When Denton finally emerged out of Lanstein's healing body, it was already way past dusk and dinner already in the work. The whole time he was hearing the two girls talking and laughing; they were seemingly enjoying each other's presence. Denton cracked a soft smile and gifted Lanstin a friendly face, silently appreciating her healing efforts. He felt well, and not only because his sunburn got reverted. Lanstein's liquid body gave his dusty body a deep clean as well after asking him with a soft interference resonating in her voice. It was a weird but comfortable sensation feeling the aqua goo venturing under his scales, into his maw, nostrils and even eyes, cleaning everything throughout. He even felt an odd case of sadness emerging from down below, when the Freezer finally took back her amorphic flesh, which was now again firmly wobbling around her skeletal body.
Despite the slightly screwed up introduction, Thilarie and Bianca were quickly able to find a good wavelength. Talking with her about Lanstein and the Freezer herself, Bianca quickly figured out that her rank in the organisation was meant to be nothing beyond a cosmetic title. A rank indicating for others, that she got elected and was allowed to speak for all twenty members of the Spearheads. Biana was happy to witness the Freezer being just as compassionate, if not even more than Lanstein, and Bianca loved her expressing genuine joy, finally being able to talk to the cleric, who upgraded her companion.
The two sat around a small bonfire preparing dinner and warming Bianca's cold-blooded Kobold body. A tasty piece of reasonably pricey Aris meat got currently broiled in a seasoned broth in a pan, which was held by the automaton over the fire. Bianca was surprised regarding how well a being, made of arcane energy and metal, was able to cook. A golem-like robot that doesn't even eat in the traditional oral sense. A Freezer automaton much rather lived on a liquid diet which got absorbed into their liquid bodyshell. Travelling directly into the gem-heart in the centre of their ribcage to nurture their very soul.
The overwhelmingly good smell was blinding Bianca's senses, and her belly was now demanding audibly; so loud that even Thilarie heard it and couldn't hide a hearty chuckle from emerging:
"Patience, Mrs Peritl. I want to cook it perfectly so that you and your brother can enjoy a culinary delight served in the inner city. Please leave everything to me. It is the least I can do."
Bianca was about to start complaining, mentioning that the siblings hadn't eaten at all the entire day, being now reasonably hungry, but when Denton and Lanstein came over Bianca immediately had forgotten her complaints.
Her maw dropped to the ground seeing the now healed and cleaned Denton standing in front of her, his ivory scales polished to perfection, his teeth now white and shiny; her brother looked like a young god and was shining like the Ivory Jack, one member of the Triumvirate. Denton noticed his sister being stunned by his appearance, feeling a glimmer of pride emerging in his scaled chest:
"You should try Lanstein's methods out as well; she is a wizard in every regard of personal care: From healing my flesh all the way to dental care. Heck, she even removed my tartar. I feel like I got reborn."
Lanstein chuckled soundly at his side, seemingly enjoying the praise given. After giving Bianca an inviting wink to try her method out as well, she looked back at her satisfied customer:
"The pleasure was the mine,
cleaning you from all the grime.
You shimmer now like a saint,
a look quite lovely and quaint."
Bianca could tell Denton loved Lanstein's small rhyme, that he was enjoying his current position a bit too much. So she just grunted affirmatively, not giving the Kobold rooster too much attention fearing his pride would be volatile to his body if it would blow up his chest a single further centimetre. She much rather moved aside on the log she was sitting on, giving her brother a place to sit at the fire. Denton gladly took the offer, visibly freezing from Lanstein's nightly chilly embrace. It was then, when he noticed the meat cooking, that a smug expression widened on his face:
"Ahh, an exquisite meal to go by with my fresh exterior. You have my gratitude Spearhead Thilarie - no worries, Lan filled me in on the details while we were occupied. She is such a sweet and gentle talker when not rhyming."
Lanstein brushed aside the compliment lashing out with a small part of her body, giving Denton's shoulder a slight slap with a surprisingly dry whip made of water. It was such a soft slap that Denton barely noticed it but felt it on the inside through Khõra scolding his behaviour. Lanstein was now kneeling next to Thilarie, rummaging through a leather bag until she found two water bottles she handed out to the thirsty kobolds. They chugged them down almost instantly, which caused Lanstein to sigh gently, immediately fishing out two more bottles, but withholding them in her hands so that the siblings would have something to drink when the meal was done.
Bianca felt forced to let out a sudden mighty burp. She sadly noticed way too late that she was drinking mineral water. She was not used to water of such quality and even less of sparkling. Visibly blushing, ashamed of her lack of tact, she was surprised to see the automatons not being annoyed by it.
"My apologies for failing to warn ya, master. Won't happen again."
"No problem, Lan. I haven't asked in the first place."
"Such tasty water! By the way, this is not from a local fountain, or is it? Tastes a little bit too perfect."
Thilarie was impressed by Denton's quite correct assumption; the mineral water was indeed not of a local label:
"The palace had recently a few visitors from the tech-country Etherium, and part of the meeting was establishing new trading routes supporting Nemthi with its water scarcity. Their newest formula of sparkling water ... very sparkly indeed, as you could witness firsthand. But enough of that -", Thilarie removed the pan from the bonfire, "-Meal finished!"
Thilarie was preparing the juicy Aris meat with astonishing precision devising it equally on two platters before giving it to the two famished kobolds. The spearheads looked at each other and chuckled after witnessing the childishly sparkling eyes of the siblings seeing for the first time since maybe forever a decent meal. Half expecting they would eat like they haven't eaten since forever, the freezers were surprised to witness the kobolds enjoying every bite slowly and throughout, tears of joy running down their snouts.
They complimented, again and again, Thilarie's seasoning abilities and that they care so much for them and couldn't stop talking to each other, praising the tender meat and its seasoning as if a miracle just occurred.
When they eventually finished the last bite, Lanstein finally asked Bianca a question that was burning on her non-existent tongue the whole day already. With excitement resonating within her voice, her purplish eyes glowed up like miniature suns:
"Bianca? I mean master? If I recall it correctly, you were talking last year with me about a secret project of yours that might change your life for the better. Have you made any progress with that? I was honestly rooting for you the entire time, hoping to meet you in the future outside of the slums as well."
Already grinning in satisfaction, Bianca began putting on an even bigger smile on top of the grin and began to laugh heartily:
"We indeed made some notable progress. We are finished.", Bianca stopped short, finally realizing that the freezers might be able to help them with the next step, "About that ... we might need some assistance with the following step of our plan. Help from outside the slums to get our project to the right pe-"
"No further talking required!", Thilarie was cutting her short, feeling her time has come, "You helped so many people by giving the Spearheads access to your astonishing abilities through Lanstein. If this mentioned assistance is in our range of possibilities, we will do everything to repay our debt to you. So consider it done ... What do you need us to do?"
