“Bolym? Hm. I’ll make a note of that. No other workers, farmers among you? Though I suppose them being outside the city walls meant they had been particularly vulnerable.” Kire was already distracted by imagining the work that would need to be done, not only to cultivate a farm from scratch successfully but to even get Bolym and the people of Little Ziad to cooperate with each other. She knew very well how near-insurmountable generations of bias could be, but she hoped that their need to survive and thrive should eventually win out over prejudices that should no longer matter. She wondered for a moment why Ruli looked much more dejected amid all this farming talk, but decided not to press. Not that she had much confidence that he would answer her even if she did. 

“You’re welcome. Honestly, trying to help a community back on its feet isn’t all that different from what I’ve been doing these past few months.” She smiled, though only briefly. “We’re not done with the work. You have yours cut out for you, too. But the fact that you’ve managed to keep this community safe here, it’s a feat in itself.” She wished then that she didn’t have the hunt for Ikegai to worry about on top of helping the former residents of Ziad, alongside her own. [i]A mountain of unfinished business.[/i] “The work never ends,” she murmured, half to herself, then, to the other two, “ Alright, I was up far too early today; I’ll go grab a few winks, conserve my energy for the supply run. You can wake me when we’re ready to go,” she said, addressing Rulitus this time before turning to go back to her room in the caverns. She lay on her ‘mattress’ for a little while longer, resting her head on her laced fingers as she waited to drift back to sleep.