Mandy woke, bathed in a pool of sunshine, oblivious to the Engrams envelopment of the silken threads of universal conscience. The opened window shutters gave free passage to light and wind that had been washed clean in the rain. She rubbed her eyes and gathered herself in the silence of the house, her only company in the small lammbrui who sat solidly by the door. She let the creature out, and marveled for a moment at the activity going on in the courtyard just outside the door. A group of Ternian men gathering nets and heading for the piers.

The Elder's hostel was silent save for the muffled notes of the wooden chimes hanging just outside the door. She walked through the twisted halls, searching the rooms, and stopped briefly outside the furthest door. Entering, she found veritable chaos. All sorts of Ternian scholars swarmed the shelves of recordings. Icteric little people who devoted their lives to the care of the treasures in this room. In the center of the room stood a tall man, apparently perfoming musical triage.

"These go now, those can wait, these now, those..bottom of the pile..." barked a tired Cornucopia. Vigilant, he monitored the Ternians in the library.

Mandy walked to the small 'bottom of the pile' area, and grasped the outermost of the recordings. 'Kaalufa--Live at the Sands', with a red faced blob on the cover. She placed it on the player and gasped at the first strains of supposed melody that escaped.

'And if an old friend I know
Should smile and say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes..'

She pulled it from the player with a look akin to someone sniffing the outdated Niposian Goat milk in the cantina. She wasn't sure what the tall man's criteria for bottom of the pile was before, but she could surely trust his judgement now.

"There you are, dear" came a voice from behind her. She turned to see one of her toothless benefactresses beaming in the doorway.
"Come, come, come." And with gestures more suited to herding chickens, she guided Mandy back out to the center of the Elder's home.

They seated her, and chattering all the while, began to fix her a breakfast of a buttery hot cereal that Mandy devoured gratefully. The two women buzzed about the small kitchen. The larger, a solid Gaia, and the smaller, a timid Luna that revolved around her in a flurry.

The women, ever gracious, allowed Mandy to finish her repast before beginning their maternal assault. Gaia warmed to her, it had been so long since there were any young women in this house. Luna sat perched on a stool shelling vegetable pods, talking while Gaia recovered the albums. Wooden placards, attached with a ring, showed etchings of the Ternians.

Gaia blew the dust off a cracked, ancient looking stack and bade Mandy come closer.

"This was us, you know, on a day just like today. Sun shining, and the men going out to sea. She and I both had husbands that went to the water. Those were the days, dear."

Luna chimed in, "We would sing in the evenings when they came home. They would mend their nets, and us two old women would dance and sing...remember that one they loved? That was their favorite..."

Gaia's eyes sparkled with delight as she simultaneously grabbed a dishtowel from the rack and spun Luna from her stool. Mandy sat in awe at the transformation taking place before her. Tired feet dancing sprightly on the hard wood of the floor and two voices in harmony.

'Some day he'll be a captain bold
With a brave and a gallant crew
Some day he'll be a captain bold
With a sword and spyglass too
And when he has the gallant captain's sword
He'll come home and marry me, marry me
He'll come home and marry me'

The two women collaped in their chairs, giggling like teenagers, until their eyes came to rest on the next set of etchings. The family of the Elder.

"The twins were so lovely," said Gaia, "you'd not know it now, but once this house rang with all of the noise that children make."

The first of the etchings showed a tired looking woman and her midwife, holding two howling babes. The others followed the two children, a boy and a girl, through various stages of toddler-hood, the mother looking tired for entirely different reasons now, and then the etchings stopped.

"She was taken from us, you know." spoke a teary Luna. "Stolen from us. They came, and they took our beautiful girl."

Mandy had seen the same tortured look in the eyes of the Green Man. Their loss was one and the same.