Crinomu explained to Orietta that he was the newest member of the Embassy to the Substrate, freshly decanted from the vurtiverse. "The seers have a task for me", he said. "There are times when their old bodies are not capable of serving the station as it needs. That's why they poured me out in the form of a younger and fitter man to work for them. They wish me to complete a survey of the Kalonia plateau instruments and perhaps some beyond the plateau to institute repairs and improvements where they are needed. They don't like to delegate these tasks to machines and they can't or won't do it themselves." "Why are they all such old men then?", Orietta said. "Why couldn't they be like you?" Unaccountably she blushed at his raised eyebrow. "Oh that's just an affectation", Crinomu laughed. "Pure fashion and vanity! They could be any age they want after decanting but they feel it befits their status and dignity to inhabit an old body. I can't see the sense of it myself but then I'm not a seer!" So it was that over the next few weeks, with Hirrilow's approval, Orietta broke some of her lessons and accompanied Crinomu on his surveys of the varied instrumental outliers of Kalonia; monitoring posts, weather centres, energy collectors and communication devices of various arcane kinds. Many were cloaked and secret, covered by veils of smoky illusion. Some seemed to fade in and out of the ether. All were very strange. Orietta began to enjoy her journeys with Crinomu and to look forward to them. She found his irreverence amusing. He had a way with words and a natural warmth. And too, he seemed to take more of a genuine interest in her own stories and conversation than anyone else had done, even her favourite Malorye. "I've lived in this Station Of Seers for a very long time", he said one day, "but not for all my life. The seers are not my masters. Their goals are very worthy, I'm sure, serving the laws of the Vow Of Earth and all, but they do take themselves too seriously sometimes!"