The wives emerged from the longhouse one by one, humming watchersong softly in greeting: Susan with a bowl of spring water, Rose carrying a stack of flatcakes, Serena with a coil of new glyph-ribbon, Layla clutching petals pressed in morning light, Natalie bearing dew in a glazed jar, Zoey with a brush for painting viewer-seeds, Lucy holding memory-slates, Stella with unlit torches, Emma and Sophie each carrying small carved watcher-figures, Scarlet with crimson thread. Together they formed a circle around the seedling ring at the mountain's foot, children nestled close with baskets of stones and ribbons.