Free Determine by Viola Grace

Chapter One
    H ydrangea Graham looked around at the wreck of the table and heaved a sigh. “I think it may have been an error to ask the students to come along.”
    Liskey laughed. “Well, you gave them a decent meal for the week, possibly the term. I was surprised that you were able to get the instructors to loosen up.”
    Hydra laughed. “I had the server spike their drinks. Nothing major, just a little more than they ordered.”
    Liskey gasped, “You had them intoxicated against their knowledge?”
    Hydra chortled evilly. “No. I just had extra sweetener put in their appetizers. It relaxed their dispositions, just like it does during morning breaks. Mind you, my picking up the tab probably did more for their moods than anything else.”
    “That was very generous of you.” Liskey smiled and summoned the server again. “My friend would like the forty-seven-ingredient soup, please.”
    The server looked at the wreck of the table and nodded. “Of course. Coming up.”
    Hydra laughed. “I think we frightened him. So, are you sure this has all the compounds that I listed?”
    Liskey waved away her concerns. “I checked it nine times. It is dead on. The texture may be off, but the taste should be the same.” Hydrangea tented her fingers together as she contemplated that this small, tidy diner on Deyfell 4 in the heart of Nyal space might actually have something that approached a cup of coffee, even if it was disguised as a bowl of soup.
    “So, Liskey, you said that this little place had another claim to fame?” She sipped at her water and waited.
    Liskey looked around, made sure that they were the last ones in the restaurant and whispered, “The Guardians eat here.”
    “ The Guardians?” The Guardians were the Deyfell system’s answer to the Sector Guard. Each world had their own super-beings that upheld law and order both locally and regarding incursions by other worlds.
    “Yes. Those Guardians. When they have a casual meal, they tend to congregate in places like this. Of course, if they were coming, we would have been asked to leave already, so it won’t be today.”
    Hydra didn’t care. She just wanted to try the coffee soup.
    When the server brought the forty-seven-ingredient soup, she inhaled before tasting. It smelled like coffee. She raised the spoon to her lips and sipped. Oh yeah, baby.
    Her blissful expression must have said it all.
    Halfway through the bowl, a strange prickle entered her mind. It was an urgency that she needed to leave and be somewhere else at that moment. Balls to that , she wasn’t going anywhere.
    Liskey started to fidget, and she said, “Hydra, I think we should be going.”
    “No. I am not going anywhere until I am done and I have another cup of tea.”
    She was enjoying herself and the bizarre compilation of forty-seven ingredients that ended up with a product that tasted like coffee. It wasn’t great coffee, but it was still better than anything she had tasted in a ration pack to date.
    When Liskey tried to get up, Hydra grabbed her wrist and held her to the table until the urge to flee passed. Liskey looked around in confusion and gasped as a chime rang, announcing another customer.
    Seeing Liskey’s gobsmacked expression, Hydra desperately wanted to turn and stare at the newcomers, the multiple nature of the entrance obvious as the footsteps behind her had to belong to at least four individuals.
    Instead of staring at the group, Hydra continued to calmly eat her soup. The server made a beeline to the table and rushed back to the kitchen with the order with more energy than Hydra thought he could manage.
    She chuckled and looked at Liskey. “It seems your earlier statement has been proven incorrect, Instructor.”
    Liskey blinked and then grinned. “Precisely. I do enjoy being wrong on occasion. It keeps me centred in the universe.”
    When she finished her soup, the group had their order delivered to them, and the server stood next to Hydra to take her