Lieutenant Kim and Baekhyun were busy arranging all the unconscious jail guards into a simulated aftermath of an explosion when Seoyeon and the others returned to them.  They were fortunate that none of them had woken up, and none of the guards would have seen their attackers because of Sehun’s light before they’d been knocked out, and so Lieutenant Kim reasoned that it could probably be passed off as an unexplained fire blast of some kind.  Lieutenant Kim agreed that it was probably best to investigate the Wintry Cells as quickly as they possibly could, and then to reevaluate if Chanyeol wasn’t there or they couldn’t find them.  Seoyeon hovered anxiously at Jongdae’s shoulder until they set off through the passages, once again following Baekhyun through the darkness.

Since she hadn’t asked where they were going, Seoyeon was a bit surprised when they came out in the stables.  They found Jongin sleeping in a cosy-looking nest of blankets outside one of the stalls and Baekhyun woke him up by balancing his bugle on his face.  Lieutenant Kim asked for horses and Jongin was quickly on his feet to find and saddle them.

It was a quick ride across the Borderlands to the outpost.  According to Sehun, while there were patrols that her father had placed, the outpost still had fortress soldiers in it, which meant they were less likely to get in trouble.  Still, the route Sehun took them on kept them in the dark as much as possible, and he didn’t bother creating his own light this time, most likely because it would draw unwanted attention.

They split up on the same lines as before, Lieutenant Kim and Baekhyun heading up into the outpost to say hello to the soldiers on duty and to pretend that Lieutenant Kim was just doing a tour of duty to check that everything was in order.  Meanwhile, Seoyeon followed the other men through the dark shadows at the base of the outpost.  It was a bit odd, considering her time in the Neuma, but she couldn’t help huddling close to Jongdae.  Between the ghost fires, the night was inky black, and thick cloud cover meant that she couldn’t see the stars.  She knew that she was more or less safe with Minseok and Sehun and Jongdae, but she couldn’t help the paranoid feeling that some strange creature from the Neuma might appear out of nowhere and attack them.

Seoyeon was so preoccupied checking over her shoulder for any threats that she actually missed the moment they went underground and into a narrow tunnel.  Jongdae only just saved her from walking into the tunnel wall, yanking her to the side by the waist.  She heard Sehun curse a couple of steps ahead at the same time.

“Pardon me, ma’am,” he added when Minseok reprimanded him.  “It’s just very cold in here.”

“Kyungsoo did say wintry,” Jongdae murmured.  His hand was still at the small of Seoyeon’s back, and she could feel his fingers trembling a little.  “So evidently this is the right place.”

Seoyeon heard both Minseok and Sehun grumbling, and then Sehun mumbled the Borderlander word for heat.

Nothing happened.

“Sehun?” Minseok prompted.  “We could probably do with some light as well.”

“I’m sorry, I… lakthar.”  There was a very brief burst of flames, during which Seoyeon caught a glimpse of the three men’s faces.  All of them were shivering, but Sehun looked like he was going to throw up.  There was no colour in his face and his lips looked like they might just be purple.  Sehun took a couple of very audible deep breaths.

“Laktharati,” he ordered, a very slight tremor in his voice.

Flames shot down the passage, revealing rock walls of a stone so pale grey that it was almost white, but the fire only lasted a few seconds longer than the previous one before dimming to a glow that surrounded Sehun and then flickered out altogether.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, sounding just as sick as he looked.  “I don’t know what… normally I can… it’s so cold—”

“We should switch,” Jongdae interrupted, taking his hand away from Seoyeon’s back.  “It’s warmer here.”

“Is Seoyeon’s fever so bad it’s warming the air?” Minseok said dryly.  “No wonder Chanyeol didn’t like this place.  If it’s making you feel this ill this quickly, imagine what it did to him.”

It was only then, as Jongdae and Sehun and Minseok all shuffled around in the dark so that the Borderlander-in-Training could get closer to her, that Seoyeon twigged on two counts.  The first was that she couldn’t feel the cold they were talking about at all.  She hadn’t noticed any difference in temperature between here and the outdoors, or even the outdoors and the inside of Ximo.  But given she also hadn’t been able to feel how scorching hot her body apparently was, she supposed that made sense.  And the second thing, straight off the back of what Minseok had just said, was that if Sehun felt and looked and sounded like he was going to throw up and keel over at any second after merely taking a few steps into the tunnel leading to the Wintry Cells, what on earth would Chanyeol’s condition be like if he’d already spent a couple of days here?  On top of that, Sehun, while not a fully trained Borderlander, had been in pretty good condition before they’d stepped inside.  The last time Seoyeon had seen Chanyeol, it would have been a stretch to call him semi-conscious.

Sehun stumbled against her in the dark, and she automatically put out a hand to steady him.  A surprised whimper escaped from the man, which sent an absolutely absurd urge to mother him through Seoyeon.  Before she could stop herself, she’d reached up to cup his face with her hand.  He was about Chanyeol’s height – any taller and it would have been difficult – and he sighed and leant into the touch as though it was giving him relief.  His skin was cold and extremely clammy to the touch.

“Maybe you should wait outside,” she suggested in concern.  She felt him shaking his head.

“No, Ma’am,” he said.  His voice sounded a bit steadier.  “If the captain is down here, I need to be here too.”

“We need light if we’re going to go any further,” Jongdae’s voice said.  “Minseok, do you have any flint?”

“Let me check.”

Seoyeon heard Minseok rummaging in his pockets.  She removed her hand from Sehun’s face, reaching for her satchel to check if she had flint and tinder to, before remembering that she hadn’t brought the bag with her.

“Miss Han,” Sehun said.  His voice was weak again.  “I hope I’m not being too bold if I ask—”

“Oh, sorry!”  She reached for his hand this time.  A niggling feeling was beginning to grow in the back of her mind.  Jongdae had felt warmer because of her presence, but the heat in her skin was actively affecting Sehun’s condition, and the only explanation she could think of was that it must have something to do with Borderlander fire.  Since she wasn’t a Borderlander herself – she would probably be in Sehun’s condition if she had somehow impossibly become one – she found herself wondering if it might have something to do with the protection that Chanyeol had bound her under.  The flames themselves had burnt out in the Neuma, but what if the fire inside her had cooled to embers, like a real fire, and her body was, for lack of a better description, functioning like a glowing coal?

“Sorry, Dae,” said Minseok.  “Looks like I left it in the kitchen.”

“I left mine in my room,” Jongdae sighed.  “Seoyeon, I