With her prosthesis being repaired, there wasn’t a lot for Damarys to do. She wasn’t accustomed to having days with nothing going on and her week of so-called rest was wearing on her. Before Akumu’s fall, she’d either be out hunting or practicing with her bow. None of the neighboring farms needed or would accept her help, and the militia turned her away almost at once, under orders from Jelvaic and Arjana.

“You’re supposed to be resting,” Arjana told her when Damarys sought her out, hoping there was something she could do to pass the time.

“I can’t just sit in my house for another week,” Damarys complained. “I’ll die of boredom.”

“Don’t you have any small projects you can work on?” Arjana asked. “A hobby?”

“Archery is my hobby.”

“No, archery’s the skill you use for your job. A hobby is unrelated to your work. Something you enjoy just for the sake of itself.”

“I never had time for that sort of thing.”

“You never sang while you were out in the wilds?”

“Only a little and I’m not very good.”

“Do you enjoy it?”

Damarys didn’t feel very strongly one way or the other about singing, or music in general for that matter. It was just something to do when she thought a predator was around that she needed to ward off.

“What about something artistic?” Arjana pressed on when Damarys didn’t reply. “Do you sketch? I knew a number of soldiers who would draw the plants or animals they saw while on campaign.”

“I don’t have any hobbies like that,” Damarys insisted. “Just archery and hunting.”

“You could at least go for a hike or something,” Arjana said, placing her hands on her hips and making Damarys feel like a child telling their parent they were bored. “There’s a few trails in the foothills outside the city that are quite pleasant.”

“Why are you so set on this?” Damarys demanded. “I’m not injured. I could be doing something.”

Arjana gave her a long, hard look before answering. When she spoke, it was in a low voice so no one would overhear.

“I know,” she said, “but your companions are struggling. Kasyn is becoming war weary and Zeter’s at risk of killing himself by over-channeling. I heard from the healers that he’s started exhibiting some worrying side effects since he woke up. If I keep you working but not them, what’s that going to lead to?”

“I doubt they’d care,” Damarys replied.

“Maybe not, but it could push them into hurting themselves even more. Look,” she pulled Damarys even closer to her and brought her voice down to a whisper, “this city is on a knife’s edge and you three are all we have. Everyone else we’ve enlisted to help restore this city has died. When we lost Emilie I thought that would be the end of your team, especially with how hard it was on Kasyn. With the center of the city still not under our control, we need the three of you to be at your best and if one more of you are lost, how well do you think you’ll fare in there? So for the sake of your team, find a way to pass the time without complaining and let the others heal.”

Damarys hadn’t really considered Zeter and Kasyn’s situations much but Arjana had put it all into perspective. It was true that their fights had been harder without Emilie, and Zeter was forming a bad pattern of over-channeling to make up for it. She didn’t really have much experience with people becoming battle weary, but she’d known hunters who had a bad experience in the wilds that chose not to continue as hunters and Damarys supposed that was as close a thing as she could think of.

Arjana gave her a final, knowing look, and left to return to her other duties. With nothing else to do here, Damarys left as well. She didn’t do as Arjana had suggested and go for a hike but instead sought out Zeter. She checked with the healers first but Zeter was already discharged from their care. Instead, she found him at his home, sitting outside in a chair with a thin blanket wrapped around himself. His eyes were shut and he had a peaceful expression on his face.

“Hello,” Damarys spoke softly when she approached.

Zeter cracked one eye open briefly before shutting it again.

“How’re you handling your free time?” he asked with a wry smile.

“It’s a bit boring, honestly.”

Zeter chuckled. “You never did strike me as someone who could sit still for very long.”

He pointed towards the house. “There’s another chair inside if you’d like to join me. A blanket too if you’re cold.”

The weather seemed fine to Damarys but she did grab a chair and join him.

“What are you doing?” she asked after a minute of silence.

“I’m feeling the wind on my face,” he replied, “noting the slight changes in both temperature and direction.”

There wasn’t any wind as far as Damarys could tell. As she looked over to Zeter she noticed how his teeth were chattering slightly.

“Do you need another blanket?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, that won’t help,” he replied, still not opening his eyes.

“What about a fire?” she asked, though still felt plenty warm herself.

“That might make me feel better, but I don’t think it wise.”

“Why not? If you’re cold we can fix that.”

“The problem isn’t that I’m cold. I’m not. The problem is that I feel cold. So warming me up to where I’m comfortable might actually make me overheat. It’s a side effect of the over-channeling, I think.”

“You’ll get better though, right?”

“Maybe, or I might just feel cold for the rest of my life. It could also get worse and worse. I might even turn into ice. That’s the risk of over-channeling.”

“Can the healers do anything for you?”

“Not really, but it’s only been like this for a couple days so maybe it’ll go away on it’s own. Anyway, let’s focus on that breeze, shall we?”

During their brief conversation he’d begun to shiver even more and his lips had even turned a bit blue. Silence fell between them and as they sat, Zeter’s shivering lessened and he appeared to be much less uncomfortable than before.

“It’s a Shinrai meditation technique,” Zeter said after a while. “You train yourself to focus on something else so intently that it distracts you from your immediate discomfort.”

“It looks like it’s working.”

“Yeah, not bad for only a day and a half of practice,” he said. “Now I just need to get to the point where I can ignore the discomfort without needing the distraction.”

Damarys didn’t stay much longer after that and she left Zeter to his meditation. Instead, she sought out Kasyn. He was also at his home, sitting in the dark and staring at the far wall.

“Can I come in?” she asked, speaking through an open window.

He jumped in his chair, rising to his feet and hurried to open the door for her.

“Of course, sorry, I was lost in thought there.”

“Let’s light a few candles,” she said, doing just that without waiting for Kasyn’s consent.

It wasn’t much but the added light did seem to help Kasyn relax. There was only the one chair which he offered to Damarys and she accepted. Kasyn then created a chair of sorts with his magic and they sat facing one another in awkward silence for a few moments.

“You hear about Zeter?” Damarys asked to break the silence, regretting it immediately when Kasyn’s expression worsened.

“No, what happened?”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious, he just feels cold now.” She spoke quickly, hoping to assuage any concern. “Side effect of over-channeling but he’s learned a Shinrai meditation technique so it isn’t a problem.”

Her rushed explanation did little to help and Kasyn wilted before her.

“I took too long fixing those runes,” he said staring down into his lap. “You two almost died. I’m sorry.”

“You did great,” she tried to assure him and wished she could think of more to say.

“I was actually wondering,” he said, pulling out the black chain, “if you could try and use the chain. Might make things easier if I knew you or someone else could use it too. In case…in case you needed to.”

He held it out for her and Damarys slowly reached out her hand to take it from him. The metal was incredibly cold to the touch and it was much heavier than she would have expected. She hefted it, letting the chain sway back and forth while she held onto the one end.

“Is that all there is to it?” she asked.

“Do you feel anything?” Kasyn asked.

“Like what?”

“Do you feel where Akumu’s runes are?”

Damarys considered the question, searching within herself to see if she felt anything but didn’t find any new sense or impressions. Kasyn’s expression darkened even more when she told him as much.

“It’s alright,” he sighed as he took back the chain. “It was just a thought.”

“You know, once we get Chikara Wa taken care of, that’ll be it.”

“If you could wield the chain you would know that wasn’t true,” Kasyn muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s runes inside Akumu’s castle, Nemuri no Shiro. They’re like the keystone to it all. Right now the Wa’s are just barely functioning but the rest of the country isn’t. We can be invaded and Akumu’s armies won’t rise up to defend us. Once the other nations realize that, they’ll move in and conquer us.”

“Okay, well then we have Chikara Wa and Nemuri no Shiro left. That’s still halfway done.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Something moved in the corner of the room, just in the periphery of Damarys’ vision and she turned to find, to her surprise, a rabbit trying to hide behind the wood pile for the fireplace.

“Hello,” she said softly, drawing Kasyn’s attention as well.

“Oh, I’ve been finding him around my house lately,” Kasyn said. “He must have snuck in.”

“Rabbits are usually kept out by the city defenses,” Damarys murmured. “They can ruin crops.”

“Another reason why we need to restore all of Akumu’s runes.”

Damarys drew a dagger from her belt and began to sidle up to the rabbit to make a quick end for the pest but Kasyn shot to his feet and placed himself between her and the rabbit at once.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“There’s a good reason why the city keeps rabbits out. If they start spreading we could lose our crops which is not only how we eat, but also our only main source of income for the city.”

“It’s one rabbit,” Kasyn protested.

“It won’t stay that way for long, trust me.”

“I’ll keep this one inside, as a pet.”

Damarys would have said no except for the pleading, hopeful look in his eyes. Maybe this was what he needed to get him out of his depressed mood.

“Alright,” she relented, “but you need to make sure it doesn’t get back out. I don’t envy you, having to watch out for all the rabbit poo it’ll be leaving behind.”

“I can take care of that with a simple spell,” he assured her.

“And keeping it from getting out?”

“Magical leash,” he replied.

As he spoke he began weaving the magic. The rabbit, seemingly aware of what was going on tried to hop away, climbing onto the wood pile before leaping for the open window but Kasyn’s spell caught it and kept it from escaping. It struggled a moment before settling down on the floor and quivering. Damarys almost felt sorry for the animal.

Kasyn, on the other hand, rushed to his kitchen where he grabbed a few vegetables and hurried back to offer them to the rabbit. The animal sniffed at them and took a nibble on some of the leafy greens. For the first time since Damarys had arrived, Kasyn smiled. That alone was worth letting him have a pet rabbit.

She stayed only a little while longer before leaving him and the rabbit alone. She was going to search the surrounding area for any more rabbits and make sure Kasyn’s was the only one.