Alicia stayed very still. The social situation she had found herself in was the kind of thing one navigated with some tact. Enkh Son of Zaya stood halfway between them and the hearth, his intention to intercept them could not be clearer. Alicia wasn’t quite sure it would come to blows or if this could be handled in a diplomatic way. It came down, she supposed, to Enkh and Lia, and how bad things really were.
“Enkh, you old fool, whatever are you talking about.” Lia, or so it seemed to Alicia, had decided on a different track of communication. To Alicia, it seemed like an absolutely deranged gamble, but that was before she spotted Lia’s posture. In a word, Lia was tense, in more detail, she reminded Alicia of a scared cat, in how she seemed equally poised to flee, fight, or fawn. From where Alicia was standing, it seemed pretty obvious, but she had to concede that she did know Lia pretty well by now, so it was quite possible it wasn’t such a no-brainer for the rest of the tribe.
Enkh spat on the ground, a real back-of-the-throat loogie. “You are a coward and a craven today as that day, do you deny it?”
“First you must tell me what slight it is that you have imagined from me,” Lia’s voice was hard, had Alicia not spotted the stiffening of her spine she’d read Lia’s standoffishness as hostile, maybe even pitying. As things were, she recognized the defensive gambit for what it was. Lia did not know the details around Enkh’s accusation, Alicia was pretty sure, but she wasn’t as ignorant of the slight in question as she portrayed herself to be.
“You dishonor this hearth with your cowardly ways. Stop hiding your wickedness from my tribe. Reveal the bitter craven-herb, you poisoner of water.”
“I did not know you had such skill in poetry, Enkh,” Even through the translation field, Lia’s scornful sarcasm was clear as day. “But you simply must allow an old warrior to plead ignorance as to whatever far flung ideas…”
“Far-flung ideas?” Enkh interrupted, his voice loud, the approximate band of loud that Alicia had come to understand as ‘Dangerous Loud.’ There was, to her mind, not a question of whether things was going to escalate into a fight, but a question of when. “You dodge and cower behind your words, you are no warrior you…”

“That is enough.” An older voice spoke, the suddenness and volume gave the statement weight, and marked the speaker as someone with authority, albeit not enough authority to have their rebuke be heeded without a little help from volume. It reminded Alicia of a few teachers she’d had through her time in school. For the most part she’d been lucky, but there’d been a handful of them that derived more authority from being loud than being wise, to put it mildly. The speaker, an elderly man dressed in peculiar furs, Alicia assumed it had to be Elder Omon strode away from the hearth, to stand between Lia and Enkh.
“We do not speak your language, Enkh and our Honored Guest, but we do recognize a fight breaking out when we hear one. Please remember, Hearth-Friends, no violence around the fire.”
Alicia bowed, it was a brief thing, barely an acknowledgment really, but it served its purpose. Enkh, for his part, silently glowered at this. He was in the wrong and he knew it. He did have half a mind, or so Alicia guessed, to say fuck it to the rules and hash this out the old fashioned way, but the way his posture stiffened under the Elder’s criticism told her that he wasn’t in a position to do it in public.
“You will see soon enough what it is I’m talking about,” Enkh growled more than spoke. “Until then I will darken your hearth no longer.”

There was something ethereal and decidedly unreal about the way Enkh moved as he leaped off the ground, propelling himself to the “wall” of spheres in a single bound. Alicia knew he was drawing on the deep song to do it, but there still was something slightly off about it. Maybe it was a gravity thing, or maybe she was just tired and in pain, but there was some kind of disconnect to the whole thing for sure. Her slight confusion was mirrored, but greatly expanded in the face of the Elder, who looked a little bit like he had just seen a real life superhero, or perhaps a monster of the deepest darkest myth.

“So much for help with the translation,” Alicia found herself saying.
“Yes,” Lia agreed through what Alicia had to assume was gritted teeth. “I was hoping to play it off, but it seems he’s the type to really carry a grudge.”
“You’ll have to tell me what you did to piss this guy off so bad.”
“I will, as soon as I figure it out all the way myself.”
This made Alicia pause. Had she misread Lia that badly? It could be that she was genuinely unsure of what it was that Enkh loathed her so for, and it certainly painted the conversation that just happened in a different light. Then again, she figured, Lia was under no obligation to tell her the truth. She certainly would have preferred to know the truth, but it was a big ask to want the Full Honest Truth And Nothing But The Truth, Alicia reminded herself. Sure, she knew what was going on with her fellow Exalted Heroes to some degree of granularity, but that surely had to be the exception rather than the rule, right?

The elder cleared his throat and spoke up again. “Travelers from the Shining Star, I apologize for the unpleasantness. I am informed you can understand what I am saying through some method not known to us?”
Alicia raised her hand.
“We figure that means ‘yes,’” The elder void rider spoke up.
“Ah, that is at least something. We have no issue teaching new members The Language, but it is a rather tall task for a visitor,” Elder Omon chuckled. “Thank the Void for the little blessings.”
Alicia didn’t know if this was one of those things that one could respond to with a binary yes, so she merely nodded.
“But my manners seem to have failed me, many apologies dear guests,” Omon continued, a grandfatherly smile on his face. “I assume you have traveled far, and so it would be unkindness that borders on barbarism to not offer you food.” He turned towards the hearth. “A feast! For our honored guests!”

Alicia got the feeling that she up until that point hadn’t really had a good concept of the word ‘feast.’ There was the verb form of it which made sense enough on its own, but ‘a feast’ stood without a clear example in her mind. If she, prior to her arrival at Camp, had been asked to imagine a feast she’d probably go for some renfaire food experience, featuring meat on the bone and tankards of what may legally constitute ale.

Camp, as life would have it, would forever redefine the term ‘Feast’ in her mind. Once she and Lia was seated at the hearth, a medium-sized fire surrounded by runic-looking characters carved into the rock, a process that seemed to occupy the midpoint between meal preparation and celebration in its own right began. A large flat slate of stone was lowered onto the fire, kept from choking the embers by small stacks of rock suspending it right over the heat. Then, what may have been a competition or ritual as well as a step in the process, where a handful of youths seemingly competed to spread the most tallow, or other animal fat Alicia wasn’t sure, on the slab with their hands as the piece of rock grew hotter. One by one, they withdrew their hands, hissing in pain as the heat grew too hot to bear, but there was a good-natured competition to the whole thing, like playing snapdragon. A large woman that Alicia took to be the leader of this particular activity formally ended it by smearing the remaining fat across the slab with some sort of long-handled brush.

Next, the people around the hearth seemingly divided into two groups, one dashing off to a nearby rock sphere while the other busied themselves with retrieving cloth bundles stashed in a depression in the rock, unwrapping them to reveal what Alicia had to assume were flatbreads of some kind, folded thrice to take up less space. The first group returned holding something surprising. Meat, they were all carrying bundles of meat. Alicia couldn’t tell what kind of cuts they were or from what animal, but under the fine layer of what Alicia assumed was salt, she was decently sure she was looking at meat. This impression only strengthened as the first group handed their bounty over to the second group, who set aside the flatbreads to start slicing up the meat, cutting the tough meat with knives made for the express purpose. It wasn’t elegant work, more carving something akin to stew meat, except a couple of the older members of the group, who went about it more surgically, slicing the different cuts of meat free from the bone, tossing the rougher, less delicate cuts to their younger apprentices to hack apart. Before Alicia could see any of these elders finish their craft, the first handful of meat went on the stone slab, and along with a strong sizzle, it also brought with it the smell.

Alicia would be lying if she said she never at least considered to go Vegan. It was a common enough tactic for fitness influencers to do something like that, as the extra buzz of doing anything resembling bodybuilding without animal protein could make a career on its own if you were good at it. The idea had stayed solidly in the realm of consideration, though, for one it seemed difficult. Getting your macros right while living the life of someone at least within jogging distance of being a normal person was hard enough, and Alicia doubted that there was any way to get there with dietary restriction without turning at least a little bit obsessive. Besides, she rather enjoyed animal products, meat in particular.

The truth of the matter was that there simply were some things that meat was and could do that even the most artfully crafted meat substitute couldn’t. Meat was more filling, the exact balance of salt and fat taste was hard to get anywhere else, but Alicia figured she could live without that. What she could probably live without, but wasn’t sure she wanted to, was the smell. Cooking meat, put simply, smelled too damn good. Whether it was a fine wagyu steak, or a soon-to-be-regretted hotdog on the grill, there was something deeply satisfying to the smell of the heat treatment of meat. There was no fresh meat in Thereafter, since the city had no livestock, and the void wasn’t exactly kind to that kind of food. For a while they’d gotten lucky and found some lamb that was merely desiccated by its time in the void, and this “void jerky” had tasted OK, but it was clearly inferior to the purposefully made dried meats. Alicia couldn’t compare it to the fresh equivalent, as she was pretty sure she’d never had lamb in the real world, but she suspected the void jerky would be popular among some segment of food hipsters, but otherwise be regarded to be an inferior product.

The process of cooking had progressed while Alicia was lost in the meat reverie. Some kind of fragrant grass or possibly wild alum had been added to the cooking meat, adding the sweet fragrance of an onion-garlic blend to the cooking meat. The apparent leader of the cooking efforts stirred in the cooking mix, turning it as to expose all the meat to the direct heat of the hot slab. Meanwhile, her underlings were busy finalizing the first of what Alicia assumed was to be the final product, piling meat and wild onion on the flatbread before shaving a slice of what Alicia assumed to be some kind of cheese over the steaming hot meat, letting it melt as they folded up the flatbreat into some kind of philly cheese steak burrito. Alicia wasn’t quite sure how they got the bread, that seemed more akin to naan than a tortilla, to fold so elegantly, but she assumed there had to be a trick to it.

Alicia was so caught up in observing the process of cooking that it took a discrete elbow from Lia for her to notice when one of the campfolk, a young girl with big brown eyes that tried so desperately to not stare at the new arrival, offered her one of the folded flatbreads. Snapping back into reality,
Alicia realized Lia had already gotten served. “You should try these,” Lia said. “They’re really quite good.”
“Oh, thank you,” Alicia accepted the offered food, feeling a bit self-conscious about not knowing what was considered to be table manners around here. Looking around, she did notice that people started eating as soon as they were handed food, and so figured that it’d be a safe enough prospect to dig in. Her stomach certainly didn’t object, in fact it was about all she could muster of proper etiquette to not shove the entire thing into her mouth at once.

From the first bite, Alicia felt, in a very real, tangible way, love. The meal wasn’t complex, but the salty umami of the meat combined with the sweet peppery sting of the wild onion and the creamy, slightly earthy, brie-like taste of the cheese topping the whole thing made for the best meal Alicia had had since being spirited away to Thereafter. It was probably better than the protein bowls she’d had the couple of days before too, now that she thought about it. Food had a tendency to be a matter of maintenance moreso than enjoyment in Alicia’s life, both pre-Thereafter and now, and while the flatbread dish certainly was made to get the most nutrients and energy possible out of of the available ingredients, there was something profoundly different about it. This was a meal produced by people, by a tribe, for that tribe. This was more than the sum of its (admittedly delicious) parts. This was what food was supposed to be, this was community, this was belonging. Alicia wasn’t sure if whatever separated Enkh and Lia would be fixed if they’d eaten a meal like this together, but it sure as hell couldn’t hurt.

“Alicia, you’re crying. Is something wrong?” Lia’s question snapped Alicia out of it, and she became aware that she had been letting her mind get away from her again.
“No, I’m fine,” Alicia wiped the corner of her eyes with her left wrist, the right holding on tight to the half-eaten flatbread. “It’s just… oh man I was hungrier than I realized.”
“Mhm” Lia nodded. “The lady in charge of the food looks a bit worried. Wish I could tell her this is the best food I’ve had in decades.”
“Probably decade singular for me, but yes.” Alicia agreed. She caught the chef’s gaze and smiled while patting her belly. She hoped the message got through, and judging by how the chef reignited her bustle to produce second helpings, she had to assume at least part of the message came through.

The meal as these kind of celebrations often do, didn’t end as much as it slowly cross-faded into a drowsy kind of calm as the participants let their food comas claim them. Alicia had devoured enough meat and flatbread, by her estimate, to feed a platoon and was now most interested in letting her body work on breaking down the deluge of nutrients and perhaps have a little nap.

“Excuse me, honored guest?” Omon was standing at her side.
The surprised perked Alicia up a little. She raised her hand as to acknowledge.
“I hope the meal was pleasant to you. Anyway, I have a question for you. How can it be that you can understand us.”
Alicia pulled on her shirt, where the void pearl was pinned, and pointed at the little black thing for emphasis.
“It’s this thing. It’s a talisman, I think you could call it.” Alicia explained, knowing full way Omon couldn’t understand her. She waved her fingers in a way that she hoped was evoking the idea of magic, then held one hand behind her ear to mimic hearing. “You can, uh, I suppose we could try one of y’all wearing one, I’d just have to hold my breath for a spell…” Alicia started trying to remove the pearl.
“Nonono, don’t do that,” Omon waved his hands. “I’m guessing it also provides you air to breathe?”
Alicia raised her hand.
“Ah yes, that’s what I thought. We have these. Our shaman carves them.” The elder pulled down the sleeve of his undershirt to reveal an armband of small pieces of rock inscribed with runes. “I would, however, be honored to test your device once the shaman is back and have gotten you a bracelet of your own.”
Alicia wasn’t sure why they couldn’t just switch life support systems, but she had to concede that this was either a cultural taboo or reflecting some vital function or aspect of the bracelets that she simply wasn’t privy to. She had to admit her decision making ability was faltering somewhat under the weight of the food coma and awareness of the impatience she felt to be understood again. She had started, she realized, to take the translation field for granted, a bit like how she had grown so accustomed to constant connectivity to the Internet back before her Thereafter days.
“For now, I wish to offer you a rest-cave for you and your companion. It was used for melting most recently, so it is quite clean I assure you.”
Alicia had no idea what melting was in this context, but figured it couldn’t hurt to assume this was a good thing, so she raised her hand and gave a thumbs up to boot. Truth was she’d take a nice private place to nap off this food coma, although it was perhaps for the best if it wasn’t too comfortable or the nap would turn into one of those lazy afternoons in a real hurry. There were, or at least so Alicia figured, way worse fates.

Author’s Note: I came to realize when writing this chapter that I’ve been planning it for a good long while, at least the part with food preparation. While world-building the world of Camp and the Void Dwellers, I built a lot of it on food, how they get it and what they do with it, and the ways it makes them different from things in Thereafter. Now if I was a cruel author I’d say something like “I wonder where they got all that meat from…” but since I am nice I will instead say that we’re going to learn where all the meat and cheese and wild onions come from in the chapters to come. We’ll probably also circle around on that Enkh guy and see what his deal is.

Catch you all later

VSD