It was the first course of their meal and Roden was already overwhelmed. Up to that point the vast majority of what he had eaten, he'd ordered for himself. To be safe he had stuck with primarily meats, potatoes, and bread. As much as he liked trying new foods in his life back home, he was taking a while to warm up to these alien foods.

Their server presented their first dish to try, which he called a braevex, it amounted to a sweet brown bread sliced thin, toasted hard, and topped with a mixture of minced garlic and a bright pink vegetable called plenth. Roden found the vegetable to be rather flavorless instead it provided a moisture to the dish that paired well with the garlic and the sweet crunchy bread.

Next their server described the jorban rolls. He said they were a fried noodle stuffed with mintrell and cheese, which Roden misheard as chanterelle and thought he was essentially biting into a mushroom egg roll. It turned out mintrell was a stringy vegetable harvested out of the southern sea that had a strong fishy flavor. While not awful, the initial shock of fish instead of savory mushrooms made Roden's first attempt at the dish unpleasant. His second, more well prepared, bite was more enjoyable for the newly familiar pallet.

The aperitif paired with their first course was a cloudy liquor with a strong anise flavor and a light alcoholic note followed by a slight burn that overall Roden found quite pleasant. At the culmination of their introductions the server excused himself.

"That was quite the experience Miriana, I can't say I have ever been a part of something so fancy." Riakon said, clearly impressed.

Miriana beamed, "I am glad you liked it. I thought something different was in order for our intrepid dragon slayers."

"Speaking of that, I was just getting to a good part." Roden said before picking up his story where he had left off.

He detailed how Riakon was thrown onto the back of the dragon and kept him distracted until Roden crashed into him with his spear. At the mention of his spear Miriana jumped at the chance to bring up all of his new abilities.

"Say Roden, you mentioned your domains were Adventure and Storm." Miriana said conspiratorially,

"Yeah, about that. I chose a subdomain at my Point of Convergence and it came with the King's Spear spell.

Miriana looked at him flatly, "don't bury the lead you." she said, swatting at him mockingly.

"Okay okay, I got the Hero subdomain from my Adventure domain. That's where I got Herald's Strength from too."

Miriana beamed with pride, "Amazing, to think my son would be the first Hero domain cleric of my goddess Zamira." a thoughtful expression came over her face, "now that I think about it, I don't think there has been a Hero domain Cleric of any god in quite a long time."

Both Errrkkkk and Riakon perked up at that revelation.

"You mean our boy here is one of a kind?" Riakon said, eyeing up Roden.

"As far as I know, yes he is one of a kind domain wise."

While Roden appreciated the ego shining that was going on he interrupted it, "can I get back to the story now?"

"Yes yes please go on."

The second half of the fight was a much faster account given it didn't amount to much beyond Riakon getting swallowed and a clash of magical forces. However, when Roden described the dragon's glowing form Miriana got a stern look on her face.

"What's with that look?" Roden said, pausing his story.

"Oh it's just I think I've heard of dragon's capable of such an effect and from what I remember it's quite dangerous." she said reluctantly.

"What is it, cacaw?" Errrkkkk said as he finished off the fishy appetizers.

"If I remember correctly, dragon's who are old enough are capable of tapping into the very magic that allows them to persist as creatures born of pure magic. It is a primal magic that is rarely recorded in the annals of history."

"Is it really that rare of a power, cacaw?" Errrkkkk said, leaning forward in his chair.

"No, it is believed to be rarely recorded because there wouldn't be any survivors."

Her words left a pall of silence fall over their group.

"You boys are lucky that dragon was sleeping and still waking when you took it on had it been fully awake, I don't know if things would have gone the same." Miriana said, her voice full of worry.

Roden frowned, "he seemed plenty awake to me." Errrkkkk and Riakon nodded.

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Miriana shook her head, "no, that is not how dragons work. You woke that dragon from a torpor and it had maybe ten minutes of wakefulness before you defeated it. You probably only saw half of its real strength."

"You're kidding." Roden said, rubbing his temples.

"No, you boys got lucky." she said gravely.

Errrkkkk clicked his tongue, "then it's a good thing we got way stronger, cacaw."

Miriana raised an eyebrow, "way stronger, in what four days?"

"My over enthusiastic brother is actually quite right this time." Riakon added.

"If yall would calm down I'll explain it all." Roden said, growing irritated.

He rolled back into their story of defeating the dragon by overwhelming its cold magic breath with their combined effort.

Miriana gestured for him to speed up his account.

"What?" Roden said, confused.

"Get to the part where you ransacked the dragon's horde already. I'm dying to know what you found tucked away."

All three men groaned which caused Miriana's face to drop. "Don't tell me you didn't get any treasure."

"We got some, but we had to leave way more." Riakon said defeated.

"Then what did you get?" she said expectantly.

"Needless to say we are filthy rich, cacaw."

"Just how filthy?" Miriana asked hesitantly.

"Let's just say we need another dimensional bag before we leave the city again." Riakon responded with a toothy grin.

Miriana's eyes went wide, "oh my."

"We got a few items of note too, but the majority of the horde was stuck in ice a foot thick." Roden said, annoyed remembering the situation.

At that point they all noticed another group of servers were nearing their table with their second course, which put a halt to their conversation. Their server approached the table and introduced their second appetizer course. He described each dish as they were placed on the table.

The first dish was a pickled onion the size of a basketball that was cut in half battered and fried until golden brown. While reminiscent of a blooming onion from one of the many restaurants Roden knew from home, he wasn't going to make any assumptions.

The elf described the method to eat the dish was to pluck out one of the crispy squares and spread a thin layer of the country-style ground meat that accompanied the vegetable. To Roden, the combination was heavenly. The saltiness of the meat mingled with the tanginess of the onion's pickled flavor. Roden made sure to gather a small pile of the delectable snack on his plate.

The other additions to the course were a sweet buttery cornbread like cake that made Roden long for some of his wife's homemade cornbread. Each of them was given a sweet dark tea that was intended to cleanse the palette for the first entrée course that would be coming out next.

Once the servers had left and they each had a few moments to partake in their food, Miriana waved for Roden to continue their story.

"Are you going to show me what you found?" she said as she finished chewing a piece of cake.

Riakon reached to his side and plunged his hand into his dimensional bag. When he withdrew it, he held a necklace of silver beads with ornate markings. "We're not sure what exactly these are just yet, but Roden and I both think they are prayer beads of some kind. I'm hoping they have a spell within them I can use."

He returned the beads to the bag and pulled out a forearm bracer made of gold and presented it to Miriana. "We have no idea what this is, but it was loose and shiny so we took it. We really need to go see Pa'teem to get all of these things checked over." Riakon paused to give his two party mates a discreet glare, "those two wouldn't let me try them without making sure they aren't cursed first."

Miriana laughed, "that is probably for the best. Now what else did you find? Show me something impressive."

Roden chuckled, "just show her the book already."

Miriana's face scrunched up, "a book? How is that—"

She was cut off by the appearance of a massive book in Riakon's hands. The book was far too large to hold and read like a normal book. Its spine was two and a half feet long and while closed was at least eighteen inches. The most striking thing about the tome was the cover, which appeared to be made of solid gold.

The entire thing was decorated in obscure runes and arcane symbols the men wanted no part of without proper identification. Riakon held it up, his enhanced strength made him the only one who was capable of moving it when they had found it.

"We have no idea what this is either, but it is beautiful." Riakon said, a hint of strain in his voice from the book's weight.

"Goodness that is some find!" Miriana said, genuinely impressed.

"We got a bunch of other little things like potions and scrolls too, cacaw."

Roden nodded, "we plan to stop at our apothecary when we get back to Coastall to have those looked at."

"That sounds like a good choice before you go drinking anything you found in a cave." Miriana said through a giggle. "By the goddess here we go."

Roden craned his neck and saw the servers were coming once again, this time carrying plates that were set down in front of each diner. Their first entrée was described as a half year dry aged filet over a bed of sprouts and fried shaved potatoes.

Naturally, everyone found the course delicious as it was essentially a steak and potatoes. Roden couldn't identify what kind of sprouts he was eating, but he couldn't identify sprouts back home either so he deemed their origin insignificant.

While the food itself wasn't anything particularly foreign, the drink they paired with it was extraordinary. The glass came with a light brown liquid on the rocks garnished with a bright red peel of some kind. Before anyone took a sip the cocktails were set on fire. The real show began when the fire sunk to the bottom of the glass and stayed there as they drank the sweet liquor that to Roden tasted like a fine cognac with a smooth finish.

Riakon was the first to finish his drink. As the last drops settled on his tongue, a strange look came over his face. There was a pause then a strain as he left out a small burp of blue flame. When everyone looked at him he just shrugged, "I don't know what happened."

Miriana finished her glass with a knowing look and proceeded to spew flames in a tight line above the table. Errrkkkk looked on amazed, and quickly finished his glass. Errrkkkk beak got in the way of a majestic controlled breath, but the sight of a Birdfolk exhaling fire was novel enough.

Roden savored every bit of his drink and finished just before their next course arrived. He held his and belched out a small fireball. "Ahhh just like the old days." he said with a sly grin toward Miriana who caught his meaning and narrowed her eyes at him.

Two more dinner courses followed their steak and potatoes. There was a savory smoked fish course that Errrkkkk devoured greedily. Riakon was partial to the final entrée course that was some deer-like roasted meat stuffed with minced meat from a rodent the server called a Skew and a vegetable medley that Roden couldn't identify.

As off putting as it sounded to eat something possibly related to a rat, Roden had to admit the meat was quite possibly the most tender he had ever eaten in his life to that point.

The desserts were primarily fruit in some configuration. The first was a cold fruit paste served with chips of frozen cream topped with honey. The last course was a pastry in the shape of a disc. It was two round wafers with a sweet spread between them that smelled of cinnamon and hazelnut. That course was served with small cups of roiling coffee that was used to warm the pastry before eating.

By the time the four of them stepped outside the temple, none of them were eager to walk home and instead chose to have the valet hale them a carriage. Riakon and Errrkkkk fell asleep almost immediately upon getting settled in their seats in the front compartment.

Roden and Miriana sat in the back and made small talk while they rode back to their villa. It was those small moments that made Roden feel like he could get used to Roden's life. Miriana was a great mother from what he'd experienced and could remember.

He couldn't believe how different she was from the Goddess of Death he'd written for his Mir. As they talked he wondered what must have happened to make her the way she was, after all on his Mir, she was the ultimate schemer.

Whether it was the drink or his sleepy disposition he asked the question that plagued him,

"Hey mom."

"Yes?" she replied

"Why are you so different here than on my Mir?"

Miriana pursed her lips and paused for a long moment before shaking her head and letting out a long breath.

"That's not a question I can answer dear. If I tell you, it could ruin everything."

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