Dear Diary,

Y'know, I know that between being a High Priestess meaning I can't technically get sick, and Dad's Jotnar whammy keeping me from feeling the cold, I really ought to be just fine running around in the cold and the wet indefinitely, but I still don't like it. I still feel like I'm always right on the edge of getting sick, or my nose running, or some other nasty part of being out in cold ugly weather. The fact that it's cold as Ymir's frozen taint is just icing on the cake. Like, okay, I can't get frostbite, and maybe that sore throat is just not enough liquid water inside me, but fuck, being out in the cold for too long is miserable.

Honestly, I've got to keep a close eye on that, for serious. Yeah, I can't get sick, but, and I haven't really thought about this before, I am now apparently the Mor Primordial of Disease. I didn't want that job, but if I'm right I've had it since before Calverton. Shit, since before Norfolk. Since I ashed Sengann and breathed in what remained of him. So I've got to be real careful not to accidentally put a disease whammy on people I run across. I've got to be especially careful about carrying diseases, because Garland proved that High Clergy don't have to be symptomatic to infect people.

So the visit went well; the kids had their little sleepover, and well before everybody hit the sack Isnomi had worked her wiles on the local kids; Sunflower and Dandelion had another half dozen kids from around the village sleeping over as well. Made for a really toasty room, if a really crowded one. Closer went off to visit his mom. Silk apparently normally bedded down at Grandmother's place, which just so happened to be his grandmother's place, what with her being his grandmother. Lily had other ideas, and chased him out of the house. Like, literally, followed him out into the snow.

"He gonna be okay?"

Finch sniffed. "if not, he deserves whatever happens to him."

I sighed. Totally not because such a fine slab of grade A beef might wind up dead of terminal stupid before I had a slice. Really.

In the morning, the snow had finally stopped, but there was so much of it everywhere that the villagers started digging tunnels through it, so they could move from house to house in them without having to crouch or crawl. As the sun crested the horizon, I pulled my Kitten into a hug and head bunted her. "I think we need to get moving."

"I know, love. This evening has been a lovely break, and I'll stay with the children for the day, but you'd best be going."

Grandmother heard. "Take Silk and Panther with you. They could use the exercise."

I shrugged, then nodded. "Sure. I'll take good care of them."

So by half an hour after the sun rose, we headed north. Kinda funny, while the Cadets pretty clearly had more raw Endurance, the hunters must have had some kind of overland running Skills or something. Most of my running, and probably all of the Cadets', had been on the pavers of the Practice Yard. Those two, on the other hand, were clearly used to running over rough terrain, and it definitely gave them an edge over my Cadets. I mean, in sheer speed it gave them an edge over me, too, but I had all kinds of ways of cheating that shit. So while the two of them led the Cadets most of the day, with O'Brien and Chloros taking over in spots where bulk muscle mass was required to shove through some snow or fallen trees or shit, I mostly went in circles around the group.

We headed in an arc, first north then back to the northeast, but we weren't anywhere near the bower at nightfall. By my best estimates, we were north and west of it by then. Thing is, our local hunters definitely knew where we were, and knew of a nice overhang that just took a little bit of work to turn into a decent shelter. Two walls and a roof, but with a Filtration Ward over the open sides, we were pretty snug. Okay, the Cadets and the hunters were. They broke the watches up four ways, and I had no problem with that. At this point the locals might not be Alliance, but they were definitely 'friendly neighbors', and all of us were more worried about Dire Bears and whatever had been spawning them to worry too much about whether the person keeping watch wore red or buckskin.

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I stayed up. I got some sleep the past two nights, so staying up overnight was hardly a strain. In the distance, I felt my ladies doing their nightly Worship thing, and it definitely helped.

Everybody get home okay, Kitten?

We're all fine, love. Did you want to invite the neighbors over at some point?

Probably a good idea. Sleep well, Kitten. I'll see you tomorrow night.

Love you, Goof.

Love you too, Kitten

Late, late into the night I felt... something. No idea what. Didn't feel like Rabbit or Lily. Didn't even feel like anything Deific, really. Nor anything from M-Space, like the Nightmares or Sidhe, who both kind of registered as 'more Mana enhanced than bog standard Horses and Humans'. That's actually what I think I noticed, and I sweat that's some funky shit to notice; the currents of Mana in the world. Like, I only noticed them because something disturbed them, and I don't know what the fuck it was, and once I noticed them I couldn't not notice them.

I'd first seen things like it with the ley lines over the Academy. Then I accidentally pulled one up when fighting Gregor. I think I may have come across one or two since then, especially when pulling lots of Mana, but other than that I'd never really noticed them. But this... something disturbed them, and it wasn't me, and I noticed them, and once I did I couldn't not notice them. Really fucked with my head, which ought to be obvious with how I can't shut the fuck up about it.

Still, nothing came down and ate us, and I didn't feel the need to abandon my Cadets, because it would be just like some kind of predator to lure away the defense before coming in to feast on the young and the weak. Not that my Cadets were that much younger than me, but I'd be stupid to think I wasn't stronger than even a Senior Cadet by this point. It's not like I'd stopped training, and while some of them might have combat Skills somewhere near mine from practice, I'm pretty sure my Strength was higher than any of them, and that's before I pumped it up with Strong Arm. So I stuck around guarding rather than going to investigate.

In the morning I realized that we had to get home by the end of the day, so I looked at Silk and Panther and asked, "you guys wanna come see my house?"

Before they could answer, Ryan, who'd donated quite a bit of Drivers' food over the past couple days, cut in with, "I recommend it."

"Really?" leered Silk.

"Yep."

Panther laughed and said, "okay, okay, you've twisted my arm. Lead on."

So we took off running eastward. I wasn't absolutely sure which valley led to ours fastest, but that wasn't really a big problem, since we weren't quite running along a valley at this point anyway, just kind of angling across them. Up one hill, down the next, leap over whatever little stream flowed at the bottom, then back up the next hill. I'd gone back to doing my circling thing, so I wasn't always the first one to crest the ridgeline. That meant I got to hear Silk shout out, "what the fuck is that?"

I leapt to where I'd heard him yell, then burst out laughing. When he looked at me where I'd literally started rolling down the hill clutching at my belly, I waved a hand. "Oh. Oh, sorry. Sorry. I leapt up here thinking we'd have to deal with some Wyverns or Dire Bears or maybe even a fuckin' Dragon, and I knew we were close to home, but..." I wheezed to a stop, then rolled to my feet and stepped up next to Silk, putting one arm around his shoulder and waving across the valley with my other. "That, my friend, is the West Tower. Otherwise known as the westernmost part of my house."

"It's' taller than the fuckin' mountain!"

I squinted. "Really? I mean, I know it's close, but is it?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm pretty sure it is."

"Huh. It always looks lower from my little office at the top of the Bore."

"The Bore?"

"Big staircase. Runs from the back of our East House to the actual top of the mountain. I've got a little shack at the top. Good for when I need some alone time to think and don't feel like brooding at the top of the Tower."

I had to admit, in the light of the setting sun, the West Tower really did look Impressive. Sort of a giant middle finger pointed out from our house at anybody who wanted to come fuck with us. Which, I'll have to admit, was way less eco-friendly than all the little in-ground houses of Grandmother's village, but we hadn't exactly put the house in the middle of a forest. More a spur valley that had next to nothing going on, life wise. I mean, we'd cut down an arc of forest around it, but not a huge one. Just enough to maybe plant some crops, and enough to see Dire Bears coming well before they got to our gates.

Did not need to hear a Dire Bear roar right about then. But Murphy, and I cannot stress this enough, is a stone bitch.