“This is a good spot.” Adra declared, observing the clearing she had found. Looking around, I had to agree, it was a nice place. A small, bubbling brook, not coming out of the swamp and clean of the strange corruption it was spreading, was flowing nearby, giving us fresh water and a spot to wash up. In addition, the blossoming plants all around filled the area with a fresh smell, as insects were buzzing all around. Idyllic was the first word my mind wanted to use to describe it.

“Yeah, we can stay here.” I declared, mentally measuring the area for a cottage made from ice. It would be easy to fit two cottages on the clearing, an idea that made me smile. If we stayed for a day of rest, I’d certainly want to space to enjoy myself with Sigmir without an audience.

“Adra, Rai, do you want your own cottage or make your own camp?” I asked, knowing that my style of building was a little chilly from them. Sigmir, luckily, had the frost-resistance to feel comfortable even in a building of ice, but with the pleasant weather, Adra and Rai might prefer to sleep outside. The two of them shared a look, before Adra looked over to me and spoke.

“If it’s not too much of a problem, we’d like a second one, just in case the weather turns.” she told me, before asking Rai to help her gather some firewood, for cooking and such. Watching the two of them for a moment, as they walked back into the woods, I had to smile, they were quite adorable. Just as I turned back, I felt Sigmir’s arms encircle me and somehow, the idea that I had to work on the cottages right now retreated into the back of my mind as something else became a lot more important.

I managed to get to constructing the cottages before Adra and Rai returned, each with a load of mostly dry wood, but I hadn’t gotten far with it. Luckily, Adra didn’t make a joke about it and Rai knew better. While I continued with my work, the two of them started to work out, recently, Rai had started to show Adra some of the unarmed forms I had shown him, partially as an emergency-measure if she was ever caught without her weapon but I was quite sure that another reason was that some of the grapples gave either of them a good excuse to keep hold of the other, without it seeming odd.

Personally, I was incredibly amused by their shyness, it wasn’t as if either Sigmir nor I would actually say something and both of us knew that they had been sharing a bed, at first for warmth, later for comfort and affection. But despite that, they were shy, both with each other and in front of Sigmir and me. It was just adorable.

With a smile on my lips, I focused back on my work, considering the best way to make windows and a door. Last time, I had simply made a small part of the wall transparent and called it a window, this time, I wanted to do better. I had, mostly as an intellectual exercise that had nothing to do with killing enemies, considered ways to make hinges out of ice, without them fusing together but so far, I hadn’t come up with a solution purely based on my magic. Even making the parts out of Hard Ice didn’t work, to my chagrin. Maybe, if I would be able to make one or both parts out of Eternal Ice, possibly with a thin layer of diamond dust as a sort of lubricant, but that was purely speculation.

Instead, I had decided on a simple, partially mundane, solution, even if it irked me that I’d been unable to make it magical. It was so simple that Lenore had laughed that we hadn’t instantly come up with it, when considering hinges the first time, we simply made a wooden dowel, a stick really, and placed it within the lower part, setting the upper part on top of it. In addition, we had placed a thin disc around the dowel, to add another barrier between the two parts made from ice. It wouldn’t last for long but for a week or three it should work.

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Another problem I hadn’t solved yet were the floors. Sure, making a floor out of Hard Ice was simple but while I had no problem with it, Sigmir wasn’t quite as resistant to the cold, meaning that walking on icy floors seemed to be a little uncomfortable for her. She hadn’t said anything , and I doubted she ever would, but I could see that small trace of discomfort. Sadly, just because I was aware of the problem, I was unable to do a lot about it. The easiest way was to leave the floor as simple earth, which worked for the short time but I wanted more.

The biggest motivating factor was Sigmir’s discomfort but I would lie if I claimed that my curiosity and the desire to solve a complicated puzzle didn’t play a part. If I was able to create Ice that didn’t radiate cold, it would be another leap forward in my understanding of Ice-Magic, if such a thing was possible. So far, the closest I had ever seen was, once again, Eternal Ice, the mystery substance that had me stumped for weeks. It didn’t radiate cold, it didn’t cool down the air around it, only by direct, physical contact with solid and liquid substances did it cool them down. Normal physics, at least my understanding of them, said that it should be impossible, which meant that normal physics didn’t fully apply or rather that there was something unobserved that I would have to take into account.

Or Pantheon had simply programmed it that way, without embedding it into the laws governing this world, essentially breaking them in the process. It would be incredibly boring and unsatisfying but I had to keep the possibility in mind.

Soon, the first cottage was finished, with two small rooms, one for sleeping, the other just because I felt like it, with windows and a door. I was quite proud of my windows, they had outside-shutters from opaque ice and the window itself, opening into the cottage, was made from transparent ice. It was as close to a normal glass-window as I could make it, and looked quite good. Even the door had a small window set into the top part, to let some more light in.

Pushing myself a little, I added a pavillion, so we would be able to cook and eat together. It was a simple construction, four large, sturdy poles from Hard Ice holding up a sloped roof with a hole for smoke in the middle, right above the fireplace. It was easily large enough to cover a set of tables and chairs that I created, before running out of Astral Power and needing to rest a little. It felt good to push my magical muscles that way, without fearing to get ambushed by a group of shambling crawlers or any kind of combat. It allowed me to relax.

In the meantime, while I waited, I grabbed Sigmir, who had been hunting with Ylva, and together, we prepared the hind they had brought down. Knowing that we would be here for two days, I decided against smoking the meat we didn’t instantly use, which we normally did, instead, I placed most of it into a large box, made out of ice, knowing that it would easily keep, especially with refrigeration.

The rest was roasted over the fire, turning it into a wonderful meal, with some of the greens and herbs the others had gathered while they’d been out. Just the smell made my mouth water and somehow managed to summon the others without the need for calling them. It looked quite funny, they all stood around the pavillion, ready to dig in but knowing that it wasn’t just ready yet. But the smell was just too irresistible.

Taking a step back and looking at what I had set up, I had to laugh at myself. The camp we had set up was half modern, or maybe even futuristic, with the ice looking like some sci-fi plastic material, and half classic fantasy, with the rustic cooking, all of us in leather and partial metal armour, earthen cookware and so on. Part of me wondered just how the algorithms set up by Pantheon would deal with the influx of Travellers into this world. It was a curious question, one that was important for immersion.

But only time would tell, for now, we all were hungry and I had another cottage to set up, so, once the roast looked good and the veggies were done, I called everyone in and we sat down together, to enjoy a nice, peaceful dinner.