Preparations for the festival have been going well. In fact, I’d say it’s been going a little too well… Just last year, the administrators of the Pyramid of Ralethet – that’s the northern one, with all the politicians of the now-empty surrounding countries – were kicking up a storm over our proposals for cross-pyramid social gatherings, citing ‘health concerns’ about those in ours since we were engaging in so-called ‘dangerous activities surrounding the disease’. To be clear, we’re not sure what’s in the sunlight, but it’s certainly not a disease… Not that those at Ralethet care. Anyway, this time, they’ve sent what looks to be a quarter of their population as support for the festival, which is odd, because we’ve barely interacted outside of the daily trades after that whole kerfuffle. What could have changed their minds? Their average resident doesn’t know, but at least they don’t share the supposed fear their leaders expressed. We can probably thank the merchants for that.

The additional manpower from Ralethet has proven to be a boon. While that might sound obvious, the extent of help they ended up providing is not. It seems that a great number of them used to work in the popular day-markets, and are more than glad to be putting their expertise to use for the festival. I have seen children carrying atop their heads bags of sand and grain, back and forth across the halls and corridors we will use, with not a single complaint escaping them. It makes me wonder if we got the short end of the stick somehow when it was decided that Dousemonn Pyramid would hold most of the researchers and sanitary facilities. It made sense at the time – and still does, considering what we’re doing – but this is all making it quite clear we overlooked some simple factors in the early days of our stay here.

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That aside, Lucien listened to my journal entries, and started lamenting the supposed lack of what he calls ‘narrative artistry’. I demanded he let me listen to his, and one would be shocked at the way he describes every detail and transcribes his conversations with others. I’m also not sure he’s aware of what Marianna would do if she finds out he’s using the words ‘domineering’, ‘sensual’, and ‘archaic’ all to describe her. Then again, she is his wife, so perhaps she already knows. Regardless, I did find his journal entries quite entertaining, so I might just apply his advice.

“I’m sure you’ll find it right fun, Richard,” he’d said as he slapped me on the back like an ape.

Huh. This might actually be fun.