Author Note: If I was naming the chapters, which I'm not, the name of this one would be 'calm before the storm'.
One day, Sayo had just left the kitchen after a morning shift there. She had spent the early hours hauling water from the well so that the kitchen could use it. Tsugumi had dismissed her after that, sending her off to enjoy her free time before lunch. Most days Sayo would go train during this time, but not today.
Sayo was on her way to the guard headquarters. The disorganized paperwork in there was starting to drive her insane.
When she was about to climb the steps up to the second floor, Sayo heard a rattling noise in the distance. She wasn't sure what it was, only that it wasn't a normal sound heard in the castle.
Retreating from the steps, Sayo slowly moved in the direction of the noise. It sounded like it was south of her, perhaps near the offices?
Could it be an intruder? Yukina had seemed worried about one earlier in the week. Sayo placed one hand on her sword as she crept, ready for a threat.
She didn't see anyone as she passed by the offices, but she did hear the noise again. It was louder and closer than before. If kind of sounded like, possibly an animal? Sayo hadn't noticed a vermin problem in this castle, but maybe one was cropping up.
Still worried, she continued. There wasn't much past the offices, just dead end hallways. At least, that's what Sayo thought.
She had almost reached the end when she heard the noise again, very clearly this time. It sounded like a cat meowing. There weren't any cats in this castle; surely she would've seen it by now if there was.
Sayo turned the last corner, expecting to see a cat or even an intruder, but was greeted instead with a far more surprising sight.
Yukina was sitting on the ground with her back to the open part of the hall. Sayo couldn't see what she was doing, but she could see a cat's tail sticking out to Yukina's left side. She must've heard Sayo's footsteps, because her head turned as Sayo rounded the corner.
Their eyes met. The cat meowed loudly. It jumped out of Yukina's arms and then nuzzled against her leg. Sayo didn't know enough about cats to identify the breed, but it was colored in a mixture of dark and light brown fur. For a moment neither woman moved.
"Can I help you with something?" Yukina broke the silence, bringing one hand to stroke the cat.
Sayo released her sword hilt and crossed her arms. "Is this your cat?" She asked, hoping she didn't sound like she was accusing Yukina of something. As it was, Sayo wasn't sure what the rules on cats in the castle even were.
"He's a stray." Yukina looked down at the creature with gentler eyes than she'd ever turned towards Sayo. "Sometimes I see him around here. Moca feeds him."
If Moca was feeding him, then it was likely Ran knew about his presence already. That meant Sayo didn't have to worry about it, as it had at least some level of permission to be in the castle. "So, you're a cat person?" She asked, stepping closer and crouching down to reach slowly for the cat. The animal hissed at her outstretched hand, so she pulled it back.
"Cats are cute." Yukina replied briefly.
For some reason that annoyed Sayo. "Dogs are cuter." She retorted.
Yukina cracked a smile at that. "So you're a dog person." She let out one chuckle, turning her body more fully to look up at Sayo. "Don't tell anyone though, about the cat."
Maybe that meant Ran didn't know? Whatever, it wasn't a threat and Sayo didn't really care. "As long as nobody asks." Sayo replied. "But the minute someone wants to know about that strange meowing sound it's over."
"Fair enough." Yukina accepted the terms, continuing to pet the cat. "You've been training with Lisa, haven't you?" She looked back down at the cat and spoke more quietly than before, tone strained slightly.
"Yes." Sayo almost reached towards the cat again, but decided against it. She didn't need to get bit today.
"I see." Yukina kept her eyes down, locked onto the small animal's fur.
Sayo didn't have anything to say to that. Silence held for a moment, broken once again by the cat meowing loudly.
"I should get going." Sayo stepped back, giving up completely on petting the cat. Yukina watched her go in silence.
Sayo didn't hear the cat again as she walked away, returning to the stairs where she first heard the noise. She ascended to the second floor and walked to the guard headquarters, determined to complete the task she originally set out to do.
When Sayo entered the guard headquarters there were no other guards present. The table was still covered in papers, even more than when Sayo first arrived. She had come a few times to look at the schedule and found it increasingly difficult as her name was added to more pieces of paper.
Sayo approached the table, looking down at the papers. She picked them up one by one, stacking them into a single pile. Once they were straightened, she then put them in reverse chronological order with the most recent at the top.
It only took a few minutes.
Once she was done, Sayo put the pile back down in the center of the table. It looked so nice and clean, so easy to read and find information.
She left satisfied with her work and hoped that Kasumi would just put the next schedule on top of the stacked ones.
On another day, in the afternoon, Sayo was in the kitchen.
Even though she knew that Lisa would soon be expecting her at the training field, Sayo couldn't help but stop and watch Tsugumi bake. She had finished retrieving goods from storage and dismissed for the afternoon, but hadn't actually left. Tsugumi was mixing some ingredients in a bowl and Sayo wanted to see what it was going to be.
How foolish to think she'd continue getting away with just watching.
Tsugumi stopped stirring the bowl, releasing the spoon as she looked up at Sayo. She took a deep breath. "I know you said you're not good at baking." Tsugumi's expression looked serious; Sayo couldn't tear her eyes away. "But have you thought about letting me teach you?"
Even though last time Sayo decided to say no, it was so tempting to say yes. Tsugumi's sweets always looked so good and with a teacher Sayo would improve. That didn't change the fact, unfortunately, that she didn't have any skills to offer in return. She couldn't even over her money, since her stipend wasn't high enough to accommodate the additional expense.
"I thought about it." Sayo said slowly and clearly. "And I'd like to, but I don't have anything to offer you in return."
Surprisingly to Sayo, a smile grew on Tsugumi's face. "You don't have to give me anything." She said as she resumed mixing the bowl. "I wouldn't have accepted it anyway. Come on over and I'll show you what we're making." Tsugumi transitioned quickly into teaching mode, seeming to assume that with Sayo's protest solved she was all in.
Sayo bit back a retort as she walked over and peered down into the bowl. It was about half filled with a powdered substance. "What's it going to be?" Sayo asked.
"The sugar cookies were a big hit last time, so I'm making more." Tsugumi put down the bowl and moved to grab a small cup of white liquid. "We're adding the wet ingredients next. Here's the milk. Please pour it in while I get the eggs." Tsugumi handed Sayo the cup of milk and stepped away to another part of the kitchen.
Here was Sayo's first contribution. All she had to do was pour the milk into the bowl. That was it. She should stop thinking about it and just do it.
Doing her best to not think about how the milk might spill over onto the table, Sayo slowly tipped the cup into the bowl. The milk poured in slowly and was absorbed by the powder. By the time Sayo finished, Tsugumi had reappeared by her side.
"Good job Sayo!" Her praise sounded genuine, despite Sayo having completed a relatively simple task. "Next is the eggs. I'll do the first one, so watch closely." Tsugumi handed Sayo one egg, which she held gingerly, before tapping another one against the table. She brought it over the bowl and, with two hands, pulled the shell apart.
Sayo had always struggled with not getting the eggshells in whatever she was trying to make. To break it so easily looked like magic to her.
"Now you try." Tsugumi stepped aside to deposit her shells in a nearby bucket and allowed Sayo to stand in front of the bowl.
Sayo hesitated. "How exactly do I do this?" She grasped the egg firmly in one hand.
"Tap it gently against the side of the table." Tsugumi explained with the patience of a saint. Sayo tapped the egg gingerly. "A little harder than that." Brown eyes watched her every move carefully. Sayo could feel a bead of sweat on her neck.
She tapped the egg against the table side more firmly, almost dropping it when the shell cracked under the pressure. Her hand came up quickly, holding the egg over the bowl. "Now what?" Sayo asked, not as calmly as before.
"Turn the crack so it's face down and hold it with both hands, thumbs on the top. Then lift your index fingers up just enough to apply pressure and twist your wrists out." Tsugumi pantomimed the motion as she spoke, so Sayo was able to imitate it.
As Sayo turned her wrists, the egg did not break as cleanly as Tsugumi's had. In fact, it practically crumbled under her fingers with the yolk and egg whites leaking out into the bowl. "I am so sorry." Sayo said as she grimaced and tilted the whole mess to get the remaining liquid into the bowl. Once it was mostly gone, she turned and dumped the shell in the same bucket Tsugumi had put hers in.
"It's alright." Tsugumi seemed unbothered as she picked something out of the bowl. "Not bad for your first try." She picked up the spoon once more and handed it to Sayo. "Those were the last ingredients. I'll get a tray while you stir."
"Which way should I stir it?" Sayo asked as she accepted the spoon.
"Hmm." Tsugumi didn't have an immediate answer to that question, pausing to think for a moment. "Start clockwise, and if your hand gets tired switch to counter clockwise."
That didn't really make much sense to Sayo, but she accepted it. Sayo dunked the spoon into the mixture with a nod and started to mix it. The liquids and solids combined under the spoon, smoothing out the longer she stirred them.
Tsugumi stepped away for a moment, but quickly returned with a metal tray. She set it down next to the bowl.
"How long should I stir for?" Sayo asked, switching to counter clockwise rotations.
Her teacher peered into the bowl. "Just a few more minutes." Tsugumi said. "Then we'll check the consistency."
"Okay." Sayo continued to mix the dough, careful not to let her mind wander. This was serious business.
The few minutes passed quickly, with Sayo almost losing grip on the bowl only once.
When the time was up she relinquished the spoon back to Tsugumi, who gave it a stir of her own. "Looks good to me." She lifted a spoonful out and placed it on the tray. "We're making round cookies, so you'll make balls of dough like this." Once Tsugumi took the dough off the spoon, she balled it up into an approximately two centimeter sphere.
Sayo accepted the spoon back and scooped out about the same amount. She placed it on the tray near Tsugumi's and used both hands to try and shape it. The result was a bit lumpy, but was close to Tsugumi's in size and shape.
"You'll want to place them about four centimeters apart." Tsugumi moved Sayo's lump of dough a bit farther from her own. "Looks good though! I'll start on the frosting while you do this. Let me know when they're ready to go in the oven."
She left Sayo to accomplish the task, which was a little nerve-wracking. What if she made them too big or put them too close together? Ignoring her trepidation, Sayo continued with the job. She made the whole bowl of dough into little balls and placed them exactly four centimeters apart on the tray. They all just barely fit.
"I'm done." Sayo called over to Tsugumi, who had a smaller bowl out and was stirring something.
Tsugumi practically skipped over to examine her work. "Great, let's put them in the oven!" The kitchen had a wood-based oven; one of Sayo's duties was to fetch firewood for it. "Pick up the tray and follow me."
"Shouldn't you do this part?" As a beginner and absolute amateur, Sayo wasn't sure she should be handling the oven.
Tsugumi smiled broadly. "I believe in you." She said so sincerely that Sayo thought her brain might've just been fried.
"I…" It was hard to find a response to that. "Okay." Sayo picked up the tray and crossed the kitchen with Tsugumi, taking care not to bump any of the other staff. The stove stood along the outside wall, with a chimney out to let the smoke escape.
Tsugumi pulled the metal oven door open and Sayo slid the tray inside. "How long will they cook for?" Sayo wanted to know.
"Eight minutes, and then we'll check them." Tsugumi replied as she walked with Sayo back to the other side of the kitchen.
That wasn't too long to wait. Sayo watched as Tsugumi resumed preparing what appeared to be frosting. She added sugar to the mix and stirred at a much higher rate than Sayo had been doing before, folding the mixture in on itself over and over again.
The eight minutes passed quickly, with Sayo resisting the desire to check on how the cookies were cooking every minute or so. Tsugumi told her when it was time and passed her a towel to take them out with.
Sayo almost protested being the one to take them out, but remembered the last time she did and decided not to.
They looked done as Sayo pulled the tray out and put it on the counter. The color was slightly golden brown on the top, which Tsugumi said was how they should look. Once they were out of the oven, Sayo had to wait for them to cool enough to frost.
That only took about ten minutes, with Sayo only lightly burning her hand trying to pick one up.
"The last step is to add the icing." Tsugumi demonstrated spreading the now finished icing on one of the cookies. It was spread perfectly uniform. "Here you go." Tsugumi handed the knife to Sayo along with the bowl of icing. She started on a different dish while Sayo finished the cookies.
Sayo took the cookies one at a time, carefully adding the icing to each one. They didn't look as nice as the one Tsugumi did, but they were tolerable.
"Let's try them." Tsugumi popped back over after Sayo finished the last one. They each picked up a cookie and bit into it. It was pretty good, Sayo thought as she chewed. Maybe a little undercooked, but it didn't taste terrible. "You did a great job Sayo!"
"Only due to your great teaching." Sayo replied earnestly, establishing direct eye contact.
Tsugumi looked away. "You're a fast learner." She said quietly.
The same as earlier, Sayo wasn't sure how to respond to that.
A few moments of silence passed.
And then Sayo remember that she was supposed to be somewhere soon, or perhaps she already should've gone. Lisa was expecting her out on the training field and she probably should've left twenty minutes ago.
"I better get going." Sayo cleared her throat, breaking through the thickness in the air. "See you tomorrow."
"Bye!" Tsugumi perked up, giving a small wave as Sayo walked away. She started scooping the cookies onto a plate, likely to serve them with the next meal.
Sayo left the kitchen and crossed the castle to the stable gate, her steps a little quicker than usual. She walked out to the practice field and was unsurprised to already see Lisa already there.
Lisa held a wood sword and shield. She was running through drills, practicing a powerful sweeping strike. Sayo called over to her as she approached.
"Hey Sayo!" Lisa stopped swinging to greet her.
"Sorry I'm late." Sayo said as she stopped next to the knight. "I lost track of time."
Lisa merely smiled. "That's okay." She offered the wood shield to Sayo. It was about half of a meter across. "Here, take this." Sayo took the shield from her, slipping it over her left arm. "We're going to work on shield stance and blocking today."
"With just the shield?" Sayo asked, slipping into a defensive stance with the shield raised. She had used a shield a couple times before, but didn't regularly carry one into combat.
Lisa nodded. "Yes, for now." She circled around Sayo, examining her posture. "Spread your feet farther apart and bend your knees. You need to be able to take a blow without being knocked over."
Sayo followed the direction, feeling more confident in these instructions than she had in the cooking earlier. Ironically enough, this new posture was almost the exact one she'd been working to train Lisa out of for archery.
Lisa stopped in front of Sayo and pointed the wood sword her way. "I'm going to strike at you. Use the shield to block the blows. Ready?"
Sayo nodded, loosening her knees more so she could move if needed. Lisa lunged forward with a large telegraphed swing, likely as a test. Sayo moved the shield up to catch the blow, a shock of pain jolting through her arm and torso.
Lisa jumped back and wound up for another swing, this time coming in low. Again Sayo tried to move and block it, but was too slow. The wood sword hit her side and would likely leave a bruise.
"Watch your opponent's attacks and head them off. If they get even one step ahead of you the shield is useless. Revert your posture and don't lock your knees." Lisa chided, before taking another high swing. This one Sayo was able to block, but barely.
They continued this exercise for some time, with Sayo making small improvements in blocking attacks. By the time Lisa stopped Sayo was out of breath and both arms were covered in small bruises. They agreed that next time Sayo would try it with a sword in hand as well.
As Sayo handed the shield back to Lisa, she could've sworn she saw a flash of silver moving near the castle.
