I cooked pies and thought deep thoughts. I baked up the bread and fed my starter. When I found something that looked like beans, I tried soaking them. What I ended up with was a batch of skinless cherry tomatoes. With the spicy mushroom and some cured meat, I made up a version of chili, and then made an ale-based batch of cornbread to go with it.

I tried and failed to bake a batch of cookies, because without eggs, it wasn’t right. I had better luck with a batch of buffalo sauce using that spicy mushroom thing and some lard flavored with an herb that made it almost taste like butter. The butter flavor faded out of the lard if I tried to cook with it. That is why those cookies I’d tried to make ended up more like sweet pie crust. I crumbled up the results and sprinkled it over a cobbler of fruits.

It wasn’t like I had a rising agent other than the ale and I wasn’t familiar with using it except in something like that cornbread. Without egg whites or baking soda or powder, I was stuck without my home staples of cakes and cookies. I really wanted eggs. Tons of things laid eggs. There had to be some eggs in this world. I toyed with the idea of asking Mabel, but I didn’t want her to think I was even more of a freak than she thought now. Did they even call them eggs? I still didn’t know the names of half the stuff I cooked with.

I’d done what I could in the kitchen. There was even more food than I’d made the night before. The batch of chili was new, so I hedged my bets by making up a pot of stew like the one I’d made before. They’d finished all of what I’d cooked last night, so I’d cooked about half again as much as I’d done before. Mabel was right in that it wouldn’t net me enough coins to buy much. I don’t think I was cooking for the money as much as I needed to work. Working at something I knew how to do was building up my confidence and allowing me to not lose my mind.

It was hours until dusk. I had three whole coppers burning a hole in my pocket. So far, I hadn’t explored further than the outhouses behind the stable. How bad could it be beyond the tavern? My daughter would have smacked me just for thinking that. I chuckled to myself and gave Terra a pet.

Even though I’d cleaned and mended everything in sight, I hadn’t gotten another notification. I’d cleaned the outhouses. That had taken over a dozen casts…each. Terra had put her nose in the door and then backed out until I was done. I could tell that Basic Clean had increased in level because it became more effective, but my notifications were now off. What did it mean to get to the end of a chapter? My mind was fixated. I was hoping that a little exploration would help get my mind off of the notifications that I wouldn’t admit I missed. I would not turn them back on, I thought to myself sternly.

The wooded area behind the tavern seemed safer than the thought of facing people in a town that I imagined was out the front door of the tavern. However, the wooded area would not get me eggs or a leavening agent. I chose to walk around the tavern rather than through it. There were buildings to either side of the tavern, so we weren’t just a random crossroad on Route 66.

I was wrong. It happens often. There were exactly three buildings and a road sign. There was a blacksmith and a general supply store. This was the medieval version of a truck stop. We were in the middle of nowhere with crops, woods and little trails that led to adventure as our only neighbors.

I dropped into the general store, hoping for cooking supplies and was terribly disappointed. They had adventuring supplies. I poked into a barrel only to find that it was empty. They sold empty barrels. To be more precise, they had a single barrel in stock. Prices were labelled with numbers and either a small c, s, or g beside them. I got a feel for why Mabel thought I wouldn’t be satisfied with a few coppers a night. A basic healing potion sold for a gold. They were out of stock. They were out of stock on almost everything that could be considered magical.

“Sorry,” came a voice from the back room. “I didn’t hear the coach or horses out front, so I was over in the other shop, doing inventory.”

“Oh, I’m nobody,” I called back to him.

The man that stepped out wore a brown leather apron and had a head of tousled black hair. His mustache curled like a pirate’s, and he was quick to smile. My heart ached because he was a kind of handsome that made me miss my husband. My husband wasn’t the kind of handsome most women wanted, but he had still been making my stomach drop out at age fifty-something. He would give me a look, lean against a door jam, and call me beautiful. My daughter would groan and tell us to get a room. We’d smile…

“I doubt that,” the man in the leather apron broke into my thoughts. And he smiled charmingly in a way that was totally wasted on me. At least he didn’t smile like a bard.

He was swarthy, and that thought made me smile. He gave me a big grin, probably convinced that my flush was in response to him and that my smile was a flirtation.

“You must be Karma.” He laughed at the look of shock on my face. Was he a bard? Was he that bard? My mind was back to jumping at shadows. It’s not my fault. People did that to me. They were so terribly and illogically unpredictable.

“It’s just that we’re smaller than a small town,” he explained, still chuckling at his own joke. Whatever the joke was, I hadn’t gotten it. “If I hadn’t heard you talking to Mabel between the walls, she’d have been talking about ya over the single ale the wife allows me each night.”

I relaxed slightly. A married man was safer than a charming bard.

“I’m Chester.” And he stuck out his hand. All I could think of for one very awkward moment was the outhouses.

“Karma,” I confirmed with a nod, forcing myself to shake his hand in as friendly a way as I could muster. Would he notice if I cast a quick clean spell on my hand and his? I took half the chance by cleaning my hand behind my back. Maybe he took my disgusted lip curl as a facial tic because he didn’t seem to hold it against me.

“I run both the store here and the blacksmith shop on the other side of the tavern.” He waved his hands when he talked. “When travelers come through, my wife is normally here and I’m over at the smithy, but she’s feeling a little tired lately. So….”

“I hear you.” I nodded like I had something in my head that was posing as a logical thought.

“We’ve got a bit of everything,” he went on to explain. “If you can’t find it, we can order it and the coaches will bring whatever you could find at Siff or Paragrol. It takes longer to bring something in from the capital.”

I pretended to study a display of rough nails while my mind dashed from one place to another like a cat with the zoomies. There were some basic weapons, leatherwork stuff, a backpack that I wanted but I couldn’t afford for a couple weeks of cooking. Terra took this time to introduce herself to Chester, who scratched her under the chin. How were these people justifying the fact that I’d just appeared out of nowhere yesterday?

“Can you really do magic?” Chester asked, his eyes on Terra instead of me. After Mabel’s reaction, I was a little startled that he’d bring it up so casually.

“A little,” I admitted, reluctantly. He had probably heard almost everything Mabel and I had said this morning over hot oats. He hadn’t worked at the forge since I’d been there, or I’d have noticed. The rhythmic banging would have grated on my nerves. Terra, who ran in terror from a cough, was stretching her chin out for more scritches. My Terra would play with other members of my family, but she absolutely did not trust strangers. We’d gone away once and had a pet sitter that had been convinced Terra was a figment of my imagination. Was this really my Terra? My heart said, yes, but my fickle mind doubted.

“I just been thinking is all. Because if you can do potions, I’ll happily sell them here in the shop,” he offered. Terra leaped from the counter in front of him to twine around my feet as if she’d heard my jealous thoughts. I gave her a scratch on the head and told my mind to shut up.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“I’m not quite up to potions yet,” I admitted. “I would love to, but I don’t even know where to start. You wouldn’t happen to have recipes?”

“Ah.” He tapped his chin when he thought. “I could probably have a few recipes by tomorrow evening if I ordered them from Siff. There’s a magic-user there who probably wouldn’t mind sharing some basic ones.”

“I can’t imagine I have the funds to buy the recipes.” I pulled my three meager coppers out of my apron. “I really just came in to see if you had any eggs or leavening agents for my cooking next door.”

“Haven’t had eggs since the wife gave up on the coop,” Chester admitted. I was just happy that eggs were eggs. “I might be able to pull in some brewer’s yeast from town but it’s probably not worth the cost of the trip.”

“I’m not really looking for yeast,” I told him. I knew the chemical formula for baking soda, but I was pretty sure no one here would know it that way. “I’m looking for baking soda? Something that foams up when mixed with vinegar or wine?”

Chester’s mouth snapped shut and his eyes studied the ceiling. “You say it’s for baking? Not much call for that around here, but I’ll think on it,” he told me.

“Thanks.” There was an awkward silence filled with my wonderment that they didn’t question why I wouldn’t know what it was called.

“I could front you the money for a recipe or two?” Chester fidgeted with something that looked like it could be a caltrop. The look on my face had him rushing on. “We could order it and a couple of chickens. They’d be here by tomorrow. Just… are you really sticking around? If you’re willing to commit to making me a hundred of each potion, I’d be willing to sell them here for you.”

“A hundred?” I pretended to consider when what I really wanted to do was leap at the chance. “That’s a mighty big commitment.” Was my Bartering increasing?

“That’d be for two basic recipes,” he coaxed, and I knew my Bartering was not going to be able to keep up with his. He did this for a living. “I can sell Health and Mana potions all day long for a gold a piece, half of which would still be yours. These hills right out behind us lead up into prime adventuring lands. These kids come down out of the mountains, pockets full of silver, and begging for potions. I can’t keep them in stock. It wouldn’t take that long to sell a hundred or so of each.”

I had no idea how long it would take to make the potions. If it was like making a pot of stew, it wouldn’t be hard to make it in batches. If I didn’t make the full hundred before Beau showed up and killed me, it wasn’t like there were consequences they could impose on a dead person, but I’d hate to let the Chester down.

“At this point, I wouldn’t even know if I had all the ingredients for them,” I admitted. “Do you know if they require special herbs or whatnot?”

“I doubt you’d have trouble finding what you need out in the woods out back,” Chester assured me. “The adventurers sometimes come in with bundles that I sell for them down in Siff. I head out to town once a month to sell off old stock. If the wife wasn’t sick, I’d take you into Siff myself and we could be sure to get what you need.”

“What’s troubling the wife?” I asked.

“Bit of something that comes on once in a while.” He waved off my concern. “She’ll be okay by week’s end.”

“Maybe I could heal her?” I offered. It was worth a try.

“That would be kind of you.” Chester sucked on the edge of his mustache.

“It’s a day into town and a day back,” he continued his thoughts out loud. “Might be better to maybe just order the recipes and a book on local herbs for ya. They’d be here by tomorrow and you wouldn’t miss work next door. Mabel’d kill me if I stole ya away so soon after she got ya. Besides, the wife and I did enjoy that stew.”

“If I manage to heal your wife, do you think you could bring back a few chickens?”

“The coop’s a mess and would take a week to repair.” Chester rubbed the back of his neck.

“Let me worry about the coop.” I smiled. “It’ll be shipshape by tomorrow.”

Chester raised his brow at me. “If you can fix the coop and the wife, I’ll have a dozen chickens and a goat here by nightfall tomorrow.”

Chester led me upstairs to a small apartment above the general store. That made sense. It’s not like he’d want to live above a noisy and hot forge. There wasn’t much more than a bed for two, a couple of chairs and a table. The curtains at the window and wilting flowers on the table let me know that a woman normally kept the place neat.

A lovely woman, several years older than Chester lay on the bed. She looked to be about my age, or at least the age I used to be. Her loose black hair was mussed, and her brow was damp. I tried to shake off my nerves. I wasn’t a doctor yet. That had been drummed into my head by college. Terra strolled over to the bed and hopped up on it like she was a part of the family, giving me an expectant look.

“Really?” I asked Terra, wondering again at the change in her.

Terra meowed at me. Terra had a distinct meow that I’d never heard out of any other cat. It was like she was trying to meow, but her voice broke on every vowel so that it came out like m-ee-o-o and she’d leave the ow out of it altogether. She gave me that meow.

“Oh, Chester,” the woman complained, stirring enough to reach out a hand and pet Terra. “I’m not even up for animal company, much less ready to meet our newest resident.”

“She’s says she might be able to heal you.” Chester wrung his hands. He loved her. It was sweet and made me smile.

“I’m just tired,” she brushed it off weakly, but I could see that her spirit was more worn than her body.

“It’s okay.” I shrugged, taking the short walk to the bed. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much good, but I’m happy to try.”

I cast my Basic Heal, but without any notifications, I didn’t even know if anything had worked. I cast my Basic Buff as well, just for good measure, and because I still had some mana to spare, I cast the heal again. She perked up enough to sit up in bed and lean against the headboard.

“I’m Lily,” she introduced herself. “I’d like to say I feel better, and I do a bit, but well, thank you for trying.”

There was a weight to Lily, an emotional weight that tugged at me. I sat there silently and pet Terra. “Hang on,” I cautioned with a raised finger to keep her from feeling the need to keep talking. It only distracted me to try to make small talk. Instead of casting another heal, I reached into Lily’s mana and lifted a little. It took a bit, but it only lasted a moment for me. It was like adding a touch of brown sugar to the chili. When I let go of it, I was pretty sure I’d made a new spell.

“Oh,” Lily gave out a soft bit of sound that was somewhere between a groan, a sigh, and a burp. “That was… what did you do?”

“Is it okay?” I asked, eyes wide, suddenly unsure of myself.

“Okay?” she huffed, a light in her eyes that I hoped meant something good. “I feel like I’ve just risen from my own grave.” That didn’t reassure me in the least.

“I owe you a dozen chickens,” Chester mumbled, rushing to Lily’s side.

I backed away from the bed as he pushed me aside.

“Chester,” Lily blushed.

“I haven’t seen that light in your eyes for so long, my love.” He stroked her hand. It took her giggled reply to loosen the insecurity in my chest. I’d done good. Ah, yes, I’d done good and now it was time to go. I didn’t often recognize the boundaries of overstaying my welcome, but I wasn’t a voyeur, and this was getting a bit too gushy for my taste. I could hear my daughter laughing at me.

I backed toward the stairway, Terra practically prancing at my side. I now knew that Terra was Terra, but she was better somehow. It was like she didn’t have the same old fear of everything she’d had before.

“Of course not,” a soft voice purred into my head. “I was blind as a kitten before. I had no idea the world could look like this. I can see everything so clearly!”

That was new. Very new and very different. My mind stuttered at me.

“A person could do worse than setting up a magic business just out back,” Chester suggested, more observant of my leaving than I’d thought he’d be. I could just imagine a little shack out back between the not-pigs and the outhouses where I could set up a great big cauldron and grow very large warts. I knew I was being silly. My mind did this to me all the time. It could just as easily be a lovely little cottage for my whole family. “I’d sell what you make. It’d be an easy living.”

If only he knew. I wanted an easy living. That sounded lovely. The only catch was that I wanted that easy living with my whole family. That thought doubled down on the ache in my heart.

“That sounds lovely,” I sighed out.

“Then you’re in luck, my lady, certainly in luck, yes you are,” Chester practically bounced on the side of the bed, much to Lily’s dismay.

End of Chapter Summary

Intelligence +9 (21)

Will +10 (18)

Strength +5 (13)

Constitution +4 (13)

Charm +4 (12)

Beauty -2 (10)

Perception +9 (18)

Dexterity +7 (13)

Luck +4 (8)

Meditation +20

Cooking Skill +15

Mana Infusion +7

Woodworking +2

Profession Earned: Cook (Exp: 290/300)

Recipes/Spells Added

Buffalo Sauce

Chili

Cobbler

Cornbread

Pie

Sourdough Bread

Stew

Basic Clean +18

Mend +12

Spark +2

Lift Spirits +1

Exp (1190/500) – Level Up!

Exp (690/800)

Now that was just annoying. Sure, a bunch of stats, skill ups, and experience all at once, but I had no idea where or how I’d earned them all. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about this being an end of a chapter. Why here? Why anywhere? My mind fumed, but not enough for a skill up. Or was it enough? Would that show up next chapter? I found myself worrying about what setting was best?