"Sunset?"
Pan Long glanced at the grandfather clock in the room. It was not even eleven in the morning.
He could have lunch first, then sleep soundly for four or five hours. He would wake in the evening and attend the advancement ritual.
"No problem," he said. "I'm interested in the rituals of your Invisible Arts anyway. I'll be there on time."
Then he and Miss Moran left the bookshop and went to the Song of the Sea restaurant.
As promised, Saliba, the burly chef with the booming voice, had prepared the ingredients for the Astrologer's Pie set meal. Pan Long soon got to taste the Stargazy Pie he had heard so much about.
To be honest, the dish was not nearly as much of a "culinary horror" as so many works of fiction made it out to be.
Seven fish heads poked out of a pie, which did look a little strange. But once the heads were cut off, what remained was simply fish pie.
Saliba had made it with great care. Apart from the heads that had to be cut off and discarded, he had left not a single bone or scale on the seven fish. It was wonderfully easy to eat.
The whole pie was savory, fragrant, flaky, and tender, and it tasted excellent. For Pan Long, who had expected a culinary horror, getting a Stargazy Pie this good was a pleasant surprise.
Other food and drinks accompanied the dish. Saliba clearly understood Eastern eating habits; the lunch was generous enough to leave Pan Long thoroughly satisfied.
As far as he was concerned, two pounds for a meal like that was money well spent.
Leaving aside the technologically advanced society of his previous life, even in the Great Xia Dynasty, a fish that had been stripped by