A Restless Night and a Dozen Muffins

Strictly speaking, castle patrols weren’t part of her job anymore. They fell under the purview of the Queen’s Guard. While the role of the Battle Faerie had once dipped into that side of the guard, Queen Fyora had done some restructuring after the Fall of Faerieland just a few months ago and divided off a few of her duties. Now, Aethia could focus more on training others in self-defence and keeping the military ready in case of invasion. It was a welcome change, if a sobering one, for reminding her of just how vulnerable Faerieland had become.

Still, she found that she slept better after checking the castle herself to ensure that all was safe and well. It had been a long day, and the hour was later than she would have liked. Most of the castle was already asleep. But Aethia had been a bit restless at the end of the day, and she’d hoped the familiar routine would help settle her thoughts.

Had it not been so soon after the Fall, the light spilling out through the kitchen doorway wouldn’t have surprised her. Faerie Castle was both the beating heart of the kingdom and home to many members of its council and guard, not to mention the staff of the castle itself. Normally, it wouldn’t be unusual to find cooks making some late-night preparation for an upcoming banquet or one resident or another grabbing a snack before bed.

But the castle had only just been repaired enough that it could be partially reopened. There were no grand banquets in need of long preparation right now, and a fraction of the usual residents meant the building was far quieter. Curious, but still expecting no more than some sleepless maid or noble in need of a quick bite, she poked her head through the door.

What she saw was the Captain of the Queen’s Guard, hunched over a flour-dusted countertop and taking a meticulous measurement of what looked like baking powder.

Aethia frowned thoughtfully. Brynn was essentially one of her coworkers, of course, and both had moved into the castle barracks when they reopened. This was hardly the first time they’d crossed paths off-duty. But it was rare to see the Kougra both out of uniform and out and about without her Ixi shadow, and that was really only scratching the surface of whatever Aethia had just stumbled upon.

Curiosity and a mild concern beat out her desire to shrug off the scene and go to bed. She cleared her throat. “Uh, Brynn? What are you doing?”

Brynn’s ears twitched at the sound of her name, and she turned. She blinked a couple of times, as if lost in thought, and then glanced back at her gathered ingredients before returning her gaze to the faerie.

“Baking muffins,” she said with a shrug. Grabbing a small bowl of deep brown morsels, she showed it to Aethia and added, "Chocolate chip.”

Aethia raised an eyebrow. That… didn’t exactly answer her question, and Brynn’s clipped responses were only worrying her more.

She stepped into the kitchen and was suddenly struck by the smell permeating it. She hadn’t thought much of it earlier – the castle kitchens always held the lingering scent of some dish or other. But as she got a good whiff and another look around, she realised that the muffins weren’t the only baked goods Brynn had been working on. Off on another counter, she spotted a couple of dozen cookies of some sort laid out in the kitchen’s crossbreeze to cool. And next to them, another scent drifted from a hot oven. Another chocolatey confection, if her nose wasn’t deceiving her.

It all smelled simply divine.

Brynn had started fidgeting with the bowl of chocolate chips, as if awaiting some grand judgement from the Battle Faerie. She cleared her throat.

“Right,” she said, setting the bowl back on the counter. “If that’s all, I’m just going to… get back to it.”

Aethia walked up to the counter and took a moment to watch her work. Brynn had laid out her ingredients around a pair of large bowls, and was now measuring out a small amount of salt to add to the one with baking powder and other… powdery stuff. (Aethia wasn’t much of a baker herself, but she assumed flour was involved.) She worked quickly and efficiently, her hands gloved to keep her fur out of the ingredients and her measurements precise.

As she finished whisking the powdered stuff together and set that bowl aside, Aethia spoke up again. “Actually, if you don’t mind, I do have one more question.”

Brynn cast her a glance as she reached for the sugar. “Yes?”

Aethia took a deep breath. “Why are you baking muffins and cookies and whatever else in the middle of the night?”

Brynn’s hands stilled for a moment, and it took her a few seconds to answer. “My parents own a bakery,” she said, her tone just a bit stiff. “They taught me the trade when I was young.”

She went back to scooping and levelling off the sugar, but Aethia didn’t miss the way her tail had started twitching. “I like making things to share with the other guards sometimes. I showed the kitchen staff the list of ingredients I wanted to use, and they said it would be fine as long as I cleaned up afterwards.”

Aethia raised an impressed eyebrow. No wonder this knight is so popular, she thought to herself.

Still, it was obvious that something else was going on. Brynn didn’t sound like she was embarrassed by the hobby or trying to hide it. But there had to be some reason she’d be doing so much of this, alone, this late at night. And that reason was clearly bothering her.

Aethia didn’t know her well enough to pry – their respective jobs didn’t overlap all too often, especially with the special duties each of them had. But she could at least help with some of this baking business, if Brynn would let her.

So she found herself asking, “Mind if I help, then? I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about baking, but if there’s anything I can do to help you finish quicker so you can get to bed, I’ll be happy to do it.”

Brynn paused and blinked up at her again. “Are you sure?... All right.”

She pointed a gloved finger at a muffin tray and a stack of unused paper liners set out near where Aethia was standing. “Could you grease the muffin tray and set up the liners while I prep the wet ingredients? I forgot to do that before I started on the mixing.”

Aethia nodded and got to work. After washing her own hands thoroughly, she found a hunk of butter that Brynn had set aside for the task and got to work smearing it over the top of the pan. She had picked the pan up and was about to start on its inner cups when she thought of something.

“Uhh…” She looked toward Brynn and held the tray further up while pointing at the paper liners with her other hand. “Do I need to grease the whole thing, or will the liners take care of these little cup parts?”

Brynn looked up from the second bowl, which now held eggs, milk, and softened butter along with regular and brown sugar. “Hmm? Oh, no, that should be good. You only need to grease the top so the muffin tops don’t stick when they puff up. Sorry, we don’t really use the liners in Brightvale, so I’m not used to them.”

“Not a problem.” Aethia wiped the excess butter off her hands and moved on to the muffin liners. The first three went into the tray without a fuss. But it took her a few embarrassing minutes of wondering why the fourth seemed so much thicker and where one had gone before she realised that two of them had gotten stuck together.

Meanwhile, Brynn finished putting her “wet” ingredients together and drifted off to grab a mixer that had been washed and placed on the drying rack – no doubt after she’d finished her previous recipe. Aethia gave the simple hand-crank device a questioning look. She knew for a fact that the head chef had made sure to replace her fancy magic-powered mixer as soon as the castle kitchen reopened.

Catching her curious gaze, Brynn shrugged. “My dad swears by these for some batters,” she explained, placing the beaters into the bowl of wet ingredients and turning the crank to get them going. “It’s not necessary for this part, but you don’t want to overmix muffin batter, and it’s easier to control what you’re doing if you mix by hand. There’s no point in dirtying up more utensils than you have to. Honestly, though, I think Dad just likes the excuse to get a little more personal with his baking.”

A tiny smile made its way to her face as she explained that – the first one Aethia had seen on her tonight. She finished beating the wet ingredients together and then started adding the dry ingredients to her bowl. This concoction she mixed more delicately, until everything was just combined.

“Okay,” she said, lifting the mixer from the bowl and scraping off the excess batter with a spoon. “Want to help me fold the chocolate chips in?”

Aethia smiled. “Sure.” She grabbed the little bowl of morsels and started tipping it into the bowl. As the chocolate chips went little by little into the batter, Brynn used her spoon to scoop batter up and around until they were mixed evenly throughout.

Once that was done, the two of them scooped the batter into the prepared muffin tray. Aethia accidentally dribbled a little on the top of the pan, but in her defence, she wasn’t convinced it was possible not to do that. Regardless, Brynn wiped up the mess without a second thought once she’d finished scraping down the bowl. From there, she scooped up the tray and carried it over to the big kitchen’s waiting second oven.

“All right,” Aethia said with a satisfied sigh as she began to gather dirty dishes. “Never let it be said that an old faerie can’t still learn a thing or two. Even if you did most of the work.”

Brynn, taking a quick note of the time after she’d closed the oven door, broke into another little smile. She had begun loosening up – voice lighter, tail swishing gently as she fell back into the rhythm of her work. Aethia suspected that, whatever exactly had happened, the Kougra had turned to this baking spree as a kind of stress relief rather than some necessity. She was pleased to note that it seemed to finally be working.

“So, now what?” she asked, keeping her tone light. “Just clean up and wait for the muffins and whatever’s in the other oven to finish?”

Brynn opened the door to said oven and took a peek. “They’re double chocolate cookies. And, yeah, pretty much.”

Aethia chuckled as she moved the last of the dishes into the sink and started to rinse them down. “That’s a lot of chocolate treats.”

Brynn, apparently satisfied with what she’d seen, grabbed a cloth to protect her hands with and returned to open the oven door completely. The dim glow of the Fire Motes powering the appliance lit up her face as she leaned over to grab the two trays within. She chuckled back. “You’d be surprised at how many hardened soldiers have a sweet tooth. As it happens, I’m one of them.”

The scent of chocolate filled the air, overwhelming the other smells when she removed the trays and set them out to cool. Aethia took a deep breath of it while her coworker turned back to quiet the motes and power down the oven.

“I’ll believe it,” she replied. “Because so am I. Just don’t let the Tooth Faerie know. She’ll throw a fit if she has reason to believe the dental health of Faerieland’s protectors is at risk.”

With the baked goods all where they needed to be for now, Brynn removed her gloves and joined Aethia at the sink. Between the two of them, it took very little time for the dishes to go from batter-covered to sparkling clean and neatly arranged on the drying rack. Halfway through the process, Brynn had paused to transfer the partially cooled chocolate cookies to the same wide stone platters where her first batch had finished cooling, so even the baking trays were done by the time Aethia dried off her hands.

“Thanks for your help,” Brynn said as she finished wiping down the countertop. She plucked one of the cookies from the first batch off their plate. “Want one? Even if you hadn’t earned it, which you absolutely have, you are one of my coworkers.”

“I won’t lie, I’ve been waiting for you to offer.” Aethia eagerly grabbed one of the pale gold treats for herself. It looked like an ordinary sugar cookie, thick and soft and topped with sparkling sugar crystals. When she bit into it, though, a burst of fruity flavours took her by surprise.

“Oh!” she cried out, covering her full mouth in an effort to maintain whatever lingering sense of dignity she still had. “This is so good! What’s in it?”

Brynn couldn’t hide a pleased little smile. “Fruity taffy! My mom came up with the recipe specifically because it’s my favourite sweet.”

Aethia laughed. “Are you sure you made all of these for your coworkers, and not yourself?”

Brynn’s face darkened a little at that. Aethia mentally kicked herself. She had meant the question in jest, but she knew that whatever was going on just beneath the surface of this late-night baking spree had really been bothering Brynn. She wanted to help her coworker, but she hadn’t meant to push the subject, even indirectly.

Brynn didn’t speak for several moments. She let her gaze drift to some unseen point in the distance, leaning back against the kitchen counter and chewing contemplatively on her own cookie. Finally, she sighed.

“My cousin’s inn was robbed last night,” she said softly. “I’ve been stuck thinking about it all day, and I could tell I wouldn’t be able to sleep anytime soon. So, I came down here instead.”

Aethia winced. “I’m so sorry. Was anyone hurt?”

Brynn shook her head. “He and my aunt and uncle were lucky. The losses and damages aren’t too bad, and the robber snuck in and out without threatening anyone. But it could really hurt their reputation and lose them customers if people get the impression that the inn isn’t safe.”

She rubbed at her eyes with her free hand. “And there’s nothing I can do about it! Catching criminals is my job. I feel like I should have been able to keep this from happening. If I were back in Brightvale, at least I could have helped track the robber down. But all the way out here… I feel like I can’t do anything to help them.”

Aethia frowned and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you know that none of us can be everywhere and catch all the bad guys. That’s why we have other people to work with. And if Brightvale was able to produce someone like you, I’m sure it has plenty of guards and other people who can take care of your family.”

Brynn sighed again. “I know that. I just… feel like I need to fix something right now. And since I can’t do that and I’ve run out of work to bury myself in, it was either sneak into the training room and pummel dummies in the middle of the night, or…”

She gestured toward the slightly less than four dozen cookies cooling on the countertop and the full dozen muffins still in the oven.

Aethia nodded. She knew that feeling all too well. Waking up with the other faeries after the Fall hadn’t been as bad as it could have, considering the greatest threat was over by the time they were aware of it. But it had still been a rude awakening. She had spent every spare moment of the next week either training or helping with repairs in a desperate bid to feel like she had some control of the situation. Queen Fyora had finally ordered her to take a day off and attend the makeup Faerie Festival she’d organised just to stop her working herself to exhaustion. Frankly, she suspected that restoring some sense of normalcy for the faeries had been one of the main reasons for that festival.

Thankfully, it didn’t sound like Brynn’s stress-baking had gone nearly that far. Hopefully, she would start feeling more like herself tomorrow. Aethia was still glad that she’d had a chance to help wrap things up tonight, though. Proper sleep did help, she could attest to that.

A sudden thought struck her, and she turned a scrutinising eye on Brynn. “You haven’t even told Hanso about this, have you? Am I the first person here that you’ve shared it with?”

Brynn let out a small, bitter laugh. “I don’t even know how to tell him! I’m worried that he’ll either feel guilty by association or think I’m trying to guilt him over something he’s already working on.”

She groaned and slid down the counter to sit on the floor. “And now this has happened, and my family’s got all the more reason to distrust thieves, after I’ve tried so hard to get them more comfortable with him. Rhys likes to tease, but I think he actually likes Hanso… Except now he’s the one whose family got robbed!”

Aethia frowned. She had suspected something like this, but she wasn’t about to let Brynn work herself up all over again.

Turning away from the counter – faerie wings were great for many things, but leaning one’s back against surfaces was not one of them – she sat down next to Brynn and pointed her half-finished cookie at the Kougra.

“Okay, that part is just paranoia talking. Hanso is not the guy who wronged your cousin and his parents, and your family knows he’s reformed. One unrelated incident is not going to mess up your whole dynamic.”

Brynn gave a dubious little frown. “Are you sure about that, or just trying to make me feel better?”

“I’m positive.” Half as an odd sort of emphasis to her point, and half because she’d honestly forgotten about the cookie for a minute and it was just so good, Aethia shoved the rest of it into her mouth without breaking eye contact. Brynn couldn’t help a snort and a tiny smile at that. Good.

While Aethia finished chewing, she considered the other half of this latest revelation. Once she was free to speak again, she said, “Now, I’ll admit I don’t know Hanso well enough to give you any advice regarding him. But if you’re ever in need of anyone to talk to, my door is always open. I promise I won’t assume you’re trying to guilt me about anything.”

Brynn’s smile finally brightened back to where it had been earlier. “Thanks. You’re a good friend, Aethia.”

Aethia smiled as well. “Don’t mention it,” she said, standing up and offering a hand to her friend. “Helping people is my job, too. Besides, I know what it’s like to overthink things and want to literally work through your problems.”

Brynn accepted the help up, and the two of them took a moment to admire the results of their (well, mostly her) work while she finished her own cookie.

“At least I found something productive to do,” she said, folding her arms. “Can you help me box these up? The muffins should be finished by the time we’re done with these.” She let out an impressive yawn. “And then, sleep.”

Aethia hummed in thought, if only to hide a triumphant little smile. She was sure Brynn’s family would pull through their mess just fine, and now, she was confident that Brynn would too.

“Tell you what. Save a muffin for me, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

     The End.