“Can I start you out with drinks? We have anything you could want available.”
“We’d like four of the house wines,” said Derrial.
“Of course. I’ll have that right out,” said Rodolphus, leaving the room.
“If he gives her one more look I’m going to cut his head off,” said Corran mildly, scooting his chair so close to me that our sides were practically glued together.
“He didn’t do anything!” I scoffed, shooting him a glare.
“He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you,” said Thane with a menacing glare.
“It was probably because I’m the token human in the restaurant. I’m sure that he hasn’t seen very much of my kind.”
“Doubtful,” growled Derrial.
Rodolphus returned to the room with four glasses filled with a smoky blue drink. “Our house wine,” he said, looking right at me and this time giving me a wink. I held onto Corran’s hand for dear life as he was twitching like he was going to jump across the table and gut him.
There was a deadly silence in the room and Rodolphus finally caught on. He looked at the three angry Vepar warily and left without saying another word.
I took a sip of the wine before they could say anything. To my surprise, it was sweet. More like fruit juice than any wine I had ever tasted. I took another big sip.
“I’d be careful with that if I were you,” Corran said with a smile on his face. “That has five times the alcohol content as Earth wines.”
I gulped the sip I had in my mouth and then set the drink down carefully. I could barely handle a glass of Earth wine without starting to feel tipsy. I would need to be very slow in enjoying this.
Rodolphus seemed to have learned his lesson because the next time he came in carrying our first course, he didn’t even look at me.
After he left, I eyed the dish he had set down. It was a dish covered in flowers. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to eat that.
“Here, like this,” said Derrial, scooping up a handful of the flowers and beginning to squeeze them into the bowl that was in front of him. To my surprise a honey colored liquid began to fall from the flowers until the flowers completely disappeared in Derrial’s hands.
I gasped and then quickly scooped up some flowers and started to squeeze just like Derrial had. To my delight, I was able to get the same liquid to appear. I tentatively took a sip and moaned as the flavors exploded across my tongue. The liquid had a nutty, rich flavor like nothing I had tasted before. It was officially my favorite food.
“What did he call this? Lankardia’s specialty?” I said with a mouth full of the dish.
Corran snickered next to me. “It’s actually the Veon national flower. It’s called a Vetri. It’s delicious properties were discovered by a group of Vepar who got lost while camping and had to try and eat plants to survive.”
“I could eat fifteen bowls of this!”
“I wouldn’t do that, kitten. The flower has certain properties if consumed too much. Certain hallucinogenic properties.”
I put my spoon down immediately remembering how awful it had been after the Khonsu had injected me with its venom.
“There’s no problem eating the bowl,” said Corran gently, pushing the bowl towards me. “It takes several bowls to even start the effect.”
I nodded, but took small sips after that. Evidently Vepar food packed a punch in all of its forms.
Speaking of dangerous things. I needed to ask about Zeni. I had to know or I was going to go crazy. I took a deep breath, trying to draw in some courage.
“So…about Zeni,” I began.
The men all immediately set down their spoons and looked at me tensely. Rodolphus chose that moment to come in. He was immediately sent away with curses. Poor thing. He probably was going to quit after tonight.
“What do you want to know?” asked Derrial tersely.
“So it’s been pretty clear that she at one point was someone important to you...what happened to stop that?”
Corran sighed next to me, clutching my hand even tighter that he had been holding all evening as if he needed comfort for what was about to come.