96

A few more villagers slip away that night, in ones and twos, to follow Stralchus. Follow him to where, to what, you cannot say. You know only that without your words, the mystic might simply have taken over the village, perhaps even have destroyed the Specular.

"Everything is complicated," Dr. Sabbatine says late that night, her voice tinny through the rift. "That's what Meto used to say. Then he'd tell a joke. I don't have a joke, but I have a calculation—it should take the controllers and me about two months to complete a systematic inventory of the Specular, at which point we can begin repairs in earnest."

"Two months!" Alexius cries.

"This is delicate business, Alexius," the doctor says.

Two months might give you time to continue your improvements of the village. With Chief Kothis back brooding in his house, rumors of ophidian raids continuing to circle, and Stralchus's plans a mystery, the security of the River People is increasingly your own security. And of course, maybe you could stay here after the Specular is repaired. What does Byzantium or Mexihco offer you, after all, that you could not find here?

Or make here. But you will have to be careful, as "improving" this world could have unintended consequences.

You estimate your various sources of revenue from the village total 570 solidi.