“Lift up your hearts Benalus’ friends…”

Alonzo is humming. Putting on clothes he thinks would be good for gathering in food. He’s seen it done, he supposes. He is pulling on a muslin shirt.

“Sarah, where is my hat?” he shouts in Hestron. “Which one?” she yells back in Shariq’a. “The one that looks like a farmer hat.”

Baruk laughs at his desk while Mel and Jin practice a song in the kitchen. “…to taste the joy, the joy the White Lion sends…”

“Father,” remarks Baruk, still snickering. “You look so dashing. What if there’s not enough dirt to go around?”

“Well, boy, I’ll just have to go harvest some songs, I suppose. Are you coming with me? Might do you some good to get your hands in the ground.”

“Wait? Really?” Baruk raises his hands covered in ink splotches. “Instead of… sums? I’ll get my cloak!”

And so they go, laughing into the morning. A moment of light in a world so often dark.

Sarah gathers Mel and Jin and locks the residence behind her, making sure that everything is in order before boarding the carriage to the fields of Stragosa.

“…when I was a little girl, I asked my mother what will I be…”