Chapter 37 - Fragile

Their story was horrifying but came with a silver lining. In a way it was uplifting – Vivi and Lee found each other in a terrible situation and in turn, found Solana. She was surprised they hadn’t repressed the memory of their kidnapping and near death at the hands of a poacher.

But none of that paled in comparison to the weirdest part of it all.

Solana’s third Resonator. Every time they went to say his name, their voices stopped working, but their lips moved. Thankfully Holly was good at reading lips and knew his name.

Blair.

From the way the two Resonators spoke of him, they held him in high regard. He was confident with the strength to back it up.

He… died. He must have. They didn’t need to say it. His absence alone was enough of a confirmation of that.

A big Scherzando. He died to a big Scherzando. Lee tried to heal him but couldn’t. Vivi probably blamed herself for not being strong enough. It all added up. It was sad.

“Oh my god, they’re all wearing masks,” Holly spoke her quiet realization.

“Pardon me, Lady Holly?” Lee snapped her back to reality.

“Oh! Uh! I mean that was a nice story ahahaha…” She wasn’t fooling anyone, but having it all click into place like this wasn’t what she had expected. In fact, she didn’t think she’d hear how they met.

She had a feeling this wasn’t how most Maestros got their Resonators.

It was around this time that Solana returned to the room. “Goodness, they sure know how to waste my time,” the wary chef commented upon her return.

“What was it?” asked Vivi.

The Maestro made her way to the couch and plopped down between her two Resonators. “They just had questions about some tax forms. I’m not very good at that stuff,” she sighed, leaning back against the couch.

Weird that she wasn’t good at-

Blair must have done it. The more Holly thought about it, the more she realized. She hadn’t known these people for long, but everything they did broadcast their pain.

Holly found her gaze in the company of the floor, good people like Cris and Blair didn’t deserve to die so needlessly as they had.

“Are you okay dear?” Solana asked.

The zalavan met the chef’s concern. For just a moment, she considered asking to be her Resonator – but dismissed the thought. Mick seemed nice enough at first glance, and his Resonators appeared to be happy enough, but talk was cheap. Plus, Holly didn’t want to feel like a replacement; a new tool to replace a broken one.

“Can you teach me how to cook?” was what the plant decided on instead.

---

“Learning to cook isn’t just a one-and-done thing – you build your catalog of techniques with time,” began the master chef.

“Like spellcasting?” Holly questioned.
Solana smiled. “Yeah, like spellcasting.”

Rather than the tiny kitchen in the MA Office, the pair stood in a full kitchen, lent to them courtesy of a local restaurant. Holly had never seen so much cast iron in her life. It was a world of silver with plenty of space to work and utility to match. Knobs, levers, faucets, drawers; there was so much functionality crammed into what was a deceptively small space. Holly wagered the entire kitchen was smaller than Solana’s room at the MA Office.

“I’m surprised no one’s here,” observed the nature element.
“They only run dinner service here. They were happy to lend us the space in exchange for doing some of their prep work,” the Maestro explained.
“Oh…” Holly nodded in understanding.

“Don’t worry dear, I’ll handle that while teaching you. Just focus on what you’re doing,” Solana advised.

Another nod of confirmation was earned from the plant.

“Alright! I’m going to start you simple. You’re going to cook eggs.”
“Eggs?”
“Yes, eggs are the base of many dishes as well as being good standalone food to cook and readily available all over the world.”

Holly looked to the carton provided to her. It was plainly labeled as such, but she wasn’t sure what was contained within. She went ahead and started the lesson by popping open the container. Twelve white ovals greeted her. Drawing one from its container, she gave it a shake; there was some kind of liquid inside. The outside shell was hard and cold, having been taken from the fridge prior to the lesson.

“Eggs are simple to cook and teach you the basics of controlling heat,” Solana further elaborated.

As she looked over at the professional chef, Holly couldn’t hide her awe. Solana was worth her reverence. The woman was chopping vegetables at an unbelievable speed. The knife she held was practically a blur as it rapidly struck the cutting board. The way her hands were positioned and moved spoke to a lifetime of experience.

The new chef shook her head. She had to focus on her own task.

“The first thing you’re going to do is crack the egg into that bowl.”

A bowl was one of the tools provided to Holly (who foolishly assumed that was the serving dish). The task was straightforward – she needed to get the liquid in the egg out of it and into the bowl. Easy.

Looking the oval over, however, killed any notion that this was a simple task. “Uhhh, how?” Holly asked.

Without a word, Solana plucked an egg from the carton, and with one deft motion tapped it against the bowl’s rim, pouring out its contents. The ease at which the egg was opened wasn’t impressive – it was the fact that Solana did all that with one hand. Just another display of her honed skill.

“You should use two hands,” advised Solana.

Based on that demonstration, the eggshell was brittle enough that a force exerted on it would break it. With that in mind, Holly went to apply the technique. She hit the egg against the rim and…

…the entire thing crumbled in her hands. “What?!” the plant yelped in surprise. Little pieces of white shell mixed with the gooey clear and yellow liquids while also getting all over the pristine metal countertop. “What?” Holly whimpered as she watched the mess just get worse the more she tried to fix it.

“It’s okay. This happens to everyone.”

Solana stopped what she was doing and helped Holly clean up.

With a new bowl and a cleaned workspace, the two women faced the bowl again. “So what did we learn?” quizzed the chef.
“The egg is fragile,” answered the student.
“Correct! You need to apply just the right amount of force to crack the shell. I wanted you to feel that for yourself.”

Holly nodded. She did get a good feel for how strong the egg was. Solana moved slower this time, forgoing her one-handed technique in favor of a two-handed one.

“Watch closely.”

With a light tap, Solana cracked the egg on the side of the bowl and gently pried the two halves apart, allowing the liquid to pour out. Even using this slower method, she still made it look good and demonstrated her skill.

“Now you try.”

And try Holly did. She attempted to replicate the technique, but found the egg didn’t split in the same way Solana’s did. In her frustration and haste, she accidentally put too much force on the egg and it burst in her hands.

“Easy now.” Solana helped Holly clean up to try again.

And again and again and again. The poor plant’s patience was wearing thin. If she didn’t tap it hard enough, she couldn’t pull it apart, but the instant she applied more force it fell apart and little chunks of eggshell got into the mixture.

“This sucks,” Holly groused, frustration consuming her as she basked in her ten failures.

“You’ve only failed when you stop trying,” Solana said as she set out a fresh carton of eggs for the plant.

Holly eyed the container with disdain. “I don’t think I like eggs,” she mumbled.

Regardless, Solana did raise a valid point. It could be done, and if Holly gave up here she’d never learn to cook. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t learn before and she wasn’t about to let ignorance win. With stubborn blue rhythm in her eyes, the plant got back to work.

It only took two more eggs before she saw her first win in the world of cooking.

“I did it!”

Solana clapped for the little nature element’s success, but it didn't end there.

“Alright, now you can learn how to use a stove.”
“Oh, I forgot about that part…”

---

Vivi was awoken by a beep and click of the room’s lock. She sat up in bed, shaking off the grogginess of her nap as the door closed. Lee was sitting by her side, reading some medical literature.

The linsang sniffed the air, furrowing her brows.

“Hey, Lee.”
“Yes, Vivi?”
“Do you smell smoke?”
“Now that you mention it…”

At that moment, Solana and Holly turned the corner; the two women coated in a mixture of sweat and ash, exhaustion in their eyes.

Lee flew out of bed and rushed over to the pair. “How did-?”
“Don’t ask. Just. Don’t ask,” Holly grumbled, brushing past the axolotl and locking herself in the bathroom.
“It was fine until the noodles got involved,” Solana chuckled through a cough.