Chapter Eight #2
“It’s funnier.” Meeda chuckled before she walked away with the next round of food.
Mia sighed and looked at Vine. “She made that teapot that you wanted.”
“The octopus?”
“Yup.”
“But how? I just asked for it this afternoon.”
“She did it the way she always does it. When it was time.” Mia smiled. “It’s in the car.”
Meeda diverted when she finished her drop off and walked toward the front of the house. She returned in a minute and presented the box to Vine. “I have the grill while you do your thing.”
Vine looked at the box, smiled, and looked around. She found Kazuya and walked over to him. He looked at her with a pleasant smile. “Vine, you are looking better.”
“Thank you. This is a thanks for today’s healing. It will be enchanted for you on Tuesday. It is not an antique.”
He smiled and pulled out the shockingly exquisite teapot with the octopus forming the handle and arms wrapped around the spout. The cups were wrapped in tentacles and seashells. The best part of all was that everything was matte black aside from the seashells.
He was astonished when he looked at the piece. “This is amazing. Incredible. I am honoured that you thought of me for this piece.”
“May I be honest?”
“Of course.”
“I had no idea what was in there. Aside from one peek, I just told my friend what I wanted, and this is what they brought.”
He smiled. “It is still beautiful. Does she take commissions?”
“She owns a custom pottery shop, so probably.”
Kazuya asked, “May I speak with her?”
“Sure. She’s talking to Eudora by the grill.”
He nodded and carefully examined the pot again, a smile on his lips. “It is wonderfully whimsical.”
She smiled. “It is. If you will allow me, I will take it to the workshop and play with it. I have never had any issue with their pottery items. She puts her pigment in the clay, and it turns the minimally glazed pieces into art.”
He held it, turning it to appreciate the details. “It won’t be hurt?”
“No. I can do it here if you want to be sure.” She took the teapot carefully and held it against her stomach.
She poured magic into the teapot to keep everything three degrees above drinking temperature and then set the teapot in the case again.
She took out the two cups and held them, focusing again and enchanting the cups to drinking temperature.
She sighed and put them back in the box. “There. That was the present.”
He picked up one of the cups and said, “What does it do?”
“It keeps the tea in the pot three degrees warmer than drinking temperature, and the cups remain at drinking temperature. That’s it. Nothing weird.”
He had a thought, poured some water into the pot, then poured it out into one of the cups. Then, he sipped. His brows lifted, and he smiled. “That is very nice. Thank you, Vine.”
She inclined her head. “Thank you, Kazuya. I have been able to stay on my feet all afternoon.”
He smiled. “I would make a comment, but I believe it is a little aggressive for you.”
She shrugged. “Probably. I have to get back to the grill.”
“You do smell a lot like food. When can we eat?”
“As soon as Jennika does, and it looks like Xiroth is taking care of it, so after that.”
“Did you eat after our session today?”
“Um, nope.”
He rose to his feet and shepherded her to the start of the buffet line. There were several elves laughing at them, but others were looking wistful and then turned to look at some of the unattached women, seeking something.
Vine saw it all in a glance, blushed as Kazuya asked what she wanted, and pointed at a few items. He put them on a plate for her. He snuck half a rack of ribs onto the plate and grinned. “Because I have been thinking of your hands putting the rub on all day.”
She blushed. “Oh. ‘Kay.”
Meeda was putting the last racks on the slow grill and cutting them into segments with scissors while she waited. She was working on them like she had done it before. Vine asked, “Food service experience?”
“Yes. It took a while for Mia to find me. I was born when she was eighteen. She didn’t have any reason to remember me, so I took all the jobs I could. Food service was one of them, but I am not suited to service, so I stayed in the kitchen.”
“And yet, you work for Mia.”
“That is different.”
“Is it?”
“It is very different. You have recovered well, Vine.”
Vine looked at Meeda. She exhaled slowly. “No. You...”
“Calm, calm, Vine. Yes. You ended up where you had started, and so did I.”
“But you have scales on your face. You had wings.”
“I know. Freaky, isn’t it? I am fish and fowl, and when I was trapped in that sinking vessel again, I learned how to put on my scales. We both knew we were heading back to horror, and we both survived it.” She flipped the ribs. “It is good to see you again, Vine.”
Vine hugged her. Her angel in the darkness had made it and was here, flipping ribs. “I have seen you with your sister, and I never realized who you were. The scales are rather attractive. Oh, do you want an aquatic mate?”
“No. Keep your ancient octopus. He is focused on you, and that is how it should be. I tend to set aquatic monsters off.”
She coated the ribs with the sauce and started to take them off the grill.
When the tower of food was in the heating tray, she smiled. “Go back to your tentacles, and we can talk later now that you remember who I am. And eat something. Now that you are healing, you need to replace your body fat.”
Vine chuckled. “You, too. You are a stick.”
“Well, I have finished my therapy and learning the swimwear business has occupied me for a few years.”
Mia walked over and said softly, “And now that she lets her glamour down daily, we can actually work with the real her. My gorgeous, elegant sister. The flying fish.”
Meeda snorted and nudged her sibling with her hip. “That has never been funny.”
Vine looked over at Xiroth, where he was eating and watching over Jennika’s intake. His eyes showed his admiration for the way she was savaging half a rack of ribs.
She nodded to Meeda and walked over to Xiroth. “Hey, Xiroth, how many pixies are female? Like what is the ratio?”
“Zero. The gene for the wings is on the male chromosome.”
Vine nodded. “I thought that might be it. Don’t get up, and do not freak out, but I know of a female with those particular wings.”
Xiroth looked deliberately casual. “Is she here?”
“She is. She’s descended from some of your people. She has just had it rough.”
Jenn paused her consumption. “Where did you meet her?”
“You remember that place I told you about?”
“Yeah.”
“I met her there, and she got me out.” She exhaled. “And then she went home to die.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No. She didn’t. She developed an additional adaptation that saved her and let her be found.”
Xiroth blinked, and his eyes glowed as he looked around. His head fixed, and he exhaled. “Xarrel. I see his energy pattern in her. Wait. Two of them.”
Vine looked back at the siblings. “Is that what that is? Genetic lines?”
“Yes. Wait. Can you see them?”
“Yeah. I just didn’t know what they were. I have been friends with Mia for years and have heard about Meeda but never connected it with my friend Mee.”
Jennika paused with a forkful of pasta salad. “She was with you there?”
“Yeah. She... distracted the shadows when they got too close.”
Xiroth winced. “How old was she?”
“Sixteen, seventeen? I don’t know.” She sighed. “I was not good at guessing ages. Still not great at it.”
He nodded. “Her wings were out?”
“Not that they knew, but she knew. When I was ready, she grabbed me in her spindly arms, and we flew away from the citadel, and I managed a portal that split as we fell through it. She went to her timeline, and I went to mine.”
Xiroth kept looking at her with a deep scowl.
Vine looked to Jenn. “Don’t worry about him. The pixies don’t breed back in their existing lines. Lots of birth defects that way.”
Xiroth blinked. “Of course we don’t. We are brothers under the skin, the same genetic patterns to create a similar result. Any mingling with the offspring of another would be unheard of.”
Jennika smiled at his repulsion. “Okay. I trust you. If she’s the taller one, she is incredibly thin.”
Vine frowned. “Yeah. I remember her having a thicker physique.”
Xiroth said softly, “If she’s a blood drinker without an outlet, her body will slowly consume itself, and if she has our wings, she needs to be drinking blood.”
Vine’s eyes widened. She remembered. Mee had been covered in blood, frequently. That now made horrible sense.
“Right. You guys eat. I am going to catch up with Kazuya and figure out what he snagged for me.”
She walked over to Kazuya and sat next to him, examining the stack of stuff on the plates. The two visitors would make their way through the food.
Vine didn’t want to hover over them.
* * * *
H er sibling bullied Meeda into eating. It was still a reflex not to eat first. The time she had spent in the other realm, eating scraps and draining the dead, was at the forefront of her mind every time she saw groups eating.
When the heavy body settled across from her, she jerked her head up, and Mia put a hand on her wrist. Mik was there as well, and she anchored her on the other side.
“I hear you are a pixie.”
“I have six wings.”
“May I see them?”
She sighed and pushed away from the table, flicking her wings out as soon as she cleared everyone. Aside from the man in front of her, every other dark elf gasped.
She retracted the wings and sat back at the table, eating slowly. That was the rule. Eat when you could.
He looked at her and cocked his head. “You need blood.”
She froze. “I really don’t.”
“Your body is consuming itself. You need blood.”
“I can’t.”
Mik asked, “May I explain?”
She nodded.
Mik’s voice was clear. “The shadow mages made her drink from the dead and dying. She has an unfortunate association with consuming now.”
He recoiled. “Holy stars. You are sane after that?”
Meeda looked at him. “I have my moments. I found my mate once and tried to feed, but he didn’t understand and got away from me.”