Cold hadn’t stopped being quiet since the scavenging trip. Heat thought it was kind of selfish, since they both knew Cold was better at dealing with people, and with tedium in general. Heat had, in the day since then, managed to anger six people with a conversation or comment, got kicked out of the kitchens for turning the dishwater into a cloud of steam without even noticing, and even made a child cry when she snapped at them. Rumor had gotten around, and people were starting to send looks her way. It was frustrating, infuriating… lonely. Cold knew how to restrain them both, and now that they weren’t constantly fighting for the barest scrap of self, Heat could appreciate that sort of thing. She even wished she was better at it herself.

Since she had nothing better to do, Heat was occupying herself with various odd jobs- currently she was testing out a newly-repaired windmill, concentrating to bring out the not-fire, the force and energy without the true flame, pushing the windmill’s sails indirectly. Once they were spinning fast, she was told to stop; the repairman pulled the brake on the sail, then climbed up a ladder to inspect it, his fingers probing the cloth and the wooden frame. Satisfied, he climbed back down and gave Heat his thanks.

“So, I hear you’ve been trying to keep busy today,” said Allison from behind, startling the other woman enough to make a quick gust of not-flame erupt from her hands, Heat just barely keeping it from being real flame.

“We just… need to keep moving, you know? I can’t get dragged down on the details like-“ Heat replied, almost saying like Cold did.

“Word around the street is that Cold hasn’t shown up today- or at least no one’s seen her ice circlet. That’s unusual; she tends to be active and social,” noted Allison, her eyebrows raised in a soft yet accusatory look.

“I don’t know. But I’ve been giving her time all day and I’m sick of it,” said Heat, making her way to her and Heat’s room. Allison trailed behind Heat, worried but willing to let them sort this out themselves; she pulled up a chair as Heat sat down on her and Cold’s bed, curling their shared legs into a lotus position as she plunged deep into their shared consciousness.

Heat blazed through the depths of their mind as a phoenix, remembering how it had felt for Allison to dive through their psyche. And down, down, down she dove, pursuing someone else who shouldn’t be buried that deep. Who had buried herself deeply, through mountains of ice and snow, but Heat melted through them with ease. And finally she found Cold, buried in an ice cave of her own making; the other woman was sobbing quietly, the memory of the infected woman they had killed flooding the cavern like a poisonous gas or a mirage.

Heat felt the helplessness emanating from the scene before her and refused to let her sister(?) wallow like this. She pulled upon her own mind, dragging out memories of the day past- but the crying children and angry adults did little to change the scene around them.

Heat was passionate. She was angry, yes, but more than that, she felt strongly, and she slowly released herself into the mindspace around her, countering the horror and shame with the feeling of a comfortable bed, of helping people, and of the newfound contentment Heat felt in quiet moments alongside Cold, their shared brain no longer twisted around itself, their life having found a purpose helping those in need. She thought of Allison, who was saddled with them but still cared.

Heat barely noticed when Cold had gotten up and wrapped herself around her, tears streaming down her face. The two stayed there for a while, the waves of comfort radiating out of them into the psychic world around them.

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When Cold emerged from that pit in their shared mind, the ice circlet forming over a blank forehead, Allison breathed a sigh of relief. Cold leaned over and gave her a hug, and the paladin gently hugged her back.

“You’ve never-“/”I’ve never-“ they both said at the same time. Allison gave out another sigh before motioning Cold to continue.

“I’ve never killed anyone before. Our martial arts training was mostly for self-discipline and self-defense, and… you didn’t make me see that first Infected we fought die. I saw the face of the one I killed in my nightmares last night, blaming me for not saving her. I’m pretty sure Heat saw that too, which is why she was all over the place.”

Allison paused for a moment, her arms folded in her thinking, before answering. “Most of us Paladins have nightmares for a while… and eventually it stops. Not because we ever run out of Infected to put down, but because it stops being horrifying and just becomes normal. Whether they stop seeing the Infected as people, or they stop caring that they’re killing them… it depends. In a situation like this, we have to take things one day at a time, surviving as best we can.”

“Is that really all that matters?” asked Cold. “Surviving, and not ending this whole thing?”

Allison let out a sigh. “How could we? A single Infected can create countless more; no matter how well we recover and rebuild, things will never be as they were before the Infection. Not unless we somehow manage to put down every single Infected in the world, and I don’t see that happening soon. We can rebuild, we can adapt, we can survive.”

The rest of the day was spent more in Heat and Cold’s shared mind than anything else, working through their feelings as they talked about death and what they’ll have to do to survive in this world. The dishes were washed in hot-but-not-boiling dishwater, and the shared mental space between the two head-mates began to warm up. It was getting easier to dive into it, and Heat and Cold spent much of that evening and night getting it just right- an inner sanctum of comfort and assurance, instead of the guilt and pain it was before. It was a bedroom, at least for now- they planned to expand it over time, build it up into a mental home, but a place to rest and recuperate was something they both needed right now, even if it was in their own head.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

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A large bell sounded out early in the morning, loud and ringing frantically. Heat and Cold struggled with whose turn it was, but Heat eventually won out as their body ran out the door and towards Allison’s bunk. Heat ran into Allison in the hallway, the other woman looking grim, and the two ran outside and towards the ramparts.

“It’s a raid!” Allison cried out through the din of people fleeing to whatever safety they could find and Paladins clanking and whooshing and, in a few cases, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Storm clouds roiled overhead, a peal of thunder booming in the distance and the skies were still dark. Allison and Cold made their way to the walls, Allison picked up a crossbow and focused; Cold felt her ice crackle and expand and Heat’s inner fire blazed with new heat as Allison’s power of enhancement washed over the defenders. Peeking over the wall, Cold saw hundreds of Infected slowly climbing over the hills to the north and through the swamps to the east, their numbers letting out a keening wail that could be heard even over the panic and rushing.

“You two have long-range magic, use it to take out groups if you can! Use my power boost to its fullest!” Allison shouted, loosing a crossbow bolt at the closest Infected she could see and reloading from a nearby barrel as quickly as she could.

Inside their headspace, Heat blazed with determination, taking her place beside her sister self; the controls for the body did not easily accommodate them both, and their circlet began to waver between fire and ice before stabilizing into half of each as the two settled into sharing control.

They picked up a crossbow and tipped it with a ball of fire, launching a bolt into the masses; it was easy to hit, the Infected were packed so closely together, and the ball of fire exploded into flame when it struck, setting several Infected on fire.

Unfortunately, the front rows of Infected were starting to reach the walls; Cold launched out an arm, spraying a wave of ice in front of the main gate, jagged icicles sticking upwards at an angle to impale any Infected that got too close. Heat meanwhile lobbed another fireball with their other arm, the early-autumn grasses and shrubs beyond the gate quickly catching fire and spreading outward. The fire seemed to stop the Infected for a moment, and the defenders let out a cheer.

Unfortunately, a peal of thunder rang out as heavy rain began to fall, putting out the fire and starting to melt the ice. The defenders began to quail, and the Infected began to march ever-closer, the ones in front nearly at the walls.

Heat desperately tried to use her flames to ward them off, but she could only cover so much ground at once, and the area was too wet for the fire to stay lit after it met its targets. Cold, on the other hand, thought.

What is cold, really? What is frost, what is ice, what is chill? It’s not a distinct element or a contrast to heat, not really, it’s just a lack of energy. Ice is just water without enough heat to keep it liquid.

Could Cold…?

She gently nudged Heat away from the controls for their body, her hands flexing as she took in a deep breath, the rain in front of her face turning into a cone of snow. Cold leapt forwards, Allison’s hand just barely missing catching her, her landing cushioned as she stole the energy from her fall to lower herself to the ground without hurting herself. In front of her, only a few yards away, were hordes upon hordes of Infected. Cold’s mind recoiled at what she was about to do, but she knew that she had to protect this city she had grown to love in her short time here, and Heat sent the feeling of determination and assurances to help spur her onwards.

Cold moved into a combat stance, the smooth and well-practiced motions of her martial art soothing to her. An Infected leapt forward, their mouth distended and drooling a white foam, and Cold thrust her hand forward, catching the Infected between the eyes with her knuckles… and it immediately dropped to the ground, a fine layer of frost covering its completely still body and its energy flowing into Cold’s form.

Two more Infected ran forth and Cold leapt into a spin-kick, catching them both and causing their bodies to collapse to the floor, frozen and dripping snowflakes.

Again and again the Infected charged her, and again and again she consumed their inner warmth with a strike. Her body felt hot, and she began to sweat not from the exertion but from all she had consumed. Heat flared in response, and the fever began to dissipate… and the world around them began to slow down. The Infected charging her were moving at… not quite a crawl, but a sedate pace, and Cold felt the inner fever begin to wane.

“After all, if you can steal energy, then that means I can redirect it,” said Heat in their shared mind, her phoenix form erupting from their back and covering their torso with her wings. “Like, say, making us think and move faster.”

No longer content to let them come to her, Cold charged, tagging each Infected with a strike before moving on to the next, their life force funneled into her and used as fuel for the speed boost. But even as the two charged onwards, their increased speed began to wane- the connection to Allison was wavering, the power boost she was giving them running out. Landing a double kick onto an Infected’s torso so they could backflip off of it, a two-finger strike tagging another Infected underneath them, Cold landed on her feet only to slip on the cold, muddy ground, her aching muscles struggling to get back up, her mouth letting out a loud “Shit!” as she fell. And right as the Infected began to swarm her, her vision wavered- not from exertion, but as if the world was melting into itself.

“Bet you’re glad to see me, eh?” said Anders, popping his head out of a fold in space. He reached out a hand and Cold gladly took it, the two falling through space until they were back on the ramparts with a small jolt, and then Anders grabbed a number of what looked like molotovs before disappearing again.

Allison was being dragged away by a medic, unconscious and a trickle of blood coming from her nose, and Cold and Heat were both struggling to stay standing. As they looked out at the Infected horde, they realized that they had taken out maybe a third of the Infected with Cold’s little revelation and Allison’s help, but there were still many more coming over the hills in the distance.

Cold formed two shells of compacted and sturdy ice, one within the other, and Heat formed a fireball compacted between them; with a mighty hurl the sphere was launched on a blast of flame, soaring through the air to land in the middle of a tight group of Infected, the sphere bursting as it landed and exploding in a ball of fire and ice, freezing and burning everything around it at the same time; the group of Infected fell apart, their flesh shredded from the conflicting temperatures.

The mental sisters collapsed, utterly drained from all the exertion, and could only watch as the other Paladins fought on. Heat and Cold hadn’t really paid much attention to the other Paladins beyond Allison and, to a smaller degree, the team they were assigned to, but they were all fighting as best they could. Most were using their crossbows or even the occasional bow and arrow with expertise, loading and launching bolts and arrows faster than either sister could ever hope to, while others launched wave after wave of magical blasts. Occasionally, a shot looked like it would miss, only for it to suddenly shift over in that same visual fuzzing of Anders’, and Cold thought she spotted Sally in the distance wielding a massive longbow bigger than she was, the arrows more like ballistae bolts.

A medic came over and picked Cold up, dragging her away from the walls; Heat tried to protest, but their body was simply too exhausted to stop them. Their eyes closed on their own, and the last thing their ears heard before they passed out were the raging battle still ongoing… and the cheers of the defenders.