Chapter 26 - Dinner II

Wherein everyone smiles a lot and the writer just had fun with holiday cheer.

Bosra got up brusquely; the way she seemed to do everything, and probably was destined to, because of the sheer size of her. "Gotta check on food. Tina, you helping?" 

"Oh, yes. I had pie that was actually going quite well." The blonde smiled and left with a wiggle-wave of her fingers. 

Marissa didn't feel uncomfortable in the silence that followed. She took a sugary confection from the silver tray. "I really loved your humming in the library." 

"You did?" Rose asked, perking up. 

"Yes. Truly. Even though you’re not allowed to sing in the library ever again." To soften the blow she took a little gift from her purse and handed it to Rose. "As thank you, for the meal. I wanted to wait until dessert, but now seems more fitting." She had seen all the work that was going into dinner. It was far more than she had counted on. 

Rose took the little box and opened it. Inside was a small enamel brooch, expertly crafted to resemble a violin and bow. She touched it reverently. "Thank you," she mouthed, suddenly emotional.  

"You're welcome." Marissa sat down next to Rose, careful to keep some distance so she didn’t lose herself in the delectable tingle of magic. Rosa Rose looked up with a soft smile that made her insides melt. The girl really did look like the cutest dog ever.

Marissa helped her pin the brooch to her dress. "There." 

Rose smiled like a kid on Winter's Day morn. 

Marissa had to chuckle. "It looks good on you." 

Rosa Rose looked down at the pin, and covered it with her palm.

Marissa smiled and touched Rosa Rose's wrist. There were no words that would be sufficient to express that she understood. Rose returned the smile as awkwardly as it was given. 

This, Marissa pondered, was the universal way of heavily emotional circumstances, it seemed. They made people feel too much. Private feelings were laid bare for all to see. It made one vulnerable. Then the acknowledgement of that vulnerability made people want to flee the closeness that was offered. 

Both women looked away at the same time, cleared their throats, and straightened their skirts.

They exchanged platitudes about the weather, the tube travel in winter, coffee, and the general dreariness of Splendor in Winter, before finding their groove again; polishing the proverbial armour after it had been doffed. 

Just as they had, Bosra stomped in and announced that the table needed setting. She added: "According to Tina's standards." Then promptly tromped off to the kitchen again. 

Rose touched the pin in her blouse once more, before rising. She led Marissa to the traditionally decorated dining room. A fir tree stood in one corner, bedecked with garlands of drying citrus and mushrooms. A shoulder-high standing candelabra with four arms and nine candles upon it stood in another. A holly wreath lay in the middle of the table. 

"This is our festive room." Bosra and herself had helped finance the decorations. If they had let Tina have her way, every room of the house would have hosted a tree, a garland, and a candelabra. "We usually dine together, so to have it here made the most sense."

"You don't have to explain it to me. I snagged some fir boughs from the university’s pile of decorations and put them over the desk in my room." Marissa accepted the plates Rose handed her to set on the table. Another round of plates followed. 

"At home, we’d have decorations in every room, but we would’ve crafted them ourselves from things that grow on our land. The candelabras are dusty things that lay in storage in the barn attic for ten months of every year."

"Really?"

"Hmm hmm. Everything’s so expensive in Splendor. So we bought the tree and holly for the wreath. Tina asked her butler – her father’s butler really – if there was one in storage we could borrow. When he brought it over, he came with a footman to see that it was set up properly." It had been so weird to Rose to have servants in her home.

"An actual butler? With an actual footman?" Marissa exclaimed. 

Rose nodded. "Tina is... Tina." The rest was not hers to share. 

"How did you come to live in a house like this? And not in a one room apartment on a floor in a house like this but the actual house?"

"Also Tina," Rose replied, giving Marissa the three different bundles of spoons and taking forks and knives for herself to put down. It went with such ease that she was actually surprised she remembered it all; the intricate how and why of cutlery.

"My rooms are somewhat cramped and oddly shaped."

"Why is that?" Marissa asked with a grin. "Do you sleep in the attic?" she asked jokingly. 

"As a matter of fact I do," Rose grinned. "We lived in a smalls house when we'd just arrived in the city."

"Really?! That's so peculiar."

"It was actually kind of fun. They had their own ragtag community, with stereotypical characters. The grumpy dwarf, the goofy gnome, the tripping halfling."

"Tripping? Over his own feet?" Marissa asked for clarification. 

"No," Rose laughed. "Tripping on tea leaves, as he liked to call his substance of choice." 

"So odd."

Rose shrugged. "It was... it was an adventure." She got the napkins out of their drawer and handed them to Marissa to put in silver rings, and over every plate. 

"Well... it looks like we're dining with the Sovereign King tonight." Marissa was so astounded by the aesthetic of the table that she forgot to praise the man with the usual blessing. 

"B‘cause you’re eating with a princess." Bosra entered with a large oven tray that she put down on the immaculately set table with its pristine white linens. 

"Valentina is a princess?!" Marissa suddenly felt very out of place. 

"No, Tina is not a princess," the woman in question remarked, setting down a bowl of mixed vegetables. She saw Marissa's confusion and decided to clarify. "My name is Valentina Saraya of Effyne, oldest daughter to His Grace, Rhodum Grisyan the fifth, Duke of Effyne, Earl of Willingbrook, Marquis of Reywarin, Sovereign Knight of the Blue Star, and councillor to his Loftiness, our blessed Sovereign King."

Marissa’s jaw dropped. "Uhm..." She tried to find her voice and failed. 

"Yes, it's a lot." Valentina smiled apologetically. 

"Uhm... well..." Marissa tried again, not doing much better than the first attempt. 

"You'll get there," Bosra grinned, with a heavy pat to Marissa’s shoulder. She left to get the next thing from the kitchen. Valentina followed in her wake. 

Rose grinned. "If we'd known she was all that when we met her, we probably wouldn't be where we are today."

"So when and where did you meet Bosra?" Marissa asked as she sat down.

"I bumped into her as I stepped onto the King's Road. We ended up in a tangle on the other side. She proposed to travel together. I accepted, if solely because otherwise I would have turned around and gone home. Again." 

"Again?"

"Hmm mm. It was the fourth time I'd decided that I was really going to go to Splendor and attend Bardic College this year. The first time I'd only made it halfway to the King's Road before turning around."

"Then this was only the third time you tried. Third time’s the charm," Marissa grinned, twisting logic to fit the circumstance.

"Three's a magic number. All prime numbers are in a way. But the smaller the number,  the more pure it is," Marissa shared. "As soon as you're over twenty-one, usually you start to bring numbers back down to one integer, by simply adding all the single digits in that sequence over and over again. For example: twenty six is actually eight. Forty three is seven. One hundred and eleven is actually three."

Rose found this interesting beyond measure. She didn't know if there was any truth to it, but it was a new way of looking at things. 

"All numbers below ten have their own magic," Marissa continued. "And beyond that, there's a few until twenty-one; eleven and thirteen for instance. Eighteen is debatable."

"Where did you learn this?" Rose asked, amazed. She was not surprised when the answer was: "Books."

"There are books on this?"

"Sure. There's books on a lot of things. If you're truly interested, I'll help you search the library."

"The college library sucks," Rose sighed, hopscotching into another topic. "And I have to register at least ten hours a week the coming semester. Visiting yours only counts as one. Even if I spent longer."

Marissa nodded in acceptance of what Rose said. "You could take books with you into the library at Bardic College. I can get you some interesting tomes. Or…" Marissa wiggled her eyebrows, "I've heard there's a dusty shelf in the common section that holds well-read romance novels."

"There is?" Now that she knew it was there, she would go searching for it, if only because a treasure hunt would be fun. 

"I've heard it holds gems like 'the ruby of the sea is the best lay ever', 'Seasonal Spice and all things Nice', and 'Tusk Love'."

Valentina walked in with a dish, set it down, and left for the kitchen again without interrupting the conversation. Then Bosra came and did the same.

"Does the university library have a shelf like that?"

"Shelf?" Marissa exclaimed, eyes wide, smile wider. "We have an entire section! Not that we advertise it. And the books there aren't tracked in our system. People take and add what they will. The only rule is that descriptions of sexy time must be anatomically  feasible  - you wouldn't know how many strange novels there are out there."

"That's really the only rule?" Rose asked, already blushing. 

"Well, that, and the weirder kinks get culled. No children, animals, or dead things."

Rose scrunched her nose. That must not limit the amount of books much. Who would be into that?!

Marissa patted her wrist. "Sweet Summer child... you'll learn a lot of disgusting things about the world yet." 

"I don't wanna?" Rose ventured tentatively. 

"It was a shock to me as well, the first time I got one of those books under my nose. I asked a colleague what to do about it. He said to ditch the book. Burn it. That it was not acceptable lecture, but that sometimes those novels made their way to the shelf." 

"Who...?"

"Would want to read that?" Marissa finished the question. "I honestly don't know. And I am glad that I don't." 

The topic was dropped as Bosra and Tina returned with yet more food. The table might have reached its breaking point, if any more had been added. They sat down. Valentina led the seasonal prayer. The others added their well-wishes for the realm.

Without further ado, the women dug into the feast  that was set before them, to be consumed with glee. 

Contrary to the cooking, there was little magic in the clean-up. They were all quiet and self-absorbed. Too full to really live in the present. Or maybe, Marissa thought, this was also  magic at work. The rush of the feeding frenzy now followed by sated bliss. 

Marissa was surprised at how stuffed she was. The food had been delicious and she had not been able to stop eating. Her usually loose skirt felt tight. She had trouble keeping her eyes open, yet she managed not to drop the expensive porcelain as she carried the heavy serving tray to the kitchen.

As the sink filled up, and a kettle was brought to boil, Rose started humming. She didn't know she was doing it until a few bars in. Then she realised this always happened at home, too. She and her sisters, and mother, her aunt and nieces, whomever of the womenfolk was present, would hum and sing as there were chores to be done. 

She missed them. 

She missed her sister and her nieces. Nieces that had been like sisters growing up. 

Her homesickness eased as Valentina picked up the tune and hummed along. Then Bosra joined in with a smile and they all looked at Marissa, who shrugged, rolled her eyes and tried her best to harmonise with the trio. It didn't sound too bad.

They shared a sluggish giggle when all except Rose lost their tone.

The kettle boiled. Water was poured in both sinks. The washing commenced; cups and glasses first, pre-rinsed plates second, followed by the cutlery, then kitchen knives and cutting boards. Pots, pans and oven trays were last. 

Valentina had instructed her friends on how to set the table properly, but it was Rose who taught the others how the dishes should be handled.  

A second kettle was brought to boil only for the cutting boards and knives. All the dirtier water had already been poured into the dirty pans and trays, to soak them before scrubbing.

All the while, the women sang.

For dessert, Valentina served apple pie and spiced hot chocolate, with whipped cream to accompany both. The atmosphere was light-hearted and cheerful.

Marissa was having such a good time she lost track of the hour. In a rush, she hugged everyone, waving her goodbyes as she set off into the night to catch the last tube. Though the streets gleamed wetly in the glow of lanterns, it was dry outside. She had barely set two steps on campus grounds when the next downpour started.

She was soaked to her core by the time she reached her building. 

Still…

It had been a good night; a blessed night. 

Friendship was magic. No need for added rainbows, or glitter, or unrealistically depicted unicorns. 

~

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