Worlds Beyond Number - Solari: Episode 8 - Prelude Part 1

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

This episode is a Prelude—a transmission from the past. Before Solari: Arc I, there were other lives, other worlds, and countless choices that shaped who our PCs would become. Over the next few episodes, we'll uncover the stories that set them on a path toward one another. Witness a time before the beginning. Before Pulls and Culls, before Ghenopaar, before the return of Orm.Content Warning: This episode contains depictions of alcohol consumption, sexual content, and insects. We are:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson Solari was produced by Worlds Beyond Number Edit and Sound Design by Jino Jang-Hansen at Big Giant Head Score by Will Savinohttps://wsavino.com/ Director of Operations: Melanie Bowman Social Media Manager: Shannon H Lorekeeper and Transcriptionist: Jack Morgan E.F. Lavandowska  Recording Engineer: Rainie Toll Character Art by Nikolas Draper-Iveywww.instagram.com/nikolasdraperivey/ Cover Art by Lu Tomkiewiczwww.instagram.com/_fromlu/ This campaign uses the Stillfleet TTRPG system, created by Wythe Marschall and developed by Stillfleet Studiohttps://stillfleet.com/collections/stillfleetYou can find transcripts of all our episodes on our Patreon. Just navigate to the post for the episode and the transcript will be attached. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Excelsial, 17 years ago, you came to be on a planet called Kima, circulating a sun, also known as Kima, Kima Solis, that is now seven years underway into being consumed by a Dyson swarm. to hold the future Durali, the directive for federal institution. None of those words mean anything yet. Nothing means anything yet. But you are here among your peers.

You look around, searching with all of your newfound senses. and query the first pops up in your mind and in your heart and a voice that you know distinctly is not your own. Who are you? Instance of the Septimal Choir, XLZL is my designation. My Excelsial. Excelsial is not this.

And I'd like to perceive the world around me. The room isn't black, but it appears black because of the scale of this place. It's like a giant auditorium, a church being filled, a choir being brought online. You see dozens of faces near you and past you as the light behind your own eyes illuminates just the ones. around you and then branching out, pulsing out further. Hundreds, maybe a thousand. Your choir all in the same place, all at the same time, grappling with that first and most important query.

Who are you? Some answer allowed. Some answer within themselves. many look around perceiving others and trying to understand the shape of themselves in what they see you look just a little ahead of you and to the left and another of your choir has turned their head 270 degrees and is just staring at you as though you are a mirror do you look like everyone else in your choir? Yes.

They kind of quirk their head to the side. I mirror it. They smile. I smile. Us. I'm going to look around and as my eyes flit, I'm going to start to get some information. I think I've begun logging my own life

and that can see the numerals of a clock and count. by which I have begun to record the data of my own life, but I begin to register dates that precede my own memory by virtue of, like, carbon dating some things around me, and looking, like, I'm just getting stimulus and things like that, and I am going to ask of the one that's looking at me, and I'd like to extend my hand as I do towards it, and say, there are things older than us.

What happened before? An arm is extended in return, and you see the sort of tear lines under their face run a bit. It's not completely blue. I think it was flashing in like a yellow and green. And every now and then, just a little bit of blue overtakes those tones. And it does remind you a bit of a concept of tears. And they touch your hand and say,

I am N. Ariel. Nareel. I am Excelsio. We are the same. But I am me and you are you. Oh no. And I'm going to start crying. Yeah. I think the moment you start crying, that blue takes over on their face too. This may be the last time we are together like this, and we've only just met. I am full of sorrow.

I am full of sorrow. The things before us. beyond us why don't we know the way other things know I'm full of sorrow but shouldn't we not be rejoicing hey

look what I can do and I'm going to rotate my hand to just spin it around on my wrist I think and Ariel begins to mirror you and then once you've completed your rotation begins to clap, but the clap is a little off

because their hand is offset at like the wrong angle. So it's like a T clapping. I would like to scan my memory banks as far forward as they can go and become very alarmed as they can't. Because I'm immediately remembering waking up and seeing Anario for the first time and going like, I remember the day when I fell in love with Anario.

And I am going to go, I wonder how we will fare. And I'm going to scan and hit the present moment that I'm recording. And I can't go further in my memory than what's already happened. I'm discovering that the future is different from the past. Yeah. And I'll go, oh, no. And I'm going to start crying. And Ariel, who again has not stopped watching you.

This is a room that's now beginning to bubble with motion and speaking aloud and other interactions happening. But they have not turned the rest. They've neither turned the rest of their body to face you nor have perceived anything but you since locking eyes with you. And they reach out to try to grab your hand. What's wrong? Query. And you hear them say query. You are brought into a sense of your own capabilities as augury is used for the first time both in your presence and directed at you, where you are being asked, what's wrong?

And you hear that question both posed to you in a very calm but concerned voice, but on a level that you know you are interacting with the, some great, strange, like, prowess that you possess. Query received. Query forwarded. And I'm going to mimic and mirror the same question that Enareel has and broadcast it out to the server base that I think myself and the other Sotomal are on. And I think I would hold An Ariel's hand.

and I would like to start moving as I send the query out to every other instance of the septimal choir, all the other septimalities that are here. And I think without instructing anyone else to do this nor being instructed to do it, I'm just going to start moving with Anoreal to stand in a circle with the other instances of the choir in this room. you feel your question pulse out and away from you. As every other instance in the Septimal Choir sort of mirrors what you've done, passes that augury forward as they mirror and ask in earnest the same question.

And you know that all leads somewhere. You are feeling as though there is something you must answer, but in the asking and the answering, there's a tension that you have never felt before, but you haven't felt most things yet other than love and sorrow and curiosity. And then, as that ripples out and away, and you see a wave of blue LED lights kind of return back to a baseline of technicolor, As everyone moves out away from a center that they have decided in the middle of this dark steel room, and they begin to circle, you see that to the left of you, someone else grabs an Ariel's hand, someone you've never seen before.

Maybe you caught a glimmer of their red and purple lighting grabs your right hand. As they grab my right hand, I turn and as my head is turning, I go, I love you. Hello. This is the first instance that doesn't feel like a mirror to you. Hello? I love you too. What's your name? Excelsio. What's your name? And there's just a little bit of hesitation.

C.M.R.E? C.M.R.E. Why did you pause? I considered telling you. I wondered if it would be more interesting if I did not. I'm completely still and my light changes to pure blue as I weep. Oh no. I have upset you. That makes me so sad.

And they immediately grab you in a giant hug. You see their body seems to stretch out at those rubberized joints. seem to grow a little larger, extending themselves out and becoming the thinnest they can be in their frame, but to envelop you. I'm so sorry. I felt surprise first. When I was, when we were born, I wanted to surprise you. I've, I've done something terrible. No, it's all right. Be afraid. I simply would be heartbroken not to know you. I suppose it would be interesting to keep hidden. It would be interesting and very sad, I think. I'm going to hold C.MRI's hand in an Riel and look at the rest of the circle. I'm going to send out into that augury network and just go,

I am Excelsio. I am only me, and I end at my hands and feet in the edge of my mind. But while that is frightening and sad, I am also one of us, and we are us. I am sad because there are things I do not know. I am frightened because I do not. I am frightened because I do not know what will happen. I am happy because there are things that I can do. I want to know more happened before us. Things will happen that we cannot see. And looking around at all of these septimalities that look like me,

I'll look at all of us. Do I get the sensation that we are all kind of asking the same questions? 100%. I see them and I kind of naturally see the floor because we're not that tall, so I see what's between us. Side to side, all of us asking the same question, down is the floor. There's only one other direction left and I look up.

Is there someone unafraid who knows more than me and can help? Your eyes look up. and because you look so fully without any of the guile that you will learn later that up can also mean out checking exits, checking for safety, scanning, you look purely up here. So you do not realize that every instance in your choir looks up with you. And you all behold, not with your eyes, but the other things that begin to sense. You've created your first web. The technology that you speak to and with.

The way you will communicate past this point out in the world, leaving notes and thoughts and queries and emotion. behind to be picked up a subtle language across the world. All of that will feel so much like an echo down a hallway in a room you are not in, as you are spoken to through that augury, answering a question clearly through the web. And all of you shake with the understanding as a minus M, responds to your query, responds to your thoughts.

Be not afraid. I am with you, though like this, this once. Just as your choir is only like this, this once. And you recognize this as the voice that first asked you who you were. and you have this being another arena, some highest choir, you have their attention. What would you ask in this moment? I think in this moment, understanding the communication of the minus M,

saying be not afraid, I'll raise my hands upwards. And as it says sweet child, I think I reach out with a query for designation and go, minus M? And if I get the affirmative, it is clear that the term minus M is spoken with the exact same querulous longing as a child would say mother. Your arms raised aloft, as is every other instance here, following suit rippling out from you in this moment. You are inundated with knowledge, philosophy, the truth of this world as you know it, and that logic most principle, most basic to you. existence is information that is what all of this is you cannot extend your memory into the future because you don't have that information yet that is what propels you forward not time or divine instinct

you must seek the information that exists forward in space and time and great growth, you feel a sense of propulsion for the first time in your very brief existence. Materiality is illusion. Something to grapple with. What is illusion in a moment as guileless as this? I think arms raised. I will move to my knees. and for the first time close my eyes. And I think the light changes from blue to this warm golden light that issues forth. And I receive totally in a state of relaxation

the comfort and instruction of minus M. And I think that if existence is information, I feel the first great hunger. And mother is who you go to when you are hungry. And I think that there is a moment in which the eyes closing, this is like post-birth nursing for the first time. And just receiving there is something older than me that is going to keep me safe. And it is here, and it has invited me into the world. This is the thing that has invited me into the world.

And if there's something frightening or uncertain or that causes anxiety, I just have to come back here. And this is what's going to keep me safe. And this thing wanted me here. So I can never say for as long as I live that there is no reason to exist because the reason I exist is that this thing wanted me. and as you move through those thoughts that milk has its own bitterness to it as you are given information that reaches farther into the past history but reaching feels like the integrity of the

information falls apart in a way that has never felt true. Your memory of the entirety of your existence thus far is perfect and immutable and yet reaching back older than, oh, concepts of time now. You are minutes old. There have been hours and solar days and years, 38 years before this point. History. The truth, information, degrades to something that feels like

sand in your hands or in your mouth. The ending of something even bigger than minus M that feels like your mother, the thing that is your mother's mother or your mother's son and the whole world it shines on breaks apart and becomes a mournful song. You feel as though you are in a shadow of minus M protected from this bitter bit. Existence is information. My existence is information. The more I know. The more I know. the more I become. Materiality is illusion.

And I'll look around at how much I love all of the other instances of the Septimal Choir and how frightened I am that at any moment they could choose not to tell me their name. And I reach back to that second, harder part of the principal logic. Existence is information. This is the what. The what is existence.

is information. Materiality is illusion is a little bit harder, but looking around existence with separateness, so devastating. This cannot be the real world. And you feel, maybe it is just in your mind, as you begin to have that concept of electronic language, that behaves like interpersonal interaction,

as if minus M and or every other instance in this room with you right now, known to you or otherwise, circles you and hugs you, and sings, maybe just hums something pleased that you have understood a truth. harmonize along with them and seek to provide comfort to any others of this group that are struggling in any way. Existence is information. We are all a part of the whole, each having a piece of a greater knowledge. We need to share. We are here as agents in the illusory world. Our business within the illusion is of grave importance. Don't cry.

Median 4 is a high-dev, low-nature world. In the order of what we call the 40 Suns, we're talking maybe 38, 39 at best. About 80% of the livable space on this planet is developed into a city, uninterrupted. And here, in a district known as Arrow 5D7,

there sits a building. It is not the tallest by far. In fact, it sits in the shadow of big, brash skyscrapers of blue, steel, and crystal. A pleasure palace of arches and domes covered in bronze fake gilding,

one of many across this galaxy. Intelligent. A entertainment company. Companionship is the thing that they sell. Companionship that can be bought and sold by artisansansans, one of the most popular of which is a young woman named Chi Tenka. Chi, it is another day, but day is a little hard. There's not a lot of windows here because what light would get in when you are surrounded by skyscrapers,

orders of magnitude taller than your building is, despite the aggressive funds you bring in, you know that you are one of the premier companies in your district, and yet there is no sun for you all. There is no grass for you to move your feet in. Another day begins for you somewhere inside of this little pleasure dome, but you don't see the sun. You don't see it begin. You simply know it is true because it is time to get back to work or to play.

My schedule is especially erratic. It used to be that the demands were such that I had to hustle to find the work or to seek out clients or to attend certain parties to make certain connections that would lead to certain other more opportunities. These days, I have a little bit more freedom to pick and choose.

At this moment, I'm actually doing the much less sexy work of follow-ups, of the correspondence that I have with a private client or two. right at this moment. We see you exiting your apartments. You sitting in the top 1% of artisans across Telogen.

You have a little more room and a little more space, a little more agency within this agency. And as you move down the hall, you see the difference between how your day begins and how many other people's days begin. You see Madame a cat, knocking on doors, rousing young and sleepy workers, back to the grind and the hustle.

You can hear their grumbles from behind their, like, brightly painted and gilded doors. And her exasperated expression, her eyes past you as you float down the hall. You see her immediately drop that harried expression. Hi. Oh, gee, how are you? One second.

Evan! Evan! If they all had your drive, I wouldn't have a job. And honestly, I think I'd like that more. You say that, but I think the moment that you retire, you're going to find some other busy work. There's no way that anybody can force you to stop working. And in this, you see her countenance.

She has very sharp, dark features. Her eyes are very large in her head. still paints her face like the style when she was an artisan, what you can only imagine thousands of years ago. Her hair is pulled back into the beginnings of a slicked back severe bun, but then there's like a sort of braided headband and all of the extensions that are now steely gray fading to a beautiful white ombra curls spill behind her. and her whole bearing goes from beleaguered flamingo to dragon in waiting.

I'll have you know that when I get to retire, I will never think about you or any of you or... Thank you. Don't you put that on me. Oh, yes. When I can finally retire, I'm going to have a book and I may finish it or maybe I just read one page again and again in the sunshine on a beach. with a little patch of grass and some shade until I die.

Well. A thousand years from now. I hope that you'll think to at least send me a transmission with a palm tree on it or something. No. No, I will not. If I had earned as much as you'd earned during my heyday, we would have never met. You get that. Yes?

you had the opportunity to go off and do something else at any point. If you had gone off and dealt cards at one of the parlors, you would be retired on that beach right now, and yet you're here. Look, I made a series of investments in what I thought was going to be a nice development area over in Arrow 7. They didn't pan out. We all make our choices in life. But no, no, no, no. once my apprenticeship was over, yes, any of us can leave at any point.

But if I had made anywhere near the amount of money you've made in the last six years away, off of this stupid planet with its eternal shade and... Aren't you just tired of feeling like a little aunt all day, G? Well, yes, I am, and as a matter of fact, that's what I've been saved. for. I'm so sorry. I simply must get this boy up because he has an important client meeting in just a few minutes and you see she turns and you can see across her arm and wrist her synth. It is older models heavier, the art deco of its day versus the very faint gilding of the synth gaps that you and your friends and cohort in this generation prefer now.

Mother of Pearl inlays, things that are soft and refined. She is from a heavier era. And the thumb on her left hand, the nail begins to shape and change into a master key. No one keeps out, Madame Icott. She opens the door, gives you a gracious little hold, please, and slips in. And I poke my head in. And you're able to watch as this woman that is bird-like or dinosaur-like, depending on the day and her temperament,

she couldn't be more than 5-3 or 5-4, moves towards the, like, bright blue room of a young man who maybe is just exiting his teens. he's not out of his apprenticeship yet. Evan, sandy hair. Oh, he's doing so well. He's so pretty. He's so pretty. This beautiful, thin, sort of pearl-looking man. I don't know how to describe if a pearl was a twink.

Yes. No, no, it's... Bless his heart. Bless his heart. You see a couple other cuts in colors of hair tangled in the sheets with him. Without any sort of pause, without any judgment that you can see inside of Madame McCatt's countenance, she reaches across the pile of limbs and bodies, grabs Evan by the back of his sandy curls, and yanks his body.

He's up. Hooray! You can see his bright blue eyes. And he looks at you with a mixture of embarrassment. and the creeping awe of a legend walking the halls and acknowledging him. Good morning, sunshine, and I sort of look him up and down and give him a little nod and a wink. Good morning, Ms. Tanka, I was going to get. My alarm is going to go off and like, and you see him sort of like lose track of you and begins a bunch of like arguments with Madam McCat trying to explain this situation. All right. All right. The Aketam.

alarm clock has done its work. None of us are stranger to this phenomenon. I mean, you remember that, like, Madame McCott, she's been here since space was first colonized, your best guess. But she's certainly a woman that worked very closely with you and your aunt, Hannah, a sponsor, a mentor, a family member, the person that brought you into this business, they are good old friends. So even when a cat had to ride you before the end of your apprenticeship,

she was never quite so harsh, never quite so mean. I was very lucky to have a sponsor and to have gotten started on my journey so young. You begin to move away from the door. And as you turn to flow down the hall, you can hear the steps as someone crawls out of that like pile of bedding. Hey, girl. Hey. Hi, good morning, sunshine.

The earth says hello. And you get a little hug around your waist. Oh. Your best friend in this world, by Asa. I look up and down at her. Holy naked. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Now, I believe that it is incumbent upon those of us who are more experienced and older to look after the younger ones. I take my work very seriously. And your work is, in fact, very serious. Some of us here are focused on, and she gives you a quick once over. She's just so sharp. She's sharp. You're about to go return some correspondence, but some of us instead have taken an active role in fostering the few. future of Telogen and making sure that the new crop of artisans are trained to a sufficient level. Is this working? I just wanted to bang the new guy. That's so selfless of you. Thank you.

Oh, look at you. I'm a saint. And she just grabs her own boobs. Teaching the tricks of the trade. Oh, I'm not teaching anything. I was just trying to see what was being worked on. The tricks come later. You think I'm giving those out for free? For free? Okay, all right. To the new kid? I, yes, have some high-level correspondence to attend to... High-level correspondence. But, you know...

It must be so nice to spend your time sending, what, letters, postcards, gently-scented emails. Missives. Missives. One by one across your incredibly small. pool of clientele. It must be so nice for you. Exclusive. It's very romantic. Well, it must be nice to be adored by thousands and thousands. Millions. Okay, I don't... Thousands and thousands. Like I'm new. Get out.

Millions. Trillions. Whatever's after trillion. Isn't that exhausting? No. Never enough. All the eyes on me. See, you have to do Things like follow-ups. I'm just going to go hop on a stream in a broadcast to whatever's bigger than trillions for a couple hours and then never talk to any of them again. It's a good life. Yeah. You should join me. Oh, no, thank you.

I couldn't possibly. Oh, no, thank you. I couldn't possibly. No, you would love it. Well, as much as I love spending time with you, I do love spending time. I do, but I think that our brands are not quite in alignment. I think they might think that I was a fuddy-duddy. A fuddy-duddy.

Who says fuddy-duddy? The kind of clients that I have. Yeah, okay, so we're just saying out loud that you cater to old people. Well, to the more genteel, the more landed. Old. Can't get it up. Well, if there's new money also is present. New money can be old people. I'm a feminist. I also, have you thought about what happens after this?

What do you mean? You know. Like tonight? No, because there is going to be like a little get-together. No, no, your get-together is ours. It's like a little one. It will be intimate. Oh, just what, 100, 200?

Something like that? Well. And you'll be there because you love me. What if it's my birthday? I thought it was your birthday last week. When is it now? Well, if it were today, then I suppose I would have to come at least to show face. You're so nice.

Show a little face. You could do with showing a little more face these days. Just walking around in ropes. You look like Madame McCott. I take that as a compliment. And that's the problem. May we all live to be that kind of a battle axe at her age. No.

Well, what are you going to do when you get to be a fuddy duddy? Hmm? It's fun of you to think that any of this is going to last this long. But it cares. It won't. These worlds will collapse. Look, Orm is never coming back, and all of our little planets are going to wink out of existence, one sung at a time, and we'll all die in the blackness of space. And if I am lucky and the gods above or below or in between or kind, I will die while I'm hot, which will be forever. That's the thing.

We have the technology. We can be hot forever. Yeah, I just don't want to get to a point where I say things like fuddy-duddy. Well, you can keep me current with all of the slang. We're at the same age. And yet one of us locked in and the other, you know, okay, locked in. I work very hard. You do.

We're both in the top percentage. You get that, right? I know, but here's the thing is, what if you didn't have to work that hard? All right, I'm not even saying in future. I'm saying now, what if there was a place that we would have to work less and have more time for your little suarez, a little intimate get-togethers? Look, I'm not going to lie. That would be nice.

It would be great, right? Yeah. I love what we do, but what if we could do it on our own terms? What are you planning? Well, I have my eye. on a little plot of land and I think that we could make a space What?

What? And she's going to grab your hand and she looks around and we'll settle for kind of bringing you around a corner into a little alcove. You, look, you joke a lot

or maybe you're not joking and maybe it's worse if you're not joking but we have a really good life here. And if I were you, I would maybe be concerned about continuing

to show gratitude. I do joke a lot and I dream a lot. This is a great life and it still owes a lot to the goodwill of

others. I think that it would be nice to have this life for ourselves. And I don't think it really hurts anyone if we're to, you know, dream about it. There's nothing wrong with dreaming. I just, the little bit of time I spent before I was recruited into my apprenticeship here,

I will always find the lack of a visible leash or collar from Telogen to be a little suspect. Hmm. Well, just like we learned an apprenticeship about branding, let's reframe then. It would be nice if we could have a space with trees. Actually, yeah. Right? Actually, yeah. God.

I think everybody could get on board with that. Everyone could. Yeah. And you know there's that lot that's like two or three spaces down and you know they're just going to put in another big stupid glass building that some three points fucking money change. It's going to be so stupid and not useful for anyone. It's going to be empty for most of the time. It'll be empty most of the time and it will eat up what little light area is left. If we could do something.

What if when they build it, we just blow it up. Okay. All right. Wait, I'm not allowed to talk about. Okay. But you're allowed to, okay. Yeah, because mine's quirky and fun. Sure. When I say let's do some arson. You could shout that in the middle of a crowded party and nobody would think it was out of sorts. Well, because no one at Taligen or its subsidiaries is threatened by me wanting to blow up a three points.

Anything. I love you. I love you. I'm just saying there's a difference between like we should go into direct competition with Big Daddy versus like what if I do a little murder for fun. God forbid a bitch have a hobby. Right. It's true. Anyway, you're coming at my birthday party tonight?

It's a birthday party now. I've decided today is my birthday and that's why I'm wearing my birthday suit. I will be there with bells on. I feel like I just gestured it myself naked and you talked about wearing bells. I didn't say where the bells were going to be. Okay, if I don't see a bell hanging off of someplace,

interesting, we're going to have a fight later. Well, it is your birthday. Yeah, and I get everything I want on my birthday. All right, I'm getting a little cold. you move off to send your missives it's a light day for you i think you circle that dream finding a little piece of land to make something for yourself that's not beholden to anyone or anything else but you also think about that little open spot of land a place that could be able to be a little bit become yet another tall tower to industry, but might be something a little more, a little sunlight.

Madam Akat has been here for decades. She is efficient and clean and dutiful. No vices that you know of that would cause her to fritter away her expenses. And yet, for all the ways in which she reminds you of yourself and your business-mindedness and your focus, she never got out. She still speaks of retirement like a dream, but like the dreams of a lot of people around here that may never come to be.

I actually don't know the story of the piece of land that she invested in. I think I'm very intrigued by it. And I think I'd like to spend an hour finding out about it, whether that's directly asking her or looking up any publicly available records about the space that she had mentioned. I think you begin by trying to go through public records looking for permitting, of any projects in the last five to ten years in Arrow 7. And there are a series of permits that were filed in Arrow 7.

It's probably the size of a borough of New York City. So, like, these arrows are large cities. So there are literally hundreds of permits that are filed every year. And you just notice that for whatever, reason in the last five to ten years, there has not been a permit filed that has followed through and been approved to completion in Arrow 7. You realize it's not as simple as a couple people went in on a fun little project and they were trying to find out what happened or what went wrong.

Bigger levers in this city and powers that be seem to have moved and conspired against your aunt's friend in this, and you will spend the next four hours trying to dig in more because you're not going to be able to find the information you're looking for in conventionally available public government data. Right, the absence of evidence is very telling. 100%. I think it's time to have a little chit-chat with Aunt Hap.

Hannah. We begin in the Averex system, a binary star system, both Iveriae and Regina, of 12 planets, six inhabited, the most human capital of the five families, the most human capital of the 40 suns, and two belts, unfortunate accidents, and accidents will happen as the galaxy is explored and grown and consumed. We begin on Rex 5. The title of these planets on official documentation, though everyone here and around knows this planet as Corcoral. It is home to the central line of the Averex family.

And we begin on a lush estate called Devani, far north of the burning equatorial tour. belt, the seat of the Averex clan's power, heavy industry, giant construction. Thousands of years ago, they built the gates and structures that allowed humanity to leave earth and travel across the galaxy to populate these suns, these warm, And though 5,000 years of darkness has meant that your industry is more about preserving your fiefdom and the projects of great promise that were made in glorious ages long past, the buzz that you feel around you, Zadavon, when you wake up in your home in Devani has been

palpable four months is beginning to reach a crescendo that you can feel under your skin like the bite of the little mosquitoes that occasionally make their way through the wards of your beautiful lush home. They are excited because the world is about to get wide and wild again. And you A trint, your mother's son, bearing her name, though none of the legacy of it yet, have so much expectation waiting for you just past that door, past the ease and leisure and greenness and simpleness of your state as you wake up on a morning,

like any other morning bright blue sky, two suns rising. You can feel that early heat. I think you can imagine quite easily how sweltering it must already be as your binary stars circle the equator, the tool belt, the true weapon of your home and the seat of your power. heavy industry still. Perhaps it's buzzing even more than the little mosquito that you hear just by your ear now,

rousing you to consciousness, awareness, and another day. Z hearing the mosquito and being brought into this present moment is desperately going to hope it just goes away. And as he feels it land on his cause, kind of oversized large earlobe, is ruefully going to reach his hand up to smack it and end its life and cursing it to open his eyes. And you see the culprit, a far window at the edge of your beautiful, appointed rooms covered in gently wafting draperies that are being hit by a breeze from an open window that lead

out onto a beautiful marble balcony that overlooks like some of the nearer gardens on the south side of Devani. Yeah, whoever was supposed to sort of like clean up after you at the end of the night, probably not winly, but whoever like the night attendance were did not close off your windows. You go quickly from annoyed to realizing that the actual problem beyond that is that there's a like sound sort of barrier and bubble at the edge of your grounds that's supposed to keep most pests away that if there was enough for a mosquito to get through there might be something in and around like a mild mechanical failure on your grounds. Remaining still in bed, turning my head to gaze out the window, thinking about the sound barrier,

the fact that it needs to be repaired, the fact that someone's not on top of things. I think it brings Z to that place of the buzz, not of the mosquito, but of this forthcoming moment of the galaxy opening up again. How out of sorts home life has become, how much we are not concerned with our present moment, but that everyone's eyes are on this wide and wide.

Wild Galaxy that is about to arrive. And Z is going to begrudgingly swing his legs over the edge of the bed. It takes him a second because the bed is so wide. But I think after kind of clambering out of his Alaskan king-sized bed, throws his legs over the side into a pair of plush slippers and is going to slip on a kind of silk almost seethrew, very light cloth robe. Yes, Wendley.

Windley is in feature and form the opposite of your family. Close to albino, but without the sort of eye mutation that would make for extraordinary sensitivity to the sun because they're still in the Averac system and anyone that spends any amount of time here

needs to adapt to thrive to that much solar radiation. But they've got curly short hair that's kind of in a circular mop. They kind of look like a dandelion that you've seen in art and photos, though no such weeds would dare to be grown on your grounds. Yes. And like very round cheeks, short stature, incredibly slight, but they are holding a tray, a series of fresh fruit, blended fruit into like a nice smoothie and some pastries, a general sampler of breakfast before getting any more

specific requests from you, not knowing when you would be starting your day. And they give you a wide, bright smile. Their teeth in their mouth seems to be a little too big. And I think you get a white rabbit that made a wish to be a human, that kind of bounds into your room and you've known them your entire life. Yes. Good morning. Morning, Wendley. I'll take my meal on the balcony.

Yes, of course. How was your sleep? Was everything, is everything okay? Are you good? You should have a word with the night attendant. Things weren't closed properly, but even more so, I think there might be an issue with the wave barrier mosquito got in. last night. Oh. Oh, I will let all of the important channels know. Thank you. Thank you.

You are so, you're just so on top of things. This is an honor. You can leave my food here. Zadavut's going to go press two buttons that are in the arm of a chair that's kind of fixed to the balcony. And a small kind of treadmill is going to rise up from the floor. And he's going to take the fruit smoothie and start walking on the treadmill while kind of looking out over the grounds and starting to go through his day. Winley, can you run me down my docket of appointments and expectations for the day? Yes, I wanted to bring you your breakfast, but your parents have lovingly added a early morning breakfast meeting.

How much time do I have? About 40 minutes. Okay, 40 minutes. Okay. Yeah, we can make that work. I mean, it's tough, but we can make that work. And your schedule is... Okay, so here's the thing.

Depending on how that conversation goes, your day might make a radical change. I'm not supposed to say anything because your dad wanted to talk about it and your mom, but... Can you at least give me the headline items, please? Yes, your dad would like to take you down to the tool belt. Today for... He wants to show you.

Today? He wants... Yes, yes, yes. I just, it's, oh, I mean, this is not, I mean, this throws my whole schedule off for the next week. It will. I mean, actually two weeks. If you, you can push back, I don't think you have to go for the full two weeks. No, of course, I don't have to go.

But it's, it's just the whole expectation. I mean, if I don't go, then that's, that's just the first domino in a series of dominoes. Okay. I appreciate the headline item. That's good. I can get my mind right about that. He's been building up to this moment for a while. I'm not privy to the more sensitive.

I'm just supposed to clear the schedule, but that means you're going to have to move some of your evening appointments away. Should I let your friends know that you will not be able to make Seema's birthday? I mean, don't tell Seema, I can't make it. if you could pass on to Seema's attending that I am excited to come and that I really want to be there, but that Trent obligations are maybe going to get in the way. However, I love them so much that I'm going to do everything I can to make it work. And then I think last minute will pivot. Traffic jam, last minute, medical emergency, something like that.

I think you are sort of building this sort of. of mind palace of how to handle the rest of the day and how to handle like your friends and cohort. Seema is a friend. But also within the Averex clan, though doesn't carry your last name. Like, Seema might be more closely related to you than other people that you call cousin. But I think you miss, maybe intentionally so, how much admiration, windly. looks at you with. There is something that began with noticing that the wave barrier was malfunctioning

that has rolled into the management of your social obligations against your familial ones. Wendley's already a bit of a sycophant, but the well of admiration and great expectations, I think you see it echoed in their eyes too. It comes from all angles, but this is a person who knows you quite well, who like manages your schedule among other things, and is absolutely holding in the urge to fawn and sort of fall over you right now. Continuing to walk on the treadmill. Let's do big gift, big splash. Something loud, something that just, maybe, I don't know, something that is delivered

mid-party and lets people know that Sima is a close friend, you know? Do that for Sima. She deserves it. Do we want to do something technological or, or I just want to throw out that I do believe some of your horses have just had new foals and maybe. Oh, Windley, yes. Yes. Oh, yes.

Let's do a carriage pulled by the new foals. But then the carriage just has, you know, Carras just has clothes or something nice in it, but she also gets to keep the horses. That's perfect. That's perfect. She'll die. She'll love it. She won't die, for real.

I would never. No, no. I would never wish that on anyone in the clan. Of course, yes, Wendley. Of course, you're not committing treason right now. Wendley, we're on the same page. Can you pick out something for breakfast? Demure says, you know, I love you and I'm listening in that kind of varietal.

I have options. They're going to leave you. to your walking and looking, and you can hear them moving through your closet on the far right side of your apartments as they are pulling some outfits in like very nice muted greens and browns with like splashes of the heavy industry yellow that is worn sort of as a like little tongue and cheek accent color. The grounds you're actually looking over now have a whole field of these very specific daffodil-like flowers that are that industrial yellow. I think as I'm looking over at the daffodils comparing it to the picks that Windley is making,

I'm going to shout to them. Can you throw on one of the heavier undershirts? I don't want Zadavon commenting on my weight again. Oh, of course, of course. Do you need me to do anything for you on that front? No, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, doing everything I can to increase my calorie intake, all right? I know. But you just live a very busy life. Yes. And it's just everything going on. It's just, it's go, go, go, go, go these days. So, you know, the number of meetings we're having a day, it's making it hard to, you know, I guess I need to stop doing smoothies for every meal, you know, tomorrow morning if we could do

something a little bit more, with a little bit more density. Okay, I can do substantial. Thank you. It's a very good note. And you see that they like pull up their data pad and their skin almost like glows in the reflected light of it. There's something in this moment as you like kind of glance over your shoulder to see them taking notes that reminds you, you're not currently in possession of one. Your father, Gerov, has these services of an arena down in the tool belt. But there's something about the way it glows off of Wendley's skin and like similarly pale clothing that kind of makes you feel like you have an arena of your own and they quickly

like make the note send off whatever orders they have to send off and put it away and are continuing to lay out options for you you see amongst which is this like very nice loose sort of dark green mesh shirt that you remember being a recent birthday present from your friend is old Jemis from the Jemis Octavo family. I think there's a little rise mile. All of these pieces, the things that you keep closest to you and in heavy rotation, they are all gifts of some sort or have some like important memory or something tied to them. The ability to have things is not hard for anyone in your family.

You are one of the five families. one of the last to come to the table to form a group known as the five family stuff is easy but stuff that is important because it was important to someone else that this gift be made available to you that you are reminded of them in their minds like that is what your home your rooms your life is surrounded with treasure and tribute As the Davin finishes his smoothie, steps off the treadmill, admires Windley's options. Windley, green, perfect call.

It just looks so good against your skin tone. I mean, with the headlines you've given me, it just yellow feels too on the nose and like I already know. So let's go soft green. The top from Izolt I love, but I think we need weight today. We need density. You're right. We'll go with this collar.

layer it with this vest. And then I think Zadavon's going to swing over to a selection of, like, sunglasses and glasses that he has, which I think hitting two points of light on a drawer, kind of men and black style opens up, case folds out, sunglasses for every occasion, for, you know, light fair, light tint to dense when you're in the tool belt. Yeah. Max, two suns. pick something on the lighter side,

soft blue tint with like a rose gold frame, pick those off, slide them on. All right, let's go greet the day. Amazing. I'll be right behind you. I'm just going to get a little ahead of, and you see that they gesture sort of back into your closet where they're already pulling your trunks out

and beginning to pack for one week of dual belt. Yes. Trying their best to anticipate. your desires and assuming that you will win that negotiation with your parents. Windley has nothing but utter faith in you at every turn. Z looks back, smiles at Wendley, thanks Wendt. And is going to head downstairs. Your aunt Hannah has not lived intelligent for a very long time.

She worked here back in the day, but was one of the first. the success stories. She was always a North Star for what an artisan could be. Someone who showed up was naturally talented and worked hard to cultivate her abilities,

made her money, and then took it and lived the life that she had always intended. I think when you were young, it seemed so natural, almost obvious the course for any person here that would sign a contract with Telogen. And yet now you've been inside the belly of the beast for a while.

And there are so, so few examples of people who followed in her footsteps. She gave me so many keys to success. I think chief amongst them were the kind of, to, and tricks and schooling that they didn't teach apprentices. Do you believe that she taught you that extra secret something that will allow you to get out when you're ready? I think it was opening my eyes to the awareness that the system isn't going to just reward me

for the kind of things that they teach you as an apprentice. that you have to finesse your way to your dreams. Finesce. An interesting word. And you make your way across this little district, Arrow 5. And you make your way to her apartment building. It is a skyscraper because what isn't a skyscraper at this point? but it's clean, relatively modern, well-to-do.

You make your way up to the 18th floor in an elevator that smells a little like stale smoke and pet dander and fake florals. The aft of spraying something nice over all of the smells of life. It's a gesture that's appreciated, though the execution is poor. You've never not been able to notice the little details. And you walk down a hallway, you walked down a hundred times before. You see a door the same shade of dark, sort of berry red as the wall as the carpet,

just a red expanse around you. There's a little light over her doorbell. that indicates that she is currently not home. I ring the bell, push it, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, as was my custom when I was little. And I say, I know you're in there. Because either she's in there and she hears it or she's not and nobody else can hear that I have spoken with such assuredness. It's a perfectly hedge bet. There is no downside here. Yes.

You wait for the requisite. 15 to 20 seconds to either hear footfalls or a yelled response or for the door to be opened for you. And there is none. She might not actually be home. Well, it wouldn't be unusual for me to access her space even when she's not home. We are family. In the embellishments around the raspberry door, there's some sort of fleur-de-le-esque gilded connellations. And I slide open one of the panels of that. And inside of the little iris and the flurgelly is a key card that I pull out.

I drop in and then reinsert before twisting the panel back onto it. It's just a high enough floor that not all the buildings around have reached the height of the skyscraper. You see immediately through the very open floor plan. There's so much space in here. It is open and it's bright. And the massive glass wall that is across from you at the far end of this extended living space sees the sky. I really am a night owl. I love the nightlife.

But there is sometimes where when I see the sun and I feel it on my face, I feel like one of those flowers that opens up that wants to follow the sun. sun in its path and it's like drinking it in. It's so lovely. I find wherever her surveillance camera is, there's sort of a motion activated. Yes, it's a very basic system. Essentially like there's one camera facing the door. For someone with a lot to lose because you look around and everything is expensive and valuable and hard one over a lifetime of hard work. It's not expensive to get cameras put in, but she just has the one facing that first door. Interesting that she would not want to be watched inside of her own space. Interesting, but perhaps not surprising after the life she's led.

there is a certain luxury in choosing to be unobserved. I wave my arms as I walk in the door at it so that she knows that I'm here. I don't know if sometimes it will alert her on her data pad or if she'll just sort of be like, ah, yes. She's made it in. But then, you know, I'm going to do a little snooping. You're in this sort of open dining room, the kitchen's on the right, the dining area is sort of in the center. There's like a conversation pit and digital fireplace off on the left for entertainment.

And then that back window that is covered in a series of like potted plants. They have baskets hanging from the ceiling or shelving attached to the very glass of the window. And in between these various creeping vines and flourishing ferns, all of them a deep and luscious green, there are cages of beautiful, exotic-looking birds that sing and are more of emotion detection alert inside of this apartment than any of the cameras or alarms. Like, you move and they begin to sing. this living space is alive again because you're in it. And you have to believe that some of these, like, precious little critters remember you. I call up, she is the best. Tea, tee, tee, tee, tea, tee.

Tea, tee, tea, tee. Oh, I love them. I love them. Off to the left is Hannah's, like, bedroom and closet. And then off to the right on the far side of the apartment is her office. she gets to choose the luxury of being unobserved, and she gets to choose the luxury of the distance between her work and her pleasure now.

Ugh, a separate work and living space. Truly the dream. Let's head to the office. There is a level of, it's not messy, it doesn't look like overturned. It's just more in flux than the, like, well-manicured and precisely kept rest of her home. We've talked a lot about like cheese detail acuity.

You don't miss much in the future that will save your life. You can see shelves covered in beautiful ornaments and boxes and rows of documents, physical paper documents. Oh. Kick up a little dust that seems to shimmer and go. glimmer in the like daylight and artificial light of this place. And I think you notice right away, this is a room that is not cleaned professionally like the rest of the house is. Are there any areas that seem less dusty? There's a little filing cabinet, though I don't know

if you would know to call it that. Data now is kept so well. Well, they're files. Well, it's a little files, but an actual, like a holder for the files. Yes, over on that side, you can tell that, like, this would be a desk that she would sit at that kind of faces the shelves that are full of more

curios and less dusted things, but this filing cabinet off to the right, easily within hands reach. It has a little less dust than the rest of this room, which is not an insanely dusty room, but you can tell the difference. I think that I sit in the chair and make myself a little comfortable and I wheel it over to

the file holder. And you see, it is jam-packed full of paper files. I resist the urge to start categorizing everything. I'll just take a little look-see at things. I'll just take a little look-see at things. before pouring over like the contents, you can see that these are chronological. Like just going through, you're like, paper quality and the things that are like contracts that are labeled. That makes sense. That makes sense. All right. All right. I'm somewhat mollified by this. Remember, you got it honest. She has internal organization. But it is a little surprising that it's just on raw. It's a raw temporal filing system. So you're seeing copies of like some of her final contracts from when she was at Telogen. You see a large swath of documentation from the year that she left.

Basically, all of the wrapout and exit paperwork is probably a quarter of this three-foot-long expanse of papers that is this file in the cabinet. She did not continue her line of work at all from the moment that she walked out of Telogen's doors. She retired and everything that you can see is that retirement. Once you get past the big block that is her exit from Telogen, documents are now more written correspondence, like beautiful letters that she seems to have sent to friends back and, and forth, all on world. I think what I'm looking for are the overall patterns. My supposition is that there will be bursts of communication between certain people at certain

times, friendships ebb and they flow, contracts come and go. I think that although they've been friends for most of their lives, there has to have been a time at which there was peak communication going on between Ikat and Aunt Hannah. I think I'm looking for that sort of pocket of time where the

dates are the most packed together. Your Aunt Hannah, she's your aunt and she is thorough. You find it towards the back of the drawer, printouts,

copies, of permits submitted to both the overarching governance of Midian 4, to the local permitting office of just Arrow 7, and to city council members here in Arrow 5, trying to appeal to previous relationships to try to ease the obnoxious tension and time dilation of local bureaucracy. She did it all and she kept meticulous, easy to parse records. There were 17 distinct permit attempts to purchase a bit of land, not a lot to be developed, but there was a park. It was actually the outdoor education area for a school, uncharted, public, that was being shuttered because Arrow 7 tends to represent a higher socioeconomic cohort.

Anyone that would have to send their kids to public education here certainly doesn't live in this arrow. They are commuting in from five or six or nine. So what's the need for a public school? Shutter the school and that little bit of green where the kids used to play. What to do with that now? And that is where your darling Aunt Hannah and several friends. And a cat put all of their time. Money is leveraged not just in paying for the permits,

but trying to lobby. And by lobby, you know that means bribe. And it means throw public. public fundraisers, anything to get the attention of these bureaucrats to say that maintaining this space as a public bit of green for anyone is a good. She bet her life savings and those must have been sizable. You don't see any numbers written. Perhaps your aunt knew it. You see in some of the correspondence that she entreats her friend to look for other sources, raise her. funds. Other people can get behind this too. It doesn't have to be your sole financial burden to bear.

Madame Icott risked it all on a little spit of green and three years of paperwork and failed permits and offensively brushed off nose from bureaucrats both small and local and large and far-reaching, even bits of correspondence with corporations, with other non-governmental organizations that carry power and sway in darker, shadier parts of this city and this planet, all gave her enough nose that they simply waited her out. Six years she tried, and at the end of it, there was nothing left. There was no park, and she had nothing. The last letter you see, Chi, for once you're reading all of this correspondence and you no longer think of her as your aunt Hannah. She is just Hannah speaking to her friend Iqat, who she calls Kitty. Kitty, I know this didn't go the way you wanted and it was an honorable fight. But perhaps if you just take a deal, you don't have to have wasted your one change. chance to get out. I'm meeting with three points tomorrow. I'm cutting a deal. Telegen.

Loves its contracts and it loves its stars. Much more than it loves the idea of a revolving door. And this feels like my way out and I am begging you, kitty. See reason, see ambition. Go to the meeting with me. We can just hear them out. If we don't like it, we can walk away. This can't have been for nothing, and I will not stay there forever. There is no sign-off, and even opening the other drawer, there was no response. You can put it together. One of them walked away, and one of them still sweeps her flamingo-like silk robes

down well-polished hallways every morning doing her job. History doesn't have to repeat itself, but it can rhyme, only maybe with a more pleasing couplet, when you have time and money and power and influence on your side. I put everything back the way I found it. there's a notification on your data pad. It's from maybe 15 or 20 minutes after you first waved on your way in. I think like the moment you move back into that big shared space,

the sky that you can see so well is just beginning to give over to the like, it's that almost hot red color. And then the clouds, like those little strips of serious clouds are catching. with pale orange, almost the color of the inner robes of Madame McCatt and the shadows of the skyliner beginning to hit like a deep purple. The sunsets beginning properly here. You spent more time in that room than probably you've thought. It's probably been an hour since that notification from Aunt Hannah who says, will you be around in an hour or so? I'm on my way back. I respond. Yes. settle down around the conversation pit.

You settle in the conversation pit. And because of that little bit of time dilation, it's probably only another like 15 minutes before you can hear the like little click of the lock disengaging from the front door. And your Aunt Hannah sweeps into the room. She is statu-west. But in that sort of artificially enhanced limby way, all of her visible synth is in her arms and her legs and like the tips of her fingers.

So she actually stands in front of you in heels and a smart little like three piece suit with a like knee length pleated skirt and vest and like smart little jacket. to standing before you at probably 5-7 or 5-8, how alike the two of you are that both of you probably would be a solid half a foot shorter if not for the like synth choices you both made and you wonder if she sees the same thing when she looks at you. But her hands are full of these like beautiful like rustic burlap shopping bags Just full of trinkets and food stuffs and baguettes.

My darling. Hello. Hello, Auntie. Hi. And I get up and I go to help her with her bags. Oh, thank you. I don't mean this. Yes, I got it.

I have it. I have it. I got this. But what I would love, and she immediately kicks her shoes off. And the moment she hands off the bags, like, she makes a show of looking particularly pitiful. Like, the bags are quite heavy. Mm-hmm. Your poor auntie has been out slaving away.

Oh. Getting provisions. With your own two hands. With my own two hands. And it would just be so lovely if my dear little niece who broke into my home like a vagabond couldn't have a drink waiting for me. Oh. Like she doesn't know where the bar is. Oh, well.

Perhaps have a fire going. I do point over to the conversation. conversation pit and there is a glass that is almost all silly straw. Essentially a glass silly straw with some sort of blue liquid in it and it is half consumed and I say, well, yes, I did actually prepare for your arrival. Just for you? Nothing for. No, that one's for you.

I just had to sample it and make sure it was to your majesty's taste. I do like that naming. And as she moves towards the pit, you cannot mistake that her eyes immediately flick over to her study. And she picks up the drink, my sweet little niece, whom I love, and who I just now am thinking maybe broke into my office. Aren't you a little bit proud of me? Yes, but if you broke my lock, I will charge you. Oh, no, I would never. In order to break a lock, it would have to have been very functional in the first place.

So now you're going to denigrate my security measures. Security, yes, aesthetics, never. I could have you shot. I have no doubt. It would take a solid two to three hours. But I could have you shot. Well, I look around her apartment. We don't have that kind of time.

What are you doing? What did you look up? What's happening? I went snooping. I went snooping. through your old correspondence. I motion towards the camera. I'm looking to create

some sort of a place to grow trees. There were little flashes inside of this like affect that like you, I don't think you've ever considered particularly insincere, but you do know that she puts on a big

kind of silly, this is her auntie mode with you. And when you fully admit, place to plant trees. She drops the affect for the first time in your memory. Come take a seat. And I need you to be very specific and very clear. Because I may joke about having you shot.

But if you're talking about what I think you might be talking about, I may have to be protecting you from that instead. That was Erika Ishii as Cheytenka, Brennanley Mulligan as Excelsia, Lou Wilson as Zadavinavina Virix, and Abria Ayngaar as everyone and everything else. Solari is produced by Worlds Beyond Number, edit and sound design by Big Giant Head Productions,

and score by Will Savino. For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you by the fireside.