The two days before departure passed.
On the first day, the party requisitioned cold-weather gear from the guild stores. The quartermaster—a weathered woman named Tess who had been outfitting Climbers for years—handed them each a stack of insulated underlayers, thermal cloaks lined with mana-conductive fibers, and gloves embedded with grip-enhancing runes. Elise inspected every piece with the clinical eye of someone who had grown up in a family that considered frostbite a failure of preparation rather than an environmental hazard. She discarded two cloaks that didn't meet her standards, held a third up to the light to examine its stitching, and finally nodded approval.
"Frostbite isn't part of the training," Elise said as she handed Nathan his gear. "It's permanent tissue damage, and no healing potion is going to undo it completely. Wear your gloves. Keep your hands covered. If your fingers start going numb, tell me immediately."
