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“This is ridiculous,” Seraï muttered for perhaps the twelfth time within the two hours it took to haul a broken bunch of gears and whirling figurines across the snow-filled path. Even as she spoke, the crate in her arms groaned, ready to burst and leave its contents in a rapidly growing landscape of emptiness.
“Only if you look at it that way!”
Zale smiled brightly at her. He almost looked as if he weren’t weighed down by a ton of metal and wood. Maybe the supernaturally dissipating snow underfoot helped him retain the cheerful determination better. Seraï considered asking about it, wondered whether solstice warriors were even aware of the minute changes, how their bodies moved and the world shifted ever so slightly for them. An aching, empty sensation prevented her from addressing the fact.
She shifted the weight in her arms long enough to raise it higher, then begrudgingly fell into line with the trail of slush. The bunch of buildings weren’t far, of course. They only felt that way when a world that spun out of control like a tavern-bound game of chance slowed to a painful grind of time. So much wasted time…
“You know, that wasn’t a suggestion. Only for the opposite.”
“I’ll look at it whatever way I please.”
The warrior only appeared mildly off put by her acerbic tone. He simply shrugged and continued to tread a path through the snow, humming a few tunes to cover his own groans and grunts from the weight. While one or two of his tunes sounded slow and gentle enough to be lullabies, the jaunty whistles he switched to rang with a much clearer tune. Clear because of the shrill sharp notes, and clear because of the familiarity. Of course he had already learned it by heart.
As if reading her mind, Zale paused from a little ways ahead and squinted through the heavying flakes. Seraï pointedly stared at the game pieces instead. Her friend refused to be ignored entirely, helpfully slowing his pace and dropping behind so that they walked shoulder to shoulder. Great. Now her path was no longer as freely cleared.
Still, something about being side by side, the willingness to take things differently for her sake, made the tension in her chest easier to bear.
If only the same could be said of those accursed, impossibly heavy crates.
“Funny how it seems to weigh more the longer we’re at it,” Zale attempted. He scanned the area, and though his gaze never lingered anywhere, she could almost swear he took in their jarringly different trails through the snow. He opened his mouth only to announce, “We’re nearly there, though!”
Seraï inhaled and for once could ignore how sharp the air felt in her throat. Up ahead, and distinctly far less plagued by snow, lay the aptly named town of Mirth. Even the half-finished structures that marked the edges couldn’t detract from the sturdy log cabins and orange light filtering through the windows.
“Hey Seraï.”
She looked toward where he had stopped, wearing an intense but unnamable expression.
“Yes?”
“You and me, first to the inn, I’ll throw in a day of borrowing my sword if you bet a day with your daggers.”
Before she could form a reply, he was off. The box in his arms shifted with every step and looked about ready to fall.
“Get back here! I didn’t agree to anything!”
The solstice warrior’s steps only quickened. Despite the load, he quickly trotted through the thinning snow. Was that a spring in his steps?
Not to be beaten, Seraï quit straining her voice and focused on keeping an even footing. Compared to their short but eternal journey there, the ground wouldn’t betray her anymore. Meaning she could outpace Zale. With or without his advantage against the ice. The rattling parts in her own crate made her flinch, but she pushed off against the ground.
Zale had entered the actual town boundaries, and had the nerve to cheerfully greet a couple of its occupants. His mistake was slowing down.
Flinging the extra cloak off of her shoulders, Seraï stuffed it into the metal and broke into a near sprint. She didn’t have to worry about her footsteps; enough truly deadly missions and painful lessons had already drilled quiet into most movements.
“...so I’ve got to get going, but maybe later—hey! Wait!”
If she had been able to, Seraï would have flashed him a grin. Her pulse jumped as he picked up the pace from behind her… catching up already.
Cursing her friend’s idea of a good idea, she attempted to readjust the now ominous creaking crate. Of course he wouldn’t feel the need to play fair or give her a warning for something he clearly intended to win.
Then again, neither did she.
Simply put, Mirth was as small as it was hastily built, and that gave them both mere moments before the race was over. Really, burden or not, she only needed to scrape the last few moments of time from the race. Her sprint melted into an easy walk, nodding casually to the clearly surprised solstice warrior.
“Hey, what giv—”
The rest of his sentence softened some as she reappeared at the inn’s entrance, stretching that short distance between them ten-fold. For good measure, she leaned back against the doorframe to watch him approach.
“That was…”
Cheating, Seraï supplied in her mind. She still nearly wanted to feel guilty about it, but really, her more well-known persona’s role squashed any opposition to the word.
“Pretty impressive. I’ve never seen you time it that well, even in battle. And in battle, I’ve never seen you manage to handle a box full of heavy scraps at the same time!”
“Scraps?” she echoed. The disappointment was leaking back in again.
“For now, anyway. I guess the more proper way to think of them would be supplies.” They both peered together at the twin bunches of wood and metal, all tangled up and indistinguishable—aside from the familiar figurines, but those present looked almost as scuffed up as Seraï felt.
“Scraps,” she agreed, and followed Zale’s motion of picking up a crate and shoving the door open.
The warmth and light washed over her at the same time, almost causing her to lessen her grip. The orange of the lamps felt awfully like home at a time and place that should have been furthest from that. But she couldn’t help but admire the rough but neatly built tables, and the relieved laughter of the place’s patrons, and the way the warmth gleamed off of every available metallic surface… wait.
Seraï shifted the weight in her arms just enough to meaningfully tap Zale’s sword.
“Huh? Ahh, fair’s fair! Well, not really.” He shrunk slightly under her stare. “On either of our parts. I’ll grant you your prize whenever you want to make good on it, though.”
The boxes wound up shoved against the other supplies and raw materials that still lined the back of the inn’s main floor. Zale made a big show of wincing. If only someone had been there to warn him about deciding to sprint through the still icy town while carrying a huge boxful of wood and metal.
Reaching to inspect her own (now safely preserved in the face of the bet) blades, Seraï flinched at a rather sore body’s protests. If only someone had known better than to engage in the dare at all… But the thrill of the race had at least solved her boredom from traipsing through the snow at a reasonable pace.
The door swung open, one of the displaced townsfolk leading the way, and followed by an eager blur of blue and red.
“I’m sure it will be no problem at all! They’ll be glad to have something to do while there’s a lull, and we’re all rested and ready for action.”
The man offered something in between a smile and a grimace. “Thank you, solstice warrior, I knew I could count on you and your companions.”
“Call me Valere.”
When the formalities and thanks concluded, Seraï noticed the subtle drop in temperature from the space beside her. Valere’s bright eyes caught hers. “Oh, hello Seraï! I’ve just found something for all of us to do to help everyone settle in, and since we’re all rested up and ready, I figured there would be no better time than now.” Her gaze slid past to the crates just beyond the pair, clearly jostled and ready to burst if the wood holding it all had been a fragment weaker. The gentle smile on her face wavered.
“What… is all of this?” Her questioning tone sounded strained, but she wandered over for a closer look at the contents. Then her smile dropped completely.
Ah. Maybe Zale had some sense in pulling a vanishing trick of his own.
Valere firmly planted her hands on her hips and practically glared at the unassembled pieces. Even deconstructed or in further disrepair than the scratched metal and thoroughly splintered wood and she still would have recognized the wreck immediately.
“Whose idea was it to salvage this?”
Seraï shrugged, finding it far more urgent to examine her still pristine blades.
“It… wasn’t originally in that bad of shape. When it was salvaged.”
Clearly composing herself, the warrior trained her eyes on the game pieces.
“When did the salvaging process take place? And by whom?”
“This morning. We just finished, actually.”
“We?” Valere echoed, though she already began to glance suspiciously around. Perhaps for a face that she already should have seen out and about by late morning.
“Zale said—”
“He did, did he?” She ignored Seraï’s hurried explanation of how they had already been asked, already been in the process of completing that task long before they could have suspected plans for the day. Marching back to the door, she gestured for Seraï to wait there.
Not that she had anywhere else to be. She hadn’t been waiting for more than a couple of minutes before Zale was sheepishly escorted into the inn.
“—ready told you, it’s not our fault someone else asked us for help first. And it doesn’t mean we’re suddenly not capable of helping someone else.”
Valere’s expression relaxed slightly. She still looked strangely solemn. “Really? Even after hauling a huge load of metal and wood through the aftermath of a snowstorm? For two hours?”
“Actually it was much closer to only one,” Seraï cut in. “And I know all of us have held up fine after much more straining events than that.”
The lunar warrior took to tugging aggressively at a few strands of hair while she mulled it over. “I know. And I apologized for getting irritated so quickly. It’s just…”
“Yes?” Despite his more relaxed appearance between the two, Zale matched her serious tone.
“I don’t want something to happen.” The tugging intensified, the soft blue suddenly easier to meet than anyone’s eyes. “To any of us. And I know we’ve dealt with worse, but I just want us to all stay safe and ready until we decide on our next steps.”
The culprits in danger of violating those hopes nodded. Zale bowed his head in a deeper representation of a nod, and Seraï affirmed with a spoken “understood.” The faint glow around the warriors flared as the tension seeped out; maybe it had only returned to its usual faint but apparent presence. Was it dampening even a conscious choice? Did the magic simply fluctuate with their moods? More questions that she refused to ask. Still, Seraï couldn’t help but voice the nagging in her mind regarding another issue.
“I don’t mean to pry. But this isn’t really like the two of you. Is there something else that’s bothering you?” An open question, though she met Valere’s eyes.
Her friend shrugged. “I don’t believe in wasting much time or money on games like that.”
She didn’t need to gesture when the results of their trek through the snow still lay in the open, figurines gleaming sharply through the more rubble-like display of the other pieces.
“She’s worried that I’ll become a true gambler,” Zale translated cheerfully.
That earned him a more openly scornful look. Valere gestured to the crates.
“You’ve earned that worry. Now I also have to worry about the scraps you brought that’s supposed to stand in as the town’s Wheels.”
“So you don’t approve of gambling… unless it’s done right.”
This immediately dissolved the conversation into light squabbling, though even in her irritation Valere remained mostly teasing with her remarks. Seraï basked in the lack of true tension and that strange subtle warmth that accompanied it. If pressed, she could honestly say that her and Zale’s brief venture left her more tired than usual. Either that or the draw of the rough but sturdy inn was too tempting without any immediate action to be had. And that orange glow…
“...and anyway, I’ll leave you two to rest or find a new way to entertain yourselves besides placing useless bets. Someone still has to help clear out that clearing, and something tells me that I’m the only one up to the task at the moment.”
The bite of challenge in the otherwise neutral voice instantly snapped her from the strange lull.
Now Seraï had certainly placed bets before, a common occurrence for someone who sailed the high seas and spent too much time staking out taverns, and been challenged in that very way as well as numerous others. But they had never been about anything so trivial. They certainly hadn’t brought a smile to her eyes or resulted in any sort of excitement, or even pride when she won.
Turning to face Valere, words spilled out of her before she could think too deeply.
“Maybe I am up for the task. And that’s something I’m willing to bet on. If you win, I’ll take on any chores and odd tasks between now and our departure. If I win, you have to grant me a request of my choosing.”
She could almost swear on her honor as… a pirate? A vagabond? A warrior—that Zale’s face actually lit up, or at the very least brightened with a subtle halo of the ever-present glimpses of magic that trailed solstice warriors. He certainly grinned.
Valere, meanwhile, stood tall as the initial shock gave way to her usual fierceness. “Your win should be just as clear as mine. Name your terms. Then I might just accept them.”
Seraï pretended to think her words over. She had already turned over a particularly intriguing concept in her mind, though. The bright glint of many pieces of metal only solidified the idea.
“Fine. If I win… you’ll be the first to break in Wheels once the game’s been set up. And you’ll be playing multiple rounds, until I say you can forfeit.”
Zale made a choking noise somewhere behind them, barely smothering laughter.
Keeping her eyes locked with Valere, Seraï watched as the other warrior shrugged off her uncomfortable expression and held out a hand to seal the deal.
“Alright. Let’s see what you’ve got!”