Crystal looked over the food Tina had presented with slight hesitation. It was Tina"s third attempt at making pasta. Crystal had learned to be cautious after the horrors of the first attempt.The imp prodded it with her index finger. She then rubbed it against her thumb, trying to determine something.
Tina watched with antic.i.p.ation.
"Well," began the imp, "you got the texture right this time, at least."
Crystal then leaned in and smelt the dish in question.
"And you seem to have actually used salt this time, rather than sugar, or pepper... or rat poison," she added.
Tina hid the lower half of her face behind her silver serving tray in embarra.s.sment.
"It could happen to anyone!" She declared.
The elf looked doubtful.
"Could it?" She inquired.
"Mixing up salt and sugar would be one thing, as they are both the same colour," she began.
"And sure, pepper, though black, is in the same genre, at the very least," She added.
Tina nodded vigorously along with each of the elf"s observations.
That is, until her third and final observation.
"However," She said firmly, "there is no excuse for adding the green rat poison."
The catkin gritted her teeth in frustration. She knew that, of course. EVERYONE knew that.
"Shut up!" Was all the could say to defend herself.
Meanwhile, Crystal, using a fork, had twirled up a small amount of the spaghetti and took a small nibble of it.
"Wow!" She exclaimed, utterly shocked, "it"s actually not bad!?"
She then quickly finished off her forkful of pasta.
Tina looked smugly towards the elf, but said nothing, as it was, after all, merely "not bad." Not nearly the amount of praise required to excuse almost committing manslaughter.
Crystal continued speaking as she twirled another forkful.
"Well, going from genuinely lethal to "not bad" in only three tries is pretty remarkable in my humble opinion," she suggested, "I mean, this is basically your first time cooking, right?"
Tina gave a few small nods.
"That"s right," she explained, "when I was little my mother would always cook for me, then my father when she died, then my little sister when he died."
"That role, however, was later replaced by cooks and subordinates when she received her... blessing," Tina said the last part dripping with sarcasm.
Crystal raised an eyebrow.
"A blessing, eh? I have one of those," She commented, "a G.o.ddess gave it to me."
"It sucks," she said with absolute conviction.
Tina widened her eyes in surprise.
However, she was more surprised by the part about the G.o.ddess, rather than the blessing itself.
Dungeons receiving "blessings" from otherworldly beings, such as celestials, demons, or netherkin, were quite common after all. Fairies or other fae, even more so.
But what G.o.d or G.o.ddess would willingly bless a dungeon? Tina could only name a few.
"I-it"s not the G.o.d of fate, is it!?" She stuttered, "she"s the one who-..."
The catkin was then quickly interrupted by the elf, Eleanor.
"I heard she has "The crab"s blessing" from Alexa, So it must have been Crustatia, G.o.ddess of crabs and crustaceans," theorized the elf, "a lesser G.o.d of the sea, if I am not mistaken."
She then threw a piece of fruit from her salad into her mouth and began once more savouring its flavour.
Crystal scoffed.
"Lies and slander!" She declared.
She despised that blessing, as it did literally nothing but hinder her ability to summon things.
"For your information, it was Scree, G.o.ddess of imps and whimsy!" She added, "not some crab G.o.ddess."
Tina immediately dropped her tray, revealing an expression frozen in shock, and the elf briefly choked on the piece of fruit she had been savouring.
"She gave it to me as a punishment for almost dying a while b..." The imp continued, but she trailed off upon realizing that the other two were currently staring at her with weird expressions.
"What?" She inquired with a small head tilt, "is something on my face?"
There actually was. Thanks to the pasta. It, however, was unrelated to their shock.
Suddenly, Daisy"s voice spoke from the room"s entrance.
"Scree, the instigator, is one of the most taboo beings in all of existence," she explained, "to the point that even her name is considered to be a curse nowadays."
Crystal turned to look at her captain. The lich stood in the doorway, her ship"s navigator perched happily atop her shoulder.
"Eh, why?" She questioned, "she seems so nice though."
Daisy approached Crystal, and then proceeded to wipe off the imp"s face using a napkin.
"Years ago there was a civil war amongst the G.o.ds, a clash between factions," she elaborated, "It wiped out or scattered the majority of the G.o.ds, and decimated their followers, as well."
"Scree supposedly confessed to the a.s.sa.s.sination which triggered it," she concluded.
Crystal tilted her head. That image of Scree didn"t fit at all with the version of the G.o.ddess which she had met. Maybe Sorrow... but not Scree.
"Supposedly?" Parroted the imp.
Daisy shrugged.
"History is written by the winners, after all," she said, smiling solemnly, "and the G.o.ddess in question was sealed away mere moments after her alleged confession..."
Crystal decided to ask her patron G.o.ddess about the matter on their next meeting, not that her reply would actually change anything substantial about their relationship.
Daisy turned to face Tina and El.
"Let"s keep this matter a secret, shall we? For all our sakes," She said, the ever-present vivid-purple light at the back of her eye sockets turning ever so slightly crimson as she spoke.
The two people in question nodded vigorously in response.
Crystal, on the other hand, who didn"t see the blatant threat of the lich, responded more happily instead, immediately forcing the two into doing a pinky swear with her.
A moment later, the monkey on Daisy"s shoulder urgently showed the lich a small sign. The lich"s mood immediately reverted from being slightly solemn to being neutral.
"Ah, right," she replied, "thank you for reminding me, Jackie, I"d almost forgotten."
Crystal stared at her.
"Jackie?" She inquired.
The captain who had previously suggested a full a.s.sault on the monkey"s entire tribe, avoided the imp"s gaze.
"It"s just the nickname of a silly girl I once knew. She could only communicate through writing, or drawing pictures," the lich explained honestly, "I felt it suited her better than "Squiggles," at the very l-... ah."
She faltered.
"Not that Squiggles is a bad name... in general... maybe," she muttered while continuing to avoid eye contact.
Crystal crossed her arm.
"Eh? No way," She complained, "but Squiggles is a way cuter name."
Her warden and barkeep looked away.
She instead looked to the monkey in question for support.
It avoided her gaze as well.
The monkey, "Jackie," instead held up the sign which she had previously presented to Daisy while making a serious expression.
The sign was neatly written using orange-coloured crayon.
"Danger. Hurricane." Said the cute looking little sign.