“Wait, you mean you weren’t already a couple? I thought that’s why you weren’t talking for a bit after you sparred the other week,” said Allison, her hand around a glass of beer and a bread-filled stew in front of her.

  Heat took a swig of her own beer before responding, her face flushed. “No, we were just, you know, flirting! What was I supposed to do, just walk up to her and announce to the public that we’re going to be courting?”

  “Well yes, that is what you’re supposed to do! It’s how I married my wife.” grumbled Jack.

  “Don’t worry too much,” said Anders, putting his hand on Heat’s shoulder even as he laughed. “Jack’s just a little old-fashioned, it’s perfectly fine to test the waters before you decide to go swimming in it. Still, you two were making eyes at each other for a while, I’m glad you worked up the courage to finally tell Sally your feelings!”

  Heat didn’t say anything, instead taking a big spoonful of stew and chewing on it. Sally let out a small cough that almost sounded like a laugh. Anders meanwhile was more than happy to laugh himself silly, and Allison couldn’t help but add a few chuckles of her own.

  “So, do you think they’ll switch to metal spoons?” asked Heat, her face still blushing a little. “That iron mine we took over should have plenty of ore, and speaking as one of the people who has to do it, wooden spoons aren’t as easy to clean without steel wool- and when I asked, no one here knew what that was, and I sure as hell didn’t know how to make it.”

  “I’m sure they’ll make some kitchenwares if there’s any left over after making weapons and armor and tools,” said Allison with another small chuckle. “Goodness knows that Bethany would be cross with us if she doesn’t get any new pots and pans, and there’s no good carving stone to be found around here. It’s mostly swampland and forests. They’re probably going to spend weeks pumping water out of that mine.”

  As the group finished their meal and made their way outside, the ground slick as the rain poured down, they heard a sudden shriek from above; someone was dangling from the belltower, and they looked up in horror as she started to fall.

  “Allison, boost me!” yelled Cold as she swapped into place. Once she felt the power boost take effect, she dashed towards the wall of the tower, her enhanced powers allowing her to consume gravity itself once more, making her able to leap high and bound off of the wall itself with some help from Heat, who redirected the energy towards keeping them pressed against it. Together, the two dashed upwards, catching the falling person, then skidding their way down the wall again as the power boost began to fade.

  Allison was panting hard from Cold overtaxing her powers again but she was at least conscious this time, and the person was safe in Cold’s arms. She finally took a look at them and balked.

  “Madeline, what were you even doing up there?!” she cried.

  “I- I was… there were spiders up there I wanted to collect, to- to make silk for everyone, and- and then I slipped and- and-“ Madeline whimpered before bursting into tears, the poor girl overwhelmed from the danger. Cold sighed and hugged the youth tighter, stroking her hair and whispering soothing words.

  Once Madeline had started to calm down, Cold spoke up. “You really need to be careful, especially when it’s wet like this. I might not be there to catch you next time! But I’m glad you’re alright.” Madeline just nodded, her eyes still teary, and she walked off towards her home with a small ‘bye’ and a promise to be more careful.

  Cold let out a sigh of relief as Sally wrapped her in a hug. “Were you worried about me?” Cold asked, and Sally nodded. “We’re the fast one, remember? Besides, what was I supposed to do, just let the kid fall?”

  It took Sally a few moments to speak up, and when she did, her face was still buried in Cold’s hair. “You were really good with her, too. Not everyone would be willing to comfort a crying child like that.”

  “I may be callous sometimes, but I’m not heartless,” said Cold. “The poor girl just went through the scare of her life; she needed a rock to cry against.”

  As they pulled away, Anders rushed in to quickly pat Cold on the back, giving his congratulations for saving the kid, before they all went back to the bunks. Today had been a long day, and Cold was ready to just sleep until noon. Sally lingered in front of Cold’s door, almost asking to join her, but seemed to decide otherwise and left to her own room. Cold simply shook her head and went to bed, determined to get an early start and actually make their whole shift cleaning dishes tomorrow.

  Bethany was commanding as usual, but without any major events shaking up Heat’s confidence, she was able to do the dishwashing easily enough. As a reward for finally doing her full shift, and because the city’s wheat crop had finally been harvested, Bethany let her bake a little- and with a promise that Heat would have to eat whatever she made. Heat was no stranger to an oven however and mixed together a passable honeycake which was eagerly devoured by the kitchen staff. Bethany was actually somewhat impressed by Heat’s cooking skills, enough to let her help bake desserts for the upcoming harvest festival, a rare honor for a new hand according to some of the other cooks.

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  “Wait, there’s a harvest festival coming up?” asked Heat.

  “Oh sure, I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t know that,” said Bethany. “We had to put it off thanks to the late harvest this year, so we’re going to have it closer to early winter than mid-autumn, but it’s looking to be a big one. We’ve had a lot of successes lately, apparently ones you’ve had a hand in, and people are eager to celebrate. Be ready to cook up a storm, people, we’re going to be handling the desserts and one of the sides!”

  The kitchen staff gave off a rousing cheer, and Heat couldn’t wait to see the festival.

  As Heat made her way to the sparring arena, she managed to catch up with Sally, who was having a conversation with Jack; the older man wasn’t one prone to socializing, so it was a surprise to see them talking. Heat caught up to them, only to realize that they were discussing Sally’s medical details, so Heat apologized and went on ahead. She found Anders sparring with Armsmaster Michael and decided to watch how the affable man fought. He was a nightmare in one-on-one combat, his strikes coming from every and any angle, though Michael managed to deflect each one with a block or a parry. It seemed he was unable to get in the upper hand, only for Michael to suddenly strike him with a well-timed jab, sending him tumbling.

  “As always, your unpredictability is your greatest asset; you need to stop going for the same angles of attack every time, even if you’re mixing it up, you need to keep changing where you’re coming from. You can do this better than anyone, so I expect you to keep it up in the future.”

  Anders nodded and the two started up again for another round; Anders’s strikes did indeed come from different angles this time, and Michael was hard-pressed to keep up with the bevvy of attacks that dipped in and out of visible space.

  “…I wish you guys had firearms,” Heat muttered to herself, her arms crossed in front of her.

  “Trust me, so do we,” said Allison from behind. Heat started a little, turning around to face her team leader.

  “Wait, you know what guns are? Why don’t you have any?” asked Heat

  “Simple: we don’t have the ingredients for gunpowder,” replied Allison. “Charcoal is easy to get, but this region isn’t very volcanic and has few caves, so we don’t have easy access to sulfur or saltpeter, and we don’t have the excess resources to put towards extracting tiny amounts of it from waste. It’s easier to just go back to crossbows, in the end.”

  Heat furrowed her brow for a moment in thought before replying. “But what about repeating crossbows?”

  Allison quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

  “Back in my world, there were repeating crossbows that had a container for holding multiple bolts using a spring. They were more complicated to make, but one of Last Hope’s biggest limitations for warfare is numbers; we literally don’t have many more people to recruit to boost our numbers. Giving our people the ability to fire multiple bolts at a time would make defending against hordes much easier, not to mention having a dedicated bowman in mission teams.”

  Allison nodded her head and crossed her arms, saying, “that’s not a bad idea. You might want to take it up with the craftsmen once you’re done here, see if you can convince them to experiment with the design. For now, I think your turn is up.”

  As Anders went off to cool down, Heat stepped up to the old trainer. “Hello there, Michael. I don’t think we’ve seen each other since before my split- how are you?”

  Michael threw Heat a quarterstaff as he replied, “Doing well, thank you. It’s good to see you healed so well from the ritual, all things considered; it doesn’t always work out perfectly.”

  The two gave a bow before they clashed, their staves echoing against one another. Heat twirled hers to go for an upwards strike, but Michael deflected it with the butt of his staff, bringing his around for a jab at Heat’s face. Heat ducked and swung against his off side, but he deflected it with a casual half-spin before lashing out the butt of his staff at Heat’s torso. Heat rolled downwards and kicked up at Michael’s groin, striking it squarely with her boot- the old man let out a strangled grunt and immediately brought his staff down faster than he had been moving before, striking Heat straight on the head. The two backed off from one another, Heat massaging her scalp and Michael walking awkwardly.

  “Normally fighting dirty is sensible, but perhaps you can tone it down?” suggested Michael. Heat gave a thumbs up, her head still ringing a little.

  Once the two had recovered enough, they started again, Michael jabbing with his staff, one hand keeping it steady and sliding back and forth as the other propelled it. Cold was forced to dodge and block at the same time, barely able to keep up with the barrage of jabs. But as she ducked to the side to avoid a jab, she spun about and struck out with her staff, hooking it under Michael’s knee and knocking him off his feet; the armsmaster fell to the ground, and as he tried to get back up, Heat stomped her foot down on his midsection just firmly enough to show that she had won.

  “Hah, not bad, girl, not bad,” said Michael. “Congratulations, I’ll stop going as easy on you now.”

  Michael leapt to his feet, swinging out his staff almost faster than Heat could follow; she just barely managed to block, only for Michael to spin around and strike her three times in the side and her arm. Heat blazed with flame and Michael backed off a little, only to sweep her off her feet with his staff. Heat kicked at his knee, but Michael whacked her ankle with his staff. Heat growled and leapt up, going from a crouch to leaping above Michael’s staff, landing on it and snapping it in half with a kick to the center.

  Unfortunately, Michael landed a well-placed punch to Heat’s midsection right as she did this, knocking her on her ass once again.

  “And I think that’s enough for today. You did well, Sophia- oh, right, you’re… Heat, now? Regardless, your skills have improved, and your ability to take a loss has as well- though you still get too worked up over taking a hit. You’re not perfect, and I’ve been at this a lot longer than you have. In the future, try to follow through more.”

  Heat grumbled but accepted Michael’s hand as she stood up. The older man gave her a pat on the shoulder as she walked off, and Sally leaned down to give her a quick kiss before taking her turn with sparring.

  As Sally sparred with Michael, Heat’s thoughts were elsewhere. The harvest festival sounded like a great opportunity to get to know Sally better and to spend a lot of time with her. Games, food, people-watching, it sounded perfect. Heat and Cold just had to come up with a plan to wow her, to make her so happy she’ll burst. They will be the perfect partners or die trying!

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