It was then that a tinny little tune began to play from the radio on the table, heralding the start of the broadcast. Teige hastily seated himself again, and for the moment all the attention in the room mercifully left Numair.

(It was Hawk's storm radio, which he'd spelled himself to work without batteries and to catch Aetheri's newly populated airwaves. He was quite proud of it, and Numair was quite proud of him.)

The jingle trailed off, and a voice with an Aetherian accent took it's place:

"Hannu, and good afternoon, everyone! Welcome to Multiverse Radio Theatre, put on by the Department of Literature at the University at Escalus." (A little splash of water--Teige thought something about this was amusing, but Numair again wasn't sure what. The name?) "Today we're beginning a very special series: Mudh-Teem, translated as Seen & Unseen, in what will be the first time it has ever been told in a non-Aetherian tongue in its eight thousand year existence. Seen & Unseen tells the story of Aide and Vvlassi, lovers who are separated when Aide falls through a naturally-occurring portal into another world..."

This caused a spate of images and sensations that Numair wasn't expected. He blinked, trying to parse them. Some of it was surprise, but there was something else that he couldn't name, until Liya muttered:

"That's pretty fuckin' wild."

And he thought he understood.

Whent he program director told him that Mudh-Teem would be their next broadcast series, a little pit had formed in his stomach. Not just because he knew it would make traditionalists angry to have this cultural touchstone translated--and it had! The earful Numair had endured from his grandmother--but because for a moment, he felt the sheer distance between the time that Mudh-Teem was first spoken aloud, and now. And if it had struck him as a long way, at his 317 years of age, it must be unfathomable to creatures with only century-long lifespans.

"...The earliest example of the 'fantastic journey' genre of Aetherian literature, which features the protagonist leaving Aetheri for other worlds. This genre became most popular post-war, during Aetheri's long isolation period. In a time of cultural stagnation, such 'fantastic journeys' were both alluring and repelling; allowing a glimpse beyond the stifling everyday, while representing the fearful unknown."

He tried to turn his attention back to the broadcast, but the shifting lights and colors were too distracting. Before long the habit of hypervigilance overtook him again, and he unconsciously fell back into searching for meaning in what he was seeing.