Ansel and Marlina stood at the edge of the lower district streets of Dispute Fortress. Below them lay the bottomless mining pits, filled with stagnant wastewater and refuse.
The commission had been successfully completed; Ansel cared not whether the boy wished to return. He simply knocked him unconscious and brought him back to Dispute Fortress, to the place he preferred to remain a plaything rather than return.
The young Hydral, observing Marlina as she gazed blankly into the depths of the pit, almost as if staring into an endless abyss, softly said, "You still have much to comprehend, Margarete."
The absurdity Marlina glimpsed in this small, worldly affair was but a fragment of the world's vast tapestry.
