Page 133 of Legacy Ascended

"Jessica?"

I let him pull me onto the floor.

"That'll do."

Chapter twenty-five

Jessica

I bring the mug.

I carry it up the path in both hands like it's evidence, and when Jon opens the door I hold it out before he's finished saying hello.

He looks at it for a long moment.

"That's a mug."

"That's the correct mug."

"It has a moose on it."

"It has a moose on it, the handle is the right shape, and the rim isn't too thick. I tested four in the dining hall. I made Sophia hold them." I put it in his hands. "You may keep it. You are now at fifteen."

Jon turns it around once, examines the moose, and sets it on the shelf beside the kettle — not in the cupboard with the dusty ones. On the shelf, next to the chipped one.

"I'll be using this," he says, "which you should understand is a concession."

"I'll take it."

The cottage smells like onions again, but this time there's more going on. There's a board of things chopped in separate piles, because of course they're in separate piles. There's a pan. There's a page printed off and weighted flat with a stone, and when I lean over it I can see he's written on it in three places.

I pick it up.

Not this long. — 20 min?

Ignore.

This is the only part that matters.

"You annotated the recipe."

"It's a badly written recipe."

"You annotated a recipe, Jon."

"It says season to taste in a dish with four salted components in it." He takes it off me and weights it back down. "And it lies about the timings. If you brown that for the length it claims, you'll be eating a coin."

"How many ingredients?"

"Thirteen."

"I said more than four. I've exceeded the commitment substantially." He hands me a knife, handle first. "Celery. Don't hurt yourself."

I'm extremely bad at it, and he watches me be bad at it for a while, and then does the thing he did the first time: he doesn't take the knife, he just puts two fingers on the back of my hand and moves it half an inch.

"There. Now you're cutting the celery instead of teasing it."

"That's condescending."