"Oh," she says a little faintly, blinking. "Okay. Uh. Give me a minute. I think I'm okay, just, um. That was not how I was expecting that to work."

"Sorry," he says, though he's—mostly sorry that it had a stronger negative effect than he'd expected, there is still some prank-like thing he wanted to do. "It's best to look where I'm going first. This does not come with any safeguards and if I teleport while intersecting something or someone that will not be good for anyone involved. Found that out the hard way."

Thankfully the only casualty was his left foot, and he barely feels the lack anwyay, his prosthetic is great.

"Eek! I'm sorry, that's a horrible way to find out that there are no safeguards. This is better, just. I'll need to get used to it."

"My apologies," he repeats. "Anyhow, ready whenever you are."

"Apology accepted." Deep breath. "Okay, yeah, let's go. Order of Truth is where?"

"That building," he says, leading the way to said building, the one behind the bust of a person holding a glowing orb.

The inside is... interesting, to say the least. Computers, synthetics, energetics, all sorts of -ers and -etics, abound, but probably what will draw her attention immediately is the star-seeker they ran into earlier, the man by the name of Qorro. And he looks... very, very miserable.

"When I told you to retrieve the falling star, I wonder if you heard 'return to me with empty hands and excuses'," sighs the woman talking to him. "I no longer need your services, Qorro. Collect your things and go."

"What? No, Salimeri, I—there was a, a vanometric power cell, it was unstable, we, we needed to disable it, but everything was long gone by the time we got there!"

"And that is why you are unsuited for this work," says, apparently, Salimeri, massaging her eyes. "Honestly, I don't know what I expected. I saw promise in you, but also the flaws. And I ignored them." She finally notices the two arrivals, and her eyes turn enormous when she sees the castoff. "Adahn! I haven't seen you in ten years. Ten. Years. I cannot begin to imagine what your excuse might be." Especially after their last night together. It was... incredible. Or so Salimeri thought?

"... Um!" says the castoff, raising her eyebrows and turning slightly pink. She was not prepared to be confronted with memories of that nature. Um. Um. "... N-no, um, I'm. Not. Adahn."

She blinks twice in momentary confusion but then understanding dawns. "You're a castoff," she breathes, eyes turning downright gleeful as she studies the castoff from head to toe. "Remarkable. This is rather like visiting a house you once owned, and seeing new tenants through the windows."

She's not even trying to pretend, here, that's the Salimeri he knows and loves kind of despises.

"And don't think I don't see you, there, Aleks dear," she adds. "What a coincidence that you would be travelling with her. Especially given how you and Adahn parted, when they were still wearing her body."

"Please do pretend I am not here, it will be best for all of us."

"Um," she stammers, and then carefully steps between Aleks and Salimeri because Aleks should not have to deal with this person he kind of despises. Words, she should words. She should words instead of trying to figure out how one does that with their tongue.

"I-I wanted to come here," oh no wrong phrasing! "to ask about something called a resonance chamber? I have some memories from, uh, Adahn about it and I'm curious."

"Do you? Fascinating. Yes, I can probably help—for a price."

"Say it's a monetary one."

"You know it's not, dear."

She squints at Salimeri.

"Oh. You were the one they were working with. Between the. Um. Yes. You could probably actually help. What's the price?"

"Straight to the point! I like that." She crooks her finger to motion them to come closer to a screen she projects a holographic map to—a map of the Reef of Fallen Worlds. She taps a gilded, ornate structure, not far from the dome containing the resonance chamber. "This is the Anechoic Lazaret. It had been hopelessly sealed since the dawn of the Ninth World. Until, that is, I decided to spend a week or two on it." She smiles. "It was quite simple once I figured out the trick. I've been slipping in and out at nights, investigating, taking notes." Then she frowns. "Until the structure got sealed again while I was away."

"... Okay?" she says, not hearing anything that sounds like an actual price yet.

"So," she continues, "I believe someone tramped inside with no regard for dangers and managed to trigger a failsafe that resealed the structure. I need someone to reopen the Lazaret and," she waves a vague hand, "handle whatever nonsense the trespassers have stirred up in their wake."

"Send him," says Aleks, gesturing in Qorro's direction with his head, arms folded.

"I suppose I could do that," she says.