A dented bowl struck the camp counter as Tessa opened the day's ration line to more than two hundred displaced citizens.
The queue included children excluded from municipal shelter, making every portion an answer to the council's withdrawal.
Across the muddy open plaza, Tessa managed the community bread line alongside four borrowed cast iron stoves.
Over two hundred citizens discarded by the central wardens stood in quiet lines, holding dented tin bowls while waiting for rations.
Hajin drove an iron stake into the earth to secure Ferra's third forge guy wire, tightening the braided tension cord.
Down the northern approach, a single hunched silhouette crossed the wooden footbridge without an escort or honor guard.
It was the First Speaker, leaning upon a gnarled walking stick while carrying the heaviest title in the entire metropolitan expanse.
