After Kaya finished talking with the fox beastmen, it didn't take them long to spring into action. Just as Rean had promised, they worked quickly—clever, efficient, and oddly intuitive.
Kaya had only needed to gesture here and there, pointing out how she wanted the kitchen—where the hearth should be, how the ventilation should run—and they were already drafting layouts in the dirt, sketching blueprints with practiced ease. And for anything they didn't immediately grasp, Kaya explained it once, and they adjusted without missing a beat.
But something still nagged at her.
Since early morning, her left eye had been twitching. A small thing—but she knew better than to ignore it. It never meant anything good. Some omen—silent, stubborn, and frustratingly familiar—lingered just outside her reach.
She didn't know what was coming, only that it was coming.
