Winter had hammered Valen for five days straight with what was considered one of the most vicious blizzards anyone had ever seen, especially for so early in the season. For its part, the city took it in stride and merely slowed its operation. Otherwise, business as usual.

“I refuse to go out there,” Tallah protested as Sil tried to drag her chair away from the table. “It’s bloody cold and blowing knives.”

“We need winter gear, you mule-headed creature. I refuse to portal out of some cave again and freeze my arse off just because you’re too stubborn by half.”

The argument had been going on for the better part of the morning. Tallah’s fever had broken during the night and she could finally focus on her work.

Sil had different plans.

“It’s a bit cold out. So bloody what?”

Tallah had half a mind to let go of the table and give the annoyance a face full of chair and irate sorceress.

“I like my work clothes just fine. Go out yourself and leave me alone. I want to work.”

“We’ve been cooped up in here for days. I need fresh air and you need sunlight. You’re paler than cheese.”

“There’s a blizzard out there, Sil. I’m very certain the only colour I’ll be turning is blue. I’ll throw you out buck naked if you keep insisting.”

Sil refused to be deterred.

“Your fetish work gear is a bunch of ribbons holding together out of spite. You need new clothes.”

The healer had changed tactics from dragging her chair, to shaking it.

“Let’s go already. It’s not even that cold out there.”

The windows, frozen solid, shook when a howling gale swept through the alleys around the Meadow. Tallah turned to Sil, looked her straight in the eye, and pointed with her hand at the shivering window.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” the healer protested. “It’s a bit nippy. It’ll only get colder from now on.”

“If you want to go and see your lover, you really don’t need me as chaperone. You’re a big girl.”

Sil paused for a heartbeat then recommenced her attack. Well, that didn’t work as intended.

“If I wanted to see her, I’d say so. Stop being stubborn for once in your miserable life and let’s. Go. Out.”

Despite herself, Tallah sighed and gave up.

Please, Tallah, go with her. If I still had a head, it would be throbbing after an hour of her braying. Please, just go with her. A bit of air will do you good.

Sil, to her dubious credit, had a knack for cutting through Christi’s patience like an oblivious knife through soft butter.

“Great, now Christina’s agreeing with you. All right! We’re going. I’m going to push you into the deepest, coldest snow bank I can find.”

A knock on the door drew both their attention. They shared a look before Sil went to answer.

Do not be so sullen. For once she is right. You lack winter gear. The cold will bite until you recover enough of your ability. Now Bianca pleaded Sil’s case.

“Shut up,” Tallah groaned, putting her head on the tome she was trying to study. “One of her is enough.”

There is really no need to insult me. I was merely suggesting.

“I want you insulted.”

Testy and sullen. Fresh air will do you good.

“Mistress Tianna, there’s a runner from High Priestess Aliana here,” Sil called from the door. “Could you bring me some coins please?”

Tallah perked up and bolted for the door.

“What’s the news?” she asked as she handed Sil two silver lions. Way too much for a runner but she didn’t care.

“Mistress Aliana of the esteemed Sisters of Mercy would like to inform you that the ward you left in her care is now recuperating steadily from his injuries. He can be discharged into your care at your earliest convenience,” the boy at the door said crisply. “She would also like to inform you that the agreed upon rate for her service has been increased twofold to cover the terrible stress put on her priestesses, as well as a tax for, and I beg your forgiveness for quoting this, ‘dealing with that pissant’. She thanks you for your understanding and would like to know how soon you will come by.”

The boy had caked-on snow up to his knees. He spoke with hands behind his back and, at the end, extended a hand for his tip. Sil paid him and added one coin more than was customary.

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“Tell her we’ll pick up our friend tomorrow morning at the earliest possible hour. We also agree to her adjusted price. Go now.”

He pocketed the coins, nodded curtly to them, and rushed away.

Finally! Tallah’s excitement nearly bubbled over into giddiness. She had been sitting on needles ever since Sil had related what she had seen in Vergil’s mind. Even the fever hadn’t dampened her enthusiasm.

Most of what she had learned from the healer had been completely unintelligible, while other things presented tantalising possibilities that promised fresh ways for her to expand her power. She had grown restless waiting at the Meadow, and sometimes wished she had never asked.

By the time Sil had made sure nobody had followed the boy and returned to the study, Tallah was already half dressed and actually giddy.

“We go right now,” she declared.

“We go shopping right now,” Sil corrected and got back to preparing for a cold trip out. “Helmet-boy will also need some warm clothes. Unless you plan on dissecting his head there and then. Which I’d really love to see you trying after Aliana spent so long getting him to his feet.”

Tallah’s eye twitched so violently that she teared up. It still stung at night.

“All right, all right,” she conceded, taking a deep breath, “fair point. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. But we’re still going tonight, not tomorrow.”

“We’ve got plans for tonight. He’ll keep, my plans won’t. Now that you got your arse off the chair, we should hurry up.”

“We have plans? I don’t have plans. What plans?”

“The last time we were in town I made us some reservations at Mistress Fugue’s. It’s normally booked weeks in advance. I will not miss that reservation,” Sil replied, very carefully avoiding eye contact.

It might have been a trick of the light, but had she blushed?

Tallah’s mouth hung open for a moment.

“Isn’t that a pastry place? In the Agora? Next to the… uh… that other stupid place you like?”

“It is.”

“But we really didn’t know when, or if we would be coming back at all.”

“We did not.”

“And you still made reservations?”

Sil smiled wistfully.

“I was hoping we’d manage somehow. And now we’re here. And we’re going. Anything else can and will wait.”

Tallah rubbed the bridge of her nose underneath her glasses.

“Take Mertle. You owe her. I can get the boy on my own.”

“No. You’re joining me.” The terrified look she gave her cut off any other protestation.

Why is she like this? Both Christina and Bianca reacted in unison, beating her to the thought.

Would the boy keep? Of course. Aliana was likely busy purging the memory of him from her priestesses and would be in her foulest mood. Waiting for morning rather than facing her at the end of the workday wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

“Far be it from me the thought of getting between your sweet cravings and a pastry,” she said with a weary sigh, defeated in battle against the temptations of sugar rich confections. She would still roll Sil through the snow, just because—

Another knock interrupted their conversation. Had the runner forgotten something?

“Verti? Is something the matter?” Sil asked when she opened. Tallah looked over her shoulder, still half-dressed. It was unusual for Verti herself to come up from the common room without very good cause.

The elendine was dressed in her usual dark work clothes and white apron, pristine. However, even with her reddish complexion, she looked flustered.

“Begging your pardon, Your Graces,” she said with an undertone of annoyance, “but there is someone asking after you. They are terribly insistent and threatening to stop asking politely.”

“Rare to see you get worked up, Verti. Who’s the nuisance?” Sil asked with forced levity.

“Rude, is who they are,” Tallah said as she stormed off to finish getting dressed. “I’ll be right down, Verti, and give them a piece of my mind.” Probably one of Tianna’s father’s people come to pester her again to return to Calabran. They came around every once in a while and sought her out.

Maybe the daughter could get ol’ Fyodor back out into the world from wherever he’d holed up, was what most of them seemed to hope.

Ill timing, Christina whispered in her ear. She ignored her. Christina would see ill timings if Tallah stepped on a particularly sharp rock.

Sil stepped aside and let the elendine enter, both bowing respectfully to the other.

“Again, I must apologise. I make it a rule of the house that my guests cannot be bothered. But it is very difficult to get rid of this person. She claims she is an envoy from the Storm Guard, but she is out of uniform and very pushy. She gave a name but I couldn’t catch it in the noise of the room.” She fidgeted with her apron, anger tightly held back. “I respect the Guard but the way she’s acting makes me suspicious. I have one of the girls keeping her busy while I discuss the matter with Your Ladyships. If it’s a bother to you, I’ll have Tulip and Pert throw her out.”

That prickled Tallah’s ears. So, not an envoy from the Aieni Holding but much worse.

Ill omen, Christina said again. An invitation now would be too far ahead of schedule.

We can’t be certain this visit is within our plan, Christi, Bianca countered. The Guard does not recruit people while out of uniform and in informal settings. We need to assess what they seek of us.

Tallah only half-listened to the two ghosts as she perfumed herself and powdered her face. Becoming Tianna took a horrifyingly long time and she usually just half-arsed it if she could get away with it. Now she needed to become the spitting image of the annoying upstart. She should have left with Sil a bell’s strike earlier.

“I’ll be right down, Verti,” she called out. “Can we have a private booth where we can talk? I would be ever so grateful.”

She heard the door closing behind the elendine.

“If I miss our reservation, whoever this is gets strangled,” Sil grumbled outside the bathroom. “Should we worry?”

“No flaming idea. We’ll see. Let them wait for a while before we deign to show up.” Tallah was trying to apply red pigment to her lips. She had to start over twice.

“Is that wise?”

“It’s what would be expected of me. My father never met immediately with anyone that came calling unless it was the Empress herself. A peasant can wait until we’re good and ready.” She growled at the image in the mirror. “Help me with this before I end up drawing blood. Rhine used to do it for me. I never got the knack.”