Chapter 35: Congratulations, You Can Make More Ice

Dove read the question about the white fox once more, then asked Varek whether Terminal normally put women beneath thread on its shopping list. He said they asked after people they knew, which was an answer and very little comfort.

She closed with fifteen normal coins and seventeen Favor, both Day Thirteen missions complete. Thorne’s scarf lay folded beside her mat. She fell asleep remembering his fingers beneath her chin, then woke to a man shouting that somebody needed to look at his bucket.

It was an unpromising start to Day Fourteen. She took her daily pool-water wash before going anywhere, sitting safely while her mind filled the basin and bringing it out to wash her real body. Her legs felt steadier in the cold now. Her dress also needed its lacing loosened another finger’s width, which she wrote down before Sprout could call it customer engagement.

Today’s consignment was four sealed sterile gauze packets. Selling three earned twelve normal coins; six fresh Favor Coins would unlock winter socks at twelve normal coins. She accepted the tasks, put three packets in her clean bowl, and went to investigate the bucket.

A stores worker stood by the service door with one finger resting in a skin of ice. Water had frozen beneath his hand while the rest of the bucket stayed liquid. He lifted his finger and a small ridge followed it, leaving him staring as though the bucket had insulted his mother.

"Congratulations," Dove said. "You’ve invented more of the problem."

He gave her a miserable look that made her soften the joke. She asked whether he could stop, and he pulled back until the ice stopped growing. Varek kept people from crowding his elbow. Nobody had instructions, a proper name for the talent, or a useful explanation.

The kitchen cook arrived next, swearing that his thumb had caught fire without hurting. He held it away from his apron, and a flame smaller than a candle wick flickered above the skin. Dove felt a ridiculous rush of hope before it went out.

"Right. We can thaw one pea at a time," she said. The cook laughed shakily, then asked for an empty metal tray to practice over. Varek cleared a space rather than letting him experiment beside lamp oil.

At the far screen, a stag loader shifted to help pull a stalled sled, then grew so abruptly that his back struck the low frame. He scrambled into the higher part of the bay, enormous legs knocking an empty crate sideways. Dove watched him shrink again once he stopped struggling. This was not a new species or a man becoming an animal for the first time. His usual full beast form had suddenly become much larger.

Thorne found her watching from the safe side of the doorway. "Kael’s changed too," he said, and she followed him to the clinic before Sprout could turn that into a mission.

The healer stood over an attendant’s freshly burned hand. Light showed between his fingers, and the angry patch of skin faded while Dove watched. Kael released it and caught the table, breathing hard. He said he had woken before dawn with his hands glowing and discovered the healing while treating an early patient.

"That’s three injuries this morning," he said, reaching for the second bowl of stew beside him. "And I’ve eaten twice. I’m hungry again. It takes something out of me."

Dove asked whether he could control what it healed. He said he was learning, which was more reassuring than an instant claim that he could fix everything. Old scars and illnesses were still untested. The attendant fetched bread from the kitchen, where there was enough to answer hunger with food instead of a speech.

Ash arrived to arrange reports and safe places to practice. Kael was still wary of Dove’s supplies, still gentle with the attendant, and now apparently capable of repairing flesh with his hands. She had several questions and no intention of asking them while he looked ready to eat the table.

A horn sounded outside. Terminal’s truck waited beyond the service bay with chains on its tires, a patched cover, and a sled trailer carrying sealed food tubs, tools, blankets, and clothing. Three months of freezing weather had damaged roads and raised the cost of fuel. It had not erased every can of dinner.

Dove asked Thorne to walk with her to the marked trading area. He stayed near her shoulder, wearing an expression that suggested the six arriving men were a less welcome development than the giant stag.

Hale climbed down first, a broad human-shaped man with tawny hair, tufted lynx ears, and a short tail beneath his coat. His weathered face went still when he saw her, then lost its confident smile entirely when he noticed Thorne.

"You’re helping her?" he asked, looking between them as two crewmen stopped unloading.

"She asked me to come," Thorne answered. His hand stayed by his own side, but Dove was aware of every inch between it and hers.

She set down the bowl. "These are sealed gauze packets. You may inspect the wrapping, and staring at my face is still not a payment method."

Kael joined them after finishing his meal, carrying a list of clinic supplies for the visitors. He looked less pale, but he asked for a stool before checking the packets. Dove shifted her bowl so he could sit without reaching across her. Being able to heal people apparently did not remove the need for basic furniture.

Hale’s surprise earned six Favor Coins, bringing that purse to twenty-three and unlocking the socks. He traded a sealed powdered-milk packet for all three gauze packets after Kael checked their labels. The sales target paid twelve normal coins, raising that purse to twenty-seven. One gauze packet remained at the stall on consignment.

A crewman offered to carry her bowl and asked whether she had accepted any mates. She told him no, and that neither answer made the bowl a courting opportunity. He looked disappointed but kept smiling. Rumors had clearly failed to make a beautiful, unattached woman uninteresting to men who rarely met one.

Hale watched Thorne step closer when another carrier passed. "Last time I saw you together, you wanted him out before nightfall," he said.

Dove set the bowl down again. The morning’s strange powers could wait, but the sudden stillness beside her could not. She faced the man who had walked Thorne out and asked what had happened after he listened.