Crystal of the Night Market — SR-0033

A quartz that kept a light-sequence for ever: the prices at a market, one night.

The first things the Ithra sealed into crystal were not poems or laws. They were prices. This crystal holds the sequence a market-keeper flashed at the entrance of a night market: what fish cost, what rope cost, which stalls were open.

Scholars at the Institute find it the most moving object in the archive, for exactly that reason.

Lattice spacing and inclusion pattern both encode data; only the inclusion layer was transmitted in full.

Integrity 62%. Quartz, sealed light-sequence. 7 × 7 × 5 cm.