It was getting on towards late afternoon by the time everyone arrived. Orna was accompanied by Lori and the pair were guarded by a couple of living armors as they had journeyed well ahead of the safety of the rest of their group. Unla-Ela and Olan Lunere were accompanied by eight guards, none of whom were ones that Andrea had gotten to know.

  As had been established ahead of time, everyone acknowledged the need for escorts due to the wild and dangerous nature of the region, but the danger of an incident would be significantly less if they kept those escorts very well separated. So, while the guards stayed at a distance, the two pairs of leaders walked over cautiously. To be fair, most of the caution seemed to be coming from Olan Lunere, though their tension was a touch contagious and appeared to make the other three more apprehensive. Andrea stood just outside the entrance to the tent and waved for all of them to come inside.

  Orna, clearly the most laid back person present, was first through the opening with Lori dutifully following behind. Unla-Ela waited a moment before walking in after them, and finally Olan Lunere paused for a moment longer before giving Andrea a nod of acknowledgement and heading inside. Andrea was quick to slip inside, not wanting to leave the two groups unmoderated for any real length of time.

  As Andrea stepped inside she found them already introducing themselves. "My name is Orna ul Trantos, and my companion is Lori Panolt. We're here as representatives for our research expedition, which is being sponsored by Falcian University. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?" Orna's rather formal speech was addressed to Unla-Ela, who responded in kind. "I am Unla-Ela, I am the head of the Moorick Island University contingent of our expedition." With a polite nod towards Orna and Lori, Unla-Ela took a step back allowing Olan Lunere to introduce themselves in their turn. They snapped to attention, before sketching a shallow bow. "Peegmar Lunere, Olan in their majesties' army of the frontier. It is my honor to have been charged with the leadership of the Maleprean army contingent responsible for ensuring the safety of their majesties' guests from the league during their journey into these wild regions."

  As the Olan stepped back to Unla-Ela's side Andrea stepped forward to make her own formal introduction. "Though I am familiar with each of you, for the record, I am Andrea Sylphium a member of the Inannian Imperial Federation's Surveyor Corps. I'm here on a mission of exploration, focused on pure learning rather than the procurement of resources. I've arranged this meeting because I have learned about certain concerns in regards to the intentions of the expedition from Falcian University. From what I understand, political tensions amongst your peoples are high at the moment, and I felt it to be both my moral responsibility, and in the best interests of my continued peaceful exploration, to mediate this discussion in the hopes of reaching an amicable understanding." As Andrea finished speaking she gestured at the table and chairs she had unpacked in the tent. Then, leading by example, she walked around the table to take a seat at the head, leaving a pair of empty chairs on either side of the long field table.

  Looking at the four other people in the tent Andrea spoke up once again. "I'm not entirely sure on the details of how your different societies handle more formal negotiation, so I took the liberty of arranging matters according to some of my own people's traditions. Please have a seat and we'll begin."

  While Andrea was busy trying to establish a rapport between the two groups Lin was focused on keeping an eye out for trouble, particularly any hints that an incident might happen between the two sets of guards. in addition to ensuring that were both groups were far from one another, Lin had arranged it so they were still able to easily observe one another in the hopes that this would prevent misunderstandings from developing based on uncertainty.

  With the Protectorate expedition now in the pass over the mountains, the high altitude surveillance drones were all once again tasked with general mapping and surveillance of the valley, Though they were particularly focused on the meeting site to provide Lin and Andrea with multiple additional perspectives from which to spot trouble. So far nothing had cropped up, but Lin had no intention of diverting her attention from keeping an eye out, until after the meeting concluded.

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  Orna took the initiative to speak up first. "I want to reassure both of you that my colleagues and I have no untoward intentions. We are here purely to investigate a strange and, so far, unique phenomenon that we've localized to this area." Unla-Ela responded in a surprisingly diffident manner. "I want to believe you, but it seems so threatening when such a large and well equipped group, such as yours, just happens to have the exact same destination as our own, out here in the edges of the explored regions. Particularly, when it is so far away from your home, and so close to the Olan's. You've even come with living armor to escort you, hardly something one brings to a situation where violence is unexpected." At those words the Olan perked up and interjected. "Unla-Ela is correct, it strikes me as suspicious to run into a group hailing from the Protectorate,near the borders of Malepre. Especially one that is armed with heavy duty military hardware. I'm also dubious that you just happen to have somehow learned, without ever having seen it, about some unique phenomenon that just happens to be right on the border in a sparsely populated frontier region."

  Olan looked nonplussed at what they were hearing. "It's the truth. First of all we brought the living armors because, as you pointed out, this region is very far from home, and we had even less of an idea what dangerous animals might be living here then we would if we were moving into the unexplored regions near our own frontier. As to your other point, Andrea is familiar with what we are here to study and can vouch for the existence of an aperture in this valley. They can also attest to our extensive theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon, which is what allowed us to determine its existence and location remotely."

  Olan Lunere looked over to Andrea, clearly seeking confirmation. At her nod, they seemed to relax a little. "You make a reasonable point about being prepared for the dangers of unexplored regions. While we didn't go so far as to bring living armor with us, we also had a decent idea of the threats that were likely to crop up here. As for whatever strange phenomenon this aperture might be, and how you could possibly learn of it without anyone having seen it, I'll have to defer to Unla-Ela." Unla-Ela took that as their cue to speak up. "I've read a couple of tracts on the theory of apertures and I find myself dubious. I've certainly seen no sign of any such thing in the valley, and by this point I've done a pretty thorough job of exploring the place. You say Andrea can vouch for you, but I don't believe it. In fact that calls Andrea's true allegiances and intentions into doubt." Olan Lunere looked a bit taken back at Unla-Ela's words, but they didn't immediately reject them either. "I wouldn't go so far as to accuse Andrea of deceit. I like to think I'm a good judge of character, and they strike me as an honest person. At the same time Unla-Ela's concerns are not entirely unreasonable."

  Andrea was a bit disappointed at Unla-Ela's suspicion, and surprised at having Olan Lunere vouch for her good character, but she wasn't too worried. "Well, while I regret that you don't trust me, I can also understand the desire to be extra cautious when you are responsible for many more people besides just yourselves. Fortunately there's an easy way to resolve a lot of this, I can show you to the location where the aperture appears. While it is not present at the moment, it should reappear in 5 years or so as it seems to be on a cycle of that length. While not as dramatic as witnessing the aperture itself I hope that showing you the location will help since there are traces that provide evidence of the aperture's existence that remain. In fact it is a location that you are familiar with, Unla-Ela. The strange metallic stick you pulled out of that subterranean pool was halfway through the aperture when you grabbed it, it was purely by a stroke of luck that you didn't fall through to the other side yourself."

  At Andrea's words Unla-Ela cocked their head strangely. "I don't know what you're talking about?" Olan Lunere snapped their fingers. "I think I do, it was a little over a week before we first met Andrea. I remember you bringing it back into camp because it was so obviously unnatural. You even told me you'd pulled it out of a cave under that pyramid. How could you forget something that strange? It strikes me that it's far more plausible for Andrea to be telling the truth, rather than having designed and executed an extremely elaborate scheme of manipulation involving secretly planting a strange object under the pyramid." At the Olan's words Unla-Ela's expression flashed to disappointment for a moment, before shifting into a stoic mask. They shifted in their seat, straightening up a bit, but before they could speak a sharp rippling C-c-crack! sounded. At seemingly the same instant there was a series of loud Hiss-Pops! accompanied by tiny bright flashes that flared to life in front of Andrea as she was launched violently out of her seat, trailing a cloud of debris.