After checking my watch, we decided to hide until nightfall. After several hours huddled against the large rock we were using as cover, our tongues recovered and we were again capable magi.
Well, Rin was.
I was still a third-rate magus who couldn't perform any grown-up magic.
But even if I was an abject failure at spellcasting, Rin didn't have something that I had.
That was an entire life worth following in the steps of people who worked in the dirt.

She was fussing over the tears on her clothes, crushed bugs marring her pristine bolero, and don't even get her started on the smell.

The entire cave was full of smells. The acrid smell of grime from sweating slaves, the earthly tones from the clay, diesel exhaust that wasn't properly vented.
And the unmistakable bite of gunpowder. It was penetrating, distinctive, and if you reinforced your nose, oh so informative.
My nose picked up the telling notes of Russian ammo. But there was something extra in the air. Teflon. Those two seldom went together unless you knew your way around guns and cared for precision.

After several hours of wait, Rin started massaging her belly.
-"Loathe I am to mention it, but now I would not be so hasty to refuse to taste the lizard."

I blinked slowly.
-"Rin, now it hardly the time or the place for consummating the marriage."

She stared at me. When I didn't reply, she pinched the bridge of her nose.
-"You dolt! I'm talking about food. I'm wasting away in this Zelretch forsaken hellhole."

I took one of her hands into mine.
-"I know, but you needed a bit of levity."

Her orbs were full of worry yet there was this determination. Truly, she had a will of iron behind her frail exterior.
-"I can not and I will not die here. I refuse to perish on bad terms with my sister."

That spunk made me smile.
-"That's more like it."

Our little pep talk was cut short when a shot echoed on the cave. Rin wanted to peek over but I pulled her down.
Reinforcement was a basic skill. Gradation Air equally basic stuff. But few were masochist enough to pour a decade of continual practice. And in hindsight, this is Overpowered as hell.
Case in point. Projecting a fiber optic probe and using it to look over the rock without exposing my body nor giving away my location.
Well well well... now we knew who used that teflon-coated ammo.

Rin poked me.
-"What are you doing with that ...tube ...thing?"

I passed over the probe to Rin.
-"Take a peek."

She gasped.
-"Edelfelt. Those good for nothing, Finnish mercenaries, they are always looting corpses."

I looked over my elbow, my old scar itching.
-"It is only proper to introduce you to one of Raiga's and Emiya's traditions."

Rin scrunched her brown in concentration.
-"Killing people?"

I dismissed the projected probe. Not having to worry about properly storing your gear was golden.
-"Liberating gear from your enemies."