Morgane picked up her bags noting that both of her parents were no longer in the kitchen, must be moving more boxes; she thought to herself. As she went down the hallway towards the door she saw her parents holding a small box out to her, “we got you something kiddo to celebrate your entrance into adulthood;” said my mother with a sheepish grin. Supervised I took the small yet oblong box out of my father's hand and opened it. Inside it was a hand forged trowel and a brand new set of leather work gloves, I recognized the workmanship on both items. The trowel had been made by The Smith family, Morgan recognized the pattern in the hammer blows on the trowel; Mr. Smith thought a person should see the work put into the metal he worked so he left the hammer blows visible. The gloves were made by the Spinners, Morgane didn't know how Triton kept that secret from her; he has never been able to keep anything from her. Mrs. Spinner had the straightest stitches Morgane had ever seen, Triton's mother really prided herself on her skill; also of the fact that she never uses a machine to do her stitching. Mrs Spinner is so skilled at hand sewing that she can complete a shirt at the same speed a machine can, so she feels no need to use them.

Morgane's eye slide over toward the neighboring house where Triton was saying good bye to his siblings, he noticed her and the look on her face and grinned in a goofy way at her; he then pats both of his siblings on the head and meandered over. Triton never did anything with speed unless he was required to do so, he just always planned for extra time; which means he probably had gotten up an hour before Morgane had that morning. “Yes, Morgane I didn't tell you my mom was making your adulthood gift; or at least part of it.” Triton spoke in his medium tenor voice hoisting his backpack over a bit on his shoulder more then slinging his duffle bag across his body. The backpack looked like it was stuffed with books instead of essentials. “You know Triton, you will be working at the Library, so you don't need to bring your own books with you.” I said pointing to his backpack while chuckling, it hadn't surprised Morgane really as you never saw Triton without a book somewhere on his person.

Triton grinned wider and responded, “yes but these are my favorites as well as a book on the Sumerian language that I thought you might like. I found it at the book shop yesterday.” I almost dropped the gift my parents had given me when he said that and he laughed more while reaching into his backpack to pull out an older looking tome (because it was an old hardcover not like those paperbacks from the surface) wrapped in a green ribbon, which he handed me while holding a finger up. “Now remember I will take it away from you if I find writing or dog eared pages in this book, if you need a book mark or some sticky notes ask me.” Triton said waving that finger at me, he must still be angry about me making notes in his copy of the Gutenberg bible; all I was doing was correcting the grammar in it.

“You two had better get a move on if you want time to put your things away before heading to work, especially you Morgane as you have to ride one of the trams to the Dig Site Dome; that's an hour ride. You can always take that book with you during the ride,” spoke up my mother while she tried to get us moving along; I think she was annoyed that Triton found me a gift I liked better. “It's more a tome mom rather than a book, look at it's age; see the binding on it. That is the difference between the two, and thank you for the gift mom and dad. I am sure I will get a lot of use out of them. I'm going to have to thank Mrs Spinner and Mr Smith now for making them.”

My mom smiled again then and still waved at us to get moving, “you're welcome; but you still need to get moving. Good thing it's only a twenty minute walk, that should give you thirty minutes before you need to get on the tram Morgane. Triton, I hope you enjoy the Library; it seems it will suit you well.”

I adjust my bags like Triton had and tucked the trowel and gloves into my belt for easy access, and then clutched the Tome to me chest and nudged Triton down the sidewalk. “When did you go to the book shop and when didn't you take me with you?” Triton laughs again and answers, “I went while you were helping out at the restaurant last night. Mr Binder had just gotten a shipment from the Library and I wanted to see what was sent over, I recognized that Tome from it's equivalent in the Library; so knew you needed it.” I poked him in the ribs and then looked up towards his face, (Triton is six foot tall and I was a mere five foot five inches) “so did you remember to pack your sword so we can practice on our day offs?” I asked trying to figure out where his sword was, mine was in my duffle; but with all the books in his backpack how would there be space for a two handed sword?

Triton chuckled and answered, “well I thought ahead and sent my sword to the arena to be stored in my dressing area. So I am going to guess you have yours in your duffle, I hope it doesn't tear your clothes up as I know how sharp your sword is.” It's true my rapier thin long sword was extremely sharp, my instructor after talking to the Smiths decided it was the only way to give me a challenge. A super sharp sword that I wasn't permitted to cut someone, rules in the grievances had to be altered just for me. I had to hit with the flat of my blade on the shoulder of my opponent for the “win”, which is not a simple task. I would have made a great sword fighter in another age, and I hated being without my sword; I just felt naked without it. Granted I could use Triton's 2 handed sword if I needed to, but I am more efficient with anything one handed; I had learned I wasn't all that bad at archery either. Triton was fairly good at it as well, alright he was better than me at archery; the trainers said it had to do with his visual acuity over mine.

As we walk towards the dormitory we are joined by the others assigned to the dorm we were going to, not all were from our portion of the city; a few I recalled from the farming families. Those made sense as a lot of the farms were worked from the dorm we were heading to, I had been told the one surfacer who recently moved to Oceania was also there. Seems the young woman had a love of farming techniques and was fascinated by our ability to grow almost anything, she thought she was just going to intern here and in a few years head back up to the surface and sell what she learned to the highest bidder. She should have read up on the effects of living here long term, after a year people had troubles acclimating to life on the surface. Morgane silently admonished the woman in her own head, when the original residents (I guess some would call them colonists) had lived in the city for a few years a couple individuals who wanted what they considered an easier life on the surface back like they had previously. When they took the trip back up to the surface, they were fine for about a week in surface time. Then, then they had to be placed within a hyperbaric chamber as without the heavy pressure their organs started failing. They died about a month later, the doctors were stumped as to why this effect had occurred. It was postulated that while the body seemed capable of adapting to life at high pressures the body could not do the converse. You could be on the surface for a short period, well the people born on the surface that is; but then you'd have to descend to the city again. Anyone born in the city could withstand about a day on the surface, after you died within hours in pain.

Morgane had a twin sister, her name had been Tsunami; she was very ill from birth. The doctors had thought she hadn't developed properly and needed to run some tests on her. However, the tests needed weren't available within Oceania at the time. So they had taken her to the surface, it seems a baby had less than a day; her parents never talked about it. They never figured out what caused the health issue either, though it was supposed that it was the baby girl's name. As a few times Tsunami was given to an infant and the same thing occurred, after the third child died the name was outlawed. They had learned the effects on older people a few years ago when Morgane was twelve and one of the children was curious about a friend they had discovered on the surfacers internet, most residents stuck to the local internet as the people on the surface tended to treat residents of Oceania badly. The child had made arrangements with her family agreeing to go visit this surfacer friend, the child makes it to the surface and to the other child's home. A day later the child from Oceania was in a coma dieing from organ failure the surface child was very upset and the whole city spent a week in mourning after the remains returned to Oceania.