Chloe
The next day, when the hour of treatment arrived, the Head Butler stopped at the foot of the stairs.
"Go up alone today. It's the Lady's order."
By the time Siu reached the door, a servant had already announced him from inside and swung it open; Siu stepped through alone, and the door closed behind him.
Karina sat at her desk in a robe thrown over her nightclothes, a quill resting beside an open ledger.
"Lock the door."
Siu slid the bolt on the inside, and it clicked into place.
"Come here."
As he approached the desk, Karina held out her right hand. Siu pulled the chair beside her closer, sat down, and cradled the offered hand in his own.
Yesterday he had warmed the left hand first; the fingertips of the right were still pale.
"I'll start with this one today."
"Mm."
Siu sent his warmth from her wrist down toward her fingers. As Karina relaxed her hand a little, the area of contact widened.
Around the time color began returning to her wrist, Karina pulled her hand away. The last joints of her fingers were still white.
"It's not finished yet."
"It's enough to hold a pen. Start where we left off yesterday."
Siu's gaze dropped to the collar of her robe, then returned to the desk. The sensation of touching her through her nightclothes yesterday came back to him unbidden.
Karina pulled the sash of her robe loose. As the front fell open, both her hands rose to the top button of her nightshirt — and the whitened fingertips slipped off the small button twice.
Karina lowered her hands and looked at Siu.
"Undo it for me."
"...Me?"
"My fingertips still won't listen."
Karina held up her pale fingers as evidence.
Siu drew his chair a little closer. When he took hold of the button, the cold flesh beneath the nightshirt brushed against his knuckles. As the first button slipped free of its hole, Karina was watching not the button but Siu's face.
On the second button, his fingertip spun uselessly once.
"Are your hands shaking?"
"...The button's just small."
"It didn't shake yesterday."
His ears grew hot. Without answering, Siu worked the rest of the buttons loose. The parted nightshirt bared her collarbone and the upper curve of her chest, where a thin layer of frost clung to the pale skin.
Karina caught Siu's right wrist. Her fingers were weak, but the direction she pulled him in was unmistakable.
"Here."
His palm was guided beneath her collarbone. There was barely a handspan left between his hand and the frosted skin when a knock sounded at the door.
"Sister, open up."
Karina's hand froze. A moment later the door handle dipped and swung back into place.
Siu withdrew his hand, left hanging in midair.
"My lady, the buttons..."
Karina glanced once at the door, then leaned back against her chair.
"Button them."
Siu hurried to grasp the buttons he had just undone. The fingers that had slipped while undoing them obeyed him even less now. He had barely forced the second button through its hole and taken hold of the first when the door sounded again.
"Sister."
"One moment."
Karina answered, but felt no hurry at all. When Siu hooked the first button through its hole and let go, she drew her robe closed around herself and tied the sash.
"Open it."
Siu pushed his chair back and went to the door. Even as he lifted the bolt, the heat in his ears refused to fade.
As the door opened and Siu stepped aside, red eyes beneath a silver fringe paused briefly on his face before moving to the desk.
"Young Matriarch."
The servant outside the door bowed her head. The woman made no reply and walked straight toward Karina.
"You wouldn't even let the Head Butler in. What kind of treatment is this?"
"Chloe. Give me your hand."
Karina held out her right hand. Chloe reached to take it — and her gaze snagged on the collar of the robe.
Siu followed that gaze too. Between the closed edges of the robe, the top button of the nightshirt hung only halfway through its hole.
"What's wrong with your button?"
"We were in the middle of treatment."
"With the door locked?"
"It's my room."
Karina did not withdraw her outstretched hand. When Chloe turned to look at Siu by the door, he dropped his eyes to the floor, still gripping the door handle.
After a moment, Chloe's eyes shifted to the quill on the desk.
"You wrote this, Sister?"
"You can see for yourself."
Chloe looked down at the ledger, then took Karina's hand. Her fingers pressed along the back of it, down to the last joints.
"A few days ago you couldn't even hold a pen."
"I can now."
Chloe turned to Siu.
"This was you?"
"I warmed her hand a little. The treatment isn't finished yet."
"What's your name?"
"Siu."
"Come over here."
Siu looked first to the open doorway — the servant who had been guarding it now stood against the wall.
"May I close the door?"
Chloe's eyebrows rose slightly. She told the servant to wait outside, then gave Siu a nod.
He shut the door and returned to the desk, and Chloe asked,
"How does it work?"
"I gather warmth in my hand and pass it into hers. I don't know exactly what it is yet myself."
"You don't know what it is, and you used it on my sister?"
"The Head Butler brought him here, and I'm the one who told him to try it."
Karina answered first. Chloe spread the hand she'd been holding open, then turned it palm-up again.
"How long does it last once you let go?"
"Her hand was still moving when I left yesterday. After that, when it turned cold again — I haven't been able to ask yet."
Chloe pressed her lips together. Even after releasing Karina's hand, she didn't take her eyes off Siu.
He looked at the blank paper at the edge of the desk.
Even if I come tomorrow and start with her hands again, I won't know what happened during the night.
"Would it be all right if I started keeping records today? The time I let go of her hand, and the time it turns cold again."
Chloe's gaze dropped to the paper.
"You can write, too?"
"Yes."
Karina pushed the blank sheet and the quill toward him.
"He checked the numbers in the ledger for me yesterday, too."
Chloe slid the ledger to the far edge of the desk.
"Keep it separate from the ledger. Don't mix them."
Siu sat down, asked the date, wrote it down, and added Karina's name beneath it.
"I'll do the rest as well. My lady, could you keep an eye on the starting time?"
Chloe nodded.
Siu braced her palm with his left hand and covered her fingers with his right. He sent only as much warmth as he had before, and bit by bit, color crept back beneath her nails. Chloe leaned in to look closely. Her red eyes lingered not on Karina's fingertips but on Siu's hand covering them, and for a long while.
"It isn't too hot?"
"No. This much feels good."
The cold left in the last joints of her fingers faded. When he asked her to curl her fingers, Karina squeezed his hand once and let go.
"I'll stop here for today."
The moment Siu withdrew both hands, Chloe checked the time and took Karina's hand in her own directly. She held the fingertips for a while before speaking.
"The warmth stays even after he lets go."
Siu wrote down the two times Chloe called out, along with the color and movement of the fingertips.
Chloe turned to Karina.
"If your hands turn cold in the night, call someone and have them write down the time. Don't endure it alone."
"Fine."
Chloe pulled the paper toward her and read it over.
"Leave this here. Where I can see it."
She set the sheet down apart from the ledger. Just as Siu lowered both hands to his knees, there came a knock at the door.
"Young Matriarch."
Chloe opened the door herself, and the servant bowed her head and continued.
"The search party has returned. One of them has lost all feeling in her fingers and has been moved to the infirmary."
"And the Flame Stone?"
"It's in use, but they say the color still hasn't returned to her fingers."
Chloe headed straight out. Siu looked at Karina's right hand resting on the desk — the hand whose fingertips had been white only moments ago.
Karina's body sent its chill rising again and again. But would it work on a hand injured by the cold outside?
Siu pushed back his chair and rose.
"Young Matriarch. May I come along as well?"
The footsteps outside the door stopped.
"Can you use it on frostbite too?"
Siu began to answer, then glanced at Karina. Today he'd managed only one hand. Beneath the collar of her robe, the pale frost still lingered below her throat.
Karina drew back the left hand she'd been about to offer, and with a fingertip, brushed once over the button hanging half through its hole.
"Go. This side can wait."
Siu stepped toward the door and flexed his arm experimentally. It wasn't as heavy as it had been when he finished treating her yesterday. He thought he could manage a little more.
"I think we'll have to see."
Chloe studied him for a moment, then turned toward the corridor.
"Follow me. You'll work in front of me."
Siu walked after her and closed the distance.
"Young Matriarch. The Head Butler ordered me not to use it in front of anyone without her permission."
"I'll speak to the Head Butler myself. Once we're inside, stay beside me."
"Yes, my lady."
When Chloe opened the infirmary door, red light met them first — the Flame Stone set on the bedside table. The woman seated beside it rose and stepped out of the way.
On the bed sat the frostbitten scout wrapped in a blanket, a pair of wet gloves laid at her feet. Seeing Chloe, she tried to rise, failed to steady herself with her hands, and sank back down.
"Stay as you are. Let me see your hand."
A right hand emerged from the blanket.
The back of it was red. But the fingers, from the knuckles down, had gone ghost-white. Unlike when he had first come to Karina, the Flame Stone on the table was burning at full brightness.
Chloe closed the door.
"Whatever you see here from this point on, you don't speak of it outside."
The woman standing nearby looked at Siu.
"Is this man to assist with the treatment as well?"
"He's going to examine her hand. You watch her condition from the side."
Chloe stepped aside, and Siu sat in the empty chair. When the scout extended her hand, he braced her wrist with his left and covered her fingers with his right. The curled fingers hung stiff and unmoving in the air.
"I'm going to try warming it. If the feeling changes at all, please tell me. Even if it hurts, or feels uncomfortable."
"Yes. Please go ahead."
He gathered warmth in his palm and sent heat into the places they touched. Little by little, the cold beneath her fingers gave way to warmth. Careful not to increase it, Siu moved his thumb along the side of her fingers to check — less cold than before.
"How does it feel now?"
The scout ran her left hand over her right, stopping short at the fingers.
"It's warm. When I touch it with my left hand. My right hand, still..."
So even though it's warm, she can't feel it.
The fingers beneath his hand were still white. He found himself wanting to pour warmth in all at once. Karina would have moved her fingers by this point — but this was a first for this woman. Siu held the same intensity steady. The woman beside him watched the scout's face and drew the blanket up over her shoulders.
A short while later, the index finger twitched under his palm.
"Just now..."
The scout looked down at her hand, and Siu waited without pressing her for an answer.
"It feels like something's pressing on it. A little."
Siu lifted his right hand and touched his fingertip beside her index finger.
"This time, don't look at your hand — look at me while you answer. And now?"
The scout raised her head.
"Your index finger."
When he moved his fingertip beneath her middle finger, the answer followed. At her little finger, it took a moment longer before the reply came back.
Siu covered her fingers again and sent warmth. The red spread from her wrist down toward her fingertips. When he asked her to try moving them, the index finger bent first, and then the others pressed against his palm. They couldn't close into a full fist, but they no longer hung stiff in the air the way they had.
"They're moving."
The scout stared down at her own moving fingers.
"No matter what I tried before, nothing happened."
The warmth gathering under his hand was slowing compared to the start. Chloe came closer.
"Do you need to do more?"
"Her feeling's come back, and she can move it. I don't think I can manage more than this, either."
Chloe looked at Siu's hands, then shifted her gaze to the scout.
"Then we'll stop here for today."
Siu withdrew the warmth and lowered both hands to his knees. On top of the blanket, the scout's fingers kept moving.
Chloe spoke to the woman beside her.
"Wrap the hand in dry cloth. Watch her condition through the night, and if the color drains again or the feeling goes, tell me at once."
"Yes, Young Matriarch."
As the woman wrapped the hand in the cloth she'd brought, the scout bowed her head.
"Thank you."
"I'm glad it helped, even a little."
It wasn't something that worked only on Karina.
Siu slowly opened his right hand. On his left was the imprint of the scout's wrist, where he had held it.
"Siu."
He looked up to find Chloe watching him.
"If another patient like this comes in, I'll hear your assessment first."