Start reading on 3 September entry:

As you can see yesterday was not a very productive day.  I mostly did some rewrites of old stuff and will repost a new version of the story with the rewrites on the 1st of September.

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Accepting the last of the water from the ladle the old man licks his lips and wipes away the remaining moisture with the back of his hand.  “Do you see?  Vessel subs are intuitively submissive.  They were highly cherished.  Families began taking them into their homes.  The leaders of our city finally acquiesced to the women of the village and allowed them to take an equal place next to their husbands.  The vessel subs were from then accepted as a part of the town and took over the duties the women had previously cared for so diligently.”

A radiant smile spreads across the old man’s face, “When I was just a small boy I would hear stories about men who rescued vessel subs from the surf and how they were bound to each other for life.  The sub would live out her life serving only him.  I hoped for this and as I got older I found myself drawn to this beach.  I eventually opened my shop here, so that I could be here every day.  Then one morning I was here very early, to get a special order filled, and out at the water’s edge I saw her pushed in by the waves.  I ran down to the beach where she lay lifeless.  She was so beautiful laying there with the water lapping at her skin.  I picked her up and brought her here.”  The old man’s gaze drifts over her shoulder and out to the beach.

“The woman who left the stone?” Ayden asks.

The man nods and soulfully replies, “Yes, but it seems I was the only one that felt that bound.”  He clears his throat and lets out a low growl before reprimanding, “Now you are keeping me from getting my work done with all this talking.  There will be no more talk of this.  Put that spoon away and then I want you to come help me with my work.”