Stew

“Did you finish fixing the window you broke?” Sophia asked when Kieran came through the door.

“I… did…”, he said, put the hammer down and looked around the house.

It only had one big room. One side had a kitchen area with a small stove, a table in the middle and a bed in one corner. Other than that, there was a wardrobe and lastly a bunch of shelves creaking under the load of numerous books and scriptures. Sophia was standing in front of the stove, dropping some cut vegetables into a big pot.

“You’re good with the sword and cutting up people, right?”, Sophia said, without looking up from the pot, “How is your skill with knife against carrots?”

“I think… I’ll manage…” Kieran answered.

“Good… bite-sized chunks.”

She pointed at the table, where a bundle of carrots was waiting to be cut. Kieran had given up on being confused and just did as he was told.

“Hmmm…” muttered Sophia, looking over the carrot chunks he had produced, “Good enough. Put them in and next this… halve size of the carrots.”

She gave him a big chunk of bacon. Kieran cut it up as well.

“Good…” Sophia commented the bacon bits, “Grab two plates from the shelve over there and wait at the table… It’s almost done.”

Kieran did just that and watched her finish up the stew. It didn’t take Sophia long and she came with the pot to the table, placed it in the middle and began filling up the plates.

“Here you go…” she said and placed a filled plate in front of Kieran, “It isn’t much, but I bet it’s better than what they give you in prison.”

He looked at the stew with all kinds of vegetables and bits of bacon. The steam wafted up to his nose. It smelled very good.

“What? Think it’s poisoned?” Sophia commented on him staring at the plate, “Don’t worry, that’s not my style. Look.”

She grabbed her spoon and ate from her plate.

“That’s not it…” Kieran said and ate a spoonful as well, “It’s delicious.”

“That probably doesn’t mean much coming from someone who lived on moldy bread for the past years …” she said with a half-smile, “But I’ll take it.”

They began eating in silence. Kieran savored every bite.

“What?”, Sophia suddenly said after a while, “You keep staring at me… Stop it. It makes me uncomfortable being watched that intently while eating.”

“Your eyes remind me of someone I once knew…” Kieran said between bites.

“Oh? I bet someone you killed, right?” she asked more as a jest.

“Yes…The first one…”

Sophia stopped eating and put down her spoon.

“Do you want to kill me too?”, she asked staring at him with her bright green eyes.

“No…” Kieran said and sighed, “I don’t… want to kill you.”

They stared at each other for a few moments. To Sophia’s surprise she did not detect any lies in his grey-purplish eyes. There were only sadness, pain and loneliness. She tilted her head slightly.

“You’re strange…for someone being known as The Mage Murderer, you don’t seem to like murder that much…”

“Guess I am…” Kieran answered and shoved the last bite from his plate into his mouth.

Sophia grabbed the ladle in the pot and gave him another generous serving.

“What?” she asked, seeing Kieran’s surprised face, “My uncle told me to give you something to eat, so that’s what I’m doing…”

“You’re the strange one here…” he mumbled.

“Why? Because I gave food to a murderer?”

“You’re a mage and furthermore an Inquisitor… so that must mean you’re nobility, right? Or did the rules change and commoners get accepted into the academy now, instead of being forced into the military or branded as witches and hunted down if they refuse… or worse?”

Sophia scooped a ladle full onto her plate as well.

“No, they still don’t…” she said with a sigh, “And yes… for what it’s worth, I am of noble birth… my family governs a small speck of land in the west… my full title is Inquisitor Baronet Sophia Schwerdtfeger von Oed.”

“Then why…” began Kieran and looked around the only room in this shabby house.

“Why am I living in this run-down hut, alone, without any attendants or maids looking after my every need? Because we’re piss poor! After my father’s death my mother got sick and fell into a coma. The treatment to just keep her alive is costing a fortune! Luckily my uncle came back from his adventures and helped us out. He even paid the tuition for me to study at the academy. Now I send back most of my income and I support the local orphanage with what little I can… What is left is in this fucking watery stew you’re eating right now! So, if you expected a feast fit for my social rank I have to dearly disappoint you…”

She glared at him over her plate. Kieran continued to eat without uttering a word of complaint. After half an hour the whole pot was empty.

“Thank you for the meal…” Kieran said after he ate the last bit, “Watery or not, the stew was very tasty.”

“Thanks…” Sophia replied with a tired smile and picked up the plates.

Kieran watched her washing them in a small bucket filled with water.

“Why did you decide to become an Inquisitor?” he asked suddenly, “There are more lucrative professions for a mage out there…”

Sophia paused for a moment and thought, before she spoke, “I want to find out what really happened to my father twenty-one years ago. I never really got to know the man, because I was just two years old when he was supposedly killed by some random bandits on a mission… But everyone I spoke to told me what a brilliant mage and how skilled with the blade he was, so I’m not buying it, that some random bum got him… My guess is that he pissed on the wrong leg and angered some corrupt noble… I looked in the archives of the Inquisition… but there was nothing… not one mention of him… as if he was erased from it. I brought this in front of the Grand Dame Inquisitor, and she promised to look into it.”

“What are you gonna do if you find the murderer of your father?”

“Bring him to justice… and if I have to go through some corrupt nobles and rogue mages to do so… good. The world will be better off with fewer of them…”

“Now I understand…”

Sophia turned around and looked directly into Kieran’s grey-purplish eyes. They stared back full of sadness.

“Give up on that… and this mission, Sophia,” he whispered more than he spoke, “It’s not too late.”

Sophia’s eyes got small, her brows furrowed and her nostrils flared.

“What? Why should I? Fuck, why did I even tell you all this? You don’t need to know anything!” she exclaimed furiously, “You can’t tell me what to do! Don’t forget your place, Mage Murderer! I am the one who does the telling here! Stand up and finish washing the plates and the pot!”

The mark on her hand began to glow and Kieran felt his react as well. He stood up and did as he was ordered to. Sophia watched him with an evil glare.

“Good,” she said when he was finished, “And now for something I’ve been waiting for the whole day! Get those clothes off.”

“Wha--?” Kieran asked surprised.

“STRIP!”

Sophia’s mark glowed brightly.