The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 1232: A Meal By The Hearth (Part Two)

Ashlynn and Nyrielle worked in comfortable harmony, and soon, the air was filled with the sounds and smells of sizzling ingredients that would form the base of their dishes tonight.

Once the sliced onions were swimming in a pool of melted butter, Nyrielle turned to the boar belly, following Ashlynn’s instructions to produce small lardons of the intensely flavorful meat that would slowly render down over low coals until the outside was crisp, the inside was tender and the pan was left with a pool of fat to cook the cabbage and potatoes that would follow.

"The hard parts are always the beginning and the end," Ashlynn said as she stood up from the hearth to join Nyrielle at the table, fetching a mortar and pestle that she began to fill with walnuts, dried berries, sweet thyme, and fresh rosemary. "Once everything is started, things fall into their own rhythm, and you just have to keep an eye on them for occasional stirring and turning."

"I’d rather keep my eyes on you," Nyrielle teased with a twinkle in her midnight blue eyes. "How do you want the parsnips and carrots cut?"

"Peeled and split in half length-wise," Ashlynn said. "We’re going to put them all cut-side down in this pan with butter, sugar, and herbs until they become soft and sweet. If we do it right, the bottoms will turn almost glassy with the cooked sugar while the tops are still nice and tender. The hard part is that you have to leave the lid on while they cook so that the top side steams while the bottom simmers in butter and sugar," she explained.

"That sounds like the sort of fussy dish Georg would delight in mastering," Nyrielle said with an amused smile as she tried to remember if it was something she’d ever been served before. "Is it one that you learned from him?"

"It is," Ashlynn replied as she lightly pounded the ingredients in the mortar into a roughly crushed mixture that still had plenty of individually recognizable bits of nuts, dried fruit and herbs. The point wasn’t to make a paste, but to crush and bruise the ingredients enough for their flavors to meld while they cooked inside the pheasant.

"The pastry recipes are too," Ashlynn added as she began scooping the filling out of her mortar to stuff the bird. "Both the cheese and onion tart, and the apple tart for dessert are things I learned from Georg."

"But not the boar and cabbage hash?" Nyrielle asked, raising a brow in surprise. From the precise way Ashlynn had asked her to cut the ingredients, ensuring that everything was a specific size, she thought that it had been another of the dishes she’d learned here. After all, the cooking of the Briar seemed much more rustic and homey than the sorts of refined dishes that Georg served.

"No, that one I learned from Otis in the kitchens of the Summer Villa," Ashlynn explained. They didn’t have any boar to work with at the time, but they’d made up for the gap in the nutty flavor by using crushed walnuts and choice cuts of pork. She’d always wanted to try some of the dishes they made the way they were originally intended to be prepared.

"Otis is the cook who set the fire so that you and Ollie could escape?" Nyrielle asked, waiting for Ashlynn’s nod to confirm that she’d remembered correctly before she continued. "I know that you said Ollie would take care of him, but if there is any reward his heart desires that I can provide, you know that I will. He’s earned that much just for helping you at a time that you had yet to master your powers."

"I think you might overwhelm the poor man, my love," Ashlynn said as she placed the pheasant on a spit for roasting and carried it over to the fire, carefully positioning it high enough on the roasting rack that it would cook slowly and she wouldn’t need to rotate it constantly.

"His burns from that day were... severe," Ashlynn said as she returned to the table and began mixing flour, water, and a bit of salt to form the base of the crust for their tarts. "Healing him was the least that I could do after what he risked, but he’s doing much better now that he’s had a chance to really recover."

"Ollie promised to help him settle in the village when spring comes," Ashlynn explained as she started rolling out the dough, painting it with a layer of butter before folding it over on itself and rolling it out again. "Until then, Georg has been showing him around the kitchens and teaching him about the Vale."

"So long as he’s content, I’m content," Nyrielle said as she moved on to the next bit of knife work, carefully peeling and coring the apples that would be used in their dessert. "Does he desire a position in the kitchens here? If he’s capable, I’m certain that Georg wouldn’t mind."

"I’m staying out of that one," Ashlynn said with a light laugh. "The last I heard, he’d asked Ollie if he could serve in the kitchens in Ollie’s manor in the village. Poor Ollie doesn’t know what to do with the idea of having household staff, and he’s even more flustered by having someone he used to work for now working for him. I’m sure they’ll sort it out," she said with a smile.

"Ollie’s village is quickly turning into one of the largest villages in the Vale," Nyrielle mused. "Does he realize that yet? I hadn’t expected the task that Thane gave him to turn out quite so... expansive."

"I think that growth will slow down a bit soon," Ashlynn mused. "One way or another, we’re going to put an end to the Dunn’s attacks against the outlying villages that prompted so many people to resettle in Ollie’s village. Some of them may even choose to return to their old lands. And once the construction is further along on the city outside the fortress walls, we’ll have another place for newcomers to settle."

"Still, the village has a charm all of its own," Ashlynn added with a smile. "And whether he realizes is or not, it’s like that because Ollie built it on a foundation of people helping each other through the hardest time in their lives. One day, he may recognize how special it is," she said. "I just hope he doesn’t mind all the people who are going to come and visit in order to learn what’s possible."

"He’s following in your footsteps, darling," Nyrielle said, playfully dipping a finger in flour before booping Ashlynn on the nose and leaving a powdery fingerprint behind there. "You don’t recognize how special you are, either, so how can he? But one day, you will. Until then, I’m just going to have to keep telling you," she said as she walked around the table to wrap her arms around Ashlynn’s slender waist.

"And finding other ways to make you feel as special as you are," she added, whispering softly into Ashlynn’s ear.

"Don’t, don’t tempt me," Ashlynn protested, matching Nyrielle’s playful energy with ineffective struggling against her embrace. "Otherwise, dinner will burn."

"I wouldn’t mind," Nyrielle purred softly, holding Ashlynn tighter. "It would just give me an excuse to make things with you all over again. But," she said with an exaggerated pout, as though she were making a great sacrifice. "I also don’t want to ruin your hard work, so I suppose I’ll let you go. For now..."