Gratuitous Epilogue : Touchstone Extras by Andrea Höst Page B

assemble the larger pit, and so
Rye ended up having something of a party for breakfast as well as
for lunch. Thankfully it all worked very well, with that real 'fall
apart' texture for the food, and a delicious smoky touch. Of course
it made the news, though not immediately, which suggests that none
of the people who attended is a direct news source. I got quite a
few fascinated queries via KOTIS from cooks wanting to know how to
do this, so I've given them a translation of the manual.
    I had an interesting
time sourcing food close to what I've known used in hangis in the
past. KOTIS makes sure that vat-grown food production keeps ahead
of immigration, but the population has been increasing far faster
than farm output can currently manage – and sparking lots of debate
about opening up the platforms to use them for freight and casual
day-tripping rather than making people wait for air-ship transport.
I managed to get a pile of patta (yam-things that taste a lot like
sweet potato but are more purply in colour) and this weird fruit
the greysuits had recommended for cultivation which looks a bit
like a zucchini the size of a coconut, and is rock-solid inside,
but really delicious like a mix between mashed potato and bread
when it's baked. And also purple carrots, and some varieties of
onion, and also pretty much a whole lamb, and two pigsies (the
pint-sized striped brown pigs which are so common everywhere –
another of the animals where the name I call them has become common
usage) and some spicy sausages. And I had quite a few volunteers to
make side-dishes and desserts among those dropping by at
breakfast.
    We'd done most of the
preparation beforehand – scooped out the pit and assembled the
firewood and soaked the closest approximation I could find to
Hessian sacks and had the food all ready to go (raiding Rye's herb
terrarium) – and Kaoren had gone down just before dawn with Par and
Glade and set the fire so that by the time we were done with
breakfast it was about time to bury everything. Maze and Alay were
early arrivals, and were enjoying themselves making a fuss of Rye,
when Zee, Ketz, Mara and Jeh arrived all in a group, carrying
various food offerings. Sen, busy trying to peek under the cover of
the dish Maze and Alay had brought, froze at the sight of them and
then it was like she lifted herself up on strings – coming totally
alive and bouncing on the seat of the chair she'd been kneeling on
and inhaling in this incredibly excited way as if working up to an
explosion of joy. And then she caught herself, and stood there
looking like she'd been found with her hand in the cookie jar, all
frozen and guilty and yet still bubbling with excitement. She very
abruptly hopped off her chair and dashed to where I was stacking
the dishwasher from breakfast, pulled me down and whispered: "Is it
a secret?" urgently into my ear.
    I managed to resist
saying: "Not any more" – all the senior Setari know by now how Sen
had announced Alay's pregnancy. I also knew that Ketzaren had been
talking about trying for a baby and I wished I could find a way to
get Sen to think before she acts when she's excited. She at least
had tried , though, so I patted her head and said: "I don't
know. Maybe you should go somewhere private and ask?"
    Sen immediately dashed
around to where everyone was putting their dishes down and to my
complete surprise grabbed Zee's hand, but Sen wasn't finished and
hauled Zee across and told her "Zee talk Cassandra now," and then
gleefully insisted that Jeh, Ketz and Mara come look at the canopy
we'd put up over her bed. Ketzaren told me later that she'd then
hauled each of them separately into her bathroom and demanded: "Is
baby a secret?" All three of them were looking pretty stunned when
they came back, but so happy – Mara disappeared off to find Lohn,
and Jeh and Ketz came to laugh about it with me and Zee. I was a
bit surprised about Jeh, since I gather she's 100% only into girls,
but I guess maybe Grif