In Stone

25: "Ask me properly."

25: “Ask me properly.”

Just because the head of the temple said Caia wouldn't be purged in holy fire did not mean that she was going to be accepted again just like that. Garrik called for everyone to return to their homes and did so himself, but there was still tension in the air of town. An enchantress was in their midst, it was not something they could get over to easily.

For the first three days afterwords, the neighbors didn't even move back in. People avoided walking in front of the house and, if they absolutely had to, they walked as far as the walkways would allow. If any of them caught sight of Caia in the windows, they would begin running. They all looked terrified when they did so, as though she might attack.

Which was why Caia began avoiding the windows. It was easier to stay in the kitchen where no one could see her. After seeing the way Garrik had reacted to her food, she was trying to make it again, but better. It was hard though, because it all tasted fine to her.

So she stayed in the kitchen, laughing and smiling, struggling to cook. Caia had smiled her way through a lot worse than this. She would continue smiling now because she had more than she had before. She had Caspian, she might even have a child – they had been busy each night trying to make sure it took hold – she had more of a reason to smile than ever.

It was there that Elanil found her.

Caia didn't know when she arrived. She just heard someone clicking their tongue as she freaked out because the heinous looking stew was bubbling over violently and getting everywhere. She turned quickly, surprised. Her hair, frizzy from the heat, flew around her head and her cheeks, already red from the effort, got redder.

Elanil was in the back door, her width taking up the entire breadth of the entrance. She was looking at Caia disapprovingly. If she felt anything like fear, Caia couldn't tell by looking at her. She looked exactly as annoyed as she always did.

“Girl, what have you done with my kitchen?”

“Uh...” Caia looked over her shoulder at the mess she had made. The remnants of her attempts to cook bread this morning were still blackening the cold oven, sad leftovers of cut vegetables and meat littered the floor, and there was a large wet spot on the wall that was refusing to dry. Caia wasn't even sure how it got there and she was the one who had done it.

“Ah!” Elanil came over and saw what she was mixing in the pot. “What is that?!”

“Um, stew...” Caia said softly, holding up the spoon she had been mixing with.

“Give me that!” Elanil snatched it away from her. “You! Out of my kitchen! Go! Out with you now! It's going to take me hours to fix this mess!”

Caia, unsure what to think, just kind of stood there. Elanil gave her a wicked glare.

“What? You suddenly can't hear?”

“S-Sorry, ma'am,” Caia lowered her head and quickly turned to walk out. She stopped halfway there and turned back to see Elanil pulling the pot off of the stove, making a face at the steam billowing out heinously from within the stew. She poked it with the spoon and got quite disturbed when it moved awkwardly. “Um, Elanil?”

“You are not allowed in my kitchen!” Elanil snapped at her over the pot. “Go destroy some other part of the house.”

“You...” Caia hesitated. She didn't want to ask for fear of making Elanil realize what it was that she was doing. Still, she had to know...

“You're not...scared of me?”

Elanil paused with her hand holding the spoon over the pot. A curious look came over her face that wasn't the usual grumpiness that Caia was used to seeing. Then she looked up and glared at her. “Am I supposed to be scared of some little waif like you? No wonder you're so tiny if this is the kind of thing that you've always been eating.”