96 - Long Life to the Most High

Criers had been out for weeks, explaining the appearance and the function of the odd stone boxes in every house in Lainz.  They had grown in every house, even the unofficial cubies in the rock down the column of city below the Basin, the holes along the canyon walls, and the temporary floating houses in the Basin itself, now almost grounded in the Dry.

The day had arrived when they would be made active, and people had found fibre and were given water to begin.  Children hovered over the box, watching.  Their parents hovered less obviously, peering over their shoulders.

“Look! Look!  See it is working, just the way the crier said!”  The exclamation rose all through Lainz in all its variations.

Welcome to the Lainz Information Hive.

The words ghosted into existance on the surface of every box, correctly prepared with a slurry of water and fibre. 

Emblazoned upon every info box is a number.  This is your reception number.  Not only will you receive information from the Highest Loggia, the Queen Bee, about the news in the city and the Empire, if you know someone’s box number you may write letters directly to them.

As the information criers and help drones have explained, for this hive to function it is necessary to keep the box filled with the proportion of water and fibre to produce the sheets you wish to keep.  No garbage.  No organic waste.  If that is placed in the box it will cease to work and must be cleaned and re-stocked. With clean water and clean fibre.

If your box does not function as described, please be aware that the Highest Loggia has an office for your assistance.  It is just above the Basin Market, next to the way to the zardukar school.

There is a day’s delay in the transmission of information, but the Highest Loggia will be working to speed this.  Boxes have also appeared in all Lainz outposts, from Trovi to the Milar border, from the Waste arroyos to the Hipafrey border.

This means that letters may be written and received through this information hive for the exact same delay time as in the city.

Should there be any questions, they may be written to the central hive exactly as all other requests or information of what is happening in your neighbourhood.  We suggest that this sheet of information be the first one that you keep.

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We report that the wind out of the waste today is bringing high levels of toxic sand with it and that all loggias and lesser dwellings on the windward side of the city be more heavily curtained from the outside.

The price of curtain bleach has fallen slightly over the past month.

Hive Lord Farzan has just announced he will be culling his flocks this month and that excess eggs and meat will be available to his followers.

His Radiance’s health continues well. Rumours of his frailty are now laid to rest.  Long life to the most High.

The Hive has now produced another tonne of honey for public distribution.