The fire in the small hearth pushed the worst of the cold back. Orange light moved across the stone walls and the three of us.
I sat on the floor with my back against the wall. My shoulder still leaked blood into the cloth I had tied around it. The temporary boost from the System had faded completely. Every bruise and cut from the day sat heavy on my body.
Isolde stayed in the broken chair, arms wrapped tight around her knees.
Her silk dress was soaked and muddy.
She had not spoken since I told her the assassin was dead.
Her unseeing violet eyes stared at nothing, but her head turned slightly every time the fire popped.
Seraphina lay against the wall, wrapped in the thick wool cloak I had taken from the body.
Her golden eyes watched me without blinking.
The hate in them had not lessened.
Rain still hammered the broken roof above us.
Somewhere in the main hall the two corpses cooled in the dark.
I pulled the small pouch of dried meat from my pocket and tore it open. The pieces were hard and salty. I ate one slowly, then held the pouch out toward Isolde.
"Eat."
She did not move.
"Your hands are shaking from the cold," I said. "Eat."
She reached out slowly, found the pouch by touch, and took a single piece. She chewed it like it might be poison. After a moment she took a second piece and held it without eating.
I set the rest near Seraphina’s side so she could see it, then turned my attention to my shoulder. The cut was deep. Blood had already soaked through the cloth twice. I needed to close it somehow.
I adjusted the cloak tighter around Seraphina’s shoulders to stop the draft from reaching her neck. A blue window appeared at once.
[Target: Seraphina Aldric]
[Action Logged: Environmental Care - Providing warmth against hypothermia]
[Grade: C - Adequate Investment]
[Reward Granted: Minor Restoration Vial]
A small glass vial of red liquid appeared in my pocket. I uncorked it and drank half. Cold numbness spread through my chest and shoulder. The bleeding stopped. The flesh began to knit. The sharp pain in my rib dulled into a deep ache.
I walked over to Isolde and knelt on the stone floor.
"What are you doing?" she asked at once. Her voice was tight.
"Your knee is still open from the fall." I looked at the torn silk and the dried blood around the scrape. "I’m treating it."
"I don’t want your help." She pulled her leg back. "House Draven cast me out. Keeping me alive will not buy you anything from them."
"I don’t care about House Draven."
I caught her ankle before she could kick me again.
She tried anyway.
Her heel hit my forearm hard.
The Iron Body took the blow without damage.
I poured a few drops of the red liquid onto the open scrape.
The flesh hissed softly and closed over.
Isolde sucked in a sharp breath.
Her hands gripped the arms of the chair so hard her knuckles turned white.
For a second her face showed something other than anger - shock, maybe, or simple relief at the sudden end of the pain.
Then the cold mask returned.
"Leave it alone for a few minutes," I said, and stepped back.
I sat down again near the fire. For a long while the only sounds were the rain on the broken roof and the crackle of the wood. I fed another piece of the broken chair into the flames. The heat felt good on my face.
Isolde finally spoke, quiet.
"You moved like you knew how to fight."
"I got lucky," I said. "And I watched the way they moved. Nothing more."
She was silent for a moment. "I heard the glass shatter when you broke the vial the cleric wanted you to use on me. I heard what he said it would do."
I looked at her. "You were listening."
"I listen to everything. Blind people learn to." She turned her face toward the fire. "Why refuse it? It would have bought you a way back to the capital."
"I’m not going back to the capital on their leash."
Seraphina’s voice cut through the quiet, rough but clear.
"What is your plan, Cassian?"
I looked at her. "We wait out the night. In the morning I search the rest of this place for water and anything useful."
"Do not lie to me." Her golden eyes did not leave my face. "You killed the captain outside. You killed the man in the hall. You are not the weak bastard they threw out of the capital. You want something."
"I want us to not die in this ruin."
"You want my kingdom." The words came flat and certain. "You think if you keep the paralyzed princess alive, the Aldemoor loyalists will gather behind you. You plan to use my body as a banner."
Isolde spoke from her chair, low and cold. "Men like you never act without a price."
I stared into the fire for a few breaths. The wood shifted and sent up a small shower of sparks.
"Believe what you want," I said. "Right now the only price is staying alive until morning."
Silence settled again. Isolde shifted once in the chair, then went still. Seraphina kept watching me. I closed my eyes for a short time, listening to the rain and the fire and the slow breathing of the two women.
The dried meat sat mostly untouched. The fire burned lower. My body wanted sleep, but every small sound from the main hall kept me awake.
Then Seraphina gasped.
Her body jerked hard against the wall. The cloak slipped off her shoulders. I was on my feet before the sound fully left her throat.
"Seraphina?"
She did not answer. Her eyes rolled back. Her jaw locked. Thick black veins crawled rapidly up her pale throat from under her collar, pulsing with dark magic.
The curse.
In the novel it was only supposed to keep her paralyzed. It was not supposed to kill her. But the freezing mud, the fall from the chair, and the cold rain had broken something in her mana. The curse was spreading fast.
[System Warning]
[Target Seraphina Aldric: Curse Destabilization detected]
[Estimated time until critical failure: under two minutes]
Isolde’s head snapped toward the sound of Seraphina’s choking breaths.
"What is happening to her?"
I dropped to my knees beside Seraphina. The black veins had already reached her jaw. Her skin was turning a sick blue.
"The cold disrupted her mana," I said. "The curse is moving."
Isolde’s voice rose. "Do something!"
I had no potions left. No magic of my own. Only the Iron Body heat still sitting in my bones and the knowledge that if I did nothing she would die in the next minute.
I looked at the black veins crawling higher up her throat.
The fire cracked. Rain hammered the roof. Seraphina’s breath came in short, broken pulls.
I had to act.