There was no moment where Lucius announced it or called a vote or laid out the logic for everyone to examine.
It just became apparent over the course of the afternoon that they weren't leaving today, and then that they weren't leaving tomorrow, and by the time Marta found them in the early evening to discuss housing the decision had already made itself without anyone saying so directly.
"There's a cottage on the eastern edge," Marta said. She was sitting across from them in the village's communal hall, a long low building that smelled of old timber and cooking and the particular warmth of a space that had gotten to years of people using it.
"Belongs to a family that left two winters ago. They moved south when the lightning storms got worse." She set her hands flat on the table. "It needs work, but it's standing. You're welcome to it as long as you need it."
"We won't be staying permanently," Lucius said.
