Chapter 112: Canonization

FieryKathy

Hilda turns on the heat lamp behind me so I keep staying cozy while we are outside under the big parasol on her deck. Although, with a toasty Sam stuck at my side that really wasn’t much of an issue but it’s still really appreciated. 

“Thanks Hilda.” I smile.

“Tell me if you want a blanket or something like that. I’ve got plenty inside.” 

I nod and Hilda moves back inside to finish the ebi sushi she was making for me. Meanwhile my sister is occupying herself with the barbecue. Trying to light the fire. 

“Babe, you should just let Ami do it.” Nikki says to Élise while she’s leaning against the wall next to her. 

“No. Not a hair on my head that’s thinking about that! I still have my pride as a big sis to uphold, y’know?” A spark finally manages to hold. “See, I did it, no need for any magic here.” Just when she celebrates, a breeze of wind blows the cinders out again. “Goddess fucking… give me a sec.” She gets back to work. 

Sam chuckles at my sister’s attempts to light a fire and pulls me close to her by my shoulder. “This might take a while.” 

“I don’t mind. Cozy togetherness is fine.” I rest my head on her shoulder.

“Sorry to interrupt your cuddling.” Hilda says as she comes out of the house once more together with an entire plate of ebi sushi with an assortment of sauces.

“Oh! I didn’t know you were that close to being done.” I almost immediately shoot upright and take one sushi the moment the plate is on the table. 

“It doesn’t take very long to make. Watch out for this sauce though, it’s a little bit spicy. And, well… you know what wasabi looks like too.” 

I nod as I put my sushi into some soy sauce and then nom it whole. “Hmmmm, tawsty!”

Hilda laughs and walks over to the barbecue where my sister is still struggling. 

“No! Don’t help me! Let me struggle!” And just as the flame of hope was dying out, a new spark catches, and this time it looks like the pure resolve of my sister’s trial keeps the flame burning.  

“Good job.” Hilda gives my sister a small applause. Sam and I join us. While Lise just basks in the glory. 

“Never give up, kids! Never! For the struggle makes eventual success so much sweeter!” 

“Are you going to try to become a paladin?” Hilda jokes, giving my sister a pat on the back. 

“Aren’t I already? A fighter devoted to her Goddess is practically a paladin already, no?” 

“Hmmm. I guess so? But can you heal?” 

“Right…. Ami?” 

“Yewsh?” Another ebi sushi disappears in my belly. 

“Can you give me a healing spell? So I can become a paladin of the Goddess of war?” 

“Hmmm. I’ll thiwnk abwout iwt.” 

“Talking about being a Goddess.” Sam talks to me. “Today’s Carol’s date, isn’t it?” 

I swallow my sushi. “It is! I’m really curious about what she’ll tell us tomorrow!” 

“Me too.” Sam smiles. 

“What are you talking about?” My sis comes to sit down on the other side of the table. 

“Ah, just about Carol's date.” I reply. 

“Riiiight. She had one with…. Max?” 

“Yep.” Sam nods. 

“And afterwards there was something about you turning her into a catgirl or something?” 

“That remains to be seen.” I nod. “She’ll need to contemplate it before I’ll do anything. It’s not something you should decide in an instant.” 

“Although you didn’t really get a choice.” 

“I was lucky.” 

My sis smiles. “I guess we are too. With such a cute cat girl in our midst.” 

“Amen to that.” Hilda says just before she adds the coals to the barbecue.

“Wouldn’t want to have it any other way.” Sam gives me a kiss on my head. 

“Awh.” I hug up to her. 

When the coals are glowing hot, Hilda goes inside to grab the platter of meat. She returns with that and a can of what looks to be like barbecue herbs. 

“This is always my favourite part of barbecuing. Hilda puts the meat platter on the countertop space provided by her grill and opens the can of herbs. She takes a handful of contents and drizzles them on top of the coals. Making them bring out their amazing aromas. “I’ve always liked this as a kid and I still very much do.” Hilda takes a deep breath. 

“Smells marvelous, Hilda.” My sister stretches on her chair. “Should I go and get the greens already?” 

“Sure, there’s two salad bowls in the fridge.” 

“I know, I’ve already seen them.” My sis gets up and goes inside. 

“In the meantime I’ll go get us some more drinks.” Sam says. 

“Noooo. Stay with meeeee!” I grab onto her. 

“I’ll be right back sweetie.” She kisses me on the lips. The kiss was short and didn’t really satisfy me. But I guess I can wait till she gets back to get my full satisfaction. 

“You can take the bottles with you, Sam.” Hilda says while putting a piece of divinely marinated steak on the grill. “It’ll stay cool when it’s outside anyway.” 

“Kay kay.” Sam nods and quickly runs in. 

This leaves me alone with Hilda and Nikki. Nikki is checking the news on her phone and looks a bit too interested in what she’s reading so I decide to talk with Hilda instead. “Don’t you have any pets, Hilda?” 

“Nah, I’m not home often enough to give it the love I’d want to give it. So I decided against getting a cat or a dog.” 

“What about fish?” 

“Hmm.” Once all the steaks are on the grill, Hilda closes the lid for a bit so they get a bit smokey. “Aquariums are cool to look at. But I feel like I don’t know enough about fish to really give them the care they need. And I probably would want the biggest aquarium possible so the maintenance of keeping that clean… yeah… maybe a bit too much work. I already have a couple of issues keeping this house clean by myself.”

“Maybe you should get one of those autonomous vacuum robots.” Nikki looks up from her phone. “Put some googly eyes on them and give them names. That means you both can have them as pets and you need less time to keep your house clean because they do it for you.”

“That’s… actually a pretty good idea.” Hilda laughs. “I’ll look into that. It’s pretty old tech so it shouldn’t be that expensive.” 

“Oh! Vroombas!” I call out. 

Nikki nods. 

“I always wanted to see one of those!” 

“I heard some cities have big versions of those to clean the streets. But I’ve never seen one myself.” Nikki continues. “Maybe we should plan a trip to the capital to go and see them.” 

“Cleanliness tourism.” Hilda continues laughing. 

Sam and my sister reappear at about the same time. Now with salad bowls and bottles of drinks we are set for the pièce de résistance, Hilda’s marinated meats. 

Which, luckily for us and our hungry bodies, doesn’t take very long to be finished. 

“Bon appétit." Hilda says, putting a slab of heavenly steak on my plate. Little leafs of rosemary and pieces of garlic grant the steak an almost overwhelming aroma. My mouth waters the second I smell it. 

Sam puts some veggies on my plate as well. Probably to make sure I don’t only eat the steaks. 

After that, the taste of the food in front of me, completely makes me forget the time. The holy tastes that swirl around in my mouth start melding time and space into a puddle of delight. Those tacos from earlier were good, but this… If Hilda would open a restaurant I’d go there every day. 

“Ami, you okay?” Sam taps my shoulder, I snap out of my blissfulness. 

“Sorry, I was too obsessed with the steak….”  

“I can understand, it’s really good. But Hilda asked you something.” 

I look up at Hilda who’s sitting in front of me. 

“I wanted to ask if you liked it, but I guess I got my answer.” She chuckles. 

“Did you add some catnip to the dish by any chance?” My sister asks, a smirk painted on her face. 

“No, not that I know.” Hilda shrugs. “Do you really like it that much.” 

“If I had the power to canonize this in the holy book of Amicia, I would.” I nod extensively. 

“Maybe she can taste all the love you put into it.” Nikki gives Hilda a wink. 

“Ah, love, the secret ingredient.” Lise laughs. 

“Or her taste buds just really enjoy the combination of rosemary and garlic.” Sam theorizes. 

“Eh, I like the love theory more.” Now my sister shrugs as well. 

“Oh, by the way.” Hilda continues. “We are going to go back to Turn of Destiny today, right?” 

“Of course. We still have to make sure our Dwarger friends are doing fine.” Nikki nods. 

“Not to forget that we need to do some experimentation with the bracelet too.” My sister agrees. 

“That’s fine for me.” I reply. “However… before we get to that. Can I get another steak please?” My previous steak had already taken up residence in my stomach. 

“Of course.” Hilda laughs and hands me another holy relic. 

“Thank you very much.” I sink my teeth into the steak and my mind wanders off again. 

-Hmmmmm…. steaaaaaaaaaaaaaak….- 

FieryKathy

Oh! And two days ago I rolled a crit hit with my lv10 devotion paladin (she's an Aasimar who is also called Amicia because, well....

Anyway, I got to roll 12d8+13 damage, of which 10d8+10 was radiant! That was so satisfying I still get happy thinking about it xD

Back to the Abyss you fiend!!