Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

The storm deepened overnight.

Nia noticed it before she fully woke through the low pressure humming faintly through the outer stone beneath the floor vents. The sound traveled strangely through Varesh during heavier snowfalls, constant beneath the mountain walls as wind pressed against the upper ridges.

She stayed beneath the blankets another moment while warmth settled heavily around her legs and lower back.

Kael was gone already.

The space beside her still held heat, though not enough to suggest he had only just left.

Across the room, Shen crouched beside the hearth adjusting one of the lower vent covers while a shallow iron pan warmed over the stones nearby. Steam curled upward carrying the heavier scent of grain broth and rendered fat.

The room looked dimmer than usual despite morning already settling somewhere beyond the outer corridors.

Snowstorms changed the way light settled through the mountain corridors.

Nia pushed herself upright slowly, pulling one of the heavier wraps tighter around her shoulders before glancing toward the entrance covering.

“You both wake up far too early.”

Shen slid the vent cover slightly narrower before looking back toward her.

“The lower routes started moving before dawn.”

“That explains the corridor noise. It still feels unreasonable.”

A quieter warmth touched the edge of Shen’s expression briefly before his attention returned to the hearth.

“The storm roads need reinforcing before the upper drifts compact.”

Nia rubbed one hand across her face.

“The storm roads are still the outdoor paths.”

“Yes.”

“In the middle of this weather.”

“Yes.”

Nia lowered her hand slowly.

“This mountain treats winter like nobody is allowed to rest.”

Shen handed her one of the warmed cups from beside the hearth before she could continue complaining.

The broth smelled richer than yesterday’s, heavier with grain and rendered fat, and the heat spread painfully through her fingers after leaving the blankets.

“Is Kael outside already?”

“He left with the lower support crews.”

Nia frowned toward the entrance covering.

“How long ago?”

“Before the first meal rotation.”

That explained why the room still carried lingering cold near the entrance stones despite the active hearth.

Nia took another drink slowly while the mountain continued vibrating faintly around them beneath the storm winds.

Outside the household chambers, corridor traffic had already thickened considerably.

Workers moved constantly through the residential routes carrying rope bundles, heating stones, vent hooks, folded seal cloth, and reinforced snow braces toward the upper levels. Storm cycles like this pulled the entire mountain into motion before sunrise fully reached the outer corridors.

Nia watched two workers hurry past the corridor opening carrying what looked suspiciously like reinforced shovels.

“At this point I’m afraid to ask what those are for.”

“Snow anchors.”

“I should have expected that answer.”

Shen crossed toward the storage hooks beside the wall and started sorting through several bundled outer layers.

Nia narrowed her eyes.

“You’re going outside too.”

“The lower vent crews requested additional smoke stock for the exposed routes.”

Nia exhaled slowly before looking back toward him. “Every explanation introduces another thing trying to freeze, break, or spread through the mountain.”

Shen checked the stitching along one of the heavier gloves before setting it aside.

“The exposed vent paths freeze faster during heavy storms.”

“That sentence did not improve the situation.”

The mountain treated winter like something that needed constant maintenance. Even from inside the household chambers, Nia could hear the extra movement in the corridors as workers hauled supplies toward the outer routes before the storm worsened.

Nia looked down into her broth again.

The kitchens upstairs were probably already running heavier morning rotations by now. Storm days always seemed to pull more food through the mountain once the support crews started cycling through the outer routes.

The more she learned about Varesh, the harder it became to separate one part of the mountain from another.

Shen finished fastening the outer layers before reaching for several tied herb packets from the storage shelf.

Nia eyed them suspiciously.

“Spider smoke or meat ant smoke.”

“Frost mold.”

Nia stared.

The mountain seemed to produce new winter problems faster than she could learn them.

“What does frost mold do.”

“It spreads beneath damp seal cloth if heated airflow drops too low.”

“Of course it does.”

Shen adjusted the herb packets into a leather satchel afterward.

“The lower routes lost an outer grain shelf to it several winters ago.”

Nia folded one leg beneath herself while holding the warmed cup closer.

“You all talk about disasters here like they’re part of ordinary weather.”

“Winter is weather.”

Nia stared at him over the rim of the cup before shaking her head lightly.

“I think this mountain survives through stubbornness and threats.”

Shen finished tying the satchel closed before finally looking back toward her fully.

“That was already the plan,” Nia said before he could speak. “I have no interest in freezing to death for curiosity.”

Something quieter touched the edge of Shen’s expression again before he adjusted the satchel higher against his shoulder.

“The lower routes should stay stable.”

“That is still not reassuring when both of you keep voluntarily walking back into the storm.”

Nia sighed softly into the edge of the cup.

The frustrating part was that he was probably right about the upper routes, because she had already seen enough of Varesh during storms to understand that the mountain shifted entire labor systems around weather before the snow even fully settled.

And somewhere inside all of that, Kael was currently outside reinforcing storm roads before the drifts compacted hard enough to trap sections of the upper paths.

Nia frowned harder at her broth.

Shen finished adjusting the satchel strap before looking back toward her. “You’re worrying again.”

“I’m thinking about how both of you keep walking back outside like this weather isn’t trying to kill people.”

“Those are probably related.”

Shen adjusted the satchel strap once against his shoulder.

“Kael and I are both Level 9s. The cold affects us differently than most people.”

Nia frowned slightly over the rim of the cup.

She still did not fully understand what that actually meant in practice.

Everybody in Varesh talked about ranks as though the numbers explained things automatically.

Strength, endurance, authority, instincts — the entire mountain seemed organized around systems she only partially understood.

“How different is ‘differently’?”

Shen’s expression shifted slightly, like he was trying to decide where to begin.

“Enough that ordinary winter routes are not usually considered dangerous for us unless the mountain itself becomes unstable.”

Nia pointed at him with the cup. “You make dangerous things sound far too manageable.”

Outside the household chambers, somebody shouted for additional brace hooks farther down the corridor.

Another worker answered a moment later.

The corridor traffic had not slowed once since she woke.

Shen crossed toward the entrance covering while gathering the remaining satchel straps into one hand.

Cold air slipped faintly beneath the lower edge of the seal cloth where snow-cooled drafts pressed through the corridor beyond.

Nia watched him secure the heavier outer wraps more tightly around his wrists.

“You’re both going to come back frozen again, aren’t you.”

“The heating chambers exist for a reason.”

“That answer is not helping.”

Shen adjusted the satchel once against his shoulder before moving closer toward the bedding platform.

Nia looked up at him. “You’re doing the calm explanation thing again.”

“The corridors are reinforced.”

Shen reached down then, adjusting one side of the blanket where it had slipped lower around her shoulders without seeming to think about it first.

The adjustment lasted barely a moment, but her body reacted to the warmth automatically anyway, leaning toward it before she realized she had moved at all.

“You’ll be warm here,” he said.

Nia looked away first.

“That sounds a little too comforting considering the weather outside.”

“I thought you liked comfort.”

“I do. I just don’t trust either of you during blizzards anymore.”

A quieter huff of amusement left him then, brief enough that she nearly missed it.

Outside, the storm winds pressed harder against the mountain.

The vibration rolled faintly through the lower stone beneath the vents while workers continued moving through the corridor routes outside carrying supplies deeper into the mountain.

Somewhere farther down the residential levels, another corridor door opened and shut again against the cold while hearth warmth continued settling steadily through the room around her.

Shen moved toward the entrance covering afterward, pausing only long enough to tighten one of the outer fastenings near his wrist before pushing the heavier seal cloth aside.

Cold flooded briefly through the room, enough that Nia felt it immediately against her face and hands before the covering settled shut again behind him.

The room quieted afterward, though Varesh never really became silent during storms.

Corridor traffic outside still moved steadily through the residential levels while wind pressed low through the outer stone beneath the vents. Somewhere farther down the mountain, metal struck stone in uneven bursts before fading again beneath the heavier rhythm of movement.

Nia sat with the warmed cup between both hands another moment before finally exhaling into the steam.

Then she looked toward the empty side of the room again.

Kael’s heavier outer layer still hung near the drying hooks where he had left it overnight after returning from the runoff channels.

Most of it had dried by now, though the thicker inner seams near the shoulders still looked damp.

Being Level 9 apparently convinced both of them that walking directly into blizzards counted as reasonable winter behavior.

She lowered the cup onto the edge of the hearthstones before finally pushing herself upright beneath the blankets.

The floor felt colder this morning despite the active vents, probably because workers kept opening corridor coverings farther down the residential routes. Every time one opened, another wave of storm air filtered briefly through the mountain before the inner heat settled again.

She crossed toward the drying hooks slowly, tightening the heavier wrap around herself before touching the edge of Kael’s outer layer again.

The shoulders still held some cold beneath the seams.

At least it was warming properly now.

The mountain had started changing the way she judged comfort.

A few days ago she would have looked at half-dried winter gear and assumed something had gone wrong.

Now she was standing beside the drying hooks checking whether the seams were warming evenly.

Somewhere outside the household chambers, another worker hurried past carrying what sounded like stacked vent plates while someone else called after him to stop running near the lower turns.

The argument faded quickly down the corridor.

Nia glanced toward the entrance covering again before reaching for another piece of drying cloth from the storage shelf.

At this rate Kael would come back soaked again, and probably Shen too.

The thought bothered her enough that she started reorganizing the warming stones near the hearth without consciously deciding to.

The larger stones held heat longer while the flatter ones warmed cloth faster.

Nia only realized what she was doing after stacking several warmed stones beside the drying basin, and she looked down at them for a moment before reaching for a second drying cloth from the shelf anyway.

Outside, the storm winds pressed harder against the mountain again while corridor traffic beyond the household chambers continued without slowing.

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