{"id":767,"date":"2019-11-09T15:05:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T15:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/?p=767"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:44:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T21:44:53","slug":"cooking-for-relia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/09\/cooking-for-relia\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking For Relia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bang, bang, bang.<\/em> Kaewer kicked the\ndoor of the luxury apartment hard enough to get Relia’s attention but soft\nenough to, hopefully, not leave a mark. The door opened with a soft woosh<\/em>\nas it inched back and slide into the wall, opening into a large open space that\ncurved with the bend of the tower. In the middle, the space sunk slightly,\nencircling a comfortable couch, small table and fancy holodisplay that faced\nout the magnificent view of the Iradathin district that the 178th-story\napartment afforded. The kitchen sat along one arc with its island and the small\ntable Relia overlooking the living area. One entire section of open space was\ndedicated to a vertical garden. The entire apartment’s design was a\nhyper-modern blend of glass, metal, wood and living nature that arced and\ncurved with the flow of the building. Like most draiker structures, very little\nfollowed the hard, straight lines that other species preferred. She’d always\nliked Relia’s apartment. The wall fountain in the bedroom was her favorite\nlittle touch, it was such a cute like niche, even if it did suck up space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rel!”\nKaewer mumble-yelled as she stumbled into her girlfriend’s apartment laden down\nwith a collection of brightly coloured reusable bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Coming!”\nCame the muffled answer as Kaewer made her stumbling way toward the relief of\nthe kitchen counter. The door slid open and Relia stepped into the living area\nof her apartment, still in the middle of tying her hair up. As soon as she saw\nher beleagured girlfriend, she gave a soft “Oh!” and started to hurry\nacross the apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ith\nokay. I goch ith,” Kaewer managed, ignoring the steadily growing ache in\nher jaw. Apparently, she’d grabbed the heavy bag in her teeth and gravity was\nstarting to win. She made it to the kitchen without dropping anything and settled\nthe bags of produce down with a sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What’s\nall this?” Relia asked, smiling as Kaewer rubbed her jaw and stretched her\nshoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dinner!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Kae,\nbringing ingredients for me to cook isn’t exactly the romantic night in you\nwere promising,” Relia said, crossing her arms in indignation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What?”\nKaewer squeaked, turning to face Relia with ever widening eyes. “No, no,\nno — I mean — that’s not — Is that what this looks like?” Relia managed\nto hold onto her stern look for only a few more seconds as she watched Kaewer\nmelt into a puddle of concern before collapsing into her melodious laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m\nsorry, souhar,” She laughed as she wrapped Kaewer in a hug, pausing to\nkiss her on the forehead. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered and it’s\nsuch a rare thing to see.” Kaewer let out a sigh of relief and growled\nsomething into Relia’s shoulder. Before Relia could ask what she’d said, she\nfelt the questing fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Kaewer\nnO-” Relia collapsed in helpless giggles as tickling fingers dug into her\nside, dragging her tormenter down on top of her. The assault only lasted a few\nseconds before a devilishly cocky grin and sparkling emerald eyes framed with\nshort black hair appeared in her vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What\nare you doing down here?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Being\nattacked by a terrible rogue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mmm,\na rogue you say? I suppose they stole a kiss like this?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hmm\u2026\nnot quite but close. Might want to try again,” Relia breathed, her own\nvoice husky. Kaewer chuckled and compiled. It was several minutes later, the\ntwo ialaran were composed enough for Relia to gesture at the bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Seriously,\nwhat is all this?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s\ndinner,” Kaewer said again. “But I’m not going to make you cook\nit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\ndon’t think Oroda does house calls. Besides your house that is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She\nwould if I begged but she’s not going to. I’m going to cook you dinner!”\nKaewer sat up a little straighter, grinning with bluff confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Actually?”\nRelia asked, leaning back to regard her girlfriend with doubt. Kaewer was\nskilled at many things but growing up surrounded by personal staff, including a\nfull kitchen staff, hadn’t exactly given her the opportunity to learn the art\nof cooking.  Relia had teased Kaewer\nabout it a few times but hadn’t meant anything by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\ngot the recipe from Oroda for her Ryajuerin vo Tonadro e Peruhiylin. The one\nyou love so much. Didn’t know what ingredients you would have on hand, so I\ngrabbed every\u2026” Kaewer leapt to her feet, disentangling herself from her\ngirlfriend with hurried grace and rushed over to the counter. She pulled out a\ncartoon of tocorak, the sides already dripping wet and hurried to put in the\nfreezer. “Everything, and a few treats.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So,”\nShe continued, pulling her short hair back into a small ponytail and pulling a\nbottle out one bag. “Just sit back and relax while I make us dinner.”\nShe pulled a glass from a cabinet, filled with the cherry-wine she’d brought\nand handed it Relia with a crooked smile. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m\ngoing to finish getting ready while you get started,” Relia said, taking a\nslow sip from her glass. “I have an apron in the tall cabinet on the\nright. Don’t finish it all before I get back.” The heavy strumming of\nleatabaiciwared music built from the apartment’s sound system as Relia\nconnected to the apartment’s entertainment suite and turned on some music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer\nsnorted and shook her head with a smile as she began to pull out ingredients.\nShe found the scarlet apron that she’d bought Rel for Ashizuikalu and chuckled.\nIt was a functional apron but cut in a flirty, body hugging way. Relia had cut\nquite a figure with it in this very kitchen and clearly wanted Kaewer to do the\nsame. She pinned an Interface window right above the counter as she tied on the\napron, putting the recipe the Jirvaerka’s head chef had given her prominently\nin the air where she wouldn’t miss it. She hadn’t done that the first few times\nshe’d practiced this dish and it hadn’t exactly gone great. The fire alarm had\nbeen embarrassing, the food poisoning she’d given herself had been worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer\ndrew out the slab of tonadro meat and flipped a long knife off the strip of\nmagnets holding it to the wall. She caught it after two rotations and began\nslicing the thick meat into narrow strips, humming and swaying in time to the\nrollicking beat coming from the speakers. The meat went into a large bowl where\nKaewer sprinkled salt, the pungent coetari sauce, oregano and the hot eizuvrak.\nShe followed up with several diced cloves of garlic and set the whole thing off\nto the side. The knife and cutting board went into the sink, a lesson in\nhygiene Oroda had beaten into her head. Double checking her recipe, and the\nhelpful pictures she’d taken so she’d remember what things like ‘diced’ meant,\nKaewer paused to listen to Relia singing from the other room. The song was a\ncover of a lively and somewhat bawdy drinking song almost as old as the Imperium\nitself done in the more modern music style. She chuckled as the famous veterji\nsinger belted out the rapid-fire lyrics in a ringing and powerful\nmezzo-soprano, and unhooked the walk from its place of honour over the range.\nShe dropped a generous dollop of butterleaf oil into the pan and lit the range.\nWhile that heated up, Kaewer diced the shallots and minced the garlic with the\nconfidence of someone who’d grown up wielding dangerous tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nwent into the pan of spitting oil together, Kaewer setting a timer even as she\nbegan preparing the zucchini, mushrooms and celery. Next into the pan went the\nmeat, almost before she’d finished the cubing the zucchini, Kaewer bouncing\nquickly back and forth between cutting ingredients and stirring the wok. She’d tried\nto get the hang of flipping the food without a tool but several near-oil fires\nand some serious messes had shown her she still had a ways to go. So the wok\ngot tossed the old fashioned way, with a pair of tongs. She compensated for the\nlack of showmanship by playing with her tools. Kaewer wasn’t comfortable with\nthe art of cooking but she was a highly trained fighter with amazing dexterity.\nKnives flipped and spun as she danced to the music, interrupted with the rapid\nta-ta-ta-ta-ta of cutting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That\ndoesn\u2019t look like something Oroda taught you,” Relia purred, catching\nKaewer mid-shimmy and flourish. Kaewer gave an undignified squeak, catch the\ntwirling knife lower than she’d planned and stumbled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Enjoying\nthe shooowww-” Kaewer began, coming back up to strike a pose that never\nformed. The tongs sprung out of momentarily limp fingers as she took in her\ngirlfriend’s appearance. She was wearing a tunic top that hung loose but clung\nin tantalizing ways. The vivid turquoise and black caused the pale green of her\neyes to pop in a breathtaking way and long skirt was adorably layered. Relia\nlaughed as Kaewer coughed to cover her shock and recovered the tongs, cleaning\nquickly and wincing at the mess on the floor. The zucchini and mushrooms had\ngone in a couple of minutes earlier and the virtual beeping of a timer bought\nher a few seconds to turn her back and recovered. She added the final\ningredients the celery and leafy cabbage. After tossing the stirfry a couple of\ntimes, she felt recovered enough to pour herself a glass of cherry-wine and\nface her girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m\nunderdressed.” She took a long sip from her wine as she took in Relia’s\noutfit in more detail, not hiding the appreciative sweep of her gaze. Kaewer’s\nown outfit was more simple, a well-tailored golden tunic and some black leather\npants. Her heavy jacket with its bevy of pockets was crumbled over a chair at\nthe island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If\nthat tastes half as good as it smells, I’d say you’re overdressed,” Relia\nsaid, matching Kaewer’s gaze with a smoldering look of her own. Kaewer choked\non her wine, doubling over the sink in a sudden fit as Relia’s hearty laugh\nrang out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Four\nmonths and you still can’t handle flirting. Honestly, dear heart, one would\nnever suspect you of being so shy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You\nare an evil ialar,” Kaewer rasped when she could breathe again. “A\ndark temptress playing with my tender heart.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Me?”\nRelia gasped, placing a slender hand on her chest and turning just the right\nway. She put on her most holo-star sultry voice, “I intended to play with\nmore than just your heart, my dear.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Evil\nialar,” Kaewer snorted but she smiled fondly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Kae?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes,\nsouhar?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\nfood?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh\nMAISO!” Kaewer spun on her heel and began furiously tossing the stir fry.\nThe damage wasn’t terrible but the mixture at the bottom had definitely been\novercooked compared to the mixture at the top. She turned off the burner and\nshifted the wok to a cool one. It was then that Kaewer realized her second\nmistake<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ancestors\ntake me,” She groaned, dropping her face into palms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What?”\nThe teasing note was gone, only loving concern in Relia’s voice now. Kaewer\nsighed and pointed to the counter where the package of peruhiylin, thick rice\nnoodles was sitting unopened with one hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh,”\nRelia said in an oddly strangled tone. There was the rustle of cloth and thin\narms wrapped themselves around Kaewer. “You almost managed it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re\nlaughing at me,” Kaewer mumbled, “I can hear it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m\ntrying really hard not to,” Relia said. “Really, really hard. But we\ncan fix this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Scoop\nout the stir fry, put it in a large bowl and put in the monserdec. Leave as\nmuch of the liquid in the wok as you can. We’ll boil some water, soak the\nnoodles for a few minutes and then fry them in the liquid. The monserdec will\nkeep the stir fry hot that long. It won’t quite taste the same, but that’s half\nthe fun of cooking.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What,\nmessing up the recipe?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Experimenting!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Last\ntime I did that in a kitchen, mom almost had to call EOD\u2026 y’ouch!” Kaewer\nrubbed her ear as she twisted to glare at her girlfriend. “What?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re\nbeing melancholic, it doesn’t suit you\u2026” Relia sniffed, relaxing her hand\nbut still hugging Kaewer. “I’ve also heard that story, it’s not half as\nbad you’re making it out. No one had taught you the difference between a\nkitchen and a laboratory yet\u2026 or the difference between flash oil and cooking\noil, which admittedly was a bigger issue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mom\nand dad have never fixed the blast damage on the arc. There’s still a fist\nsized crater missing in the stone. I think dad still has the ruined pan in his\noffice with a plaque.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“See,\nnothing but good has come out of that tale,” Relia continued gamely. She\nkissed Kaewer on the cheek and patted her face. “Now, let’s rescue this\nlovely dinner you’ve made for us. I’m getting hungry<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Evil\nialar,” Kaewer snorted, gently untangling herself from Relia to fetch a\nlarge bowl. Relia let her go, pulling out a pot to fill with water. Kaewer slid\nthe stir-fry mix into the monserdec with a pang of regret as Relia flash boiled\nthe water with a twist of magic from the range. While every magi-tech\ntechnician Kaewer had ever talked to swore up and down that the monseras\nprocess altered nothing about the food, Kaewer had always found the magical\nstasis fields tuned to preserve food for weeks always flattened the flavors of\nfood slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How\nare things in the Ancestral Watch?” Relia dumped the noodles into the\nheated water and threw a short timer up in the public interface space before\nsettling back against the counter, after a quick check to make sure the spot\nshe’d picked was clean. Kaewer sighed softly and leaned against the monserdec\ndoor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Wow,\nthat bad?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nothing\nbad, just\u2026” Kaewer waved an arm. “I know it’s an honor to be rotated\nthrough, to guard the heart of the Imperium but I’m not actually doing anything\nup there. Just drills, shinning my armour and more drills. I’m one of the best\ncombat mages in the Imperium and I’m just rotting up there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone\nneeds downtime,” Relia said, reach out a hand which Kaewer took. She\npulled the frustrated Jirvaerka over to her. “Besides, it’s not all bad is\nit?” Kaewer chuckled and pulled her girlfriend tight as the noodle timer\nwent off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No,\nI suppose not.” She kissed her girlfriend on the head and grabbed the\nstrainer. “Now, out of the kitchen. I’m<\/em> making you<\/em> dinner\nand that means I expect you to enjoy the show. Even the part where you have to\nsave the meal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frying\nthe noodles in the leftover liquid couldn’t exactly save the original flavours\nof the dish but by the time Kaewer had sufficiently fried the noodles and mixed\nthe stasis-ed mix back into the wok for a quick toss and reheat, the smells\nfilling the apartment were tantalizing enough for her to not worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer\nopened another note panel in her private Interface layer, reading Orodas’\ncarefully detailed instructions for how to plate this dish for maximum effect.\nKaewer glanced at the colourful but clean and crisp example photos and then to\nher more muddled and chaotic mixture in the wok and made a face. She scooped\nthe stirfry into bowls, placed the bowls on Relia’s nicest plates and put the\nsprig of pine on top as a garnish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dinner\nis served, vinlarzui.” Kaewer announced turning to face Relia in the\ndining room, a plate balanced in each hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Good,\nI’m starving,” Relia purred. Kaewer swallowed a lump in her throat and\nflashed Relia her cockiest grin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m\nsure I can help.” She dimmed the apartment’s lights with a brief directed\nthought through her Interface. The rollicking music faded into the stately\nmelodies of classical orchestral music with another thought. Kaewer placed both\ndishes at the small table near the curved window and then pulled out Relia’s\nchair. Relia sat a smile and Kaewer finally remembered to take off the apron.\nIn lieu of candles, Kaewer summoned a small constellation of small fairy lights\nto drift around the table in a twist of magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objectively, the meal wasn’t up to the standards of the Jirvaerka head chef but neither ialaran seemed to care as they became absorbed in the quiet patter of eating together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Support
Like This Story? Want to Support me making more? Check out my Patreon! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bang, bang, bang. Kaewer kicked the door of the luxury apartment hard enough to get Relia’s attention but soft enough to, hopefully, not leave a mark. The door opened with a soft woosh as it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,29,8],"tags":[31,33,30,24],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patreon","category-toi","category-writing","tag-kae","tag-patreon","tag-toi","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":791,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}