Maple Syrup grew increasingly impatient as she baked cookies.
BS Rita, sitting beside her and working on her history assignments, always wore a serious expression. Every time she wrote in the notebook called World Sigh, a quiet weight settled over her.
They traveled constantly. Maple Syrup's daily cookie output gradually reached thirty million. It seemed like each day they were changing more, yet at the same time, nothing was truly changing at all.
The only constant might have been the soul fire burning steadily between their brows.
Even so, Maple Syrup still occasionally asked BS Rita whether all this had any meaning.
At first, Rita could answer. Over time, her replies dwindled into silence.
Maple Syrup seemed to believe that an Adjudicator should be able to turn the tide, find a way to save all of Starsea, and not be engaged in what she called "small-scale tinkering." She didn't understand where Rita's confidence came from.
