Brea had never been to the faux-desert area where Rek'yr lived and tended to Bennu and the other crystal skimmers. Many of the once-Dousan lived among the other gelfling, but a small number remained in this area of the vessel, suspicious of the others. Brea didn't fight it. The Prodigious survivors were free, after all, and the Vapra had certainly kept to themselves.

The ground looked like sand and it felt like sand under her feet, but it wasn't made up of tiny grains like the ones that swirled in the Crystal Desert.

Brea couldn't resist. She crouched down and felt the ground curiously.

Rek'yr, several steps ahead of her, stopped and turned. "High Admiral?"

She looked up at him. "What is this?"

He ran his foot cross the surface "It's stilled," he said. "In the desert, the sand can dance into the sky and return to the ground. On this vessel, a gust of wind would blow it away into the sea."

"It feels like it's real," Brea said, fascinated. "Does it occur naturally?"

"Well," he said. "We have our ways." He smiled lightly.

Brea stood. "Of course," she said. "You're a sandmaster."

Rek'yr nodded and turned without another word. She followed, resisting the urge to ask more questions. He had been right, the Dousan certainly had insights the other clans didn't.

He led her to a tunnel near the edge of the stilled desert and paused. "I will go and see Rauhl first," he said. "He chooses, still, to live isolated from the other clans."

"Oh," Brea said. "Will he welcome me?"

"Rauhl is kind," he said. "He just needs to know that you can be trusted."

Brea nodded and watched him disappear into the tunnel. She sighed and looked around. The morning suns shone down on the vessels, as three skimmers circled overhead. She had always imagined that they were tethered to the vessel somehow, but they were free, appearing to stay with the gelfling by choice. The view overlooking the rest of the Prodigious was quite breathtaking from her high vantage point.

She turned and looked out over the gleaming sea. It was beautiful, but vast. Nothing but water as far as she could see. She suddenly felt impossibly small and lost, somewhere in parts unknown.

Rian peered into the empty cupboard. He could kick himself. The whole point of his excursion to the market with Gurgin the evening before was to bring home food for the family, and he hadn't returned with so much as a crust of bread.

"Deet," he called. She didn't answer. Probably because this thraforsaken house was bigger than anyone needed. "Deet!" he called out again, louder.

"Why are you yelling?" she asked, appearing seemingly from nowhere.

"Why didn't you answer me?"

"The baby's asleep," she said, her voice dropping a decibel.

"Oh," he said. "Well, I thought we might all go to the market for breakfast."

Deet's eyes narrowed just enough at him that he knew she knew he'd failed the easiest mission he'd ever been given. She reached past him and opened the cupboard.

"I had that vision, and it really just threw me," he said.

"Of course," she said, barely missing a beat. It wasn't like him, though. Rian had been obsessed with their food store at the cottage, adding to it daily. It was a reminder of how much had changed since they left Thra. An empty cabinet or a dry wineskin wasn't something they had to worry about anymore.

"So this is Brea."

Brea straightened and nodded curtly at the shaman before her. She had imagined a very old gelfling, but Rauhl appeared to be around the same age a Rek'yr, and was just as striking. His skin was dark brown with a bluish tinge around his eyes and a pattern of white swirls tattooed across his face in a stark contrast to his skin. His head was wrapped in colorful, beaded cloth.

She glanced from Rek'yr to Rauhl and fleetingly thought about asking if they were brothers, before thinking the better of it. The question, she thought, implied that all Dousan looked the same.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Brea said.

"The pleasure is mine," he said.

She held out her hand toward him, palm down.

Rauhl looked puzzled. "I'm not familiar with this custom," he said.

"Oh," Brea said, pulling her hand back.

He smiled suddenly, realizing that she had been offering her hand for a kiss. "Don't mistake my brother's flirty nature for Dousan culture," he said with a laugh.

"Oh, you're brothers!" Brea said, relieved to change the subject after her gaffe.

"Twins," said Rek'yr. "Don't tell me you don't see a resemblance."

"No, I do," she said, even more relieved that she had.

"Rek'yr tells me the shard of the Crystal of Truth is sick," Rauhl said. "Even sicker than before."

"Yes," Brea said. She pulled it out from her tunic and looked at it. Still onyx. She held it up for him to see.

"Oh my," Rauhl said, a tinge of alarm in his calming voice. He reached for it. "May I?"

She nodded and handed him the shard.

"Oh my," he said again, as he inspected it.

"What does it mean?" she asked.

He circled the room, and then, finally, set the shard down on a round table with painted markings. Out of his pocket, he pulled a clay flute.

Brea watched in awe as he played the most beautiful, haunting melody she had ever heard. The shard began to spin, slowly at first, then faster, until a wisp of what looked like purple smoke rose out of it and began dancing, like the sands of the Crystal Desert.

The market was full of life and revelry, as it had been the day before. Rian pretended to know just where they should go to buy food, even though he hadn't let Gurjin show him around properly.

"This is the place," he said to Deet, motioning toward a random market.

She nodded, and put her hand on Ashona, swaddled against Rian's back.

The shop was full of all kinds of food. It was impressive, actually.

Rian picked up a yellow tubor. "Oh," he said, lifting it and inhaling its scent. "I thought I'd never have one of these again."

"Let's get two," Deet said. She looked at the offerings. Moss was sorely missing, but there were some igot roots. "And these."

Rian nodded. They took their finds to the counter. Rian was nervous. He still wasn't sure how it worked.

He looked at the shopkeeper. "I'm new here," he said.

The shopkeeper furrowed his brow, then looked at Rian and Deet with sudden recognition. "Oh Thra," he said. "It's you!"

Rian looked at Deet, then back at the shopkeeper. "I was told I had credits - ticks? - for these?"

The shopkeeper looked beside himself. "Of all the shops, you chose ours,"he said. "Lidi," he called to his wife, "Of all the shops, the Wellsping chose ours!"

"What?" Rian said. "No, we're just regular customers. I'm not sure how to buy this -"

The shopkeeper shook his head. "No charge, no charge," he said. "I wouldn't dream of it." He went over to the bins with a sack, and started filling it with fruit and vegetables. "It's an honor," he said. "We wouldn't dream of charging you."

The shopkeeper carried the sack, full of more food than Rian and Deet could eat in a week, back to the counter. "Take all of this," he said. "It's an honor."

Just the two tubors and the two roots is fine," Rian said. "How do we pay?"

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," The shopkeeper said again. "Out of all the shops!" He raised a finger and went over to the bins, sack in hand. "Out of all the shops, Lidi!" he called, as he filled the sack with more food than they could eat in a week.

Rian looked at Deet with discomfort. Admittedly, the bit of him that had become a food hoarder while they lived in the cottage welcomed the shopkeeper's generosity, but it felt wrong. Then, it was just the two of them facing an uncertain winter. Now they lived in a community where food was produced and distributed constantly. It wasn't the same.

The shopkeeper presented the sack to them triumphantly.

"I… thank you," said Deet, hesitantly taking it.

"It's my honor," he said.

"OK." She glanced at Rian. "There's only two of us."

The shopkeeper nodded. "Enjoy!"

"Let's just go," whispered Rian.

The other gelfling in the shop looked on, whispering to each other excitedly.

One woman, looking especially anxious and tired, stepped forward. "Can I… can I see the baby?"

Rian looked at Deet. "Um." He didn't shake his head, but she knew his expression, and his expression said no.

"Of course," Deet said. Rian sighed. Of course she did. "Only for a moment." She lifted Ashona from the carrier on Rian's back gently and cradled her as she stirred. She clicked her tongue at her quietly as she opened her eyes.

The woman stepped closer. "Her name is?"

"Ashona," Deet said. "What's your name?"

"Dor," she said. "Oh, she's Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful." She beamed, the hardship seemingly disappearing from her face. "My first baby was so beautiful, too," she said, her smile fading.

"I'm sure," Deet said. "How many childlings do you have?"

"Six," Dor said, then paused. "Well, three now."

"Oh."

"We were lucky," she said.

Deet swallowed. She glanced into Dor's basket. It contained half a loaf of bread and two green fruits, hardly enough for a family with three children.

Dor looked in the basket and covered it with a cloth. "It's easy to run out of ticks at the end of the cycle."

Deer's face fell. "What do you mean, 'run out of ticks?""

"Deet," Rian said, nudging her. They were entirely too new to be criticising the system, he thought.

Without a word, Deet handed Ashona to him and pulled two yellow tubers and two roots out of the sack of food and stood, facing Dor.

"Here," she said, holding the sack and all of the remaining food to her.

Dor blinked, and looked around, as the onlooking gelfling murmured. "Oh, no no," she said, stepping back. "I was never trying to ask for charity!"

"It's not charity," Deet said, as Rian looked on, a smile forming. "It's a gift."

"I can't accept all of that," Dor said.

Deet shrugged her shoulders and picked up the food she'd pulled out. "Then just give away what you don't need," she said, matter-of-factly.

The small crowd of shoppers stood silent as they walked out. Deet glanced back and caught the shopkeeper's eye. He nodded at her, humbled.

"Everyone take what you need," he said. "Only what you need, like Deethra and Rian."

They stepped out into the square, no longer the sole focus of the other gelfling around them.

"Deetha," Rian said, a slight playfulness in his voice. "I forgot how you are."

"How I am?"

He shifted Ashona from one shoulder to the other. "Around other Gelfling."

"How am I?"

"Nice," he said. "You're selfless. It's nice."

Deet considered. "I'm not nice with you?"

He shrugged, still smiling as they walked toward the tunnel. "You are," he said. "Sometimes I just forget."