75. The Price of Cooperation

The next morning, the water still had not stopped after the fourth channel was restored.

It kept flowing through the buried junction, splitting into two directions beneath the ruined district. One side fed the beds Carlos had recovered. The other ran through the clay-lined channel Lydia had repaired.

Carlos stood at the regulator for a while and watched it.

The system had called it a Cooperative Channel Junction.

He did not like the word cooperative. It sounded too close to shared ownership.

Cosmic stood beside him with his arms crossed. "You are staring at water like it insulted your family."

"It did," Carlos said. "It is trying to tell me I need other people."

"You do. You have a farmer, soldiers, workers, me, and a giant Bearkin carrying stones behind you."

Carlos looked back.