Quartday, Guire 20th 067.M42

The news feed says both Charon and Persephone are full again tonight. I can't hope for the same luck as I did last month, but still. Blessings of the full pair to any and all.

We have received new surveying reports from Achlys this week, and everyone's on high alert about them. It seems that a new vein of antilium has been discovered, and from the reports that we're working on, it seems that it's a very significant one, possibly extending for several kloms through the mountain ranges. Both the Mechanicus and the senior Administratum are extremely excited about this, missives are going in every direction and we're having to work even harder to try to get them all captured and transcribed. They've even opened up the old cogitator banks on the lower floors, everyone is starting to work double shifts and overlapping so we need the extra floor capacity.

A large, solid vein of antilium is good news on several fronts. One is that some of it can be refined and used right here on Asphodel, reducing our need to import metals from other worlds to help our construction and manufacturing concerns. But the other is that an increase in our material tithe means a corresponding decrease in our manpower tithe. If this vein pays out and extends as far as they think it does, and it's good quality metal, then we may be able to reduce our human tithe by as much as 5% for the next couple of cycles.

Not that my brother will be happy to hear that. A reduced tithe means a reduced chance that he'll be drafted for it. But I know there's a lot of other families out there who will be happy that their sons and daughters are slightly less likely to be shipped off to a war front on the other side of the sector, if not the other side of the galaxy.

A surplus of antilium will also be good for our agricultural trade as well. It's been a dry season, and the pressure on Tartarus has been high. With some extra trade in metals, it means that we won't have to trade so much in produce from the projected reports that I'm seeing. That will be a boon for us if this dry spell continues and the harvest rates stay down. Perhaps that's the blessing of the Pair this time.

Antilium usually comes paired with plyatrum as well. I'm already seeing some of the reports coming through speaking of the purity of the vein. A new source of plyatrum is going to have the artisans going crazy when this news is finally allowed to break. Not that we're going to see much of it down at these levels. It'll be bought up by all of the Nobles up in the spire, worked into jewellery and trinkets for their collections, but perhaps when I go to visit the Spire during Devotional, I might be able to pick up something small for Mum and Mei. And… Anyone else that I might like to give something to. If there is anyone by that time. I wouldn't be surprised if I see out my twenty-ninth year alone as well.

Throne, I can't believe I'll be twenty nine in a little under a month. I haven't even thought if I want to do anything for my nameday this year. Perhaps not. My thirtieth is next year. Maybe I'll just keep things quiet, have dinner with Mum and Dad and Mei, then gear up for a big thing next time around. That sounds like a plan. Especially because I don't know if the reporting on this antilium mine is going to be done by the seventeenth. I'd rather not be trying to arrange something while we're all pulling double shifts and having our rest days revoked. That would just make for a really crappy party.

Maybe I'll ask Madalene if she wants to go for a drink. Or maybe I shouldn't. That's a bad idea. I know that's a bad idea, right? I shouldn't… But I think I really want to.

Thought for the Day: Live every day is if it were your last, because it may well be.