Another cramp seized her as she tied the loincloth, squeezing her insides, wringing the blood free and spiking nausea up through her chest to sit at the base of her throat. She coughed and straightened against the pain, pulled on a pair of doeskin leggings and returned to the doorway, unsure whether she was watching the dawn or watching for assassins.

Toxte had left when it was still dark to take the spirit-magic without interruption. Already the house felt empty without him and Ekka, but she wouldn’t distract him from his preparations. Xessa’s head jerked up at movement between two houses and her hand reached for a knife. Ossa reacted to her sudden tension, leaping down the step, but then he relaxed and she saw it was her fathers.

Kime had a basket and she registered the smells of bread, meat, and avocado. Of cacao. Her eyebrows rose at the luxury and she wasted no time in shifting off the step to allow them to sit and taking the pot of cacao and setting it in the firepit to reheat. Knowing Kime, there would be a hint of chilli in the drink as well, just enough to warm the throat and mouth.

She kissed them both and held Kime’s hands tightly – Tika had been his duty partner for two decades and her death was a gaping wound in his spirit. His smile was wan but he flicked his head in dismissal; he wasn’t ready to talk about it yet, though he already had a new duty partner. The ejab were stretched so thin he wasn’t even allowed time to mourn.

Xessa fetched Otek a blanket, which he ignored, and tended the pot in the coals until the drink was bubbling. She poured them each a cup.

She sat at their feet and breathed in the chocolatey steam in heady inhalations. The first hot mouthful caressed her tongue and she closed her eyes and became the taste, a small world of heat and flavour and pain in her cheeks as her mouth watered. She sipped again and let the scent mingle with that of Toxte’s sweat still clinging to her skin.

Kime passed Xessa a plate of hot strips of turkey wrapped in cornbread and half an avocado cut into thick, creamy slices. Her gut rebelled, but she made herself eat. The pain in her stomach spread from her navel to the small of her back, washing down into her hips and groin and up as far as her bottom ribs. A low throbbing, as if a weight swung inside her or a deep bell had been struck at her core.

She sat with the discomfort, with her thoughts, with the tastes and scents of turkey and cacao tickling her senses. She waited for the sun to come up and the world outside to wake and shiver the air with life and movement.