The math was not easy.
'First, start the pot. Get Kaen's meal going. Figure out the rest while it boils.'
I needed water first.
The bucket by the stove was still half full from the broth. I filled the pot—which was surprisingly clean already—and set it on the grate. Then I held my palm under it.
The flame came out like I'd kicked it. Wide, hot, way bigger than last time—I yanked my hand back and the pot rattled and water sloshed over the rim and I stood there with my hand behind my back like I'd touched a hot stove, which I guess I technically was.
Level two fucking fire.
'Okay, Suyin. Way smaller. Don't burn the turtle-dove-thing down.'
I held my palm out again, slow. The flame shrank when I eased off, grew when I pushed. That was new—last time I'd had on or off. Now I had a dial.
The water was rolling within a minute.
The Velmora was next. Half for Kaen, half for Kael. I lined the hunting knife along the spine and let the passive do its thing—and it did, mostly. Guided the wrist, found the joints.
But the blade caught on something hard halfway through and I had to wrench it sideways and the breast meat tore in a way that made me wince. The halves came apart though. Still ugly, but I could complain later when the hunters were not trying to find reasons to gut me.
Speaking of which, Kael was staring back again. Fourth time now, and this time I could see the faintest of green gazing back at me.
'Focus. Presentation points: zero. But nobody asked.'
Half the bird went into the pot. Dried herbs from the first jar, pinch of salt from the third, that smoky powder from the second because it smelled right and I was out of ideas. So I slammed the lid on.
'Ten minutes. Just keep checking it.'
I went back to the sac.
I paused, almost slipping on meat and liquid I didn't want to name. I couldn't cook Kael's meat in the same pot. The acid wash would fuck up the broth. I needed something else. A pan, a second pot, a flat stone, anything.
I turned to the shelves. Clay jars, wooden boxes, bundles of dried something. No second pot anywhere.
There were crates I hadn't opened yet. Shoved against the back wall, wedged under a shelf that was bolted—no, grown—into the shell. I pulled the first one out and the lid crumbled in my hands.
Inside: a stack of flat stones, smooth and dark. Too heavy for plates. Too small for cutting boards.
'What are these for?'
[Bzzt.]
Not you, idiot.
The second crate had a metal sheet in it, thin, warped on one end. Like a tray that had been through a fire. Or maybe it was supposed to look like that.
I held it over the stove grate. It barely fit, the warped corner hanging over the edge. But it sat and that's what mattered.
'This is most definitely a grill.'
I spent way too long deciding if the warped end mattered. Flipped it over. Flipped it back. Tried it on the other side of the grate. The pot was right there next to it, lid on, doing its thing, boiling and boiling.
I went back to where the sac was starting to shrivel now.
'One cup. Same as before. Half a drop, finger-width of water. Don't get clever, don't get curious, don't—'
I got a little curious. What if I used a full drop in more water? Would that be the same ratio or would it be stronger? What if—
'No. Same thing. Exact same thing. You are not a scientist.'
I made the cup. Cut the remaining Velmora into portions for Kael and started soaking them, counting to thirty in my head.
One piece in. One-boba, two-boba—
A sound like monkeys slamming drums rattled from behind me. The pot lid was dancing up and down.
'It's fine. It hasn't been ten minutes.'
'Fifteen-boba, sixteen-boba...'
The rattling got louder. Steam hissing through the gap.
'Just finish the count. Twenty-five, twenty-six—'
I pulled the meat out at twenty-eight. Firmed, pale, right enough. Dropped it on the cutting board and spun around to the pot.
The smell hit me before I got there.
I yanked the lid off and steam blasted my face. The broth had gone thick and dark, the herbs reduced to mush. The meat at the bottom had shrunk to half its size.
'How long was that?'
Way longer than ten minutes. The crates and the grill and the sac had eaten my attention and the pot had paid for it.
I fished out a piece and bit into it. My teeth nearly shattered. The Velmora fat was there, the herbs were there, but everything else had gone way past done.
I nearly yelped.
"Everything okay?" Kaen said, standing at the counter. When did he get there?
"Yessir! Just a couple more minutes," I said, shoving the lid back on like that would fix anything.
That seemed to satisfy him as he walked back to Kael who had her bow on the table as she polished her thirty meter long arrows.
The broth was ruined. Kael's acid portions were still sitting on the cutting board, cured but unseared. The grill was cold.
'I could really use some help stirring the pot.'
[Would you like help in your Canteen?]
> ...
I made a noise I'm pretending never happened. The cutting board nearly ate the turtle floor before I did.
I didn't know what was worse. The System hearing my yap in my head, or the fact that it decided to tell me this now?!
But just a little help... wouldn't hurt anyone right?
"Yes, I need help."