Soleil was feeling up to speed on the elements of her current trajectory coming from this side of the Imperium-wide conflagration that she knew was taking place. The boil of activity was observable in the sequence of events – the way they followed each other, and grew off the previous into the next. The accrual of experiences was producing a wholeness of perspective that wasn’t coming into being upon her whims for her personal edification. Now, after all that, the initiative was hers and she was in home territory, with means, assistance, and protection.

The most effective thing she could do was amplify her gains to the benefit of her peoples. The connections she had forged, the crucial information – she had conceptual cabinets of items that could stem the flow of disaster. They needed to land in the right places, at the right times – which she could ascertain upon learning the greater series of current events beyond her purview, now that she was no longer immersed in a separate struggle for understanding.

Considering everything she’d learned, all of this was unlikely to effect the better course if she simply brought it to authority. That was especially so considering the role of the current Imperial authority – her father – in the creation of the problems in conflict. That could amount to very little.

She sent out thought feelers for the touchpoints in her network that might be trustworthy without prompting or assurance, direct unaided contacts that could serve as platforms or jumping-off points; appropriate beginning stations. Visualizing the flattened-enfolded Greater Dymaxion star map, the Princess illuminated it with her hotspots and directionalities.

The entering emissary took a route past the gemsmiths, checking in with them. Delicately controlled trickles of magma were precisely diverted through the room to each workstation, modulated by strolling controllers on crystal-encrusted bridges spanning the space above. There were also sentinels placed around the perimeter of the chamber, sitting back on their haunches, headplates touching the ground facing forward.

Mystvall found their way to the center, where the area was clear around the invention in progress. They stamped their forelimb on the floor five times, and the steady beat rippled up the walls. The sentinels raised their heads and stood. The same measure passed, then they all joined in on the next round. During the silent measure, the arisen sentinels moved inward from the edges on their now-visible clear paths, pausing to continue each round of the beat.

They all joined Mystvall in the center, forming a ring facing the workpiece. Uixtr could hear the song through his transducer, when they began it in their outside frequency range. Lots of it was untranslatable, nonlinguistic though conversationally codified, iterations of technique driving the movement. Uixtr had heard of this, but not yet seen it. They called this impromptu harmonic gathering Aureny, the same word they offered as the name of their kind. There were some words that came through, though they were of secondary musical priority.

that we are present in the doing
as we are in the making
that our guard serves to guard
the fortunes of the bearers
that the beauty of truth
protects all from the worst
and finds the way

This entrance to the smithing chamber was a slender stone bridge, crystal encrustations coating the underside. At the bottom of the chasm below were drainage routes of the magma streams they used inside. Uixtr and Mystvall crossed that together. Before the entry, the Vedani brought a cloth square out of a pocket and dipped it into the basin of water there, to tie over his nose and mouth. “So, I’ll be able to see the progress from the viewing window?” he asked to confirm, indicating the opening on a platform up some stairs to the right. This was a new consideration for the allies of the Aureny whose bodies were unsuited to the conditions inside their smithing chambers.

OH YES. YOU WILL SEE IT.

The main prototype had indeed developed a lot. It gleamed like a Vedani object made of Vedani alloys, and the structures of the interspatial polygon were Vedani formulas at work. However, the light that ran along the outside and glimmered contained within was something else; full spectrum, partial spectra, ultra-alter-spectra, the object was highly equipped with magnified capabilities. The dedicated group inside was forging the unit modules that they were socketing and rearranging to create the sought-after resonance strata.

Mystvall walked slowly to accompany Uixtr to the smithy. As two among their peoples who’d had more contact with Humans than was common outside of hostilities, they shared a rare understanding. It was a relief to more freely question the complexities regarding their allied ingress with the Human-predominant Pan-Galactic Imperium.