Chapter 4 GRANDMOTHER'S NAME
The bell above the door gave a hollow chime, leaving Nora alone in the middle of the room, which suddenly felt stifling.
“That arrogant man is really testing my patience,” Nora muttered, roughly rubbing her face to chase away the exhaustion that had been building since the night before.
From behind the stack of flour sacks, Tilly floated down, her softly glowing wings dimmed by worry.
The tiny fairy clutched the hem of her petal-shaped dress, her eyes brimming with fearful tears.
“Nora... Kael was right,” Tilly said shakily.
“Grandma Martha once warned me never to go near the back of the recipe book. There is a terrible price hidden within the magic of Black Velvet.”
Nora stared sharply at Tilly, her unease deepening.
“What price, Tilly?”
Tilly shook her head quickly, her lips trembling violently.
“I don’t know the details. Grandma forbade anyone from talking about it. But whenever the name of that cake is mentioned, the air around this shop always feels lifeless.”
Nora nodded slowly, her head growing increasingly dizzy as she tried to make sense of the two conflicting versions of the story from Aurelius and Kael, now compounded by Tilly’s equally disturbing testimony.
Without wasting any time, she trudged toward the back kitchen, followed closely by Tilly, who flew after her anxiously.
Nora’s gaze immediately fell on Master Crumb, standing motionless in the corner of the room with its sturdy stone form, as though the old oven itself held all the secrets her grandmother had never shared with her.
“All right, Master Crumb,” Nora muttered in frustration as she patted the oven’s body. “Talk to me now. What was Grandma Martha hiding?”
The stone walls of the oven suddenly trembled faintly, as though responding to her touch.
Thin purple smoke curled from the gaps around its door, accompanied by a soft, low hiss.
Nora pressed her palm against the warm iron surface, hoping her touch could unlock whatever had remained sealed for so long.
DING!
Master Crumb shook violently.
The fire inside the chamber flared brightly in a single, swift flash, then died completely with a mechanical sound resembling a long groan, almost like a complaint from something alive.
The oven refused to answer directly, tightly sealed by the oldest protective spell Martha Finch had ever placed upon it, just as tightly as her grandmother had locked her secrets away inside herself for years.
Nora sighed in resignation, resting her forehead against the oven’s surface as it began to cool. She was about to pull her hand away.
But just before she broke contact, a soft crackling rumble came from deep inside the oven.
It was not the sound of fire, but a heavy whisper that echoed directly inside Nora’s mind, cold and clear, as though it had come from somewhere that should never have been capable of speaking.
Tilly let out a small shriek and hurriedly hid behind Nora’s shoulder.
“If that recipe is found, Miss Finch... the thieves from the past will come to collect a life.”
Master Crumb’s final words continued to echo in Nora’s mind even after the oven fell silent again.
Tilly remained hidden behind her shoulder, her tiny body trembling.
Nora knew she could not simply stand there and wait for the answers to come on their own. If Master Crumb refused to say anything more, she would have to search through her grandmother’s old records herself.
Nora pushed open the wooden door to the storage room at the back of the shop with one hand.
A thin cloud of dust rose into the dim air as she switched on the wall lamp. Its light flickered briefly before finally settling into a steady glow.
Tilly floated down from the top of a shelf, the soft glow of her wings illuminating the stacks of old wooden boxes and empty flour sacks around them.
The little fairy pulled her dress tightly around herself against the cold, eyeing the worn folders anxiously, as though this place held more painful memories than she could bear.
Nora rummaged through the papers inside her late grandmother’s filing cabinet, helped by Tilly, who held up a tiny flashlight made from a bottled firefly. Its gentle glow helped Nora see more clearly among the shadows cast by the tall shelves.
Some of the papers were so fragile they nearly crumbled the moment they were touched, forcing Nora to move more carefully than she had expected.
At the bottom of the lowest drawer, hidden beneath a pile of old purchase receipts, Nora found a black leather-bound notebook.
The book was tied shut with a worn cord whose color had faded to pale brown.
Nora pulled the knot loose, then carefully turned the first page, afraid the fragile paper might tear if she handled it too eagerly.
Ancient ingredient purchase records immediately caught her eye.
Nightroot extract. Silver rose petals. Crystal powder from the Coldstone Mines.
Not a single one of those ingredients was commonly used to make an ordinary cake.
“Oh, my...” Tilly squeaked softly, covering her tiny mouth with one hand when she saw the stamped emblem in the corner of the page.
“Nora, that is the official seal of the Fae Kingdom border.”
Nora quickly turned to the next page, her heart beating faster.
On the final sheet, an old travel document was tucked between folds of yellowed paper, its corners curled with age.
The name Martha Finch appeared repeatedly, complete with royal crossing permits.
Her grandmother had apparently lived in the fae territories for years in the past, a chapter of her life she had never told anyone about, not even her own granddaughter.
Right beside the records of Black Velvet ingredients, a strange emblem had been drawn in golden ink, the shape of a bird’s wings split by a sword.
Nora covered her mouth with one hand.
Her grandmother had kept a secret this enormous without ever revealing a single word, not even during the nights when the two of them had sat together, spending hours making dough.
