Arek took one of the canisters he’d set on the countertop and popped the top off. He took a small spoon and scooped out a healthy amount of a red paste from the canister. He mixed it into the other ingredients.

While Malissa cooked the rice, Arek got another bowl and cracked the eggs into it. He used the spoon to whisk them together and set that bowl aside as well.

“The rice is done,” Malissa announced. Her voice had returned to normal.

“Great timing,” Arek said. “For fried rice, we actually want to have day old rice. It fries much better. Since I don’t think we want to wait that long…”

He set the wok over the stove and turned the heat on. The orc raised a hand over the pot of rice, preparing to use the minor time acceleration magic. Then he paused. A slight frown crossed his face and his hand lowered a few inches.

“Is it safe for me to cast my magic? What if it gets corrupted by my runes?”

“Did you have trouble controlling your magic when you tested it out in the field with Magus?” Malissa asked.

“Well, no,” Arek said.

“Then it’s probably fine. You can’t live in fear, Arek. That’s Belmont’s shtick, and I think even he’s getting tired of it. We’ll deal with life as it comes.”

The orc swallowed. He nodded and raised his hand back over the rice. One slow breath later, gold light enveloped the rice. Several minutes later, Arek lowered his hand. He let out a relieved sigh and shook his head.

“It’s funny. I should have been the one giving you the comforting words, but it somehow turned out other way around.”

“It happens,” Malissa said with a slight smile. “That’s what friends are for.”

Arek stopped to look at Malissa for a moment. A complex expression flashed over his face. Then he nodded, his lips curling up in the barest hint of a grin.

The orc got back to work, taking the thin red peppers and cutting them into tiny disks. He minced several more cloves of garlic as well. He then poured a healthy glug of oil into the wok and tossed the garlic in.

“Could you chop the green onions?” Arek asked. He offered his cleaver to Malissa, who took it reverently. She stared down at the knife for a few moments before getting to work.

Several seconds later, the fragrant aroma of frying garlic started to rise from the wok. Arek scooped up the chopped peppers and added them into the pot. The oil crackled and hissed as the new ingredients touched it.

Malissa finished cutting the onions, so Arek added them in as well, but he left about a quarter of them behind.

“Garlic cooks very quickly, so we don’t need to give it long on its own,” Arek explained as he stirred everything together with a wooden spoon. “Peppers take a few minutes. We want to really fry them, not just warm them up. Frying will help bring a lot of their natural flavor out.”

Once the orc was satisfied, he removed a thin disk of pepper to show Malissa. It had browned along the edges, but it wasn’t burnt. Arek tossed it back into the wok.

He picked up the bowl of beaten eggs and poured it in. The orc added in a sprinkle of salt as well. He let everything sit for a few seconds before he started mixing it together.

“We just want the eggs to be barely cooked,” Arek said. “If we let them completely finish, they’ll be dry when the dish is done. At the same time, we don’t want them to be wet and undercooked. Nobody wants their fried rice to be goopy. Take a look and let me know when you think the eggs are about ready.”

Malissa nodded and stepped forward to get a better look at the eggs. Arek handed her the spoon and allowed the woman to stir everything together.

“I think it’s ready,” Malissa announced a few moments later. She handed the spoon back to Arek, who gave her an approving nod.

“Just about right,” he agreed. “They could use a few more moments, but we’re taking that time talking anyways.”

Arek grabbed the pot of rice and dumped it into the wok. He quickly stirred everything together as quickly as possible to make sure the eggs, peppers, and onions were well distributed throughout the rice.

He then picked up the two vials he’d set on the counter earlier and popped the tops off. He shook a healthy amount of each one into the dish, stirring constantly to make sure it was evenly distributed.

“Any idea what I’m adding now?” Arek asked.

“Salt, maybe?” Malissa asked. “Although I don’t know why you’d add it twice. I would have guessed pepper, but both of those are white.”

“You’re quite close, actually,” Arek said. “One of these vials has white pepper. It’s much lighter than black pepper, and works well for a milder dish such as fried rice. We don’t want to overpower the flavor of the rice or the eggs.”

“What’s the other one have, then?” Malissa asked.

“White gold,” Voulier said, appearing behind Malissa. She bit back a surprised curse and turned to look down at the chef.

“What’s that?”

“One of the keys to amazing fried rice,” Voulier said, giving Arek a begrudging nod. “It comes from Red Mount, and it’s a type of salt. It’s absolutely incredible at boosting the flavor in just about every savory dish. It works incredibly well in fried rice.”

Arek offered Voulier a wide grin. He let everything cook for a few more minutes before he pushed the fried rice to the side, clearing some space on the bottom of the wok. He took the shrimp and put them in, turning each one individually once they started to turn pink.

Once the shrimp had cooked, Arek mixed everything back together. He took the bowl of dark sauce he’d prepared at the beginning of the recipe and added it to the rice. After stirring everything together one last time, Arek killed the heat.

“And there you have it,” Arek said, more than slightly smug. “Fried rice.”

Voulier snatched a spoon and took a heaping spoon to taste. He popped it into his mouth, not breaking eye contact with Arek the entire time. He chewed slowly and then swallowed. Then he gave the orc a single nod.

“It’s good,” Voulier said. “Well done.”