27. Locke #2
Only then do I notice the tips of my fingers.
I hadn’t realized just how little feeling I had in them, not until now. When I’d given Vesper her clothes, I hadn’t felt the brush of material against my fingertips, only on my palms. Now I understand why.
The very tips of my fingers are black, like they’d been dipped in the thickest grease and left uncleaned. I press them against each other and feel nothing. When I try to wipe it off on my shirt, it remains just as black. “Shit. Are your fingers okay?”
She holds her hand out of the sleeping bag and reveals black fingertips just like mine, though the black on her hands travels up higher. As I look more closely at her, I realize there’s a slight black spot on the tip of her nose. I’m afraid to look at my feet. When I wiggle my toes, I feel nothing.
“Cipher said there was something in the loot crate for this,” she reminds me.
My worry eases. I’d completely forgotten about the ointment can still in the loot chest. “You’re right.”
I’d forgotten. In then panic of the night before, I hadn’t remembered the small silver jar.
“Yet another failure of your character,” Cipher says, but it’s clear he doesn’t say it to Vesper. It’s only meant for me.
I don’t bother answering him. I’m never going to win the system over.
Every bit of my survival in The Harrow will have to be on my own terms. Shit, I’m certainly not going to level up as much as Vesper each time.
I never realized this place would come down to playing favorites, but I should have known.
I’m never the favorite.
NEW TITLE AWARDED: Never the favorite
“Very funny,” I grumble at Cipher. “Asshole.”
I move over to the still open loot crate buried in the ground and pick up the last few items inside I hadn’t bothered to look at.
The first item is a small metal square. When I open the description, it says, “Lighter.” I pocket it and reach for the other item.
This one is a small tin with no markings on it save for a snowflake symbol.
When I slide it into my inventory and open the description, it says:
FROZEN OINTMENT
healing tonic; common
The ice does not forgive. Spread on blackened appendages to clear frostbite. Can be used on small appendages only. Limbs require a stronger concoction. Effect takes five minutes to cure fully.
“This,” I say, moving back over to Vesper. “It’s for our fingers and toes.”
I unscrew the ointment lid and reach for Vesper’s hand.
She gives it without hesitation. Her fingers are delicate in my large ones, and I’m careful not to hurt her as I scoop out a little of the medicine and spread it on her blackened fingertips.
I make sure I give an even spread to all of them, coating them with the fine sheen, before I switch hands and repeat it there.
“Your feet?” I say.
“I can do that,” she murmurs, sitting up more fully.
When she opens the sleeping bag and shivers, I stop her movements and wrap it around her so she can absorb as much of the warmth as possible.
I haven’t forgotten how much closer to death she’d been than me just last night.
Upon thinking about it more, I grab the large fuzzy blanket that had also been in the crate and drape it around her, too.
“This cold is bullshit,” Svetlana grumbles as she chases the warmth of the sleeping bag.
For once, I agree with the bug.
Vesper pulls off her socks that she must have forgotten to take off and I get a good look at her feet. I suck in a startled breath. All of her toes are black. The black spreads from her toes halfway up her foot, so that everything from the arch down is dark in color.
“They’re worse than I thought,” she whispers. “Will it still work?”
“I’m sure it will,” I reply, though I’m not sure at all.
Her boots had been wet enough that Cipher had reminded me to place them near our fire before we’d fallen asleep.
Now I understand why. The wet boots must have made the frostbite worse and she hadn’t taken off her socks while we’d slept. They must have still been wet, too.
I don’t let her grab the ointment tin from me. Instead, I grab a generous amount and start to spread it over her feet. She watches me carefully as I do one foot and then the other. Then I focus on her face and put the barest amount on the small dot on her nose.
“Your turn,” she says, reaching for the ointment.
“You don’t have to—”
I’m cut off by her literally stealing the tin from me and dipping her finger inside. “Hands.”
I give her my right hand, trying not to react when her fingers massage the ointment into my blackened fingertips.
I want to jerk my hand away, but I also want to thread my fingers with hers and never let her go.
The gentle movement of her fingers tending to me makes me stop breathing.
I’m lightheaded by the time she moves on to my other hand and I have to force myself to take a few breaths.
Once my fingers are done, she gestures to my feet.
“Now the feet,” she orders.
I’d taken my socks off before the sleeping bag, but I hadn’t bothered to look at my feet.
When I unfold and place my feet in front of her, I’m still not looking at anything but her face.
It’s why I catch her look of horror before she wipes it away behind a mask of calm.
I look down and realize that Vesper’s frostbite hadn’t been worse.
She may have been closer to death with her vitals, but it’s clear I wasn’t far behind.
“Fuck,” she says, grimacing. “Is this going to help? It says large limbs won’t be as effective.”
From the tips of my toes to my ankle, my skin is black and crystalline-looking.
The whole foot is numb, and when I try to wiggle my toes, they don’t move.
How had I been walking on these things and not even noticed?
Just above my ankle, where my flesh is still normal, it burns, almost like I’m standing too close to a fire.
“It’ll be fine,” I lie. “We’ll just put it on and do what we can.”
“Lying to her does no good,” Cipher murmurs.
Then you tell her the truth and watch her reaction, I say in my head. I don’t want to be the reason she stops smiling.
Cipher doesn’t correct me to Vesper, so apparently, he doesn’t want to be the cause either.
I take the ointment from Vesper and make quick work of slathering it on my feet before pulling my socks back on.
My hope is that we’ll find something in the safehouse that’ll fix my feet fully.
I have a few coins now. Maybe we can buy some better ointment off of someone.
It’s a strange sensation to pull my boots on and not feel any of it. Vesper’s frostbite is already cleared by the time we’ve packed up all the items. My fingers are better. But I still can’t feel my feet.
“You okay?” she asks me.
“Never better,” I reassure her. “Let’s get to that safehouse. I could use some better food.”
While the Everlasting Thermos has hot soup in it, it certainly doesn’t have good soup. I’ve had better broth in Dross. Still, we both take a few drinks of it to help warm us up entirely.
I regret leaving the cave the second we step back out into the cold.
This time, the wind is blowing, sweeping the snow on the ground up and around us, spearing right through the fuzzy blanket I have wrapped around me.
I’d made sure Vesper was wrapped up thoroughly in the sleeping bag.
Svetlana is somewhere in the mass, quiet again.
I can’t decide if that worries me or not.
We have no other options to keep warm though, so we’re all gonna have to suffer through it.
I follow the map as best as possible despite there being no true markers. We’re moving along the ridge in the direction that appears correct. The shivers wrack my body, but I do my best not to show just how cold I am. I need to be the strong one. I need to be the stone.
After three hours of walking along the base of the ridge with constant stops to take drinks from the Everlasting Thermos and huddling together, we finally stumble upon an opening in the tall ridgeline.
It appears more like the ridge collapsed, leaving an entry way into a large crater.
The moment we step inside it, Cipher’s sultry voice fills the air.
NEW ZONE UNLOCKED: Welcome to the Broken Caldera
Waddle your way in and find a pebble or two.
“What?” I ask, frowning, but when Cipher doesn’t respond, I shake my head and open the map. “There’s a Minor Boss here and a safehouse,” I say as I look over the map. “We go to the safehouse first. It should be to the left up ahead.”
We only have to walk for another twenty minutes before we find the safehouse. A large building built with tree logs stacked up interrupts the white of the snow and I’ve never been more grateful to see the thing.
We shove our way through the doors and get a good look at the people inside. There’s only a desk when we first walk in, a very familiar man standing behind it.
“Billy?” I ask, frowning. In fact, he’s been at every safehouse. This has to be a joke now. “Are you following us?”
The man laughs. “You must have met my brother over in the Leafcutter Empire. No, I am assigned to the Caldera Spa House, so we have not met before. My name is Eddy.”
“Brothers? You all look exactly alike,” I point out. “Down to the freckle on your nose.
The man smiles, but he doesn’t continue the conversation. “Can I interest you two in a spa package while you’re here?”
“A spa package?” Vesper repeats. “What’s a spa?”
Svetlana pops out of her hair. “Yes, we will take three of the top packages. Tell me, do you have a hot spring here?”
“We do,” the man nods. “Would you like to add that on?”
“I—”
“Of course,” Svetlana declares, cutting me off. “Don’t argue, ladybug. Best to leave this to the expert.” To the man, she says, “Your best and biggest packages. Give us everything.”