From the mind and hand of Yetic-Ein
Operant second rank aboard the Malphas Contemptus
Loyal to the Barant Imperium

Keyed to the sign of the Y-goblet with which our ancestors worshipped

Enforcer Rao,

We knew each other briefly in the old empress's service. You are still thought of with respect and envy on the Malphas, and there is a flavor to your name—an undernote that never rises to the surface—that makes me suspect I could talk to you and be heard.

The temporal isolation is difficult. A dry-eyed, blank-minded time, no medium to carry our thoughts to one another. When we emerge, I'm thirsty. I want only to drink of Sol's living richness. I want to know my mind is not a dry seed rolling around an empty case.

But this ship floats in poison. Touching the mist around the Dredgen and his students first hurts, then numbs, then compels. The Premier's Dredgen is always palpable within it, his iron pain and burning anger. And below him, untouchable immensity.

The Valus Dredgen Sere immerses himself in it. We Psion operants and engineers build machines so he may approach it and hide his death in another world.

These are words I cannot speak even by mind. I lay them silently in optical quartz and send them to you in hopes you will listen and speak in turn to our cousins.

I close this missive in hopes that this will reach you in safety and secrecy, and that your reputation for the same is not misplaced.