-- Lilith POV, Laketown --

  John had helped her to get into her evening dress and now she was trying to cook dinner for them. Coal for the stove was no problem, there was always a supply of coal for the forge that she could use. Kindling was more of a problem. She'd have to ask John how to get kindling in town, but now the coal fire was on and she had the cabbage and the mashed potatoes cooking, the pork chops sizzling in a pan.

  "John, dinner's almost ready!" She shouted loudly. John had went downstairs again to do something in the workshop and she wanted to be sure he could hear her.

  "Coming!" She heard his reply from downstairs.

  She closed the air holes in the stove to extinguish the fire and arranged the pork chops with their sidings on two plates which she carried over to the table in the living room.

  John just came up the stairs, "That smells delicious Lilith!"

  She smiled at him, "Getting the vegetables was quite the nightmare, they better taste good."

  "How about the pork chops?" He approached the table while she fetched the silverware from the kitchen.

  "Very good. Butcher knows his business." She arranged the cutlery and took seat, John sat down as well.

  "Bon appétit!", she smiled at him. "Enjoy your meal!" He replied, and they dug in.

  "Don't forget, Steven waits for us at the tavern tonight." John reminded her.

  "Oh right. He wanted to play cards." She showed a pained grin.

  "Don't worry too much. Just let him win now and then and it'll be fine." John suggested.

  "Guess that's the best I can do." She was trying to nibble the last bits of meat from the pork chop bone. Her fangs did quite a good job on it. She suppressed the sudden urge to crush the bone.

  "I'll try to be quick washing the dishes, so we won't be late", she put the bone back on the plate. There were still some cabbage and mashed potatoes left.

  "I can help," John was offering.

  "But first we'll have seconds!" She declared and fetched the pan with another two, still warm pork chops, "Forging work makes hungry."

  John laughed, "You're spoiling me!"

  "Soo, how about a proper bed for me?" She smiled at John while took seat again as well.

  He chuckled, "Ah, that's why. I guess I can ask around if someone has a single bed frame that they don't need anymore. Shouldn't be too hard to get something for you."

  -- Lilith POV, Laketown Tavern --

  Washing the dishes had taken a bit, particularly the stains in the frying pan had been quite resilient, but they had made it to the tavern just in time to meet Steven there.

  "Why did you play the diamond seven? I'm pretty sure you have a diamond prince on your hand." Steven asked her with an unreadable expression, honed through years of playing cards at tournament level.

  Around them the tavern was crowded, loud and full of smoke. She had been wondering why John and Steven came right here to play cards, but seemed that at most of the tables people were playing cards or other games. Probably it was the card players location in town.

  She felt desperation grow in her, "I'm trying to play fair."

  The noise around almost drowned out her words, but Steven had herd her obviously.

  "Fair?" he challenged her. "Looks rather like you're trying to lose. You could have made this trick."

  John sat with a lightly amused expression, but said nothing when she looked at him.

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  She looked back to Steven, shrugged lightly and admitted, "Yeah. Actually I could win most games unless I've got a really bad hand. I can see your cards. I can see John's cards too. Doesn't matter how you hold them. It's a demon thing. I just didn't want to make you mad by winning all the time, so I thought it's better to make it so that I lose now and then."

  He actually laughed, "You're a weird demon, Lilith. Bet any other would just have scored the trick. It's appreciated though, that you try to play fair."

  After just a moment he added, "Hey! Can you teach me how to do it? See the cards? I could use that in the next tournament."

  She had to chuckle, but shook her head with a slightly sad expression, "No, sadly I don't think I can. I don't even know how I do it. It just works."

  John eventually played his card, made the trick and she watched how he collected the cards to mix them for a new game.

  Steven lifted a finger to get her attention back to him, "Hey, Lilith, I want to try something. But I need you to look elsewhere for moment. Don't worry, nothing bad."

  "Alright?", she turned to look over to the bar, where more people were sitting and chatting, partly hidden by the ever present smoke in this place. She tried to calm her mind. John would be at her side if Steven had weird ideas suddenly. But nothing happened.

  "Ready." She heard Stevens voice and looked back to him, blinking a few times to get the sting of the smoke out of her eyes. He shove a piece of paper over the table towards her, "You can see cards. Can you see what's on the paper?"

  "Umm, nothing?" It was just a paper scrap, a bit wrinkled but blank.

  "Not on this side. But on the other side." He pointed downwards. "Can you see what is there?"

  This wasn't a playing card. Just paper. But cards were mostly like paper. Maybe she could? She tried, and tried harder. Her vision seemed to blur, something appeared, appeared from below the paper. She knew it was below, even that it looked .. above now? There was no word to really describe it. She saw both sides of the paper at once, like she saw both faces of cards.

  "There is something written on it." Playing cards were designed to be easily recognized, this writing definitely was not. Scrawly letters or something. Were these letters at all? They looked wrong somehow.

  "Indeed, there is something written on it." It seemed he wanted to encourage her, "Can you read it?"

  She looked at the paper again, the letters still looked wrong to her.

  "No?" Then suddenly she realized what was wrong with the letters. "Wait! It's backwards! Let me try. There is a 'c', then an 'h', then an 'e' ..."

  "Hey!" She looked at him with indignation.

  "Cheater!" He confirmed with a big grin and she actually had to laugh. John had been watching the experiment as well and soon they all laughed.

  "That's a cool skill Lilith." He surprised her with praise, "I can imagine a hundred uses for it right away. Like reading other peoples mail without opening the envelopes. Read the secret love letters your wife receives from the neighbor down the street and she won't even know that you found out about them."

  She chuckled, "Nah, way too dangerous to get into such. I'll stick with my runes and John. The forge has fire."

  Steven gave John a a light punch to his shoulder, "Hey John. Make sure she stays away from your mail."

  "John?", she stared at him.

  "Steven!" That was John now, "Don't plant stupid ideas in her head."

  "Too late John." Steven had a big dirty grin on his face, "From now on she'll never let you have anyone else."

  John gave him a sharp look, then turned and rose a hand to get the attention of the waitress, "Three ales Winnie. The strong stuff. My friend here has stupid ideas and needs distraction."

  "Three strong ales, coming", the waitress confirmed and soon they were served. Strong, dark liquid in big, heavy ceramic mugs. She carefully put a hand through the handle to hold the mug that was set in front of her. It was cool, slightly wet. She never had drunken something with alcohol yet, as far as she could remember. She hoped it would be safe.

  John lifted his mug, Steven and herself followed suit, "On less stupid ideas!"

  They laughed and each took a big sip from their mugs.

  It was not bad at all. Flavorful. She hardly could name any of the flavors, but they blended together really well. She had to take another sip. Yes, this was good.

  Then she noticed that both John and Steven were watching her and put the mug down, "What?"

  Steven was the first to speak, "You look like you never had ale before."

  She gave half a shrug, "Yeah. Prison only had water, and in the monastery, they had herbal tea or water too. I liked the tea better than the water, but this ale is something else. Really good."

  John rubbed her forearm briefly, "It's good but be careful. I don't want to carry you home."

  She looked at him, lightly amused, "So, if I want to be carried I need to drink more?"

  Steven laughed, "Oh John. You know, whatever you do now, you'll have to carry her home."

  "Yes!" She exclaimed with surprising resolve, "Like a princess."

  Now John had to laugh, "Princess. Nah. You're a becoming blacksmith. I'll bring a wheelbarrow."

  And they laughed together.