The Paladin's Shadow; Coffee and Cooperation

Credits; Petra,

Petra stood outside the door apprehensively.  Even if it weren't for the fact that she'd never visited someone else's house, let alone a single man's house, and uninvited to boot, she'd have still been nervous.  This was His house, his inner sanctum.  It would be like..well rather like him stopping by at her house uninvited.  She'd be nice about it of course, Mom wouldn't but she would, but it was Her House, and you couldn't just visit without asking first. 
"You're going to have to learn how to knock one of these days, Petra.  Left on your own out there without a jacket you could freeze to the doorstep.  Get inside, I've got a fire started already and there's a pot of water on the stove."
She glanced around and realized that it had started snowing while she'd been staring at the door.  There was a heavy dusting on her shoulders already, and it had started to pile over her boots.  How long had she been standing there? 
"I had the feeling you'd be by at some point, so I pulled up an extra chair.  I hope you don't mind, its really soft."
"I love soft chairs, but why did you think I'd be by?"
"I checked out all of the books on the Chori-Sada.  I'm afraid I don't know much about them so I needed to do some research.  I kinda had the feeling you wouldn't know much about them either, what with your mother being Death and all I'm sure your bedtime stories were of a completely different sort."
"Demons slain nightly, Knights slain demoniclly, and much mercy taken upon little girls who shut up and listened to their mothers." 
He laughed.  It was the truth though.  Often as not she had been the little girl, but there had been stories of all three sorts.  Mom's true stories had left little time for Dad's vastly more enjoyable fairy tales. 
"Yes, I imagine we've all heard a few stories about your mother's adventures.  But I imagine they all got a lot better with exaggeration and embellishment."  They heard the tea kettle begin to whistle and Shad thumbed towards the kitchen.  "Coccoa or Tea?"
"Coffee?"
"Really? You know, not many Nielda like coffee."
"I'm aware of it."
"Well it is nice to meet a fellow drinker."
He turned and stepped into the kitchen.  Petra walked over to the fireplace.  It was solid stone, and had been carved hollow to make room for both the fire itself and the chimney.  From the looks of things, the house had been built around it.  It wasn't much to look at, and most of what there was was obscured by the mountains of books.  She spotted the top of a grandfather clock over a collection of loose diary entries, and between the full editions of both Baskarina's Better Bestiary and Encyclopedia Horrifica she spotted what appeared to be a chess set.  The lighting wasn't all that great, but it did give the entire room, a living room she guessed, the feel of a very large old fashioned study.  Well, the lighting and the books did, the furniture was clearly meant for a living room.  A sofa and the chair he'd brought out especially for her. 
"...Your coffee?"
"Sorry, what?"
"I said how do you like your coffee?"
"Oh! Uhm, Two sugars, three creams."
"Really? I always do mine the other way around."
Petra laughed and took the coffee.  He'd brewed it perfectly, not that it was the best she'd ever had, just that it was done exactly the way it was supposed to be done.  She had to admit that it had actually lost something in that perfect execution.  It was like summoned cookies; They were technically perfect, but they still didn't taste as good as a batch that had a teaspoon too much flour, or had baked half a second too long. 
"Its good.  Thank you."
"I don't know why but it always tastes better when other people make it.  I don't get it, I do it exactly like it says to."
"Maybe you need to be a bit less percise then."
"Maybe."  Shad paused and from the look on his face he was seriously considering the situation.  Petra had never seen anyone think so hard about coffee.