You have not built anything here yet. There is no shop with your name above it, no favourite seat at the crew table, no street you can claim to know by heart. And still, when you step toward the fountain, the place seems ready to make room for you.
It is not empty. Somebody has swept the square. Somebody has repaired a wheel badly enough to start an argument about it. Behind the laughter and the running water, there are gates still closed and paths no one has walked in a very long time.
You hear the fountain before you see it. The sound follows you through the street, around the stone corners and into the square. Water splashes onto stone. Voices drift from beneath the awnings. Two Meganites are arguing about a cart wheel.
“It was straight yesterday,” one says.
The other walks backward in front of the cart, watching it wobble.
Across the square, one great gate stands open. Beyond it, fresh signs hang on old walls. Cleared paths lead between shops, then disappear into green terraces that nobody has reached yet. The other gates are shut.
Spark meets you beside the fountain. Once you have chosen your avatar, it points out the Info Booth.
At the booth, you try three small challenges: finding a route, arranging a display and solving a practical problem. When you finish the route, a place beyond the visitor streets briefly lights on the map. Then it vanishes.
“What's there?” you ask.
“An old connection,” the operator says.
“Can we reach it?”
“Not by the roads that are open.”
Under the map is a note: Keep the return open. Beside the current safety record, you notice the name LL Safe.
Spark is waiting at the Alley entrance. You follow it past the Keeper shops. One owner has fitted together a display from mismatched shelves. Another stops arranging a perfect row of objects to remove a single fallen leaf.
Farther out, you reach your Seeker outpost, a travelling market gathered around a small square. You choose an available plot and the shape of your kiosk. Only then does construction begin.
Spark suggests a sign large enough to need a second support.
You are still looking at the streets.
Things people left behind.
“A tour first,” Spark says.
Near the outpost board, six cups stand beside a kettle with a repaired handle. Tuck moves a tool away from a place set for a plate. Dash reaches for bread, catches Tuck's look and puts it back. Bo is still working below the street. The others are waiting for him.
Dash notices the route challenge on your map.
“You found that? I went past it twice.”
“Three times,” Rue says.
Dash moves his equipment to make room for you on the bench. Later, at the sealed edge of the market, you find Rue studying three maps. On two, a lane leads to a workshop. On the third, the lane is missing.
“Was it knocked down?” you ask.
“Perhaps,” she says. “I'd like to check.”
Above the barrier, you can see a blue door and a sign with one crooked word.
“What is in there?”
Gauge closes his tool case. “Things people left behind.”
Spark begins telling you about the next market square. When the crew opens a safe route and prepares the new site, your kiosk can travel there. Your creations will go with it. Keeper shops will grow on the ground the market leaves behind.
At the Info Booth, you find a record of your kiosk, including the shape you chose. Its sign is still blank. Back at your plot, Spark asks what name you want above the counter.
As you consider it, the crew bell rings. Bo has come back.