Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

By late afternoon, the rain had thinned enough that Nia could sit near the entrance without mist blowing across her legs.

She had one foot tucked beneath her and both hands around a warm cup. Shen sat close enough that his knee touched hers while he replaced the worn binding on one of the smaller gathering baskets. Neither of them had anything urgent left to do before evening.

Nia was content to leave it that way.

Water dripped steadily from the outer rock. Farther down the slope, someone called for another length of cord, and a second voice answered from behind one of the storage turns. The exchange faded beneath the sound of runoff.

Shen pulled the new basket binding tight and checked where it crossed the rim.

“You are staring at the rain again.”

“I like rain.”

“I know.”

Nia took another drink.

The warming bark in the cup was weak enough that it did not overpower the dried herb Shen had steeped with it. She could smell wet stone each time the air shifted through the entrance.

Shen finished the first knot and turned the basket in his hands.

“You could lie down if you are tired.”

“I am not tired. I am enjoying sitting here while nobody needs anything from me.”

“That is different.”

“It is very different.”

Shen continued with the binding.

Nia heard Kael before he reached the entrance. His steps were heavier than Shen’s and more direct, familiar enough now that she knew the rhythm even before his shadow crossed the outer light.

He came in carrying a tied grain sack under one arm.

Nia lowered her cup.

Kael also had a narrow rolled strip tucked beneath the cord at his waist, but the sack caught her attention first.

He set it on the dry side of the entrance before removing his damp outer wrap.

“Is that watergrain?”

“Yes.”

Nia looked at Shen.

Shen set the gathering basket aside.

Kael washed his hands and forearms, dried them, and brought the sack into the kitchen.

It was smaller than the sacks under the trader’s market table but larger than what remained from Nia’s first purchase.

“How much did you buy?” she asked.

“Two measures. Another wetland-grain seller opened a small lot this morning and limited each household to two.”

Kael set it on the preparation board.

Nia loosened the top enough to see the familiar pale grains.

“You found another seller.”

“I was checking the eastern unloading line. Tovin told me who still had watergrain.”

Nia retied the sack.

“Was it the same terrible price?”

“Close.”

Kael told her.

Nia winced.

Shen leaned against the edge of the board. “The road is still being included in the price.”

“Yes.”

Nia looked at the sack again.

“You still bought it.”

Kael met her eyes. “You used enough yesterday that the rest will not last long.”

Nia remembered three bowls, extra redneedle, and the way his gaze had dropped to the covered leftovers before he left.

Her mouth curved.

Kael touched the side of her neck as he passed, his thumb brushing once beneath her ear before he reached for the cup Shen had already started filling for him.

Nia carried the new watergrain toward the dry shelf.

The older sack still had the cooking strip tucked beneath its tie. She placed Kael’s purchase beside it rather than combining them. If the new lot cooked differently, she wanted to know before they mixed the grain.

Behind her, Kael drank from the cup Shen handed him.

“The redneedle trader had no more small packets,” he said.

Nia turned. “You asked?”

“Yes.”

Kael sat beside the entrance and stretched one leg out, leaving the other bent.

“The last food packets sold this morning. She would not split the remaining whole-food bundle because another household had already paid for it.”

Nia nodded.

“Will she come back?”

“If the lower eastern road stays usable, she expects to return with another caravan. She could not give me a day.”

Shen rested the repaired basket near the wall. “That road has already changed twice since the thaw.”

Kael nodded. “I told Tovin to send word to our house if she returns. He is doing the same for three other households that asked about her goods.”

Nia rubbed the side of her cup with one thumb.

“So we wait.”

“Yes.”

The rain strengthened for several minutes, tapping against the outer stone hard enough that the lower slope blurred beyond the entrance.

Shen moved the repaired basket farther from the damp edge.

Kael stayed where he was.

Nia leaned against his shoulder.

His arm came around her without interrupting his drink.

For a while, none of them spoke.

Someone ran past outside with a cloth thrown over his head, boots striking wet stone before disappearing toward the lower turn. Nia caught one annoyed shout about a leaking cover and then nothing more.

The quiet returned.

Kael’s fingers moved slowly along her upper arm.

Then Nia remembered the rolled strip at his waist.

“What did you bring besides the grain?”

Kael looked down and pulled it free.

He passed it to her.

It was a narrow piece of treated hide rolled around a thin wooden slat. The outer surface carried several trade marks Nia recognized from market tables and several she did not.

She unrolled it carefully across her lap.

Shen shifted closer to read from the other side without taking it from her.

“The eastern trader group left copies at the chief table and with the market record keepers,” Kael said. “Several eastern routes meet at a larger spring market outside Hearthfang’s usual trade space. Territories with open roads can send traders or household buyers during the market period.”

Nia followed the marks down the strip.

She could recognize references to grain, dried plants, cloth, worked metal, medicines, oils, and animals, though many of the smaller marks still meant nothing to her.

Kael touched one line near the middle.

“The wetland-grain seller sends most of his larger stock there instead of bringing it this far north.”

Nia looked at the mark again.

That explained why Hearthfang saw only small quantities despite the grain being ordinary enough farther east.

“Have you answered the notice?”

“No.”

Kael left the rest of the strip in her hands.

Nia read farther without trying to make sense of every mark. A few months earlier, most of them would have meant little to her. Now she knew that imported goods reached Hearthfang only after passing through growers, traders, roads, weather, other buyers, and markets that could take the best stock before it ever reached the mountain.

She rolled the strip back around its slat.

“Where should this go?”

Kael stood and took it from her. “Do not put it with the food records.”

Their route board hung farther inside the shared room, away from kitchen moisture. Kael crossed to it and slid the rolled notice beneath one of the plain retaining cords at the eastern side.

Then he returned to the entrance and picked up his cup.

Shen settled beside Nia again and handed back the drink she had abandoned when Kael arrived.

It had cooled, but she drank it anyway.

Kael sat on her other side while Shen picked up the repaired basket and pressed his thumb along the new binding one last time.

Outside, rain continued to move over Hearthfang’s paths.

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