The meeting at Caereth Hall was scheduled to start at 10am but I decided I would get in there first, I thought it might be interesting to observe the people entering the hall and where they choose to sit. I also got a chance to look around the place while it was fairly empty.

It is an impressive space, it feels comforting with its circular walls and rows of seats, like there is nowhere you can be excluded or hidden. I suppose some might see this as a disadvantage but I think it must lead to a more open discussion. The whole great room had a warm welcoming and slightly old fashioned feel.

As people began to arrive I noticed that there seemed to be distinct groups forming, the cord-wrights seemed to gather in one area and the skein-wrights in another. There was a group of the traders I recognised from the market yesterday and the few Aethri who were there also sat in a group. I suppose this is not too surprising as people will naturally sit near people they know or at least recognised. I, myself chose to sit with the visiting skein-wright I met in the Alignment Liaison office. I learned he is named Tobin Croflan.

I elected to remain an observer in the meeting as this is not my city and I don’t know enough yet to back up my theories.

A large part of the meeting seemed to be exactly as expected for a town meeting, events, and policies and debates over new buildings, but it did seem reassuringly collaborative in its decision making.

Or at least it did until Corin Hale started to speak about the planned upgrades to the skein access points within the city and how this is part of the ongoing standardisation and centralisation of the World Skein. People had a lot of concerns, everything from questions about resonance tech compatibility to whether this would incur costs for the city as a whole, and who would pay it.

The most interesting question was from one of the Aethri, about where the ideas had come from to try to “force the resonance into regimented phases and uniform pathways, as the resonance was a dynamic fabric of threads ” I had to write that down exactly because it seemed an interesting way of phrasing it. I loved the images it conjured up, they reminded me of the feeling I had at the natural resonance grove in Brae Wood. I did notice some of the others in the room exchanging looks when they spoke though, I wonder if this view of the resonance is not shared throughout Eldran.

There were lots of similar questions about the trade routes but the only answers anyone had were about ease of monitoring and, again, standardisation. I think I am going to have to visit an office the Pathway Compliance Department to get better answers than these!

After the meeting I managed to catch the Aethri who was asking the fascinating questions. They are called Elyr and unfortunately had to dash off but we have arranged to meet for breakfast tomorrow!

I passed the rest of the afternoon and evening sharing a long, lovely meal with Tobin Croflan and two other visiting craftspeople from the surrounding villages.

We spent a lot of time discussing our respective crafts, and had some very silly conversations about what would happen if the anomalies on the educational skein access points were never resolved and the only thing children ever learned about was ducks!