Friends At The Table

Ulled is a pocked and placid-seeming agricultural moon. But as the saying goes, be wary the still lake. Yes, farmers speak softly and tend to their crops with loving cultivation. Yes, life is quiet and late afternoons are restful. Yes, harvest work brings reward. But then there is underneath. There is underneath. But Those Nerveless Chancers, The Krinsky Family Circus And Travelling Curiosity, they know only what is above.  They know they step on fertile soil and soft grass, perfect for staking their tents and stands.  They know they walk through fields under the lights and shadows of the Citadel Bein, a fortress layered with history so visible that it is seemingly built from the accretion of time itself.  They know that they stand above a castle village sonorous with the sounds of marketplaces and buskers and craftshops—a circus of a different type than their own, but not altogether unfamiliar.  They know they stand on a geological shelf, the shore of a vast, shimmering lake beyond—open like a sea, polished