I spent the morning today in the local Skein-Wright’s workshop, I have visited before and I always enjoy spending time there. We have a lot in common when it comes to outlook and approach to fixing things.

Today I met with a person named Hollis, who is the Master Skein-Wright for Lethran. This was lucky really as they probably know more than anyone about what is going on with the connections and flows at the moment.

I explained the unusual outages and lack of messages we were experiencing in Bern and how it is causing the whole community to feel cut off, not to mention that it actually cuts us off and leaves us without vital deliveries and information access.

They couldn’t immediately suggest a way to fix it as I was hoping, but they did give me some extremely useful information that goes a little way to explaining why it is happening. There has been a new memo through from the Ministry of Alignment about their plan to switch to some more standardised Skein fibres. They hope this will lead to more consistency between communities and smooth out communication issues.

This change certainly hadn’t made its way out as far as Bern, but it might account for the problems. Maybe the new fibres are in some way incompatible with the organic sort, or possibly the junctions between them have introduced anomalies. I hope this means it is just a temporary glitch, but I think I need to find out more about it. The notice says if there are any questions to contact the Alignment Liaison Office for support, so I think I know where I am heading next.

According to Hollis, the nearest ALO is in Eldran which means I will have to put off the visit to the University of Sylvara for a few days.

I have never heard of an Alignment Liaison Office before, nor have I heard of the Ministry of Alignment getting involved with such small details before but Hollis says it is happening more and more these days as they are attempting to standardise the way links are made around Valenor. Apparently they believe that this will allow everything to run more smoothly than ever before.

That’s a good thing though, isn’t it?

It sounds like it should be…

I am not sure about the new Skein fibres though, Hollis let me examine some and they feel prickly to me. No one else could feel it though so maybe I am just old fashioned. I like the home grown fibres, they mesh so well with the world Skein systems.