Two month passed.
The opening of the South Branch went well.
The South was not like the East, where profits made people move quickly.
The South was a land of grief and faith.
As long as one respected that faith, the southern people were surprisingly easy to speak with.
They were polite, reserved, and careful.
They did not demand that outsiders kneel before their bells.
Most only asked one thing. Do not mock what had held them together when the world had offered them nothing else.
Lootwell respected that.
Because of that, the South respected Lootwell back.
Mostly.
There were always exceptions.
Some people did not carry faith. They carried superiority and called it faith because that sounded holier.
A few southern factions came to the new branch with their backs too straight, their eyes too cold, and their voices too loud.
