Page 31 of Untraceable
“No, he thought that she ran after their consummation.”
“Fancy word for banging.”
He grinned. “You weren’t in the room. It could have been decorous.”
“How disappointing for her.” She smiled and looked at her emptied plate. He was still eating.
Heyval sighed. “I hope Rage is okay.”
“Why do you call her Rage?”
“Her name is Ragellatha, just as she calls me Hey for Heyval.”
“I see. Rage would be simpler.”
“It is. Her actual first name is much longer, but that was at the father’s insistence.”
“He was around?”
“Yes and no. He examined her, claimed her as his child, and left her with our mother to be raised. His foolish thinking was that she would take care of her.”
“She was neglectful?”
“Hostile is a better word. To both of us. We didn’t give her the power bump that she wanted, so we were just there to take her anger.”
“Did you have each other?”
“Sort of. Through a wall. We had cells that we grew up in and studied in.” She smiled. “When we were six, we figured out how to dissolve the wall between us. We had our first hug.” She chuckled. “They couldn’t separate us after that. I was better at magic, but Rage was more aggressive, so it took a lot of effort to get us sedated so they could move us around. When she started moving in shadows, it took six mages to get us passive.”
“That sounds horrible.”
“Well, it wasn’t great. We survived it and tried to find things that made our souls sing.”
“You found baking.”
“I did. My necromancy was never true.” She laughed. “Drove my mother nuts. I kept healing things to the survival line, and then I used the necromancy to capture the soul and force it back in. Sound familiar?”
Amori snorted. “So, you can heal corpses.”
“Yes. It’s pretty easy. If you let the soul out, there is no fighting it, so things go quickly.”
He nodded. “And you made sure you had consent.”
“Yeah, well, that is the first thing you learn. Never reanimate a person who really wants to be dead. They come back despondent or furious. Nothing in between.”
She smiled. “Well, I have to get back to my science project. I will see you for lunch.”
He nodded. “I will tell you about my early upbringing then.”
“Good. Have fun doing whatever it is that you are doing.”
Amori snorted, kissed her quickly, and stroked her cheek. She nodded and returned to the kitchen. The dough was rising nicely, and she had to shape it for the second proof.
The kitchen staff came by as she shaped the dough, and laughter started as they guessed what she was creating.
She got it arranged and set up for the final rise. She then worked on the puff pastries that she was going to put around it.
When the bread was slashed and in the oven, the pastries followed, and Heyval got the whipped herb butter ready. With one eye on the clock, everything came out half an hour before lunch, and a small spell kept the pastries warm while the bread cooled.
