

  “Are you and Marcus going to speak with Dajra and Mirna about the City Lord and his issue?” Draden asked Coradine as they neared the school.

  She nodded. “With your permission, he and I will be the ones to retrieve Leah this afternoon after her classes have finished. We will speak with them then. Nothing will be certain until our friend arrives, but they should be warned ahead of time, no matter what.”

  Leah was looking up at them with a curious look on her little face. “Are grandma Cora and grandpa Marcus picking up Leah from school?”

  He chuckled and smoothed her hair, laying down the strays that had gotten loose from her braid. “Yup, don’t worry though, I’ll pack extra snacks, so you don’t get hungry with them.”

  Her eyes lit up as she nodded seriously. “Don’t forget to add some for Winnie.”

  He rolled his eyes but nodded. Food was, as always, the most important thing in his daughter’s life. She was even making sure there was enough for Eowyn. Leah would mostly say the girl’s name now, but when they had first met, it had been impossible for her. So, instead, she had taken to just calling her Winnie.

  After dropping off Leah, they went to find Alice. Originally, he was going to let her handle communications with the baker. However, at the moment, he wanted to see them work and hopefully glean some ideas for his biscuit recipe. Hopefully, they would still be baking at this hour. He knew that traditionally, most baking was done early in the morning, and then the rest of the day was spent selling what they had made.

  As soon as they located Alice’s neighborhood, Coradine took her leave. She was going off to meet with Marcus at the Whispering Grove before heading back to the house.

  As Draden walked down the street, he realized that he didn’t actually know which of these houses belonged to Alice. All he really knew about her home life was that she had a couple of siblings, her father either was, or had been injured, and her mother had skipped out on them.

  He doubted her siblings would still be around, so he wasn’t expecting to see or hear them. Which left him with only one thing to do, knock on each of the doors until he either found them or ran into someone who knew where they lived.

  With a sigh of annoyance at his own ignorance, he approached the first house and knocked on the door. Taking a step back from the door, he rearranged the placement of his sword, hoping to make himself look a little less threatening. He was still using the cane as well, even though he no longer needed it. Draden had decided that it would be a little odd if he suddenly stopped using it. That said, considering how much interest the food he was making had begun to get, maybe the reverse was actually true.

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  There was a shuffling inside the house, followed by a round of curses. With a violent yank, the door opened, revealing a dirty, sweaty dwarven face glaring up at him. “Well, what do you want?” The diminutive man spat angrily.

  “Hmm, wrong house,” Draden took a step back and then glanced around the side of the house, only then seeing a small blacksmith shop attached to its back. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you any good?”

  The dwarf cracked his neck, and his entire face took on a shade of deep red that the chef had formerly associated with people about to have heart attacks. “ARE YOU SERIOUSLY QUESTIONING MY ABILITY TO SHAPE METAL?” He roared at a volume that shook the pebbles in the street.

  Draden winced as he rubbed his ear. He had to admit, the man had a set of pipes on him.

  Doors all along the street opened, revealing the faces of the blacksmith’s neighbors, curious to see who had gotten him all riled up. Four houses down, he spotted Alice and waved to her, motioning for her to come join him. He hadn’t meant to cause a scene in this manner, but it had certainly made his job of finding the young woman easier.

  Turning back to the steaming-mad dwarf, her shook his head. “No, well, possibly. I actually have no idea who you are. I was looking for Alice and knocked on the wrong house. However, I do need some work done if you are good and willing.”

  Getting some decent knives was easy; any blacksmith worth the name in this world could craft a blade that was better than what he would have gotten on Earth. It was everything else that was the issue. Pots, pans, graters, whisks, dough hooks, muffin tins, and more. There were plenty of items like that which he had drawn in his notebook along with all the recipes.

  He just needed to find the right blacksmith to make them.

  Before the dwarf could yell at him again, Alice ran up to them and interrupted. “Boss, what are you doing out here? Did I forget something at the restaurant last night?”

  “No, nothing like that. I was just dropping off Leah at school, and I remembered that you had mentioned that bakery. Since I was already in the city, I thought I would come over and visit the place with you. I’ve been having some difficulties with my biscuit recipe. I was hoping I might be able to watch them make theirs and see what I’m missing. We’ll still order from them, of course,” He continued quickly. “My biscuit recipe will only be sold in limited quantities; I can’t spend all day or night baking in addition to everything else.”

  The girl nodded in understanding. “Sure, uh,” She looked down at her clothes, and blushed in embarrassment. “Let me just go get changed and tell my father. I’ll be back in just a second.” She was wearing a dirty apron over an old dress. None of it was revealing or anything, just dirty and old.

  He nodded, and she scurried off.

  The dwarf who had been watching their exchange exhaled loudly and snorted. “Fine, I guess it was an honest mistake. Let me show you some examples of my work, and then we can talk about what you are needing made.”

  It turned out that the dwarf really did have some skills. His work was good, though his blacksmith shop was small.

  “I’m surprised to see someone with your skill in this part of the city,” Draden commented after the dwarf had finished showing him his pieces.

  “Boss!” Alice protested, walking down the path beside the side of the house to join them in the shop. “That’s rude.”

  “Is it?” He quirked a brow. “No, you’re right. I can see how that question could be seen as rude, sorry.”

  The dwarf waved his apology away. “It’s an understandable concern.” He stroked a nearby anvil, the look in his eyes growing distant. “I used to own a larger shop and a home in one of the best areas. Then I received an order I couldn’t fulfill on time, from a noble with too much power.” He lifted his left pant leg up past his boot, revealing a metal leg that began at the knee and continued all the way down. “Lost my drive to work for a while, and by the time I found it again… all my money was gone. This was all I could afford. I’ve been here ever since.”

  Draden crouched and peered at the scarring around the man’s stub. “What would you do to get your leg back?”

  Alice gasped but didn’t say anything.

  “I’m going to assume you’re not saying words like that lightly,” He walked over to a nearby stool, his gait practically normal. You had to look hard to notice that something was off with the way he walked. “That’s a hard question. I’ve spent so much time working on this leg that it’s almost as good as the real thing now. I get some aches and pains from the stub, of course. But most of the time I don’t mind it so much. If you had asked me ten years ago though…” He shook his head.

  Draden had sort of figured that would be the man’s answer; otherwise, he would have gotten it replaced already. Earlier on, the noble had probably blocked him from accessing those resources. Now though, it seemed like enough time had passed that he could have hired a healer or gotten some pills. Sure, they would have cost a lot of money, but it would have been manageable with some effort.

  “Alright, well, if you ever change your mind, let Alice know,” Draden took a step back, “As for what I want you to make, I’ll have her bring over some designs tonight after she is done with work, if that is alright?”

  The dwarf nodded. “That’s fine. I’ll be awake. The name’s Brock by the way.” He stood up and held out a powerful hand.

  Draden reached out to shake it. “Nice to meet you Brock. I’m Draden. I own a restaurant outside the city.”

  They gave each other a firm handshake and then let go.

  As Draden and Alice were leaving, he paused on the threshold of the shop, a thought coming to mind. “By the way, if you wouldn’t mind telling me, which noble was it that did that to you?”

  The haft of the heavy hammer Brock had picked up moments before creaked ominously in his hand as he squeezed it tightly. “It was Tavian Varnel, back before he became lord.”

  Draden ground his teeth and nodded once. “I was afraid you were going to say his name. He is currently targeting my restaurant. Take that as you will.” With those final words, he gently urged Alice to continue walking.

  This made him even more certain that he didn’t want to work with the noble. Not if this was a display of the man’s character.

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