Nova woke to the sound of somebody arguing with a water jar.
"If you leak again, I'm throwing you into the old cistern," Daren muttered outside. "You can join everything else in this mountain that's determined to make my life difficult."
Lunaris lifted his head from Nova's blanket, listened for a moment, then settled down again. The Auri was already awake beside the window, carefully stretching its stained wing in the morning light.
Nova sat up and examined the scrape across his palm. The wound had closed enough that the cloth no longer stuck to it, though gripping anything rough would still hurt. He wrapped it again, collected his weapons, and stepped outside.
Renn had the first water team ready beneath the common shelter. Two residents were inspecting ropes while Sela argued with Daren about a cracked carrying frame. The settlement looked much the same as it had the previous morning, except that the jars were full and nobody was watching them as though they might disappear.
