Unexpected Inspiration - Short Stories

"Rising to a Challenge"

A young arcane chef regrets her decisions and wonders if her restaurant is cursed.  

(This story is about a few new characters, but these ones are connected to the main cast. Nina and Feren [the two in this story] are Adair's exes; Adair broke up with them a few months before book 1 starts. I'm adding this story to this collection now because these characters are mentioned/show up in other stories and this way you'll know who they are later. This is one of the heartfelt, not-so-silly stories in this collection.)

"Owning your own restaurant is a great opportunity," her master said when the position was offered to her by a retiring chef. "It will open up doors for you in the future," Master Landry added. "It will give you a leg up when you're promoted to master," he promised. What wasn't said, though later she realized was implied pretty hard, was "Please get my son out of my house."

Nina glanced over at said offspring and let out a groan. Ostensibly, Feren was reading. In actuality, while the books were open on the table in front of him, his attention was directed towards the group of young Protectorates walking through the door. She found it unsurprising that Feren scowled at them. At least Nina assumed he was scowling. His hair had grown in a bit after he had hacked off his braid and it hid much of his face, including the scar that was his reason for discarding his braid in the first place. Feren always scowled at the Protectorates who walked in the door, which was stupid since the restaurant was across the road from the training ground and they always came here for lunch.

This wasn't something she wanted to deal with right now. One of her younger cousins was handling the till since Feren was "busy" and the dubiously helpful help manning the place would have to do for now. That was one of the negatives she'd learned too late of running a business as a novice. If she had waited until she was a master, at the least she'd have a reasonably competent apprentice to help. All she had at the moment were a handful of younger siblings and cousins- frequently busy with their own apprenticeships- and a few adults she was able to keep on the payroll. And Feren, of course. She suspected that he was the reason most of the original help had left after the old owner retired, although they never said as much.

Nina pushed open the door to the kitchen and slunk down onto the lone stool in the room. Today had gone wrong from the moment she came downstairs to begin prepping for the day. She recognized that she was overwhelmed. Two months in and she was still adjusting to having not only a full kitchen, but an entire restaurant under her command. Every day began to feel like a series of disasters. In just the five hours since sunrise, her newest help managed to burn the breakfast eggs and the muffins she'd prepared the night before were discovered to be stale. Then her cousin miscounted the till and had a minor panic attack before Feren eventually come downstairs to double check this for him, which Feren made out to be an incredibly big deal. Nina refrained from pointing out that this was Feren's responsibility simply because she was too busy trying to extinguish the fire on the stove.

And to make matters worse, the dough wouldn't rise. Still. It was nearly a week since it had last risen. At first she thought the conditions were wrong or someone forgot to add the yeast, so she took over this job. Baked goods were supposed to be her specialty and when she couldn't get it to work, she had to admit to herself that there was a problem. She feared she was the problem. Her weaving felt weaker and she assumed it was from stress. Without as much arcane flavor to add to her ingredients, no wonder things were burning that shouldn't and prepared food was going stale almost immediately. No matter how inept her help, fire should not have been possible. Any food she touched should stay fresh for at least a week. That was how her weaving worked and after seven years of training, it should function reliably.