There hasn’t been much to comment on the past couple of weeks.
Though everyone is doing their best to keep moving forward, the mood around town has been very low, understandably.
The people of Haven are no strangers to death, but something they had prided themselves on is that no child under their care had ever passed prematurely. Some had died in their early adulthood, yes, but no child had died.
Until Jorm.
The Chief had been keeping on top of everything with a stiff upper lip. It was times like these people needed certainty and assuredness, something the Chief was more than capable of delivering. Keeping people busy kept their minds off things.
Tiff was… in a different state. She spent a few days inside her house, but after she came out she was back to her old self. As best as she could be. Smiling, laughing, looking after the children, lightly teasing the Chief, her usual mannerisms, just… her laughter has a hollow ring to it. Her lips smile, but her eyes betray her pain.
It hurts to see, but there’s not much anyone can do about it. When Tiffany gets upset, she can’t just cry it out and bury herself in work like the Chief can.
She just needs time.
Time is something we’ve had no shortage of, thankfully. It’ll be another week until the next group of children from the Wolf Pups arrive, as word was sent back via a couple Wolf Pups about what happened to the rescued children and how the Pups were settling in. They were settling in quite well. Kado and Anna were…
Anna’s okay, for now. One day she’ll realise what really happened to Jorm, but that day isn’t today. Kado is… he also needs time. Something we have plenty of.
Frankly, too much time. The Chief has turned into such a workaholic, that there hasn’t been much left for me to do in my nominal capacity as her assistant. She made the suggestion to work on my flight practice with all my free time. It’s a long way up out of the Abyss, after all.
Which is why I’m currently hovering… eh, it’s better if I don’t try and guess how high up I am, but high enough to overlook a good portion of the village, keeping my altitude and position steady with every mighty flap of my wings.
Jorm’s passing has been hard on everyone. The kids especially. We’ve had colds and fevers before, but with the medical knowledge and tools we have, no one has died from such a disease. Sometimes people get infected wounds or other minor ailments, but Haven, and seemingly the Abyss at large, is surprisingly lacking in endemic diseases. The population down here is pretty dispersed, but this place isn’t that much unlike a very red swamp, and swamps are usually full of diseases and bugs and disease-carrying bugs. Perhaps the only silver lining of this place is that it’s relatively free of such things. I doubt the God of War sees death by mosquitos or the flu to be an honourable one.
Though, while it lacks the diseases and bugs of a swamp, it certainly has the heavy, stale air of one. I’d gotten as used to it as I could, until I started flying every day and discovered that, just below the blackened clouds that hang just under a hundred metres above the ground, the air clears out and is almost like breathing… normal air again.
It’s somewhat relaxing, smelling the cleaner air and just hovering above Haven. In another life, this place would barely even qualify as a village, but down here… it’s the only sliver of civilisation I’ve seen so far. Excluding the portions of whatever summer palace Arza summoned down to the Wolf Pups’ home to make herself more comfortable. Her existence alone is a source of hope for us, and for the Chief especially. Proof there’s people out there, beyond the confines of the Abyss. Proof there’s civilisation. All we had before was books, stories, and the tools around us. Though a few of the people who came down here to found Haven got stuck down here, they’ve long since passed on. Arza is likely the first person to come from outside the Abyss in over a hundred years.
She isn’t our way out, though.
I am.
As soon as I feel ready enough to fly six hundred metres up and out of here, to see what lies above.
But I’m not quite there yet, even though I get closer every day. What’s also important is that the kids need something to do. Something to keep them occupied when they’re not in school or helping around town. Something that keeps the kids busy, and helps me get flight practice in. I got the kids together one afternoon, and we came up with just the thing.
I’m playing hide-and-seek, you see, with the provision that I’m always the seeker.
Because I’ve gotten pretty good at flying. And it brings a whole new dimension to the game when the seeker has a birds-eye view of everywhere someone might try and hide in. I’ve already found a few of them, gathered outside the tavern as is the rules when you’re found, so it’s just a few of the Haven kids left, along with the Wolf Pups.
And I spy, with my little eye… a trio not very good at hiding.
Well, to give Adri, Mei, and Irie credit, their hiding spot would be pretty good if I couldn’t see straight over the fence they’re hiding behind, around the back of the armoury.
You know what to do, wings.
With a dramatic flourish they’ve grown a little too fond of, my wings thrust me forwards through the air, as I soar across the village nearer and nearer to the cliffs that shield Haven from the wider Abyss until I’m right above the three kids, twirling in the air, and dropping down towards the earth like a missile with my wings close by my side, spreading out to their full length just before I hit the ground, and with one last flap announcing my presence that nearly bowls Adri over from the rush of wind, I land right behind the three of them.
“Found you~” I grin.
Adri’s clutching the fence to stop himself from tumbling face-first into the mud. Mei clutches her chest as she tries to catch her breath, but Irie is more amazed than anything else.
“Marina!! You found us! Where did you even come from?!” She bounces excitedly, running up and hugging me, my wings wrapping themselves around her in a fluffy embrace.
“Th-the sky, but… I was watching…!” Mei pants, her eyes darting around the sky to try and figure out where exactly I came from.
“You weren’t watching the right part of the sky, Mei! She was right on top of us!” Adri retorts, standing back up properly again.
“How high up were you, Marina?” Irie asks with curious eyes.
“Not high enough to have my head in the clouds, but… pretty high up, yeah. High enough I had to squint to see you hiding between these two.” I ruffle her hair and smile.
“Can you reach the clouds, yet? What do they smell like?” Adri asks, his curiosity piqued.
“... Why would you ask what they smell like?”
“They don’t look like they smell that good. Like most other things down here.” He shrugs, looking up at the blackened clouds looming overhead that permanently blanket most of the Abyss.
“Yeah, I’ve stuck my head in the clouds a couple times. They don’t smell too great.” They smell somewhere between woodsmoke and sulphur, but only subtly. Thankfully.
“Do you think you really could fly out of the Abyss, one day?” Emi questions, giving me a concerned look.
“There’s only one way to find out. I’ll just keep practising until I’m ready.” I smile to reassure her.
“Do you think there’s flowers up there that are all different colours? All the ones down here are red…” Irie ponders. There are a few flowering plants down here, yes, but they all flower in red. All of them. Even the plants brought down here and planted in the farm plot grow red flowers.
“There’s a book on flowers in the library, Irie, though it’s… more of an encyclopaedia for adults than a kid’s book.”
“That book has a lot of big words that Chief Lichtrufer says I’m too young to understand…” Irie looks down, pouting.
“Don’t worry, Irie. When I fly all the way up and out of the Abyss, I’ll bring you back the first non-red flowers I see.” I ruffle her hair again to cheer her up, making her giggle.
“Don’t you still have other kids to find, Marina?” Adri interjects, frowning. “Weren’t we playing hide and seek?”
“Well you’re the last of the Haven kids I’ve found, so all that’s left are… the Wolf Pups.” Who are damned good at hiding. They’re almost always the last I find, if I find them at all. They’re on a four-game winning streak, and I’ll be twice-damned if I let them win a fifth.
Irie steps forward, gesturing me to lean down to her, which I do so.
“They like to hide in trees!” Irie whispers in my ear.
“The… by the Crystalfall?” I blink. Irie nods.
“Hmmm. I think I know just where to look…”
Off we go, wings.
Irie giggles to herself as I take off into the air, soaring above the roofs along the Crystal Road and beelining for the trees that line the bend in the road down to the Crystalfall. The bloodseed fruit trees. The trees themselves look like oak trees with thick, straight trunks, but the fruits that grow on them are indistinguishable from pomegranates. A fitting fruit for hell, truly.
And looking up at the branches, standing at the base of one, hiding up there would be a good hiding place, invisible from above and below.
“I know you’re up there, Wolf Pups.” I call, but I’m not expecting a reply. After all… “Don’t make me come up there. You know I can!”
Silence.
Oh well. Off we go again, wings- blegh?!
The minute I take off from the ground, a bloodfruit comes soaring out from the tree branches, hitting me square in my face and sending me tumbling back to the ground as my wings flap wildly in a helpless attempt to right our balance, only to fail, and land square on my arse in the mud as I’m struck with sudden deja vu.
“I got her!! Go!!!” A voice calls, and as I’m trying to wipe the bloodseed juice from my eyes, four Wolf Pups including Rabbit slide down the trunk, and scatter in all directions.
“Hey!! No one said anything about throwing fruit at people!” Gods, this juice is so sticky… the little bastards waited until I’d taken off so my wings couldn’t just swat the fruit away! When did they figure out how to take advantage of me like that?!
By the time I can see clearly again and am back on my feet, the Wolf Pups are long gone. The only person around me is a slightly bemused Chief, with Tiff standing beside her. I haven’t seen her much, or even spoken with her since that day with Jorm.
“I see flight practice is coming along well.” The Chief comments, as Tiff giggles to herself.
“How the hell did they figure out that my wings can’t block projectiles when I’m taking off to fly…”
“The Wolf Pups are crafty, aren’t they~?” Tiff grins teasingly. “Though, I do remember Vann telling them a story about when he was training you not long after you came to Haven…”
“And they put two and two together. I see.” I’ll get back at Vann somehow for this. “That’s five games in a row now they’ve won! I can’t let them win a sixth time!”
“Surely there are more efficient methods of flight practice that don’t involve you getting pelted with bloodseed fruit, Marina…” The Chief questions, crossing her arms.
“There are, but… playing hide and seek with the kids gives them something to do when they don’t have school. Besides, flying up and down town over and over has helped my endurance a lot. I need to be able to stay in the air for as long as possible if I’m going to fly out of here.”
“I suppose so.” The Chief nods. “At least you aren’t landing on people’s roofs anymore. I got more than a few complaints about people hearing footsteps above them when they were on the top floor of their residences…”
“Well, I’ve gotten strong enough that I don’t need to land on someone’s roof to catch my breath anymore.” I say proudly, puffing out my chest.
“Do you think you’re strong enough to fly six hundred tals straight up?” The Chief probes me. “Have you managed to go through the clouds yet?”
“I’ve stuck my head in the clouds, as for how thick they are… I don’t know. I was thinking it’s better if I just try to go the full distance the first try, rather than going up bit by bit.”
“Hmmm…” She ponders, as the three of us stare up at the dark clouds overhead. They clear occasionally, giving us a glimpse of the sky above, but we never get a proper glimpse of the cliffs themselves. It’s like the clouds are stuck to them.
I’m a lot more confident and comfortable with flying, and I feel like my wings and I have gotten on the same wavelength… most of the time. I don’t think they’ll ever learn to stop touching things they shouldn’t.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Was there anything else you needed, Chief?”
“Oh, we were just doing the rounds and happened to see you get whacked right in the face with a bloodseed fruit, and thought we’d check up on you.” Tiff grins, picking out a seed from my hair. “Oh, should I go and tell the kids they’ve won another round after you declared defeat just a moment ago~?”
“... If it spares me the humiliation, yes.”
Tiff giggles, practically skipping back up the road to go tell the children gathered outside the tavern of their victory. Once she’s gone around the corner, it gives me the opportunity to ask the Chief candidly.
“How has Tiff been?”
“Pretending that everything’s okay.” The Chief answers bluntly. “She knows I see through it, but that hasn’t stopped her.”
“Well… sometimes if you fake something for long enough, it stops being fake.”
The Chief gives me a sideways look. “Is that a Sovranan saying? That makes no sense. She’s still just pretending that she’s okay, just so the children don’t worry.”
“It’s more that… if you keep pretending to be something, sometimes you can forget that you were just pretending in the first place. Like when an actor on stage gets really into their character.”
“Hmm… I was never allowed to see any theatre productions. The closest was the occasional serious opera. Otherwise it was always orchestral arrangements… no, if it wasn’t composed by a genius musician and shown in the Drachenkoenig Royal Opera House, it wasn’t high class enough for the Lichtrufer family.” She tsks.
“Well, then you had the luxury of hearing some of the finest musicians in the land playing Retali instruments no doubt. We sold our masterworks from the eastern shoreline of the Song Empire, to the furthest northern reaches of Drachenkoenig~” I preen, taking some pride in my family’s work. We really did sell and ship instruments all over the world.
“I heard the name once or twice. I never thought I’d have the honour of meeting a member of such an esteemed family in a place like this.” The Chief smirks.
“Oh, we weren’t that… er…” Hang on. “Are you trying to tease me?”
“Perhaps.” She shrugs lightly, walking past me as she heads back up the road. “Who can say?”
… What?
“Chief??” I yell, to no reply.
Okay then. Guess I’ll keep up with flight practice.
…
A couple days have passed.
The Wolf Pups are up to a seven-game hide-and-seek winning streak.
Hiding indoors is against the rules, a rule they haven’t broken, but have certainly bent by hiding under the awnings of the tavern or around behind Ingrid’s blacksmith right up against the smaller cliffs that cradle Haven, where it’s very difficult to spot them from the air. Just when I think I’ve found their ultimate hiding place, they’ve got another hiding place up their sleeves that takes me ages to find. Worse still, the Haven kids are picking up on their tactics and getting better and better with every round we play. I don’t think I’m going to win on my own, at this rate.
Our daily hide-and-seek matches have become something of a spectacle in town, too. While by now people have gotten used to seeing or hearing me flying about, my increasing frustration at how damn good these kids are at hiding is a welcome source of amusement for some of them. Of course, not one of them even gives a hint where the kids are hiding, no. I’m the sole seeker, and it’s my job to find them. Gods.
That said, the Wolf Pups can’t all hide in one place like they used to. I’m too quick and perceptive for them to get away with that now. Every day, I grow more agile and confident in the air. I’m far from anywhere near mastering the art of flying, but I’m confident enough to say I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve only crash-landed once since I started playing hide-and-seek with the kids!
Though, while I no longer feel like I’m going to collapse into the mud like a limp rag after a bit of flying, it still works up a hell of an appetite. Fortunately, it’s dinner time, and Anton has begrudgingly agreed to serve me larger portions to make up for all the energy I’m spending flying around town. Flying’s hungry work.
“Here, Marina.” One of the barmaids pulls me from my thoughts as an extra-large serving of bloodbeast stew is set down before me, tickling my nose with tomatoes, root vegetables, and spices. The kitchen has certainly made the bloodbeast meat last. In fact, they’ve made me grow quite fond of it.
“I truly do not know how you can stomach so much at once…” The Chief, seated across from me, raises an eye at the size of my portion as she digs in. Whatever she’s thinking can wait. I’m hungry.
Where was I…? Oh, right. Dinner in the tavern. Dinner with the Council, who are eager to hear about my flight progress. Tiff, Rann, Vann, and the Chief are all seated around me, and the tavern is bustling with conversation and laughter as the kids brag about beating me at hide-and-seek again. Right. This stew is good…
I think I heard the Chief audibly sigh, but Rann chuckles beside me and seems to brush her off. “Let the girl eat, Mia. She’s been flying up and down town for weeks now.”
“I’m aware of that, Rann. I’m the one who tasked her with flight practice. This is only her twentieth day of such practice. I’m aware that she’s hungry, just as I’m sure she’s aware she doesn’t have to eat her dinner like a pig at a trough.” The Chief side-eyes me as I’m busy shovelling food into my mouth.
I swallow what’s in my mouth before speaking, “But I thought you wanted to talk…?”
“Just eat, Marina.” She sighs, shrugging me off with a half-hearted glare.
“Don’t mind her, Marina. She gets impatient when she’s excited~” Tiff grins teasingly at the Chief beside her.
“I am neither of those things, Tiffany. I simply wish to know how Marina feels her practice has been going sooner rather than later.” The Chief shoots back.
“... Sure sounds like impatience, Chief.” Vann adds with a shrug.
“It’s exercising prudence, not being impatient!” She retorts, starting a back-and-forth argument that only the Chief doesn’t recognise is in gest.
Still, it gives me enough time to eat enough of this stew that I don’t feel like I’m going to start gnawing on the table out of insatiable hunger. Bloodbeast stew certainly fills you up.
“Well, about my flight practice…” I speak up, wiping my chin with a cloth napkin. “I’ve come a long way in terms of endurance and control. With every extra day of practice, that 600-tal-high cliff seems a little less insurmountable.”
“... So how insurmountable does it seem right now, Marina?” The Chief asks, her attention piqued.
“Hmmm…” I ponder, gazing upwards thoughtfully and pretending not to notice the Chief eagerly lean forward in her chair.
Six hundred tals straight up. Or metres. Same thing. With how much flying I’ve been doing, it doesn’t seem so impossible now. I’ve purposely avoided trying to see how far up I can go, because I feel it’d be better if I did it on the first attempt. I’ve certainly gotten stronger and more confident. I think, with maybe a day or two more of practice… maybe not even that.
“I could try as soon as tomorrow.”
“You’re confident in that?” The Chief presses.
“Can’t you see that, Chief?”
“Regardless of the fact that I can see it, I’d prefer it if you say it.” She frowns at me.
“I’m confident I can do it. If I can’t, then I’ll just have to trust that someone will catch me if I don’t quite make it up there.”
“We’ll think of something if it comes to that. So, to go over the plan again. You fly up to the top of the cliffs. You assess the situation, see what state the crane is in and if there’s anything else of use up there, and then you come straight back down, understand?” She continues, not actually stating what she’d do if I fell, but… I trust her to have something in mind.
“I know. We’ve gone over it almost every day, Chief. I know what to do.”
“... You’ve spoken about the plan almost every day?” Tiff blinks, looking across at the Chief.
“It’s an important step of getting us out of here, Tiff. It has to be perfect.” The Chief explains.
“So.” Rann speaks up. “Marina flies up there. She sees what’s up there. She flies back down. Then what?”
“We assess the state of the crane, and see if it can be fixed. If Marina can fly up there and back down safely, she should be able to take some basic tools and equipment up with her. We have blueprints of the crane in the library; we know how it was built, we’ll know how to fix it.” The Chief explains, before taking a long sip from her wooden mug.
“Mmhm. And what if there’s nothing up there to be fixed?” Rann asks.
The room falls silent as the Chief slowly puts her mug down on the table. Everyone had been listening in on our conversation, since it was about getting everyone out of the Abyss. Everyone heard Rann question the Chief’s plan, and no-one had ever publicly dared to question the Chief’s plan. Her plans had always worked. Why wouldn’t this one? She always sounded certain the crane was still up there.
But, if there was anyone in the position to question the Chief’s plan… it would be the oldest person on the council. The one who helped raise the Chief.
“... Rann.” She speaks, her voice calm and steady, though her anger is showing through her twitching eyebrow.
“It’s been a hundred years, Chief. No one’s come down since the crane stopped. You’ve always acted like it’s still up there, so what’s the plan if Marina flies up there only to find nothing left of it?” He pushes. His questions are perfectly reasonable. They’re questions that need to be asked. Which is perhaps why they’ve gotten under the Chief’s skin so quickly.
“Why wouldn’t it be there, Rann? You’ve seen the blueprints. It’s not a simple construction crane, it’s an industrial lift made to descend hundreds of tals into the earth. It’s big. It’s durable. There are no notions or signs of conflict in the documents from the day the crane stopped coming down, it just stopped one day. It can’t have been destroyed. Why would it be destroyed?” The Chief responds with her own series of questions. She’s no doubt grappled with these questions before on her own, so she has answers ready for them.
“People don’t need a reason to destroy something, Chief. They just do. I’ve also read the books saying the area around the Abyss is a lawless wasteland filled with roving bandits and marauding hordes. Do you really think an unattended structure would survive in that kind of place for a hundred years?” Rann isn’t letting this go, and has his own sources to back his points up.
“We would have known if it was destroyed, Rann. As I already said, it was a large structure. If marauding fools came along and smashed it, surely parts of it would have fallen into the Abyss and likely landed within Haven itself. It’s straight up above us. It came down right near the Crystalfall. We would know if it was destroyed!” The Chief’s grip over her own anger is starting to slip as she raises her voice.
“They could have burned it. They could have salvaged it for parts. It was made of wood, and wood burns. There’s plenty of ways to destroy it without anything falling down here.” Rann isn’t convinced, and with the murmurs in the crowd, others aren’t quite convinced either.
“Rann…” The Chief sighs through gritted teeth, holding her head in her hands.
“I’m not saying this to poke holes in your plan, Chief. You do your best to plan for every possibility. What’s your plan if there’s no crane at all?” He continues, trying to reassure the Chief, but she’s gone over the edge by this point.
“RANN!!” She yells, standing up and slamming her first on the table like the boom of thunder, stunning the room into silence once more.
“Mia…” Tiff goes to hold the Chief’s hand to comfort her, but the Chief swats it away in anger.
“It’s an honest question, Chief.” Vann speaks up in Rann’s place, who has gone silent, having crossed his arms and closed his eyes. “It’s all good to send Marina up there to see what the situation is. What will we do if there is nothing left up there?”
“It has to be up there.” The Chief growls, but her voice wavers. “If it isn’t… then… then we’ll just have to find something else!”
I’ve never heard the Chief sound so uncertain over anything, let alone herself. She’s hitched her hopes onto the existence of this crane, and…
I’ll be the one that’ll be delivering the news to her; good, or bad, there’s only one way to find out.
“Well.” Rann stands, stepping out from behind the table and heading for the tavern’s front doors. “Then I best prepare for the worst-case scenario.” He doesn’t slam the door behind him, but the room’s so quiet it echoes off the walls.
Conversation in the room slowly starts back up as people turn around and pretend they didn’t see what just went down. The Chief stays standing by the table for a long moment, clenching her fists, before grunting and leaving to head up the stairs to the offices above the tavern, leaving Vann, Tiff and I alone at the table.
“... Should we… go check on either of them…?”
“It’s best we leave the both of them on their own for a while. This happens every now and then.” Vann shrugs, leaning over the table.
“Hahh…” Tiff sighs wistfully, letting her head slump. “I knew this would happen, I just wish it didn’t happen in the middle of dinner… she didn’t even finish hers.”
“You knew they’d fight like this?”
“Mia… gets… well, you know her. She can really hone in on these things and lose sight of everything else around her. She’s smart, and capable, but she can never meet her own standards of perfection. Rann is the only person who can bring these sorts of things up with her. She respects him greatly, and she values his input and support on everything. So when Rann questions her ideas, it hits her hard, but as I said… he’s the only one who can talk about this with her. You know how hard it can be to get her to reconsider things.” Tiff explains.
“Even you can’t convince her on things like this, Tiff?”
“With something like this…? No. That’s not the role I play in her life.” She smiles, shaking her head. “She’ll probably come grumbling to me later on and rest her head on my shoulder and I’ll reassure her that everything will be okay.”
“Will everything be okay though, Miss Valm? Can you say that with certainty?” A cynical voice comes from behind Tiff—Anton’s voice, coming around to collect our empty bowls. A job he doesn’t usually do.
“A-Anton! I wasn’t even talking about you, so why’d you have to sneak up on me?!” Tiff retorts, nearly jumping out of her seat as Anton appears behind her.
“I overheard the argument. Rann is right to question the Chief’s plan… if you can call it that. Hinging it all on whether or not this crane is still intact, let alone there at all, is a gamble that the Chief usually wouldn’t allow in her plans.” Anton rolls his shoulders back in a half-shrug.
“If you have something better, we’re all ears, Anton.” Vann prods.
“Getting us out of here isn’t my job. Ensuring everyone gets three hot meals every day is. I’m content to leave her to her duties as Chief and not question her motives, but I fear her obsession over this is only setting her up for failure.” Anton explains succinctly.
“She just wants a better life for all of us, Anton. Is it wrong for her to want that?” Tiff says, crossing her arms and glaring at Anton.
“I never said it was wrong. Only that her current path will end in failure.” Anton turns back towards the kitchen without another word.
“... He does know this entire plan hinges on me, right? No matter what’s up there, I’ll be the one to find it, and the one to tell the Chief about what I do or don’t find.”
What do you think, Marina? Do you think there’ll be something left up there?” Vann asks.
“I haven’t thought about what’s up there. My job is getting up there. And getting back down in one piece.”
“But do you think there’ll be something left up there?” Vann repeats, pushing in the same way Rann did earlier.
“Well… there’s only one way to find out for certain.” I look up in the direction of the cliffs. I can’t see them, but that’s not the point.
“Are you going to try to fly out of the Abyss tomorrow, Marina?” Tiff asks.
“May as well. Just… work something out to catch me if I don’t make it all the way up, okay?”
“I’ll go tell the Chief that. She’ll be happy to hear it.” Tiff smiles, standing and heading for the stairs.
Now it’s just Vann and I.
“... Are you confident you can fly out of here and come back, Marina?” Vann asks, raising an eyebrow in concern.
“Look, either I do or I don’t. I try not to think about what happens if I don’t make it. It’s a long way down and the less I think about that, the better.”
“Fair enough.” Vann chuckles, standing and heading to leave. “Don’t worry. We’ll be sure to catch you if you fall.”
Well.
I’m flying out of the Abyss tomorrow.
I wonder if I could get another serving of stew tonight… I’m going to need the energy tomorrow.