The ice crawled across the pool so fast that Loccy's toes went numb before she lifted her towel. Hajin slammed a bare palm onto the surface, his Barrier flaring outward like a bright gold dinner bell.
"Everybody out, now!" he shouted.
The pool cracked in a ring around him, slabs tilting as eight soaked women scrambled over the rim. Juna carried Nyra tucked under one arm like a flour sack, the girl making no sound at all.
Loccy snatched the bread bag, her hammer and one stray sock, then sprinted for the rocks without looking back.
Behind the boulders came a frantic storm of buttons, laces and muttered curses, nobody sure whose clothes were whose. Rumi emerged wearing one of Nari's sleeves on her leg, while Didi buttoned her coat wrong twice with dignity.
"Lucan has left the camp, but the temperature is still falling," Aria reported, deadpan.
Vella stepped out of the mist fully dressed, "He folded a handkerchief over a bath, that is a man with too much free time."
