Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

The rear stone passage inside Kael's residence carried a steadier warmth now that Kael and Shen had finally balanced the new vent flow beneath the bath floor.

Warm air drifted through the narrow interior corridor while Kael guided the lantern ahead of them. Melted snow from earlier trips outside dampened the stone nearest the entrance, but the deeper sections of the floor stayed dry beneath their feet.

Nia kept the folded cloth tucked beneath her arm while they walked farther into the residence.

The household sounded different this deep into the bathing side of the home. Water moved through the heated channels beneath the stone in steady muffled currents while steam vents clicked softly overhead.

Kael slowed slightly near the turn leading toward the bath chamber.

His hand remained at the middle of her back, not pushing her forward, simply steady against her through the narrower section of passage.

By now her body noticed him before her thoughts fully caught up.

The warmth from the hearth still lingered beneath her clothes, but cooler air brushed against the exposed skin near her neck whenever the draft shifted through the stone vents. Kael's hand stayed steady through every turn.

The bath chamber sat behind the storage alcove connected to the rear side of the residence where Kael and Shen had spent the last several days adjusting the underfloor vents.

Steam curled faintly through the doorway curtain.

Nia stopped just inside the doorway.

"Finally."

Kael pulled the curtain aside.

Warm steam rolled across her face the moment Kael pulled the curtain aside.

The chamber had never been cold exactly. Kael and Shen had made certain of that long before winter settled fully into the mountain.

But now the heat held evenly through the entire floor instead of gathering only near the water.

Moisture fogged lightly near the ceiling vents while water dripped somewhere deeper inside the chamber.

Nia stepped in another pace.

Heat soaked upward through the stone beneath her boots strongly enough that she nearly made a sound before catching herself.

"You fixed it."

Kael hung the lantern near the wall hook.

"Mm."

"No, this is serious." She crouched quickly, pressing her palm against the floor. "The whole floor's warm now."

The stone held heat all the way through instead of leaving the outer edges cold enough to numb her feet while she washed.

"I don't have to sprint between the bench and the water anymore."

"You still managed it every time."

"Because freezing to death wasn't an option."

Kael's mouth shifted faintly.

Nia looked at him.

"Was that amusement?"

"Maybe."

"Careful." She stood again, rubbing warmth back into her hands. "People will start expecting reactions from you now."

He crossed toward the vent grate instead of answering.

Nia watched him crouch beside the wall.

Steam moved lightly through the narrow channels while Kael adjusted one of the fitted stone panels with practiced familiarity. His sleeves had already been pushed halfway up his forearms from the work upstairs earlier.

She looked away before her attention lingered too long on the way his sleeves strained across his forearms while he worked.

The chamber itself remained simple beside the tiled baths and running water she still remembered from another life.

Stone benches lined one side near the wall vents where the heat gathered strongest. Storage shelves held folded cloths, oil jars, combs, and drying bundles of herbs tied neatly beside the washing pool. Water fed continuously into the deeper bathing basin from one of the upper channels before draining through the runoff grate.

The changes Kael and Shen made over the last several days altered the comfort of the room more than the room itself. Steam stayed thicker now, and the heated floor no longer lost warmth near the outer benches.

Nia untied her outer layers slowly while Kael checked the vent channels.

Snow-damp fabric loosened from around her shoulders one layer at a time. The air against her skin stayed warm enough that she did not immediately start shivering again.

After weeks of frozen floors and numb feet, the heat still felt difficult to believe.

Kael stood after adjusting the final vent stone.

His gaze shifted toward her then, calm and direct without any visible hurry.

Nia’s fingers stalled briefly against the ties near her collar again.

Shared sleeping had already become normal between them somehow. So had proximity and touching.

Kael lifted her over ice without warning now. He pulled blankets higher around her while she slept and steadied her by the waist whenever she nearly slipped carrying water down frozen ramps.

The closeness between them was no longer unfamiliar. What unsettled her lately was how naturally her body had started accepting it.

Kael crossed toward the basin.

"Water's hottest now," he said.

Nia cleared her throat lightly.

"Right."

She sat near the edge of the basin to untie her boots.

The warmth beneath the floor made the entire process slower than usual because she no longer needed to rush through everything before her hands went numb.

One boot dropped beside the bench.

Then the other.

Kael poured fresh heated water into one of the smaller washing basins while steam drifted upward around his hands.

Nia loosened the scarf protecting her braids before setting it aside near the folded cloths.

The dry winter air inside the mountain pulled moisture from her hair constantly. Warm steam and oil helped keep the braided sections from drying out too badly through winter.

Kael glanced toward her again.

"Need help?"

Her fingers paused.

"With what?"

"Your braids."

Nia blinked.

She looked at him for a moment without answering.

Kael waited beside the basin with the same calm expression he used while discussing grain storage or collapsed pathways.

To him, offering help with grooming probably was ordinary.

The mountain handled grooming differently than she did. Hair care, fur brushing, oiling horns, trimming claws — people helped each other constantly during winter when everyone stayed indoors longer.

Even knowing that, her stomach still tightened.

"You even know how to handle it?"

"I've watched you do it enough."

Nia looked down at the half-loosened braid in her lap before she trusted herself to answer.

"They're probably tangled near the ends."

Kael crossed over without hesitation.

The bench dipped slightly beneath his weight when he sat behind her.

The bench dipped slightly beneath his weight, close enough behind her that she became aware of him immediately.

Nia tried very hard to keep breathing normally while Kael gathered one of the longer braids carefully into his hands.

His fingers moved slower than hers usually did, cautious while he worked warm oil along the braided length and through the new growth near the roots.

He worked carefully around one of the tighter sections near the end with surprising patience.

Her shoulders loosened gradually while he worked through the braid.

"Too rough?" he asked.

"No." Her voice came out softer than expected. "You're fine."

The chamber settled into quiet while water dripped steadily into the runoff channels and steam drifted near the vents.

Kael continued working through her braids one section at a time.

He worked without hurry, and every so often his knuckles brushed lightly against the back of her neck while separating another tie loose from the woven sections.

Nia watched steam drift upward above the basin while Kael continued working through the loosened sections of her hair with steady patience.

No one had handled her hair carefully like this in a very long time, slow and patient without any pressure to hurry through it.

The quiet patience of it caught her off guard enough that she stopped watching the steam entirely and lowered her gaze instead.

Kael's fingers slowed briefly.

"Hurting?"

"No." She rubbed her thumb against the edge of the folded cloth in her lap. "Just thinking."

He accepted that answer easily.

One braid loosened after another beneath his hands.

By the time he finished the thicker sections near the middle of her back, her shoulders had already loosened enough that she nearly leaned against him outright.

She only noticed how much she had relaxed when Kael shifted closer to reach the next section and her body followed the adjustment instead of pulling away.

His chest brushed lightly against the back of her shoulder.

Neither of them shifted away afterward.

Kael continued separating the final braid ties near the base of her neck while water moved quietly through the lower runoff channels.

Nia looked down at her hands.

"I'm getting used to this," she murmured under her breath.

"Mm?"

"Nothing."

Kael finished the last braid near the base of her neck.

Her hair settled heavier down her back once the woven sections loosened fully.

He gathered the ends carefully between both hands.

"Still damp from yesterday," he said.

"It takes forever to dry now."

"Too cold upstairs."

"I know."

Kael reached for one of the oil jars from the nearby shelf.

Nia glanced back over her shoulder.

"You're committed to this now?"

"You said it tangles."

She tried not to smile and failed almost immediately.

Kael worked a small amount of warmed oil through the thicker sections near the ends first.

His hands were large enough that each pass gathered nearly all of her hair at once.

The slow pull through her curls disrupted her concentration badly enough that she closed her eyes briefly again.

Nia closed her eyes briefly while his hands worked oil through the heavier sections of her hair.

For several quiet moments, the storm outside the mountain stopped feeling particularly important.

"Too warm?" Kael asked.

She opened her eyes again.

"No."

A quiet laugh nearly escaped her afterward. The situation still felt absurd sometimes.

Only a few months earlier she had still been sleeping beside unfamiliar stone walls and trying to understand the rhythms of mountain life. Now she sat inside a steam-filled bath while Kael worked warm oil along the loosened sections near her scalp with the same concentration he used repairing vents or sharpening blades.

The thought lingered only briefly before Kael's fingers reached one of the tighter knots near the ends.

He paused.

"Hold still."

"I am sitting still."

"Stay still."

Nia huffed a small laugh before she could stop herself.

Kael untangled the knot with stubborn precision.

The quiet stretched comfortably afterward while neither of them tried to fill it with unnecessary conversation.

The mountain had already started teaching her how much of daily life here happened through quiet shared labor instead of constant conversation.

By the time Kael finished oiling the final section, the heat from the floor had soaked fully through her legs.

Nia flexed her toes against the stone.

The heated stone still held warmth beneath her feet even after sitting there so long.

She leaned back slightly before thinking.

Kael's hand settled automatically against her waist to steady her.

The position brought her against his chest fully this time.

The contact lasted only a couple of breaths before she realized she had not tried to move away at all.

Nia held still against him while Kael remained motionless behind her.

Water moved quietly through the lower channels while his hand remained broad and steady against her side, not gripping tightly, only holding her there while she leaned against him.

The awareness of how close he sat behind her sharpened enough that she became abruptly grateful Shen had stayed upstairs finishing the storage work.

Shen would have noticed this immediately if he had been there beside them, and the thought made her straighten slightly before she pushed it aside again.

Kael's thumb moved once against the fabric near her waist.

The small movement pulled her attention immediately back toward him.

"Nia."

His voice stayed low behind her.

She swallowed.

"Yeah?"

For a moment she thought he might say something else, something that would shift the space between them into something harder to step back from.

Instead his hand loosened slowly from her waist.

"Water will cool."

Nia let out one unsteady breath.

“Right.”

She stood carefully before her legs could betray how thoroughly the heat had relaxed them.

Kael rose after her.

The steam had dampened several loose curls around her face already. Nia gathered her hair over one shoulder while stepping toward the bathing pool.

Steam rolled steadily across the surface of the bathing pool, thick enough to blur the far side of the chamber.

Nia lowered one foot into the pool.

Then stopped completely.

"Oh."

Actual heat wrapped around her ankle, properly hot instead of merely survivable compared to the freezing lower chambers from earlier in winter.

A quiet sound escaped her before she could stop it.

"Kael."

He looked toward her immediately.

"Mm?"

"If anyone needs me, I'll be down here until winter ends."

His gaze lowered briefly toward the water.

Then back toward her face.

"You'd complain after one night."

"Probably." She stepped deeper into the pool with a sigh. "But I'd complain warmly."

The water closed around her legs in waves of heat that reached straight into muscles she had stopped noticing were sore.

Nia sank slowly lower.

Heat eased through muscles that had stayed tight through days of winter work.

Her shoulders dropped fully for the first time all day.

Steam drifted across the surface while dripping water echoed softly through the chamber.

Kael watched her from beside the basin while she leaned her head back against the stone edge.

"Worth rebuilding the vents?" he asked.

Nia opened one eye.

"What answer are you looking for here?"

The corner of his mouth shifted again.

The faint shift at the corner of his mouth distracted her from the water entirely again.

"Honesty first."

"Then yes." She slid deeper into the water with another exhausted sound. "This may actually save morale through winter."

"Mm."

"I'll praise your engineering properly once I recover enough to think again."

Kael huffed softly through his nose.

This time the amusement reached his eyes briefly before fading again.

Nia pointed at him from the water.

"You did it again."

"Did what?"

"That look."

"No idea what you're talking about."

The accusation stayed inside her head this time instead of slipping out.

Kael moved toward the opposite side of the chamber afterward to check the upper water channel again while Nia settled deeper beneath the heat.

Steam dampened the loose curls near her temples.

The stone beneath the water stayed warm too.

Warm water and heated stone eased the lingering ache from her muscles while the chamber settled quieter around them.

Outside, snow continued falling over the mountain while Kael moved through the chamber checking vents, water flow, and drainage with the same steady attention he carried through the rest of the household.

Nia watched him through the drifting steam while warm water eased the ache from her shoulders.

Somewhere during the long stretch of winter preparation, shared meals, corridor work, and evenings beside the hearth, the mountain had started settling around her as part of daily life.

The thought settled more easily inside her now.

Kael looked toward her again.

Their eyes met through the steam.

Neither of them looked away for several quiet breaths.

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