Chapter 45: Make a Wish
It was raining gold. Not much of it, but every once in a while, there was a wizz, thunk, and a felled tree would sprout a gold coin. It was almost welcome, despite the hazard: the aftermath had left the isle wounded, a deep jagged path of destruction cut deep through the island, with vast swathes of jungle uprooted, crushed, burned or splintered. It felt like the island was dead, that its beating heart had been incinerated in that fiery explosion, and that it now waited to die. The sea breeze was the only life left to this island. In the lengthening shadows of the dusk, even the light had forsook it.
She was coming up to the camp, visible from anywhere on the island due to the fire that licked higher than any standing tree on the island. She did not approach from the shadows, or slip in from the back, but simply walked into the camp, hood down. It was a nice feeling, she reflected, to use the front door from time to time.
The camp glowed with life, in defiance of the wreckage or despite it, she didn’t care. They’d lived. They’d won. Everyone she cared about was safe. She looked around the camp at the people, at the glow of their lives, and smiled.
The former agent Three was feeding anything bearing the sultan’s colors into the fire pit. She’d since doffed her uniform in favor of some neutral grey slacks and was enthusiastically ripping apart the temporary base camp for anything red and black. Hawk was helping her, as was the man she’d known as Eight, though less vigorously. Captain Crow rested some distance away, drinking something from a flask and Dantes lay asleep by his side, chest rising and falling steadily.
For a while she’d been worried he wouldn’t make it, but Eight, or Aidan as he had decided to be called, had assured her he’d be fine. She saw now he was right. He was thoroughly concussed, he’d said, but he’d recover. He seemed so peaceful, the rise and fall of his broad chest steady and strong. She tucked the annoying lock of hair behind her ear.
Three noticed her enter and nodded, hurling a red and black tent into the fire. Only the wooden pole hit the fire pit, the fabric disintegrating moments after contact with the inferno. She could feel the heat on her face from across the clearing as it flared in thanks.
She made her way around to sit by Crow and Dantes. She nodded at the captain, who averted his eyes.
“Captain” she greeted.
“Mitty. I should apologize. I brought this down on us.”
She hummed in acknowledgement. “You were planning to do that from the start, weren’t you?”
He sighed, nodding.
“It’s why you tried to run ahead. You planned on dying here.”
He nodded again. “Once I learned they didn’t intend on bringing Will with them, but rather sending him back to Esthar. I took my chances running ahead because I knew that man wouldn’t trust anyone but himself with knowledge of what it really was. Nor could he imagine I would possibly activate it.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because he couldn’t fathom anyone willingly putting another above their own life” said Hawk, hauling a large branch. They’d run out of Sultan colored things to burn, so they were just burning things on the ground to expand the clearing now. It was coming along nicely, the former temporary base camp a comfortable circle of cleared brush and packed earth surrounded by tall, tangled walls of uprooted forest. Aidan had made some basic earthen furniture, as well as the fire pit that she could barely see through the flames.
Three nodded at that, hauling a much larger branch than Hawk.
“Aye, he’s a selfish one” Crow added.
“Was” corrected Eight. “He stayed in the vault with the others.”
“A fitting end to that tyrant,” said Crow.
Eight nodded but went back to staring silently into the fire.
“So, how did you escape?” she nodded to his legs that she realised were now correctly shaped, though the way he held himself indicated they were still weak.
“When Dantes fell, your friend over there pulled me back out of the way of the kraken’s tentacle. We got cut off, so he pulled me under the cover of some rocks.”
“I felt I owed you one after what my former… coworkers… did to you” Hawk panted, hurling another tree into the fire.
“Well one of em’ healed me up, so far as I reckon, we’re even on that front and I owe you my life son” Crow said, the gruff sailor accent slipping back into his voice. “Need anything, just say the word and we’ll come sailing.”
“What happened to the Spitfire, anyway? Did they sink it?” Mitty chimed in.
“Oh, nothing the best enchanters and wrights on the Red Sea can’t fix. She’ll float again, be sure of that.”
“I’ll keep it in mind, wherever I end up. Not sure where that is yet,” said Hawk.
“Why don’t you sail with me while you figure that out then, son. Any good in a kitchen? No? Well neither was young Mitty here when she started out, but she got her sea legs-” he wisely cut off as Mitty hefted a knife menacingly. “Right, any sight of ships, Mitty?”
“None that I saw. Looks like they were torn apart by waves. Or that thing” she nodded her head towards where a chunk of the monster landed. It had long stopped misting up, the black bleeding out of leaving pale flesh behind.
“The kraken? Well, that’s mighty inconvenient. No point waiting for anyone to pass by on this island.”
“Oh, the stupid magic thing? At least we have lots of food. I can make something.”
Awakened by the discussion of food, Dantes’ eyes shot open. “Cake?”
“Who said anything about cake, dog brain?”
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“You did. Before we landed. Remember, when you said you lov-“
“Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll make a cake. No need to be cute about it.”
“I’m cute?” a smile apparated on his face.
“No, not like… Ugh, nevermind” she shook her head softly, the lock of hair she’d tucked behind her ear coming loose.
“Mitts. Your hair is white now.”
“Ju-just this part. Should I cut it? W-what do you think?” she replied coolly.
“No, looks great. I really like it” he said sincerely.
“Thanks, I guess. I’m gonna go find something to cook this cake in.”
She ignored Crow’s chuckle as she turned tail and left to go anywhere but here. Maybe Aiden could make them an oven thing?
The man didn’t appear to be doing much, just reading a leatherbound notebook in the firelight.
“Done with the fire?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“Three just seemed so enthusiastic about destroying all traces of him that I got swept up in it. Now is more the time for reflection. Have a seat, Mitty, was it?”
She saw now he was older than she first thought; heavy creases on his forehead prominent in the firelight.
Seeing she didn’t have anything to say, he went back to reading his journal, and they sat in silence for a time while she reflected. What did she want for her future? How did she want to live? Her world had changed so drastically in the span of only a few weeks that it seemed all notions of her future were obsolete. She had people she cared about, and who cared about her. Could she settle down and enjoy a peaceful life, or was she built for adventure? She had a lot of questions, and no answers for now, so she settled on deciding to take things one at a time.
First, bake a cake. For that she would need an oven.
It turned out to be a simple enough task, Aiden more than willing to help with enchanting a metal box with a heating enchantment, and she had pans aplenty in the pockets of her wonderful cloak. It had brought her so far. She doffed it across a nearby branch. It was just black now. No longer did it eat daylight like the endless void, nor did it beckon the shadows as it once could. A razor thin tear of white ran down one side of the cloak, as though the darkness had just leaked out. Just like her.
She knew exactly that had happened. It had protected her. When the kraken’s eye had been on her, that searing gaze, it had shrouded her, keeping her whole under its scrutiny. The shadows had gathered to shield her from within the cloak itself, and in doing so it broke irreparably. Even if it had been a poisoned apple from a demon, it had been hers.
She felt like there was something she should do, so she moved it to another branch behind a boulder, the light from the fire casting a deep shadow.
“Much better” she said, rolling up her sleeves.
She looked at her arrayed ingredients and smiled. Each one was a memory. The black baking powder had initiated her journey into this world. She chuckled as she recalled her first attempts, barely edible and yet at the same time the best thing they’d ever eaten.
“’Al’s Baking Powder’. Hey is that from Cotwick Alley?” Dantes asked over her shoulder. He’d apparently gotten bored and followed her. Normally she liked cooking alone, but tonight… the company felt right.
“Yeah. We never learned who Al was. Maybe Delphi could’ve told us. She was going to give you a matching transformation stone, but we left in a rush.” Her own stone was apparently unsuitable for Dantes to use, and she’d been warned against attempting it.
Dantes shook his head. “This is who I am now. Dogs are fine, but I like the me right now. I also like whatever you’re making.”
“Toast it is.”
He snorted. “Best toast I’ll ever have.”
Next, she pulled out the bottle with ethereal untouchable lights dancing within.
“Reminds me of the Aurora in Windcrown. I hope we can go back some day for another play.”
“Sure, but no running off with princesses. You’re mine now, pooch.”
The remaining dollop of honey was next.
“Doesn’t look like much.”
“It’s not, but the cake won’t be that sweet anyway. This should be enough.”
“I wonder how Violet is doing with her knight training.”
“She seemed excited about it at least. She got her wish in the end.”
Next was the silver lily, still just as perfect as the day she’d picked it.
“What’s up with the flower? I thought you didn’t eat plants.”
“It’s not green so it’s fine. And saffron is a spice so it double doesn’t count.”
Dantes laughed. “Okay Mitts. Oh, I recognize that stuff. Smells like the bread that made me big.”
“From that sunflower seed you brought back, yeah.”
She pulled out the crystalline flask next.
“What’s that?” he asked over her shoulder.
“Some god gave it to me because her boyfriend was a jerk. They left to go get pizza afterwards.”
“Makes sense. That’s what I would do. What’s pizza?”
Ignoring him, she pulled out an egg. Not the one she’d been given, but the one she’d stolen earlier. The living one still sat in a pouch in her belt. She could feel it sitting warm against her waist.
“How did you know it was empty?”
“I didn’t. It’s all I could think of at the time.”
“So we almost died because you couldn’t keep your thieving paws to yourself?”
“We almost died anyway, shush. I’m going to go get some milk from Hawk. I know he carries some in his jaffa kit.”
She returned with the milk shortly thereafter.
“So, what now?” Dantes asked.
“Like after this? Whatever we want I guess.”
“You know what I want. But what do you want? We’re in this together now, don’t forget.”
She paused while she whisked the dry ingredients together.
“I want to go home.”
“What? Why?”
“No, I mean I want somewhere to call home. I want to settle down for a while and open an inn maybe and cook for people. Watch them be happy. Be happy myself.”
“Windcrown?”
“No, they don’t much like cats there. Maybe New Vairon is nicer.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
She popped the milk and ambrosia into a pan along with some butter she kept on her for toast purposes and put it on top of the oven to warm. She also plucked the saffron threads out of the lily and sprinkled it in too forming a galaxy swirl of silver on top of the melting mixture. It glowed faintly in the evening dusk.
“Don’t want to keep adventuring?” she asked.
“I mean, yeah, eventually, but this sounds like an adventure too, doesn’t it?”
“Well don’t hold your breath. We still need to figure a way off this island.”
“Maybe we can set up an inn here.”
“In the secret island next to a corpse of a giant kraken? Your brightest idea yet, pooch. And get your snout out of there, I don’t want any of your drool in the batter.”
She pushed him away from sniffing at the butter and saffron, cracking the egg into a separate bowl as she did so. She then beat it together with the aurora. She then combined all the mixtures together into a cast iron skillet and finally pushed it all into the makeshift oven.
They sat and chatted as it baked, perfuming the air with a delicate scent. It might’ve been subtle enough to lose to the char of wood, or the salt of the breeze, but it harmonized instead, existing alongside the other scents, distinct and greater, but not overpowering.
They sat talking as the long shadows faded and disappeared, giving way to night proper. The stars above shone in greater multitudes than she’d thought possible. Even as she watched, she thought she saw just the faintest hint of purple and green and blue snake across before disappearing across the horizon.
They sat in silence, enjoying the other’s company, knowing there was someone there who loved them right beside them.
When it was time to pull the cake out to eat, everyone gathered around.
Crow sat silently; the guilty look having faded to a resigned smile. He was chatting with Hawk who was nodding along as they both drank some hot jaffa.
Aiden had put away his book, but still had the contemplative look on his face. Still, he seemed happy to be taken from his thoughts as he joined them around the now dwindling fire.
Three sat silently as always, but she seemed very satisfied with herself, having rid the clearing of everything red and black.
She stopped Dantes from cutting out a slice.
“It’s customary to light a candle for cakes. We don’t have a candle, but this should be fine.”
She withdrew a dry twig she’d whittled into a small rod and stuck it into the cake.
Aiden lit the twig with a quick gesture, smiling. They were all smiling.
The flame danced atop the twig gently, peacefully.
“Make a [Wish], Dantes.”
“Just me? Why can’t everyone get one.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Just blow out the candle.”
“I wish everyone got a wish” he said quickly and blew.
And the flame extinguished.