[Welcome back everyone! Be sure to click through to see the second update for today. We'll be updating on Mondays for a while from now on!]

The Aetherian Royal Order's Enodia Base was dry, dusty, and unremarkable. The airfield was empty and still; the patched asphalt road and crinkly dead grass rolled away into low blue mountains; the chain link and barbed wire fences rattled listlessly in a breeze that bore down out of the blue sky.

The hangar that sat in the middle of the airstrip--coated with a fine patina of dust that blended its corrugated metal walls into its surroundings--echoed with a voice. The voice was quiet, measured, and not at all pleased. It kept switched back and forth between an Archipelagan reading voice, and a clipped Aetherian murmur.

"...Unit 436 encounters a group of uniformed humans in Leigh, Alka Island, detaining roughly 20 civilian non-humans," the voice read, and then asked in Aetherian, < Is this a true statement? >

< Yes, Your Highness, > another voice answered, even more quietly.

"Captain Marra d'Ubis identified the humans as--not traffickers--but Alka Island police detaining dissidents." The emphasis was pointed. < Is this a true statement, Captain? >

Captain Marra d'Ubis--dark skinned, uniformed in scarlet, with hair bound back in a linen wrap, answered with her eyes cast down. < Yes, Your Highness. >

The late afternoon filled the hangar with shafts of dusty golden light. Cynn Numair tapped a pen on the papers spread out before him on the table. A little white marble fell from above, hit the table with a loud pok, and then disappeared.

< You are nervous, > the Cynn observed at last, and shifted slightly. < But not lying. Why are you nervous, Captain d'Ubis? >

He looked for all the world as though he was bored of being here, of discussing this--but there were deep shadows under his eyes, and his pupils had gone slitted even in the dim light. Captain d'Ubis didn't quite meet his gaze.

< Because, Your Highness, > she answered quite calmly, < I ordered my unit to follow the Alka officials anyway. >