“Hannah?” she asked as she opened the door. “What is it?”
“Oh, sorry to bother,” said Hannah. “I’d only thought… well, that we’re party members now, and—with how things are, I’m not obliged to work at the temple anymore, so I have my day free, and was wonderin’ if you needed anythin’.”
“No,” said Mizuki, frowning. “But come in, come in, it’s cold out.”
“Well, I don’t particularly think so,” said Hannah. “But my family is from far to the south, ay? It’s the summers here that I can’t handle, those two weeks when it’s so hot that you feel like sittin’ in front of the chiller.”
“Shoes off,” said Mizuki as she disappeared into the house.
Hannah took her boots off, which was a bit of a process, then followed, looking around as she did. She’d seen the house a few times, including the extended morning inspection she’d just done, and it was one of the nicer ones in Pucklechurch, though it was definitely in need of some care. The kitchen was resplendent though, a place of copper pots and thick wooden cutting boards, with a heavy iron stove.
“Do you eat breakfast?” asked Mizuki.
“Already did,” said Hannah. “Egg and a pastry.”
“Pastry?” asked Mizuki, perking up slightly.
“Apricot jam in the middle, egg wash on top,” said Hannah. “I baked them myself, and I can deliver some for you tomorrow, if you’d like.”
“That sounds amazing,” said Mizuki. “My mouth is already watering.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Well, I’m going to make myself breakfast, and it’s about as easy to cook for two as for one, so if you’d like something, now’s the time.”
“What’s on the menu?” asked Hannah.
“Thin-sliced venison, mushrooms, eggs,” said Mizuki. “Maybe some potatoes, if you can handle eating leftovers. Oh, and how do you feel about, um, sobyu? It’s a Kiromo thing. Fermented vegetables?”
“I’ve never heard of it,” said Hannah. “But we have the same thing, fermented vegetables, back in Cairbre, and from the Book of Garam Ashar, section seven, verse six, ‘There are reflections across every society of righteous behavior and cunning intellect’.”
Mizuki blinked. “Do you have the whole book of Garam Ashar memorized?” she asked.
“I’m a cleric,” said Hannah. “And none of the books are very long, a hundred pages at most, ay.” The books discussing and dissecting those hundred pages, however, filled an entire library.
“And did you want food?” asked Mizuki.
“I s’pose I could see fit,” replied Hannah. “I’ll need less than you make for yourself.”
Mizuki unlatched the burners on her stove, then began getting things out before pausing. “Do you think Verity will want some?”
“The bard?” asked Hannah, momentarily bewildered. “Didn’t she say she rises quite late?”
“I suppose,” said Mizuki. “But sleeping in an unfamiliar place, I’d thought maybe she wouldn’t want to.” She had gotten everything ready, it seemed, including a small crock of something that smelled quite intriguing, perhaps the sobyu.
“She slept here last night?” asked Hannah, raising an eyebrow.
Mizuki nodded. “She was just going to come over for a bit, to eat, and then we got to talking. She should be upstairs now, but I guess she might have slipped out in the night.”
“Well,” said Hannah. “It’s very kind of you to offer a bed.” A liaison between the two of them wouldn’t be the strangest thing, though it would be a poor start to the party.
“No kindness at all,” said Mizuki as she added the first things to the pan. “Or not more than I’d hope anyone else would offer. I’ve got beds, people need to sleep.” She looked up. “Do you?”
“Do I?” asked Hannah. “Need a place to sleep?”
Mizuki nodded. “If you’re done at the temple, which you said you were.”
“Well,” said Hannah. “I do need a place to sleep, but we’ve only just met, and I wouldn’t want to—”
“It’s just an offer,” said Mizuki, shrugging. “What do you like to drink? I have all kinds of things that can be steeped in boiling water.”
“There’s a tuber tea I’m fond of, but I’d be surprised if you had it,” said Hannah. “Mint?”
“I’ve got mint,” said Mizuki. Almost everything had been put into the pan, and it was starting to smell good. A kettle joined the pan on another burner. “Now then, you came by to see if I wanted help?”
“But really just to see you,” said Hannah, thankful to feel like she could drop the pretense. “We’re in a party now, and that doesn’t mean too much at the moment, but as time goes on, we’ll be in each other’s lives one way or another, and if we end up travelin’ together, that’s more time to talk to each other. ‘Symmetry is found through close inspection, with precision coming in the examination of details’, so it is said in the Book of Garam Ashar, and I thought that I wanted to get to know you better, and you to know me, so we can find those symmetries, places where we match, or reflect, and have things be a little easier for it. The same goes for the opposite, naturally, the places where we don’t match up well, which you need to know so you can skirt some things that shouldn’t be talked of.”
“Like what?” asked Mizuki. She set a plate in front of Hannah, then sat down with her own.
It seemed to Hannah like it was too much food, but it all looked and smelled delicious. There was more food sitting in the pan, which had been put off to one side, but she didn’t think much of it.
“Well,” said Hannah. “If we’re talkin’ of things that perhaps shouldn’t be talked of—do you have a favorite of the gods?”
“Qymmos or,” Mizuki faltered, “Oeyr, I guess. I know he’s the nemesis of Garos though, so.” She ate a bite of food.
“Oh, it’s not like that,” said Hannah, her own mouth half full of food. “Garos and Oeyr are opposites in many ways, but I think there’s hardly a cleric of Garos that would want Oeyr dead. Oeyr’s necessary, they all are, it’s just a matter of where we put our focus. I think symmetry and order are beautiful, but in the church there’s somethin’ called the Meditation on Dichotomy, and it starts with the first and biggest of them, the separation of man and woman, largely Oeyr’s domain.”
“Huh,” said Mizuki. “I’d kind of thought… Garos has a reputation for…” She waved a hand. “I don’t want to be crude, but I don’t know how to say it.”
“Men laying with men and women with women,” said Hannah, nodding. “It’s one of the old sacred rites, not so common anymore, at least as rites, but the Church of Garos has always been a place for that kind of thing.” She raised an eyebrow. “And did you and Verity…?” Best to be direct about it.
“Did we what?” asked Mizuki. It was still early, and it took her a moment. “Oh, no. No. No no no, it wasn’t…” She paused. “Not that she isn’t pretty, she is, I just… no.”
Hannah was a bit thankful for that, because it was a source of tension the party didn’t need. “And is talkin’ about such things, women with women, somethin’ I should avoid with you? Because if so, that’s fine, I’d just want to know. You’re half Kiromon, and I don’t know what the thinkin’ is there.” No one would bat an eye in Interim, though it was a quite large country.
“I don’t really know,” said Mizuki with a shrug. “I’ve never been, so all I have are stories. I think… there was something my father said, offhand, when he was drunk once, that it was fine for a man to be with a man, but not a woman with a woman? He was drunk though. Personally, I don’t, um—it’s not relevant to my life.”