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I was pulled from my thoughts by a shape I spied out of the corner of my eye - in the canal that meandered through the farmland I spotted what appeared to be an abandoned raft - especially curious because it was against The Founding Covenant to litter public water, and if it was meant to be secret, it was not particularly well hidden; just off the beaten path, like it had crashed in place, adrift with no pilot. I smelled a story, or at least, something to make the walk home more interesting.