“Hungry,” Isaac managed to say.
“I gathered that, love.”
Isaac licked his lips, scooping up the obscene amounts ofsalt, and began to smash a piece of hardtack with his fist.“Calories.Acalorie is a unit of energy, given by food.Magic requires energy.I castedspells without catalysts.It depleted me.”
Zaria looked between him and the brick-like cracking of thehardtack.
“You don’t know what those words mean,” he said.
“I mean, I got most of ‘em.”
Isaac felt a chunk of hardtack break between his teeth.“Acatalyst is a facilitator of energy transfer.It allows for exceptionalefficiency in spellcasting.Otherwise, I’m forced to use more of my own bodilyenergy for less return, and the mnemonics can easily diminish my core reserves,leading to respiratory spasms and the failure of organs.”
“Right,” Zaria said.
He looked at her.“You still don’t understand.”
“Well, don’t stop on my account.”
“It’s very simple,” he said, starting to work on the nuts.“The scrolls I use—”
He stopped, feeling a surge of realization.
His scrolls.
During the battle with the pirate skimmer, he had dumped allthe scrolls in the sand, purely as an act of desperation.The ship had burned,and he had fought through the rest of the pirates, and he had been completelydistracted by Zaria and her interrogations from then until now.When they hadleft the ship behind....
“Ivtarr preserve,” Isaac said, lurching to his feet.Severalnuts fell to the sand.“My scrolls.”
“What’s that, now?”Zaria asked.
“I left my scrolls at the ship.”
She tilted her head.
“You don’t understand,” Isaac said, beginning to trudgethrough the sand.“I need those catalysts.Without the enhancement of myanti-necrotic—”
A furry hand grabbed his wrist.
“I understand plenty,” Zaria said.“Sit down.”
“Without those scrolls—”
“You gonna walk all the way back?Now?In the dark?”Shegave a hard tug on his arm.“When I told you several times there’s pirateslookin’ for us?”
Isaac blinked.“I—”
“Sit the fuck down.”
She pulled, and Isaac was flung back into the sand, landingwith a cough of sediment.He realized, all at once, that he had managed toforget how strong she truly was.When she released his arm, he was only able toblink up at the reddening sky.
“Sorry,” Zaria said.“But you shoulda told me so.We ain’tgonna spend two full days walkin’ there and back.You’ll do without.”
Isaac grimaced, wanting to say more.
“Eat your food, squire.”
With a sigh, he returned to his rations, still ravenouslyhungry.Beside him, Zaria unsheathed her poleaxe, shoving the spear tip deepinto the slope of sand.When it was firmly buried, she leaned back against thehaft and wiped her mohawk away from her eyes.Isaac focused on chewing anotherstrip of salt meat, washing it down with a gulp of hot water.
