After a bit of time Eleanor and I managed to relax our relationship just a bit. She was still a bit of a pain, but didn't get into every inch of my business so long as I at least pretended to think she might have a point.

As the end of fall passed into winter the few people who were still coming to The Sky fell to almost none. Jackson was staying for the season, much to Lude's joy. He seemed to be spending more and more of his time with her, and she didn't mind since there was little to do. I even had plenty of time after the basic daily work was done. We had lots of breaks between charging up magical items. Jackson joined Lucien with charging the few Lover's Marks that still needed it. Even the brothels mostly shut down for the season, with only a few still running at all.

So as three bards were locked in a tavern with plenty of time and nobody to really disturb the predictable happened. Music on a frankly insane scale was played. We played during the day when we had time. We played all through the night. Any time that anything was being done singing, playing, and humming for new tunes was being done.

My erstwhile guardian even joined in to an extent. She had some songs she knew and would bring out her harp in the evenings. She even taught me the basics since we had plenty of time and I was happy to learn it. Unfortunately she was painfully formal. We bards tended to a bit more musical tastes that were foolish, or group songs. Even pop tunes seemed to be roughly appropriate, anything that was fun to sing together. Learning from her was a bit stifling, but I did learn plenty.

Dras came by only one more time, since he was having his nose pressed hard to the grindstone. Kala was a far more frequent visitor managing to come in about once a week. After a few of these visits I got permission to go and visit her. Pretty much anyone was welcome to come to the temples for business, but personal visits were a bit different.

So I took to visiting her. Even in a blizzard I wasn't too much bothered since I could make myself warm. Since I had a bit of time I even worked out a basic spell for keeping myself dry. It was far more rough than a lot of my magic, but it served a good purpose in that I could probably walk through a rainstorm now and come out with little more than ruffled clothing. I could also use it to clean up spills. Sadly it could only do so much at once and removing large quantities of fluid wasn't really possible yet.

It was near midwinter as I came by giving a smile to the poor attendant who'd been assigned to let people into the temple this particular day. I was quickly led to one of the rooms that was being used for some of the daily work that the priests had to do. Most of that was recharging the magical items used in the temple.

The room itself was not particularly large. It was perhaps the size of a large bedroom or living room, and had a roaring fire happily crackling away on one side. I wasn't sure why, but the temples seemed to be really opposed to using magic for convenience.

"Hi!" I waved to Kala as I entered. "Not bothering anything am I?"

"Not particularly no. Just doing some studying while my mana recharges."

"Prepping for the entrance exam then?"

"A bit, but most of this is on how things at the temple are run. There's a lot of background work that nobody ever sees."

"Sounds... kinda boring actually."

"But important."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I suppose it is in the long run. Anything else going on?"

"Nah, just charging some of our tools up."

She showed me the tools in question. They were mostly for checking on the health of a pregnant woman and could give all sorts of information based on what you looked for. These were spells that a lot of the priests already knew, but having the items on hand meant that even a non-priest could do it, and they could save mana for other tasks that would be done during the heavier working seasons. There was one thing that did strike me though.

"The capacity on these is insane isn't it?" I was no expert, but had charged a good few items in my time and had a feel for how much they could take.

"It's really high yeah. Most of our stuff is built that way. We charge it up in winter and then use it as needed for a couple of seasons afterwards. You would not believe the number of pregnancies we get in spring and summer."

"People locked in their homes with nothing much else to do? I think I probably would." That got me a laugh.

She led me over to a small bench near the fire where we could chat, bringing the items that she had to work on and placing them on a side table. For the next couple of hours we just talked about our days, sharing jokes while enjoying the afternoon. I even helped with charging up the tools. I had plenty of mana and there was no point letting myself top out while some was needed.

Eventually she put a pot of herbal tea over the fire so we could have something nice to drink. The drink itself was fruity, if a bit bitter, and they only had cream to add. When I summoned a bit of sugar to sweeten it Kala sighed deeply.

"You're going to have me all spoiled with sugar and the like."

"Sugar is an important part of tea, without which it just isn't complete."

"It's also dumb expensive Alana. We use honey every now and then now that there's tons of it coming out of the villages to the east, but it's just not the same."

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"Is there really tons of it coming in now?"

"Well... it's still not all that much, but it's way more than it used to be I'm told. Seems some of the farmers have found a way to keep bee hives or something. I don't know all the details."

I briefly thought about my brother. He'd loved to keep bees, and all the honey and wax we'd gotten from them thanks to his hard efforts. That of course reminded me of his death.

"Something wrong?" Kala asked, apparently reading the look on my face.

"Ah, I was just thinking about one of my brothers for a moment there."

"He's..." She didn't have to finish.

I nodded, not really trusting my voice.

Kala put down her drink and reached over, pulling me into a hug. She held me like that on the little bench for awhile. It had been a long, long time since I'd cried about losing him, or about missing the rest of my family, but she said nothing as I let silent tears fall. I ended up getting her robes all messy.

Eventually though it passed. One could only be so sad for so long at a time, and I'd used up my tears for the day. When it did she gave me a small smile as I wiped away the last. Then she began to speak.

"I had no brothers, but I have a sister. She's still living somewhere near our old village from what I hear. Dad got called into the war and... well, soldiers die." Now she was the one who looked sad. "Eventually there was a battle near our village. I wasn't at home when the Empire's soldiers came. They went house to house, killed the boys and the older women. The younger ones though... They take slaves, did you know that Alana? When I got back home I found her there, in chains. The things they'd done to her and the others..."

Her voice was shaking a bit and it was my turn to hug her as she continued. "and when I saw it... I'd been hiding my magic for awhile, careful to keep the few things I could do secret for fear of being taken away. That day I let loose on them. I knew they were evil, monsters in the skin of men. Killing them was as easy as breathing."

She cried quite a bit, eventually settling her head on my lap as she did so. This wasn't a happy time, but there was something deeply comforting about it. We'd both been through so much, seen such horrors. Certainly others had seen similar things, or perhaps even worse, but we were alike in our ways, and understood each other's hurts. This was something I couldn't share with the others around me, and having someone who understood, someone I could lean on without holding back was a true blessing to me.

So we mourned. We let each other have another to lean on while they processed until we were both done for the time being. Then we just sat in companionable silence for awhile, curled up and watching the fire as it burned.

Eventually we were interrupted by the Head Priestess coming to check on progress. She took one look at the two of us and quirked an eyebrow.

"Is everything okay?"

"It will be Head Priestess," Kala answered.

"Very well then. If you're sure." She gave the item we'd been charging a quick look over and raised her eyebrows.

"Ah... Alana helped me fill it..."

The older woman looked over at me with a kind smile. "Thank you for contributing dear. You two... take care of yourselves."

We nodded as she left, wiping away the last of the streaks on our faces. After looking at each other for a moment we both laughed. If I looked half as bad as Kala did I must be a total disaster, and I reckoned she felt the same.

"Oh no! The tea, and after you put the effort into making sugar for it." Kala despaired over the now ice cold drinks.

I suppressed my giggling for long enough to cast the spell to heat them back to steaming. Only to fall back into it at Kala's declaration of "That's so unfair!"

After finishing our drinks I actually paid attention to the sounding of the bells and nearly bolted off the bench. It had gotten well past time for me to head home and if I didn't soon I'd be walking through the dark. After one last hug to my friend I rushed out into the snowy cityscape, and hurried on my way.

The walk home was peaceful. As the sun set and the lightly falling snow killed all noise I strode along the roads. It was almost like a scenic painting as I made my way home to The Sky and it's warm, often loud interior.

Winter continued in that pattern until the season finally broke. Kala would visit me, I would visit her. I introduced her to the idea of hot, spiced cider, which we drank while at The Sky. At the temple we'd sip on warm tea, enjoying the fruity sweetness. I even taught her a few of the dirtier songs that Jackson liked so much and really pissed off Eleanor.

I was happy to finally be fourteen as the first blooms of spring started to show in the little green areas around the city. The last of the snows melted and birds again returned to their singing letting everyone know that the time for quiet rest had finally finished, and that the time to begin working in earnest had begun again.

Social visits didn't stop with the flood of activity, but they were just slightly less common. Both Kala and I had jobs to do and even if travel was easier, we two were busier.