Rosy Glow zipped over the entire group in circles, leaving an evanescent wake of sparkling pink that really alleviated the mood. Some of the Aureny took on communicative announcer postures. The lingering pink twinkles scattered by the Kao-Sidhe coalesced into focused beams of visualization that moved with conscious vibration, like smoke in the air revealing ripples of breath and speech.

Rosy Glow audially translated speech that she could apparently understand, with character tones that carried eerie clarity of individuality – for something coming from a completely different vibrational language pattern.

YOU ARE BRAVE, COMING TO US HERE.
HUMAN BEINGS ARE FRAGILE WITHOUT YOUR MACHINES OF DESTRUCTION, WHICH HAVE CAUSED US EXTREME SORROW.
HERE AND NOW, WE ARE GIVING YOU A BETTER CHANCE NOT TO SUFFER LIKEWISE WHEN THE DECISION RESTS IN OUR MOMENT.
WE ARE GOING TO LEARN ABOUT YOU.

Soleil stepped out from the edge of the group to address them. “I also wish to learn, in order to know what must be done.” Announce yourself by fitting your role, not speaking your title, she remembered from a dim motherly lesson.

WE WILL HAVE YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF ACCORDING TO OUR CUSTOM.
MYSTVALL WILL BE THE ONE TO TEACH YOU ABOUT MATCHING FORCES.
THEY – translated Rosy Glow, selecting the ungendered pronoun not of the draconid set – WILL BRING YOU TO A PLACE OF PREPARATION.

Derringer looked down at himself as he stepped forward.

NOT YOU.
ONLY HER. The Aureny speaking indicated Soleil with their pointed chin.
THE REST OF YOU MAY WAIT IN A PLACE WHERE NOURISHMENT WILL BE PROVIDED.

Everyone regarded Soleil, and she looked back at them gravely as she separated herself further from the group by a couple steps.

THE TRANSLATOR WILL ACCOMPANY HER.
GO NOW.

As she moved to follow Mystvall, the Princess Ascendant looked back over her shoulder at each of her traveling group, saying nothing as she disappeared. Rosy Glow bobbed a courtesy and followed them away, humming.

Derringer stepped out first. He’s a natural icebreaker. He looked up, beyond double the height of the open hatch, probably more than triple. Fakking huge, looking – or breathing – right at him. He couldn’t tell if those were eyes or nostrils, where the other set might be or if that were one set of each. They knew he was there, and they knew he was looking at them.

The rest were stepping out around him. The ones who’d already met them said they called themselves Aureny. Their frontal skull ridge resembled a clothing iron turned upside down, like a captain’s hat with a peak facing front, defining a flat capital plateau the size of a corner stage. Four nostrils (or eyes, or both, or neither) in a row beneath the edge of the cap. There was more to them than that, but Derringer was still taking in that impression. Seven of them formed a wedge surrounding Drift X’s hold hatch.

Their stony-hided shoulders were subtended with different amounts of grey ropy fur matted into giant knotted locks. The surface of their skins looked like ancient rock. Derringer watched as one turned its head and gnashed its ridged crescent dental platforms. Colonnade front limbs rolled under their bison hunches. Longfooted back legs like excavators, and a pointy chin to match the captain’s apex.

Once the entire visiting party was standing amongst them, the Aureny thrust their heads close to scrutinize the tiny beings. They made a jaw percussion to acknowledge sentient presence. The one positioned in front drew up, and beckoned them sidelong as it turned. The rest repeated the dexterous ironclawed gesture to follow along. They formed a slowly moving spear with the visitors in the center. They paused between each step, so that the tiny steps could keep pace. They walked on the scale of architecture toward the opening of a weathered natural corrosion.

This subterranean entrance was undifferentiated from any other hole in the ground. Walking with them, their grievance was dawning on Soleil – who divined, from the entirely natural appearance of this opening, that their sentience might be overlooked if one were not attempting to observe it. This included their apparent absence of appearance alteration such as ornament or clothing, at least as of yet.

Soleil could clearly recall the feeling of meeting people such as these, from her dream trance, completing all the presences she’d encountered. Their expressions were so alien, but she could perceive the depth of their complexity. Having mouths was a relatable trait.

As they descended through that opening, sheer walls rose to either side, forming a chasm where they walked the bottom under dim diffusion of faraway skylights. Toller was the first to notice more of the Aureny people looking out from openings in the sheer cliffs, reminding him of the subterranean apartments in Anzi. Before he’d made any mention, something shiny and large came hurtling toward them from one above. “Falling!” he yelled, laying a hand on the nearest person, who was Wendel. The humans looked up in alarm, but before they scattered, their point escort reared up, caught the object, and shrugged it on. It was a metal ornament that draped from shoulder to powerful shoulder, gorgeously fashioned and set with gems. Another flew from a different opening, caught by another Aureny along their stately progression. The small humans relaxed once it seemed they were not the target of these projectiles, and they hardly flinched at all under directed velocities. Their escorts didn’t miss a catch, and soon all were fully bedecked, armored or adorned, including rings for their fur locks that were big enough for Soleil to put her head through.

The one walking point stopped their progress and turned to face the guests. They heard nothing, but Rosy Glow said, “You may now remove your breathing cloths.” Hand-sized, she’d been floating along without need for a breathing adaptation. After wiping down her face, Soleil tied each cool cloth around a wrist. A long huff of breath from the Aureny facing them rolled across her, lifting her hair a little. It smelled of flowers.

The chasm had grown several stories deep; they’d descended a ways, and were continuing onward. The workmanship worn by these Aureny was fascinating, and Soleil stared. Variegated shimmering textures showed off bizarrely unfamiliar alloys and forging techniques. It wasn’t just the metals which were new and strange, but the gems as well. Soleil had seen gems and physical elements aplenty. Many of these were also glowing enough for their eyes to see by, innovatively charged and possibly of additional values of phronium spectra. It was not often Soleil felt faced with people richer than she, and beyond that she felt a burning curiosity regarding all these novelties beyond compare. She was forming more guesses as to how grievances began.

Through another deeper archway, perhaps not entirely natural. The small group was flanked within by a pair of receiving columns, who then closed the back of their formation. The Aureny closed into a circle to regard the envoys for a long time, as though not crushing them was the greatest of courtesies.

All were waiting in the hold. Drift X was parked. Captain Wendel had just explained that this was no longer Drift 9, and the ship had graduated a number – but it would use the Auld Numeral, and would also be pronounced like the letter x, because that was the cool way: Drift X. She added that if a star road had ten or more drifts along it, someone might find her in the tenth drift from any given direction.

They were parked on a planet where none of these humans had ever been, though Dragon Food and Rosy Glow, the Kao-Sidhe, and Uixtr, the Vedani, stated some level of familiarity with the people of this place, who they said hadn’t left their planet. The space scooter named Moonshadow was excited to be here for the first time. Captain Wendel Harper, Toller, Derringer, and Ascendant Princess Soleil were preparing themselves for the unexpected with a likely possibility of hostility.

Getting here, Uixtr had communicated with Moonshadow, while Rosy Glow communicated with Moonshadow & Drift X, who communicated with Wendel. After the recent modifications, Drift X was now a little more like the person Wendel had always treated it. They’d flown into a rocky hole. Inside there was a plateau, near which there were more holes going further down into another stratum.

The Kao-Sidhe held a pep talk now that everyone was gathered. “These are the friends we mentioned, Soleil,” said Dragon Food, looking adventurous today.

“Humans can’t hear most of their speech. They talk on a different wavelength.”

“Another frequency.”

“I can help with translation,” stated Rosy Glow in a soothing tone.

“I hope you are prepared to be unready for the experience of meeting them.” That was approximately accurate. “They are more ready than you know.”

With a nod, Wendel punched a big button with her fist to open the hold door. Lowering, it revealed giant smooth charcoal trees with gnarled roots like claws. Or, gnarled claws like roots. These massive front limbs extended up past the lintel of the doorway. Natural light was present, but dim. A large wet bundle fell to the ground in front of the lowered hatch.

Uixtr walked out and picked up the bundle, bringing it back to them and opening it on the floor. He pulled out two wet cloth bandanas for every humanoid. “Tie both of these around your breathing orifices. It’s just water. This will protect you from an atmospheric corrosion to which we are susceptible, myself included. We won’t need to wear them for very long.” He folded his pair diagonally and tied the corners behind his head, above the silver plait at the nape of his neck. The rest did likewise, eyeing the trunklike limbs as they parted in giant steps to leave a small clearing outside the hatch.

“I’m going to go somewhere else now. Bye.” Dragon Food bowed splendorously with a finishing flourish to his love. Rosy Glow blew him a kiss as his form disappeared in place into some unglimpsed dimensional distance. With a bloom of color, she then gestured the others toward the outside of the ship. They went.

Almost overnight, the city of Alisandre Capital had been plunged into martial law. Some said it was no surprise, with her father King Proxem Vario’s military background. Ideas had since arrived to Mireille regarding how she might respond as an authority in this situation – but firstly, situations are unique and do not replicate under changed factors. Secondly, she was not at this juncture supposing that she had a more capable or knowledgable mind to lead than her father. Thirdly, while her older sister Soleil may still be missing, Mireille was not really yet harboring any claimant feeling toward her position. That would mean giving her sister up for lost. She was, however, beginning to think that she should prepare her mind, so her mind went there more often.

These new restrictions meant that the royal family was living a little less connected than they were accustomed. Though influx and outreach wasn’t necessarily the predominating theme in the children’s lives, the shift into a state of fear brought with it an instant sense of claustrophobia. Mireille’s younger brothers were more restive, and she spent more time with them. She added in some interim education. She herself was currently studying a cross-sectional history focused on initiatory contacts, which she paraphrased for them. The degree of mystery in this current conflict reflected an element of these occurrences. Something distinguished it from Sturlusson’s – Hirylienites really, though emphatically not all Hirylienites – Phronium Triangle doings, even though that was a leading popular opinion. People leaped to patriotic defense upon the rumor of an accustomed foe, even if many doubted he would even be mentally viable after the stillfreeze. As the story began to change, people retained most of their defensive motivation.

News was now being mainly delivered via furtive disclosures of gathered intelligence inside small rooms, and not really for the children. Mireille had recently seen one of her mentors, Councillor Lysander whose partner was a retired Vanguard officer. His time was spent mostly elsewhere now, but when he did speak with Mireille, he would sigh and often seem to hesitate as though he couldn’t figure out how to tell her something. Oddly selected factoids from different periods in the lives of her mother, grandmother, and father began drifting into the topic focus without any particular segue or reason. Mireille wasn’t exactly sure what she was picking up from that.

Countercultures of surmise expressed argumentative divides regarding the portal transmissions. Over the antiquated and clandestine communication platforms still available, debate bounced around. Some were called dumb while others were called loony. Followers of either camp did research to confirm their pet theories, continually refining or contradicting. Mireille didn’t identify with dumb or loony, but she felt sufficiently alarmed and intrigued. She was aware that her viewpoints were necessarily constrained by her status.

The Princessa climbed out of her sleepless bed and stepped toward the window of her bedchamber, gazing into the nearest flickering window portal in the air. Some said that they were revealing state secrets. Some believed they’d been here all along. The image before her now resembled an old photograph in some way, a texture. She saw the recurring people shapes that were dubbed the Strangers, but also some people with more familiar human proportions. What were they doing? Images in the portals were gaining in clarity and correlation, but Mireille could discern little else to this right now. She was able to imagine the guesses already, unsure yet which were her own. It certainly held the fascination, under the current state of media starvation.

Princessa Mireille decided it would be worthwhile to start a unit for her brothers comparing portal theories to histories. She could already think of something they might want to ask their father. It was too bad they couldn’t also ask Grandmaria Celeste.