Then, standing as before in a pretty lace bra, she reached for her blouse and smiled a tiny knowing smile at me. The light went out and I loaded wood ...nto my arms and bumped the door to be let in."Oh, good; is it fairly dry?" she smiled. "Build us a fire, boy scout!"The fire was fairly successful; though not exactly a roaring flame, it was warm and cheerful. After dinner, she brought out some skewers and a bag of marshmallows and we sat in the glow of the fire toasting them."Here, this one is. Once everything had been built to all three men's satisfaction, Dark Sky made a fire inside the foundry, and baked the clay walls for one complete moon. Night and day, the fire burned, and people came by to see the smoke and to find out what was being burned. There was polite speculation over what the foundry was for. Some concluded that Red Fox and Dark Sky were preparing a new type of housing, while others believed it was a storage place for the smoking and curing of meat and fish. After the. All amenities and services were provided gratis as well, including electricity, water, heating, gas, food, and public transportation. The houses were spacious two stories, built to near-futuristic standards. Kitchens had self-cleaning appliances, robotic vacuums plied the hardwood and carpeted floors, computer systems remotely controlled the environments at voice command, windows pressed by ultra-clear polymers with hermetically sealing weatherstripping, frames built of high strength alloys. Her blue eyes are on her plate, intensely studying what had been described to her as a gourmet mixture of baby greens and had turned out to be an intensely unsatisfactory meal. She pulls her coat around herself, tighter, and the red fur lining tickles her chin. ?I don’t like it, Eliza,? she says to her dinner partner, at last.?Why ever not, Flora?? asks the other woman, a hint of amusement in her voice that suggests she knows exactly ‘why ever not.’ Eliza is Flora’s opposite in many ways,.