Chapter 222 — Rain on His Cloak

The rain reached Hearthfang before Ren did.

Nia heard it striking the outer stone while Shen was cutting dried root into thin pieces beside the hearth. The first drops had been scattered enough that neither of them paid much attention. Spring had been doing that for days—clouds moving over the mountain, threatening something larger, then leaving only damp marks on the paths.

This rain stayed.

Within minutes, water ran from the upper stone in narrow silver lines.

Shen glanced toward the entrance. “That is heavier than I expected.”

Nia crossed to the opening.

The household path had darkened almost completely. Water gathered in the drainage cut, carrying grit downhill in quick little streams. Someone farther along the row was pulling a drying rack beneath deeper cover while two children hurried after a woman carrying an armful of cloth.

“Kael is still out.”

“He took the heavier cover. He'll come back when he's finished.”

“I know.” Nia watched water gather along the path. “That doesn't mean I'm going to stop looking.”

Shen scraped the cut root into a small bowl.

His mouth shifted.

Nia turned from the entrance and caught the expression.

“Don't.”

His mouth shifted farther.

She crossed back to him and kissed his cheek.

Shen caught her at the waist before she could move away and kissed the corner of her mouth. Then he released her and reached for the next root.

Nia laughed.

Rain struck the stone harder.

The sound filled the entrance and covered most of the smaller noises outside. Nia went back to the storage shelf and finished tying the top of an opened grain sack while Shen worked.

They had almost stopped paying attention to the storm when a shadow crossed the entrance.

Nia looked up.

Ren stood under the stone overhang.

For a moment, she only stared.

His cloak was soaked dark from shoulder to hem. Water ran from its lower edge in a steady line onto the entrance stone. His dark-red hair had come almost completely loose and lay wet against his temples and the sides of his face. Both fox ears were flattened by rain, the fur darkened and clumped at the edges.

His tail looked twice as narrow as usual.

Water dripped from the long red fur onto one muddy boot.

Ren lifted one hand. “I have looked better.”

“You look awful, and you're dripping on my floor.”

“That is considerably worse than what I offered you.” His smirk appeared, but even that looked tired. “I see courtship has made you gentle.”

Nia crossed the last step between them and caught his wrist.

His skin was cold.

The joke left her face.

“How long have you been wet?”

“Long enough to regret several decisions about cloaks. The rain caught us beyond the eastern stone rise, so we waited under the lower shelf until the worst of it passed.”

Shen was already moving.

“Come inside before the part that passed returns. Get the cloak off first.”

Ren stepped over the threshold.

Water immediately spread beneath his boots.

He looked down at the widening patch. “I am improving the floor.”

“No,” Shen said.

Nia closed the entrance screen enough to keep the rain from blowing farther inside.

Shen brought a shallow basin and set it near Ren's feet while Ren reached for the fastening at his throat.

His fingers worked more slowly than usual.

Nia noticed.

So did Shen.

Neither mentioned it.

Ren loosened the clasp and pulled the cloak from his shoulders. The fabric dragged heavily through his hands. Nia took one side before it could fall against him again.

It was colder than she expected.

Together they folded the dripping weight inward.

“Put it over the lower rail,” Shen said. “Spread the cloth instead of doubling it or the inside will stay wet.”

“I do know how cloth dries.”

“You arrived wearing that.”

“The sky was involved.”

Nia carried the other end of the cloak while Ren followed her to the rail.

Up close, the rain had done more than flatten his usual polished appearance. Mud streaked the backs of his boots and the lower edges of his trousers. His hair tie had disappeared completely. Wet strands clung to his neck. One fox ear twitched when a drop slid from its tip.

His travel bag was wet along the outer flap too.

Nia looked at it. “Please tell me you protected whatever is inside.”

Ren opened the bag and loosened an oiled wrapping around the smaller things he carried.

The bark strips inside remained dry.

So did a folded tunic and a pair of dry trousers.

“I travel for a living.”

“Good. That's the first sensible thing I've seen since you reached the door.”

His smirk strengthened for a moment.

Shen handed him a dry cloth. “You have dry clothes, so change before you get any colder.”

Ren glanced from the cloth to Shen. “I am beginning to feel managed.”

“You are wet, cold, and standing beside a basin I put there for exactly this reason. You can object after you change.”

Nia folded her arms. “He's right.”

“That is becoming an unpleasant pattern in this household.”

Shen pulled the movable screen partly across the deeper side of the room and left Ren to complain from behind it.

Nia crouched beside the basin and folded two dry pieces of cloth beside it.

Ren emerged a few moments later wearing the dry tunic and trousers.

His bare feet were cold-pink across the toes.

He set his wet boots beside the basin.

Shen looked down and pointed toward the nearest low seat.

“Sit.”

Ren did.

Nia stared at him.

“That worked?”

“I am tired, not foolish.”

Shen crouched and picked up one boot. Water had soaked through the outer leather around the ankle but had not pooled inside. He passed it to Nia, and she pushed one of the folded cloths inside before setting it near the drying side, far enough from the fire that the leather would not heat too quickly.

“You sheltered instead of continuing through the hard rain,” Shen said. “Good. Where are the workers and the loads?”

“The workers and both loads stayed under the lower road shelter. We were already close enough to Hearthfang that turning east again would have taken longer than continuing here once the rain eased.”

“That was sensible.”

Ren looked toward Nia. “I would like you to remember that Shen has now formally declared me sensible.”

“I'll mark the day.”

Shen checked the second boot and handed it over without joining them.

Nia packed the remaining dry cloth inside.

Shen waited until she had set it beside the first. “Tell me now if your hands or feet are numb, or if anything actually hurts.”

Ren flexed his fingers, then his toes against the stone. “Cold, not numb. Nothing hurts.”

“Good.”

His wet hair had already begun dripping onto the shoulders of the dry tunic.

Nia picked up another cloth. “Come closer before you soak the clothes you just changed into.”

Ren looked down at the small distance between them. “I am already here.”

“You know what I mean.”

That earned her a more familiar curve of his mouth.

He moved to the low seat beside the hearth.

Nia stood behind him and laid the cloth over his hair.

Ren's ears shifted beneath it. “Careful around the ears.”

“I haven't touched them yet.”

“You were going to.”

Nia pressed the cloth lightly through the wet strands rather than rubbing.

His hair had always looked soft when it was tied back properly. Wet, it felt heavier, the dark red almost brown where the cloth absorbed the water.

She worked from the crown toward the ends.

Ren lowered his head enough to make it easier for her.

One ear emerged from beneath the cloth.

Nia blotted around it carefully. The ear flicked against her fingers.

She stopped long enough to look down at him. “Too rough?”

“No. Keep going.”

She continued.

Shen had put a small pot near the stronger side of the hearth. He poured broth into it, added several pieces from the bowl he had been cutting, and covered it.

Ren watched him work.

“Was that already for supper? I don't want to arrive wet and steal someone's portion too.”

“I know how much food is in my own household,” Shen said. “There is enough.”

Nia tugged the cloth through the ends of Ren's hair. “There. You checked the terms. Now stop bothering the man feeding you.”

Ren glanced up at her. “I appreciate that you understand me.”

The entrance screen shifted before she could answer.

Kael came in with rain across his shoulders.

Nia released Ren's hair and crossed the room.

Kael's outer cover had kept most of him dry, but water darkened one side of his tunic and ran from the ends of his black hair near his neck.

“You're back.”

He put one hand at her waist when she reached him.

“The lower eastern turn is running over the edge.”

Nia kissed him once.

Kael's fingers tightened briefly against her side before his gaze moved past her.

Ren sat barefoot beside the hearth with his loose wet hair half-dried and a cloth hanging around his shoulders.

He raised one hand.

Kael took in the wet cloak on the rail and the boots beside it.

“Tovin sent a boy up. Your workers and both shoulder loads are staying under the lower trade shelter. The eastern road is closed until the water drops, and the lower marker is already under water.”

Ren leaned back slightly. “So your hospitality has become aggressive.”

“You aren't leaving tonight.”

Ren looked toward the entrance, where rain rattled against the stone.

“That is a convincing argument.”

Kael removed his own damp outer layer and handed it to Nia.

She took it toward the drying rail, then stopped.

A small wet patch had formed on the stone behind Ren's seat.

His tail lay heavy against the floor, the fur darkened almost to brown-red where the water had flattened it.

Nia pointed at it. “You forgot the rest of you.”

Ren looked over his shoulder and closed his eyes briefly. “I was hoping everyone else would.”

Shen lifted the lid from the broth. “That would be difficult with a tail that size dripping across the floor.”

Ren gave him a look.

Nia picked up another dry cloth and held it out.

“You said you travel for a living. Prove you know what to do with this too.”

Ren took the cloth from her, pulled the thickest part of his tail across his lap, and began pressing water from the fur.

Nia sat beside him.

He could manage most of it, but the end still hung awkwardly beyond his reach. He stretched once, shifted the tail, and tried again.

Nia held out her hand.

Ren looked at her palm for several seconds before laying the end of his tail across it.

She wrapped the cloth around the wet fur.

The tail was warmer near the base than she expected, but the end had gone cool from rain. She squeezed water into the cloth in slow sections rather than rubbing while Ren continued drying the thicker fur across his lap.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

Kael moved near the entrance with the route board in one hand. He checked one mark, then called through the screen to a passing worker.

“Eastern descent stays closed until I inspect it in the morning. Tell the lower row before anyone tries to use it.”

The worker repeated the order and continued downhill.

Shen poured the broth.

He set the first bowl in front of Ren.

Steam rose into Ren's face.

His fox ears had begun lifting again now that the wet fur around them was drying.

Ren wrapped both hands around the bowl. “First bowl?”

“You are colder than the rest of us. Drink it while it's hot.”

Nia finished the last section of his tail and laid it carefully across his lap.

The fur was still untidy, but it no longer dripped.

Ren studied it.

Nia did too.

“You looked like a drowned brush when you came in.”

His gaze lifted to her face. “I preferred our relationship before you learned that.”

Nia laughed.

Ren drank.

His shoulders lowered after the first few swallows.

Shen filled another bowl. When Nia reached for it, he glanced at the darkened edge of her sleeve and kept hold of the bowl.

“You stood in the entrance long enough for that sleeve to get wet. Change it before you sleep instead of pretending it doesn't count because Ren arrived wetter.”

Nia looked down at the damp cloth.

“It barely counts.”

“It is still wet.”

She leaned in and kissed him. “Bossy.”

“Dry.”

He gave her the bowl.

Kael came back from the entrance and sat near the outer edge of the hearth.

Nia moved beside him automatically. His hand settled against the back of her hip while he reached for the next bowl Shen poured.

Ren watched the motion, but only for a moment.

Then he drank again.

Rain beat steadily against the stone.

The household settled around the sound.

Ren finished the first bowl and stood before anyone could tell him to remain seated. He carried it to the washing side himself, rinsed it, and set it with the others.

When he came back, he stopped beside his cloak.

One edge had folded inward against the rail.

He opened it again so the damp cloth could breathe.

Shen noticed from the hearth. “Leave it like that. It will dry better.”

Ren glanced over his shoulder, clearly waiting.

Shen returned his attention to the pot.

Ren waited another moment.

“You are not going to praise me?”

“No.”

A quiet laugh escaped Nia before she could stop it.

Ren checked his boots next, removed the first wet cloth from inside, and replaced it with a dry piece from the stack Shen had left nearby.

Nia watched him.

His shoulders sat lower than usual. His hair remained loose and uneven around his face, and when he sat again, he did not straighten his clothes or settle into the careful posture he normally carried through a room.

Nia liked the difference.

Ren caught her staring and lifted a hand toward his hair.

She smiled before he could touch it. “Don't bother. It isn't going to behave until it's dry.”

His fingers stopped halfway up. “That bad?”

“Worse.”

Ren let his hand fall and reached for the second bowl Shen had left near the hearth.

“My confidence in your affection is recovering very slowly.”

“You'll manage.”

Outside, the rain strengthened again.

Water struck the entrance stone hard enough that everyone looked toward it.

Kael stood and lifted the screen just enough to see the path.

The drainage cut was full now. Water rushed through it in a muddy line and spilled over one low edge before finding the next channel.

He closed the screen.

“No one goes down tonight.”

Ren did not argue.

Shen gathered two folded sleeping covers from the deeper room and carried them toward the inner wall.

Ren watched him. “The trade shelter has sleeping places.”

“The path to it is wet,” Kael said. “You can use them tomorrow if the water drops.”

Ren rubbed one hand over the back of his neck.

Nia set her empty bowl aside.

“You're already here.”

His eyes moved to her.

“Stay tonight.”

Ren looked at Kael.

Kael had already returned to the route board.

Then he looked at Shen, who was spreading one sleeping cover near the inner wall.

Ren's gaze came back to Nia.

His smirk was faint with fatigue.

“All right.”

Nia nodded.

Shen tossed him a dry cloth as he passed. “Your hair is dripping again. Finish it before you soak your collar.”

Ren caught the cloth against his chest and stared after him.

“You know,” he said to Nia, “I once thought Shen liked me.”

From the deeper room, Shen answered, “You survived the disappointment.”

Nia laughed into her hand.

Kael's mouth moved slightly over the route board.

The rain continued outside.

Ren dragged the cloth through his loose hair, then settled closer to the hearth while his cloak dried behind him.