Someone will step up when teachers are called for, if Furiosa's experience is any indication. Ace and some of the other older Blackthumbs have been used to teaching their craft to children all along, and took no persuasion to continue. Others with practical skills have stepped forward. There are fewer who have extensive knowledge of reading, writing, or history, but Cheedo filled that niche easily enough, and she was quick to take on other apprentice teachers. The good thing about knowledge is the further it spreads, the greater it becomes.

Furiosa relishes the thought of children that don't remember the Citadel as it was. Who know nothing of Immortan Joe but the name of a boogeyman that can't hurt them any longer. There will be elements that cling to the old warlike culture among her people, but slowly they are becoming tamer, fewer, and further between. It's essential that they be able to fight defensively, but a blessed relief that they no longer seek out conquest needlessly.

She watches his face as they move amongst the aisles of plants, and her head lifts a little higher at the murmur of praise. The Citadel had hydroponics before, but she and the Sisters have expanded the operation. They've had to, to feed their growing population. These plants, and the gardens above them, are some of the features of the place she's most proud of. "We had a bumper crop this last season," she says. "And we're starting new plants all the time. People from the Nexus give us seeds, and sometimes I buy them, and we trade for them. Some day soon, we're going to start taking the hardier seedlings to friendly settlements nearby and putting them in the ground for the people, showing them how to tend them. The more plant life there is in the desert, the better."