Theo awoke to the sound of an angel singing softly as he cooked breakfast. The smell of eggs and potatoes filled the tiny cabin they called home and helped pull her out of her slumber. The morning air was slightly chilly with the promise of autumn soon, and she found herself wanting nothing more than to drift back to sleep. Her hand reached out drowsily across the mattress to confirm what she already knew, Caleb was up early, making breakfast.
Theo awoke to the sound of an angel singing softly as he cooked breakfast. The smell of eggs and potatoes filled the tiny cabin they called home and helped pull her out of her slumber. The morning air was slightly chilly with the promise of autumn soon, and she found herself wanting nothing more than to drift back to sleep. Her hand reached out drowsily across the mattress to confirm what she already knew, Caleb was up early, making breakfast.
She stayed like this for a few minutes, enjoying Caleb's sweet voice and the warmth of the blankets, though diminished by her husband's absence. It wasn't until the singing and sound of sizzling ceased that she finally cracked her eyes open. Caleb was there, smiling that gentle smile that was the only thing that made her feel soft. He held out a plate of food with one hand while the other went to stroke her hair.
"Good morning sleeping beauty, breakfast is served," he cooed, earning a small smile from Theo. She enjoyed his touch for another moment before sitting up and stretching. Caleb left her to untangle herself from the bed as he set the table. When Theo sat down in front of the food, he was already singing again, his voice clear and sweet as spring water.
The pair ate and talked about anything and everything. Theo talked about how the crops were doing and the fish she had managed to catch. Caleb talked about his work in the lumber yard, the men and how they were unhappy with L&L. Apparently a man on the team had his leg crushed by a rolling trunk and the overseer refused to pay him for the day. The men had started grumbling about a strike.
The word strike made her head buzz and she shook her head. Sure, her gripes with the corporation were a mile long. They had been the first of the corporations fleeing their dying homeland to set up shop halfway across the world, promising refugees fleeing Cassiopeia's collapse a stable place to live and work. Many had flocked to the towns they had set up in this foreign wilderness. Instead of the promised paradise, however, they found something else entirely. Everything in these types of towns was owned by the corporations operating them, from the shabby shacks that housed the workers and their families, to the town doctor and general shop.
While they were at it, they came up with their own form of money. After all, if Cassiopeia was dead, then what good was its currency? By the time workers got their paycheck, the corporation had already dutifully removed most of it for rent, groceries, and even their equipment. To top it all off, you couldn't pick up and move without abandoning any savings you had managed to scrape together as the other corporations began to adopt this practice and make their own currency.
Turns out the virgin-utopian-lands weren't so virgin or utopian after all either. A whole nation's worth of people called this land Osreton and home. Thankfully they seemed averse to the violence the Cassiopeian brought with them, both in their fractured military and how they ripped the land apart for profit. The same could not be said about the other inhabitants of Osreton. Workers would speak in hushed whispers about monsters come to life. One might have a tale of how their wagon party was stalked by a creature with elongated limbs who hunted their numbers until they made it to civilization. Another might tell of how their cousin had his entire mine wiped out by darkness made manifest under the earth.
Theo couldn't think of anything that would make her happier than for these greedy corporations to die like they should have when their homeland did. But they seemed to flourish and grow with a seemingly endless supply of people desperate for work. And with their growing wealth, they hired the remains of the Cassiopeian Army to make sure they never got out of hand. Theo knew better than anyone when to pick her battles.
She could see the way Caleb talked about it, though. If she had no heart he was the opposite, caring too much about the world around him. His eyes ached in a way that hurt her own heart as he talked about his injured coworker and his family that would go hungry. He gave her that look she had seen a few times before when the word 'union' would form on his lips. While L&L might take one man stirring up dissent and have him beaten, unions were something else entirely. The very first town that had managed to come together with their demands was made an example of, with only their widows to tell the tale.
Theo would never, could never, let that happen to Caleb. She shifted in her seat and leaned forward before he could broach the topic.
"We have some credits saved up, why don't we give some to him," she suggested quickly. If Caleb knew her intentions weren't pure, he didn't show it. A warm smile spread on his face and his hand reached out to take hers.
"I'd love that," he said, his soft brown eyes shining at her in a way that made her stomach twist. She thought of his words of reassurance that she was a good person. Would he say the same if he knew the lengths she would go to just to see that smile? She simply squeezed his hand and nodded, listening to him talk about talking to the other workers to see if they could donate a credit or two as well.