Mushrooms... Why did those people seem to go after them so eagerly ? They didn't taste good, they didn't seem to have that much of a nutritional value, they didn't even glow brightly enough to be suited as a lamp unless one piled up a quantity of them! Fyr damned himself for having been so foolish to believe those stories of open cities, fresh water in the desert and hospitality, but feeling like not even doing anything actually productive was just the small, but painful pinnacle on top of everything.

But what did he know ? Maybe there were even more things around him he just failed to understand or even notice in the first place. Given the steady deterioration of himself he had not failed to notice, Fyr could only look out onto ultimately wasting away inside here. It didn't seem like their 'employers' would be in any serious lack of a cheap replacement for him, given how many 'co-workers' were around here together with him.

Yet, as Fyr's hands separated one shroom from its rocky soil after the other, he could suddenly hear something. A mere whisper only and distorted by ambient noises, but his ears clearly picked up the word 'intruders' and that it was Merrick's voice. That was invigorating news, because nobody would use the term 'intruder' for somebody who had friendly intentions, and hostile intentions towards the guards effectively were friendly intentions towards himself! So Cicero and the others were on their way here ?

Unfortunately, Fyr could not even dare to briefly stop his work and turn his head in order to facilitate his happy eavesdropping further. That likely would just have earned him some sort of punishment.

Also, giving a second thought to it, there was one thing that nagged at the benigity of what he had just witnessed: Why would Merrick openly tell the guards about intruders ? That didn't really fit into Fyr's mind, unless he also added in some sinister thoughts about no longer being able to trust all of the individuals he was together in this pit with. The fact that that quick trip to the latrine obviously was not so much a matter of poop after all got certainly stuck in his memory.