Cooking with Adja Ch. 02

Iniya frowned, "You don't want me in this other world of yours, do you?"

"No." Adja looked down and whispered.

Her girlfriend hugged her closely, and rested her chin on her shoulder, "Well. I can't say that I will stop asking of the questions... But I think... I think I might be okay if we just don't bring it up. Everyone has problems. Yours are just..."

Adja waited as Iniya tried to fish for a descriptive word and failed. She smiled and kissed the woman's cheek affectionately, "Batshift fucking weird? We don't really have a word big enough, do we?"

Iniya sighed, "That will be our lives now, won't it?"

"You are the most incredible girlfriend, ever. I still can't believe you're not dumping me. Still not even considering it, are you?" Adja said and shook her head.

The woman smiled at her and tapped her nose, "No. I still... Love... You."

"So, whilst we're waiting for Dixon to bring my day-ruining life back..." Adja said slowly and grinned.

Iniya sighed resignedly, "Can we adjourn to the bedroom, rather than the kitchen table or lounge, this time?"

"We don't have to do anything. We could snuggle." Adja said quickly, looking at her in scared confusion.

The woman helped the both of them stand up and shook her head, "That wasn't a hint of rejection, Adja. That was just I remembering how much my knees hurt upon this morning."

"Then I guess I should do all the work." She interlaced their fingers together, kissed Iniya's hand, and started pulling her towards the bedroom.

She had planned to toss together a quick dip, a tomato-based one considering her fridge, but she was more than happy to dump the idea of afternoon tea, if she got to have the most open-minded scientist that she had ever met.

Iniya, for her part, didn't exactly have to be dragged.

Ignoring all the adrenaline of their sudden interruption from a little goblin, who wasn't exactly on Adja's Christmas list after forcing that kind of explanation on her girlfriend so early into the relationship, they had been interrupted another time.

Adja expected that their little play in the woman's mountain cabin was dwelling on both their minds, right at this moment.

Being caught by your doctor was one of those special moments that really only happened in tiny places. That or when your doc was a friend.

Iniya pulled her into a kiss, near the end of the bed. The two of them standing, chest to chest, with frantic hearts and dancing tongues. All kinds of heightened emotions twisting around each other, making everything more intense.

She did have tomatoes left. Four of them would have been enough for making one of her favourite dips, but... This was better.

The scientist's hands slipped up under the edge of her shirt, warm palms gently pressing into the small of her back. Fingers interlacing just behind her spine, gently touching, but not exploring. Feeling a homeliness that Adja hadn't known with anyone else.

Dips should taste like home. Garlic, thyme, ginger. One teaspoon each would do it. Except she wasn't cooking, she was focused on the woman who accepted her, chaos and all.

Iniya transitioned gently into exploration. Delicate fingers spreading out, as she pulled Adja towards her. She pushed her own hands up and underneath Iniya's top, tracing the curve of her waist before settling into a lover's hold.

She wasn't sure about the vinegar. Balsamic, white. She knew she had some, but maybe not quite half a cup. Not that it mattered, as she wasn't making the dip. Adja did know that she had the half cup of granulated sugar to offset it.

Iniya pulled her hands back, and began plucking at the bottom of Adja's top nervously. Reaching for the buttons, but unsure if she'd done quite enough to warrant it. Adja helped signal by moving her kiss from the woman's mouth, to her neck.

All that was needed then was salt and pepper to taste, a splash of olive oil. Bring that to boil, about the temperature of the emotions surging right through her, and reduce it down to a nice thick and creamy dip.

Adja had never felt this at home, with anyone else. She felt like she could strip down, and Iniya would be fine if she suddenly decided to stop right at that moment. Her girlfriend's respect for her was nigh inhuman.

She took a deep breath, turned them slightly, and fell onto the bed, "Need you."

"Were you not doing the work?" Iniya said with a sly smile and raised eyebrow, before wordlessly going down on her knees and tugging Adja's pants off, followed quickly by panties.

Adja gave a small and satisfied gasp of air, as the warmth of a tongue dove right into her. There was no foreplay in it, and there was no need for it. With the two of them, they always seemed to be in tune with the other.

The witch breathed contentedly through her nose, her toes curling up tightly. Iniya took her time, her tongue scraping up slowly enough that Adja could feel her wetness come into its own. From a little excitement, to a little flood.

Iniya was forced to speed up her movements, as Adja demonstrated that she was a seriously wet one. Leaking all over the scientist's chin, as she rediscovered something that made cooking feel as exciting as watching wheat grow without magic intervention.

Adja reached down and patted the woman's head, "Your turn."

Iniya waggled both her head and tongue.

Adja moaned.

Encouraged, the other woman moved in firmer. Her nose pressing right into Adja's sensitive clit, as the tongue tried to see how deeply it could go. The firmness of Iniya's chin pressing into her as Adja thanked the stars for such a perfect girlfriend.

Unfortunately, even in the middle of it all, her synapses were bursting. She might be groaning, flexing her toes, but she still had the bigger problem spinning around in the midst of her brain's hurricane.

The charm had burnt right on up, leaving only a couple of answers for what kind of monster had come to curse their island home.

She gave a sharp intake, as Iniya's tongue somehow reached deeper, before flicking in and out. Across and up. Moving shorter and faster in perfect time to Adja's breaths.

Curse was the right word to describe the kind of thing that could break one of her spells, especially in the manner that they had. A spirit with a connection not just to the Other World, but a deep and ingrained sort of relationship. Both magic and soul intertwined with that place.

She could feel the curve in Iniya's tongue, somehow. There was no doubt whatsoever that the woman could roll her tongue, and it was rolling around deeply inside of her.

The creature would be required to dip into a deep rage, and hatred, to break the spell in the manner that it had. Which probably meant that as she lay here, getting treated by the most forgiving and compassionate woman in the world, it was looking to express a vendetta.

There was no lapping sound, that Adja found to be such a turnoff. Instead, all she could hear was her own quiet intake of air, over and over, with each and every warm movement of the woman between her legs.

Adja had picked a fight, by failing to exorcise the spirit.

Even panicked thinking came to a halt, as Iniya's nose nestled into her centre, and everything exploded into shards of fractured coloured thoughts.

The thing was angry, strong enough to hold on, and connected to elemental and earthly magics. That blistering thought exploded right as Adja was pushed over the edge.

Her face turned bright red, and her throat closed, as she gasped out a ragged, "Oh, fuck."

Iniya planted another kiss on her, before crawling up onto the bed and dropping beside her. One arm going across her hard-breathing stomach, a finger tracing her bellybutton idly.

The woman didn't say anything, just smiling lovingly and proudly, as she settled in against the witch. Her chin was glistening as she relaxed. Which made Adja's stomach twist into terrified knots as the full scale of the situation began to sink into her head.

She whispered quietly into the air, "Djinn."

Iniya slid closer, "... Djinni?"

"I need to make Dixon's circle." Adja groaned and sat up, gently removing Iniya's arm. "I absolutely promise that I'll return the favour, but later. I shouldn't have stolen this moment from you."

The scientist sat up, and gave a small glare, "You are telling me to of leave. I know you say I do not belong to this... World. But if we are to be together -"

"If I'm right, it's going to fucking try and kill you." Adja snapped, "I don't have the resources to protect you, and use the magic shard to fight the damn thing, at the same time."

Iniya's face went paler than Adja had thought that it could, and the woman did a chunky swallow. The scientist looked at her in abject terror, "How... How dangerous is this world of yours, Adi?"

"Usually? Not. But this is... Djinn are creative spirits. Witch lore says they're leftover fragments from the creation of the world, at least that's what my grandma taught me." Adja brushed the side of Iniya's cheek, "Pieces of the original dream. I... I'm sorry. But I need to know that you're safe. You should go."

"And leave you without safety." Tears welled up in Iniya's eyes.

Adja sprang to her feet, and ran to her windowsill, snagging a sprig of alfalfa from a box there. Before she turned, she saw someone walking up the driveway. Adja was lucky to finish when she did.

The witch ran the strands of white grass across her tongue, and flicked it twice. She held it out to Iniya, "Stick this in your bra for me, would you?"

"What does it do?" Iniya asked cautiously, her face completely serious as she eyed the makeshift charm.

"Doesn't last long. Until it browns, really." Adja shrugged, "But... It's a Lover's Knot. So long as we love each other, both of us, then neither of us can get dead. Hurt, sure. But not our fates to die."

Iniya took it, tucking it away awkwardly, and looked at her with more tears in her eyes. One slipping free, "You do... Love... Me. Don't you? We are of the fast, and... Incomprehensible. You, a witch. I, a scientist. Truly worlds apart. Yet..."

"I knew I did, before I brought you home." Adja kissed the end of her nose. "The world is big, incomprehensible, and noisy. But sometimes... Just sometimes... Miracles tie everything together."

"I -"

Iniya's heartfelt response was cut off by a thundering fist beating on the front door. Immediately followed by a furious shriek, "Adja! You bitch! Get out here!"

"Astrid." Adja winced, "Um... Backdoor is that way? You don't want to get caught in this."

"I do not. But we will continue our conversation." Iniya said warningly as she stood up.

---

Adja opened the front door slowly.

The exhausted woman standing there looked absolutely furious. It couldn't be the badge, not yet. She wouldn't know that Adja had been into her room, and she wouldn't have had a reason to go home.

"Eh... Hi, Astrid?" She managed nervously.

The mayor's secretary glared at her, put a hand to her chest, and shoved her inside the house. The door fell shut behind her, and Astrid's face went from utter outrage, to absolutely terrified. Her eyes welled up, and her bottom lip trembled.

Adja winced, and took both the woman's hands in her own, "What is it?"

"She... She..." She stuttered, "Us?"

The farmer swallowed nervously, "M.A. What happened between you and M.A? I know it's my fault. I'm stupid and -"

"I cheated." Astrid said, as tears started to fall down her cheeks. "It's my fault. But Marie-Anne knows, and now... She... She asked for a break. That's how I break up with people! She dumped me... And... I... I've never wanted to stay before."

Adja pulled Astrid towards the couch, sitting them both down carefully. She grabbed the box of tissues from the coffee table and held them out. Astrid blew her nose and gave an empty shrug, lost for words.

The witch though, was very concerned that she had an exceptionally hurting woman, sitting not that very far from a broken spell and it's leftover magic, whilst they were possessed by a little something that was the very worst magical thing she'd ever met.

"Hey." Adja tried to stumble her way through, "I'm pretty damn sure that M.A. knows you love her. For the two of you to keep it secret, and together, for two years? She has to adore you."

"So I hurt her worse. Every day since we happened, is a knife in her gut." The mayoral secretary wept.

There wasn't much to be said, to that. The problem with the truth is that most of the time, it hurts. It tells you all the things that you don't want to admit, and undoes all the gentle lies we tell ourselves over time.

Astrid's lies might be bigger, but everyone had lies that they didn't want to see undone. That their life was worth it. That there was meaning in the day to day drudgery that economics force upon everyone. And the biggest lie of all, is selfless love.

Everyone made selfish mistakes.

Strangely, Adja wasn't hurt by the new knowledge. When she and Astrid had their one moment, she had been looking for a longer term relationship. She had been looking for one fantastic woman to put up with her, with an eye to one day calling each other 'wife'.

Yet, here they were. Her ex was hurting because that very special date had just been a cheating mistake. She, however, was entirely inoculated against the pain because she had just discovered someone who she was absolutely certain was her one.

She pulled Astrid into a gentle hug, the woman's head resting against her shoulder as snot and tears ruined her jumper. She was really going to need to put on the washing machine, if she was going to have any hope of wearing something comfortable for tonight.

However, as the woman settled against her, sobbing gently, a shadow stretched up the far wall. There was a foggy edge to it, and you could reason that the light was just being stretched in an odd way. The shadow was completely explainable.

It was also something that sent a shiver down her spine.

Adja had never really dealt with anything dangerous or old, from beyond the Veil. She was a farmer, through and through. The worst things she had dealt with were a bunch of drought-causing feyn freaks.

The thing not looking at her without eyes, stretching against the mortal bonds of the woman in front of her, could cause a drought by sneezing. It was a piece of the world from before there even was worlds.

Calling it old was like calling the universe old. It was a senseless statement if you looked at it from a scientific perspective, and it was a pointless statement if you looked at it from a more creative angle. The thing simply was, and that was impressive enough.

Staying calm, in the face of that shadow, was not something Adja could really do.

Astrid snuffled, leaning back and wiping at her face gooily with a tissue. The woman had sensed the change in Adja, and was assuming it was just the end of comfort. "I'm sorry. I'm such a mess."

The shadow grew.

Adja squeezed her hand reassuringly, "It hurts. But it isn't over, not yet. Let me help you make a peace offering, and you can bring it from both of us as an apology. She loves you."

The shadow wavered.

"It's over." Astrid shook her head, causing the shadow to grow firmer.

"Marie-Anne must always muse against male-centric awfulness." Adja said with a soft rhythm, "Astrid acquired aromatic adhesion, against advisory argument."

"What?" Astrid stared at her.

"Make an apology." Adja finished the spell.

The shadow wavered and then seemed to fall slowly down the wall, as if the position of the sun was shifting, until it was gone.

"Aromatic...?"

She shrugged, "You love her. I was just trying to say it fancy."

"You're no poet." Astrid gave a small laugh and shook her head, but the colour was coming back into her cheeks. Her eyes were still a desperate sort of sadness, but she seemed to be coping better.

The woman stood up stiffly, rolling her shoulders, "Well. I don't want to... But I need to get back to Jonathan. Who knows what else he's broken without me around."

"I am definitely ordering icecream the next plane." Adja nodded, "Which means you can come over and cry into the tub, if things go bad. But they won't. Instead, you'll be able to treat M.A. to icecream, yourself."

Astrid shrugged sadly, "Whatever happens. But, I'll keep you in it, this time. You're a sweetheart... Oh! Before I go, Jono was actually trying to order a bilge pump for you, but... There's like fitting sizes and actual size and... I got no idea."

"Oh. Sweet." Adja smiled and stood up herself. She grabbed a pad and pencil from the coffee table and wrote down some model numbers, before handing it over. "Whatever is compatible with these. If everything is too expensive... Well, I didn't expect to be able to get one."

Astrid nodded, "Yeah. I've got a sensible head on me. I'll see what we can do... But I expect you'll be busy, this afternoon?"

"I'm headed to muck out the cowshed." Adja shuddered.

"I meant Iniya." The secretary rolled her eyes.

Adja grinned sheepishly, "She might be wanting to sleep over..."

"Hold onto that one." Astrid gave her one last hug, before heading off.

---

If the diet is balanced carefully, what a cow leaves behind is wonderful fertiliser.

Adja tended to keep a fairly close eye on the two cows that she owned. They weren't the only ones on the island. There was another farmer, who had two more. But having less than a half dozen cows meant that most dairy products came in by plane.

The milk that Adja got from hers was too precious to be turned into yoghurt or cheese. Instead she had preorders from people in the village, who each took turns getting theirs. She did it up in glass bottles, and would hand deliver in the morning.

Her brain was full of thoughts about the djinn, and the way it had responded to both Astrid's emotions, and to her own magic. The thing could shrug off a gigantic curse, but lost its strength in the face of the woman's happiness.

There was something there, that didn't make sense.

Magic is a force of nature, and a brutal one at that. If it overflowed, then you got storms, droughts, and violence. When it was lacking, then everything living started to die off. Something very magical, like a djinn, should not just be able to recede like that.

The build up of very angry and dark magic had to go somewhere.

She turned the hay with her fork, moving her mouth back and forth as she thought about the whole thing. She was scowling so much that anyone watching might have thought that she was trying to light everything on fire with her thoughts.

That unapproachableness was probably the reason that she nearly squealed as she turned around and found that there was someone watching her.

Tomas smiled nervously, holding up a hand in half a wave.

Adja shook her head, and calmed herself. The whole world was not imploding. It might be for her, but not the rest of the island. Tomas usually took a minute to come see her, every other week.

She looked down at her shit-stained clothes, and back up at him, "Wanna stop by the house for a minute?"

"Sure, sure." Tomas nodded, "I just wanted to check in with you, and how the farm's going. Heard you might be having some problems with one of your pumps?"

"The thing that makes sure the field doesn't dry or drown... Drowned itself." She explained as they began walking, her gumboots squelching in the wet soil.

Tomas gave a heavy sigh, "Oh. That sucks. Nothing the rest of us can help out on, is it? A village effort to save our farm isn't beyond us. I know we can be a rude lot -"

"I'm fine." Adja said quickly, "Jono is just being himself. It doesn't hurt that much. And I think Iniya's handling him pretty well, too. She's a bit angrier than me... But she's okay."

He gave a nervous laugh, "Watching you two leave the meeting, and then hearing that you left the bar together, last night..."