On the second day of their journey in the darkness, Cara woke up to light. Orange, flickering, but light. It came from a small fire on the stone floor.

In the dark crypt, it glowed. Crackled. It was warm and merry. She jerked as she stared at it.

“The fire.”

A ghostly [Knight] sat around it, admiring the flame. Just as he had when she’d fallen asleep. He glanced up.

“Good morning to you, Miss Cara. Or so I assume it is.”

She blinked at him, and then the fire. He helpfully indicated it.

“I have been tending to the flames that you might eat a breakfast. Mice, or roots, perhaps. A lovely thing to see, flame. A very useful level-up and Skill. Ah, but then—we are often granted such things.”

The ghost-knight was calm as he poked a few skinned and neatly de-boned mice. He’d even cut off the heads and…extremities. Cara smelled roasting meat. Her mouth watered, despite knowing what they were.

“Are the mice…I mean, d’you think I could eat…?”

It felt like months since she’d last had anything hot. Cara squatted down around the fire. Dalius hesitated.

“I believe that they are cooked. One cannot tell—and whenever I try to touch—”

He poked a mouse and steam rose from the contact. His chilling fingers were a detriment to this. Cara hesitated.

She burned her fingers on the mice and the roots that Ser Dalius had tied them to. The meat was actually a bit overdone. It lacked salt, condiments, and it was very gamey, which was to say, mousey.

Still, she devoured them. Ser Dalius looked on wistfully.

“One almost forgets how food tastes. Is it…good?”

“Yuth. Give me another. Please.”

She remembered the sky. And remembered that this wasn’t normal. Cara shuddered as she stared at the fire. Ser Dalius was tamping it out.

“I had to gather enough fuel, but I am sure I’ve stored enough of those damned roots to fuel the fire at least a few more times, Miss Cara.”

“I—thanks, Dalius.”

The [Knight] smiled. He looked pleased by the mundane activity. But Cara just shuddered. She felt at her teeth, scratched at the enamel.

“I need to brush my teeth.”

“Do what now?”

The [Knight] got the worst of her appalled look. Cara opened her mouth and pointed to her pearly white teeth, which until now she had obsessively taken care of.

“Do you not brush your teeth? Show me them! Open up your mouth! Go on!”

“What? That’s not—er, that’s a private thing, Miss Cara!”

Ser Dalius backed up. Cara made him open his mouth. She was disappointed to see the man had most of his teeth.