**Enzo** This is Dr. Enzo Quint, professor and researcher at the Basentia. This is my second recording regarding research into strange phenomenon I have observed during Thread severance. I… knew there was something to this. It seems there was a great deal of information about Mehnateruna that has been scrubbed or destroyed from the records in the Meripol. That’s why it was so difficult to find information about the city. What little scraps I found where the result of grains of sand slipping through cracks. I had a feeling though… However *easy* it is to destroy physical archives, disrupting the records kept within keen minds is much more of a challenge, no matter the influence you have. So I spoke with the senior-most Conservator at the Tenach, and my hunch proved correct. Those records had been eradicated *recently*, within the last twenty years. By the *Lauten Family*.

Why would one of the most influential families in Aljieudum care about records of an ancient city long-destroyed? Well, Conservator Brom has something to say on that as well. It seems that I am not the first to seek out the secrets of Mehnateruna in recent years. A professor by the name of Adam La Cour took a group of students to the city around twenty years ago. La Cour apparently died in whatever event took place when they came to the city. Brom could not remember the names of all of the students that La Cour took with him save for one: Rikkart Lauten. Something happened to Lauten while they were in the city… something that severed his Thread. La Cour was clearly in over his head. He did not know what exactly he had uncovered, and lost his life for it and cost one of his students his Thread. I can only imagine the effort, influence, and *money* required to keep knowledge of this event from public knowledge. Powerful families indeed.

The Lauten Family has obviously refused to speak with me on the matter. The next time I went to Conservator Brom, I discovered that he had retired. There is one thing that the Lauten’s can’t prevent me from doing.

The High Authority were going to reject my request, but the Speaker overruled them. I do not know what I did to get into the good graces of Speaker Tan Mei, but I’m not one to question a flower in the desert. The city of Mehnateruna stands before me as a ruin. It took some time, but we have uncovered what we believe is the original Sanctum in which the rituals took place. From what I can tell, the epicenter of the cities destruction also lies there. I have a team working to uncover what I can from the ruins. Anything that might be recoverable to aid in my research.