Lora of Two Worlds

Back at the mansion, dinner time.

Mother was away. The rear courtyard felt emptier. The sibling swans had come back from foraging, strolling on the lawn, digesting.

”I was out all day, I haven’t had time to go to the storehouse for Mistress Susannah about the things you listed.” Margaret remembered.

”No rush. This hour, they’re probably serving Father dinner. Don’t disturb them.”

”True. Norton said the barracks are running a challenge today, the new guards are picking squad leaders. Like Norton, small-unit heads. You’re really something, go out and come back with your own army.” Margaret laughed at herself:

”If the Countess heard that, she’d be in the chapel chanting for half the night.”

They entered the courtyard. No Chance. A quick inquiry, he’d been running back and forth all day, finding no one on either side.

”Set out some food for him. Norton’s not in the barracks these days, maybe no one’s feeding him. What’s this?” Lora saw a brocade box on the table. Opened it, a small wooden doll in a flowered cloth dress.

Lucy brought Lora a cup of jasmine infusion, peering at the doll: ”Today, a Lady Horn came by. She had a Dawnfolk maid with her. The maid made this gift herself, to thank you. We didn’t open it, thought it might be sweets. It’s a wooden doll.”

”The little dress, that’s Dawnfolk style. Danya’s quite skilled.”

Lora was charmed. Dress-up wooden dolls didn’t exist in Lohenheim yet. With this skill, Danya could train apprentices and open a shop.

Lucy set the dishes: ”Odd, I went to the kitchen this afternoon, asked them to roast a chicken so Chance could have the head and tail. Chicken isn’t a luxury, when the Countess is home, they always keep live birds.

The young lords drink, they love roast chicken with their ale. But today, not one chicken. The cook said Susannah set the menu for the next few days yesterday. The buyer was given that budget.”

”A bit odd. Normally, the menu is set one day ahead. Susannah is being efficient. Oh, speaking of drinking, how’s the spirit we made in the second month?”

Lora remembered, before the Yorvik trip, she’d tasted a the Riverlands spirit at her father’s. It was sweet, but that was just grain wine heated at low temperature to prevent spoiling. Not distilled spirits.

But the Empire did have distillation. When the old King conquered the western kingdom, he’d brought back distilled grape wine, something like modern brandy.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

If grape wine could be distilled, why not grain wine?

With idle hands, they’d gotten some yeast, cooked a large pot of grain in her little kitchen, dug a small furnace by the courtyard wall, and attempted ”distilled spirits.”

She didn’t know the proof, or if it had worked. She’d told Lucy and the others to pick apricot blossoms, dry them, and steep them in the spirit with sugar frosting.

”My lady, I haven’t told you yet! That wine, you can’t drink it! We soaked it for a month. In the fourth month, we drew it off, filtered the lees. Clearer than sake.

We had Arch try a cup. You know what? His face went red, his heart raced, and he fainted. Physician Zachary came and said the wine was highly toxic. He told us to pour it out immediately.” Lucy said.

”What? You poured it out?”

What ”great poison”? The proof was high. Arch must have treated it like low-proof sake. One cup, blackout.

Lucy waved her hands: ”We figured, we made it ourselves, no one could have tampered with it. So we sealed it and reburied it under the tree. In case the lady wanted to poison someone...”

”Pah! Is that what you think of me?” Lora snorted: ”Go dig it up. Let me taste it. See if it’s really poison.”

”We can dig it up, but ” Margaret proposed: ”Let me fetch a guard from the front. They’ve high tolerance. Maybe it won’t knock him out.”

They’d taken Physician Zachary’s word. The wine was poisoned. Maybe that was why no one drank distilled grain wine.

”Or, you dig it up, and bring Arch so I can ask him. Besides, if it really is poison, Physician Zachary saved Arch, didn’t he?”

True. The next day, Arch was fine, except he didn’t remember Physician Zachary’s visit. Wait, Physician Zachary had prescribed valerian-and-barley broth. Better brew a pot in the kitchen, just in case.

A while later, Lora had just finished eating. Arch carried the jar of apricot-blossom spirit in.

He said, miserable: ”Greetings, my lady. If someone has to drink, let me. Don’t drink it yourself. One cup, my organs were on fire.”

”Let me ask, what cup did you use?”

”The... the wooden horn cup. The one we use for ale. I drink green-foam ale from it, ten cups, no, more...”

That green-foam ale was lightly fermented, five or six percent. Of course he could drink it freely.

They didn’t have much glassware here. Lora took a small white porcelain cup. She unsealed the jar, the aroma of sorghum-style spirit filled the room.

Carefully, she ladled half a spoonful into the porcelain cup. The spirit was transparent, but faintly yellow.

”Smells good, right?”

Margaret and Lucy shook their heads violently.

”I’ll taste. Don’t stop me. The more you stop me, the more I’ll drink.” Lora threatened.

They watched, helpless. All thinking: the valerian-and-barley broth in the kitchen.

Lora sipped. Not bad. For amateur home-brew, it had reached the level of a ten-yuan peasant liquor. Pleased, she knocked back the small cup.

”My lady, you... Lucy! Get the valerian broth!”

”Oh, this isn’t poison. It’s just strong. You have to sip it. Arch used the horn cup, do you know how many of my little cups that equals?”

Back home, Lora’s tolerance had been at least three liang of baijiu. This amount was nothing.

But she’d forgotten, she was in the original Lora’s body now...

Half a small cup of spirit. Her face went pink. She smiled, drowsy:

”Come on, everyone, take a cup and try. This is our own brew. How could it be poison?”

”My lady, your face is red. Stop drinking...”

”What’s with all the talking? Is there a fish in your cup you’re saving?”

”S-save a fish? That means... she’s delirious, isn’t she? Talking nonsense...”

”Then you drink. If we live, we live together. If we die, we die together!”

”Good! I’ll drink with you!” Arch, full of valor, downed his cup.

Worst case, another bowl of valerian broth!