Nancy Balsaga's former life had been dreamlike, almost unbelievable. She had once lived on a vast Sky Island called Mangai Island, where she and her family ruled over a [community] composed of sixty million servants, three thousand witches, and two hundred sorceresses. Every day at two-thirty in the afternoon, she and the sorceresses of her community would take black carriages drawn by black griffins to work in a city less than an hour away:
"That city was called Roasinger. Our carriages formed a black ribbon, drifting all the way from Mangai Island to the city... It was once one of Eileen's six capitals, one of the world's ten largest Sky Islands."
The sorceresses gathered around the witch den watched the lights outside swirl and gleam, the giant cats batting balls or snoring, and the giant cats in the nearby kitchen waving their claws.
They also shared their stories with one another.
Jiang Han lit her pipe and took a puff.
"Hiss, I've never seen people going to work in a group like that."
"I have," Li Li said. "When I was little, I saw the elders of my family and the elders from neighboring families heading to the dragon ranch together. There were over a hundred sorceresses, all leaving at once on brooms or Griffin Carriages. It was spectacular."
Another Eastern sorceress asked curiously:
"If it took an hour to get to work, that meant two hours back and forth. How much time did you even have left to work in a day?"
"Yeah." Jiang Han tapped out her pipe and draped her tail over Du Lingxuan's waist, who had already curled up to play handheld games.
Nancy blushed slightly. She licked her lips and gave a light cough.
"Maybe five hours?"
As a Western sorceress, Elifia mercilessly exposed the