A/N: I'd like to give a grateful shout out to my first reviewer creampurin. Your review was a shot in the arm for me and it did get me pondering how to better flesh out year two with character development.

Chapter 10

Sunday 28th of Fall

Yin had finally hit rock bottom in the mines and was disappointed with the strange key that she had acquired as her prize. She studied the broken rune pattern on the wall, a somber feeling overwhelming her. This had been the place where George lost his legs and his brothers. She touched a loose bit of stone that had fallen to the floor, broken symbols in black obsidian inlaid throughout. She could almost feel the echos of life that had been swallowed here, as a single tear fell down her face and onto the broken stone. Her knowledge of Dwarvish allowed her to read a few of the symbols but it was otherwise a jumbled mess of characters. She took out a piece of charcoal and some paper and copied the broken circle as best she could. She wished she had Haliey's camera about now but she hadn't wanted to interact with the stuck up bitch to get it.

It took her over an hour to copy the complicated swirling circular pattern and broken shards of symbols but she worked with dogged determination and focus. Carefully folding the paper and putting it in her pack, she debated whether she wanted to head back up five levels and gather more ore before she called it a night. Taking stock of her meager rations, she decided not to press her luck. She probably had just enough food to make it but it was getting rather late and she didn't want to risk passing out down here.

Using a totem, she appeared at the green jeweled statue on her farm and made the slow journey to her home. Home? When had this become home?, she wondered. It was a strange sensation to realize how much her time in this place had come to mean to her, despite the hardships and pain. She sliced a rather aggressive red bat that had been trying to dive bomb her. The monsters that appeared at night were stronger but they only made token attempts to attack her most nights.

She entered her quiet home and peeled off her blood soaked clothes. Tonight most of it was monster blood rather than her own but she did still have a few gashes on her leg and shoulder. If she had acquired these kinds of injuries in Zuzu she'd be running to the nearest clinic screaming that she was dying. It was strange, how the pain didn't faze her anymore, how it was almost a marker of a good days work. She had a feeling that she'd be feeling like this quite a bit over the coming season.

She had made 85% of her goal, not counting what she had earned from today's venture. Her deadline would be the 24th of winter since she'd have to make a long hike to Camp Maria the next day to make sure her final payment would be sent in. It would be a long trek but it was her only shot at ensuring that she could side-step who ever was trying to meddle with her account. She hoped she could go and come back quietly without alerting them but she had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy.

Camp Maria was a science outpost to the far north, well past the train station and the mountain beyond. Stardew itself was at the very edge of the camps exclusion zone and as a result didn't have some of the technologies that were common in other places. They couldn't have cell phones or other wireless devices because the electrical noise would interfere with the radio telescopes of Maria.

Demetrius was getting his funding from the earth sciences division and tasked with studying the effects of reduced electromagnetic energy on the plants, animals and soil of the area. Sebastian and Maru were among the few that had access to computers as a result of Demetrius's work. Anyone else in town who wanted to have a computer in their home would have to pay quite a bit for a contractor to insulate the cables from generating unwanted noise. It was the mark of a prospering family if you were able to have a computer in the valley, given the additional costs. The fines for non-compliance, however, were far higher than the contractor and were rigorously enforced.

The camp itself sent out one data transmission a day which contained all the uploads to the university servers, government records, email, and private sector communications. Joja mart had a small convenience store out that way but due to the restrictions in place, they had to comply with the data transfer schedule. About fifteen years ago they tried to claim that some of the workers at the camp were not paying their credit debt but the civil suit investigations quickly turned to criminal investigations when it was found that they were purposely filtering out data from the stream. They claimed to the bitter end that it had been a technical glitch as a result of a bad Apache plug-in but the court didn't buy it.

The Queen herself had intervened when she had received a letter from one of the scientist of the outpost. His supposed defaulting on his debt was endangering his chances of getting custody of his daughter. The Queen herself personally looked into the case and was furious. She made a royal decree that Joja corporation and any subsidiaries, partners, or contractors thereof could not refuse, alter, or filter communications from any science outpost, military facility, or frontier encampment without concrete proof that the content filtered out was malicious or damaging in nature. The Office of Telecommunications and Broadcasting or OTB would be required to audit these communications yearly to ensure compliance.

It was an interesting case she had read about when she had gotten distracted in her will and inheritance research. She had just like the idea of the almighty Joja corporation getting their comeuppance for their shady practices for once. Her temporary distraction was proving to be more useful than she could have imagined. She wasn't planning her celebration just yet, though. She knew it would be a very rough winter for her with no room for rest. Since she wouldn't be able to rely on crops to generate income, she'd have to work twice as hard to make up the difference. She hadn't taken nova since her confession to Harvey for this very reason.

The stardrop fruit had probably been the main reason she hadn't suffered from the usual withdrawal. She had looked into it and had strong reason to believe that the original inventor of nova had been trying to synthesize the stardrop fruits properties. It hadn't been successful in that regard, but the synthesized compound was still quite useful to the army as a stimulate and soldier enhancement drug.

It wasn't until the soldiers returned home that the true damage of nova's influence was fully realized. It was highly addictive and it's sudden absence from their system had driven some to depression and others into full blown psychosis. The original formulation was banned but other variants found their way on to the black market with varying effects but all of them were just as addictive. It was strongly suspected that Joja mart itself was behind the manufacture of most of the nova that could be bought off the street but no one could prove it. The uncut stuff she had been given was from one of the smaller independent labs.

Yin turned off the shower and finished her nightly routine. She was still in love with her upgraded house and couldn't fathom how she'd gotten along without so many basic amenities for so long. She turned down the sheets of her bed before sliding in and reveling in soft comfort. Tonight would be the last night she would get a full eight hours of sleep before she began her final grind to pay off her debt. She prayed to whatever god would listen that it would be enough.

Monday 8th of Winter

Yin peeled herself out of bed, her limbs felt like lead and she hissed in pain as she tried to stretch. She had been working from dawn till well after dusk for the last seven days and it was catching up with her. She'd barely even had time to check her mail and almost missed her monthly bank statement. Joja had grudgingly accepted her store payment from last month but she knew that wouldn't work again. The front of the store had a notice that, due to system upgrades, they would no longer be able to process bill payments. They even included a mailing address to send a check on the sign, but she knew damn well if she tried to do that it would get "lost" in processing.

Yin took a hot shower and hoped it would be enough to sooth her protesting muscles but it was only marginally helpful. She took note of the festival flag on her calendar and sighed. She would have to leave soon if she wanted to avoid Robin's attempts to get her to be social. If she was going to be out in the bitter cold freezing her ass off, she'd rather be making a profit from it. She dressed hurriedly and tossed her rod, home totem, and some food into her pack before raising the sea totem aloft just as she heard a knock on her door.

Yin shivered from the bitter chill and biting wind as she landed. Her coat was no match for the full force gale that blew across the ice strewn sea. She resigned herself to another cold day as she took her spot at the farthest pier. She'd never been to the beach when it was so quiet. All around her was just the wind and sea, no footsteps of people crunching the sand, no creaking pier from Willy's own fishing endeavors. In spite of the cold, she felt a gentle sort of peace fall over her. She didn't want to lose the chance to have a life in this valley. She felt her resolve crystallize as she yanked on her fishing rod, pulling a massive albacore from the icy depths. When she finally pulled up her line for the evening she had caught quite the bounty. She'd even managed to haul up a few treasure chests and was enamored with the gold bracelet she had found in one of them.

She walked back to her cabin, surprised at the utter silence on her farm. The only sound was the crunching of her shoes on the soft, fluffy, snow. She chucked her catches into the sale box and trudged wearily inside, clenching and relaxing her fingers in an attempt to get warmer blood moving through them. After getting a fire going, she studied the bracelet in fire's light. She traced the strange script that circled around the band and felt her eyes grow weary. When her fingertip completed it's circuit along the engraved characters her body went slack on the couch as the blue gem on the bracelet glowed with a strange inner light. Her mind's eye was enveloped in cerulean blue as strange whispers echoed across her hearing. The language seemed unintelligible at first but as she continued to listen she understood more and more. Between worlds we watch as the shattered pieces gather, the shadows they cast following close behind. Yoba's blessing fades as the thirteenth is hounded by the blood-kin of greed. Feel our words and seek out our descendants in the town's heart. Find the sorrow of the shadowed ones and know their strife. The tome of the fallen star will light the darkness.

Tuesday 9th of Winter

Yin's eyes shot open as the winter sun's light crept slowly up her living room wall. Her neck was stiff and sore, cracking and popping from her movements as she stood up and stretched the kinks out of her abused body. Knowing she couldn't afford to take a day of rest, she got her box out of the closet and took her first dose of nova this season. The jolt that flowed through her was brief but gave her the boost she needed to pack her mining gear. It wasn't even 7 am before her sword was hilt deep in the monsters of the mines.

Harvey sighed as his waiting room filled up, the coughing and sneezing like nails on a chalk board. He made a mental note to order more hand sanitizer and disinfectect. Winter had hit full stride in the valley and so had the cold and flu season. Most of his patients were thankfully just suffering from the cold virus and he dutifully prescribed bed rest and fluids. He kicked Pam out, again, as she tried to argue why she should have antibiotics for her cold. He invited her to go get a second opinion and she stomped her foot in irritation before staggering back to her trailer. He didn't know how Penny put up with that woman but he felt sorry for her.

By the afternoon he'd cleared out his waiting area and started his charting for the day. Now that he didn't have patients to distract him, he turned his thoughts back to the one person they'd been stuck on since autumn, perhaps longer if he was honest with himself. He hadn't seen her much since that day. The few times he'd seen her in town, especially lately, she looked thinner than she had been before. Her skin looked ashen and pale, her eyes sunk in and her cheek bones were more prominate than he remembered them. She was driving herself into the ground and he was at a loss as to what he could do. He wanted to go to her but she was never home when he called, leaving early and comming back long after dark.

Even Pierre hadn't seen more than a passing glimpse of her which was highly unusual. Then again there were no crops to grow in winter so maybe it wasn't as bad as Pierre was making it out to be. But even without Pierre's concerns, he still could see, with his own two eyes, that the farmer wasn't doing well. He cursed his selfishness at not taking her supply of nova away from her. No matter what he might have thought at the time, he knew how dangerous that stuff could be. How much trouble could she really get into?, the selfish part of his mind wondered. It wasn't like she could die, afterall.

He tried to deny the memories of that lost day when he got back to the comfort of his clinic. He tried to tell himself he was dellusional, she was dellusional, but deep in his heart he knew what he had remembered. She couldn't acctually die so why was he so worried? A flash of pain filled blue eyes filled his mind and made his heart sink like a stone. She may not die while in the valley, but she could still feel and remember the pain of it. It also made her more reckless and what would happen if she had to leave the valley with that kind of mentality. He feared she wouldn't understand the full risk of her choices and end up well and truely dead.

He also knew there were far worse fates than death. Even if she couldn't die, she could still break in ways that couldn't be reversed. He was afraid of that more than he cared to admit. He'd done a brief internship at Zuzu Psyciatric hospital before transfering out to Zuzu medical and still shuddered at the broken souls he'd seen there. He punched his desk in frustration, ignoring the sting of his knuckles as he fought his tears. For all his desire to help, here he was, useless again. No, he couldn't just sit back and watch anymore. He had to think of something, do something!

He couldn't do anything to help her directly but maybe he could get information she might find useful against Joja Corperation. Whoever was pulling the strings there wouldn't stop going after her just because they couldn't hold the farm over her head. There was something much more sinister at work. He pondered how he would go about getting much of anything out of the corrupt business but then it clicked.

Shane was the key, he had been the one to warn him about what had happened to the farmer. He worked for them but he was far from a corporate cheerleader. He had his own axe to grind against Morris and just maybe the idea of taking him down from within the company might just persuade him to help. He would have to proceed delicately though, since he was honor bound not to break Yin's trust in him. He filed away his charts before washing his hands and heading up to his room to ponder his idea and unwind with a glass of wine and his favorite jazz album.

Sunday 14th of Winter

Yin stumbled in the thick blanket of snow on her way to town, it was still very early but she had to make a detour today. Her progress might have been even slower if she hadn't been able to follow in the mayor's tracks from her sale box. If she had waited until a more reasonable hour they would have been buried in the heavy snow. She retreived the bottle with a blue bow from her coat. The bottle itself was wrapped in a warmed cloth in hopes that it wouldn't freeze before the recipient found it. After all he'd done for her over the past year, the least she could do was remember his birthday. The wine wasn't anything to write home about, but it was the first bottle she ever made. She left her pacel in his mailbox and used her moutain totem to begin another grueling day mining.

Harvey awoke from his uncomfortable sleep. He had been doing some reading at his desk and had fallen asleep. His back muscles protested his less than ergonomic sleeping position as he stretched, a series of cracks and pops rippling up his spinal column reminding him that he wasn't a college freshman anymore. He put on his robe and wandered downstairs long enough to check his mail before making breakfast.

He was shocked when his hand grazed a bundle of soft cloth. He lifted the object up and smiled when he saw the bottle of wine with the blue bow around it. He had almost forgotten today was his birthday. He placed the bottle on his wine rack and sat down to read the note that had been taped to the bow.

Harvey,

This is the first bottle of wine I ever made. After all you have done for me, I wanted to give you something nice for your birthday. I won't be around much since I still need to make the rest of the money to pay my debt. I have reason to believe that someone is trying to block my efforts. My bank can't deposit the funds because of "server issues" and now the local Joja Mart is conveinently upgrading their systems. I've found a work-around and, hopefully, when the season is done I won't have to work so hard. I'm sorry for taking advatage of you like I did back in autumn. It was wrong of me to kiss you after what you remembered. I thought it best to keep my distance from you after that. I don't want you to feel as if you have to relent to my advances out of fear for my safety. I don't think I could bare thinking that I used you like that. You're a kind soul with a good heart and I can't help feeling as if I was taking advatage of that. I'd like to think that we can still be friends but it will take me sometime to morn what I ruined, to let go of those feelings. No matter what I think I want, I know I'm just not in a good place for it. I also realize that while my farm will be safe, I will still be in danger from them. I don't want anyone else to get stuck in the crossfire if it gets bad. I wouldn't put it past them to use those I care about to get what they want. Please stay safe and don't worry about me.

Love *line scribbled out*

Your dear friend,

Yin

Harvey sighed as he placed the note on his stand. How could he not worry about her? He was surprised that she had interpreted his response like that but he couldn't fault her for it. It also explained why she had told him to leave when her eyes so clearly pleaded with him not to. As misguided as her assumption was, he could admire the maturity she was trying to show with facing the issue. He could also admit that part of him had been scared that she wouldn't have handled rejection in that state. It was not the driving force behind his reaction but it was there.

He hadn't tried to look too closely at his own feelings. He knew she wasn't in the best place emotionally but he couldn't help the warm glow that he felt when he held her in his arms. He tried to deny it, not wanting to let them get in the way of doing what was best for her but it just kept getting stronger. He told himself she was just a dear friend but something about that felt incomplete. He forced himself to focus on his plans for the day. In his heart he knew why, but his mind was not ready to acknowledge or label the gentle flutter he felt when he looked at her.