p. 279

S. observes the bleak, monochrome landscape of the obsidian island. He notices that the crew of the ship has begun unloading crates from the hold. S. wonders why the crew is unloading the mysterious cargo here. He decides that the island must be much safer than the building in El-H–. He wonders what is in the crates, why it is valuable, and to whom. S. notices that a group of sailors are carrying empty buckets, and that they are walking across the rocks away from the island’s small warehouse.

This is one of the only pages on which there are no margin notes. For some reason, neither Jen nor Eric commented on this page.