"That's amazing," Soraya said. "Did Fenella see all that just from touching the figurine?"
Kyra nodded. "We all saw it. I mean, Jasmine and I piggybacked on Fenella's vision, and we all saw the inscription when the carver looked at it, but we couldn't read the script. Luckily, the Clan Mother could, and she told us that the original artist was Esag, Khiann's squire. He made the figurine in honor of her memory, thinking that she had perished with the other gods." Kyra paused to take a breath. "That means I'll need to travel to Egypt soon to help search for him."
Her sisters exchanged looks.
"It's good we're having this meeting today, then," Soraya said, leaning back into her chair with the natural authority of the eldest. "You can help us before you go."
"With what?" Kyra put down her cup.
Another round of silent communication passed between her sisters before Soraya spoke again. "We want to open a store in the village."
The words hung in the air for a moment, unexpected and yet somehow perfectly logical.
"What kind of store?" Max asked.
"Like the neighborhood stores we had back home," Yasmin said, her hands gesturing as she spoke. "The ones on every corner where you could buy groceries, fresh bread, and some other baked goods."
"Candy," Parisa added. "Chocolates. The kids loved going to the store to get some treats."
"This place needs a store," Soraya said. "Every time we need groceries, it's a whole procedure of ordering them and then waiting for someone to deliver them because only members of the community can get in here. Even when we get cars of our own, it's a long drive to the nearest supermarket. I'm sure we are not the only ones who find it inconvenient."
"I hate ordering groceries," Rana said. "It sucks all the fun out of shopping. There's no browsing through produce, no haggling over prices, no aunties gossiping while they squeeze tomatoes to check for ripeness."
Kyra smiled. "You want to recreate a piece of home here."
"It's not about that," Soraya said. "We want to contribute, to earn our keep. I don't know what arrangement we can come to with Kian, but we can figure it out. Maybe a share of the profit for managing the place, or salaries, and some of it will be deducted for housing and everything else we've been getting for free."
Kyra understood, and she was proud of her sisters for their initiative.
"We can even sell home-cooked food." Parisa's usually quiet voice was firm with conviction. "I'm sure that will be in high demand."
"I'm not much of a cook, but I can handle the business side," Rana said. "I can keep the books, manage orders."
"We want you to talk to Kian for us." Soraya's dark eyes fixed on Kyra. "We were thinking of using one of the empty residential houses for our store."
Yasmin nodded. "We've already identified a few that might work—good locations and enough space for storage and display."
Her sisters had put considerable thought into this. "You've been planning this for a while."
Soraya shrugged. "It was easy to figure out what this place was missing, but we don't have the connections to put things in motion. The immortals have lived so long, they've forgotten some of the simple pleasures of life. When did any of them last argue with a shopkeeper over the price of eggplant? When did they gather somewhere just to share the small dramas of daily life?"
Kyra laughed. "Forget the haggling. No one does that here. And there is enough gossip going on in the café and the Hobbit Bar."
Soraya pursed her lips. "Well, if they don't like haggling here, we can live without it. It's less fun, though."
"Maybe we can also serve coffee," Rana suggested. "We could have a few tables outside in the backyard."
"I don't think Kian would agree to that." Kyra glanced at Max. "What do you think?"
"I think that a grocery store is a wonderful idea, but having it in a residential area is problematic. The other residents will not want the commotion disturbing their quiet. We will need to come up with another solution."
"Like what?" Kyra asked. "It's not like there are any empty spaces in the village square."
"There might be." Max rubbed a hand over his jaw. "We can build an extension behind the office building, but it's really up to Kian to decide."
"I'm sure Kian will love the idea," Kyra said. "I'll arrange a meeting with him for all of us. You should present this to him yourselves—he'll want to hear your vision directly."
Relief and excitement washed across her sisters' faces.
