"Mom, do we really have to leave? I don't want to go..."
In the bitter wind, the girl huddled in her young mother's arms.
Life in Star-Moon Bay had been like one of her mother's fairy tales. She no longer went hungry or drank soup made from fish bones boiled a dozen times over. She no longer had to watch those men bully her mother, and she had so many other children to play with...
"We're going somewhere safer. The Ratfolk are coming."
"But those uncles are so strong..."
"The Ratfolk are stronger."
The girl thought for a moment. "If we become Ratfolk, will we be stronger too?"
Her young mother's face changed, but the nearby Subjects laughed kindly. Someone called out proudly, "Why shouldn't the Ratfolk become us instead?"
After a few minutes in line, the young mother and her daughter each received a Nameplate engraved with her name, along with twenty Silver Coins. The official handing out the Nameplates and coins explained that the plates identified them as Subjects of Star-Moon Bay. Lord Annan had not abandoned them. Once he obtained a Fief, he would gather them together again. They would receive food and clothing next.
Some Subjects were so moved they refused the money, but Ingrid's people pressed it into their hands.
Food and clothing alone would not be enough for the new arrivals to survive in the Tartun Empire. The money Annan had borrowed from Olmedo would see them through the first difficult stretch.
In the end, they had too little time to prepare everything before the Migration of the Subjects. They could only hastily devise three Routes. First, New Origin One and three Sailing Ships had set off that morning, carrying just over five hundred people. Second, the White Dragon Knights would serve as anchors