( ...properly introduced, as if they have the tea and meal and provisions of hospitality to negotiate that courtesy. No, they have not been introduced all that much better than Wangji has come to know the blanket of mould on the water-logged passage, the thick, metallic taint of the air that whistles through.

But he nods, accepting, and recalls enough of his manners to — scolded, as if he were a child — regulate his balance with the sack and supply in kind: )

Wangji, clan Lan. ( Long may the pale fettering of his headband proclaim it. He hesitates, then: ) 'Work.' Is that what our... coalition achieves?

( And if there is an inkling, a veneer, a shadow of bitterness, forgive it. A hard thing, to sustain hope in the face of perpetual catastrophe. )