The cook can prepare another batch while he's here if he wouldn't mind waiting.

"Do Narnians vary what they eat depending on the time of year?"

"Some fruits are best at certain times of year even in Narnia, but I think less than the people here do in general."

"What about hot foods in the winter? We have clotted cream and honey heated up - it's delicious."

"I must again mention chocolate, it makes a lovely beverage with milk and sugar and warmed up till it's steaming."

"Oh, that sounds good! Warm sweet drinks when it's cold are delightful."

"Hot cider's nice too. - I wouldn't add the mushrooms quite yet," he adds to the cook.

"Oh, we have cider! Do you ever go outside when it's been snowing just so you can enjoy a hot drink more? I do sometimes, and my mother always scolds me. But she's not going to be allowed to when I'm married, so maybe I'll get to do it without being scolded this winter."

The cook puts the mushrooms aside.

"I'm more of a fan of coming in from the cold and then having the hot drink inside to warm up."

"But it's so hard to watch it snowing from inside!"

"That's never been a problem for me but I can see how it would be for someone as entranced by the snow as you."

"-oh you're not an empowered so I guess you can't see snowflakes properly. That's a shame, they're very pretty - I have some pictures I painted if you want to see?"

"I can see details on a snowflake if it holds still without melting for long enough, but I would love to see your paintings."

Sophie has a variety of extremely accurate oil paintings of individual snowflakes, as well as several others of cloudy skies with intricate, precise clouds and vague, almost abstract land below them.

"This one is from last June, and I really love it. Except in the corner I had to paint over a stain because I was trying to have lunch and paint at the same time because I hadn't seen such nice Cumulus humilis before and it was pretty windy so I didn't have much time."

"These are gorgeous!"

"The actual clouds were better."

"No doubt, but the specific clouds were ephemeral and the painting is as close as I'll get to seeing them."

Sophie nods.

"Clouds changing all the time is both one of their best and worst traits."

"Do clouds have any middling traits?"

Sophie has to think about that one for a bit.

"It's hard to see when you're inside one."

"Is it hard to breathe too or only to see?"

"Just hard to see, breathings easy even if it's cold."

When the second batch of stirfry is ready Haru goes to have a forkful.

Sophie does as well.

"Oh, it's not so terrible this time!"

"Maybe you'd really like it with soy sauce. I think it's okay given that limitation."