The next two days vanished into ore carts, wall repairs, and a town slowly remembering how to work.
Miners traveled east under escort while Marrick recorded a stockpile that would equal a fortune anywhere else.
Each evening the crates advanced another row across the registry yard under one very proud guard.
The boy grew through all of it, which would have been normal at a normal speed.
He had already climbed onto the registry roof twice, and both descents ended in triumphant laughter.
"He does not fit this shirt anymore," Vella reported on the third morning while holding up the outfit.
"It fit him perfectly when we came down off the mountain," she added while examining the stretched sleeves.
The seamstress had already rolled every hem twice, surrendering another centimeter each time.
"Aria," Hajin called while the boy hung upside down from a ceiling beam without any obvious reason.
