"They're hunting a shadow where they're shouldn't have been one. More specifically during our project to make better maps of our solar system we've caught a few images of something big eclipsing the sun from certain angles the thing is we only seem to be able to take pictures of it when it's between the camera and the sun. We haven't seen any similar sized blockage of distant stars or the planets. The Shadow trackers have been narrowing down where we can find it and they're pretty sure they're getting close. Like I said we don't really know what we'll find when we go there though. As for information on the Bramble the base camp we've built there is pretty safe. It's built near an entrance you can walk into and that entrance leads to a pocket without any of the fish. It's a safe way to dip your toes in at least."

"<Mysterious. I don't think we'll be waiting on that, given how little is known about it, but if more is found out we might look into it, and if it's something that improved speed would help, then Wrinkle's considerations might also be some help.>"

Speaking of, if Chert is ready, Sandy can begin relaying what Wrinkle noticed during the forging process, as well as his ongoing thoughts on how to use the cores the forge produces for other applications aside from drone retrieval as they currently do.

Chert will listen and record. Occasionally, they'll ask a question to clarify a detail. And in not too much time they'll arrive back at the teleporter. "I can ask when the next trip to Bramble is but it'll probably be at least a few days and then at least few days in transit after that. You're lucky we have a favorable confluence at the moment between Bramble and Giant's Deep. Sometimes it takes a month to get out to Bramble."

There's quite a lot of high-flying ideas, from a way to replicate some of the functionality of the teleporters in the hub to a way to burn cores as a sort of fuel for a propulsion system that could achieve some truly absurd speeds. Both of the designs require more of this 'magic' that Wrinkle has been using to actually create, but there are additional, somewhat vaguer designs, based on what he saw with the capturing of the etheric pseudo-sound in cores, for additional equipment constructed from similar but not identical formulations of gravity crystal-based ceramics that should be able to replicate the etheric manipulations he's implementing magically via more self-contained gravitational effects.

"<It's all a bit tentative, naturally, we only just showed up here earlier today so there may be deeper insights into the particular nature of your local ether background that we're missing, but hopefully these will be helpful.>"

They listen as Chert explains the timing, and it continues to sink in just how utterly massive the empty spaces of this world are. "<In that case, it sounds like we should probably try and find somewhere to stay, and maybe some proper currency to pay for our room and board. Do you have any recommendations on that front?>"

"If you just want somewhere to stay there's plenty of space here in the hanging city and we don't tend to use money much out here. The Nomai's beds don't work for us but we have extra cots around.

"Back on Timber Hearth I'm sure Hornfels will spot you a few days out of discretionary funds and if you'll promise to stick around long enough to help us try out some of what you just said I'm sure we can get you a grant for that work."

Wrinkle gets an excited look at that. "<It seems Wrinkle feels getting to tinker would be payment in itself, so I believe Timber Hearth will be where we'll head next.>"

And indeed they will, presumably, take the Timber Hearth teleporter, then make their way back to the museum (unless someone informs them of a better place to find Hornfels) to see about arranging a place to stay while they wait, and also discuss more about potentially helping them make some prototypes.

Hornfels is still at the museum. They're happy to put up the group in some of the temporary housing near the museum for a little while and help them go through the grant process.

They're also very excited by the idea of expanding the teleporter network and making gravity engines.

"The biggest limit to our spaceships is really the fuel. We've got ways to get to orbit more easily on several planets and that helps a lot but once we're in flight the real constraint on how fast we can go is how much fuel we can carry. And of course we won't need nearly as many trips if we can just teleport to the Attlerock and Dark Brambles and some of the smaller places we tend to revisit."