Chapter 515: The Thief of Joy
Tala and Rane enjoyed some of the sights that Sunnydale had to offer—the vistas were spectacular and the architecture and aesthetics were quite unlike what they were used to. More than that, they took time to watch sunsets and sunrises from viewing decks recommended to them by William, Anne, and Liam.
While they could have pressed for access to one of the village’s holds to explore and learn, doing so—given their gates—would have caused real damage to the infrastructure that these people relied on.
That wasn’t worth it in their minds, so they didn’t press.
Even so, they ended up meeting quite a few more people just by being aboard.
It seemed that there were far more moving settlements than Tala was aware of, ranging in size from single family constructions up to ones like Howlton and Sunnydale, being several thousand souls in size.
In doing the math, Tala realized that all told, the settlements likely had more than half as many people as the cycling cities. That said, if even one percent of that number were gated, Tala would have been shocked.
All this to say, many of the surrounding mobile settlements came to connect to Sunnydale and trade with them and, consequently, with Ironhold. For many, that involved floating platforms moving to and from the surface down below.
One group stood out in particular, as it was the first single family settlement that Tala and Rane encountered in person.
The husband, Charles, with his wife Caroline, and their three daughters apparently had a farm that they tended, including several arcanous creatures that they raised for milk or meat.