Dawn reached the Below only as the click of Hajin's pocket watch, since no sun ever came this deep. Cessy sat on the top stair with her knees drawn up, watching the noisy household wake up around her.
Nyra drilled the new glaive against a pillar, grunting with every swing, her bad temper finally given somewhere to go.
Ferra called, not looking up from the buckle she was mending, "Looser in the wrist, you're strangling the shaft."
"No."
Loccy hovered at the edge of the swings with a bowl of porridge, ears twitching hopefully, waiting for any gap.
"She won't eat until she hits it right, it's a very serious situation," she whispered, wringing the spoon between her paws.
"Then leave it by the pillar, she'll find it when she's hungry," Ferra said, finally lifting her head.
'Tell him today. Before the stairs, before your nerve goes the way it always does.'
