She was already wearing Airenzian garb. It was just, when they were in the city, she wouldn’t wear her weapons as she was then.

She blew out a breath, shook her head sharply and turned to him.

“I have an enormous amount of power inside me, Chu. If we had attempted to make that jump with my normal powers, we would have been lost on the magical plane, I am certain. But in the now, I have more than enough for that with much to spare. It was fine when it was stored untapped. But I tapped it. I simply need to order it and we can proceed.”

He studied her face for a lie.

And when he assessed she wasn’t giving him one, he asked, “Can you walk?”

“Of course, I can bloody walk,” she muttered.

He grinned at her, pushed to his feet and reached a hand down to her. “We are in the open, princess. And exposed. Let us find cover.”

She considered smacking his hand away and taking her feet on her own power, but she decided against that, grasped his hand and allowed him to pull her up.

He did not take her far, in amongst some evergreen trees.

The chill was fierce, and she worried about the smell of the air.

She scented snow.

She knew Chu scented it too, when they made haste and together, they worked, gathering some pine boughs, some fallen branches to use as supports and combing the floor of dead needles, and in no time erected a small shelter of boughs, and under it, a thick blanket of needles to sit upon to protect them from the cold earth.

Serena stood before it as Chu unsheathed his sword, tossed it under the boughs, and settled into it.

She swung his mantle off, stating, “Take your standard.”

“Keep it,” he muttered.

“Chu—”

She said no more as, quick as the strike of a snake, he reached out, clasped her hand and yanked her under the shelter, onto his lap. He then pulled his mantle from her hands, whipped it about them, and cocooned them both in it.

She did not wish this to be a warm and comfortable position.

But she could not deny it was.

“Does this suit, my princess?” he teased.

Instead of deigning to answer, she huffed out a sound and turned her gaze to scan the beyond.

He wrapped his arms and the ends of his mantle around her.

“If you relax, it’ll be more comfortable,” he suggested.

She tried to relax.

She did not succeed.

“Rena,” he murmured. “What’s the matter?”

Ha-Lah said they must learn to talk.

And she was right, they must learn to talk.

Or she must.

Chu seemed to know how.

And now they had nothing to do but sit, stare at nature…

And talk.

“Is it your wish to…?”

She could not finish.

“Is it my wish to…?” he prompted.

She drew in an unsteady breath.