A/N- So... this is 100% totally unbeta'd. I am so sorry for the horrific grammar errors that are undoubtedly littered in here without my knowledge. This is what I get for procrastinating.

Also this has virtually nothing to do with the prompt for today. I just baaaarely managed to make it relate. What can I say, it was an impossible prompt for an AU set prior to the invention of bubblegum...

Kim took the heaping bowls of stew served up by a blank-faced lightning mage eagerly. "Gods bless you, Harvar," she said. "I can't cook for shit." One precarious trip back to their tent site later, she had placed a steaming spoonful in her mouth— and immediately spat it back out.

"I changed my mind!" she exclaimed, grimacing. "I don't care how tired we are next time we break for the night, I'm not touching anything that comes out of that vat of Harvar's!"

Jacqueline, who had been eyeing the lumpy contents of her own bowl dubiously, looked up at Kim. "And what was it I said about freeloading on other peoples' cook-pots?" she said pointedly.

"Not to do it," Kim sighed. "But c'mon, Harvar owed me. Actually, scratch that, he still owes me— probably owes me more now considering I'm never gonna be able to get that taste out of my mouth!"

The dark-haired woman shook her head, unable to conceal her smile. "You know, my father's people make a kind of chewing gum out of pine sap and honey. It's very sweet, and good for clearing a bad taste from your tongue."

Kim gave her a curious look. "I thought you said you didn't know anything about the Niwan culture?"

"No, I wasn't raised as one of them," Jacqueline said, "but my mother made sure I still learned about my ancestry. When the tribes would travel south, she would take me to visit their wintering grounds. At the time, I thought it was just to help me connect to that part of my heritage, but thinking back… well, I wonder if she wasn't searching for my father."

Kim wasn't so good with the emotional stuff, Jacqueline had found, so she wasn't surprised when her erstwhile bunk mate and current tent mate's response to this was to pat her awkwardly on the shoulder. It was endearing, actually. Kim wouldn't have made the effort for most people. Probably not for anyone besides Jacqueline herself, actually.

The thought made her grin. She and Kim had become so close these last few months, and she'd come to discover just how special the healer really was. She was prickly and could be self-absorbed, but she was also quick-thinking and staunchly loyal to the few people she cared about. Her ferocious defense of Jacqueline, combined with her reputation as the "bad girl" of the Shitoshi mages' barracks, had done more to win the fire mage acceptance among her peers than anything she could have done herself. It had gotten her foot in the door, at least.

Yes, Kim Diehl might seem hard-boiled on the outside, but she was as soft as sugar-floss candy on the inside, and Jacqueline loved it. She loved a lot of things about Kim, come to think of it…

"Hello? Earth to Jackie?"

Kim's hand was waving in front of her face, snapping Jacqueline back to the present.

"Huh?"

"You've been spaced out for five minutes, bird-brain. What's on your mind?"

Well, actually she'd been contemplating how pretty Kim's hair was and how much she liked the nightly routine of watching her brush the long amaranth locks at the end of the day, but she certainly wasn't going to tell Kim that!

"Uh… just thinking about the campaign," she lied quickly.

"Yeah? What about it?" Kim asked, her arms crossing almost reflexively the instant Jacqueline brought it up.

She sighed. Kim had made it very plain from the moment they were selected for this mission— more for the rarity of their respective affinities than any enormous talent on either part— that she did not like it at all. They had been assigned, along with a few other elite mages, to accompany Prince Gideon, heir apparent to the king after the death of Prince Asura, and a contingent of his soldiers on a march northward. Ostensibly their task was to impose order in two of the northernmost provinces in the kingdom. Rumors of civil unrest and rioting had reached Shitoshi, and the king was eager to restore peace to all his subjects.

Or at least… that was the idea. The non-magical soldiers who made up the prince's company had this funny habit of breaking into raiding parties and taking advantage of the villages along the northern road. The royal knight commanding the soldiers, a renowned but very young tactician by the name of Justin Law, did not seem very eager to control them.

"There aren't too many fires among the army's tents tonight," Jacqueline remarked sadly. "Do you think that little town we passed through…?"

Kim nodded. "It's disgusting. I hate armies. This is what they do… they plow through the land, eating up everything they can find and burning what they can't, all in the name of the King." The last was said with extreme bitterness, and Jacqueline understood why; it was only her oath of fealty to the crown that kept her from deserting. If she had to take a guess, she'd have said that Kim felt guilty by association… and if she was honest with herself, so did she.

"I hate it too, but I don't see what we can do about it." She held up her hand and allowed a small torch-light to appear in her palm. "I've gotten better using my magic, but even I can't stop two hundred men all by myself if they're really determined to get past me. I mean, maybe we could go to the prince, he might be able to do something…"

The healer snorted. "That kid Gideon? Please, he's even younger than you, and until Asura died he was a second son. Even if he wasn't totally oblivious to half his company sneaking away every other night to go carouse and pillage and whatever the bloody hell else, there's no way he was taught to be a leader."

"But he's leading this mission—"

"Don't be naive, Jackie. Sir Law's leading this mission. The prince is a figurehead. He's only coming along because the king wants him to get his feet wet and start learning how not to completely fuck up a military campaign, seeing as he's the heir to the throne now."

Jacqueline sighed tiredly. "Look, let's not argue about it. I'm dead on my feet and since supper was a bust-" She glanced again at the congealing stew. "-I think we should just call it a night. We'll be up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow."

Kim nodded, and dumped the remainder of her bowl over the fire, nearly extinguishing it. Jacqueline raised an eyebrow at her, and though she was sure Kim couldn't actually see her in the sudden darkness, the healer seemed to guess her thoughts anyway.

"What?" she asked, faux innocence dripping in her tone. "It's not like you can't relight it."

Jacqueline did so with a casual flick of her wrist. "Lucky for you. It's getting cold at night, if you'd killed the coals and didn't have me around, you'd freeze for sure."

A/N part 2- So then the question becomes... is Gideon really as useless as Kim seems to think? Or is Miss Diehl just an unreliable narrator?