As Olivia started to raise a spoon towards her mouth, Hina had a horrible thought.

"Wait!" Hina said. Before you eat anything, she thought, let me tell you about how we might have poisoned your food with an unknown substance. It's okay though, we're the friendly kind of poisoners. Never mind all of the other things that Hina had lied about. She couldn't not tell her, though. That would be awful.

"Sorry, stop, don't eat that yet," Hina said.

Olivia put her spoon down. "Why?" She frowned. "What's wrong?"

"This is awkward." Hina sighed. "A few days ago, we came across this salt shaker in the woods. I sprinkled some of it into the food—our food—before you arrived, and I... I only just remembered that now."

"Oh," said Olivia. "Oh." She put down her bowl too. "That is awkward. Thank you for telling me before I ate it, I think? There wasn't any of this stuff on the meat, was there?"

Kai stared at Hina with a horrified expression.

"The meat didn't have any." Hina shook her head. "We were trying to do a controlled test, Bean—the bird—ate some of it last night, and he's fine. We were going to test it ourselves tonight, but then you showed up. So." She scrunched up her face. "Sorry."

"Hmm." Olivia looked down at the bowl of food in her lap. "Can you show it to me? The... salt shaker?"

"Of course," Kai said. "Hina?"

There was probably nothing wrong with that. What was she going to do, steal it? Hina took the shaker out of her pocket, took three steps around the fire and passed it over. "Here."

Hina sat down again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—," I didn't mean to almost poison you, she thought. "I just thought you should know," she finished.

Olivia stared at the salt shaker. "This is—where did you say you found this?"

"Um, in the woods a few days back. There was this ruined building on the top of the hill, and it was in there."

Kai was shaking his head.

"Hmm."

"What is it, do you know? It feels... significant. Like there's something special about it."

"It feels like a trinket," said Olivia. "I don't know what it does. If it's food, most people try them on animals first, like you did. They're usually... safe to test."

"What it does?" Hina asked. "What do you mean?"

Olivia shrugged. "My mother has a little metal box that she showed me once. Inside the box are two salted crackers. Any time you take them out and eat them, or throw them away—it doesn't matter how you get rid of them, those salted crackers are always inside the box the following morning."

"The same crackers?"

"I always wondered about the same thing." Olivia smiled. "Superficially, at least, they're the same crackers, down to the imperfections. Same bubbles, same shape, same markings."

"And do they do anything when you eat them?"

"They do. After you swallow a bite of either of the crackers—and it has to be a substantial bite, you intuitively know the direction of the nearest game animal. It only lasts a moment, but it's enough to get you on the right track."

"Really?" asked Hina.

"Really. You get maybe two good bites per cracker. Oh, and the crackers make you thirsty. You have to drink... a lot of water."

"Amazing," said Kai. "Imagine if we'd had that. We could've caught two birds. Maybe even three!"

"My mother says that they're very handy in a survival situation. It works on your own internal definition of game, so you can tweak the results a bit. Of course, the direction may or may not be very useful. The nearest rabbit might be underground, or it might be a bird flying overhead."

"Huh. So how do we figure out what it does?" said Hina. "I mean, we know that it's probably not poison."

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"Probably not poison to birds," chimed in Kai, helpfully.

"Right. So you were saying that they're usually safe to test?"

"There are people—in the city, and other places—who specialise in figuring out what they do. It can be a whole profession in itself, sometimes. They have a whole suite of tests that they can run to figure out what's likely, and then they can narrow it down from there.

"From what I understand, they usually won't hurt you without some kind of warning, especially the ones that look like food." Olivia held up the shaker. "Now, to me, this either looks like food, or it looks like the kind of thing you use to poison the foreign minister. I think we can rule out poison, given that your friend there is happy and healthy."

"Break-fast?"

"That's a relief," said Hina. "I want to try it."

She took the silver spoon and her bowl and served herself up some of the beans. It was a bowl of brown mush with a few large chunks of meat, but it looked good, and it smelled good. She hesitated with the spoon in front of her mouth, and took a bite.

It was delicious. "Mmm," she said. "This is really good." She took another bite, and another.

"Go slow," said Olivia, "in case it does something weird?"

"Right," said Hina. "But also. It's two shakes through the whole pot." She took another bite. "And it tastes amazing."

"That could be the effect," said Olivia. "It could make basic or unpalatable food taste better."

"Hey." Hina narrowed her eyes. "We might be in the forest right now, but I know how to cook."

"No offence intended—the meat was very good," said Olivia. "I'm just saying that could be the effect."

"Fine. I don't think I'm turning into a frog, anyway." Hina took another bite.

"Any strange feelings, anything unusual running through your mind? A feeling of connection?"

"No, nothing. I'm just hungry, and not in an unusual way."

"Okay. Then I think it sounds like we're safe." She smiled. "I'm going to try a bite."

Hina watched as Olivia picked up her bowl and lifted the spoon to her mouth.

She took a bite, chewed and swallowed. "Oh, my," she said. "That's really good." She lifted another spoonful towards her mouth. "This is just beans and meat?"

"And mysterious trinket salt," said Hina.

"Gosh. This is wonderful." She set her bowl and spoon back down. "Assuming that we don't wake up in the morning as beetles, that is a really good find. I wonder how much you need to have to get the effect. Two shakes for what, three, four bowls full of absolutely delicious beans?"

Hina nodded. That sounded about right.

"Think about the applications—you give this to the cook in a busy tavern, and they can make anything taste good. Could be a little unethical if it works on spoiled food. That would need to be tested. But unless there are some serious downsides, this could be quite valuable." Olivia reached over and passed the shaker back to Hina, smiling. "Nice one."

"Thank you?"

"I imagine it comes down to how much of the salt there is, and whether it replenishes itself. If it's a finite amount, that's great for camp dinners for a while. If it refills itself, that's a whole other story. And then you have to consider how much and how frequently it replenishes itself, if it does."

Hina nodded. "That makes sense."

"Someone pass me a bowl of beans, please?" said Kai.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Kai." Hina refilled her own bowl and passed it to him along with the silver spoon. "Here you go."

"Thanks," Kai said. His eyes widened as he took a bite. "Huh, you weren't kidding. Nutrition and delicion."

Bean croaked beside Hina. "Good bird? Break-fast?"

"Yeah, I guess you can have some too," said Hina. She used the blade of the knife to scoop up some of the beans, serving them onto the ground for lack of a better option. "Here you go."

Bean cackled and ate.

If it was poison, they were all poisoned together. Somehow, that made Hina feel better.

"Is that a talking bird?" asked Olivia. "I wasn't sure before, but those were definitely words."

"Yeah, he's a good bird."

"Good bird," said Bean, "Good bird." He cackled again before returning his attention to the beans.

"How—where did you get him?" asked Olivia.

"We ran into him in the woods," said Hina.

"Let me guess," she took another bite. "A few days ago? Same place you found the salt shaker? Mysterious ruins?"

"No. No, it was after. He was being attacked by a couple of bigger birds, and we chased them away. He was injured and decided to come with us. Or she, I guess. We don't know his gender."

"He must be someone's pet," said Olivia. "Or something. I've never heard of a talking bird just appearing in the wildlands before. Only the rarest of the beasts can talk, and they're not usually friendly."

"Well, I figure he can stay with us as long as he wants."

Bean whistled.

"Do you hear a lot? About the wildlands?" asked Kai.

"Oh. My family travels. Someone's always going somewhere and bringing back stories. This is the furthest I've been by myself. It's... different. Not bad, exactly, but different."

"How so?"

"It just seems so... ordinary. I expected more danger, more excitement. My uncles are always talking about encounters with bandits and monsters and wildlings and all sorts of things."

Hina yawned. "I'm about ready to turn in. Olivia, you were saying something about a ward?"

"Oh, yes, right." Olivia stood up. She walked back and forth a few times, looking at the ground around the fire. "I'll make a circle around the fire. You won't be able to go out until morning—not without waking everyone up, so if you need to go, do it now." She grinned. "On that note, I'll be right back."

Olivia walked off into the forest.

Hina waited a moment, then turned to Kai. "Thoughts?"

"I like her," said Kai.

Bean chirped low and then high.

"She seems like a good person," Kai said.

Hina wasn't sure. There was something about Olivia that made Hina uneasy. Beyond the fact that she was a stranger with power, a stranger who came from power.

"Just be careful," Hina said. "She almost seems too nice."

"I don't think so." Kai shook his head. "But I'll keep an eye out anyway." He paused. "Back in a bit."

He walked off into the forest, in the opposite direction from Olivia.

"Good bird," said Bean.

Hina sighed. She hoped Olivia didn't stay with them for long. Some of those lies were going to be a hassle to keep up.