[EOCIK'S STUDY. Early morning. There's a map of Sapience spread on the table. If this were better organized, he would have model planes, but instead he's substituting his coffee mug, a rock, and a small pile of teeth. Arrayed within are EOCIK, who stands at the head of the table, and LEV, who is handing the former his coffee.]

EOCIK: Bah, what's this, lad?

LEV: Black coffee, um, like you wanted it.

EOCIK: Pah, I've had piss stronger than this. You expect me to think and you don't even bring me proper coffee. Listen. Look here. That pile of teeth? That's the thing we dug up.

LEV: The ship the Conduit and Commissar are piloting?

EOCIK: The same. I told them to stay the hell away from it. The problem with Cabalists these days, you take it from me, is that they're too damn nosy. Prying into stuff for the sake of prying into it, come hell or high water or all-powerful Ankyrean ghosts.

LEV: Ankyrean ghosts?

EOCIK: Oh, lad, the things I could tell you... But look. Okay. That ship.

[We have EOCIK'S narration cut in with panels of ELEANOR and AKARYUTERRA preparing for flight.]
[(12:51:50 AM) Masterwork: I had some artistic direction for that- you'd see Elea climb in, one last kiss from Ryo then the thing scythes down- I wouldn't show the actual skewering, but then you'd see her eyes, then an edge-traced technical sort of thing as she went into the spheres, then an image of, like, an x-rayed Ryotega in the cockpit, and then a shot from outside as the bird powered up]

EOCIK: They're about to fly that thing - a real, honest flight - for the first time. It runs on reality. Chews it up, spits it out, keeps going. You realize how damn frightening that is?

LEV: Um...

EOCIK: Of course you don't, you can't even contemplate Ef'tig yet. You don't feel it every time they run tests on the thing. You don't feel existence itself weeping for mercy like a caterwauling widow.

LEV: It's just been them running the tests, right?

EOCIK: Aye. It doesn't respond the same way to anyone else. Zuhayr had a look at it. Think our Sneak did too.

LEV: Why do you think it works that way?

EOCIK: Thing's asking for two Yuefs, not one. It's like the damn fool experiments Ghada's been on about, talking about two brains, two bodies, for one person? This is one such. This is an empty body here. Needs two brains. The Conduit and the Commissar work because they're close.
LEV: Um, aren't there other pairs? ...Why are they the only ones that can do it?

EOCIK: Listen, lad, do you know how fucking hard it is to find a matched pair of Numerologists? Cabalists are solitary creatures at best, and the kind of connection that thing needs... forget about it.

LEV: So you're, um, saying Zuhayr and Sneak are too solitary?

EOCIK: In a word? You'd better damn well believe it.

LEV: Um, sir, meaning no disrespect, but that was--

EOCIK: Here.

[EOCIK hands him the empty mug.]

EOCIK: Get me some actual coffee this time.
There.
Complete thing.