Food wasn't truly scarce in the Ring, not like it once was, but it certainly wasn't abundant. The simple fact was that most folks had less to eat than they would have liked. The residents of Abbey had it better than most. The towns in the Ring all contributed food from their own stores, and they could use the Blue to improve their farming efforts. Still, even in this place, the pressures of hunger were real.

And so, one day a week, the Abbey fasted.

Griffin Delaney hated fasting days.

Griffin was one of eleven Sisters working at the Abbey. Every seven days, she seriously considered walking away. The Hunters got a small ration in the morning, and an even smaller one very late at night. Under normal circumstances, these girls ate a lot. Griffin wasn't sure if it had something to do with the Blue, or if they were just greedy bitches, but she watched them put away copious amounts of food six days out of seven. Expecting them to settle for a piece of bread and apple was just asking for problems.

And there were problems.

Anyone considered to be "on duty" was given normal rations. These girls, who normally tried to get out of any work they found boring, were positively cutthroat when competing for things like guard duty on fasting days.

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There had been one near fist fight already. D Hall's Harriet, who normally followed all the rules, had gotten into it with little Lane from C Hall, who, Griffin had to admit, could be kind of a bitch. Griffin had had to intervene. She sometimes thought that was only reason they kept her around. Most of the other Sisters were frumpy old ladies who weren't lining up to deal with fasting day dust ups.

Griffin usually recruited one of the Jacks to help her out on these days. Stocky, by the book Brock was a good choice. Lean and grouchy Oscar was another. Oscar had been the one to help her pull Harriet off of Lane earlier. Griffin had told him not to get too comfortable.

It didn't hurt that Oscar was easy on the eyes, either. Griffin may or may not have spent a few moments with him in the Abbey's less visible nooks and crannies, but she wasn't prepared to comment on that at this time, thank you very much.

Griffin had been here for two years. When she had originally come to the Abbey, it had been as a potential Hunter. It turned out she was a 6 on the Cerulean Scale.

Roughly a fifty-fifty chance of becoming a Hunter.

When she decided not to proceed, she stayed on to help. If any of the families in the Ring could be said to be rich, Griffin's family was one of those. She knew they liked her association with the Hunters and their Sand Castle. Griffin also knew that when her family talked about her to their friends, they said she worked with the Hunters, and not for them.

Whatever Griffin might have told herself, though, the real reason she stayed was the Oven. Sometimes, mostly at night, she could feel its pull. Maybe one day, she would fantasize, she'd slip inside. She wouldn't tell anyone. No ceremony. No witnesses. Just Griffin, by herself, in the middle of the night.

And that's why, no matter how irritating fasting day got, she never stormed off.

Griffin heard shouting above her head. Probably H Hall, she thought. She sighed, and started walking, putting on her best serious face.

She hoped Oscar could hear this too, and she hoped he didn't have any plans later.

Sweet dog farts, did she hate fasting day.