Ana stirred the stew with her wooden travelling spoon and thought about when her day had begun to go so wrong. She was confident the tension between her and Lillian had started somewhere during their hike up the mountain. The night before, things weren't good but they were ok. 

She picked up a spoonful of carrot and mush and lifted it into the air before placing it back in the stew to continue to stir. 

She was hungry. She’d been walking uphill all day and her stomach had been grumbling since midday. But, as she sat with another of Gusteau’s innovative takes on dinner in her lap, she wasn’t sure she was quite hungry enough. 

Gusteau’s cooking was quite good in general. He wasn’t a bad cook when he stuck to standard Weiden flavours and recipes. It was when he tried to be creative and add new ingredients that everything went wrong. 

Xolrun and Ana had discussed his cooking the previous week when he’d tried to make a mustard-baked cod over their campfire. Xolrun had taken the lead and explained that he wasn’t to try mustard again until he knew how to use it properly. 

Ana stirred her food and watched the countless specks of rosemary leaves coat every piece of potato, carrot, and leek that emerged from the stew’s surface.

She chose a piece of carrot to put in her mouth and picked it up. She forced down the broth of the soup and held the large piece of carrot between her front teeth. She bit down and felt the carrot hold firmly for a second before it cracked into two large pieces. She worked hard to break both of the pieces down and pondered whether the carrot being so undercooked was perhaps a blessing in disguise. She relished the hints of raw carrot flavour that managed to sneak past the dizzyingly strong rosemary flavour and focussed on swallowing as quickly as possible. 

Ana stirred the stew again and kept an eye for other pieces of carrot. She’d eat the carrot and the mushroom and then toss the potato when she went out for her sentry duty, she decided.

“I find it helps if you chew it with the back molars. My front teeth can’t hack it anymore.” Hoden pointed to the back of his mouth and mimicked how he chewed. 

“Oh uh, I am ok. Thank you.” She covered her mouth while she spoke and tried to crunch through the last remaining pieces of carrots.

Hoden had set up next to Ana and Lillian when they’d made camp and Ana couldn’t believe her poor luck. Gusteau and Khlen had obviously made their little lover’s nest on the other side of camp but Ana had assumed that Hoden would be a third wheel for them and not her. 

Then, when they’d drawn names for sentry duty, Lillian had picked dinner duty and Ana was suddenly spending quality time with the odd giant yet again. 

She readjusted herself on the small ledge she and Hoden sat on. The campsite they’d foundd had been an ideal stopping location at least. The four of them were crowded around a small raised fire pit in the Valleys’ eastern passes. The small enclave had a raised ledge that worked around its edge and enough space for about ten people. They’d been able to spread out all of their gear nicely and set up a fire that heated the little refuge to a comfortable heat.

Ana risked a lookout to the front to see Lillian sitting on the raised sentry seat by herself with her arms wrapped over her shoulders and her chin tucked in against the cold. 

Ana looked away quickly. Lillian would want nothing to do with her while she sat outside in the cold. She probably wouldn’t be very chatty until she returned back to their accommodation in Ol’Haran. 

Lillian had notified Ana how upset she was with Ana’s choice of contracts. She had scolded her for taking her on a trip that went so high up into the mountains and one that required so much hiking but Ana hadn’t had any idea the trip was going to be so arduous. She’d thought it would be an interesting little trip down to the edges of the Central Mountains.

Then, Gusteau had made them hike hard for the entire day, from sunrise right up until the sun started to set. When they’d got to Agstad, he’d only let them break for lunch while he connected with the town mayor to gather the information they needed for the contract. Ana couldn’t remember much of what he told him and he’d quickly forgotten most of the important information as well.  

Gusteau told them the mayor was cagey about a mysterious blockage in a tunnel halfway up a path to the Central Mountains and the mayor wanted them to clear it. She’d told Gusteau that the villagers had sworn there was a massive wall that had suddenly appeared three weeks ago out of thin air and they had no idea what might have caused it. It sounded like a cave-in to Ana but she loathed the hard labour that would be involved with clearing it out. She spooned another chunk of carrot into her mouth and felt guilty again. Perhaps she had chosen a bad first adventure for Lillian. 

She bit down on the carrot and forced herself to look on the bright side like Gusteau. He was confident they could sort it out in a day if they got a good sleep and started nice and early in the morning. If they did manage to finish the contract before noon, they could head back down to the lowlands before dinner with a good amount of pay. Then, she could treat Lillian to a nice dinner as a thank you and work her way back into Lillian’s good graces.

Her eyes wandered back over to Lillian. Even so far out in the sticks, and wearing her smelly travelling clothes with her hair in a messy bundle, she looked stunning. Lillian had an entrancing beauty to her that people always gravitated towards. She worked hard to ensure her skin was always flawless and Ana had heard people use many words to try and capture her beauty over the years but the one that stuck with her was vivacious.

Ana smiled. When she thought of Lillian’s beauty, her mind always went back to a peculiar Mahenian Guildmaster who had told Lillian that she was a charming, curvaceous young woman when they were at a social fete. 

He had stated his weird compliment like commenting on a stranger’s form wasn’t an uncomfortable social faux pas. Lillian had taken the tense moment in her step, telling him that she was always happy to be called young and charming. His partner, who was standing next to him at the time, gave him a filthy look and quickly made an excuse for them to leave.

Ana and Lillian would still reminisce every so often about how strange the man had been. He had been a pint-sized gentleman with a moustache that curled up to his ears and a foppish mess of salt and pepper curly hair sitting on his head. Ana would have guessed he was in his late sixties and Ana had no idea whether he had simply been observing Lillian’s natural beauty or if he had more scandalous motives in mind. 

Lillian had laughed the situation off and told Ana that so long as he didn’t tell the guards about them crashing the Guild fete, she wouldn’t hold it against him.

Ana let memory warm her. They’d been through worse than this and they’d come out stronger for it. Ana would get their life back on track soon and things would get easier. They’d been together for four years, with three of the years being in the Golden City of Ilreana. Their life had been difficult in the giant metropolis but they’d loved every second of their time there, as poor as they had been. 

With so many people, both of them had found it impossible to get a proper foot in the door for their professions. Ana had to work at a rune filling workshop for ten hour days six days a week while she applied for better guild positions. She had always dreamt of being a bespoke bijou creator for one of the guilds, where she could create bijous for the magic that the Ilreana guilds wanted to see in the world but the position was highly sought after and highly.competitive. 

Lillian’s aspirations were more nuanced, she’d played a gig every night of the week when she was more popular in the tavern scene. She was busy most nights and they’d barely seen each other in their final year in Mahenia, with Ana being too tired to go to watch Lillian and Lillian out most nights to network. 

Moving to Ol’Haran had been a tough choice but necessary one, Ana could see it now. When they received Gusteau’s letter, Lillian had been the one that was adamant that they should take up the offer while Ana was in two minds about moving back. At the end of the day, Ana appreciated being able to see Lillian more when she was home and she didn’t mind all of the travel, especially in contrast to when she was sitting in the workshop all day before.

And when Lillian joined them on contracts, they could spend a lot more time together, like they had always wanted.

The fact they hadn’t talked much all day grated on Ana but she didn’t push the point. Lillian needed her space when she was upset, especially when Ana was the one who had upset her. 

Ana regretted the situation, seeing clearly how she made an error now it was hindsight. She’d suggested that Lillian join them for the contract because she had no gigs for the week and still not come to any of the other contracts since they’d been in Ol’Haran. 

The fight had really kicked off when Ana reminded Lillian that they were running out of money. A fact that Lillian hated to acknowledge but a fact that was unequivocally true. 

They had already managed to work through a lot of their nest egg in the last few months, and the contracts were a good way they could boost the money back up if they both went. But to Lillian, it was a betrayal.

She was a musician through and through. She could fight if she needed to but her profession was to play for others, her dream was to play in courts around the world. 

Ana sipped at another spoon of stew. She hurried to swallow it down and went for another spoonful. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Lillian’s dream but Ana struggled to figure out exactly what she felt.

“Look at you loving this stew, bet you’d want some of mine then?” Hoden whispered to her and shifted his bowl over.

Ana placed her hand over her bowl while she chewed. With her other hand, she waved his bowl away with her spoon while she shook her head.  

“Can’t blame me for trying.” Hoden placed his bowl down between them, rifled through his pockets to drop a knife, pink bracelet, and pencil in the space between Ana and himself. Once he’d checked his other pockets, he stretched back to lay his back onto the wall and relaxed into a comfortable reclined sitting position. He shut his eyes but continued their conversation, “How are you finding Ol’Haran anyway?”

Ana finished her mouthful and responded, “It isn’t too bad. We’re just having some teething issues as we get settled.”

“Mm, sorry to hear. Getting by in Ol’Haran has been more difficult recently, must feel like big teeth.”

Ana looked at him, unsure how to respond to such a strange turn of phrase.

“Meeting Lillian has been good.” Hoden offered afterwards in the lull between them. 

Ana met his eyes and tried to gauge whether he was being disingenuous or not. He had a way of talking that sometimes sounded malicious but then, the words at face value were disarmingly inane. 

Gusteau had told her when she’d started that Hoden just spoke like that because he was a simple man. He was the sort of folk that was just perfectly content with his life and his words could be abrasive because of his southern ‘call it as I see it’ mentality.  

Ana hadn’t argued with Gusteau then but, over the few months they’d been together, she suspected there was more to the man than Gusteau let on.  

Sometimes he’d mention something he shouldn’t have known about and then watched the others to see their reactions. He tracked people as they walked past them and he always seemed to know how many weapons Ana had on her at any given time.

Gusteau played it off as guard habits, nothing out of the ordinary for a veteran guard. But it wasn’t just his skills. Many people in town knew him and would wave as they walked through the street and he would simply excuse his popularity as being friendly at the gate.

He had always trained six times a week and kept up with Xolrun and Khlen when they sparred, which was a feat few in Ol’Haran were able to claim. Despite sitting on guard duty on South Gate for the last fifteen years of his life. 

Ana hadn’t wanted to pry, not at the beginning at least, but he had begun to fascinate her. He had told them he was a father of two children early on but she always saw at the tavern in town or for days at a time on a contract. And Ana had never met his wife nor the children he spoke of so often and she bet neither had Gusteau or Khlen. Ana prided herself in her maths and perception and both of them were telling her that none of his life was adding up.

Ana ate another spoonful of stew while she and Hoden watched each other. He looked completely at ease despite her staring.

She chose to break the quiet that had developed between them, “I’m sorry if Lillian offended you earlier. She just isn’t good with going up hills.”

“No no. you’ve no blame in that.” Hoden waved the comment away and smiled, “Lillian and I are adults, we should have been more reasonable.”

“That’s true.” Ana relented but felt uneasy by the way he’d phrased it, “I think it is harder for her because she’s not used to the hiking and the camping.”

“She might not enjoy camping but she was doing better on the hills than you were. Maybe she’ll acclimate if she decides she wants to be here instead of acting like she’s being forced.” Hoden concluded simply while he picked up a piece of potato from his bowl with his fingers. 

Ana picked up more stew and chewed on a chunk of carrot, “Maybe we can find a nice contract closer to town next time.”

“Perhaps.” Hoden offered her half heartedly as he popped his head back on the stone and began to close his eyes.

Ana checked the others while she forced down the carrot. She took in the sounds of the gentle crackling of the campfire and the stew bubbling away in its stand. The amount of hiking they’d done had taken its toll on everyone and left them exhausted and quiet. Ana hadn’t realised how difficult the travel was going to be, especially with the pace Gusteau had set, it had been an unfortunate surprise. 

Ana scratched the inside of her elbow and felt a wave of relief at the sensation. She should’ve been more careful with what contract she had Lillian join as her first taste of the contract experience. She should’ve known to take Lillian somewhere metropolitan and not somewhere so rural and so cold. 

Any of the gorgeous sites that were in the Valleys were lost on Ana and Lillian as their argument marred the day. Hopefully, once Lillian came back in from her sentry duty, Ana could wrap her up next to the fire and pray tomorrow would be better. 

Or even, Ana reasoned, she could even see if Lillian wanted to go the long way home through North Rest once the contract was done. They had a bit of money for travel and they deserved some reward for their hard work.

Ana contented herself with her new plan and her eyes drifted over the campfire once more. Gusteau lay on his back with his bowl sitting precariously on the peak of his middle-aged tummy. He had his hands clasped around its base but the bowl rose and fell with his slow deep breaths. His eyes were closed and he seemed perfectly at peace with his foot gently resting on the outside of Khlen’s thigh. 

Khlen sat cross-legged a little way from him. Content in sharpening her sword with her whetstone, she ran the stone down the carefully maintained blade in long even strokes while she quietly hummed to herself. 

Ana put her feet up onto the ledge and kicked backwards to slide herself towards the wall where Hoden rested. She grabbed her bedroll from her side and placed it onto the wall, squishing it against the wall to make a makeshift cushion. With one last heave, she pushed herself against the cushion and collapsed into relative comfort. Ana felt more than just exhausted, she was weary down to her very bones. She was tired of starting fresh, tired of hiking, and tired of being the one that always had to try and keep the peace. Ana scowled while she tried to relax, Lillian should know better than to pick fights with her friends as well if Ana was being honest with herself. 

“Psst, I’m going to need you to tell Gusteau that he needs to put meat in his stews. I’ll waste away if he keeps up this addiction with vegetable soup.” Hoden whispered from the side of his mouth.

“It is meant to be good for your humours, the physicians say.” Ana responded helpfully, “Meat twice a week sets the foundation for optimum stomach clarity.” 

Hoden peeked out to see if she was serious. He scrunched up his nose and picked up a spoonful of the stew from his bowl. He let the broth slowly dribble back into the soup while he quietly responded, “You’re welcome to have a clear stomach. But I’ll take the meat and bad humours.” 

“Seriously, there was a study of two communities' eating habits that found if you had a vegetable-based diet compared to a meat-heavy one, that it could drastically increase life expectancy.” Ana pushed the point and sat up slightly, suddenly feeling a bit better now she had an interesting topic to discuss, “They found towns with the vegetable-heavy diet had seniors living more than a decade older than others communities in Central Eastern mountains.”

“Wait wait wait,” Hoden turned to face her with a smirk on his face, “The CE mountains as in the Sarik Commonwealth?”

“She was a visiting professor of the Hiy Craic of Wizardry and Shamanistic Education, which is in the Sarik Commonwealth.”

“And so now I’m eating potatoes, broccoli, and carrot stew five days a week because it is better for goat people?” Hoden interrupted her.

Ana flushed red on his behalf, “Filienne Blushes, Hoden. You can’t say that.”

“Oh, I’m just calling it as it is. Apples are apples and I’m an ape-kin who needs meat, Ana.”

Ana held up her spoon and waved it in front of his face, “I am well aware of how apples work but saying that word is rude. Faetyr folk don’t like being called goatfolk or goat people, Hoden.”

Hoden raised his hands up in fake submission, “Oh, you’ve not met all of them. I just don’t think I should be punished with no meat because they should be eating vegetables.”

“And how would you feel about me telling Xolrun that you used the term goat people, Hoden?” Khlen asked without looking up from her sword.

Uncertainty flickered across his face, “Oh. Now, ah, I don’t think that would be necessary really.”

Khlen didn’t stop sharpening her blade. They all dropped into silence once more, this time a slightly more awkward one.

“Tomorrow night, my shout for a big meal at Golch’s. I, too, miss meat.” Gusteau added from his bedroll. He leant up on his arm and wagged his finger at Hoden, “and you’ll thank me and my stews when you are in your seventies and healthy.”

Hoden scooped up a large spoon of stew and slowly made a show of holding it out for Gusteau to see before putting it in his mouth, “Maybe. But you still over spiced the stew.”

“I followed the recipe to the tittle, I’ll have you know. Regardless of how much disruption it might be causing to my stomach.” Gusteau commented as he eased himself back down to lay down on the floor.

“Could be a human issue.” Khlen commented idly.

Ana picked up her bowl and scooped up another piece of potato for another try. She imagined she was eating a large portion of grilled chicken from Golsch’s Stead and crunched down. 

She loved Golsch’s Stead. It was her favourite tavern in Ol’Haran and, in fact, the first tavern that Gusteau took her to when she arrived in Ol’Haran. The memory of the delicious food helped with the potato ever so slightly as she chewed it.

She’d not had high hopes of good quality food when she’d arrived back in Weidenland but there was something endearing about the heavy, wholesome meals of her homeland.

“Are we sure we took the right road up the hill?” Ana asked the group but looked specifically at Khlen.

“I’m confident. The villagers told us to go left at the first crossroad and then right at the gully to go up the mountain. It should be close, I think.” Khlen responded confidently. 

Ana scrunched up her face. She trusted Khlen but it irked her that none of them had taken notes when they were in the village. Ana herself was distracted and hadn’t realised that, with Xolrun gone, neither Khlen nor Gusteau had planned who would record what the town’s mayor had said. Gusteau had assumed Khlen would do it and Khlen hadn’t brought her notepad for their trip.  

Ana had raised her frustration about the notes with the group earlier and her comments had not gone well. She cleared her throat, “Ok, well then we must be close.”

“Oh, not long now. It is maybe another hour up the hill at your speed.” An old man appeared several metres out the front of the cave and only a few steps away from Lillian. 

Lillian leapt backwards and drew her sword as she stood up. Ana checked for her weapons. Both her bijous and weapons were in her bag, which was on the other side of the campfire, and far out of reach. She grabbed Hoden’s knife from her side and kicked forwards towards the campfire.

The old man put his hands up, “Hey oh! You know me. I am from Agstad. I was at the meeting, I’m friendly. I swear.”

“Lillian! How did he get past?” Hoden patted at the spot where his knife had been and gave Ana a look of surprise.

“I don’t know. He came out of nowhere!” Lillian pointed her sword at the old man, “Not another step!” 

Gusteau strode across to the front of the cave, “Lillian. He is fine. It is good to see you again,” he said but hesitated at the end of his sentence.

“Jean’li,” Khlen quietly added for Gusteau.

“Jean’li.” Gusteau continued, “Come to join us by the fire. High health and warm hearth.” Gusteau made the sign for the old human saying.

Jean’li made the sign back at him and gave as wide a berth around Lillian as he could before moving in close to the fire. He held his hands out to warm them and flashed them all half-toothed grin. 

Ana watched him unabashedly, put out by how he could just walk into the middle of their camp without a care. Ana couldn’t remember seeing the short, wiry man in Agstad but she had been tinkering with her gauntlet so not seeing him wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities for her. 

His hands went into his long leather coat and he pulled his cotton pants up through his pockets. He grunted with the effort and his little legs poked out of the ends of his pants. He muttered to himself happily as he peered inside the cooking pot.  

Ana placed the knife back down and traded it for her bowl. She lifted herself up onto her feet and walked over to join him by the fire. 

She walked to the opposite side to the strange little man and took the ladle out of the pot, revealing a collection of chunky stew inside the ladle. She refilled her bowl with the extra stew and offered the food to Jean’li, "Please.” 

 “Amazing, thank you.”Jean'li eagerly took the bowl and scooped up a spoonful of stew, “High health and hearth to you all.” 

“My pleasure.” Ana returned to her seat, feeling pleased with herself, “So what brings you up the mountain so late at night?”

“I thought I’d come and check on how you were doing. I am surprised you haven't got to the tunnel yet.” He said as he blew on his stew. 

Ana exchanged looks with Khlen and Gusteau across the fire. Gusteau responded to them, “We have been taking our time to enjoy the view. Is the tunnel up ahead?”

“Oh, only a short walk now.” The old man grunted in agreement, shuffled around the fire and plonked himself down next to Ana. She watched him take his first bite of the stew and then fight to keep a straight face. He chewed several times before his face became a polite grimace. 

No one said anything as Jean’li spat the stew back out into his palm to inspect the chunks, “Who is the cook?”

“That would be me.” Gusteau announced himself apprehensively. 

“Best to put the rosemary aside, lad. Stew needs vegetables, meat, and salt and nothing extra. No nonsense.”

Hoden clapped his hands, “Exactly! A voice of reason.” 

“What a glowing comparison for you both,” Khlen quipped as she got up and approached the pot with her bowl, “I think it was a good first attempt at a Rei’lok stew.”

Ana watched as a goofy smile spread across Gusteau’s face as he watched Khlen fill her bowl again before returning to sit next to him.

Ana felt something ache in her chest and she hovered uncertainly on the ledge before getting back up and looking over at Lillian, “Sorry.”

Gusteau and Khlen made space for her and both offered her a supportive smile as she passed. 

“You’re a strapping lad then, mind if I pull up a seat next to you?” Jean’li shuffled back to join Hoden, frighteningly close to Ana’s bedroll. 

Before she could say anything, Hoden’s hand snatched her bedroll and flicked it over to his other side, “Sure! More body heat to warm me up.”

“If it’s heat we need,” Jean’li kicked back next to sit with Hoden and opened his coat. From the recesses of his clothes, he produced a metal flask, “I brought a few drops to warm us up.”

A cheer came from both Gusteau and Hoden as Jean’li tossed the metal flask over to Gusteau. Ana ducked to the side as the flask veered off course to be caught by Khlen as she nimbly leapt to the side. 

When Jean’li produced a second flask and passed it to Hoden, laughter rolled through the group and warmth emanated out from the small enclave and into the frosty night outside. Lillian sat at the edge, wrapped in only her travelling cloak and a rug sitting around her feet. 

Ana carefully stepped out from the fireside and towards the entrance of the cutout. The wind swept through her as she moved outside. The little cave they’d set up in was only five or so metres deep but the walls and floor appeared to have been carved and polished many centuries ago. 

If Ana was to guess, they’d camped in an ancient Mahenian bivouac, given its sentry post and firepit. The sentry had a stool carved into its centre with a small wall for the sentry to hide behind should the need arise. The inside of the enclave was well built as well, with a firepit placed in the middle on a slightly raised pit and several exhaust holes in the roof sending a good amount of the smoke out into the night. Gusteau swore that there would be a trick to enable them to control exactly how the vents worked to keep more of the heat in but none of them had had luck locating it. 

Lillian sat at the entrance with her back to Ana and watched the inky darkness of the night. Ana approached her and cleared her throat. 

Lillian pointedly stared out into the night and Ana joined her looking into the darkness while she waited. She couldn’t see much of the trail after so much time near the fire but she could make out hints of the edge of the road and the foliage that forced its way up the steep sides of the mountain. They’d hiked along the edge of the mountain bases most of the day and the forest had kept pace with them while they walked on the edges of the Central Mountain Peaks. The jungle gripped onto the mountains around them and rose high up into the clouds above their heads, demanding to occupy any space the vegetation could survive in, no matter if they lived amongst the clouds.

She preferred the vast views of the tundras of the Central Mountains or the plains of the Southern Hills of the Mahenian Peak’s territory but she could see why many loved to visit the cities like Home Rukor or Ulmsin for their views of the Western jungles.

“He just appeared next to me. I couldn’t have looked away for more than a second,” Lillian complained abruptly.

“He’s a local, with a home field advantage." Ana sidled in to close the distance between them and gently touched Lillian’s shoulder, “Although, it does help if you look out instead of down.”

Lillian twisted away from her hand, “I know how to be a lookout, Ana.”

Ana dropped her hand back to her side and her stomach twisted in a knot. 

Lillian continued, “I hate how you let Gusteau make me go on first lookout. On the first night of my first contract, and you make me sit out here while you all sit in there laughing and having fun.”

“Lilly-pad,” Ana began cautiously. She waited half a beat before she continued, “it was the luck of the draw. I’m out here next and then Khlen is the dawnlight shift. I can keep you company for a while if you want?”

“No.” Lillian stood and kicked the rug at her feet, “Go yuk it up with your buddies in the warmth.”

Ana’s heart ached watching Lillian pull away from her but she didn’t fight it. 

She knew Lillian had trouble with making friends and it was understandable with all the bad experiences of her childhood. She’d told Ana of how she had suffered in her hometown and how her past traumas had made it hard to connect with others. She understood how hurtful it could be when Ana tried too hard to make Lillian go places or do things. 

Ana pulled in a breath of cold air and pulled her sleeves down on her shirt. She looked back to see her coat firmly tucked in the straps of her bag, over by the glowing, inviting fireside.

Ana locked eyes with Gusteau as he watched her. He gave her a look of disapproving consternation but made no move to join Ana and Lillian. Ana waved to him reassuringly and turned back to Lillian, “If you want me to come and join you, let me know.”

“Don’t hold your breath.” Lillian responded coldly. 

Ana turned back to the fire and put on a fake smile for the others. She beelined to her bag and pulled out her cloak. She wrapped it around her shoulders and took one look at Hoden and the weird old man before she made her choice for where to sit. 

She picked up the bag and shuffled it to the edge of the campsite’s ledge. Gusteau shifted to give her space next to him and, incidentally, closed the small gap between himself and Khlen. Ana plopped herself down next to Gusteau and turned her back on him, pretending to sort through her bag while she forced back a flurry of tears. 

“It’s like a proper sinister wall though. I’ve seen it. It goes straight up and has no grooves or nothing.” The old man spoke passionately in the firelight, “We spent half a day digging it out and only made a tiny hole to look through.”

The old man made a circle with his two hands and looked through it at Gusteau, “Then, after lunch, we went back in and the wall was whole again without so much as a dent. It is Wild Magic, I’m telling you.”

“Hmmm,” Gusteau responded before Ana could, “Wild magic doesn’t work like that though, Jean’li. It can’t be focussed onto a single object in that way and Wild Magic doesn’t heal itself.” 

Gusteau cocked his head to the side and stroked his chin to do some exaggerated thinking while Hoden dozed and Khlen sharpened her sword. 

“It could be runes in the wall? If someone placed a viscous mud into a collection of runes, it could refill the gaps if they had bijous to set parameters? Then combine them to make a mud wall?” Ana suggested.

Gusteau weighed up her idea and looked over at Khlen, “Maybe a cave-in?”

“No no, I have been in the mountains for generations and there’s no cave-in as neat-like as this one in the tunnel.” Jean’li insisted, looking over to Hoden for support and then Khlen, who had placed her sword down and began to huddle in close to Gusteau for warmth. 

Gusteau sighed loudly and made a show of stretching his arm over Khlen’s shoulder, “Fine, well. It will be a very interesting day tomorrow then.” 

Jean’li mumbled his agreement and placed his stew down, preferring to draw his pipe out of his pocket instead.

“Jean’li, please. Outside.” Khlen flicked her tongue out before kindly but strongly requesting.

“Very well,” Jean’li shifted up and scrambled back towards the fire, “Any one like to join?”

His offer met a murmur of sleepy noes. 

“Thank you,” Khlen said as she pulled out a long warm coat and tossed it over to him, “Also, want a blanket for the night?”

Jean’li caught it and gave her a fond smile, “Very kind.” 

He placed the blanket next to Hoden and then waddled out of the cave to stand next to Lillian. He lit his pipe and then a second later, he lit Lillian’s. 

Ana smiled sadly before turning to Khlen, “Say Khlen, mind if I borrow your runed coldweather cloak for the night shift tonight. The wind is really howling out there.”

Khlen softened as she looked at her, “Of course. I gave it to Lillian before. Grab it off her when you head out?”

“Perfect. Thanks,” Ana responded as she looked back out at Lillian standing guard
with Khlen’s cloak still sitting at her feet, heat pouring into the cold stone floor no
doubt, “just got to get the contract done.”