The Inkstone Conclave

The Inkstone Conclave, an organisation buried beneath Saint Tranya. Underground lab pods, encrypted comms, calculations that never see daylight, keeping well clear of the surface order where everything has to be archived.

On the east side of the Seventh Lab Pod is an observation station, facing a curved screen 5 metres wide that displays a single coordinate with no markings of any kind, and beneath the coordinate a timestamp cycling back and forth between 02:14:08 and the current time of day. Along the bottom of the screen runs one line of very small text:

[Source: Frozen Northern Reach Listening Post T-17 · Mirror Mode]
[Last verified sync: L.K.S._Core]
[Auto-archive: ACTIVE since Kaiyuan Year 925]

This screen has not been switched off once in 85 years.

There is a rule in the pod: some names are not to be spoken aloud. Even the man seated at the observation station, who looks to be in his forties with a very fine scar under his left eye, keeps to it—his stated reason is that someone is listening to this underground lab pod too; who, he doesn't know, but someone is.

They have their own account of these 85 years. An underling asked whether the past 85 years with that signature counted as cooperation.

"You say 'cooperation,' meaning two parties agree to accomplish something together." He said, "But in 85 years we have never said one word to that signature. We only collect his records."

"Then what is it called?"

"It's called waiting."

In the moment the Rift was detected by Spectra, nobody in the pod panicked. When an underling asked whether to intercept, he threw out one line: "Don't intercept. Let him detect it." The watcher posted at the edge of S-17-R reported in at the same time: the man who came down off the airship had just placed a ball at the boundary, the ball went in, and it did not come back. The people in the pod heard it and only laughed a little—they had done the same thing 85 years ago, and lost dozens of balls testing it.

While everyone else feared the Rift being found, the Inkstone Conclave was glad of it. He put the empty cup away in the drawer and gave the order: prepare to receive him, but don't let him see you.