Welcome to Gaia! ::

Even Lyndin, resilient and unyielding as he was, looked tired, and maybe just slightly disappointed. “Yes, and no. Come in. Do you drink tea? I’ve made a pot.”

It smelled fragrant and rich, and was in a clear glass teapot that showed the vibrant pink liquid inside. Lyndin already had one mug cooling, he didn’t seem to mind pouring another.

On his table were two shields in simultaneous construct, and he had three computers running different scans. On another table, an entirely different project; on half the table, a miniature replica of six spikes in a hexagon; on the other half, five spikes in a pentagon. He had sheets of notes, and there seemed to be a built in electric current.

Lyndin had been busy and he had much to show for it.

“They’ve set up scanners for me, at great expense to their well-being. They’ve been generating data, I’ve been keeping a log. It’s not good news, but it is useful information. There are smaller, extension storms cropping up frequently and erratically. They’re like threads being pulled, tested. More often than not, nothing comes of those. But, every now and then, a passageway opens through one of them and it moves through it. It generates a lot of energy when it does so but I’m having a hard time determining if it’s energy lost or gained. You’ll be more interested in the central storm, that’s where the Calamitous Hollow will be. I have coordinates. I’m making a handheld tracker for Queen Laurelite, can I pass it to you to deliver to her? It’ll save me a trip.”

And, he was sure Jet had been visiting her often enough.

He stood by the teapot and waited for Jet to accept or decline a drink.

The corner of Lyndin’s lip twitched briefly as he poured Jet a mug. “It’s a Velencian specialty. I have a limited stock but it is a luxury I allow myself, on occasion. It helps me focus.” Maybe if only because it reminded him so much of home. He passed the drink to Jet before lifting his own mug. He took a sip, though it didn’t seem as though poison had even crossed his mind. He neither watched for Jet’s reaction nor waited to see if he was taking any precautions; Lyndin simply drank and then lowered the mug so he could continue speaking.

“Some luck, but it’s significantly weaker. I’m not confident with only five but rather than create a sixth spike, it may be possible to instead amplify the power of the five in existence.” It still required all of them to be in attendance, and he wasn’t entirely sure who had them. He knew, at least through reports and by word of mouth, that they existed.

“I’ll have more reports to share soon, hopefully. But for now it’s been a lot of shots in the dark.” He’d found mild success but nothing he was willing to stake their entire future on.

He lifted the shell of what looked like parts of a handheld radio and a phone, taken apart and repurposed into something new. “I can update the programming remotely. I’m refining the code right now to guarantee that it will perform regular scans and guarantee an up to date, precise location.”

A button on the side powered the device up and it took a few seconds before a string of numbers appeared on the screen. Lyndin skimmed these and then said, “It’s moved just slightly in the last hour. Not much, objectively, but it’s worth keeping an eye on, regardless. I appreciate you passing this along to her. If she has any questions, I won’t be far.”

The device was fairly straight forward, and the Queen was rather clever. He wasn’t worried.