"When I was Eli's age? Back when I was Eli? Whatever." She spat to one side, bitter. "I lived in the fiefs. When I was on the Isle, Chell and Foulques did a pretty decent job of making sure there was at least some food most days, even if I was too ocean walled afraid to trust it, or them. In the Fiefs? Most days the choice was eat trash if you could find it, or don't eat. We sure as happiness didn't have fresh fish. No one fished in the river. You never knew what all those dead bodies shoved in it would do and even if you were desperate, and we were... no fish I ever saw there and if there were and you caught something, you'd almost certainly be mugged for it before you got back home. At night there were Ferals. When I was on the Isle I was so ocean walled sure they'd show up... Of course now I know why they didn't, but Ferals meant that only the stupid, the drunk, or the powerful were ever out on the streets at night. Because that's when they hunted. The rest of us sat by the windows, if we had any, and bet on the Ferals because it was either that or let the fear curl you into a ball you never get back out of. I had over a dozen rooms I called home in the Fiefs because for the most part we were weak kids. Someone wanted the room we squatted in they usually let us leave without hurting us if we didn't argue or fight. One Winter we actually had a fireplace for a while. Until we were pushed out again anyway. On the Isle there was at least some food, no Ferals, no one trying to mug me or beat me up because I was in the way. I'd point out the lack of something else that was a constant in the Fiefs, but I was thankfully never pretty enough to run afoul of that fate. Compared to where I grew up the Isle would have been an ocean walled heaven if I could have trusted it. Compared to where I live now when I'm not here however? I want to make sure no child ever has to rot on that island again if this exists as an alliterative."