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The Crystal Exarch had left a kind note and a basket of sandwiches alongside a pot of tea. It smelled so good and Moonflower couldn’t help herself; she started pouring the tea while Ardbert was monologuing about not trusting the Ascians. “No indeed, Ardbert. I should add that the Crystal Exarch is nowhere near as shady as Emet-Selch or the other Ascians I’ve met.”
Her ghostly companion sat down next to her. “I think someone is sweet on him.”
Moonflower would’ve nudged him if he were alive. “Stop that.”
“Well, Emet-Selch is right about one thing. One shouldn’t fight blindly. That’s what we did, and it cost everything we held dear.”
He looked so sad that she reached out to him. “Not everything. Come on, let’s talk about good memories.”
Ardbert gave himself a little shake and mumbled something about what to talk about at mealtimes. “Oh, there’s the time we were forced to collect rare ingredients for some godsforsaken feast. If it sounds ridiculous, that’s because it was.”
Moonflower snorted right into her tea that it splashed all over her face and she was scrambling to pick up a napkin. “You’re preaching to the choir, Ardbert,” she laughed once her face was dry.
“What? You, too?” he asked, incredulous. “Parallel worlds, eh?” The amused and delighted expression really made him look like a young man instead of a tired soul. “So what sort of things did you have to fetch, then?”
Moonflower took a bite of the first sandwich and closed her eyes in appreciation. The Crystal Exarch knows how to make a delicious sandwich, that’s for sure. “I had to get the stinkiest cheese, some wine that didn’t exist, and an egg from a protected species.” She frowned at that. “I didn’t like that last part at all.”
He leaned forward eagerly. “Come on, you can’t just leave it at that. Wine that doesn’t exist?”
She ate another bite. Then, because she didn’t want him to feel completely left out, she poured him a cup of tea, too. He couldn’t drink it and she knew that, but maybe he would feel real in a way, if there was a steaming cup in front of him. Ardbert didn’t comment on it, but he instinctively curled a hand around the cup anyway. “The Calamity that happened to the Source before the Flood hit the First destroyed all of the grapes that produced the best wine. Yet I was instructed to get that wine for this magical feast a creepy man was giving.”
He frowned. “A creepy man?”
Moonflower stared at the basket of apples in front of her. “A dwarf who runs a local resort. He wriggled at the thought of a beautiful woman, once. Anyway, I was doing this feast for him because I had a primal to take care of and somehow this was going to get people to give me information. The grapes were wiped out, the bottles of wine gone, and it seemed like I would have to take a subpar bottle back, until I came across a poor soul who had somehow been growing the magic wine because of goobbues.”
“Wow.” He stared at her in awe, probably amazed by how ridiculous it was. Then he laughed. “That is definitely excessive. And the cheese?”
“Goblins! Oh! They’re strange but mostly nice creatures.” She began rambling, “Their cheese is the stinkiest food ever and Ardbert, usually I like cheese, but I couldn’t bring myself to even eat the part of the food they were touching.”
“You actually got to eat the feast you made?” he asked, incredulous.
“I didn’t go through the jungle and fight a dragon to get some nasty cheese or do any of those other tasks for nothing.” Just when she was about to finish the first sandwich, she stopped. “Wait, you didn’t?”
He shook his head and looked down into his cup. “Not exactly. We were allowed part of it after the feast was over, but it was hardly appetizing then.”
“That’s a pity, but you know, I think I would’ve preferred that over what I got.” Sandwich finished, she decided to cut an apple before moving on to the next one. “I went through all that effort when I was the guest of honor. Those Company of Heroes people really thought that making me go on a lot of ‘fetch quests,’ as Masa calls—called them, would be the best way to determine if I was ready to go fight Titan.” Moonflower ate an apple slice rather harshly at the reminder of how annoyed and stressed she was over those quests and fighting Titan.
“Some people really do ask impossible things,” he said in agreement. “My friends and I needed it. We were hoping to get leads on how to help Branden’s kingdom. So the lady giving the feast said she’d pay us handsomely and gods, never again, we all agreed.” Ardbert groaned and shook his head at the memory. “It’s not that we didn’t want to help.”
“No, of course not. Helping other people find lost things or a rare herb or other such objects is not the issue.” They both sighed. “But I do wonder, Ardbert, if they even bother looking for themselves at all!”
“You, too?” he said, laughing. “Oh yes, I felt that way many times. I suppose it’s something all adventurers go through, eh?”
She clinked her cup against his and took a sip. “It is. It really is, Ardbert. Now, tell me more about yours.”
Ardbert went on to describe some of the lands long since lost to the Flood and the ingredients they needed from there. How the fairies used to live somewhere else and what it was like to try getting their honey. As he talked, Moonflower laughed and sighed in turn, steadily eating the food left out for her. Then they exchanged more stories over the remainder of the tea, until at last it was time for her to go to sleep.
Hopefully in the morning, there would be no quests for a feast.