The first thing Marron saw was rubble.
Not the peaceful settlement she'd imagined. Not the thriving community Alexander's letters had described.
Rubble.
Stone foundations half-built. Wood frames standing skeletal against the sky. Ash stains on the ground where fires had burned—controlled fires, cooking fires, but the sight of ash still made her chest tighten.
It looked like Meadowbrook Commons had looked in those first terrible days after the dungeon break. Before people had started rebuilding. When everything was just... broken.
Her cart stopped moving. She hadn't consciously decided to stop—her hands just froze on the handle.
"Marron?" Mokko's voice was gentle. "You okay?"
"I—" She swallowed hard. "It looks like home. After the break. Before we fixed things."
Millie's ears flattened slightly, sympathetic. "They're rebuilding. Look—those frames are new construction, not destruction. This isn't aftermath. It's beginning."
Marron forced herself to look more carefully.
