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Taash sat on the floor, carefully honing a little notch out of one of their axes, watching Lace, curled in her low, overstuffed chair, reading some slim little book that Bellara had sent her. She was twirling the end of her braid around her finger, blushing a little bit. Must be a good book. They tested the edge with their thumbnail thoughtfully, set the axe aside. They couldn’t put this off any longer. They wanted this to go well. They wanted it to be perfect.
“You know how you wanted to go bring me to meet your ma?” they said. “And I said after we got things straightened up here?”
Lace looked up over the top of her book.
“Yeah,” she said slowly, “you ready to go meet her?”
“Nah,” said Taash. “Wrote your ma before Tearstone. Just in case. Kinda thought… Well, your ma’s from Ferelden right? And it got Blighted. And we’ve got stuff to do with the Lords, so the house was gonna be empty. Thought maybe it could be your ma’s house too. If you want. Asked if she wanted to come visit after everything was over. Thought if she liked it she could stay. Her ship’s coming in today.”
Lace set down her book, flung herself into Taash’s arms.
“Taash, why didn’t you say anything?” she said, gently chiding. “Why didn’t Ma say anything! I can’t believe you set this all up!”
They’d been afraid, to say it, so soon after they’d fallen for Lace, lost Shathann. Didn’t want to tempt fate. They’d had a bad feeling about Tearstone, wanted Lace’s ma to have someone if they’d both lost Lace. They’d lost Davrin, instead, but there was still Elgar’nan to deal with, and Bellara had been gone, and Rook was stuck in the Fade, and they been so afraid they’d still lose Lace too. They had wanted to keep their happy future to themselves in case it was never going to come true.
“Wanted to wait,” they said. “We wanted to surprise you. Just in case.”
Lace’s face softened, and she patted their cheek.
“That’s why you’ve been so busy,” she said. “Fixing up… the other room, all the cleaning.”
They leaned their cheek into her hand.
“Wanted to make it look nice,” they said, “for your ma. And you. You made the garden so pretty, flowers and everything. Shathann and I were never able to make it grow like that. Bugs always got the melons. And I got some things I want to cook. The Rivani and Qunari stuff’s okay, but I don’t know about the Fereldan stuff, and I thought you might want to do that thing with the noodles and cheese and apples.”
“We’d better get cooking then!” said Lace, and whirled away as Taash stood up to join her.
Lace was perched on her tiptoes on an upside down crate, dropping little knobs of butter all over layers of wide egg noodles, topping them with fresh diced apple and layering that with the hard Fereldan cheese that they’d grated while she chopped apples. There’d been so many wheels of cheese stacked in the Lighthouse, they’d taken five back with them when they’d left. Still had most of them left. Hoped it would make Rivain feel like home to Lace if it tasted like it. They’d talked with Isabela to see if they could get some more imported when they ran out.
They turned to the stove and suspiciously stirred a sizzling pan of nug bacon and onions. It looked about ready to them, and they pulled it off the heat to cool down a bit until they could finish with the crust.
“Taash, put this in the oven?” asked Lace, holding out the deep ceramic dish.
“Yep,” said Taash, taking up a cloth and carefully taking the dish. Harding hopped off the box and opened the oven door for them so they could slide it in, before hopping back on her box to roll out a pie crust.
“I could get smaller counters put in, if you want,” Taash offered. “So you don’t have to stand on that box. Your house too. And your ma’s, if she wants to. You sure this is enough food? What if she doesn’t like any of it? What if it’s not good enough?”
Lace giggled again, and cupped their face with her strong archer’s fingers and kissed her with those soft lips and that special lyrium spark that was Lace Harding.
“It’s more than enough, Taash,” she said. “Ma will love it. She’ll love you. Don’t worry.”
They couldn’t help worrying. Lace’s ma sounded like… well, like she’d be like Lace. Cheerful, warm, open. Practical. It wasn’t that so much they were thinking about. Just that this was Lace and Taash’s house, now that Shathaan wasn’t here, but Shathaan had always taught them the importance of courtesy and hospitality, and it seemed like a way to respect her, too. Shokra toh ebra.
“Just want to get it right,” they mumbled, going to get the melons from the pantry. “Want your ma to like it. Have somewhere safe, if she wants to stay up here.”
They halved the melon for the isskapp, carefully scooping out the seeds, peeling the rind with deft strokes of the cleaver, dicing it carefully. They’d ground the fresh ginger already on a little sharkskin grater, just like they’d always done when they made the isskapp wih Shathann, set the finished dish on the table.
“Taash, the stew!” squealed Lace, and they were just in time to slide the pot off to the side before it bubbled over.
Maybe they were making too much food.
The isskapp was on the table next to the flatbreads in a basket covered with a cloth, the lamb and pea stew was bubbling on the stove next to the sauced eels, and a nug bacon and onion pie was in the oven next to Lace’s apple cheesy butter noodles.
“Taash,” Lace said from behind them, hand on their waist, “We’ll never be able to eat all this.”
They looked down. Lace had a little flour on her nose from rolling out that crust to the nug bacon pie. They knelt down and wiped the flour from her nose as Lace giggled.
“You said your ma likes people, thought she’d like to meet some of the other Lords maybe,” they said. “Rowan and Isabela. Karash. Make some friends here, if she wants. A little party. Not big, like the Lords would have, but Isabela’s the one bringing her here. Thought it would be nice if she stayed for dinner. She’s good at making folks feel at home. So’s Rowan. And Karash knows what it’s like to be somewhere new.”
“Aww, said Harding, “You’re sweet. You want to come with me to wait at the dock for ma? Ship should be coming in now.”
“Gotta keep an eye on the food,” said Taash. “You go get your ma, and I’ll have everything ready.”
Lace gave her a quick hug and a lingering kiss, and started out the door. She paused in the entrance. “Be back as soon as I can, Taash,” she said. “And everything looks lovely. Don’t worry.”
Lace had told her how much her ma liked flowers, and they weren’t the same flowers in Rivain as they probably were in Fereldan, but they went out to the garden and picked some anyway, put them in a jug on the table, made a little bunch to give to Lace’s ma when they got here.
They swept the floor one more time, the gentle hiss of the bristles soothing, familiar, like tying the daar-saam. Taash was Rivani, but they liked doing the Qunari stuff too. Not so much because it was Qunari; they didn’t really know what living under the Qun was like, Shathann had brought them to Rivain when they were a baby. But it was a way to remember Shathann, and that was nice too. They sprinkled a little water on the ground outside to make it cooler and keep down the dust as they heard Lace’s giggle floating up from the turn in the path leading up to their house. They grabbed the flowers and went to meet them.
Ma Harding was the first up the path, arms open, with Lace beaming right behind her.
“Taash!” she exclaimed. “It’s so good to finally meet you! Come here and give me a hug!”
They forgot about the flowers and they got crushed, and Lace’s ma had loved them anyway. It was perfect.