 Several humans emerge from the starship and proclaim themselves servants of the Rothen — the secret patrons of Humanity.The Rothen representatives (also called Daniks) are very secretive about their purpose on Jijo, but they request the assistance of the council of Sages in their exploration of Jijo, and the council provides the assistance in an attempt to discover what the Rothen are hiding.Lark is employed as a biologist to escort the Danik researcher Ling as she surveys Jijo's biosphere.