A Temple bureaucrat, Raj, tells Francisco that as he is eight weeks behind on finding a job or making payments, he must work on their general labor crews or be sold as a slave. He chooses work and in short order finds himself on a roadcrew including Geoffrey, a somewhat dilidipated Kavi, and Zsofi, a rather eccentric Exile… He also encounters Kani, a white fox that he believes at first to be a messenger from Inari, with rather depressing results as Kani turns out to be rather grouchy about being interrupted in his morning mateh.