“How nice of you to join us.” Adra said as we stepped up. “I think I need to use the tub as well, the two of you have such a glow, the bath must be a real pleasure.” she continued, causing my cheeks to heat up.

“You certainly can do that, but I doubt that you alone would find it as pleasurable as we did.” I answered, refusing the let my embarrassment defeat me.

“Yes, you are probably right.” she admitted with exaggerated sadness before continuing. “But for now, meet Kelgorn, he’s a hunter roaming the local area and he has been a font of useful knowledge.” she introduced the unknown male who had witnessed our banter with an amused expression.

“Greetings, Kelgorn. You can call me Sigmir and this is Morgana.” Sigmir greeted him, while seating herself and pulling me onto her lap. Not the most dignified position but certainly the most comfortable.

Kelgorn was another one of those vaguely grey skinned humanoids without any easily attributed features giving away his race. There were just too many races that looked roughly human, with minor physical differences, in some cases, the extremes of one race were the norm in another or vice versa. For example, a slender troll could easily pass as a pale giantblood. And that was without even going into mixed-bloods; in those cases it got even more confusing, without personal perceptual bias playing into it. Some races were easily identified, for example fur and tusks were a good indication of some sort of Orc or animal features for beast people. In Kelgorn’s case, neither was in evidence, but the local populace caused me to assume that he was a troll, a slender one, sure, but a troll nonetheless.

“Greetings, Sigmir, Morgana. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” he answered, his voice deep and resonating. He didn’t raise an eyebrow at our slightly strange seating arrangement, which was good because I could not be bothered to change it. Sitting on Sigmir’s lap, with her arms around me, was amongst the best places to be. Generally, all those ‘best places’ had the qualifier, “with her arms around me” attached.

“Ah, great, I thought I heard the two of you come from the bath. Why don’t you have dinner and afterwards you can tell me stories of your travels.” Drega came bustling from the kitchen, already with mugs in her hand. She chuckled a little when she saw our seating arrangement but simply placed mugs in front of us, without further comment.

“Yes, we can do that, thank you.” I answered, thinking of the many questions I had about the clerical spellcasting. I had only seen a few detailed mentions of it in the forums and none of those went into mechanics, only describing effects, some of which were rather impressive. I couldn’t even think of a starting point to replicate them. For example, healing spells that targeted any disease, it seemed almost impossible but for clerics, it was apparently one of the easiest and most basic spells. Adra and I had talked about her spells and with most of them, I was able to come up with a rough theory about their actual workings, even if was just conjecture, but for clerical spells, the only ideas I had were maddingly complex processes that I couldn’t even begin to describe in concepts, which I could possibly express in runes.

But for clerics, it was as simple as calling upon their deity in a specific manner and it worked.

“We were just talking about the local terrain and what to look out for.” Adra told us, and Kelgorn nodded before continuing his explanation. Sadly, I had missed the beginning so I could only understand parts of it, without the previous explanations, it was just too confusing to follow along. I simply listened, sipping the strange, spicy-sweet liquid and cuddled into Sigmir’s arms and letting my mind wander.

Sadly, my comfortable contemplation was interrupted when voices were raised on the other side of the room, angry voices. My mind sluggishly roused itself from the comfortable haze I had drifted in, trying to decide if I wanted to interfere when the angry voices turned into the sounds of fighting, as fists were thrown, mugs started to break and drinks were spilled. But the decision whether i wanted to interfere or not was quickly taken away from me.

An angry command echoed through the room, barked in an unfamiliar language by a familiar, female voice. The entire room fell silent, one could have heard a pin drop, indeed I was able to hear drops of liquid dripping onto the floor and splashing apart, it was that silent. Looking into myself, my mind was refusing to even contemplate moving or talking, it felt almost like an outsider looking at my own mind, a mind luxuriating in the feeling of comfort and homeliness, the idea to disturb the peace abhorrent.

“Impressive.” I heard Lenore’s mental voice and I latched onto it, instinctively linking with her, allowing her mind to almost puppet my body. It seemed as if she was not affected as I was, allowing her to move my body, taking a look around in the common room. The whole process of breaking free had only taken a second or two, but it felt far longer in my mind.

Looking around, it was as if everyone was frozen, not frozen like I would freeze people but frozen in that fudged state of comfort, of knowing that they were in a safe, homely place. At the front of the room, Drega was making her way through the happily pacified crowd, pushing towards the area where the fight had broken out.

“Explain yourself!” she angrily growled at one of the former combatants, still standing with the handle of a mug in his hand. The growl seemed to rouse him but the look of anger on Drega’s face had an effect similar to the previous pacification, he seemed to have completely forgotten that he had been willing to fight, looking sheepish and very, very sorry. Not that his look of contrition saved him, Drega lit into him in an impressive tirade, berating him for drinking too much and breaking the peace of her hearth.

Around the common room others slowly came out of the fudge-state, some apparently not even realising that something had happened, as if they had just drifted off in the comfortable atmosphere. The connection to Lenore had allowed me to keep more of my wit about me and now that my mind was cleared, she let me take complete control again, fully retreating into her Hallow. I kept watching Drega verbally berating those who had started the fight before giving them the option to be banned for life or to pay the damages and leave for the day.

While Drega was at that, a serving girl came around and placed bowls of warm stew and tasty looking bread on our table, causing my nose to distract me from the performance on the other side of the room. The simple but pleasant smell made my mouth water, it smelled like nothing I had ever smelled before. As I was salivating over the stew, I vaguely noticed that those berated by Drega were leaving in a sheepishly looking group but I was far too occupied with the food to pay them any mind.

The moment the first spoonful of stew passed my lips, taste exploded in my mouth, not invasive or unpleasant just an intense taste, as if the stew I was eating was the apex, a complex blend of hearty meat, crisp vegetables and spicy broth, it was unlike anything I had tasted before. Looking up, I noticed that the others had similar looks of vague rapture on their faces and they slowly spooned the stew into their mouth, savouring each spoon like a religious experience. When I tried the bread, it was just as good, still warm from the oven and exactly the right amount of spongy softness surrounded by a chewy crust. It complemented the taste of the stew perfectly, adding a slightly nutty flavour to the blend.

“I see you enjoy my cooking.” Drega said with a smile in her voice, having appeared at some point while I had been too focused on my food to notice anything new that was less invasive than an earthquake.

“Yes, yes, we do indeed. It’s… I don’t have the words.” I answered her, after swallowing what I had in my mouth.

“That’s good, I always like it when new people get their first taste. Eat with the Blessing of Frigg. We will talk later.” Drega told us, making a small gesture before retreating into the kitchen. As she left, I noticed a notification, before my focus was captured by the meal again.

You are under the influence of a magical effect. You were blessed by Frigg while eating in a house under her protection. Your health, stamina and Astral Power regenerate at an increased rate for the next two days.