The number sat over the table a moment, too big to take in all at once.
Mayla's hand had gone to her belly without her noticing, her face soft and stricken. "Two thousand," she said quietly. "That's not just a mine. That's a whole town."
"It was a town, near enough." Trafalgar picked his words with more care now, the easy edge gone out of his voice. "Miners, their families, the people who kept the place running. Most of them never got the chance to understand what was happening before it was already on top of them."
Cynthia set her cup down, all business. "Start from the front. How did you even get pulled into it?"
So he told them.
