280: Cake

Having the leaves of the tree only fall on us had drawn the attention of all those around, with people even stopping their Buvul to look at us.

I couldn’t help but shake my head; of course, I couldn’t enter the city without drawing attention.

“Trev, I saw you store the leaf. Perhaps it’s best you store mine too,” Jen said, offering her own leaf.

I quickly took it from her and noticed that Liane’s was already missing, so I assumed she had put it into her own storage.

Truthfully, looking around, the only people who still had a leaf out were Gilain and Crisplet; even Clacks had moved it inside her nest and out of sight.

“Crisplet, want me to store the leaf for now?” I asked.

Crisplet let off a burst of sparks as the leaf was floated towards me.

“I’ll save it for you,” I said, going to store it.

I was surprised to see that Crisplet actually had a different leaf.

Would you like to store [Rare] Flame-Touched Leaf of Life x1 for 5 mana? Yes/No

I stored it away; I would look into that later. I also wondered if Clacks had a different one as well.

Hari had sped up the Caravan, likely attempting to avoid further attention, heading directly towards the guild. It was only now that it dawned on me what Hari had said all those months ago when he first picked up the job.

“Jen, what happened to taking the merchants to Torlin?” I asked.

She let out a laugh, “Well, Torlin is the Port town the road was going towards. The initial plan for them was to take the coastal route and they would have stopped at Torlin, and we’d have carried on to Elarith. Then that changed to the forest route, turning off and heading to Torlin, and now it’s been dropped altogether.”

“I think the group became too intimidating, so they are happy to end it now anyway,” Liane said, appearing next to us.

“It’s true, they stayed so distant the entire time,” Jen agreed.

I had felt that too; I didn’t speak to them really at all, and anytime we shared a living area, they were always huddled off to the side.

Looking around, it was only now that I really got to appreciate the city. It wasn’t as focused on wood as The Pinch was, but there was still an almost farm-like feeling to the buildings, even in the heart of the city.

There were several bakeries and pastry shops around that I could see as well, which really got me excited. This was something that I had really wanted to put time into, but so far I’ve made sugar toast and pancakes, along with some fruit tarts; I could certainly do more.

I tried to see the market, but other than the bakeries and what looked like some small general stores, I couldn’t see a large gathering of merchants anywhere.

The one thing that really surprised me, however, was that the river went straight through the city itself. I could see off in the opposite direction we were heading, there were large bridges spanning over it as well.

“Isn’t it dangerous to have the river run through the city itself?” I asked.

Jen shook her head, “It goes back to what we said about there seems to be an almost invisible barrier for monsters. Even in the river here, no monsters have actually come out of it, but plenty of fish have been caught in there.”

“I wonder then if it’s only monsters with bad intentions?” I mostly said to myself.

Jen seemed to really consider it, however, “You’re probably right with that. I don’t personally know of anyone outside of certain tamer classes who interact with monsters, and that’s a very different level to what you do, so you might be the first to test the theory.”

This then brought up the question, “I wonder if that’s why we’ve not seen Huling then? I know she is fine with us, but she has a reputation, right?”

Liane joined in on this one, pointing next to me, “Lily despises most humanoids too, and she’s fine.”

“That’s true, the only reason more people are not losing their minds at seeing her is because the rumours about you have already spread this far, though also a lot of people have likely never seen a monster before and are far more scared of Crisplet,” Jen added.

Crisplet sent across confusion, having heard the conversation, and there was a chirp from Clacks in the nest.

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“She’s not saying you’re scary, just they have never seen an Ash Elemental before,” I said.

“Little bit scary, Crisplet, but it’s a good thing, scary is better for protecting Trev,” Liane added.

Crisplet seemed to approve of this, however, and burst into sparks.

Arriving at the guild, I was surprised to see how quiet it was despite the fact it was nearly twice the size of the buildings around it. It also had a very large stable area that held all the horses and the wagons. Lily had returned to my shadow, clearly unimpressed with being in a city again.

It was as I was preparing Sable when Luis appeared next to me with his own horse.

“Well, that was an interesting entrance into the city,” he said.

Letting out a nervous laugh, “What are the chances that will go unnoticed by the temple?”

I knew this was an impossibility, and Luis’s response answered that,

“Impossible, I’d be surprised if they don’t already know.”

“Are you leaving now?” I asked.

I was rather sad that Luis was leaving; out of everyone in a political position I’ve dealt with, he’s been the only one who hated it as much as I did, it felt like.

“I’ll be in the city for a while and likely still be around. I’ll especially stick around initially in case you have trouble, but when you leave, I’ll still be here, I suspect,” Luis said.

I wasn’t going to say anything to that; I knew what would happen.

I saw both Luis and Gilain wander out of the stables and towards the river direction, so I figured they’d both be gone for a while.

The guild itself was very unique; it looked to have a cake and tea shop right in the guild itself, and despite it looking quiet on the outside, nearly every table was full.

“Hari, Jen and I are going to take Trev to get some cake while you settle the job,” Liane called, grabbing my arm.

Crisplet let out some sparks of the brazier that Jen was currently holding, and I even heard a chirp from the nest.

Hari just let out a sigh, “Fine, I’ll come grab you if I need you.”

I saw Milo attempt to sneak away too, but Hari quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

I’d be sure to store a piece or two for him if I could.

I laughed when I saw the number one tea option was Lemon Tea Grass, offering amazing health benefits. I instead went with a honey citrus tea, but the real choice was the cakes; there were so many options in front of me, of all different colours, with so many fruits I had never seen before.

We all ended up with different ones. I was paralysed by choice and ended up getting two. One I was somewhat familiar with as it was a cake made with carrots and nuts, but the second one was bright red, and it had an orange icing. Crisplet was very much in favour of it.

Clacks peeked out of her nest at the display, but was clearly unimpressed as she was quickly back inside. I snuck a small fish inside with her and got a happy chirp.

At the table, I saw that Jen got a cake which looked incredibly light and soft, with a cream on top, while Liane went with what appeared to be a chocolate cake that had some sort of fruit mixed through it, having five layers with a thin layer of jam and cream between each one.

Truthfully, I was regretting not getting that one now.

The first one I tried was the red cake; it was the one I was most curious about, and Crisplet was looking at me from the brazier.

Taking a bite, the flavour was subtle. The cake was soft, moist; it had an almost nutty aftertaste with a sweet but tangy initial taste. The icing was strange; it was sweet, but it had the warmth of fire salts, which just left the back of my throat with a tingling sensation.

The label had it as a Red Fire Cake, and I was really hoping it was in the desert book I purchased so many months ago now.

“Crisplet, it was a great choice!” I said happily, taking another mouthful.

Crisplet sent across joy as he let off a small burst of sparks.

A couple of people around us jumped, but didn’t say anything.

I moved on to the next cake, the carrot cake. Admittedly, I picked this one because I liked carrots, and it was a safe choice, but after having the fire cake, I wished I was more adventurous.

When I took a bite, however, I was wrong. It was rich, and the spices in the cake itself were amazing. I couldn’t even begin to name what they were, but it didn’t taste like carrot at all. It wasn’t overly sweet; the icing on top was really the only sweet part, which tasted mostly of sugar and butter.

The cake was sweet and earthy, absolutely no raw carrot flavour at all, and the spices didn’t give a burning warmth per se, not like the fire cake did, but it wasn’t far off it. It felt like I was drinking a warm comforting tea.

“Good, right?” Jen said with a grin.

Her own cake at this point was completely gone, and she was just sipping on her tea.

When I looked, Liane’s was also entirely gone.

“So good! I need to learn how to make these. I have that dessert book, surely it will have cakes,” I said excitedly.

“This whole town is full of little shops like this; it’s where all the flour and sugar come from, and people travel from all around to visit the temple and try the cakes,” Jen said happily.

Getting up from my seat, I ended up purchasing five more cakes, not to eat now, although I’m sure Liane would have happily done so, but I ended up storing them for later, both for testing purposes and two for Milo.

I got another carrot and fire cake. I also got the forest cake that Liane had, and finally, I got a lemon cake, because I couldn’t imagine how they would make something so sour into a cake, even if I did see the royal chefs do it, that was lemon curd, which was largely sugar and eggs, and not the lemon itself.

“Jen, Trev, we need to go upstairs,” I heard Milo calling.

“Time to see the guild shops here,” I said happily.

We quickly made our way over, with Anthony, Nero, and Paro all leaving the guild without even so much as a wave, but I guess that was that.

Still, I expected something.

Oh well, I wouldn’t let it dampen my mood. I guess some people just don’t click.

“What cake did you get me?” Milo said, coming alongside me.

I pulled out a spare fire cake on a stone plate from my storage, it was the only one of the five I purchased that I had a spare of, he didn’t really need the second one right?

“Oh! This is my favourite!” Milo said happily, getting instant approval from Crisplet as he expressed joy, along with sparks.