Author's Note:
See if you can find the hidden Taoist message in this chapter
all respect to Mr. Lao-tse
The Basin of Godivariel
One evening NescaFrodo and Sanka were strolling through the sugar-cane bushes and cocoa-plants of Lóriandadainish. They both felt restless, or perhaps it was the sugar that makes them jumpy.
Both half-caffs were rather tired, for they had spent the day running and hiding in the forest, trying to lose Boromocha and Sméagolatté who had been following them like puppies. At last they seemed to have given them the slip.
"What do you think of Elves, Sanka, now that you have met more of them?" asked NescaFrodo, walking off his jitters.
"They're kinda sticky, aren't they?" answered Sanka. "And their coffee is too weak. But that Lady, she is the sweetest of all. I bet she can brew a proper cup of java, that one!"
Even as he spoke, they saw, as if she came in answer to their words, the Lady Godivariel approaching. Tall and fair, she walked beneath the trees, clad in a white apron. She beckoned to them, but spoke no word. She was eating chocolate.
She brought them to a hollow place in the land, shaped like the center of a great donut. A basin stood there, steaming and rich, a vast bowl of hot fudge. She stirred it with a silver ladle.
NescaFrodo gazed at the surface of the tureen of molten chocolate, mesmerized. He reached out a trembling hand to the creamy pool.
"Do not touch the chocolate!" The Lady whacked his hand gently with the ladle. She gestured that they should take seats at a small table nearby, where sat a delicate-looking tea set and a plate of fortune cookies.
"Drink your Tea," she said dramatically, light flying from her hair and fingertips. She smoothed her fly-a-ways back with an impatient hand. "Darn static electricity," they heard her grumble.
The cups were full of a suspicious-looking clear liquid. NescaFrodo and Sanka sipped them cautiously. NescaFrodo spat his upon the ground.
"Your tea tastes like vinegar!" he grimaced at the bitter flavour.
"And what does yours taste like, Sanka?" the Lady asked calmly.
Sanka took another sip, and licked his lips. "Tastes just like vinegar, m'lady. Just the way vinegar should." The Lady smiled at him. She took their cups and rinsed them, then filled them with steaming chocolate from the basin. They drank their chocolate quietly, and when they finished, she asked them to overturn their cups upon the saucers.
She peered at the little plates for long minutes, muttering and shaking her head. At last, she spoke, "Many things I can command the chocolate to reveal, and to some I can show what they desire to see. But the chocolate will also reveal things unbidden, and those are often less rich or palatable than those things we wish to see, but more profitable. What do you see?"
The half-caffs bent over their saucers. NescaFrodo saw on his tiny plate a great mountain, and a long road, and long nights listening to two rivals bickering endlessly so that he could not sleep. He sighed sadly, knowing that this was his fate.
Sanka stared at the smudged saucers, then he picked his up and licked it clean. "Mmmmm! Good chocolate!"
The Lady regarded them fondly, and she removed their cups and saucers and bid them good-night. When they reached for their fortune cookies, she smiled sadly.
Sanka cracked his open and read slowly, "When you get to the end of Life's Rope, tie a knot and hang on."
NescaFrodo opened his cookie, and a small silver ring fell out. He held it up and looked at it curiously. "What is this?"
Godivariel exclaimed happily. "My ring! I was wondering where that went! I really ought to take them off when I am baking."
NescaFrodo held out the ring in his small hand, saying, "You are wise and sugary and fair, Lady. I will give you the ring, if you ask for it."
The Lady laughed. "Keep it, dear. I have dozens. Lord Celebraun has one made for me every year for our anniversary. Have you any idea how many I have piled up?" She chuckled.
"Then take this one, my Lady," he said, and he held out to her the Coffee-Ring, and she stood in shock.
"Sweet the lady Godivariel may be, yet here she has met her match. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. And you would give it to me freely, and instead of a Lord of Dark Coffee, you would brew up a Queen of Tea, and I shall not be bitter, but light and sweet as the wind and the honey! Smoother than the cream of the crop! More stimulating than a vigorous foot massage!"
She had grown tall and beautiful, and NescaFrodo and Sanka trembled to behold her. She turned then and she was shrunken; a simple elf-woman smudged with fudge. "I pass the test. I will crystallize and go bake cookies, and remain Godivariel."
"But how will I get rid of this coffee-ring?" asked NescaFrodo sadly.
"Have you tried E-bay?"