For millennia, three rules guided the Hypha as they traveled across the galaxy. First: Follow the light of the strand through the stars, stopping only on worlds marked by its color—and even then, only temporarily. Second: Never leave behind the bodies of our dead. And third: Protect at all costs the mystery of the Chorus Bond, that which connects us to each other, to the Strand, and perhaps to something even greater than that.

But now, these rules—and the way of life they protect—have come under threat. The Divine Principality, a vast and hungry empire, has arrived.

This week on Friends at the Table: The Road to Season 6: Dialect Pt. 2

////YEAR: 850 MIRACULOUS MILLENNIUM

////LOCATION: PARTIZAN | ASHEN STRAND 001.01 | 33550336.8128.496

///RECORD TYPE: AUDITORY

The sound of an excavator’s claw striking clay ground. Voices with Stel Kesh dialects discuss early findings at an archaeological site. [See Conversation 850MM.SK.ASHEN01]. Metal strikes metal, and the heft of something is raised from the ground. Near the microphone, there is the electronic beep of an incoming message, but none arrives. Then, from the distance but growing louder, the high pitched sound of resin shattering accompanied by human screams. Finally, the sound of a single pair hooves walking towards, and then past, the microphone, and the sound of the communications channel closing.