“Epi, what is this ingredient. It’s sweet & bitter, like a brown moon, or acid & caramel. It makes my tongue…mmm…flutter, like I’m holding a baby Hira in my mouth, it’s feathers and frightened heart beating against my palate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s….curious, yes, curious is a good flavor”.

“Master Malnd, do you think it’s Patent Perfect?”

“Yes Epi, but it’ll have to excite the Tasters, you know, their dead buds and all.”

In Epi’s world, flavor ruled, it ruled classes, decided which Prince married which Prince and much more. Epi had been at this for some time, stirring the Soul Brew with her Spoon of Feeding, recently smithed by AOON, the best blaquesmitthy in town. Cloud Mites, manipulative invaders from long ago, required the feast to be ladled into their pearl bellies, fed from umbilical kites, that rose and burst against sharp stars.

Soon, a flavorful note arrived from The Larder Keeper, Epi’s Soul Brew was accepted and entered into the Recipes of Life, and rain would fall once again.