Day 43,

Morning thought: Something’s been nagging at the back of my mind that I haven’t quite been able to pin down what it was.  Well lots of somethings but I finally identified one of them.  The other day when talking about funerals and births, Lin said “return to the Catacombs” in reference to funerals.  “Return” is a weird and kind of unsettling word to use there.

Oh wait, that’s one of the other things I’m forgetting; I need to open up the archive and let Cass in.  Oops.

Two of the crystal collectors that I haven’t previously met showed up today to start changing out the lights in the archive.  Butat and Semele were their names.  It was a couple of hours of moving around stepstools and ladders to reach the hanging cages, opening them up, and swapping out the dim crystals for bright ones.  I’d also brought the couple of lamps out of the hidden bedroom and set them up on a table in the main archive so those could get changed as well without needing to show anyone else the room.

It was also a couple hours of me awkwardly offering to help, being told that wasn’t necessary, and then trying to stay out of the way while I pretended to do work that I was too distracted by watching them to actually do.

They came across a few light fixtures that were missing crystals and asked about that.  To my chagrin, those were the ones Pat and I had emptied out so I could take them back to the house (and one for a personal lantern).  In hindsight, I should have brought them with me yesterday.  They said just to make sure I brought all the crystals from my house with me when we go on the cavern expedition.

Not a whole lot else notable today.  I’m at the house now after riding back with Cass’s family.  I sort of feel like I ought to invite them over sometime in return for all they’ve done for me, but I don’t really have much in the way of food stockpiled to feed more than myself and maybe one other person, so hosting thirteen isn’t really feasible.  Hmmm… now I’m thinking about inviting people over in general.  The only people in town that I’m really familiar enough with for that are Pat, Lin, and Vernon, and with how far out I am I wouldn’t want to make Pat make that kind of trip and asking Lin or Vernon to come spend the night in my home might send messages I don’t mean to send.  I suppose I’ll settle for the nature sprite’s company for now.  Well, there’s also Maiko who presumably lives somewhere around here, but I wouldn’t call us friends and I really don’t know anything about her.  And given that so far she’s only shown up during heavy rains and mist nights and it’s currently the dry season, I doubt I’ll be seeing her around much.