Rynth: Four Beats

| 7th of Teryusin — Year 362 of the Cycle of Synthesis, Grand Cycle ??? |

Cali’s cooking was no less extraordinary.

Somehow, the mildly disgruntled maid had handled their middling selection of foods with the finesse of a masterchef. Every ingredient from every sealed can of victual somehow found its way into their handy-dandy pot, of which was unceremoniously hung over the fire and placed atop a floating-in-place Kranstor while it heated up. There was no doubt that the dissatisfaction oozing off the sword passed any of the Batan; the feeling was somehow just as blatant, silent sword or not.

Chicken, beans, peas, and a thick, tomato-based sauce. Each one assembled to create a stew that smelled entirely heavenly. Poured into each wooden bowl, the four of them hungrily dug in, caring none for the light or smoke their camp gave off in the empty night. The slight sour tang didn’t at all bother them. Along the way, Cali had pointed out a handful of plants that naturally served as seasonings used widely in cooking and promptly cut the stalks out for use in her cooking later.

“You’ve gotten better at cooking, Cali.” commented Raoul as he licked at his spoon.

“I appreciate the praise,” Cali replied. She fashioned a small green handkerchief and primly wiped off a morsel of chicken that had crumbed just outside her lip. Despite the four flat bedrolls that they had opted to use as improvised seats, the ground was still hard, and yet she seemed to sit up perfectly comfortably. “The Babelei family expresses a great focus on household chores. Cooking just so happened to be my personal vocation.”

Avil gulped down the half-serving still left in his bowl in one sip. He recoiled back as his maid reached over to wipe the sauce on his upper lip, opting to clean himself up with Ablution. “Mm, no comments. I’m no stranger to Cali’s godly cooking. You guys should see her in the kitchen. She’s spoiled all other cooking for me.”

She bit her bottom lip subtly in her reply. “...I am merely doing as expected of me, Master Avil.”

“Well, keep on doing that. You’ve been a lifesaver always. Even when I locked myself in my study, you always brought me my food.”

“Speaking of food,” Idri murmured. Oddly enough, despite speaking to Cali, her eyes continued drifting back to Raoul, who sat beside her and she leaned on. Said receiver of her gaze didn’t notice, too focused on picking at the chunks of chicken in his stew. “Do you think you could teach me how to cook sometime?”

“I would be more than happy to, Idri. Should we have free time, you are more than welcome to approach me when you wish to learn.”

“That’s a promise, then!”

They ran through the stew in no less than half an hour, and that was with talking interspersed through bouts of chewing. When the last bit of food was seized by Avil, they finally sank back and breathed deep sighs of contentment. Polished and empty, Cali raised the pot and bowls, already moving to stride down the path to the stream below to wash them. In a rushed hurry, Raoul nudged Idri off him and followed her a couple of moments later.

“Could you guys tidy up the place?” he mouthed as he stepped off, not leaving time for a reply from the other two. “I’ll help Cali wash.”

Scaling the trail down, Raoul ambled over to the streamside to where Cali was bent over, scrubbing off the dishes in the water with a small sponge . Raising his hand, he mouthed a nondistinct chant and casted Saponify on the surface of the metal. She raised an eyebrow as soap bubbled and then nodded to Raoul as he approached.

“Let me help,” he offered, already working to squat down beside her. He reached over to take a bowl for himself and did the same, dipping the wood into the water before conjuring more soap. “We’ll get to sleep faster if we work on it together.”

“Perhaps for you, yes,” replied Cali. “I do not intend on sleeping just yet.”

“Why?”

She kept her focus on washing the pot beneath her, paying no heed to the splashes of water that drenched the ruffles in her maid uniform. “Watches, Raoul. Krocko mentioned it. If we all head off to sleep at the same time, we are left undefended from the wilderness’ elements.”

He ‘huh-ed’. “I suppose. You’ve been working hard all day, though. You’re always the one making sure we’re steady. You watch our backs. Set up our tents. Made us food. Now you’ve silently volunteered to wash the dishes without so much as asking us for help. I get that you’re older than us by a bit, but you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t want to leave all the hard work to you.”

Her hands stopped moving, and kept her eyes closed three seconds before replying. “That… is very kind of you. I confess that it is difficult to live up to what not just Master Avil, but all of you expect of me. But I will not falter. Would you believe me that teaching my master potty training was twice as difficult as this?”

“...caught me off guard there.” Raoul chuckled, almost flinching at the abrupt switch. “No, I wouldn’t. I always imagined Avil as being on top of most things since infancy, including bodily functions.”

She followed suit, allowing a small laugh to leave her lips. Not too much. That would be improper. “I have been raised from a young age to prioritize my master’s needs above all else, including mine. I have always sought his comfort and safety, as taught to me by my mother. So when you managed to persuade him to leave his home to go on a journey, I was overjoyed. I promised myself that I would not only keep him safe, but you and Idri too.”

For as long as he could recall, the Babelei family had always been subservient to the Genesise family. Their lineages were deeply intertwined, the reason for why missing from his head. A prominent tradition kept for Cycles now was their birth-timings. The heads of the respective families often planned their childmaking at the same time so as to coincide their births. Resulting Babelei offspring would then be trained from birth to serve the resulting Genesise offspring. In their case, Calliope was groomed to serve Avil.

“I haven’t missed it. Let me offer you a bit of comfort, though. At least for tonight. Let me finish up on washing here.”

He didn’t wait and simply took the pot from her hands.

“Raoul, you really do not have to—”

“I don’t, I know. But you gotta rest sometime, too.” He shot a look back at the camp in the hilltop, lips curving upward slightly as he noticed the pour of smoke thinning, likely due to the dying firewood. “If you don’t go, I figure Idri or Avil’s gonna dump a lump of dirt on the fire and smother it. I don’t want to sleep cold.”

To be relieved of her duties was no less jarring. Cali raised a hand to intercede for her conscience, but found Raoul’s determined stare entirely persuasive. Sighing, she stood up and tidied herself, wringing out cold drops of water from the edge of her skirt. The hallmarks of a tired, genuine smile made it to her lips for a moment, but she hurriedly pulled it away and coughed to clear the tension in her body. She then gave him a bow and prepared to turn back.

“And don’t think about staying up, either.” Raoul mentioned, cutting off that avenue. “I’ll take the first watch. We’ll do six hours, so I’ll take the first three. Don’t worry, I can see perfectly well. You just focus on getting rest. You’ve done enough, Cali.”

She ceased in her turn, silent for a few. Finally, she replied. “...thank you. Good night, Raoul.”

“Good night.”

As her steps muffled off in the distance, Raoul returned to scrubbing the pot she had left in his care. He craned his head up and sought Fenyxia, losing his gaze in its white glow.

You’re in a cage too, aren’t you, Cali?