Aili awoke to loud noises outside. She wondered what could be going on so early. Groggily sitting up, she saw that her eyes were red from crying in the night. She must've had an awful dream. She couldn't remember it though. She cleaned up her face and went outside to see what all the commotion was.
Vard, dead? No. Aili couldn't believe it. He had seemed like a nice enough guy and Maw had said that he reminded him of some nice Smoker, whatever that was, somewhere else. Vard was Hallandren? His name had seemed nice enough that she had believed that he was Idrian. What other secrets were these people hiding? Aili decided both Idrians and Hallandren needed to work together to catch these murderers. No longer could they be cats squabbling over a mouse.
She went to work remorsefully that day, saddened by the loss. Jeo too seemed more downcast than normal. The potatoes Aili cooked didn't seem to have their regular smell. As soon as her morning shift was over, she went out to the main square to try to rally folks. "Masters Summon and Cog, please come here, won't you? Master Grim, you too. We need to rally together and get both sides to join. Hallandren's negotiator still hasn't arrived, so we need to do his work ourselves. What do you think?" Aili asked the small group.