“Forgot about me, did ya?”

Stop Him put his hand on Archie’s chest, stopping him.

“You better have something in there for me.”

Nori slapped Stop Him’s hand away. Being a foot smaller did nothing to deter her. “Why don’t you—”

Archie groaned and set down the handles of the cart.

“It’s fine, Nori. Really.” Archie shuffled around and lifted the cloth from their cart. He dug in the icebox and procured an oyster. “Here.”

Stop Him looked at the shellfish with skepticism. “What’s this?”

“Archie, that’s for our guests.” Nori and Stop Him glared at each other.

“It’s fine. Both of you, it’s fine. It’s an oyster. You scoop out the inside.”

Stop Him wasn’t convinced. “It’s not cooked or nothing?”

“Nope.” Archie extended his hand out to the guard. “It’s just…an oyster.”

“Hm…” Stop Him tilted his head away and looked down at the offering. “Is it spicy?”

“What? No. It’s…an oyster. Do you want it or not?”

Stop Him took a long moment to consider before resting his spear in the nook of his arm and taking the oyster. He scooped it into his mouth, and…

“Blegh! Blegh blegh!” He shook his head violently back and forth as he forced himself to swallow. “It’s like a booger it is!”

Archie laughed. Nori’s impatience didn’t let her crack even the slightest smile.

“The rich people love it,” Archie said.

“Rich people, eh? Hm, no wonder I don’t like it.”

“Okay, we’re already running late. Come on.” Nori motioned for Archie to pick the cart back up. She was fine hurrying him, but she’d never volunteer to drag the wagon herself.

“So how much of this did you steal from the pantries this time?” Archie asked as they cooked in the Ackers kitchen.

“I bought all the meat this time,” Nori explained, proud of herself for only stealing a little. “I even replaced some stuff in the freezer. We’ll be fine. I went over budget with the salmon, but…we need to be impressive today, Archie. Every job needs to lead to another job. We lose momentum, we’re done.”

Archie picked up a whole frozen salmon. “I don’t like the eyes.”

“Don’t worry, Archie,” Nori groused. “I’ll handle the cutting.”

“Cool.” Archie tossed the salmon back down on a pile of ice. “Is there like, a cool Urokan way of doing it?”

Nori sighed. “Yes. But I don’t know it. I didn’t study in Uroko. I studied here. Remember?”

Archie lifted both hands in apology. “My bad.”

“Just…Just tell me you’ve figured out some new ways to entertain them. It’s one thing to get the parents to enjoy the food, but it’s another thing entirely if the kids are asking for us because of the tricks.”

“As a matter of fact, I have a game for them. I got the idea from conjuration class.” He rushed over and rummaged through their things, pulling out a stack of parchment paper with targets drawn on them. “It’s like archery practice. I’m gonna make it so these blueberries explode when they hit something and have the kids throw them at the targets.”

Nori scrunched her face up and frowned at the targets. “They’re just gonna hit you, you know.”

“And I have a plan for that.” Archie gave Nori a blueberry and took a few steps back. “I put just a little bit of essence in them, so that…Here, hit me with it.”

Nori threw the blueberry. It exploded on Archie’s thigh.

“Brilliant,” Nori deadpanned.

“Okay, okay, hold on. I wasn’t expecting it that low.” He gave her another blueberry and flexed his arm against his chest. “Hit me right here.”

Nori didn’t mind taking a break from cooking as long as the break involved hitting Archie with things. She threw the blueberry and it bounced off his arm.

“No explosion. I’ve been working on my defenses, you know. I maintain a layer of essence that counteracts the essence I put in the blueberry.” Archie kept flexing his arm for Nori’s benefit. “Pretty cool, huh?”

Nori looked at the split blueberry on the ground. “And when they throw the blueberries at each other? What then? It’s just gonna explode on them.”

Archie chewed the inside of his cheek. “Huh. I guess I didn’t—”

The kitchen door swung open. Mr. Ackers whooped as he pranced in. “How are we looking?”

“Looking good,” Nori answered. “These trays over here are ready to go out. Just some finger foods for everyone. We’ll have grilled salmon for the main course. I can have it ready within an hour.”

“Perfect, perfect.” Mr. Ackers smiled and patted Archie on the back. “I’ll have my servants come get these. It all looks wonderful. Just wonderful.”

The door swung open again. Obscured by the counter, Archie could only see the top of a big bow walk in.

“Daddy?”

“Teff, honey!” Mr. Ackers scolded as he ran over to stop her from entering the kitchen any farther. “You shouldn’t be here.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“But I’m hungry…” Teff balanced on one foot, swinging her other through the air like a pendulum. But when Archie stepped out from around the counter, the girl planted both feet and started hopping, the big bow in her hair bouncing up and down. “The blueberry man!”

Archie laughed as he dug a blueberry out of his pockets. He bounced it across the kitchen to Teff, who caught it and started giggling uncontrollably, heehawing like a donkey.

“We’re going to have salmon soon,” Mr. Ackers explained.

Teff wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like fish.”

Mr. Ackers let out a few frustrated laughs. His voice contained equal parts contempt and impatience. “Well, it’s not for you.”

Teff frowned. “But it’s my birthday.”

Mr. Ackers sighed and looked to Nori for help. “Can you make her…I don’t know, a grilled cheese?”

“Grilled cheese!” Teff echoed.

“Sure,” Nori said. “Archie?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it.”

“Matter of fact,” Mr. Ackers said, “better make a few. There are a couple more kids than we expected.”

“How many?” Nori asked.

“Uh, five kids.”

“Oh. I thought there were going to be twenty five guests.”

“Twenty six, now. With the extra kid. Is that alright?”

“Um…” Nori assessed their supplies. “Yeah, that’s fine. I thought it’d be more kids, is all.”

“Hm.” Mr. Ackers took a breath and looked down at Teff. “Can I leave her here with you? I don’t…these kids.”

Nori swallowed her discomfort. “Sure. That’s fine.”

“Great. Teff, stay here. Don’t eat any of the adults’ food, okay?”

“Okay.”

Mr. Ackers shook his head as he exited the kitchen.

Archie slid past Nori to grab a stick of butter. Up close, he saw how clammed up she was. Her arms were tucked into her body. Her neck bent as far as it could as she looked down.

“You okay?”

She winced. “It’s just uh…father-daughter things, you know?”

He didn’t. “Yeah.”

“Sometimes my daddy’s not nice to me,” Teff observed, her voice devoid of emotion. “I wanted to invite Susie. She’s my best friend. But my dad doesn’t like her dad, so he said no.”

Nori having been the youngest child and Archie having been an only child, neither had any clue how to react to a child’s harrowing musings.

“So um…Teff? What kind of cheese do you want?” Archie asked. “We have a few different types…manchego, muenster, asiago…”

“Yellow!” she yelled. “I like yellow cheese.”

Archie laughed, happy to have a child’s innocence to clear the bad air from the room. “Cheddar it is. Nori?”

“We didn’t bring any.”

“My daddy keeps some in the fridge. Sometimes I break off a big chunk!” Teff bounced the blueberry up and down, losing it and chasing it and losing it and chasing it. “You can use it because it’s for me.”

Archie found the cheese and got started making Teff’s lunch.

“I think people should be nice,” Teff commented as she stood on her tiptoes to see into the skillet.

“Yeah, me too.”

“I didn’t throw the tomato, you know.”

“What’s that?”

“When everyone was throwing tomatoes at you. I had a tomato, but I didn’t throw it. It didn’t seem nice.”

Archie raised his eyebrows at Nori, hoping she would learn a lesson from the kid. “Well, thanks, Teff. That was nice of you.”

Teff grinned, revealing all of her missing baby teeth. “Did you bring me a birthday present?”

“Um…” Archie tried to think about what he could offer the girl. “Did we…Nori?”

Nori clenched her teeth. “You know, I think we forgot.”

“Oh.” Teff frowned as she opened and closed one of the cabinets.

“What would you have wanted?” Archie asked.

“Candy!” Teff hopped a couple of times.

“What kind?”

“I like lemon candy.”

“Oh! You know who loves lemon?” Archie pointed his spatula at Nori. “Nori does!”

“It’s true!”

Teff giggled. “You should bring me some lemon candy. I won’t get mad, even though you didn’t bring it on my birthday.”

“If we get the chance, we will,” Archie said.

Nori saw her opportunity. Even a child could be a mark. “You know, Teff, if you want us to bring lemon candy, you should tell all of your friends that they should have us cater their birthday parties.”

“Okay!”

Archie shook his head at Nori. She just shrugged and went back to cooking.

The party went off without a hitch—at least when compared to dropping the birthday boy from the roof. The kids showered themselves in blueberry juice, even catching a few unwilling adults in their mischief. The adults loved the food, all singing Nori’s praises.

At first, it bothered Archie that Nori got all of the credit for the cooking. But somewhere along the way, between the way the children giggled and ran and played, he was satisfied to just put a smile on the children’s faces.

As Archie and Nori packed up their things, Mr. Ackers approached.

“That was wonderful, Nori,” he said. “And uh, Archie, thanks for keeping the kids distracted for us.”

“Of course,” Nori said. “If anyone else at the party would like to hire us for another event, we have availability.”

“Actually, I was hoping to hire you again myself. Maybe.” Mr. Ackers scratched at his neck. He looked around at the butlers that had filled the kitchen to wash all of the plates. He nodded toward the door and escorted them into the great hall of the manor.

The room itself was a piece of art, a massive open wooden floor with a domed ceiling thirty feet high. Plush silk couches had been arranged over a dark red and gold rug. And above the stone-chiseled fireplace, a tall, perfectly accurate painting of the Ackers family loomed over the room. In it, both parents smiled, yet Teff’s thin-pressed lips and concerned eyes made the whole thing a little macabre.

“Wow,” Archie said, unable to help himself. Mr. Ackers followed his eyes to the painting.

“Ah, yes, it’s something. If I told you how much it cost, it’d make your head spin. But the artist, he goes only by Chuxay, he’s the best in the city. I thought of getting a lesser artist. We’d lose some of the details in the faces, sure, but we’d save a hundred gold. But then…Chuxay told me something. He told me that no matter what happens in the world, time is always constant. And one day, this will be my only remaining memory of this time.”

“It’s beautiful,” Nori said.

“It is,” Mr. Ackers agreed. He grinned. “The most beautiful in Caviar Court. I made sure of that.”

After a brief moment to laugh to himself, he checked to make sure no one watched him, and leaned in to whisper. “So I’ll hire you…If. If you could manage to make some…kulkida risotto…on the side.” He did everything but wink. “Myself and some associates of mine would pay very well for it,” he said. “It’d be our secret, of course.”

“How much?” Nori asked.

“Oh, well, you’ll find that we can eat quite a bit.”

“No. How much do you pay?” Nori clarified.

Mr. Ackers looked around again. Archie could practically hear the man’s heartbeat.

“Well, we should keep it small so that we don’t get caught.” Mr. Ackers considered for a moment. “I suppose just three servings. I’ll pay six gold. On top of the rest of the catering.”

Archie and Nori looked at each other, their eyes telling each other the same thing.

Keep it together. Keep it together.

“I think we can do that,” Nori said.

“Perfect,” Mr. Ackers said. “And again, our secret. Some people in my circle would be very upset. Very upset, indeed.”

He twiddled his fingers again and wandered back to the rest of the party. Archie and Nori grabbed each other by the arms in excitement.

“An extra six gold! For three servings!” Nori exclaimed.

“I know!” They hopped around and smiled. But then Archie stopped and rubbed his chin. “But uh, one thing…”

“What?”

“What’s kulkida risotto?”

“I have no idea.”