I knew she meant it in the nice way so I didn’t bristle. She made it sound a bit like I’d won a bid at an auction instead of falling in love, but that was how most princesses and courts saw all of this.
Plus, I was really interested in what she had.
A few chairs were brought out, and she sat while cases and cases of stuff were set around us. The first lid was taken off and a gigantic wheel of cheese was lifted out.
“Nummy, blue cheese?” I asked after seeing it looked like one of Nora’s options and smelled sort of the same.
“Gorgonzola, which is a type of blue cheese,” she answered. “And only a few regions of Italy can make this specific type of cheese. Ours in Lombardia has a history much longer than the humans ever acknowledged. We have been able to make some still using the old ways, but we hope to fix that with your help.”
I nodded, accepting the plate that had a few slices. Kristof and Cerdic were already sitting as well with the loaded tray of dumplings that was probably the start of the seafood buffets. I offered some to them and then tried it, moaning at how good it was. It was pungent, overpowering even, and certainly not something that you could have a lot of.
“I haven’t had this in so long,” Cerdic mumbled, looking thrilled as he took another bite. “This is the fancy, fancy stuff that costs boatloads. It’s worth it though.” He let out a groan. “And so is that caviar.”
“Thank you,” Marta said, beaming at the praise. “We have started harvesting some again, but mostly we focused on keeping the sturgeon in our caviar farms alive and protected. We also worked hard to preserve as many animals as we could when humans grew hysterical and slaughtered them, thinking they carried the virus. Or for food, but then could not preserve them.”
“And you wish Inez’s help for what?” Kristof asked as he tried the cheese to be polite, but it wasn’t his thing. He’d said it more than once that we washed to not be stinky, not put stinky in our bodies.
Goof.
“We do, but the gift is separate for inviting us,” she said firmly, meeting my gaze. “And while we understand that caviar isn’t an important focus in the apocalypse, it is our heritage. I cannot let it be destroyed as so much else has been. Besides, we need to be able to enjoy that we survived one day.”
“I agree,” I promised before she felt she needed to defend it more. “Gelato certainly isn’t needed, but damn if it doesn’t make people super happy.”
“Exactly. I knew you would understand how it gives hope to life being more than pain again.” Another plate was given to me with small tins and a funny looking spoon. She explained what they were and the differences between them, clearly into it like some people were wines or other complex products.
It was all really good, and soon we had others joining us to see what was going on.
“Given our speed and abilities, once we have more settled, we simply do not plan to only go back to gorgonzola and sturgeon caviar as the world has changed. But we do know fish farming, and that can be expanded so we never overfish our waters again. Roe from salmon would be a nice product to trade for as well. We also plan to take over an olive oil facility as we could easily farm groves of olive trees.”
“And you want Inez to put it all back online when she visits you,” Kristof surmised, figuring out the end goal before I did.
She didn’t deny it but continued. “There are vineyards that survived and need tending to them could make Italian wine again. Plus, we saved many bison, which famous mozzarella cheese was made from in southern Italy. It’s all food we would be able to trade to keep this friendship alive and well many, many decades into the future.”
Now that, I liked the sound of. “You’re saying the fifteen of us who are playing well together form some sort of trade group like the European Union was, sort of? We have our fortes, and we eventually work towards some import/export deals with my ships so not everyone has to figure out how to make everything again?”
“Yes, I propose exactly that,” she said, knowing we had more ears. “Nora’s coven has a tanner that none can rival and she received many pelts from you. She has herbs most of us let fall aside, plus now she has acres and acres of potatoes and onions being planted. Why should I worry over the same when we can trade? Peacefully. Cutting through the bullshit as you have shown us and believe.”
“That sounds lovely and something most of us would be interested in, but it’s contingent on Inez visiting you, which is Pandora’s box we do not want opened as while you have the best of intentions, others will not,” Nora said.
“But maybe there’s a way to balance it,” I muttered, shocked when she gave me a look that I was being silly and it wasn’t going to happen. “They have a dairy farm and bison. They know how to repopulate animals and—”
“So do we and yet we didn’t need you to visit,” she reminded me. “We were able to get everything online without you physically coming there.”
“We have whole facilities that need to come back online,” Marta argued. “We cannot take them all apart and bring them here for her to fix. The energy and time could be used in so many better ways, including killing more corrupted so humans live. We have been doing this. We have been helping them as I agree
