[is this how things are and will be with her and kyle? a constant sharing of information, of comparing notes, coupled with a sort of companionship born from familiarity in loss (and the keeping of sad loss alive, despite knowing better)? wanda doesn't think she quite minds, liking the ease by which their conversations flow.

she grants him a look before turning her gaze downward, as he begins to say something about the tertiary settlement, about solvunn.]

—I don't think things are going very well for Solvunn at the moment, especially the Tertiary Settlement. It's far from where I stay, so I cannot tell you if it is or isn't true.

[about the roiling seas—

she picks at a small stone amidst the dirt, cleaning it up by rolling it between her fingers.]

Things have shifted in the commune.