A Single Room
Not long after lunch, a servant led Siu to the back garden gate.
Chloe, bundled in a thick coat, tossed him a garment hanging on the wall. As he caught it and put it on, her gaze lingered on his hands.
"How did your sister's treatment go today?"
His fingers, busy with the buttons, fumbled once at the next hole.
"...It's finished."
Chloe's eyes traveled up from his hands to his face. Siu finished fastening the remaining buttons and went on.
"I can manage a short check-up after a little rest."
Chloe studied his face a moment longer, then took hold of the door handle.
"Then you decide how much to use. Don't push yourself."
When Chloe opened the door, a gust of cold air rushed in. In the field behind the main building, only a few withered stalks poked up through the snow. Stepping inside the stone wall, Chloe swept the snow aside with the toe of her boot, revealing frost-hardened soil frozen solid as rock.
"This is where we used to grow vegetables for the main house. The other fields are no different. The later the ground thaws, the fewer days we have for planting."
Chloe pointed at the frozen earth beneath her feet.
"Thaw it. I brought you here to see how far you can go."
Siu used a small shovel to clear the snow in a circle, scored a line around the edge, then crouched just outside the line and pressed his right hand to the center.
As he poured his warmth into the ground, a soft crackling rose beneath his palm. The frost-white crevices split open into dark seams, and melted water seeped down between the grains of soil. The darkness soon spread all the way to the line he had drawn with the shovel.
When Siu lifted his hand, a patch of earth wider than a full stride lay bare.
Chloe drove the shovel into the ground with her foot, and the blade sank into the damp soil. In the untouched ground right beside it, the shovel bounced off with a sharp clack.
"We could plant here right away."
"This much, yes. But thawing this whole field would be too much for me. If it freezes over again overnight, I'd have to start from scratch."
Siu looked back and forth between the thawed ground—far wider than his palm—and the snow-covered field. The red stones placed in every room came to mind.
"Young Matriarch, could I ask for a single Flame Stone?"
A little later, the servant brought one over. Set down on the untouched ground, the stone made only the nearby snow sink slightly. When Siu laid his hand on top and sent warmth into it, the red glow deepened.
The snow sagged inward from all sides. The dark, wet boundary spread faster than it had when he'd melted the ground with his bare hand. Chloe stabbed the shovel in at the edge and compared the depth against the untouched soil beyond.
"Wider, but shallower."
"The Flame Stone seems to divide the warmth and spread it sideways."
When Siu pulled his hand away, the boundary stopped expanding. Heat remained in the stone, but not enough to melt fresh snow.
"If I could send my warmth without having to keep holding the stone, we could cover a much larger area."
"Do you know of a way?"
"There's magic in this world, so I thought there might be a way to transfer it."
Chloe had the Flame Stone placed in a basket.
"Let's go see the Magic Division Commander."
Spread across the long table were papers dense with writing, red stones of varying sizes, and plates etched with lines. A woman seated beyond the table looked up. Purple hair spilled past her shoulders, and between the long bangs covering her eyes, violet irises of the same shade peeked through.
"This is Iris Bloom, our Magic Division Commander."
Chloe gestured to the basket.
"And this is Siu. He poured warmth—not fire—into these stones."
Iris's eyes didn't go to the basket. They stopped on Siu. She pushed her bangs aside a little with one finger, swept her gaze over his face once, then let the bangs fall back down.
Before touching the Flame Stone, Iris held her palm out in front of Siu.
"Hand."
When Siu extended his right hand, her fingers pressed his wrist, then his palm, one after the other.
"Send me some warmth."
Through their joined hands, Siu let a faint current of warmth flow out.
"When are you starting?"
"I'm already sending it."
Iris's fingers went still.
"It does get warmer. But I don't feel any mana."
Iris dragged a plate to the center of the table—two circles of different sizes carved into it, connected by a line.
"This is a test plate for transferring fire mana from one side to the other. If your ability isn't mana, it shouldn't work. In theory."
"I suppose we'll find out if I try."
A metal dish holding snow was set on the large circle. Siu placed his right hand on the distant small circle and gently pushed warmth into it.
The runes and lines etched into the plate did not glow.
The snow in the dish on the far side began to melt.
Water spread across the exposed metal bottom. Siu's hand never came close to the large circle.
"Stop."
When Siu withdrew his warmth, the melting snow soon stalled as well. Iris touched the line, then the rim of the dish in turn, and pulled her hand back.
"It's not mana, and yet it rode the mana array."
Siu looked at the other plates stacked beside the test plate.
"If we split the line and placed a Flame Stone at each end, do you think it would spread wider?"
Iris pulled out a plate with lines branching three ways.
"Mana divides. The more branches there are, the weaker the force reaching each end."
"But that last plate was a mana array for transferring mana too, wasn't it?"
The corner of Iris's mouth curved up, just barely.
"True."
Chloe turned away from the window.
"Could you prove it with one room?"
Iris's gaze settled on the door in the side wall.
"If the effect checks out, we'll try it in a small room."
Three small dishes were set at the ends of the branching plate. When Siu sent warmth into the central circle, the nearest dish's snow dampened first. By the time water pooled at the bottom of the last dish, Iris told him to stop.
All three dishes still held some snow.
"It's slower than sending it to one place."
"But it reached all three."
Siu flexed and curled his fingers. The amount he'd spent, building up from the field, was by no means small. Iris asked,
"Can you do more?"
"If I rest a bit, I can manage one more. But if it doesn't work this time, I don't think I'll be able to do anything else today."
"Then do it."
Chloe answered for them.
While the servants cleared out the side room, moving away an old crate and empty shelving, Siu rested in a chair. Iris selected connection plates from her laboratory and laid them across the floor of the room in three directions, placing a small Flame Stone at each end.
The stones' heat was so faint you'd have to bring your hand right up close to feel it.
"You can heat a room with these?"
"Not normally. Which is exactly why—if this works, we'll know for certain it was your warmth spreading."
The room was so narrow that Siu would touch the opposite wall in six paces. White frost clung to the cracks between the gray stones, and every breath he exhaled hung in a hazy cloud.
Siu crouched before the starting plate. Iris ran her eyes once over the connected seams and pushed the last plate flush.
"Go ahead."
He placed his right hand on the starting plate and sent warmth forward. He didn't chase each branch one by one—if the plates accepted it, the warmth would split on its own.
The red glow of the nearest Flame Stone deepened first.
A moment later, the stone across the room reddened, and then the last one brightened too, like an ember waking from within. Around all three stones, the frost began to dampen in round patches.
"Keep going."
Iris pressed her hand to the floor.
Siu sent more warmth. The warmed patches widened until they touched one another. The chill that had pressed up from beneath his feet retreated, and his next breath came out with only the faintest wisp of vapor.
Drops of water ran down the walls.
Chloe peeled off one glove and pressed her bare hand against the stone.
"It's warm."
A short remark—but it drew a laugh out of him.
Chloe turned her head while keeping her hand on the wall. She looked at Siu, still smiling, for a moment, then turned her eyes back to the wall—but her bare hand stayed pressed there for a long while.
In the field, it had been a little over a single stride of earth. A few minutes ago, it had been three dishes.
The place his warmth reached now was an entire room.
"It really works."
"...So it does."
Iris looked back and forth between the damp walls and the three Flame Stones.
Siu let out a long breath.
"I'll stop now."
The moment he lifted his hand, the red glow of the three stones wavered once, then began to fade—farthest stone first.
And yet the water kept trickling down the walls, and the wet boundary on the floor kept creeping slowly outward.
"Wait."
Iris caught Siu's wrist and pulled his hand even farther from the plate. Even after she detached the starting plate itself, the warmth in the room didn't vanish right away.
"Are you still sending it now?"
"No. Ever since I let go, I haven't felt anything."
Iris drew a line in chalk along the edge of the wet floor.
"Let's see how long it lasts."
A little under two hours later, the three of them returned to the side room.
The small Flame Stones had dimmed compared to before. But the servant who stepped into the room loosened her scarf, and no breath of vapor left Siu's lips. The dampness on the floor had crept a handspan past the line Iris had drawn.
"So it kept going even after I let go."
"It did. It's weakening, but your warmth is still there."
Chloe asked,
"How many rooms this size could you manage?"
Siu shook his head.
"Today, this one room is my limit. Once I've rested, I'll need to see whether I can put in the same amount again. And I still don't know how long it will last. But one thing is certain—I don't have to stay attached to it the whole time."
Chloe looked in turn at the damp floor and at Siu's hands.
"Iris. Leave this room empty for now. You manage the Flame Stones and connection plates it needs."
"Understood."
"Siu decides the next test. You two discuss what you need and submit a request."
Siu looked up.
"Me?"
"You're the one who proved it's a power worth using. In exchange, if something's beyond you, say so right away—just like you did today."
"Yes, my lady."
Back in the laboratory, Iris slid a blank sheet of paper and a pen across to Siu.
"So—where do you want to warm first?"
As if that required any thought.
"Wherever people shiver the longest."
Siu picked up the pen.
"The Infirmary."
The next morning, the connection plates took their places one by one across the Infirmary floor.
Iris slid a plate under a sickbed, pulled it back out, adjusted it, and chalked small circles where the Flame Stones would sit. Siu stood across from her, checking only that each plate's ends fitted together properly.
"Let's just get the plates aligned today. That way we can test the moment you've rested."
Even after a night's sleep, his body still felt a little heavy, so Siu nodded readily.
"Then I'll just settle on the size of Flame Stones we'll need."
"I'll handle that."
Iris pulled the basket toward her side.
"Go get some rest."
Walking down the corridor after leaving the Infirmary, Siu stopped in front of the stairs.
Come again tomorrow at the same time.
The voice he'd heard just before stepping out of the door yesterday came back to him. There was still time left before noon.
Siu set his feet toward the upper floor.