"Well, they are having horrifying nightmares which inform them that the contents are going to happen and be his fault," Kib says, "that's a reason, but I was not planning to take it up with him until I had something actionable besides 'watch out'."

"I'm not saying it's no reason, I've been living for thirty Years with the knowledge my husband is apparently going to kill our son. But to him, 'I had a dream that horrible things will be your fault' is a very frustrating reason to be hated."

"I'd imagine. I'm hoping the Valar have bigger chunks than the Elves who've been coming to me with dreams," Kib sighs.

"And are willing to share."

"Yeah, that too."

"Good luck."

"Thank you."

She frowns like she's considering saying something else, then turns to go.

"Oh - do you know when this happens?"

"No idea. He's fully grown, that's all I know."

"Is it dark?"

"It is very bright because everything is on fire."

"And you can't see past - okay. Thank you."

"Yeah. Sorry."

Sigh. He writes, he reorganizes the notes.

No one else volunteers any dreams today.

And Kib goes to have his own informative but not prophetic dreams in a timely manner.

And morning again.

The Valar arrive three days later to open the portals. Findekáno's agreed to accompany Kib out to scout. No one has more informative dreams, though there are two people who've dreamed about dying in a fight with Elves far away.

Well, they have lots of stuff that is presumably as valuable in Hresk as Wrebb.

They do. He's ripping us off outrageously, not that it matters much, Kib remarks, and he starts inquiring about the conditions in the city. It seems to be a fairly standard human city with no slavery, a higher than average population of some religions, strong labor unions, and extremely fish-themed cuisine.

That's a good place to settle, then. Nothing awful Elves would feel immediately obliged to intervene in, and enough order that we can expect things to be orderly. Labor unions? Are those like guilds? Are they going to be upset with us?

Labor unions are a little like guilds - like, this kid works a certain job, and everybody who works that job has agreed that they will stop doing it if something they agree they don't like happens, and that will grind certain city functions to a halt until the union and whoever's doing what they don't like come to an agreement. I do not expect you to have a problem with any existing unions but if you hire a lot of local labor here they might unionize and expect to be able to get what they want that way.