The smell of bread reached Hajin before the water did.
For a moment he was looking at Tessa's basket, expecting the keeper beside it to offer somebody another heel, then brown water struck a wall inside the first opening.
His throat closed.
"No."
The answer came before the voice had finished forming his name.
Across the plate, three other windows widened, the nearest filling with pale mountain trees while a taste of iron settled behind his tongue.
The protected child slid off her chair beside Juna, Elina moving with her until Vella held a hand low enough for the girl to choose it.
"Back from the plate," Hajin told the waiting residents.
The brothers moved the chairs away without arguing, the older one lifting the end nearest the flooded window while his brother guided the woman with the shawl toward the stairs.
"I have offered relief," the voice said.
It came from all four openings, quiet enough that Hajin could hear the wet slap of the flood beneath it.
