Ump paused by the graveyard outside the village to pay his respects to the former residence of his new home. He pulled a single et fruit from his basket and placed it on one of the fresh mounds before hoisting the basket back up and finishing his trek home. 

The village had grown more lively as winter ended and people started to forget the trauma of finding this place full of twisted corpses. Ump could spot more than a few pregnant women, too. That was good; this place needed some children to feel truly free. Though today, it seemed a little too lively. Was something going on?

“Afternoon,” Ump called to Ute. 

The changed woman simply nodded back. Her encounter with The Patron had left her without a mouth. The way her jaw had fused to her skull and the skin grew over, leaving a smooth patch where others had lips, used to make Ump uncomfortable, but with the number of freaky mutations in this place, he had gotten used to it. That was a good part of the reason Ump always made a note to greet her when he saw her. He couldn’t begin to imagine being unable to talk with anyone. 

If The Patron ever offered for him to take the Ritual of Awakening, he would turn her down. Sure, the power that the blessed and perfected had would be great, but the risks were more than this old man wanted to deal with. He was more than happy to live his final years in this peaceful forest village, enjoying the rights of a free man.

Ump placed his basket in front of his home, stretching his back in relief. It was time to sit out front and enjoy the rest of the day, watching the village life go by while basking in the sun. 

Sadly, it didn’t last. After only a few minutes his curiosity drove him from his chair. Everyone was gathering by the Patron Gate, and he didn’t want to miss out on some juicy drama. Groaning from the strain on his aking knees, Ump hiked over to see what the commotion was all about.

“What’s going on?” he called as he reached the small huddle. Was The Patron coming to visit? It couldn’t be. People usually steered clear of The Patron.

“Oh, senior, take a look at this!” Sef called. He was glad to see his advice had worked and the cord she was using to tie her unruly tentacle hair in check was doing its job.

Looking down at what she was pointing at, Ump raised an eyebrow. Sitting at the base of the gate in the middle of a patch of flowers was a single flower with petals made of fire.

“What is it, senior? Is it a bad sign?”

How would he know? The world stopped making sense when The Patron appeared. But he made a guess he hoped would comfort the worried people around him. The odd flower was growing in the center of the village, right next to The Patron's portal to Arkit so...

“It's probably something The Patron is doing. Don’t touch it. It might be important to her.”

His words caused the others to take a step back. Ump snorted before returning to his chair. Really, getting worked up about a strange flower after everything they’d seen, these youngsters would have interesting lives under The Patron.

***

Lucus Tried to memorize the knot that was supposed to be the family trees of the three houses of bronze. House Erine was the only island with large copper deposits, giving it a better position over houses Inine and Terom with their tin mines. The result was a mess of political marriages and scheming as the three houses tried to use each other to gain standing in The Gathering.

If Lucus was reading this right, then the current lord of Inine was both the brother and uncle to the lady of Erine, and the lords of Erine and Terom were both uncle and nephew to each other. 

Lucus would have thought that being so closely related to each other would make those houses allies, but underneath the family knot was a five-page report on the current infighting of the houses.

Trying to absorb all this information was giving Lucus a headache, and the glare of Ms. Drostan didn’t help. To make everything worse, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about that place and his sister.

Those books, they would make him better. If he could read them, then he wouldn’t be stuck being average. His parents would finally be proud of him. He would be able to help his sister. 

Lucus wanted it so bad it hurt. He wanted to stop feeling useless. He wanted his parents to tell him they were proud. He wanted to be there for his sisters.

The problem was that if he did gain a class from one of those books, then all his accomplishments would come from Rain. How would she ever look up to a brother who couldn’t do anything without her?

He knew he was being childish, but it didn’t matter. He had two younger sisters now, and he was determined to be a cool, dependable older brother. He would find a way to do that without those books.