Chapter 153 - Jae (1/2)
Dinner was a simple affair and Adam was put to bed not long afterward. Everyone sat around talking until Al said he needed to sleep now because he needed an early start tomorrow. Katie gave him a quick but affectionate kiss as she sent him off.
Blaise excused himself at the same time because he intended to join Al and meet the potential Kanta delegate. So Abby and Katie were left talking, joking, and reminiscing late into the night.
There weren't any clocks here aside from the big clock tower in town so she wasn't sure what time they finally went to bed. Only that it was sometime after 3 AM because the three bongs indicating the time had gone off a while ago.
Abby fell asleep both exhausted and more fulfilled than she had been since she thought Katie died. The next day she found out what her sister's schedule was normally like.
She made Adam breakfast before taking him into town. He played with toys or read picture books or colored with crayons while she ran the library. He took his morning nap tucked away on a cot in a side room that functioned as an office.
When he woke up they briefly closed up shop and got cheese buns from the bakery for lunch. An hour later the other librarian, a young woman who couldn't be more than seventeen named Ilya, took over for Katie.
Now she was free to visit various businesses and make sure everything was going okay. They stopped to chat with each person they came across, which Abby found surprising. Her sister had never been the social type.
They made their way through the post office, printing office, smithy, jewelry store, and then some. Abby hadn't realized how many shops there were in this tiny village. It didn't make sense until you considered how often they traded things with merchants further down the mountain.
Trader caravans couldn't make it up this far unless they left the wagons behind and came by horse or on foot. Most of the time the two groups met at a halfway point with wares they could carry in saddle bags.
There was a wide road leading between the two Kanta villages but not one leading down the mountain. It would be a huge undertaking and require time and manpower that these people did not have.
The Kanta primarily exported children's books, art supplies, toys, and jewelry. The raw materials that came from the mines were moved straight from there down the mountain using a system of carts and pulleys. But those were too far from town to bother with for the significantly smaller finished products they sold.
The economy was booming and Abby felt a strange sense of pride even though she hadn't been involved. That was her sister at work!
When they finished with all of those visits it was time to head back home for Adam's afternoon nap. That was pretty much the only free time Katie had all day because once the little boy woke up he always wanted to go to the park or play with his friends and they tended to do that until dinner time.
”Your life is much more hectic than I imagined,” Abby informed her once they were finally able to sit down.
Katie shrugged. ”It's a lot better than when I was stuck in the palace with nothing to do. Let me tell you; I have refused to play a single game of cards since leaving there. I don't know if I will ever want to play again.”