“Precisely. Though I’m afraid we haven’t found any way to stave off destruction, I think we’ve gotten better at keeping more people alive for longer.” Ruefully, he adds, “I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s something. And death is less, ah, permanent here than it is in most places, so it’s not so dire as it sounds.”

He hands Daniel the battered notebook. “I have all the information I’ve collected about the disasters here, if you’d like to take a look.” Inside, Pal has detailed the unsettling weather that seems to hit them at every third month, as well as the disasters themselves—the sand, the insects, the blood storms—and the few things they’ve managed to do to keep themselves safe, like Darin’s attempts to barricade the Staywell and their more recent effort to herd everyone into the seemingly-untouched graveyard.