VI. Some people on horseback come riding down what passes for a road in front of the field you can't use because the stones are too big to move without your sons. You haven't seen anyone new in at least 15 years, so, adrenaline coursing through you, you run up to greet them. As you approach, you can tell they are gentry, and so you pay the proper obeisance. They look at each other, laughing, and begin speaking to you in a language that sounds familiar—you can pick out many of the words, but it's garbled and strange—but you can't really understand what they're saying. You try to speak with words you think they might understand and gesture to your half-ruined hovel, to demonstrate that you might give them food and drink. They look at you like you're Belgian, laugh even more loudly, and ride on.

VII. You've told your second daughter—you have seven daughters, but a few are still missing—yet again that it is nearly midday and she needs to fetch water at the stream because the well was poisoned and was foul-tasting even before that. She rolls her eyes and you remind her of the commandment, Honor thy father and mother, and she rolls them again. Angry, she grabs the rotting buckets hanging on the wall to fetch water. About an hour later—and it takes like 25 minutes max to get there and back—she strolls back into the hovel, stinking of manure. You ask her what happened and she half-collapses, mumbling something about "pretty toadstools." You go fetch the water yourself after getting her shitty overwear off and tucking her into the rope bed for people who have been bad.

VIII. The Shire Reeve is back and this time he wants to know how many people are in your family. This is extremely suspicious because everyone in the area knows this information and it's in the church records, but you know better than to show any outright disobedience. You ask him, as politely and clearly as you can manage with your tongue swollen from bad oats, why he needs to know, to which he mumbles something about a "sensiss." You have no idea what he's talking about, so you tell him about your wife and kids. He asks for their ages and occupations and this just baffles you. You think... most were born in the spring? It's dangerous any other time but hell if you have much control over that. As for occupations, well, three of your seven daughters are still MIA, one is still down with the mushroom madness, three more are domestic (i.e. layabouts) and your sons are still fighting a war somewhere. Your wife is also domestic. You tell this information to the Shire Reeve who is scratching himself in a manner unbefitting his rank, to which he just snorts and spits, scribbles something onto parchment, and rides on, his horse's hooves throwing mud into your face. Some gets into your mouth, slightly agape because those oats also messed up your gums which keep your lips parted.

VIIII. Harvest time! You get out your shovel and hoe and your mouth is already watering because you've had nothing but shrunken, moldering carrots and cabbage for weeks at this point. It looks like rain and so you hurry. The rain comes on suddenly just after you've started. You will have to wait for the rain to abate. It rains for a week and even after that you have to wait a day for the ground to settle. That week inside got you thinking, though: Why keep doing all of this? No, this is the Devil's whispers. Also, your wife has begun hallucinating out of boredom and menstruation and you've become terribly frightened of her, having hidden everything sharp or heavy. Definitely better to go out and harvest.

X. You see someone on foot coming down the "road." He looks about your size and as he approaches, you recognize your middle son, Hafdold. You run to greet him, tears in your eyes. You haven't seen him in two years since he left for a war somewhere. You grab him in a tremendous hug and he gives just the worst gasp-shriek you've heard come from a man. At first, he doesn't recognize you. It's unclear if it's because he lost an eye or because you lost your nose, but he does eventually remember you. Crying, he doesn't stand. You kneel down to ask the thousand questions that have been running through your malnourished, paranoia-addled brain since he and his brothers left. He answers to the best of his ability, but his speech is mixed with many words you don't recognize at all. You get out of him that he was in many battles and killed many men, but that your country lost the war and is in big, big trouble. Moreover, your other two sons were sold into slavery, but escaped, and are making their way slowly, posing as prostitutes, back home. Your heart sinks at the idea that they have been made to dress as women and the years of penance they will have to do. Hafdold eventually rises and you walk back to the hovel for him to be reunited with his mother and sole remaining, not-missing sister. The roof is on fire again.