A bright warmth spread through Abrial’s body. Her lips split into a sparkling grin.

Finley’s hazel eyes were opened so wide that they seemed to be large glass marbles reflecting Abrial’s sickly pale face in them. Her chest heaved dangerously. If a racing horse had run for twenty hours straight, its chest wouldn’t be heaving as painfully as hers was.

One thousand emotions flashed across her pale face as she reached out two delicate hands to cup Abrial’s face.

“Abrial,” she gasped. Her fingers frantically rubbed the cold sweat from Abrial’s cheeks. She repeated herself, seeming to have lost the ability to say any word besides Abrial’s name.

“Abrial…Abrial.”

Abrial’s eyes twinkled. A grin split across her face.

“Finley!”

Finley shifted closer to Abrial’s face, her hazel eyes darting up and down, left and right, this way and that way, examining every inch of Abrial’s skin as though she was afraid it might disappear in a flash of smoke. Her cool fingers flew down to Abrial’s neck, feeling the temperature of the freezing sweat that had emerged there. They pressed against Abrial’s skin, tenderly pushing away the dark hair that had been soaked to her with sweat like black spider web silk.

Abrial’s grin froze. Her stomach jumped. All of a sudden, her cheeks felt very warm.

“F-Finley?” she stammered.

Finley didn’t seem to hear. She pushed herself upward, and then, before Abrial knew what was happening, Finley’s face was diving towards her own, those hazel eyes still wide and brimming with emotion, those pale pink lips parted slightly. Abrial’s whole body froze up, but her upper body seemed to have a different reaction in mind. Without thinking about it, her eyes fluttered closed, her chin tilted upward, and she leaned forward…

Something cool pressed against her forehead.

Abrial opened her eyes, face burning.

Finley’s eyes were close enough for their eyelashes to flutter against one another. Her pale pink lips hovered three fingers’ widths above Abrial’s, their breath intermingling. Finley had pressed her own forehead against Abrial’s to examine her fever.

A breath of relief puffed out of Abrial’s mouth.

Or, no — was that a breath of relief, or disappointment?

Abrial’s cheeks exploded with scarlet.

What are you thinking, Abrial? What the heck? What did you expect her to do? Of course she’s just checking your temperature! What kind of silly thoughts are you having that you should feel disappointed? Ah?

After a moment, Finley sat back up. This time, she took Abrial by the shoulders, leaning over her to press Abrial back into a comfortable lying position on the bedroll. Her honey braids hung down, tickling Abrial’s nose.

Finley’s eyes were hard to read. The emotion swelling in them had quieted slightly. Her eyes seemed to water and shiver with a sheen of tears, but that could have just been the flickering lighting of the tent.

“You scared me,” she said at last, her voice even hoarser than Abrial’s.

Abrial stared.

“Ha…” A laugh escaped her lips subconsciously. Weakly, she reached up to place her hands on Finley’s shoulders.

“You were scared? I was the one who almost died!”

Finley pursed her lips, expressionless. She was trying not to cry, for sure. Since when had Finley ever been near to tears? Abrial had never seen this before!

Finley’s expression suddenly became serious. She released Abrial’s shoulders and straightened up.

“You stay here and keep lying down,” she ordered. “I am going to go and brew a few things for you. You need to keep cool — don’t pull up the blanket, even if you feel cold.”

Though Abrial had just been burning up like a white fire, she felt extremely shivery and cold after whatever Instructor Wei had done to heal her. She frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but Finley had already slipped away.

An intensely awkward silence hung over the group. Abrial looked around with a comforted expression and a skewed grin. Her smile curved into a frown when she saw the awkward, disgusted, and smirking faces that stared back at her.

“What is it?” she frowned, looking down at her front. There was nothing strange there. Was there blood or snot on her face? She rubbed her face with her sleeve vigorously, staring at everyone.

“So…” Niklas cleared his throat loudly. Everyone's attention shot to him.

“You…how far have you gone? And also, when’s the marri — ”

SLAP!

Bi Gho’s white fan cracked swiftly down on his thick-skulled, blond-haired head. Niklas yelped.

“You insolent gossip!” Bi Gho shrieked as Niklas barely dodged her barrage of strikes. “Don’t ruin a tender moment! Come here, let me tear off those flapping lips!”

Niklas was furiously chased out of the tent by a raging Bi Gho and her disciplinary fan. Wisely, Bi Chanjuan took the opportunity to escape and dashed out of the tent herself to who-knows-where — anywhere Bi Gho’s hawking eye was not. Everyone prayed silently that she wouldn’t find some small animals or child to torture for her “experimentation” practices.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

An even more awkward silence hung over the group that remained.

“I don’t get it,” Abrial huffed, crossing her arms and leaning back on her pillow. “What does he mean, ‘How far have I gone?’ I’ve been sitting in this bed all day! How can I freaking go anywhere?”

“I want to know, too!” whined Klara, who clung to Abrial’s arm still like a small, flowery spring vine. “Why does Bi Gho jiejie keep hitting Sir Niklas? Sir Niklas is so friendly, he shouldn’t be hit with a fan!”

Wu Dafu stood up quickly, laughing nervously with a thoroughly red face.

“Ahaha!” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Good question! I think maybe Leader Bi Gho is just having some fun, haha…Anyways, it looks like Finley is here to take care of Abrial, and Abrial is feeling much better, so…Ah Ran, should we head out?”

Without waiting for a response from Ya Syaoran, Wu Dafu shot away and out of the tent like a comet.

After a grim sigh, Ya Syaoran nodded to Abrial as a goodbye and left after him.

Abrial huffed irritatedly through her nose.

“Why is everyone acting so weird?” she muttered. “Lyra? Why d’you look like that?”

At the foot of the bedroll, Lyra’s darkly tanned cheeks were flushed pink.

“Um…” she stammered, rubbing the back of her long neck as Wu Dafu had done. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. It’s probably just something small!”

“Something small, my ass.” Dieter appeared suddenly. He snatched Klara’s wrist and began to pull her away, shooting a disgusted glare at Abrial. “Niklas is the dirtiest prick I’ve ever met. And I can’t believe how fucking clueless you are. Did you get hit in the head when you were younger? What a joke. C’mon Klara, let’s go…”

Klara yanked her hand from his grasp and stuck out her tongue at him.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” She darted off, disappearing out the tent flap while Dieter chased after her, swearing and hollering that she better not go play in the river again because she didn’t know how to fucking swim.

----------------------------------------

For the next hour, Finley forced Abrial to drink all sorts of herbal remedies and healing concoctions. Some of them were sweet, and some of them were so bitter Abrial would have thrown the bowl across the tent if Finley had not been there watching her like a hawk to make sure she drank it all.

Finley had her strip off her outer robes, which had stuck to her body like sticky rice with all that freezing sweat.

“I am going to put up a screen. Untie your inner robe so I can treat your back with a cooling cream.”

Abrial’s heart did a double-take. Her face froze.

“Wh…What?! I can’t do that!”

Finley’s hazel eyes stared at her, bewildered.

“You cannot do what?”

“T-Take…you know! Take off my outer robe in front of you! That feels weird!”

“Is there something strange about that?” Her tone seemed strange. As always, her voice was stern…but it was almost like she was probing for an answer from Abrial. A peculiar air developed between them. Finley suddenly cleared her throat and continued, “It is necessary to treat your wounds. If I do not do it, someone else will have to.”

Abrial huffed, face red, and began to untie her inner robe.

Finley’s face froze. Like lightning, her hand shot out to grab Abrial’s fingers and stop her.

Abrial stared at Finley, dumbfounded, her hand clutched tightly in Finley’s grasp.

“...What? Didn’t you tell me to untie it? I don’t get it, what d’you want me to do? Is there something on my robe?”

Finley’s cheeks were tinged with pink.

“I didn’t put the screens up yet,” Finley muttered, her eyes cast down. “Everyone can see you.”

Abrial blinked. Her cheeks flushed even hotter with embarrassment. Hastily, she re-tied her robe even tighter than before.

After Finley had put the screens up, Abrial pulled down her robe and turned around so that Finley could see her back. Even though it was true that they were both women and Finley had seen her without clothes before, Abrial felt so flustered by the idea of Finley seeing her bare body now that she bunched up her soaked outer robe and covered her chest with it, like a desperate attempt at a shield.

Finley sat behind Abrial calmly. After a moment, Abrial felt gentle fingers gently applying a cool, smooth substance to her upper back. It felt soothing and pleasant. Immediately, the leftover heat that still smoldered within her chest lessened, the coolness seeming to seep through her skin.

Abrial sighed with relief and pleasure. Finley’s fingers faltered.

“Huh — what’s wrong, Finley?”

“Nothing. Stay still.”

“...” Was it nothing? For some reason, Abrial couldn’t bring herself to ask, so she just stayed as still as possible. Maybe Finley had been thrown off because she’d moved.

As Finley continued to massage the cool cream into Abrial’s back, Abrial thought of something.

“Hey, Finley…What kind of technique did Instructor Wei use to end the agony and wake me up? I heard some things when I got up. People were saying ‘The ice is gone’, and stuff like that. And I felt like all of my insides froze right before I woke up. It was really weird. My heartbeat even sounded like it slowed down…What kind of magic is that?”

Finley was silent for a moment. When she answered, she spoke slowly, like she was being cautious with her words. Her tone was also quiet enough that no one outside of the screens could hear.

“It is a revered ancient technique referred to as the Heart of Ice technique. It originated thousands of years ago, and has been passed down through the Wei clan ever since.”

“Hmm…” Abrial hummed. Her interest was piqued; Instructor Wei had used such a revered, ancient technique to heal her? That was…super cool! “How does it work? Was there really ice in my body? Does it really have something to do with the heart, or is that just some fancy name?”

Finley was silent for a moment again. This time, she spoke even more slowly than before. There was a strange feeling hanging in the air that Abrial failed to notice — a feeling like this was a dangerous, grim topic that had to be handled with care.

“The Heart of Ice technique utilizes drawing the heat out of a body to cool it from extreme temperatures, generally resulting in the formation of ice on the skin and sometimes on internal organs. However, with precise technique and an exceptionally high magical ability, the ice can be controlled so as to not damage the patient or the magician. It is extremely difficult to master.”

Abrial’s eyes sparkled.

“Instructor Wei gets more awesome all the time, doesn’t he? So he cooled down my body when it overheated by drawing the heat out and creating ice. So cool! But…” She frowned, hunched her bare, pale shoulders in thought. “What does that have to do with my heart? Heart of Ice is just a fancy name for that technique, then?”

Finley stopped rubbing cream into Abrial’s skin. Abrial turned her head slightly with a frown of confusion.

“Finley?”

“Straighten your shoulders,” Finley ordered firmly after a moment’s silence.

Perplexed, Abrial straightened her back. Finley began dabbing cream onto her lower back again. An ominous feeling had dropped into the pit of Abrial’s stomach like the rotten pit of a peach at Finley’s avoidance of her question. She couldn’t explain it; it just appeared, growling in the base of her abdomen.

“Finley, is something wrong?”

“...Abrial, I am going to tell you something.”

Abrial shivered; Finley’s voice had appeared near her ear in a whisper as her fingertips continued to massage the cool cream into her back. An odd feeling sparked in Abrial’s lower stomach along with that ominous feeling, and she leaned away involuntarily.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Please listen to me when I say that you must not tell this to anyone else.”