This one was Flo with some tweaks from me. She was really happy with the last line I added, IIRC. I also like the “practiced ease” bit: it shows Penk thinking like a tactician.

And that tactical thinking is also why the departure of the land sharks is no small thing: any student of military history will tell you that keeping your army fed is as important as any fighting-related decisions you make. Hammerhead implies that this won’t be a fatal blow to the coalition, and surely he’s right: every race had to do some hunting to survive before Harky’s coalition was a thing.  But this is still a headache, the kind that Penk is going to have to deal with a lot from here on out.

Stuff I missed when describing the cover (since not everyone reads the comments): Tamara and Rana are among the marchers shown there, and there are no land sharks among the marchers, which neatly foreshadows this development. Also, the FB for that cover was “Today’s GUILDED AGE measures progress in feet.”

This one’s is “Last night, Penk scowled at the sun going down, because that meant it was time for him to do something unpleasant. Now he scowls at the sun going up, because that means it’s time for him to deal with something unpleasant. If this keeps up, he may start wearing shades.”