Nori had never been a fan of Shilkai. The flagship Harper restaurant was undeniable in its quality and presentation, but she couldn't help but think of the Unification War when she took her seat. The visuals and flavor of the food were muted by horrific memories and jumpy nerves. But to not eat at Shilkai during a multi-month trip to Uroko would be a slight that Daikon Harper would not live with. None of the Harpers would live with. They were all Tosami's now, the Yuzu's having all died out in the war.

She could still see Yuzu's burnt corpse as if it had happened yesterday. She had stayed close friends with Tarragon after that, but she could never see him quite the same.

A little girl, maybe a little younger than Shiso, walked up to the other side of the large round table and started taking wine orders. Nori listened while scanning the menu, laughing at the little girl's assertiveness.

"Didn't you order the herring?" the girl asked the grand treasurer.

"Yes, that's right. You have quite the memory, little one!"

"Then why did you order red wine? You know that'll make the fish taste like metal, right? You're supposed to order white wine with herring."

"Oh," the grand treasurer laughed. "Is that right?"

"Yes. So either get white wine or get a different fish. Either tuna or salmon."

"I guess I'll get the house white, then."

The little girl had grabbed the attention of the whole table. Nori was happy when she finally got around to her.

"You know your way around wine," Nori said. "But do you know why herring and red wine make a metallic taste?"

The little girl did not appreciate being quizzed. She looked upset to even be there. "The fish needs to have a higher fat content to not interact with the tannin in the red wine." The girl crossed her arms. "You match fish and wine by color."

"Always?" Nori grinned. It was a rare treat to not be treated like a grand king. "What if I really want red wine with my white fish?"

"Then…" The girl looked up and tapped her chin. "You could do a fruity berry sauce to bridge the gap."

"Bridge the gap," Nori chuckled. The little girl could already speak better than some of Nori's advisors. "You must be a Chef in the making. Have you manifested?"

This got the little girl to smile. "Three times already."

"Wow. Well, tell you what, we can always use good Chefs in Ambrosia City, so when the time comes, maybe you should come to the Academy of Ambrosia. What's your name?"

"Nori."

This confused Nori. Partially because she was Nori, but also because suddenly she had two streams of thought occurring simultaneously in her head. She was confused, but she was also not confused at all, instead thinking about how much this girl reminded her of her daughter—of his daughter.

And then Nori was suddenly on the other side of the conversation looking at Flambé. This was what a real king looked like. He seemed nice. And smart. She wished he was her father. She followed the little girl away from the table, and the farther she got, the less Flambé's thoughts crowded her mind. She entered the kitchen, where another Chef told Daikon about Nori sassing one of Flambé's councilmembers. He told her to put her hands flat on the counter and grabbed his spatula.

But her hand didn't hurt. Something warm took it.

"She's waking up."

Nori opened her eyes. Hollyhock was holding her hand, Anise was laying down, and two other Veratores were sitting in the infirmary and drenched in sweat. Nori felt thin. Depleted. Her essence hadn't been this low since she had expended it all defending Jakha.

"What happened?"

Anise sat up. "Flambé poisoned you."

"What?" Nori was confused, partially because she was Flambé, but also because he would never poison her.

"In a manner of speaking," Hollyhock clarified. "His essence was…broken. Erratic. Unraveling. However you want to describe it, it was ravaging you from the inside. We poisoned you deliberately to lower your essence and kill off what was effectively an invasive plant. We fed you neutral essence over four days to keep you alive."

"Four days?"

"That's right. For a couple days, we weren't sure if you'd make it. Then you stabilized, but it was a slow climb the rest of the way for your body to start replenishing itself."

Nori chewed the air. Something nutty lingered on her tongue. "What did you feed me?"

"Charmant truffle. It doesn't really help Flambé anymore, so he insisted we use it on you."

"But he's—"

"He's fine. Better than he's been in years. But…he's different."

Anise groaned as she stood. "We also fed you my supercharged noodles. Every single one that I spent the last year making. Between you and that boy, you'll run me dry by the time you graduate. They should be in class now. I'll go let them know. But Nori, please try not to come back any time soon."

"Thank you," Nori said. "Thank all of you."

Hollyhock nodded to her assistants. "Alright, ladies. Back to the keep. I'll have Flambé's Chefs make something for you. You've earned it. Nori. Take it easy."

They left Nori alone in the room. She stood and regretted it, laying back down before the room could spin away. She closed her eyes, but instead of seeing darkness, she saw Tosami's dead body pass beneath her feet. She opened her eyes and saw the infirmary. Was she in Kiham? Or was she in Palm Coast? No, she was in Ambrosia City. She was a student there. Not a fifth-year. A second-year, about to enter her third. Nori. She was Nori. Nori. Nori.

"Nori!" Archie ran into the room carrying a sweet smell with him. He always smelled sweet when he used his sugar rush. He bent over and grabbed her hand and pressed it hard into his forehead. "Oh, you can't do that to me."

Nori giggled. With Archie in the room, she was Nori again. No doubt about it. "Can't do what?"

"You were in a coma all week! They thought you were going to die!"

"Not fun having to wait to see, is it? And I had to do it twice with you already."

Archie laughed and set Nori's hand down, but he didn't let go. "Okay. We'll both agree to just be healthy from here on out, okay?"

"Okay." Nori pushed herself up with one hand, not wanting to let go of Archie's. "It was actually all a big prank. I was fine the whole time. You looked ridiculous."

"Yeah, I bet." Archie sniffled, and Nori realized how hard the last few days must have been for him.

She tried once again to lighten the mood. "I have a lot of stories for you."

"Yeah?" Archie tried to smile and only managed a sad, lob-sided display.

"Oh yeah. That whole time I was asleep, I was dreaming of Flambé. As Flambé. I saw things that—"

"I don't want to talk about that, Nori."

Nori blinked. Since when did Archie Kent not want to talk about secrets and great people and adventures?

He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand in a way unlike anything he'd ever done. He couldn't look at her. A feverish warmth spread through her body. "Nothing is guaranteed, Nori. We have to act to get what we want. And we've already wasted so much time."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nori's heart beat in her throat. "What are you talking about?"

He looked up, and her fever doubled. "Can I kiss you?"

"Yes," Nori said before she could even think about it. By the time she realized what she had said, his hand was holding the back of her neck and his lips were on hers. Her body kissed back before she could think about it, but once she had, she kissed harder.

He pulled before she had finished. His blue eyes looked at her with an intensity that no one else in her life had ever had. "Let's go to Kuutsu Nuna this summer," he said.

"Okay." It was as many words as Nori could put together. But he must have heard her thoughts, because he kissed her again.

"Archie!" Anise yelled from outside as she stomped around. "I said no visitors! And you—oh, no! No, no, no! No kissing in my infirmary!"

Anise pried Archie off of Nori, and they both laughed as the Head Chef pushed Archie toward the door.

"I'll make you dinner," Archie said as Anise got him to the doorway. "What do you want?"

Nori bit her bottom lip. "Something with blueberries."

"You got it."

"Out!" Anise gave Archie one final shove and slammed the door. She turned on Nori and shook her head. "You need to rest. Your body—your very essence—has suffered a traumatic event. It needs to rest and not be riled up."

But Nori felt more alive than ever.

She never came down that high for the rest of the day, even if Anise only let her leave the room for an hour to eat with her friends—with the strict stipulation that there would be no physical contact of any kind.

Archie sat across from her at the dinner table, and occasionally they'd make eyes at each other. Cress and Mindy flanked her, Hyssop getting upset that she didn't get to sit with the star of the night. Benedict sat with them but mumbled lines from an old book, occasionally getting Blanche to participate in a couple of line reads. Oliver tried to sneak a drink to Nori, but Anise chased him off with a big wooden spoon, making everyone laugh.

But there was still a sense of emptiness to the dinner. If only Yuzu were there, maybe things would feel normal.

Nori was reunited with him that night once she fell asleep. They climbed coconut trees until they got sweaty enough to warrant a jump in the ocean. His mother made sour shrimp. It was never as good as Laksa's, but it reminded Nori of home. Things were fuzzier than they had been before. Memories bled into each other with no regard for order. One second she was leaping from a boat to fight on Uroko's shores, the next she was learning how to conjure flames by snapping her fingers.

She woke up on her own accord, but it took a while for her to clear her mind and decouple her memories from Flambé's. Anise reluctantly agreed to let her leave for the afternoon. On her way to the keep, Nori snapped her fingers, bursts of invisible heat flaring out to heat her face. She wondered how she would approach Flambé. What she would say.

The moment came upon her sooner than she expected. Just as she arrived at the front gate of the keep, Flambé came out of it.

"Nori!" He threw his hands up into the air and jogged over. He seemed ten years younger, his color having been restored along with the fluidity of his movement. He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. "Oh, I was worried about you. Are you feeling better?"

Nori winced and let out a little groan. Seeing Flambé put another twist into her scrambled brain, prompting a pulsing pain behind her eye. She pushed through it and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Still recovering. But I'm fine."

"Good, good. Do you think you're good enough for a walk? I was thinking of going down to the Roots today."

"What?" Nori blinked. The last time she had seen Flambé, she had to practically carry him to his own kitchen. Now he shifted his weight from leg to leg and hopped around as if he might run off. "What for?"

Flambé shrugged and grinned. "To see the good people of Ambrosia City, of course!"

"Oh. Um, sure." Nori tested her lungs with a deep breath. "Yeah, I can manage."

"Great!" Flambé turned back to the group of Acorn Guards that tailed him. "You're all dismissed!"

"But the assassin is still—"

Flambé waved him off. "Nori can keep me safe. Can't you, Nori? Besides, who would want to kill me?"

Before the Acorn Guards could say anything else, Flambé locked his elbow behind Nori's and led her away. He closed his eyes and smiled up at the sun. "What a lovely day."

Nori shielded her eyes. The city was hotter than Uroko and as humid as Palm Coast. She wished there was an ocean for her to jump into. She couldn't think of how to start the conversation—how to bring up that she had experienced his life—and anytime she got close to figuring it out, some random bystander would interrupt them.

"Grand King Flambé! Hi!"

"Look who's out walking!"

"We love you, Grand King Flambé!"

"Come stop by my restaurant!"

Flambé met them all with a smile and a handshake, zigzagging through the streets to make sure no one was ignored. The crowd's love and admiration filled the air, but Nori had trouble breathing it in. None of these people knew the truth. None of them knew the dark spots on Flambé's legacy. They just loved him unconditionally.

"Okay, okay," Flambé said as he resorted to a double wave. "I have to get moving. Thank you, everybody. So good to see you all. Come on Nori, let's take the tram."

Flambé dug through his pockets as they approached the attending guard. "Oh, I don't carry coin on me. Nori, do you mind? I'll pay you back."

The guard stared at them with bewildered eyes and a slack jaw. "Are—are you Grand King Flambé?"

Flambé looked at his chest, then touched the crown on his head. "It'd be a good impersonation, wouldn't it?"

He laughed, but the guard was too shocked to so much as crack a smile. "Oh—you, please, I can't charge you for the tram, I—"

"No, no." Flambé took the coins from Nori and put it into the guard's hand with a squeeze. "Everyone pays their share here."

Flambé took Nori's hand to help her on the train. He had more strength than her. A couple of other passengers remarked on Flambé's presence, but after a minute of rolling down the Trunk, Nori finally had a quiet moment. She frowned as she forced herself to speak. "I understand you now."

"What's that?" Flambé smiled.

"I saw it. I saw…everything. And I understand you know. Your—your quest. About the truth. About whether or not you deserve these people's admiration. I get it now."

Flambé chuckled. "Well, Nori, I hate to sound conceited, but I think being grand king entitles me to that admiration from time to time. I ended the Unification War. I brought five kingdoms kicking and screaming together. I'm the first grand king in history. Ambrosia City is prospering. My reign has been the most peaceful era in human history." Flambé grinned and held his arms out wide to witness the majesty of the city and himself. "Why would anyone not admire me?"

Nori regarded him with horror. There wasn't a shred of guilt to his tone. "But…you ended? You started the—"

"Oh, Nori, don't bother." Flambé waved his hand. "The past is the past. I barely remember that stuff anyway. No, we should talk about the future. I feel so refreshed these past few days. So energized. My mind has been so alive with ideas of things we still have yet to do. Why talk about the past when we're in such a joyous present and heading toward such a prosperous future?"

He didn't remember. At least, he didn't remember enough to have retained any of his guilty conscience. But if he didn't remember—if he had shed off all of his regrets—was he still the same man?

"Tell me about your summer, Nori."

"What?" Nori blinked. The tram was barely crawling along but even that was too fast, the passing buildings making her head spin. "I—I went to Khala."

"No, no. That's the past Nori. I mean this coming summer! You must have plans. Youth can't be wasted sitting around!"

"Oh, um, well…" Nori tucked her hair behind her ear and sucked in her bottom lip. She would have to get her hair trimmed up soon. Archie had liked her new hair. "I'm going to go follow the Kuutsu with some friends. And Archie."

"Friends and Archie." Flambé snickered. "So when you get out there in the desert, are you going to confess your feelings?"

Nori held her cheeks and pushed them together so she wouldn't smile so big. "He already did."

"Oh?"

"He kissed me. We kissed."

Flambé clapped as the tram came to a stop. "Oh, to be young and in love. Come on, there's a lunch spot around here that I haven't been to in years."

Once outside the privacy of the tram, Nori didn't get many more moments to speak with Flambé. Instead, she just bore witness to the love of the city as he gallivanted around making friends out of strangers. It was odd for Nori to watch this man act so carelessly. It was odd to think that she might have known him better than he knew himself at that moment. The mental anguish combined with the physical toll of walking after spending so many days in bed put Nori out after a couple of hours, and Flambé reluctantly agreed to call it a day and get back on the tram.

"I should get back to the Academy," Nori said as they approached the gates.

"What? No!" Flambé linked arms with Nori again and escorted her into the grounds of the keep. "Stay for a lemonade. It'll make you forget you spent a day in the sun."

Nori had no choice but to agree. Flambé was strong and held her with the grip of a man who was still adjusting to a newfound strength. "As long as you don't make it."

He laughed. "Oh, don't worry, one of my Chefs makes a better lemonade than I could ever hope to create."

What remained of Flambé's council was waiting for him in the courtyard. Their nervous expressions made Nori's heart drop.

"Hello, everyone!" Flambé cheered. "Are we having a party?"

Then council members all looked to one, volunteering him to give the news. "Sain has been overrun with licertes."

Nori's arm fell out of Flambé's.

"Licertes don't move in packs," Flambé said.

The councilman shrugged. "The rider said there were over a hundred."

Nori sucked in her bottom lip and clutched her chest.

Flambé took a deep breath and then took on the demeanor of a grand king. He pointed as he delegated. "You go tell Tarragon to take the mobile unit. You gather up every Veratore in the city. Send them as soon as they can go. You gather up rations in a caravan. Let the others use the best movemash. Go! Go! And…send Wally."

"What?"

Flambé nodded. "This is a chance for him to be a king. He needs the opportunity. Now, you two, with me, we need to discuss our plan of action."

Everyone ran into action, swarming this way and that way through the courtyard as Nori stood as still as a statue. Just before Flambé was gone, he turned for one last word.

"Enjoy your summer, Nori! Thanks for the memories."

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