Chiron Academy

Interlude 2

Vai sat at the dinner table in the hotel room. In front of her was a simple soup. She had picked up the recipe years ago in a little village in France. It had stuck with her all these years because It was easy to make and used few ingredients.

Its lack of spices was the main reason she'd made it today. The longer she went without an infusion, the harder time her body had digesting more complex foods. More solid fares were already out. Soup was becoming a better and better option for her amongst her increasingly small options.

She raised her spoon to her mouth and delicately sipped the contents.

What had the name of that village been?

She had been with Griff in the mass exodus from Paris in the days just before the Nazis arrived in the city. There had been thousands of people fleeing the city: Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, anyone who found their odds better making a hasty and usually unprepared retreat into a countryside flooded with refugees to staying to experience life under a Nazi regime.

They walked into the village late one night. She remembered the way the moon had reflected into a large pond that straddled the little group of houses as they entered. What little lodging there had been in the local inn was filled with people making their way out of France. Which had been fine with Vai. Their small purse of franks they had managed to gather before they left was shrinking rapidly. She remembered the fear it would not make it for the entire journey.

They were no strangers to sleeping under a tree and had bunkered down for the night. The thick blanket Griff carried throughout the day pulled warm around them as they held each other close. 

Their thoughts turned to food. They had had an infusion of life placed on them not too long before and did not need to eat; the spell's strength supported them. However, their enlivened bellies saw fit remind them of their hunger regardless.

A woman from a nearby house had spotted them and insisted that they join her and her family for food in their nearby home, pointing to a small cottage a few hundred feet away.

They had tried to refuse. They didn't really need it, and they would be fine. But the woman would not hear of it. Realizing the futility of arguing with the woman, they gathered up their limited belongings and followed the woman into her home.

It was warm inside. The limited furniture was well-worn but comfortable. The woman's small family seemed a bit wary of the strangers in their midst, but the woman was quick to make introductions. She asked Vai and Griff if they had anything to eat. When they replied they had not, she would not take no for an answer. Reaching into her icebox, she grabbed a few vegetables and a small hunk of beef and began preparing simple soup.

When it was done, Vai had been so impressed she'd asked the woman for the recipe. The next morning, they had tried to pay the woman a few franks for her help, but she had refused. She hated to see people suffer needlessly and they'd had enough to share. On the way out of the village, she turned to look at the woman's little house again. The woman was already hard at work harvesting vegetables from a nearby garden. It had been a good moment in midst of their otherwise nightmarish trip.

Vai had happened back to the village after the war. She'd hoped to see the woman and thank her again for her help that night. She'd brought the franks as well as a few more to join them. Perhaps she would accept them this time.

But where the little house had stood was now a pockmarked field. The little fence that had surrounded the property was now only a few haphazard posts. Vai was told by some neighbors that a shell, German or American, had taken the house. Vai wondered what had happened to the little family, but the neighbors were not sure. One had heard something about them moving to the city but wasn't sure where. She hoped the woman had survived the war and lived out her days somewhere nice. But Vai would never find out.