Thirty

Dafyd meets Ekur-Tkalal and learns Rickar Daumatin has died during evacuation. Pressed on human beliefs about souls, Dafyd clarifies they are comforting stories, not information phenomena. Grieving and distracted, he delivers disappointing research updates, citing Tonner Freis’s loss and staffing upheaval.

Seeking to reduce fear after Tonner’s death, Dafyd floats removing Soft Lothark and Rak-hund guards from labs. His wording risks implying a subordinate ordering a superior, provoking quiet menace before he reframes it as relayed information. Ekur-Tkalal touches Dafyd’s shoulder and stresses, “There is only one Sovran,” then orders Dafyd to designate three hundred people for exploratory fieldwork within five cycles.

Dafyd returns to the human quarters, where Bastien Korham oversees construction of a school and nursery with open galleries, vistas, and a planned mural by Ferdan Bellenn to preserve human heritage. The tangible work offers purpose amid loss.

In private, Dafyd confides to Uuya Tomos his fear of failure, the burden of the Carryx demand, and grief for Rickar. Uuya reframes the Carryx’s expectations through their adaptability and notes human elites once relied on countless unseen workers, now absent. She warns Dafyd to keep subversive thoughts inside when he muses about exploiting chaos.

Uuya contrasts justice myths with wisdom stories that admit suffering without consolation yet demand perseverance. Encouraging action over despair, she invites Dafyd to join the construction shift, giving him a way to channel pain into building a future for the children.