This piece started with a question—how close can you be to the fire and still sleep? About beauty, and what’s buried underneath it. About the stones we wear and the hands that pull them from the ground. It’s part of the same world as The Dream—the tension between wanting peace and knowing what it’s built on. Because beneath the surface, the situation is far from peaceful—unjust for the people doing the hard work, and devastating for the land that bears the weight.